Chapter Three

The darkness was initially unrelenting to Lucy's unadjusted eyes. Laxus was not likewise inhibited, leaving her to cautiously navigate a slick surface and observe his confident stride into the nothingness. There was no way in hell she was going to fall again and give Laxus another reason to come to her rescue. First thing she took mental note of was the smell, which was humid and musty. After a few minutes, she started seeing that they were walking on a smooth cave floor with moss and small rivulets of water, which carved smooth depression in the flat sheet of rock. "Be careful," she warned, and his only answer was an amused chuckle.

The cave extended for a short while, but before the light from outside faded completely, they stood before a draconic face. Lucy immediately locked eyes with two strikingly blue stones set into its face.

"Those look like lacrima," Lucy deduced. Briefly, she admired their raw beauty. Everything else about the dragon was intimidating, its face carved in an eternal scowl, bearing huge stone fangs. Its large scales were covered like every other surface in the cave with vegetation. Pausing, Laxus became aware of a breeze coming out of its mouth and nostrils.

"How are we going to open it?" Laxus inquired as he experimentally tugged at the lips of the statue, only to find it impossibly heavy. This was unsurprising to his companion. Although a little bit more thoughtful, Laxus was nonetheless clearly of a similar persuasion as the other dragon slayers.

"The lacrima looks dull somehow. Maybe they need reenergized?"

Wordlessly Laxus pushed her back a few steps so he would not give her a nasty shock. Striking the lacrima caused them to shine brightly as if alive. Sounds of rocks scraping could be heard as the mouth slowly opened, revealing more mossy cave. It was in fact a staircase leading down into blackness. Lucy inwardly groaned, it was extremely steep.

Sensing her hesitance, Laxus volunteered and stepped into the. Slowly making their way into the darkness, Laxus felt a tentative hand on his arm as Lucy followed; a little too closely. Feeling him tense for a moment under her hand, she did not hear any protests. The stairs went on for at least half an hour, and she was immensely grateful when she noticed a dim light up ahead. She was becoming increasingly uncomfortable and could have sworn all her hairs stood up on end as if gathering a charge.

Letting go of him, they entered into the lit hallway at the foot of the stairs. It seemed to still be carved straight into the solid stone, and small lacrima, which were charged, shone like lamps along the ceiling. As they walked down it, they soon came upon a forking of the tunnel. To the right was more of the same, dry and with good lighting. The left had walls, which were much rougher, and was almost as dark as the stairs, save small pinpricks of light from glowing vegetation, which were on the ceiling.

Laxus consulted her with a sideways glance that made Lucy feel like fidgeting. Picking absently at a rough edge of a nail, she nodded to the left passage, saying, "Something tells me faeries don't like the path well-traveled."

Again, they were faced with a choice of paths, almost immediately after the first. One of them made Lucy pale to almost ghostly white. The right was extremely narrow and appeared to grow smaller and smaller. One could argue she might have been able to fit, but in a moment she was trying to pull Laxus in the opposite direction. He stood firm with little issue, laughing.

"Oh come on Lucy, are you afraid of small spaces? You could probably make it," he managed between chuckling whenever he looked at her mortified expression.

"Screw that," Lucy said with uncharacteristic bluntness, shocking Laxus just enough so that she could start dragging him. His hand was apparently forfeit until she felt satisfied with the distance they put between them and the strangely tiny path. She released it when a little more color had returned to her face, and they were now looking at a small waterfall and pond.

"It's a dead end," Laxus pointed out dispassionately.

"We'll have to go back to the first fork in the tunnel."

After a bit they were travelling down the lit hall, and Lucy saw it seemed to go on forever. Not to be whiney, but she was already tired from the hike. She prepared herself to be patient, as the stairs had shown this place was quite large. A full half an hour passed before she cleared her throat, "So, how far do you think it goes?"

Ever the conversationalist, Laxus shrugged. More time then passed, the actual length of which was starting to become hard to discern. The monotony of it all was a little unsettling. Disconnected from the much beloved sun, any sense of time was shaky at best. She bit her tongue against several comments, but she did not hold out for long. "Um, so lately I've been working at the newspaper, what have you been up to?"

