Disclaimer: FT not mine! It belongs to Hiro Mashima, I'm just playing with it.
DeAmonQuEen: Hi guys this is another one of my FT fanfics. I know I still have a couple of two more five pending, but I'm in a bit of a writer's block on the other two. It's strange how hard it is to write on a NaLu pairing. But I'm doing my nest and I'd probably be updating sometime in the week. anyway about this new story. It's a twisted parody of the movie Tangled with many twists and alternations. I know that a fic about it has already been made and was also in this pairing but I am not stealing this from that fanfiction story, in fact I made a lot of changes in this fic. I made Gajeel take Repunzel's place in the story and Levy as Eugine but the entire story is set in the FT setting, so expect Fairy tail guild to be in it. Like I said I twisted the tale a bit but it will all happen in the same way as was in the 'Tangled' tale but just a lot different. So enjoy the fic as I had enjoyed writing it!
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Chapter 1:
Levy's Narative
This is the story of how I died... Well not really, because it's not actually my story. In fact this is the story of the dragon prince, Gajeel. But before we get to him, let's go back to the time before Gajeel came to be. Many, many, many years ago.
And it all starts with a piece of the moon falling from the sky and embedded itself on a large rock. The piece, that we shall call the mooncrystal, was a very powerful stone that had magical properties to heal any kind of wounds or illness and even maintain eternal youth. And the shady guy with the weird fashion sense is Jose Porla, yup you have to remember him because he plays a major role in this story. Anyway, Jose uses the stone to boost up his own magic and also grant him immortality. And all he had to do was touch (A/N: you the guys thought I was gonna make him sing didn't you? Gihee, didn't want you to have nightmares, I ain't that sadistic.) the embedded crystal, and voila! Instant power up and youth! This continued for many years.
Three centuries later, a dragon and it's human followers came to the land, and built a small kingdom on it. The kingdom flourished and grew, and thus many more magic and non-magic folks started living on the kingdom. The iron dragon, who goes by the name of Metallicana, was fierce and strong but he had a kind heart and loved humans, which was why many had decided to live on his land. Many years later the dragon king fell in love with a human and married her. He then used a forbidden magic to change his physical form, giving him a more human look. The downside to this magic happened when his wife became pregnant with his son. The human woman was carrying a dragon inside her belly, and well let's just say it was killing her. Metallicana knew that inorder to save both mother and baby, he had to turn his son human too. But the child and the mother didn't have enough magic inside of them to do so, and thus he sought out the mooncrystal in hopes of increasing his wife's and son's magic level just enough to survive the process. So he ordered his people to look for it.
Jose was very greedy and wanted to keep the crystal for himself, so he tried to hide it. But because of his carelessness and stupidity the crystal was discovered and was immediately removed from the rock it was attached to and brought to the king. Metallicana polverized the crystal, added it to a soup and fed it to his dying wife. The crystal not only healed the queen but also increased her magic, it also allowed her to survive the process of turning the baby inside her human. A baby boy with messy dark hair and ruby red eyes was born and, yup you guessed it, they named him Gajeel. The kingdom was overjoyed and held a festival, that they had ironically called the Dragon Festival in honor of the young dragon prince. Everyone in the land celebrated it, and even other dragons would attend it.
But happiness was short lived, for when night came, a shadow entered the nursery of the prince and took him away.
Metallicana was furious and tried to seek out his child's kidnapper but nothing was left of the young prince and no clues were ever found on who had taken him. The kingdom mourned for their lost prince, but still celebrated the Dragon Festival every year on his birthday in hopes that someday the prince would return and be able to celebrated it with them.
( - )
Normal Narative:
In the middle of the dark forest an invisible rune wall stood, hiding from the world a very tall tower. Inside this tower lived a creepy nearly bald man and a four year old raven haired boy with crimson red eyes. The man was busy teaching the boy how to harness magic from inside. In the middle of the lesson the man then order the boy to use the young child's magic on him. The boy did as he was told and approached the man he focused his magic on the man and a bright blue glow surrounded the room, the man suddenly turned at least twenty years younger and had more hair. (A/N: Gihee, I can't help making fun of Jose's appearance.)
