𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙀𝙍 // 𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚 𝙭 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙨

// Time Skip //

The year is X793.

The cool August evening air kissed along your face as you approached the guildhall that you had made your home.

"Kuschel's excited," Kuschel said, flying alongside you in her Exceed form, "Kuschel really missed Lector and Frosch!"

It had been a year - ten months, precisely - since you'd last set foot in the Sabertooth guildhall, let alone the town it resided in.

The job you had taken had gone a lot smoother than expected, and you were now home. You'd had to stop a blossoming evil organisation by infiltrating a prospering dark guild. It had taken a while to gain the master's trust, but you'd done it.

The master had been a Take Over Mage by the name of Saoirse - it had taken a while to learn the pronunciation. She was very powerful, and her talents could rival those of your old guild mate Lisanna. Her Souls that you had witnessed in action consisted of a Fire Dragon, a Water Dragon, a Sound Dragon, a Sky Dragon and a Shadow Dragon. She must have read some ancient texts to gain such powerful Souls.

She also had a husband - a Shadow God Slayer. You had only seen his magic in action once. His name was Rush, and he was an incredibly powerful man. You remembered when you'd first met him a while into your journey, when you'd managed to work your way into the guild - Dragon Tongue - under the guise of being a runaway.

You sighed at the thought, thinking about how you'd put a stop to their wrongdoings. Kuschel pushed with all her might and shoved the doors to the Sabertooth guildhall open, only to be greeted with an almost entirely empty guildhall.

"Oh! [Y/N]?" Dobengal spoke up, "is that you?"
"Dobengal!" you giggled, prancing over to the man. You and Dobengal weren't exactly close, but he was a guild mate of yours nonetheless. He was a lean young man with middle-length brown hair. You'd say that his most distinguishable features were either the black mask that covered half of his face, or the numeral tattoos on his fingers, counting from I to X in Roman.

"It's good to see you," he said. His eyes crinkled into a smile, even if you couldn't see his mouth.
"Where is everyone?" you asked, looking around.

"Lucy Heartfilia's celebration, or something. She's getting an award from what Sting said," Dobengal shrugged, "they were dressed up pretty fancy, so if you want to sneak in after them, you'd probably be best off dressing to impress."

You thought for a moment before turning to Kuschel.
"Whaddaya say?" you grinned, "wanna crash Lucy's little party?"
"I agree!" she nodded, "Lector and Frosch will be there, right?"

"They went along with Sting and Rogue," the Teleportation Mage said. Your heart fluttered with butterflies as you thought about seeing Rogue - it had been about a year since you'd last seen him, after all. You wondered if he'd changed at all.

"Alright! Thanks, Dobengal," you gave a thumbs-up, "wait, if everyone's out celebrating, why're you here?"
"I'm not particularly fond of crowds," he sighed through the mask, "so I, as well as few others, volunteered to hold down the fort."

"Totally," you whipped around to see Sorano, also who you knew as Angel. She was walking over to you, having previously been leaning against the wall.

"Angel?" you gasped, "why're you here?"
"I could say the same for you. You've been off the radar for a while now, huh?" she smiled slyly, "I'm here in support of my little sister, of course."