A/N I am SO happy everyone is enjoying this so much! Thank you to those leaving reviews and PMs for me! If you enjoy the stories leaving a like or a review is the best way to let us writers know our work is being enjoyed and we should keep going! I'm having fun with this, and might bring this key set into other works in the future since everyone seems to like them so much. Thank you all, Merry Christmas.

DESNA

"Acgooooo"
The sound was a little strangled...and Lucy actually tripped and almost face planted as she was walking when Taurus forced his way out of his gate.

They were walking past a section of what had been some of the massive containment areas where Sevens shifter armies had been raised and trained when the country was building it's forces.

The shapeshifter armies were still a bit of a mystery, as to how they had come to be, the process something the young King was still keeping secret even as he pushed hard to have the thousands and thousands of shifters Seven had created accepted by society.

"They're still PEOPLE, they are NOT berserkers, yes, my mother did have a division experiment with berserker techniques but they failed to cross into the shifter project and were abandoned. These are human beings who shapeshift, please...think of them like take over mages..,: He had said at a recent summit.

It was a stretch, mages represented only about 2% of the total population of Earthland were born with any magic talent, and people already sort of feared them. Magic was part of daily life, lacrima lamps, com systems, most forms of transportation, Boscos airship fleets that made commerce and international travel work so well now, still...people looked at mages warily and sometime with open suspicion.

Since the battle with Mard Geer and the Cube and the devastation that had caused, Fairy Tail had been dealing with pushback. Magnolia itself was still welcoming their guild, but, there had been protests...Lucy herself had been hit with a rotten piece of fruit thrown by a woman who had lost her husband and child in that fight...and she'd had to hold Natsu back...looking into the womans hate filled teary eyes dripping with accusation as she had hurried to leave the area with her angry friend.

"She's wrong! They're all wrong! We fought those guys! Magic would be GONE if we hadn't!" Natsu had snarled.

"It doesn't matter Natsu...a lot of those people would...prefer magic was gone in the first place." Gray had said quietly. The following argument had been...exhausting...and Lucy had finally burst into tears and that had ended it, Natsu frantic to comfort her and Erza angry he hadn't dropped the whole thing the first time Lucy had asked him to.

So the King of Seven asking people to view his shifters like they were regular mages...it really highlighted just how badly the shifters were viewed.

The containment areas were massive circular dormitories around huge training fields. Each facility custom built to house and train a specific type of shifter. There was a feline compound, canine, avian etc. They were walking past what was...Lucy blinked as a woman stood, brushing back long black and white hair, horns curling out and forward as she hefted a massive axe to her shoulder. At her feet was a large man with long near white blonde hair, rounded ears atop his head and she saw a...lions tail swing as he regained his feet and started brushing off his armor.

"Ask me for a glass of milk again I'll take your damn head off." The woman said smiling and the lion man chuckled shaking his head

"I had to get you to engage Lita...you always just want to be so...peaceful…Brina doesn't do that." he nodded toward another woman as large as the first with curly black hair, shorter thicker black curved horns and chocolate skin.

"Brina is a Buffalo...she's pissy." Lita snorted waving a hand and Brina made a low aggressive sound, a shiny black hoof instead of a foot stamping the ground and Lita waved a hand smiling.

"Cool your teets Brina...my blood just doesn't boil at the first challenge is all." Lita said and Brina snorted raising her chin.

"Course not...you're a milk cow." She said and Lita was suddenly running over the Lion man attacking the Buffalo woman and axes bigger than Lucy were clashing while the Lion stood and laughed but made no movement to stop the pair.

Taurus made an indecent moaning sound and Lucy stopped trying to hold the spirit back and finally managed to force his gate closed.

Natsu was grinning. "I like them…"

Erza was also standing watching, her eyes clearly following the massive weapons "I do too…"

"This...does not surprise me." Hestor said lightly.

"I like them too." Vander was smirking, his look decidedly not interested in the weapons, armor or fighting styles...nope...he was admiring the unique female forms that were in...relatively sparse armor, displaying on Lita a black and white holstein pattern in her skin...though the "white" parts were really tanned skin...her legs were actually very shapely and well toned with trained muscle, and while she had hooves instead of feet...she still was honestly...beautiful...with waist length silky black and white hair, large expressing brown eyes and a feminin face. She also...had pecs that shaped out well almost like breasts...covered by armor...and there beneath her belly button...was a pronounced piece of custom armor that just...had to cover…

"Does...does she have...like a normal cow?" Lucy whispered to Hestor hovering her hand in front of her own groin like she was shaping teets.

Hestor narrowed his eyes looked and hummed "I...it looks like she does...the other one too."

The lion had noticed them. The man was...like the women...very attractive in his own way. As tall as Kaleb, with a thick mane of white blonde hair and friendly golden eyes. He approached them with a wave...as if he'd forgotten all about the two still furious rampaging women fighting behind him.

"Hi, you Kaleb?" He called looking at the Guildmaster.

"Yes...Artero?" Kaleb held and hand out and Artero took it smiling.

"I am. The King said you would be walking the training compounds...you have a Celestial mage feeling a key pull?" Artero asked looking at everyone with Kaleb.

"Yes, Lucy. She's been following it for a few days now and it's led us here. You King has been very kind...generous in his tolerance of...what a key quest like this sometimes leads to." Kaleb said and Lucy blushed...she was lucky. Bicklows father was an internationally renowned Ambassador and had made some calls...Kaleb was accompanying them because the Academe had asked his husband to help Lucy through this...so the damage and...injuries...property destruction...that had occurred so far was actually being handled by the Crown of Seven...the King himself giving them freedom to move around Seven and pardoning their actions, compensating people affected.

