Chapter 2 - The Tower
"What the hell," cursed Natsu, sitting up. He had landed in some kind of meadow and there was grass everywhere--in his mouth, in his hair, all over his new clothes.
This is freakin' WRONG, he thought, grimacing at his attire. He had woken up, spread-eagled in the field, his scarf almost choking him, and dressed in some kind of jacket with the most ridiculous sleeves ever. They were POOFY and had little slits in them, showing a shimmery gold fabric underneath. And those pants! What were they called? Breeches. Who the hell wears breeches nowadays? Oh, that's right. The same people who wear RIDING BOOTS. Natsu's grimace deepened as he picked up his feet, examining the leather sole. What the hell, indeed.
Natsu heaved himself to a standing position, stretching out his legs. At least these damn boots are comfortable, he thought. But oh, the horror that would fall upon him if he ever let Lucy see him wearing these.
Hmm. Speaking of Lucy. Natsu spun, surveying his little clearing. Nope, she wasn't here. Where was she then? It wasn't until he turned a 180 that finally, the shadow of the tower loomed over him. And it wasn't until he squinted real hard that he saw the little yellow thing flailing at the top. "...Lucy?"
Then the little yellow thing screamed and Natsu took off in the direction of the tower.
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A couple thorny rose bushes later, Natsu finally arrived at the tower. But something was off--no matter how many times he circled the damn thing, he couldn't find a door.
"What the hell is this?" he exclaimed, flames sprouting from his mouth. No door? How else was he supposed to get up there, climb?
Someone gasped. "Natsu? Natsu! Is that you?"
"Lucy! What're you doing up there?" he called, craning his neck upwards to see her standing on the balcony. "And what's that on your head?"
"Its my hair!" she wailed, "Its everywhere! Just get me down from here so we can cut it off!"
Natsu raised his eyebrow. "So wait. I'm supposed to save you? Like the whole damsel in distress thing?"
"Oh please, if I could get down from here myself, I'd have done it a long time ago," she said, peering down at him. Lucy noticed that his usual getup, like hers, had also been switched for something more fitting of a fairy tale. And, she remarked to herself, he does look rather...princely.
But that was besides the point.
"Alright, alright," said Natsu, his arms crossed, "Ready to jump?"
"...Jump? Seriously?" Did he not realize that she was fifty feet up? In a tower?!
"Well, yeah. You did it once and its not like I'm gonna drop you," he said, impatiently, "And hurry up about it! Tonight's flaming BBQ wing night!"
"..." Lucy made a face. If she could help it, she would prefer not to jump out of towers...but it looks like there was no other option. She sighed, pushing herself up to stand on the flat railing. From this distance, she could barely make out the dragon scale pattern on Natsu's scarf.
As if reading her mind, his lips drawn into a smirk, he held his arms out, calling, "Just trust me."
So Lucy took a deep breath, closed her arms, and leaned forward--promptly falling backwards with a small yelp.
"What happened?!"
"I can't," she answered, freeing the folds of her dress, "The weight of the hair pulled me back."
Natsu snorted. Seems like these princesses can't do anything. "Well then, how else are we going to do this? How does Rap-whatever get her boyfriend up there?" he yelled upwards.
"She...she throws down her hair," said Lucy, eyeing her golden coils rather warily.
"Throw it down then!"
Although she didn't pay much attention during the physics part of her education, Lucy was smart enough to know that if she chucked all that hair off the balcony, it would pull her down with it. Much possibly taking her head (off) with it, and that was something she most definitely would not be looking forward too. If only she could find something to tie her hair to? To serve as an anchor? But Natsu was getting impatient.
Seriously. If this took any longer, he'd be performing some "home improvement" on Lucy's new tower.
"C'mon, c'mon," muttered Lucy, hastily kicking aside her locks as she rummaged through the little room. Why weren't there any spaces in that stupid railing so she could tie her hair to it? She sighed, frustrated. But then, hidden behind a thick curtain, she spied a large brass hook bolted to the wall. That might work.
A couple minutes later, Lucy rushed to the balcony, her hair wrapped around her arms like rope. "Natsu! Are you ready?" she called, peering down.
"Yep," he said, gesturing for her to drop it. And he watched as the coil of golden hair spiraled gracefully down the length of the tower, springing to a stop...10 feet above his head.
"...You've got to be kidding me?!" Natsu threw his hands up. Fairy tales sucked. Crouching down, he leapt up to grab the braid but Aarg! Curse that stupid shampoo she used, her hair was just too soft and smooth for him to get a good grip on. "Can't, can't you make it any longer?" he asked, jumping again. She must have leaned over the edge a bit more, because finally, he was able to grab at the ends.
After what seemed like forever, Natsu's head finally popped up to Lucy's balcony. "Finally!" she exclaimed, "Oh God, you, plus the hair? So. Heavy."
Natsu snorted, heaving himself over the edge. "Excuse me? Imagine climbing the stupid thing."
Lucy grinned. She supposed he did have a point. "So...get it off. Please," she said, her voice coming out in one breath. "It's driving me crazy." She held a length of hair up like a prisoner would beg for his shackles to be removed.
"You can't cut it off?" Natsu raised an eyebrow. It was hair after all.
"I tried, its almost as if its gold thread. It must be magic, I can't cut it at all," she sighed, glancing at him, but instead of looking concerned, he had the biggest grin plastered on his face.
"Gold?" grinned Natsu, rubbing his hands together, "We're going to be rich!"
Was he serious? Lucy supposed it was the dragon in him that was responsible for this fondness of shiny metal. "Sure, sure, you can have it all, just get it off!" she said.
