Chapter 6: behind the shield

The light was finally showing itself. It was a warm feeling, filled their breasts with happiness. Somehow Lucy felt relieved, finally this wild ride down the river was over. Happy had held his eyes closed during the whole ride. Now he was opening them, and looking out at the light. He smiled, before he closed his eyes again. Natsu wasn't actually reacting, to Lucy it seemed as he was enjoying himself too much. He loved this, or maybe the feeling of not being motion sick. Who knows? They approached the opening, and they started to see a glimpse of the ocean. She could smell the dissent scent of fresh water blending with salt water. She could hear the screams of the birds. Finally they reached the ocean, their wild tour down the river was finally over!

"Oye! Lucy! You're okay?"

Natsu suddenly turned around and asked. Maybe he realized how fast he had pushed the thing? Or maybe he just felt like screaming out something.

"I think so, and I think Happy survived too!"

Lucy looked at the blue cat that seemed as he was in shock, which probably was the case. The only thing he said in his weak voice was:
"Aye, sir…"

The ocean was as always really blue, and you could only see the horizon. They drove further away from the tunnel, across the ocean. To Lucy it made no sense, why wouldn't they meet the shield that protected Tenrou Island? She had believed they would've passed through it. But they weren't even close the Island, and wouldn't the shield be around the Island?

"I thought we would pass the shield? But it's still at least 10hours until we're there! And you're going to use all you're magical powers on driving this thing!"

Lucy was shouting to Natsu. She was a bit stressed, they needed to stop one crazy guy from extracting powers from the earth. Happy was looking coldly at the sea, before he answered with an evil tone ringing in his voice.

"Natsu is Natsu! I believe in him, now it's your turn to believe that your powers will be enough when we reach our goal!"

Natsu turned towards her, and now Lucy was sure. She was the main character, she was the person with power enough to crush that guy! Natsu and Happy believed in her!

"I know! Let's go!"

The hours went by, at some point the only thing in sight was water, water and more water. Lucy had started gathering powers, and was therefore trying to fall asleep. Which she found quite impossible. But if she was going to play the heroine, she had to rest. Natsu was driving as fast as he could, and Happy had fallen asleep. In the end, it really was lonely out there.

Lucy woke up by the feeling of motion slowing down. She didn't know how long she had been sleeping, but the daylight was far gone so it must have been a while. The moon was shining down on them, and around, a million amount of stars. With her dizzy movements she sat up and tried to see if Natsu still had enough magical power left to drive. He pushed all his magical powers into the boat, he would need some hours to recover after this. She turned forward, looked out over the horizon. There it was, like a tower piercing the sky, Tenrou Island.

"Hey! Natsu! Get a hold of yourself, if you're not slowing down we're going to crash… Then I can't save Lucy!"

Happy was shaking Natsu, he was actually concerned. He could only carry one of them, and with this speed one of them had to jump. They had no idea what they could find in this water, they had no idea what they would find on Tenrou Island.

"I'm jumping, take Natsu and fly to the beach! Understood?"

Lucy's voice was commanding. She had no doubts, and no one could do anything about it. She had decided, and what she had decided would become the truth shortly after.

"AYE, SIR!"

Happy was a bit scared of Lucy's sureness, but did as he was told. He picked up Natsu and right after two angel wings showed themselves from his back, and he was soon after in the air carrying Natsu's sleeping body. Lucy didn't even count to three, she just jumped as soon as Natsu was out of the boat. They were 10 meters from crashing right into the berg, and she had no time to hesitate, and therefore she soon after was in the water. Swimming as fast as she could towards the beach. After all, land was better than water. She had a really nasty feeling when she thought about what kind of creatures could be found in the water, so she tried not to think about it. Unsuccessfully, of course. When the sand exposed itself under her hands she felt really relieved, they had all finally reached the island!