Sorry, I was stuck on 18 forever! Seriously, it was meant to be short and somehow changed into the dream and then that fight and what not. Now onto the door! I apologize if you're looking for any action in this scence, cause there won't be a lot. Anyway, enjoy ^_^

Chapter 19- This is why we can't have nice things, Lucy.

The group huddled around the small door. The frowned at it's size.

"I don't think this is it," Erza said. "Even Wendy looks like she might have trouble getting through." Lucy crouched down and picked up a cat at random. It was Happy. Lucy pushed Happy against the wall, mentally taking in the measurments.

"Happy, Carla, and Lily might be able to fit, although it's a tight squeeze." Lucy said.

"Yeah, but they're cats. How were monks and priests suppose to get in there?" Gray asked. Lucy gave a half-hearted smile.

"Magic. . .?"

"Duh, but what kind?" Lucy pondered this for a moment. Before, there were lots of traps. The scroll triggered the spikes to come down on Natsu and Lucy, there had been several trick rooms, and empty key holder, and certain torches had to be lit in order for the large, stubborn door to open.

"I don't know," Lucy said. "Maybe it's not magic."

She looked down to the cats. "Do you guys mind checking it out?" She asked.

"If I get a fish. . ." Lucy sweat-dropped.

"Sure, if you bring any useful information." Happy grinned.

"Aye!" He tried for the door, pulling it with all his might. It didn't even budge, and eventually Happy lost his footing and fell back.

He cried on the floor. "How am I suppose to get any fish?"

"Happy, you didn't let me finish." Lucy said. "It's locked." Happy sat up, sniffing and wiping his nose.

"Do I still get a fish?" Lucy ignored him and looked to Gray.

"Can you use the key from the other room?" Lucy asked Gray. He nodded and held out his hand. The air around him turned cold and his palm glowed a bright whitish-blue. When the light died down, Gray had a key in his hand.
He knelt by the door, which was a lot smaller to him than Lucy and the cats, and unlocked it. But when hen he turned the key, the key broke, leaving the key permanently stuck inside the keyhole.

The others eyes widened as they took on different expressions.

Lucy sulked farther away, pounding her fist on the ground. "My clue. . ." she whispered, and began tracing circles in the dust on the floor with her finger. "So close. . ."

Happy cried next to Lucy on his hands and knees. "Now I'll never get that fish."

"You idiot! Now we can never get in!" Natsu growled, seizing Gray's collar. Gray's eyes narrowed at Natsu.

"I apologize to everyone, but Natsu!" Gray said.

"Huh?" Natsu asked. Then his face twisted in agitation. "Why?" He exclaimed.

"'Cause you're an ass!"

Wendy tried to get the two settled down as Gajeel punched the wall, sinking to his knees. "How the hell are we suppose to save Levy with these idiots?" He yelled.

"I agree, let's ditch them."

"Who the hell said that?" Gray and Natu said in unison. When they realized they did, they looked at each other and growled.

"You're not even in this conversation!" Lucy yelled at Venus, who had suggested they ditch the guys. Venus gave Lucy a "tch" and looked away, making Lucy clench her fist and growl with irritation.

"Why you-!" Venus wiggled on the ground where she was tied up, trying to inch-worm away from Lucy's wrath.

"Like you can even catch me, Blondie!" Venus said, sticking her tongue out at Lucy.

"You're right, I might kick you're ass so hard there's nothing left to catch."

"That doesn't make sense, you b-!"

"I like cake!" Erza yelled aburtly, causing everyone to stop and look at her. "But I do not like this senseless fighting. Anyway, I thought you should take a look at this."

She pointed at the door, and every one's eyes widened. It had grown in size, expanding from Happy's size to the size of Elfman. It was actually quiet intimidating how large it was, but even more so was it that they felt stupid for not noticing it's sudden growth.

Lucy's eyes twinkled. "So we didn't ultimately doom Levy?"

"No," Erza said with a tiny smile, looking at her friends' hopeful face.

"Well, not yet." Venus said from the ground quiet care-freely. She seemed not to mind being tied up and laying on the gross and dusty floor.

"Shut up!" Gajeel growled.

"We'll save Levy," Lucy said sternly. "And no one can stop us. Not you, not fate, and not this door." She knocked on the door, still not taking her eyes off of Venus.

She heard a loud squeak, and some wood croaking. Then a loud crash. She tried to remain stern looking, but she couldn't. She had just knocked down the door, right off the hinges, by tapping it.

"Um, Lucy," Natsu said.