"Very nice, Gajeel-kun, you are starting to get better at controlling your magic. Now you can give me back at least twenty five years of my time," he told the boy as he affectionately patted the child's head.
"Thanks dad. Next time I'll be able to give you thirty, no fifty years back of your life!" the boy said enthusiastically.
"I sure hopes so, boy," he said smiling kindly.
There a comfortable silence that went between the two until the boy spoke again. "Hey, dad?"
"Yes, son?"
"When can I leave this place?" he asked timidly.
"And why would you want to leave?!" the man asked also raising his voice in the process.
The boy cringed, but immediately gave reason to his question. "I just wanted to see the world and what it's like outside the tower and beyond the wall. I don't mean to leave you forever. Please don't get mad at me," the boy said little beads of tears started to form on his eyes.
The man saw the sencerity to the child's words and immediately apologized. "Gajeel-kun, I am sorry for yelling at you. I was just surprised that you brought such a thing up. I mean, I have already told you what the world outside this tower and wall is like. It is dark and filled with cruel and evil people, most are mages who want nothing than to increase their power. And you my boy have the ability to do just that. They will try to lie and steal you away from me and force you to do evil things. That is why I built this tower and created the wall to protect you from such evil."
The boy stared at his father with great admiration and immediately said, "Then I will try to grow stronger so I can protect you too, father!"
The old man chuckled and patted the boy's head gentle. "You are already protecting me son by learning to control your magic and staying by my side," he said another warm smile gracing his face which the boy answered with a hug.
"I love you dad."
"And I love you more, son."
The four year old Gajeel indeed loved his father and he wanted to make the man happy even though that meant keeping his dream of leaving the tower and attending a certain festival a secret. Yeah his dream was something very simple but for some reason the red eyed child was really dedicated to it ever since he read about it on his father's books. The Dragon Festival that is only celebrated once every year on the same day as his birthday.
For some unknown reason, he felt a special connection to the festival. Maybe because he had dragonslaying magic or the fact that real dragons show themselves during the festival. He never was sure but he still wanted to believe that the festival itself was connected to him somehow and that it was something that he should take part in, despite what his father may say. It was his dream, and one that he someday will achieve.
( - )
14 Years later
Gajeel made another swing with his iron sword at his opponent's direction, which was easily blocked and countered by a kick in the gut. He took a couple of steps back before swinging his arm-turned-sword again. More swings and sword clashes ensued but still no winner was decided.
"Gihee, you're getting slow, Lil'," the raven haired man said as he evaded an attack.
"I'm merely getting started, boy!" the man sized cat yelled back and at the same time swung his giant sword at the other man, just missing merely inches from the other's neck.
"Woah, that was close, cat!" he said, "And quit calling me boy! I'm already eighteen!"
"Not until tomorrow. But even if you turn fifty, I'd still call you boy, boy!"
"Stupid cat! Take this, Iron Dragonlogs!" The sword shaped hand had turned into an iron pole and hit man cat in the face flinging him to the wall of the tower.
"Gajeel! This was supposed to be a sword sparring match. You weren't allowed to use other attacks!" the man sized cat said as he removed himself from the wall. A puffing sound was then heard and the man sized cat had shrunk into a normal sized cat that stood upright.
"What's a matter, Lily? Can't take a hit from an eighteen year old boy?" Gajeel said with a smirk.
"Oh I can take a hit. It's the boy's childish behavior I can't take," the cat stated sourly.
"Gihee, you still shouldn't have called me boy."
"I shall refrain in the near future just to avoid any more of your tantrums."
"Idiot, just cause I changed the rule of our sparring, don't mean I was having a tantrum. Besides I haven't had a tantrum since I was eight when I first met you." Gajeel took the towel that was hanging in the corner and wiped the accumulated sweat on his head.
