For The Big Hearts [2]

[21] So say goodbye to who I was

          "Earthland is more. . .wet and muddy than I remember. . ." Crystal observed, flinging the mud off her fingers. Wendy glanced back at her sister, sweatdropping slightly.
"I-It isn't always like this, Crystal. . ." Before Wendy could explain, Gray intruptted.

        "It's pronounced Mag-noli-a." Lucy sounded out the name, putting a hand on the little girl's shoulder. The bluenette completely forgot that the fairies were there with her and she suddenly blushed a bit. The sparkle in her eyes died down as she turned away from them.

         "Y-Yeah, whatever."
     Lucy giggled at the clearly embarrassed girl, sending her a small smile.
         "Its to early to celebrate," Erza stated, crossing her arms. "First we got to make sure everyone is okay."
     Crystal's reluctant face slowly turned into one of shock as small groups of exceeds started to show up, smiling all the while.
         "They're fine!"

        "We reached Earthland a step ahead of you!"
        "We flew all over~"
        "The guild and everyone in the guild are just fine!!"
     The rest of the fairies looked pale, eyes wide as plates. Kat suddenly appeared and landed on Crystal's shoulder, a teasing smirk on her face.
         "You humans are really slow at traveling." She seemed to purr out. Crystal shot her a short glare.
         "Oh shut it, Bubblegum Princess."

         "It appears that none of them realize they were turned into a lacrima!" The exceeds continued to explain. "Earthland is awesome! It's overflowing with magic!"
        "How. . ." Charle took a step back. "How did the exceeds end up in Earthland?!" Most of the exceeds were cheering, making Crystal raise an eyebrow.

      They have magic in their bodies. She stated, knowing fully that Kat heard her. The pink cat nodded.
      Yes, that's why we were pulled in. The exceed and dragon slayer looked at each other before shrugging.

      Can't be helped. They both thought. Noticing now that the exceeds were on the ground, looking a bit guilty and depressed, Crystal listened in.
         "This is no laughing matter!" Charle declared. "These guys are dangerous!! We should return them to Edolas!"

         "Now, Now." Happy started, trying to calm her down.

         "Extalia's gone, too. Let's leave them be." Wendy was crouched down in front of Charle.   Crystal walked a bit closer to Wendy, feeling a bit more comfortable with her claimed sister.
          "No way." Chalre crossed her arms. Crystal rolled her eyes, not seeing how the white exceed hasn't figured it out. Kat tapped Crystal's head, as if to warn her of her thoughts.

     The exceeds instantly started to apologize, saying how they were going to change they're ways. Apparently, that made Charle even more angry.

         "I don't care about any of that!!" She snapped. "You sent us to Earthland to kill off the Dragon Slayers!!"
    At this, Crystal tensed up, arms crossed. Her gaze slowly went to the exceed sitting so casually on her shoulder. Hearing the thoughts, it was Kat's turn to send a glare. Listen to the story!! She hissed before climbing off Crystal's shoulder and walked towards her mother. The Queen had her head bowed slightly, staring at the ground.

     Kat instantly grabbed her mother's hand in a sign of comfort. "We still haven't explained ourselves clearly, have we?" One of the councilcats -which Crystal is calling them- spoke warily.

         "This is a tale from six years ago. . ." A more leaner cat started, letting the cat with spectacles continue.
         "We've already told you about Shagotte's ability to see into the future, have we not?" He paused a bit and continued. "One day, Shagotte foresaw an image of Extalia crashing to the ground. In hindsight, it's clear that is natural fell as a result of the depletion of magic in Edolas, but. . .at the time we thought it would come as the result of human actions.
         "We realized that even if we went to war with the humans, we would never win. After convening a meeting, we established a plan to allow 100 children to escape from Edolas."
         "Escape?!" A blue exceed, that honestly would look like Happy without the black beard and uni brow, yelled. He clearly had some anger issues.
         "We kept the plan a secret, even from the citizens of Extalia. But the official story was that they were being sent to destroy the beasts called Dragon Slayers in the parallel universe."
         "Of course, not that we had any grievance with the Dragon Slayers!" Kat quickly added, not wanting to offend them even more than they have.