Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.

-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-

Chapter 14: The First Job Request. Part 1

Year: X752. 32 years till Canon begins.

Cade POV:

"Hey Cade?" Came the voice of Gildarts across from me on the train.

"Yeah?" I replied turning away from the window I was looking out from to face Gildarts.

"So I saw Lilly at the guild with you earlier, but there were two other people there as well. Who were they?" Gildarts asked curiously.

"Oh, well the women was Lilly's mother, and the girl you saw was Cornelia. She's my friend as well." I explained to him.

"Ah right, was just wondering who they were." Gildarts said nodding his head after I said that.

When we left the guild, we immediately made our way over to Magnolia station to board the next train to Hargeon so that we could start the job request. I did some asking at the train station while we waited for the train, and it turns out that the man Luko on the job request was an owner of a jewellery store in Hargeon.

I'm not sure whether the thief that was mentioned on the job has been stealing from him for a while now, or whether it has just started. Questions for the man I suppose, as we continued to travel to Hargeon.

"So what's the game plan then?" I asked to Gildarts, who was looking out of the window this time deep in thought. Upon hearing me, he turned around to look at me.

"Huh? Oh well, I think It'd be best if we go straight to Luko's store for the details when we get there." Gildarts answered.

"Erm, I kinda meant plans on capturing the thief. I mean I assume that's what the job wants us to do." I said, awkwardly scratching my head.

"Oh right. Well assuming it's a jewellery store, we gotta be careful of our magic usage. I may end up destroying the entire street if I'm not careful. As for you, Enchantment and Ice Magic are a lot less dangerous than my magic, so it may be up to you fight him if we end up facing him in Hargeon." Gildarts suggested crossing his arms as he did.

"R-Right…" I muttered nervously. "Honestly, I was kinda hoping we could fight him together as a team." I said awkwardly. "Oh I have an idea! How about we lure him out of Hargeon town? Then that way we won't have to worry about collateral damage!" I suggested in surprise and eagerness.

"Avoid collateral damage?" Gildarts whispered as he seemed to think about this.

"Yeah… Yeah! That's a great idea Cade! Not only will we be able to fight as a team for the first time, but we'll also get to avoid causing any damage to the town! Now that'd be nice for once." Gildarts then got excited, I could not tell whether it was because he would may longer have to pay costs for damage, or the idea of us fighting as a team; hopefully both.

"Wait… have you caused collateral damage before while doing jobs in the past?" I questioned in confusion, raising an eyebrow at Gildarts.

"Yeah I have... Almost every time I'm forced to fight in an enclosed space, I just accidentally end up destroying the entire area around me." Gildarts replied chucking in embarrassment as he explained his woes on jobs.

"What!? How much money do you end up paying to fix it?" I wondered curiously.

"Oh well, that's more of Master Makarov's thing. He just receives the news, either from me or the council. He seems to faint either way! Then I assume he fixes it for them." Gildarts explained.

"I see… well depending on the thief or job, we may end up being able to avoid destroying a whole town."

—

Attention. We have arrived at Hargeon Station. Please be ready to disembark the cartridge you are on if you are leaving. The next stop is Akane beach.

—

"That's our stop!" I cheered, as me and Gildarts waited for the train to stop, before we then exited the train to begin our job together in Hargeon.

When we got off the train, I saw that we were in a small area with some houses and pathways that lead through alleyways. I then turned round to face Gildarts to ask him an all important question. "So where do we go from here?" I questioned.

Gildarts responded, by picking up a pamphlet nearby and taking a good look through it. Around a minute and a half later, he gestured to me and pointed to the map on it. "Ok this is where we are right here." He pointed to a small marker on the map, which showed what looked like a train station. "Now, over here is where many of Hargeon's stores are. So I say we just head over there and try to find Luko's!"

"Great! Let's get going then!" I nodded with gusto.

As we made our way through the wide alleyways of Hargeon town, we eventually came to an exit which positioned us on a tall hill, which gave us a good view of the entire town.

It was a beautiful town from what I could see, It did seem to be quite old from what I could tell by the worn out stone bricks that made up many of the houses in the town. In the distance I could see a public park, in which the heads of many people were just visible. I could also see the ocean and the many ports that this town had.

Presumably, fishing was the main method of income for this town due to the sheer number of boats that were in my eyesight. I didn't how many there were, but I assumed that there were a couple dozen. The main path we were on continued down the hill and further into the town.

Not wanting to waste any more time, we both headed down in the area of Hargeon where many of its shops are available. As we walked through I was surprised to see that there was only a single magic shop in the town. There were many sign that pointed to it, and referenced it as the only magic shop in town.

