Chapter 37
Okay, so we're back to training again! Only two more chapters, and there'll be no more training! It'll be just after/during Christmas too! Depending on where you're from, of course. It will officially be my (Late?) Christmas present for you guys! Even if you don't have Christmas where you are! XD
Thank you to DesolationDeath for helping me with my story!
I apologize for any grammar errors that I have made! R&R!
Disclaimer: 'Eeeeyyyyy guys! Slowpoke finally decided to let me get Fairy Tail! - snore-bobble bursts - Wha? Oh.. It was just a dream? Awww....
In the cave~
Acnologia's P.O.V
I felt something warm and soft pressed against my bare chest, my arm was holding that warm and soft thing in front of me. I opened my eyes to see the back of a head with beautiful, messy, silver hair. The sweet scent of vanilla and strawberries filled the air around my mate and I.
I pushed myself up on one elbow and brushed some of my angel's hair away, revealing her beautiful, sleeping face. After the... Events of last night, we had both fallen asleep still in our Human forms. I guessed it was only a sign of the progress in our training, that made it so we didn't suddenly change to our Dragons forms while we slept.
Last night... It was as wonderful as I had expected. Absolutely perfect. There was nothing more to say. She was beautiful through it all with a bright, red blush covering her cheeks.
I broke out of my thoughts and pulled Lucy closer. Might as well just wait till she wakes up and enjoy the closeness. I closed my eyes again and soon, I went away into dreamland once again.
Later at the Field~
Lucy's P.O.V
I looked down at the ground decorated with the emerald-green grass. Then I looked up at Dravola again. "What, seriously?" I asked her incredulously. "You want me to make a plant grow here? Just out of nothing?" I asked her. She simply nodded in response. "How am I supposed to do that?" I muttered to myself.
Dravola sighed. "Just like you discovered your other magic, this one will also show up." She looked down at me with her hard, brown eyes. "You just have to actually look for it, girl." She told me.
I nodded, still trying to figure out how in the world I was supposed to find this magic. I decided to try to attempt to discover it in an entirely different way. I knelt down and put my hand on the ground, closing my eyes. I focused on the seeds underground, which were sure to be there.
It took a while figuring out how I was supposed to go about doing it, but when I figured it out, I tuned in on the seed, so it was all I could 'see'. I forced myself to send magic into it, so it would grow. At first, nothing happened. I furrowed my eyebrows and sent even more magic into the seed. It slowly broke out of its case and the plant began sprouting upwards, while at the same time also making roots go downwards.
I felt the plant break the surface and materialize above the grass. I opened my eyes and looked at the steadily growing plant. It wasn't anything special, just a simple, green vine growing up from the ground. When it was just about as tall as my ankle, I stopped and turned to Dravola.
I smiled at her and moved away so she could see the little plant I had made. "There. It wasn't so hard when I first found out how to do it." I told her.
She nodded, not even breaking a smile. "Okay. That was one part of it. Now for the other part of your Earth magic." She told me plainly, as if I was supposed to know what she was talking about.
I looked at her with a confused expression. "The other part? What do you mean?" I asked her, while trying to figure out what it was she wanted me to do.
Dravola nodded. "Ae (yes). There's another aspect to Earth magic. Like with Water magic, which can cure someone of a spell or curse, Earth magic also has another part of it. Even though it isn't anything like with Water magic." She explained and kept a little pause. "Earth magic isn't just about growing plants, Lucy, it is a strong power which makes you able to make the ground tremble and break apart." She explained. I felt my eyes widen as she basically told me I could make earthquakes. She looked down at me. "I actually think the Wizard Saint you met a while ago, Jura Neekis' magic could be compared to the Dragon Earth magic. It's alike in many ways." She told me with a thoughtful expression.
WHAT?! I had a magic which looked like one of the great Wizard Saint's? That was too overpowered. Not that I mind though. While I was progressing this new information in my mind, I just stared at Dravola wide-eyed. I shook my head and brought myself out of the trance. "Okay... So now you want me to move around with the ground?" I asked her skeptically. If she agreed to that...
"Ae (Yes), that's exactly what I want you to do." She agreed with a single nod. I sweat dropped. Of course. "Just start out with something simple, child. I'm not saying you should cause a big earthquake or anything like that." She told me reassuringly.
I breathed out and nodded. Okay.. Just like all the other times, I would do this somehow. I knelt down again and went through the same procedure as before, although with the difference that I wasn't just focusing on a single seed, I was focusing on the ground with seeds and rocks included.
