Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Dragon Age Inquisition, I just fused people into that world to have a bit of fun.

Plan

Levy secured Droy to the fence that bordered the lake and pulled out a handful of runes from the pocket of her cloak. By the firelight she could make out the silhouette of her companions. Gajeel sat on a rock while Juvia stood beside him, hands on her hips, as they conversed in soft murmurs, too soft to be carried by the faint breeze. The fire sparked and spat burning embers into the air that were carried up in the funnel of smoke, while shadows and light danced and flickered over the trees and rocks.

It was nice and peaceful and far from the constant buzz of the Manor.

With everyone beginning to settle down for the night, Levy clicked her fingers for Jet to follow her and she began to do a wide circle of the camp, dropping her runes in strategic places. Jet snuffled along, raising his leg in key spots as if with the force of his urine, he could add an extra layer of protection. Levy shook her head, amused by his antics and looked out at the world below their bluff.

In the distance a herd of Druffalos — wild bovine creatures whose leather served to make great protective armour and sturdy weapons, though whose meat could easily turn tough and tasteless — wandered in the distance, their shadows dark against the pale horizon as they lowed and grunted. Somewhere to the East a wolf howled and was joined by its pack in an eerily mournful harmony. Something else screech in response and Levy shivered, pulling her cloak tighter.

She'd never been one for the countryside. She'd grown up in the Elven alienage in Fiore's capital city, Crocus, a bit of an outcast due to her half heritage. Her life had been simple enough but pleasant. Her people believed there was safety in numbers and the majority had given up the old ways in an effort to avoid the notice of the humans. So when Levy began to read about the old ways, and worse, began to explore the stories of the dwarves and their runes and enchantments, her people became disquieted with her behaviour. They'd spoken to her mother, issued whispered warnings in quiet kitchens when they thought Levy slept. They'd warned against the dangerous magic, the otherness of playing with such alien creations. Magic was understandable; mages, while sent to the Circle for teaching, were revered. But for an Elf to use runes? That was blasphemy.

But something in Levy connected with runes. They responded to her in a way nothing else did. And it wasn't so far from the glyphs that her ancestors once used. She didn't really understand the hypocrisy but her people were mired in traditions and old teachings; it had been easier to just leave and make her own life.

"Ow, Juvia!"

"Sorry Boss, but you do have a lot of hair and — stop pulling away from Juvia! Juvia needs to see."

Levy dropped the final rune into place, feeling the quiet snap of power as they linked together to provide a detection ring. Sucking in a breath, she turned and approached her companions with a smile, her fingers interlocked behind her back to stop their nervous fidgeting. "Can I offer assistance? I have a light rune if that would help?"

Juvia looked up at Levy, gratitude flooding her gaze. "Thank you," she mouthed, holding out her hand for the rune, which glowed pale green.

She aimed the light at the top of Gajeel's head. After a moment, she stepped back and handed the light rune to Levy again. "Juvia cannot see whether it is a bruise or a wound. Honestly Boss, this is a mane. You should let Juvia cut it for you."

Gajeel huffed out a breath. He sat on a rock, elbows on his knees, shoulders hunched, and he almost seemed to be pouting. It would have been adorable, if he wasn't so intimidating.

"I could make a poultice," Levy offered. She'd gathered quite a few herbs on her trip through the Wildlands. Most would be handed over to… well not Porlyusica, not anymore. Wendy, she would give them to Wendy now to help treat soldiers and refugees and anyone that the Inquisition could give aid to.

Juvia pouted over Gajeel's head. "Can you make a knock out potion? Boss needs a nap. And Juvia could cut his hair without him fidgeting."

Gajeel grunted under his breath, something that sounded suspiciously like 'women' and folded his arms tighter so that his shoulders became a rigid mass and his jaw clenched in aggravation. Compassion stirring, Levy nudged Juvia out of her way and began to inspect Gajeel's head herself. She ran her fingers through the thick, coarse strands of black hair and felt about for the bump on his scalp where the troll had caught him. From his conversation with Juvia, she'd gathered it had been a glancing blow, but she still wanted to be certain it hadn't caused any serious damage. As she looked, Juvia shuffled off with Jet at her heels, hoping for a treat.

