Hello there and welcome to chapter 3! They are finally getting out on the job, I sure hope it goes well for them. *secretly plots against them* Haha. Anyway, creating a job should be a nice and difficult task for me.

Anyway, while I sit here and scheme I hope you enjoy! XD

Chapter 3: What it All Entails

Natsu sprung forward, collapsing on the ground in relief. "We made it, Happy," he said weakly, holding his stomach to calm it from his perpetual motion sickness.

"Oh come on, stand up ya pansy we've got to get goin'," Gajeel growled, snatching Natsu up by the back of his neck and lifting him to his feet, shoving him forward and away from the train. Gajeel apparently bounced back from his motion sickness a little faster.

Natsu shot a glare back at Gajeel, mumbling something under his breath before marching forward, Happy floating above his head.

"Hey, what was that you flaming bastard?" Gajeel shouted after him, jogging to catch up.

"Nothing, oh Iron Maiden," Natsu replied, curtseying before shooting a cocky grin at the Iron Dragon Slayer.

I sighed, shaking my head as their fight continued. We had only been out of Magnolia for about an hour and already they weren't able to keep their insults to themselves.

"I hope they won't kill each other," Levy piped up, genuine concern in her voice.

I chuckled, waving my hand in the air, "Naw, they'll be fine once we get started on the job."

Levy sighed, "I sure hope so."

I pulled out the job request form and looked it over again. We were standing in the heart of Ratsel Town and it was obvious. There were hundreds of people running everywhere amongst the tall buildings, vendors calling out from street corners to try and sell their goods, and cars everywhere, beeping at each other while driving in helter-skelter patterns.

"This seems more like a city than a town," Levy commented, craning her neck to see the top of the train station to our left.

I nodded to myself, again skimming over the job to find any clues as to where the museum would be. I was walking aimlessly, following the sound of Natsu and Gajeel's yelling but stopped abruptly when I finally found the address stamped on the bottom of the request form.

"Looks like it's actually…" I paused, looking up at the sky before pointing to my right. "That way."

I peered down the street and sure enough only a few hundred yards away I saw a building that stuck out like a sore thumb. Definitely the museum. It was a large white building with marble columns in the front holding up a sign that signified it was the town's museum.

I pulled my fingers to my mouth, whistling as loud as I could and successfully got everyone in the general vicinities' attention.

I blinked a few times, about fifty people's eyes on me before motioning for our traveling companions to follow.

"Aye!" Happy called, floating back over to us as Natsu and Gajeel reluctantly followed.

It was a short and rather quiet walk to the museum, Natsu and Gajeel quietly fuming as Levy and I stayed quiet, simply trying not to break the silence for fear they would begin arguing again.

I trudged up the museum's steps first, shoving the large and rather heavy wooden doors open to reveal the inside of the museum. It looked just like any other, high ceilings, relics incased in glass with metal plates in front of them explaining what they were and what made them so special. It was quiet as well, and for that I was grateful.

"Why hello there!" A high-pitched and happy voice broke me from my marveling.

I jumped, whirling to my left to see a small and stout man making his way toward us.

Levy leaned toward me, "He looks like a chubby Master."

I slapped my hand to my mouth to hide my giggling. Indeed he did look like Master Makarov. White hair stuck out in every direction from his head and his small but perfectly round body was shoved into a suit that looked as if it would explode any minute. A tiny black top hat was perched amongst the mess of hair along with a small monocle on his left eye.

"You don't exactly look like you belong here," the man said, looking us up and down.

I peered at the other few museum visitors and realized he was right. They were all dressed up in fancy outfits, the exact opposite of what we were wearing.

"Um," I started, focusing my attention back on the small man, "We came to accept your request."

I fished the paper out of my back pocket and handed it to the man. His face immediately lit up and he clapped his tiny hands together excitedly.

"Ooh! Fairy Tail wizards, interesting," he said, taking notice of the guild mark on my hand and folding the paper I had given him carefully before putting it in his suit pocket. He straightened his clothing, his eyes flicking around the room in suspicion before he quickly made a motion for us to follow.

For such a small man he sure was a fast walker. I nearly had to jog to keep up with his pace and poor Levy nearly had to run. I glanced back over my shoulder at Natsu and Gajeel who already looked completely and utterly bored. They weren't exactly ones that you'd expect to have a good time in a museum.