His companion didn't say anything instead the strange talking cat merely took a towel and wiped his sweat filled fur.
The two shared a few minutes of silence before Gajeel spoke again. "So I was thinking about tomorrow, and I've decided that I'd asked my old man to let me go to the festival."
"Really?" Lily asked genuinely curious.
"Yeah. I mean I'm pretty much physically capable of protecting myself. So there isn't any need for him to do so. Also, I'd be back by the end of the day so he wouldn't be worried, right?"
"I think it's a good idea. You're a fully grown man now. It's time you do things by yourself, starting off with going to a festival. Your father will have to understand."
"Thanks, Lily," he said as a small smile graced his rough features.
"Don't mention it. But I do suggest that we clean this place first before you ask your father. I doubt he'd be happy that we ruined your home."
Gajeel looked around and saw that his friend was right, the entire place was a mess. There were holes on the walls that divided the rooms and gashes on the floor, some of the furnitures were broken beyond repair.
"Shit! The old man's gonna kill me! Lily, help me clean this place up!" he yelled as he started picking up some pieces of what was used to be a chair. The black cat just sighed and followed the dragonslayers orders and started cleaning up things too.
It took over an hour for the two to finish cleaning.
"Man, I think we over did it this time, cat," Gajeel said as he had finish setting up the last new piece of furniture in place.
"Only because you can't hold down your own strength," Lily stated.
"Not my fault that I'm getting stronger everyday," the dragonslayer retorted a bit too proudly.
"No, but at least you should try restraining even just a little bit otherwise you might find yourself buried under the rubble of this tower once it goes down from your attacks."
"Tsk. I wish it would go down, then maybe I won't have to live here anymore," the raven head mumbled.
The exceed heard the last part and stared at the young man before him and immediately felt sorry for him. He knew about the other's circumstance, about him having an overprotective father and why he needed protection. It was true that the second magic the dragonslayer had was just too powerful and in the wrong hands could do god knows what. But Lily also knew that even though Gajeel had an important and special kind of magic that needs to be protected it didn't mean he deserved to be locked away from the world. The young man before him wanted what every other youth wanted; freedom, adventure, and perhaps even romance, but he was never given the opportunity to experience such things.
"Oi, Lily, you listening?" Gajeel's rough voice brought him back from his musing.
"Huh? I'm sorry, I was distracted. You were saying?"
"I was asking if you wanted to go with me to the festival this year."
Lily smirked and answered, "Of course I would. Though you know that I always go to the festival every year, so there really is no need to ask."
"Oh, that's right, you can pass the magic wall any time you want 'cause you ain't exactly human.."
"That's right. The wall was designed to keep any human out. But an exceed like me is an exception."
"Yeah well-" Gajeel paused his head tilted towards the tower's window, which was its only entrance. "Dad's back and I think he's on a hurry. Lily, quickly hide!" he told the black exceed.
Lily immediately did as he was told and flew all the way towards the ceiling beams. He knew that Gajeel didn't want his father to know about his existance or the fact that they were friends. The older man's paranoia would've triggered and shit could happen, worst case scenario, he could end up six feet underground because of the said man's magic, and he doubt that Gajeel would be able to do anything. Despite the ruggish and bad boy appearance that the young man had, he still loved his father and would never disobey him.
He watched as Gajeel hurriedly removed his torn down black tunic and wore a plain black shirt, he also saw that the young man had tied his unkempt hair in a low ponytail. The young man's father never did approve of Gajeel's preferred fashion style and he couldn't blame him, no parent with a right mind would want their children to shave their eyebrows and put piercings on them, not to mention grow out their hair as long as Gajeel did with his. That's why he understood when Jose gave his friend a dress code to follow at least when he was at home.
Gajeel stood by the window and waited for his father to come up. A few minutes later a dark shadow floated down the window, then the shadow disperse and in it's place a man in his late sixties stood.