Slowly, bit by bit, Gajeel began to relax under her ministrations and she found her breath synching with his as she continued to stroke and prod. Finally finding the raised bump, she swept her fingers gently over it and, parting the hair, spied no laceration or graze. Simply a bump.

"So, Shrimp, what were you doing out here?"

"Looking for tomes or any information really that might help us make sense of what happened in the Conclave when King Makarov died or that could help stop Zeref. People often leave civilisation to get perspective or to research something but often they're unaware of the dangers around them and so they die or they flee and their work remains behind. I find it, I bring it back to the Inquisition and when there's no other quests, I study."

She moved away to fetch her supplies. She had some Elfroot somewhere and she'd definitely grabbed some Blood Lotus from the river as she passed by. "There must be something out there to tell us about Zeref and his plans. Why create the rift? Why kill the king? What does he hope to achieve?"

"He's a psycho, who knows what his plan is." Gajeel muttered. "You know there's a dragon out here."

Her fingers dropped to the hilt of her dagger and she flushed. Well, her dagger would do nothing against a dragon but maybe if she just minded her own business, it would go on with its business of… eating people. "Juvia told me you plan to hunt it?"

"Mmhmm."

Juvia dropped a few logs into the fire and sparks leapt into the night sky in a flurry of glowing orange motes. Droy nickered softly and the night seemed to close around them like a blanket, blocking out the rest of the world. It was too intimate for Levy's liking.

"Is there no other way?"

"Nope. It's not from this world so it can't stay."

Yes, that was true, but still, to think of the loss of such a majestic creature hurt. What knowledge did it carry? What had it seen? "If you do kill it, will you bring back a few things, to study?"

"You want me to harvest it so you can investigate?"

Well, when he put it like that. "It might help us understand the rift. They came through it —"

"So do the demons we fight."

"We collect their parts too, like that creature from earlier," Levy pointed out, stepping back and pulling the herbs from her pouch. "You just have a bump. I'm going to create a cold compress to help the swelling go down, but when you return to the Manor, you must go to Wendy to have it checked properly."

"Tch. I'll be fine. I gotta take down that Dragon first before it starts eating any of the remaining locals." He stood up and cracked his back as he stretched out the kinks. He paused and sent her a sidelong glance. "You heading back to the Manor immediately or are you staying around?"

Twiddling her fingers, she considered her choices. She needed to grab the scrolls from the camp she'd spied through her looking glass but after that, it would be smarter to return to the Manor and explain her discovery of the creature to Mirajane and Erza — just in case the raven hadn't reached them — and check in with Lisanna so that the mage could use the items Gajeel collected to seek out weaknesses to help Laxus's soldiers.

But the lure of seeing an actual dragon, how could she turn that down? She could make notes on how it lived, what it looked like, whether its diet consisted of Druffalo or horse or human — all very important things for the Inquisition to know. She was their Chief Researcher. It was her duty to gather as much information —

"Quit thinking so much, Shrimp. You're coming."

She scowled up at him, brow furrowed. "I make my own decisions." She had done so for quite some time.

"Yeah, yeah but you were planning on coming along, you just worry your little head too much."

Worry her little… "I weigh up the pros and cons, I do not worry my little head. Stupid Gajeel! I consider the options before rushing blindly into battle and getting myself killed!"

Gajeel pursed his lips and nudged her finger away from his chest where she'd managed to create a minor dent in the rough cotton of his shirt. "You're getting cranky. Get me that cold compress then go to bed. We've an early start in the morning, Shrimp."

Her cheeks burned hotly as she grabbed for the scrap of silk from her backpack and she shuffled towards Juvia and the fire.

"Stupid, stupid Gajeel. I'm not a Shrimp," she muttered under her breath. Though shrimp was a much nicer term than the usual derogatory names she'd become familiar hearing, such as the much-hated Knife-ear. Most of the time, she wore two braids over her ears so she could hide the small pointed appendages. It made living in the human part of the city easier and certainly more pleasant. Though within the walls of the Manor, sometimes she didn't feel the need to hide.

"Are you coming with us, Levy?"

Grabbing a flat slate and a rough pebble from the ground, Levy sat down on a moss-strewn rock opposite Juvia and began to make a salve with the herbs and a dribble of water. "Yes, I think so. Safety in numbers."

