S-Class Trials, Day 3:
"Hm…" Lucy scratched the back of her head as she stared at her's and Juvia's blindfolds. According to Horologium it was 8 A.M. of day three of the trials. Lucy wasn't sure when these storms were supposed to stop, but somtime today. That meant they probably still had several hours until the second task was complete. So far no one had come to challenge them for their shelter, and they had been in here since around noon yesterday. After Gemini had to go back to the Spirit World Lucy set Sagitarrius up as sentry. So far, though, he hadn't spotted anything or anyone. Turned out going south, away from everyone else, had paid off.
For now.
Even so, Lucy wasn't about to waste her time just sitting about for the task to end. If there were going to be four teams left by the end of this round that meant there was another round coming, and she wanted to be as ready as possible. Since task 2 didn't involve the messages on the back of the blindfolds, that meant task three probably would, which is why she was trying to figure it out.
A bottle of lemon juice had been included in the box of food in the shelter, allowing her time to look at the messages of hers and Juvia's blindfolds. Thankfully, her's and Juvia's handkerchief's went together. It was only wneh she noticed this that she realized that her blindfold had a "4" in the corner, and Juvia's had a "3".
"See this, Juvia?" she asked, pointing to the numbers. "I guess this means one of the other teams have '1' and '2'."
"We're going to have to fight them for their blindfolds, aren't we?" Juvia grumbled.
"Hm…" Lucy tapped her fingers on the ground as she stared at the portion of the message that they did have. The line at the top was cut off through the middle, making it impossible to read. The bottom line, however, said:
"Relic of your heart's origin."
Relic of my heart's origin? Lucy though as she jotted down the message in her journal. What does that mean? Whatever it is, it's bound to be something personal.
She flipped her blindfold over, looking at the map on the back.
"Maybe we won't have to fight anyone," she said.
"How's that?" Juvia asked.
"Look at how the craters are laid out, in a straight line, each given and number from 1-8. You and I were in crater 6, and we got pieces 3 and 4. That probably means that all of the even numbers were given pieces 3 and 4, and all the odd numbers were given pieces 1 and 2."
"Hm. Yes I see," Juvia nodded, but how does that help us?"
"Look at who was in crater 7," Lucy said.
"Jet and Droy?" Juvia asked.
"Uh-huh. Gray said they never even made it out of their crater, which means there's a good chance their blindfolds are still there. I highly doubt they would have taken them with them. Afterall, they failed task 1 miserably, they'd have no need for them."
"So you're suggesting that rather than go fighting someone for their blindfolds, we simply go to Jet and Droy's crater and collect their's?" Juvia asked.
"Mm-hmm," Lucy nodded. "After all, it looks like task three is going to involve us finding some sort of relic, so getting all four pieces of the riddle will just be part one of the task. The sooner we can complete it the sooner we can complete it all together."
"Yes, I see," Juvia nodded.
"Well, well!" a voice came from behind them.
Lucy jumped and turned to see Laxus' thought projection standing behind her.
"Congratualtions to Romeo, Lucy, Freed, and Lisanna. You four have completed task two! Azuka, Evergreen, sorry ladies but you're out. Onto task 3!"
Lucy stood, eagerly listening.
"Hidden somewhere on this patch of dirt are a bunch of relics," Laxus explained. "Your job is to find one of those relics and bring it back to me at base camp. Here's the catch: as I said, there are a bunch of relics, but I'm looking for one in particular from each of you. If you bring me back the wrong one you're out. You bring me back the right one before someone else does and you'll become Fairy Tail's newest S-Class wizard."
A particular one from each of us? So the relic he wants me too fetch and the one he wants Lisanna, Freed, and Romeo to fetch may not even be the same thing!
"Now, I know this might be confusing, so I've decided to just cut out the whole time limit thing on this one. This task will end when either someone brings me the right relic, or when you've all been booted out. Good luck, you four, may the best wizard win! If any of you win, that is."
And with that Laxus' thought projection disappeared.
Lucy pulled out her keys.
"Sagittarius, you can go back now," she said as she headed out of the shelter, as she did so she felt a bit dizzy and put a hand to her head.
"Are you alright, Lucy?" Juvia asked. "You've been keeping at least one spirit gate open for nearly 24 hours now, are you sure you don't need a rest?"
"I'm fine," Lucy said as she climbed up the ladder to the trap door. "This is the last task of the trials, I can work through it. I have to. I've come too far to give up now."