This one was more difficult, I already knew that. I found a spot right in front of me and decided to begin pulling it upwards. If I hadn't had the training with Ice magic, I wasn't sure I would be able to pull this off, this ground was even heavier than Ice magic!
But because I had gone through that training, I was stronger, and that was also a key factor in the cause of the ground moving upwards slowly now. I felt the earth slowly begin rising from its spot. So slowly I almost wasn't sure if it was moving or not. I felt small beads of sweat beginning to form on my forehead. This was harder than I had first anticipated.
I pushed the little select piece of earth up and let it come in contact with the air around it. In other words, I pushed it over the height of the grass.
I opened my eyes once again and saw to my happiness that the piece of earth I had chosen to work with, had grown to be taller than the grass around it and was next to the vine I had sprouted just a second ago.
I breathed out with a smile. When you really put your all into it, I guess you could accomplish anything you wished for.
In the clearing~
Acnologia's P.O.V
"Acnologia, focus!" Skyadrum snapped at me. I might not be concentrating as much as I should... The reason shouldn't be a surprise. Besides that, my favorite, personal Dragon of all time was making sure to let his presence be known.
Mini-Me. You. Are. Pathetic. That jackass told me. While I really enjoy this slideshow, you need to pick your ass up and get started. He told me, while probably looking through my mind as he usually entertained himself with.
I sighed and nodded, closing my eyes and focusing on the shadows around me. What I was about to do... It seemed impossible if you hadn't seen it with your own eyes. Right now, right here, I was supposed to disappear into the shadows and let them swallow me - to use Skyadrum's words.
"Okay, now just focus on the shadows around you and draw them in. Let them merge with your magic and let the mix pour out of you." Skyadrum told me for the 100th time that day. "It's that simple! Even you should be able to figure it out." She told me with a rather bitchy tone.
I ignored her comment in the end and kept focusing. I shouldn't let something like that sway my concentration.
I felt the shadows I was surrounded by and tried pulling at them. At first, they didn't budge, but then they slowly began to move. They crept towards me and were absorbed into me, going directly for my Shadow magic and easily merging with it.
When I felt I was filled with the unfamiliar shadows, I let it and my Shadow magic pour out of me. At some point it completely consumed me and I felt a strange sensation.
The silence was broken by Skyadrum. "There! You got it, Acnologia!" She said surprisingly happily. I opened my eyes and found myself being very surprised.
Nothing. Nothing at all had changed. I looked down, but I only saw the shadows of the trees. I raised an eyebrow, which probably didn't even exist. I couldn't even see my own toes. They simply vanished into the shadows.
Somehow Skyadrum still looked directly at me with a wide grin. "You can use this to sneak up on any Dragon, except Shadow Dragons and the Chaos Head Dragons of course." She told me, seeming rather proud of that statement. She gestured towards the forest around us. "Never mind that, you can move between every shadow here freely, as long as they're connected." She looked at me with the same grin on her face. "In other words, this whole forest is your domain now! You can move and be anywhere you want. It is covered in shadows!" She said excitedly and with her wings spread wide. She was scaring me a little right now... She looked down at me with an ecstatic expression and pointed at the forest behind me. "Now go explore the wonders of Shadow magic!" She said and began laughing in a rather crazy way. She turned around, still laughing, transformed to a Dragon and flew away, still laughing.
I turned around slowly and began... Walking? Well, I moved forward in the direction Skyadrum had pointed to. It felt like I had become some kind of cloud, hovering over the ground soundlessly. I kept moving forward, trying out my new-found ability, now my tutor had flown off.
Suddenly I noticed that my surroundings had turned familiar, quite familiar, actually. I just needed to go a bit further until I reached it...
The field where Lucy trained. Right now, it seemed like she was training with the ugly one and the cat. The cat was standing off to the side watching Ugly and Lucy having a light battle of hand-to hand combat. No magic was involved. Cat-boy would occasionally throw in a comment like 'Keep on your toes Princess', 'Higher!', etc., the ugly one even threw in compliments when she did something right.
I stared at it with widened eyes, had I had eyes... Lucy's training environment was quite different from mine. Mine was tougher and looking at it from here, Metallicana was clearly going easy on her. I doubted he did that with me. I smiled, probably. I was glad she seemed to be so loved by even the ugly one, he didn't seem like he particularly wanted to go around punching and kicking her. Well.. I didn't hope he did that.
