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The team found a cave at a foothill, located deep into the forest, far from the village. The place was very quiet. There was nothing that stopped them from entering the cave. The long dark alley brought them to an open air lawn that exposed to the moonlight and surrounded by stony-cave wall.

"Lucy!" Natsu shouted.

The girl was pinned on the cave wall. She was unconscious.

"Uh, it's a dragon slayer!"

A woman appeared from a dark side of the cave. She wore creamy-coloured robe. She had soft gaze and fair skin.

"Ah, wait! There are more dragon slayers!" she shrieked merrily.

"Who are you?" Natsu asked. He stepped forward. "Let Lucy go!"

"Okay," the woman replied, smilingly.

The black creatures crept on the wall and quickly surrounded Lucy. Then, when the creatures dispersed, Lucy disappeared.

"With one condition; the dragon slayers have to stay." Her smile grew wider.

The team denied. There was no way they would leave any of them behind.

"Choose one. The girl or the dragon slayers."

The creatures gathered on a big stone near the woman, and later Lucy appeared laying on it. The woman touched her hair.

"Come on. I'm pretty hungry. I haven't had my dinner," the woman whined.

Her sweet smile disappeared. She glared at the mages.

"Or I just have all of you. I haven't had big feast in a long time."

As she raised her hand, the black creatures attacked the mages from all corners of the equipped to new armour, the one that expelled insects and such. She succeeded to prevent the creatures from coming near her. She took the opportunity to attack the woman.

Natsu attacked the creatures with his fire fists and iron dragon breath. Seemed he succeeded too. The creatures that touched Natsu's fire fell burnt onto the floor. But the numbers didn't seem to decrease at all.

Gray tried hard to freeze the creatures but none was trapped. The other two dragon slayers also tried to kill the creatures using their respective power.

"NATSU!" Gray shouted.

Gray created an icy path toward Lucy. Natsu nodded and ran toward the stellar mage. The dragon slayers from Sabertooth hold the creatures while Erza hold the weird woman in creamy-coloured robe. As soon as Natsu took Lucy away, the mages started to retreat.

"My dinner!"

The woman distracted by Natsu's action, and got hit by Erza and fell unconscious. Gray froze the woman, so that she won't be able to control her 'pets'. Then, they quickly leaved the cave. Lucy was still unconscious and she turned very white. They needed to return to the village to get Lucy treated.

Sting suddenly stopped. He watched them all running ahead of him. He turned back. Then he turned back to where he was headed to.

'Where's Lisanna?'

His heart skipped a beat. He ran back to the cave.

"Sting!" He heard Rouge's voice. "Where are you going?"

"Lisanna!" he shouted, without turning back.

That was when the mages realized that they missed one of their members. Erza ordered Gray to take Lucy back to the village while the others ran back to the cave.

As they arrived at the cave, the weird woman had already regained her consciousness.

"Ara, ara, you've return. What are you doing here? You got your friend back," the woman said.

"Where's Lisanna?" Natsu asked.

The woman smirked.

"Who? Is this her?"

The creatures gathered at a spot on the cave wall, and when they dispersed, Lisanna appeared pinned on the wall. The girl was half-conscious.

"Lisanna," Natsu and Sting spoke synchronizing.

The white-haired mage hardly opened her eyes. But she smiled as soon as she heard her friends' voice. She slowly lifted her head, and she saw a blonde dragon slayer.

"Natsu…."

Sting glanced to the pink-haired dragon slayer.

"Mariya gave you your friend. She won't give her up," the woman declared.

"Mariya?" The mages questioned who exactly Mariya was.

"Ops…I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Mariya." She introduced herself smilingly.

"Let her go!" Natsu shouted again.

"No. Not this time." Her voice changed.

"What's now? You want to trade with dragon slayer?" Sting asked.

Mariya smirked, but she shook her head.

"Nope. I think this girl is more than enough. Dragon slayers are hard to handle."

Erza stepped forward.

"Why didn't you take Lucy before?" she asked.

Mariya chuckled.

"Don't you know?" she asked back. "I won't be satisfied even if I eat 10 of that Lucy girl. But this girl …" she turned to Lisanna. "… she might not match with a dragon slayer, but I will stay full for more than two weeks or so. Because she has …"

"Animal souls," Erza continued. "You feed on animal souls."

The woman jumped forward, clapping her hands.

"Correct! I bet her soul is tasty."

Her finger touched her lips and her eyes closed, imagining the taste of Lisanna's soul.

"CUT THE CRAP! Give her back!" Sting shouted.

The mages ran forward to attack the woman. Before he could reach her, her 'pets' surrounded her and moved her away from him. The other mages also had taken their moves. Erza took advantage on her armour and attacked the woman. The other mages had to fight the creatures again. Sting tried to unpin Lisanna from the wall but the creature held her from moved. And she was gradually turning white.

"Natsu, roar!"Erza spoke, while busy attacking the woman.

Natsu glanced at the other dragon slayers. They nodded.

"DRAGON ROAR!"

The three dragon slayers roared, shook the ground. The creatures fell frozen on the floor.

"My gremlin!" the woman screamed.

At the same time, Lisanna fell from the wall as the gremlin (the creatures) that held her fell dead. Sting which was nearby quickly caught her.

Mariya was panicked when all her gremlin dead due to the dragon slayers' roar. She was nothing without her gremlin. Erza hit her on her head and she fell unconscious on the floor.

"Just kill her. She'll use her pets again once she wakes up," Sting said, lifting half-conscious Lisanna.

"We Fairy Tail don't kill," Erza replied.

Sting chuckled. Natsu walked to him and pulled Lisanna from his arms.

"Stay away from her, you murderer!"

Sting watched Fairy Tail mages walked out of the cave.

"That's why you fairies are weak!" he said, loud and clear.

The Fairy Tail mages paused, but then they continued walked away without saying anything.

Sting glanced to his partner. They walked to the animal souls-feeder. They combined their power and killed the woman. Then they grinningly high five-ed.

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