Chapter 4

Lucy's POV

We had finished training three hours after Virgo left. Thinking of her now I should summon them soon maybe tomorrow. We were currently walking back to camp, we thought it would be better if we trained on magic one day then combat the next. At least until we're strong enough to handle both in one day. I walked a head when I saw the opening to the field. The sun was going to start to set soon, I jogged back to the camp so I could get started on cooking before it got too late I really didn't want to have to go to the pond at night to wash the dishes. I stopped my train of thought as I arrived at the site and immediately started to get to work. I grabbed enough bowls for everyone and poured some uncooked romen into them, I put some water on the boiler and waited for it to be ready. A few seconds later I figured the water was warm enough and poured it into the six rommen filled bowls. I search through the utensils bag before finding chop sticks for everyone. Right then everyone came into the clearing and sat down after handing everyone their share of dinner. We sat in a circle on logs surrounding a fire, we talked- well more like Sting talked about his adventures when he went on missions with Rogue and their exceeds, Yukino occasionally adding in a comment. "The beast was huge! It was like six or seven feet tall with razor sharp claws and dark blue fur. Its eyes were red and it's teeth, oh man! You should have seen it! It could use magic too. It wasn't too tough though Me and Rogue beat that beast with hardly any struggle, it was a good warm up though." Sting laughed while Lector yelled "Yeah cause Sting's the best!" Me and Yukino sweatdropped. I laughed softly what a strange image that must be to an outsider.

We had finished eating so I got up and grabbed everyone's bowl's. "I'll be back in a little bit!" I called over my shoulder as I began to walk towards the pond. I heard an okay after I stepped foot on the path. The sun was setting so I hurriedly walked down the path. I sat down next to the rock I had been training on not to long ago with my back against it. I set the bowls on the left side of me and brought one over to the right were I could wash it in the pond. A few minutes later I had finally finished washing the dishes. As I was about to get up the water started to glow as if there were lights down at the bottom. I looked down into the pond and could see all the fish swimming in it. It was a beautiful sight to see, I was mesmerized. Fireflies started to come from all different directions and gathered above the water it was like it came out of a painting. I paused my train of thought and decided that the next night at this same time I would come here with my book. I jumped in surprise as everything disappeared when some twigs snapped behind me, I turned around and saw Frosch there in the path with wide sparkly eyes. "Fro what are you doing here shouldn't you be at camp." I was a little concerned, did he sneak off without anyone noticing? My thoughts were interrupted when a voice spoke up from the shadows. "We came to check up on you, since you were taking so long."

"Oh sorry I got a little distracted. As I'm sure you can tell why." I said and smiled at Rogue as he came to stand next to me. He stared at the pond with interest."Hn." was the answer I got. I suddenly thought about having them come and join me when I come again. "Ne, Rogue, Fro would you like to come with me when I come back tomorrow night?"

Fro and Rogue looked at me in slight surprise. Rogue's expression went back to normal and Fro gave me a hug. "Fro wants to come with Lucy!" he shouted. I looked up at Rogue and he nodded his head. I smiled "Okay then after eating we'll come here around eight? Is that fine with you guys?" They both nodded their heads. I then grabbed the bowls with Fro still in my hands and started to head to the path with Rogue following after me. When we got back to camp Sting and Yukino were already getting ready for bed we followed their actions and got ready. When we finished we bid each other goodnight then headed to our tents.

I got into bed and went to sleep right away, I slept through the night with no dreams. Nothing but an endless black abyss.

Time Skip Next Morning

I woke up when I heard some movements in the tent, I opened my eyes and saw Yukino getting dressed for the day ahead of us. I yawned and greeted Yukino with a good morning, she smiled and nodded her head then told me I should get ready. I waved my hand in the air dismissing her words and got up to prepare for the day. I grabbed my bag and pulled out a pair of black shorts and a loose green T-shirt. I quickly put my running shoes on after getting dressed. Yukino had also just finished getting dressed but before we opened the tent, I realised neither of us fixed our hair so we both still had bed head. I grabbed Yukino's arm right before she opened the tent door. I grabbed a brush as I told her to sit on my bed. I giggled "Yukino we forgot to brush our hair" she looked up and laughed to. I sat down behind her and started brushing it out.

"Ne, Yukino after I'm done can you put my hair in a ponytail?" I asked."Sure Lucy!" Yukino quickly put my hair up with a green ribbon. I thanked her and we both headed out of the walked out into the open but no one was up yet, the exceeds were up because they sleep in the same tent as us. I turned to Yukino and said "We should get breakfast ready."

