Alright, here's an end to the Galuna Island arc. It ended up being twice as long as I expected, but that's not so bad. And let's end it on a funny note, shall we?

In the morning, I'm pretty sure that Happy and I are the only ones who woke up without a hangover. But seeing as Lucy is fussing over the new scar on Gray's forehead, and Natsu is chowing down on fire in a hurry, I'm sure that we'll be alright.

The villagers gather in order to send us off, and the chief approaches first. "I have the reward for removing the curse here. Please take it." He offers it to Erza, believing her to be the leader of our group.

Erza turns to me and smiles a little. "Technically, this quest was yours, which means that the reward is yours. The rest of us aren't actually supposed to be here."

I raise an eyebrow. "You sure? That's a lot of reward for me to keep to myself."

She nods. "Yes, I know that you've been planning to do some renovations and add a third floor to your house. And I'm sure that your library could use a few new books in it."

"I suppose." The surprised chief offers the money and key to me instead, and I do my best to accept them graciously. But then, I examine the key, turning it over in my hands. "Problem is, I'm no celestial wizard, so this key is useless to me, no matter how pretty and collectible it is." I toss the golden gate key to Lucy and pocket the money. "Consider that to be your 'Welcome to Fairy Tail' present from me. Have fun with that golden key, Lucy."

Predictably, Natsu starts whining. "Hey! That's not fair! Why does you get all the money!?"

I spin around and stare him down, silencing him in an instant. "If it weren't for you running off with this job, I wouldn't even be here. So you had better not pull a stunt like this again, because if your stupidity doesn't kill you, then I probably will!"

I don't usually use that tone of voice with him, but whenever I do, it shuts him up and has him sulking like a little kid for hours.

The warm, fuzzy atmosphere returns when Bobo steps towards us. "I can take all of you back to Hargeon when you're ready to go."

Erza smiles and shakes her head. "Thank you, but I have a boat waiting, sir."

Bobo turns to me, but I just laugh. "I've got a friend with a private dock in Hargeon. I usually keep a couple of small boats there, so I've got my own ride docked at the beach. Although…" I glance at Erza curiously. "When you say that you've got a boat waiting, what exactly are you talking about?" Knowing her, it's got to be something interesting.

About ten minutes later, we arrive at the beach. And docked in the water right next to my boat is a huge pirate ship. I turn to Erza with a wry smile. "You hijacked a pirate ship?"

"Not exactly…" She point up to the deck, where there are pirates nearly hanging over the edge.

"Ahoy, me beauty!" The one with the hat is probably the captain. And Erza sure has him and his crew charmed, judging by the way they're reacting to her appearance on the shore.

"Me beauty?" Lucy sweatdrops.

"That's right, they've become quite fond of me." Fond is not the word I would use to describe these pirates. I would personally go more for smitten. But Erza seems a little oblivious to her accidental womanly charms.

The captain seems more than happy to extend an invitation for a ride home. "Ahoy! Come aboard me ship, mateys!"

I laugh a little at him, then turn to Erza. "Well, I'll be heading off now. I'll beat you guys back, so I tell Gramps what went down. Better for me to break the ice than to let you guys do it."

"Very well, then I will see you back at the guild." Erza smiles at me before grabbing Natsu by his ear. "Come on, it's time to go."

My brother protests very loudly that he would rather swim all the way back. But I just shake my head as I uncover my boat and set some wind into the sails, and push it into the water, dislodging it from the wet sand.

As I climb into my boat, Bob approaches me. "You're going to beat them back with that tiny boat?"

I smirk a little and raise my arms, gusts of wind swirling around me. "I'm the Wind Dragon Slayer, getting places quickly is my specialty. But if you guys ever need help again, send me a letter at Fairy Tail, okay?"

"Alright!" Bobo grins and salutes as my boat starts to float away from the shore. "Hope to see you again soon! We'll have an even bigger party next time!"

"Sounds good!" I wave back at the villagers as the wind catches in the sails. Then I turn to the swelling white fabric and take a deep breath. "Breath of the Wind Dragon." And the gust of air that rushes from my mouth blasts against the sails and turns my sailboat into a speedboat as I zoom past the large pirate ship.

