I am back with Chapter 34 of my wonderful story. Please R&R and I shall see you at the bottom of the page.

POV: Lucy

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

"Theyr're so pretty," Levy and Wendy exclaim each holding up a key to their faces as they admire the most expensive birthday gift I have ever received in my life.

"Did Uncle Jude really buy these for you?" Yukino, who surprisingly showed up to visit for once, asks as she too inspects the gold key she is currently holding. I nod, somewhat pretending not to seem uncomfortable as I pick up one of the twelve golden keys that my father sent me as a birthday gift from Desierto.

The key I'm holding is gold, just like the other twelve, with a unique design all around it. The bow of the key is somewhat shaped like and ancient water urn with the middle of it holdind a cut white pearl with a blue Aquarius symbol etched onto the pearl. At the end of he key are four different sized squiggly gold pieces attached to the key acting as the bit which is what is used to unlock locks, but I doubt these keys open anything at all.

Although all of the keys are gold with pearls on each and every one of them, they are all crafted differently in order to match the Zodiac symbol that they represent like a lion's head, or an archers arrow, or twin fish and such. They're all so beautifully crafted that I can't help but feel a bit bad at how much they all cost for my father. I mean, I know that he's rich beyond belief, but it still hurts to think of the price.

"You know, I've read a book that talked about keys like these," Levy says as she inspects the Taurus key closely, "I think they were called Celestial Keys and they're supposed to be magical," She puts down the key, "I forgot what the story was called, but it was really nice."

"Tell it to us," Wendy insists and if I didn't know any better I'd think she was still an Elementary school student, not a middle schooler.

Once Levy agrees the three of us crowd around her like little kids getting ready for story time, "Once upon a time in a far away land there lived a beautiful princess," such a cliche start but it doesn't start from pulling me in, "The princess who was kind as she was beautiful, was loved by all who met her. She was her father's pride and joy, but he was a greedy man and once she turned of age he quickly began to look for wealthy suitors to marry his daughter off to. She quickly grew tired of the boring, haughty prince's her father brought her and so she began to take long walks in the nearby forest to get away from her father. One night while walking through the woods alone, she heard a great roar resonate all around the forest. It had sounded to distressingly sad that she went out to investigate and found something that she believed only existed in fairy tales," Levy pauses and looks around as if she could see the very story play out before her, "It was none other than an enormous dragon! It had scales as red as ruby and gold with eyes as black as the night sky.

"The princess had heard many times of these creatures, but knew that they should have been of myth or thought to be extinct, but there it stood before her with a grandeur greater than a king and even when it growled at her she was not afraid. It wasn't long before the beast flew off into the night leaving her speechless with awe. Days passed and every moment the princess could find she would head on over to the clearing in search of the magnifacent dragon. It was soon after that the dragon returned, but not as the great beast if not as an actual man that claimed to be the prince of dragons. It didn't take long for the prince and princess to get along and before she knew it the princess's heart had been claimed by the dragon prince who's heart had been captured as well by the princess. Every moment they could find they would meet up at the clearing before he decided that he wanted nothing more than to marry the beautiful he learned of her love for the stars he fashioned twelve golden keys who represented all twelve protectors of the stars. The keys were magical items that allowed the wielder to open the Celestial gates and bring forth the protectors. This would be his wedding gift to her, but u

nfortunately, the king and father of the princess had finally found her a potential husband and was quick to order the wedding to be held within the month.

"Devastated at the news, the princess tried hard to fight off her father's wishes claiming she loved someone else and was going to marry him whether he liked it or not. At this, the king locked the princess away where no one could find her and would not bring her out until the day of her wedding to the man she did not love. When the day of the wedding finally came, the king himself went to retrieve the princess to take her to the wedding, but instead the princess - in a desperate attempt to escape - threw herself out of her tower's window," We all gasp already expecting the worst, "She had heard earlier the dragon prince's voice call out for her from somewhere in the nearby forest and that is why she had thrown herself out of the window. Thankfully, her belief had been right as the dragon prince had come to rescue the princess after the Celestial Spirits he had summoned for her helped lead him to his loved one. The prince then turned into a dragon form and caught the princess before she hit the ground and flew off with the princess taking her away from her greedy father and a potential marriage that would surely destroy her. They then got married and lived happily ever after," Levy finishes with a broad smile as we start to clap, "That's just a quick summary of the story, there's a book that explains more about it in the library at school." She explains and I already get the thought to go hunting for it as soon as I can.

