Chapter Eighteen: Change of Plan

Professor: Short chapter, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. I do not own Fairy Tail or the Legend of Zelda. Thank you for your favorites, follows, and reviews!

Gray woke up to Sheik shaking him harshly.

"Wake up, we have to go." the wanna-be-ninja said to him, before leaving him be.

Gray sat up, rubbing his eyes and looking around. The three of them had camped by the river outside the entrance to the domain. It was the safest, and warmest, they could've gotten at the moment, and nothing had bothered them through the night.

Sheik was packing the few items they had while Lucy was eating something. Gray looked around and noticed that Sheik had set some food next to him. Bread, cheese, an apple. Not much, but not the worst breakfast either.

Quickly he dug into it, not wanting to eat on the road.

"What's the rush?" Lucy asked as she finished her own meal.

"I was scouting around this morning while you two slept," Sheik said, "Something has changed at Death Mountain. I need to check it out."

"But weren't we going to try to get to Sky today?"

He looked at her apologetically, "Unless I can find some magic bottles on the way, I won't have enough. Even then, I have to see what happened with the Gorons first."

"What did you see?" Gray asked, "On your scouting?"

"The dark clouds are gone. So is the ring of fire around the volcano. The eruption that's been threatening to go at any moment is suddenly more dormant than it's been in seven years. The only explanation is that Volvagia is dead and the Sage of Fire has been awakened. That's the only way Ganondorf's power could've decreased so drastically in that area."

"But I thought most of the Sages had died?" Lucy asked as Gray finished his bread and cheese and started on his apple.

"They are," Sheik confirmed, "The Sage of Fire was eaten by the dragon. I saw it happen. Which is why this should be impossible."

"Well, let's go then." Gray said before crunching around another bite.

"Sky will have to understand." Lucy agreed, although had a hesitant look in her eyes.

Sheik looked at the two of them, nodding slightly. Anyone else and Gray would've assumed that he was smiling under his mask.

The three of them finished rather quickly, Lucy excusing herself to use the bathroom before they left. When she climbed back up from the ledge she had ducked under, she nodded quickly in his direction. He got the message. Wendy knew the change of plans.

They were on the road in minutes, heading downriver. Sheik said the journey to the end of Zora River and to Hyrule Field took about two days on foot, taking more than a week to actually reach Death Mountain, but hopefully they wouldn't have to make the whole trip. Once Sheik had full magic power again, he could take them straight to the end.

Gray wasn't looking forward to that spell though. Lucy said that it spun you a lot and he had enough nightmares of Ooba Babasaama without making it worse.

Lucy dragged him out of his thoughts by lightly tapping his shoulder.

"You know, this side trip could take us straight to Natsu. We're checking on the Gorons after all."

"Great," he huffed, "Cause dealing with Flame Brain again won't be a headache."

Lucy ignored the jibe and continued on, "When I sent the message to Wendy, I tried a few more usernames for him and Erza. Still nothing."

"I agree with what you said. We definitely could've planned this better."

Lucy groaned, "We had no actual plan at all."

"We're spending more time looking for our friends than on the job." Gray said.

She nodded in agreement, pointing to Sheik who walked ahead of them, just out of earshot, "At least he knows where the Hero is. I love not having that guess work."

"True." he conceded.

"So," she began, "How do you think we should find Erza? I mean, I hope we'll find Natsu at Death Mountain, and Happy has that habit of showing up right when you never expect him. So what about Erza?"

"Well, we're fairly certain she's a Gerudo," he shrugged, "It's the most logical choice. You both probably did the process of elimination thing."

"Yeah, but what if she thought I was a Gerudo?" Lucy whispered, "She might be another Sheikah and running around in the complete opposite direction."

"Hey," Gray grabbed her elbow and gently pulled her to a stop, "Don't do that. Not finding them right off the bat isn't your fault. Face it, we've been here for less than a full day and already found more than half the people we needed to. That's pretty great."

"I know…" she sighed, "I just hate not knowing where they are or where we are or what's going on around us. At least with all the impromptu situations in our world, they're, you know, in our world."

Gray sighed, "Tell me about it. Again, this place is weird. Nothing makes sense here."

"Is there a way to search the names of all active players?" she asked hopefully.

"I don't know," he said honestly, "Most games I played don't have that because there were so many users. I don't think this one does either."

Lucy groaned again, "We're just gonna have to travel everywhere aren't we?"

"Looks that way." Gray said, giving her an apologetic look.

"Hey!" Sheik's voice broke through to them, pulling them back to their current situation, "Why'd you two stop?"

"We started talking about our friends," Lucy responded, glancing away from his piercing gaze, "We think one is at Death Mountain, but we don't know how to find them all."

Sheik's eyes softened at her answer, "I understand. Hyrule is a big place. But we'll find them."

"Thanks." she said, giving him a soft smile.

Gray grumbled to himself and looked for anything to change the topic, before he saw something glinting in the Sheikah's hand, "What's that?"

Sheik held up the green bottle clenched in his fist, "It's a magic bottle. It's filled with a potion that will refill your magic a little bit. They're scattered all through the tall grass and sometimes rocks. You can even find other things like arrows and bombs and such if you look hard enough."

Lucy took a closer look at the bottle, "So, it's basically Ethernano in liquid form?"

"Ethernano?"

"Another word for magic," Gray explained, "That's why we didn't recognize it at first. Think it'll give you enough magic for the spell?"

"Theoretically," Sheik said, "At the very least, we should be able to use it to get to Kakariko and then I can get a proper potion to refill all the way. I ran out right before I met you Celeste."

"Time to restock then." she said.

"I believe so." Sheik responded before he began fiddling with his mask.

Gray had seen him do this last night at dinner. Since his mask was basically small bandages wrapped around his head, sort of like a mummy, he could move them around so they opened around his mouth, allowing him to eat and drink without removing it. It was definitely goofy looking, more so than when Natsu wrapped his scarf around his head, but it still hid his face extremely well. Although Gray really wanted to know how he kept the mask clean as he ate. There wasn't a single spot on it.

In moments the potion was gone and the mask back in place.

"Which of you would like to go first?" he asked.

"I will," Gray volunteered.

Sheik nodded and grabbed his arm, "Hold on. It's rougher than you expect."

Gray scoffed, but instantly regretted it after Sheik had thrown down the Deku Nut. The world spun violently and Gray felt like his arm was going to rip out of its socket. When they finally landed, Gray fell to his knees onto a wooden floor. His stomach flipped, trying to make him upheave the small breakfast he had just eaten. That was, somehow, worse than Ooba Babasaama.

Sheik set a hand on his shoulder to steady him. Within a few moments Gray was able to get his bearings, although his stomach still protested the idea of moving. There was a desk, a bed, and a door. In a very tiny room. With both him and Sheik there it was already approaching claustrophobic.

"What is this place?"

"The old gravekeeper's hut." Sheik explained, "He passed away a few years ago. Now it's fairly deserted so I stay here on occasion. Seemed out of the way enough to transport to."

"Right…" Gray said, "Makes sense."

"I'll go get Celeste. Wait here."

Without another word, Sheik disappeared again.

Gray sighed to himself and began to look around. The only interesting thing in there was a diary that talked about some special growing and shrinking tool. Gray secretly thought that this old gravekeeper must've been insane.

He didn't have to wait long before his two party members had appeared. After letting Lucy get adjusted after the trip, Sheik simply said two words.

"Let's go."