"Apologies Master, would you like for slave to make it cooler?" a soft feminine voice responds from under the hood. He stops and turns around looking up at her. His eyes traveling up and down the pale flesh he can see peaking out from under the cloak. Then stop at her face even with her face in a relaxed neutral position and half of it hidden with a blindfold she was still breathtaking. Yet anger swelled and contorted his features. "How dare you!", he yelled at her. She shrank back and lowered to her knees at his voice. "You're trying to trick me into letting you use magic. You will be punished for this, you naughty slave." He pulls a riding crop from his belt. Walking around behind her he waves a hand over a silver cuff on his wrist and her cloak disappears. Her pale skin almost glowing in the late day sun he looks at the dragon seal tattoos down her spine. 'I mustn't be too hard on her or I'll damage those lovely tattoos.' he thought to himself. "I think we'll use lightning for your punishment." he cruelly chuckles. The crop starts to crackle and arc with yellow light. He brings the crop down hard but does not hit her with it instead the electricity leaps off and dances across her back making her scream but not damaging her back. Again and again he swings the crop making her scream louder and louder until he is satisfied. Once again he waves his hand over the cuff and her cloak returns.
"Thank you, Master, you are too kind." she pants out. Her breath is visible as if on a winter day though the temperature is very warm.
"Yes, I am" he replied smuggly, "Now, get your big lazy ass in gear we need to make it to the next town. I refuse to go camping." He heads off without waiting for her to stand. "Of course Master." She staggers to her feet and follows her teeth clenched due to the pain she's still feeling. 'Master does not wish to hear any utterance of pain after he is finished punishing me', she reminds herself so as to not cry out again. The pair continue down the road until they reach town. By this time its early evening just past sundown. Once again the little toadish man is complaining. "We're late. Do you know how hard it's going to be to find a hotel room?" He barks at the cloaked girl.
"Forgive me, Master, if slave hadn't made you punish her we wouldn't be late." she replies softly. He waves off her comment with his hand and walks into a hotel. The hotel lobby is brightly lit with music softly playing.
"Welcome" the receptionist chirps as the pair walk in. The toadish man walks up to the counter conjuring a small set of steps so he can see over the counter at the woman standing behind it.
"I need a room for the night." he barks at her showing not much patience in his voice. The receptionist looks at him for a few moments.
"Well, sir, all of our double rooms are full and all we have left are singles so will that be two rooms?" Anger plays across his face again.
"How dare you suggest my slave should have a separate room. I will take the single and she will sleep on the floor." The little man yelled at her. The receptionist startled at his outburst quickly checks him in and directs him to the room.
Narrorator's exposition; Though not directly outlawed in Fiore slavery is generally frowned upon and highly uncommon.
The receptionist couldn't help but feel sorry for the cloaked girl. Shortly after the pair checked in another group of wizards make thier way to the hotel. "Why are we walking again?" the dark haired shirtless wizard asks.
"Because the job is close enough that we can and Natsu can't handle transportation." Replies the flying blue cat hovering above the group. The dark haired wizard looks over at his pink haired companion with some contempt.
"This job was not listed as urgent so walking does not pose a danger and I prefer to not deal with a nauseaous Natsu." Chimes in the scarlet haired woman bringing up the rear of the group.
"I agree with Erza having Natsu ready to go during the trip is better than worrying about something going wrong on the way." Giggles the blonde at the front. "Besides, Grey, we made it to town let's get a room and meet the client in the morning."The group enters the hotel. "Welcome" the receptionist chirps at the new arrivals. Erza steps up to the counter. "Yes we would like some rooms for the night." The receptionist smiles warmly. "No problem I do need to tell you we are out of double rooms so I hope singles are ok." Erza nods her head.
"We'll need four rooms then."
"Why don't I count?" the blue cat whines as it lands on the counter.
"Because you don't need a whole room, Happy, you can share with someone." Erza looks over at the Happy.
"Oh what a cute kitty!" exclaims the receptionist who gives Happy and scratch behind the ears. "Would you like a some fish?" she asks Happy.
"Aye!" relies Happy.
"Well I'll send some to your room then." she smiles at him. And with that they are given thier room keys and directed to thier rooms. Later that night Natsu and Happy are enjoying the fish the receptionist promised when they hear a scream from one of the rooms. The come rushing out into the hall as well as the rest of thier team. Without saying a word they all start searching the hall for the source of the scream. They come to the door at the end of the hall and hear another scream. The blonde goes to the door and knocks. "Are you okay in there?" she calls out.
"I don't think that's going to work, Lucy." Grey says with a snarky tone. Just then they are greeted with another scream.
"I'll take that as a 'no'." Erza quips as she summons her sword and kicks down the door in one breath. They step into the room to see an almost naked girl curled up in a ball on the floor and a man standing over her holding a crop that is bathed in flames. Several angry red welts streak across the girl's back. So far none of the strikes have broken skin.
"What is the meaning of this?" Erza and the man ask in unison. Then the monsterous toadish man answers Erza.
