Artorias slowly opened his eyes.

He could feel wet cold sand underneath him and hear waves breaking against the coast. With a terrible headache he stood up and cleaned the dirt from his armor. Where was he?

The knight looked around and found himself standing on a sand coast. Then he remembered what happened to him and the boat.

´Well, I guess if even I with my steel armor survived here, that damn Erza must be here somewhere lying around too.´

Artorias decided it was for the best if he starts to search for her as she could be in trouble. He could already imagine how she is being captured right now and crying for help. She is lucky that a knight is around to rescue her! The thought inspired him so much that he was almost running into the deep jungle before him.

Far away he could see a giant mountain. If he was right, he must be on Zulu Island right now. Thanks to the mountain it was impossible to get lost here. The goddess of fortune must love him!

As he was making his way through the green, he got reminded of a book he once read as a kid. It was about a man who was shipwrecked off the coast of an island and nearly drowned as the only survivor of a trading ship. The man had nothing with him except a bottle of old whiskey and his torn clothes. Somehow he survived by using the environment of his surroundings and the knowledge from his old home. After years passed he finally got rescued by some fishermen and returned home.

Somehow the knight felt like this poor man right now. The only big difference is that Artorias is completely clueless about surviving in the wilderness. But he has to at least try. He is a mage from the indestructible guild Fairy Tail and once he has his beautiful greatsword in his hand, nobody can stop him!

To confirm his proud statement, he searched for the handle of his sword on his back, but somehow he couldn´t find it. First Artorias needed some seconds to realize it, but then...

"WHERE IS MY BLOODY GREATSWORD?!"


Erza´s POV

Erza was walking through the unknown jungle in front of her. Not long ago she woke up here and decided to look for Artorias and the natives who lived here. According to the instructions, which could be read on the paper, the tribe must be living at the foot of this great mountain. Although the island must not have many visitors, she looked out for traps. One mistake could be fatal here. After all this was a S-Class job. She hoped Artorias realized that too.

´Why did Master even promote him in the first place?´ She asked herself, but her thoughts got interrupted as she could hear a scream not far away from her position. It sounded like Artorias.

´Speaking from the devil.´ She smiled and then pursued the place she thought she heard it from.

When she stopped running, she saw something that looked like a wooden wall around a village. She could see that it was inhabited cause smoke rose from the midst. As she walked towards the gate, she noticed how an arrow was shot towards her. The scarlet mage easily dodged it and looked up the wall.

Some men were standing there, their bows directed at her.

"Who are you?" A furious voice asked.

"I am Erza Scarlet. I am here because of the request you sent to Fairy Tail."

"Give us a proof that you are not lying!"

Erza smirked and then used her famous Requip Magic to prove her words. The men seemed first confused, looked at each other, but then nodded.

"You are allowed to enter, mage!" They opened the wooden gate and gave her entry.

As she entered, the first thing which fell into her eye was a knight tied up at a big campfire. Erza just face palmed by the view of the helpless S-Class mage.

"Well, that didn´t work out as planned..." The Knight muttered embarrassed.


Flashback

Still shocked from the realization that he just lost his sword, the knight stood there. This was a real deal for him. He was completely useless without his sword. How should he rescue Erza now from the evil men who captured her?

The thought of it made him cry innerly. But he can´t give up just like that. He is a knight, a deliverer of justice! He can´t give up only because something went not the way he liked.

´I need to find my sword and then save Erza!´ Artorias proclaimed keen and then walked a step forward.

"Hm?"

Artorias looked down cause he felt something underneath his foot, but it was already too late. Suddenly the world turned upside down for Artorias – literally.

"A trap?!", the knight yelled both surprised and angry as the rope closed around his ankle.

´This seriously can´t get any worse...´ Artorias thought, but fate can never stop to surprise you even more. Out of the dark men moved out and assembled around the mouse in the trap. They barely had any clothes on them. Only spears in their hand and something that looked like a piercing in their nose.

"Ho Ho Ho, see what we got here! An adventurer on his path to death!" The others laughed by his words.

"You bastards! Let me free!" Artorias cried out as they tied him up unto a large stick and transported him away.

Flashback end


"Do you know this man?" An old tiny man asked came out of his tent, with a wooden stick in his hand. He had white hair and dark brown skin. He somewhat looked like Makarov from his size and age.

