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Fairy Tail: Pirates and Merpeople - Ch. 12

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Ch. 12

Timing

"Here we are." Erza said over her shoulder.  "Home sweet home."  Pushing past the large palmy tree leaves with her sword, Erza, with Lucy on her back, stepped foot into the small, open clearing of sand where she and the pirates had set up camp while Gray, Gajeel, and Natsu with Happy trickled in behind her.  "I'm going to take Lucy to get some clothes."  

Lucy shivered under her wet cloak, the wind chilling her to the bone.  Erza smiled at her sympathetically.  

"I apologize." Erza said.  "There'll be a fire waiting for you when we return.  Gray?"  she inclined, giving a quick nod to the hearth sitting at the center of their camp, a flickering ember struggling to survive under the kindle.  

"No problem." he replied, grabbing some sticks and beginning to stoke the small flame while the other boys re-sheathed and unstrapped their weapons.

"Thank you," Lucy smiled as Erza carried her across the camp and toward Erza's large wooden cart full of luggage, just past the trees.


***

 Natsu, Happy, Gray, and Gajeel, were seated lazily in the sand around the fire.  It had been nearly half an hour and Erza and Lucy still hadn't returned, their happy talking just barely audible from around the fire.  Natsu anxiously stroked Happy's fur , one of his legs bouncing up and down.

"What's taking them so long?" he asked.  "Erza's tryna hog Lucy all to herself."  he pouted.

"You already said that." Gray mumbled, lounged out on his back, eyes closed, and wearing nothing but his boxers.

"Like 20 times." Gajeel agreed, sharpening a long stick.

"Yeah, well...it's been forever..."

"Ah, c'mon, Dragneel, stop your whinin'." Gajeel complained, looking up at Natsu.  Besides..." he began, putting his knife's edge back to the wood.  "They're women.  All the women I know take a century an' a half to pick out clothes."

"...All the women he knows being his mom..." Gray muttered, chuckling.

"Shut up, Fullbuster." Gajeel grumbled, throwing little sand pebbles at Gray, aiming for his forehead.

"Hey, quit!" Gray scrambled to his feet, coming at Gajeel who tackled him back, the two of them wrestling around in the sand.

"Will the two of you cut it out?" Erza's voice came from the treeline.  As two big palm leaves parted, Erza walked through with Lucy wearing one of Erza's buttoned vests, a skirt, and a pair of knee high boots.  She was no longer being carried but clutched onto Erza's arm, making a clear effort to use her new legs.

"Whoa! Hey, you're walking!" Natsu exclaimed, calling Gajeel and Gray's attention to Lucy's accomplishment as he made his way to her.

"...Well...more like trying..." Lucy smiled, blushing, concentrating heavily on each individual step she took.  Natsu laced his arm under Lucy's supporting her on one side while Erza held the other.

"If at first you try, succeed and try again and all that."

"...I don't think that's how the saying goes, Natsu..." Lucy smirked.

"Well, you get what I mean, anyways." he smiled, gently guiding Lucy to a log placed close to the hearth, helping her sit down.  

Natsu walked away for a second, grabbing something from a bag and then plopped cheerily down beside her, gripping a spoon and an open can of beans.

"Here, Lucy, eat some of this." he grinned, pressing the can into her palm.  Lucy scrunched her nose up instinctively at the beans, clearly not the gourmet dishes of her palace.  She gently pushed Natsu's hands away from her.  

"...No thank you, Natsu...I think I'm fine..."

"Aw, come on, you're probably starving.  You gotta be hungry."

Lucy's stomach betrayed her, a squelching rumble rising up from the inside and a red blush tinted her cheeks.  Erza, Gray, and Gajeel, watching on, chuckled lightly at her.  Lucy sat up straight, her chin raised a little haughtily in her embarrassment.

"Well...I guess...I'm a little bit hungry...But I have food of my own." she said quickly, looking around for her backpack.  

"Lookin' for this?" Natsu asked, holding the bag up to her which she snatched from his grip.

"Yes, thank you."  She put her hand in, rummaging around through the things that she'd brought along with her, finally finding what she was grasping for and pulling it out.  

"See?" she said, holding out what appeared to be bread, soaked, and individually wrapped in fancy pieces of paper.  

Natsu looked from her to the bread and back again, giving her an unsure smile.  "...Looks delicious..." he muttered.

"Oh, it is." she grinned, somewhat excitedly as she unwrapped one.  "My palace's chefs make the best bread in Magnolia," she ripped a piece, holding it out to Natsu the same way he'd done to her, but he just shook his head.

"Nah...I'm good..."

"Suit yourself, but I'm telling you, this is the best bread you'll ever eat." Lucy said with a bragging voice, putting it in her mouth.  

They all watched as her expression changed from pleasure to revulsion, holding the bread in her mouth, refusing to swallow it.  "Egh!  What...what's wrong with..ugh, that was disgusting!"  she said, incredulous, her voice high pitched as she spit the bread out into the wrapper.

"..Pffftt, hahaha!" Natsu burst out in laughter, clutching his stomach, Gray and Gajeel joining in and snickering off to the side.

"Don't laugh at her...," Erza said sternly, punching both of their arms hard.  "It wasn't even that funny.."

"...W-What..?" Lucy blushed, never before experiencing what it was like to be the butt of a joke.

