Jerza: To Love A Prisoner

Chapter 3:

"E-Erza. Heeeey." Natsu said nervously.

I sighed. "Don't even, Natsu. I already heard. It wasn't your fault anyways, so I'll just pretend I haven't heard and meet Lucy tomorrow."

He looked relieved. "Oh my god thank you Erza! You're a life saver."

I gave him one of my death glares. "BUT. We will talk about this later."

He shivered. ". . .aye ma'am. . ."

Feeling satisfied, I then asked them to train with me. They agreed and we walked through the multiple hallways I know by heart, and arrived at the training area. I set up some dummies and got out my favorite weapon, my silver sword. Gray had a spear made specially for him, out of crystal. Natsu took the bow he always has off of his shoulder, grabbing some arrows from his quiver, which was hidden behind his scaly scarf. Natsu has an obsession with dragons, and his dad gave him a scarf that was said to be made of holy dragon scales, hence the pure white color to them. He never went anywhere without either of these things. Gray kept his spear in his chamber in the castle, since it was kind of awkward to carry. He retrieved it when we passed by on our way to train.

We were each inside a circle of dummies. Gray and I charged at ours with our weapons, slashing and stabbing. Natsu did his favorite thing with the bow. He set the tip of the arrows on fire. It was reckless and he almost burned down the training area twice when doing it previously, but he was the sharpest with a bow. He even taught a couple named Alzack and Bisca how to aim. He's now giving lessons to their daughter Asuka, who I believe is 6 years old.

I finished first with all of my dummies knocked out or torn. Natsu, despite starting last, finished second with his flaming arrows setting every single training dummy on fire. Gray finished directly after him. I think I've mentioned before that they fight a lot. Well this was one of those times.

"Haha! I won you Stripper!" Natsu bragged.

"You cheated though! You had flaming arrows, and the dummies set themselves on fire! It wasn't you!" Gray retorted.

"Well the dummies are dummies, so of course they set each other on fire." Natsu said.

"I- . . . hey you're actually right for once." Gray said while thinking about it.

They were so stupid I actually laughed at Natsu's comment. They looked at me weird and walked away. I would definitely be telling this to Lucy when I visited her.

I walked back to own chamber to get some rest for the hunt tomorrow. I was going to need it if my return to the cave didn't go well.

Wolf's POV:

It was the afternoon. A day after I had met the scarlet guard. I was in my human form. I couldn't stop thinking about how odd she was. So different from the other humans yet so alike too. I knew I'd see her soon, but I didn't expect it to be that soon. She had come back to the cave. A risky one, she is. But also a curious one. I was pretty sure I knew what she wanted.

"Why." She demanded. There was a little fear in her voice, but not much. I couldn't tell if she was trying to hide it, or if she really felt so little fear around me after the day before. The only thing that accomplished was making me even more intrigued by her than I already was. When she heard no reply, she tried again.

"Why." She once again asked. "Why did you let me go. You must have known the risk. Hybrids are myths, and an alpha hybrid is unheard of."

This, I was surprised at. I didn't factor in that she had known I was an alpha. For the first few years of my life, I didn't even know it myself until my beta, Ultear, addressed me as one. I had thought it was just a birthmark. It was red unlike other alpha marks, so I didn't suspect. Does she really know so much about wolves that she can tell an alpha mark from a birthmark? How can she even tell?

"How do you know I'm an alpha?" I asked suspiciously. She tilted her head, looking at me confused.

"You have a mark that looks like an alpha mark. How else would I know?" She told me like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Where did you learn how to understand this? Very few humans can tell the difference between alpha marks and birthmarks." I asked. I was generally curious. Did the humans have a library or archives with such knowledge? No. If they did, then more humans would know it like it was common knowledge. Was it a secret library? Possibly.

"I didn't learn it from anywhere! I could just tell." She said. And by this I was definitely surprised. The only species that can automatically tell the difference are wolves and other animals, or humans raised by wolves. I told her this, and she looked surprised. "I'm not a wolf and I was not raised by one. It must just be pure luck!" She raised her voice a little from panic. Was the thought of being or being raised by a wolf that bad? I certainly didn't think so. But then again, she was a human. Wolves and humans can never understand each other.

I was getting tired of this, and decided to remind her of her question with my answer.

"As to your previous question, I shall give you your deserved answer. As simple as it was, I felt you were safe. You are unlike other humans, who are vicious and selfish. You are the same with loyalty though, so it's not like you are completely different. You just intrigue me a little." I said to her.

"Oh. Um, thanks?" She said. She was unsure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Don't worry it's a good thing." I assured her.

Her eyes then widened in realization. "Wait, humans are not vicious or vile! What would make you say that?!" She asked accusingly.

I narrowed my eyes at the memory it brought back. "How much time do you have until you need to return to your kingdom?" I asked.

"I have until evening. A few hours at most. Why?" She asked.

I sighed, knowing I'd finally have to relive that awful memory that's weighed me down for years.

"Then let me tell you the story of how my pack fell to its death."