"finally, Land!" Sting flops to the ground as soon as the cart stops. Rouge follows desperately wanting to get of the hell machine.
"you two are embarrassing" Lector complains.
"frosh agrees" stepping off the half destroyed cart i look around, we are surrounded by forest.
"where are we anyway?" turning towards Auma i watch as she places a hand on a nearby tree. a tattoo that i had not noticed before glows on her arm. the space between the two trees seem to wobble.
"follow me" she steps through the area and vanishes from sight.
"wow, what kind of magic is that?"
"we're do you think she went?" standing in front of the tree i watch the space as it sort of shivers.
"well there's only one way to find out" Rouge steps past Levy and through the portal like space. i give Levy a why not look and follow him through.
on the other side Auma watches us with a amused expression. ahead of her is a small cottage but around that is another forest.
"where are we?"
"is it some kind of pocket dimension?" Rouge and Levy bombard Auma with questions.
"yes, this is a pocket dimension that has been passed down through generations. only people with the Dreamtime mark can enter."
"but we don't have the mark"
"you do now, your wrist" pulling my sleeve up i gasp at the smallish tattoo on my wrist. "this pocket dimension can travel through space so the leader can make its doorway appear wherever they please, the dimension will also expand itself for however many people it needs to accommodate."
"hang on if you could make the doorway appear where ever you wanted then what was the point of that horrid carriage ride?" Sting complains.
"the point of the ride was to test you. i knew that those bandits would attack us and i wanted to see how you fared against them." Auma leads us to the house.
"will we be staying here?" Levy looks around the place. it was fairly small with three rooms and one common area with a kitchen and a fire place.
"yes, girls are to the left and guys are to the right. the middle is my room so you are never to go in there." she puts on a serious face and faces the huddle of us. "now i must request that you all wear these" holding out four necklaces we each take one. on the end of it is a medallion with a strange symbol on it.
"owww, why doesn't Frosh get a necklace?" Rough laughs and pats his exceeds head.
"don't worry frosh, i'l find you something."
"what do these do?" pulling one over his head Sting questions.
"these are magic restricting medallions. in order to teach you to become stronger i will first have to train you without your powers. so Lucy i am going to need to take your keys." i stiffen. "don't worry nothing bad is going to happen to them, i just want to make sure that you don't use any magic."
"that's not the whole problem. Aquarius will kill me if i give away her key." Levy Stiffens next to me.
"yeah i'm with Lucy on that one. she is one spirit that you don't want to meet."
"i will deal with that problem when it comes" cautiously i hand over my pouch.
"humph, Lucy nothing without her Spirits" Sting gossips. out of no where Auma's walking stick fly's out and wacks him over the head.
"i will not tolerate the putting down of other students." the stick fly's back into her hand.
"Ow!" Sting gently rubs his head.
"now since it has been such a long drive i guess that you are all quite tired. we will start your training at the crack of dawn tomorrow so get some sleep."
"what but it's still early!"
"the sun's still up!" we all complain. this time when the sick fly's at us i see it coming but that still doesn't give me a chance to dodge as it wacks me over the head.
"do not argue with me" turning on her heel she walk into her room.
"Stupid old lady" Sting complains.
"well that should teach you a lesson" Levy teases.
"just because your the old lady student too it doesn't mean we have to tolerate you."
"the same goes for you." i stand with my hands on my hips.
"we may not be in different guilds anymore but that doesn't change a thing." Lector copy's my movements.
"i don't know Lucy, if were going to be spending all of this time with them, wont it be esayer to just call a truce?" Levy offers, being the voice of reason like normal.
"yeah, sting"
"not happening" Sting and i say at the same time, turning away from each other.
stalking into our dedicated room i flop down onto the closest bed. "why are you so against making a truce?" Levy takes the second bed.
"during the grand magic games, while Minerva was -was, well you know. while she was brutally attacking me they where laughing with glee." Levy's face fills with understanding. "i almost died. and all they where doing was laughing and mocking me."
"they've changed since then." her argument is weak but there's reason behind it.
"once I've seen that they've changed i'll consider calling a truce." slipping under the covers of my bed i let the exhaustion of the battle we had take over. "but until then"
"you must be exhausted, having to hold both those gates open and fight."
"nah, i'm just taking Auma's advice" closing my eyes i think back to the last time i had run into the twin dragon slayers. even though they had changed there was still this feeling that i couldn't get rid off.
----------------------
"boy am i glad that i took Auma's advice and went to bed early" i moan and dodge under low hanging branch.
"count yourself lucky, i hardly slept a wink last night" Levy groans, slumping along like a zombie. Auma had woken them up at the crack of dawn, her megaphone providing us with a very rude wakening. she hardly gave us five minuets to get dressed in he clothes she had somehow gotten for us before dragging us off on a trek in the woods.
"can you two keep it down back there?" Rouge rubs his ears.
"its early and our ears are sensitive" pouting Sting wacks away a leaf.
"don't do it Lucy" Levy whispers upon seeing the evil glint in my eye. i don't pay attention to her and creep forwards.
"we can hear you you know" rouge whispers back but not in time. originaly i had planned on just giving them a little scare, that was before my foot got caught under a root.
"ba!" falling in between them i cry out in surprise. they both scamper away clutching their ears in pain. i land with a loud thud on my knees.
