An: WOOHOO! 101 followers! Thank you everyone! Without you all I wouldn't have the courage to continue writing! Love you all!
Hope you all like it! Sorry if there are any mistakes I didn't catch!
*When describing Corvus' hair imagine Pidgeot from Pokemon please, except shorter! Like half the length. =]*
Rogue POV
Both Sting and I had passed out on the train after emptying our stomachs in the little puke bags they provided us whenever they saw us buying our tickets. Usually when we traveled with someone else we voluntarily asked to be knocked out so we could avoid our motion sickness as much as possible. But since we just had ourselves, Lector and Frosch we had to suffer through it. If it weren't for Lector and Frosch, Sting and I would have remained asleep and continued on this ride from hell, but luckily they were able to wake us up in time for us to crawl out of the train before it left our destination.
Once we made it out of the train and onto solid, unmoving ground we collapsed onto our backs, giving our stomachs some time to settle down before we attempted to move again. As we laid there with our eyes closed to the gently light of the setting sun Lector and Frosch climbed atop of our legs, waiting for us to return to our normal selves. They knew the drill by now considering this happened every time we used transportation. We have tried everything to help with our motion sickness; medicine and spells from the most skilled healers, charms and natural remedies, but nothing worked. If anything each attempt at curing out motion sickness made it worse. After about the tenth attempt we had unanimously decided it would be best for everyone involved if we were just knocked out.
After five long minutes of lying there, growling at anyone who came too close to us, I slowly sat up with my eyes still closed; testing to make sure I wouldn't get sick again. No longer feeling my stomach roil I stood up and secured my bag upon my back before I picked up Frosch. When she was settled, I not so gently nudged Sting with my foot and waited for him to get up at an even slower pace than I had. Each time he moved he moaned and looked like he was going to hurl again. Taking a step back I shook my head at him. He had always taken longer to recover for some reason. I kept telling him to stop reliving the rides over in his head directly afterwards but he never listened, and because of that I didn't feel as bad for him as I had initially.
Sting was in the process of using me as a crutch - having crawled to me after he gained control of his gag reflexes - to help him stand when I smelled Lucy's scent. For someone who should have only had a couple of hours head start her scent was incredibly faint. Forgetting all about Sting and his struggle to stand while leaning on me, I took off in the direction that Lucy's scent was strongest.
"Urghh… Rogue." I barely heard as Sting hit the ground after his leaning post had been taken from him so abruptly. "I hate you." He mumbled pathetically before he went silent.
Looking behind me I cringed as I saw Sting face down on the pavement with Lector trying to help him up. "Sorry Sting! You got it from here right?" Not giving him a chance to respond I started walking backwards before I turned back around and rushed down the street. "I'll meet you at the mayor's house!" I yelled with a backwards wave.
Feeling movement in my arms I looked down at Frosch as she peeked over my shoulder. "Fro thinks you should have helped him." She said as she looked to where we had left both of our best friends.
"At any other time I would have helped him Fro, but he can take care of himself right now. It's Lucy who is in danger if we don't find her sooner, rather than later." I said. When she looked at me with her eyes wide in fear I patted her back in reassurance. "Don't worry, we'll find her in time. It's not like she can hide from us, we are Dragon Slayers after all." For a moment she thought about it before she gave me her signature smile and relaxed back into my arms.
"Fro knows you will save her Rogue." She said with a nod before she turned herself around to look for the blonde who had become so important to us this past month.
Squeezing her tighter I continued to follow Lucy's trail until it took us to a clearing at the edge of town. Standing in the middle of the field I looked everyway and sniffed in every direction looking for my lost mage but couldn't find her. That's weird her scent ends here, but she is nowhere to be seen. The suddenness of the loss of her scent was concerning. When tracking people their scent didn't just disappear, there was always some trace of it somewhere. The only instances I had come across when a scent disappeared is if the actual person disappeared, or if they washed away their scent, or if something else was over powering it. But there was no water source nearby, and I couldn't smell anything else that could be masking her scent. It was like she vanished into thin air… or was snatched from above. Looking into the sky I tried to find anything unusual while sniffing the air. I smelled traces of Wyverns and something else I couldn't identify, but no Lucy.
"Hahaha Rogue what are you doing? Did you think Blondie sprouted winds and flew off?" Sting said as he bent over laughing.
"Good one Sting!" Lector said as he copied Sting and began to laugh.
Looking at the two idiots who were laughing at something that wasn't even funny I growled. "No, I thought the Wyverns or the dragon could have snatched her from above."
"Oh…" At that they both shut up, not having thought of an aerial attack as a possibility. "Did you find her scent?" Sting asked.
"No… it stops here and the Wyvern's scent isn't mingled with hers so I don't think she was taken by them. Although there is something else in the area, but I can't tell what it is exactly." Taking another deep breath I tried to identify it. "I know I've smelled it before though…" I mused.
