Chapter 1: Where the Story Begins Again...
The sun's warm rays penetrated through the slits made by the surrounding foliage, casting little specks of light across the earthy forest floor. Water vapour began to condense into dew drops as the air turned up a few degrees, slightly forming wet trails across the woman's lidded eyes. Drip drip drop… The sound of water droplets falling from the trees rang throughout her pale ears which were now half-covered with strands of vibrant golden hair. With the effort to claw away sand from a deeply buried shell, the blonde began to slowly open her eyes to an unfamiliar world of dense verdancy.
"Where am I?..." was the first thought that invaded her greatly disoriented mind. With a stiff hand, the woman impetuously rubbed her temple, trying to ease the throbbing pain that seemed to diffuse throughout her entire cranium and along the back of her neck. Gradually, it began subside but her confusion was still blatantly apparent.
The disoriented blonde scanned her doe brown eyes all over her surroundings, taking in the thick forest landscape, as if searching for answers from the rocks and leaves that lay scattered around her barely clothed body. But nothing made sense… where was she? The blonde didn't know and her mind attempted to reel back over the past few days. Even then, the only thing that bubbled in her mind was a blank wall of darkness.
Suddenly, a stir came from the trees to her left and she noticed a broad and tall silhouette approaching her vulnerable form. With butterflies erupting in her stomach, she instinctively pulled the white cloth draped over her body towards her neck and lay very still. "My my, what is a young beautiful woman like yourself doing all alone here in an isolated forest?", a deep voice asked with a hint of something that sent cold shivers down the unsettled woman's spine.
"You should know better than to hang around barely clothed in these regions", the voice further exclaimed, as the sight of a middle - aged man came out from the shade of the thick trees with an unsettling smirk on his tattooed face. The blonde began to whimper nervously and with desperation she responded tearily back "P-please don't d-do anything. I don't know where I am or what happened. I have n-no memories". The caped man began to walk closer to her with a perverse grin and with a jovial tone he proceeded to say "Well princess, it would be a pleasure to help you… but on one condition you will become my slave".
With a callous and unforgiving laughter, the man propelled himself forward to pin the disheveled blonde to the ground, but out of fear and desperation she swiftly pushed his arms and scampered hurriedly along the forest floor. The sound of soggy leaves crumpling began to echo throughout the deathly silent atmosphere and whatever energy was stored in her sore limbs became depleted as she sprinted with no intention of looking back. Unfortunately the now furious man was not far behind…
"Come back here you filthy trash, I'm not done with you. The great Salamander always gets what he wants" yelled the blonde's follower, eyes now filled with utter rage and a slight tinge of his ego being hurt. Suddenly, a strong hand had grasped around the woman's flailing arms and a foot swung brutally to her right hip, causing her to tumble onto the wet dirt. Her pain fibres went into overdrive and tears were streaming down her face as she clutched her side before attempting to flee again.
"You're not getting away this time, you piece of slime" declared the same voice that made the beaten blonde's heart palpitate wildly and her mind enshrouded in fear. The man was now crouched down, running his sweaty hands closer towards the dirt stained cloth that wrapped around her helpless body. Closer and closer they came…
"STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!" she screamed piercingly and in a sudden flash, her fists lunged forward striking the man directly in his bony chest. The blonde's mind was abruptly overcome with a celestial vision; a panorama of flickering stars that seamlessly decorated an ethereal blue sky. Her awestruck eyes carefully scanned the gloriously scenic landscape before transfixing on a single constellation. "Cancer…" she whispered subconsciously and with a blink of an eye, the constellation flared and spiraled into her chest and her mind was now returned to her fist rammed against the perverted man's ribs.
An orange glowing insignia abruptly painted the man's chest, resembling the image of a crab. Within seconds of recoiling her fists, the hand - sized marker exploded, forming a cross shaped incision where it was last seen. Blood seeped out eagerly from the deep wound and the blonde's chocolate eyes widened in surprise at what had happened. Without further thought, she hastily pushed herself up and was ready to make a leave but a purple swirl of fire wrapped menacingly around her ankles and charred her pale flesh.
Once again, the nerve signals coursed throughout her entire body and her knees came buckling down into the grimy foliage as she let out a beastly cry. As she laced her thin fingers around her seared ankle, her mind was overcome with a great sense of confusion. She was in a complete frenzy over the events that transpired as quickly as the rush of adrenaline coursing through her veins. Before the shell-shock could dissipate from her mind, the following words slid venomously through her ears…
"You will be mine Wanderer..."
A/N: That my friends was chapter 1! I really enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you found it quite intense as I had intended it to be. This was a much longer chapter and I hope you guys liked it :) As I mentioned in the last chapter, this is a 'mystery story' so the plot will begin to make sense as I progressively make more updates. Anyways, please follow/favourite this story and I would love to see some of your theories within the reviews :) Thanks for reading and let the mystery begin... :P Moc ~
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail and it's characters...that is all Hiro Mashima's but the plot in this story is mine :)
