I have been in a dreadful, dreadful slump these past few weeks, school's started, the teacher's given us homework on the first day, I've caught a nasty bout of flu… now I spend my days after school lying in bed clutching my head in agony. And then I'm having trouble sleeping. I swear, for about two weeks I've been tossing and turning in bed. It's frustrating. Can't stay awake at schoooooooool.

But oh well. A big thank-you to all my readers, here's chapter eleven for you. :)

Review please, they make my day.

And to everyone else – if you can favorite / alert, you sure as heck can review. DARE NOT FAVORITE THIS STORY AND LEAVE WITHOUT REVIEWING.

That is all.

Chapter Eleven.

"So . . . tired . . ." Lucy moaned as she fell face-first into a bed in the motel room.

"Now, Lucy," Erza reprimanded, "we have bigger things to worry about than your sore feet."

"We've walked all the way to Era after we ran into the twins halfway from Hargeon!"

"And Lucy-san spent a good portion of the trip inside Horologium," Wendy said.

Lucy mumbled something unintelligible from the depths of the bed.

"Nothing a good night's sleep won't fix, Lu-chan," Levy said.

"I guess," Lucy said. "This is nice, though. Just us girls, peace and quiet . . ." she sat up on the bed and sighed contentedly.

As if to contradict her, the door of the girls' room swung open suddenly. "YO EVERYONE —"

Four different voices assaulted the pink-haired Dragonslayer standing in the doorway.

"Natsu-san!"

"How dare you barge into a woman's room uninvited."

"Natsu!"

"Eeeek!"

Four different items collided with his face — a plastic hairbrush, a pencil, a pocket notebook, and in Erza's case, a scalpel that embedded itself two millimeters away from said Dragonslayer's eye.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"What did I tell you? Knock first, hothead."

"What Gray said!" Happy pointed happily at the ice mage.

"You wanna go, ice freak?"

"Make sure you don't regret that, ash-hole!"

Before fire and ice were about to collide, Erza grabbed Gray and Natsu's heads and bashed them together.

"You will do well to remember that we are in a motel."

"Y-yes ma'am . . ."

Happy cackled in the background.

"Now, Natsu," Erza said, acting as if nothing had happened, "why did you come here?"

"Why did I . . ." Natsu trailed off. "Oh! That's right! I — uh . . . I forgot when the pencil hit me."

Lucy, Wendy, Levy, and Erza sighed in unison.

"Do you know what it was, Gray?" Lucy asked.

"No. Why should I spend my time with this idiot anyway?"

"Why you —"

"Erza-san!" Happy interrupted. "It's in here!" He trotted to her with Natsu's blue backpack. Reaching inside, the cat pulled out a panel of glass and held it out.

"This?" Erza held it dubiously. "What exactly does it do?"

"Ah!" Natsu brightened up. "I remember now! The old man gave it to me so we can talk to him."

"You mean Master Makarov?" Lucy peered at the nondescript piece of glass. "How are we supposed to — oh!"

The glass in Erza's hand fogged over, then cleared into a picture of Makarov. As the group watched, glass-Makarov started moving and spoke in a tinny voice, as if through a telephone.

"I see Natsu remembered at last," Makarov grumbled. "You all haven't called for four days."

"Master," Erza greeted. If she was surprised, she did not show it. "We apologize."

"That's cool," Lucy said, staring at the glass. "How did you make this, Master?"

Makarov blinked. "I didn't. You did."

"Eh?"

"Your future, I mean. She's still here. Probably waiting for you to come back." Something glinted in Makarov's eyes as he smacked his lips appreciatively, his head full of — no doubt — inappropriate images. "I do hope you turn out like that, Lucy."

Lucy, Levy, and Wendy shrieked. Natsu and Gray guffawed.

"Enough," Erza commanded. "Master, how are things at the guild?"

Makarov sobered up instantly. "Reports are coming in. It's the same as ever — mages being killed. Although . . ."

"What?" Wendy said.

". . . we have reason to suspect that someone's been spying on us."

"What?" Lucy gawked.

"Macao told me he has seen . . . things . . . flit around the guild occasionally. It could just be imagination, but the shadows are darker than before. They move as if they have a mind of their own. Sometimes the lights go out, only for a few seconds. Turn back on before we can do anything."

There was a silence as everyone digested Makarov's words.

"Then we get the Staff back quickly," Gray said. "That's all there is to it."

"You do that," Makarov nodded. "In the meantime . . . Mira needs help in the bar."

Lucy could only imagine what Makarov meant by "help."

"By the way," Makarov said, "you are getting somewhere in your search for the Staff, right?"

Erza glanced at Gray beside her. "We're . . . working on it."

"So exactly how are we supposed to find Grimoire Heart?" The question came up next morning from Natsu.

What he said, Lucy thought. Natsu had brought up the question that everyone else had been pondering but hadn't said for fear of Erza's wrath.

. . . Said redhead appeared stumped as to how they were going to find the dark guild.

"I suppose there's always the option of sweeping Era?" Wendy offered after a long silence.

"Too long," Gray said.

Erza stared at each one of them. Lucy played with her messenger bag to avoid looking at Erza.

And as the blonde fiddled with the bag's pockets, something long and blue dropped into her hand.

"Eh?" Lucy said, as she held up the necklace that Michelle had used to locate Grimoire Heart. After the necklace a note floated out and Erza caught it.

"To everyone," Erza read, "I've put a charm on this necklace. It should glow brighter the closer you get to Grimoire Heart. Best of luck to all of you . . . Michelle." Erza stopped for a while, then continued. ". . . And then a carrot at the end."

". . . A what?"

Levy peered over Erza's shoulder. "That's not a carrot, that's a peace sign."

"It looks like a carrot."

"I think it looks like a dragon," Natsu offered.

"It's a carrot," Erza insisted dangerously.

". . . Alright. It's a carrot," Lucy agreed.

Erza hmphed.

"Well," Levy announced after a long pause, "problem solved, thanks to Mi-chan. Let's go now!"

The sounds of vicious thumping and wings fluttering, followed by a wail of "FIIIIIIIISH!" came from downstairs. Natsu promptly went off to stop Happy from stealing local fish.

"We've been walking around Era for hours and we haven't found anything!" Natsu huffed.

"Maybe Michelle-san made a mistake?" Wendy said doubtfully.

"No," Gray interrupted. "There's one place we haven't looked."

All eyes turned to the Magic Council building, located perfectly on top of the mountain that rose in the middle of Era.

"Are you crazy?" Lucy gawped.

"It is possible," Erza mused thoughtfully. "However, the Magic Council is forbidden, closed to public, accessible only to its members . . ."

"What are you getting at?" Lucy whimpered, exchanging a nervous glance with Levy.

"Breaking and entering?" Happy chipped in.

"Breaking and entering," Erza confirmed.

Feel free to kick me. Go on, I deserve it. Gahh.

-TheAliensDidIt