In the end, the misunderstanding was cleared up rather quickly.
Apparently, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy had also went on a job, this morning, and were also just returning. They sure as hell were getting themselves busy, it seemed.
After all, just last evening, Natsu went out, alongside Lucy, to find, and bring back a fellow Fairy Tail Mage, Macao.
They had been successful in finding him, and had brought him back, that same night.
Cassian had heard of it, just this morning, since before he went to the train station, he made a short stop at the guild, where he then got to know about it.
Well, now, they small team of five, if one counted Happy, were sitting there and just rested for the moment.
But then, Gray seemed to remember something, which caused his face to go very pale, very fast.
"Oh god! I should get back to the guild, as soon as possible…" He muttered, confusing the others.
"Why? Is something wrong, back there?" Lucy asked, with her head tilted in confusion.
"You could say that," Gray responded, "Apparently, Erza should be back soon…"
While saying these words, his entire body shuddered, and Natsu and Happy followed that example, just a moment later, with similar pale faces, not in Happy's case, of course.
"Wait! The Erza, of Fairy Tail? Cool!" Lucy sure seemed happy, and not even remotely notice the clear unease, of the two. "What kind of person is she, though?"
"Erza, huh… she is a savage."
"A wild beast…"
"A true monster!"
All three, Natsu, Gray, and Happy were sure about these parts, giving Lucy, and Cassian a somewhat weird idea, of what kind of person this Erza must be.
They rambled on a bit more, but Cassian's attention was somewhere else. Something seemed off, but he didn't know what.
Nevertheless, his caution payed off, as mere moments later, a spark of magic lit up, and suddenly destroyed the ground below them. Cassian had barely enough time to Jump, and use Mana burst once, bringing him further into the air.
Everything below him was covered in dust, and the visibility was near zero. Expecting a follow-up attack, Cassian concentrated his magic in his left fist, before punching downwards, while using his Mana burst skill again.
The punch generated enough air pressure, to disperse the dust cloud, showing the ground below. It seemed like the ground where they had all been sitting, had been turned to dust, or sand, or something similar.
All of the others had been caught by surprise, it seemed, as they were all deep in that pile of dust. But, no matter how much he looked, there was no attacker in sight.
Stopping his continuous Mana burst on his feet, Cassian let himself be dropped down, landing relatively softly on the collapsed ground, right next to the others.
"You guys okay?" He checked.
Rubbing his rear, after a not so soft landing, Gray gave him a nod, "Yeah, but what was that? Magic, or something?"
"That's what I think. But, wait! Where's Happy?" Cassian responded, and looked around, rather confused afterwards.
"He's gone!" Natsu confirmed what they all were already assuming.
The next moment, though, he began sniffing the air, and darted in one direction, with Gray already following close behind, followed by Cassian and Lucy.
It did not take long, until they reached a small ledge, from which they could see a rather comical sight. Well, it was comical for Cassian, not really for Natsu.
Down below, a group of people stood around a campfire, with Happy, apparently being the main ingredient for their dinner.
"Wait up, there!" The pink-haired mage shouted, catching the attention of everyone below, "He's our comrade, you bastards!"
"You're mages aren't you? Which guild do you belong to?!" Gray probed further.
Standing next to them, Cassian could only facepalm, 'So much for a possible surprise-attack…'
"What does that matter?! Let's get them!" One of the mages down there, suddenly ordered.
All of them, sprang into action. There were a pair of twins, a rather emo-looking guy, with a crystal ball, a huge chicken… and the guy who just gave the order, who looked like a gray egg, as a person…
That didn't matter, though, due to them already attacking, Natsu, Gray, as well as Cassian made themselves ready, and jumped into the action, themselves.
Cassian headed straight towards the huge chicken, who wielded some kind of… long torch?
It tried hitting him, but was so slow that Cassian simply ducked under the attack, and countered it with a punch directed at the chicken's abdomen, along with a little Mana burst, sending it flying for several meters, before it hit a tree, being knocked out cold.
'Are they seriously that weak?' He wondered, for a second, after having knocked the chicken out.
Cassian quickly shook his head, getting rid of distracting thoughts, just as he heard something, "Eat this! Sand Bomb!"
The next instant, Natsu, who had been playing with the twins, a second ago, was engulfed in a huge ball of sand.
As if reaching a common consensus, Cassian and Gray chose to simply ignore it, though. Natsu wasn't that weak that something like this, would actually do something to him.
