A/N:
Hello loves! Here's the next chapter of WBHW! I hope you all enjoy it. This world is a lot of fun to write and create. I really appreciate all the feedback you guys are giving me. It means a lot! Sorry for the delay in between chapters. It's the holiday season and other things are going on ...blah blah blah. Hopefully I can get one more chapter out to you guys this month. I'll try really hard! :D After all, this is a relatively short story compared to my other multi-chapter fic. Anyways, enough rambling. Enjoy! 3
This chapter was beta read by: Zaravarine (AO3 username). Thank you for helping me! I'm so glad you offered to help me with my stories. You're amazing. :D
"My heart has been stolen too -but I've gone and got it back every single time."
-Salma Hayek
It was time. From the beginning of his existence, Natsu had always known what this feeling meant. The Lord of Summer stood in front of his door, placing his hand on the smooth wood and waited. It pulsated with a warmth that grew beneath his touch. He pushed on the door slightly, waiting for the moment when it would open to the world beyond. Except, it didn't budge. Natsu pushed on the door again, this time, with a little more force. The door barely moved an inch. Looking behind the door, Natsu checked to see if he had misread the tide.
Though he always knew when the world beyond was ready for his season, the realm of Summer also had a way to keep track of the appropriate day. The door Natsu used to make his crossing was covered by a vast ocean. As the day drew closer for him to cross over, the ocean would slowly relinquish its hold on it. The water would pull back from the shoreline and reveal its sunken treasure. The ocean was far in the distance with miles of shoreline stretching behind Natsu. The feeling inside of his chest wasn't wrong, but something else was. The last time his door wouldn't open….
Furrowing his brow, Natsu placed both his hands on the door and pushed against it. He called forth the power of his realm and commanded the door to open. Slowly, the door obeyed, revealing the blinding light that would take him from his realm and to his love. Sighing, Natsu didn't even look back as he hurried into the light. When he arrived on earth, the usual bright brown eyes that greeted him without fail were nowhere in sight.
"Lucy?" he called out to her, thinking she was just playing hide and seek. The Maiden of Spring could be mischievous from time to time, but would make herself known before long. Looking around as he waited, Natsu noticed things appeared different. The land seemed pale and brittle, like it had received just the faintest of touches from Spring. There were no full blooms on the trees, but shriveled up leaf buds. The lush green fields were brown or barren. A few animals staggered about with noses pressed against the dirt and frantic eyes that darted around laced with starvation.
Natsu took in the sight before him and started running. This wasn't right. He had to find Lucy. She loved her season. She loved making the land bloom. There was no way she would allow something like this to happen. Something is terribly wrong. Natsu shoved that thought down, but as he ran deeper into the world, the sights he encountered kept propelling that thought back into his mind. He searched the entire day and throughout the night, from the highest mountain top to the lowest valley, calling out Lucy's name over and over again. He left no stone unturned, but still nothing. The Maiden of Spring, it seemed, had vanished.
"Lucy," Natsu whispered gazing at the star dotted sky. "Where are you?" It was near the time he would normally bid his love farewell, so Natsu decided to venture to where her door normally manifested next. It was the only place he had left to check. He shifted into a running stance, about to sprint across the field he was currently standing in when a noise from the tree line made him pause. Peering into the darkness, he watched as a figure emerged.
"Lucy!" He shouted closing the distance to her in a single leap. He wrapped her in his arms as he landed and held her tight.
"What is the meaning of this?" A sharp voice demanded.
"Erza?" Erza, the Maiden of Autumn glared down at Natsu. Natsu stared, wide-eyed at the tall beautiful woman he held in his arms. His heart stuttered at the realization of who he held. He broke away from her and stumbled back. "But how? Why are you here?"
The humans claimed Autumn was a second spring, but Erza was Lucy's opposite in many ways. Though both Maidens were startlingly beautiful, Erza's beauty was more mature compared to Lucy's youthful exuberance. Her scarlet hair fell straight and long down her back, like a red cape. Her brown eyes were hard and her mouth was set in a grim line. Erza was not unkind, but she lacked patience for anything that disrupted order. During the day between their seasons, Erza would usually scold Natsu for his shortcomings when his season had claimed the earth. The day he spent with Lucy always seemed so short, but the day with Erza felt like an eternity. Natsu didn't dislike Erza, but he had long since grown to fear her wrath. In a rare moment, the Maiden of Autumn had once expressed to Natsu, that she had to be tough in order to snap the humans out of their Summer dreams before the harsh reality of Winter buried them. There was no time for politeness. Every day needed to be spent preparing for Winter's inevitable arrival. Natsu realized then, that Erza's dominating presence and tough personality were her means of expressing how deeply she cared about the earth and its inhabitants. Out of all the seasons, hers was the heaviest burden to bare.
