Chapter 50

"Hey Lucy?"

"Yeah, Happy?"

"Are you mad at Natsu?"

"Of course not."

"Oh… are you sure?"

"Why would I be?"

"Well it's just… the first ingredient on the list is less than half a day away by foot. But you still insisted we take a carriage." Happy glanced over at the moaning, blubbering child on the floor of the wagon. Natsu's face was an unhealthy shade of green and his eyes were practically swirling around in his head.

Lucy looked over at the pitiful dragon slayer and sighed. "Okay," she murmured. "I'm a little peeved at him."

"Why?" Happy crawled into her lap and stared up at her.

She wrapped her arms around him, "Back at the guild… he was so against us going by ourselves. He doesn't think I can keep us safe. He doubts my strength."

Happy contemplated for a moment, "I dunno Lucy… that doesn't sound like Natsu at all."

She glanced down at him.

"If there's one person that believes in you, it's Natsu," he went on. "I've never heard him question your abilities. Not even once. When Master picked you to be on the team during the Grand Magic Games, Natsu was excited. The thought that the team would lose never crossed his mind."

"But—"

"He's basically your number one fan," Happy nodded. "It's really hard to get him to shut up about you sometimes. He'll just talk and talk and talk and talk about Lucy did this and Lucy did that and it was so cool and I wish I could do that." He shook his head slowly. "It's kind of annoying sometimes."

She ducked her head and muttered, "Then why was he so adamant about us not going alone?"

"That's obvious," Happy shrugged. "He's scared to be alone with you because he's in looooooooooove with you!"

Lucy rolled her eyes, "Yeah right."

Happy smiled discreetly and then said, "Or maybe it's because he's not really as dumb as everyone thinks and actually realizes that there are things and people out there that are more powerful than he is, and he's scared that we will run in to one of those people or things and he won't be able to do anything but watch as you are killed?"

Lucy's heart ached. To watch her friend die… it was a fear she shared with the now unconscious dragon slayer. It was a fear she was sure every single member of Fairy Tail shared with them. She gulped. She would rather travel to that other realm herself than see Natsu die. She would do anything, anything to keep him safe and sound.

"I'll protect him," she whispered. "He'll see."

Happy yawned and leaned back against her, "Doubt it. Natsu's always been pretty blind to reason."


"So. We finally found you," the dark voice rumbled over the cold stone floors of the cell. The man, beaten, bloodied, and chained to the wall rolled his head up, peering through his one working eye. He searched for the voice and caught the black shape on the other side of the bars of his cell. A small orange light burned on the end of the cigarette tucked into the mouth of the figure.

He coughed, thick blood trickling down his chin. "Nah," he said. "I willingly threw myself in this cell so you could beat me for hours on end."

The voice in the darkness chuckled and then the shadow leaned closer to the bars. He inhaled on his cigarette and the end glowed brighter, momentarily lighting up his harsh, gaunt features.

"It's nice to have you back, Kieran."

Kieran growled and yanked on his chains, "What the fuck do you want with me, Solomon?"

The man straightened, "Getting right to the point, are we?"

"I did what you said!" Kieran shouted, gaining a sudden spurt of strength, jerking wildly against his binds. "I left the guild! I took Riata and I fucking left! I didn't tell anyone about or interfere with any of your plans! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT WITH ME NOW?"

"Cut the shit," Solomon snapped, pulling the cigarette from his mouth and tossing it to the floor. He ground it out with his boot. "I know you met up with him."

Kieran swallowed a mouthful of his own blood and then growled, "So what? Two guild outcasts aren't allowed to join together?"

"I know he's dead."

He snorted, "Yeah? And what do you care? You kicked him out, just like me."

"Naturally I would care," Solomon said calmly. "How about you tell me about it?"

"I wasn't there."

"Don't lie to me. I know you were there. Along with those two others."

Kieran gulped. "I don't know who you're talking ab—"

"DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME!" Solomon suddenly screamed, grabbed two bars of the cell and pulling his body tight against them. His form ignited with a sickly green glow and he leaned his head in between the bars, green eyes shining, long silver hair pooling over his shoulders to hang like cobwebs on either side of his sneering face. "Now. Quit wasting my time and tell me the name of the bitch that killed my beloved brother."