"Looks like me and that door never stood a chance," Venus said sarcastically from the ground, smirking.

Lucy turned around. "Ooh!" She groaned. "I broke it!"

"This is why we can't have nice things, Lucy." Happy said rather bleak.

"Gomen'nasai," Lucy said quietly, her head hung low.

"Well, we better start looking for answers," Erza said, stepping into the room. "First, we'll need some light. . ."

While the door was much taller than the stubborn doors (these were around 7-8 feet), the room was smaller than the chamber. It was about the size of Lucy's bed room. There was barley any room for the wooden table, the table's 8 stools, and the bookshelves lining the walls. They each divided the work, taking a stack of books from each bookshelf. They pulled out their magic reading glasses to help quicken the pace.

While they did that, Lucy decided to look at the walls which had strange carvings on them. They were carved on slabs of rock that were tiled along the walls and around the room's perimeter. Lucy looked for some paper to write on, and found a stack that was quickly shoved between two pages of a thick book. It was very obvious, and Lucy pulled it out, hoping it was a clue to whatever is going on. She already knew about Fableridge, but Lucy had never heard of a town like that. The man from her dream, whatever it meant, said that Fableridge was his hometown.

So obviously, a map would be useful. Yet, at the same time, Lucy was confused to as how they were going to go to the mountain. Train? Walk? She hoped it was near by, the sooner they get Levy the better. Gajeel looked like he's was still suffering from 'sudden withdraw'. Lucy really wanted to save Levy, but this information was so unreliable. What happens if it's just a wild-goose chase? Then Levy will have slipped through her fingers like sand.
If she were just to confirm this information, she and the team could leave. They would walk out with info on the enemy and know exactly how to save Levy. Wether it was in the wall carvings, or the books, it was up to their team to save Levy, and all the other souls that had been taken.
But that seemed so far away, so impossible in Lucy's eyes. Like someone told her that she had to carry 2 tons on her back across Fiore. She wanted to cry out for someone to save her, or at the very least help her. But the cry was stuck in her throat, probably stuck behind her swallowed pride. Lucy was not above asking for help, or relying on her friends. In fact, that's all she ever seemed to do. But this time, her friend needed her. And when they needed her most she had to be there. And if that meant searching every single book in this town, so help her Lucy will do it!

If she looked at the over all, how the clock was ticking, how Levy had a little over a week until her soul was lost into the deep oblivion of death. how everything seemed hopeless and distant, almost within Lucy's reach.
If she could just run faster, she could catch up. If she could just be stronger, she could grab it. If she could just be smarter, she could figure out everything. If she could just be better, Lucy could save Levy.

But Lucy is just. . . Lucy.

But Lucy doesn't let people die! Lucy is fast enough, strong enough, and smart enough to save Levy. She didn't need to be better because her friends around her already made her better than she is alone.
To be faster she'll just concentrate on one thing at a time. To be stronger she'll plunge through all her fears head on, and if they had a problem with that; to hell with them! To be smarter she'll take things slowly. One small, baby step at a time.

Lucy nodded, she was good enough!
She copied down the carvings on the wall by placing the paper over the carving, and lightly coloring the paper with charcoal from the torches. When she had all the carvings scribbled on, she sat at the crammed table. Erza sat at the head, Gray on the opposite end. No one else sat next to Lucy, except Wendy, who sat across.

Natsu sat a seat away from Wendy, and Gajeel sat a seat away from Lucy.

Lucy left the reading to the others while she tried to decipher the carvings. They were stranger, sometimes random symbols, or sometimes they looked like a story book.
It was hard, and Lucy was positive Levy could solve it with her eyes closed if she were here. But she wasn't, so Lucy tried harder.
She looked at the symbols. A strange zig-zag, a cross of lines that looked like a fence or gate, a key, and an circle. What was strange is that the key and the circle were on the sane slab of rock tiling. The rest each had the own separate rock.
Lucy took this as a clue. The key and circle. The key to the circle? The circle's key? No, those were exactly the same thing. She decided to aline the papers. The zig-zag came first, leading to the gate. Then the key and circle.
She frowned, that zig-zag looked kinda like steps, or stairs. She frowned. She tore off some of the old paper, so that the zig-zag had reached the edge. She pushed them together. They kinda made a picture. The stairs led to the gate. She frowned and looked at the key.

Celestial key? No, it looked like a normal key, there were no symbols or carvings etched onto it.

She look at the gate. She tore the paper around the key, enclosing it in a small oval paper circle.

