"Miko, wake up," I felt a soft thing poke my cheek.
"Mmm, five more minutes," I moaned as I turned onto my side.
"Not five more minutes. Get up now," I heard a growl before I felt something soft on my face. I opened my eyes to see cat butt.
"Sven!" I shouted in surprise and picked him up off my face. "What are you doing!"
"You wouldn't get up," he huffed. I set him down and looked around. Before I could ask where I was, Sven answered me. "You're in the guild building. You need to get up now."
"Okay, okay," I rubbed my eyes and got up. I put on my shoes that must've been taking off by whoever put me here. Then, I opened the door and peeked my head out. "Now how do we get back to the main room?"
"Follow me," Sven motioned with a paw as he walked down the hall. His tail swished from side to side with each step. I followed right behind him and soon we were at the mess hall again. "The master wants to speak to you," Sven motioned towards the short old man.
"Hello Miko," he greeted with a cheery wave. "Your fight with Natsu was pretty impressive!" he grinned.
"Thank you," I rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment. "But you saw my defeat."
"Defeat is nothing," Makarov waved away the thought. "That was just a way of seeing where you stand. You can train harder and beat him," he smiled. "I was wondering though. Did you come here just to challenge Natsu or is there more?" he raised an eyebrow as he hopped off the counter. He had a knowing look twinkling in his eyes.
"I would also like to request to join this guild," I answered nervously. There was silence as the people of the guild awaited their master's words.
"Sure, why not?" he grinned cheekily.
"Really?" Miko gasped at his easy answer.
"Yeah," Makarov gave a thumbs up. "Welcome to Fairy Tail Miko! Mirajane, can you give Miko her stamp?"
"Sure!" the white haired beauty smiled kindly. She went behind the counter and pulled out a box. Inside, it was revealed that there was a stamp and an inkpad. "Where would you like it?" Miko took a moment to think about it before she rolled up her sleeve. "I want it right here please," she pointed the bare skin of her arm.
"One stamp coming right up!" Mirajane smiled as she pressed the cold inked stamp right below her shoulder. "You are now an official member of Fairy Tail. Welcome," she smiled as she stepped back to admire her work. "Oh," she gasped. "The stamp is a wonderful color," she giggled. I looked down at my arm to see what she meant and I was instantly pleased. It was my favorite shade of blue, the lightest of blues. The shade was almost the shade of my hair but just a bit darker.
"Thank you Mirajane. It's lovely," I gave her a content smile before letting my sleeve fall back into place.
"Now, I have a request," Makarov motioned me towards him. "I know this is a bit sudden but I need you to do something important. This concerns Lucy and Natsu's lives." This peaked my interest immediately. Natsu was the one I fought with and Lucy was the nice celestial wizard. "It seems they have taken an S-Class job which is forbidden," he started. My eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I want you to accompany Gray to stop them. It's too dangerous and they could get severely hurt," he ordered seriously. "This is your first mission as a Fairy Tail wizard."
"I accept this request," I said almost immediately. "Is there an idea of the estimated location of those two?"
"They should be near some ports. They're trying to get to an island so it should take them a while to find someone who'll give them a ride," Makarov said as he saw Gray at the entrance of the guild. "Gray, I have found you a partner for this," Makarov gave me a soft shove towards his direction. "Stay safe!"
The ice wizard stared at her for a minute before nodding. "Miko, hurry up!" Gray shouted with his hands cupped around his mouth to amplify his voice.
"Coming!" I smiled before grabbing Sven and running towards him. "Which port do you think we should check first?" I slowed to a stop as I neared him.
"I've already eliminated most of them so we only have to check two," he opened up a map and pointed at two destinations circled in red.
"Wow, you're so cool Gray," I stared at the map in awe. How he managed to mark out two out of twenty ports in a matter of minutes was amazing.
"It was nothing," he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Just some logical reasoning," he laughed it off. "But yeah, hopefully they haven't found a boat by now. I believe none of the sailors here are fond of the island anyways so they'll be pretty reluctant to take them."
"That's good," I nodded. "It'll be much easier for us to find and stop them before they're in water."
"We must get their quick nonetheless," Sven butt into the conversation. "Do you want me to scout ahead?" he asked the us.
"That would be great," Gray nodded towards the cat. He watched as Sven jumped into the air. When he was about to fall, white wings appeared on his back. "So you can fly, just like Happy."
"I can," Sven confirmed before soaring off to the first port they were checking.
"So," Gray tried to start conversation. It was slightly awkward, seeing as we barely knew each other. "You're a dragon slayer," he stated quietly. "Did your dragon also disappear then?" My breath caught in my throat when he asked. He saw me tense up and quickly waved his hands in front of him. "You don't have to tell me if it's an uncomfortable topic," he said quickly.
