Hearts of Stone

We Get Ambushed By Invisible Men

"Hey, get back here!!"

"Hard pass!" A 16 year old, fleet footed young girl dashed through the streets of Crocus, carrying a sack over her shoulder.

Eyeing a basket full of juicy red apples, she made the slightest of turns and grabbed the entire basket before the vendor could register what happened.

"Hey!" The old man selling the apples protested as she ran away without missing a beat.

"Sorry not sorry!" She chortled as she outran a fully armed soldier. Seeing her chance, she sprinted towards a dumpster, jumped on top of it, and pushed upwards, soaring momentarily through the air before landing gracefully. Shingles came loose under her bare feet and the warm, fresh bread from her sack made her drool.

Seeing the canal at the end of the houses, she sped up. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the guard realize where she was going and grin, thinking there was no way to get out and he would be able to catch her. She grinned to herself. People are so stupid!

She came to the edge of the last roof, then faked out the far away guard by pretending to go down in an alley. When she was out of sight, she ran towards the edge of the canal and leaped down without hesitation. Grabbing on to the side of the bank, she swung herself onto a thin ledge on the edge.

Looking around warily, she pressed a very special key shaped charm from her bracelet into the soil. A door opened magically and she ran inside, shutting it firmly behind her.

Lucy stepped into the rather spacious hovel and grinned.

"I'm ba~ack!" She announced. Brown haired Cana, the only better thief in the group than her, tackled her in a hug and grabbed the sack.

"Bread!" She cried in glee. "Look in the bottom of the sack." Lucy said happily. Cana was speechless. "OH MY DEAR FRIGGIN SOIL HOVEL MAGIC BREAD APPLE GODS YOU GOT BUTTER?!?" Okay, so maybe she wasn't exactly speechless.

Lucy grinned proudly. "It almost got me caught, but I was able to snatch us some. The bread is fresh, too." Cana tackled her again and said "You're the greatest! Guys, get your butts in here!"

A scarlet haired girl peeked into the room, followed by two white haired girls, two blue haired girls, and a black haired girl. The smell wafted into the dirty noses and made their hungry stomachs grumble. The red head gave Lucy an approving nod and a small smile, making her grin proudly, and the white haired girl with longer hair offered a sweet smile that made Lucy practically glow. "I also got a whole basket o' apples!" She blurted. Cana ruffled her hair playfully.

"Ya' really went outta ya' way today Luce. Good work." She beamed. Then she saw the straight faced, black haired girl practically drooling and giggled. "I think Kagura wants us to eat." Kagura looked away bashfully but nodded and looked at the basket. She saw the playful grins of her nakama and exclaimed "What, I can't eat off all the praise you guys are giving her. She did awesome, BUT LET'S EAT!"

Everybody burst into laughter, but divided the food evenly in agreement with Kagura's statement. "So, guys, I was thinking. We haven't done a group raid in FOREVER. What if tomorrow we steal from the bakery?" Yukino questioned.

Levy tapped her chin. "Considering the pure size of the bakery (which is huge), factoring in the assortment of different sweets we all like, and in addition to how the bakery's in a big building with multiple different shops, statistically, if we divide the items we need plus the items we want, that could actually be a successful procedure."

Everybody gave her blank stares. It was Cana that finally spoke. "Um, English, please? I don't speak smart person." The circle burst into giggles. Levy rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless. "What I'm saying is that might work." "Well why didn't you say so!" Cana exclaimed. This caused another round of laughter.

"Guys... I know this is a tough subject and all but..." she shot Lucy a glance, "But when is Lucy actually gonna talk?" The circle went silent.

You may be thinking, 'What?! But Lucy does talk!' See, that's where you're wrong. On the day of the friends' escape, on of Lucy's 'special' friends gave her a magic item. It was a very small microchip the she clipped onto her ear, and what it does is telepathically finds what she wants to say, then transmits it directly to who she wants to hear. Earlier this morning, she was transmitting to everybody within a normal earshot so it was like normal talking. That's how she communicates.

Erza finally piped up. "Mira, why did you bring that up." Mira looked up sadly. "Earlier yesterday, I was walking through the streets in my cloak just to get fresh air. I overheard this conversation about how the soldiers are now using this new magic thingy to find magic objects. I know the hovel's shielded but... what if Lucy's earpiece isn't? What if the guards pick up on the magical earpiece and then they pinpoint it and then they find us and then they take us back and then they-" She started crying. Erza placed a hand on her back.

"Listen, tomorrow we're going to go on a group raid and relieve some stress. And the sweets themselves will help. It'll be all right, Mira. We'll never go back." Mira nodded, then wiped her eyes with a sniff and looked up. Her sweet smile returned to her face and all tension just evaporated into thin air.

"You're right." She said. Then she grinned. "Let's do this."

              * * * * * * * * * *

The next day, all eight of the girls woke up happily. Gleefully grabbing some leftover bread and an apple each, they grabbed their cloaks and headed out the door. Sticking to the shadows, they moved towards the huge building that held the bakery. Since they'd grown up on the streets and in... that place, they're senses were exceptional.

"Not a guard in sight." Noted Kagura.

"Good. The less guards the better." Replied Erza.

"I can practically taste the cupcakes now!" Squealed Yukino.

"I'm heading to the secret booze stash the employees keep in the back." Cana grinned.

Everybody shouldered the sacks they would use to put the items in. "You guys ready?" Mira questioned happily.

Everybody nodded, then started towards the entrance stealthily. Taking off their hoods to disguise themselves as merely young travelers. They started uselessly chatting with each other, inwardly barfing. This type of talk always seemed pointless to them.

But they never made it to the bakery.

Armed soldiers appeared out of nowhere, magic guns pointed towards them.

'Invisible cloaks!!' They all thought, alarmed.

"How did they find us?!" Levy whispered sharply.

But they already knew. They had tracked the magic in Lucy's earpiece.

It was an ambush.

Hello Minna-San! Yang here, and I want to thank you for reading 😊 you guys are the best! And 1000+ words! Hurray!
Cya later readers!
Yang/Author