Well shit, its been a long time since I've written anything. I know this is short, but this is me trying to get into the groove for this story again. Life sucks and I wish to escape for a while so I'm going to write.
The longer Lucy sat in the stowaway compartment the smaller it started to feel. Slowly, it was beginning to feel like the walls were shrinking around her. She'd never really been claustrophobic, but right now she definitely felt like it. With everything going on in her life at the moment, she chalked it up to stress...lots and lots of stress.
Her magic was still supplying her and the little family with a gentle light. The two children, their mother, and who must be their grandmother, had fallen into a deep sleep a little over an hour ago. They all looked so tired. They likely had been running for quite some time. Her heart went out for them, really. She only wished she had the time to help.
The young man traveling with them was awake. Much like her, he seemed to be keeping watch - staring at the sealed up door and counting the moments until they could move around again.
The man had obviously deemed himself his family's protector. She once again wondered what had happened that was causing this sweet little family to flee. He was a mage, she could tell - could feel it. He didn't possess a monstrous level of power like she was accustomed to with the mage's at Fairy Tail, but there was enough there that he would be able to put up a good fight if he needed to.
He kept glancing her way, it was slightly unnerving, but she couldn't fault him - there wasn't much else to look at.
Horologium's key briefly pulsed on her keyring, signaling that two hours was up like she had silently asked him to do.
After much internal deliberation, she decided she would give the crew a grace period of ten minutes to either give her an update or to let them out. Afterall, she didn't like to act rashly and she liked to think herself understanding, but patience had never been her best virtue.
"What was that?" The young man asked, referring to the light her key just gave off.
She gave him a faintly polite smile, "It's just something that was telling me it's been two hours since we left the harbor."
She counted the minutes in her head and when she reached ten she stood on her feet.
"You really gonna break the door down?" The young man asked, a little surprised.
"I promised I would. It's never good to go back on a promise."
"Maybe they ran into a problem?"
"Maybe," she shrugged, "but I would rather help fix their problem or battle a sea monster than sit in this box any longer."
Using her tried and true Lucy Kick, the door flew from its hinges and splintered severely as it collided with the parallel wall.
She turned to the man and cautioned him.
"Stay here with your family. I'll go see what the delay is about and then I'll come back to get you. Fight like hell if anyone but me comes back - don't trust these people just because they're giving you passage."
He nodded his head in understanding and watched her walk off. If she were any other person he would have distrusted her as well, but when the light slowly filtered down from the above floorboards and shown over her profile he recognized why she had seemed so familiar.
"You're Lucy of Fairy Tail." he proclaimed.
As she climbed the stairs to the upper deck she quietly whispered, "...Not anymore."