Be Careful What You Wish For

The First Attack

Author's Note: Hey, I hope you guys were able to get who that person was that helped Gray. If not, I may tell who it was later. Anyway, here is chapter 7.

Chapter 7

Lucy's POV

Gray had been asleep for a great portion of the train ride so it was just Erza, Happy, and me. Happy hadn't really said anything. I felt bad for the blue cat. Erza seemed troubled by this whole thing. She was in deep thought, almost like she was trying to figure out what she was missing from his whole thing. I gave out a small sigh. I kept looking at Gray. He kept muttering in his sleep. I couldn't understand what he was saying, but he kept looking troubled. I didn't know what to do. Should I wake him or just let him rest? I thought for a moment. I decided to let him sleep. It was silent on the rain ride. I could almost make out what Gray was saying. I looked out the window of the train when I, myself, was stating to nod off to sleep. When that was happening, Gray bolted up, waking from his troubled sleep. He was drenched in sweat. His breathing was heavy as well. Did he have a nightmare? He looked around wildly, almost like he forgot that he was on the train.

"Gray? Are you alright?"

Gray looked right at me. Erza had her eyes close. She opened them when I asked Gray if he was alright. I guess she was in such deep thought, she didn't notice that he was awake. Happy even looked over. He took a deep breath before talking.

"I think I know where to find Natsu."

We stare at him for a moment. I was letting his words sink in for a moment. He just said that he thinks he knows where Natsu is. How? No one even knew who he was. I was going to speak but Erza beat me to it.

"What are you talking about, Gray? How could you know where Natsu is? "

"I said I think I know. I am not certain, but there is a chance that Natsu is at his old home."

"Old home? What are you talking about?"

"I..... Well, when Natsu went on that mission with us, his first mission, the one he went on before he joined Fairy Tail, he told me. I had asked about where he lived. I guess I was curious as to where he lived with a massive dragon, and no one knew anything about Igneel."

Gray grabbed the backpack. He pulled out the map. He started to look over it. He took a pencil and circled two lakes that were close to the forest we were headed to. As Gray talked, he pointed to the mountains, valley ways, and the lakes.

"He told me that he lived in a valley. The valley was surrounding by mountains. Inside one of the mountains should be a cave. Natsu said that when it was in the winter season, he and Igneel would be in that cave. But, since it will be warm here, he will be near an oak tree. He called it a summer oak."

Summer oak? I take a look at the map. If what Gray was saying true, then he just limited our search to a smaller area. Thank you Natsu. Gray continued to talk, but I tuned him out. I know I read something about a summer oak. I started to think about what Gray had said. Dragon, Mountain, Valley, Summer Oak, Cave, Dragon. Dragon! Igneel, he was a dragon. That had to be a clue in itself. I look back at the map. I decided to go back to the knowledge I had of Summer oaks. They were big and could live for hundreds of years. They couldn't live in desert lands or any terrain that had sand. They.... Sand? This smaller lake is surrounded by sand. So, a summer oak couldn't live there. This bigger lake though, could it? Maybe. Again, this is just a lead for us. It may lead nowhere or it could help us in the long run.

Erza's POV

I listened to Gray as he explained everything he could recall about his memory. It was strange that he had regained that memory through a dream. I dismissed that thought as it was no help in this situation. I looked over at Lucy who seemed to not be paying attention. As we were talking, the train came to a stop. It seems that our train ride had reached its end. We got of quickly. We wanted to waste no more time. I had looked at the map and it seems that we will have to walk through many miles of forest before we reach our destination. It was going to be long and tiring, but I believe we can do it. We head off to the east. I knew we had been on the train for some time, and the sun was setting, but I wanted to get some ground covered before we make camp. I told the others, no one objected. The forest was pretty. It had trees that were spaced out where the light was coming through. It was peaceful. As we were walking, we say some deer and heard many birds. This place was magical. I didn't wan to leave. It was strange that I thought that. I quickly shook off that thought. Happy was flying, but then his wings gave out and he lost his ability to fly. He would have a hard time keeping up with us at the pace we were going. He would also get tired faster. I let him stay on the luggage that I had brought. These woods, they had a calming effect. As we continued to walk, the woods started to get thicker. The light started to fade as the sun was blocked by the leaves of the tall trees. It no longer felt calming. It felt..................... dark. I glanced at the others. Lucy was hugging herself and had a look of discomfort on her face. Gray just looked worried. Happy. Well, he was petrified. Everything about the forest had changed. It was a dark aura that had slowly slipped through the calming aura that we had been walking through not even a minute ago. We continued to walk through quickly darkening forest. I noticed that the trees started to change. It was no longer the pretty and calming forest. It had turned dark and eerie.

