Knight Chase

'What in the bloody hell am I doing?' I think as I throw myself at the thick hedge with the blonde beauty attached to my hand. 'I don't even know the girl, but there I go sproutin' some shit about showing her Fairy Tail.'

"Hey, what are you doin-" I hear her say as I propel both of us at the large green wall of twigs and thorns.

"Come on! We can't let 'em catch us!" I shout still dragging her along.

I don't know where Happy is but he can take care of himself. We haven't made it more than 20 meters from the Kingdoms walls before a sudden realization hit me. Hard.

'If this chick hasn't even heard of magic before, how the hell would she know what Fairy Tail is?'

Slowing to a stop I turn to her, she was panting slightly and using her free hand to remove leaves from her golden hair. Releasing her hand she smiles thankfully as she 'un-dirties' herself more efficiently.

She opens her mouth to say something when I realize that we are still too close to the kingdom to talk.

Getting up into her personal space I whisper to her, "We need to head further into the forest… it will be safer there. You okay to keep going?"

After a slight pause she nods her head gracefully.

Smiling I take her hand again, even though it isn't as necessary as it was before, it was still nice to hold her hand.

'Jeez mate, what type of soppy crap have you got going on?'

Happy still isn't with us so I pull her under a tree, which has thick leaves hanging down, blending us into its trunk and concealing us from the outside world. However I know happy will still be able to smell us out.

"Sorry, we just have to wait for Happy." I say as I sit against the trunk.

"Happy?" she asks quizzically.

"Yeah, he's my cat. Didn't I introduce you guys? Sorry about that." I notice her face brighten into a warm smile at the mention of Happy.

"Ah yes, your cat. I saw him from my window. I must say, you two were quite the sight, pink and blue hair? May I ask if it's natural?"

"Uh, yeah. Both Happy's blue fur and my salmon hair are natural." I emphasis on the 'salmon' part.

After that both of us fall into an uncomfortable silence. Lucy was rubbing her hands together with clouded over eyes, as if she were in deep thought.

"Oi, are you okay?" I ask her.

Looking up at me timidly her brown eyes look fearful and full of regret.

"M-Maybe its best if I go back…" she mumbles looking back down to her intertwined hands.

'Shit, she never wanted to come with me on my crazy adventure… well, I can't just walk her home or even let her go back by herself.'

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't ask you if you even wanted to come. I understand if you want to go back. Really – I'm sorry." I say sincerely as I look at her downward head, which quickly shoots up to look me in the eye.

"No, its not your fault, its just… My father is going to be really, really angry. Maybe if I go back now I won't get into so much trouble…"

"So… you want to go back to a place where you'll get punished? Never would have guessed that." I off handedly mentioned. Seriously, never would've thought that of her.

Looking up at me sharply her eyes harden a little before she spoke, "It's not really a case of me wanting to go back to that place. Its just that, well, its all I've ever known." She looks down at her hands that are still fidgeting.

"Ya lost me." Deadpanning my response I watched her intently as her case of fidget fingers increased.

"I've never left that kingdom before. This is the first time I've left the walls… You're the first person that isn't a noble that I have met from the 'outside'. Not going to lie, I'm terrified right now."

"Are you kidding me? Why had you never just slipped out, every teen goes through a rebellious phase! Your father should be grateful that I'm letting you experience youth!" I joke with her seeing her face brighten and a small smile play on her lips at my silliness.

'God, those smiles light up her face.'

"Anyway, I promised you that I would show you Fairy Tail, even though I doubt you've heard of the most famous mage guild in Fiore!" I proclaim. There is nothing in this world that I am more proud of than being in Fairy Tail.

"Mage Guild?"

"Yeah, its where happy and I are from. Ah geez, it's a bit hard to explain, but I guess you could say we're like a giant family. We go on jobs together, celebrate victories and protect one another. Yeah, that's what Fairy Tail is!" My smile stretched over my face, somehow managing to show most of my inhumanly sharpened teeth.

"Really? Like a family." The way Lucy's eyes started to shine at the notion of a family made me melt into her words slightly.

"Yeah," I spoke softly, "and all of their magic is totally awesome!"

Smiling at me she looked over my shoulder only to have her eyes pop out of her head. Then she did the most ears splitting scream I had ever heard.

Turning quickly to look for danger I get into a fighting stance before I notice that all that is there is Happy, with his wings out.

"Lucy, its just Happy. The wings? That's just his magic."

Once she calms down I hear it, the sound of footsteps fumbling towards us screaming 'Princess.' Thankfully, they are still far, however Lucy's scream must be leading them here.

"Look Lucy, I'm offering here, you can wait here and have your guards take you back home, or you can come with us and join Fairy Tail. You need to decide like now, right now." I say once again taking her hand in mine to gain her full attention.

