Well, my first story, and its probably going to take a while to finish in Chapters, this contains the prologue and the first chapter of the "Tangle Kingdom arc", its also kind of short but the rest are longer. And as a closing statement... Fairy Tail FTW!


Prologue: A new Fairy Tail?

Reports are rolling in of a new Guild
in the small nation of Albero, the
identity of those inside the Guild and
their activities are mostly a secret
to the rest of the world but the reports (photo missing from archive)
have simply been rolling in about
their antics. The Guild, known
as Eternity Star, is facing severe
detractors due to the massive amounts
of property damage coming out of their activities every week. It's even
been said that they've faced closure from the Council due to their
behaviour. Sound like anyone else we know? Unfortunately, as we are
based in Fiore, we cannot seek out this new Guild for an interview
however, we do implore any members of Eternity Star reading. Come
to us! Especially if you'd look good in a swimsuit for the front page!

--Rewind a few weeks--

"Man, this train journey is taking forever."
"Forever? That's completely impossible!"
"It was a figure of speech, Newton. Come on, make an effort." The muscular man identified as Newton looked momentarily confused before shrugging and sitting back in his seat, his tall frame filling a double bench by himself easily. His dark hair was swept back from his brow and spiked away from his face in all directions, exposing his heavy brow and firm gaze that was fixed staring at a point in the middle-distance. He was wearing a plain grey long sleeved shirt and black trousers tucked into heavy black boots with steel plates welded onto them. The best way to describe him would be exceptionally neat and ASTOUNDINGLY serious.
His much shorter conversational partner looked wearily out of the window and sighed to himself, they looked pretty close to opposites at the moment. While Newton's hair was dark and quite short, his was light brown, long to the point it was almost to his shoulders, and flicked haphazardly at the ends rather than the organised blown back look that Newton achieved. Instead of plain grey and black, he had a sky blue T-shirt that was loose to a ridiculous extent with a white hood stitched onto the back for no apparent reason and dark green trousers rolled up to around his shins with endless arrays of patches and repairs on them. He had him beat for shoes though, since he didn't have any. He was intending to buy some though. After they got paid for this job.
"Is Riette going to meet with us at the palace?"
"Why don't you shout that? I'm not sure everyone heard you."
"IS RIETTE-"
"SARCASM! Geez… Yes, Riette's gone on ahead. Can we file that kind of response under 'is being Sarcastic'?"
"I'll try to remember"
"Which is a nice way of saying you probably won't, isn't it?"
"Well, yes… It'd be much easier if you just said what you meant" Newton was confused as he saw his partner slump more in his seat and decided to look at the clock ticking away happily. They were almost certainly going to be late at this rate, although that couldn't be helped. His friend sighed and pulled out the poster again

Help Needed!
My beloved is about to marry another man!
Please help me win her back! From the Prince of Tangle
Reward: 1,000,000 J

"Man, any mission worth that much is BOUND to have a lot of baggage attached." He mused quietly to himself as a blue uniformed girl tottered down the aisles on extremely thin and pointy shoes.
"Tickets please tickets! Sir? Do you have your ticket?"
"Huh? Oh yeah sure" Absent-mindedly, the boy rummaged around in the pocket of his shirt and flicked a pale green sheet of card at the woman. She checked it and cleared her throat loudly, he looked up again
"Sir? Do you honestly expect me to believe your name is Hertz Carbine?"
"Ohhhh, this is going to be a looong day" Hertz sighed, knocking his head against the window. The train sped on towards its goal, the blazing orange fire of the sun illuminating the sparkling oceans as it washed against the sheer rock face, the winding mass of train-tracks spiralling ever upwards, climbing the mountain towards the jungle kingdom of Tangle.

Chapter 1: Albero's own Guild? Eternity Star's first mission!


 The marble pathway stretched along the short and meticulously trimmed garden lawn, the tiles were all polished to the point of shining. The entire area looked like it belonged in some paradise where people who had been particularly good and virtuous would go at the end of their long lives. It was for this reason that Hertz felt more than a little out of place in his bare feet, he was just grateful that a car had taken them from the train station. He felt that if he'd left large muddy foot-prints on the tiles they would have faced some more severe problems than just casual appearance.

Newton simply stood with his arms folded at Hertz side, despite being much larger and having a great physical presence that denoted authority, he'd been told that Riette was the leader on this mission and as such he would only take action if commanded to and told it was part of the mission, he wouldn't have even boarded the train if it hadn't been a direct order to USE the train. Hertz sighed, Newton wasn't normally like this, when they were at the guild he was quiet but at least he could act for himself and use his initiative. But on missions he was just… incredibly focused. It worked for the Guild Master, less for Hertz' need for conversation, in fact, he often wondered precisely why Newton followed orders so exactly. But that problem could be saved for another time.

"Alright… let's go and meet the Prince shall we?" Hertz grinned and flipped a thumbs up to his friend.
"No. We need to meet with Riette." Newton replied firmly not even acknowledging the thumb. Hertz' shoulders sagged visibly and he rubbed his eyes with his palms.
"She's… with the Prince?" Hertz decided to at least give it a shot, he seemed to believe everything else he said was intended as a true statement. Newton looked down to examine Hertz' face carefully. It held all the honesty and conviction of someone covered in blood claiming he had nothing to do with the murder. After being asked what the time was.
"Riette said she would meet us here. I see no reason to seek her out"
"Arrrrghh! Newton, come on man! Granny Semeti might not even be here yet!"
"Granny Semeti?" inquired a voice that sounded like it had about as much forgiveness as a blizzard. Hertz yelped and twirled on the spot, accidentally snapping his hand into a salute as he did so and looking firmly at a point in the middle distance, Newton simply retained his original position and the two nearly matched. "Good work Newton, I'd like you to proceed to the first room on the left after you pass the main doors, we'll meet you there in a minute"
"Right. I'll leave you two alone" Newton smiled slightly maliciously
"Newton… have mercy man!" Hertz implored as his comfortingly huge friend walked firmly and determinedly down the marble path. With a sinking feeling of terror he turned to face Riette.