Stifling a groan, Laxus considered his surroundings. There was no escaping from the small talk. He thought maybe he could try turning up his sound pod and nodding every now and then as he sometimes did with Ever. No, Lucy was too smart for that, he realized unhappily.

"Training."

Lucy snorted in annoyance, but was not to be deterred. "I'm trying to start a conversation," stating the obvious. The silence was soon to be suffocating.

"Alright," he conceded, but a sudden fierce grin spread across his previously unhappy expression and made Lucy's stomach drop. She could tell he'd thought of something mischievous. "What kind of stories have you been working on?"

"Oh, local stuff. All of its very boring, you wouldn't be interested." Trying to restrain her voice from going squeaky, she failed miserably. The grin grew wider and more predatory, the smell of the sudden spike of fear evident.

"You wanted to talk, I'm listening," he countered.

There was quiet, and Laxus could see her panic descend into resignation. "I have been doing some writing, but after everybody left I also kind of kept track of where people were."

"I see," he said guardedly and waited for her to continue.

"I actually came here to ask you to come back to the guild," she said all at once. Grimacing at her word vomit, she observed out of the corner of her eye his thought process. Lucy noted with relief that he was not angry.

"You should've said that in the first place." It was a simple statement lacking in judgement.

"But then you might've said no," she pointed out with a half-smile. "And then I would've had to go home."

The unspoken word 'alone' hung heavily between them as Laxus thought through his response.

"What does it matter to you if I'm there?"

"With your help, we could set up the guild again."

"I'm sure gramps knows what he's doing, Lucy. If he wanted me to take over, he'd have said so-"

"I can't just wait for everybody to come back," she interrupted forcefully. "The guild is the only family I have now."

"If you're upset being on your own, why didn't you go with flame brain? You are a part of 'Team Natsu' after all."

Laxus knew then that he had made a mistake as soon as he had spoken the words. Her breath hitched and he grew worried she was about to get all teary eyed on him. Cautiously he took a peak. It was worse; she just had this incredibly dejected look that tugged at even his heartstrings.

"I wasn't given the option."

Visibly floundering, Laxus cursed the situation he'd found himself in. He usually did a better job at avoiding these things. For one, he'd been staying out of other people's business. Now he'd gone and stuck his foot in his mouth. "I don't know what to say to that. But it's kind of like we're on a mission together, right?" Awkwardly, he stopped and put a hand on her shoulder. He knew he was not particularly good at comforting people. Laxus was better at things like planning to punch the moron the next time they ran into each other.

"Oof," he huffed as he was pulled into a tight hug that more startled him then knocked the wind out of him. It was a second before he hesitantly hugged her back with one arm, looking to one side.

She pulled away shortly after, and smiling with genuine happiness, said, "Thanks," before walking again down the hall.

"Anytime." His voice was a little rough and he continued to look away even as he strode forward.

Lucy was uncertain as to how she should be feeling at this point. It was clear the main goal of this trip was not to be dealt with right here and now. Her behavior though was once again causing her to question her own motivations. While she had meant it to be for her own comfort and nothing more, her mind kept straying. The smell of a summer thunderstorm was all around them, faintly, but Laxus was that personified and a subtle musk mixed together that she felt drawn to. Lucy used a bit of willpower and suppressed this idea. She was just feeling isolated she reasoned, and thus disregarded her strange behavior.

It was a while longer before Lucy noticed something disquieting, being thusly consumed by her own internal dialogue.

"I think this hallway is on a loop."

"Yeah, I'm getting the same feeling. What now?" Patience was wearing thin on his end. This kind of mind game was not his forte, and taking direction wasn't his strong suit either.

"I think that pond could use another look over." Another shrug from his end, and then they were heading back. Lucy didn't have any kind of time keeping device at the ready, besides Horologium. Had she, she would have known it was less than five minutes back to where they started. Despite the exact quantification of it escaping them, neither was oblivious to the fact that something wasn't adding up.

"What the hell?" Laxus grumbled, "This must be some kind of illusion magic."

