Chapter Five

Shaken to the core, Lucy held on tightly as Loke moved with impossible speed through the forest. He weaved his way through trees, dodged branches, and jumped over fallen tree trunks all while he remained in the shadows of the trees. She glanced up and took note that he lost his glasses during his quick escape from whoever was after them.

She squeaked when she felt the sudden shift of Loke flying through the air before landing on his feet. Her blond locks flew in her face and realizing that she couldn't move the pale tresses away she had to settle with resting her cheek against his chest.

Time flew by and Lucy didn't know how much longer Loke traveled but by the time the sun hit the horizon and light broke through the scatter of trees, Loke stopped moving. Carefully, he set her down under a tree so that her back leaned against a trunk and her legs sprawled out before her. He stepped away to hunch over while gasping for air.

Wearily, she lifted droopy eyes, struggling internally to keep awake. By the touch of her magic, she noticed that he was running low and soon he would have to return into the spiritual world.

"W-what the h-ell was that?" he asked through his pants.

"I kind of know," she barely whispered. "But I don't."

"What kind of answer is that?"

She could barely move her shoulders as a shrugging gesture. Loke, who realized this, didn't question her any further.

"You should get some rest," he suggested. "We won't have to worry about him finding us for a little while unless he can fly."

Goosebumps rose on her skin from the thought of the stranger being able to fly. From a quick glance at him and feeling his extraordinary power, she wouldn't doubt he had such an ability. In fact he appeared inhuman. Something about him wasn't right like the power he radiated that it made the earth tremble or his roar being so loud that it reverberated through the forest. Tiredly she rubbed at her arms to get rid of the goose bumps.

"Go to sleep," he ordered. He bent down until Lucy could see his hazel eyes staring at her. "Virgo will take my place so there's nothing for you to worry about."

"But..." she wanted to say the mystery male would find them and to share her suspicions about him.

"Sleep."

"I do... Too... much." Loke's lips twirled upright in the corner and he shook his head.

"Sleep."

She tried to huff at him but it came out as a small sigh. Her eyelids closed and darkness blanketed her.

Natsu was baffled at what he heard. The alarming roar had him on his knees as did the rest of his group. Only the roar wasn't a normal one. Natsu grew up with a fire dragon as a father and was trained in ways to combat and to communicate with a dragon. This roar sounded like it came from a dragon. The moment the tremendous sound disappeared; Natsu was on his feet, his head raised into the air. His nostrils flared as he shut his eyes, forgetting Gray's nasty comment about the inhuman sound or Erza's rebuke.

He realized his nose couldn't detect the strange presence so he called on his other four senses to help locate the immense power source.

"Lena!" a male's voice interrupted his concentration and Natsu lowered his head to look at the two figures dressed in black cloaks.

'Strange,' he thought. His eyes narrowed for a mere second. 'Why would they dress in baffling clothing when it's not cold outside.' The last he saw someone dressed in a black cloak didn't bring fortunate news. 'Lucy!'

His eyes grew larger at suddenly remembering her. He, Erza, Gray were looking for Lucy. He had sent Happy back into Crocus to retrieve some valuable information they heard about a potential stellar mage sighting on one of the trains. Somehow they were getting closer to finding her.

"It's her," Natsu heard the other voice whisper.

'Who's her?' he thought while shaking his head, clearly not understanding who were the other two.

"Is your friend alright?" Erza asked as she moved to help the small girl with green hair. She looked no older than fourteen years old.

The male growled at her and Natsu felt his chest rumbling as he realized with shock that he was growling back.

The scarlet haired woman raised her hands in a peaceful gesture. "I didn't mean to offend you." She turned to look at him. "Natsu, you can stop with your nonsense."

Due to his fear of the woman's wrath, he instantly stilled. He heard Gray's snicker and Erza sent a glare in his direction. He froze as well.

And Natsu couldn't stop the smug grin that overtook his expression.

During their friendly exchanges, he couldn't help but overhear the conversation going on between the two other two figures. It was highly unlikely they knew that dragon slayers had exceptional hearing because they possessed draconic senses.

"Are you sure?" the man asked the young female.

"Yes, it's her. Her power is astonishing," she answered.

"You're exaggerating. I didn't feel much of anything."

"That's because you can't read magical auras."

He just grunted at her response.

"But her magic was in response to the other one after it."

"Now that's a foe I want to fight," the man growled.

And Natsu thought the stranger was weird because even Natsu didn't want to fight whoever made that horrible noise. And that was unlike him. Usually, he welcomed fights from anyone. But his draconic senses were alerting him that he wouldn't stand a chance against the other stranger. As much as it wounded his pride not to fight, he did better than to avoid a fight with the stranger.

He heard some shuffles and turned his head to look at them. He saw the young girl was on her feet, smiling and bowing before them.

"I'm sorry, but we have to leave," she said. The other male beside her shrugged his hand behind his head and turned away from them.

"That's okay," Erza replied.

"I hope you find who you're looking for."

"We hope so too," Natsu said, drawing the girl's attention on him. Again, there was something strange about the pair. His instinct was telling him to keep an eye on them. Only they had their backs to him. They were walking away.

"I have this bad feeling," Natsu said all of a sudden.

The red head appeared next to him, her eyebrows drew together in concern. He put a hand under his chin at the troubling thoughts invading his mind.

"What kind of bad feeling?" she asked.

"One of regret," Natsu said after some thinking.

Gray laughed. "Are you actually hearing yourself man? Since when did you develop thinking abilities?"