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SPLASH!
"Ack! Persephone!" Koree shouted as she was splattered with puddle water. Persephone laughed, only to be splashed by her sister.
Makarov only smiled from where he sat in the doorway, watching all the children jump and splash and play in the rain puddles. Now that the sun was out it was high time all the little ones got outside to get some fresh air.
"Hey, guys! Watch this!" Storm shouted as he stood in the middle of a rather large puddle. He lifted his arms, beckoning six tendrils of water to rise up and attach to his torso. He then began to wave them around with his arms as he made a fishy face and walked in goofy, losided gate.
"Imma octupus!" he declared making all the other children laugh, except for the triplets who instead screamed and ran to hide behind Roman.
"Isha sea monsta!" Minette cried, screaming again, though all the triplets were wearing smiles on their faces.
"Uh-huh!" Storm nodded. "And I'm gonna eat you!"
The triplet gasped in horror as Roman stepped up towards Strom.
"Oh, no you won't! Requip!"
A bo-staff appeared in his hands, and a smile appeared on his face. Storm grinned back as he shot one of the water tendrils towards Roman, only to have the Fernandez boy swat it away with his staff. Roman then did a fancy spin with the staff over his head before setting the butt of it in the muddy ground as if he were setting up a flag.
"You'll never get passed me, you sea monster!"
"Oh yeah?" Storm challenged. "We'll see about that!"
"Kick his bootie, Storm!" Bianca cheered from behind her brother.
"Yah! Kick i'!" Meeko clapped.
"Eh?" Ingeel, who had been playing in a puddle with his sisters, caught notice of the fight and pointed to it while tugging on Nashi's rain coat, a confused look on his face.
"Oh, you wanna go watch Storm and Roman fight?" Nashi asked, scooping Igneel into her arms. "Sounds like fun, let's go! C'mon, Layla."
"'Kay," Layla smiled as she began following after her siblings. Suddenly, though, she stopped and turned around.
"Huh?" she cocked her head to one side as she stared into the forest behind the guild hall.
"Hey, Layla, aren't you coming?" Fin asked as he flew over her.
Layla just blinked, a confused look on her face before walking towards the forest.
"Layla?" Fin asked, following after her. "Hey, where you going?"
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"Here," Lucy panted as she stopped next to Jet and Droy's crater. The bottom was covered in mud. It was impossible to see if the blindfolds were even still down there.
"So...are we going down there?" Juvia asked.
"We've got no choice," Lucy said as she reached for her heys. "Open, gate of the Ram! Aries!"
"Oh...um...hi," Aries waved.
"Aries, give us a soft landing, will you?" Lucy asked.
"Oh, okay, I'll try," Aries waved her hand and a fluffy pink cloud appeared at the bottom of the crater. Lucy and Juvia jumped down onto it and then began sifting through the pool of mud.
"I've found on!" Juvia called, holding up a now brown handkerchief.
"Here's the other!" Lucy called back.
"Well, well, well. Seems we weren't the only ones who thought of this," a voice called from the top of the crater.
Lucy looked up to find Freed and Laki looking down onto them.
"I'm sorry, Lucy, but I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to hand those over," Freed said, pulling out his sword.
"No way!" Lucy said, clutching the muddy cloth to her chest. "Go get your own! Aries!"
"Okay," Aries squeaked. "%100, fluffy-fluffy wool!"
A bursting pink cloud engulfed Freed and Laki, causing them to wheeze.
"Now open, Gate of the-ngh!"
Her vision began to blur. She really had used up a lot of her magic energy! Funny, she hadn't noticed until just now. It appeared in her current state keeping one open was fine, but she'd exhausted too much power to manage two! Of course calling three on Natsu back in task one probably wasn't helping, either. She may have gotten, what, 3? 4? Maybe 5 hours of sleep this whole trial. She hadn't really had a chance to replenish.
Guess I'll have to use my wits instead of my magic, she thought as she turned to Juvia.
"Juvia, give me that blindfold!"
Juvia tossed it to her just as Freed burst from Aries cloud and jumped into the crater.
"I've already bee through these trials six times, and have yet to win," he said, pointing his sword at Lucy, causing her to stumble as she began backing away.
"Lucy!" Juvia shouted, running to her side. She must really be tired, it wasn't like her to trip over nothing! "I will not fail a seventh time. Give me the blindfolds."