"Welcome home, father," Gajeel said with a short bow. Then he smelled the other man and immediately panicked. "You're hurt!" he announced immediately went to his father's side. He inspected the man and saw the man's clothes were smeared in blood and edges were tattered.
"Good to be back, son. And yes, I am hurt and extremely exhausted. Why don't you do something about it, my boy." Jose looked at his son suggestively.
Gajeel only nodded and walked away only to come back with two chairs, one bigger than the other. He let his father sit on the bigger chair while he sat on the other one. Then he took his father's hand and began focusing his magic, a blue light started to come out from the raven head's body then onto his hand towards Jose, suddenly the latter's clothes started to mend itself, the dried blood slowly disappearing, and the man's physical appearance drastically change too, he had now looked at least thirty-five years younger than before.
Jose sighed in relief before standing up and began stretching his now younger body. The man felt good being young again, aside from that he felt his magic get fully restored to it's original level or maybe it had increased beyond that said level, he wasn't sure. He had stop measuring his magic capacity a couple of centuries ago. But he was still happy about it. He was very contented with the life he had now, being the strongest mage in all of Fiore, and it was all thanks to his precious 'son'.
"Um, dad..." who seem to be trying to gain his attention for the last three minutes.
"What is it, son?" he asked happiness still radiated from him.
"You know what tomorrow is, right?"
"Hm? Tuesday, I think," he answered not bothering to face his son and continued to move towards the kitchen.
Gajeel followed his father and continued. "Yeah, that's right. But I'm asking if you remembered the significance of tomorrow."
"Son, what would you say if we have Hazelnut soup for lunch today?" the man asked clearly not listening to his son's question and started rummaging the cabinets for ingredients, "It's your favorite I know, and I was thinking of adding a few screws and bolts too. Of course I'd only put them on yours but that's okay-"
Getting angry at being ignored, Gajeel slammed his hands on the kitchen table and said "DAD!" at the same time.
This finally caught the older man's attention and immediately shifted his gaze from the cabinets towards the table his son had practically destroyed with his uncontrolled strength. "Gajeel-kun, how many times have I told you not to bent your frustrations on the furniture?"
"I'm sorry 'bout the table I'll fix it later but you can't blame me, you were practically ignoring me, and it was the easiest way to get your attention."
"Well, now you have my full attention, what is it do you want?"
The ravenhead was taken aback by his father's willingness to listen to him, which was a first. But he wasted no time thinking about the man's strange behavior, instead he told the man what he wanted.
"I was trying to tell you that it's my birthday tomorrow, and I'm turning eighteen, a full adult."
"Birthday? No, that can't be. I specifically remember that your birthday was last year," Jose stated before turning back towards the cabinets again.
"Dad, the thing about birthdays that it's an annual thing," he tried to say without making it sound like a whine. Really his father could be such an idiot sometime. He continued but nervousness was starting to get him, "Anyway I was thinkin'... if it's not too much of bother, that-well I mean..."
"Gajeel-kun, enough with the mumbling you know I hate it when you mumble, blah,blah,blah,blah,blah-"
"Iwanttogotothedragonfestival!" he cut him and said real fast.
"Wha-"
"I said I want to go to the Dragon Festival," the younger man stated with more conviction, "Dad, it's has been my life long dream to attend this festival and I really want it to happen. Plus, I'm turning eighteen tomorrow. I think it's about time I do something else other than staying all day in this tower. I want to go beyond the walls, see people and-"
"You want to leave?" Jose asked barely audible but was still heard by the sensitive ears of the dragonslayer.
The pain tone in his father's voice shook Gajeel to the core but he didn't want to back down, at least not yet, he first had to make his old man understand. But before he could start with his speech of convincing his dad, a musical sound was heard throughout the tower. (A/N: okay I said I didn't want to torture you with the image of Jose singing but this part just had to be included because it just cracks me up!)
"You want to go outside, Oh why, Gajeel-kun~~" Jose's singing voice started as he slowly turned to face his son.