"No problem," said Natsu, flashing Lucy a V sign. He grabbed the closest coil of golden hair, sucked in a deep breath, and let loose a steady stream of bright orange flame. "Its metal, right? So it'll melt."
But instead of melting, the air filled with the unmistakable odor of burning hair. Lucy coughed, waving her hands in front of her face. "I thought," she said in between breaths, "I thought you said it'd melt?"
"Its what I thought," he muttered, obviously dissapointed. First, a tower with no door. Now, golden hair that's not really gold? Really, these fairy tales sucked.
Lucy, on the otherhand, was ecstatic. "I'm free!" she cheered, holding up her charred ends. Her hair was still pretty long--extending down to her waist--but from the length she had before? This was definitely an improvement. "Finally! Now let's get the hell out of here."
Natsu surveyed Rapunzel's little room while she rummaged for something more practical to wear. As she disappeared into the tiniest closet he'd ever seen (Heck, even his closet was bigger then that. And he was a guy.), he noted a four-poster bed, an even tinier bathroom, but no kitchen? How'd this girl eat? Takeout?
The closet door creaked as Lucy emerged, tossing aside a wad of pink tafetta. She combed through her damaged hair with her fingers, straightening the hem of her new dress. A shimmery ivory color, the corset style dress was the plainest thing she could find in the closet. Using the scissors that failed to cut through golden hair, she had neatly cut off the heavy train until the soft linen dress ended mid-thigh, revealing a pair of knee-high leather boots.
Natsu laughed, gesturing at their footwear as he lazily lounged on the plush comforter. "What is it with these people and boots?"
"I don't know, but I hope I can take these back with us," grinned Lucy, using a scrap of fabric to tie back her hair, "These boots are pretty cute."
"There is no way I'm going home like this," said Natsu, dryly.
"How are we getting back, anyway?" she asked, walking outside to the balcony. "I don't even know how we got here in the first place."
Natsu followed her out, yawning. He crouched as Lucy climbed onto his back. "It was that damn book. Freakin' CURSED. Cursed, I tell you."
"Cursed? Are you kidding?" said Lucy, wrapping her arms around his neck, "It was from my housekeeper! Who is like my grandma. Whose daily activities include knitting, not sending cursed books through the mail."
Scoffing, he scrambled up onto the railing, taking the hair-rope and wrapping it around his wrists and their waists. "Holding on tight?" Lucy nodded, and flipping his scarf over his shoulder, he stepped off backwards, leaning so that their weight and tension in the rope was balanced.
"Fine," he said, as they repelled down the tower wall, "If it wasn't your dear Mrs. C, it was the mailman. ADMIT IT."
Lucy sighed, as they reached the bottom. Really, once he had an idea in his head, it was quite hard to shake it out.
"You know," mentioned Natsu, unwrapping the rope from his wrists, "So this Rapunzel, she was stuck up there or something? Why didn't she just..." He gestured at the rope, "Why didn't she just burn it off, tie it to something, and climb down?"
"Um...I don't know," said Lucy, climbing off his back and straightening her dress, "It wouldn't be as romantic that way, I guess."
"Romantic? What's so romantic about--"
Natsu was cut off as a deafening roar echoed throughout the air, shaking the cobblestones of the tower. The forest was suddenly quiet, as if every living creature held its breath.
"What was that?" whispered Lucy, her eyes wide. She craned her neck upwards, her blue eyes growing even wider as she saw something hurdling through the air above them. Something with blood-red scales and a jaw strong enough to split a massive tree trunk in two. Something known by many names but often known in fairy tales as--
"A DRAGON. Aww YES!" whooped Natsu, throwing his fists into the air as said creature turned lazy corkscrews through the clouds.
"Oh yes, a dragon! And it's going to eat us if we stay here, let's go!" pleaded Lucy, dragging the enthusiastic Salamander towards the cover of the trees. She had managed to drag him in a good distance until he wiggled out of her grip. They had ended up near a small pond, shaded by the sun in a way so that lilies flourished across the water's surface.
"I'm finally, FINALLY, gonna test out my dragon slaying skills, Luce," said Natsu. The flames from his hair were licking the top of the canopy. "C'mon, it went that way!"
"Wait, you want to go towards that thing? Didn't you see how big it was? It was the size of our guild?!"
"My first dragon's gotta be something BIG," he said, kneeling at the bank, "After this drink, then we go!"
Lucy turned, crossing her arms as she paced. A dragon. A dragon. A DRAGON. They should be focusing how how to get home, not on trying to fight a dragon. And to make matters worse, she walked straight into a wooden sign that seemed to be posted in the middle of nowhere.
"Oomph," she said, rubbing her nose and glancing back at the pond to see if Natsu had bore witness to her clumsiness...but he was gone.
"Ha, I saw that," said his voice behind her. She turned to see Natsu peering at the sign, his thumb and index finger gripping his chin. "It's kinda faded."
She moved to stand next to him and pointed at the letters. "I'd say that's probably a W, and together with 'ning,'... so that makes... 'Warning?'"
"Warning? That's never good." Natsu sidestepped, tilting his head to look at the sign at an angle. "Okay, so it says, 'Warning, pond enchanted. Do not...something."
"Drink the water. It probably says 'Do not drink the water.' ...And didn't you just..."
Natsu grimaced. "Aw, sh-- " he swore, and then promptly keeled over, face down on the ground.
"Natsu?!" Lucy quickly knelt, rolling him over, but he was out, his mouth open and full of grass. "Natsu! Wake up!" she panicked, moving his head around. But as she withdrew her hand, she noticed that her fingers were coated with something...sticky. And he seemed to be turning a quirky shade of...green.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" she moaned, as she was suddenly immersed into a cloud of smoke as something near her went "poof."