Ch. 6 - Emerald

—

Recap:

Lucy grinned, picking up the fox.

"Let's name you Emerald."

—

Lucy was just itching to do something. Something. Instead she was eating. She didn't do her 100 stomach crunches, or her 250 (and counting) push ups. She was instead eating.

Lucy's eye twitched irritably. "You know what," she announced to Emerald. "Sorry Emer, but, I just gotta do something." She threw the rest of the fox at Emerald, who caught it with his mouth and swallowed it. He got into a sitting position, and cocked his massive head.

"Gate of the Lion, I summon thee!" She cried. "Loke!"

Loke appeared. "You know, Lucy, I've been thinking of asking you to di-" He stopped short when he spotted the giant black panther, tense at the sudden appearance of another being. "Lucy," he whispered. "Look behind you!"

"Yeah, I know," she said loudly. Loke jumped a little. "I named him Emerald," she dismissed with a flap of her hand.

"You named it?" Loke asked, surprised.

"Mhm," she murmered. "And he's not an it. His name is Emerald," she snapped. Loke held both his hands up, backing away. "Go say hi."

Loke bristled. "I don't think I should-" He was cut of again by Lucy pointing at the poised cat and looking expactantly at him.

"Fine," he muttered.

He slowly approached Emerald, who looked ready to strike.

"Put your hand in a fist and let him smell it," Lucy instructed, inspecting her nails.

Loke hesitantly did so, and the cat moved toward him and sniffed Loke. Loke eyed Emerald suspiciously, and Emerald's eyes narrowed. Deciding Loke was not a possible meal, Emerald turned and trotted away, flopping down on a bush and probably crushing it as well. Emerald started to doze off as Loke breathed a sigh of relief.

Lucy smirked. "See? It wasn't so hard, now was it?"

"Easy for you to say, darling," Loke replied. "Now," he said, straightening up. "Shall we begin?"

Lucy punched him in the face, catching Loke off guard. "It's already begun," she responded. Loke grinned and dodged a kick to his gut.

—

Loke rubbed his face, panting. "You've improved greatly," he panted.

Lucy smiled. "Only because I have such a great teacher," she responded, rubbing her shin where Loke had got her.

"Oh? Was that a compliment?" He grinned. "Are you finally opening up to the love I possess for you?"

Lucy laughed dryly. "Okay, you're going back now. Bye now," she said, waving his key. Loke smiled and waved, disappearing into the cloud.

Lucy got up from the ground and stretched her sore muscles. Right about now she would go for a run, but she didn't know what to do about Emerald.

He got up and sat patiently, waiting for her. Lucy shrugged.

"I'm going running," she said. 'Am I talking to an animal? I should get out of the forest and get some human interaction,' she thought, shaking her head.

She gathered up her bow and arrow and put her bag over her shoulder. She looked back at the massive animal standing behind her. Lucy shrugged carelessly and took off.

It felt good to run. The wind was blowing in her ears and she could feel the blood pulsing through her system. Her hair, which she should really cut, actually, flew behind her as she gained speed. Wait a second.

What was it she sensed behind her?

She turned around. Lo and behold, there was Emerald. Right behind her.

'Oh, crap,' thought Lucy as it's colossal jaws somehow clamped around her waist.

"I KNEW I shouldn't have trusted this stupid feline!" Lucy shouted, despite the situation at hand.

For some reason, though, it wasn't chowing down on her. Instead it's head snapped up and threw her high into the air.

As much as Lucy tried not to, she screamed.

She stopped short of her screaming when, thankfully, a vine came out of nowhere and wrapped itself around her waist. Wait a second… The vine wrapped itself around her?

'Don't tell me…' She glanced down at what the thing was and saw, instead, black fur.

'Oh, cr-' She didn't get to finish her thought before she was falling again. She landed on something soft.

"What the hell…"

She started to laugh. For the first time in a month, she laughed. Why?

Because, well, she was riding Emerald.

She heard a satisfactory snort from Emerald and she felt her newfound ride speed up considerably.

"Kya!" Lucy squeaked, almost falling off. She used all of her leg strength to try to hold herself on.

When she finally felt stable again, she leaned forward and buried her hands into Emerald's thick velvet fur.

