Jerza: To Love A Prisoner

Chapter 7:

Erza's POV:

I hated this part of the festival.

The dress fitting.

Why do princesses need this many dresses? It's like I need a new one for every upcoming occasion. Oh wait, I apparently do. At least it was Lucy who was doing it. She was the dressmaker for the castle, after she retired from being a guard. The king had given her permission to take leave for her baby, but she said that she wasn't far along so she should be working too, at least for a few months. She also told me there was no way she would miss me wearing one of her dresses for the festival. She was sick and couldn't make the dress last year, but she at least helped me into it when she gotten over her sickness.

This year, she was up late into the night working on it. Natsu caught her up late every night, and forced her to sleep earlier when he found out she was pregnant. She complied because she didn't want to harm the baby with her lack of sleep. There's one thing about Lucy, though. She's incredibly stubborn when it comes to things she cares about. She'd been going to sleep earlier so she can get up early and work on the dress, while not posing a threat to the baby. She's smart when it comes to loopholes.

I was finally done with trying on and making measurement changes with the dress. Since Lucy is our most talented dressmaker, she gets it done faster. She knows I hate trying them on, so I think another reason she didn't take her leave right away was to move the process along faster. I love that girl.

It was time for one of my lessons, and then to go out for my last hunt. Which means my last visit with Jellal if my new excuse doesn't work. I went to the library to find my other friend, who is also my tutor, and Lucy's other best friend.

"Princess! Your here! Let's get started, shall we?" Levy suggested. I nodded. The guards that accompanied me here left so they wouldn't disturb us. Once they closed the door, we both sighed in relief.

"Hey Levy, how have you been?" I asked her.

"Great so far. Hey Erza, did Lucy tell you the news?" She asked.

I nodded. "I can't believe she's pregnant now. It's so exciting! I heard you've been pestering her about it."

She laughed. "I got excited, okay?" She defended herself.

I laughed too, and we started my lesson. The king thinks it's not appropriate to be friends with my tutor, so whenever him or the guards are around, Levy had to address me as princess. Mokarav and the servants, plus Natsu and Gray, are fine with it though.

Lucy and Levy became friends through books, but me and Levy became friends through our kingdom's history. We were both in the library looking for books on the subject, and we ended up reading the same book together. I then introduced her to Lucy and they started to squeal and talk nonsense about a certain book series. It sounded like a foreign language to me, but then I just thought it was one of the many foreign languages Levy already knows. That part was somewhat true, I guess.

After an hour of torture- I mean education, we finally finished. This was a subject both of us had no interest in, so naturally, we hated it. We were both glad it was over. I helped her return the books to their places and I left, with her wishing me luck on my last hunt. I changed into my favorite silver chest plate of armor, and headed out to the forest with the king's permission, food cart in tow. I had about 3 hours to get food, visit Jellal, and start on the plan for my excuse. I went to his cave to meet him.

He greeted me and we hunted. During our hunt, Jellal suddenly sniffed the air and bellowed a light warning growl. I knew something was wrong. I worried that it was one of the kingdom's soldiers and that they spotted us. Jellal circled me in a protective manner, I drew my sword, ready to fight. A blackish purple wolf came out of the bushes, teeth bared. Jellal growled and got in position to pounce.

"Erza stay back. This is a rogue wolf, a wolf that's been kicked out of her pack." Jellal said while watching the wolf.

"It's a female?" I asked.

He nodded. I then saw that the wolf's eyes were a bit softer than Jellal's, even though she tried to look tough. She was a female after all.

The wolf growled again. Jellal growled back. It seemed like they were communicating somehow. The wolf got even more mad at Jellal, and then glared at me, ready to kill me. She pounced and I stood my ground, holding my sword to block her. She growled even more fiercely at this and claws appeared on her paws. She was seriously committed to killing me. Jellal tackled her before she got to me. He jumped back and stood in a pouncing position in front of me. I think he was trying to say, "if you try and attack her I will attack you."

She glared at me again. I followed her gaze, and it wasn't me she was glaring at. It was my sword. I then realized her point of view at things.

"Jellal stop it she's trying to protect herself!" I shouted. He looked at me like I was crazy. The female looked at me surprised and suspicious.

"What?! Why!" He asked.

"Just look!" I said. I held my sword up and she growled. I then dropped my sword and put my hands up, knowing I was right. She stopped growling but still gave me a glare.

Jellal retreated from his pouncing position but still watched her. She looked me in the eyes, and I met her gaze. She then stopped glaring at me and her ears went down. Jellal looked shocked and confused at the same time. He watched with curiosity. I moved towards the food cart that was behind me, and took out a dead rabbit. I tossed it in front of her and she gratefully picked it up. She bowed her head and turned around to leave. Jellal relaxed and we went back to hunting.

We heard a soft but confident "Thank you, Alpha" and turned around. We saw a flash of black where we last saw the wolf. I smiled, knowing she meant no real harm. We went back to hunting.

"How did you know." Jellal suddenly asked.

"Hm?" I responded. I was a little confused by his question.

"How did you know she meant no harm?" He asked again, adjusting his question.