Disclaimer:
I do not own any of the characters or plot ideas from Fairy Tail. It is owned by Mashima Hiro.
Sitting on a high branch in a forest, a young man looks longingly up to the stars… silently he makes a wish to the heavens above. Smiling softly… he shuts his eyes and slowly goes to sleep… unaware of the shooting stars that leave a blazing trail across the sky.
At the same time, in another place far away… a woman looks up at the velvety night sky while sitting on a back porch swing. Unbeknownst to her, she makes the same wish as the man… before she too soon falls asleep. A warm breeze picks up and rocks the swing with a gentle sway… shooting stars appear overhead to cover the clear sky.
A third place that is separate, but connected to the worlds the man and woman live in, a large figure watches the night sky. From two different directions, shooting stars streak through the air simultaneously. Carrying with them are the voices of the man and the woman as they made their wish. After hearing both of their hearts' desire, the large figure starts to smile. Reaching out in the direction of the stars that carried the woman's wish, the figure plucks something unseen out of the air. Then turning to the direction the other set of stars came from, the figure lets go of whatever was plucked out of the air. Lowering the arm, the smile grows before the figure speaks.
"Now the rest is up to you two to make your wish come true…." The large figure walks away smiling to itself as the voices continue to echo throughout the air in a soft whisper….
"I wish to find someone who can help make me stronger…
…who can help me protect the ones that I love and cherish."
"Natsu! Where are you?" A feminine voice calls out.
"Over here, Lucy!" replies a young man with pink, spiky hair and wearing a white-scaled scarf that is wrapped around his neck. He is standing outside of an immense wooden wall while sniffing the air. Nearby, a young blonde girl appears out of the village that is surrounded by the wall.
"What are you doing, Natsu? We are about to leave." she says in an annoyed tone.
"Something isn't right. There is a weird smell in the air…. Like something doesn't belong." states Natsu seriously.
"Eh!? Oh no! Don't tell me it's something to do with that demon Deliora again!" Lucy shouts out suddenly, attracting the attention of their other teammates and some of the villagers.
"What's going on? What's this about Deliora?" gruffly demands a young scarlet-haired woman.
Shaking his head in denial, Natsu replies between sniffs. "No, it isn't Deliora, but it doesn't smell natural either… If it's another demon, it isn't one that lives here. The smell is just too different… Too unnatural." The blonde girl holds her hands in front of her busty chest and shivers in fear.
A blue-furred cat with wings hovers over by Lucy and states simply, "It's probably just Lucy. She is smelly." He then puts a paw over his mouth to unsuccessfully stifle a laugh.
Enraged, the blonde girl named Lucy yells while stomping, "I don't stink, you crappy cat!"
Ignoring this, a young man with messy black hair asks with a grim voice, "What if it has something to do with Deliora? Maybe we should check it out to be on the safe side for the villagers' sake?"
"Hmm." hums the red-headed woman as she crosses her arms in annoyance. One of the villagers who resembles a tall green lizard man approaches the group using a spear as a walking stick.
"If you would help us check this out before you leave, we would be eternally grateful. Well, its not like we aren't already, but this would be tremendously helpful." The older woman closes her eyes for a moment to seriously consider the request before snapping her eyes open.
"Ok, we will check this out. Natsu, can you pinpoint where the smell is coming from?" she asks commandingly.
Pointing towards the forest, he replies, "It seems to be coming from that direction, but it seems fairly dispersed like it has some time to spread out. I should be able to find it when we get closer, but its hard to pinpoint from this distance."
The lizard-man villager takes a step forward and says, "Some of us can go scouting out in that direction to see if we can find anything while you follow the scent." The older woman replies with a nod while humming in approval.
"Let's move out and stay in contact, we don't want anyone to get separated before we know what we are facing." She says in a militant voice before running in the direction Natsu pointed to. The pink-haired man quickly takes the lead and starts tracking down the scent. Several of the villagers, who all look like different types of demons, spread their wings and follows after the group. After a handful of minutes, Natsu suddenly stops and takes a long sniff in the air.
"We're here. Whatever it is, it has to be around here." He rubs his nose hard. "I smell human as well, but whatever this smell is, it's really irritating my nose." He crinkles up his face in distaste as he keeps rubbing at his sensitive nose. He then turns to the older woman with a serious look. "What do you want us to do, Erza?"
"Spread out. Stay in sight of each other. Be on guard, and let out a shout if you find anything suspicious." she says before walking forward with confidence. The rest of the group follows her instructions and starts to comb the woods.