"I think that may be the essence of faery magic. And look, these glowing plants and the ceiling lights in this other hallway isn't from lacrima at all. I think I saw Mavis talk about using it once, she called it fae light."

"It seems… feral."

The vague comment was very fitting. Clearly, the sterility of that other path was meant to be in stark contrast to the intensely natural room they found themselves in. It appeared purposeful anyway. Lucy pondered who the identity of this architect was, perhaps even a guided force of nature. A contemplative minute or two passed as they both looked into the depths of the pond.

"Well," Lucy began reluctantly and experimentally dipped a finger in the water. She snatched her hand back quickly from its icy clutches. "There's definitely a tunnel in there to the other side."

Looking back, she saw Laxus looking very annoyed. "What?"

"I want you to think about electricity and water," Laxus pointed out. "I won't be able to use any lightening magic for a while if I end up taking a swim."

"I'll go first then."

"Come back and tell me if it's worth the dip," he countered. Resigned to her fate, Lucy responded by leaving her purse on the edge of the pond and getting in. She hissed through gritted teeth when she first felt the cold. Determined to get it over with quickly, she dived down.

The tunnel was somewhat small, but she could tell her companion could make it. She used her hands to push herself along instead of trying to swim in its confines. Coming up on the other side with a gasp, she wiped the water from her eyes. Instead of another pond, it seemed to be a source of a stream. This stream quickly ran to a cliff's edge, a waterfall emptying into a cavernous expanse. The tug of its current was not very strong and she easily resisted it as she looked out at the view. There was light coming from somewhere above that made the whole thing as bright as if it were open to the desert sun. Without analyzing further, she ducked back under to relay the information.

"Bad news," she said with false cheeriness, "It's definitely the path we're looking for."

"I'll be right behind you," he groused while placing his sound pod somewhere dry. After going through again, Lucy started to become concerned. She stood there shivering on the other side for quite a while before she saw that she had been followed. Pulling himself up out of the water, Laxus was covered in small arcs of electricity. Hissing and popping, the droplets that clung to him seemed volatile. Unconsciously she took a few steps back.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"When I'm dry." Laxus gestured for them to go investigate the cavern, and they walked around where the stream left the pond and headed for the ledge. Looking out into the cavern was kind of intimidating. It was the circumference of at least the mountain itself, and Lucy realized that despite the light they must be under it by a fair bit. It was flat on the bottom, and had a rounded ceiling. The top of it was made of gray shale that was covered in brightly shining lacrima and fae lights. The innumerable mass of them together made the daylight that shone upon the floor of the cave. Half way down the shale became a white limestone stone with veins of the gray rock in it. This occurred at about the level of a shelf around the entirety of the space. It was where they were currently, and from their standpoint on that shelf they could see a stair connecting it to the floor.

Laxus began walking towards it, and Lucy following after. The stairs were leading down into a baffling dense jungle. Under the falls was a lake around which small structures were gathered in circular clumps. From this height, Lucy was having trouble making them out. They were hopelessly entangled with undergrowth and their true nature was hidden beneath those grasping vines and choking weeds. Beyond these small shapes was the edge of an incredible forest. Drifting to them were the sounds of many creatures. The natures of the owners were foreign to them and the word prehistoric came to mind.

Now that they were almost down to the floor of the cavern, she could see the shapes more clearly. They were in fact tiny homes. A small path with a serpentine appearance made its way into the forest past the abodes, from which Lucy deviated. Her investigations were cut short as she stepped out onto the soil and found herself sinking through a thick layer of moss into mud. A small squeak of surprise escaped her and she reached out instinctively to steady herself. An intense current ran down the length of her arm and through her body, followed by tingling heat. Instead of crying out in pain, she found her jaw clenched shut. Laxus jumped back and away from her looking concerned; instantly severing the connection.

"Lucy?"

"This is just my luck," was her nonchalant observation as she got back onto the path, waving off his obvious worry. For a minute or so, she paused while scraping the muck off her shoes. The burn of the contact was fading quickly and she refused to act injured. It had hurt like hell, and counterintuitively it made her want to hide it more than if it had been a smaller form of discomfort. Laxus waited patiently, still fizzling a little bit. The intensity of the crackling had died down considerably however.