"Yes," I let out a shaky breath. "Aquinora was my dragon. She was the most beautiful shade of blue you could ever see. The same shade of the deep dark ocean. She cared for me, took care of every need, and treated me like her own. But just like that, one day she left without a trace," I sighed. "I never had a chance to thank her for taking care of me," I frowned and stared at the river we were walking along. It shimmered in the bright morning, reflecting the blurred images of me and Gray. "I miss her a lot."
"I'm sorry," Gray mumbled, unsure of what to say.
"Don't be," I gave a shaky smile. "I'm sure she had to leave for important matters. One day, if I reunite with her, I'll be able to tell her of my adventures and her, the same. I'm looking forward to that day the most."
"I hope that day will come for you and Natsu," Gray put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "But for now, while you're apart from Aquinora, think of Fairy Tail as your new family. We'll always be here to support you."
"Thanks Gray," I smiled.
"Miko! Gray!" I gasped as a soft ball of fur barreled into my arms. There lay a panting gray cat, Sven. "They weren't at that port."
"So the other one it is," Gray announced. "We're actually pretty close," he said as he pointed straight ahead. "If we keep going that way and then take a left followed by a right, we should be there."
"Then what are we waiting for? We have two wizards to stop!" I started running in the direction Gray directed.
"Hey wait for me!" he shouted as he ran after me. Our thundering footsteps were all I heard for minutes as we approached the harbor. When we reached there, we saw many crates, boats, and sailors wandering about their day.
"How do we find them in this mess?" Gray groaned at the amount of random happening. He had his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
"Easy," I answered before tilting my chin up. I started sniffing around the place. The smells were mostly overpowered by the odor of salt and fish but I could catch the distinct smell of Lucy's perfume and Natsu's distinct burning smell. I started following the scent trail, focusing hard as the trail faded in and out often. Soon we could make out the distinct heads of the two wizards by their bright hair colors. Gray quickly snuck up behind them as they complained.
"Found you," Gray smirked with a hand on both their shoulders. They both jumped a few inches in the air in shock. The whipped around to see who it was.
"Gray!"
"Miko!"
"What are you two doing here?!" they screamed in unison.
"Orders from Gramps to bring you back," Gray stated bluntly. Natsu yelled in shock.
"The jig's up already?" the pink haired dragon slayer's eyes bulged out as he heard about the news. He had a sweat drop dripping down his face in panic.
"If you go back now, you might even get away without being expelled," Gray said with an evil smile. "We're going back," he said without hesitation.
"Expelled?" Lucy asked horrified. She seemed to almost faint at the thought of it all. "But I basically just joined!"
"As if! I'm going on an S-class quest!" Natsu growled, his teeth pointing slightly.
"You ain't got the skills to handle it," Gray retorted back. "If Erza finds out about this, you'll.." an aura of fear surrounded him as everything darkened behind him. You could almost picture Erza's face in the darkness, an angry Erza's face.
"Gray save me!" Happy flew onto Gray's shoulder, trembling in fear. "Those two forced me to come here with them," he ratted out the two wizards.
"I'm sure you followed on your own accord," Sven sweatdropped from his position on Miko's shoulder. The blue cat responded with a "hush."
"I'm going to face Erza down. I'm not gonna back down from this," Natsu clenched his fists. His teeth were clenched together in determination.
"This is a direct order from the master," Gray growled with his hands on his hips. The two opposites clashed foreheads as they argued. "I'm going to bring you back by force if I have to. Don't complain if you get hurt!" Gray pulled an arm back to ready an attack. A ice blue magic circle formed right in front of his fist.
"You're on!" Natsu shouted as his hand was engulfed in flames.
"Don't fight you guys," I said worriedly as I tried to get between the two.
"Magic?" I heard someone gasp in shock. "Are you wizards?" a sailor asked from his boat. All of us turned to look at the interrupting man. "Could you be here to lift the curse on the island?" At this, everyone's magic disappeared in an instant.
"Yeah," Natsu answered with a smile. He straightened himself out of the fighting position.
"Well, we were…" Lucy said nervously as she eyed me, Gray, and Sven.
"We won't let you go," I frowned, crossing my arms. "These are Makarov's orders."
"Get in the boat!" the sailor pointed at us.
"Eh?" Lucy gasped is surprise.
"Are you serious?" Natsu exclaimed in glee.
"Now wait a minute," Sven said as he held out a paw. In the next second, Natsu snickered and kicked Gray into the air. He was instantly knocked out with a forming bump on his head. He was about to kick us until he saw Sven's death glare and gave a second thought.
"You guys are coming with us to the island," he picked up Gray and slung him over the shoulder. "We're not leaving with you guys to go back to the guild so you might as well come with us."
"But master's orders-," I started before he kicked me as well. I was sent flying up before everything went dark.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait guys, school definitely took it's toll on my free time. But no worries, it's summer now and I'm pretty lazy with nothing to do! Although I'll be leaving for China in a week and a half. I'll try to write a lot while I'm there and keep you guys updated!