Worth Is Measured In Love

Chapter 8

"As the years went by." The puppeteer narrated for the audience. "Jellal imparted to Gray and Juvia his skills as an actor and a musician. But truth be told, performing came natural to the both of them. You see God had blessed them with gifts to make up for the burdens they had to suffer with. Gray despite his deformity, grew up to be tall, agile, and strapping. By the time he was eighteen he was stronger than most men, was an athlete unsurpassed, and he could be a most impressive acrobat."

He then made the boy puppet with his face covered do all sorts of flips and swings which made the children in the crowd laugh.

"Juvia grew to be like the white roses she so adored. Fair, serene, and admirably beautiful. She could sing like an angel from heaven and though she couldn't see, she could somehow dance as gracefully as a ballerina. She was a vision of loveliness if there ever was one. But perhaps what made her the most lovely was that she had a loving and tender heart to match her fragile beauty."

He made the girl puppet with white eyes dance and then hug the puppet with the covered face.

"The three of them traveled all over fairgrounds and market places to perform and sell special lotions and potions. They made enough money to take care of each other and in time Jellal was able to hire a tutor for the blind to teach Juvia how to read and write."

"But how can she do that if she can't see?" A little girl spoke up.

"Well you see there are these books where blind people read by feeling the words rather than looking at them. It's called Braille and once she learned that method, she read as often as she could. It became a very special pass time for her, however her favorite pass time activity was just being by Gray's side. Whether they performed on stage together, ran errands at the market place together, did chores together, or just sat and talked together. She loved him with her whole heart and soul, and she was the only woman who ever really saw him. In her eyes, he was a handsome prince and nothing less."

The blind girl puppet once again tried to kiss the disfigured boy puppet but the latter moved away from the former.

"But alas, Gray did not accept her affections for him or maybe he just didn't know how deep they were, point is he never allowed himself to go past the point of friendship." The puppeteer said. "Because so many people had been cruel to him for his deformity, he found it impossible to believe that anyone could love him. So he never tried to fall in love and he never thought that anyone could fall for him. But sometimes the heart disobeys the mind."

"What does that mean?" A boy asked.

"It means that despite his best efforts to avoid romance, Gray fell madly in love with Juvia. He just didn't know it yet. In fact he didn't know a lot of things. He didn't know where he came from, he didn't know how his face was disfigured, he didn't even know his last name. He had no absolutely no memory of what was there before he met Juvia and her brother. But he desperately yearned to regain that memory, and that's where the main plot of our story begins."

The solider puppet then appeared riding on a horse puppet.

"True to his word, Natsu did set his sights on becoming a solider of true justice. He left for training at age 15 and when he returned to London about four years later, he had become a young cavalier with a dashing manner and a bold swagger. He was respected by men and very much adored by women, though he did enjoy a conquest, only one woman held his heart."

Then he brought up the aristocratic lady puppet.

"The Grand Duchess Lucy had grown to become like the red roses. Blush, bright, and stunning beyond all reason. Though illegitimate, very few held it against her because of her impeccable looks, and it made her an object of lust to many men. But behind that pretty face of hers was immense boldness and wit. She refused to be seduced and remained a virgin."