"hay, you did that on purrpose!" Sting complains angrily.
"get up off the ground, we're nearly there" Auma calls from her position from the front. Sting glares at me and pulls himself up. Lector and frosh had stayed behind to sleep in.
up ahead the group walk out into a clearing, a waterfall and lake fill the area.
"wow, its beautiful." the four students gaze at the scenery in amazement.
"Good now strip to your underwear." Auma commands and pulls her coat off. Underneath she wears bathers.
"what!"
"why?"
"would you prefer to go swimming in your cloths, or naked even?" Levy chokes a little.
"no i see your point" sting is the first to strip. i try not to watch as he pulls off his cloths.
"Well hurry up. We don't have all day" grumbling I pull off my boots and cloths, thank god I had decided to wear spot underwear today. Keeping my eyes on Auma I ignore the boys. She walks into the lake like it's nothing. "Everyday we meditate a top that rock before breakfast" she points to the large oval rock next to the waterfall.
Putting a toe in the water I jump back in surprise.
"It's freezing!"
"What, the little fairy can't take the cold?" Sting strolls into the water like it's nothing. But the smug look on his face falls as he gets waist deep and he starts shivering. Rolling my eyes I slowly walk in, Levy follows shivering in her underwear.
"Where's rouge?" i wonder, looking back to where he was standing on the shore.
"Wasn't he just with us?" Levy turns and a look of horror crosses her face. "On no" I don't get a chance to look as something splashes I tot he water in front of me. Levy and I squeal as we are drenched. Rouges head pops up with a mischievous smile.
"revenge is sweet"
"Quit messing around and get up here!" Auma calls down from her place on the rock. Sting laughs at us as he climbs up, still mostly dry.
"Well get them back for that" Levy whispers, knowing full well that the two dragon slayers can hear her. Taking a seat on the edge of the rock i copy Aumas position.
"You must clear you mind, don't focus on anything and take in the sounds and feeling of the wild." Breathing in through my nose I clear my head. This moment of peace give me a chance to go over what's happened in the past three days. Fairy tail, turns out it wasn't the same guild I thought it to be. Levy and I had left notes that they would surly find. My heart aches for the ones I had to leave behind but my anger for the ones I left was stronger.
No. I promised my self I wouldn't think about that place again.
Taking another deep breath I clear my head again. shivering i try think past the cold that quickly seeping into my bones.
Half a hour in I find myself half asleep, i could tell that rouge had pretty much fallen asleep. The rock is very uncomfortable. Shifting to find a better position I slip. My eyes shoot open and I reach out to grab something to steady my self. unfortunantly Sting is the closest so I grab him without thinking.
He quickly looses his balance and we both fall off the rock, Landing in the water the coolness of it shocks me awake again. Kicking to the surface I cough out the water in my mouth and face a glaring Sting.
"What was that for!?" He's drenched.
"Sorry." teeth chattering I return his glare with one of my own. From above Levy laughs before screeching as rouge pushes her forwards, She lands with a splash. Up top aumas stick sacks rouge over the head and A second later he lands next in to her.
"No playing around. Get back up here"
"What? but.." I start.
"No buts get up here." Sighing I start the climb back up. This time sting sits as far away as he possibly can, with the rock not being very large he doesn't get far.
After a healthy serve of breakfast Auma had us on the grass outback of the house. in our hands she places a bow and beside us was a quiver of arrows. "the first weapon that you are going to be learning is the bow and arrow." this shouldn't be too hard, with my whip i need a lot of aiming to get it to go here i want it to.
"so to start i want you all to shoot five arrows at the targets"
"easy" egotistically he knocks the arrow and aims. i laugh to myself, his feet are placed wrongly. my parents had made sure that i have a decent knowledge of how to fight, the bow'n'arrow was my second favorite weapon. the arrow fly's through the air and impales itself into the 6th circle from the middle.
"watch and learn" setting myself up i aim to the target. breathing out i let one fly, it hits the third from the middle. from beside me Levy shoots and the arrow almost makes it into the middle.
"wow levy, since when could you shoot a arrow?" she grins.
"I've had a bit of practice" knocking a second arrow she sends it flying to almost the exact middle.
all day it's a competition between the girls and boys. well mostly its between Sting and i while the other two watch and roll their eyes. when it got to about lunch Auma called a ending to our weapons training. at first i was revealed, my arms where tired from holding up the bow for hours. but then she gave us our next task.
"this sucks" i whine to levy as we jog along next to each other. Auma had made the deal that in order to eat lunch we had to run around the mountain and back. the mountains where stationed towards the back of the pocket dimension, about a 5km run there and five back.
"yeah, i was not made to run like this" the boys had speed off from the beginning, leaving the two of us behind to run on our own.
"if we have to meditate in the cold for breakfast, go on a ten k run for lunch. Then i can't wait to see what we have to do for dinner." i worry.
as it turns out we have to do a obstacle type thing in order to get dinner. that is running through the forest to get what ever Auma wants to make dinner, mostly its herbs. they boys would tease us for being slow but i could tell that they where starting to wear down as much as we where, if not more.
so this time when Auma told us to go bed bed and the sun had hardly even gone down we didn't even complain. we just flopped down and fell asleep instantly. this was going to be one hard training.