The Fairy Slayer

Chapter One - There and Back Again

The Fairy Tail guild hall was as noisy and crowded as usual. Cana was drinking everyone under the table and Elfman was being his usual "manly" self. Master Makarov was up in his office writing more apology letters, probably for something Natsu, Grey and Erza broke.

Lucy was sitting at the bar, talking to Mira. "It's good to see that a seven year absence hasn't changed much," she mentioned, watching her guildmates antics.

"Of course it hasn't changed much," Mira said with a smile as she dried a beer glass. "Especially now we've got the old guild hall back."

"Yeah, it sure is nice to be back here again," Lucy agreed.

"I could take you anytime I want, Grey!" Natsu could be heard above the cacophony of the rest of the guild.

Lucy turned around to see the hot head and Grey almost nose to nose.

"Oh yeah? Bring it on, flame brain." Grey beckoned Natsu toward him.

"Well, here we go again," Lucy said cheerfully.

Erza walked up behind the pair of idiots and grabbed each of them by an ear. "Knock it off, you two." she growled. "We just got the guild hall back and we don't want to go wrecking it already, now do we?" she said, with a glare to both of them.

"No, ma'am!" Natsu and Grey said quickly and in unison, both of them shaking their heads fast enough that Lucy was surprised they didn't fly off their shoulders.

"Good," Erza said, dropping them into a heap on the floor.

Suddenly, the doors to the guild hall swung open and Iron Rock Jura strode through them. "Where is Master Makarov?" he asked, surveying the guild.

"Here." Makarov strode down the stairs from the second floor. "What is it Jura?"

Jura moved to the side to allow Sherry through the door, followed by Lyon. Lyon was carrying a girl wrapped in his overcoat. Her long wavy blonde hair draped across his arm, almost dragging the floor.

"Oh my gosh." Mira dropped the glass she was cleaning onto the bar and covered her mouth with her hands.

The rest of the guild went silent as everyone stopped what they doing to stare at the Lamia Scale wizards.

"Is it really her?" Natsu's voice was nearly inaudible.

"I don't believe it," Erza breathed. "She's alive."

Makarov's eyes filled with tears. "Thank you. Thank you for bringing her back to us," he said as he shook Jura's hand fiercely.

Mira ran from behind the bar and took the girl from Lyon. "Her right leg is broken, so we set and bound it as well as we could," he told her.

"That's no problem," Mira said. "Thank you for everything you've done for her." Mira began carrying Evelynn up the stairs, but she stopped and looked back at Lyon. "You should stay for the party. She'll want to thank you herself." And with that, Mira disappeared up to the second floor of the guild hall.

After the shock wore off, quiet chattering once again began to circulate throughout the guild hall.

"Who was that girl Lyon was carrying?" Lucy asked, moving to sit at the table with Natsu, Erza and Grey.

"Her name is Evelynn Valkyrie," Erza answered. "She's one of Fairy Tail's strongest wizards."

"Really? I don't think I've ever seen her before today," Lucy said.

"She went missing three years ago, before you joined the guild," Grey said.

"Ten years," Natsu said quietly. "We were gone for seven, remember?"

"Natsu's right," Erza said. "It has been ten years now."

"She didn't look any different than when she left, though," Grey mentioned.

"She cast Fairy Shell," a small voice said from next to Lucy. Lucy looked over and saw Fairy Tail's First Master, Mavis, sitting next to her. "It's the same spell I cast over Tenrou Isalnd."

"That explains it," Erza said.

"But where did they find her?" Grey asked. "We scoured the area around Zonia Mountain for months."

"We found her in the Magical Law Enforcement outpost near Sherwood," Sherry said as she and Lyon walked over and sat down.

"That's halfway across the kingdom for where she was supposed to be," Erza said.

"What kind of job was she on that took her halfway across Fiore?" Lyon asked.

"If memory serves, she was on a reconnaissance mission for a century quest." Mira came over and sat down next to Erza.

"Wait, she was an S-Class wizard?!" Lucy asked, shocked. That girl looked way too tiny to be an S-Class wizard, she was only about the size of Lisanna. If she was wearing boots.

"Yes," Erza said. "She went to survey the job to see if anyone in the guild could handle it or if it needed to be passed up to the Wizard Saints or the Council."

"Right. The Century Quest she was surveying for mentioned sightings of a black dragon and she went to check it out," Mira told them.

"When Eva didn't come back after a week, Gildarts went looking for her and found the dragon instead," Natsu said.

"Acnologia," Lucy said quietly.

"You sent a little girl after one of Zereph's creatures?!" Lyon asked incredulously. "Are you all insane?"

"I resent that," a light voice said, approaching them. "I am not a little girl."