The bonds of the soul

Chapter 5: Reassuring the spirits

Before any of them noticed that they arrived at the nearest town and checked into the hotel before collapsing into their beds, all of them exhausted from the information that they had been told. When the morning came, Happy and Gray headed out to get breakfast while Lucy had another shower and Natsu stayed behind to make sure that she didn't try and scrub her skin off or stay in the shower for too long. 
"So now that we have rested and are eating what does everyone think that we should do?" Natsu asked as they started their breakfast. 
"Hmm, we could join another guild like Blue Pegasus or Lamia Scale" Happy suggested. 
"Good suggestion but Blue Pegasus is too touchy feely and Lamia Scale are too close to Fairy tail not to ask questions" Gray pointed out. 
"Well we can join a small guild or even that so called number one guild in Fiore who was it again, Sabertooth?" Natsu questioned. 
"Yeah but from what I heard if you're not strong you could be kicked out of the guild or even force them leave the guild" Lucy whispered, her stuttering had stopped but she still couldn't raise her voice. 
"That sounds brutal....What do you wanna do Lushee?" Happy asked. 
"I....I think we should travel around and train. I want to get stronger so that something like that can ever happen to me again" Lucy shivered. 
"Good idea Lucy, while we travel around me and Natsu could begin to figure out this new power that we have and we could also find more keys for you as well as catalysts for you to do summonings with" Gray grinned. 
"So we have an idea on what we are going to do? We wil travel around until we figure out something different and I am sure that there are a few towns that would hire us to do some jobs so that we can earn some jewel" said Natsu. 
"Just means that you will have to make sure not to break as many things" snickered Happy making Natsu blush slightly. 
"Shut up I'm not the only one that destroys buildings or other things while we are on a mission" Natsu pouted but he couldn't be all that upset since he saw the small twitch of Lucy's lip. There was still a long way for Lucy to go to recover but she was slowly coming out of her shell when she was with Natsu, Gray and Happy so that was good, it showed them that the girl they once knew was still in there. 
"So where should we start first?" Gray asked. 
"Maybe we could go and visit your old mentor's grave? I am sure that you haven't been back there in a while, maybe you wanna go and tell her what has been going on?" Lucy offered her head down like she expected to be rejected. 
"That sounds like a plan, we can go see Ul's grave and drop by my parent's graves as well before we continue on our travelling" Gray smiled standing up as they all finished their food and packed the small amount of items that they had unpacked. 
"I'll go let them know that we have checked out and are leaving while you guys head for the edge of town through the allies" Natsu said and Gray nodded leading Lucy and Happy to the alleyways and began their journey to the outskirts of town where Natsu met up with them having stopped for some supplies as well. Instead of catching a train they decided to start their training by working on their endurance by walking or running the way to Gray's old town, it also had the advantage of saving money on train tickets. They also decided that instead of finding towns to book hotel rooms they would simply buy a large tent and sleeping bags so they saved more money. 

