Lyla was moving up and down slightly, and traveling forward at a relatively constant pace. She groaned and blinked open her eyes, barely grasping what was happening. She was tired, and she just wanted to melt into the cozy heater she was pressed against…

…

WAIT A MINUTE

A startled gasp nearly jumped from her throat as she realized that she was hitching a ride on the back of someone who she desperately hoped was Artemis but knew that her friend had long red hair and not… oh god.

"You're awake!" An exuberant voice sounded from beneath her and she hesitantly glanced at the face of the person who was carrying her, her hands grasping their shoulders tightly. His gaze snapped up her hers for a second before focusing back on the road, almost falling while she was unconscious having taught him a thing or two.

"I'm awake…" She agreed eventually, unsure of how to react or what to do. "Where's Artemis?"

He laughed before answering. "She's back at the guild hall. Once she learned who we were she basically chucked you at me before sprinting towards guild. Rogue chased after her. Actually I forced him to."

Lyla groaned and placed her forehead on his shoulder, wanting to disappear. He laughed again, shifting her on his back a bit but continuing to trek onwards. He made it a dozen more steps in silence before speaking again. Being quiet never was his strong suit.

"So why were you in the forest?" He asked. Lyla contemplated his question and why she hadn't strong-armed her way off his back or why she hadn't even asked to be let down. Instead of confronting the latter topic she answered the former.

"We were traveling."

"Where?"

"Not sure. Just retracing old paths."

"Huh. Is Artemis a mage too?"

At this Lyla actually laughed, imagining her friend as a mage. She certainly would be a terror.

"No. She's just good with blades. Pretty good at freaking people out, too." She gained another laugh from her quip at Artemis. They were silent for only a few seconds before Lyla broke it.

"You can put me down now."

"Nah, I'm good," was his cheeky response. Lyla was not sure how to reply to that and stayed silent. Conflicting emotions flashed through her and for some reason her mind turned to Laxus, making her mood a little more sour.

"Where are we going?" She asked, maybe a bit sharper than needed.

"Sabertooth guild hall," he replied easily, misplacing her irritation and therefore overlooking it.

"Sabertooth? Isn't that the guild rising in fame and whatnot?" She mused to herself, thinking about the decline of Fairy Tail.

"Yup! We're the best guild in all of Fiore!" He pronounced, a wide grin on his face. "Especially now that Fairy Tail is old news-" Something twinged inside her.

"Please let me down," she interrupted. A startled expression overtook Sting's face, but he complied to her request. She settled on her feet then started forwards. Sting argued with himself internally before running after her, deciding to say nothing. He was Sting Eucliffe, he didn't have to apologize. Especially not to a stranger, no matter how cute she was…

They traveled on in silence, the only words passed between them being Sting giving the silver eyed woman her bag of musical instruments back. She had taken them with a small murmur of thanks, but said nothing after.

Laxus… are you still alive?

Sting busted through the Sabertooth guild hall doors, grinning and talking loudly after such a long period of silence. The guild members sighed a bit when they saw the dragon slayer, but paused at the sight of the tall woman with a pack slung over her shoulders. Her eyes were lost in memories and her expression was blank, but she surveyed the room once she had entered it. Most the guild members scoffed, thinking that Sting had snagged himself a girl, while others thought a bit longer on the subject, bored and curious.

"Lyla!" Artemis came out of nowhere and hugged her friend around the shoulders. "I'm honestly creeped out by this place, but it's really interesting too." Then, louder, she proclaimed, "Wow, it's really great here!"

"'Course it is! It is Sabertooth, after all!" Sting grinned and threw his arm around Lyla's shoulders, causing the singer's figure to stiffen uncomfortably. Artemis's eyes flashed and the redhead stalked over to the blonde, jabbing him invisibly with the tip of a knife and leaning on her friend's shoulder once the dragon slayer had jumped away with a startled noise. He realized instantly what had happened but decided not to accuse the glaring woman.

Rogue, who had witnessed the whole event, suppressed a smirk.

