[Last updated: 09/17/18]

A small while later, I found myself walking along with the others following Happy until we came to a cliff with a sheer drop off. It had been some time since any of us ate last, and as such we were complaining about the lack of food. (Especially Lucy and Natsu) We were following Happy back to Magnolia because he said he knew where he was going; that was quite a few hours ago, and has since led us from one cliff to another somewhat aimlessly. We would have merely ridden a train back to Magnolia, but … with the station in Onibus out of action for what would probably be a while, no trains were scheduled to come back this way for quite some time. As such, we were forced to take the long way home by walking through Clover Canyon far below the tracks we had previously ridden over.

According to the maps I scanned a while back, this area hidden deep below Clover Canyon was called Web Valley. Unfortunately, I didn't think to get any detailed maps of the area; although looking at it now, I doubt they exist yet. Every now and then, I scanned the ground around me in high intensity bursts in an effort to learn of its makeup as well as to generate a map of where I've been as I walk. As far as Mira and I can tell, the countless fissures that crisscrossed the ground for miles around were produced by many ancient earthquakes; as a result, these fissures produced a fearsome natural maze. I wouldn't be surprised if we came across a corpse of some long forgotten adventurer decorating the landscape with their bones.

Gray and Natsu started quarreling from the hunger, before Makarov broke them up, and then moaned a complaint of how hungry he was. I shook my head, "If you guys have energy to fight and complain, you have energy to walk. At this point, we have to think of conserving as much energy as we can, which means no fighting. Got that? I want us to survive this trek through this canyon chain long enough so we can tell of it." They looked over to me for a moment, then went back to fighting. I sighed roughly and cast a pleading look over to Erza. She closed her eyes and growled, "ENOUGH!" Although that wasn't the only thing that growled loudly, as her stomach did its best impression of a tiger to express its need for food. Gray and Natsu sidled up to each side of her with a small smile, "Your stomach is trying to tell ya something, isn't it?" She crossed her arms defiantly and stated crossly, "No it's not! You're hearing things." Gray pursed his lips and nodded, "Yeah, real convincing, Erza."

All of a sudden, happy gasped and ran to the edge a cliff and skidded to a stop looking over the edge. Natsu came up to him and asked, "What are you so excited about?" Happy pointed down the cliff face insistently, jumping in excitement, "Down there! Look, Natsu, look!" My curiosity piqued, I came over to where the others had gathered only to hear … singing? I couldn't stop staring when I looked over the cliff; there appeared to be some manner of fish, although they each had a pair of brilliant yellow wings sprouting from their mid-section which enabled flight. Weird. They also had full pink lips that were open in song; it was safe to say they were the source of the singing. Happy continued, "Those are Wing Fish! They are a legendary delicacy! And, they are super yummy from what I hear!"

Gray raised an eyebrow, "A legendary delicacy?" Erza, who had closed her eyes and was pinching the bridge of her nose said, "Wing fish, huh?" Meanwhile, Natsu was on the other side of the group rubbing his hands together feverishly, "Sounds good to me!" Makarov came up to Happy and placed a hand on his shoulder and nodded before dramatically saying, "Well done, Happy! You make this old man proud!" As they both made their statements, their stomachs grumbled hungrily. Perplexed, Lucy said, "You guys! Enough with the growling stomachs!" Just before her stomach growled. Gray gained a bemused glint in his eye and said, "You were saying?" She locked a gaze at him, "Shut. Up." Happy, meanwhile, had been rooting about in the small sack he always had on his back and wielded a wooden fishing pole, "Now! Time to fish!"

A little while later the others were sitting on the cliff edge with fishing poles dangling down below. "Aw c'mon you stupid fish, just shut up and let me eat you!" It was Natsu, of course. Happy looked over to them with a fierce expression, "You gotta fish harder you guys!" Lucy looked at the fish questioningly and asked, "I don't know you guys … do you really think these fish taste that good?" Erza, who was completely focused on the task said, "Be quiet and fish! Anything edible will do." She looked over to the woman with a start, "I didn't know you were that hungry!" Things went on in such a manner for a little while until Happy gave up and set his pole down, "Whatever. I give up." Lucy came up to him and kneeled down to look at him, "That was fast!" Happy looked down sadly, "I couldn't catch a single fish!" Lucy smiled kindly at him, "You really want to eat one, don't you? You shouldn't give up so easily. You can do it, little guy!" Happy looked up to her and ran away, crying into his elbow, "I'm not that little!" Taken aback, she said, "What?! I thought I was cheering you up!" Apparently not.