When they got to the town that Ul was buried they stayed the night in a hotel so that they could bathe in something that wasn't freezing cold rivers and also so that Gray could have some time alone to talk to Ul. 
"Natsu do you mind if I summon my spirits? They are more than likely blaming themselves for what happened and I want them to know that I don't blame them" Lucy said as they sat in the hotel room. 
"It's fine, hey Happy let's go fishing so that we can see about selling them to the market" Natsu called. 
"Aye sir, see you later Lushee" Happy called before flying out after Natsu who turned and locked the door to make sure that no one would enter the room while Lucy was alone. The first key that Lucy pulled out was Loke's key after all she knew that he would be the one that was blaming himself the most. 
"Lucy.....You're okay" Loke whispered and Lucy couldn't stop her gasp when she looked at the once handsome spirit. He looked even worse then when Natsu saw him since his hair wasn't styled, his clothes were ruffled, he had large bags under his eyes and he looked so pale and skinny that Lucy was afraid that he was going to fall over. 
"Loke....You can blame yourself for what happened we didn't know what was going to happen or that Li....That she would betray us" Lucy said not being able to say Lisanna's name. 
"I should have sensed something was off, I should have known that you needed help. I promised that I would protect you and repay you from making me realise that I deserved a second chance but I failed. I was right, I don't deserve to be here at all the celestial king should have left me to fade" Loke whispered but he was surprised when Lucy stood up and slapped him. 
"Don't you dare say that! You couldn't sense my distress or leave the celestial world because she put a ribbon around my keys that stopped all magic flow between them and the spirits that they belonged to. I don't blame you Loke and you shouldn't blame yourself either, if you have to blame anyone you should blame her. I saved your life so that you would live not give up on life again so you are going to go back to the celestial world and get some sleep as well as recharge your magic so that you are taking care of yourself. After you do that I want you to sit down with the other spirits and come up with a training regimen for me to follow, that way we won't have to worry about anything like this ever again" Lucy scowled making Loke smile a little. 
"As you wish my Princess" Loke said as he left with one last smile directed at his master. Lucy knew that even if she ordered him to not blame himself it wouldn't stop him, just like herself Loke needed time to heal. The next key she pulled out was Virgo who when she appeared didn't seem to be phased as much as Loke seeing as she appeared like normal asking for punishment though she did offer to make food for Lucy and run her a bath. Lucy accepted and after she had eaten and soaked in the tub for a while she summoned Tarous that surprisingly didn't make any flirty advances towards Lucy until she told him that she didn't mind his comments so long as he didn't try and touch her since she couldn't put up with that at the moment which the cow spirit agreed to. Next was Capricorn who bowed at the waist and apologised for not being able to come to her aid before moving on to telling Lucy that he would be helping Loke teach her self defense and that he was happy to also sparr with Natsu and Gray so that they could improve their hand to hand combat without the use of magic. Once Capricorn left the next in line was Gemini who both apologised for not coming to Lucy's aid even though they couldn't and Lucy couldn't stop herself from gathering the two small spirits into her arms in a hug to reassure herself and Gemini that it was fine. Sagittarius was next and he also apologised for not being there for Lucy but she once more assured him that it wasn't his fault before the horse archer tried cracking a few jokes to cheer Lucy up. Next was Aries who broke down crying and whimpering out apologised and it took Lucy more than half an hour to calm the distraught spirit down but when she finally calmed down enough Lucy reassured her that it wasn't her fault and that she had nothing to apologise for. When Cancer was summoned he decided to try and make Lucy feel better by giving her a completely new hairstyle that ended with all of Lucy's hair but her fringe up in a simple ponytail while her fringe framed her face. Scorpio told Lucy that the next time something uncool like that happened to her, he would be going straight to the celestial king to rip open the two worlds so that they could get there to help her and Lucy couldn't help but be a little sad since Scorpio was normally one of the more laid back spirits but for the moment he seemed strict and ready to kill someone should they try and hurt her. The last spirit that she summoned was Aquarius because she wasn't sure how the mermaid spirit would react to what had happened but to her surprised instead of yelling, screaming or scowling Aquarius simply went over to her and hugged her to her chest. If Lucy felt tears hitting her shoulders or felt Aquarius's sobs she decided not to say anything since she just hugged Aquarius back to soak in the warmth from the normally harsh spirit. 
"Those two boys and cat better take care of you if not I will drown them......I'm sorry that happened to you Lucy" Aquarius said whispering the last part before she disappeared. Lucy then summoned all of her silver keys to reassure all of them that she was alright before finally Natsu, Happy and Gray returned for dinner and Lucy was feeling tired from summoning all her spirits but she also felt a lot better then she had since the attack since she had her spirits back. 
"You guys ready to get this trip started now? It's gonna be long and tough" Natsu warned the next day as they got ready to leave the village they were in. 
"Aye sir" called Happy. 
"Of course we're ready, we aren't about to bail out now" Gray scoffed. 
"Let's get our new adventure started" Lucy said and even though she didn't smile they could all tell that she was happy. 
"Let's go then" cheered Natsu as they headed out of the town to continue their travelling not sure where they were exactly going but it didn't matter so long as they had each other.