"Of course that's gross," Natsu chuckled more, taking the bread from her and tossing it over his shoulder and somewhere into the brush.  "That stuff's soaked in sea water, ain't no way it's any good."

"But-,"

"If you're human now, then ya got human tastebuds too.  We ain't used to eatin' stuff like you are that's made at the bottom of the ocean." Gajeel interjected, taking a seat in the sand.

"Magnolians don't live at the BOTTOM of the ocean." Lucy said pridefully.  "We're closer to the surface than all the other kingdoms, I'll have you know."

"...Excuse me, your Majesty..." Gajeel said sarcastically, staring at her with a bored expression.  Lucy opened her mouth to say something back, but Erza cut her off, sitting next to Gajeel.

"Since you're taking it upon yourselves to be rude hosts toward our guest," gesturing toward Lucy, "then at the very least we could properly introduce ourselves.  You probably already know our names, but not much about who we are."

"Oh of course! I would love to hear more about all of you.  Besides...it would only be fair since you held me at sword-point to get information about me." Lucy smirked, looking up at Erza.

"Yeah, Erza," Natsu sat up straight, leaning forward excitedly.  "Fair is fair and since you tried to kill Lucy, you gotta go first."

"I never had any intention of-," Erza tried to retort.

"Yeah, yeah, no excuses. Introduce yourself." Natsu interrupted, motioning with his hand for Erza to move it along.  Her eyes locked with his for a few seconds in a silent, murderous glare before she decided to speak.

Sighing softly, "Well, I suppose I should tell you about what we are first.  We're all members of the Fairy Tail Pirates of Hargion in Fiore."

"Fairy Tail...?  That's a rather...beautiful name for a pirate crew." Lucy observed.

"Well, the first captain of our crew was a young girl if you can believe it.  She had unmatched courage, bravery, compassion, and intelligence alike.  Our ship, the Floating Mavis, is named after her."

"...Wow..." Lucy muttered, stars in her eyes.

"I've introduced myself already but I will again for propriety's sake.  I'm Erza Scarlet.  I'm second mate to the Captain of Fairy Tail."

"You're the second mate?" Lucy gaped.  "Well...I guess that doesn't surprise me too much."

"Not only is she second mate, she's Titania!  The greatest swordsman in Fiore." Natsu beamed with pride, making Erza self-consciously tuck her hair behind her ear.

'Wow'...Lucy thought.  'She's so pretty and so strong...That's amazing.'

"Who's next?  Oh, well, the big guy over there is Gajeel Redfox." Natsu motioned with his hand.

"Hey, why I gotta be the 'big guy'?" Gajeel protested.

"I figured that was self-examinary."

"Explanatory." Gray and Erza corrected.

"Anyway," Natsu rolled his eyes.  "Gajeel's our tracker.  Like a hunter, except he hunts people instead of food...Well, sometimes food, too.  But he's really good at it 'cause he used to hunt pirates for bounty, but he's been apart of our crew for a long time since then.  So that's old news."

"...Right..." Lucy nodded warily.  'He is a little scary...' she thought, looking at the man's red eyes and dozen of piercings.

"Scared, Fishgirl?"  Gajeel smirked.

"...Hardly...," Lucy replied with the sternest look she could muster.

"If she is, it's probably 'cause of your ugly mug."

"Oi, Dragneel.  If you're gonna be jealous of me, don't make it so obvious."

"Moving on," Erza interrupted.  "This is Gray Fullbuster.  He's-...Gray, where are your pants...?" Erza sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"What?  Oh!"  Gray hissed, just now realizing he was only clad in boxers, sitting up, drawing his knees close to himself.

Lucy looked away, a blush tinting her nose.  "Um...does that happen often?"

"What, Gray losing his pants?" Natsu asked.  "Ha. Only like 20 times a day."

"It's embarrassing.  The guy's an adult and he can't even keep up with his pants."  Gajeel shook his head.

"Look," Gray said sternly, pulling his pants on.  "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times.  I don't do it on purpose, it just happens!"

"As I was going to say," Erza huffed.  "Gray's our expert marksman and say-so on ammunition."

"And last but not least," Natsu said, twisting around and picking up something behind him.  "This is Happy!"

"I know.  I've met your pet cat."  Lucy replied pointing to her arm where vague bite marks still showed."

"FRIEND, not PET.  All right?"  Natsu grumbled.

"Right, friend...Sorry."  Lucy laughed a little nervously.  "Uh...you forgot yourself, Natsu..."

"Oh, right!" he grinned, Lucy making a mental note about his habit of instantly changing emotions.  Natsu stood up, putting his hands on his hips.  "I'm the great Salamander, Natsu Dragneel, Fairy Tail's own-,"

"Pyromaniac." Erza, Gray, and Gajeel said in unison.

Eyes growing a bit wide, Lucy turned her head to Natsu.

"Eh..." he shrugged.  "They're not wrong..." he grinned wickedly at her.  "I'm in charge of blowing stuff up.  Setting it on fire, making it explode with a big BOOM!" he shouted suddenly, making Lucy jump where she sat, which made the others laugh.

"Th-That sounds...fun..."

"Oh yeah, it is!" agreed Natsu, sitting back down in the spot his butt had left in the sand.

