Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 8 - A Cat in Frog's Clothing

Gajeel and Lily lingered in a tiny bit of foliage still off the path near where Gajeel and Natsu picked up the scent of their spy or follower. They huddled down, Lily still in his tiny Exceed form, while they waited. The figure moved slowly, as if nervously, whenever Gajeel checked in on it.

Lily, though, acted quite odd. He kept looking at Gajeel obtusely, then would avert his eyes, and then back at Gajeel.

"Something on your mind?" Gajeel asked. "Better to get it out than just bottle it up."

"I don't know if you'd understand. I don't know if anyone would."

"Don't matter. I'm here to listen."

Lily sat down. He reached behind his back for the small sword, gripping and then releasing it every few seconds.

"I was thinking," Lily said, "about the state of the world. I didn't get to see much of the Fiore kingdom before I arrived from Edolas, but I imagine it wasn't anything like this. What I saw were vibrant towns and happy domiciles."

"Ain't seen something like this since my days in Phantom Lord," Gajeel said.

"Your former guild?"

"Yeah. Wouldn't be surprised if those chumps joined up with the Empire. Be a waste of time and talent on the Empire's end."

"Whoever this Zeref is, this Emperor, he doesn't seem the kind to be benevolent in many facets," Lily said. "Would Faust have been this way?"

"Who?"

"The man who was king of the humans on Edolas, before Jellal," Lily said. "The man who you fought."

"Oh, right, the guy in the dragon suit. Probably."

Lily shuddered. "To think of my people put under heel like this. To think of them on the run, afraid for their lives every waking moment..."

"Hey, pal, look. We got to Edolas and helped you all out, right? We're gonna do the same thing here."

"It feels different," Lily said. "Faust was powerless save for what power he could scrounge up. From what I've witnessed, he pales in comparison to even a fraction of what this Twilight Empire is." He ultimately released the hold he had on his sword and let his paws fall, scraping the dirt. "He would've killed all the Exceeds, you know. I wonder if he would have been okay killing as many people as necessary that disagreed with him."

Gajeel didn't say a word while Lily checked around, as if for the spy. The cat had to be a bit embarrassedly this—no, maybe not embarrassed. Gajeel wasn't sure what. Opening about feelings wasn't something men like the two of them were supposed to do. They had to be brittle like iron. Silent like warriors. Thoughts were for writers and women, right?

"You won that war," Gajeel said. "Edolas is free and doing well under that prince friend of yours, got that?"

"I miss that place sometimes," Lily said.

"We'll go back one day."

"How?"

Gajeel shrugged. "If you'd have told me we'd be stuck in some sort of time bubble I would never have believed you. Anything's possible, pal."

Lily sneered. "Yeah, guess so." Lily stood up. "Maybe it's even possible that the village all the Exceeds landed in survived untouched."

"Zeref wouldn't have any reason to go looking after you cats," Gajeel said. "The most dangerous one is out here with us, after all."

Lily chuckled, then cut himself off as Gajeel raised his hand cautiously. They drew near.

And they smelled...not great. Quite sweaty, like fur that'd been dipped in a bucket of water and left to dry in the middle of the woods.