"No!" Lucy said, grabbing her whip and popping it at his sword. It wrapped around the blade, Lucy tried to tug it away, but Freed was faster. He jerked her towards him, snatching the blindfolds from her hand as she tripped into his chest.
"Sorry, Lucy. Better luck next year," he said as he called his dark ecriture wings and flew out of the crater.
"Come on, we can still catch him!" Juvia said, conjuring up a wall of water, but Lucy held her hand out to stop her.
"It's okay, we don't have to," Lucy said, reaching into her back pocket and pulling out two muddy handkerchief. "Those were our original blindfolds he took. I swapped them out with Jet and Droy's when I tripped."
"But now we can't get the whole message," Juvia exclaimed.
"Sure we can," Lucy pulled her journal out of her coat pocket and opened it. "I wrote down the half of the message we already had. Now we've just gotta put the two pieces together."
"Oh!" Juvia cheered. "You're a genius, Lucy! A pure genius!"
"Thanks," Lucy smiled as she pulled the bottle of lemon juice out, poured it over the handerkerchiefs and began puffing hot air onto them. The message was a bit hard to read through the mud, but she still managed to jot it down into her journal for the whole riddle:
A sea of bitterness,
A ring of our inheritance,
Here you will find,
A relic of your heart's origin.
"Hm…" Lucy tapped her pencil against her chin as she thought.
"Well, the sea of bitterness has got to mean the lemon orchard we found a while back," she said. "Bitterness can sometimes mean sour, and lemons certainly are sour. As for the rest of it…"
"Well, it won't take Freed long to find out you tricked him," Juvia pointed out. "Let's go ahead and start walking towards the orchard. We can figure out the rest along the way."
"Yeah, good thinking," Lucy nodded.
Juvia used her water magic to create a stor of elevator to lift them out of the crater. They then began heading back towards the orchard, Lucy pondering the riddle all the way there.
Ring of our inheritance? Relic of my heart's origin? What on earth could those mean?
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"Hey, Layla, I don't think you should be wandering off like this!" Fin called as he followed along behind the little girl. She still wore a curious look of concentration on her face as she kept running forward as quickly as her little legs would take her. She was looking up, scanning the tree line, as if she were searching for something.
"Layla, come on, let's go back!" Fin begged.
"One minute," Layla said, holding up one tiny finger as she kept running. She suddenly stopped at the base of a rather large tree, it's winding roots creating curving arches that went well above the child's head. Still Layla jumped up, grabbing one of the arched and pulling herself up. She wandered, or more like clumsily stumbled, toward the enormous and knotted trunk, setting her tiny arms as far around it as she could and tried to shimmy her way up.
"What are you doing?" Fin asked, cocking his head to one side.
"Up, p'ease!" Layla said, pointing to the branches way above their heads.
"You want me to fly you all the way up there!?" Fin shouted.
"Uh-huh," Layla nodded.
"No way!"
"P'ease?"
"You could fall!"
"I be carefuw," she promised. "It onwy for a wittle bit."
"Why do you even need up there?" Fin asked.
"Somebody in twouble!" Layla answered.
"Really?" Fin looked into the tall branches. "There's someone stuck up there?"
"Uh-huh," Layla nodded.
"Hm…" Fin stroke his chin. "Well, okay, I guess if someone's in trouble we gotta."
"Yay!"
Fin grabbed Layla by her shoulder and flew her up into the tree. They flew around amongst the branches until Layla pointed to a hollow overlooking one of the larger, more twisted branches.
"Dere!"
"Okay," Fin flew her down to it. Layla scooted her way across the branch until she got into the hollow and walked inside.
"Gosh, it's dark!" Fin exclaimed. "Hello anybody!"
When no answer came, he turned to Layla. "You sure there's someone stuck in here?"
"Uh-huh," Layla nodded as she walked forward, towards the back of the tree hollow. She began digging through the piles of dead leaves and cobwebs at the back of the small, wooden, cavern.
"Layla, I don't think there's any-"
"I got 'em!" she cried in excitement as she held something up in the air. Fin walked forward, scoffing when he saw what she was holding.
"Those aren't someones! Those are keys!"
"Uh-uh," Layla shook her head. "Dey was sad 'cuz dey 'tuck in hewe."
"Keys can't be sad!"
"Uh-huh dey can," she crossed her arms.
Fin rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's get back before someone realizes we're gone and we get in trouble."