"Natsu's our explosive technician.  He's in charge of our heavier artillery: bombs, mines, fireballs.  If it has to do with fire, he knows what chemicals, powders, wires, charges, whatever you need to make it."

"Pft." Gray snorted.  "Like it's really that hard to strike a match and set something on fire.  Any idiot could do it, but I guess that's the point."

"You're just mad that my job sounds cooler than yours." Natsu leaned back against the log, putting his hands behind his head.

As Natsu and Gray launched themselves into an argument, Lucy looked around her at this group of people.  Of humans.  Pirates.  They were strange.  But for some reason she felt like she'd been there for days or weeks already.  Like the camp of a master swordswoman, a hot-headed arsonist, his blue cat friend, a bounty hunter, and a gunslinger-with-a stripping-habit was where she belonged.

"Guys, guys, settle down..." Erza broke into the conversation, standing up and making for her luggage cart.  "It is definitely late.  We've had quite the day, so how about we set up the tents and get some sleep, huh?"

***

Aspen Roche sat on the inside of one of the palace guard's carraiges, driven by his self-appointed escort, as it thundered down the makeshift dirt road.  In their rear view stood Magnolia, missing it's princess, and now Aspen had made it his mission - along with everyone else - to find her.  To make up for lost time, per the Prince's orders, the guard goaded his horses on to go as fast as the carriage could handle.  

Aspen stuck his head out of the window, his hair flying backwards as he loudly rapped against the vehicle, getting the guard's attention.  "Where are we headed, again!?" Aspen yelled against the wind.

"Word from the guard tower said that the Princess is suspected to be heading north on this road to Southern Cratia!,"  the guard pointed ahead, glancing back at the prince.

'Cratia, huh?...That sad excuse of a kingdom is nothing but a giant marketplace...What would she want there when she could be the Queen of Magnolia?' pondered Aspen, pulling his head back inside, leaning against the seat and fixing his hair as he stared out of the window.

"Your Highness, take a look up ahead!"  the guard's voice exclaimed, pulling Aspen out of his contemplations.  Leaning back out of the window, Aspen squinted his eyes, trying to look further ahead, the lantern hanging from the carriage only lighting their path a short distance down the road.

"I'm sorry, look at what exactly?" he asked, baring his shark teeth in concentration.

"On the side of the road up ahead!  That's Captain Fernandes's guard carriage!  Seems we managed to catch up to the search party after all!" the guard smiled back at him happily.

"...Yes.  How fortunate..." Aspen mumbled, sinking back into the carriage, his mind now running at high speed in a thousand different directions as they neared Jellal's search party, grappling for a lie to get him out of what he knew was about to be a sticky situation.

 Even if he didn't want to admit it, Aspen was intimidated by Jellal's authority: he lied just to get out of the palace, search for Lucy, claim what was supposed to be his.  Lied and told his escort that Jellal had approved his involvement instead of demanding it on his own authority.  Aspen was a prince - he had the freedom to do whatever he pleased - but the Magnolian royal guard, under that Head Guard's jurisdiction, didn't seem to care whether he was royalty or not.  

'The moment we stop on the side of the road, the Head Guard will order that I be hauled back to the palace...' Aspen thought.  'Or worst.  The blue-haired barbarian and his friends could be rid of me if they wanted.  Bury my body out here in the sand and claim they have no idea where I went.'  

A shudder went through Aspen's body, down his spine.  He felt the carriage pulling off of the makeshift road, the synapse's in his brain sparking off, exploding like overheated light bulbs.  He started panicking for any solid idea of what to say  but quickly stopped, when he realized that Jellal Fernandes was nowhere to be seen.

As the carriage came to a halt, two guards floated quickly up to the side of it, carelessly saluting to Aspen's escort, their faces covered in worry.    

"Sho!" One of the guards huffed, speaking to Aspen's escort.  "Are you just now coming from the palace?"

Sho nodded, confused by their worry.  "I am, I'm escorting Prince Aspen per Captain's orders.  He insisted on helping search for the Princess."

The two guards regarded Aspen sitting in the back of the carriage, giving him a bow deep at the waist before exchanging a glance with one another.  Aspen narrowed his eyes at them, noticing their uneasiness.

"Uh...," a guard spoke up to Sho.  "You...did you see Captain perhaps before you made it here?"

Sho's forehead wrinkled, his gaze glancing at Jellal's personal coach.  "Have I seen him?  Captain Fernandes-

"Was someways down the road as a matter-of-fact." Aspen interjected cooly, propping his chin on the palm of his hand.  The lie flowed out of his mouth faster than his brain could process it, almost reflexively.  He drew the attention of three pairs of eyes, suspicious and questioning.

"He was just here not but 10 minutes ago with us," one of the guards said, with a tone of distrust.  "What would he be doing down the road?"

Aspen's bright green, narrow eyes connected with the guard's, unsettling him.  "How should I know?" he responded quietly with an air of exaggerated innocence.  "He's your Captain.  What were you so busy doing that you can't make an account of his whereabouts less than ten minutes ago?"

"W-we were searching these rock formations."  The guard flushed, bowing at the waist as if remembering Aspen's royalty.  The Prince smiled to himself at the guard's sudden
obedience.  Without their Captain around, his dominance shined through once again.    