"Let's show them the infamous hospitality of Sabertooth!" Sting suddenly cheered, wanting to get on the two's good side again. The surrounding mages muttered and glanced at each other in confusion.

"Are we known for hospitality?" one mage murmured, his companion shaking his head bewilderedly. "I wasn't aware of it."

"No, it's supposed to be the strongest guild, right?"

"It is the strongest guild."

Similar conversations were being had across the room, but, not the one to be deterred, Sting swept the two away and ordered some workers (waitresses) to make them at home, flighting away to take care of some of his own business.

The two were instantly on guard, their former expressions of openness and joy gone in place of steely glares they had perfected in their friendship with Laxus. The waitresses had left searching for other customers.

"Mmm, so which one of you girls is Sting's?" A mage leaned over the table to leer in their faces.

"Neither." Lyla took a sip of her drink, subtly wrinkling her nose at it. The glass found its way back to the table and never lifted thereafter.

"Awe, you're just shy, aren't 'cha girlies?" The man laughed again and gained a few dirty looks from the other members. He waved them away, saying, "If Sting can have a little fun with them, who says I can't?"

Rogue appeared from the shadows. "I do."

The man sputtered and shrank away from the sight of the largely stronger mage. Before long, the man was out of their sights, and the two friend's relaxed slightly.

"I formally apologize for the treatment you lovely ladies are receiving," a foreign voice touched their ears and they assessed the new man standing before them: he had long blonde hair and a rather excessive hat with a mask to boot.

"Rufus," Rogue greeted, nodding his head towards the extravagant man. The man, Rufus, inclined his head politely towards the dragon slayer but made no other acknowledgement. "This is-"

"I'm Artemis, and this is Lyla," Artemis interrupted, standing and thrusting her hand forwards. Rufus examined her hand with disdain before delicately shaking it, letting go almost as swiftly as possible.

"Weakest handshake I've ever had. And that counts the children," the redhead muttered to her light-haired friend, who smiled at her words.

Sting jumped into the room suddenly, screaming, "SURPRISE INITIATION!"

The reaction was instantaneous. Sting himself leaped forwards and grabbed Artemis's arm, dragging her to the side of the room. Rufus and Rogue, along with most of the guild members, also crowded to the sides, leaving a single mage and Lyla, who was standing in bewilderment.

"It's my turn for initiation, babe!" the man guffawed to himself while Lyla scrutinized him. She had never seen him before in her life, but-

A sudden light broke her from her thoughts and she just barely dodged being crushed by a large… rock? No, it was more like a crystal of some sort. She let out a small "eep!" when a pillar of the same crystal substance almost impaled her on the side.

"Gotta be quicker than that, babe!" The man brought his hand back up violently, a column of crystal bursting from the floor. Jeers and catcalls reached Lyla's ears and she narrowed her eyes, zeroing in on the man. The noise around her was annoying, and could also be used for energy…

"Whoa! What did you do?" the mage glanced about him, the noise suddenly muted. His guildmates were shouting just as loud as ever, but the sound seemed to fade by the time it reached the two battling in the middle. Lyla wiped her mouth. Her heart started picking up at a healthy rate instead of fluctuating from surprise. The man across from her didn't wait another second and enacted another spell, making two crystals appear out of the ground on either side of her that snapped shut. She just barely dodged it by rolling out of the way but came face-to-face with another rock, which smashed into her face. Luckily it had such little space to pick up speed or power that it didn't break anything, but her cheekbones ached and she felt a headache coming on.

Despite feeling suddenly dizzy, she stood up and faced her opponent. Honestly, she had no idea why she was fighting him. Self defence, really. And what did Sting mean by "Surprise initiation?"

"Ringing resonance!" A pale orange magic circle appeared before her, the spell rushing from her body towards the mage. He found himself surrounded with sound, vibrating his bones and teeth and reverberating through his muscle. He stiffened and clenched all of his muscles, a crystal pillar flying up beneath Lyla's feet. The spell dissipated as though it had never existed, though the mage Lyla was fighting now had ringing in his ears.

