Forever Fiore

C H A P T E R 7

POV: Nuella

“I didn’t think they would leave without telling you.” Mira’s white wavy hair moved with grace.

This girl is just amazing. Newly recovered from tons of injuries, yet already back to working in the bar, her usual grace adding to her calming, sisterly effect, “They’ve been gone for a day now, they didn’t even come back for the guild at night.”

“I didn’t think they would leave, either,” I murmured, “Turns out I was wrong.”

“Maybe they didn’t think you’d want to leave, just in case Joshua comes back, you know? Or maybe they needed to have lesser members. From what Lisanna heard, they’d be paying for Lucy’s rent. Fewer members mean a bigger portion of jewels. And Natsu’s share is the only one they’ll be using for Lucy.”

“Maybe. If that’s the case, there is no doubt about it. Natsu is such a love struck puppy.”

A soft, almost unhearable knock sprung from the basement door. If it wasn’t for my God Slayer senses, I wouldn’t have heard it at all.

“Oi, someone is at the basement door!” Gajeel’s hoarse voice boomed around the basement.

“Shut up Gajeel, stop playing pranks. No one heard it.” Macao shouted back.

“I don’t think he’s lying at all, Macao. I heard it too. Must be because of our better senses, dragon and god slayers.”

Looking at me with a slight frown, Macao nodded and left to go answer the door. I thought better. No one would even think of knocking on Fairy Tail’s basement door, hell, no one even knew about the basement!

“Macao!” He was already touching the rope we used as a knob to open it, but he hadn’t pulled it yet.

“Don’t. Don’t open it.”

“Why?”

“Who in Fiore would know about the Fairy Tail basement?”

“A member or an ex-member of the guild,” Romeo answered me.

“And two of our members are currently missing, both of them taken by an enemy. What if they questioned them? Tortured them?” The thought of Joshua being tortured sent a horrifying feeling to my stomach, making it churn.

Finally, Macao let go of the rope, and let me walk up to the door instead. Slowly, I brought my ear up to the small gap of the door and the wall, making sure I could hear anything on the other side. Silence. Then a few gasps for air. Another minute of silence, and another knock ensued.

Slowly, I opened the door, eyes widening at the sight that came before me.

“Who is it, Nuella?” someone behind me asked. I didn’t care who asked. The only thing in my mind right now, was the person behind the door.

POV: Gray

Something pounded on my head as I slowly sat up, which turned out to be a hard thing to do, considering the thing I was laying on was too soft for comfort.

“Erza! The pervert’s awake!”

“What… Happened…?” I murmured groggily. The drums in my head weren’t about to stop beating anytime soon.

“You got drunk, froze me and Erza, defeated five mages, said Juvia was pretty, and then passed out.”

The last half of what Natsu said didn’t actually register in my mind, since my whole body was aching right now.

“I got drunk… Yeah I remember that. Everything else is kind of blurry though…”

Opening my eyes, I saw that the dim lit room we were in looked nothing like Fairy Tail. Where were we anyway?

A girl in a bath robe came in the room, fiery red hair cascading down her back.

“Hey, beautiful,” I called.

The girl faced me and my eyes widened, my feet having the urge to run away. A red-faced Erza stood in front of me, a deep frown on her face.

“What did you just call me?"

“B-Beau—Best mage in town…?”

Unconvinced, her facial expressions shifted from frowns, to deeper frowns, to frowns that made shivers run down my spine. What the hell was I thinking, calling some random girl who was facing her back at me “beautiful”?

“Ice Pervert, you can’t just go calling random people beautiful,” Natsu hit my back, and added something in a mere whisper; I only heard parts of it, “Not after you called Juvia a pretty and strong Water mage.”

“I did what?”

“You did a lot of things, actually.” Erza chimed into our conversation, “But we don’t have time for telling you what.”

Requipping from her usual Heart Kreuz armor to her normal clothes, Erza strapped a belt to the waist of her skirt, making her look more like Lucy, and less like her.

“What is that?” Natsu asked.

“Belt, if it isn’t obvious to you already, baka. I bought it in a magic shop in the East side of town when both of you were asleep. It’s a belt that turns into a whip when you touch the buckle’s backside. Useful and stylish.”

“Is it just me or are you trying to copy Luce?”

“Huh. I just miss her. I can’t say she’s been really useful in fighting, but she sure lays me off trying to pull you both apart. That girl’s anger when she gets annoyed is just so interesting,” Erza sighed, “We better get a move on.”

We didn’t go straight to Fairy Tail. Erza said our job wasn’t even close to being over, as the Wood family’s main members, or Thomas Wood in particular, wasn’t at all pleased to hear about the mishap.

A train was one of our limited options, some options involving Natsu using his head, and Erza being gentle on us, which were both impossible at the moment.

Our next stop? Taelia. Taelia was two train rides away, and the village being the only place we could achieve more terribly overpriced, Stanley wood floorboards for the replacement of some during yesterday’s explosions, we had to go there. On the way though, something else stopped us.

A huge metal pillar stood in the middle of the train tracks, making the train bump into it and force into an abrupt stop. What is up with people trying to sabotage our every move?

Hundreds of armed men surrounded the train, forcing the door to open and pushing people out. When one of them saw me, he shouted something to the others. Using my ice magic, I managed to create a wall in between us, making them unable to run after me.

“What do we do now?,” I whispered.

Erza mouthed ‘Run’ to me. She never runs. I wonder why she chose to do that now.

I wasn’t in the mood—or the place—to contest someone like her right now, so I unwillingly ran behind my two other accomplices, looking back the entire time.

The plan failed though, because the next thing I know, I’ve lost a fight and I’m in a truck, bringing me to somewhere I’m not supposed to be.

***

<Guild Announcement:>

Gomen-neh, Minna-chaaan. Thank you for the reads again. :)

But I was really busy when I wrote this, and school is up so it had to be a really short chapter. I promise I’ll make it up to you on the next few chapters. Because school(*screams in frustration*).

I still hope you forgive me and if you like the story, maybe Vote, Comment (although no one really does that,) and maybe hit the follow button? :)

~Eryn xx (@iheartft)