Hearing Sting inhale I turned to him to see if he knew what it was. "It smells like Weisslogia but different. It might be the dragon that is with the Wyverns." Shrugging, Sting turned around and began making his way back into town. "Come on, we have to go speak with the mayor before it gets any later. After that we will find Blondie, she's not dumb enough to attack during the night so she should be safe until we find her."
Giving the clearing one last look I caught up to Sting and walked in step beside him. We wandered around town until we gave into the need to ask for directions. Stupid town, why do all of the nice houses have to look the same? I thought as I begrudgingly walked up to an old lady who was walking across the street. Glancing at her I cringed and wondered why people felt the need to wear big, ugly hats with feathers in them. Standing a good distance away, so not to be attacked but the flopping feathers I got her attention. "Excuse me but could you point me to the mayor's house please." I asked. Seeing her wary look I tried to appear friendly and gave her what I thought was a nice smile, until she ran off screaming.
"Hehe. Come on Rogue I know you can do better than that; you smile all of the time with Blondie, at least when you're not giving her the cold shoulder."
"Grrr, whatever! We don't have time for this. The longer we look the more trouble Lucy gets herself into." Stalking off down the street I continued to look for the mayor's house without asking any of the terrified citizens that were staring at me. I was about to growl at them to get them to stop staring when I heard Sting behind me.
"Honestly Rogue you should take lessons from the Great Sting Eucliffe. Watch and learn my friend." He said as he walked up to a group of giggling girls who were staring at us. Watching him I saw as some of the girls began digging through their purses, bringing out a pen and scrap paper before each of them handed it to Sting. After he had collected them all he gave them a smile and walked back to me.
Gazing quizzically at the mound of paper in his hand I asked "did they all write down directions? We only needed one of them to do it."
Sting and Lector looked at me as if I was the stupidest person they had come across. "Are you ser- never mind I know you are. These aren't directions; they're the girls' lacrima numbers. Honestly Rogue you need to get out more, maybe hit a club or two with Orga and I every once in a while." He said in disappointment. "They want us to give them a call when we are done with the job. Here this one is for you; she said she's into the quiet ones."
Not even looking at the paper he stuck in my hand I crumpled it up and put it in my pocket to be thrown away later. "Directions, Sting. Did you get the directions?" I said in impatience.
He carefully stacked the numbers on top of one another before he folded them and put them in his inside vest pocket. "Yeah, it's right over there Sherlock. We passed it during your rampage down the street."
Eyeing where Sting was pointing made a beeline for the house. Disregarding the knocker I used my fist and pounded on the door until I heard footsteps on the other side of the door. When it was opened a crack I pushed it further open and moved to step in. "Where is the mayor? We are here regarding the request."
One moment I was halfway in the door and the next I was being shoved backwards away from it, the doorway now blocked by a gorilla looking maid. "The job has already been discussed with the mage, there is no need for you to be here." She said menacingly.
Before I could open my mouth Sting pushed me aside and worked his magic. "We are her partners-"
"Partners wha-" was all I got out before Sting slapped his hand over my mouth.
"Yes, we are her partners; we got lost along the way and have seemed to have also lost the directions she gave us to where we were supposed to be camping out. Do you think it's possible for me to speak to the mayor so we can try to determine where she went?"
Surprisingly her scowl turned into a smile when she looked at Sting, but the moment she looked at me it returned. Nodding her head at Sting she said "you can see him, but he has to stay out here with your other companions."
"Thank you. Rogue here will just stay outside and get out exceeds something to eat. Right Rogue?" Sting growled the last part out as he glared at me. Nodding I peeled his hand off of my face, grabbed lector and found a place to sit and wait patiently. Watching Sting schmooze with the maid made me glare at them until the door was closed.
Hearing Frosch and Lector's stomachs grumble I pulled off my bag and dug through it looking for their fishy snacks. Finding their fish I handed one to each of them and put my bag back on, waiting for Sting to come back out.
I wasn't really mad at Sting, I was mad at myself. My inability to think beyond finding Lucy had almost cost her a lot of money and some jail time. If Sting hadn't stepped in when he did the mayor would have called the Rune Knights and Lucy would have been fined 1,000,000 jewels and spent a week in prison for impersonating an S-Class mage. She probably didn't know about the new law considering it was decreed two years prior, after some idiot thought it would be a good idea to impersonate an S-Class mage and take on a dark guild himself. His idiocy caused a whole town to get decimated and most of the town's people were injured while a few of them died in the hospitals from the severity of their wounds.
Sting was barely gone ten minutes when he stepped out of the house waving at the maid. Without a word he picked up Lector and started heading in the direction of the clearing. Catching up to him I was about to speak when Sting shook his head and whispered "not now, wait until we get to the clearing." Although I was impatient I trusted him to know what was best and followed him silently.
