The Celestial Princess and Her Suitors

Chapter Fifteen: Gajeel Redfox

Lucy rushed out of her apartment. She internally cursed at herself for oversleeping. She had made a point of not oversleeping whenever she had work the next day by hooking Horologium's key onto a bracelet around her wrist so that he could act as her alarm. However, she accidentally forgot to attach the silver key to the bracelet. This caused her to oversleep and now she was late for work. She hoped that Minnie wouldn't fire her or be too mad, but she wouldn't blame the older woman if she did.

The celestial wizard turned a corner, pushing her legs to run harder. She weaved around some people that exited buildings and homes, ignoring the annoyed remarks that were shouted after her. She had the bakery and cafe in her sight when a sudden blast behind her sent her flying forward before she crashed and rolled along the ground.

She groaned in pain as she rose to her hands and knees. She brought her left hand off of the ground and placed it on her still bandaged side. She winced at the strong stab of pain before she moved her hand away from her side and looked at it, seeing a small amount of blood. Her wound from almost a week ago had been reopened. She rolled over to sit on the ground and looked at the area of impact that had launched her through the air. She watched as two women appeared several feet in front of her.

One woman was dark-skinned and curvaceous. Her black hair was pulled into an ox horn style while her green and yellow-colored clothing resembled a bellydancer's outfit. A pair of scales hung from her fingers by thin, gold cords.

The other woman was dressed in a fashion that resembled a maid. Shackles and chains were on her wrists. Her blue eyes were empty and her facial expression was emotionless. She was tall, perhaps five feet ten inches, curvaceous, and had wavy, pink hair that reached her hips.

Lucy asked, trying to sound unafraid and hoping that she hadn't failed, "who are you? What do you want?"Stupid questions. She already knew what they wanted and she was able to guess who they were.

The pink-haired woman answered, "we're here to take you to our Mistress."

Lucy knew who she was talking about. Kit. These two were Virgo and Libra, she knew that because she knew that Pisces were two spirits. A man and a woman. Though, which of these women was Libra and which was Virgo, she didn't know.

With a few grunts of pain, the celestial wizard got to her feet and reached for Cancer's key, however, her fingers met nothing. She looked down at her hip to find, to her horror, that she had forgotten her keys in her haste to get to her workplace. She looked at her other hip, finding that she had also forgotten her whip.

Lucy looked back at the two women that began to close in on her. With each step they took toward her, she took a step back. She looked around, trying to find somewhere she could run to. A way to escape. She found none.

She racked her brain for a way to escape. She couldn't run to the bakery and cafe because that would cause too much damage and trouble for Minnie. She also couldn't run to her apartment. As far as she knew, Kit wasn't aware of where she lived, and she wanted to keep it like that.

She continued walking backward, trying to figure out what she should do, when the black-haired woman swung her hand up, causing Lucy to be lifted high into the air. She screamed as she soared upwards, coming to a stop she was just a little bit higher than the tall buildings around her. She waved her limbs around, fear filling her being as she struggled not to let the fearful tears that pricked the corners of her eyes spill. She watched as the pink-haired woman kneeled on the ground, placing both hands on the ground. In an instant, she was released from the black-haired woman's spell, but she was also trapped within rocks that she assumed had been ripped from the ground below her.

She stood with shaky legs and looked around herself at her rocky trap. It was small. Too small. She could feel her heartbeat's pace quicken in rapid succession. Her breathing got quicker and ragged, making her struggle to breathe properly. She stumbled a few times, her legs shaking, and she placed a hand against her forehead. She felt dizzy and lightheaded. A feeling that she could only describe as a mixture of fear, dread, and anxiety took over her entire being, starting in the pit of her gut before spreading rapidly. She was barely able to register the pain in her side and on other parts of her body that she minorly scraped from the earlier surprise attack.