"Okay," Layla nodded, walking towards him, still holding the two keys to her chest.
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"Well, we're here," Juvia sighed as she and Lucy climbed up the cliff face to the orchard. "Now what?"
"No idea," Lucy muttered. "No matter what I do I can't figure the rest of this riddle out…"
"Well, maybe we ought to look around," Juvia suggested. "Maybe there's another clue hiding around here."
"Maybe…" Lucy sighed, standing to her feet and walking into the orchard. For about thirty minutes they just wandered about, seeing nothing but fruit trees from miles and miles and miles.
Juvia suddenly began giggling. "Oh, look at that!" She pointed to a large ring of mushrooms. "I don't think I've ever seen a perfect circle made of mushrooms before."
"I did once when I was a little kid," Lucy smiled at the memory. "My mom told me it was a-OH!" she snapped her fingers. "That's it!"
"What's it?" Juvia asked.
"A fairy circle!" Lucy exclaimed. "That's what my mom called them! According to some old legends when you see a perfect circle of mushrooms it means you've found a portal to the fairy world. We're Fairy Tail wizards! It's a ring of our inheritance!"
"Oh!" Juvia gasped. "Well, what do you know? But...what about the rest of it?"
Lucy opened her journal. "'Here you will find a relic of you're heart's origin,'" she read.
"But the fairy circle's empty," Juvia pointed out. "There's no relic inside it."
Lucy stared at the ring of mushrooms, chewing on the inside of her mouth. "Or is there…"
"Huh?" Juvia cocked her head to one side.
"I overheard some of the guys back at the guild saying Laxus was trying to learn how to use illusion magic a few days before the candidates were chosen…" Lucy explained as she stepped towards the ring. She reached her hand out. The minute it crossed over the mushrooms, it seemingly disappeared. Lucy's smile brightened as she stepped over the mushrooms, her whole body vanishing.
"Lucy?" Juvia asked.
"Juvia, come in here!" Lucy's voice called from the circle, though she was nowhere to be seen.
Juvia cautiously stepped forward, crossing into the circle. The minute she entered she gasped. Sitting in front of her was a pile of treasure. Jewelery, golden goblets, diadems, chests of pearls, trunkes inlaid with gold.
"Oh, my!" She gasped. "So the relic you're supposed to bring back to Laxus must be somewhere in this pile!"
"Question is which one is it," Lucy grumbled as she began sifting through the pile. "The riddle said it's supposed to be a relic of my heart's origin, but I have idea what that means!"
"It could mean a lot of things," Juvia said as she began looking through the pile. "I mean, 'your heart' could be interpretted to mean a lot of different things. Your actual heart, your true love, what you love to do with your time, a passion project-"
"That's it!" Lucy gasped, staring into a trunk she'd just opened.
Juvia walked to her side, looking inside. The trunk was stuffed with luxurious garments of silk, satin, and velvet.
"This?" Juvia arched an eyebrow.
Lucy reached inside, grabbing onto a bit of white fringe sticking out from under one of the silk ball gowns. She pulled it out and held it to her chest.
"Oh," Juvia gasped as Lucy stood up, Natsu's scarf clutched in her hands.
"This is it," she smiled down at it. "Come one, let's get back to camp."
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
"Well, well, well. Look who it is," Laxus smiled as Lucy approached him, hands hidden behind her back, Juvia trailing behind her. Seated all around the campfire with him were the other S-Class wizards. Laxus stood up and walked towards her. Natsu watched, eyes wide, hands clasped together, foot tapping nervously.
"You're the first back," Laxus said, arms crossed, eyebrow arched. "I guess there's some congratualtions to be had in that. But the real question now it, did you bring me the right relic?"
Lucy smiled and pulled her hands out from behind her back. "Is this it?" She held out Natsu's scarf.
Laxus smiled. "Ha! Sure is!"
Lucy squealed jumping up and down in place. "I did it! I did it! I did it!"
"You did it!" Juvia cheered, hugging her friend before racing towards Gray. "She did it!" she cheered as she tackled him to the ground in excitement.
"YES!" Natsu leaped to his feet, raced to her, grabbed her by the waist, lifted her off her feet, and began spinning her around.
"I knew it! I knew you'd figure it out!"
