Next chapter!

Sorry it sucks, an is kind-a short.

but I promise the next one will be really intense. ^^

Lucy, Kai, Happy, and Natsu slowly emerged from behind the wall in which they were hiding behind. Seeing them, Aurea's face immediately brightened in joy that was neither completely real, nor completely fake, but a convincing smile at that. The four pretended not to have heard and walked into the kitchen as if they just woke up.

"Good morning!" Aurea exclaimed happily, picking up the various plated of pancakes and placing them on the table, "I made breakfast!"

Lucy, Happy, and Natsu all sat down, looking as normal as ever. This included Natsu literally stuffing his face into one of the plates of fluffy pancakes, whilst Lucy scolded him for eating do much, though Erza didn't join them, not yet; as she was still mulling over what Aurea had explained to her. Sadly, Kai couldn't display a completely happy attitude as he remembered everything that had happened to him, his family, and Aurea. He placed a mask on that would fool anyone else, but Aurea could see right through it.

"Kai? What's wrong?" she asked, going over to her saddened friend.

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing." he responded quietly.

"Yes it is," Aurea quickly stated, looking straight into the older boy's eyes, "I can see it."

Kai sighed, not knowing what to do, and quickly came up with a half-way excuse. "I miss my brother…"

"The one that you told me about?" Aurea asked, receiving a nod in return.

"He wasn't always like that… his name was Malum, and he was a bit of a troublemaker, always got me into trouble, but I still loved him. I didn't even get to see him the day my home was lost... he was at a friend's house in the same village… I didn't even get to—"

He was suddenly stopped by two arms wrapped around him. "It's okay…just close your eyes…you'll be alright…no one can hurt you now…come morning light…you and I'll be safe…safe and sound." Aurea whispered, causing Kai to calm down and hug her back.

"Okay…okay, I'm good now…" Kai stated after a few moments.

Aurea let go and smiled brightly, bringing him over to the table to eat DELICIOUS PANCAKES. Aurea was about to sit down as well, but noticed Erza still sitting on the couch, alone. This did not sit well with Aurea at all, and she decided to deal with the situation without words. All she did was stand up, walk over towards the red-haired mage, grab her arm, and pulled. Usually no child would be able to do anything with that, but Aurea pulled hard enough to make Erza stumble forward, and Aurea led her to the table. She pulled out a chair and made Erza sit down in it, before grabbing a stack of pancakes and placing it in front of Erza, then going to her own seat.

Erza sighed, knowing she wouldn't be able to escape this breakfast, even though she had already eaten her own. She picked up a silver fork and tore off a piece of pancake before slowly moving it towards her mouth, and clamping her lips down on it. Her eyes immediately filled with sparkles as the flavor hit her tongue. They taste just like cake… she thought before scarfing down pancakes almost as fast as Natsu, causing most of the people at the table to stare at her.

"So, Erza, what are you doing here anyway?" Lucy asked as Erza consumed another pancake.

"Ah, yes," she started, stopping her pancake frenzy and pulling out a paper from behind her, "I found a job for the team to do, I wanted to inform you of it." She said, handing the paper to Lucy.

"Mysterious Bandits have been stealing magical items from the town's shops. Please stop them and return the magical items back to the city.

Reward…5,000,000 JEWELS!?" Lucy read aloud.

"HOLY FISHES!" Happy exclaimed, falling off of Natsu's shoulder.

Erza nodded, "But we may want to leave soon, the town is pretty far, and the last train that leaves to there this week, leaves in about 3 hours…" Erza continued.

"Well what are we waiting for!? Let's go!" Natsu exclaimed happily before running out the door, Lucy walking behind him.

Erza was about to follow as well, but felt a slight tug on her skirt. Looking down, she saw Aurea and Kai standing behind her, curiosity and hope filled in their eyes.

"Can we join you guys on the job?" Aurea asked.

"We don't want any money!" Kai added.