She had dark green hair in a curly mane, purple eye-shadow over her eyes and a rich violet lip-stick on that made her look both attractive, yet too good for anyone to hit on. She was wearing a white coat complete with multiple pockets for stashing items and a thin red vest beneath it, she adjusted her stance and her tight leather trousers squeaked with the movement. She looked around thirty, and a good 14 odd years older than Newton and Hertz, explaining why she was the leader this time around.
"Well? Are you going to explain yourself"
"… I'm not one hundred percent certain that I can" Hertz replied honestly, he'd learnt long ago that honesty was the best policy in these situations.
"Hertz, you have to be serious, this is very important! It's the first real mission our Guilds ever under-taken, do you understand that?"
"Yes…"
"Good. Look, you're sensible. Most of the time, except when you're trying to play a prank or make a joke. And you're a good Mage, one of the best in our, admittedly small, Guild. Could you please just try to make sure this goes off without a hitch?"
"Alright, alright" Hertz held his hands up with an exasperated sigh, "For you, alright? And the old man, I know I owe the both of you." He grinned and held a hand out to her, his elbow bent into a V, Riette returned his smile and grasped it firmly. Without a word they turned and began walking towards the palace. About halfway to the door Hertz finally thought it safe to ask
"So, I take it we aren't encouraged to steal things from his house?"
"You are not"
"Right, OK, just checking"

As far as waiting rooms go, this one was pretty far up the (extremely short) list of Hertz' favourites. The entire room was deep scarlet and every surface he could find was quilted and soft to the touch, the carpet, the chairs and even the bench in the small alcove that looked out onto the garden. After some debate, he'd opted for sitting next to Newton on a double sofa and sunk half of the way into it from the sheer comfort. He let out a small contented sigh as Riette examined the walls. Rather than exposing the actual wall, red silk scarves were pinned over every single one disguising the colour beneath. She frowned slightly, that was an odd thing to do, given if he disliked the colour he could just have it painted. It gave the impression that he had something to hide… She was glad now she'd decided to accompany the two on this outing; she leant against the arm of the chair where Hertz was quickly succumbing to the joys of cushions when there was the noise of a door handle turning.

Without missing a beat she got to her feet, indicated for Newton to follow suite, and both of them grabbed Hertz' shirt as they stood so he was pulled bodily to his feet. The effect was when the Prince's attendant opened the door he saw two mages standing perfectly upright and one looking slightly dishevelled and a little irked. He cleared his throat gently into a single white gloved hand and announced in a deep rumbling voice,
"His royal Highness, Prince Roth of Tangle"

It's impossible to go into any social situation without a few preconceptions in your mind. However, to their credit, despite the fact the Prince looked nothing like what any of them had been expecting, they barely even reacted. Well… Riette may have recoiled in shock… and Newton might have hissed and winced… and Hertz sort of screamed a little bit, but compared to what they'd been expecting he WAS very different.

The Prince appeared to look very similar to your average 40 something year old office worker, balding with some strange style of moustache coming in that looked like he was aiming to take over several countries. His clothes were the usual raiment of a member of royalty, but the crown appeared to be slightly too big and hung around his neck like a collar. There was nothing exact about his face, maybe it was the half closed eyes, the overly large nose, or even the constantly down-turned mouth, but there was something about it that just made you feel uncomfortable to look at him. Riette suddenly had a very acute inkling that this mission was going to quickly turn into a mountain of falsehoods…

"Errr… your highness, we're here about your Guild request. I am Riette Semeti, this is Newton and… Hertz Carbine" She glared at the gawking Hertz and he hastily took a few steps back and waved jocularly at the Prince. The Prince tried to look happy about them being there but seemed to have some issues with getting his face to mimic the movements properly "We, ahhhh, we just need to ask for some more details… like, where this new wedding is taking place?"
"Oh?" the Prince squeaked in a hilariously improbable high pitched voice
"Oh come on now!" Hertz managed to get out before Newton clamped a hand down firmly and smiled at the Prince, waving to encourage him to continue. The Prince cleared his throat and his voice suddenly dropped down several tones.
"Well, I don't actually know… it's why I can't go and tell my beloved I want her back, it's almost heart-breaking. All I know is that it should be in a village deep into the jungle" the Prince looked sheepishly at his feet, Riette tried to restrain any alarmed feelings she was currently holding and smiled as best she could.
"That'll be fine, well, if you give us the name of the village we'll just be going"
"Oh nonsense, I'm going to be coming too, a little stroll through the wilderness will do me the world of good" The Prince announced in a baritone, so deep that even Newton released his grip so both he and Hertz could stare open-mouthed in joint awe at the idea of this 40 something year old man journeying into the jungle, and his rapidly scaling vocal structure. Riette clearly wanted to protest but the Prince waved his hand as if waving away a fly and tottered his way to the front door to arrange more transportation. Before he left he turned to face the speechless face of Riette

"By the way, which Guild are you from?" when it was clear Riette was too baffled to say anything, Hertz stepped in.
"We're Eternity Star" Hertz mumbled, still looking shell-shocked like his friends "bringing you magical service with… with a great big smile"
"Oh, that's a nice slogan. Reminds me of when I was a lad" The Prince wandered away leaving three Mages just realising that they're mission was suddenly turning from 'Find and talk to a woman' to 'Bodyguard a Prince from assassinations WHILST trying to find and talk to a woman, in the middle of a Jungle'. Hertz sighed
"This is definitely going to be a long day…"

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