The man led us down a number of darkened corridors, passing many visitors on the way before he abruptly stopped, turning back to us and motioning to his left where a small door, only about four feet tall was implanted into the wall. "In here," he said shortly, turning and quickly opening the door, easily fitting inside.

"You've got to be kidding me," Gajeel huffed from behind us.

I saw Levy shoot him a disapproving look before she walked forward and crouched down, waddling through the doorway. I took a deep breath, reminding myself of the hefty reward before following her. The door was rather short but if you were kneeling down it was rather easy to get through. And I was more than grateful that the room beyond its ceiling was the same height as any other so I was able to stand up without trouble.

Natsu wriggled in behind me, cursing to himself as he popped out and rolled into the room, Happy snickering as he easily walked through. Gajeel had no intention of cramming himself through such a small door and I realized that as I heard a grunt and the wall just above the door came crashing down, leaving a perfectly shaped Gajeel-sized hole.

Levy let out a squeak before covering her face in embarrassment. Natsu burst out laughing, and I sighed, quickly apologizing to the small museum curator who looked like he could blow a gasket any minute.

The small man glared at Gajeel with all of his might before turning back to us, his face completely red as he began to explain the job.

"This," he started, controlled anger in his voice, "Is the crystal dragon of Almia."

The man reached forward in the small room to the one object present. He grabbed the large black cloth and pulled it aside, revealing a glass cube with the same dragon statue on the request form sitting inside, untouched.

"It's been missing for three days now," the man continued, brushing his hand across the glass in an almost longingly way.

Natsu's face was within inches of the glass almost instantly. "If it's missing, why is it here?"

The man shook his head, "Oh no. This isn't it. This is a replica. I've had it in the original's place since it was stolen so to not cause any worry."

I crouched down, squinting at the small statue replica. It was only about the size of a tennis ball but quite beautiful. It reflected light in every direction, its sky blue surface gleaming in the light.

"All I ask is that you find the people who stole this and bring it back."

I straightened back up, "I thought on the request form it said something about three relics being stolen."

The man nodded vigorously, "Yes, and that's the other part of the job. You see, I run four museums in the surrounding area. Three of the museums have been broken into and one relic was taken from each. This dragon," he said, motioning to the glass case, "Is part of a staff actually. The staff is in four pieces, all separated between the museums."

"Why not just keep them all together?" Gajeel sighed, his disinterest in the job not wavering in the least.

The tiny man sighed, "There is a small rumor that if the staff is put together that something will appear that isn't supposed to."

"That's rather vague," I said quietly.

The man nodded, "I know, and we don't know if there's any truth to it but just to be safe we keep them apart."

"So," Levy said, her hand again stroking her chin, "You think that the people who stole this," she said, gesturing to the dragon, "Are the same people who stole two other parts?"

The man again nodded quickly, "Yes, and I am quite afraid that the last part will be next."

It was quiet in the room for a moment, everyone mulling over their thoughts. It sounded like a relatively easy job. Catch the thieves, get the pieces back, and everything would be hunky dory again. I could tell Levy was interested but the same didn't exactly go for our Dragon Slayers.

"Where would we start?" Levy asked.

The museum director gave her a nod, "Good question. We believe that they will break into the fourth museum tonight, so I propose you camp out there to wait for them."

Levy nodded, shooting an excited look at me. Nothing got her more excited than a good book, but perhaps museums were a close second. She seemed to be interested in the slower paced things in life.

"Alright," I said, "What do you two think?" I asked, looking back at Gajeel and Natsu hesitantly.

Natsu shrugged, "Sounds like a piece of cake."

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure!" the small man chided.

"Eh?" I asked.

"The robbers are wizards, and powerful ones at that," he said, shaking a finger at Natsu.

I instantly saw the light fire back up in both Natsu and Gajeel's eyes.

"Alright, we'll do it!" they both shouted, their hands in fists, already anticipating a good battle.

So there it is! I hope you liked it! This one felt a little odd/off to me, but hopefully it wasn't too much that way. They'll officially start off on the job the next chapter. And they've already racked up some damage expenses courtesy of Gajeel. -_- Way to go man. XD

I want to send a super huge shoutout to the reviewers last chapter: IfYouLovedMe, Eri-chan1626, lilpumpkingirl, kurisu313, AmethystxViolet, Ocarys, a Tale with Ears, pokeninja6600, Guest, and shadowninja2000! You guys make my day so much brighter!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a great rest of the week!