"Whoa…" She breathed.

She watched the trees blur past her and she felt the rush of adrenaline go through her system, even though she wasn't the one running. She was fast, yeah, but nothing was this fast.

Being fast and all was one thing, but the ride was also astonishingly smooth. There was barely a bump, and even though the forest floor was covered in roots and shrubs Emerald didn't seem to trip or falter in any step he took.

To sum it up, it was awesome.

She saw the bright green eyes look in her direction. She grinned.

"I hope you don't mind if I try this one thing…" She leaned slightly to the right. Emerald moved slightly to the right, seemingly getting what she was going at.

She continued to maneuver her way around the forest, and before she knew it, she had reached her destination.

The river.

Emerald stopped gracefully. Lucy hopped off and slashed her flushed face with the icy water.

She looked into the curious jade eyes. Actually, she looked up into Emerald's eyes.

Lucy giggled. She giggled. That was something she hadn't done in a while.

"You know what, Emerald," she said, staring at the rushing water.

Emerald flopped down on the riverbank and gazed at her expectantly.

Lucy grinned. "You're pretty damn amazing."

—Fairy Tail—

—Timeskip: Two months—

Natsu, Grey, and Erza sauntered through the doors.

Mirajane looked up from the counter. "Hey guys!" She greeted them cheerfully. "How was your job?"

Erza sat down on a counter seat. She pressed her fingertips to her temples.

"We failed it," she stated bluntly.

Mira almost stumbled back. Team Natsu had failed a job?

No. Way. That hadn't happened in months!

Mira smiled, trying to lighten the situation. "Wasn't it that group of bandits in Yolani? The city that's about… two weeks by train away? They were, like, stealing from wealthy people or something?"

Ezra nodded.

"Well, what happened?"

Ezra's eyes darkened. "They slipped through our fingers."

Mira blinked. "Eh?"

Erza sighed. "They were in the train with us. Natsu was motion sick, and so he couldn't do anything. It was just Grey."

"What happened to you?" Mira wondered.

Erza sighed again. "I was sleeping."

Mira almost started laughing, but thought of her safety and stopped herself.

Meanwhile, Grey was getting treatment done by Wendy. Which, unfortunately, means he had to sit still. Which also meant that Juvia could come interrogate him.

"Grey-sama!" She squealed. "Juvia will go and get revenge on those bandits for you!"

"I don't need revenge," Grey muttered.

"Juvia will not tolerate anyone who hurts Grey-sama…" She said darkly.

"H-hey now," Grey said. Grey looked around the room.

"Oi, Mister Reckless Salamander!" He yelled.

"Yeah, Ice Princess?" Natsu called back. Natsu was standing in the doorway.

"Where you goin? We just got back!" Grey asked.

Natsu shrugged. "I'm just gonna head home. I'm kinda tired," he said, before turning around and strolling away. "Happy! Let's go!"

"Aye, sir!" Happy called, tearing himself away from Carla.

Five minutes later, they were wandering the streets of Magnolia.

"Hey, Natsu?" Happy asked.

"Yeah, Happy?"

"Are you mad about not completing the job?"

Natsu guffawed. "No way!" He hooted. "We're gonna crush the next one we take on, right Happy?"

"Aye!"

Natsu stopped suddenly, causing Happy to bump into him.

"Natsu?" Happy questioned. He peeked around Natsu's head. He saw a bright head of blonde hair duck into the bookstore.

"Lucy," Natsu breathed, taking off toward the bookstore entrance.

"Natsu! Wait!" Happy yelled alarmingly. "You can't just jump to conclusions!"

Happy quickly flew to the bookstore entrance. He was about to enter when Natsu stepped out quietly.

"Was it her?" Happy asked excitedly.

Natsu shook his head. "I went in there and I knew it wasn't her. It wasn't her scent."

"Oh…" Happy said.

Natsu laughed suddenly. "S'okay, Happy! She's gonna come back! She's gonna come back real soon!" Natsu said cheerfully. He turned and strode away, leaving an astonished Happy behind. 'She's gonna come back… She has to…'

—Rimoro Forest—

"Ugh," Lucy grunted to Emerald. She grabbed her black cloak and pulled the hood up. "It's getting colder everyday now, isn't it Emer?"

