Gaining Courage: The Search for the Lost Keys (a Fairytail Galu story)

Chapter Thirty-Four: Sand Storm

AN: For those of you still interested and still reading thank you and I am sorry for what happened. To keep it simple my laptop broke with my only copy of the story on it. It had taken me this long to be able to get around to fixing it and being able to get back into wattpad after a problem with Facebook that had cause all manner of trouble with several accounts. If you check the files you'll see that I didn't bother uploading until I had finished the story as I didn't want to pull the same crap twice. These are the last ten chapters that make up Gaining Courage and I just want to once again thank and apologise to those readers who were with me from the start. It took years but I hope you at least enjoyed the ride.

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Lucy POV:

Waking up wrapped in Gajeel's arms was a new experience but one my secret heart hoped wouldn't be a one-time thing. Letting myself relax into his hold I tried to decide when it was that my perspective changed, when everything I had been running away from caught up with me. Natsu, Levy, the Guild: everything I had been so scared of didn't seem as frightening anymore. Feeling Gajeel stir behind me I expect any reaction but what I got. Not moving away Gajeel squeezed my waist and nuzzled into my hair.

"Morning Bunny."

I knew pretending to be asleep wouldn't work with a dragonslayer let alone one who was holding me so close. Gathering my courage I squeezed him back and sighed as I relaxed more into his embrace.

"Morning Gaj, do we have to get up, I'm all comfy."

The next thing I knew I yelped as Gajeel smacked my butt as he let go and rolled out of bed.

"Sorry Bunny, but we gotta go. One of the Knights gave me the heads up on where we can find our 'old man'. Move it and no two hour shower."

Watching as he walked around almost naked I put off my usual reaction and just appreciated the view until he wandered into the bathroom and shut the door. Getting up I packed up our bags while I waited for my turn. A few minutes later I was in the shower myself trying to still wrap my head around all the changes that had happened over the last year; too many changes if I was being honest, but what could I do. After the war I had to change I would have lost myself to all the pain and lost that happened. Feeling the glow from my spirits even without the keys near I knew Virgo had come and gone. Finishing getting dressed I met Gajeel outside and simply followed his lead as he stomped across town to a café.

Inside as if waiting for us was the right old man and after buying him several snacks we got a fairly coherent story about a buried ruin site, giant scorpions, and little man-eating rats. Since the idea of beating something up appealed to Gajeel he had no problem following the rudimentary drawn map into the desert full of dangerous monsters. Bowing to the inevitable, I thanked the man for his help wished him a good day and ran to catch up with my insane partner.

As they began traveling through the desert I realised using Argo wouldn't allow them a close enough view of the sands so we had to stay closer to the ground. Getting on Apus and flying low would allow them to see any traces of the ruins now all I had to do was convince Gajeel to ride him for a while. A quick call to Apus and several hits to the head had Gajeel on board and we were on our way.

As we crossed the desert I was trying to keep my enthusiasm up but with so many dead ends and mistakes I was starting to lose hope of finding either the temple or Aquarius something had to give and I was afraid that it might be Gajeel. We had been on this adventure for over a year and I couldn't keep expecting him to stay with me much longer. In the beginning I was fine on my own, I had my spirits and had prepared myself for the loneliness but now after all this time in his company I didn't know how I would cope without him.

We had been traveling for about three hours when we ran into the first spot of trouble in the form of an animal attack. Thinking we would be safe on Apus lead to my first mistake when two giant snakes burst out of the ground and attacked. As Apus dodged and dived at first I was confused how they could reach us up high, it was only when the sun shifted and the light finally allowed me a clear look that I realised it wasn't two snakes but what looked like two malformed 'Quetzalcoat'.

Gajeel the moment they came close enough dived off and hammer dropped on the nearest one. Transforming in mid-air as I sent Apus back I landed in front of the second star dressed into Scorpio and used the desert sand to beat him back towards where Gajeel had the other one cornered. Gajeel not wasting time took them both out with a point-blank Iron Dragon Roar. As the sand cleared from the backlash I could just make out the two tails of both snakes vanish back into the sand hightailing it out of there having learnt their lesson.

Looking to give Apus a break I called out Gemini in 'Happy' mode and stardressed to match. Once back in the air this time being more careful we lasted another two hours before we found trouble again. This time we ran into an irate lion-gecko at an oasis that we stopped at for a breather which in hindsight seemed to have been a bad choice. Leaving rather than waste our energy we let the animal have the waterway and continued on.

As the day wore on I started to think that we were lost. It was a little while later that we finally saw signs of the ruins as the sun was preparing to set. The only problem was that as we approached the site an army of territorial mererats appeared; it seemed the colony had made the ruins their home and didn't like visitors. Calling out Cetus as I sent Gemini back I had the boy use what he had been practicing; together with my Aquarius star dress we took careful aim joined hands and fired.

"Sadalsuud Wave!"

A massive wall of water appeared in front of us and proceeded to wash straight across the desert and ruin site. As the tidal wave hit the building it became a gentler stream pushing the rats away from the ruins entrance allowing us access. With Cetus and Gajeel watching for wererat reinforcements it allowed me time to call out Crux for a quick translation of the hieroglyphs over the doorway. With the rats out of the way Crux has no problem translating and telling me that they need a sunrise to open the door. Thanking Cetus and Crux for their help they both returned back to the spirit world. Before he goes Cetus breaks into a huge smile when Gajeel ruffles his hair under the bandana and ghihi's a soft 'well done'. Before I could get the words out a dust cloud appears and Virgo has already come and gone. Seeing the camp site all set up with the camping supplies waiting for supper to be ready I spoke aloud.

"Thank you Virgo, punishment later."

As we made our way towards the fire I could see the unholy glee in her eye as she thought up new things I could do to her. Fighting off the shiver, I couldn't help but sigh at the funniness of Spirits and their ways. I long ago realised I couldn't beat thousands of years of learned behaviour and so I should just accept the things I cannot change, have the courage to change the things I can, and try to have the wisdom to know the difference.