"I'm S-Class!" Lucy cheered, arms held high in the air in celebration as he husband continued spinning her around. She beamed down at him as she tied his scarf back around his neck. Natsu smiled as he grabbed the back of her head and pulled her into a kiss, one arm still holding her up by her waist as Laxus put a finger to his forehead and announced:
"Hey! Freed, Lisanna, Romeo, sorry to tell you but the task three is officially over. Now get back here and congratulate Fairy Tail's newest S-Class wizard, Lucy Dragneel."
Lucy began giggling in glee, breaking the kiss as she lifted her arms again and cheered:
"I'm S-Class!" once again.
"Yeah, you are!" Natsu spun her again. "I told you that you'd win!"
"Congratulations, Lucy!" Gray called from where he was still trapped on his back under Juvia.
"I told you she'd be the one to get it," Guildarts grinned.
"Good job, Lu-Lu!" Levy cheered
"Heh," Gajeel smiled. "'Bout time she made it to S-Class. Been long overdo if you ask me."
"Yeah, you guys got a problem now, though," Cana grinned.
"What's that?" Gajeel asked.
"It ain't 50-50 no more. We girls now outnumber you 5 to 4. You boys better watch out," she grinned, sipping from her flask.
"Heh, I'm just glad Lev and I ain't the only married couple to both be in S-Class," Gajeel said. "Now we don't have to suffer your constant teasing alone no more."
"Aw, don't worry," Cana patted him on the head. "I might be giving Lucy and Natsu a hard time from now on, but I'll be sure to send a few good jabs your's and Levy's way."
"I'm sure you will," Gajeel grumbled.
"Yeah, right after this," Cana said as she cupped her hands towards Natsu and Lucy, who were kissing once again. "HEY, NATSU! SHE JUST FINISHED THE TRIALS! DON'T SUFFOCATE HER!"
"Oh, stop it," Erza snapped. "Let them have their moment."
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"What on earth-land did you get into?" Jellal asked as he picked cobwebs out of Layla's hair. The rest of the children were gathered around the fire place, warming up after thoroughly soaking themselves in the puddled. Storm and Roman were the wettest of the bunch, both boys bundled in blankets and towels as they sipped on their hot chocolate that Kinana had fixed for all of the children.
Layla, however, was seated in Jellal's lap near the bar as he tried to clean and fix her hair. She'd at least shed her rain coat and boots, but she still wore her play clothes, her tiny hands clutching something to her chest that she, so far, had refused to show anyone.
Not that anyone had asked. The Guild Hall was quite busy today, everyone awaiting to hear the results of the S-Class trials.
"Ouch!" Layla cringed as Jellal jerked a brush through her hair.
"Sorry, little one, but you've got a big knot right here," he said, making sure to be more gentle with the brush as he smoothed out the tangles.
"Never thought you'd be so good at hair," Makarov chuckled.
"I have two daughters," Jellal explained. "Though niether of their hair is this thick! My goodness, you've got enough on your head for three little girls, Layla."
"I do?" Layla asked.
"Hm," Makarov nodded. "Your hair might be Lucy's color, but you got Natsu's texture and thickness."
"Obviously," Jellal said as he finally finished tugging out all the knots and began seperating her hair into two, tying the sections into pigtails with a set of white ribbons. "There we got, now let's wash off your face," Jellal set Layla on the bar, picked up a wet rag he'd fetched earlier, and gently held Layla by the chin as he wiped the dirt off her cheeks and nose.
"Aw," a quite tipsy female wizard said as she scooted up to Jellal. "So sweet, y'know how hard it is to find a man that's good with children these days."
Jellal heaved a sigh and held up with left hand with his wedding band. "Married."
"Darn it! Why are all the good men taken!" she huffed as she stormed off.
"Wha' she talkin' 'bout?" Layla asked.
"Nothing," Jellal sighed, continuing to wash her face.
BOOM!
The Guild Hall doors busted open. In walked Natsu, carrying a smiling Lucy bridal style.
"Look at me!" he shouted. "I'm carrying Fairy Tail's newest S-Class wizard!"
"Hey," Laxus appeared behind them. "That's supposed to be my job, Natsu."
It was too late, though, cheers and applause had errupted through out the entire Guild Hall.
"Congratulations, Lucy!"
"Good job, kid!"
"I knew she'd be the one to win!"
"HA! Macao, you owe be 1,500 jewel!"
"Shut it, Wakaba!"
Laxus sighed and shrugged. "Not sure what I expected, honestly. Welp, yeah, Lucy Dragneel is our newest S-Class wizard. Give it up for her!"
