The Dragon Princess

Chapter 5

Natsu POV:

I glared at this girl as she ate my flames, how dare she contaminate my flames in such a way! She's just a prisoner! The smoke around her clears and her hair has turned a deep scarlet colour just like Erza's hair and her eye is a fiery crimson. Her hair was flickering around her shoulders almost like she was one with the flames, she raised her one hand without the shackle on it and smiled at me.

"Fire Dragon Element Activated." She says and sends a ball of fire at me.

I brace my self for the attack but these flames are much hotter than mine, in fact the remind me of Igneel. Tears sting my eyes as I change at her sending my flaming attacks left, right and centre. Each one she either blocks or eats.

"Stop eating my flames!" I yell as I feel my flames grow hotter and hotter.

"But their tasty! Just like Uncle Iggy's flames!" She yells in her bell like voice.

She then jumps over me and sends a punch into my back which sends me flying into the barrier, causing me to loose the fight.

"The winner is Lucy." Master yells.

Lucy then mumbles something and her hair and eye turns back to white and silver. She adjusts the bandage over her eye and then looks at us, tears fill her one good eye and she falls to her knees.

"I'm not supposed to use my magic! They could kill me for this!" She yells terrified.

Everyone watches the sobbing child with sadness, but she then does something that shocks us all. She turns her back to us and lifts her dress so we can see her back, she then kneels down and waits there. 

"Its 100 lashes if I use my magic in battle...." She whispers.

Her back looks like a beaten piece of meat, her skin is angry and red and it looks really painful. Erza walks towards her with no emotion on her face, is she really going to whip her 100 times? 

Erza POV:

I walk to Lucy and look at the angry red marks on her back, she's only a child. I then remember my time in the tower of heaven and the beatings I received there, we're like kindred spirits. I kneel down and pull her dress down to cover her back, she stiffens under my touch but then turns to face me. 

"How old are you Lucy?" I ask wiping the tears from her good eye.

"I'm seven years old ma'am." She says sniffing.

"So young..." I whisper and then pull her into my arms.

I hold her tightly as she stands there rigidly, almost like she's unused to such actions. Slowly though her small arms wrap themselves around my armor, she holds onto me like her life depends on it. I stroke her hair and whisper softly to her words of comfort.

"Erza, she needs to begin work now." Master says to me.

I let her go and Master leads her into the guild hall with everyone following us.

"You will be working with Mirajane, she works at the bar. You will be taking orders, serving drinks and cleaning the dishes and glasses, from the rules that the council gave me you'll be working from five in the morning until midnight." He says to the small girl.

"Yes sir thats right." Lucy says rubbing her arms.

"Cold child?" Master asks her.

"No i'll be ok..." She says and then walks to the bar where Mirajane is waiting for her.

"Hello Lucy, so for today I'll just be seeing what your capable of work wise. Today you'll be serving drinks to the guild members ok?" Mirajane says and passes her a pen and notepad.

Lucy nods and then begins to walk to the tables taking orders for drinks, she's running from table to table and then glances down at her bare feet. Its like a lightbulb goes off in her head and  her hair turns an Icy blue and so does her one eye, she then adds Ice Skates onto her feet and begins skating around the guild hall taking orders and serving drinks. Master walks over to me as I study the girl, he sits on the table next to me and sighs.

"Such a spirit in someone who's been through great hardships, don't you think?" He asks me.

"She's been through a lot yes, but I believe that those years she spent with her family were the best ones of her young life. Does Levy have any information about the keys she came with?" I ask Master turning to face him.

"No, when she tried to touch one to examine it, it turned black. We don't know why this happened but once she placed it back down the key went back to its normal colour which for this key was green, its strange but when she was fighting Natsu the red key reacted and tried to get out of the box." Master says looking at me.

The guild doors then burst open and a blood red wolf comes into the guild, snarling and snapping its jaws at us. Must have escaped the woods somehow, we brace our selves for it to attack but instead it howls. The sound of a tray falling causes us to turn to Lucy, her eye wide she runs to the wolf but I grab her before she can run to it.

"That monster is dangerous!" I yell at her.

"Don't be mean to Sakura!" Lucy says and pulls her self from my grasp. 

She runs to the wolf who in turn runs to her.

"Sakura!" Lucy yells with tears of joy.

A cloud of pink dust then engulfs the wolf and it turns into a pale pink exceed, who runs into Lucy's arms.

"Where have you been?! Celestia is so worried about you!" The exceed says snuggling into Lucy's arms.

"I was captured Sakura, I wanted to come home but I couldn't. They took my keys away from me and I could only use telepathy to talk to mommy." Lucy says sniffing.

I walk over and so does Wendy, she reaches down and pats Lucy's head.

"Is this your Exceed?" Wendy asks her.

"This is Sakura, my best friend in the whole world!" She says happily.

"Who are you people?" Sakura asks us.

"We are the Fairy Tail guild, and we've been given custody of Lucy." I say to her.

She looks a little angry but then snuggles into Lucy, Lucy then places Sakura onto her shoulder and walks over to the broken pile of glasses. Kneeling down she begins to pick them up and place them onto the tray, Mirajane walks over and helps her to pick them up.

"I can help fix these!" Sakura yells cheerfully.

"How?" Mira asks.

Sakura then lifts her paw and causes all the broken glasses to be fixed and then places back onto the bar. Lucy then places Sakura down and picks up a scrubbing brush and bucket and begins to clean the floor of the guild hall, it will take her hours to clean the whole thing like that.

"Erza, my office now please." Master yells from the second floor.

I walk to his office and sit down at his desk.

"Keep an eye on that Exceed, the only one we know that has magic and that is Pantherlilly because he is able to change his form. Also if I see another wolf run into the guild like that I might have to put up a beast barrier." Master says laughing slightly at his own words.

"Yes master." I say and then sit on the second floor thinking about the events of today.