Between The Pages

Chapter 6

Juvia was woken by the midmorning sun, full on her face. For a moment she had forgotten the events that had taken place the night before. She expected to wake up in her regular bedroom and later be greeted by the smiling faces of her family. But she awoke to no such sight and realized where she really was.

She heard a knock at the door.

"Come in." She answered.

The door was opened by the kind knight Jellal she had met yesterday.

"Today you shall begin working on the tapestry. Your first task will be to spin thread."

"Right. Just give me a moment to make myself ready, direct me to the cotton plants, and then I shall-"

"Cotton will not be needed."

"Very well, wool then. Can you tell where I can find some sheep?"

"Wool will not be needed either."

"I don't understand. How am I supposed to spin without cotton or wool?"

"His majesty requests that the thread be spun from nettle plants."

"Nettles? But that's... That's ridiculous. He can't be serious."

"I'm afraid so my lady and he says that if you complain once about the work the deal will be called off."

"But make thread from nettles? That's impossible."

"Not quite. Fairies can do it with ease but I don't think humans can."

"So it's difficult but not impossible. I suppose I can do this. Where do I start?"

"Here the nettle plants grow by the edge corners of the labyrinth walls, gather them up. About a basketful should be enough then break them into pieces and they shall become flax but I must warn you those plants will sting you in such an awful way."

"Thank you for the warning. I shall do my best."

Jellal then handed her a basket and took her to a nearby stream where she could wash her face. After that left she set off toward the walls of the labyrinth where she found many nettle plants growing. However just as the knight had warned, the nettles did indeed sting her hands when she grabbed them.

"They hurt so badly." She said. "But I can't stop. I have to get back home and I must do whatever it takes to do that."

She continued to pick the nettles which burnt great blisters on her hands and arms, but she determined to bear it and filled her basket. It took her many hours but eventually she had a basket full of nettles. Now unknown to her, Gray was watching her work through a magic crystal.

"She's filled the whole basket with nettles." He observed.

The goblins chuckled sinisterly as they thought about the pain she suffered.

"Shut up! She shouldn't have been able to successfully fill the basket." Gray told them. "The pain from those damn plants should've been too much for her to bear. She should have given up."

"She's a stubborn and willful thing." One goblin said. "She'll probably never give up."

"Won't she? She may be able to gather them up but she'll never be able to crush them into flax or figure out how to spin it into thread. It will be too hard and too painful."

It was quite hard for her. Juvia started to breaking the nettles into little pieces and it made her delicate hands feel like they were burning.

"Ah!" She seethed after getting stung for the 50th time. "Oh I don't understand why he wants the thread from this tapestry to be made from nettles."