"Why am I here?" Her brown eyes narrowed.
"I mean…I only made my crossing this morning. My season has not even run its course yet. Dawn hasn't even risen on the first day of Summer," Natsu explained quickly.
"What? That cannot be." Disbelief flickered in Erza's eyes. "I should not have been able to make the crossing then. Yet, my realm displayed it was time for my season to reign over the earth."
"That doesn't make any sense," Natsu shook his head. Autumn could not come until the final rays of his Summer faded. Erza's realm should never have allowed her to make her crossing. Spring was still in the final stages of setting. What was going on?
"Are you claiming my words untrue?" Erza's tone darkened. Natsu shook his head quickly. The last thing he wanted to do right now was anger her. "Where is the Maiden of Spring then? If Summer has not dawned then Spring should still be present."
Natsu's heart cracked a little at the mention of his beloved. He had spent their one day searching for her, but he still couldn't find her. Now Erza was here. He didn't know what that meant, or what was going on. Never in all the years of his existence had something like this happened. He couldn't deny it any longer. Something was terribly wrong.
"I can't find her," Natsu admitted. "I searched everywhere, but she's not here."
He recounted how his realm had indicated it was time to make his crossing, but his door wouldn't open as it should. After using his power to open his door, he came to the earth and discovered that Lucy was missing and the earth looked frozen, as if it were waiting for Spring. He spent the entire day circling the earth, looking for any trace of the Maiden of Spring. However, everywhere he went yielded the same answers. The Maiden of Spring was gone.
"I see," Erza said. "My crossing was difficult as well."
Erza shifted her eyes from him to scan across the land, and Natsu watched her eyes narrow further as she took in the state of the world. The Maiden bent and ran her hand along the ground. Her eyes widened in shock. "This should not be." Straightening, she twirled her scythe, before stamping it on the ground. A blast of Autumn's wind blew across the field and rattled the bare branches of the trees, her scarlet hair streaming behind her as her wind swirled around her. "The land is hovering in between seasons. Winter has released its hold, but Spring has yet to claim her season. The earth is trapped in this limbo state, explaining why we were able to cross before our time. The Maiden of Spring's disappearance is disrupting the natural order of our seasons."
"We need to find her. Lucy would never allow something like this to happen. I have a bad feeling that something has happened to her." Natsu voiced his worry, and saying it out loud made his heart contract further. This wasn't like her last disappearance. He had a feeling this was much worse.
"Finding the Maiden of Spring is imperative to returning the order of the seasons. The time between seasons has become a season unto itself and has spread across the world. The earth cannot remain in this limbo state. Spring must claim the earth otherwise…" Erza trailed off, but Natsu had overheard enough from the humans to know what happened the last time Lucy wasn't there to let the earth bloom.
"I was just about to head to where her door normally manifests. Maybe it will offer us some clues about what happened to her," Natsu suggested. Erza nodded and stepped aside so that Natsu could lead the way. The Lord of Summer tracked down the spot where he would reluctantly say his farewells to the Maiden of Spring. As Natsu crested the hill, the door to Spring came into view. The sight of it sent his heart into a dangerous spiral. Lucy's door was there, completely intact, but coated in a thick layer of ice.
"This is not good." Erza ran her fingers over the ice just briefly, before snatching her hand away. "Our doors are a representation of us and reflect our state of being."
"So Lucy...she's trapped in ice?" Natsu breathed.
The first thought that came to Natsu was that he needed to melt the ice on Lucy's door. Lucy had to be trapped in her realm, unable to get out because of the ice encasing her door. He ran his hands over the ice, drawing up the heat of Summer in order to melt it. Usually, snow and ice melted with the faintest of touches from him, but this ice remained. Dawn was now streaking the sky, and Natsu commanded the sun to shine directly on Lucy's door. He wove the sun's rays with his own power and worked to melt the ice. Despite his efforts, the ice remained as if it never felt his heat at all.
