Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from Fairy Tail, the rights to them belong to Hiro Mashima. Not me.
Spellbound voice
KA-BOOOOOOM!
The clouds were heavy with rain, the breeze was steadily growing, the air was growing colder.
Magnolia (and pretty much all of Earthland) had a dank, dark, depressing atmosphere that was so heavy that gravity itself could have been crushed thin with ease as an intense flash of light snapped through the skies, thunder crashed in a loud enough cacophony to shake the earth and, with the storm threatening to start raging outside was lurking, there was also this sort of strange sense of impending danger brewing in the air.
The rain was just beginning to fall down by now.
Fairy tail was bursting with activity even though everyone was all-too aware of the storm quite literally looming overhead.
The faint rumble of thunder causing an intense edge to the current atmosphere. When there was a thunderstorm, everyone would work to try and ignore it —except for Lauxus, he enjoyed thunderstorms (for obvious reasons) and would go out with the thunder legion to take a leisurely stroll out. Everyone bustled about through the guildhall, going about their business to prepare for the thunderstorm outside and some even coming back from their respective missions early since the storm was interfering with the woodlands and other routes needed to go anywhere.
Yes, the storm was severe.
Makarov peered out through the window, watching as the raindrops started to pelt the glass and drip down whilst leaving wet little trails in their wake as the amount of raindrops started to multiply at a rapid speed.
He couldn't explain why but he felt...this ominous feeling stir in the pit of his gut.
The elderly guildmaster sat perched in the seat of his wheelchair, an intense expression on his wrinkling face.
He couldn't explain why he felt this sensation but he had this instinct that told him that something else, besides the weather, was wrong —and one of his children was at the very centre of it. He had felt this stirring in his soul time and time when one of his beloved children were in danger of any shape or form but he didn't wish to follow it because that would prove that one of his charges had done something inevitably stupid and reckless or maybe even both!
"Hmmm..." He hummed, deep in thought.
He almost jumped out of his wheelchair when the sound of rushing feet pounded in his ears followed by the doors slamming open.
Gramps whirled around and saw none other than Natsu, followed by Happy, and he looked paler than he had ever seen him before. His eyes widened and he felt alarm bells go off in his head; what was going on? What was this? Things could have been very bad if Natsu was with Happy and where was Lucy? Why wasn't she anywhere with him?
Natsu had seemed to burst into the guildhall with his skin as white as toothpaste.
The dragon slayer started to yell.
"EVERYONE, HELP! SHES G-G-GONE! VANISHED! GOTTA HELP...!"
He sounded frantic and barely able to get his words together to form an intelligible sentence.
It seemed that nobody could understand or comprehend what he was trying to say.
Natsu's body language was completely irrational as he stomped about with his head snapping in every which way and every direction that the human neck would allow. His scarf tails fluttered and whirled about with his head lashing everywhere. His chest was heaving in and out, indicating that his breathing was erratic and panicky like his demeanour, his footsteps were heavy and lumbering, his sandals clomping down on the wooden floorboards.
Raindrops dripped from his form, his spiky pink hair was flattened and more downy due to the weight of the rainwater, he was soaking wet. His entire posture was tense and every possible vein that could possibly show up on his body was plainly visible.
Erza stormed up to him with her face a cocktail of mixed emotions such as stunned concern, worry and her regular stern authoritarian tone that she carried with her.
"Natsu! What's the matter!?" Erza asked.
She then glanced up at Happy whom had an empty, deflated air about him.
Natsu was in a state of panic, his body was trembling and he was breathing erratically. He made a dash towards his rival and quickly grabbed him by the collar of the navy blue silk coat he wore over his otherwise completely bare chest.
Gray scowled angrily. "Hey! Flame for brains! You got hearing problems or something?! She asked you a question!"
"Salamander! What's got your scarf in a knot?!" Gajeel, who had been seated next to Gray, Levy and Cana, exclaimed in shock and annoyance upon noticing how the pink-haired Dragon slayer came up to him with crazed worry in his eyes.
Before Gray could even blink, Natsu raised a fiery first upwards and held it in front of the ice mage's face. His eyes had become jade reptilian slits and he grit his fangs aggressively.
"I CAN HEAR JUST FINE, DUMB CHUNK OF ICE!"
They started to get into their usual routine of attacking each other, however, Natsu seemed far more aggressive then normal as he appeared to have a lot of pent up anger and fright that was very unnatural for him and concerned all who was in the guild; of course Natsu and Gray were always eager for a fight but never did Natsu ever strike out like this unless there was something seriously wrong.
Natsu still carried a look of underlying fear on his face, even as he began to prepare to throw fiery punches.
Before their quarrelling could break out into a full-out brawl, however, they were stopped by Erza who silenced them both by standing in between them before grabbing hold of the front of Gray's coat with one hand and grabbing hold of the front of Natsu's scarf in the other.
"Hey!" Natsu and Gray cried out in unison, their eyes glaring...only for those glares to falter immediately into looks of terror after seeing the severity in Erza's own eyes.
