Wow1 New chappie already! I am kinda proud of myself now. Now on with the chappie!
Disclaimer: I don't own FT
The Kingdom
Chapter 1
Another One
Gray and Natsu were currently roaming in the nearby forests, collecting fire wood for Mira to make fire. Yeah Natsu is the fire dragon slayer but it wasn't wise to use magic and have the royal army at their throats. They already had enough trouble on their plates. Last time when Natsu had used his magic, the army had sensed it and pursued him till no end. They were likely still searching.
"Hey ice princess, found any?" Natsu asked mentioning the wood they were here for. It was tough searching for them as usually the royals have the forest basically stripped off all its fire wood so people will have to buy them. They even prohibited the entry of common people inside the forest so they willn't have any other choice than to work in the fields under the supervision of the army to earn a livelyhood. Still people like Gray and co. ignored it and barged into the forests on a daily basis. They were able to find some little amount of wood on daily basis but today, there wasn't a single useful twig in sight. The only ones were wet and worse off because of the downpour yesterday night.
"Nope. You?" Natsu just shook his head in response. Both the boys ventured further inside.
After walking for another half an hour, Natsu heard a slight rustle of bushes. He immediately went on his top guard. The animals in this forest were beyond nasty.
"Gray" he warned as the ice mage nodded his head. Both of them stood back to back, ready to attack whatever creature that had decided to target them. Suddenly a lygle launched itself on both the boys. Both of them rolled on opposite sides as the lygle landed where both of them were previously standing.
"God he is one big kitty" Natsu commented before sprinting away with Gray tailing behind him. The lygles are a type of animals that are known for tearing away their food before eating it...even if the said food is still alive. They are the merciless mutations the king had left to roam in the forests as a kind of punishers. They are here to eat and torture the law breakers...like Natsu and Gray. They are said to be the so called guards of the forests. The lygle just roared and pursued his prey.
"He is following us!" Gray said, running foot to foot with his pink headed companion. The lygle pounced on the two, aiming for the raven's head when suddenly the said raven head was pushed down the hill, evading the lygle. Gray looked to see that a strawberry blonde guy had both him and Natsu in his grasp.
"Who are you?" Natsu asked after both Gray and he had thanked their life saver. The blonde just looked around before dragging both of them with him.
"I am Loki Celeste. By the way, what were you two doing while playing around with a creature like that!?" Loki yelled at both the guys who just stared at him perplexed.
"Hey hey hey calm down will ya. And fyi we were not, I repeat we were NOT playing with that big cat." Natsu replied back only to earn a sigh from this Loki guy.
"So, you live here?" Gray asked following Loki into a cave, Natsu right behind him. The cave looked like a part of some ruins with designs that were embedded in the walls.
"Yeah, well this is all I have" Loki answered. Like Natsu and Gray, he also had some vivid scratches and wounds. His clothes were kind of identical to Natsu's, well Gray's were likely to be already strewn away somewhere, a simple ragged shirt with dusty baggy pants and worn out high tops.
"What if the army found you?" Natsu asked, taking a seat on the grass carpeted floor.
"Well it hasn't happened until now, so I don't have any idea. By the way, where are your clothes?" Loki said, mentioning to Gray's bare chest. Gray just shrugged his shoulders, used to this line. Suddenly a horde of footsteps was heard outside with numerous shouts.
"Find those creeps! They are seriously a pain in the ass!" a voice said out loud. The three boys looked at each other before peeking outside the cave to see that whole forest was being covered by the empire's army.
"It doesn't looks good" Loki mumbled when he felt a tug on the sleeve of his shirt. He turned his head to see Gray ushering him to be quiet and follow while Natsu lead the way while sniffing continuously. The atmosphere was undeniably tense, the only sound was the voice of their feet stepping on the green grass and their breaths.
"Found it!" Natsu whisper-yelled. He ran out, Gray and Loki following him only for the three of them to fall down from the cliff and into the ocean. The water wasn't raging so it was easy swimming. The three swam past the forest and in 15 minutes or so they were already sneaking around in the streets of the city.
"Where are we heading?" Loki asked when they snuck into an empty alley and slid down on the ground. Natsu just grinned before answering, "To our home" he said while Gray just nodded his head before resting his body against the wall. After the surroundings were pretty much normal, the three boys got up and sneakily headed to their home. Finally spotting the familiar shabby area, Gray started to pick up speed only to be hauled back by Natsu.
"Quick! Hide behind" he ushered both his companions and himself into the shadows of a nearby building.
"What happened?" Gray asked but got no response from the pink headed mage. Suddenly the door of their home was thrown open and the soldiers of the royal army came out. At seeing this both Gray and Natsu were shocked while Loki was just confused. After a wait of painfully long 10 minutes, the coast was clear. Natsu was the first to come out of their hiding followed by Gray and Loki and into their home. Before Gray even got to enter, he rammed into Natsu's back who was standing as rigid as a rock.
"Hey what happened Fire bird?" he asked but received no answer. Loki was standing beside him. Suddenly Natsu's knees buckled under his body and he fell on the ground. Before his whole body made contact with the ground, loki and Gray swiftly caught him. Gray then finally got the view of inside. Once he saw it, he wished he never had. The insides were covered in blood and debris.
"No…no…"Natsu mumbled while steam seemed to rise from his body. Gray noticed this and immediately punched him unconscious. It wasn't wise to let Natsu's sudden magic outburst be made a bait for the army to spot them and then kill them.
"What the hell happened here?" loki said out loud and stepped inside. He suddenly spotted a mop of white hair. He rushed their only to find two girls lying on the floor while blood seeped from various parts of their bodies. A brutish guy was lying a few feet away from them, also with white hair. He went on further inside to see a room, probably kitchen, trampled hazardously. Glass was everywhere and pieces of china were strewn here and there. He heard hurried footsteps behind him and turned to see Gray run into the room just beside the said kitchen. He poked his head inside to see Gray's distraught expression.
"Where is he?! WHERE!? LYON!" he yelled, as if his brother would hear him and come back but alas it wasn't possible since Lyon was comatose since like last 2 years. The bed was empty and the room was a complete mess, just like the rest of the house.
"Gray? Are you in there?" Gray turned his head to see Gildarts with a still limp form of Lyon in his arms.
"Gildarts!" Gray immediately went towards the brown haired man. He was just so happy to see that Lyon was alive…even if not awake but he was there.
"Sorry for all that, I just wasn't on time. Mira, Lisanna and Elfman, yes they are alive but if only…I would've came earlier…" Gildarts mumbled away apologize when suddenly his eyes caught sight of an unfamiliar strawberry blonde. Loki noticed the gaze on him and turned to see that this Gildarts person was looking at him. He went towards the elder man and extended his arm for a friendly shake.
"I am Loki Celeste" he introduced himself as both he and Gildarts shook hands. Natsu, who was awake now, came towards the lot while rubbing his stomach where Gray had punched him.
"Ice princess, that was one punch you threw. Gildarts, how did all this happen?" he asked, looking expectantly at Gildarts who just sighed and started to tell the tale.
TBC
How was it? Boring? Lovely? Fab? Please review!