I'm guessing that meant that there wasn't many mages in this town. As we continued to walk on through the area we were in, Gildarts and I spotted a shop with a sign that caught my eye.

—

-Luko's Jewels-

—

"Well guess that's it." I said turning to Gildarts.

"Yeah, looks like it." Gildarts confirmed, as he then moved towards the door to open it. When he did, we both entered the shop.

The interior was a good size considering what kind of shop it was. It had a white marble floor, along with several glass cases on top of the floor. Inside of them, I could see all sorts of jewellery ranging from rings, necklaces, broaches and earrings. They were all eloquently constructed, with very fine detail put in to them.

I could also see many different small minerals in the design of some of them, like diamond, topaz and ruby. I also noticed that there were a few empty cases on the floor. Probably the thief's doing, I reckoned. At the back of where we entered, there was a counter with a doorway behind it. There was a bell on the counter which Gildarts pressed when first seeing it.

Upon ringing it, the door at the back quickly opened and out came a rather slim man with no unique facial features, who seemed rather on edge from what I could see. He had a bit of a nervous look on his face as he came out.

'This must be Luko then.' I thought.

"Ah! I'm sorry, if I knew I was going to have customers I would have stayed out here, instead of going into the back of the shop." He apologised clapping his hands together. "Now, how can I help you two?" Luko asked as he looked to us both.

"We're the wizards who accepted the issue with the thief here." Gildarts informed, lifting his shirt up to reveal a black Fairy Tale guild mark. I quickly did the same as him, rolling up my right sleeve, to show Luko.

"Oh, wonderful! I was wondering when help would be arriving here! Please, allow me to fill you in on what's been going on here." Luko said clearing his throat, as me and Gildarts began to listen in.

"It began around a week ago, I was simply opening up the shop in the morning as per usual. But when I went in, I noticed that one of the expensive rings located in the display cases had vanished! I looked around the shop to try and find it, but I just couldn't locate it!" Luko began.

"What was most peculiar, was that the display case, was not destroyed or broken at all. The piece of jewellery had simply disappeared into thin air! But as the days went on, more and more of my rings, necklaces and bracelets have been vanishing, with the exact same situation!"

"I've tried to purchase a lacrima camera to record the nights of the store, but that is becoming quite hard due to the high price, especially when most of your customers begin to stop coming to your shop due to the jewellery disappearing. In short I feel that if this situation continues then I'll be out of a job." Luko finished explaining with a frown on his face.

It was when he finished explaining his troubles here, that I came up with a plan.

"Don't worry Luko, me and Gildarts have a plan on how to find and hopefully stop the criminal." I reassured him confidently, with Gildarts looking to me in confusion. I then nodded my head at Gildarts, trying to tell him to trust me on this.

"You do?" Luko looked surprised.

"Yes. You see the thief is only stealing the items from your shop at night right? Well in that case me and Gildarts will be staying up and keeping a watch for the criminal, then we'll try to catch him and get your jewellery back." I explained. Gildarts just nodded his head along with what I suggested. He must have liked what I said there.

Luko gave a few nods as he thought the plan over in his head. Eventually, he responded back.

"Yes, that sounds like a good plan you two. The only thing is, it's a good few hours till nightfall. The thief only seems to strike then. Why don't you come back at a later time and we can discuss the plan of action then?" Luko said to the both of us.

Me and Gildarts seemed to agree with what he said, and we both left his shop. Once the door was shut, I turned to Gildarts.

"So, what did you think? Of my plan I mean." I asked grinning to Gildarts.

"Yeah I was thinking around the same thing. Not bad Cade." Gildarts smirked.

"So what are we gonna do when nightfalls? I mean I know we're gonna wait for the thief to emerge, but then what? Do we trap him in the shop? Or do we follow him back to where his hideout is?" I wondered curiously.

"I'm not sure… there's a lot of ways we can approach this…" Gildarts wondered as he trailed off. "How about we think about it over some good food? I saw a restaurant on the way here."

That peaked my interest "Sounds good! Lead the way Gildarts!" As we then moved to the restaurant he saw.

The restaurant in question was a huge diner, with plenty of chairs and tables outside for guests to sit at and enjoy the ocean view while eating their food. The interior of the restaurant was huge and had dozens of guests sitting at tables and chairs, tucking away at their meals.

I could see several waiters and waitresses moving around the room serving meals to the guests. There was even a second floor to this restaurant, which had a railing for guests to look over. Me and Gildarts were currently waiting to be served in a queue.

"Hey Gildarts, how much will this place cost? I didn't bring any jewels with me!" I whispered to him in a slightly panicked tone.