The stairs led to the gate. Could the gate be locked? If so, then what about the orb?
Was this a clue to Levy's whereabouts, or was this totally unrelated? Even though Lucy felt like she was so close, she wanted to scream and pull her hair out.

Dammit, Levy! Why the hell did you have to die? She screamed in her head. She felt the urge to repeatedly smashed her face against the table, to scream and cry and kick, to take Venus and smash her into a wall. If she wasn't gonna give answers, there was no point in bringing her to the surface.

Lucy slapped herself lightly. "Keep it together, Lucy." She mumbled to herself, returning her attention to the symbols. She let out a huff. This was going to take a while, but she thought it'd be more than worth it.

Natsu studied the book for a while, staring at the same page for a good half hour. He reread the same paragraph over and over, but no matter what, he couldn't register it in his brain. It was way too boring.
Natsu stretched and yawned

"How are we gonna find 'clues' in these books, there's a trillion? This is taking too long!" He said, leaning back in his chair.

"That's why we're all reading, Herpy Breath." Gray said, not looking up from his book.

Natsu noticed how he hadn't turned the page for a while.

Gray wanted to read it, but he was losing focus and his mind simply refuse to concentrate on one thing.

Meanwhile, Erza and Wendy were scanning each page with analytical eyes, turning the pages every minuet or so. Lucy was constantly scribbling down notes on her doodles, rearranging the pages and not taking her eyes off the papers. Gray wouldn't be surprised if they didn't notice they hadn't taken a breath for a while.

"Well, reading this takes too long! I think we should be like ninja and just force people to tell us!" Natsu wrapped his scarf around his head. He looked at Gajeel. "Where is Levy, you bafoon?!" He exclaimed.

Gajeel smacked him, and Natsu fell back in his chair, groaning. Gray just sighed.

"You idiot, the only ones with answers is Venus, and she isn't gonna spill." Honestly, could anyone be as much of an idiot as Natsu?

The girls didn't even look at them.
"Luce? Wendy! Erza!" Natsu asked from the ground. "Help me, I'm in pain!" He croaked. They didn't even look at him.

"Get back to work, Natsu." Lucy said dangerously. Gray sniggered, causing Natsu to glare at his legs under the table.
"Yeah, well, maybe if you weren't such a coc-" Natsu stopped aburtly, causing Gray to raise an eyebrow.

"What was that? I'm a what?" Gray said, gloating. Looks like he doesn't have the balls to take him on, after all.

"I was gonna say you're a cock-sucking bastard, but look at this." Gray dead-panned, and then growled.

"You jackas-" Gray was cut off as Natsu stood, and pulled on the table. Wendy squeaked as she nearly fell, moving out of the way quickly. Erza and Gajeel stood, too, trying not to be taken away with the table.

"Natsu, you imbecile!" Erza yelled. Lucy tried her best to hold back her anger as the table was pulled away from her. Her clenched fist shook in fury, and she clutched onto her whip.

"Natsu!" She yelled. What shocked everyone was that Natsu didn't even flinch at the girls. Everyone frowned. "I was working! And now the book are torn. . ." Lucy trailed off as Natsu
Flipped the table over, and the books clattered to the ground, their bindings breaking. Lucy was now murderous, and she was ready to kill Natsu.

Natsu flipped the table over again, so that it was completely upside down.

The others quickly forgot their anger as they gazed at the underneath of the table.

"Is that. . .?" Lucy asked. Natsu nodded, slowly grinning.

"I found a map!" He was quite right. Under the table there was a map of Fiore. It looked as though it was drawn with chalk, and was extremely faded. That map was hundreds of years old and very outdated. Magnolia wasn't even marked. The map showed only a few towns, four or six. Though there were many rivers marked that weren't there presently. Black lines cracked along the map, linking each town to another. In bold red, the town they were currently in, Darelyon, was marked with a red circle. A red trail lead from Darelyon and through most of the country, snaking it's way over rivers and through mountians. It ended at a town that was almost too faded to read. Next to the town was a large mountain. The red trail cut through the plotted town, leading directly to the mountain.
The town's name seemed to be etched in by a needle, using blood instead of ink. Lucy saw it and frowned, her head stirring. More than ever was she confused. She wanted to scream at the map, saying; "what the hell?! You just screwed everything up, captain fuck-up!" This feeling made her uneasy and angry.

The town's name was Fableridge.

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I apologize for not updating in a few weeks, but with school and my attention-demanding friends finding time to write is becoming very hard. Not to mention I have a terrible case of writer's block. I have two pre-written chapters left, I'm still on chapter 21, so I'm sorry.