I wasn't kidding when I said I would beat them back to the guild.

I walk back into the guild with my pack over my shoulder. And as I walk in, I can see everyone turning to stare at me. I've gotten plenty of stares before, but they were never this quiet. It must be because I left the guild in such a bad mood before.

Finally, Macao breaks the silence. "So how did it go?"

I sigh and toss my pack behind the bar, then sit down. "Idiots found, more idiots dealt with, demon killed, curse investigated, spell lifted, villagers happy, and no one got too badly hurt. I got paid enough money for my renovations, and I gave the zodiac key to Lucy. All in all, it could have been worse."

Gramps eyes me carefully. "So, where are the others?"

I sigh quietly. "I came back before them so that I could explain the situation before Natsu got back and inevitably stuck his foot in his mouth."

"I see…" He nods at me. "Go on. Tell me what happened."

I take a deep breath, since this is going to be a long story, and I would rather get as much of it out as quickly as possible. "The villagers on the island seemed to have thought that they were humans who had been cursed to turn into demons. In reality, they were demons under the influence of a memory spell. The memory spell had been the side effect of the magic dome created by the Moon Drip spell that an old friend of Gray's was using in order to melt a demon free of an Iced Shell prison. Ultimately, the Moon Drip worked, and the demon was freed, but Natsu and I took it down in less than a minute. After that, we got back to the village, where Natsu, Erza and I blasted the magic dome hovering over the island apart, breaking the spell. There was a ton of fighting along the way, but thats the short version of the story." Once finished, I take another breath. "So?"

Gramps stares at me, before closing his eyes and meditating on my explanation. "I see…so in order to help the villagers, your group defeated a demon, the people who were trying to resurrect it, and dealt with the Moon Drip spell, huh?"

"That about sums it up." There's a lot of other details to it, but it looks like he's gotten all the important points. And frankly, the details can wait until later.

"Hm…" He opens his eyes and smiles at me. "Very well, you've completed the job, and I will take its success into consideration while thinking up a punishment for those four idiots."

Well, at least he's not kicking them out. Gramps makes it a point not to kick anyone out unless he absolutely has to. He wouldn't be this calm about it if he were going to kick someone out. Besides, Natsu, Gray and I are some of his favorite kids, and Lucy is brand new here, so she'll get some slack.

I cough quietly, clearing my throat. "Uh…you might also want to know that while we were there, Natsu and I kind of tipped over a temple, and destroyed the village."

Gramps goes white as a sheet. "You did what!?"

I hold up my hands to stop him. "Okay, it's not what you think. The village only got destroyed because we were protecting the villagers from a gigantic bucket of acid jelly that got dumped on the village by a giant flying rat, and we tilted the temple over because we were trying to stop the Moon Drip spell from succeeding." Somehow, my explanations don't make it sound any better. "And it's alright, the temple is no longer tilted, and the village is back to the way it was before the attack. There is no permanent damage left. Well, except for the scar on Gray's forehead, but that's not serious."

Color floods back into Gramps' face. "Very well…as long as the two of you didn't do anything permanent. I don't want to have to deal with any more complaints about you two."

"I know…" He's had more than his share of complaints about the two of us already. Natsu more than me, of course, but whenever I'm with my brother, things tend to get heated, literally. "Trust me, you won't be getting any. The villagers love us so much that they've clearly expressed that they want us to come visit. And they even threw us all a big party after we finished the job. If anything, the only complaints you'll get from them is that it's been too long since our last visit."

Gramps nods approvingly. "Very well, then I'll take the clients' satisfaction into consideration when deciding how to punish your brother and the idiots who went with him on that forbidden mission."

"Thank you." Knowing that Natsu is going to get off easy makes me happy. But I'm still looking forward to seeing the idiot get punished for pulling this stunt. Getting off easy and getting off scot-free are two very different things.

