The Tale of Tales

Chapter 27

It took Erza a few minutes to get a hold of herself before she could let Jellal explain everything to her.

"Tell me Erza what do you know of the cursed race?" Jellal asked her.

"That they are men who change into blood thirsty wolves that devour anything in their path."

"But do you know why that is?" He asked. "Do you know where the cursed race came from? How it was brought into this world?"

"I was always told that it was the work of the devil."

"In a sense it is. You see Erza a long time ago a group of wise men had sealed a great evil away in a mirror but just before the evil spirit was captured he cursed those men to transform into wolf like monsters who need flesh and blood to survive and lose control of themselves whenever they transformed. In their states they unintentionally attacked and killed innocents. When they could find no cure they committed suicide to prevent themselves from harming anyone else but those whom they had attacked had been marked and were infected with the curse and thus came the two kinds of the cursed race."

"What do you mean?"

"Ten years ago when those wolves killed my family they abducted me because their alpha was sterile and needed an heir before he could die so he picked me, marked me, and turned me."

"Oh my God!"

"When I transformed for the first time I lost control and killed an innocent man I don't remember doing it but when I woke up he was dead and his blood was on my hands and in my mouth. The other wolves told me not to be guilty but to be proud. They said that I had become a God, a king over all men, and that I should give into the wolf. But I was disgusted and ashamed and repulsed by what I was and what I had done. I wasn't a god I was a monster! But they forced me to train and learn their ways however two positive things came out of it. I learned how to control myself and I met others like me."

"Others like you?"

"There are two kinds of the cursed race Erza. There are those who consider what they are a gift, they see themselves as gods and more superior than other humans so they give into the wolf and purposely terrorise innocents but then there are others like me who know that this is a curse and see themselves as nothing more than monsters. Demons! Murders! So they try to fight the wolf in them. Once I had mastered control of myself I convinced the others who felt as I did to run away with me to a place where we started our own pack. We do not harm humans Erza instead we try to control our inner wolf and we also try to find a way to cure ourselves."

"But I thought you craved flesh and blood?"

"Yes we cannot stop our hunger for that but we satisfy it by hunting sheep, pigs, and cattle. We try to avoid humans as much as possible and a lot of us have been forced to leave behind our friends and families to keep them safe."

"How many of you are there?"

"You've already met Mirajane. After her we have Laxus, Kagura, and Loke. We were all once regular human beings until the wolves attacked us and a
lot of us have suffered great tragedy from our curse. Mirajane was forced to leave behind her younger brother and sister after she killed her parents as a child, Laxus once slaughtered an entire village, Kagura killed her own brother Simon, and Loke murdered Aries the woman he loved and was planning to marry. The guilt is unbearable and we've all contemplated suicide."

"Jellal....That's... That's terrible. I...Had no idea it was like that.

"Recently we've discovered a way to finally end this curse and free ourselves."

"What is it? What do you have to do?"

"We must find the mirror that contains the evil spirit who inflicted this curse and break it with the one weapon that can destroy it. But we do not know where the mirror is nor do we know what the weapon is. We've all searched the entire forest for the mirror but it's not here and we dare not search any place beyond the forest because we cannot risk harming others."

"Then I'll find the mirror."

"Erza I don't want to drag you into this. You should just go back to your grandmother and go live in Fiore or Alvarez.'

"No I want to help you!"

"This doesn't involve you!"

"How can you say that when it absolutely does?!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Jellal you saved my life ten years ago. If it weren't for you I would be dead and ever since then I always hated myself for not doing anything to help you that night and that I would never be able to repay you because I thought you were dead. But now that I know you're alive I can make things right."

"Erza you were just a child that night! You couldn't have possibly done anything to help me!"

"You were a just a child too and you managed to save my life! So I'm going to save yours! Somehow I will find that mirror and the weapon needed to destroy it."

"I won't allow you!"

"I'm not asking for your permission!"

"Erza you have no idea what you're getting yourself into! You could be killed!"

"And you knew that you could've been killed that night but you went out of your way to save me anyway!"

"Erza I don't have time to explain why you shouldn't do this! Right now you need to focus on resting and getting better. I'll send Kagura to inform your grandmother that you're still alive and that you'll be back home in just a few days. When you get back I beg you to take your grandmother and leave this God forsaken forest."

"I want to help you Jellal."

"Erza the only reason I brought you here was to save you from that witch hunt and fix your injuries. Nothing else."

"Nothing else?" Erza said suddenly becoming disheartened. "So you didn't bring me here because you wanted to see me again?"

Jellal went silent after that then looked at her in the eyes.

"Of course I wanted to see you again. I wanted to see your face the moment they took me away from you but I couldn't risk getting you killed. I couldn't bear it if I ever did to you what I did to those poor people in the past."

"But you said that you had learned to control it."

"But there's always chance that I could lose control again. Erza you can't imagine how horrifying it would be for me to suddenly black out and wake up with your blood on my hands. If that ever happened I think...I know that I would never be able to live with myself."

"Does that mean I'll never see you again when I go back?"

"I'm afraid so. It's for the best now promise me that when you go back you'll stay away from me."

"But Jellal-"

"Promise me!"

Erza looked down at her feet then up at her hands and finally at Jellal's face. It seemed to take forever but eventually she said.

"I promise."

Jellal then hugged her while letting out a breath of relief and he left her alone to continue resting. However Erza was not going to give up on Jellal. She would keep her word and stay away from him but she would not just go home and forget about him. No, she was going to save him. As soon as she was well again she was going to search for this mirror and the weapon and once she found them both she would destroy this mirror and end the curse for good.