I meanwhile, was sitting on a nearby rock watching this transpire with my chin resting in my hand. I sighed again and stood up, "You guys want the weird fish, huh?" I walked over to the edge of the cliff, requipped a Magnum, and quickly shot down a good number of fish. I flew down with my jetpack and stored them using requip before returning and dumping them in a pile before them. Surprised, they all looked at me for a moment and blinked. Erza broke into a hearty laugh, "Why didn't I think of that?" Lucy yelled at me, "Why didn't you do that sooner?!" I rubbed the back of my head, "Sorry, you guys were so determined to get the fish that I didn't want to interrupt."

Happy took a few for himself before they were cooked, as he ate fish raw being a cat. (Or so I assumed; for all I knew, he just liked the taste of a whole raw fish) Natsu looked around at us and rubbed his hands together in anticipation, "So … you guys want me to cook these, or what?" We all agreed on it and he cooked them with his magic. I requipped my helmet off and sat down with the others; I noticed Makarov look over to me and do a subtle double take. We each took a bite of the fish. We all stiffened and shuddered dramatically in reaction to the taste. I almost gagged and swallowed my mouthful with some difficulty as I asked Happy, "A delicacy, huh? Are you sure about that?" He looked thoughtfully up at me, "Well, that's what the flier said anyway." I nodded thinking, "So if you saw a flier, doesn't that mean they are worth something?" He thought before nodding, "Yeah, I think it said thirty thousand Jewel for about twenty of them." Ugh, this again. First thing I'm doing when we get back to the guild is hitting the books. No further distractions.

We each forced as much of the fish down as we could. Before we made our way off, I gathered about forty more of the fish and stored them. (It was a rather large grouping of the creatures; I doubt the number we took would be noticed) "I hope they keep." I looked over to Erza questioningly, as she had heard that. She shrugged and answered the implied question with an intrigued expression, "I don't really know; I've never actually tried to store anything other than weapons and armor before. This will be a learning experience for me as well."

I requipped my helmet back on and was about to begin walking with the others before she stopped me with an arm, "And Jai? Thanks for the fish. They may have had a … unique taste, but it was food. Thankyou." I nodded and grinned honestly at her, "No problem, Erza. I can't have you guys go and starve on me like that; I like you all too much." She smiled and turned away from me. As she did, I thought I saw her blush ever so slightly. I polarized my visor and began walking after my friends.

Later that day, we were walking down a desert path on what I hoped were the outskirts of the Web Valley. We were all getting really hungry again when the path took a turn. We turned a rocky corner and saw telltale signs of buildings. Erza exclaimed, "A village!" Gray gasped, "Houses?!" Happy said, "And that means there must be …" We all looked at each other before running towards the settlement, "FOOD!"

We all ran into the center of the village, stone buildings and roadways all around … but something was off; there weren't any people. Anywhere. I wandered aimlessly for a bit, nervously looking for anyone. I was getting some bad flashbacks of New Phoenix. Gray voiced what I was thinking. We all fanned out, looking around. Lucy took a few steps to the side, listening. "It does seem awfully quiet, doesn't it?" I heard Natsu comment, "Maybe they are all taking a nap, or something?" He started walking with Happy down one of the roads, "HEY! Anybody here?!" Happy yelled, "We're starving like crazy out here! SOMEBODY COOK US SOME DINNER!" Lucy yelled from nearby, "Wow Happy, ever hear of the word 'please'?"

We all regrouped in the central plaza we all came in on. Gray looked over to Natsu, "You really think everyone's taking a nap?" Makarov shrugged, "It's either that, or they all got drunk and passed out." Lucy replied, "I think that only happens at the guild." Makarov barked a laugh at that, "We do love our spirits, don't we?" All of a sudden, Natsu took off at a sprint, "You guys can hang out here all day if you want, but I'm going to find a kitchen to raid!" Gray took off after him, quickly closing in on him, "Shame on you for even thinking about robbing this place, Natsu!" He retorted, "You're just mad I thought of it first!" I sighed at them, "It's almost like their stomachs replace their brains when they get hungry, isn't it?" Erza, who had her face buried in a hand at the two of them replied, "We might as well go after them before they get us into trouble." We came up to them right as Natsu was picking up a hot roll to eat. I looked closer at the table before them: there was a large basket of steaming rolls set out, a small bowl of what looked like butter, and mid-sized earthenware mugs of some kind of steaming white liquid … possibly tea of some kind.

