Of Fire and Ice

C.29

"What do you guys want?" I asked as they slowly lifted their heads with groans of pain. "The blonde." One said. "Lucy? What do you want with her?" "Our orders are to collect every blonde female in Fiore." Another said.

I blasted them again and took off flying to Fairy Tail. I spiralled through the front door and landed by my team. "They're collecting all the blonde girls in Fiore. We need to get Lucy somewhere safe, isolated." I said.

"That's what I was thinking. We need to get Lucy to a secure location until we're positive that this is over." Erza said to us. "Why can't we just stop the people doing this?" Natsu said, quite protectively might I add.

"Because this is a serious danger, and none of you are qualified to deal with it." Erza snapped at him. "Shit, okay. Let's just calm down here and think of a place to get Lucy to.... wait." I froze, thinking.

I turned to Ari, who gave me a huge grin. "We're thinking the same thing, aren't we?" She asked and I nodded. "Should we?" "We should." Ari nodded. "Cos, I don't know... I don't remember exactly where it is." "Good thing I do!" "Let's do it!" I laughed and she smiled happily.

"Do what?" Lucy asked nervously. "Ari and I have a place to take you where you'll be super safe!" I said. "Where?" Natsu asked. "Home!" Ari and I exclaimed. "Everyone go home and pack. Meet back here in twenty minutes. This will take a while to get there, and who knows how long we'll have to stay." I said and we took off packing.

In twenty minutes, Lucy and I were packed and back at the guild hall with everyone else. "Before we go..." I hummed and reached into my bag, pulling out a dark mass of hair. I reached in again and pulled out a brush, brushing through the hair before going over and tying up Lucy's hair and putting the wig on her.

"You'll need this. There will most likely be more of those people on the road." I said while making sure it was secure. "Why can't I just wear this and stay here?" Lucy asked. "Because I have a feeling that they're looking for a specific blonde girl, and not implying that it's you... but it's probably you." I shrugged with a half-hearted smile.

"Wow. Thanks Henley. You sure know how to make me feel better." Lucy rolled her eyes. "Oh anytime, sweetie. Now we should get going." I said and Erza lead us out the back way. We snuck along the coastline until we got to some woods and found a main road. We didn't go on the road, but we stayed nearby so we wouldn't lose our way.

"How long will this trip take?" Natsu asked. "Two days, maybe? At a minimum, one and a half." Ari answered. "Wait, we're trusting Ari on this one?" Happy asked. "Problem, cat?" Ari snapped her jaws at the furball. "No, ma'am." Happy whimpered.

"Stop traumatising the cat." I sighed and Ari just shrugged and kept walking us in the right direction.

It wasn't until sunset I began to feel nervous. And cold, very cold. I conjured a flame with my hands and tried to warm myself.

"We should stop for camp." Erza said. "Then the trip will take longer!" Ari whined. "It dangerous to travel at night. We're stopping for camp." And that was Erza's word, so we had to stop for camp.

"Natsu, Henley, one of you start a fire." Erza said and Natsu jumped at the opportunity, but I stopped him. "I'm making the fire because knowing you, you'd probably burn down the whole forest." I said and he just started yelling at me while I arranged the sticks in a teepee like thing, then gently blew a soft, warm flame on them.

We all arranged blankets around the fire and ate a little food we packed before drifting off one by one to sleep. My guard was all the way up, so I couldn't sleep that well without waking every few minutes.

Grey was sleeping beside me, and he sure as hell noticed. "Hey. Calm down. Nothing is going to happen. I'll keep you safe." He whispered to me. I curled into his icy chest and sighed. "I can keep myself safe, but thanks. That is very comforting to know." I smiled.

My eyes closed slowly as I nestled into his neck and fell asleep.