Avoiding the late night citizens we made it to the clearing and continued to the forest that was lining it. When we were about half a mile in the forest is when Sting stopped and sat down on the nearest rock. "Blondie definitely was here. She was given all of the information for a job, and the mayor wouldn't tell me anything besides where the monsters are residing. Before you freak out, I couldn't pressure him to tell me more because if I had he would have been even more suspicious about us and she would have gotten into even more trouble.
"But considering that the pests aren't too far from here it should mean that she is somewhere nearby. So we can either blindly look for her since her scent is masked or we can go to the caverns at first light and wait for her to show up." He finished, looking at me warily.
It took a second for it all to sink in but when it did I couldn't believe she would be so stupid! Unable to contain my disbelief any longer I went off, "what the hell was she thinking? First she took off on her own, and now she agreed to complete the job knowing full well that two S-Class mages were requested? If there was one wyvern that'd be fine, by there's a cavern full of them! One is difficult enough, let alone ten or more and when you add in a dragon into the mix it's suicide!"
The three of them let we continue to rant and rave as they set up camp and laid down for the night. When I heard snores I stared at Sting in disbelief at how calm he was about this all. It was him that had gone off on Lucy for even thinking of joining us. Unable to sleep with all of my thoughts bouncing around in my head I sat up against a tree and glared in the direction of the cavern planning what I'd do if they had hurt a single hair on her head.
Lucy POV
-Two hours before the Dragon Slayers arrival-
"I am connected with the path to the Celestial Spirit World. Heed my call! Pass through the gate! Open, Gate of the Crow! Corvus!" Unlike when I summoned my other spirits Corvus appeared from the shadows, no light appeared, if anything the light in the clearing grew dimmer.
Before me stood what looked like a human crow, which is what he was technically but he literally was a human crow, sans the wings. He would have looked completely human if it weren't for the black feathers that were covering his arms and part of his face. The feathers on his arms were lying flat, looking like there was just one giant feather instead of many little ones, like a crow's body. From how his arms looked I was pretty sure that if I were to see the rest of his body I'd find more feathers. Not that I wanted to see more! I thought with a blush.
Taking a closer look at his head I discovered what I had assumed was hair was actually feathers. They stuck straight back, similar to the hair style I had seen some men wear their hair; all shiny and gelled down, out of their faces. It didn't always work for the other men, but for Corvus it worked.
"Tch. Just like humans to assume that a spirit wants to switch owners." He said in a huff while looking me over. "You don't even look like you can handle a Zodiac key let alone the Jeweled ones."
I stood there with my mouth agape, I had never encountered such a rude spirit before, other than Aquarius that is. "Uhh…I…You…" I must have looked like a fish out of water with the way my mouth was opening and closing, I had no idea what to say to him.
"Great another idiot mage has my key. Common, speak. I know you can since you summoned me." Crossing his arms he stared at me and waited.
"How rude! I have never met a spirit as rude as you. I didn't take your key from Julien, he dropped it. If he had truly cared he would have held onto it. And for your information I have all of the Zodiacs, plus the 13th key. If you don't want to make a contract with me all you had to do was say so, I'm not going to force one upon you." As I spoke I unconsciously stepped closer to the spirit so I could poke him in the chest; I was spitting mad. He didn't even know me and he had called me an idiot and implied I wasn't strong enough to handle the Jeweled keys or the Zodiac.
Not wanting to deal with him any more until I got control of my anger I raised the hand that was holding his key so I could force his gate closed. But before I could do it he raised his hands in the sign of surrender.
"Tch. There you go assuming again. I didn't say I didn't want to make a contract, I was just saying it'd be nice if I had been asked." Uncrossing his arms, he began circling me. "You're pretty hot, I'm sure there are some things you are good at."
"Princess your knight has arrived!" Loke said as he appeared besides Corvus. Noticing who was standing mere inches away from me he slid between us and urged me to walk backwards. "How dare you accost my Princess. Shouldn't you be off with the rest of the Ravens, doing what they do best, annoy people?"
Between clenched teeth Corvus corrected Loke. "Crows, you stupid lion and you well know it. Plus it was not I who did the approaching, it was her. She did summon me after all, which is more than I can say for you."
Sensing Loke's anger rise I stepped in between them with my back to Corvus. "Loke stop, you know I need to make a contract with him." Stopping him before he could speak I continued. "If I don't you know what will happen, she'll gain more power and destroy both of our worlds and everyone we love along with them." Giving one last growl over my shoulder, the magic surrounding his fists receded.
Still tense and glaring at the other spirit he wrapped his arms around me and drew me into a hug. "Anything for you, Princess."
"Does making your spirits call you princess make you feel better about yourself?"