"Like that would be enough to defeat me!" the man cackled, throwing up his arms. Dozens of tiny shards of crystal bathed in red light materialized around him, and, just as Lyla got to her feet again, sent them hurtling towards her.

Lyla's eyes widened at the sight of the fast-approaching shards, and she ducked behind a table. She made it in time to protect most of her body, but wasn't fast enough to stop a large sliver of crystal to slice across her right cheek. She stumbled the rest of the way to the floor in shock, holding a hand to her cheek and detecting the sticky warm feeling of blood smudge on her fingers. She brought her hand away and it was washed in red. How…? I got cut?

Lyla caught sight of her instrument's bag and she snatched it up, rifling through the (now enchanted) bag and drawing out a fiddle and bow. When she stood up from behind the table, the mystified expression on her opponent's face encouraged her to bring up the bow and play.

And play she did.

The bow flew across the strings, a jazzy tune with lots of shortstops and crunches flowing from the instrument. The man was merely shocked and in awe of her random yet amazing playing, but his eyes widened further when electricity started sparking at her feet. She played even harder, accelerating the rhythms she had already played, and the lightning flickered around her legs, and then her body, until she was a shining lightning rod.

The man stalked forwards a bit, knowing he had to win this battle no matter how good the song sounded, and shot a crystal cylinder straight through the instrument. The crystal crashed through the wood, splintering the fiddle into a million little pieces with a snapping noise. The sound cut off abruptly and Lyla gazed in shock at where her instrument had once been, now shattered on the ground. She stared, disbelief written on her face.

"Can't win if you can't make music, now can you, babe?" The man started cackling to himself.

Lyla blinked, then saw red, an unimaginable rage enveloping her body. She loved that fiddle! Laxus basically gave her that fiddle! And now… and now it was broken, in pieces, unfixable.

"It really is too bad, I-"

"SHUT UP!" Lyla roared, swiveling on her heel and driving her fist into the man's face. The electricity, which had still been sparking around her body, conducted through her attack. The mage flew backwards from the anger and lighting of her punch, flying violently into a column.

Lyla was breathing heavily, anger flowing through her body. That instrument was important! And he broke it like it was nothing!

The man stirred, struggling to his feet. Lyla stalked forward, approaching him and drawing out her metal flute at the same time. She reached him and dragged her arm up, glaring into the eyes of the crystal mage and smashing the metal onto his head with all her strength. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he dropped to the floor, stilling. Lyla stared at the dropped mage, and the past few minutes of what had just transpired seemed to dawn on her and she fell to her knees at the man's side, checking his pulse.

"Great job, Ly!" Sting laughed loudly, clapping a hand on her shoulder. She stiffened at the nickname.

"What the hell was that?!" Artemis exploded, finally wrenching out of Rogue's tight grip. He had been holding her back from clobbering the assailant before Lyla had taken him out. Now she was beyond pissed.

"Surprise initiation!" Sting bubbled out, unable to properly read the situation.

"Surprise ini… HOW, pray tell, does that involve a fight?" She acquired a deadly tone of voice.

"Well, how else would you be able to join the strongest guild of all time? By asking?" Sting snorted, as if this was preposterous. Miles away Macao sneezed: when asked by Wakaba what was wrong with him, he muttered something about mocking Fairy Tail again.

However, back at the Sabertooth guild, the gears in Artemis and Lyla's heads were turning.

"Join?" Lyla finally choked out.

"Well yeah!" Sting grinned. "Welcome to Sabertooth, Lyla!"

Pfft. boi.

Also to answer naes151's question, I made up that chant XD. With this I make up everything 'cause I'm lazy lmao

lowkey doesn't have anything else written for this lmao let's see what happens

Review, follow, favorite! Thanks to all who have reviewed so far, including naes151, kurahieiritr JIO, CrystalVixen93, rebecca taylor, Bubbles90, MusicalArtist185! Y'all are awesome!

-Leaf