I know I've been gone for a long time and I'm so sorry for that!!!

I've been busy with a lot of schoolwork and now with the pandemic happening, I didn't find time to update.

Please forgive me!!! I will try my best from now on to update weekly if I can.

Please stay safe and stay inside!!!

Natsu followed the woman into a denser part of the forest. He wanted to train with Reina but that didn't stop the uneasiness he felt from not being able to see Lucy and the rest.

"Natsu, show me what you can do," Reina said, facing him. The two had stopped in a part of the forest where no one would be able to spot them easily.

"Well, I can't do much. All I can really do is the roar and mask myself with my chaos." Natsu replied.

Reina sighed and ran her fingers through her black hair.

"You're barely using your magic. It can do so much more than that." The dragon crossed her arms, deep in thought.

After a moment of silence, she spoke up.

"Do you want to learn how to control your magic?"

Natsu nodded luring out a smile from Reina.

"Nobody knew what type of magic Acnologia had. Not even me. All we knew was that he could consume most or all elements of magic so the only person who can really teach you is Acnologia. All I can really do is help you control it and find another use for your magic."

"Please teach me," Natsu replied with his arms crossed and an unreadable expression on his face.

"Alright then! First, we need to learn to control your chaos and then the fun part begins." Reina said, smiling radiantly.

The duo stayed there meditating until the sun had fallen. Reina agreed to stay with them for the time being and followed Natsu back to their home.

"Natsu! Reina! You're right on time for dinner!" Lucy called out as she heard them approaching.

The two joined the group at the table as Wendy brought the food to the table.

"It's a homemade hotpot tonight! All vegetarian. I hope you don't mind Reina." Wendy said as she sat down between Lucy and Carla.

"Not at all! Being vegetarian for a while would be a new experience!" The dragon replied happily.

"So what did you guys do while we were gone?" Natsu asked.

"We sparred. It was a close match but Lucy and I won!" Happy cheered happily.

"It was quite refreshing to have a friendly match like that," Lucy said with a little smile.

"What are you working on Nii-Chan?" Wendy asked.

"We're meditating first," Natsu replied.

"Perfect! We can meditate after we're all done showering then." Lucy suggested.

"Is that okay with you Reina?" Reina nodded and the group cheered happily.

They finished their dinner and cleaned up before heading down to the river.

"Reina, how old are you?" Lucy asked.

"I'm almost 21. Although, I'm much older in dragon years and what about you three?"

"I'm 14! Lucy is 17!" Wendy replied.

"Exceeds don't really care for their age so Happy and I don't have an age," Carla stated as she dried off.

"Compared to you girls, I look like an old lady." Reina laughed as they finished washing up.

"That's not true! You still have that girly charm!" Wendy replied causing them all to laugh.

"Yes, I bet you can get anyone you want with that smile of yours!" Lucy added.

"Oh stop it you're making me shy," Reina joked.

"Oh, Reina I forgot you don't have a room yet! Tomorrow Natsu and I can make a room for you but you can sleep in my room tonight. I'll share with Wendy." Lucy stated as she dried off her hair.

"Thank you, Lucy. I hope you don't mind." Reina replied.

"It's not a problem! Wendy and I haven't had time together for a long time so we don't really mind." Lucy reassured Reina.

"Besides I'm still not used to sleeping alone so I am quite happy Lucy is sleeping with me tonight," Wendy added.

They continued to chat on their way to camp and met Happy and Natsu on the training grounds.

"Okay everyone get comfortable," Reina instructed as she sat facing the group of teens.

Reina placed her hands on her knees palms up and watched as the group copied her.

"Close your eyes and visualize your magic," Reina spoke calmly. "Picture it as a ball of energy trapped in a cage deep inside you."

The dragon kept her eyes open, having done this countless of times before.

"Now slowly open that cage. Allow the tiniest bit of magic to seep through. The cage is how you'll contain your magic and when you're using magic the cage will open."

Looks of frustration showed on all faces as the group struggled to not use all of their magic at once.

"Calm down. Don't tense up or it will become harder to manage your magic. Good now open the gate wider and allow more magic to come out."

The air moved with magic as all 5 mages let out more magic energy.

"Now push the gate open and allow all of your magic to come out. Try keeping it all in one place such as on your open palms."

Slowly, everything came to silence as the magic energy was being focused in one particular spot. At this point, everyone had opened their eyes to see what they had done.

"Good now move your magic from place to place without destroying anything. Keep it contained."

Looks of frustration came back as the group struggled to not destroy wherever they moved their magic. This took around 3 hours which lead to 5, completely skipping over their time to sleep. At last on their 13th try no one had broken anything and they could continue with the lesson.

"Now try drawing back your magic and closing the gate steadily."

This turned out to be harder than it had seemed. The group found out that even though they had done it subconsciously or when their magic ran out, while they still had a lot of energy left the magic was harder to let go of.

It was like tasting freedom and having to be shut up again, unsure of when you could be set free.

The 5 hours had turned to 9 as they struggled on the last stage and had to try from the beginning whenever someone messed up.

"Be patient with your magic. It is not a tool to be used, it needs to be tamed."

As the group hit 12 hours, they finally succeeded in drawing back all of their magic energy.

"I'm impressed. Usually, it would take a few months but it had only taken half a day." Reina stated happily.

"I think it has to do with the fact that we had already begun training with our magic and had a better grip on it than before," Lucy replied with a tired smile.

"Alright, time for bed. You all did well. I'm very proud." The group of 5 scaled the trees and headed off to their separate room quietly.

None of them has the energy to talk anymore. Not even the boisterous Happy.

Reina headed off to bed as well, a few things on her mind. She still was unsure of how the group had learned to control their magic so quickly.

Maybe it had been what Lucy had said about training with heir magic but Reina doubted that. She felt that it had something to do with their binds with each other.

Like they knew that they wouldn't hurt each other with this training. They were so sure each other could do it that they didn't want to disappoint the others.

Was it hope that had helped them? No, it felt deeper than hope. It felt like their trust for each other had helped each other.

Like they trusted each other so much that they themselves didn't want to fail the others.

Perhaps it was their trust. Reina would never really know the answer. Maybe no one would. But whatever happened there seemed quite like a miracle.