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Lucy sighed.
After all the attempts to get inside the damn place, Team Natsu hadn’t succeeded. It was already dark outside and a cold wind was making her feel like she was freezing to death before they got inside the enchanted forest. They had tried to get inside the mysterious place but every single time a powerful gust of wind just threw them out if the forest like as if they were just leaves. After going in as a group for the first time, they tried to get in one by one, thinking that maybe the forest just didn’t let them in as a group.
They had been given a job of an enchanted forest that didn’t let anyone enter it. Job request asked guild mages to break the spell. Lucy had been excited about it because of the rent money and because Natsu saw her looking like that, he had just decided to take the job without even reading the paper through.
“I hate this job!” Happy yelled when a gust of wind kicked him out of the forest after his turn. He was able to balance his fall with his wings but the others hadn’t been as lucky–Gray was still unconscious for getting knocked out by a tree nearby. He had hit his head on it when he flew out of the forest earlier.
“That’s it, I’m gonna burn this forest to the ground”, Natsu decided and cracked his knuckles.
“Natsu, don’t!” Lucy yelled and put her hand on his arm. “Who knows what happens if you do?”
“It burns nicely and you won’t shiver from cold anymore.”
“That’s a really nice thought but we can’t burn this place down. It’s enchanted.”
“So?”
“We are not burning this forest down”, Erza said. “We just have to figure out when the curse isn’t active and then enter. That’s what the mayor in Cobalt Town told us.”
“That guy who spoke in riddles? He made no sense!”
“Natsu!” Erza said in a dangerous tone.
“Yikes, fine!” salmon haired man said, raising his hands into the air in defeat.
“Good choice.”
“I guess all we can do is to wait and keep an eye on the forest…” Lucy mumbled and sighed.
And then they waited.
Gray eventually regained his consciousness. He sat up on the ground and shook his head, groaning as it probably made him feel dizzy. “This job is not on my favorites list”, he informed the rest of the team as he walked over to the bonfire that the group had made to keep themselves warm.
“Did you see anything in the forest before it kicked you out?” Lucy asked him.
“I saw a glimpse of a very, very bright blue orb. I walked pretty close to it to examine it but then the gust of wind came”, he answered and furrowed his eyebrows. “What’s weird was that the light seemed to glow even brighter the moment before the wind…”
“Maybe the orb is the source of the curse on this forest”, Lucy wondered aloud.
“Or maybe it’s a treasure we can steal and sell later!” Happy exclaimed. “I can imagine how much fish I could buy with those jewels…” he sighed.
“We probably should just try to get rid of it”, Lucy said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
“How?” Erza asked.
“Let’s burn it”, Natsu grinned.
“No!” Lucy protested. “Why are you so destructive, Natsu?”
“I’m a fire dragon, Luce! That’s why!”
“That’s not a good enough of an excuse!”
*
“Alright, let’s do this”, Lucy said in the morning when Team Natsu was standing by the forest, looking at the thick, sinister and dark looking place. Hopefully it was the last time they had to look at it. Their plan was to go in together this time again and look for the blue orb that Gray had seen on his visit in the forest. Lucy believed it gad something to do with the annoying enchantment and she was, as well as the others too, planning on destroying it in hopes to make the problem go away. Then they could get the reward and go home.
And Lucy wouldn’t have to worry about her rent for a while!
They walked into the forest following the trail that lead inside. Immediately darkness fell around them because the forest was so thick that no sunlight was able to sneak in through the branches. It was also eerily quiet which Lucy had noticed when she had stepped in for the first time and even now it was just as spooky as it had been back then.
“Where did you see the orb, Gray?” Erza asked him quietly as they walked.
“I followed this trail until I saw it”, Gray answered. “It’s really bright. You can’t miss it.”
“Let’s just hope that wind won’t kick us out”, Natsu said. “If it does, I will burn this place to the ground. Who’s gonna miss this cursed place anyways?”
“Why are you so obsessed with destroying this forest, Flame Brain?”
“This place annoys me, Ice Princess!”
“Doesn’t give you the permission to destroy it!”
“Calm down, you two!” Lucy told them. “We’re in the middle of a mission!”
“There it is”, Erza interrupted and pointed towards glimpse of bright blue light in the distance.
The orb was floating over a marble pedestal on a small island in the middle of a pond. It looked like it had been there quite a long time because everything was covered in green moss. Lucy was surprised to see that because the place looked so calm and so… enchanting. Like a place from a fantasy novel or something!
“Do you think the water is safe to step in?” Erza asked when they walked closer to the pond.
“It doesn’t look that shallow”, Lucy said.
“I don’t think we should take risks”, Gray pointed out.
“What should we do then?”
“Easy. Happy should fly there and grab it.”
“That’s actually a good idea”, Erza agreed. “Happy?”
“Aye sir! I will do this for red snapper!” Happy said as he rose on his wings and flew towards the orb. He flew closer and closer until he got close enough to actually touch the orb. He hovered over it for a moment and then reach out to pick up the orb.
“Who goes there!? Get out of here!” yelled an angry female voice suddenly and neither of them could do anything when a whirlwind appeared out of nowhere on the small island. It got wider and came right at them faster and more aggressively than ever before. Happy yelled as the gust pushed him away from the orb towards the others. Natsu caught him in his arms just in time when the gust of wind hit Team Natsu in full force and Lucy could clearly hear menacing laughter from the wind as it threw them around the trees so fast that they all felt sick soon. Natsu had already passed out due to his motion sickness and Happy was desperately holding onto his muffler.
