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

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Not Again

Having finished looking in the lake outside of Tiger Valley for signs of Aquarius, Gajeel and I decided to have a rest before travelling to the next ruin site further in the mountain range. After I had finished looking for Aquarius and explaining to the water nymph with Cetus translating that we meant no harm, I decided to keep Cetus out in his human form and the two of us tried training in water control.

It turned out Cetus had never really trained himself in human form since he had complete control and powerful attacks in battle form. I also assumed from the things he said that his previous key holders hadn't bothered letting him train in his 'weaker' form. After I explained I wanted him to be prepared in case he was ever attacked on land while scouting he became more animated.

Having called out Aries for target practice, I star dressed into Aquarius' form and had the two of us stand beside the lake as Aries with the expected apology fired globs of wool that Cetus and I tried to hit. After a while when our aim wasn't improving I was about to summon Sagittarius and ask him for pointers when Gajeel wandered over.

"Oi Bunny Girl. You're doing that wrong."

Before I could comment he transformed several daggers and threw them with pin-point accuracy at the floating wool. Impressed in spite of myself I watched as Gajeel took Cetus aside and started giving him advice. Before long Gajeel had Cetus running all over jumping about trying to hit him as Gajeel dodged and in turn chased him back. Slightly bemused at the situation I suddenly remembered how Asuka back at the guild was always more friendly with Gajeel than people would expect. Pushing aside the thought of Gajeel as a family man I thanked Aries for her help and promised to have a girl's night soon.

Wandering further up the bank I waited until our camp ground was out of sight before coming to a stop. With the boys occupied I decided to have a nice relaxing bath in the lake. After striping and giving my workout clothes a quick rinse I settled back to simply floating and finally having the time for a quick think.

I was starting to get disheartened at the lack of progress on both missions. I knew in my head it would take a while to find Aquarius' key but my heart was starting to lose hope. I thought I at least would have made some progress concerning the Mashima ruins if nothing else. Dozens of waterways searched, ancient ruins of all shapes and sizes and I was further behind than I was in the beginning. The oddly hurtful thought that Gajeel wouldn't stick around much longer had me sighing and almost in tears.

Shaking loose of the melancholy I forced all thoughts from my head and just tried to relax into the water at least for a moment. Drifting for a few minutes allowed me to work the tension out of my shoulders and back and after a quick scrub I was ready to climb out. Seeing how sharp some of the stones were I had just slipped on my boots and was not really paying attention which is probably how I didn't see the attack coming. The next thing I knew there was a pain in the back of my head and everything went black.

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Time-skip:

Coming too not knowing how much time later I found myself tied to a tree with two creepy looking guys standing nearby talking. Pretending to still be out of it I listened and felt my anger rise when I heard the two men arguing about selling me and my keys. To my revulsion one of them wanted to try the merchandise before selling me on to the local black-market. It may have surprised anyone else other than my spirits but I was more enraged about them separating and selling my keys than their disgusting plans for me.

Testing the ropes holding me I couldn't quite believe after all of my hard work I was kidnapped 'again'. Knowing there wasn't much time as Gajeel was a Dragonslayer and from past experience with their noses he would track me down soon, I got to work; lucky for me I had put my travelling boots on first after climbing out of the water. Carefully keeping an eye on the arguing pair I pulled my leg up and slid it around the tree. Reaching cautiously inside I felt around until the small knife I'd hidden slipped free. Moving as little as possible I sliced through the rope holding me and slowly tested my range of motion all the time keeping a grip on the now loose rope.