Zulu Island Arc

Artorias could feel the warm sun shining on his neck as he was walking in a field of grain. He didn´t remember why he was here, nor how he got here, but right now he wasn´t interested about reasons. It was peaceful, and the whole situation felt like a trance. He could hear the birds chirping at the trees and a gentle wind was blowing around his ears as he walked down the way

Far above in the sky an eagle was circulating him, but he was more interested in the thing before him. An empty fountain was standing there, being a bit off here on the field. He was not sure, but for a moment he could hear a light voice inside of it. Artorias leaned forward and looked down into the emptiness. It almost seemed like there was no end of it at all. Then he could hear it again. He could hear somebody calling for help.

Leaning more forward, Artorias tried to find out who was calling for help, but when he wanted to shout something, he suddenly felt a push from behind. Shocked he turned around and what he saw, he couldn´t believe. Someone who looked exactly like him, was standing behind Artorias. He had a mad grin on his face as he was pushing him down into the darkness.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Artorias screamed as he fell down the abyss. He felt helpless as the light more and more withdrew from his sight.

When he fell on the ground, he felt no pain at all, but he was seemingly disturbed by the endless darkness around him. He tried to run, but something slowed him down underneath his feet. There were dead corpses lying everywhere around him. One of the corpses turned its head to him. It was a young boy.

"You killed me."


He woke up with a scream, bathed in sweat. He gasped for air, still terrified. Although he already knew that it was all a dream, he could still feel the voice inside his head.

He stood up and walked to the table, grabbing the bundle of herb, which Porlyusica once gave him. He took a pair of it and chew it. Then he took a sip of water to swallow it down. The old woman told him to only take it in small amounts. It´s purpose was to supress stress and help him sleep better.

´This damn dream will never end...´ He thought to himself as he went to bed again and laid down.

Soon the drug unfolded its power and Artorias fell asleep.


"Didn´t I tell you to come early?" Erza lectured him with an angry expression.

It was already noon and cause Artorias overslept, he even dared to let Erza wait.

"I´m sorry, I didn´t sleep very good last night." The knight excused himself with a both embarrassed and dozy face, which brought Erza to hit his head with her fist to bring him back to reality.

"Jeez, how did someone like you even become S-class?"

"I ask myself that every day." Artorias jokingly said, which only brought him in another frightening glance from Erza.

"Well, whatever. Our target is Zulu Island. I hope you did some research about the island?"

The time stopped for a moment for Artorias. Did she say Island? They were going to an Island?

"Ahm, yeah..." Muttered the knight quietly. "By the way, what´s up about this stuff behind you?"

"This? Oh, it´s my luggage of course. A mage must always prepare himself for everything."

´That looks more like you are having your whole house with you´ Artorias thought, but the knight didn´t want to argue anymore with Erza. It´s bad enough that he overslept. Wouldn´t be necessary to annoy her even more.

They entered the train and headed to Hargeon Town, one of the largest port towns in Fiore. The ride didn´t take very long since the town was not very far away from Magnolia. Both mages didn´t talk very much with each other since it felt a bit awkward that they actually were going on a journey together.

To be honest, Artorias didn´t hate her, nor did Erza, but she was annoying him with her ways of doing things. Always trying to make the guild better than it was, correcting every guild member who was not the way she liked. That is why Artorias never tried to talk with her in a friendly manner, but what does he know about her? He should never judge people cause of their appearance or their personality. It´s better to just leave them alone. That´s how he has always done things since the incident.

After they left the train, they headed to the large port. They walked through the town and though Artorias knew this city very well, it still fascinated him with its old buildings.

When the mages arrived at the port, Erza asked one of the sailors about the Island.

"Zulu Island? It´s pretty far away from here. What do you want there?"

"We are mages from Fairy Tail and got a request, that people are having trouble with something." Erza answered and then glanced at her company as if she expected something from the knight. First Artorias was confused, but then he realized it and took out the piece of paper she handed over to him yesterday. He showed it to the sailor who then looked at it.

"Well, normally I don´t ship out so far away, but since you are from a guild, I guess I can make an exception. For money of course", he added quickly.

"After we arrived at our destination." Erza told him, which he seemed not to agree to first, but after she sent him her famous frightening glance, he accepted with a shrill voice.

The weather was surely wonderful, as they sailed out into the far wide sea. The waves were calm and the wind blew even into the right direction. It should only be a matter of time till they arrive at the island.

"What is even this island?" This question soared up as Artorias looked into the bright blue sky.

"If you would have done your research, you would know" The scarlet mage teased him but then decided to tell him tell since it would be better if she told him now than when it´s already too late.

"As it´s name says, Zulu Island is an Island southwest of Hargeon. It´s most famous for the mountain, which the natives worship as holy. No simple civilian is allowed to enter the island. The natives don´t even trade with outsiders. It is said that they do eat new-borns and sacrifice everyone who dares to enter the island to their devil god."

The last words scared Artorias even to the bone as he imagined how those cannibals look like. And to such people they travel right now?

"Look who did his research right! You should take an example of her, boy" The sailor laughed and patted his head, which made Artorias both embarrassed and angry. "I suspect the natives there got a real problem they can´t handle alone since they never really interacted with us."

While they seemed to see something far away from them, the wind got stronger and stronger. Artorias did not really care about the sudden change of the weather, but as dark clouds suddenly appeared out of nowhere, all of them seemed to be worried – even the great Titania, which meant something.

"Dammit, we got into a storm!" The sailor yelled as he removed the sail from his ship. Artorias did not really know what to do in such a situation. Because the ship shacked so much, the knight almost fell into the cold sea water.

"Keep yourself at the rim!" He screamed but it was already too late. A huge wave suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind them.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Then everything just went dark.


Hay!

I´m happy to see that more and more people seem to take interest in my story ^^ it´s really helping me to write when i know that people are reading it

Also, i know my chapters are really short and they should be at least a little bit longer, so i promise you that my next chapter will be much longer than this one.

See you in the next chapter :D

- Raven