The cheers and applause errupted across the Guild Hall once again.
"Mommy! Daddy!"
Nashi pushed her way through the crowd, dragging Igneel behind her.
"Hey, kids!" Natsu said as he set Lucy down and knelt to the children's level.
"Did you win, Mommy?" Nashi asked once they reached their parent's level.
"I sure did!' Lucy smiled.
"Yay!" Nashi jumped and hugged her mother. "I knew you would!"
"Did you now?" Lucy asked, hugging her daughter back.
"YEAH!" Nashi cheered.
Igneel had no clue what was happening, but he knew it must be something exciting, so he began laughing, and clapping his hands.
"Ma-Ma! Ma-Ma! Ma-Ma!" he cheered.
"Yeah, your Mommy's awesome, Igneel!" Natsu beamed, lifting his son up, tossing him in the air and catching him in a burst of giggles.
"'Gain! 'Gain! 'Gain!" Igneel cheered.
"Again, okay!"
Natsu tossed Igneel back into the air, making the little boy laugh once more. Lucy beamed at them before turning back to Nashi, who was still hugging her legs, and noticed something.
"Hey, Nashi, where's Layla?" she asked.
"She's right here," Jellal said as he pushed through the crowd, Layla in his arms. "Congratulations on making S-Class."
"Thanks," Lucy smiled as she took her daughter from Jellal. As Lucy held Layla, Nashi ran towards Natsu who caught her with one arm setting her on his hip as he kissed her cheek.
"Mommy!" Layla cheered, throwing her arms around Lucy's neck.
"Hi, Layla," Lucy said as she hugged her. "Oh, I missed you."
"Mommy, look what I found," Layla beamed as she held her hands out.
Lucy gasped. Lying in Layla's palms were two gate keys. And not just any gate keys. They were both silver. One was in the shape of a seahorse and covered in brown topazes. The other was in the shape of a rose and covered in rubies.
"Are those...Titan keys?" Lucy asked as she took them into her hand.
"There's my Layla!" Natsu cheered, running towards the little girl and kissing her cheek.
"Daddy, I save keys!" Layla said.
"You did what?" Natsu asked, confused, until he saw what Lucy was holding.
"Wha-are those Titan Keys?" he asked.
"Yeah," Lucy nodded. "Layla, where'd you find these?"
"In a twee," Layla said. "They was 'tuck! So I save 'em."
"She found them?" Natsu's eyes widened as he gestured his head towards Layla.
"Hm…" Lucy thought, turning to her husband. "We might need to make a stop at a magic shop on the way home."
"Why's that?" Natsu asked.
Before Lucy could answer though, an ear-piercing scream filled the Guild Hall.
"BUT I WANTED MY MOMMY AND DADDY TO WIN!" Lorelle wailed.
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"Okay…" Lucy held the two new Titan Keys in her hands, sitting cross-legged in the living room floor, Layla seated in her lap. "Watch closely, alright Layla."
"Okay," Layla nodded.
Natsu sat on the couch, Nashi by his side, and Igneel in his lap.
Lucy held out the keys. "Open Gate of the Rose, Fyllo. And Open Gate of the River, Zelos."
Two sparkling golden figures appeared in front of them. Layla gasped as she watched on, wide-eyed. A woman, her hair and dress made entirely of roses stood before them. Beside her was a creature with the upper body of a man, and the lower body of a sea horse.
"WAH!" Igneel shouted, backing as far away as he could from the spirits, eyes wide.
"Oh, it's okay," Natsu assured him, bouncing his knee slightly as he comforted his son. "Their friendly….I think."
"Greetings, Celestial Wizards," the man said was a deep bow. "I am the spirit Zelos."
He drew closer to Layla. "Thank you for finding us, dear child."
"Yes, thank you," the woman said taking Layla's hand in hers.
"You we'come!" Layla said, eyes still wide.
"Ah," Zelos said as he turned to the couch and drew near Nashi. "You must be the Titan Fire wizard."
"I…" Nashi began shifting uneasily. "I guess."
"Oh, has Eos spoken to you!" Fyllo asked eagerly.
"Who?" Nashi cocked her head to one side.
"Quiet, Fyllo," Zelos scolded. "It's not yet time."
"Time for what?" Natsu asked, concerned.
"I'm assuming, given the child's age," he gestured to Nashi. "That Rhea has contacted you?"
