Countdown to the End (Gale) {Fairy Tail FF}

1 Day

~Levy~

"Shouldn't she have woken up by now? Dad, I'm worried about her."

The voice drifted into my mind as consciousness began slowly returning to me. Is that...Deidre? She sounded so close, but that couldn't be right. The cloaked man had captured her and Eli, and had taken them somewhere to lure Gajeel to his master. Wait a minute, the events of before my sleep flooded through my mind, I was captured, too. That man...he hit me with some sort of sleeping spell.

A pain in my left hand brought consciousness suddenly back to me, and I sat up, opening my eyes and looking around. We were in a cell made up of a magic barrier of some kind. Glancing down at the hand the cloaked man had sliced with his magic-canceling dagger, I knew I wouldn't have enough magic energy to break it for a few more hours.

"Levy!" Dee's voice brought me from my thoughts, and I felt tears fill my eyes when I saw she seemed unharmed. She wrapped her arms around me, tears falling onto my shoulder as she cried. "I'm so glad you're alright! You were asleep for so long, and I was getting worried about you!"

"Don't crowd her, Dee," Eli told his daughter, placing a hand on her shoulder, "give her some breathing room."

"Are you both alright?" I asked, not spotting any injuries from where I sat, but wanting to be sure.

"We're fine," Dee nodded. "He knocked us out with that sleeping spell before we could fight back much, so don't worry. We weren't out as long as you were, though."

"I used more of my magic energy fighting him before he got me," I said, "so that's probably it."

"And he injured you with that magic-canceling dagger of his," Eli noted, pointing to my hand.

"I bandaged it up for you," Dee told me as I looked down at it. "I could only wrap it with a piece of my shirt, so it isn't the best, but it'll do until we can get out of here."

"I'm sure Gajeel will be on his way soon," I reassured them. "By nightfall when I haven't returned, he'll come looking for me." Dee and Eli exchanged a look that made me frown. "What?"

"When we mentioned you sleeping longer than we did," Dee began, "we meant you slept a lot longer than we did. Like, almost two full days."

I stared at them in shock. "Two full days?"

Eli nodded. "You arrived with the cloaked man the day before yesterday, in the evening, and have been asleep since then. He has come by once every few hours to check on us, but when you still weren't awake, he merely left. He did leave food for us earlier, but that is all the more he has even spoken to us since we were brought here."

"And Gajeel hasn't arrived yet?" I asked.

Dee shook her head, letting out a sad sigh, "I overheard him saying something about a barrier around this area which will throw off Gajeel's sense of smell. It could take him a while to find us if that's the case."

"Damn," I snapped, getting to my feet.

"You should take it easy," Eli protested. "It's difficult to say what kind of effect that magic had on you."

"I'm fine," I said. "Our main concern should be getting out of here. I can worry about my health later."

"How are we going to get out of here?" Dee asked. "Dad and I have tried everything; there's no way out of this stupid box."

"If I had my magic light pen, I'd be able to rewrite some of these magic runes," I grumbled, angry that the man had taken my bag. It would take longer because I'm low on magic, but at least I wouldn't just be sitting around and waiting!