Chapter 29 - Hamster Girl

Fairy Tail: Paths of the Soul

"So..." Amber knelt down next to the bed, not entirely sure what to think. "You’re a hamster..."

Shelly took a deep breath, followed by a long sigh. "Yeah..." She had short purple fur all over except for a white tummy, but still possessed the same brilliant blue eyes. As hard as it was to believe, this tiny rodent was definitely Shelly.

Amber's belt jumped away and Armeria came to rest on the bed next to them, staring at her with wide eyes. Her version of amazement. "You're so small..."

"This is why I didn't want to come..." Shelly moaned. "She did this to me last year too..."

Amber tried to take her eyes away, doing her best not to laugh. "Who was that other guy?" She asked, thinking back to their brief chase. "We're supposed to be the only one's up here, right?"

"I didn't recognise him." She began playing with her ears, pulling at them so that they would flick up again. "Ugh, this feels so weird..." She felt her cheeks again; apparently having fur was something that would take some time to get used to. "We need to find Lir."

"Can she turn you back?" Armeria asked, looking out the still opened bedroom door.

"Well, yeah. But I've got a bad feeling about that other guy, and we were supposed to be body guards." Shelly hopped into Amber's hand, who then stood up. "If he's not a guest, then he might have snuck in. And Lir could be in trouble."

Amber stepped out into the hall, the last place either of then saw Lir and the stranger heading. Unfortunately for them, both directions looked the same. And a number of other intersecting hallways meant that tracking them down on their own would basically be a guessing game. After a moment of indecision, Amber shook her head. "I have no idea which way they've gone."

Shelly continued to look around, darting from one side of Amber's hand to the other before she too gave up. "Too bad she didn't turn me into a dog or something..." Judging from her tone, Amber couldn't tell if she was trying to make a joke, or felt honestly regretful. "I could just follow her scent, like they do in all those detective shows on TV."

Amber chuckled; even like this, Shelly was still putting someone else needs before her own. Something she had said stuck though, and Amber gained a quizzical look on her face. "Her scent?"

Shelly spun up to look at her, apparently coming to the same realisation as Amber. The two of them looked to Armeria, gawked at each other for a moment, before together saying. "Axel!"

It was somewhat difficult to navigate throughout the Omnison household for the two of them. For starters; they had taken so many twists and turns that neither of them had any idea where Amber had left her security jacket. They decided not to go looking for it, so the fear that they would be kicked out was on both of their minds. Another complication was that they'd have to move through the party hall to get to the kitchen, so Shelly had to hide down the back of Amber's shirt, behind her long hair for them to move among the guests. She didn't want to ride in her pocket, fearing she'd get squished if someone bump into them, and there was no way Amber would be allowed to just carry a small rodent around in her hand. They were trying to be quick, and that would most definitely hold them up.

Amber tensed up and gave a small squeak, feeling Shelly's soft fur brush against the nape of her neck. "Shelly..." She mumbled, looking around to make sure nobody had heard her. "Stop moving around..."

"Sorry..." She squeaked, shuffling a little more. "I keep falling, you need to walk slower." Amber huffed, but slowed her pace slightly. The last thing she wanted was to shake Shelly off; but still, how slow was she supposed to go?

Luckily for the two of them, Amber remained mostly ignored by the guests. Some of the staff gave her funny looks, seeing the plainly dressed girl weaving their way through the lavish party, but other than that she remained virtually unnoticed. Another boon was that with their first few hours of the day just wondering around, they at least had some idea of where they were going.

Just as they dared to think they'd make it to the kitchen without incident, Shelly mumbled. "Amber, turn around."

Without waiting for a reason, Amber glanced over her shoulder to find someone following behind her. She had long black hair and was dressed in what appeared to be a light military uniform, but she seemed taken aback when Amber turned around. "Oh, uh... Sorry." She quickly took a step back, but the surprise in her face was quickly replaced by a welcoming smile. "Your name is Amber, right?"

Amber nodded her head; the last thing she expected was to be recognised by someone. "Uh..."

"She's from the Magic Council." Shelly whispered, trying not to be heard. "You met her before, the day we came back from the swamp."

"We've met before?" Amber blurted, quickly realising she'd thought out loud. "Uh, Right...?"

"I guess there's no way you'd forget, huh?" She chuckled to herself, but quickly realised her joke had fallen flat. "Yeah, we met. You were uh... Conversing, with commander Moresety. At the café in Merow City."

Amber felt a flood of mixed emotions washing over her. Some good, many others bad. She did remember her though, the one who basically saved her from the angry councilmen. "You're... Andrew?"

"Captain Hanna Andrews." She corrected, standing to attention. "And... I wanted to apologise for that. Not all of us are as... Harsh, as she is."

