Fairy Tail - Eyes of Ice

Chapter 1 - Lullaby Part 1

"Oh hey, check it out, Erza, sounds like Fairy Tail's got a new member."

Kai Hope sat upon the ruins of a boulder that'd been crushed beneath Erza Scarlet's attack that brought down the great horned beast. Erza wiped some of its blood off her armor. Kai shifted to show her the magazine article featuring the young woman standing next to Mirajane.

"A Celestial Spirit Wizard?" Erza asked. "That's quite interesting."

A little red cat meandered onto Kai's head and purred, then said, "Lucy Heartfilia? Heartfilia...the name sounds familiar, not sure where I've heard it before."

Kai reached up and patted Iggy on the head. "Some rich guy out in the country. Lucy must be loaded, wonder if she'll bother taking any jobs."

Erza chuckled and started sealing the massive horn into a net she could drag around. Kai just snapped his fingers and encased the thing in a net of ice. Erza smiled and nodded to thank him. Kai tried to hold back his blush.

"We should head back to the guild soon to meet her," Erza said. "What'd you think?"

"Let's go."

Erza shoved the massive horn down the mountainside, then dropped along with it. Iggy gave Kai a knowing look which he waved off and slid down the mountain with her. Iggy spread his wings and flew after them.

There was a tavern not too far from the mountainside, and the louder Kai's stomach growled, the more he nagged Erza about eating. At last, Titania caved. Kai also gleaned a little victory out of it: not often did he get to go on jobs with Erza, and even less often did he have the opportunity to have a sit-down meal with her and just...talk.

Erza led the way in, silencing everyone in the tavern with the massive monster horn she carried behind him. The white-haired wizard with the flying red cat normally drew a crowd's attention, but, the red-haired woman in armor and a skirt did the job this time.

"We just want a meal," Kai said, holding his hands up.

The tavern-keep obliged, quickly moving to set aside a table for them while the rest of the patrons in the inn spoke low. A few looked their eyes on Kai's guild mark on his forearm.

"Heard Fairy Tail blew up part of Hargeon..."

"Caused some big problems in Onibas."

"Don't know how Magnolia is still standing with all of their—"

Erza turned to face the crowd but Kai stepped in their way.

"We just want a meal," Kai said, but the fire in Erza's eyes did not dwindle until they settled on a spindly little woman approaching them.

"You're guild wizards?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am," Erza said.

"Just looking for a meal."

"I...I've been looking for a good wizard for a while since my village was attacked and something was stolen from us."'

Oh, great. They'd never get to eat now. Erza patted her hand on the giant monster horn.

"Whatever it is, we can handle it," Erza said. "What's the situation?"

"A Dark Guild, Eisenwald, came through and ravaged my home," she said. "We...we had some survivors. And they stole something from us but I --I dare not speak its name."

"Please," Erza said and knelt to be level with the woman. "It would help us greatly if we knew what we were looking for so we can return it."

"If you have the power to defeat this guild, then you'll have the power to destroy what was lost, and you must. It's called Lullaby."