AN: originally this was gonna be one shot but it's beginning to evolve and will prob just be a small self contained story. Just a few chapters. Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think!

Fairy Tail and all its characters belong to Hiro Mashima

She ran and she ran as fast as she could. She wanted to get as far away from home as possible. Lucy Heartfilia, Princess of the land of Fiore, was done. Done and tired. She couldn't take it anymore, she couldn't take her father. He was always meddling in her life, always unbelievably unfair. After years of practically ignoring her, what gave him the right? And now...now he had done the worst thing yet. Now he was trying to tell her who she was going to marry. Sure she had known all the "rules" that came with being royalty but that didn't mean she ever liked them. And though she had shown otherwise her father still brought her "suitors", princes from other lands. Yuck! Well, a couple of them were pretty handsome but as soon as they opened their mouths it didn't matter in them east what they looked like.

The King had insisted she choose a suitor….no he demanded she choose a husband and if she didn't one would be chosen for her. She looked on in horror, then in private, she tried her best to reason with him. If only at the very least to put it off a couple more years. But King Jude was having none of that, no he wouldn't listen to her and so began the yelling and the threats and the lectures. Lucy couldn't take it anymore and so she ran, she ran and she ran. She was done and tired of this life. Sure it was only 18 years of it, not at all a lifetime but it felt like it at times.

Lucy ran from the castle, out of the gates, leaving the city. She knew the city like the back of her hand and the palace guardsmen didn't stand a chance. Lucy thanked god that she had spent so much time with Levy and Cana, running around the city and whatnot. Lucy smiled as she ran and silently thanked and apologized to her friends. She wasn't planning on coming back. Not anytime soon.

Before she knew it the princess had left the city behind and was running through the thick forest that lay beyond the palace. She began to slow as she heavily panted, fighting to catch her breath. Beads of sweat rolled down the side of her face. She slowed to a decent walking pace and looked down at her dirty and torn dress. Not very princess like. She smiled, proud of that fact. She looked up and saw the mountain in front of her and sighed heavily.

"Well, I've come this far." She said looking up at the mountain and the darkening sky. "No way I'm going back now." She says looking behind her before continuing onward.

Lucy began to think that just maybe she hadn't thought things through. No, she was still glad she left, but deciding to climb the mountain right away was probably a mistake. Considering the mountain became mountains, and in the last hour the temperature had begun dropping rather quickly and the clouds were getting darker. She huffed unhappily. Was the world turning against her and her chance for freedom? If so, there was no way in hell she was giving in. Her great escape was catching up to her though. Her feet hurt, she was starving, and...oh look it just started raining. Lucy wanted to tell out in frustration.

"I'm not going back! You can't make me!" She yelled out defiantly at the dark sky.

The sky thundered heavily and lighting lit up the mountainside as if to answer her. It was probably coincidence but it didn't stop Lucy from being a little frightened. Then as if to further the awkward moment, or whatever you wanted to call it, the heavens opened the floodgates and the rain feel hard and heavy to the earth. Lucy now soaked beyond belief began to run again. Where? She sure didn't know. There didn't seem to be shelter anywhere near her. The lightning flashed again and this time something caught her eye. Did she see that right? She stopped and looked harder through the rain. The Lightning came again and her suspicions were confirmed. A cave! Which meant shelter. She smiles brightly and took off toward her saving grace.

She finally reached the cave and got out of the rain. She was still soaked, she was cold and hungry and she was still hurting but at least she had shelter for the night. She walked in deeper, away from the mouth of the cave. There was less air so it was oh so slightly warmer. She hugged her arms to her body and rubbed herself to try and get warm. She leaned against the cave wall and slumped to the ground, her body huddled together as she shivered.

"Well well well. What do you have here?" Came a male voice from inside the cave.

Lucy gasped and looked in the direction it came from. A fire was suddenly lit and she looked in awe at the figure walking toward her, her eyes wide. It was a boy, a man? But not a man. The first thing she noticed was the fire seemed to be aflame in his hand but that wasn't the weirdest. Not this man wasn't like any other she had seen before. He had red scales that ran up his arms and legs, he had two horns on his head and, was that a tail? He had what seemed to be a long red, scaly tail though that was the hardest to make out. She stared at the half man before her as he came to a halt right in front of her.

"And who might you be?" He asked and she couldn't tell if he was mad or being playful. She looked up at him still shivering, but enjoying the little bit of heat emanating from the fire in his hand. "Oh a princess? Are you a princess?" He asked as he looked over the drenched form huddled in the ground. She gave a small nod. He growls dangerously at her answer and his nose wrinkles as if in disgust. "Sucks to be you then. Guess today just isn't your day." He smiles dangerously as his other hand lights on fire.

"Wha-what do you mean?" Lucy asks beginning to get scared.

"Well, you're a Heartfilia aren't you?" He asks, the way he says her last name with venom in his voice not lost on her. She carefully nods. And his sinister smile grows. "Well then I can send your charred remains back to daddy. What is it you humans say, eye for an eye?"