Amber didn't know what to say. Alarm bells where going off in her head, mostly because the last councilmen she'd dealt with was nice to her at first too, but Hanna's smile looked much more sincere than Payla's did. She felt a tug on her shirt, and Shelly's voice snapped her away from her thoughts. "Amber, we need to go."

Amber looked over her shoulder, half expecting to find Shelly standing behind her. "But..."

"We can't tell her about Lir yet." Shelly insisted. "Just trust me ok?"

Amber couldn't fathom why. But Shelly must have had her reasons, so she went along with it. She took a step away from Hanna, not knowing what to say to her, and began into a jog. "Sorry, I need to go."

Hanna looked suppressed at first, but soon a tinge of regret filled her face. "If... If you ever need anything, don't be..."

"I will!" Amber shouted back. She loathed having to leave like this, especially considering Hanna had apparently sought her out just to make amends. But she pushed those thoughts aside as she turned into another empty hallway. At worst, she could try and explain later.

She turned into another room, this one also filled with partygoers. Amber slowed down again to not draw attention to herself, and began weaving her way through the crowd.

"She'll understand if you talk to her again." Shelly muttered, guessing at Amber's current mindset. "I haven't really met her, but Isa says Hanna is really nice."

Amber fought back a smile. "You know, that really doesn't make me feel-."

Lost in her thoughts for a moment, Amber failed to see someone step out until she'd already bumped into them. "Wow..." The man cooed, catching her by the hand as she stumbled. "Sorry miss, in a hurry?"

"Uh..." Amber drew a blank. She moved her other hand up to the back of her neck, and gave a soft sigh of relief when she felt Shelly still clinging to her shirt. "N-no."

"Yes well, I apologise all the same." He smiled at her, which somehow set her on edge. She couldn't tell why; he wasn't particularly intimidating, but there was still something unsettling about the way he held her arm. "Ah, from Blazing Soul I see." He said, gazing at the guild mark on Amber's hand. "Funny coincidence that; my bodyguards are from the same guild."

Amber snapped her hand away; growing uncomfortable that he was eyeing her. But that feeling was pushed aside when she finally processed what he had said. "Wait, you mean..."

She glanced passed him to see Mace leering over his shoulder. Like a living statue with a perpetual scowl. Her vision shifted when a familiar chestnut haired woman stepped out from behind him, who likewise noticed her as well. "Oh..." Clair looked surprised, but quickly hid it with a rather forced smile. "You're here..."

"Ah yes, you three must be friends." The man said excitedly. "Well Milady; Sven Shaw of LIT Corporation, at your service."

"We're acquainted." Despite her obvious distaste for meeting Amber, Clair's tone nor her expression changed in the slightest.

Never skipping a beat, nor apparently noticing the awkward tension between the two women, Sven continued on. "So, you must be here working for the Omnisons. Tell me, is the Rainbow Stone really as impressive as I've heard?"

"Uh... Yeah." Amber nodded, trying to think of the quickest way to end the conversation. "It is."

"Excellent." He quipped again. "Well, then I expect it'll be quite the show later on today, won't it?" He turned back to Mace and Clair, resting a hand on each of their shoulders. "Alright, well I've gotten somewhat peckish. Escort me to the buffet!" The two of them clenched their fists as Sven breezed past them. It looked like they were about ready to beat his brains out, though Amber suspected for two completely different reasons.

Left alone, Amber headed for the kitchen again, not bothering to slow down for all the time she'd already lost. She hadn't seen anybody she'd known for almost half the day, and now she couldn't seem to get people to leave her alone. What the hell was up with that?

A few more rooms later, Amber had found the kitchen. Or more accurately, she'd followed one of the waiters returning for more food back to the kitchen, but she didn't care for the details. She found Axel taking a break just outside the door, an apron hanging from his waist and Zeke resting on his shoulder. As luck would have it, Geno was there too, and the three of them where laughing about something when she approached.

"Hey lass." Geno waved, but she grabbed them both by the collar and led them around the corner into another empty hallway. "Woah, woah, where's the fire?" He asked, noticing Amber was somewhat short on breath.

"Just... Gimme a second..." She didn't know where to start. "Where's Rift?"

"Someone wanted us to show off some magic, and he lost the coin toss." Geno shrugged. "Why?"

"Tell them not to laugh." Shelly mumbled.

Amber nodded. "Ok."

"Ok what?" Axel asked confused.

"Shut up, just..." She was trying to think, but figured it best if Shelly did the talking. "Don't laugh, alright?"

As Axel, Geno, and Zeke all exchanged a puzzled look, they together said. "Ok..."