Erza came beside him, "Not so fast." Annoyed, he said, "What is it now!?" She looked at him, "There's something strange here." Gray set down his roll and looked critically at the table also, "She's right. Who would leave a table of food just sitting there like that? And … if somebody cooked this, then where the heck are they now?" Natsu shrugged, "How should I know?" He smiled back at Happy, who also had a roll with him, "You ready to dig in, Happy?" He nodded vigorously, "Aye!" Erza drew up to him with a glint to her eyes, "NATSU!" He shrunk back slightly, "HOLY … Yes mam?" She began to look around the room, "We need to investigate the village first. If we've held out this long, we can hold out –" She was interrupted by her stomach growling loudly. Lucy, bemused, said, "I think your stomach may have different plans." Makarov made a sound of agreement, "Yes, but which one do we listen to?" She cast an arm wide and said as her stomach continued to growl loudly, "Search the area for mushrooms or anything that looks edible. And don't eat the food in the village, ok? While you're out doing that, Master and I will try to figure out what's going on." Natsu began to walk away slowly, "Yeah, yeah. I hear ya. Let's go Happy." He tiredly replied, "Aye." On my way out, I heard Lucy mutter, "Wait … why mushrooms?"

We found a forest microbiome not too far away from the village, absolutely teeming with all sorts of mushrooms in every shape, size, and coloration imaginable. I split off from the group as I tried to recall my forest survival training; specifically which types of mushrooms were edible and which weren't. However, that quickly proved inadequate as I recognized none of the mushrooms here; not to mention that their coloration seemed not to follow any obvious pattern. I sighed and began picking mushrooms at random and storing them via requip. Perhaps we could test these at a later date to see if they're poisonous or something.

I got as much as I thought I should get and made my way back to the village, head full of thoughts of mushrooms. I picked up a low, rising growl coming from the village and broke into a full sprint, mushrooms forgotten. "ERZA! MAKAROV! NATSU! GRAY! CAN YOU GUYS HEAR ME?!" I skidded to a stop back in the plaza we first entered into and saw a seam in the ground begin to glow red. The effect soon spread to the nearby buildings before they began to shimmer like heat waves off tarmac on a hot day. It soon spread to all the buildings within sight; with the village literally crawling with movement, it was setting my motion tracker into a tizzy.

I saw all of them run down a nearby street on their way out of the village, and by the expressions on their faces, they weren't jogging for fun. Happy flew my way and gestured towards where the others were running, "C'mon Jai! We need to go to higher ground!" I nodded, "Roger that." I requipped my jet pack and flew after Happy. (Who I noticed, had what looked like a mushroom growing out of his head between his ears) I met the others at the top of a nearby cliff overlooking the village. I watched as the effect I witnessed spread to the entirety of the village, every object I saw within the village gained life and transformed into large serpentine monsters. I looked below them to see a large red-white magic circle.

Aghast, Natsu commented, "Aw man! Looks like we got out just in time!" Erza nodded, "Now I see. It was a magic circle." Makarov looked over what had become of the village, "Yes, that's right. Those lines we saw in the village were carved into the ground to form a massive magic circle; a circle used for a type of magic that was banned many years ago. It was a form of sealing magic that was known as Alive." Lucy put a hand to her mouth briefly, "What does it do?" Makarov gestured around, "See for yourself. It's exactly what it looks like. It has the ability to turn inanimate objects into living creatures. It appears the villagers cast the forbidden spell only to end up being eaten by the very monsters they brought to life." Lucy asked, "But why would they use a magic that was banned?" Erza replied, "This village … was home to a Dark Guild!" Natsu looked to her in surprise, "No way!" She continued, "While investigating, I came across a large collection of magic tools tucked away in a shed. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were tools used to practice black magic." Makarov got out a teacher finger, "Knowing how reckless dark guilds can be, they probably thought up some crazy plan and wound up getting burned in the process. BUT!" He crossed his arms, "There's one thing that we should be grateful for …" Natsu looked at him with a questioning look, "Oh yeah? And what would that be?" Makarov gained a serious expression on his face, "The dark guild's mischief brought these creatures to life, and most living creatures can be turned into … FOOD!" The rest of us got ready for combat. I got out my DMR and armed it, "Let's put these monsters to rest."