"Since we met them." He pointed to the figures that vanished into thin air. He ignored the exchange of words between his guild members and lifted his head into the air. His eyes shut tightly as he let his draconic senses immerse with his surroundings. He scrunched his face as his instincts proved correct. "Yep, I can't feel them anymore."

"That can't be right," Gray said. His goofiness faded as he too tilted his back and let loose some of his magical aura. His face turned into a frown. "I hate to admit it but you're right."

"Even I can't sense their magical auras," Erza agreed. The three of them faced each other. They didn't like what just took place.

Natsu crossed his arms over his muscled chest. Another thought popped into his mind as he recalled the words he heard between the strange pair. "I say let's head toward the sound." He knew they would be heading toward great danger but if Lucy was in trouble, which she tended to attract a lot of, that sound was the cue for them to start looking in that direction.

Humans were naturally stupid creatures. They lived with constant fear and killed whatever was different from them. That explained why their species was dying out. Since the war between dragons and humans four centuries ago, humans started turning on each other and the war turned amongst themselves. Over time the Magic Council, created by mages, build magical guilds so that they could govern the mages left to fight for a better cause. In a way, the war ceased. But little by little, the humans were slowly killing each other because they were greedy. They desired what they couldn't have and did whatever was necessary to gain it. This blond girl was no different from the humans he observed for so many centuries. She was stupid as well as greedy... Or so he wanted to believe.

Instead, to his outright shock as soon as he pinned the blond girl to the soiled ground, his fingers curling unmercifully into her arms, he heard her gasp and felt the sudden drop in her magic. Then the soft body beneath his hard one flickered with golden light and then the blond girl vanished from sight. Only the magical trace of fresh sunshine and earth remained.

"Where is she?" he growled as he slowly rose to his feet and he turned to the other figure staring at him with a stoic face. If he weren't so interested in the whereabouts of a slip of a girl, he would have wondered why this maid had chains dangling from her wrists.

"What is your interest in our mistress?" she returned with her own question.

He didn't like being questioned by an insect. "I won't repeat myself wench."

The maid smiled infuriatingly at him and he wanted nothing more than to punch the smile off her face. "Why are you after our princess?" she asked again. "She did nothing to insult you."

"She was on my land, in my territory," he growled as he invaded her space. He bared his sharp teeth at her. His fists clenched tightly against his thighs.

"So that's your reason for wanting to hurt our princess?"

"I told you I don't repeat myself."

"Then I'll make you a deal. We leave your territory and you leave our princess alone."

It was irritating how she kept mentioning "our" when she was the only one standing before him.

"No. She saw me and she will die."

The maid shook her head. "You certainly don't know what you're dealing with."

Damn it! He hated curiosity and this spirit caught his attention. If it weren't for his stupid curiosity to begin with, the blond mage would have died long ago.

"What am I dealing with?"

The maid's smiled deepened. Her eyes shimmered before she responded. "Our princess is favored by the Celestial King. If you harm her than you answer to him. Furthermore, she is a Magical Source and her magic is responding to your dark magic."

He cocked his side to the side. His jaw clenched at the first statement. So the blond was favored by the Celestial King? That was highly impossible unless there was something special about her. After observing her for several days, he could see what would attract such a powerful being's attention. The girl didn't know the meaning of taking for herself. She kept giving all of herself to others that she neglected her well-being. It explained why her spirits took the responsibility of watching over her.

The next statement he already acknowledged. During his long life span he already encountered Magical Sources, only all of them never lived as long as she did. By the time they hit their teenage years they were already dead. Which explained how she survived for so long. Her magic must have awoken when she sensed his presence. His magic was darkness while her magic radiated pure light. As the early one magic laws were written, one law stated "magic balanced itself." Her magic countered his one.

"I will find her and when I do, you better hope you can protect her," he warned her with a dark tone. His dark magic gathered around his frame.

The smile vanished from her face and she stepped back. "You hurt her and you'll feel the celestial spirits' wrath."

A smirk tugged on the corner of his lips as he welcomed the challenge. He could feel the maid's magic being drained. Her form flickered in and out before she vanished in a poof of bright light. The same scent lingered in the air and it pulled at all of his deepest instincts.

He stood immobile as his eyes closed and he concentrated on the scent. There was something tantalizing about it. He could get addicted if he wasn't careful. He strained harder to see if he could locate such a similar scent in the forest. He could make out a deep green forest, an underbrush, a figure nestled against a crook of a tree.

The scent vanished. A low growl of frustration rumbled through his chest. He opened his eyes and he willed himself not to turn into his dragon form and tear the forest asunder until he found her.

The celestial mage had undoubtedly outsmarted him. Somehow she created a duplication of herself carrying the same immense power she originally had and led him away from her real self. Certainly, she wasn't stupid like the other humans, not if she could trick him like that.

He titled his back and a roar as powerful and as old as time reverberated from his being. The whole place shook from beneath his feet. He sent out his warning in two different ways.

Then one corner of his mouth twitched. He gave himself a deep shock when he burst into an explosive guffaw.

AN: Hi everyone. I'm sorry about the long delay. I have been around but I started working full time and there's school so I have been doubly busy. I'm trying my hardest though to write and I want to make sure I'm posting good quality chapters.

So Acnologia and Lucy had their encounter. Natsu and the others figure something is up with the mysterious and yet powerful roar. Lucy and Acnologia are going to meet in the next chapter. I can't wait! Also, happy holidays to all of you! :D