A man crouches down as he scans the footprints printed on the sand. He inspected them thoroughly, before reaching a conclusion. "There's no question about this. They passed on here at least two days ago."
"Then, they definitely should've reached Magnolia by now, right?" A green haired woman asked, double checking the footprints.
The man named Alzack shakes his head before answering, "Anyways, we should return and give our report to Mira."
The woman raises an eyebrow, "We're not going after them?"
"No, Bisca."
Bisca only sighs and walks away. They rode on what looked like big chickens as the animals ran across the desert.
"This is a dilemma." Mirajane stated while holding orders on a tray, "A message from the council has also arrived."
Bisca hissed when she saw Mirajane was looking at her, "Don't look at me like that. I wanted to follow them."
"No, we couldn't have." Alzack calmly said, "Not even experienced Hunter guilds can find their way out of the end of Clover Canyon."
Bisca massages her temples, "It's a natural labyrinth. Why the heck would they go there?"
Mirajane put her free hand on her chin, "There must be a reason. The master's with them so they should be okay, but it's hot there."
Across a desert, a group of mages can be seen walking, sweat continuously falling from the sides of their necks. Happy continued walking, until he accidentally kicked a small rock and it fell down on the hole, the rock's sound hitting the ground echoed even as the wind blew hotly.
"We're lost again, aren't we?" Lucy asked frustrated, "We've been walking for too long and we still haven't reached Magnolia. Dumb cat!"
Happy dismissed Lucy's tone and nonchalantly said, "What do you mean lost 'again'? This is the first time!"
Lucy exhales to calm herself, "Nevermind, but we're still lost."
Natsu, who was silent the whole time, speaks, "Man. I'm hungry."
"Don't say that, you'll make us more even hungrier." Gray glared.
The fire mage grumbles, "I can't help it! I'm hungry!"
"Quit talking about it!"
They bicker again as usual.
The master released a puff of air, "It is true. I'm famished as well."
"Weren't you listening?!" Natsu and Gray shouted at the same time.
"Stop it." Erza said seriously, before a growling noise rings out from one of them. Erza grunted silently, not saying anymore.
"Your stomach just grumbled." Natsu points out.
"You are hearing things." Erza's eyebrows twitched slightly.
"That's the craziest excuse that I've heard."
Happy's excited voice gathered their attention, his eyes were shining.
"Why are you so excited?" Natsu asks.
"Look down there!" The cat says, his eyes still fixated below.
They all proceed to look down on the cliff. Blue fishes were flying below them.
"They are wingfish! A legendary delicacy! They are super yummy!"
Natsu asks, "Legendary delicacy?"
"Wingfish…"
"Sounds tasty!"
Makarov patted Happy, "Well done Happy. You save us all!"
Lucy only stared at them, then whispering to Aira, "They're all too hungry to know that it tastes bad." The latter only giggled in return, deciding to watch their antics. Lucy's stomach also grumbled.
Aira whispers, "You too."
"Yes."
"Let's fish!"
Half an hour had passed but they still hadn't caught anything.
"I thought they were easy to catch"
"I'm gonna try my best."
Lucy can't help but to grimace just watching those fishes, "They don't look tasty to me."
Erza commands, her eyes slightly shining. "Be quiet. Anything edible is okay. Get a fishing rod and try to catch one."
"You're that hungry?" Lucy asked shocked, "I'll just watch you guys."
Happy's determination only lasted after a few minutes, "I give up."
Lucy laughed.
"We couldn't catch anything at all." The male cat said while staring at the ground.
"But you're hungry right? That's why you shouldn't give up." She patted Happy's head.
Happy's eyes watered from what seemed like in awe, before he ran away, "Lucy's mean too!"
"I was cheering you up?" Lucy said, confused.
They only caught one fish in the entire hour of their fishing.
"Man, we only caught one." Natsu says, deflated.
Natsu put his fists flamed to cook the fish. When it was done, he offered it reluctantly to Happy, "You can have it. Since if we did eat, we will just look for more."
"Are you sure? We can share!"
Gray hisses, "It's only a little, so a few bites won't be enough to satisfy our hunger."
"You can eat it, Happy." Makarov agreed.
"Thank you!" Happy munched happily on the fried fish, the others watching with envy at the back, until Happy choked on the food. "It tastes bad!"
"That made us more hungry." Gray said, defeated.
They proceeded to walk again, eventually seeing a town in the middle of the desert. They entered the town, and were confused when they were met with deadly silence, and there are no signs of people roaming around.
"This looks like an abandoned town." Erza points out, entering the first house that she sees. There was served soup and rice at the table, steam still coming from the food.
Natsu sits at a chair, grabbing a bread and putting it at the front of his mouth. "Let's just eat, first."