"We'll start searching around from the air." calls out one of villagers, the canopy being too thick to tell who shouted. A few minutes of searching later, Lucy slips on some moss on top of a large rock and falls before letting out a large yelp as she lands.
"Luce, you ok?" calls out Natsu as he heads over to check on his friend.
"Nothing damaged but my pride." says Lucy with a shaky laugh. "At least I landed on something soft." She looks down and gives out a squawk in surprise. The soft thing she landed on turns out of be a rather plump woman with brown hair who appears to be unconscious and in a pair of thick, grey cloth pants, odd red socks, and what looks to be a light green nightgown. Natsu vaults over the rock and lands on the other side of the woman while quickly followed by the cat, Erza, and the man with black hair. Lucy quickly gets off the woman and joins her friends.
They inspect her closely as Natsu squats down and starts to sniff near her head. "That's her! She's the one who smells weird. She does smell human as well, but it's drowned out by this irritating stuff, like she got dumped in something… But its getting weaker. Very weird..." While explaining this, he doesn't notice the woman's eyes start to open.
I start to wake up, feeling sluggish and disoriented. The first thing I realize is that my stomach hurts, a lot. Damn, what the hell did I eat to cause this? The next thing I notice is that there is an unfamiliar voice right by my ear. I open my eyes to see a tuft of pink hair in front of me, soon followed by a face. I gasp in surprise and try to back away, only to find that I'm laying on my back next to something hard. The face, which I realize is male, quickly backs enough distance away for me to sit up. Behind him are two girls and one other guy. Breathing hard, I look around quickly to assess my situation.
What the hell is going on? Why am I in these woods, and who the hell are these people? I voice out my thoughts and they look at me really confused. "Who are you? Where the hell am I?!" I ask again, now starting to panic and shout. One of the girls, a blonde, comes forward and makes 'calm down' motions with her hands while spouting out some gibberish. My breathing starts to calm down since these people aren't making any threatening moves towards me, yet. I push myself up onto my feet unsteadily, eyeing the four people in front of me.
I hear them speak to each other in that weird language. I don't recognize that language. Some of the words seem familiar though. Wait, watashi? That's Japanese! But the rest of that doesn't sound Japanese. Hold on, Mr. Grumpy-face there just said cool in English. What is going on here? I see that the pink-haired male is staying quiet and just stares at me. It gives me a bit of an uneasy feeling. But nothing in my 27 years of life would've ever prepared me for what I saw next. A blue cat with wings suddenly appears to my left, causing my eyes to pop out. I shriek out in surprise and disbelief. Twisting to face it, I stagger back to put distance between it and me. I see it put a paw over its mouth and it laughed!?
This cat is flying and laughing? Where the hell am I?! In OZ? Or maybe Wonderland? It sure the hell isn't my world… Feeling cornered by the rocks around me and the unknown situation, I start breathing heavily in panic. The four people approach me slowly. I scramble backwards trying to climb over the rocks while not taking my eyes off them. They try to calm me down, or so it seems from their actions and the tone of their voices. My hands land on a stick and I grip it, in case I might need it. Starting to get over my flying cat shock, their smiles slowly start to put me at ease again. Without a bit of warning, a shape blurs down from the canopy quickly followed by a few more. I don't know how many… All I can tell is that the other people are unaware of them.
What are those?…. I gasp in astonishment. Monsters? Demons!? No fucking way! They are coming this way! Holy shit! And those people don't know that they are right behind them. I gotta do something! Still holding the stick, I push the four in front of me out of the way and let out a war cry to attack the demons. I see that the lizard man thing in front has a spear in his hands. Oh fuck, this won't end well. The demons look extremely surprised at my sudden attack and I was able to hit the one in front across the knuckles which causes it to let go of the spear.
Unfortunately, my stick breaks after one hit. Now I'm left with just a stub. I motion for the other people to get away while I back up, hoping to find another weapon. To my utter surprise, I feel hands on my arms, restraining me. I turn to look to see the four people I tried to protect are now holding me still. The hell! Are they with the demons?! FUCK!
I struggle trying to get free while shouting in fear, "Let me go, you bastards! Let me go!" I see the demon that I hit walking up to me and I increase my struggles. I'm making the people on my arms stumble around, but damn they got a good grip on me. I can't seem to get free. Next thing I know, there is pain at the back of my neck and blackness overcomes me.
"What the hell was that all about!" shouts out Natsu in anger as he and the others gently lay the woman down on the ground. Lucy puts a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.
"I don't know exactly what's going on, but she was scared. Even when she attacked the villagers, she looked scared." said the black-haired guy.
"How could you tell, Gray?" asked Lucy while Natsu just huffed in frustration. Erza answered for Gray.