Erza raced head first down the cliff face as Happy, Gray, Natsu, and I jumped off the cliff into battle, leaving Lucy behind in shock. Makarov jumped a little behind us, "Leave some for me!" We each used our respective magics against the monsters: Natsu with his fire, Gray with his ice, and Erza cut her foes into a mountainous pile of cubed sticks the size of pieces of chalk with her requip; also, she requipped into a form-fitting chef's uniform which I had to ignore for the time being. (Happy meanwhile, fought a sentient chair) After blasting my enemies to pieces, I walked up to Lucy and Erza; they were admiring Erza's handiwork. Erza tried to get Lucy to eat one; she refused. Erza sighed, "Fine. I'll do it." Lucy berated Erza for trying to use her as her Guinea pig. So, they have Guinea pigs here? Or is that just a common phrase? 'I … I have no idea.' I asked Erza if I could try one as well, she nodded at me, "Of course!" I picked one up and bit into it; not only did it have the dimensions of chalk, but it tasted like it as well. After asking how it went, Erza gave what remained of her piece to Lucy. I shook my head at the pile of the stuff before me, "I, uh, don't think this is meant to be consumed in this way Erza." She crossed her arms and nodded at my assessment, "True, I would hardly call this edible."

We regrouped. Erza asked, "What are we going to do now? I'd rather starve than eat more of that stuff." Gray put his hands in his pockets, "I guess that's what we get for trying to cook up a bunch of monsters." Natsu made a noise of disgust, "Man! This sucks. All that barbecuing made me even hungrier than before!" It was then one of the serpentine creatures reared up behind Happy, only to be tackled by a flaming Natsu. I looked around and saw that the monsters were back at full strength.

Gray shook his head at the sight before us, "Man these things are nasty!" Erza pursed her lips and nodded, "In more ways than one." Natsu readied his magic, "I'm going to blow you to pieces!" He leapt at the creature and used an attack he called Fire Dragon's Wing Attack. Erza requipped into her Heaven's Wheel armor again and Gray used an Ice Wall attack. I readied my DMR and sighed, "I guess we should get back to work, huh?" Lucy yelled she wanted to help and summoned Taurus.

Between our combined attacks, our foes never stood a chance; however they regenerated as fast as we could cut them down. We fell back into a defensive circle formation atop one of the rocky outcroppings that remained of the village. The ground below us began to glow bright red. Lucy asked, "Great! What now?!" Gray looked down, alarmed, "It's the magic circle!" Erza looked around, "This is bad." The monsters that had been writhing all around us before began to sink into the ground. The spit of land we were standing on began to crack with pink light quickly, Erza yelled, "Run for it!" The ground underneath us broke up and we fell down towards the circle before a bright light came from Makarov. I can only assume he used his magic to save us. Somehow.

The next thing I knew, we were standing outside the remains of the village in a rocky clearing before a large gathering of people who were wearing full cloaks of different colors. I assumed they were the inhabitants of the village.

One of the first to get their bearings, Natsu saw them and said, "Now spill it! What were you trying to pull?" A woman came up to us and pulled her hood down and said, "We were using the magic circle to cast forbidden spells, but those monsters appeared and took over everyone in town." Erza said, "So, the monsters we fought … you were all trapped inside of them?" A man with what looked like a small palm tree growing from his head stepped forward, "When you stepped into the circle, it activated the spell and we no longer had any control of ourselves."

Makarov placed his hands behind himself and said, "Well you won't have to worry about that happening again." That caused the villagers to step back slightly in surprise. Natsu asked him what he meant by that. Makarov raised a finger to the sky, "There's no need to sweat the details, my boy." He then pointed it at the villagers, "Now … as for all you villagers, you should be grateful someone came along to free you of your possession! I assume you've learned your lesson from this gross misuse of magic, and as long as it doesn't happen again I won't report you to the council." He stepped forward with a stern expression towards the villagers, "Is that a deal?" The woman nodded, "Yes! Of course. We never want to go through that again. Thank you so much." The palm tree headed man actually bowed in a show of respect, "You have our word."

A while later, we were walking along the trail towards Magnolia talking about what happened. Erza said, "When we finally defeated the monsters, it seemed to activate some kind of self-destruction spell within the magic circle … and that's when you came in." She was talking about Makarov now. "In the blink of an eye, you saved us, freed the dark guild from the takeover spell, and destroyed the magic circle before it flattened the village and everyone in it. How did you do it?" Makarov placed his hands back behind his head in a relaxed manner as he walked, "I'll have to tell you someday."

[Well, this looks like a natural place to stop here for now. Short and sweet.]