Chapter Thirty - The 1st Annual Grand Magic Games: Arrival and Preliminaries

We spent the rest of June training our asses off. I also practiced teleporting all of the kids throughout the city multiple times. In the end, I was able to take all eight of us and teleport us to the other side of Magnolia.

So I wasn't really worried about moving five of us.

Levy was probably the most worried about the games, and she had been training constantly. She felt that she wasn't up to par with the rest of us who were competing.

To be honest, she wasn't. She was a little behind, compared to me, Laxus, Cana, and Juvia. But she was still strong, and I told her so.

She spent a lot of time working on building up her magical container, and went crazy working on her spells.

But she caught up, and that had her feeling better.

With three days until the games, we began to make our way to Crocus.

Unfortunately for Laxus, Makarov made us take the train, so Laxus curled up on the seat next to me and tried not to barf. I ran my fingers through his hair, and started up his SoundPods, hoping the music would distract him. Soon enough, it actually worked, and he was fast asleep by my side.

"Freed, is there any progress on making a rune?" I asked, turning to him.

He shook his head.

"We couldn't find anything," Levy said.

I sighed. Hopefully Porlyusica would have some progress.

When we arrived there, and checked into our hotel, everyone (except me) was more than a little surprised to see a royal summons waiting for me.

"Elle, what did you do now?!" Makarov screeched.

I rolled my eyes. "It'll be fine. Bye, guys. I dunno when I'll get back, so for now, get settled, and then meditate or something. But nothing too straining – hard training is over, we're already here. Just expand your containers if you can."

The group, including Bickslow and Evergreen (even though they weren't competing), nodded, and made their way upstairs.

I turned and left with the royal summons.

At the palace, I was shown to a small room off to the side, which seemed to be for serving guests.

Not long after waiting, Ame walked through. "Elle, how are you?"

"I'm good," I said, smiling. "How is your pregnancy going?"

She smiled. "It's progressing well. Hisui is expected sometime at the beginning of August."

"While it's good that everything is going well, I mostly meant 'How are you handling it?'" I said, laughing.

She laughed. "I'll admit, I haven't even gone to the higher floors of the castle in months. I'm already waddling around like a penguin, and the lack of mobility is driving me insane."

I winced. "Yeah, that would get on my nerves, too. I like to move around a lot."

"So, you're here to see the games?" she asked.

"Not quite," I said.

"Oh?" Ame asked.

"I'm not really here to see the games. More like participate in them," I admitted.

She froze, before she started getting riled up. "What is your Master thinking, sending a child to compete in the games!"

"Please, Your Majesty, calm down and let me explain!" I said.

She took a deep breath and sat back down in the chair across from me. "Alright. And I told you to call me Ame, remember?"

I blushed. "Alright, Ame. Since we're allowed to submit two teams, I asked Master Makarov to compose a team entirely of children. I wouldn't have done it if I didn't believe the five of us could handle it."

She took a deep breath. "How young is the youngest on your team?"

"Levy is almost six," I said. "She'll be turning six later this month."

"A five-year-old!" she moaned.

"How about we change the subject, eh?" I asked.

She took a deep breath, before straightening. "We've discovered that Hisui is indeed a girl. Toma believes you now, though I think he has believed you since you've admitted the pumpkin thing. He's gone full out as 'Mato'. Completely ridiculous."

Despite saying that, Ame was smiling, and sounded extremely fond. "But that type of ridiculousness is what made me fall for him. That idiot."

I laughed. "Well, at least he's having fun. I can't even imagine how stressful running a country is, so it's nice that he gets to have some fun with planning this."

She nodded. "I'm assuming you're going to be the team leader?"

I shrugged. "Probably. Why?"

"Each team needs to straighten things out," Ame said. "It starts with preliminaries, then five straight days of battle – during those days, each member of the team must compete in one game and one battle. You can chose when you want to go, though, and the match-ups are made randomly. Not enough is known about Fiore's mages for us to let the audience pick."

I nodded. "I see. I don't mind the extra day, I think it's a good idea."

"After that, on July 6th, is the day of rest. July 7th is a free for all, with all members from each guild. If there are two teams for one guild, they're scores are averaged. The next evening is the banquet for the participating guilds. They're hoping everyone will clear out by the morning of July 10th."

I nodded. "I see. That makes sense. I think it will go over well."

She smiled. "I believe so as well. Thank you for the help, Elle. We really appreciate it. I didn't really have anything important to say, I just really wanted to catch up with you and see how you are doing."

"That's fine," I said. "And thank you for the cookies." I gestured to the plate of cookies in front of me, grabbing one for myself as I left.

"Oh, take more," Ame said. "Enough for your team."

I paused. "Would you mind if I take eight, then? We also have a reserve member, and two of the kids aren't competing because they don't think they're ready."

She nodded. "Do you need a box?"

I shook my head and requipped eight cookies into a specific drawer in my requip space, made specifically for snacks. "I'm good," I said. "I hope you enjoy the games."

"I look forward to it," she said, as a guard came in and began to lead me out.

I waved as I left the palace, and teleported back to the hotel.

"What….is this?" I asked, stunned.

"We're having a huge sleepover!" Levy said happily. "Isn't it great, Elle-chan?"

