Natsu's stomach growls, and she raises her eyebrow. He can't possibly be hungry, he'd eaten barely an hour ago when they passed through a small town. Tiaca, she thinks it was. He looks sheepishly at the ground, and Loke snorts, "He hasn't had any flames to eat in a while, so his second stomach gets hungry."
Looking at him again, she can faintly see the redness of a blush on his cheeks and ears.
"What do you think they're doing?" Loke wonders out loud and supports his head with his hands as he stares at the sky. She doesn't need telepathy to know who the conversation was about.
Natsu answers after a moment, shrugging, "Dunno, but ice-prick better not be mopin' around, and Erza's probably working herself to the bone."
Loke hums in agreement, "Yeah, that's reasonable, Scarlet did do that after Lissana died, and she had no involvement in it, so it's gonna be worse this time, she did have to fight you guys after all." There's silence for a few minutes.
Lucy turns around to walk backwards and asks, "Who's Lissana?"
He freezes and glances at Natsu, whose whole body is tense, and he's clenching his jaw. At Loke's movement, he slows and faces Lucy, "Lissana-" He stops, "Lissana was Mirajane and Elfman's little sister, she used the same type of magic they do but with animals. She was also my childhood best friend and helped raise Happy." Lucy gasps and covers her mouth with her hand.
"She died when Mirajane took an S-Class quest with Elfman and Lissana. Mirajane was about to be killed, but Elfman used his Beast Soul: Full-Body Takeover to stop it. He tried to control it, but he was overwhelmed by its power, and he went on a rampage. Elfman hit her into a mountain when she tried to snap him out of it, and the shock allowed him to regain control. But, Lissana was dead nearly immediately after impacting the mountain." His voice was steady, but she saw his clenched fists and eyes that screwed up before he turned away.
They walk for a while longer in silence; no one had any words to say.
When the sun had just set, another town came in sight, with a sign that boasted, 'Welcome to Relshet! Halfway to Clover Town, with the best Ligrac Bread in Fiore!'
Loke's mouth watered at the mention of Ligrac Bread, it was supposedly hard to make for its simplicity, but it was his favourite, along with Senis, Acan and Taivin's. He grabbed Lucy's hand, and following his nose, he found the shop where they sold bread, something called a Bakery. Sometimes the girls he had dated mentioned these kinds of places, but he had never been to one himself.
But there was no way he wasn't getting that bread.
His summoner giggled as he dragged her to the Bakery, Natsu chasing after them. Once they arrived, the full force of fresh bread hit his nose, causing him to stop and take it in.
He stumbles a bit when Natsu decides they've been standing there a bit too long and pushes them through the doors.
The employee greets them with a disinterested flap of his hand, and drawls, "Welcome, look around for as long as you like, and come tell me when you've picked out what you want, I'll pack it for you." It sounds rehearsed, and the teen doesn't look up from his book while he talks.
Natsu scoffs at him and wanders around smelling for anything that he wants to taste. Loke heads straight for the display cases, searching for the bread. His head pops up when he doesn't recognize any of the loaves, and he asks the cashier, "DoyouhaveanyLigracbread?" He looks up at the rushed question with a raised eyebrow, and Loke clears his throat before asking again, this time slower, "Do you have any Ligrac bread?"
At Loke's question, he sits up from his slouch and wanders into the back of the shop without a word. Loke stares disbelievingly at the door before slumping over to Natsu, looking half-heartedly over the rest of the selection.
A tinkling sound echoes through the shop, and an aged and greying man exits through the door behind the counter. "Who's the one looking for the Ligrac bread?" Loke straightens, and his ears swivel towards the newcomer before walking over to him.
"That would be me. Do you have any? The sign at the outskirts said you guys sold the best in Fiore." His voice could be called casual, but she knew it was only a farce; the tail he had threaded through his belt loops was twitching, along with his ears.
The old man squints, studying the lion spirit, before stating, "Sorry lad, that sign's old, stopped making the bread long ago." Loke drooped like a wilted flower, and she had to stifle a laugh, shushing Natsu behind her.
He sighs before looking over them with a considering gaze, "Look, lad, lemme ask you this. Are you a mage?"
Loke glances up at the man, suspicion on his face, "Why do you want to know?"
Sighing again he states, "The only reason for your two companions to be wearing long sleeves and pants in this kind of weather, is because you've got something to hide, so you're probably a criminal, and criminals are generally mages – even if they barely know any magic. But, at this point, I'll take anything."