"Okay," Lucy folded up the map and stuck it in her backpack. She turned to Natsu, who was dipping his hands in a nearby stream and then splashing his face with the cool water. "The first ingredient is octoroot. It can be found along the edges of the southern beaches."

"That doesn't sound so dangerous," Happy observed, stretching his arms over his head.

Natsu stood and let out a great sigh of satisfaction. He turned to Lucy and Happy and said, "It should be easy as strawberry cake! Let's go get it!"

"Wait, Natsu," Lucy grabbed his thin bicep before he could run off down the path through the trees. "Remember what Levy said? These ingredients are dangerous to collect. So we need to be quiet and careful. Stay on your toes and try not to draw attention to yourself. Who knows what kind of monsters are out there waiting for an easy meal."

"Yeah, yeah," Natsu waved his hand and slipped out of her grasp. "Don't worry, Lucy. I'll protect you."

She frowned as he and Happy took off down the path. Why did she have the overwhelming feeling that something was about to go horribly, horrendously, horrifically wrong?


Lucy caught Natsu by the armpits when his feet tangled in the sand and he almost pitched to the ground. She hoisted him back up, never slowing her run, setting him back on his feet and nudging him forward.

"KEEP RUNNING!" her shriek was followed by a bellowing roar behind them. Lucy risked a glance over her shoulder.

Yep. The giant, orange octopus with five spiky red horns protruding from its head and a mouth that opened wide to reveal rows and rows of razor sharp teeth was still chasing.

Surprise, surprise.

Lucy turned forward again, streams of tears bursting out of the corners of her eyes as she screeched and picked up the speed, pumping her arms and legs harder.

"STUPID NATSU!" She sobbed. "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO PISS HIM OFF?"

"I DIDN'T MEAN TO!" he shouted back, shoving the octopus shaped root he had managed to collect before the monster gave chase into his backpack quickly. "HE STARTLED ME!"

"DO YOU TRY TO SET EVERYTHING THAT STARTLES YOU ON FIRE? I TOLD YOU NOT TO DRAW ATTENTION TO YOURSELF! REMEMBER THAT?"

The octopus let out another earthland shaking roar and all three Fairy Tail mages covered their ears. When it's scream was done, Happy flew down to Lucy, "Lucy! Should I grab you and fly out of here?"

"OF COURSE NOT, STUPID! THEN WHAT ABOUT NATSU?" She gestured at the little boy.

"Oh yeah," Happy flew over to him. "So should I take him away?"

Lucy was about to scream her denial of that idea and demand he figure out a way they both could escape, but then she remembered she was a strong, independent Fairy Tail mage and didn't need no escape route.

"Yes! Take him out of here! I'll take care of this bozo!" She popped open her leather pouch as Happy grabbed on to the back of Natsu's jacket.

"HOLD UP!" Natsu struggled, shooting little balls of flame out of his hands. "NO! LET ME STAY! I GOTTA PROTECT LUCY!"

"Sorry Natsu," Happy said and lifted him up. "But you should really listen to your elders."

"NOOOOOO!" Natsu fought as the cat flew him up and over Lucy's head, carrying him towards the trees on the side of the beach. "LUCY!"

"I'LL BE FINE!" Lucy grabbed a key and suddenly dug her heels into the sand, skidding to a stop. She whirled towards the octopus gaining ground on her. Holy shit it was huge.

"Taurus!" she waved the key in her hand. "Help me out a bit!"

The cow man appeared in front of his celestial spirit mage, brandishing his giant axe.

"Mooooo! Leave it to me, Lucy!" He didn't hesitate before leaping at the octopus, swinging his weapon over his head. "Mooo! You are udderly disgusting!"

The octopus bellowed and swung a tentacle down to match Taurus's axe. Unfortunately for the beast, the blade of the axe was sharper than its skin was tough. Taurus hacked off the end of the tentacle and it flew off into the ocean.

"Great work Taurus!" Lucy cheered. "Keep it up! I'll call Capricorn to help!"