A glare from Erza makes him stop taking a bite from the bread. "Don't eat, this is suspicious. We should investigate first. Natsu, Gray, Lucy, you guys can search for food first. Master and I will check around the town in the meantime."
The three wizards just nodded before going on their way.
Erza and Master Makarov start going around the town, and the requip mage stops at the middle of the town, where a fountain is built.
"There's another line here." Erza says.
There were four weird looking lines meeting in the middle. Before Makarov can reply, weird noises echoed through the empty town.
"What is that?"
"There's actually a forest here." Lucy says, and sees a different variation of mushrooms on the ground. The two idiots that she was with started picking on the mushrooms, stuffing their mouths hungrily. Lucy and Aira scrunched their faces in disgust. "You're actually eating mushrooms?"
Natsu shrugs, mouth full of weird looking mushrooms, "This isn't enough but maybe I'll still feel full in the end."
The blonde-haired mage only facepalms slightly, before turning on her heels, "I'll go hunt with Aira. You guys should stay here. If Erza and Master need help, I expect you to lend them a hand quickly."
Before Gray and Natsu can retort, the celestial mage and her cat disappeared already.
After a few minutes of eating mushrooms, the boys heard the weird noises coming from the town.
"What's that?!"
They ran quickly to the direction of the noise, shouting at the top of their lungs.
"Gramps!"
"Erza!"
They see them standing in the middle of the town, looking at the marks glowing in the ground.
"Be careful Happy!" Natsu warns.
"Aye."
The buildings started glowing and becoming distorted.
"Let's do this master!" Gray starts, removing his t-shirt.
"Wait," Makarov stopped Gray, "I have to confirm something. We must go to a higher ground."
"Let's go." Erza ushered them.
When they found a higher spot that they can stay on, they stopped. They watched as the buildings turned into what seemed like tentacles of monsters. There was a huge circle surrounding the monsters and Erza's eyebrows furrowed, "Master, isn't that a magic circle?"
Makarov nods, "You're right. The lines that you found earlier are part of the magic circle. These patterns were banned long ago, this is Alive magic." The master points to the creatures, "See? It's a spell that turns inanimate objects into living creatures. There's a possibility that the villagers activated the spell and got devoured instead."
Gray asks, "Why would they do it if they know it's risky?"
Erza takes a breath before explaining, "This is a dark guild's village. When I was checking the town earlier, I came across a shed that is full of weapons that aren't used for good purposes."
Makarov speaks again, "Anyways, this is such a good time. They can be turned into food!"
The mages eyes' shined, and their mouths started to water. But before they could prepare to do something to the monsters, Erza felt like something was amiss. "Where's Lucy and Aira?"
She looks at the two boys, waiting for an answer. Because of their hunger and impatience, Gray shrugs in a split second forgetting that Lucy told them that she was going to hunt. "I don't know. She just disappeared earlier. She said she's coming back later."
Erza just sighs, and feels her stomach growling again. She requips, and soon after, they were all cooking the monsters to their taste. Natsu blazes the monster on fire, and lets it steam. Gray freezes the monster using his magic, and Erza cuts it squarely.
Lucy arrives at the sight of Gray and Natsu simultaneously spitting out something that they ate. With furrowed eyebrows, she carefully dumps the animal that she hunted beside Makarov who flinches from shock.
"Lucy! Where had you been?" Makarov asks worriedly, then his gaze changes to the dead animal beside him. "You went hunting?"
The celestial mage nods, "I told Natsu and Gray that I'll go hunting for food because they kept eating those mushrooms that aren't even edible earlier." When she saw that the master was confused, she took a deep breath. "They haven't told you, right? Those idiots."
Both her and Aira scan the area and Lucy turns to the master again. "Alive Magic? The monsters' aren't dead yet, master. We should change spots," Lucy suggests, "The rock that we're standing on can collapse at any time now."
Makarov only raises an eyebrow, but doesn't say anything. He turns to the three mages below, "Natsu, Gray, Erza, we should-" before he can continue talking, the ground beneath them cracks, and all of them fall into the magic circle.
"I can't believe they didn't let us eat there." Natsu grumbles, holding his stomach. "And we even saved their asses from those monsters."
Lucy snorts, "They don't owe us anything. Besides, they gave us a map so that we won't be lost again. Well, I actually remembered something." With a snap of her fingers, a hole appears and they watch whatever it is that Lucy's going to do. She brought out two bodies of dead animals and they stared at her, agape.
Erza asks, "You've been hiding that the whole time?"
Lucy shrugs, "Not really, I got it from hunting a few hours ago." She glared at the two boys who were avoiding her gaze, "Apparently, someone or should I say, two people forgot to inform you that I was bringing back food." She clicks her tongue, "And you ate those monsters too."
