A Star Removed from the Sky

First Event: Totem Hunt

The five members of Stellar Luna who had just won the first Grand Magic Games event all cheered once they walked into their guild hall, high fiving one another before enjoying a group hug.

They separated when Jamie jumped up on a table and yelled triumphantly. "Yeah guys that's how it's done! We made great time, despite someone dragging their feet looking around for someone, or should I say, some guild."

Lucy laughed weakly, sitting down in one of the chairs, exhausted from what just happened. "Sorry guys, I was just thinking. Besides, it was Pyxis who helped get us to the flower, so you can't say I didn't help."

"You're lucky Antonio helped get us to the building, or we would've gotten attacked by every guild in the flower field."

See, the preliminary round was especially simple for Lucy's guild. Stellar Luna had an advantage that no other guild had: their lodgings were in the flower fields. They were barely in range of the runes for the event, which explained why they had to move closer to the city when they first arrived in Crocus. As soon as they heard there was an artifact hidden in the fields, they knew that was their best option. When the time started, they spilt up and looked around for, well, for something magical. Antonio made a point of warning everyone they would be joined by dozens of other guilds within minutes, so they needed to hurry. This added stress to everyone who was already nervous, but it also gave them the motivation they needed to get started.

Lucy was on edge more than anyone, but not just because of the competition like her teammates. She was concentrating more on whether she was going to run into her friends or not. She expected them to appear out of nowhere, making a scene like always. She wanted to see them so badly... but she was still nervous about the curse, especially after hearing what Natsu had went through. Even if she ran to the Fairy Tail teams, would they see her? Would they all collapse in a fit of pain like Natsu, or would the caster do worse than that? She wasn't sure if she was ready to find out what consequences lied in her future as a result of defying the caster of this curse.

Besides... she owed her new friends her best effort to win this preliminary round. Her best chance to overcome the curse would be in the arena, in front of thousands of wizards and Fiore citizens. Yukino, who had decided to stay with her instead of going by herself to search, seemed to have reached the same decision.

She took a deep breath and used some of the energy she'd been building up since she last saw Natsu and Happy to summon Pyxis. She asked for directions to any source of magic excluding the natural magic power of the wizards within the field. He happily complied; his arrow pointed to a section in the middle of the flower field they were in already. The field was so large that trying to sift through the whole thing would take far longer than it was worth, and Antonio had a good point when he said that they were going to have company soon. Lucy followed Pyxis with Yukino by her side, and when they got to a point where Pyxis declared they had found the magic item, they stopped. Yukino crouched down and immediately saw something odd, a completely blue flower planted alongside the other flowers.

It would be hard to notice if you weren't sure it was the place to look. The other flowers almost covered it, making it easy to glance over, especially if the searcher was in a hurry. Yukino picked it up and it began to glow, which was enough proof for her and Lucy that they'd found what they needed. Pyxis disappeared after Lucy thanked him and they called over Jess, Jamie, and Antonio, who hadn't wandered far because only a few minutes had passed. Antonio was surprised that they found one so easily. "This must be a trick. They said this one would be most difficult to find and win with, and Lucy finds it within minutes? There's no way-"

A loud succession of cheers and battle cries from the city interrupted his worried monologue. Blasts of magic were fired through the sky and several wizard guilds began to run into the field of flowers. Jess flinched and grabbed Jamie's hand. "We should go guys. If it's fake, then we can find another one. Lucy's celestial friend can sense the magic artifacts, so we'll be fine, but we have a better chance of winning if we avoid all these other guilds right now."