A Long Lost Friend

The Blinding Light

Lucy's POV: 

          We were walking through an old and broken-down town. The town was huge and it felt like a ghost could pop out at any time. There were no adults working, kids playing, or birds singing. The silence gave me the chills, but Natsu and Gray didn't seem to be bothered by it one bit. The two of them were sending death glares at each other, as they head-butted. Honestly, we just defeated the Alvarez Empire in a deadly war and the dragon slayers took down Acnologia, but those two never seem to learn. They have rocks for brains and they live on throwing insults at each other. 

          I shrugged and carried my feet onwards. Suddenly, I heard a long sigh. I glanced to my left and it was Erza who gave a sigh. I had heard from Wendy that during the war against Alvarez, Erza had met her mother. According to Wendy, it wasn't a happy reunion between mother and daughter. They had fought and Erza's mother, Eileen, was the first dragon slayer. Talk about a surprise. Eileen had taken her own life in the end. Wendy told me that Erza said that Fairy Tail is her home and Master Makarov was her parent. It has been about three weeks, since that battle. The 100 Year Quest we're taking has been difficult, even though it was only beginning. Erza must have been exhausted fighting that Blade Dragon Slayer or whatever her name was. Out of sheer luck (in my opinion), we were able to seal the Sea King Dragon. It took a lot of regrets to seal him since he was so kind. Erza was quiet today, although it wasn't super weird, I was a bit concerned.

          I turned my head towards Erza. "Hey, Erza. Are you feeling alright? You've been very quiet," I asked with a worried tone. She made a sudden blink which told me she was fazing out. She had been doing that a lot since we started this quest. She wasn't n touch with reality or it doesn't seem like she is. 

          Erza replies, "Huh? Oh, Lucy. I'm fine. I just have something on my mind. I can't shake the thought." I could tell. I shared a confused glance with Wendy who was standing to my right. Both of us gave the 'she-might-be-going-crazy' look. 

          "Okay. Just spill if you need to talk," I told her. She smiled a gave me a nod. We heard Natsu and Gray scream an insult at each other about something that seemed to tick them off. I looked at Erza-hoping that she would stop the boys. I was already tired from sealing the first dragon and I couldn't handle any more of their pointless arguments. Erza, apparently, got the message. She gave the boys a death glare, which made them silence themselves with their hands. 

         We walked and walked for what felt like hours. We reached the outskirts of the town and we trudged into a thick forest. The trees in the forest were gorgeous because they were so colorful. There was orange leaves, yellow leaves, gold leaves, brown leaves, and some green leaves here and there. It wasn't creepy and spine-chilling like the town. 

          "Hey, you guy! Why don't we take a break here?!" Natsu half screamed, half asked. I was pretty sure everyone, including me, was dumbfounded. Natsu, the guy who seemed to live on picking fights and, finding people or things to fight with, was asking for a break. Usually, he would be like 'come out and fight me'. It made all of us confused when Natsu asked for a break, but none of us complained. Wendy's head shot up into the sky so quickly that I jumped from surprise. 

          Wendy's head tilted back and forth. She closed her eyes and sniffed the air. She told us, "If we take a break, we should find a cave or something. I can sense a heavy thunderstorm coming in a few minutes." I was about to comment on how there wasn't a single gray cloud in the sky, but I held my tongue. Listening to Wendy's advice, we went in search of a cave. We could've stayed in one of the houses in the town we were in, but we had gone deep into the forest. Happy and Carla flew ahead of us to get an aerial view of the forest. The rest of the group sat down on some stones and waited for the two felines to come back with news. A couple of minutes later, Carla came flying back. Happy following after her.