She paused. I held my breath. Happy flew around us obliviously. The footsteps of at least six guards began to get closer.

"Lets go." She said strongly, nodding her head to affirm it.

Pulling her by the hand for a third time that day, I look over at Happy who is already leading the way.

As we begin running again, I can still hear the guards with my enhanced hearing. They are so close now that I can hear them talking amongst themselves. That's when I hear something rather… troubling.

"If we don't find the girl soon the King will send the Beasts out on her trail. If that happens who knows if she'll even come back in one piece…" and with those words we were too far for me to hear anything else.

'Beasts?'

Moving further into the denser forests Happy began to lead us in the direction towards Magnolia.

After about three hours of walking through the forest, over varying pine needles and rocks Lucy began to whimper. Looking at her over my shoulder it became apparent that the only reason I heard the small sound was because of my 'dragon hearing', because she was at least 5 metres away from where we were.

"Lucy? You okay?" Happy asks when he noticed I wasn't walking along with him anymore.

Lucy may have already been lagging but now she was a still as stone, looking at happy with large, surprised eyes that made her look like a deer. In the moons light she also looked like she paled significantly.

"Y-You." She pointed at Happy, her mouth opening and closing with no words coming out.

"You also talk?" She asked finally.

Geez, if that's what's bothering her she shouldn't make a big deal outta it.

"Yeah, like I said before, its his magic." I deadpanned. Even if she had never left that goddamn kingdom in her life, she still should've heard tales of mages and their adventures.

Shaking my head slightly I get back to the real issue as I began walking closer to her. "Anyway, what's the matter?"

"I-Its just that, well, I'm barefoot and I think I just cut my foot on a stone…" She mumbled.

Becoming more alert I smelled the air around us. In amongst the smells of grass, pollen and countless animal scents was the distinct metallic tang of blood.

"Happy, do you think you could carry Lucy to that clearing we passed a few minutes ago? I don't think its smart to be walking on an open wound…"

"Aye." The cat said as he flew closer to Lucy, who tensed in his presents before being picked up with his two front paws.

Soon enough we were back at a small clearing that was large enough for us all to sleep comfortably, yet still have plenty of ground to see anybody who attempted to ambush us.

Setting Lucy down on a small bolder Happy sighed and expressed his joy about no longer carrying the girl. Crouching down right before her, she looked slightly surprised.

"W-What are you doing?" Lucy asked me as I reached out to the hem of her long dress nighty – thing.

"Just chill, I'm only looking at your foot." I chuckled out. I only just met the girl, there is no way I'd do something like that to her. She may be extremely pretty – beautiful even, but I was not some kind of slime to take advantage of a girl.

Looking now at the sole of her foot, I could see dirt had encrusted just about everything. However, a long cut ran on her left foot was visible from the base of her toe to the ball of her foot. Luckily it didn't look too deep, but she still had dents and other small scratches that she should have told us about.

"Happy, I need some water." I call. I was planning on wrapping up the entire foot for now to be on the safe side, but it still needed to be cleaned out first.

After cleaning her foot carefully I could see just how red and irritated the skin looked. I tore off a piece of a blanket I kept in my pack for colder nights and began gently wrapping her foot from her heel down.

Once I finished my job I looked up to her face, which held an emotion that I didn't quite understand.

"Thank you." She said smiling at me.

"No worries. Next town we see, we'll buy you some shoes." I said standing and looking around. I noticed happy had begun dozing off near where my pack lay on the ground. "Guess we sleep here tonight."

After assisting Lucy off the rock and helping her into a lying position on the ground I noticed her beginning to shiver. I guess tonight was a little chilly.

Even after I got out the remaining blanket from my bag she was still obviously cold.

'Guess I have no choice.'

I sat myself down next to her. She looked up at my face and thanked me again.

"You still cold?" I asked after a while and chuck an arm over her shoulder.

"Well, I was, but… you're really warm." She mumbled snuggling into my side more.

'I could get used to this.'

"Well, I guess I should start a fire." I begin. I was going to stand when I notice that Happy, who has defiantly fallen asleep, has set up firewood close to where we were sitting. Thanking him silently I lean over and alight my hand, then the firewood.

That's when I turn back to Lucy who is staring at me. Well, my hand more specifically. My hand that is still on fire. And I haven't told her about my magic.

Shit.

A/N

Shitty Chapter, but it will be referenced in later chapters.

Anyway, as always, thanks for reading this far, hopefully you are enjoying the story and if you have anything that you think you could add or think should be included don't be afraid to tell me.

Sorry for the late update, but you get that :)

SO thanks again,

Jamie x