Taurus hacked away at the swinging tentacles as Lucy called the second spirit for back-up.

"Capricorn!" Lucy said when the giant goat man appeared. "Send this monster back where it came from!"

"Right away, Lucy-sama," Capricorn bowed and ran to join Taurus.

Lucy had always thought the two animal-esque spirits would make a great team. While completely different in personality, with Taurus being a perverted maniac and Capricorn a respectful servant type, their combat strength was strangely similar. They both relied on heavy hits and brute force.

She watched anxiously as Taurus continued to detach the swiping tentacles as Capricorn ran along the side of the monster closest to the trees. He leapt in the air when he was satisfied with his location and swiftly delivered three powerful kicks to the creature's head, bypassing its jabbing horns.

Weakened and confused, the octopus skittered towards the water once more. Taurus joined Capricorn and the two both jumped towards its head together. Taurus lobbed off a couple of horns and Capricorn pounded relentlessly into the gooey flesh of its boneless cranium. The force pushed it farther and farther until it was completely in the water. Both spirits delivered their final blows and the octopus let out a tremendous roar before turning and fleeing to the bottom of the ocean once more.

"Yes!" Lucy jumped into the air, pumping her fist. "We did it! Or…" she smiled at the spirits that joined her on the beach. "You did it," she corrected.

"We all did it," Capricorn said and bowed.

"Moo! Where would we be without you, Lucy?" Taurus grinned, hearts suddenly appearing in the spirit's eyes. "By the way! You are looking udderly fine in that outfit!"

"Okay, okay," she rolled her eyes and waved their keys. "Thanks. Now bye."

They faded from view and Lucy turned triumphantly towards the trees. She did it! She took care of that monster without Natsu's help! He's going to be so proud of me! she jogged off in the direction Happy had flown, hope running rampant in her chest. Finally, Natsu was going to realize that she wasn't just some weak little girl. She could protect herself.

And more importantly, she could protect him.


Author's Note: Oh my God you guys, I missed you so much! I also missed writing. I'm a little out of practice, actually. I did a little bit of editing and the first few mistakes I found were really pathetic. Like, holy crap. Do I need to loosen up my fingers or something? But I'm back now! And I'm gonna fall back into the Fairy Tail groove and get this baby going. Woop woop!

Ugh I missed you guys. There were several times when in Salt Lake that I almost popped open my laptop and started writing, but then someone would draw my attention and it'd never happen. I had so much fun at the convention though! I saw a lot of Fairy Tail cosplayers! Surprisingly, I didn't take any pictures of them... Hm. I took more pictures of Avatar: The Last Airbender cosplayers than anything. I also bought a lot of Fairy Tail merchandise, which is AWESOME. I wish I could share pictures with you guys. The Natsu scarf around my neck got recognized several times, so that was cool. I can't wait until the day I actually cosplay myself! I want to so bad! I want to dress up like female Natsu and make the MOTH (Man of the House acronym that Breuf came up with) dress up like a male Lucy. Lucien. Haha! He'll have to show a lot of leg. ;)

I bought an adorable Happy backpack and some Fairy Tail themed playing cards that I gushed over the entire time playing gin with the buds in the hotel room. I also bought a Natsu keychain and an awesome flag/poster thing of Natsu and Happy. What else... Oh, I bought quite a few posters. One of Natsu drawn more realistically which... I had my doubts about. It doesn't look entirely like him, ya know? Because Natsu is a hard character to draw realistically. His eyes are so huge and his mouth is so wide. It's hard to capture that mischievousness in a real face. But then, the more I stared at it, the more I wanted it anyway. Because it's mother fuckin' Natsu! Duh! I also bought one of Erza, looking like a damn sexy bitch, like she always does. Let's see... I also bought a poster of Death the Kid and Black Star from Soul Eater and one of Link from the Legend of Zelda(it looks super awesome!) and then another of Vash the Stampede from Trigun! Yay! HMMM... OH! I also got these absolutely ADORABLE little badges! I got chibi Natsu and Lucy, and then chibi Vash and Wolfwood, and then chibi Link. SO CUTE! EEEEE!