"Yeah, I'll go get the dishes." I nodded and grabbed a bag of fruits. Yukino came back with the bowls and utensils. I grabbed some grapes and put them into the bowl. "Yukino can you cut some banana's up for me?" she simply nodded and got to work. I plucked some blueberries off the stems of fruit in our bag. I put those in a separate bowl to put in the food later and grabbed some strawberries from the fruits bag. I cut them in half then threw them in with the grapes I put the blueberries in next and grabbed the cut up bananas. Satisfied with my work I walked to Sting and Rogues tents that were right next to each other. I shook the tents and yelled "Wake up breakfast is ready!" I stopped shaking the tents when I heard groaning from both sides. I walked over to where we eat and grabbed a bowl for myself. Yukino and the exceeds had already gotten their bowls and started eating. Not long after I started eating a very grumpy Sting comes out and grabs a bowl for himself. I smiled innocently at him and casually said "How'd you sleep Sting?" Sting simply glared at me, I stifled a giggle. Rogue came out next and nodded to everyone in acknowledgement.

"So what are we doing for combat training?" I wanted to know what the guys had planned for us. Sting glanced at Rogue and he shook his head. Sting sighed and grumbled out a fine."We're gonna have you and Yukino do some drills, we'll do them with you of course but it will probable be harder for you girls." He smirked at his last comment that I decided to ignore. Sting then turned his head back to me and asked. "Hey Blondie, you didn't tell us what kept you last night." I looked at him confused "Last night? What happened last night?" I answered with my own question."You know when you left to wash the dishes at the pond. Jeez Blondie I didn't know you had the memory of an obachan." I could feel my cheeks begin to burn, I had totally forgotten about that.

"It took me a while to dry the dishes." I did get a little distracted with the pond I wonder how long I sat there. "Ne, would you guys like to come with me, Fro and Rogue to the pond?" They gave me weird looks, so I decided to explain. "Well it's just the pond was really pretty at night so I wanted to go back tonight to sketch it." I was met with understanding and curiosity from everyone. I thought I should just ignore that and continue eating. "Eh Lucy you draw?" Lector asked, I nodded in reply. After that all the conversing stopped leaving us to our own thoughts.

My thoughts wandered to the last time I used my sketch book. It was just after the Infinity Clock incident I used it to draw Michelle after she turned back into her doll form. Michelle I gotta take her out of my traveling bag before she starts to flatten. I got up, placed my food on the log I had been sitting on and walked back into the tent. I grabbed my bag and threw everything out of it in my search for her. I picked her out of my bag when I found her under everything. I sighed in relief when nothing was wrong with her. I placed her on my bed then grabbed my keys that I had left in here and attached them to my belt. I walked out and noticed everyone was done with their food. "Are you guys ready to go?" I asked. When they all nodded their heads I started on my way to the training camp. Half way through the path I remembered they never really answered my question of if they were coming to see the lake. I asked them again and only received a shack of their heads. I wasn't getting much reaction from my small group of friends.

Friends… the word seemed to repeat itself over and over in my head like the constant buzzing of bees on a warm spring day. I had friends at Fairy Tail before they decided I had no use to them. Friends that had said we we're a team, that they didn't want someone like me, but me. I thought I had finally found a place where I belong. I guess I was wrong. I had been very wrong to intrust my heart and soul to Fairy Tail, I mean look what they did to that they broke both of them, handed it back to me then promptly threw me out. Che what jerks! They say everyone's nakama in that guild and that everyone is connected to each other! Yeah right, then how come they treated me like I was invisible and when they did see me they were so rude as if they wished I would just disappear. I guess their wishes were granted cause I'm no longer there and I won't ever return. I felt as if I lost some part of me when I left Fairy Tail. It's like there was a hole in my soul that I may never get back. The emotions in me were swirling and mixing and I was sure that would soon cause a storm. I swatted the cobwebs in my thoughts away as we arrived at the training camp. We walked toward the clearest and largest space and stood in a circle. "Okay so me and Rogue decided it would be easier to work on building your leg muscles first then make our way up alright. So for know stretch your legs then we're all gonna run ten laps around both camps, so the training and living sites got it?" We nodded then started stretching. Two minutes later we had all finished stretching and were heading over to a wide trail that the boys had found yesterday. We lined up next to each other, Lector was floating in the air above our heads counting down from five.

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"5"

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"4"

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"3"

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"2"

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"1!"