I looked at Lucy as she defended against Metallicana's hits and hit back when she got an opening. Her fighting style was surprisingly graceful. It wasn't as brutal as Metallicana's was, for example, it was more in flowing motions, which made it seem like what she was doing was easy as pie.
That wasn't the case, though. I knew she had spent many hours dedicated to training her body up and of course also practicing her close combat fighting. I had lost count how long already. The months seemed to flow together, the weather the only thing being different.
Suddenly, Lucy missed a kick and it connected with her stomach. She flew back in slow motion and I was just about to charge out of the shadows to catch her, when a flaming, golden light appeared behind her. A weirdly dressed man - if you could even call it that - appeared and caught Lucy, with a hand on each of her shoulders. I breathed out a sigh of relief.
The Spirit chuckled lightly. "Why're you in such a rush, Princess?" He asked. I narrowed my eyes. Something told me I wouldn't like this guy. He didn't even release her shoulders. "If you want to be in my arms so much, all you have to do is ask." He told Lucy with a smile. Ae (Yes) I really didn't like the guy.
Lucy rolled her eyes at the Spirit and shook herself out of his grip. "Don't get your hopes up, Fenix." She smiled at the guy. Fenix? So that guy was the Fire Bird? "Thanks for catching me." Lucy thanked the Spirit.
A golden and dark light - don't ask me how that's possible - appeared next to Lucy. A black haired cat girl leaped out of the golden light and caught Lucy in a hug. "Lu-chi! Are you okay? I heard you were attacked!" the girl said near panic and seemed to be checking Lucy for injuries.
Fenix nodded with a face of realization. "Oh right, that was what I came here for..." He adopted a look of concern on his face. "Are you okay?" He asked as well. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. I discerned that idea quickly though. He put an arm around Lucy's shoulder and pulled her close. "If you get sad, you can always summon me, Princess." He told her with a smirk.
My blood was already boiling. Why did Lucy let this guy do that? She was probably too kind to tell them off.
Lucy smiled nervously. "I'm sorry to make you worry Aelu-chi, Fenix. I'm fine, nothing happened." She apologized. She looked alternately at the two. "How did you know, though?" She asked them.
'Aelu-chi' nodded. "That's good to hear!" She smiled. A dark aura fell around her, and her tail switched from side to side. "If they had... I would have beaten them to a pulp!" She reassured Lucy. The aura around the cat girl changed back to its original form. "We came here because Serpus-" She was cut off.
The bird pulled Lucy even closer, much to my dismay. "I was gazing at you from the Spirit World and saw you were attacked, so I went immediately, but when I arrived, a day had passed!" He told her dramatically.
'Gazing at her from the Spirit World', huh? Well, then if he was, he should have come and saved her, he would have had time for that. Besides that, he shouldn't even be 'gazing' at her.
Somehow I knew what to do to release myself from the shadows. I absorbed my magic back into my body and let the nature's shadows back.
Metallicana turned his head and looked at me with surprise. "How long have you been creeping over there Brat?" He asked with a grin. I didn't even look in his direction, right at the moment a certain bird needed to spread its wings. The Iron Dragon whistled. "Ooo..! Someone's mad!" He said rather excitedly.
Neither Lucy nor the two Dragon Spirits had noticed me and didn't before I was less than two meters away from them. Lucy turned, smiled and was probably about to greet me, but I went straight for the bird.
I grabbed the arm he held around Lucy roughly and yanked it away. I moved my hand to his throat and squeezed it lightly, knowing Lucy would never forgive me if I hurt one of her Spirits, this was more of a warning. I glared right into his flame-colored eyes with a glare. "Don't touch my mate so casually, Bird." I threatened him. "You will regret advancing on her any more than you already have." I told him and released my grip on his throat. "You would do well to remember that." I ended off.
I felt familiar warmth from a pair of slender, yet strong arms holding my arm close. I looked down at Lucy, who was looking up at me with a little smile. "That was kind of cool, Acnologia, I'd give you that. But please don't hurt Fenix any more than this, he can't help it." Lucy said.
I sweat dropped. "What do you mean 'kind of'? I thought I was pretty cool." I said with a smile and tilted her head back softly with a hand under her chin. "Don't you think so too?" I asked her and gave her a light kiss.
She smiled teasingly. "If it makes you sleep well at night." She mocked me.
I heard someone making sounds as if gagging. "Urgh, I actually begin to feel bad watching you two love-birds." Metallicana said in mock sickness. Lucy's sweet laugh rang like bells and I couldn't help being affected by her laugh, so I laughed right alongside her.