It was the last thing that Lucy saw when the dizziness finally took over her and she fell into darkness.
*
When Lucy opened her eyes next time, a sunlight hit her into her eyes. She felt blinded by that brightness and covered her eyes, wondering how long she had been unconscious. She remembered that she had gone into that enchanted forest with the rest of the team and had since been kicked out of there by a gust of wind. She felt disappointed by that. They had been so close to succeed, only to be outsmarted by the mysterious orb! And who had been that menacing sounding voice of a woman!? Lucy didn’t know. All she really knew was that she wanted to go back there to get that damn orb before the mayor of Cobalt Town would give the job to someone else!
But when Lucy stood up, she realized she wasn’t where the enchanted forest had been. She looked around and took in her surroundings. Everything looked familiar–too familiar. When she turned around she saw a town and the ocean behind it. She recognized the town too.
Magnolia.
How had she and the rest of Team Natsu returned here all of a sudden? They were so far away from the enchanted forest and it would take days to get back there to finish the job. It would take so long that Lucy was sure he would send the job request to one of the other guilds in Fiore and they would get the job done and Lucy would lose her precious reward jewels. She didn’t like that at all.
“What the hell happened to us?” Gray asked nearby.
“I have no idea”, Lucy answered. “Are Natsu, Happy and Erza okay?”
“They’re fine.”
“Okay, good.”
“We’re going back to the guild now, Luce! C’mon!” Natsu said and grinned at Lucy when she looked at him.
“I thought we’d go back to the forest and finish the job”, Lucy said.
“There’s no point”, Erza crossed her arms on her chest. “We’d just lose the reward.”
Lucy sighed and nodded. She had known that she would say that.
“Don’t worry, Luce, we’ll get your rent from somewhere else”, Natsu cheered her up.
Lucy smiled and nodded.
*
When they arrived to their guild few moments later, first thing that they noticed was that nobody greeted them nor did they ask them how the job went when they walked into the guildhall. In fact, everyone just kept doing what they were doing. It was as if they weren’t even aware that they had even left the guild two weeks ago. It was very odd to say the least.
“Where did you guys go all of a sudden?” asked Macao when he noticed them.
Lucy furrowed her eyebrows and glanced at her teammates. They were just as confused as she was. “Don’t you remember? We took a job request two weeks ago”, blonde said.
“What job request?”
“This one!” Natsu said and took the paper out of his pocket.
“I’ve never seen that one before”, said Romeo.
“What the hell is going on here?” Gray mumbled.
“We told Mira we left for a job and she wrote it down”, Lucy reminded them. “Didn’t we…?” she asked her teammates. They had left pretty quickly but usually they made sure, they told Mira about it! Or did they just forget to do so this time? What was going on? When her teammates looked at each other unsure, Lucy decided to walk over to the bar to ask Mira about it.
“There are no markings in my book from you guys from two weeks ago”, she answered when Lucy had asked her.
“Okay, this is pretty spooky”, Happy commented and shivered. “That orb cursed us because we went too close to it!”
“I hope not”, Natsu said, and had a troubled look on his face.
“What is this orb you talk about?” Master Makarov asked curiously.
“We took a job request to go take care of a problem with an enchanted forest nearby a town called Cobalt”, Lucy explained. “We entered the forest and found a shining blue orb there which kicked us out of the forest right on the outskirts of Magnolia.”
As she spoke, she noticed Master Makarov’s expression go from curious to surprised. “Can I see the job request?”
Natsu gave it to him without a word. Makarov read it through thoughtful look on his face. Then he folded the paper and put it into his pocket. “I will store this away.”
“What? Why?”
“The Blue Orb is a cursed magical item that has been doing this for decades”, Makarov explained. “Cobalt Town was destroyed during that war and the citizens ran into that forest for safety. The Orb was used as a shield to protect the townsfolk but something happened to them because during their first night there, they all disappeared. They are believed to have been killed by the power of that orb. Ever since then, the magic guilds have been sent mysterious job requests from the Mayor of Cobalt Town of an “enchanted forest that must be investigated”. The Orb uses mages to gather power and it cannot be stopped from doing so. It only happens in October annually because that’s when the Orb was activated. This is not the first time our guild has gotten this request”, Makarov explained.
“So spooky!” Happy said.
“Too spooky”, Natsu said and shivered.
“That explains why we passed out when it kicked us out of the forest”, Erza said thoughtfully.
“I’m going to report to the other guilds that The Blue Orb is active again”, Makarov said as he turned around to go to his office. “They will know to not to do what you did.”
“I guess we deserved that little shade”, Gray mumbled.
“It sounded so innocent”, Lucy argued. “It looked normal job request through and through, didn’t it?”
“It did. That’s why I picked it”, Natsu said.
“You were just looking for a request with the biggest reward!” Happy said, pointing at him with his paw. “You didn’t look at anything else on it!”
“Shut it, Happy!” Natsu said defensively.
Lucy chuckled at them and covered her mouth with her hand. Natsu and Happy were hilarious when they argued.
“We’ll just have to be careful from now on”, Erza rubbed her chin thoughtfully, ignoring the argument going on in the background.
“Agreed”, Lucy nodded.