Lucy twirled in her cloak. "So?" she said. "What do you think?"

Emerald nodded approvingly.

Lucy grinned. Just wearing this cloak made her feel somewhat badass.

Emerald rolled his eyes, jerking his head toward his back. Lucy laughed. "Okay, okay! Let's go," she said, climbing up onto his back.

They were just doing their thing in their forest when Lucy smelled smoke. Somebody made a fire? Somebody was here?

Lucy stopped Emerald. "Go climb up a tree or something," she whispered. "I'm going to go investigate. I'll call you when I need you." Emerald nodded and disappeared.

Lucy climbed to the top of a tree. She hopped from tree to tree silently, following the smell of the smoke. As she neared it, she heard voices. From what she could tell, they were rejoicing about something. She finally got to a tree that was close enough to eavesdrop.

"Man," one said. A male voice. "I'm so glad we got away from those stupid wizards! With that 900 000 jewels that we stole too"

A female voice, high pitched and snobby sounding, cackled annoyingly with laughter. "I know right! That dumb ice mage, though. It was as if he lost the will to fight! And both his teammates weren't doin anything!"

Both voices screamed with laughter, along with a bunch more. 9 more people, at the most.

Lucy's eye twitched. She hated this type of people. She had do do something about this bunch.

They were turned away from her at the moment, so she chose this time to approach them. How? By scaring their sorry asses off.

She jumped down gracefully and silently from the tree.

"You know, I hate people who steal things," Lucy said, putting emphasis on 'hate'.

The group jumped, but quickly regained their posture. "Well, well, well," the male voice she heard earlier said. A tall man stepped out, probably the leader. "What do we have here?"

A stout woman with frizzy hair stood beside him. "Get outta here, blondie," she barked. "This is our territory." Lucy matched the female voice from earlier to this woman. She got out her whip.

"Oh, really now? Because you see," she remarked, "Emerald and I have been living in this forest for a handful of months. I hardly think this is your so called, 'territory'," Lucy finished coldly.

The male laughed. "Just who is this Emerald? Your imaginary friend?" The rest of the group hooted with laughter.

Their laughter was interrupted by a low, menacing growl coming from the bushes behind Lucy. Emerald stepped out, and Lucy smirked.

"Does this look imaginary to you?"

The leader was in awe of the giant beast. He quickly composed himself. "We could take you and your cat on anytime, blondie."

Lucy laughed coldly. She flicked out three keys from her leather pouch. Seconds later, three spirits surrounded her. "Let me introduce you to Loke, Taurus, and Cancer, then."

Standing together, they all looked pretty intimidating.

The leader chuckled. He drew a long sword. "Come," he sneered.

—

Lucy flopped down on the ground. "Damn, those guys were more difficult then they looked," she remarked.

"Hm, I'm surprised that you summoned all three of us at the same time," Loke commented.

"Yeah, well, I'm gonna go empty on magic power soon, so bye!" She closed Loke, Taurus, and Cancer's gates.

Emerald was resting on the ground. "What am I supposed to do with these idiots," she pondered, kicking one of their unconscious bodies. Shrugging, she tied them all together and began going through their stuff. Nothing really was of use to her.

She was almost done until she noticed a large sack. Curiously she untied it and peeked inside. 900 000 jewels glinted in the sunlight.

"What am I supposed to do with this money?" she cried.

Emerald grunted, looking at her expectantly.

"Oh, what are you looking at?" She said back, looking down at the jewels. Emerald grunted again. Realization dawned on Lucy's face.

"Oh, no."

Emerald nodded.

"You aren't thinking-" Lucy started. Emerald nodded. Why was this stupid feline so smart?

Lucy grimaced. She was gonna have to go to Rimoro Village.

A/N:

Sorry for the wait!

A lot of stuff has happened recently, and I don't really feel comfortable talking about it. Long story short, I didn't have time to write. I've been itching to write this chapter for days! But it's longer, so I hope you all can forgive me!

Thanks for 25 reviews though! I didn't actually think I would get that lol. THANK YOU! I'm thrilled. And Happy Halloween!

35 reviews for a faster update?

Please?

Heh.

Oh, crap, it's midnight.

-Jo