"Yes," Lucy answered. "But only once."
"Good," Zelos nodded. "You see, though this dear child would be born with the titan's abilities, she would first have to learn them. Well, learn one to be more precise. After that the rest would come naturally to her. The decision was made many years ago that Rhea's flame would be the first she'd learn, and that she'd learn it at a young age."
"Yeah, Rhea told us that," Natsu nodded. "Said it was because her flame's a protection spell that could keep Nashi safe if anyone tried to hurt her."
"Indeed," Zelos nodded. "The titans agreed that once the child had learned this spell they would not bother her until she was much older. They said that they wanted her to have as normal a childhood as possible, even with her powers."
"Oh," Lucy nodded. She could remember times when Nashi was still little more than a baby that she'd laugh, or smile, or point at seemingly nothing. She'd often wondered if this was one of the titans. Around the time she learned to conjure Rhea's flame, though, these incidents stopped.
"So...what's that mean?' Natsu asked.
"There may come a time when the child will need to call upon our old masters for advice," Zelos explained. "But until that day comes, they will not contact her. For though it may be they may have created the magic she uses, they are not the ones who will deterine how her life plays out. That will be up to her."
Nashi's brow furrowed as she looked down at her hands.
"Well, good grief, I just wanted to know if Eos has been around," Fyllo crossed her arms. "That's all!"
"I actually have a question for you," Lucy said, pointing to Fyllo.
"Huh?" she asked.
"Before whenever Nashi unlocked a new flame I found the key that belonged to the titan who created it soon after. But she's been able to use Eos for almost a year now and we just now found you."
"Oh, that," Fyllo said. "See, our old masters wanted their keys to be found together. So you wouldn't have been able to find me until she used Styx's flame."
"Why is that?" Natsu asked.
"Well, our old masters, the Titaness Eos and the Titan Styx were lovers," Zelos explained. "They wanted to make sure that some part of them would be able to stay together even after their curse. So they made sure that their keys would be discovered together."
"Silly, young love nonsense, but whatever," Fyllo shrugged. "Anywho, so, which one of you are we gonna be contracted to? You I'm guessing, since you said you've found other Titan Keys" she pointed to Lucy.
"Oh, well, actually I've been saving the Titan Keys for Layla. But I want to start her out on these first," she pulled out the tree silver keys she and Natsu had just bought.
"Smart woman," Fyllo nodded. "Alright, well, when you think she's ready, you know where to find us, bbbbyyyyyeee!" Fyllo disappeared.
"Take care. Pleasure to meet you," Zelos bowed before he too disappeared.
"Alright, Layla, here you go," Lucy set one of the silver keys into Layla's hand.
She gasped as she held it. "Dis mine?"
"Uh-huh, that one's yours," Lucy smiled. "Now hold it out like this," she positioned her daughter's arm. "And say 'Open, gate of Cannis Minora."
Layla took in a deep breath. "Open get o' Canni Minowwa!"
A sparkling figure appeared in front of Layla before solidifying into a pale yellow dog-like creature.
"OOOHHH!" Layla cheered, clapping her eyes. "Daddy, look, I got a Pwue!"
"Yeah, I see that," Natsu smiled.
"Prrroooo," the little creature said as it drew closer to Layla. She giggled and hugged the spirit to her chest.
"Now hold on," Lucy said, gently prying her daughter's arm off the creature. "First you've got to make a contract with it, okay?"
"Contwact?" Layla's brow furrowed.
"Yeah, it's kinda like a promise," Lucy explained. "Don't worry, I'll help you."
As the two Celestial Wizards went about making the contract, Natsu turned and looked at Nashi, who had been uncharacteristically quiet this whole time. She was staring at her hands once again, a deep frown on her face.
"Nashi, are you okay?" Natsu asked.
SHe jumped out of her trance and nodded, smiling brightly. "Yeah, I'm okay."
Natsu frowned, not sure if he believed her, but he nodded. "Alright…"
"Okay, now you've just gotta come up with a name for him," Lucy said as they finished the contract.
"Birdie!" Layla shouted.
"Birdie?" Lucy asked, eyebrow arched. The little spirit cocked it's head to one side, curious.
"Why Birdie?" Lucy asked.
"'Cuz he gotta pointy nose wike a birdie," Layla answered.
The tiny creature shrugged and then scampered to Layla's side, the little girl immediately hugging him.
"Birdie!"
"Brrroooo!'