Chapter Two

*Back with Lucy*

We left the guild right around three hours ago to pack, and got on the train two hours ago. Since then we've just been talking about really anything. That was when Wendy asked the strangest of questions.

"Is it true that you have a crush on Natsu?"

I just stared, waiting for her to laugh, or say she was joking, or just something. After a bit, I exploded in laughter.

"Me *breathe* and Natsu? *snort* No way!" My laughter continued for quite a while.

"He's a friend, brother, cousin, anything but a boyfriend." I said through barely controlled giggles.

"Well, it's just everyone seems to think that you two have a thing for eachother. I mean, even Lisanna seems to think he likes you..."

"Really? Lisanna?"

"Ya, the only people who don't are Laxus and his friends, but I think as long as you don't end up with Elfman, or any of the girls, they don't really care either way."

"Hold on, you, my sweet little Wendy, talk to the scowly-faced Laxus. But not just him, the Raijinshuu." I exclaimed, completely shocked that she had the courage to go up to them and say hi, let alone hold a conversation. "And I don't go for girls." I mumbled as an afterthought.

"Well, um, I wanted to talk to him on Tenrou, and I was extremely nervous, until Erza came up behind me and told me that he was a nice guy, just awkward around people. I finally spoke to him on the boat ride home, when everyone else wasn't crowding around him. Since then I've been able to go up to him, and talk about little things." Wendy was blushing at the beginning and smiling at the end of her explanation, so it was easy to tell she was fond of Laxus, and was very proud of herself.

"That's really awesome that you can, Wendy. To be honest, I'm still a little nervous around them. But, if you just talk about little things, how did mine and Natsu's relationship become a topic? I mean, Laxus doesn't seem to be one to gossip."

"Oh, he's not, but Evergreen most definitely is. I was talking to her and asked the others' opinions."

"You and Evergreen talk about... Relationships?"

"Yup! She has an interest in yours." Wendy bounced a little and clapped her hands together as she said this.

"I feel a little scared by that."

"It's nothing to worry about. I think it's mainly because you don't really show an interest in any of the guys in the guild, so she tends to make up what kind of guy she thinks you would fall for, with my input every once in a while."

"Do you, now? So, what kind of guy am I going to fall for? According to you two, anyway."

"Well, we both thought that he would have to be above regular standards. Handsome, but not so much that you have to fight for his attention. Clean, strong, protective, loving, sort of like a prince from a fairy tale, and extremely gentlemanly. That last part Laxus disagreed with."

"Really? Why?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.

"He said that you ran away from your life as, basically, a princess because you were sick of it, so why would you want a guy who would remind you so much of it. He also mumbled that you wouldn't be friends with Gray and Natsu either if that was the kind of guy you wanted, but I don't think we were supposed to hear that."

"Wow. I didn't think he knew that. And, I have to agree with him. Especially the part about Gray and Natsu." I honestly didn't think Laxus knew or cared about my history, especially since all of that was told to the guild when he was always absent, and a bit of a power obsessed jerk.

One hour to Dracholt City. A voice spoke throughout the train.

"I guess we better set a plan for once we get to the city."

"Lucy, don't you find it odd that a rogue mage would be here?" Wendy looked... concerned, maybe.

"Not really, should I?"

"Well this place, though it may be called a city, not many people actually live here. It's more of a tourist resort. Not exactly a typical place for hiding out."

"Ahh, you see, Wendy, that is where you're wrong." I started, going into teacher mode, "Because there is less than 2 000 people living here, it isn't likely that the mage would be seen more than once by a citizen, and because of the amount of people coming in and out of the city each day, the citizens probably wouldn't recognize him even if he were standing only two feet away, so really it's the perfect place." I explained.

"I see, I didn't think of it that way." She said bashfully, almost like a student getting an answer wrong on a test.

"All of that only makes our job harder, for the same reasons the citizens wouldn't recognize him too easily. That right there doesn't help either. We won't be able to get accurate descriptions from the citizens, unless we interviewed every citizen and took the most common attributes and made them into one person, but that would take up too much time and get us confused. We'd wind up suspecting everyone."

"Of course hiding here could backfire. If he stays too long, he would stand out more to the citizens that see him more often. If that were to happen, then we could figure out his hotel, his room number, where he likes to hang out, heck, even his favorite meal at his favorite restaurant." Once I finished my long speech, Wendy looked quite impressed.

"You know, Lucy, with that brain you could easily make it to S-class."

"If it were only about brains, I would've been promoted to S-class the second I got to the guild. But, sadly, it's not. So, back to the planning. Once we get to town, we have to go see the mayor, get whatever details we can from him, and depending on when the mage does whatever it is he does, we'll either check into a hotel and go to bed, or go out and search. It's getting late, so we may not find much."

"But, Lucy, its a huge city, how are we going to find him?" I brought my finger to my chin as I thought.

"Well, how good are your dragon senses?" Wendy looked confused but answered anyways.

"My hearing isn't like Natsu's or the others, but it's above dog level. My eyesight, as far as I know, is perfect during the day and I've never really looked around at night for anything so I don't really know, and my sense of smell is pretty up there, too."

"Do mages smell different from regular people?" She still looked confused, she took a few quick sniffs, and I could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she slowly figured out what I was getting at.

"Yes, there is! Now that I focus on it, I don't know how I didn't notice before. It's almost like the mages have an extra spice or something!"

"Can you smell a difference in the types of magic?" Another few sniffs.

"Sorry, I can't tell. It may just be that there aren't many mages on the train and I don't know their magic so I don't know what I'm looking for."

"It's okay, Wendy. You've already found an easier way to search for him." She beamed at me. This trip might help her confidence.

"Thank you. I never would have thought of that on my own."

"So, as we're walking to the mayor's, do you think you can sniff out how many mages there are compared to the regular people?"

"I can try."