"Don't worry, I brought enough with me to pay for this place." Gildarts assured me, shrugging away my concern.

We then both made it to the front of the queue, where a young women was waiting for us. "Hello there. Are you eating in or out?"

Gildarts looked at me "In?"

"Yep" I said plainly.

"Inside it is." Answered Gildarts to the lady.

"Alright then, if you could follow me please!" The lady smiled, as she led the way to our table, with me and Gildarts following her.

We eventually came to our table, and we each took a seat on opposite sides of each other. "We'll be back shortly to see what you're ordering. Please have a look at the menus to see what you want." She stated before leaving us.

Me and Gildarts then started to take a look through the restaurants menus. I saw some very nice and juicy looking foods on there. As I was continuing to look through, I heard Gildarts gasp in surprise.

"Aw crap! I had no idea the food was this expensive! 20,000 jewels for a single dish of freshly cooked lobster! I only brought 100,000 jewels with me!" He cried out in shame.

"Man… guess that means I'm not getting the seafood delight then." I muttered sadly, as I glanced at the expensive menu.

We both then decided to order some food that wouldn't cost us too many jewels overall. We still needed to pay for the train tickets back to Magnolia after all. While we were waiting for the food to arrive, I asked Gildarts a question regarding the break-ins to Luko's shop.

"What kind of magic do you think the thief is using to steal the jewellery?" I asked curiously.

"I'm not sure. There's a lot of different magics out there and there are a lot that could allow him to get the jewels without tampering with the glass cases." Explained Gildarts, looking around to see when the food was coming. "I think it's best that we keep our options open when we're about to engage with the thief." He continued.

"Did you have a think of the plan tonight?" I added.

"Yeah, I've got one forming in my head. I'll wait outside and hide behind one of the benches in the area, so I can see the thief coming to the shop. You'll be inside, and when he comes into the shop you'll fire an attack at him. That'll probably freak him out, thinking that he's about to get caught." Gildarts started.

"He'll then run back outside and we'll give chase to him. Once we get him, we'll beat him up and hand him in to the Rune Knights. Then they'll interrogate him to find out where the missing jewellery is. How does that sound!" Gildarts finished happily.

"That sounds… pretty effective!" I approved, nodding my head.

"Great!" Gildarts clapped his hands in excitement.

Right after he said that, a waiter came round with two trays of fresh seafood that me and Gildarts had ordered earlier. I had ordered a calamari dish, while Gildarts had ordered a squid dish. We both began to eat away at our food, and I was blown away by just how amazing this food was.

'What is their recipe…?' I thought with awe.

When we were done, Gildarts paid for the food, and we headed back to Luko's to fill him in on the plan in question.

Upon reaching the shop, we saw him outside, fixing the sign above his shop as it had fallen down a little. We called up to Luko and he came down to approach us.

"Ah it's good to see you two. I hope you have had fun around Hargeon, while waiting for nightfall. Which as a matter of fact, is soon approaching." Luko declared as he looked to the sun in the sky, which was beginning to set slowly. "I think we only have a few hours left before nightfall begins."

"Yes, we came here to inform you of the plan in more detail." I told Luko.

"Oh, yes. Please do tell me." Luko replied with eagerness.

I then informed Luko of the plan, and what me and Gildarts were going to try to do during the night. With Gildarts hiding outside waiting, and myself inside the shop hiding and waiting to strike.

"Well if you need somewhere to hide in my shop, you could hide behind the counter. All you have to do is peek your head up when you think you hear them." Luko suggested, after I finished informing him about the plan.

"Yeah that could work." I said, thinking about it. I suppose it was a good hiding spot. Well, rather the only hiding sport in the shop.

"I'll be hiding behind that bench over there." Gildarts informed, as he pointed to a bench opposite of the shop that was tucked away in a corner of a stone wall. "I don't think they'll see me if I hide behind it."

"Well then, I'd say we have a good plan on how to deal with this thief. This time tomorrow, I'll have hopefully recovered my stolen products." Luko spoke with a firm look.

We all then went back inside the shop to wait for nightfall. While we were waiting, Luko informed us that he would be inside the back of the shop, staying awake to see what was going on. Mainly because he didn't have magic, so he didn't want to get involved in any potential crossfire. He did say that he would be calling for the Rune Knights when we made contact with the thief, in an attempt to try and cut off their path.

The tension as we waited for nightfall was seriously getting on my nerves. Part of me wishes that the thief would just break in already to save me a whole lot of waiting. The anxiety that comes with waiting for things like this can be quite suffocating, as I have just learned.

Gildarts left the shop when the sun was about to finish setting, to hide behind the bench. He wished me good luck and said that he believed that I could do it.