"No control over it while wet, huh?" She said after a brief stretch of awkward silence wherein he watched her from afar. He appeared defensive, or perhaps suppressing an emotion.

"Yeah."

"How do you take baths?" She asked on a lighter note, working the last of some moss off her boot and onto the cobblestone. Laxus looked slightly more at ease at this joke, but still sullen.

"Alone," he said with a snort.

So much for humor. Lucy started walking into the forest where she noticed some stone arches along their way. As they passed under them, she could see strange carvings in an unknown language. Some had pictures, and one drew her attention. It was of some of a dragon with a gargoyle-esque design. One of them depicted it inside a web of circles. Looking up, she noticed that the lacrima were in fact in a sort of radiating web pattern. It was making her feel distinctly uneasy. Not all dragons were buddy buddy with humans.

At the center of the web was what appeared to be a rusted out socket. Water was trickling down it from some unknown source. There were several such trickling streams now that she was looking for them. The ceiling didn't appear to be structurally impaired though. It was solid rock after all. She figured the water must have been coming in along natural veins of the stone.

A sudden noise caught her attention. It was like many tiny feet. She saw that Laxus had finally dried off, and had already heard the approach of whatever it was. She judged this from his tense fighting stance. Sure enough, a large centipede the likes of which Lucy had never imagined in her wildest nightmares appeared before them. Reaching for her keys, she prepared for its attack.

Anticlimactically it reached for a fruit across the path. It was perhaps eight feet long and terrifying. Yet it regarded them with a serene air, if one could ever judge insect's emotions from the other side of the tree of life. The thing used its long body to climb up into a tree and promptly was out of sight. Laxus let out a breath of air he hadn't realized he had been holding. Lucy looked like she was about to faint, and sat down for a moment. "I'm out," she said while laughing. "Let's go home."

"I can hear more of them all around."

"What else can you hear?"

"Large insects buzzing and hissing, smaller I think furry animals moving around like squirrels, a bird song, and just a lot of stuff I can't sort out."

With that to look forward to, Lucy stayed much more alert. She felt bad for thinking this, but if she could have, she would have squished that bug. An irrational fear overrode her normally kind nature; she hated insects with a passion. It pulled on some base instinct of mammal versus creepy-crawly. That being said, putting those feelings into practice would probably require more proximity then she was willing to put herself in.

"Do you know how close we're getting to that entity you sensed?"

"It's at the center of this jungle," Laxus said with a distant look in his eyes. It was as if his attention was fixed upon something far off, though there was nothing to be seen from here. As the path continued to meander through the brush, several other animals were seen of strange makes and sizes. It was inversely populated with large insects and small mammals, some of which looked related to what they had seen on Tenrou Island. They included small cats which Lucy barely just caught a glance of, but Laxus swore they looked like darker colored Curilys. There were also some Clippers, but they behaved much more peacefully and lazily swarmed together while filling the air with small happy chirps that made Lucy smile.

Lucy felt herself getting tired and sore as they neared the center of the cavern. It had been a very long trek so far, and her boots were moist on the inside from the swim, causing her feet to become prune like and raw. Still, she did not complain and kept a neutral expression because she caught Laxus staring from time to time. Lucy was very aware that she wanted to prove herself a useful team member, and not some whiney push over. At least, that's what she figured he was looking at her like that for. Lucy was finding him a terribly difficult read since she'd gotten shocked.

Abruptly they came upon a clearing of solid looking ground. Before them was a great white glassy globe. It had a corroded metal component that looked like it plugged into the socket on the ceiling. Water from the aforementioned socket dripped down the sides of the globe. Where it had impacted the ground, Lucy assumed, there was a hole as if it had broken open. Shards of white milky glass were around the globe. It was somewhat tilted away from them. No sooner had she taken the sight in then the orb began to shift. A very organic sound of something scraping along the inside of it could be heard. A sibilant voice hissed at them from its confines.

"I can smell your filthy human stench. I will make you regret defiling this place."