"Yeah, we just wanna join you guys on one of your adventures!" they both said in sync.

"Are you sure? It could be dangerous."

"Yeah!" the both exclaimed.

"Besides, we fought giant spiders on our last job, and we didn't get hurt at all!" Kai exclaimed proudly.

"Yeah! I promise, we'll be totally careful and safe, and stay out of your way when we need to!" Aurea added.

Erza nodded, "I don't see why not." she said, causing the children's eyes to sparkle in extreme happiness before they ran to follow Natsu and Lucy.

When Aurea and Lucy informed Lucy of their joining of the mission, she was a bit uneasy at first, but soon accepted it when Erza told her personally that they should join. So, with that settled, they went back to the guild to pick up Gray, who didn't have much resistance to the children going. He only ruffled their hair and lightly smiled at them. After that they all rushed to the train station, and climbed onto the train full of excitement, that is, until Natsu got motion sickness. He constantly muttered "Wendyyyyy~ cast Troia…" which resulted in everyone reminding him that Wendy wasn't on this mission. Soon enough, almost everyone had gotten annoyed, and Erza finally had to knock him out cold. Aurea and Kai freaked out a bit when that happened, but Erza just reassured them, saying what she did was "for the best", and the children calmed down slightly. The train ride took a while, and it mostly consisted of Kai and Aurea having mini magic battles inside the empty train cars, until Lucy found them and told them to stop.

Now, they were finally done with that train ride, which resulted in Natsu crying out in joy when he removed himself from the train. Erza and Gray then went to see the mayor of the town, which was the man who posted the job request, and they brought back the specific details back to the group. Now, it was time to search for the mysterious thieves.

~~Timeskip by: Don't make promises you can't keep~~

The group had been searching for a whole day, and there was still no sign of the magical items or the mysterious thieves that stole them. Because of this, the group began to grow frustrated and tired, Gray even kicked a wall once. By this time, the only person who didn't show any signs of these emotions was Aurea, as she continued encouraging her group and searching everywhere for any clues. Sadly, the group didn't respond to her happy attitude and basically turned into a group of emo zombies.

"You guys all look tired, do you think we should find a place to stay for the night, and continue in the morning?" Aurea asked, noticing this.

"Actually, Aurea, I think that's a great idea. We can continue this venture in the morning." Erza agreed, along with everyone else.

So, they began walking around the town, looking for an available place to rest. Unfortunately, this was almost as hard as finding the thieves. It was quite strange, but every house seemed abandoned in this area, and the streets were all quiet. There was no concrete, just dirt and stones on the ground, which caused a slight dilemma for the young light mage. She was walking perfectly normal with the group, until a sharp pain struck her foot. Aurea yelped in shock, and after a few more steps found there was a stone in her shoe.

"Uh, wait up guys! There's a rock in my shoe!" she exclaimed pathetically before going over to the wall of yet another abandoned building to remove the debris.

She leaned her back on the wall and began to pull off her shoe, sighing in relief when it finally came off. She put all of her weight on the wall, keeping one foot in the air as she desperately tried to remove the rock from her shoe. So concentrated in tis, she didn't notice the magic energy starting to rise off of the wall behind her, and come in contact with her own. Her right eye glowed a bit, and a line or red surrounded it, with a circle forming on the wall at the same moment. The group noticed this, though, and their eyes grew wide as a strange pattern began to form on the door, it was the same pattern that had appeared in those strange storm clouds that led to Kai's and Aurea's villages' downfall. A crack then appeared beside Aurea, and the wall opened from behind her, causing her to fall into the strange passage. She yelped in shock before falling to the ground, and hastily sitting up. She looked around her at the dark passage, then looked back at her group.

"Um, guys… I think I found something."

Review Replies!

Featherleap: YUS! FREINDSHIP! Actually, I'd love any OC, if you have one, I'll totally put it in the story! :D

Till next time!

Hasta-la-pasta!