"Shit!" Gajeel mentally cursed, as more musical melodies mysteriously was heard. He knew exactly where this was going.
"Look at you, thinking you're a grown up," Jose sang as he cupped Gajeel's cheeks. "Strong enough to leave, not a weakling! But you know why we stay up in this tower!"
"I know but-"
"That's right, to keep you safe and sound, boy!" the weirdly dressed man continued singing as he danced away from his now irritated looking son.
"I'm not a boy anymore!" he yelled at his father
"Guess I always knew this day was coming, knew that soon you'd want to leave the nest!" Jose did a few twirls. "Soon, but not yet." He stopped infront of Gajeel.
"Dad..." Gajeel growled warningly, one, because he did not want his father to sing, and two, he can hear Lily's repressed snickers above.
"Shh, trust me, pet. Daddy knows best!" The lights of the tower suddenly turned off surprising the dragonslayer.
"The fuck?!" Gajeel's voice resounded along with the instrumental music that continuously played.
"Daddy knows best. Listen to your Father, it's a dark world out there," Jose's voice was heard.
"Dad, this ain't funny, and singing ain't necessary." Gajeel said as he slowly tried to lit candles for light, which was pointless because Jose turned them off anyway.
"Daddy knows best! One way or another, something will go wrong, I swear!" Jose sang in a very off keyed way as he finally showed himself to Gajeel in the dark room. "Monsters, giants, dark guild mages! Cannibals and snakes, the war."
"No way!"
"Yes!"
"So what? I'm strong enough to kick their asses," the raven head stated angrily.
"Also large bugs, men with pointy teeth." Gajeel indignantly reminded his father that he too had pointy teeth. "And Stop, no more, you'll just upset me! Daddy's right here, daddy will protect you. Sonny, here's what I suggest! Skip the drama, stay with papa! Daddyyyyyy, knows best!"
Gajeel was now covering his sensitive ears.
"Go ahead, get trampled by a rhino! Go ahead, get mugged and left for dead! Me, I'm just your father, what do I know? I only bathed and changed and nursed you!" the man sang the last part a bit too angrily that made the iron dragonslayer cringe. "Go ahead and leave me, I deserve it! Let me die alone here, be my guest! When it's too late, you'll see, just wait, Daddy knows best!"
Guilt immediately entered the teen's heart, while his father lead him to a full body mirror.
"Daddy knows best. Take it from your daddy, 'cause on your own you think you'd survive? Arrogant, hotheaded, little immature, clumsy, please, you'll never last a day! Ignorant, naive, positively grubby, ditzy and a bit, well, hmm, vague. Plus, I believe you're gettin' kinda heavy I'm just saying 'cause I love you."
But despite the 'I love you' statement, Gajeel had slowly became depressed and his own will slowly dwindled as his father described him and stated his flaws.
"Daddy understands, Father's here to help you. All I have is one REQUEST!" he sang the last part louder for emphasis, before facing his son with a very serious expression. "Gajeel-kun?" he called as he approached the latter.
"Yeah?"
"Don't ever ask to leave this tower again," Jose stated with finality.
"Yes, sir," his son answered expressionlessly.
Jose knew his son's real emotion behind the indifferent face he wore so he tried to placate the boy with sweet word. "Oh, son, you know I love you very much."
"I know. And love you more, dad," Gajeel answered with a small yet sad smile.
"And I love you most," Jose stated as he gave his boy a tight hug. "hmm. Don't forget it, you'll regret it, daddy knows best..." Jose smiled lovingly at his son, an expression that no one knew the man could do. But it was ruined by sound of flapping coming from the window.
The two men shifted their attention to the source of the sound. A crow landed on the window sill and on its beak a letter was held. Jose immediately approach the crow, grabbed the letter, and read it. Meanwhile Gajeel stared bemusedly at his old man as he read the letter. This wasn't the first time they had received a letter from a crow, but this was the first time he had seen the smile that graced his gentle and kind father's face. It was a very creepy and almost sinister smile that sent shivers down his skin. He immediately decided that he didn't like that smile, but he was curious what the cause of it was.
