...A Week Before THE Incident...
The flicker of a lighter went off, illuminating the nose and sharp jaw of a brown-haired man who held his cigar to the light and lit it, "Thank you for coming back, your quick correspondence is truly appreciated,"
He held his cigar, taking in a deep breathe and breathing in the pleasant smoke easily and breathing it out.
The figure crossed their pale white legs over the other, the jingles of the high buckled boots making a small sound through the dimly lit room, "We aim to work quickly, so let's hurry this up, my associates hate waiting,"
Two other females stood on either side of the main figure, pleasantly sitting on the blood-red sofa. The green-haired female on the right side of the figure was sitting lazily on the armrest of the sofa, a toothpick hanging on the edge of her lips whilst the blonde on the left side of the figure remained standing by her side of the armrest, glaring at the man before them.
The brown-haired man blew the smoke across the table, the smoke wafting past the figure's face in front of him, "In a world where Dragons are a commodity and the worshipped race, Dragon Guard Guilds flourish by offering their services to make life easier for all races in Earthland,"
The scarlet hair on this figure covered half of their face, their brown eyes glimmering gold under the dim light that was provided. The figure lifted their head up to face the brown-haired man, their scarlet hair covering their right eye.
"But the Dragon Guard Guild in Magnolia, the Fairy Guard Guild… that Guild has a Dragon that I want taken care of…" The brown-haired man glared forward, opening his eyes to slits, "The Cursed Flame…"
"Macao Conbolt." The figure spoke.
"So, you know of him?" The brown-haired man put his cigar to his lips.
"We've... done our own research since our last conversation, like I said," The figure lifted her arms, pointing them at both of her associates, "My girls do not like to wait,"
"So... are you able to get him...?" The brown-haired man raised an uncertain brow.
The blonde woman spoke up, her eyes were lazy-looking yet her pupils sharp and intimidating, "Based on our sources, the Fairy Guard Guild is the greatest Dragon Guard guild throughout Fiore. Whilst Macao Conbolt is not a hotshot within the guild, it would draw a lot of attention if we were to kidnap him for you,"
The green-haired woman tilted her head to the side, "Which leads us to our first question: What do you aim to do with him?"
The figure in the middle leaned forward, raising an index finger as her brown eyes sharpened and stared at the man, "You asked us at first to just bring him to you. But simply kidnapping him would be foolish considering the guild he is associated with, you will have to kill him,"
The brown-haired man slightly gulped.
"So, will you?" The scarlet-haired figure spoke up, swatting the man from his thoughts, "Or are you getting cold feet?"
"N-No. Definitely not!" The brown-haired man stood up from his side of the sofa, "I've already gave you the jewels for this job, just get it done and bring him to me- EE!"
The brown-haired man was now looking down the double-barrel of a shotgun, the twin barrels staring right back at him as the green-haired woman in front of him held it up to his face with a deadly glare, "Listen up! We try not to deal with pansies?! We ain't your clean-up crew. If you mess up and the Fairy Guard Guild is hot on your tail, don't go pointing fingers at us, ya hear??!"
"He won't have fingers to point at when we're done with him," The blonde woman raised her right arm a bit, gently lifting her closed cloak to reveal a set of golden keys that dangle on a key ring that was attached to her brown withered belt.
"Bisca, Lucy. calm down," The scarlet figure spoke as they rose from their seat, their long scarlet hair hanging down as the frontal bangs of their hair only covered their face. They wore a white sleeveless shirt, buttons halfway done and revealing their cleavage a bit, "I'm sure he's smart enough to know the consequences if he was to ever tell on us,"
The brown-haired man gritted his teeth in fear, still staring at the shotgun as the green haired woman sighed and retreated the shotgun, resting it on her shoulder.
"Hm… he better," The green-haired woman, Bisca, tutted.
The blonde woman, Lucy, turned on her heel, her back turned towards the man, "Then let's get started,"
The scarlet-haired woman stood up, towering over the man in front of her with a giant smile on her face, "We will be back in two days,"
"T-Two days?! That's absurd-." The brown-haired man stepped forward, finally finding strength in his legs after being threatened.
Bisca and Lucy glared at the man whilst the woman in the middle walked towards the double doors that led into the room, and opened them, "To many, yes. But The Titania Squad is a group of well-skilled Dragon Slayers,"
She glanced over her shoulder at the man with a calm yet bone-chilling stare, "So when we say two days, we mean two days,"
The brown-haired man gulped, deciding to keep his mouth shut.
The scarlet-haired woman and her associates walked down the empty halls, their footsteps rumbling the walls as their immaculate aura stunned all the men that stood guard in the hallway.