A/N: I did not realize that I was dragging this part on about the forest. All I did know was that I had writer's block and I was having a little bit of a difficult time writing this. Anyway, back to the story.

~Time skip because I should really not spend so much time talking about the forest. ~

We have been walking for quite some time now, the sun was setting. We shouldn't keep going but I didn't think any of us would get a wink of sleep with the dark aura that surrounds this place. As the dark aura grew, it was getting harder for me to breath. I looked back at the others, they had started to cough. This magic filled forest....... It was dark and foreign. My vision got hazy. I quickly went to my supplies. I had to find this powder. Porlyusica had given me this power that she said would help with dark magic poison. I didn't know what that was like, I could only assume that this is what it was like. I inhaled a small portion of the powder. I started to feel better. I told the others what to do. They didn't ask questions. As they consumed the powder, I heard a strange noise. Gray heard it to because he looked at me and asked,

"Did you hear something?

"Yeah. I did. What was it? It sounded like an animal. I big one too."

"Hey, Erza, I think we should keep going............"

Gray got cut off by an unearthly sound. It sounded like an animal yet at the same time, not. I looked around. Where was that sound coming from? I couldn't tell. It sounded like it was coming from all over. Was there just one? I couldn't tell. All I did know was that the sound was getting closer. What if it is nothing? What if it is just this forest messing with us? I let out a gasp. I turn to face a shadow. The shadow had a face! It had yellow eyes. I then saw that it was not a shadow. This was some sort of monster. I tried to summon my sword, but......... I couldn't!!! Was I so afraid that I had just lost my magic? No. That can't be it. Gray saw the creature too, as did Lucy and Happy.

"What the heck is that thing?"

I turned to the frighten blue cat. His cries made the monster's head turn to him. It went running toward him. Happy got scared and he jumped and fell.

"What? My wings? Why did they........"

The small cat was interrupted by the monster's roar. Lucy scooped up the blue feline. The creature made a hiss sound at them. Lucy went closer to me.

"Erza, I can't summon my spirits. I don't know why."

So, it wasn't just me. It was all of us. We can't use our magic! But why? I couldn't understand why we couldn't use our magic. It must be this forest. The monster looked right at me. I had no weapons and I couldn't change my armor. I didn't know the strength of this monster. I don't know anything about this creature. All I did know was that it was coming straight for me. I looked around for anything I could use to defend myself, but I saw nothing. I looked back at the creature. It had speed to it, despite it being big. I watched, frozen, as it raised its paw and was about to strike me, I felt something push me to the ground. I looked at that thing, only to see Gray. He had pushed me out of the way and the creature and left three deep claw marks on his left arm. He screamed out in pain as the cuts in his arm let out much blood. Too much in my opinion. Gray is strong, he will be okay, but how can we help him with that monster. I watched as Gray feel to the ground. As he did that, he stopped screaming. I saw that he had stiffened up as he fell. The creature looked at Gray, then looked right at me. It looked like it was going to attack me. It had taken only one step forward when a strange figure went in my way. The creature looked at this figure. It looked like another monster. What have we gotten ourselves into?

A/N: So....... I know I had been gone for a while. I knew what I wanted for this chapter, but I didn't know how I was going to get there. For this chapter, I had the beginning and the end planned out and everything else....... Yeah, not so much. I try and have a minimum of two thousand words per chapter, but I may shorten the chapters so I can update more often. It doesn't help that I take 9 classes. So, that will slow down my updates as well as Writer's block. If I do shorten the chapters, I will inform you. This chapter was shorter than I wanted because I knew how I wanted it to end and I got there and I didn't know what else to do. I really hope I am not rushing this story. I really appreciate how many of you that read this story of mine. See you in the next chapter. ~Zolf~