Instead, Gray took over the twins, not even needing more than five seconds, before knocking out both of them, too, without even using a speck of magic.
Lucy, meanwhile, was freeing Happy, from the campfire, construction.
With three of the group already taken care off, and the egg-shaped guy left for Natsu, there was only the emo-looking person, with a crystal ball, who was now cornered between Gray and Cassian.
Suddenly, though, the crystal ball began shining a bright pink light, and the guy spoke, "The prophecy will come true! You will have problems with women and water."
"…"
"…"
The two Fairy Tail mages were confused for a moment, before Gray suddenly rushed forwards to knock him out too, but was stopped in the last second, by Cassian.
"I want to hear mine, too. Afterwards, you can knock him out, all you want." Cassian suddenly revealed his intentions, making the apparent prophet sweat bullets.
Nevertheless, he continued, not wanting to anger them, even further, "The prophecy will come true! You will encounter problems with time, senses, and women!"
"…"
"…"
"Okay, knock him out! Those prophecies are stupid…" The armored mage said, to his comrade, already averting his gaze, from the pseudo seer.
Gray only sighed, before he lunged forward again, hitting the guy straight into his face, also knocking the light out of him.
When they were finished, and the last guy was also getting restless, an explosion occurred, just where Natsu had been trapped in the ball of sand.
"What the?" The egg-shaped guy muttered, as he looked at the newly released Natsu.
"Tsk! Thanks to you, I have a bunch of sand in my mouth," He then proceeded to spit out, as much as he could, before engulfing his right hand in fire, "Fire dragon's Iron fist!"
*Boom*
And, that was the last of the small group.
Afterwards, the small group of them, chose to use a rope, from Natsu's bag, to detain the weird guys. Lucy got the rope, while the three guys gathered the assailants, who were spread around nearly the entire clearing, where they had just fought.
With all of them bound to a tree, the fight truly ended.
"Lul… la… by…" one of the detained guys suddenly muttered.
"Lullaby?" Lucy repeated, in a similar confused tone, as all of them would've said it.
The next instant, though, Cassian's senses flared up again.
"Luminescence Dragon's fangs!"
This sudden commotion seemed to alert the others, immediately, and they turned to where the white ray of magic had been aimed at.
There, a giant shadowy hand swiftly retreated, after most of it had been eliminated by Cassian's attack.
"What was that?" Gray asked.
Cassian went closer to the detained mages, with an uncertain look on his partially hidden face, "I have no clue. But, if I needed to make a guess, I'd say; someone tried silencing these guys…"
"Yeah, and then they escaped, as fast as they could…" Natsu completed his analysis.
This entire situation was highly suspicious.
"Let's take them, back to the guild, or at least to the authorities!"
Gray's proposition was met with silent agreement. Of course, they could've just as well left them here, but that wouldn't sit right with them.
---
In the end, the three guys each took some of the previously detained mages. Gray took the twins, Natsu the prophet, and the egg-shaped guy, which left Cassian with the giant chicken.
On the way, Natsu constantly nagged that Lucy should also carry one of them, as she was also part of their team, which she always quickly deflected. Happy did the same.
It took the group about two hours, to finally reach Magnolia. It would've been easier to just hand these guys over to the army, or something like that, but for some goddamn reason, there was no branch in Magnolia, which made the guild the only place they could bring them to.
And that, is what they did.
Walking through the streets, while carrying these people definitely caught the attention of many passerbys, but they couldn't care less. Especially, Gray and Natsu were still trying to hurry up, to get back to the guild, before the 'monstrous' Erza, came back.
Then, finally, they reached the guild, and Lucy opened the giant doors, only to reveal a giant horn inside.
A moment later, a red-haired woman in armor suddenly comes in sight, and Cassian could've sworn, he heard the heartbeats of both, Gray and Natsu, stop for a few seconds.
The red-haired woman stood there, a very small smile plastered on her face, "Gray. Natsu. I've waited for you two."
Natsu and Gray, could only quickly put on very overly fake smiles, before responding, "E-Erza, you're back!"
'So, that is Erza. She looks familiar… Whatever!' Cassian's thoughts remained relatively simple, and he just stepped inside the guild, dropped the huge chicken right next to the entrance, before heading over to the bar, where Mira was already busy.
"Hey there, Mira. One drink, same, as yesterday, Surprise me." He greeted her shortly, while already taking place on one of the seats at the counter.
"You two are already back, Cassian? And you even met Natsu on the way!" The white-haired waitress seemed surprised by his appearance.
