Between The Pages

Chapter 10

Earlier on the morning of that day Natsu awoke to something tapping on his head. Opening his eyes, he saw that it was Erza stepping on his forehead with her tiny foot.

"It's about time you woke up." She told him. "Come on we have to get going."

For someone who was only four inches tall, Erza had one a great big attitude. She rushed Natsu awake and out of the house to meet Lucy. The three of them were soon on their way.

"So how long will it take us to reach this castle?" Natsu asked.

"A few days." Lucy answered. "To get there we'll have to go through the stone maze, the underground passage, the hedge maze, the fiery forest, the bog of eternal stench, and finally the junkyard."

"Wow that's a lot."

"There are shorter ways to reach the castle but they're secret and I don't know about them."

"You don't?"

"No. I was forbidden to know about them."

"But aren't you like a princess or something? I mean you are the sister of a king so that makes you royalty right?"

"Yes and no. Technically I am royalty but I have no title and if you really want to get technical I should be the ruler of the labyrinth because I am Alok's first child but he picked my brother to be his heir."

"How come?"

"I don't know, parental favoritism perhaps?"

"I'm surprised that man even had children." Erza said. "He always seemed too full of himself to actually be a father and he's a terrible ruler too."

"Okay I know why I'm going to the castle but why are you going Erza?" Natsu asked.

"Because Alok stole something from me and I want it back."

"What did he steal?"

"My wings."

"But you have wings?"

"These are fake! My real wings are much more beautiful than these and much stronger."

"I'm confused, why do you need your wings back if you can fly with replacements?"

"Because fairy wings don't just give us our ability to fly, it also gives us our magic. Without our wings we're completely useless and that horrible owl priest cut off mine a long time ago."

"Why?"

"I had only been to the palace one time in my life and it was to visit a fellow fairy friend of mine who worked there. While waiting for her I saw Alok sneaking into a secret room, curious I followed him but he caught me and said that I needed to be punished for snooping around. So he cut off my wings and it was the most painful experience of my life. Just look!"

She took off her artificial dragon fly wings and showed Natsu the hideous scars on her back.

"Whoa that's ugly!" Natsu gasped.

"The pain was from it was so horrible that I passed out." Erza continued. "When I woke up I had been left in the junkyard to rot. That's where Lucy found me. I don't know what would have happened if she hadn't of come to my aid."

"You're a strong fairy Erza. I'm sure you would have found a way." Lucy smiled.

"I was too weak to go back for my wings and with my magic gone I had to live by my wits. So I started to salvage discarded stuff in the junkyard that I could use for survival. After that I went off to build a home for myself in the stone corridor. On my way there I found a dead dragon fly and took it's wings to use as replacements. I also made my own sword and grabbling hook with a needle, thread, and an earring."