Quest for the Eighty-Eight Keys

Chapter Nine: Auriga and Monoceros

WARNING: BRIEF MENTIONS OF SELF-HARM!

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Lucy stepped off of the train, Freed and Rufus right behind her. She looked around, searching for the town's forest. She stopped when she heard Freed ask, "did the scroll say anything other than the town that these keys are in?"

Lucy turned to look at the two men, answering with a small smile, "it's in a wyvern cave in the forest."

She began walking into the town, listening to Rufus almost exclaim, "you are just now telling us that we're going to need to fight a wyvern?"

Lucy managed a chuckle as she responded, "we might not need to fight. The keys are in a wyvern cave. It might be abandoned."

She then heard Freed add to what she said, "considering the proximity it is to a town, it's quite likely the cave is abandoned."

Lucy nodded her head in agreement. The trio made their way through the forest before they eventually stopped walking, looking around at the people walking from one market stall to another one. Rufus cupped his chin and questioned, "where is the forest?"

Lucy and Freed both shrugged, wondering the same thing. Lucy hummed in thought before an idea popped into her head. She resisted the urge to facepalm as she sighed, "how did I not think of this sooner?"

She requiped a silver key into her hand before quickly summoning, "Open! Gate of the Compass: Pyxis!"

A bird-like celestial spirit appeared in her arms, greeting its wizard with a smile and a hug with its wings. Lucy smiled down at the spirit and asked, "could you point us to the Gardinia Town forest?"

Pyxis squawked a few times in response before the needle of the compass on its head spun, quickly coming to a stop. The spirit pointed with both of its wings ahead of the small group, toward the other side of the town. Lucy thanked Pyxis and dismissed it back to the Celestial Spirit World and she and her friends resumed their walking.

As they walked, Lucy looked around the town. She saw stalls that sold clothing, food, and other such things. The sight made her think of her life before all of the chaos that followed after their return from Tenrou. Going on fun jobs with her team, talking about books with Levy, going clothes shopping with Mira. She frowned at the memories. After Zeref was defeated and everything started to calm down, she started doing those things again, but they were no longer fun. She no longer enjoyed the things that she used to enjoy. She wasn't even able to initiate any hangouts or jobs. It was always her friends that had to do so.

Lucy felt tears prick the corners of her eyes as her mind found its way to Aquarius. She clenched her hands into fists. She knew that she had no choice but to sacrifice Aquarius' key. She knew that it was the only way to save her friends. She knew that Aquarius wasn't dead and she could find her new key. But, that didn't mean that she didn't feel horrible about it. Her mother had passed the golden key down to her. It was one of the only things she had left of her mother. As much as Aquarius was ill-tempered toward her, Lucy still loved her as a sort of mother figure. No matter what she told herself, or how much her other spirits tried to comfort her, she couldn't stop herself from beating herself up for it.

Lucy rubbed her still bandaged fingers against the scars on her wrists, hidden by her shirt's long sleeves. She was hit with an urge to run a sharpened razor blade across her skin. She bit into her lip, completely forgetting about the presence of Freed and Rufus. She silently cursed at herself. She was pathetic. Barely able to resist the urge to harm herself. Unable to stop herself from kicking herself over the sacrifice of Aquarius' key. Unable to be her normal self no matter how hard she tried. She wished that she could go back to how things were before. Before Tartaros. Before Tenrou. When the only problems she had were her rent and her team breaking into her apartment.