"I mean, those were just some Hodras, right? We were done with them, in a matter of minutes… We just weren't in too much of haste to come back."
"But, then why have you brought along those five people? Has something happened on the way?"
Cassian waged his words for a moment, only to shrug, after a moment, "Something like that. One of them said something about a 'Lullaby', whatever that means, and afterwards, someone tried to kill them. They clearly know something, so we just took them along."
He also then reached for the glass of liquor that Mira handed him, and took a sip, enjoying the taste. Sadly, not even waiting for him to finish tasting it, a hand suddenly found its way to his shoulder.
When he turned around, he was face to face, with the red-haired, armored Erza, who had been busy with the other two, before. From his position, he could also see that the two of them had been getting back to quarrel, the instant she put her attention on him.
"You said something about 'Lullaby'?" She questioned with a serious look on her face.
"Yeah, those idiots that attacked us today, said something about a Lullaby, but no clue what it means. We knocked them unconscious to carry them. But, they're all here, so, you should be able to just ask them."
She looked at him for a moment longer, before directing her gaze directly at the five guys, who were all lying on the floor, right next to the entrance. Gray and Natsu also seemed to immediately sense the 'danger' from her gaze, and stopped their quarrel in an instant, instead going for a friendly hug.
Erza looked at the two of them, then looked back at Cassian once, only to turn back to the two of them, "Gray. Natsu. There is something I want your help with. On my last job, I heard about something horrible, and while I would normally discuss this with the Master first, right now, time is of the essence. I need your strengths. Will you help me?"
All around, people immediately started whispering, and murmuring.
"What does that mean?"
"Erza is asking for help?"
"That's the first time, ever!"
Eventually, Erza spoke again, in a matter-of-factly tone, "We will head out tomorrow morning. Prepare yourselves."
Still sitting at the counter, Cassian spectated that entire spectacle, but did not think too much about it. From there, he was also able to hear, what Mira had to say.
"Erza, Natsu, and Gray… I never dared to dream about this. That might as well be Fairy Tail's strongest team, then…"
Lucy, who was standing right next to her, also heard it, and was tremendously surprised by these words.
But, Cassian, he was somewhat suspicious, of them.
After that declaration from her, Erza headed for the entrance, to leave, most likely. She also grabbed the leg of one of the five people, the one looking like the gray egg, before going who-knew-where.
While everyone present was still surprised, and some even in shock, most quickly went back to what they were doing before. Mostly drinking, of course.
Natsu, Gray, as well as Lucy, headed out, shortly after too. Probably going to prepare, or something like that.
Cassian, though, still sat on his seat, and was finally finishing his drink. When he did, he couldn't help but ask Mira a question, "Say, you said something about them being Fairy Tail's strongest team. And, Happy said earlier to us that Erza is Fairy Tail's strongest Mage. Are those two statements true? I don't mean to be rude, but it seems a bit over-the-top."
"Eh?" Mira seemed genuinely surprised upon hearing this. "Erza isn't the strongest mage of Fairy Tail."
"Then, how would those three be the strongest team? It may sound like bragging, but I'm 99% sure that I could beat both of them…"
After saying those words, he was witnessing her face change rapidly through multiple different expressions, surprise, contemplation, sadness, giddiness, and some more, before she spoke, "Ehehe, well, it just sounded right to say. Most of our strongest usually go about their business solo, which also resulted in there not being any really strong team… except for one."
Putting the pieces together, Cassian easily reached the conclusion, "And they are actually the strongest. But, these three have what it takes to potentially take that title, in the future. Right?"
Mira immediately perked up hearing that, "Exactly! I'm sure, Natsu and Gray can definitely reach that same level."
"Alright, good to know. Thanks for the drink!" Since he now knew everything that interested him, for the moment, Cassian got his little stuff, payed for the drink, and was about to head out.
Still, before he could, he was stopped, "Why don't you accompany them? You seemed to have been able to work together quite good with Gray, considering your early arrival. And, Natsu had brought you here. So, surely you could fit right in!"
Cassian could only look at her, with a rather forced and awkward expression, 'That would be way too pushy, wouldn't it? Just appearing there, and asking to come along…'
Turning around, to escape the situation, he only waved once more, "I'll think about it. See ya!"
-x-
I know that the pace is very slow right now, and just know that i am trying to pick it up very soon. As for his rather limited interactions with most other people, when inside the guild, is done on purpose, for now.