"How can this be?" He stared at the ice and then at his hands, unable to believe that his power couldn't melt it. "What does this mean?"
"The Maiden of Spring is in terrible danger," Erza spoke gravely.
Natsu swore viciously and attacked the ice once more. The sun had crept higher into the sky and he kept directing its rays towards the ice. Over and over again, he sent fiery waves to consume the ice, but to no avail. The ice remained unscathed.
"Enough," Erza bellowed, stamping her scythe on the ground again. A great blast of cool wind sent Natsu tumbling away from Lucy's door. He jumped to his feet when the wind disappeared, glaring at Erza.
"I have to save her!" He yelled. "If I melt the ice then she—"
"You know you cannot melt that ice," Erza snapped. "Our doors mirror our state of being. They merely reflect it, but do not affect it."
Natsu glanced behind Erza at Lucy's door and his heart wept. He knew what Erza was saying was true. But he couldn't help but try. His love. His bright smiling love was trapped in ice somewhere and he wasn't there to save her.
"I don't know what else to do?" Natsu's features crumbled. "I searched everywhere for Lucy, but I can't find her. She's not here. I don't know where else to look."
The Maiden of Autumn fixed her gaze on Natsu and shook her head. "Your emotional connection with the Maiden of Spring is impeding your logic and abilities to assess the situation. Look around and you'll find your answer."
Natsu bit back his retort and did as she demanded. He looked away from Lucy's door and around the hill. He didn't know what he was looking for, but then he realized Lucy's door wasn't the only one manifested here. The other three guardian doors were manifested as well. Across from Lucy's door was Erza's. The mahogany door bore depictions of a great harvest. Pumpkins, squash, corn, wheat and many other crops tumbled out of a great cornucopia that crowned the top. Fat, well grazed animals framed the bottom of the door as well. Mingled in with the other images, were pictures of humans celebrating or diligently working. In the center of the door were three oak leaves: one a blazing red, another a vibrant orange, and the last a golden yellow.
In between Lucy's and Erza's door was his own, but across from Natsu's door was one he had never seen before. It was made completely out of ice and the only carving was the one in the middle. Natsu had ventured onto the tops of enough mountains to know the image was that of a snowflake. The door belonged to the mysterious Lord of Winter.
"Given that our realms reacted similarly to the earth being in this limbo state, I assume every realm felt the call to crossover," Erza explained. "Yet, it is strange that only you and I are here. After seeing the state of the Maiden of Spring's door, and with the absence of the Lord of Winter, there can only be one conclusion."
"Lucy is trapped in the realm of Winter." The moment the words left his lips, Natsu knew that they were true. He took another look at Lucy's door and his anger flared up. "I know Lucy. She would never abandon the earth to be stuck in this state. She had to be taken against her will. That Winter bastard took her."
"As you know, we are bound by rules while we are on earth. Besides the day between two seasons, a guardian must never venture into a season that is not his own. We are immortals, but if we break this rule, we endanger our existence." Erza's words resurfaced the dreadful memory of Lucy crying out in pain during that brief moment she crossed into Summer. The Maiden of Autumn strode to the Lord of Winter's door and pressed the blade of her scythe to the door. The door shone with the same blinding light that transported each guardian during the crossing. When the light faded, a portal to the realm of Winter remained. "Yet, I do not know the consequences if a guardian should enter another guardian's realm. Spring is powerful, but I don't know how long she can survive in a land that only knows Winter."
"Damn the consequences," Natsu seethed. "I'll burn the whole realm down in order to get Lucy back."
"You will do no such thing." Erza blocked the passage to Winter, directing the blade of her scythe at Natsu. "We will rescue the Maiden of Spring so that she might claim the earth once again and set the seasons back to their natural order. Too many rules have been broken, and I will ensure that no more go ignored. The balance of the earth must be kept. Do you understand, Lord of Summer?"
It took a colossal effort for Natsu to reign in his temper after learning that the Lord of Winter had endangered Lucy, but under Erza's glare, he managed to tighten the leash on his anger.
"I understand," he answered through gritted teeth.
"Good. Now, we make haste to right the wrong that has been done." Erza lowered her scythe and flicked her scarlet hair behind her before walking through the door.
"I'm going to save you Lucy," Natsu vowed as he stared at her door, still encased in ice. His anger roared for revenge and he fed it many silent promises too. The Lord of Summer followed after the Maiden of Autumn and entered the realm of Winter.
