Phoenix

Hunt

"Where the hell did she go?" Laxus grumbled as he walked through Magnolia.

The Thunder God Tribe immediately suggested that they help him look for her as soon as Emi walked out. It had been about an hour since she suddenly left the guild. Once Freed returned to the guild, he revealed that they were unable to locate the woman. This caused everyone in the guild to help look.

Gajeel looked at Laxus and apologized, saying that it seemed like he was the one who tripped her pain. Laxus looked at him and shook his head.

"It's been happening a lot lately. It's been getting worse each time."

Natsu was the next one to speak up, shouting, "Well just leave it to us dragon slayers. We can smell her out if we have to."

Hope seemed to return back to the worried members of Fairy Tail.

"Of course," Lucy exclaimed. "How could I not think of that? We'll let you all lead and we'll split up with you to help look."

"I doubt it's going to work," Laxus spoke up.

"Why would you think that?" Gray asked.

"If you all haven't forgotten, I'm a dragon slayer, too. And I haven't been able to catch her scent anywhere."

Hope seemed to leave the guild once again and everyone's heads hung low.

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Who was that? And why did it seem like we were so close? I couldn't even see his face, but I felt so warm around him.

After Emi had run away from the guild, she made her way through different alleys, making sure to conceal her scent by using a magical item she had picked up a while back called scent-be-gone. Emi laughed at the simple and rather direct name for the contraction, but she appreciated it in situations like this where she just wanted to be alone.

Emi made her way to the edge of town, aimlessly walking. She had spotted a small bakery closer to Magnolia's center, so she started to head in that direction. Emi had made it about halfway to the shop when she accidentally bumped into someone.

"I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's fine."

Emi looked up at the person she had bumped into and saw that it was a man with red eyes and black hair. He was wearing a cloak with a white guild crest on the left shoulder. His hair was blocking one of his eyes, so she couldn't really see his face.

"Fro thinks so too!"

Emi quickly whipped her head towards the ground where a green creature stood.

"Um, frog?"

"Cat," the man corrected.

"Ribbit."

If he's a cat then why is he making frog noises?

"You're very cute. What's your name?" Emi asked as she squatted down to the exceed's level.

"His name is Frosch."

"Well it's very nice to meet you, Frosch. Um, and I'm sorry for running into you again," Emi awkwardly ended.

Emi started to walk away when she spotted who she recognized as Wakaba making his way towards her. Emi quickly scurried into an alleyway so that she wouldn't be seen. Damn. Laxus really made the whole guild look for me? What a pain.

Emi snuck around Magnolia, slowly inching towards the bakery. When she finally reached the shop, she quickly opened the door and slipped inside. Once inside, Emi took her hood off and walked up to the counter to see all the baked goods that she could choose from. Emi's mouth started to water at the sight of all the food. She didn't need to be a dragon slayer to smell the beautiful scents of the different cakes, cookies and pies. Emi stopped when she saw a perfectly cut piece of apple pie.