Lucy lay on the ground panting, staring at the sky "I'm alive….I'm still alive...Natsu...Hestor...are you dead?" she called hoarsely.
"..'m fine...just gonna...lay here a bit...you know, let Gray get up first so he feels good about himself." Natsu responded from somewhere nearby.
"Fuck you...I'm staying right where I am." Gray hissed
"I may be dead...Kaleb...am I dead?" Hestor called
"You're fine...the wings took most of that…" Kaleb chuckled, Lucy groaned sitting up a bit to look.
The area was smoldering...it was probably unlikely anything would grow here for a while in this section of countryside and she really hoped nobody owned this land because….yeah…
The last 2 weeks had been crazy. Seven was a country steeped in traditions, called "The Dragon Nation" Draksden, the capital was built over the largest Dragon lair known to exist on Earthland, it had been the center of the Dragon race, where the 4 founding Queens had raised their clutches and the largest Tatsu of dragons on the planet had been for centuries before Acnalogia had gone on his rampage. It had been in the thick of the Dragon wars too, the capital city laid to waste more than once through the centuries because it stood like a shield over the lairs.
Now only one of the founding Queens still lived and the skies over Seven no longer offered up dragons on the wing whenever you looked up...Lucy had never seen any of that of course, it had all happened before her time, but she'd read about it, and since coming to Seven she had certainly seen more dragons than she had ever seen in her entire life.
It wasn't dragons though that had destroyed what looked to be about 3 acres of land...no...Seven...seven elegant men who they had met on the road...in white feathered costumes...dancing…
Lucy had felt that pull, grabbed Grays arm...and missed grabbing Natsu who had stopped, stared and snorted "What the fuck? Dudes in dresses? The fucking hell?!"
Hestor had glared at him, the other Celestial mage actually liked wearing dresses now and then, he enjoyed fashion immensely and wore clothes for both male and female aesthetics because if it looked good? Hestor was proud to wear it. The man was friends with Dominic Elluris of Elluris Fashion House and...Lucy had seriously contemplated stealing from his wardrobe if she ever got the chance…
Gray actually glared as well...he didn't wear dresses but...the man had a thing for womens underwear. Lacy thongs were a secret pleasure and Natsu damn well knew it.
But the seven men had all stopped and glared and Lucy had then hissed "NATSU…" the fireslayer had looked at her
"What? Luce...seriously...they're in the middle of nowhere in ballerina clothes dancing in...a...oh shit…" his humor faded when it dawned on him Lucys eyes were glowing with magic...something they had done when they had found the four communications experts...that were...pigeons...with headsets and cell phones…
Something they had done when they had found the 5 gold flying bladed rings weilded by a very deadly...very hostile woman in veils with long bunny ears atop her head that was easily...seven feet tall.
The six goose shifters...who were munitions experts that laid...grenades.
And did agains before he had pissed off the Seven men in feathers dancing swan lake who turned out to be...ninjas...fucking ninjas...the order of Swan...BUT...they had survived, Lucy had called out the Dove Twins and Partridge and...the Hens had ended it...she'd beaten the Seven Swans...and held their key in her hand and...she was watching Kaleb slowly opening his wings so Hestor could peer out from within them where the couple had retreated when Natsu had been trying to Iron fist the blazingly fast Swans and the Hens were starting to blast the field of combat...not entirely carefully…
Lucy had struggled to keep the geese from popping out because Ooooohhhhh had they wanted to and in the celestial realm Leo, Virgo and Aries were dealing with some holes in structures from grenades lobed at them for working to keep them from breaking through their gate to "help the new mistress!"
But...everyone was alive...Zen landed lightly...he'd taken off to get out of the way...key trials were not something he got caught up in, Hestor and Kaleb stayed out of it too...Gray and Natsu….especially Natsu...tended to end up as collateral damage because Natsu just couldn't sit anything out if he was present and spirits didn't appreciate interruptions..
The big Archangel rarely spoke...and Lucy respected his reasons...he'd spent his life as a slave up until two years ago, when the whole revolution in Seven had had Boscan forces coming to help the new King and they had taken on Pegrand and Vander...under cover...had found Zen at Skys Reach Stadium in Romell Pegrand...fighting in the Gladiator pits where he had grown up.
During the unrest and issues Pegrand was dealing with, their forces largely fighting Seven and Bellum...Bellum being a nation they were constantly at war with...The Pradesh family, with the backing of the White Sea and Fairy Tail guilds they had memberships with and several highly influential military figures that were friends of Ambassador Arman Pradesh...the father of the family...they had successfully freed Zen from Pegrand.
He was two years now out of slavery, could read and write, speak his native Boscan well now and was an active mage in White Sea...but he leaned toward being quiet. Was decidedly a "Punch them in the face first and when they're bleeding on the floor...maybe ask questions" type of guy. His long black wings folded in but stayed out as he helped Kaleb and Hestor to their feet. Lucy caught again by the beauty of the man, Kaleb was striking, with his platinum blonde hair and pale lavender eyes...tall and well muscled...usually clad in white...a vision of almost ethereal beauty, were it not for the muscles, wide shoulders, narrow waist...obviously male body...Kaleb had almost feminin beauty but Zen...near black hair, deeply tanned skin stretched smooth over bulging muscle, 6'5" of raw...beastly...masculine...sex appeal.
Zen was the type of man any woman would have dreams of being tossed over his shoulder and carried off somewhere for bone melting sex where she could claw that smooth tan skin...bite those delicious thick pecs….Lucy blinked shaking her head and patting a smoldering bit of blonde hair...yeah...she needed to not…
"Ew...Luce...you get turned on in fights? Since when? You're like...stinking of horny…" Natsu groaned and Lucy shrieked, leaping up and jumping the still mostly prone slayer and slapping her hands over his mouth and using that to smack his head into the dirt a few times "Natsu! SHUT UP! I am NOT Horny...I'm...thrilled I contracted a new key!" she hissed
Natsu was blinking trying to not be seeing 4 Lucys at once and held a thumb up sign with his hand and a "peace" sign with the other, trying to look pleadingly at her for forgiveness though he had no clue why she had reacted like that...he knew what turned on Lucy smelled like...he'd been wingman for her more than a few times…
"Just...we have talked about this...you do NOT tell people what they smell like!" She snapped glaring down at the man and Natsu nodded quickly, looking apologetic.
Gray was chuckling but...smart enough to keep it to himself.
Lucy stood starting to dust herself off and trying to ignore Zen blinking in their direction.
"Yes well...Zen has that effect." Hestor smirked and Lucy jerked her head around to stare daggers at him, Hestor just smiled like a cat, straightening his clothes then turning to start brushing soot and singe marks off of Kaleb, clearly enjoying running his hands over his husband and looking innocent.
"Effect?" Zen frowned and Hestor hummed "Yes...you turn women on...without meaning to." he said lightly and Zen blinked again then shrugged.
"If we're done here and everyone is capable we should move...I spotted a town just about 2 miles ahead, we can eat and get cleaned up there, see about maybe getting transport toward Draksden." Zen said, opting not to touch the subject.
"I think we're alright...where's Vander?" Lucy frowned and there was a hum she turned toward.
Vander was sitting on a rock out of the damage area...eating popcorn. "Right here...perfectly fine...and the town has a nice inn and there's a train station." He said lightly
Lucy rolled her eyes and headed for the road. "Seven swans…." she sighed.