The kids had pushed all eight beds together to form a giant bed so we could all sleep on the same thing.

"How did this…come about?" I asked.

"Juvia wanted to share a bed with Onee-sama," Juvia said. "And everyone decided they wanted to, too!"

I sighed and shrugged, requipping out my cookies. "I brought cookies. One for each of us."

I handed out the cookies and took a bite of my own, nearly moaning by how good it felt.

Talk about perfect chocolate chip cookies. Where it just melts in your mouth and is all gooey and warm and the cookie is absolutely heaven in every way.

"Man, those are some good cookies!" Bickslow said. He had finished his first.

Looking around, I could see the others nodding, most of them with their mouths full.

"Bicks, you've got some chocolate on your face," Laxus said, taking another bite of his cookie.

"Good, I want more," Bickslow said, making his way to the mirror so he could wipe off the chocolate (and subsequently eat it).

I laughed.

After cleaning up for the night and eating a big dinner, the eight of us climbed into our giant mess of a bed and laid there, cuddling up.

Somehow, I ended up in the middle, with three or four different people half on me.

"Goodnight, everyone," I said, as my eyes began to close.

"Goodnight," came seven replies.

It was the best sleep I'd ever gotten.

On the next day, we had gotten a schedule to fill out if we made it past the preliminaries.

"Who wants to go when?" I asked. "Try to make sure there are two days between your game and battle."

The games started on a Monday, and then ended on Friday before the mandatory rest on Saturday and the battle royale on Sunday.

"Do we know what the games are?" Levy asked.

I shook my head.

At the silence around me, I took my pen and went to Monday's panel. "Alright, who wants to start us off?"

Silence.

I sighed.

"Alright, how about I fill this out and you guys okay it?"

They nodded.

Looking at the battle sheet, I put down Cana first, then Laxus, me, Levy and Juvia.

At the games part, I put down me, then Levy, Juvia, Cana, and Laxus.

"Alright," I said. "On Monday, I'll be doing the games, and Cana will be battling. On Tuesday, Levy will be doing the games and Laxus will be battling. On Wednesday, Juvia will do the games and I will be battling. On Thursday, Cana will be doing the games and Levy will be battling. On Friday, Laxus will be doing the games and Juvia will be battling. Is that good?"

Looking at the nods around me, I picked up the sheet and handed it to Makarov, and he submitted it to the committee.

When it came time for the Preliminaries, I made sure we were all in our hotel room by seven, and suggested that they all go to sleep.

"Why so early?" Freed asked.

"Simple," I said. "I'm assuming there's a reason why Midnight was specified. So I'm going to set an alarm for eleven thirty. But I want us to get a nap in."

They accepted it and we climbed into our huge fort bed.

Our alarm woke us up at 11:30 pm, and everyone (even Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen) were awake and ready for whatever was going to happen at twelve.

I couldn't help worrying that it would be the same as the X791 games, or else I would have changed some things around.

At twelve, the gong sounded and the hotel was raised into the sky.

Laxus immediately started getting sick.

I sighed.

Finally, the hotel stopped, and Mato appeared before everyone. "Hello, everyone. Kabo."

"Kabo?" Freed asked. Everyone (except Laxus who was still on the ground, recovering) looked confused.

"We will be kicking off the Games with the Sky Labyrinth, kabo. Here, you will follow the path to and make your way through the maze to one of the checkpoints, kabo! I wish you good luck! Kabo!"

Then Mato disappeared, and we could see people running up the different paths.

"Cana," I said.

She nodded, pulling out a card. "Yep. Give me a sec."

After several seconds of tense silence, she stopped pouring magic into the card, and yelled. "I've got it, Elle!"

"Great," I said. She handed me the card and I concentrated on it, finding the location.

"Everyone grab on," I said, and Levy, Cana, Laxus and Juvia's hands grabbed onto my arms.

"Here we go," I said, and then teleported.

The five of us appeared outside of a door, and I walked forward and opened it.

The judges, which was really all of the guild masters (though it would be lowered to only the ones that would be competing) and Yajima, stared at us in surprise, though Makarov was roaring with laughter.

"Hello, Mato!" I told the pumpkin, and winked at him.

A loud bell rang once in the arena, and an image of Mato appeared in front of everyone again. "That gong is signaled once a team makes it to the finish line, kabo. One team has already grabbed first place, kabo!

With the announcement over, Mato turned to us. "Congratulations. You made it here in less than two minutes, kabo."

I smirked, and we made our way out of the arena. "We need to get some sleep!" I called. "I dunno if you noticed, but it's past our bedtime! See you tomorrow…."

Laughing, the five of us left the arena, and I teleported us back to the hotel.

Freed, Bickslow, and Evergreen all jumped into the air when we appeared. "You're back already?" Evergreen asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, after Cana found the card we just teleported there."

"You see?" Freed said. "I told you that Ella-sama had a plan."

I smiled, and we laughed.

"Yeah. We're going to win this thing, guys. But for now, let's get to bed – we have a full day tomorrow."

This was supposed to be up yesterday so I worked extra hard to get you two chapters today. There should be a chapter up for each day of the games. Enjoy. :)

Also I had to make cookies.