Aspen looked to the other guard for a more thorough explanation.  

"H-he means, uh, your Highness, Captain Fernandes had reason to believe that the Princess might be taking shelter in one of these rocks.  They develop very deep, hidden crevices and pockets, some as large as caves." the second guard elaborated.

The lie came to Aspen faster than a lightning strike.  "Is that so?" he asked, a pondering expression on his face.   "I was wondering why Captain Fernandes was wandering around that rock, all alone, when we passed him."

"A rock?" the two guards chimed out in unison.

"Mhm.  A pretty big one, too." Aspen nodded.

Jellal's subordinates looked at one another with mirrored intentions in their eyes.

"We better go help him look." one of the guards said to the other.

"But what about this area?  If Cap wanted us to move on and search another area, he would've told us so, right?"

"He didn't even let us know he was going back down the road before he left, and you know where his head is right now.  He's full of worry over the Princess.  He's probably not thinking the way he normally does.  I think he needs somebody with him," the other guard responded.

The guard nodded.  "You're right, but we still haven't checked these-,"

"Um, gentlemen?" Aspen interjected, a self satisfied expression of victory hidden under his concerned eyes.  "If it would help in any way, Sho and I could finish scouring this area for openings in the rocks, and if we find anything, we'll come to you and Captain Fernandes immediately.

"Would you really?" one of the guards asked, grateful.

"Of course.  I'm just as invested in the success of this search as you all are." Aspen clutched a hand over his heart.  "I care for Lucy very deeply even after only meeting her but days ago.  I can only pray that she's safe and sound."

The two guards bowed to Aspen again.  "Thank you, Your Majesty." they said before swimming away quickly to Jellal's carriage, getting inside and pulling back onto the road, leaving Aspen and Sho behind.

The prince grinned after the carriage, watching it as it seemed to be swallowed by the darkness settled on the road behind them.  

'Not too bad, but definitely too easy.' he thought proudly.

Turning his head back forward, his eyes met Sho's, pondering and confused.
"Prince Roche-,"

"Yes, my good sir?" Aspen asked cheerfully, gesturing for Sho to open his carriage door.

"Uh, I didn't see Captain Fernandes anywhere on the road whi-," Sho began, grabbing onto the door handle.

"Well of course you didn't, Sho," Aspen interrupted, pushing the door open the rest of the way and brushing past his guard, swimming out toward the rocks.  "You were focused on the road, as you should've been.  I was surveying the surroundings."

"B-but, so was I-," Sho stuttered, swimming after him, trying to keep up.

"Don't feel too bad.  I have exemplary eyesight.  I am part shark after all." He grinned back at him as he swam on.

"But-,"

"We're a team, aren't we!" Aspen exclaimed, circling a formation and inspecting it.  

"What kind of help would I be as your teammate if I couldn't make up for what you lacked?"

Sho blushed at this comment, feeling in some way inadequate.  "I...I guess that's true..."

"That's the spirit!" Aspen slapped his back as he passed him, swimming energetically onto another formation.

As they moved from rock to rock, Aspen began to become more and more exasperated, finding nothing.  

'There has got to be a reason why the guards chose to search the rocks instead of just continuing to go down the road...' he thought.

"Your Majesty, come look at this!" came Sho's voice a little ways away, pulling Aspen out of his head.  When he came up to him, he found Sho standing in front of a large formation, a narrow crack splitting up the center of it and a piece of bakery paper laying on the ground in front of it.

"I guess the others didn't notice it before but look at this!" he pointed to the paper and the rock.  "This is palace bakery paper.  No one ever comes out this far on the road except for travelers.  So...I guess the paper could be from a traveler but...there's a chance it's the Princess', right?"

Aspen moved quickly passed him and began examining the rock, his eyes scanning.  He moved his webbed fingers into the crack, pushing his arm in.  He felt the back of the rock and sighed inwardly until his arm moved left and he felt the suction of something grip his arm.  An opening.

"Although that crack does look a bit small, even for the Prin-,"

Aspen's head snapped around and he stared his green eyes into Sho's, a smile spreading across his lips.  "My dear Sho, you couldn't be more wrong."

***

Being sucked down and pulled sharply from left to right, Jellal hollered as the water shot him  through the tunnel, yells cracking from his throat at every turn.  As the tunnel came to an end, flickering beams of various, bright colors stabbed at his eyes, forcing him to raise his arms and cover them.  Before he knew it, Jellal felt his body catapulting, being spit out into a large cavern like an unwanted piece of food.  The force of the water propelled him and as he drew his arms away from his face, Jellal saw that he was flying violently, end over end, toward large jagged crystals jutting out from the walls.  

  Widening his eyes, Jellal acted as fast as he could, moving his tail, trying to steer upward and halt himself all at once.  Just barely skimming a crystal, Jellal's back slammed hard into the solid, cavern wall, sending pain shooting all throughout his body.  
He bristled, clenching his teeth so tight that they might've cracked.  As the pain began to subside, Jellal just stared ahead with wild eyes, hair tousled and strewn across his face, breathing deeply in and out.

  Spinning slowly around as he swam back out into the center of the cavern, he began to take note of openings, most likely tunnels like the one he'd come from.  Jellal  tried to pick out which one that was, but he was unsure.  He had his eyes covered and was thrown all over, disoriented, as he entered the cavern.  He had no way of knowing which one he'd come from, no idea how to go back.  

