Lucy's POV

  I was on the train looking out the window, watching all the trees and buildings fly by as we sped past them. My breath clouded the glass of the window, and I could see my reflection. I let my eyes wander to the rest of the train car; to the black leather seats, the red metal accents, the wobbly overhead compartments, the people. I wondered where they were going, why they were here. I wondered if any of them knew who I was, knew who my friends were, knew my guild existed. Wondered if any of them had watched the Grand Magic Games, watched me fail, watched everyone else succeed. 

I kept on wondering until my stop was called; "We're arriving at Wistar Town, all passengers getting off at Wistar Town, this is it." I scooped up my few belongings and stepped off the train and onto the pavement of the sidewalk. I sighed and started walking, not knowing where I was going. My eyes fell on my feet beneath me until I started stepping on stray sticks and fallen pine needles. 

I looked to see I was at the entrance of a large forest. My breath hitched when I felt a slap of power, radiating from the forest in front of me. It was a magical power, and it felt rather strong. I took a step forward, then stopped, thinking. The forest looked creepy and eerie, with an almost solid canopy hundreds of feet above me. The little sunlight that filtered through the mess of leaves and branches made weird shadows and silhouettes against the forest floor. But that presence, that power, compelled me to step forward, not stopping this time. Gathering my courage I walked on, becoming enveloped in the shadows of the forest.  

Erza's POV

I was running to the hotel with the group that was assigned to go there. I saw people looking at us confused and them whispering, "That's Fairy Tail! I wonder where they are heading to in such a hurry." I only hear fragments of what people said because we were in such a hurry. We saw the hotel up ahead and we sprinted there. It started getting closer and closer while we kept running. We arrived and barged in. The people in the lobby jumped with surprised expressions on their face. 

We ran to our hotel room. We looked around and tried calling her name. It didn't work, so I directed Natsu to look in the bathroom, Gray to look in the closet, Juvia to look under the bed sheets, and Lisanna to look in the hallway. I was going to check her belongings. When we all started looking, my eyes widened in surprise. I noticed that Lucy's belongings were gone.

"Um, guys, I think we have a problem," I said with a distressed face. I looked up and everybody's eyes were staring straight at me.

"What is it Erza?" Gray replied with hopefulness in his voice, and I knew it was going to shatter away the very next second. 

"Lucy's belongings aren't here," I replied with a sad tone knowing we were too late.

"What?!" Everybody yelled except for me. They all looked like they saw Lord Death themselves.

"So you are telling Juvia that Lucy left!?" Juvia screamed. She quickly looked down with a shocked expression.

"Oh no! We were just getting along with each other. We were going to be such great friends!" Lisanna replied with disappointment.

"We need to tell the others. They need to know. I'll tell them to meet up in 10 minutes outside of the hotel. I'll call Warren on the lacrima so he can tell everybody else." I said trying to keep up my strong face even though I was breaking down inside.

"Ok" Everybody replied. You could feel all of the sadness radiating off of them. It was suffocating.

*time skip to when everybody is meeting up in front of the hotel*

"We got some information about Lucy." I croaked out in a barely audible whisper while looking down, my bangs covering my face so no one could see me almost crying.

"What!!" Everybody yelled with expectation in their voice. It was like what was going to happen to Gray when he found out. Hope shattering into a million pieces.

"Well, my team that went to the hotel found something interesting. Lucy's stuff wasn't there. We think Lucy left for some reason." I replied with a single tear streaming down my face. Everybody gasped at what I said with a pained expression on their face.

"Where do you think she went?" Wendy asked while trying to grasp the things I just said.

"I don't know, but we have to try and find her before she gets into trouble. She could get severely hurt. Everybody go and try and find her!!" I screamed at them with a worried expression on my face. You could hear how desperate I was. 

"Yeah!" Everybody yelled with determination in their voices.

Lucy's POV

I walked into the forest and observed my surroundings. There were thick vines everywhere and there was almost to no light coming through. The trees had dark green leaves that spiked out everywhere. The ground was muddy and damp. The air was moist and I could hear the noise of a waterfall in the distance. I could almost hear no birds or animals. The forest was overall creepy. 

I was walking for a few minutes when I spotted a big cave just up ahead. I ran up to it and stared at the darkness before me. It was a huge cave that looked ominous. There were rocks piled up near the entrance. They were weirdly shaped with scratches decorating it. I pushed that aside and went in. I put my bags down and explored the cave for a little bit. 

I could hear my shoes clicking and clacking against the rocky floor of the cave. The cave was pretty big, larger than an ordinary cave. The roof looked like it was 10 feet up. There were stalactites with water droplets dripping down each one of them. Drip, drip, drop. It reminded me of Juvia and it sent a pang to my heart. Trying to shake the thought of my friends away, I kept on walking. The cave looked like there was no end. I kept on walking until there was no light. When it came to that point, I turned around and headed back. The number of stalactites decreased as I walked back. 