"Her eyes, she had that look to them as she pushed us out of the way. But she was brave though. I guess she thought that the villagers were bad and tried to protect us by attacking." she looked down at the sleeping woman.
"She can't be that brave. She was scared of me as well!" cried out the blue flying cat in a happy manner.
"It could be she never saw a flying blue cat before." countered Gray.
Erza walks over to the villager who was attacked. "Are you ok?"
He nods before looking down at the strange woman. "Yea, I'll be fine. Heh, didn't expect to get attacked like that. She gave me a pretty good wallop with that stick. Stronger than she looks, that one." he ends with a slight chuckle.
"I wonder what she was saying, I don't know that language she was using." said Lucy thoughtfully.
"Che, whatever she said, it pissed me off." says Natsu in an annoyed manner.
"Yea, she was probably calling you an idiot." replies Gray mockingly.
"What was that frost-brain?!" yelled Natsu.
"You heard me charcoal-breath!" taunted Gray.
"Boys." said Erza in a stern manner. They both shut up quickly and Lucy just sighed at their antics. "Well, whoever she is or wherever she came from, I think it would be best if we take her back to the village. I couldn't detect any magical presence from her, so I believe her to be a non-mage." She looks over to the villagers who are now gathered around the group. "That is if you're ok with this action. I, of course, don't want to make you and the rest of the village uncomfortable."
The villagers all look towards each other, some nodding, others shaking their heads. "Maybe we should let her go with you guys. If she wakes up in our village, she might attack us with more than just a stick." the green lizard man says calmly. Erza nods at their decision and turns to face her friends.
"Ok you three, pick her up and carry her. Until we can figure out what to do with her, she will be coming with us." states Erza calmly.
"What!? Why do we have to carry her!" yells out Natsu in anger. Erza gives him a frightening glare which causes the younger trio to huddle together in fear.
"Do I have to remind you why?" she asks coldly.
In unison, they quickly reply, "No! We'll carry her!" Satisfied, the scarlet-haired woman nods and turns before walking back to the village. The villagers give the woman one last look before opening their wings to fly back to the village and report what happened.
Grumbling under their breath about how heavy the woman was, Lucy, Gray, and Natsu situate themselves around her to pick her up. Natsu grabs her by the legs with his back facing her. Lucy in the middle supporting her back while holding up her gown to keep it from dragging and ripping. Gray holding onto her under her armpits. As they move a few steps, something clatters to the ground. Curious, they stop to see that something fell out of the mystery woman's clothes. A small, thin, almost hand-sized object is laying on the ground with some odd looking strings attached to it. It's grey with some sort of bird symbol on it.
"Maybe she is a mage. That could be a guild symbol." says Lucy quietly.
"Get moving, we need to be getting back to the guild." Erza sharply calls out. The trio jumps in surprise, and Lucy quickly picks up the item and sticks it her pouch with her keys before they resume the trek back. Because of their burden, it took them close to an hour to get back to the village.
"Go and grab your stuff, its time to leave." Erza barks out as she goes to get her giant wagon of luggage. Setting the woman down just outside the village, the three just groan and rub their backs before heading to the huts that has their stuff. The chief walks up to Erza as the others are grabbing their things and goes to give her the reward.
"Wh-What?! You can't accept the reward…?" stutters out the chief in surprise when Erza refuses to take the money.
With a small happy smile Erza replies, "Yup. Your happiness is enough for us. We appreciate it."
Dumbfounded, the chief says, "Hoga… but…" before being cut off by Erza.
"As I told you last night, this request wasn't officially accepted by our guild. A couple of idiots just rushed into all of this." she tells him.
With a very pleased grin the chief says, "Hogah… but that still doesn't change the fact that we were saved. Will you accept this as a thank you gift to friends, instead of a reward to the guild.?"
Shaking her head with smile in place, she replies "It's hard to reject it if you put it that way."
Gray exclaims, "7 million jewels!"
"Whoa!" Natsu adds.
Ignoring the commentary behind her, she continues on, "But to accept that, would mean going against what our guild stands for. Although we will gratefully accept the additional award: the golden key."
The boys quickly shout, "We don't want that!"
Lucy shouts at the boys, "I want that!"
The chief's son steps up and asks, "Then at least let us take you to Harujion."
Erza says simply, "No need… We have our ship ready." The villagers all look to Erza in surprise. She just nods gently before turning to grab the handle of her luggage wagon. She gives her friends a questioning look to see if they were ready to leave. As Gray, Lucy, and Natsu all give a thumbs up, a groan could be heard behind them.