Jellal stared ahead, silent, before letting out a loud, frustrated yell.

"AHHHHHH!!" he wailed with a furiosity, then winced almost immediately after, covering his ears as his cry echoed, bouncing off the cavern wall, screaming right back at him.

"Why me..." he muttered, sighing deeply as he closed his eyes.  

'Shut up!  You have NO right to say what she'd have wanted.  You didn't know her like I did!  She was MY mom, NOT yours!'

Eyes snapping open quickly, Jellal shuddered, still hearing Lucy's words ringing in his ears.  It haunted him: the thought of never seeing Lucy again and that being the last thing she said to him.  Jellal knew he had no right to do what he did, to speak on Lucy's mother's behalf just to keep her from leaving.  But he panicked, knowing that the Heartfilia family, Lucy, was all that he had.  

'Watch over her...Won't you, Jellal?...For me?'

Jellal smiled, if not a little bitterly, to himself.  "...Easier said than done, my Queen..."

Sighing, he reached under his cloak and withdrew a small metal staff with a spearhead. As he  grabbed the staff in two places and twisted it in opposite directions, the staff extended to  the full length of a spear.

Gliding towards the cavern wall, close to a random tunnel opening , Jellal peered into it cautiously, his spear ready to stab anything that dared to startle him.

"Well...here goes nothing..." he mumbled, as he moved forward.  Like the cavern walls, the tunnel glittered with glints of iridescent crystal.  Flashing lights of different hue were cast over his body as he began to enter it, swimming slightly upwards, and following the tunnel's path.

***

  Natsu lay on his side by the opening of the tent, looking out across the small sandy clearing and into the thicket of trees, Happy curled up close to him, keeping him company.  Gray and Gajeel were sprawled out on their backs further inside, mouths wide open as they snored obnoxiously.  It had definitely been an exhausting day for all of them.  But he couldn't sleep.

Fool...you fooollll...Natsuu...

"Ughh, shut up..." Natsu sat up, gritting his teeth and clutching his hands to his head in frustration.  "...Shut up, Igneel..."

Out of the corner of his eye, Natsu could see rustling coming from the tent that Lucy shared with Erza.  The opening of the tent unfurled and Lucy, somewhat unsteadily, stepped out, closing the tent behind her.  Natsu watched her as she walked slowly, looking down at her feet with curious eyes, taking note of how her toes made contact with the sand.  

Lucy sat on a slab of rock, staring out at nothing, mindlessly running her hands over her new skin, feeling the tiny hairs all over her body.

Crawling out of the tent, Natsu began to make his way to where Lucy sat.  He stepped quietly up behind her, trying not to interrupt her thoughts with Happy right at his heels.

"Hey, Lucy...Hey."  He said with a soft voice, touching her arm.

She flinched and looked up at him, holding her arm defensively.

"What?" he asked.

"Sorry.  Nothing.  It's just...being touched.  It...feels weird.  In this skin without my scales, I feel so fragile.  I feel like someone could just...break me."

Natsu snorted, kneeling down in front of her.  "Come on, human skin is tougher than that.  See," he said, pulling open his vest to show a scar on his stomach.  "I got stabbed by a sword once and it healed right up."

Lucy swallowed nervously, glancing back and forth from Natsu's eyes to the wound.  

"Is...that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Well..." Natsu scratched his chin, thinking carefully about what to say.  "...it should...at least make you less scared of being touched by someone who's just as fragile as you are." He smiled.  "Besides," he continued, his expression growing more serious. "you don't have to worry.  None of us would ever hurt you."

Lucy searched Natsu's eyes for any signs of falsehood but only saw a genuineness that she couldn't help but trust.  She smiled back.

"Watch out for that Gray, though," Natsu pretended to whisper, nudging her with his elbow.  "Kind of a freak if you ask me." he said with a playful smile.

Lucy broke out into a grin, allowing herself to laugh at Gray's expense.  Happy purred softly, rubbing his fur up against Lucy's leg, hopping up and settling into her lap.

"What are you doing out here anyways?  Couldn't sleep?" he inquired of her.

She laughed a little.  "Mhm.  I mean, how could I?  There's about two million things going through my mind."  Natsu nodded in agreement.  "What about you?"  Lucy asked the same of him.

Natsu sat on the sand, clasping his hands around his knees.  "Same...ever since the shipwreck, I haven't been able to sleep..."

"Wait...shipwreck?"  questioned Lucy.

"Oh...that's right...I guess we never told you.  That mist stuff that attacked us earlier?  A huge storm made of it hit our ship while we were on a voyage.  Demolished it.  We washed up on the beach, scattered all over the place.  We're supposed to be going to the north side of the island to search for missing members and hunt for food."

"So that's the reason you're here..." Lucy said quietly, sadly.

Natsu affirmed with a nod.  He relayed to her everything that happened, from coming across the wrecked Cait Shelter ship, to the moment the storm hit, what it was like floating in the mist, to the nightmares he'd been having.  

Lucy simply nodded.  "If something like that happened to me, I'd be having nightmares too."

"It's more than that, though...I mean...nevermind." he stopped, looking away.

