Union of the Night(Sequel to Walking the Shadows)

Ch39: A New Mission

Rogue's pov

I woke up to being the only person in the bed. I sat up and stretched, guessing Starlight had either fallen asleep on the couch again or was getting breakfast. It had been a week since the wedding and Starlight was acting a bit off.

I walked down the stairs to see Phoenix and Lily cooking breakfast, Frosch and Gajeel sitting at the table and Starlight fast asleep with her head leaned on the table. "If it isn't Raios. Did you come looking for your mate?" Gajeel asked. "First, please stop calling me that. It's Rogue. Not Raios. Second, no I'm hungry and I guessed Starlight would be down here anyway" I replied, sitting at the table.

"She fell asleep on the couch again last night. We got her to come to the table and the moment she sat down, she fell asleep again" Phoenix explained, not looking away from the stove.

"Have any of you noticed any strange activity from Starlight. I think she's been acting kind of off" I explained, fiddling with my fork. "If your talking about her increased appetite, the vomiting, the constant sleeping, the fact she does her best to not talk to any of us or avoid us and how she's become more jumpy then yes, we've noticed" Gajeel replied, giving me a list.

Phoenix served the food as we all started to eat and while we were in the middle of eating, Starlight still sleeping, the door of the dining room burst open. "Guys. I have the perfect job" Sting yelled. We all almost had a heart attack by this since someone barging into your house and yelling is scary. It also woke Starlight up who looked kinda confused.

"How did you even get in here?" Lily asked, looking confused. "You left your living room window open" Sting replied, gesturing to the window in the living room. "You can't just barge into people's homes uninvited" Gajeel growled. "Sorry but I had to show you this" Sting explained, walking over and showing Gajeel a job. While Gajeel read the paper, Sting stole a piece of Bacon from the table.

"Why can't you go on your own. All you have to do is find a bracelet. It ain't that hard" Gajeel replied, handing the paper back to Sting. "There's fighting involved" Sting told Gajeel who suddenly looked interested. "Fine. I'll go. You guys gonna come?" Gajeel asked, looking at me and Starlight. "Alright. Not that I care that much" I replied. I looked tk Starlight who had got some food and was eating before nodding in response to Gajeel's question.

"It pays a good amount too. That's gotta be perfect for your rent" Sting told Gajeel. "We don't pay rent" Gajeel replied bluntly, fringing some of the juice that was put on the table. "You don't?" Sting questioned.

"Nope. This house belongs to us. The only thing we pay for is the electricity, gas and anything else we need" Gajeel replied. "Well. You can use the jewel for something else then" Sting replied. We finished breakfast before going to get ready.

***

We finally got off the train as I was very thankful. Basically, all of us had to deal with motion sickness during the entire journey and it was like a living nightmare.

We walked over to the place of the guy who requested the job. He invited us in so that we could discuss the details of the job. "My daughter lost her bracelet in the mountain while rock climbing and I'd appreciate it if you could help her find it" The man explained.

A woman stood in front of us. She had light brown hair that was up in a pony tail with green eyes. She wore a light blue dress with a Sapphire necklace and a pair of flats. She didn't seem to acknowledge anyone except Starlight who she was staring at.

We agreed to the job and headed to the nearby mountains. They weren't like Mount Hakiba since they weren't covered in snow and were actually very warm. We got to the base of the mountain when the ground started to rumble.

"What's going on?" Lector asked, looking at a pile of rocks that were shaking. He didn't get an answer as a snow serpent burst out of the ground and let out a roar. "Finally. A fight" Gajeel cheered, turning his hand into a club and sending it at the serpent.

We all fought against it but our attacks were doing barely anything. I decided to turn into my shadow form and get on top of the snow serpent and when I got on its back, I noticed a panel. I opened it up to see a lever which was pulled up to the word on.

I grabbed the lever and tugged on it. It was very stiff so it didn't budge at first but after a few tugs, I got it to go to the word off. The serpent stopped moving and collapsed onto the ground. "Yes we won" Sting cheered.

I slid down the side of the serpent. "Actually I just turned it off. Its fake. A machine" I explained. "Someone made a fake serpent? Why?" Lily asked. "Well whoever it was, they didn't get the right one. They should have made a forest serpent or a rock serpent. Snow serpents don't love in warm climates. They live in snowy areas like Mount Hakiba" I explained.

"Hey guys. I think there is something inside it" Phoenix called, holding the mouth open. She had pulled out a tooth which had the bracelet on it and handed it to Gajeel who started to eat away at the metal tooth to get the bracelet off.

We walked into the serpent as a light came on, showing see-through crates that held all kinds of coloured gems. "Oh cool. These are so pretty" Sting explained, going to touch one. "Don't touch" Phoenix ordered. "What, why?" Sting asked. Phoenix grabbed a glove from her quiver and picked up a red coloured gem.

"Just as I thought. Elemental gems" Phoenix explained. "What are those?" Lily asked. "They're gems that are used to make lacrimas however if you touch them without the special clothing that was designed to handle them then you get elemental poisoning which has no cure and kills you within 3 days" Phoenix explained. Sting tensed up and stepped closer to me gulping.

"They're worth millions if not billions on the market. Someone has been mining them and is either planning on using them as a weapon or selling them. Starlight, what do you think?" Phoenix asked.

We waited for Starlight to respond but there was no response. I looked behind me and Starlight wasn't there. We headed out of the Serpent and she wasn't anywhere to be seen but I could pick out her scent and their was a hint of fear in it.

"She must have been taken along with Juli" Gajeel pointed out. "We'll follow her scent" I explained. "Fro thinks so too" Frosch added as we started to follow where the scent was leading.