"Dad, is something wrong?" he asked.
"Hahahaha!" Jose laughed with so much glee, surprising the teen. Then he faced him and announced, "I need to go!"
"What?! But ya just got back!"
"I know, but there's an important matter that I need to see to." The older man hurriedly ran to the kitchen to grab his staff and purple coat.
"When will you be back?" Gajeel asked when his father returned.
"Three days most likely," he said as he reapproached the window.
"Three days?!"
"Yes. But don't worry son, I'll bring you plenty of iron as a gift for your birthday," he told the teen as he hugged him, then he separated and looked at his son with a very serious expression. "Gajeel, you remember the rule, you are to stay on this tower while I'm gone, and kill anyone who tries to get in. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir."
"Good." He walked closer to the window, arms spread wide to the side, shadows then slowly enveloped the man from his feet. When the shadows had almost completely covered his face, Jose took one last glance at his son and said, "I also suggest that you abandon that silly dream of going to this festival, and focus on training yourself." When the shadows had fully covered his body, it flew from the window. "See you in three days, son!" Was the last thing that Gajeel heard before seeing the shadow pass the magic wall and disappeared.
"I'll be here waiting," the iron dragonslayer quietly stated, while Lily, who had finally came down from the rafters, patted his back comfortingly.
"I'm sorry, Gajeel," the exceed said.
"Naw, it ain't yer fault, Lil'. But it looks like you'll be attending the festival alone again this year."
"I could just not go, you know."
"NO! I mean, you don't have to do that. I want ya to go, and come back and tell me everything 'bout it."
"But Gajeel-"
"Please, Lily, fer me," Gajeel pleaded.
The exceed let out a heavy sigh. He couldn't say no to that. "Alright. But I think I'll only be staying for half a day, then I'll come back here to rescue you from boredom," the exceed smirked.
"Then I suggest ya leave now and come back tomorrow so ya get more time to buy me more gifts, preferably lots of iron."
"Ha! Is that all you ever think? Food?"
"Hey, I think about training too, asshole!"
"Sadly, I believe your line of thoughts stops there."
"Shut up, ya stupid cat!"
"Offended, Gajeel?"
"Hah! You wish! Here, catch." He threw a bag Lily's direction, "I want that bag filled with iron when you get back."
Lily inspected the bag. "This is even bigger than the one you gave me last year!"
"Gihee, what can I say, I'm a growing boy!"
Lily simply let out a sigh, before picking up his own bag and flying towards the window. "You better not do anything stupid while I'm gone."
"I ain't a kid anymore, cat!"
"Yeah, well you said the same thing last year and I found you shaved your eyebrows and added 24 piercings all over your body."
"I was bored!" Gajeel stated a little tint of red appeared on his cheeks.
Lily chuckled then flew out of the window. "See ya, Gajeel!"
"Watch out for yourself out there," the teen said with genuine concern.
"I've already told you. The world outside is not all that bad as your father made it sound."
"Doesn't matter, just take care of yourself, cat."
"I will." That was the last thing Lily said before flying full speed towards the magic wall and disappearing when he passed through it.
Gajeel continued to stare at the spot Lily disappeared to. He really wanted to go with the exceed to the festival, in fact he was even willing to disobey his father just to do it. But he couldn't because of that damn stupid wall. The dragonslayer let out a very heavy sigh and as always simply just accepted his fate.
( - )
A/N: Gihee! Finally done for the first chapter! What do you think, did I do okay? Hope you've enjoyed it and saw how different it has from the original 'Tangled' movie. If you think I overdone, said, or made something in this story that you don't approve, tell me about it. If ya like the story tell me why. I'd appreciate constractive reviews and suggestions, just don't flame me.
Next chapter Levy's arrival and Jose's evil schemes! Stay tune...