A few minutes after that, Luko chose to enter the back room and wished me good luck before leaving. After he left, I hid myself behind the counter of the shop and listened carefully to hear if anyone was entering.

The shop was completely quiet now, you could practically hear a pin drop on the floor.

And so, some time passed.

And then some more.

…

…

The sun had now completely set and the shop was in darkness. The sky was clear so you could still see in the shop, where things were like the door and glass cabinets. The moon would occasionally illuminate the shop floor, and the light would reflect of the glass cabinets and light up the room for a brief moment before disappearing.

…

…

*Click*

*Click click*

Wait… What was that? I could hear… some clicking? Where was it coming from?

'Ah! What's that noise!?'

*Click click*

Where was it coming from?! At that point, I peered over the counter ever so slightly to see the shop floor, and my heart skipped a beat when I gazed to the shop door.

I could an individual dressed in some black clothing, on the outside of the shops door, messing around with the keyhole. He was picking the lock on the door! I tried to get a better look at him while he was doing this, but I was unable to do so as he wore a hood that covered his face.

I contemplated whether I should attack him now, or wait and see what his magic was. I chose to stick with the plan and continued to wait. We only had one shot at this!

Not too long later, the thief was able to pick the lock on the door to the shop and open it. He looked around outside before heading in, before carefully closing the door behind him. At this point I had ducked my head again under the counter, so he couldn't see me.

As such, I listened to his footsteps which were very faint. It's a good thing I trained my senses by meditating before this at Porlyusica's place, I'm not sure if I'd be able to pick up this guys footsteps.

I eventually heard him stop and peaked my head up ever so slightly to see where he was. He was standing to the far left of where I was hiding, his back turned to me, and as such completely oblivious that I was here. I think he was in front of a glass container, but he was blocking my view so I couldn't see what he was doing with it. It looked like he was holding out his hand to the glass case and doing something with it.

Deciding to act now, I slowly raised my hand and prepared to cast my spell. It was one that I had read up on last night before going to bed. It involved firing a beam of ice at my opponent. This attack was meant to knock him back, and then he would presumably run out of the shop after being discovered.

I narrowed my eyes and took a silent breath.

"Ice Beam!"

As I shouted that, a few things all happened at once.

The first was that the thief gasped in shock, turning around to discover that I was in the shop with him. Next the beam of ice materialised in front of me and was sent towards the thief. The final thing was that the moon's reflection off the glass floor and then reflecting off the glass cabinets, allowed me to get a good look at my opponent.

He wore a hood over his face and covered his mouth and nose with a mask, leaving his eyes and eyebrows barely exposed. He had purple eyes and I swore I could see a bit off black hair under the hood. I was able to see his attire in a bit more detail though, he had black clothing covering his entire body from his chest downwards, but one of his hands was exposed with two silver rings on his gloved fingers. He also had a pouch on his waist that held something, probably his lock picks.

My beam of ice made contact with him and it hit him square in the back sending him crashing into the wall of the shop. He then responded to this by choosing to flee the scene, by running out of the shop door!

I chased after him, running out of the shop door as well. When I exited the shop I saw that Gildarts had already given chase to the person, as I saw him running after him. I quickly caught up to Gildarts and raised the all important question.

"What now!?" I yelled as we kept running after the thief.

"Use some of your magic on him! Try get his feet!" Gildarts ordered to me as we continued to chase him. I then chose to follow Gildarts advice and fired an ice spell at the criminal.

"Ice Shard!" I cried, sending a shard of ice towards the thief. Due my lack of experience, the attack was a little off course from what I was aiming for, so it missed and went shooting past his leg. But it still did some damage. The attack sliced his leg as it flew by him, leaving a gash on his leg.

The thief let out a cry in pain as the attack hit his leg. He had slowed down a little after that little bit of pain just there, yet he kept running regardless. Me and Gildarts were now catching up with him, but as we were getting closer the thief reached into his pouch, grabbed something from it and held it up in the sky. Just then, a bright light shined from whatever he had in his hand, stunning both me and Gildarts.

We did keep running, but when the light cleared, I noticed that Gildarts was gone! He had just straight up disappeared into thin air! Where was he?! Did that light make him disappear?! Was that how he made the jewellery disappear?!

'Oh… this thief is gonna pay when I get ahold of him.' I declared with internal anger, as I continued to run after him.

At this point we had ran all the way to the beach at the edge of Hargeon town, and we were now running on the sandy shores. I could see the moon reflecting off the edge of the water as we ran past the sea.

I was really beginning to catch up with the thief now, that attack of mine had slowed his speed by quite a bit. The distance between us grew shorter and shorter, and when I was sure I was close enough to him, I jumped at him to tackle him to the ground.