I walked up to my suitcase and got a blanket out. I packed a blanket just in case it was cold, and thank god I packed it. I laid it on the floor and I laid down on top of it. I wrapped the blanket around me so I could be warm, but there was little warmth the blanket supplied. I was shivering cold. I tried to swallow the coldness down but to no avail. After I twisted and turned trying to find a comfortable position, I drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

? POV

I was coming back from getting firewood with a medium sized pile in my hands. I was going back to my "home" which is a cave. The cave was not a very comfortable home but that was the best thing I had. I needed to also get food so I wouldn't starve. With that thought in mind, I looked around and saw two little squirrels chasing each other playfully. I reached into my pockets to try and find my two daggers. Once I found it, I threw it and it hit both the squirrels, killing it. I don't want to kill, but it's the only way I can survive. I picked the two squirrels and started walking again. I started thinking about all the stuff I needed to do when I saw the entrance to my home. 

I started running towards it when I found 2 suitcases in the cave. I first thought that it was weird but I shrugged it off as I went inside to see if there was anything else. When I went a little bit in, I saw something bundled in a purple blanket. I was going closer to it so I can see who or what it was when saw a girl that was about my age. She had golden blond hair that perfectly outlined her face. She had a black cloak on and a purple blanket over that. She was twisting and turning like she was uncomfortable. I then noticed that she was shivering and had a distressed expression on her face. After seeing her like this, I started making a fire next to her. There were only sparks at first, but after a while, there was a fire going. After the fire was fully going, I started cooking the two squirrels I killed.

Lucy's POV (italics are thoughts)

I woke up to a burning fire next to me. I was enjoying the heat until a thought came to mind. Wait a minute. I never started a fire. There must be somebody here. With that thought racing through my mind, I started getting up and noticed that my suitcases were still there. I started checking my surroundings until I saw a guy that was about my age. 

I noticed that he had blond hair and purple eyes. The blond hair perfectly fell into place and his eyes were gorgeous. They seemed to sparkle and glimmer in the light of the fire. He also had a purple jacket on that had a white stripe from the shoulders to the arms with a black t-shirt under the jacket with the jacket was unzipped. He also had brown cargo pants on. He had brown combat boots that looked worn out. His clothes seemed a little wrinkled, like as if they were not ironed for a while. They had a little bit of dirt and mud on them too. (What he is wearing and his appearance is in the Media.) 

He looked over to my direction and noticed that I was awake. I looked away embarrassed and realized that I had been staring at him for quite a long time. Once I regained my composure, I wondered what he was going to do until he started talking to me. "Hey. My name is Itou (ee-toe) Kirigaya. What's your name?" 

"Hello, Itou. My name is Lucy Heartfilia. What are you doing here in the forest?" I replied as I straightened my posture and bowed respectively.

"Well, I wanted to ask you that. But, since you asked me first, I'll answer. I'm here because I have nowhere else to go. I'm sort of a lone wolf. I love nature. Also, this cave is my home." Itou said as he looked at the cave that was sheltering us.

"Oh, sorry for intruding." I quickly said as I continuously bowed, trying to say sorry.

"I don't mind. Now, why are you here?" Itou said as he looked at me with curiousness.

"I'm here so I can train. I was participating in the Grand Magic Games and our guild won, but I lost all of my battles. Because of that, I wanted to get stronger." I replied as pictures of my old friends played in my head like a movie.

"Wait. So you're telling me that your guild won the Grand Magic Games? Like THE Grand Magic Games?!" Itou yelled as he surprised me. He looked at me in disbelief, but once he saw the seriousness on my face he started believing me.

"Yeah. But I was no help to them whatsoever. I feel like a complete loser. Oh what am I saying. I'm sorry for putting my troubles on you. You don't have to listen if you don't want to. I keep babbling." I said as I soon felt guilty. I shouldn't be dumping all of my problems on somebody I don't know. They're not even councilors.

"Don't worry. It's no trouble. I feel bad for you. I can maybe help you train." Itou said as he looked at me. He honestly seems like he wants to help me, and I was shocked.

"Seriously? You're willing to help a nobody like me? Don't waste your time on me." I said quietly as I looked at the ground.

"I'll help you. And don't say such negative stuff, it's killing my mood." Itou said as his face morphed into a tired one.

"If you're sure than thanks. I'll try not to be a killjoy. By the way, what magic do you use?" I replied with an overall happy and grateful face and tone. I looked at him with curiosity after I asked him about his magic.

"I'm a particle dragon slayer. What about you?" Itou replied as he glanced over at me.

"I'm a celestial spirit mage. That's some pretty cool magic you got there. I've never heard of it. What is it again?" I said as I started scratching the back of my head while a faint blush tainted my cheeks.

"Basically, I can take the existing particles around me and rearrange them to make whatever I wish. I can transform them into dummies to fight for me. I can also do any sort of dragon slaying move, so I'm basically an elemental dragon slayer. I can just make anything I wish," Itou said as he demonstrated some of his magic for me. He created a little mouse like dummy that moved around on his hand.

"Wow. I never knew there was something like that. That's really awesome!" I squealed as there were stars in my eyes. I never knew there was such an amazing magic that was out there.

"Thanks, well, I might not be able to help you too much, but I'll still try," Itou replied nonchalantly.

"Thank you so much, Itou. Let's hope my training doesn't take too long." I said with a new found determination.

"Yeah. Here, you must be hungry." Itou said as he handed one roasted squirrel to me.

"Yeah! Thanks for the food!" I replied, already eating the squirrel in my hands.

For the rest of the night, we ate and talked. We laughed and got to know each other more. We stayed up for quite a while. Maybe even until 1 am. We became tired and fell into a dream filled sleep with a smile on our faces.