Between The Pages

Chapter 9

Being a cat, Frosch was able to slip through many holes and cracks so he could explore many places. He hadn't explored much of the castle but he remembered one time he gone through one hole that led to a room where a spinning wheel was. Juvia had never seen one before except for illustrations of them in old books.

"How does this thing work?" She asked herself. "I've never spun before."

Juvia tried to use the spinning wheel to turn the flax she had made from the nettles into thread but she failed every time. For so many hours she tried and tried, working her fingers to the bone, and not stopping to rest for a minute but no matter what she did she just couldn't do it. It was impossible.

"Oh..." She sighed."If I can't turn this flax into thread I won't be able to make the tapestry which means...I'll never be able to go home."

"I wish I could help." Frosch said brushing up against her legs.

"What will my family think? They don't even know where I am."

"If the goblin king won't send you home then maybe your family will find you."

"No Frosch, my family is in another world and they would never think to look for me here. They'll never find me."

She was so sad and was beginning to lose hope of ever succeeding the task she had been assigned to do. Fearing that she would be stuck in this strange world forever and that she would never see her family again.

Frosch felt so sorry for Juvia. He never had a home or a family so he didn't know how she felt but she had been so kind to him and she had befriended him so whenever she was sad he was sad too.

In the evening she went back to her room where she found that the bath tub from this morning was gone and a delicious dinner had once again been left for her. She ate her supper and split it with Frosch while wondering who kept leaving all these nice things for her. When she finished her meal she decided that she would find out tonight who her mysterious friend was.

Later when night fell she changed into her night gown and crawled into her bed but she only pretended to go to sleep. For many hours she laid in bed quietly while trying not to fall asleep but it was a difficult task because trying to use that spinning wheel had made her so tired. She was almost asleep when she heard the sound of the door to her room creak open. She opened one eye and watched as something small flew into her room. The small thing then grew bigger revealing itself to be a woman with long white hair, wearing a dress of pink flower petals, and on her back was a pair of purple butterfly wings.

"Who are you?" Juvia asked sitting up from bed.

The white haired, winged woman became stiff. Then she shrunk herself down and tried to fly away but in her haste to get away she accidentally flew into the door and fell down. Juvia jumped from her bed, then bent down to where she had fallen.

"Are you okay?" Juvia asked picking her up with great care. She sat in the palm of her hand, trembling but she nodded. "You're...You're a fairy."

For a moment Juvia felt like she was six years old again, back when she believed that fairies existed and was always looking for them in her mother's garden. Even when she got older and stopped believing in them she still enjoyed reading and hearing stories about fairies. She couldn't believe that right now, at this very moment she was holding a real live fairy.

"Wow. You're as beautiful as I always thought fairies would be. Were you the one leaving all those stuff for me?"

"Yes." The fairy admitted.

"Do you have a name?"

"Yes, it's Mirajane. I'm...I'm Gray's head maid and cook. I heard about you and your issue and you seemed so nice...I thought that I would make things a little easier for you. But please don't tell his majesty about me, he doesn't like it when we help humans."