Gramps, in the meantime, immediately became aware of the severe unease in the guildhall.
His large, bushy white eyebrows furrowed and then knitted themselves together to paint a look of unease and concern. He wheeled himself down the large ramp that led to the centre of the hall and approached the fire, ice and requip mages and see what he could do to calm the pink-haired dragon slayer and see what was the matter; he knew something was up because Lucy wasn't with him and that filled him with concern.
Gray was released from Erza's grip.
Natsu was still panting and acting erratically; even Erza was at a loss of what to do since she didn't know whether or not forceful intervention would work and she didn't quite do "gentle".
She wasn't a gentle person, really.
The master, however, wheeled up to the frenetic Dragon slayer and proceeded to talk him down.
"Natsu. Listen to me," he said patiently. "You need to breathe and tell us all what had happened. Where's Lucy?"
Gramps reached up and patted Natsu's shoulder (the dragon slayer had to bend down a bit so he could achieve this feat) and the pink-haired fire wizard seemed to calm down a bit after hearing the old man's words of reassurance.
Happy also brightened up a tad after he began patting Natsu's side with a small smile spreading across his little cat face.
Natsu breathed through his nostrils, a tad less squirrelled than before, and he proceeded to reach down so Happy could pass the letter he had been clutching this whole time that was the source of his distress. After having the note in his possession, Natsu straightened himself up and shakily started to read the letter that Lucy had left behind the night before.
Everybody all stared at the Dragon slayer as he explained what had happened and even shown the letter that Lucy had left behind when she left, thankfully, to Porlyusica who had came to visit to check on Lucy herself and see Gajeel about a sprained arm. He didn't look away as he read the note aloud as he didn't want to watch the happiness leave everyone's faces.
It took an agonising minute until he finished reading.
"... Please don't come looking for me. P.S: Tell Erza, Gramps, the rest of the guild and my landlady that I'm sorry. Love Lucy..."
Silence.
As if struck by the very lightning that was striking the clouds outside, the atmosphere of the entire guild transformed in an instant as everyone in the entire guild had stared in shocked silence, each and every single one of their expressions ones of pure horror as well as dread as they all stared at Natsu in disbelief.
A very tense atmosphere filled the entire guildhall.
There was a great verity of reactions:
Levy, terrified for her best friend, began to weep hopelessly.
Gajeel was clearly stunned but was also quick to comfort the short, blue-haired solid script mage...even though he was a bit injured and bandaged up after enduring a battle with ten monsters at once during a mission with his companion, Patherlily.
Juvia was standing as still as a statue (with the exception of her hands) as she gasped and she clasped both hands over her mouth, her eyes starting to water. Her breathing halted and she trembled and shuddered and her knees quaked.
Mira went severely pale, whatever cup she was gripping at the time slipped from her hand and tumbled to the floor and smashed into teeny bits. Lisanna, who was seated at the bar her sister worked at, hastened to her side to steady her elder sister. Elfman had clearly become just as uneasy as everybody else as he rushed to be with his sisters.
Gramps had the most mortified (yet rather stoic) expression ever worn by a human being.
After a couple of moments, the old man face-palmed.
"Natsu...YOU breaking the rules I wouldn't shock me...but Lucy? Lucy? This just isn't right..." He muttered.
Natsu didn't even bother casting a withering scowl over to the guildmaster at the comment.
He was a bit more preoccupied with Lucy's well-being...and that confession in her letter:
"Even though sometimes your stupid antics and tendency to rush into things without things annoy me to no end, Natsu, Happy, I don't tell you this enough but I love you. I love you so much."
Natsu dropped right down to the floor and collapsed to his knees with both of his kneecaps taking the full brunt of the impact. His face fell forwards, hanging down low. Tears welled up in his eyeballs and dripped to the wooden floors below.
A choked sob slipped from his throat.
Tears flowed down his cheeks, those tears dripping to the ground.
Erza towered over Natsu.
Normally the fire Dragon slayer would have buckled under such an intense look on her face but he just stared up at her emptily however, a measure of fear did dart through his onyx eyes when she pulled as hard as she could on the fold of scarf that she had seized into her grip, pulling Natsu back up and on to his feet.
The scarlet red warrioress and everyone else continued to be dead silent as they tried to process this news.
Natsu sniffled as he tried to stop crying so much, hoping to get a reign on his emotions.
"Lemme see that!" Before he could even register what was happening, the pinkette felt it as the letter was snatched out of his grip.
The fire wizard looked very annoyed as he begrudgingly allowed Porlyusica to check the letter over and she didn't seem to be very patient around him; especially when examining this letter.
"Well...?" Makarov asked as he folded his arms, his face wrinkled in anticipation.
The medicinal advisor grumbled an inaudible curse beneath her breath and shook her head non-sympathetically, she tugged at her silk examination gloves as she finally turned away from Natsu and drifted over to the small group with this slight sternness glinting in her eyes.