She absently scratched Jet's head as he shuffled under her legs, his body a solid and comforting warmth as he huffed out a contented sigh, even as one ear kept twitching against her calf. The heat of the fire licked at her face and insects buzzed around, mesmerised by the light.

"Juvia is glad. Juvia would worry if you were out here on your own. Juvia knows the Inquisitor and her party cleared out the majority of the Rifts when they scoured the Hinterlands but there will still be bandits out here and creatures that escaped their patrols."

Grinding the herbs and water together, Levy tilted her head and gazed up at the green tinged mark in the sky in the distance. The Breach. "Is that where the creature came from, do you think?"

"You don't? The Inquisitor has proven she's not just closing the rifts, she's sealing them."

"I know," Levy said, scraping the salve onto the silk. "But what if other rifts are opening? What if the veil between our world and the Fade is thinning so much that new tears are forming? We know so little of the hole in the sky that Zeref created. We don't even know how he created it."

Juvia frowned. "Then we have much greater issues to be concerned about than a dragon and a few bandits. We need the Inquisitor to close the breach in the sky."

Tying off the poultice, Levy stared into the smouldering fire. "Then we need to do what we can to give her the time to do that. While we hunt the dragon, we'll also raid every abandoned camp we find, grab every letter and scroll and take a piece of something from every creature we kill."

"And how will that help, Shrimp?" Gajeel asked, drying his hands on a rag as he came to stand beside them, so close to her that Levy could almost feel the heat radiating from his thigh. He was so big and strong; he could probably crush her without even thinking about it.

She swallowed hard and mustering up a smile, handed the poultice to him. "Because the more we know, the better prepared we are. Too many things are taking up Cana's time. She's expected to patrol the lands, find lost soldiers, play politics, fight monsters and reassure everyone. If we know more about the creatures we're fighting, we can better equip our soldiers. They can then do the patrols with greater success and less casualties. The more herbs we gather, the more healing potions and elixirs Wendy can create to keep our people healthy and the healthier our people are —"

"The more people we have to fight." Juvia clapped her hands giddily.

"And the more support the Inquisition gains."

Gajeel nodded slowly. "So we do all the odd-jobs that Boss Lady can't deal with and leave her the time to actually work on dealing with that great big hole in the sky."

"Exactly. That's one of the biggest issues we have right now. Everything else stems from it. I know you and Juvia were handling tasks such as bandits and dragons, but the research and herb gathering is equally important." Warming to her subject, Levy sat up straighter. "Being on the ground to actually talk to the people and finding out what's bothering them will help the Inquisition gain support, and take some of the political weight from Cana too. She and the Council have so much going on, if we could do some small things, maybe we could really help save Fiore."

"Hey, either way I get paid for this gig and if I get to fight that Dragon, I consider that a win-win." Gajeel yawned, a jaw cracking wide yawn that had Levy's eyes stinging in the effort to suppress her own. "Right, I'm heading to bed. You two should do the same."

Juvia stood up and pulled the leather tie from her blue hair so that it cascaded down around her shoulders. She carded her fingers through it and rolled her shoulders. "Honestly, if this is going to be our plan from now on, then you will have to partner up with us."

Levy's stomach jolted and she leapt to her feet. "Me? But, I'm just a researcher." And the more information they gathered, the more she'd need to stay within the manor to compile it into something useful. Unless they gained more researchers. That… might happen.

"Yes, you. Boss has no people skills and in the interest of full disclosure, Juvia is better with a bow. People like you, you make them feel comfortable and of course, as Chief Researcher you would need to verify the veracity of all documentation, wouldn't you? You wouldn't want us to bring false information to the Inquisition; people could die. You don't want that to happen, do you?"

"Well, no. Of course not."

"Then you shall come with us. Thank you Levy, Juvia feels much better knowing that you'll be with us."

With a serene smile, Juvia glided off to her bedroll, leaving Levy in a mute stupor. Jet nudged the back of her knee. She blinked, reaching down to scratch Jet's head. What had just happened?

Juvia had tricked her. Oh. Juvia was sly.

"Oi Shrimp, get some sleep or we'll leave without you."