Lucy was dragging her heavy feet step by step in front of her, staring into the back of her partner's head, who was chatting happily to their flying companion. It wasn't fair she had to walk all the way back home from the job just because he'd barf on the train. 'Let him suffer!' She thought vindictively. She knew the sun baring down on her exposed shoulders was making her irritable and curt. She knew Natsu and Happy didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of her annoyance, but if they had to walk home she just wanted to do it in companionable silence. Not with those two talking as much as they were!

"Maybe there's a fish inside!"

"No! I bet it's a bomb!"

"What kind of reward would that be, Natsu?"

"A surprise one!"

Lucy sighed as her friends continued to guess what was in the box Natsu was currently carrying. Lucy giggled as he shook the box and looked on every side for a button to detonate 'the bomb'. His curiosity was understandable, Lucy was feeling it too. It wasn't unusual for mages to be given an extra relic or item by their client if they'd completed the job well, but often the client knew more about what they were giving away. Lucy remembered the client's words describing their extra reward:

"I don't know what it is per say, but the box has been passed through our family for generations. We think it has magical properties, but we can't read the text. We had an expert come and value it and he said it's certainly an artefact of magical significance. We think it'll be of more use to you mages, who might actually be able to uncover it's use."

The client had been a kind, smiling old man with many grandchildren. He'd made them an adventure playground with his riches that backed into the nearby forest and he wanted to check the forest was ridded of any animals that could do his grandchildren harm. Natsu Lucy and happy had taken the job and completed it well (Natsu hadn't burnt down any of the forest, miraculously) and 3,000 Jewel had been their reward along with this enigmatic box.

Turning her attention back to her guildmates Lucy saw Natsu and happy tugging the box away from each other possessively.

"Stop fighting you two!" She commanded. "We'll find out soon enough what's in the box when we get back to the guild. Then Levy will translate the hieroglyphs and tell us how it opens." Lucy had no doubt in her best-friend's abilities, Levy would open it for sure! Lucy personally hoped there'd be jewels inside, she was dangerously close to missing this month's rent and her landlady was all kinds of scary.

"Yeah! We should hurry back to the guild to see everyone!" Natsu announced cheerfully, earning an 'Aye' from Happy in agreement. "And me and Wendy want to catch Gajeel before he goes out on another job." Natsu said.

"Why do you need to see Gajeel?" Lucy asked, puzzled. Whatever Natsu was planning probably wouldn't be well received by the iron dragon slayer, he didn't have much time for anybody.

"We've got a lead on a dragon sighting, we thought we'd invite him along to check it out." Natsu said smiling. He didn't see Lucy's obvious scepticism.

"I thought he didn't want to find his dragon, though." Lucy pointed out reasonably.

"He's joking about that! Deep down he wants to know where the dragons went. Metalicanna raised him, he's gotta want to see him again." Natsu reasoned.

Lucy kept it to herself, but she'd never known Gajeel to joke and she was pretty sure, Natsu hadn't either. She had to concede though it was hard to believe Gajeel had no interest in finding the dragons, when it meant so much to Wendy and Natsu, surely, he'd be just a little bit curious about where Metalicanna had gone. Lucy knew how powerful curiosity could be after all. Even now she was still thinking about what could be inside the gifted box.

AN: Welcome to the story, there's much more to come! Rate and Review 3