The Tale of Tales

Chapter 49

Gray rode his horse through the forest and didn't stop until at last he reached the dwarves's cottage. Once he arrived he got off his horse and burst into the house, desperately searching for Juvia.

"Juvia! Juvia! Are you here?!" He called. "Juvia answer me please!"

After the vision he had seen, he was scared out of his mind that something terrible had happened to her. During the whole horse ride there and as he searched the house, he hoped and prayed from the bottom of his heart that she was alright.

"Gray?" He looked to see Erza standing in the doorway.

"Erza where's Juvia? Is she alright? Is she hurt?"

"Oh Gray." She sighed. "You don't know do you?"

"Know what? What's happened?"

Erza didn't answer for what seemed to be forever and he could tell by the sad hurt in her eyes what her answer would be however part of him still hoped that he could be wrong. God he hoped that he was wrong.

"Gray she's... She's dead. We don't know what happened, we just came back and found her lying on the floor. She wasn't breathing and she didn't have a pulse, she was gone. I'm so sorry."

Gray couldn't breathe, he felt his heart stop, he thought that he was going to drop down dead right then and there.

"Where is she?" He asked in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

"She's in a coffin far North from here in a place where it will always snow."

"I want to see her."

"I don't think you should-"

"I wanna see her damnit!" He snapped.

"Alright." She complied.

Erza went to find the dwarves and the fairies and she told them that Gray had returned and that he wanted to see Juvia.

"He's not getting anywhere near her!" Gajeel replied angrily when he heard this.

"Now Gajeel that's not fair." Levy said. "We all were allowed to say our goodbyes to her, why shouldn't he be allowed?"

"The queen hired him to kill her!"

"But he didn't! And he was willing to endure torture for the rest of his life if it meant she would live! He loved her just as much as we all did!"

"Probably even more so." Erza added.

"And she loved him! Don't forget that Gajeel! Don't deny him closure!"

Gajeel growled gruffly and went silent. He was still angry at Gray for lying and deceiving them all this time. But he couldn't deny that Gray did spare her life and that was a huge risk he was taking. Nor could he deny how much Juvia had loved him.

"Fine but I'll take him up there."

"This wouldn't be some ploy that would allow you to kill him without witnesses would it?" Erza asked suspiciously.

"Tempting offer but no. Trust me he'll come back alive, he may have a black eye and a bleeding nose but he'll come back alive."