Land of the Ashen: A Dark Fairy Tail

A New Friend

I love how everyone is liking my books! Its only because of you all that they have gotten so popular, so from the bottom of my heart I thank all of you! All my readers are spectacular and amazing, so thanks for being awesome!

I dedicate this chapter to Infinite_Midnight!

I love all of you!
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Natsu laid down on the cold stone floor of his newly obtained cell, after his little "adventure" into the council they hadn't been too happy with him, so there he was and there he would stay. He figured he would probably rot there until the day he died, they had no intention on letting a fugitive go. They had plenty of other strong mages to take his place.

As he was laying there he heard rustling in the corner of the cell, Natsu jumped from where he laid into a standing position. He starred intently onto the spot that had made the strange noise. There in the shadows he barely made out two small figures, both covered in soot they slowly stepped into the light. One had a white undertone, but turned grey from the ash. The other was a bright blue, also covered in dirt and grime. They had the the physical form of cats, but with wings and walked on two feet. Natsu had never seen this kind of creature, the sight of it surprised him.

"Who are you?" The strange blue cat demanded.

"Me? Who are you?!" Natsu invoked back.

"You are in our cell so I ask the questions!" It hissed.

"Yeah right." Natsu simply rolled his eyes at the silly creature.

"Why are you here?" The white cat intruded.

"You think I want to be here? Yeah...cause sitting in a cage is so much fun." He sighed.

"No, I mean. Why did they put you here?" It asked again.

"I went to the council. I just wanted to talk to them, but they all got all huffy about it and I went all-wacky."

The two cats looked at each other, nodding in unison.
"We are exceeds, hidden by the council. They feel us to be a threat to the kingdom. We were born and raised in this cage. We know nothing except for the these walls and that the council did this to us!" The blue "exceed" hit the ground with his...paw?

They had been here their entire lives?! Never to see the sun, never to eat real food, never to be free. He felt for the poor exceeds. Did they have anything for themselves? Then he decided to change the depressing topic.

"Do you have names?" He asked gently.

"We didn't come with names, so we named ourselves. I am Happy." The blue exceed pointed to himself.

"I am happy too, but whats your name? He asked again, confused.

"No my name is Happy." He corrected.

Natsu shook his head in disbelief, it was quite an interesting name. But he didn't contradict.

"I'm Charle. " The white and grey exceed held her arms across her little cat chest.

"Isn't that a boys name?" He thought out loud, noticing that the white cats was a female.

"How rude!" She huffed at his remark.

"Why would they lock up harmless cats?" Natsu asked.

Both creatures looked at each other in worry. Obviously there was some sort of background story Natsu didn't know about.

"Once the war started 23 years ago all Exceeds were banished from all Fiore, because we were creatures with magic. All magic is supposed to belong to the council, but with magical beings that couldn't be controlled or manipulated we were sent away. Some tried to stay, but there were hunted into extinction. Now there are very few of us left, all in captivity." Happy told his story.

"They cant do that!" Natsu yelled.

"But they did." Charle countered.

There was a loud clacking on the cell bars, as a guard hit the rusted metal with his foot. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys and started placing them into the lock. The jangle of the small objects confused all three prisoners.

"Whats going on?" Natsu questioned.

The guard just looked up, unamused and not happy. He didn't take his eyes off Natsu even when the door slid noisily open. He grabbed Natsu arm and dragged him down the hallway.

"You have an appointment." His scruffy voice echoed.

Appointment? What kind of appointment. What did that mean? What were they going to do to him? He continued to be forcefully lead away as terrible thoughts filled him mind. Thoughts of dread and torture, he was not ready to face that kind of enemy. One where you couldn't fight back and continued for long periods of time.

"In here." The guard pushed him throw a small wooden door and into a cramped room, it was narrow and empty. But there was something else that caught him mind.

"Lucy!"