Taking that to be as good an agreement as she was going to get, Amber slowly reached behind her head, grabbed Shelly, and held her out for them all to see. Shelly turned away and kept her face buried in her paws, so all the boys saw was a small purple fur ball at first. Axel sniffed suddenly, trying to clear his nose more than anything, but he did a double take when he caught a familiar sent. "Is... Is that?"

Zeke hovered next to Amber's hand, and a large grin grew on his face the more he inspected. "Shelly?" He asked finally, landing on Amber's shoulder. "You're a-."

"I know, I know, I'm a hamster!" She cried in annoyance, causing all three of the guys to burst out laughing. "Stop laughing, it's totally not funny!" The two of them stopped, but Zeke continued to chuckle into his paws. "Be serious for a minute. Lir is in trouble."

"Well yeah, obviously." Axel pated Zeke's head, stopping his snickering. "I'd be pissed too if-."

Amber shook her head. "No, not that. We saw someone else ordering Lir around, and it wasn't one of the staff either." She looked at Shelly again, trying to recall any detail she could. "We think he broke in."

There was a pause for a moment, everyone just sort of processing the information. "Do ya know where she's at?" Geno asked, scratching the back of his head.

Shelly shook her head. "She ran off after doing this to me. That's why we came looking for you, we needed Axel to find her."

"Me?" He looked confused for a moment, but it slowly donned on him what they wanted him to do. "Wait, I need to know a person's sent first. I can't just follow my nose to whoever I want." That was something Amber hadn't considered. Sure he'd been able to track her down before, but they were roommates so it wasn't really that surprising. "Besides, half the people in here smell like perfume, so I don't even know where to start."

"Think we should tell the Magic Council?" Zeke suggested. "They should be here, right?"

"Yeah, we ran into one of them." Amber began, glancing down at Shelly for an explanation. "But..."

"If we tell them, then they'll shut the party down. And Kat will get in really big trouble." Although it was her idea, Shelly didn't sound too sure of that plan herself. "If we're wrong and this is just another bodyguard they've hired to keep an eye on her, then we'll have stopped the party for nothing."

Amber was confused. "Do you think a bodyguard would have ran from us though?"

Shelly huffed, not sure what to do either way. Just when they thought they were stuck, an ecstatic voice called to them from down the hall. "Hey guys!" Fiona came rushing down the hall at them. "Oh my god, it feels like I haven't seen you in for... Ever..." The seriousness in their faces hadn't subsided by the time she got to them, catching her off guard. "What?"

They all looked to Amber, somehow voting her as the one to explain. "Well, you see..."

It took a little while to fill her in, but by the end she looked about as stumped as they were. She also snickered at Shelly's predicament, but did her best not to dwell on it for too long. "So, you don't know what to do, because you don't want to get sis in trouble. But you don't want to do nothing because you think someone else is already in trouble."

"Yeah." Shelly nodded. "That's pretty much it."

Fiona rubbed her chin, trying to think of a solution. Having nothing come to mind, she smirked and said. "OK, the unveiling of the Rainbow Stone is in half an hour. If you haven't found Lir by then, I'll get help. Alright?" Amber nodded, feeling she was talking to her more than the others. "You guys should get going. Clocks ticking."

"Alright, smells like a plan to me." Geno chuckled, slamming his fists together.

They all set off, heading to the last point the girls saw Lir. Just before parting ways however, Fiona stole one last glance at the tiny purple rodent. "And for the record Shelly, you really do look adorable."

A few wrong turns and one staircase later, the group found their way back to the upper level again. With a bit of luck, they found the room they last saw Lir and the stranger fairly quick. Axel did a lap around the room, trying to pick up a trail, but after a minuet he stopped and shrugged. "Yeah... There's maybe a dozen different scents in here. I don't really know which one you want me to follow." Shelly groaned in frustration. They were quickly running out of ideas, but Axel tried sniffing around again. After a moment, he began riming things off. "Few people, probably staff. One of them stopped for a snack, cleaning supplies and..." He paused for a moment, looking somewhat perplexed. "I don't know, a dog maybe?"

"Think that's our lass?" Geno laughed. "She did have the ears, didn't she?" Though he was just making a joke, the others suddenly glanced at him with deadpan expressions. "What? What'd I say?"

The girls slowly turned back to Axel, who still didn't look very convinced. "C'mon, you can't be serious."

"It's the best lead we have Axel." Shelly squeaked, playing with her ears again. "If this doesn't work, we'll go to the Council."

"That is so not reassuring." Despite his protests, it didn't take long for Axel do begin sniffing around again. "We're assigned to be bodyguards and now I'm looking for a house pet. Not how I thought today was going to go..." Eventually he made his way to the door Lir had disappeared through. "I think they went... That way." He said pointing down another hall.