While I had a lot of fun, watched a lot of cool panels, saw some awesome cosplayers and all that good crap... I'm so glad to be home. I HATE Salt Lake City. I couldn't walk half a block without getting panhandled. The rate of homeless people there was ridiculous! And also I'm a cold hearted bitch that refuses to hand out money. OH MY GOD. And one night, I drank a little two much vodka in the hotel room and then we decided to go out and get some dinner... big mistake. We walked a few blocks to McDonalds and out in the parking lot was this PSYCHO crackhead lady just jabbering to herself like a crazy person. And as we were passing by, she started yelling at us, saying scary stuff like, "OH I BET YOU'RE JUST HAVING SO MUCH FUN, AREN'T YOU? I COULD RAPE ALL OF YOU AND SHIT ON YOUR CHESTS AND blah blah blah" I saw red after that. I'm an impulsive/antagonistic drunk, apparently, and I asked the MOTH, "Should I fight her?" to which he replied, "NO!" but I didn't really want to listen to him and kept insisting to let me fight her and he ended up having to drag me into the McDonalds, where Picole scolded me. And then a little later the MOTH scolded me too because I apparently shouted "WHERE IS SHE?!" when the MOTH said she was still out in the parking lot. I honestly didn't know I shouted. I thought I was speaking normally. Breuf drank almost as much as I did so he basically just looked around wide-eyed the entire time.

The next day at the con, Picole bought a tazer, a spiky brass knuckle looking thing, and a butterfly knife.

Anyway, so that's my crazy story for the day. I have a LOT of hilarious/awesome things to say about the whole weekend, but I figure you guys are a little tired of my rambling. You came here for fanfiction! Not dumb convention stories!

Okay. So I'll finish up my dumb life story with a little conversation that I had with Picole in the hotel later that drunk night.

Picole: "I'm going to buy a tazer and some other self defense stuff tomorrow. Then I can use them at home too. You should also buy some!"

Me: "I don't need that stuff. I'm a weapon all by myself."

MOTH: "Plus, you never leave the house so..."

Me: "Thanks for pointing out my lack of a social life."

Alright! Enough of that boring crap! I want to thank you guys so much for all of your support! Every time I read your reviews my heart gets all warm and fuzzy. I love you so much! Also, Picole really wants the two of us to start up a blog. Hmmm, what do you think about that? I think it'd be pretty fun. Then I could write up stupid stories about my life but also do fun things like talk about fanfiction/anime/cartoons/videogames/anything I can think of. After watching those panels, my goal in life is to be able to speak on one someday. If I made podcasts and videos with my friends and got popular enough I bet I totally could! But getting popular would be really hard. Even though my friends are absolutely HILARIOUS. And I mean... I laugh really hard at my own jokes... but I'm probably not that funny. So it'd be really hard. Especially since I've never done something like that before. Haha. It's probably impossible. Oh well. :) At least I have you guys. You make me feel enough like a celebrity. ;)

Tracks:


"Bonfires" by Blue Foundation


Suggested by mtopping1992:

"Valleys" by Close Your Eyes


And that's it for today! Thanks for the music suggestion, mtopping1992! And thank you all for continuing to put up with my crap for FIFTY FUCKIN CHAPTERS. HOLY SHIT! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! FIFTY CHAPTERS! THAT'S THE SIZE OF A BOOK! Uh oh... now I don't have any excuse as to why I haven't written a new novel of my own. Uhm... I've been busy writing this? ;P Is that a good excuse? Yes? Oh good.

Anyway, I LOVE YOU TO DEATH! YOU ARE MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. (right after myself because I'm awesome) If you ever want to PM me, DO IT! I would love to hear from you guys! I will always answer! I send out my positive vibes to everybody that needs it! *sends out vibes* Alright. I'll shut up. Ugh. I just missed you guys so much. I just want to write forever. And ever. And ever. AND EVER AND EVER AND EVER AND EVERRRRRR.

But I'll stop now. Sorry for being annoying. Love you.

Kiss kiss. Hug hug.

Love-Moo