As I jumped him, he lost his balance from the wound he had on his leg and my weight on top of him. Because of that, we both went crashing into the sand. I quickly stood back up, as did he. But I was in for a shock when I saw him now. When I jumped at him, the hood he wore had came clean off his head and so did his mask which covered his face.

Instead of seeing a man under I there, I was surprised to see a girl about 16 years of age! She had purple eyes and long black hair. However I didn't let this distract me from the fact that she was a criminal that had done something with Gildarts and had stolen jewellery from a shop in town!

"There's nowhere to go now. You should give up and come quietly!" I shouted to the thief with a serious voice.

"Hmph, why would I do that now? I've been doing this for a few days now, I'm not about to be taken in to the Rune Knights by a kid." She replied, in a snarky voice, as she dusted her clothes to get some sand off them.

Realising that I probably wasn't going to get her to stand down, I changed my approach. "What did you do with Gildarts back there?" I demanded.

"Oh, him? I used this on him to get him off my tracks. Shame it didn't work on you." She informed as she held up her left hand to reveal three rings on her fingers.

"You use ring magic!" I said in surprise. I had heard about ring magic before from my father, but I didn't think I would be facing off against someone who actually has three rings at once. Something about that just felt like cheating in a weird way.

"Yes, I do. Each of them helps me out when doing a break in like that back there." She stated with a smile on her face. "This one, allows me to use basic phasing magic on very small items." She explained waving her pinkie at me. "This one lets me use basic telekinesis on very small items." She elaborated waving her index finger at me.

'She must have used the both of those together to steal the jewellery from the glass case!' As I looked to see what the last ring did.

"And this ring right here, lets me summon a burst of light to stun anyone following me. Your friend must have ran off in a different direction when I used it. He's probably still up there trying to find me." She giggled with glee at the end of that sentence.

'So that's how she got rid of Gildarts. He isn't really gone, he's just wandering around up there somewhere. Wait a minute if that's all her rings then that means…'

I grinned as I started to laugh a little after she finished saying that, casing the thief to give a weirded look. "Well that's that then. That's all your magic, and none of it can be used against me! I've won this!" I cried with complete confidence.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that kid." She wagged a finger at me. "I've got another magic on me!" She smirked.

"What!?" I shouted in shock.

'She has a second magic as well?!'

"Any good thief makes sure that they are prepared for any sticky situations if they can't evade the authorities." She addressed, as she reached into her pouch and pulled out a silver key, and held it in the sky.

'What's that supposed to be?' I wondered in befuddlement.

"Open Gate of the Flame: Canopus!"

As she said that there was a flash of silver light, then standing in front of her was a medium sized creature that looked like a cross between a bird and a man.

His head was that of an eagle instead of a human. His hands were replaced by sharp talons and his feet were replaced by spiked claws. His body and legs however, took the shape of a usual human body. He wore a big thick jacket, which had fur around the edges. It wasn't zipped up which left his chest exposed. I could also see some tattoos that were scattered on his body. He wore some tight trousers that had some rips in them. It was hard to make out some of the colours on his clothing and hair due to the darkness around us.

'What the!? Did she just summon someone out of thin air?! Who is this guy!? WHAT is this guy!?' I began to panic internally at this new arrival.

"What do you need boss?!" Yelled the raven-man in a rather rough and loud voice, looking back to the lady who had summoned him. The strangest thing to me, was that eagle man spoke in clear english!

"I need you to take care of this brat Canopus. Just keep knocking him down till he won't get back up." The thief smirked taking a seat on a nearby rock.

Canopus tuned to me and smirked. "Hope you're ready kid, I'm in a foul mood today so you better watch out." He stated, as he took a fighting stance, as some fire erupted from his hands.

'No idea who or WHAT this guy is, but it seems like I'll be unable to arrest the thief unless I stop him…'

"I don't know what you are exactly, but if you're in my way and stoping me from getting to that lady there then I'm gonna have to go through you." I addressed the bird-man nervously, preparing myself for battle.

And there we have it everyone! Feel free to leave a review if you wish to do so!

The first part of this chapter is done. I originally wanted to put this part and the next part together into one big chapter, but I felt it would be best if I split them up to help the pacing a bit. The fight will be happening in the next chapter.

Anyway, now Cade is facing off against a Celestial Spirit Wizard! Who is using… brand new spirts?! Eh, why not introduce a few new ones. Here's hoping Cade can pull of a win!

With that, I'll see you all in the next chapter! I hope you all enjoyed this one!

Shooter312: Thank you for that review! I hope you continue to read this story in the future!