My head is in pain. I groan and I roll onto my side to rub my temples. What a crazy ass nightmare. Demons, and flying blue cats. Never had that before. As I start to sit up, I notice something. I'm on the ground. The hell? I open my eyes and can't make out anything. Damn watery eyes. Why do they always water up like this when I wake up? Rubbing my eyes vigorously, my vision returns. I blink them a few more times to get rid of any leftover blurriness. Looking up and around I soon notice a huge wood wall with some tents inside. It's a village… what is going on here?
I see the group gathered in the center and I squint my eyes to make them out. It's those people I saw in my dream! Terrifying creatures are surrounding the people, and they are… talking? Oh gods. It wasn't a dream… Panic sets in and a small cry of fear escapes unbidden from my mouth. I clamber to my feet as fast as I can to try to get away. A small wave of dizziness hits and I stumble some before I get my balance. Turning away, I hear a shout from behind me as I start entering the woods. I look back at that shout without stopping and I see the pink-haired male running after me. Shit, he's fast! I gotta try to dodge. I turn back to see where I'm putting my feet so I won't trip.
Way too soon for my liking, I hear his footfalls behind me. I dodge to my left while turning, so I can try going in a different direction after he misses. Or at least that was the plan. The plan did not include him catching me in a bear hug of a tackle which caused us both to fall and roll down an unseen hill. My dizziness increases until it gets to the point where all I could do was close my eyes and hold on to him. I pray that the rolling will stop soon. My head hits something just before we stop rolling and I am knocked silly. My grip lessens and my arms flop down to the ground.
Breathing heavily from the rush, the world and the sky just spin in a sickening way. I close my eyes in an attempt to shut out the world to wait for it to right itself. I don't know how long I was like that before I feel like I'm recovering. My breathing slows and weirdly enough I'm feeling calmer now. Why was I riled up earlier? Ow, my head hurts. I open my eyes, only to have to shut them again. Why am I feeling dizzy? What happened? And why do I feel so warm?
I shift my body a bit to get more comfortable while I try to figure out what's going on. A small groan near my ear causes me to stiffen. Movement is felt that I did not cause and it dawns on me that there is something laying on top of me. Soon as I realize this, my eyes shoot wide open causing me to hiss in pain while narrowing them. Big mistake. Ow. The headache does not like sunlight. I squint up into the sky and let my eyes get adjusted to the light. With the headache subsiding, it gets easier to reason out my situation.
First thing I figure out is that I am laying on my back on the ground, and some guy is laying on top of me. Or at least I'm assuming it is a guy from how deep that groan was. Second, whoever this is, has pink hair. Why does pink ring a bell? Ugh, its hard to think straight. My body feels like a limp piece of spaghetti, I can barely move my limbs much less anything else to get him off of me. His body is heavy, but not where I couldn't breathe easily. A sudden gust of warm air fans across on my neck and it clicks that this guy's head is on my shoulder.
So that's where the pink hair is coming from. Pink hair. There's something important I need to remember about pink hair. But what? Turning my head to look at it better, I get a whiff of something, something nice and soothing. I breathe in the smell some more and it calms and relaxes me more. It's very light, so I have trouble trying to place it. Almost on cue, he starts moving again and a weight lifts off of me. I immediately miss the feeling of warmth as he lifts himself up. So he was the cause of it.
My thoughts are still jumbled, but piece by piece things are clicking together. His face appears in my field of view, hovering over me. I look at him intently trying to remember. Huh, odd looking scarf. A piece clicks. What's that odd mark on his arm? Looks kinda like a bird. Is that a tattoo? Another piece clicks. He was the one who tackled me. I was running and he chased me down and tackled me! His head moves closer until we were arm's length apart. Why was I running? I still feel weak limbed and make no effort to get up or move. As my eyes wandered around trying to find more clues, I stop when I get to his face. Or more accurately, his eyes.
I do nothing but stare into those onyx eyes. Mesmerized, I don't notice anything else until a nearby shout jerks me out of that stupor. He moves out of sight and I feel more than hear a thump of him sitting down by my left side. I turn my head gingerly, mindful of my headache, in the direction the shout came from. Three seemingly familiar people were running down a hill in our direction. I seen them before. I know I did. Where though? A few seconds tick by, then the last piece clicks into place. Fear shoots through me and fuels my limbs into action.
Crap, it's the demon allies. Gotta go, gotta go! Move arms! Move! It takes a lot of willpower to push myself into a sitting position. I barely notice the blue flying cat as it flies into the arms of the guy next to me. They start babbling happily to each other while I'm focusing on escape. I scoot away on my butt a few times before feeling up to turning over for a crawl. I pick up some distance from Pinky and the cat as I make a desperate attempt for escape. Gathering my legs under me, I make a push to stand upright. That was the plan until something strong attaches to my ankle and yanks, causing me to fall.