We started off with a jog and gradually sped up. It had been ten minutes and we were only on our fourth lap. Sting and Rogue could have been on their sixth or seventh lap if they really wanted to but they only ran just a little bit in front of me and Yukino. All of us were sticking together to make it easier to keep count of the laps. The exceeds were flying above our heads, but sometimes they disappear in the leaves of the trees and won't come out for a while. My thoughts continued as we ran. By the time we finished the laps I had barely noticed we stopped. I was out of breath and sweating badly. Yukino was just as bad as me and the guys, well they look like they just went for a light jog I mean, they hardly even broke a sweat for goodness sakes! After collecting my breath I stood up straight and walked over to the guys. "Ne, what are we gonna do next?" I asked. I wanted to get better and I wanna get better faster, so I have to work hard no excuses. I was determined to get stronger in many ways. We moved on to our next activity and that was to play soccer. It was two teams of three. The first team was Yukino, Rogue and Fro, my team had Sting and Lector. We used the bushes as the goals and Sting had brought his soccer ball with him with a few other sports stuff. He almost hit me in the head when he was searching for the dang ball. How the hell do you fit a hockey stick in that small sports bag! It just wasn't logical-Oh wait it is logical because we live in a world full of magic users! I faced palmed myself at the thought of me forgetting something like that. We had finished at around seven. In all of our games we had ties, I was quite amazed with how well I was able to play considering I had never heard of the game. Everyone says that some people came up with sports such as these while Fairy Tail was stuck on Tenrou Island. The game was exciting none the less and I would love to play it again.

When we got back to camp I made some yakiniku because it was easy and quick. After finishing I went to the tent and grabbed my sketch book. I walked out and saw Rogue standing by the path holding a happy Fro and a lacrima camera around his neck. I nodded in his direction and we started down the dark path.

When we got there the pond was still normal, so I sat down on my magic training rock so I could get the best angle. The boys stood a little behind me. I glanced back at Rogue and Fro and suddenly felt very calm. Calmer than I had been the entire day, there were no thoughts of Fairy tail in my mind except the fact that I felt... protected. His presence was relaxing, he was like my anisan. It was nice having him around because he really was like a anisan. "Ne, Rogue would you mind if I called you anisan?" He tilted his head downward to look at me with wide eyes. The look disappeared and he gave me a small nod. I smiled happily then turned toward the pond and a few seconds later the dark water lite up.

I stared at it for a while before I quickly started sketching the wonderful view, I felt Fro silently sit beside me then heard soft clicking sounds. I paid no attention to those things though because I was focused on making the pond clear and drawing the fish in side. A minute or so later I completed that task and moved on to the glow the water set off. I darkened the ring of the lake then dragged my finger from the line upward, causing a sort of fog like look, but for this sketch it was going to be the light that was emitted from the lake. After finishing the light I made small circles, colored them in and smeared those as well to make them look like the fireflies that hovered just above the water. Once I was satisfied with the main view of the sketch, I sketched the trees and large rocks in the background. After shading some trees in I pulled the book away from me to look at it all together, to me i'd say it was one of my best yet! I was overjoyed about how real it looked, it was definitely one of my best!

I submerged from my thoughts and heard the quiet sounds of clicking. I turned around saw Rogue taking pictures of the lake at different angles. I waited as he finished taking pictures before I spoke up. "Ne, anisan are you ready to head back?" He turned to me and tilted his head down, letting me know that we should. I was about to get up. But found that was hard to do when you have a sleeping Fro on your lap. I patted his head lightly and waited for him to open his eyes "Fro come on, get up we're heading back to camp." He nodded and got off my lap then off the bolder and walked over to Rogue. I got off as well and followed them to the path but right before I walked into it I turned around to find the pond still glowing. I stared at it a second longer before I walked off to catch up to my two companions.

Rogue's POV

I waited for Lucy as soon as I noticed she had stopped. She had seemed a little off today as if something was bothering her. When she looked up into my eyes asking if she could call me anisan I understood why she had seemed troubled. It was because she had been thinking of some sort of negative thoughts. My best guess would be Fairy Tail, that was on her mind all day, but when I looked just a little more I could see she was hurt, but determined as well. She was looking a lot better afterwards though so I guess everything with her is fine. I couldn't help feeling a little worried though if she is really troubled by Fairy Tail then I have a feeling from now on things are going to get really complicated. I'll have to protect Lucy when the time comes, after that last thought. Lucy caught up and we all headed to camp.


Awww I went and read thru them old ass pm's with the authors I messaged and I feel kinda bad they had to deal with my typo filled rambling lmao I hope they're all doin well tho, they were cool humans

This is the longest chapter of the bunch, and now everything goes downhill from here!