Arteros golden eyes found Lucy and he smiled, sharp large fangs showing as his full lips lifted.

"Nice to meet you all. General Rickter has me training with the Herd today pushing their agility development…" He glanced toward the still battling women.

"How...um...don't answer if you can't of course but how many shifters are in "The Herd"? I thought the shifter armies were all...predators…?" Lucy managed awkwardly. She was painfully curious about it all.

Artero smiled "The herd is bovine...deer, sheep, goats, equine...quite a few different varieties of hooved species and no...the armies are not just predators...diversity is part of what makes us so effective...there are even Hind and Unicorn shifters...Pegasi." he said smiling at Lucys widening eyes. "I think at last count the Herd had just over 4000 people in it. One of the more successful divisions really. Right up there with The Pride, The Pack and The Flock."

"I...I feel a pull here…" Lucy admitted and Artero hummed "It wouldn't surprise me...we have people in the various divisions that were taken by slavers...marauders...sold to Seven while The Black Queen was building her armies and would pay for...anything exotic with magic that she could try to splice into human bases. Some weren't successful...the Dragon project only had three survivors of the process and was scrapped because…" Artero smirked "The subjects were NEVER obedient enough for The Black Queen."

"Of course not...fuck that slave shit." Natsu huffed and Arteros sharp gold eyes moved to the pink haired man.

"Put a command collar on most dragonslayers and they purr like kittens...Kressa was using actual Dragons and magic in her subjects...taking Dragons and adding human forms as half the being of the creature...like the rest of us are...only three dragons survived the process. Getting a 60 or 70 foot Dragon to take on more human characteristics...so there was a hybrid form that could be put into armor?" Artero shrugged.

"It's not weakness to have a command collar overwhelm your free will and most of us were altered when we were still small children, very few were altered over the age of 7." The Lion shifter said.

"Who says we're weak?" Brina suddenly stopped, shoving Lita back, both women...over 6 feet tall, turning toward them and Lucy shot Natsu a hard look.

Artero shrugged "Nobody directly said it." he eyed Natsu though who was smiling, once again...oblivious to a line he was walking.

Some others were suddenly standing from seats on benches off to the side and Lucy blinked, her magic turning up as a good dozen more of the bovine warriors approached.

Her eyes glowed faintly, locking on a few that were maybe slightly smaller than the others, all with caramel skin, curved horns that looked polished, and large gorgeous soulful brown eyes.

There were eight...eight of them that looked that way, each with a different colored ribbon around her neck...all in armor...all with large weapons…

"Not weak...and I'm Lucy Heartfilia...I'm a Celestial mage…" she said, the women, as one...froze. One with a red ribbon around her neck smiled.
"A Key Holder...we've waited..,hoped one would come, but...if you can't spar with us? You can't hold the key…"

Arteros eyes widened, the Lion shifter stepping aside, and Brina and Lita too moved out of the way...Hestor humming.

"Yes...well...this should be fun." Hestor said taking Kalebs hand and moving aside to find a place to sit.

"Spar with you? Hell yeah!" Natsu grinned...not looking at Lucy...barely registering what had been said...he only saw weapons, armor...and big women ready to fight and he wanted in.

"Natsu...KEY." Gray hissed

Taurus came out with Partridge...the two big males moving into the ring with Lucy.

"Moooove over Natsu...we neeeeed these ladies….BAD." Taurus said shoving Natsu right out of the way as he moved, eyes bright on the 8 women who were moving, hefting their weapons while the rest of the shifters were taking seats. Comments coming….

"You know...I've never seen Ester shift fully human or fully into a Jersey...I think they're Jersey…" one said

"Nope, never have...always the hybrid form…" someone else said

"Lucy...I've always been loyal...always loved yooooou...right now? You're the best keyholder a bull could dream of…" Taurus said and Lucy rolled her eyes, summoning the swans who appeared in ninja gear instead of tutus...which she was happy about...they had talked about that…

The fight...lasted almost 3 hours...and Lucys magic forced her to close the gate on the swans after the second hour...but Taurus was using his own magic to hold on...determined to see this happen beyond all else and Partridge had not proven to be a drain on her yet...he had mentioned once it was because of the Pear Tree…

Bleeding...panting...exhausted...Natsu unconscious by the side of the ring from trying to jump in and Erza knocking him out so he didn't interfere this time. It was over, and the one with the red ribbon...Ester...put a horn key in her hand...the 8 beauties vanishing and Taurus hugging Lucy and immediately closing his gate to see them when they arrived in the area where Lucy spirits congregated.

Partridge ruffled her hair grinning, shouldering his massive sword. "Good job." He said lightly before he vanished too.

Lucy was smiling, hugging the key to her chest and looking at Hestor who tilted his head "Eight...Maids of Milk?"

"Who said Milk?! I'm taking heads!" Lita bellowed and Hestors eyes flew wide, the summoner blinking once "I...need to go…" he said and slapped a hand to Kalebs shoulders...the mans white wings suddenly erupting from his back and Kaleb laughed, an arm going around his husband before he slammed his wings down and shot into the air with him.

"I'll check in with you!" Artero yelled after them as Lucy Gray and Erza ran for it, Vander vanished while Gray tossed Natsu over his shoulder before racing away, Lucy running but hugging her new key smiling as she ran...