Gramps stretches and stands up on the bar. "Now, if you'll all be good while I'm gone, I have a meeting to get to." He turns towards the door and walks right out. But before he disappears, I catch of a whiff of his next words. "Stupid last minute meetings…"

When I return to the guild a day later to see my brother, since the others should be back from their job now, what I find is definitely not what I was expecting.

The guild is in utter chaos.

No one is calm, it's even more of a madhouse in here than usual. "Oi! What's going on!?" I raise my voice loud enough to be heard across the entire guild hall. "Someone tell me, right now!"

In the middle of the chaos, Levy runs up to me, tears in her eyes. "Please, Ciara! You're the one who knows the most about ancient magic, right!? You've got to help us!"

I frown at her. "I will once you tell me what's going on."

She shoves a flyer into my hands. "Natsu read the spell there, and it switched him and Loke into each other's bodies, as well as Gray and Lucy, and Erza and Happy. I got Gray and Lucy switched back, but now everyone else is in a different body!"

"A soul transfer spell?" I read the flyer over, then I feel a deadpan expression cover my face. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me. Changeling? Really? This all happened because of an ancient prank spell?"

"Prank spell?"

I growl irritably and storm into the middle of the guild. "Yeah, a prank spell. Some ancient wizard came up with it as a way to mess with people he didn't like." I slam the flyer on the table right in the middle of the guild and raise the level of my voice right to the sky. "Alright, everyone shut up and sit down!"

Instantly, the guild quiets, and everyone's eyes turn to me. And one by one, everyone sits themselves down on tables, benches, or even the floor as they look to me for answers. Lucy sits next to me and looks at me curiously. "Are you going to reverse the spell?"

"Yes…" I look back at the flyer and go over the wording. "So all of you just keep quiet and let me focus. One word out of place, and I might accidentally blow the guild up. Ancient magic is volatile and hard to control, let alone understand. So if you all want to live through today and get back to normal, you'll do exactly as I say, got it?" There is a flurry of nodding head around the room, so I take that as the signal to get started.

The spells I plan to use is a difficult one. I learned it a few years back as a curse-breaking spell, but never found a situation in which it applied. Now, I've actually got the chance to put it into action.

"Tilted on its axis, the world spins out of control. Wash out the tides and calm the raging waters. Balance the scale and bring light to the darkness. Turn back the clock and bridge the seasons. Now, reverse the spell and bring order to the chaos!"

Lucy's P.O.V.

I have no idea what Ciara chanted, it was in some ancient language that I've never seen before, let alone heard spoken out loud. She's amazing… Most people can't read ancient languages, let alone understand them. And she's actually using one!

As she says the last words of the spell, a warm wind swirls around her, and magic circles appear everywhere on the floor, beams of light engulfing all of the guild members. Well, everyone except for me, Gray, Levy, and Ciara.

The beams of light burst like fireworks, dimming pair by pair. And when all of the light finally fades, everyone starts whispering.

"I'm back!"

"Me too!"

"She did it!"

The voices get louder and louder, and Ciara sighs. "Well, looks like that's over with." She picks up the flyer and rips it in half. "Next time you guys find a flyer with an ancient spell on it, don't touch it, just call me right away and let me handle it. I really don't want to find this place in chaos again just because of some stupid prank." She rips the flyer again and again, tearing it into ever smaller pieces. "Got it!?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Of course, ma'am"

"Whatever you say."

Then she turns to Gramps, who is thankfully no longer in Mira's body. "Hey Gramps, could you let Natsu off the hook for his punishment?"

Gramps raises an eyebrow. "I suppose that they've been tortured enough. But why?"

Ciara walks over to Natsu, dragging him up by the ear, to which he violently protests. "Hey! Ciara, let go of me! That hurt!"

"Since you're the one who started this whole mess, I'm going to give you a lesson on the dangers of ancient magic!" She drags him by the ear and walks straight out the front doors with him.

I hear a few sharp intakes of breath around the guild, and Gray visibly shivers. "I hate her lectures…they always end with something hurting. And it's never her."

"Lectures?" That sounds more like a torture session than a lesson!

This guild is scary!

Up next, Phantom Lord attacks.