Once Upon a Fairy Tail {A Fairy Tail Fanfiction}

Chapter Eleven: The Princess and The Frog

This chapter is dedicated to: @Chum_of_FT please go check out her work.

Lucy!

Natsu's eyes flew open. His entire body ached- not with soreness or fatigue but with a heavy feeling in his chest that made him want to yell out at the top of his lungs. So he tried.

"Ribbet."

He blinked.

Ah.

His surroundings appeared all about him in a wide panorama; he could almost feel his eyes bulging. For a moment, his concern over Lucy was replaced by an overwhelming excitement with his awesome new vision; said excitement quickly evaporated when he tried to rotate his neck and couldn't. It seemed that the body of a frog was neither very flexible nor strong.

He was surrounded by all sides (really, the 360 degree vision was pretty dang cool) by stone upon stone and the ground beneath his toes was wet. Natsu hopped about experimentally, somewhat amused by how easily the action came about, and then noticed that, when water splashed about around him, he was not just up to his feet in water but almost completely submerged into it. No wonder he was feeling so subdued! A fire mage at heart, there was absolutely no way he could happily accept an amphibian life!

Natsu attempted a frog scowl.

Something glinted out of the corner of his eye. With some difficulty, Natsu managed to turn his round body and came face to face with a small, clumsily woven ball made of twigs. It bobbed in the water at the mouth of a bucket, well worn but perfectly spherical. Curious, Natsu approached the ball. Perhaps it tasted good? He was rather hungry...

Suddenly, the world around him seemed to erupt. The water was gushing, and his accursed fat and awkward body was getting swept up! Frantically, he tried to swim away, but to no avail (Natsu had never been the best when it came to water). The bucket was swirling the water about him, sucking both him and the ball into its cavernous opening. He felt righteously furious. He was just sitting in that damned water, minding his own business, and all he had wanted was to go find Lucy, and here he was, hardly able to breath-!

Sunlight hit his body, warming and comforting against his skin despite the coolness of the water. He blinked once, twice, and saw a gigantic Levy staring back at him curiously.

"Oh... you're... kinda cute for a frog," she smiled gently. The happy look turned into one of absolute delight when she glimped the ball by his side. "Oh! I finally found it!" Her huge, pale hand swept past Natsu and into the water with a light sploosh as she retrieved the woven ball. "I'm so happy..." Indeed, Levy was positively beaming. Natsu was somewhat comforted by her familiar, smiling face and so let his worries ease just a bit. He had to figure out how to escape the chapter, and Levy was probably smart enough to help him. He was almost certain that, what with the scent of the magic from the last chapter that had transported them, Lucy was stuck elsewhere. He needed to get to Lucy immediately. She had been so hurt, and the look on her face had been...

Natsu attempted to growl in his frustration, but his frustration merely manifested in the form of a sound not too unlike a belch. His little amphibious lips parted and from it came a magnificent burst of fire. He grinned with a strange sort of satisfaction that he had retained his magical properties. Sort of. The flames, in proportion to Levy, were rather small and would never do anything but tickle or slightly smart. Regardless, Levy was delighted, even as Natsu inwardly sulked at his lack of magnificence. She procured a pair of delicate glasses and donned them with care, inspecting him closely.

"How curious... a magical frog?" Her eyes glinted with a sly curiosity. "And a lucky one!" She glanced at her ball and gingerly placed it in the knapsack that she had slung around her small frame and slowly held out her hands to Natsu. "Would you mind if I kept you around?"