Lucy cocked her head to the side as she gazed at him.  "I know that look."

"...What look?"  Natsu grumbled, glancing up at her skeptically.

"That 'I really want to say something but I don't think anybody will listen' look."
Natsu quirked his eyebrows.  "How'd you know?"

"It's like I told all of you guys before, my father never listened to anything I said or considered anything I wanted unless it lined up with his plans.  That 'look' might as well have been my permanent expression." she smiled bitterly.  "So what's wrong?"

Natsu stared at Lucy in wonder for a moment.  He blushed, nervous to tell her.  "The nightmares don't really make sense..."

"Well, they are nightmares..."

"Well, uh..." Natsu scratched his head, his expression again changing suddenly to one of sadness. "I-I see...my dad.  He disappeared and I haven't seen him in seven years-,"

"W-wait-,"

"Don't worry about that; It's a long story." Natsu insisted, dismissing the subject tiredly.

"Okay....So...you see your dad?"

"Yeah, but...he says...weird things.  Things that my old man wouldn't even think of saying, like threats or something, calling me 'human' and telling me that the sun's gonna go black and we're all gonna pay."  Natsu ran his fingers up to his throat.  "...Choked me too...and it felt...real..."

Lucy's face was plaqued with a deep concern and she could feel goosebumps raising up on her skin.  "Well...that's not comforting...but at least they are just dreams.  They aren't real, Natsu."

Natsu regarded Lucy with a pensive expression.  "...When Igneel, when my dad, talks to me in these dreams, it feels like he's takin' my body captive.  And...he doesn't have a face, or really even a body...just a voice and a shape...made out of black, shiny mist, just like that stuff that wrecked our ship, just like the stuff that took my boot.  Like the stuff that tried to take you..."

The dangerous air that Natsu was putting off around the two of them had Lucy clenching her fingers tightly into Happy's fur.  The cat meowed in protest at her, jumping off of her lap.

"S-sorry..." she murmured, her eyes not leaving Natsu's.  She watched as his expression softened again.

Natsu shook his head.  "Dangit...Gray and Gajeel were right...I sound insane, don't I?" he snorted, his tone acidic.  Standing up, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking toward the sky, Natsu could see a small blossom of light bleeding up into the dark blue of night, the first sign of dawn.  "Well," he said smiling down at Lucy, again, changing his mood in an instant.  "We should at least try and get a little shut-eye.  Come on, Hap."

Scooping up Happy in the crook of his arm, Natsu began walking back toward the tent.

"Wait, Natsu..." Lucy said quietly as he kept going, looking after him as he opened the tent flap and disappeared inside, leaving her to her thoughts.

***

Gray awoke to the sound of Gajeel snoring loudly into his ear and Natsu mumbling to himself in his sleep in a corner of the tent.  Pushing himself up, he crawled out of the tent on his hands and knees and into Erza's cast shadow.

She looked down at him and he up at her.  "Oh, hey." Gray muttered sleepily.

"Good morning, Gray." Erza replied somewhat energetically, slapping him on the back as he stood up.

'Oww...' he thought, gritting his teeth and following her over to the camp's hearth.  

Erza smiled as she took in a deep breath of air, she and Gray both staring up at the light of emerging morning.

" 'Early bird catches the worm'." they said simultaneously.

Gray laughed to himself, taking a seat on a log.  "Man, Gramps sure has us well-trained.  Like a couple of dogs.  Well...some of us better than others." he remarked, jabbing a finger back at his tent.

"Those two had a very...bizarre day yesterday to say the least." Erza replied as she began to light a small fire.

"Yeah, the blackouts?  What was that all about?  Get a chance to talk to Natsu?"

"Not yet." she sighed, looking over her shoulder at the tents, in thought.  "I suppose...yesterday was a bizarre day for all of us."

"Speaking of bizarre, how's Lucy doing?" Gray asked.  

Erza gave him an unamused look.  "Don't be rude, Gray."

"Well, I didn't mean it like that.  You know what I'm sayin'."

"She had some trouble getting to sleep last night, for obvious reasons.  But she seems to be resting now."

Gray nodded. "So what's the plan?" he asked, pulling a stretch out through his entire body and releasing it with a satisfied sigh.  "I mean, with Lucy and all are we gonna keep on going north with the search or-,"

"I haven't decided quite yet.  I figured that would be a choice that all of us need to weigh in on.  But it's still early.  We have a little time before we need to get going, whatever direction that might be." Erza said, throwing the last of a handful of kindling into the slowly growing blaze.  "I think I'll go for a walk."

Gray simply shrugged, laying down longways on the log, his hands folded up under his head.  "Suit yourself.  I'll hold down the fort." he said, closing his eyes.

Erza kicked his foot playfully as she walked past him, fastening her swordbelt and heading for the treeline.  "What a bum.  You should offer to escort a lady.  And a comrade at that."

"Escort you?" Gray cracked a smile.  "You don't need my help.  If you come across anything dangerous, all ya gotta do is say 'I'm Erza Scarlet,' and it'll go running with its tail between its legs.  If anything, when I go somewhere, I need you to escort me."

"Noted.  But I want you to come along anyway.  There's something I wanted to check out from yesterday."

"At that pond?" he asked, standing and walking in her direction.  "What about Natsu and Gajeel and Lucy?"

