Dragon's child

•Four•

"I get what you were talking about now." Sting said softly. Natsu had joined Laxus, Erza, Gajeel, and Sabertooth by the bar and they stood or sat in a circle discussing what had just happened.

"When a child is treated like a thing all their life, a normal childhood is alien to them." Mira said sadly, leaning on the bar.

"I have...so many questions, but no words..." Rogue said, looking down at his hands.

After a moment, Yukino spoke. "How did you guys even find her? It seems like her existence wasn't something the dragonslayers were supposed to find out about."

Instead of answering, Erza looked up at the balcony on the second floor. Wendy was visible, but her back was to them and she appeared to be speaking to someone. Erza looked back at the group with a sigh. "A week ago, Levy, Charla, Wendy, and I left on a mission to eradicate a large beast from the old library in the town of Ashten, along the eastern edge of the Agorian forest."

"But there is no town on that edge. I can very distinctly remember a map of that forest." Rufus said.

Erza nodded at him. "Exactly. The request was fake and we didn't figure it out until it was almost too late..."

Flashback ~ one week earlier....

"This sure is a bit of a walk." Wendy said, pushing a large branch out of her face.

"You can't exactly run the train through this forest. You'd smack straight into the mountains." Levy replied cheerfully.

"But still," Charla added crankily. "To let this path get so overgrown...I'm starting to think this town doesn't actually exist..."

"If a large creature beyond the village's capability to defeat takes up residence, I imagine that most villagers would be scared off." Erza replied, cutting through more brambles ahead of them. "It would've been nice if those two who met us at the train station had had another villager or two guide us."

"Like you said Erza, they're probably to terrified to." Levy said calmly, waving away a cloud of gnats.

"Good news, though." Wendy called. "We're almost there!"

"Oh, good!"

"Hm? Charla? What's wrong?" The exceed had frozen in midair, a strange look on her face.

"Charla?" Wendy reached out and gently tugged on Charla's paw.

The white exceed looked up with a gasp. "We can't go this way."

"What?" Levy and Erza looked confused.

Instead of explaining, Charla looked around frantically. Apparently spotting something, she flew quickly up into the tree. The girls all glanced at each other when the exceed reappeared, carrying a small object. "Is that a-?" Levy started.

"Lacrima? Yes." Charla replied, smashing it onto the ground. "There's a dark guild ahead and they've set a trap for us."

"How-?"

Wendy's face cleared. "Oh right! Your future vision!"

"What did you see?" Erza asked.

Charla's face was haunted as she replied simply, "Death."

There was a moment of silence before Erza said, face grim. "If there's a trap, then we won't spring it."

"Should we go home?" Levy asked.

"But we shouldn't just let these people run around free. They might hurt the villagers if we don't show up." Wendy insisted, picking up Charla.

"Unless the dark guild sent the request in the first place and there is no village." Levy pointed out.