"Wouldn't it be really cool if you could really summon the spirits with these keys?" Wendy asks in excitement and I nod.

"If only it were true," I sigh sadly as I pick up the keys and place them back in their box before putting my box on my desk next to my flowers that have now given the room a floral scent. None of the girls have asked who the flowers are from and I'm grateful since I don't even know who brought them for me, "So Wendy," I start asking as I turn to look over at my younger cousin, "What are you going to dress up as this year?"

The young girl shrugs her shoulders as her older sister coughs seeming to be holding back a giggle, "I heard mom wants to dress you up as a pumpkin," Yukino says behind her hand trying to cover her noticeable smile while Wendy pales at the news, "She told me that she was going to buy the costume this weekend to surprise you."

This causes Wendy to cry out and cover her face in embarrassment, "NO! If she does that Chelia and the others are sure to taunt me about it. I'll be the laughing stock of the whole school," She whimpers in dismay as I begin to wonder what was going through my aunt Grandine's head that would lead her to want to dress her youngest daughter as a princess. I'd understand it if she wanted to dress her up as a princess, but a pumpkin? That's just going way overboard, especially with a timid preteen girl.

"I'm sure we can find a way to convince her to get you something else," Yukino soothes while rubbing Wendy's back acting like the big sister she's supposed to be, but the twitching lips show that she wants to laugh. It could be, and this is just a guess, that Grandine already purchased the costume without Wendy knowing it just yet.

Looking like a Meerkat by sitting up straight all of a sudden, Levy looks at me with wide eyes as if she just remembered something important, "Speaking of Halloween, did you guys hear about the party?" She asks steering all attention away from the previous topic of discussion.

"What party?" I ask clearly oblivious. I never heard of no party.

"Oh that's right! Max is throwing his usual Halloween bash this year, right?" Yukino asks and Levy nods vigorously as I watch both girls a bit dumbfounded, "I heard that he rented out that big ballroom downtown by Kardia Cathedra since he plans to go all out this year by inviting as many people as he can since it will be our last party together as high schoolers."

"Do you mean the Sakura ballroom?" Levy asks and Yukino nods clearly ignoring me and Wendy who has gotten a bit over the whole pumpkin ordeal for the moment while now listening to the two girls chatter on excitedly, "I'm so excited! Gajeel and I are dressing up as Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein," she then whirls around towards me beaming like a ray of sunshine through this cool fall weather, "Max Alors throws the best parties in all of Magnolia. His Halloween ones can usually never be beat by anyone else and every year it only seems to get better. He only invites people he knows and it's even sometimes hard to get an invitation if you don't know him or someone who knows him."

"You have to go to this party," Yukino practically demands as she too turns to look at me. I'm surprised, not for her sudden outburst, but because she's actually looking directly at me with an excitement so big radiating off of her which has me feeling hopeful. Ever since I came to Magnolia a few months ago she's been acting a bit distant and hardly ever talks to me unless it's necessary. It has me feeling as if I did something to her, but that couldn't be it. I mean, I would never do anything to hurt her in any way or form. I want my joyful cousin back and I would like nothing more than to ask her what's been eating at her to make her act this way.

Don't ask questions.

I tense up at the small eerie warning feeling my stomach drop and Yukino probably notices because soon her eyes lose their happy glow and she quickly averts her gaze away from me, the same guilty look as before shining in her brown eyes. I feel hurt at that small gesture not understanding what's been going on with her. If it weren't for this uneasy feeling I would definitely demand and ask her what's wrong, but lately it's been hard to do just about anything that I want to do.

Usually I'll hear little warning bells at the back of my head when I think of doing something, or get uneasy feelings when I'm alone. The nightmares haven't gotten any better and I know that soon I'll be turning around to confront the demon in my dream, only to probably be spooked into never sleeping ever again. There are also times when I feel this nagging feeling at the back of my mind in where I just feel as if someone were watching me, and not in the good way. I'm getting restless and sometimes it's even hard to focus on anything for a certain amount of time. It's annoying, and yet it feels as if I've gone through all of this before.