Lucy steps up beside Loke, "Again, why do you want to know? And why would you ask criminals in the first place? If you had offered us a job, we could've killed you and taken your money."
"Yeah, I know, but sometimes criminals are stronger than Light Mages, plus they're more expendable, so I don't feel as bad sending them to their deaths." He laments, slumping into the chair at the counter with his head down.
"Why would you be sending them to their deaths?" At her question, the man smirks, hidden from the mages; he had their attention.
"My niece's husband is the mayor a couple of towns away, and there's a dark mage runnin' around killing people and taking their souls to do his dirty work. All the guild's he's requested to get rid of them have rejected the job, or they send mages, and they die, giving the dark mage more souls to use." He explains with a moan, bringing his hands up to drop his face into them.
Before Natsu can butt in and tell him they'll accept, Lucy asks, "Could we go and discuss this in private before giving you our answer?"
Nodding, he gives them directions to the closest inn. Which was the only inn they had.
Lucy flops onto her bed for the night, pleasantly surprised when the mattress doesn't feel like a rock – like some inns they had stayed at.
"What do you guys think we should do?" She asks while staring at the ceiling, "I'd like to help, but I want your opinions."
Loke answers first, "I'd also like to help, but we don't have the luxury of accepting every quest anymore, not without a guild if we needed backup. But we also can't deny without thinking it over first, and as much as I hate to say it; we need to think about money."
Natsu interjects before she could speak, "We also need to think about if he's lying to us, and we're walking into a trap."
She frowns, "Yeah, I get it. So then, what are the Pro's and Con's?"
"Pro – We get the satisfaction of helping people.
Con – Could be a trap.
Con – It could be outside of our capabilities, and we're stuck without backup.
Pro – We're getting low on money; we could get at least enough for another week without having to sleep in the wild.
Pro – Ligrac Bread."
They stop and stare at Loke, who blushes and says, "What? If we do this, he could make some bread, or at least give us the recipe."
Shaking her head, she smiles fondly and tallies up the results, "So we've got three Pro's and two Con's, are we doing this?"
The two shrug and she decides.
She startles awake when their door is banged on at the cusp of dawn, groaning she buries her face into her pillows and yells, "Who is it?", it comes out extremely muffled, but they must understand her because they answer.
"Princess. We have an emergency." At the male's words, all sleepiness leaves her, and she shoots up into a sitting position.
Rushing to get dressed, she tumbles onto the floor while trying to get her pants on, "What kind of emergency?"
He doesn't answer for a minute, but he eventually says, "That dark mage the baker was talking about? They're on their way here. But Princess? Are you alright? I heard a crash."
Now that she's suitably awake, she can recognize the voice as Saol's, and she responds as calmly as possible, "What? No, I'm fine. You said that dark mage was here?" She's still struggling on the floor, and mutters to herself, "Stupid pants, are they possessed or something?"
"Sort of, Princess, they're nearly here, but not yet. I sensed what was probably them just now. There's something that feels like dark magic, and a dozen or so other ones that feel human, but off, like they're dead but also alive." He corrects her, and another voice jumps into their conversation.
"Luce? Are you ready yet? Virgo's setting up pitfalls around the village and Lura's getting all the villagers into a bunker to be safe, but they can't do too much on their power."
"Nearly ready Natsu, I'll be out in a minute." She finally gets her pants on, and her skirt and shirt soon follow.
Opening the door, she can see Natsu, but Saol is gone. Her confusion must show on her face because Natsu tells her, "Saol's gone to set up traps in the forest after he puts enough plants in the bunker to make sure they don't die of lack of oxygen – at least for a little bit."
She smiles, letting Natsu lead the way to Virgo and Lura. She pulls out Virgo's key and calls out, "Gate of the Maiden, I open thee! Virgo!" Golden light engulfs the maid in front of her, and Lura follows suit, but hers is silver and has streaks of brown twining through it.
Doing the same for Natsu and Saol, she pulls out the key Happy had given her when they had recovered from their fight with Erza, Gray and the rune knights, Sagittarius, the Archer. She had forgotten about him up till now, but Natsu had said something about how having an archer would be nice, and she remembered Happy had stolen it from the tournament.
"Gate of the Archer, I open thee! Sagittarius!" The tell-tale bells ring through the key, and a man in a horse costume appears from the golden light. She has to try very hard not to facepalm or laugh. Natsu fails.
"How can I help you, Moshi Moshi?" She can hear Natsu losing it behind her, and she's struggling to keep a straight face when she asks, "Do you wish to make a contract with me? And if so, what days are you free?"