Later~
Lucy's P.O.V
Dravola turned around and looked at me with her expressionless face. "That reminds me, I have something to tell you Lucy." She said.
I looked up and stopped what I was doing, putting my attention on Dravola fully. "Yeah? What is it?" I asked her, getting curious. What could my practicing control remind her of, which could be so important she felt I should be interrupted, so she could tell me.
She looked down at me. "Lately, whenever we've heard something about your former guild, it was only about how it has been losing popularity and money." She stated. I nodded. Yeah, I'd heard too. I wondered what kind of Fairy Tail I would return to, when the time came for that... "And so we decided to send someone to keep an eye on them, report back and in worst case protect them if anything came up." She told me.
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What? But.. Fairy tail doesn't need protection." I told her Fairy Tail always pulled through, always fought and won. That as what characterized Fairy Tail and its members.
Dravola sighed. "The Fairy Tail you knew from back then doesn't exist. Because their core members 'died', they have lost their will to fight and the remaining members aren't strong either way. So ae (yes), they do need protection." She told me.
I nodded slowly. It was hard to understand, actually. For Fairy Tail to lose their will to fight. It was unrealistic in my eyes. But I guess... Natsu always seemed to be the one pulling everyone with him and pumped the will to fight to its maximum. That and their strength left with the core members... I guess it wasn't so unrealistic after all.
I looked up at Dravola with a half-smile. "Okay, I see you point." I agreed. "Who did you send?" I asked, genuinely curious.
Dravola nodded. "She's one of the Shadow Dragons and goes by the codename Line-464." Dravola told me. "We have a division here in the Dragon Realm, where we have this kind of... Agents, you could say, who goes out and scouts in Earthland whenever some trouble arises. Especially if it is about us Dragons, they'll be the ones we send." Dravola explained. "They're usually Shadow Dragons, because they're the most qualified for the tasks they'll be put up to, which is mainly infiltration of some kind." She told me.
I looked at her with widened eyes. "Say what?" I asked her incredulously. "Are you telling me you have some sort of organization with agents?" I asked her. "Why didn't anyone tell me about this?"
"Because it is supposed to be kept a secret, child." Dravola said. "464, as we usually call her, will infiltrate Fairy Tail and act as one of them." Dravola explained expressionlessly.
I looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Basically you're telling me she'll be joining Fairy Tail?" I asked just as incredulously.
Dravola nodded. "Ae (Yes), that's exactly what I'm saying." She confirmed. "She'll be watching out for Fairy Tail and report back to us if something unusual happens." Dravola told me.
Alright... This was definitely interesting.
In Magnolia, Earthland~
Line-464's P.O.V
What was this? I was told I was supposed to go to a big building with a Dragon-like logo, but this was just and old, worn out windmill with a few decorations here and there.
No matter. My work was simply to infiltrate this 'guild' and report back to the Head whenever something unusual occurred.
I began walking towards the entrance, when a little boy stormed out with a determined expression. An old man came running after him. "Romeo! Come back here!" He yelled, but the boy, Romeo apparently, kept running. The old man stopped up when he spotted me. "Oh, I haven't seen you before, can I help you with something?" He asked me with a kind, but worn out smile. I wondered if he was the same age as this ancient windmill.
I nodded. "Yes, I have come to join Fairy Tail." I told him plainly. Not saying 'Ae' (Yes), wasn't as hard for me as it was for many others. I had infiltrated Earthland more than once after all.
The man looked at me with a shocked expression. "What? Really?" He asked. I nodded. "Well come in, come in." The man said and gestured for the door. Inside was... So silent. You could cut the tense atmosphere with a spoon. "Kinana! Get the stamp, we've got a new member!" He told a purple haired maid, who quickly went into the back to get something. The old man turned to me and held his hand out for a handshake. "I'm Macao Conbolt, I'm the Fourth Master of Fairy Tail, it's a pleasure to have you with us miss...?" He asked.
Shit. I had to make up a name now... What should it be? Something ordinary... "Akane." I told him. "Akane Atarangi." I took his hand and shook it.
He smiled like an old grandpa. "Welcome to Fairy Tail, Akane." He greeted me.
I knew, just by the look of everything, this would be some dull years.
My half-Beta DesolationDeath gave me the idea to add myself to the story, so credits to him. What did'cha think?
And the face-off between our favorite Chaos Dragon and the Fire Bird has finally been settled too. Hope it's satisfactory! ^_^
~ Line464d