I twist quickly out of reflex to land on my side and use my arms to protect my head. Thank you Theater Arts! I push my upper body up enough to look behind me ignoring the new wave of dizziness and pain that assaults my mind. Pinky has a grip on my ankle while giving me a very intense look, and I consider kicking his hand to break free. That is until I see Mr. Grumpy-Face and Blondie almost upon us, with Red leading the pack. What is that in her hand… a sword? A sword! And she is heading over here and looks angry! Shit shit shit shit! I try yanking my leg free, but Pinky's grip only tightens. I start crying as I realize that I'm not getting away.
As Red gets close to within striking distance, I curl up as much as I can into a ball and use my arms to protect my head. Her footsteps stop in front of me and a sob escapes. Mom, Dad, I love you. I'm sorry. I feel something touch my head, and I curl into a smaller ball. Whatever is on my head moves back and forth with nothing else happening. Just the movement on my head. Wait, is she stroking my head? What the hell is going on?
I relax after a couple of moments when there is no change in the situation and I dare to peek out from under my arms.
Red is crouched in front of me with a soft and gentle smile on her face. To say I'm surprised is putting it mildly. What is going on? I thought she was about to literally unleash hell on me. I relax slightly and uncurl my body as it seems that she isn't going to do anything harmful to me. She stops stroking my head and leans back on her heels. The blue cat says something while flying over our heads which causes Pinky to reply in a shout. Startled, I look quickly over at him to see an angry pout accompanied by a blush on his face.
I would be a liar if I said that blush wasn't cute on him. I feel my cheeks warm a little in response. I see that Pinky released his grip on my ankle and I tuck my leg in closer to me. I look away from him only to see the Mr. Grumpy-Face and Blondie watching me with amused expressions. A low, gentle voice brings my attention back to the woman in front of me. I look at Red as she looks at me, also with an amused expression. What the god given heck is going on here? It doesn't seem to be like they are going to hurt me. But then what was that bit about the demons?
She says something to me in the gibberish that I can't make out. I tilt my head to the side confused and shake my head that I don't understand. She thinks for a bit and taps an armored hand to her chest and says a word. When she then points at me, I get what she wants. My name.
Sitting up in a cross legged position, I tap myself on the chest and say, "Krystina." She repeats my name in a garbled up way, so I repeat it slower and with more enunciation. "Krys-ti-na."
"Klis-ti-na." She says. Close enough. I had worse butcherings of my name. I nod in approval before pointing at her to repeat her name. Listening hard as she says it, I sense an odd inflection. Almost sounds like a mixture of 'R' and 'L'. Probably going to mess it up. Oh well, no one is perfect.
"Erlza." I say and she gives a nod of approval. Well at least I didn't mess that up too much. Maybe. Now I don't have to keep calling her Red. I look at the other two as they come over to crouch near us. Blondie by Erza's right, and Mr. Grumpy-Face by her left. Blondie goes next on the name game.
"Lucy." I blink in surprise and blurt her name out. What the hell, a name in English? What are the odds of that? She close her eyes and nods happily. A low voice male voice sounds off near me.
"Gray." I look over towards the black-haired in surprise and get a bigger one for my troubles. What the heck!? Why is his shirt off? Sure he looks good, but what kind of playboy stunt is this?
"Eh!?" I say in response of seeing him topless. Huh. Looks like he has the same tattoo as Pinky. A quick glance to my side confirms this. I also see the same mark on Lucy's hand. Ok, are they part of some sort of gang? I lean away from Gray, and Erza says something to him which causes him to freak out. I hear boisterous laughter coming from the side, so I look over and up to see Pinky standing up nearby laughing his ass off. He says something to Gray which causes Gray to yell back. Pinky is about to shout again when he glances over to me and sees my gaze.
He points to his face and says happily, "Natsu."
Looking into his eyes, I smile and whisper back, "Natsu."
Author Notes:
Just to point out, in the story I'm taking a lot of the cannon stuff from the manga and anime. Like the town Hargeon in the anime is spelled Harujion in the manga. I'm using a mix of the anime and manga for the conversations between the characters. This is why the chief is saying Hoga, because he is in the manga.
Also had it pointed out that not everyone will understand what Theater Arts is. It's a class offered in some schools that teaches you how to act. Like in a play/movie. You also learn acting techniques like how to fall down on the ground without injuring yourself.
More shall be revealed about our mystery woman named Krystina in the future chapters.