"Unfortunately, yes." The scarlet mage answered. Artorias didn´t know if she was angry at him now or just disappointed, but to be honest the knight didn´t want to know. He is already embarrassed enough to find himself in this situation.

After they untied him again, Erza noticed that one of the men, who were standing besides the midget, was wielding a rather familiar sword.

"Isn´t that..."

"Hey! Give me back my beloved greatsword!" Artorias yelled as he saw his treasure in the hand of someone else.

The man gave him grudging the sword back.

"We found it at the coastline. You should treat your sword better."

After sending him an angry gaze, Artorias looked carefully at his greatsword to make sure it didn´t got harmed.

Ignoring the swordsman, the old man coughed into his hand to grasp their attention and then began to explain.

"I am Shaka, chief of the Zulus, an old tribe here on the island, and the one who send out this request. As you have already figured out, we don´t like outsiders, especially if they are here for treasure hunting." Now he looked at Artorias, who felt unease by the gaze of the chief. "But we decided to make an exception with you both because we need your help. Hundreds of years our tribe has been protecting this mountain and nothing like that ever occurred to us."

Now the face of Shaka darkened as if he was too afraid to continue.

"Since a few months people keep disappearing in the mountain. We sent searchers up there, but they also never returned to us. We are not sure what it is, what keeps killing our men, but you two need to stop it." Tears made it way to the ground as the old man was crying. "..Last week my son searched on his own for the missing people...he never returned"

Erza and Artorias remained speechless after his sad words. Then Artorias made a step forward to the old man, laying his hand on his shoulder.

"Do not worry, old man. The riders of justice are here to take revenge for what this thing did to you and your family." A caring smile could be seen on Artorias face as he continued. "Tomorrow you will have his head!"

Erza was surprised how the man, who was some minutes ago laying here tied up on the ground, now acting like a real knight in shining armor would do. This person was surely a strange type.

"Do you know how this thing looks like?" Erza then came finally to word.

"Unfortunately not. Nobody survived long enough to report from it."

"So we are going to face up there something unknown."

Erza sighed. She didn´t like the idea of going up there and playing the prey.

"What is it, Erza?" Artorias turned his face to the scarlet mage as he could see that she was worried about something. "Could it be that the great Titania is scared of climbing?"

The only answer he got was an iron blow into his face, knocking him almost out.

The iron maiden then stared up with a bold look at the mountain as if she would challenge it.

"We will set out this nightfall. Be sure that you have relaxed till then, because this will be an ugly battle."


Fierce wind howled around their ears as they were climbing up the rocky path. It gave a surreal feeling if you realize that they were on island and it was summer, and here the mountain was full of ice and snow. And the worst thing was – with every step it got colder and colder.

"No matter what lives up there, it must be the cold itself!" Artorias shouted, but his voice got overwhelmed by the pure force of the wind.

They were already walking for a considerable amount of time and they still haven´t found something of interest. It seemed like nothing lived up here. Everything was dead. Not even trees sprouted here. The only thing Artorias could see was snow and stone – and you can not really call that something which was alive.

The thought already crossed Artorias, that those people were just killed by the brute force of cold. But he promised this old man the head of this monster. And he couldn't possibly break such a promise. So there they were - a silver knight and a scarlet mage on their way into the uncertain.

After some time, they reached something that looked like a plateau. But he noticed something much more strange. The plateau was completely windless. Everything was silent.

"Something is wrong here." Erza warned him as she pointed at something in front of her. A cave.

"Things seems to get finally interesting." Artorias said calmly as he drew his weapon. "Erza, stay outside of the cave and tell me when you see something unnatural. I will investigate the cave."

Erza didn´t like the plan of separation, but what choice did they have? They did not know what awaited them here.

"Be careful."

"You too." Artorias smirked with a toothy grin and then proceeded walking into the cave.

The cave itself was made completely out of ice. Large stalactite crowned above him, which were surely far older than him. If Artorias would be honest, he was scared. He didn´t know what waited in front of him. But he needed to progress to success in this job.

When he reached the end of the cave, his eye first could recognize nothing out of place, but then he noticed something strange in front of him. There was something in the ice...people!

Not only a few – there were at least 20 humans trapped in the ice. Their faces were wrapped in fear and it was horrifying to see them like that. Now it was proven that it was actually some sort of thing which turned them into ice blocks. But where could that creature be? If its not in his cave it must be...