She plops down on the ground, "We should stay the night here. The sun is going down already." Without stopping, she pulls a couple of logs from her pocket dimension.
Gray's eyes widened before facepalming, "What other kinds of things do you hide in your dimension?"
"Things for surviving. You never know what can happen anytime." Lucy replies, chuckling a little bit. "Master, is it actually okay that we stay here? I understand if you want to go back home quickly."
Makarov who was silent the whole time only nods, "We can stay here. If we continue journeying at night, it's more dangerous." He puts a hand on his chin. "We have a slight problem though."
Erza answers this time, "What is it, master? I'll solve it."
"We don't have camping gear nor tents that we can sleep on." Makarov points out.
They all turned to Lucy who laughed a little bit at the statement. They watched her open her own dimension, pulling out several camping gears. "I have those."
"What the hell? That's too many!" Natsu hollers, beginning to spread out three camping gears, "Now, we can definitely stay here for tonight."
Erza and Gray begin helping Natsu, while Lucy arranges the woods so that she can start a campfire. The master sits near Lucy, watching her produce a yellow fire. "I have never seen that color of fire, Lucy."
The blonde only hums,"It's celestial fire, Master. I learned it from my mentor."
The master sees that Lucy's eyes turned sad. "We don't have to talk about it."
Lucy only smiles a little bit, and starts putting the meat near the fire. "Say, Master. You did something on the magic circle earlier, right?"
Makarov shrugs, not saying anything. Erza slides in to sit next to the master, "When we defeated those monsters earlier, something activated inside the magic circle and tried to destroy everything. But you were calm, and I thought you did something."
"Maybe!" Makarov says vaguely, "But I'm hungry now."
They turn to see Lucy dividing the meat, "This will be done, instantly." She produced fire from her hands, putting it on the other side of the meat, "I'm also hungry so I'll help with the grill."
After a few minutes, the meat was done. They all sat down together circling the campfire as they munched on their food. They watched the sun disappear on the horizon and soon, the moon started to appear. It was surprisingly silent, the two boys who bickered almost every second were focused on eating their food. Lucy was the first one to be done and she watched them tidy after they ate and prepared to sleep. "I'll guard for tonight. You guys should rest."
The boys cheered, heading to their tent to sleep. Master Makarov pats Lucy in the back, before heading to his own tent. When they all went inside their tents - including Happy and Aira - she turned to see Erza standing a few feet away from her. "Aren't you going to sleep?"
The armored woman shakes her head, sitting beside Lucy who was in front of the campfire. "I'll join you."
Lucy smiles softly, "I can manage it myself, but thanks. If you start to get sleepy you can go rest on our tent."
Erza only nods, picking up a twig to poke on the firewood. The wood crackles a little bit, and Lucy adds a log to fuel the fire. "You know, I was used to guarding during missions." Erza starts, "And sometimes it gets lonely when I'm on my own mission because I don't have one to talk to. There's only silence, and sometimes it gets annoying because I'm succumbing to my thoughts."
Lucy stays silent, and Erza sees it as a sign to continue. "And for you to offer to guard for tonight, I don't know why but I feel happy? Maybe because I have someone that I can talk to while passing time."
Lucy turns to Erza, her eyes tracing the requip mage's features as the latter was focused on the fire. The blonde mage gulps, restraining a smile from appearing on her lips, "Then I'm glad to be here."
A comfortable silence engulfs them and Erza is pulled out of her reverie when she hears Lucy's voice. "Say, Erza. Aren't you uncomfortable?"
When Erza turns this time, she meets Lucy's gaze. "Uncomfortable?"
Lucy hums, "Your armor, isn't it too heavy?"
The scarlet haired woman shakes her head, "It's not, I'm used to it."
Lucy asks again, "Aren't you cold?"
Erza was ready to shake her head and deny but before she could, a wind breeze passed them and she shivered slightly from the cold. Before she could open her mouth to reply, a cloak was wrapped around her shoulders and covered her legs.
Lucy sits down again, "Don't remove it. You're shivering, besides you're wearing a skirt."
The scarlet-haired mage closes her mouth, wrapping Lucy's cloak around her body. She can smell the celestial mage's scent and she refrains herself from putting her nose to the material. Something about the blonde's action made her feel warm for no reason. She shakes herself internally, you're sounding weird.
Erza can only mutter, "Thanks."
Hello! Idk if anyone's still reading this because it's been almost a year since I last updated? Anyways, I was gone for so long because I forgot my password and lost my file about this. And my laptop broke. Also, life has caught up with me so I became busy.
First of all, I'm not gonna abandon this story. My stories are precious to me so, I'll finish this no matter how long it takes. Anyways, I'll be doing a double update, I'm just proofreading and adding things on the next chapter for now. :) Let me know your thoughts!