Nobody POV
After leaving Yukino alone at the now collapsed entrance to the cave, they continued on their walk through Wendy's personal paradise.
"Do you guys really think she'll be okay on her own?"
"She said that she would be fine, and besides, there wasn't much that we could do," Lisanna answered. "It didn't seem like she was going to budge no matter what we did."
"That thing probably thinks that she's with us right now, too," Gray pointed out. "So if it's gonna come looking for her then the cave is probably the last place that it would look."
"Juvia hopes you're right," the water wielder mused.
They continued their walk until the ground started to crumble underneath Lisanna's feet.
"Eep!"
"Lisanna!" Natsu acted rapidly and grabbed her, preventing her from falling into the abyss below.
"Th-thanks, Natsu," she stuttered. And was that a blush in her cheeks?
"The ground around here must be unstable," Levy predicted.
"So...we're basically in some kind of minefield?"
"Pretty much."
"How are we gonna make it through?" Lisanna asked.
"We have to either plan our movements carefully, or send someone ahead until they reach stable ground, which is when we'll follow in their footsteps," Levy gave two options.
"The latter sounds like a good idea," Erza decided after consideration. "Who's going to be the one to go across, though?"
"I'll do it," Natsu volunteered.
"Are you sure about this, Natsu?" Lisanna asked, being worried for his safety.
"Sure I am. Besides, the floor would cave immediately if Erza went through, considering how much weight she's gained."
"What was that, Natsu?" Erza growled darkly.
"N-nothing!"
Without waiting for a response, Natsu started to walk ahead. He was careful where he treaded as he tried to find a safe path through the unsound area.
"Hey, Erza," Gray said, looking at her.
"What, Gray?" she asked, turning her attention onto the devil slayer.
"You've been really quiet lately," he spoke to her. "Is everything alright?"
"I already told you, I don't want to talk about it," she repeated herself.
"From what I've heard, it helps to talk about things. And I think that you need to talk about something," he pressed on. "After all...what did that demon mean when it said we ki-?"
Gray didn't get to finish his sentence as Erza quickly clasped a hand over his mouth, her eyes grim.
"I said that I don't want to talk about it, and so I'm not going to talk about it," Titania repeated in a stern tone. "Understood?"
"Yehf."
"I'm going to take that as a yes, so good," she removed her hand from his mouth.
The two of them went back to spectating Natsu as he tried to find a way across the floor.
"Whoa!"
The ground underneath Natsu's feet suddenly gave way as he vanished from sight.
"NATSU!"
Lisanna quickly ran over to the hole, following in his footsteps so she wouldn't fall as well.
"Lisanna! Be careful!"
The others followed after her, but walked instead of running, as even though they were worried about him they knew that they risked falling in a hole if they went too fast.
"Natsu! Can you hear me?!" Lisanna shouted down the hole.
There was no response.
"Say something, Natsu!" Erza called down into the darkness.
"Something!" his voice answered back.
Hearing Natsu's voice made Lisanna let out a sigh of relief.
"What took you so long to say something, idiot?" Gray yelled down to him.
"I didn't hear anything!"
"You seriously didn't hear Lisanna ask if you could hear her?" Gajeel shouted down to him.
"Nope! But jump down!"
"Jump down? Are you crazy Salamander?!" Gajeel exclaimed. "We'll be trapped down there just like you!"
"No you won't! Trust me!" he yelled back. "It's another cave!"
"And that's a good enough reason for us to jump down?"
"It is a good reason because I can smell somebody down here!"
"Really? Who does it smell like?" Juvia called down to him.
"I don't know! It's really faint, but it is definitely familiar!" Natsu shouted back. "Now jump down already! It's not even that far of a fall!"
Everyone looked at each other, unsure of whether or not to jump down.
"Alright! We're coming down!" Erza decided. "Get away from the hole!"
"Aye ma'am!"
They gave Natsu a second to move away from the hole before jumping down themselves. Levy was the last to jump down, but she stopped herself upon noticing that she had dropped some of her papers on the way over.
"Shrimp? What's taking you so long?!" Gajeel yelled up to her.
"I dropped some of my papers, just go on without me!" she called down to them. "I'll catch up with you guys once I've gotten all of them back!"
"Fine, but be careful!"
"I will!"
Levy slowly made her way over the unstable ground, picking up the papers that she dropped.
"Huh?" she heard a muted rumbling noise that caused her to halt. "What was that?"
Almost immediately, the ground underneath Levy's feet swallowed her up and she fell into obscurity.
Lisanna POV
Natsu was lighting up the cave with his flames just like he had done earlier, so he was the one leading the way. But it wasn't just because he was the one with the light; it was also because he could smell whoever was down here.
"Is the scent getting any stronger, Natsu?" I asked him.
"Yeah, but slowly," he answered. "It's like it's going at a snail's pace."
"So if we run, then shouldn't we get closer to the smell?"
"Even if that's right, we aren't going to run," Erza stated firmly.
"Why not?" Natsu looked over his shoulder at her.
"Because we have absolutely no clue what's down here and the last thing that we need is for you to fall down another hole and get trapped," she explained. "So no running."