"We should be back by the time they wake up.  This won't take long."  Erza drew her sword and began slashing at whatever large leaves still remained on the already cut path.  

After several minutes of walking and brushing past leaves, Erza and Gray stepped out of the woods and into the same clearing they had followed Natsu to.  Scanning the landscape for any movement, Erza proceeded toward the pond with her sword in hand.

"Be careful, Gray."

"Right." Gray followed suit, drawing his sword as the two fanned out around the pond defensively.  Realizing that no threat seemed to be present, Erza stepped away from the water's edge and kneeled down on the stone, cool to the touch from the shifting morning air.  

"They're still here..." Erza said under her breath.

"What are?"  Gray asked, kneeling in front of her, taking a look at the rock himself.  

Glittering on the rock's surface and stuck in its splits and crevices were the countless number of scales that Lucy had shed when she went through her metamorphosis.

"Whoa mama..." breathed Gray, picking one up excitedly.

"Indeed..." Erza assented, holding a scale up to the sky.  Iridescent and tinted blue, light reflected off of the scale even in the dim glow of the day's earliest hours.

"These are pretty small, not to mention thin." Gray examined.  "I wonder how much protection mermaids really have with these."

"But there are hundreds of them.  Probably layered up."

"And they're hard to break," Gray remarked trying to bend the scale between his fingers to no avail.  "You know these are probably worth a good penny."

"Gray, honestly." Erza rolled her eyes as she stood.

"Come on, Erza.  Hear me out.  I mean, these scales are thin and light but really sturdy.  And they're flashy too.  I bet they'd sell almost as good at the market as any jewel."

"Well even if that were true, we're not going to- Gray!  Duck!" Erza screamed.
Gray hit the rock flat, dropping onto his belly as a long spear jabbed quickly, violently out of the water through the air he was occupying only a second before.  Without a second warning, he scrambled away from the pond, getting to his feet.  As he looked back to catch who or what attacked him, he saw Erza face to face, sword to spear, with a man wading in the water.  A man with scales for skin and webbed fingers and gills on his neck just like Lucy's.  A merman.

Pushing toward the contact point of their weapons with all their force and might, metal screeching against metal, Erza's eyes stared back at the merman's, ones filled with hatred, anger, and frustration.  Why?

"Who are you?" Erza barked, pressing her heels down as solidly as she could manage on slippery rocks.  The water in the pond splashed and she could see that the merman was flailing his tail, trying to gain leverage the same as she.

"You human filth!" the merman yelled with a voice full of bile.  "You monsters, where is she?! What did you do to her?!"

"What are you talking about?" Erza furrowed her brows deeply as she looked into his brown eyes again that now, on top of anger, seemed on the verge of tears.  The merman's face was wrinkled at the bridge of his nose, the scales buckling up at the creases giving him an even more gruesome expression.  He had deep blue hair and wore a cloak of royal purple around his shoulders.  But what caught Erza's attention most of all was a strange, red tattoo that stretched over the right side of his face.  Crinkled up in anger, it reminded her of some of the grittier pirate guilds whose members bore bloody, poorly-healed scars of their guild's mark on their skin.

"I'll only ask nicely once more, human!  What have you done with her?!  Pried off all of her scales just so you could sell them, is that it?"  He pushsed again, eyes glancing quickly toward the littered scales atop the rocks.

It was then that Erza noticed the merman's earring.  A single earring shaped like a teardrop made of shining, luminous pearl that she'd seen before.

This merman was looking for Lucy.

"Hey, fishbrain, back off!"  Gray growled as he ran toward the pond, swinging his sword at the merman's side, left open as he defended himself against Erza.  

"Gray, wait!" Erza warned.  But before Gray could strike, the merman retreated backwards,  nearly making Erza, still pushing against him, fall forward into the water.  

The merman spun his long spear, gripping it as he came at Gray, stabbing toward his head and shoulders and arms and legs with speedily confident strikes that Gray only missed by inches every time.

'This guy's crazy fast.  Even with him in the water and me on higher ground, I'm still on the ropes.' Gray thought nervously, fighting solely on the defensive.

"I've always heard that you beasts think that species other than yours are only good for your use.  That the Earth is a place you can destroy and pollute and bring down in ruin and now I see that this is true." the merman growled, his movements becoming more unpredictable, more and more controlled by his anger.  He made a quick stab at Gray's side, but changed the direction of his attack as Gray tried to dodge.  It was a trick, a bluff, and it would be this human's end.  The tip of his spear soared straight and unchallenged toward the center of Gray's chest.

"Stop now!"

Erza moved herself between Gray and the merman's spear at the last second, parrying it away with her sword and sending it flying into the water.  He made a move to reach for it, but before he could, Erza had the tip of her blade under his chin, the point threateningly close to the hollow of his throat.

"Don't even think about it." she said evenly.  The merman offered no response but a glare that said all that he wanted to say.  "Gray," she snapped with her fingers, "pick that up."

Gray nodded, walking cautiously around the pond and fishing the merman's spear out of the water.  It was golden with ornately carved golden rings looped beneath the spearhead.

"Keep your dirty hands off of it.  Don't you dare touch it." the merman demanded, his voice low as he stared up at Erza.

"Nice weapon." Gray said, teasingly admiring the spear, spinning and examining it.