"Yukino, Wendy, it's time to go," I hear Jellal's voice from downstairs call up through the open door of my room, my nightmares prevent me from ever closing it. We all scramble up to our feet and I watch as my two cousins and Levy gather up their things before we all head on over to the stairs where we descend to find Jellal waiting for us at the landing near the door. He quickly walks over to me and scoops me up into his arms while telling me, "Happy birthday Lucy."

"Thank you," I say as I pull away with a smile.

"Loke told me to tell you that he'll give you his gift when he returns from Oshibana," That's right. A few days ago Loke's parents were informed that his mom's sister was severely sick so his family all went up to Oshibana to visit her in the hospital. They've yet to return but Loke still calls me from time to time to check up on me. So far he hasn't mentioned about the kiss and the 'wedding proposal' which I thank greatly seeming as I don't know how to react about it just yet.

I thank Jellal as I feel a pair of slender arms wrap around my waist and I look down to find Wendy smiling up at me expectantly, "Will you go trick-or-treating with me Lucy?" She asks and I can't help but smile.

"Of course, this will be our very first Halloween together and I wouldn't miss trick-or-treating with you for anything." Her smile couldn't have been more radiant as she takes her brother's hand and walks out of the house with a small skip to her step. Just like an elementary school student.

"Well I'll see you tomorrow Lu," Levy waves and quickly heads over to the dorm house leaving me and Yukino alone at the doorway with an awkward silence between us.

"Looking over at my adopted cousin, I keep from asking what's really on my mind. Instead I smile at her and say, "When wefinish getting candy with Wendy we should go to the party together," and she looks at me surprised, "You and Levy got me really excited about it and now I can't wait to go."

She smiles giving me a single nod as she proceeds to walk out the door before stopping on the small cement porch and then turns to look at me, her smile still lingering on her timid lips, "It's a costume party, by the way," sh e says as her expression turns back into that excited radiance that shines like a star, "Happy birthday Lucy," she says before turning around and running on after her siblings who have already disappeared beyond the gate.

Closing the door with a satisfied sigh, I then stare at the wood as I wonder what I'm going to dress up as.

So this chapter was a bit hard to write. I already knew what I wanted but I just couldn't seem to put it into words and I just didn't want to skip into the next chapter because then it would seem too rushed for me. Having finals all this week also doesn't help and I've been too preoccupied as to what my schedule will be for next semester - my second semester doesn't start until next week - and we've been getting out early from school all week but no matter how much I sat down and stared at the screen nothing would come to mind. Then this just magically wrote itself and it annoys me because it's another filler chapter and I'm trying so hard to stop writing filler chapter, but good news is tat there should be action in the next two chapter which will skip onto the Halloween party.

Before you guys ask, no the keys will not summon the Celestial Spirits. They're just a gift that her father sent her and trust me that I didn't add them and that small story for nothing. Everything in my story has a meaning and you shall see the relation in the next chapter. If you can guess Lucy's costume I'll post two chapters. Let's see if you can figure it out.

Anywho, HAPPY NEW YEARS! Yeah, that's basically why I'm mad at this chapter. I'm not all too satisfied with my first chapter of the year being crappy (excuse my language) but yeah I'm still hoping you liked it either way.

Shout outs

I want to thank all of my Fantastic Favorites...

- Maddison Hughes

- picturesandwords

- lynnperez101

- animegirl11114

- jackiejaimes

To all of my Fabulous Followers...

- Maddison Hughes

- noah03

- MysticStarblade

- picturesandwords

- Jenny93

And to my Fantabulous Reviewers...

FanFictionLeon - Happy New year's, and yes I couldn't help making him send her flowers. No matter how much he tries it's just so hard for him to stay away.

MeGustaZeref - It is good, but Makarov already explained why he doesn't want her to remember, but the inevitable will come.

Well that's all the shout outs for today.

If you are enjoying my story So far please follow, favorite, and review - remember, reviews are a writers candy - and if you have any questions or ideas you'd like to see put in this story you can also PM me and I'll gladly add it in.

Unitl next time my lovelies.