He rubs the area where his chin would be, and she can't keep it in anymore, collapsing to the ground, she starts laughing. Sagittarius crouches down in concern, and the proximity of his face sends her deeper into hysterics.
Once she calms down, she explains, "I have a telepathy bond with my Draconis spirits. Sometimes their antics get a bit ridiculous." She knows lying to people's faces isn't the politest thing to do, but she can't just tell him she finds him ludicrous.
"I see, Moshi Moshi. It would be an honour to have a contract with you, and I am available every day except for Thursday."
"Alright, then. Now, there's a dark mage on their way here, so I'd like you to help defend the town, Is that okay with you?" He salutes and marches off in the direction of the outskirts.
Picking up Natsu from his prone position on the ground, she lays him against a nearby column to recover and walks off to the watchtower – and the wall that was not there before – to try and get an accurate reading on how long until the dark mage arrives.
She doesn't know how long she's been meditating for, tracking the distinctive signature of the mage and their undead posse, but the sun is high in the sky and she started before sunrise, so it can't have been too long.
Standing is painful, but her muscles don't usually protest this much unless she's been in one position for far too long, which means it's the next day instead of a couple of hours later like she initially assumed.
As she walks through the town, nothing is registering on her senses, save for an animal every so often. It gives the place a haunted feeling.
She knows Loke's still summoned by the feel of the magic running through his key, and Natsu and Saol's are missing entirely, so they're probably wandering around somewhere.
The clicking of her heels against the cobblestone and the jangling of her keys are the only sounds; it sends shivers down her spine.
Thudding footsteps sound behind her, and she whirls around in time to see the stone fist heading towards her head. Ducking, she lashes her whip out, but it does no damage and just uselessly follows the curve of its waist.
Her magic flares in an emergency pattern and she summons Lura as she throws herself to the side to dodge the other fist.
The cobblestone street scrapes against her side and arm, and she hisses in pain, but it's ignorable. Lura tries to control the stone on the golem, but there are fizzing sounds and lashes slice up her arms. 'It must be an enchantment of some sort.' She clicks her tongue, 'That's annoying.'
Magic attacks don't work on it, but it turns out restraining it does. So when Saol and Natsu arrive, they have three golems trapped in stone, and she and Lura are breathing heavily. The golems keep destroying their restraints, and they keep replacing them until their magic starts to run out. If they broke free, they'd both be dead.
Saol wraps his vines around them, and it removes some of the pressure off them. Natsu flings a flaming fist at it until it crumbles, but it takes time, enough for it to get at least one good hit in and crush them while they're dazed.
"Those golems, they were probably sent as scouts or even as a pre-emptive attack. And now that we've destroyed them, that mage is going to know there's at least someone here who is strong enough to destroy them. So they're not going to play around." Natsu speaks up from lounging against the wall, partially hidden in the shadows.
"We should compile what we know about them. See if we can discover a weakness." Amanzi's voice is grave as it rings through their heads, and she has to fight the urge to smile; she was their tactician for a reason.
Erik snorts, "Whatever, Creepy McSlaughterFace has at least half a dozen more of those things, and low-level magic doesn't work on them. So, the traps will be the only thing stopping them until these two arrive, or someone strikes them with a strong enough attack to destroy them in one hit. The ones Trigger-happy destroyed would've been immune to fire attacks if he had taken longer; they absorb magic, gain resistance, and eventually be immune. And each one has different immunities, so, we're screwed."
"You won't be able to use your Zodiac for this one Princess. I have nothing against them, in fact, I quite like them, but Loke is going to be the only one who'd be able to hit them with a strong enough attack to destroy them. Cancer's scissors would break, Virgo'd only be able to trap them in easily escapable holes. Aquarius would deal more damage to the surrounding area than to the golem, Taurus, well he might be enough, but better to save your magic than to use it on a maybe. And Loke's Regulus Impact would work, but he'd be near useless afterwards; he's still recovering from his three years here, but don't tell him I said that." She didn't like Saol's brutal analysis, but she had to admit he was right.
"And," He cuts in before she could say anything, "I hate to say it, but you, Lura and I work better with long-range and defence, Amanzi's an all-rounder and as a result, is an average attacker. And Cobra's poison wouldn't work on them, so Natsu and Aurinko are the only people who'd be able to take them out, along with Loke."
Rin declares, "Ma'am, I will defeat the golems to the best of my ability if you wish it so." She has her back ramrod straight, and Lucy has to stifle a wince because that looks like it hurts.