"Knock it off, Gray." Erza spoke with thorough calm, holding her opponent's gaze wthout wavering.  "This seems to be a friend of Lucy's"

The merman's eyes grew wide at the mention of Lucy's name. Then, slowly, his face twisted back into one of loathing.

"What makes you say that?" asked Gray, looking between her and the merman.

"The earring he's wearing." she pointed.  "It's the same stone that Lucy has on her necklace.

Their captive seemed restless, his chest heaving in and out with angry breaths.

"You knew exactly who I was talking about all this time and who I was." The merman grimaced. "...You humans are indeed liars and deceivers."

"Untrue." Erza contested.  "You gave us little chance to come to an understanding of who you were in search of before you began attacking us.  And when I asked who you were, you refused to answer.  It wasn't until I saw the earring that I guessed your identity.  You're the guard she mentioned.  Her description was rather accurate." she remarked, tilting his chin up with the tip of her sword to get a better look at his face.
The guard snorted in disbelief.  "What reason would she have for telling any of you anything about me, let alone herself?  You must've tortured the information out of her."

"More like we saved her life." Gray said lazily.  "She trusts us."

"As if I believe that.  And even if I did, that would only mean you humans are more of monsters than I thought you were.  In return for her trust you would pry every scale off of her body." the guard growled, his eyes brimmed red with anger.  "An innocent, defenseless, trusting young woman who's skin also happens to be covered in priceless material asks for your help. It was just so easy, right?  I guess it would've been a waste otherwise, right?"

"Calm down." Erza asserted, pressing slightly on his throat with the tip of her sword.  

"You're misunderstanding the situ-,"

"I saw the way you were drooling over those scales like they were gold coins.  I bet you couldn't help yourself, could you?" he questioned, looking back and forth between Erza and Gray.

"I said. Calm. Down." Erza pushed more, her tone stern and quiet.  "Listen to us.  Lucy is unharmed.  All this is simply not what it looks like."

The merman shifted ever so slightly backward and Gray was on him too, pushing the point of his own spear into his back.  "Hey, man.  Do what Erza says and listen.  Don't be stupid."

His face gave him away, the merman as well as Erza and Gray knew he had no choice but to cooperate.  He seemed to relax and Gray stepped away from him, lowering the spear.  Erza drew back slightly as well, but still keeping her sword pointed at the merman, ready to make a move .  

"OI! WHERE'D YOU GUYS GO?!" a voice suddenly yelled from past the treeline.  Natsu's voice, followed by Gajeel's, telling him to shut up.  Erza and Gray glanced toward the trees, the voices catching them off guard and giving the merman time to make his move.  
Grabbing his spear and yanking it from Gray's grip, the merman took hold of it and swung the sharp end in an arc toward Erza.  

"Hey!" Gray screamed loudly, followed by a yell from Erza as the spear head sliced her thigh, hitting her just a fraction of a second before she could clear it.  

"I said to listen!" Erza yelled at the merman, lunging forward, undeterred by the wound on her leg and swinging her sword at his arm.  She managed to connect with his spear, unbalancing him but only slightly.  

Just then, the treeline split and Natsu, Gajeel, Happy, and Lucy on Natsu's back came through, stopping short at the sight of Erza and Gray in combat with someone.

"I thought I heard yelling, come on!" Natsu said, moving as fast as he could toward the pond.

Gray brandished his weapon, ready to run the angry sea dweller right through.  "He doesn't seem to be in the listening mood!" he said, raising his blade, prepared to strike.

"Gray!  Don't hurt him!" Erza commanded.  And Gray listened but before anyone could do anything, Gajeel, making it to the pond, drew his sword and swung, nearly cutting the merman's head off.  

Now caught in the middle of a three-on-one battle, the merman began to lose the rage and anger that was driving him and it turned into worry.  He couldn't hold them all off much longer.

As Natsu neared the pond, he heard a gasp coming from Lucy on his back.  She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Jellal!  Stop!"  Lucy screamed over the hollers and sound of splashing water and metal against metal.  

The merman, Jellal, stopped, mid-fight at the sound of his name.  At the sound of Lucy's voice. Then he hissed, feeling a spiking pain flash across his back as Gajeel cut into him with his sword.  

"Ahh!" he screamed, and just as soon as the fight had begun, it ended, Jellal diving quickly down into the water, descending back from where he came, leaving a small cloud of blood floating on the surface behind him.  

Lucy hopped off of Natsu's back, running as stably as she could to the edge of the pond and sunk down on her knees, looking as deep as she could into the bloody water, at where Jellal had just been.

***
As Jellal swam back down the passage he'd taken, wincing with every tail movement from the pain in his back, his heart was still pounding.  He'd never come in contact with humans before.  Now he had and they were the exact ones that had Lucy.  They'd done something to her, even if they insisted they hadn't, he knew that they had.  
But right before he was struck, he could've sworn that he heard her voice, calling to him, telling him to stop.  In fact, if it weren't for the dizziness of pain, he would've sworn that he'd seen her face up there on the surface.
It's here! What's been happening ashore with Lucy and her new pirate friends?
© 2016 - 2024 chlsjiles
Comments1
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MayVicbot's avatar
Interesante, espero que Jellal se relaje un poco antes de hacer nada.