The others rushed to see, and Shelly stood on the edge of Amber's hand. "She's down there?"

"I don't know." He repeated, sounding somewhat annoyed this time. "I told you, for all I know it could be a staff pet or something."

"Ok, ok. Let's just go." Amber insisted, pushing ahead of the others. "It's a better guess than we had, so let's see where it goes."

They followed the hallway to another crossing, where after a moment of indecision Axel lead them down another path. They weaved their way through the upper floor for a good few minutes, occasionally doubling back when Axel lost the scent, but after descending another staircase they came to a door that lead out of the manor.

Amber took a quick look outside, but there was nobody in sight. A stone path lead to a cluster of buildings nearby, and another sat in the opposite direction. "Anything?" She asked, looking back at Axel.

"Well she, or it, definitely came this way." He shrugged. "In... That direction."

He pointed to a building across a large well-kept lawn, made partly of stone, but mostly of large glass windows. "Wait, look at that." Shelly called. They all stopped dead, and Amber followed her pointing to a small orange ribbon tied around the door handle.

"What about it?" Geno asked, breaking the silence.

"It's my hair tie." Shelly reached up to the top of her head, apparently missing her normal hair. "Lir grabbed it before she changed me. She definitely came this way." She spun around again, standing at the edge of Ambers hand and facing the glass building. "C'mon, hurry!"

Despite her haste, the others seemed sceptical. "Are you sure this is that big a deal?" Axel groaned.

"Yeah, she did this last year too didn't she?" Geno added. "Ran around, caused a bunch of problems, had us chasing her all over the damn place..." Even though she wasn't there at the time, Amber had to admit that they made a compelling case. "We really going to fall for this again?"

"I know that..." Shelly seemed disheartened, but couldn't stop herself from worrying. "I just want to make sure... So let's go already." Not wanting to argue, and with nothing else to do, the group set off. Hoping to put a swift end to this whole affair.

Resting next to a fountain, a man in a brown knit cap and overcoat impatiently tapped his foot on the floor. He checked is watch again, then huffed as he surveyed the canopy of trees above him. "She's late." He muttered under his breath.

"Getting impatient Thain?" A voice emanated from the brush, and the man followed it to a woman sitting on a branch almost eight feet off the ground. She wore torn off jean shorts and a short brown poncho that concealed her upper torso. She adjusted a black headband and grinned devilishly at him. "Getting to old for this sort of thing?"

"You said this'd work, Lyra." Thain growled again. "If I'd done this myself then-."

"Then you'd have stuck out like a sore thumb in there." She interrupted. "Imagine that headline; master thief caught while using the front door." Thain grumbled something under his breath, but Lyra didn't care enough to have him repeat it. "We just need her to get it outside, alright? After that it's all you. Besides, she's got a history of pulling dumb pranks like this. You'll be long gone by the time they realise what's happened."

He sighed in annoyance, but apparently gave up arguing. "Once we get the stone, you deal with the kid. I'll set up..." He silenced himself when he heard the sound of a door opening and closing. Lyra quickly popped the collar of her poncho to conceal part of her face just as Lir emerged from an underground staircase, clutching a large burlap sack against her chest. She skidded to a halt when she met their gaze, growing nervous again as Thain briskly approached. "That took longer than expected." He complained, taking the bag and throwing it over his shoulder. "You didn't tell anybody about our little deal, now did ya?"

"No!" She shook her head franticly. "It's just heavy..."

"Really?" Thain cooed, appearing to enjoy himself. "Then who were those other two, huh? The one's following you last-."

"Oh, cut her some slack." Lyra piped up, playfully rubbing the top of Lir's head. "She's a good girl. Aren't ya?"

Lir stared at the ground frustrated, but held her tongue knowing that an outburst wasn't likely help her situation right now. "Yes..." Lyra stopped teasing her, and she instantly worked up the nerve to say something else. "So you'll let my sister go now, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Sure kid." Thain waved her off, and pulled Lyra between them. "Just go with her and your sis'll be safe as houses in no time." As the two of them departed, Thain quickly untied the top of the bag to take a quick look. A barrage of color lit up his face the instant the bag was opened, and he grinned slyly. Reds, blues, yellows, purples; each making Thain happier with every flash. "The Rainbow Stone is ours." He quickly closed the bag and threw it over his shoulder, but instead of leaving he kneeled down and placed the palm of his hand against the brick. Roots spread from his hand, causing the floor to ungulate unnaturally as they grew. "But just to be sure." He mumbled with a smile, and a trio of small wood manikins emerged from the ground.

Next Chapter – Getaway Plan