Once they left the two-story mansion, making their way to the golden gated entrance, the three began to speak among themselves.
"Who have we got stationed in Magnolia right now?" The Scarlet-haired woman walked ahead of the two.
"Cana is on patrol, Chief." The blonde, Lucy, answered, "And my spirits are assisting her on all Dragon activity happening there,"
"Good. Meet up with her and have Cana return back to the hideout, and remain on standby for any other calls," The scarlet-haired woman brushed her hair back over her shoulders, allowing the long crowd of strands to fall to her lower back.
This scarlet-haired woman wore high brown boots, with two pairs of buckles along the top, her blue smooth leggings were tucked into her boots whilst she also wore a dirty-brown animal fur that hugged her hips.
Surprisingly, she wore a spotless white shirt, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows with two blue armbands on her forearms, ending at her elbows, despite being rather voluptuous, she had muscular detail to her arms, and a slight scar on her left cheek.
"Finally, work time," The green-haired woman, Bisca, yawned. She plucked her toothpick from her mouth and flicked it elsewhere, "Are we going in with a bang or what?"
"Depends on what information Cana hands to us. I asked her to keep a look out for the Salamander," Lucy leaned against the wall, as the Chief glanced at her with an interested smile.
"Ah yes, the Fire Dragon Guard," The Chief rubbed her chin with an interested tone, "I hope to run into him soon,"
"Is he a part of the Fairy Guards, Lucy?" Bisca turned to the blonde.
"We don't have access to that information yet – all we know is that he is probably on good terms with them given that he comes to and from the guild, but we should still be wary," Lucy responded nonchalantly.
"I don't get it, why are you two so interested in him?" Bisca raised her brow at the Chief who simply shrugged.
Lucy remained silent.
"It's all about the catch in this line of work, you know this, Bisca," The chief smirked from ear to ear, "The kind of attraction and fear we will build if we were to slay the Salamander, it will put us at the top,"
"Heh," Bisca smirked from ear to ear, "More money does sound charming,"
"I'm sure the Salamander will put up an excellent fight," The Chief smiled to herself cheerfully, she was quite ecstatic to meet the Fire Dragon Guard.
One day.
"What Guard rank does he sit at?" Bisca raised a brow.
"He is Military Class," Lucy answered, glancing over at Bisca who tilted her head back in slight surprise.
"Damn…" Bisca whispered.
"And a known Dragon Guard at that, you don't require deeper knowledge to know that. It is a shame that we don't have much information on his Human form," The Chief smiled cunningly.
Lucy peaked her head up at this and took a step forward to the scarlet-haired woman, "Considering that is the case, may I have your permission to look further into the Salamander-."
"Permission denied." The Chief answered with a neutral tone.
Lucy took a step back, glaring at the ground with a rebellious growl taking place.
"While we are doing a job for a client which involves pissing off the Fairy Guard Guild, we would be making matters worse if we go after the Salamander head on," The Chief glanced towards Lucy, "Focus on capturing the Cursed Flame,"
"But Chief-."
"Not another word of this. Complete the mission that we've been assigned…" The chief turned her back to the blonde, "… then we can talk about the Salamander,"
Lucy bit her lip and bowed to the chief, "I understand, Chief,"
The Chief walked ahead of Bisca and Lucy who stood upright and waited…
"Do a good job, girls. And stay safe." The chief slowly raised a hand above her then quickly swiped it down and said, "Scatter!"
The two women behind her disappeared, leaving dust clouds in their wake and the Chief's scarlet hair blowing before herself.
She smiled from ear to ear, "The Fairy Guard Guild as our next targets… this surely will be promising,"
As Bisca and Lucy scaled the buildings, they did it with precision and key to avoid all obstacles in their way. Bisca stayed on the rooftops, running with her shotgun in her hands and jumping off the very edge of one building and making it to another.
Lucy scaled the trees, launching herself off the branches and going further than Bisca was. As Lucy soared through the air, Bisca glanced in her direction and huffed.
Lucy was wearing a dark purple cloak, and beneath that cloak, was a dark purple onesie, which allowed her to have free movement. She also wore brown thigh-high boots that needed to be zipped up from the back. On her waist was a brown-withered belt that held up a golden key ring that held several golden keys along.
Lucy always wears a tired expression, her eyes slim and no smile present on her face.
Bisca wore an auburn trench coat with a back trench coat beneath, she also wore a black belt that held shotgun shells in each sleeve. She had on auburn shorts that hugged her thighs and black leggings that ran down to brown boots that reached to her knees.
Unlike Lucy, Bisca actually smiled from time to time.