"I'm afraid that Lucy has put herself in real peril..." She said grimly.
Everyone (except for Makarov) leaned forwards with curiously wide eyes to get some more information on this situation. Porlyusica tutted and looked at the group of Fairy tail wizards in her presence and clarified her previous statement in that same grim note in her voice.
"I am afraid that, in her letter, the young lady isn't wrong. If a certain amount of time goes by then the sound fades into obscurity. The time limit for the voice fading quickens the further the host is from the sound missing, in this case, her voice."
"Really?" Wendy gasped, tilting her head sideways in confusion, grabbing on to Carla whom patted the younger Sky Dragon slayer's head comfortingly.
Porlyusica massaged her temple irritably and responded to the young Sky dragon slayer's question-phrased repeat of what she had said. "Indeed, child. This is a very ancient sort of lost magic. Lots of things are unknown about it...but that girl is a stubborn fool to have pulled off this stunt, this could very well get her killed."
"WHY DIDN'T YA TELL US ALL THAT BEFORE!?" Natsu roared, only just being pulled back by the fabric of his scarf.
Porlyusica snapped right back, "ITS A RARE MAGIC, DIDN'T YOUR THICK SKULL PICK THAT PART UP!? I HAD NO IDEA UNTIL I READ ABOUT IT THE OTHER DAY!"
"That's enough!"
Natsu stopped trying to lunge at the medic like a wild animal and just stood there, quietly simmering so much that his very scalp with emitting smoke. His shoulders rose and fell with every breath he took as he clenched his fist tightly and ground his fangs so hard that they could have very well shattered. His eyes scowled as he stared at his closed fist, but there was this measure of alarm and panic clearly etched on to the fire wizard's face.
Alas Natsu's panicked expression didn't go unnoticed.
Makarov spoke up sharply.
"Natsu, please calm down! We have to be careful here if we want to get her back. And we will get her back."
Natsu slumped down as he took the note back from the elderly woman and just stared at the writing with a mostly-blank expression on his face; he held the note as if it were the most precious thing in the whole entire world. His brows knitted together and his mouth quivered with upset, his eyes still moist and his cheeks red from the downpour of tears he had wept.
He shook his head.
"Gotta get a hold of myself..." He murmured to himself.
He sucked in a deep yet trembly breath while everyone else either tried to comprehend everything or were trying to comfort each other (maybe even both).
Gray grabbed Natsu's shoulder, jerking him up so he could balance on his feet.
"C'mon, Natsu. Get a grip. We'll get her back and her voice." The ice mage said.
He tried to smile reassuringly —Natsu's only response, though, was to stand up from his seat in order to sharply turn to face the dark-haired young man. Fires of fury ignited in his obsidian eyes and he proceeded to ram a flaming fist right into the right side of ice mage's face, knocking him down to the ground hard.
After Gray was down, Natsu then muttered huffily, "That was for callin' me 'Flame for brains' you shirtless icicle."
Makarov sighed as he pinched.
"You buncha crazy kids, I'm too old for this..."
He turned to address the rest of the folks in his guild.
The folks who he had raised since they were children, a bunch of children who were orphaned and lonely and he'd brought them into his guild where they all grew into magnificent wizards, his old eyes grew misty and his own lips quaked at the thought of it.
He started to speak.
"Everyone...we need to get our Lucy back, we have to not only rescue her but rescue and retrieve her voice as well. As the master of this guild, it was my sworn duty to take care of and listen to those in my care. However I neglected to listen when one of them needed me and I need to make things right with her. We will all go and we will right the wrongs we have made and help the girl who had helped us so many times! I say we find that Poacher of sound, find Lucy, find out where he's kept her voice and show him what Fairy tail is truly made of!"
"I guessssss the old sayingssss true!" Cana slurred, clearly drunk, while leaning heavily over a large barrel which she hugged closely to herself that contained an unknown alcoholic substance. "I guesssss y'can teach an old dog new trickssss!"
Everyone rolled their eyes in Cana's direction.
Lisanna spoke up as she raised a finger.
"How do we go about finding her?"
Natsu pointed to his own nose and smirked at Wendy and Gajeel, they all eyed one another.
Everyone knew that this meant that they were each referring to their strong sense of smell
They raised their hands up high into the air, pointing up to the sky, crying out in determination in a hope to be , Natsu started to shift uneasily as he decided to inquire about something now that Gramps' had seen the error of his ways from before.
The fire dragon slayer asked, a smirk pulling at his lips that exposed his glinting fangs.
"...Does this mean that we get ungrounded then?"
Gramps just scowled dryly at him.
"Absolutely not."
A/N: The guild has gotten together and are about to go and rescue Lucy, we will see where they go. Will they be able to rescue her? I have a lot of things in store for everyone —and I sincerely hope that the lot of you enjoys what I have in store.
Can Natsu and the rest of Fairy tail help Lucy and restore her voice?
Stay tuned and find out.
-Chloemcg
