The Duchess - Gruvia

Chapter 02

It had been a week since Jose Porla informed the Marchioness about the plans of the arranged marriage with the Duke of the Ice Lands and she had been packing all her belongings. Finally the next day she would go away from Storm Rock, her Castle, to the Duchy of Winter.

She had never, ever left the Castle's boundaries.

Of course Juvia knew that her March was bigger than the March of Rocks, not as big as the March of Thunder, though, but it was a piece of land that was very well located for trades with Beyond the Sea. And even so, she never left to see it.

Eighteen years between walls. She was a prisoner.

If she were true to herself, she was terrified of going away to a place she knew nothing about. Juvia dreamt for her whole life to explore the world and when she was finally leaving the house she grew up in, she was scared. What could she expect? She heard that the people from the Ice Lands were rude and ate cold food with their bare hands. Juvia even heard that when the cold was too severe and they had no food whatsoever, the Ice Land People ate their pets.

And she was going to live there.

The Marchioness shuddered with the thought and left her suitcase above the bed and walked towards her window. Looking outside she had the sight of the ocean. Storm Rock was located right above a rock, as its name informed, beside a cliff and Juvia's window gave her the full view of the grayish and fierce ocean, which combined with the grayish clouds that never leave the March of Rain.

Her life could be defined by that color: gray.

Not black, not white. The middle one.

When asked about the name of her future husband, Master Jose had told her that his name was also Gray. Gray Fullbuster.

The Marchioness almost immediately thought that it could only be a prank from destiny. Why on earth all her life would be around that stupid color? Everywhere she looked, there was it! On the servants' clothes, on the walls of Storm Rock, on the horses from the stable and on the books from the library! Even in the sky! In the sea!

'Everywhere.' She thought hopeless.

Was it too much to ask that her life was more... colorful?

She wanted to be able to see the blue sky. The yellow sun; the red roses and green grass; like the ones she read about in her gray books. She wanted to see the colorful birds from the east. The red and orange from the volcanos. The orange leaves from the Fall Forests. She wanted to see the rainbows from day and night.

But at the very moment she decided to go to the Ice Lands, she was doomed to never know them; she would be just trading the shades of gray for another boring color: white.

Juvia could picture in her mind the desert of white and such cold that could freeze her bones and she hugged her own body as if she could feel the cold coming her way.

Nevertheless, looking at the gray ocean she was calmer. Whenever she was depressed, she would sit close to the window and look to the fierce sea and it would always calm her down and take whatever problem that was on her mind away. Maybe it was the sounds of waves, or the way the water moved. She never understood why, but it made her feel not alone.

The Marchioness sighed and went back to her suitcase. Her new life would begin in the next day.

#

After three days of deeply discomfort, Juvia finally went to the deck. Since she stepped into the ship she was feeling deeply nauseated; so much that her aya forbade her to leave the dependencies until she felt comfortable enough. During the night of day one, they faced a storm and for a moment, everyone thought death was certain, but gladly the storm passed.