"So, how will we be snatching the Cursed Flame, Lucy?" Bisca smirked and jumped onto a chimney, then pounced onto another building, she landed face forward onto the brick wall then pounced backwards, doing a few flips before pushing off the other brick wall and landing onto a new flight of buildings.
She was now at the same altitude as Lucy, who launched herself off another tree and was soaring through the air once more at the same height Bisca was at.
"First, we'll retrieve the info on the Fairy Guard Guild from Cana and my Spirits, then we'll decide from there depending on what Cana has gotten in the last three days," Lucy said. Gravity pulled her back down, but she caught onto a branch and swung herself in a circle a few times before flinging herself back into the air.
Bisca focused on her steps as she jumped off a chimney and onto a sloped rooftop, she effortlessly began to scale it but was gradually slipping off as she ran across it, "Hopefully Cana actually kept a look out, huh?"
"I wouldn't count on it, you know how she is," Lucy scoffed.
Bisca reached the edge of the sloped rooftop and jumped into Lucy's direction, both of them now being at the same altitude.
Bisca dropped first before Lucy, the both of them falling into a crowd of leaves. They landed perfectly on a few trees and began to fall off their branches carefully yet effortlessly.
Their boots crashed against the leaves beneath them as they began to make their way through the herd of leaves in their way, light peered in through the leaves as they tore through the leaves in their way with their arms.
Not too long later, they both popped out of the bushes and stood at the hillside as they looked over…
"Heaven's Merchant Town; Magnolia," Bisca crouched on the hillside, "It's bigger than I thought,"
The notorious town that is located in Fiore, a powerful merchant town that is home to the Fairy Guard Guild. Because of where the Fairy Guard Guild is, the town Magnolia has expanded to house and welcome all potential inhabitants to come and go.
The sun was high, casting Magnolia with a beautiful midnight light due to massive Etherion pillars that stood erect in different parts of the town.
Lucy pointed to the south, where the Fairy Guard Guild stood: the Guardian Guild was three stories high, with a giant red fairy logo on the front of the building. It was surrounded by a 4x4 fence, all coated with golden-red.
A white light illuminated from her shotgun, and the white light formed into a Marksman Sniper Rifle, "So, we meet up with Cana, then bust in there and shoot everything up-."
"No, ugh, you and Cana are just the same. We'll meet up with Cana, debrief, and observe for now," Lucy explained, "I want us to keep an eye out for any Dragon Guards including Salamander,"
"I sense an intense hate boner for Salamander here," Bisca grinned as she inspected her weapon, "I get that we are Dragon Slayers, but I don't think I've ever wasted emotions on a Dragon Guard before,"
Lucy looked onward; her golden-yellow hair being carried by the gentle breeze that passed her.
Bisca's constant rambling began to drown out as white noise replaced everything around her…
Flames rushed over Magnolia and flew around her also, she was younger.
Smaller.
She was looking out into the distance… a burning mansion, riddled with flames that consumed the structure of the building… and there the monster stood, a gigantic roar from a Dragon that stood up from the mansion and shouted to the heavens. The ground shook but the small girl did not fall, her eyes widened at the Dragon before her.
A man in uniform and headgear approached the girl and forced her to step back.
Her widened eyes began to show life, and all at once; tears bursted out from her eyes, her mouth agape as she tried to gallop towards the mansion.
"MOM!!! DAD!?!"
"Get back! Get back!" The man held the young girl who held her hand out to the mansion that continued to be trampled to ruins by the Dragon.
"My Mom and Dad are still in there!" The girl cried, but the man in uniform continued to hold her back.
"They are gone… I'm sorry," The man in uniform sighed as he began to pull her away from the scene.
Other men in uniform passed them and approached with weapons of every sort as the Dragon continue to trample on the mansion. It spewed a large gust of flames, further destroying everything in its wake.
Everything became slow for the young girl who held her hand out towards the mansion, tears still running down her face as she was taken away from the place she was born, where she lived with her parents, that was her home.
And now it was gone…
Along with her parents.
… Lucy…
.. Lucy..
"LUCY!" Bisca shook the golden-haired Dragon Slayer, worry present in her eyes, "Hey! Are you okay?"
Lucy shook her head, her eyes were wide with a single tear running out of her right eye, she gently lifted her hand to her face and touched the wetness on her cheek.
"What's the matter?" Bisca asked with concern in her tone.
Lucy pulled away from the Marksman and wiped her eyes, "N-Nothing, let's just… get to work,"
Lucy jumped down the cliffside and Bisca watched her press forward. She also followed after her as they made their way to the Merchant town where their big mission will finally begin.
To Be Continued