A/N I'd really like to take a moment to tell you all that I appreciate your support so much! Thank you and enjoy! :)
The terrified princess waited for her brave prince to save her from the terrifying beast.
Three uneventful days passed since then. Lucy spent most of them in deep thought. However, she did take time to converse with a certain blue furred cat each day.
At first Happy would simply bring her meals and escort her to the restroom when she needed but, as the days went by the cat and princess grew on each other.
Natsu found it odd how quickly the two formed such a strong bond. He wouldn't admit it, but he was jealous of his furry friend. There was nothing but tense silence and awkwardness between himself and Lucy for the past three days.
"You'll be staying here." Natsu gestured for Lucy to enter the open doorway.
It's small but far better than what she had been living in for the past three days. The room's well lit with a sturdy lantern and a nice size fireplace, definitely warmer than the other room. Natsu himself ensured that not a single drop of water would be able to sneak in.
He also made sure she had all the necessary furniture, a queen sized bed, a simple wooden desk, a chair, and one wardrobe. The windows weren't covered with wooden planks in this room, but instead, thick metal bars.
Natsu put a lot of effort into the room so that Lucy would be comfortable. She'll be happy with it, at least that's what he hoped.
"You can come and go as you please, but, the first floor is off limits to you." A frown settled on Natsu's face, she still refused to acknowledge him.
'Damnit' Natsu cursed to himself. At first, her little game was fun and entertaining. But, it quickly got extremely annoying.
Sure, he took her from a luxurious castle in the middle of the night, destroyed said castle and stored her in a leaky room for a couple of days. Oh, he also didn't come out right away and tell her who he was, pretty much making her believe he was her ally and then backstabbing her.
But, that still didn't give her the right to ignore him.
"If you have any questions, I'll answer them to the best of my ability." Lucy's continuous silence only upset Natsu further. He offered her answers for fuck sake.
"My room is right down the hall if you need me." The dragon boy informed as he scratched the back of his neck. 'She is a stubborn one, that's for sure.' He noted mentally.
After a few moments of silence, he decided to leave the blonde alone.
He then turned his heel, sneering at the woman before closing the wooden door behind him. A scowl set across his face as he strode down the torch lit corridor to his own room.
"She talks to me." Happy grinned, perching himself atop his friend's shoulder.
"I want you to watch over her while I'm gone," Natsu ordered coldly. "Make sure she doesn't go on the first floor."
"Aye!" Happy chirped before taking off to the princess's room.
Lucy stared out of the window, past the metal bars. She couldn't tell much about the place she was in except that it had multiple stories. Her room is on the seventh.
Outside, she saw that the building is surrounded by a thick forest of green trees and past that sat a few large mountains. There's not a single village anywhere in sight. 'Fiore must be on the other side of the mountains.' She noted.
Something moved in the corner of her eye, dragging her away from the landscape. She squinted at the object as it started to enter the dense forest.
"Natsu?" She questioned aloud. And, as if he were able to hear her, Natsu suddenly whipped around to look up at her window.
Seconds went by before Natsu pulled his eyes from the window and continued his path into the woods.
"Lucy!" Happy yelled as he flew into the blondes plump bosom.
The surprised woman smiled softly and wrapped her arms around the small cat. "I missed you, Happy."
When she first met him, Lucy was very skeptical of whether he was real or just a figment of her imagination. After all, a talking cat isn't something you see every day. In time, however, she accepted that Happy was indeed very real and very vocal, especially when it came to his opinion on her weight. He got on her nerves, but, she welcomed his company with open arms.
"How do you like your room?" He asked.
Lucy grinned down at him before falling back onto her new plush bed. "It's better than the other one, that's for sure." Lucy grimaced as she recalled the small cot drenched in rain water. How anybody managed to sleep on such a horrible thing for long periods of time, she would never know.
"Why don't you talk to Natsu?" Happy asked curiously as he sat atop one of the pillows on the bed.
Lucy sighed, this isn't the first time he asked that. "He kidnapped me."
"That's not how I see it, and neither does Natsu."
"taking someone from their home against their will is kidnapping!" She yelled.
"Was is really against your 'will' though?" He grinned sheepishly "You're too weird to be a princess, I bet people thought were a jester or something."
"Shut up, stupid cat!" Lucy huffed.
Then again, he had a point. She never really belonged there and if it wasn't for her getting kidnapped, she would be married to a man she barely knew.
Lucy didn't have to act like anyone other than herself here which was actually quite refreshing. But still, a prison is a prison.
And, she is going to escape.
"Where is Natsu going?" She changed the subject.
"Probably checking out the area for intruders."
"When do you think he'll be back? I want to talk to him." She lied.
"In a few hours probably." He yawned.
"Let's get some sleep before he gets back then." She smiled as she snuggled into the warm white comforter.
"Aye."
"Great!" Loki shouted as he barged into the mages meeting hall "It's been three days and we still haven't got a clue about where she is!"
"That's not true." Levy blurted out from one of the tables. "We have discovered several things about our enemy from our visit to Hargeon and Shirosume."
"Obviously not enough if we haven't found Lucy." Loki breathed, noticing the other mages gather round.
"No, but it's a step closer to finding her." Erza crossed her arms over her chest, glancing back at Levy.
"We are dealing with dragons," Levi stated, making sure to emphasize the s.
"How many!"
"There is more than one?"
"What do we do!"
Levy waited patiently for gasps and whispers of everyone in the room to die down before she continued, "We know of three so far, the fire dragon that took our princess, the iron dragon that attacked Hargeon and the light dragon that destroyed Shirosume just yesterday."
"Witnesses that travel into Mt. Hakobe informed us of odd phenoniums involving Iron beams appearing at random." Erza cleared her throat " This could very well be the iron dragon, and if we find it then maybe we can find the flame dragon and our princess."
"We need a team of five skilled mages to investigate." Jellal announced.
"I'll be the leader" Erza declared. "Four more"
A shirtless man with black hair sighed loudly before raising his hand up high, "I'm in."
"If Gray-sama goes, Juvia wants to go too!" The blue haired woman, Juvia, gripped Gray's arm tightly while raising her free hand to mimic his.
"I will not stand for any funny business on this trip." Erza glared at the two.
Gray grimaced at the implication "We aren't a couple" He muttered while snatching his arm back from the love-struck woman.
"That's three," Jellal said, returning the conversation to the subject it should be on. "Two more."
"What about you Levy?" Erza turned back to the blue-haired woman.
"I-I'm not that strong of a mage." She stammered.
"That makes four." Erza announced.
"But-" Levy sighed not wanting to go against the scarlet haired woman's decision. Erza was scary sometimes.
"I'll go too" Loki pushed his glasses up to hide his nervousness "For Lucy"
"Okay, we head out tomorrow morning."
Lucy stepped out of the fort cautiously. The chill air hit her full causing her to shiver violently."It's cold." Lucy murmured under her breath before sprinting as fast as her bare feet would let her.
'Fiore is just past those mountains!'
A/N ;) Hope you guys enjoyed that ! I have some BIG & AMAZING things planned for next chapter so stay tuned and remember to R&R