"ERZA!"


Erza´s POV

Erza saw how Artorias shape disappeared from her sight. She hoped for him he won´t meet something unexpected in there. True, she wanted to succeed in this mission, but she did not want to return alone from it. But then she shook her head. She should trust him more. They were now partners, and they should act like such too.

Something brought her out of her thoughts as a gust of wind reached her skin. She turned around and looked into the sky. There she could perceive a black point which approached her at high speed.

Experienced as Erza was, she instantly knew what to do and changed to her Heaven´s Wheel Armor. Then she prepared a large amount of swords, which were directed against the approaching enemy. As the point more and more became bigger and bigger, she could determine, that it must be exceedingly large.

It´s entire body was covered in white scales. It also seemed to have giant wings, which explains why it was so high in the sky in the first place. Erza did not need much time to realize what this creature was.

"A wyvern." She pointed out as she prepared the last few swords.

Then, shortly before the dragon could nosedive at her, the scarlet mage finally launched all of her projectiles at him. Most of them just bounced away or broke as they collided with his skin, but some of them injured the wyvern, which made him only more furious. Erza instantly flew away from the point she was standing. Few moments after the dragon collided there.

She thought the creature would immediately go after her now, but it seemed to have taken interest by something else. She looked at the cave and saw Artorias.


The knight could not believe what he saw here. A real wyvern was standing before him. It looked really majestic how it stood there with all its glory.

"By the name of justice, I will punish y-!" Artorias just wanted to present his speech, but he got interrupted as the dragon howled angrily and then charged directly at him.

"Did your parents not teach you that it is impolite to interrupt someone?" The knight smirked pugnaciously. He did not move an inch, seemingly ignoring the threat in front of him.

Then the unbelievable happened and the wyvern's head clashed with Artorias greatsword and it almost seemed like the time stopped, but the swordsman was being pushed back bit by bit.

"Erza, now!"

The scarlet mage did not need more words.

Pentagram Sword! Erza flew directly at the dragon and delivered him some heavy slashes in the shape of a pentagram.

The beast cried out in pain by the sudden attack, but that was still not the finishing blow it needed.

In fact, it pushed Artorias even more back, but that was still all in his plan. As he was being pushed back into the cave, he jumped high into the air, leaving the dragon clueless behind. While he was still in the air, he cut the stalactite in front of him off, which were falling now directly down into the dragon.

The swordsman landed graceful behind the pierced dragon on his feet and sheathed his weapon.

"Seems like I underestimated you, Artorias." Erza said smiling. "Now you can fulfil your promise to the chief."

"...and even more" The knight added and looked behind. People were coming out of the cave now.

"I found them in the cave and it seemed to me like they were the missed ones from the village."

One of them, a young man, came to the two mages with tears in his eyes.

"Thank you for rescuing us! We owe you our lives."

He explained them how they got captured by the dragon after a hopeless fight. It seemed like the dragon tried to ice them up and eat them afterwards whenever he feels hungry.

Because the whole head was too heavy to transport, Artorias cut off only his horn and then they went back to the village.

The old man could hardly believe his luck as he saw how his son and the others returned to him. They had a big feast at this night and Artorias then found out, that the Zulu Tribe does not worship any evil devil god or eat new-born. It was only a rumour to spread so people wouldn´t visit the island.

The next day, Artorias and Erza departed from Zulu Island by one of their ships. They were allowed to take the horn with them and a lot of gold, although they still argued how much each of them will get.

"That was quite a journey." Artorias yawned as he looked back at the mountain, which was still in sight.

"Yeah, we learned much from this job."

"I would even admit now that you are not half as bad as I thought." The Swordsman laughed after his statement, but quickly shut his mouth again as he noticed Erza´s famous look which could kill dragons.

"Did you say something?"

"I wouldn´t dare!"

"Good, then - Let´s head back to Fairy Tail!"


And this is the End of the Zulu Island Arc! ~

I hope you liked it ^^ i´m pretty proud of it, especially since this chapter was pretty long(for my conditions) and i also put pretty much effort in writing it ~

Don´t be shy to review - as i already said, i´m happy about every support i get.

In the next chapter Artorias will finally meet Lucy, let´s see how that will turn out :P

See you in the next chapter!

~Raven

PS: The Sailor from last chapter is doing well as he got rescued by some pirates, although i can´t say that he is happy with his new crew xD