"Silence, wench, I'm punishing MY slave for her willful mistakes. Now leave!" He tosses a blast of wind that pushes the group back out the door and the door slams closed. The group stands stunned for a moment in front of the door. Then they hear the girl's screams coming in more rapid succession. To them this means that the man had redoubled his efforts in punishing the girl. Erza has a flashback of her childhood as a slave and becomes furious. She looks over her shoulder and sees everyone ready to attack and with a deep breath she kicks the door in again.
"You will stop punishing her!" Erza declares as she steps into the room. The girl on the floor is now looking worse for wear. The man now has a maniacal look in his eyes.
"I'll stop long enough to rid myself of you lot, but now you have just tripled her punishment." At his increased size the man steps over his slave's body easily. "She screams so well I love to hear it. And who knows if I like your screams I may just keep you as well." he says learing at Erza and Lucy. The man tries the wind trick again but this time the group is ready and are able to resist it. He grits his teeth and then tries to resize Erza's sword but because of it's magical properties it resists. He then rubs the silver cuff on his wrist. "Activate Seal" a small magic circle appears on the girl's back above one of the seven dragons tattooed on her spine and a larger one in front of the man, "Ice Dragon Armor." Suddenly the man is covered in a purple tinged ice armor. Now it's Natsu's turn to look angry.
"She's a dragon slayer! You're using her magic? To protect YOU?!" Natsu is barely able to spit out coherently.
"She is my slave it is her purpose to serve me and my needs." the man said smuggly. "Isn't that right, pet?" From the girl they hear a very weak answer.
"Yes, Master, slave's purpose is to serve you in all your needs." Natsu no longer able to contain himself launches at the Master shattering the ice armor in one firey punch.
"How?" the Master asks in suprise that the armor failed. Though his question is left unanswered as Natsu lays into him with a barrage of blows that leave the man staggered. Erza is next to speak to the dazed man.
"You will release her and leave this place." The man starts to chuckle at Erza's tone.
"No she's mine, all mine." He activates another seal with the cuff "Ice Dragon Roar" but this time the attack doesn't transfer to him, the girl picks up her head and roars.
Grey thinking quickly "Ice Make Shield" and blocks her rather weak roar. Grey looks through the shield at her upturned face and sees that she is blindfolded. He also catches a glimpse of the glowing jewel at her throat. "Erza, we need to end this quickly before he saps everything out of her." In the close quarters of the room Grey is able to relay this without shouting. Erza gives a slight nod in agreement.
While this little hotel room battle has been raging Happy has flown out of the hotel in search of a town guard or someone with the authority to arrest the man. Happy saw the man has the crest of a dark guild and his instincts tell him that this man will not turn over a new leaf once defeated. Happy feels himself to be in luck when he finds a magic council guard. After a brief explination of what is happening the guard runs back to the hotel with Happy leading the way. When they arrive they find that the girl's master has been defeated. Erza and the others hand him over to the guard but they do take the controller cuff from the master before doing so. The guard wants to take the girl as well but Erza persuades him otherwise and declares that they will take her back to Fairytail with them. In the morning they meet with the client and find that defeating the dark mage was the job. And he happily pays them the reward. Due to the sensitive nature of traveling with the slave girl the group keep her cloaked and rent a magic car to get back to Magnolia as quickly as possible. This of course makes Erza have to deal with Natsu's motion sickness. The girl doesn't travel well either but not a poorly as Natsu. The whole way back Grey sits in the back with the girl and tries to open the locks holding her blindfold and her collar on. Just as they are reaching Magnolia a very frustrated Grey exclaims "We should have searched that guy for keys not just taken the cuff."
"Slave has possession of some keys but Master forbids her to use them." she responds in almost a whisper.
"Let me see the keys." Grey commands. The girl reaches under the cloak and the jingle of keys can be heard under the cloak. She holds the ring of silver keys up for them to see. These are not the keys Grey was expecting they are celestial keys like Lucy uses. "Those won't open the locks." Grey says in a disappointed tone. The reach the guild hall and quickly usher the girl inside and up to Makarov's office. Once in Makarov's office they give the quild master a quick explanation of what happened. Makarov looks over the girl and her restraints. He asks her for the keys she is carrying. She hands them over with no question. He looks over the keys and the locks as well as the cuff.
"In order to release her from these devices we need the keys." Makarov starts.
"Well then we are going to have to request access to her former master from the magic council then." Erza interjects.
"No, we won't because she has given us the answer to get them." Makarov chuckles.
"How so?" Grey asks.
Makarov holds up the celestial keys, "With these." The group still looks confused. Makarov takes the keys and hands them to Lucy. "If you would be so kind my dear I believe that two of these spirits should hold the actual keys to her restraints." Lucy takes the keys and opens each gate she questions each spirit for the keys to the slave girl. She is rewarded with four keys which she promptly hands over to Makarov. After several minutes of fussing with the locks they finally open and the remove the blindfold and collar. The cuffs were easily removed by using the master's cuff. The girl blinks and looks around Makarov's office. "Now my dear," Makarov addresses her, "what is your name?"
She looks at Makarov as if blinking back tears. "You mean I'm allowed to have my name again?" Makarov gives her an odd look but then it changes to understanding and he nods. "Rina, my name is Rina." She responds.