Releasing a tired sigh I turned to my newest spirit after I quietly asked for Loke to leave. "Corvus. If you don't want to make a contract with me then you're free to leave. And if you had let me speak before calling me an idiot you would have realized I was going to ask you if you'd like to make a contract with me. Ask any of my spirits they have all wanted to make a contract with me. As for Loke calling me Princess, I have told him time and time again to just call me by name but he refuses most of the time.
"If you do want to make a contract with me great; I'll treat you like I treat every single one of my spirits, with kindness. The respect you're going to have to earn after all of this. Now Corvus, would you like to make a contract with me?"
I could see him trying to find the catch in making a contract with me; he must have not found one because he nodded his head. "You leave me no choice. I can't let someone like you alone to represent us spirits, you'd disgrace us all."
Keeping in my annoyance, at least until the contract was done, I pulled out my notebook I kept all of the information for my other contracts out and prepared to write. "Okay well then, what days are you available?"
With that one question I saw his face twist up in anger. "I'm banished; therefore I am at your beck and call whenever you please. I am sealed to that key you hold in your hand and since I don't foresee you allowing me to hold onto my key then I will always be with you. Anymore stupid questions?"
Quickly writing a shorthand version of his answer I looked back up at him and proceeded with my questions, ignoring his sarcastic tone. "The King said your powers were not fully accessible to you, how does that affect your three forms?"
"Surprise, surprise you were able to come up with a smart question. Yes my dear King sealed away most of my magic because of him I am no longer able to take my giant form without pulling a great deal of magic from my master. As you can see and witnessed earlier I am able to turn into the smaller crows and can maintain my human form without any strain." I could tell he was bitter about his inability to transform into his giant form. Unable to completely be himself must have been hard for him, even after all of these years.
"How do I go about using your stealth and how long does it last? Julien vaguely spoke of it."
"All you have to do is rub your finger, hand, palm, whatever over the Onyx and think of me and my stealth with be yours temporarily. It will last for as long as your magic lasts."
"Is there a negative side effect to you if I use it too long?" I asked as the question came to mind.
"Since you are literally pulling it from my magic supply I will become weaker and eventually feel pain if you were to use it past two hours in my current state. If I had access to all of my magic you would be able to use it indefinitely since I could pull magic from the Spirit World but since I cannot I am regulated to feeling pain when my master overuses the ability. Not that you would care." He scoffed as he became silent. Looking at me in impatience he asked "are we done now?"
"Before you go, please stop referring to me as your master. I consider all of my spirits to be friends and that includes you. You can call me Lucy if you want." I said with a smile.
"Tch. Friend? I'll believe that when I see it, Blondie." He said as he vanished and I felt the key in my hand grow warm.
"Don't call me Blondie!" I shouted to nothing but air. Great another person who's gonna call me that.
Deciding it would be best to test out his stealth before I used it in the middle of cavern full of wyverns I stepped into the tree line where the sun couldn't reach and ran my thumb over the jewel and thought of Corvus. Feeling a tingling sensation overcome my entire body I looked down at my hand and saw that nothing had changed. Maybe I didn't do it right?
I was thinking of re-summoning Corvus to ask him if there was something I was missing when I saw a brown rabbit appear a few feet away. I watched as it looked around before it hopped closer to me and the patch of berries that was to my right. As if it didn't see me it proceeded to sniff at the berries and gingerly took one in its mouth and started chewing. Taking a cautious step forward I waited for it to spring away like they always did when they saw or smelled a human approaching but it didn't. Well I guess I was able to do it after all.
Reaching down to pet it I heard a roar in the distance that scared the rabbit enough for it to take one last mouth full of berries before it shot off away from the direction of the roar. Glancing overhead I saw a massive shape fly over the trees followed by six more figures. Stepping closer to an opening through the trees I saw seven wyverns fly away, some of them with struggling animals in their mouths. Following the noises and the shadows of the wyverns I saw as they all disappeared into a cavern in the middle of a cliff that over looked Kenji. Waiting a couple of more minutes to ensure that the last of them had returned I shut off my stealth and looked for a way up to the cavern.
Scouring the cliff side with my eyes I noticed that the sunlight covered the path I had mapped out, making it impossible for me to blend into the shadows as I climbed. I'll have to wait until the sunsets. I though as I found a spot that was hidden but allowed me to see the entrance to the cave.
As I waited for the sun to start setting I planned on eating the crackers I had grabbed form Sabertooth, but my appetite disappeared when I heard the cries of the cows and horses as the wyverns began their meal.
An: Let me know what you thought of the chapter! Please and thank you. :)
To both of the guests that reviewed: Thank you! I'm glad that there are people who love this fic! When I get reviews like your guys' it makes me glad that I decided to post it and write more of it!
artisofthemind: *nods head* Yes he is. He didn't deserve to have Polaris betray him. :(