The Dragon Parents

Chapter 9 - Missing

Freed, Bickslow, and Jellal had made their way to the last known location of the dragon slayers, oblivious to their silent tails.

Kina, Shido, and Shiro meanwhile, were sure to be cautious as they followed the three older men. They maintained a significant distance, following them with Kina's heightened hearing while the younger two merely messed about.

"Have they found anything?" Shiro asked as he lay in the grass, tossing a rock into the air and catching it again. His blue eyes looked expectantly to the purple-haired girl who was perched in a tree, listening intently to the conversation happening a mile away.

"There was an enchantment here," Freed murmured darkly as he touched the ground.

"There's a huge amount of magic left over, evidence of something," Jellal recognized as he walked around the field.

Bickslow lifted up his mask and peered around, "I don't see any souls... And there isn't any trace of death that I can sense. I mean... that's good, right?"

Freed closed his eyes as he pressed his hand against the ground and with immense focus, he tapped into the remnants of an enchantment. The line of runes appeared before his eyes and he studied them carefully.

"What is it?" Bickslow asked coming over and leaning on Freed.

"See these runes," Freed explained pointing to two symbols. "These seem to be runes for 'travel' and 'port' but they've been written strangely. Look at these tails added to the verticle lines. And over here, that's the typical ancient rune for reflect but that rune next to it, I've never seen that before. The handwriting also shifts far too often for one person to have written this enchantment, look at how these runes are round and these are angular, that's evidence of different magic users collaboration. And over here - "

Freed continued to rant while Jellal scanned over the field. His eyes were drawn to a patch of grass that seemed brighter than the rest. He knelt down and felt the patch, his eyes narrowing. He picked up a blade of grass and studied it.

"There's been time magic used," Jellal called to the other two.

"What makes you say that!?" Bickslow asked.

Jellal stood up and dropped the grass. "The grass over there has all been aged unusually," he explained pointing to a small patch of darkened grass. "This grass here is unnaturally young, that usually only happens when there's unstable time magic being used."

"Time magic, enchantments, what the hell did our dragon buddies run in to?" Bickslow asked. 

"Trouble," Freed breathed. "Whatever happened here... I don't think our dragon slayer friends left this field. This rune," Freed explained tracing a rune in the air, his gaze dark, "This is the rune for opening portals. Somone transported the dragon slayers somewhere."

A mile away, Kina stiffened.

"Are you okay?" Shido asked, recognizing the girl's posture. He stood off to the side, in the shadows, practicing his sword skills.

Kina didn't answer and leaned into the next words from the far-away adults.

"What do we do?" Bickslow asked.

"Report back to the guild," Freed explained briskly. "There's no time to waste! There's a plot afoot and a group of imprisoned dragon slayers somewhere. The enemy has already caught us off guard, we need to regroup and plan our next move."

"What about the dragon slayers!?" Bickslow cried. "We gotta try and help them."

"Yes, but we need to get back to Magnolia and make sure that whoever struck here isn't going to catch us off guard again," Jellal concurred.