"Fine."
We kept walking through the cave, eventually finding an ending to the tunnel of inky darkness. There was a gentle breeze, which felt a lot cooler now than before.
What's going on? I thought to myself. The breeze wasn't this cold before...or was it?
"Hey guys...was the wind always this cold, or is it just me?" I asked.
"No, it's certainly gotten chillier," Juvia answered with a frown. "Does anyone have any ideas why?"
"No clue," Gajeel responded with a shrug.
"I don't know what you guys are talking about," Gray spoke up. "I don't feel anything."
"That's because you're an ice mage, Gray," I chided him. "You're used to the cold."
"Oh yeah," he frowned. "How the hell did I forget that?!"
"I don't know," I answered. "Also, your shirt is gone."
"DAMN IT!"
We got to the exit of the cave, discovering marble stairs leading up to a very regal looking palace. The building had so many windows, you could say that the palace was made more of glass than wood.
"The scent is coming from there," Natsu pointed to the palace after taking a few sniffs of the air around him.
"Can you tell who's smell it is yet?"
"No," he answered begrudgingly. "But I'm sure that it belongs to someone we know."
"You just can't put your finger on it, huh?" I asked.
"Exactly."
"Then we shouldn't waste time," said Erza. "Let's go in there and find out who it belongs to."
We began climbing the steps up to the palace of wood and glass.
"Do you think that it could be Wendy?" Juvia asked, her tone hopeful.
"I sure hope so," I said with a sigh.
We got to the top of the steps, pushed open the heavy double doors, and went inside of the palace with the doors hurling shut behind us as soon as we were inside.
"What the hell?" Gajeel proclaimed. "Why'd the damn doors close?!"
Erza went over to the doors and tried to open them, only to find that they were tightly locked.
"The creature must have locked the doors behind us," she stated.
"It's here?"
"If Wendy is here, then of course it's going to be around here," I answered.
"We better get moving then, before it tries to bring this place down on top of us," said Gray.
"I don't think that it'll do that if Wendy really is in this place," I doubted. "But we should get moving either way."
We began to walk through the halls of the palace, checking every room that we passed by. But each of the rooms were empty, at least in terms of people in them.
That is, until we came across a quaint room that was styled to look like a shop. And inside was a petite fairy sitting on a counter by a book. They had a bored look on their face as they flipped through the pages.
"I don't get why I have to take care of this shop," they sighed. "No one ever comes here."
We couldn't help but stare at it for a bit because we were shocked to see an actual fairy, even if this was just a dream.
"Excuse us."
"Huh?" they looked up from their book and their face immediately turned to surprise at seeing us. "Oh! Hello there!"
The fairy abandoned its book to hover in the air behind the counter.
"I guess you can say that I'm more than surprised to see someone in this shop!" they were smiling, seeming genial now. "Is there something that you need?"
"Are you that thing?" Gajeel asked suspiciously.
"Am I what thing? Do you mean Master?"
"If that's what you call the creature, then yes," the iron dragon slayer confirmed.
"Oh no! I'm not Master!" they chuckled. "That's a rather silly assumption! Do we really look alike, though?"
"No, it's just that monster looks like it has the power to shape-shift into whoever it wants," I answered.
"But if you aren't the creature, then who are you?" Juvia asked. "And what is this place?"
"Well, people to seem to like to call me Reader-san, so I guess that's my name. And this is the shop that Master put me in charge of," they answered. "Do you need anything?"
"No, we don't have any-"
"You don't need any money," they interrupted, "Master says that the first item is always free, so pick from what you want. But don't go behind the counter, this a shopkeeper's only area."
"I'll take that satchel," Gajeel said immediately. He was pointing to a satchel that had creamy brown leather and a long strap, with a burnished golden buckle holding the flap closed.
"Huh? You mean this one?" they got a nod in response. "Alright!"
Reader-san fluttered over to the bag hanging from one of the many hooks on the wall, taking it off the hook and handing it over to Gajeel.
"Why do you want a bag?"
"It's not for me, it's for Levy," he replied. "This way, she won't keep dropping her papers."
"Gajeel loves Levy, Gajeel loves Levy, Gajeel loves Levy~!" Natsu teased, a jubilant grin on his face.
"Shut up!" Gajeel was blushing slightly at the accusation, which I couldn't help but smile at.
"Is there anything else that you need?" Reader-san asked, chuckling a bit at Natsu's battering of Gajeel.
"Yes...do you know where we can find Wendy?" Gray asked her, before moving his hand. "She's about this tall, has long, blue hair, and she's probably with the mon- er, your master."
"Hmmm...well, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but if she's not in the palace then she's probably on the roof," they relayed to us. "She seems to spend a lot of her time up there."
"How do we get to the roof?"
"There's an entrance on the second floor that will take you there, and the stairs leading there are a little way down the hall," Reader-san answered. "But be careful, Metal is on the second floor and I don't know if he's left yet."
"Meta-? You know what? I don't care," Gajeel stated, putting the satchel on. "Thanks, fairy thing."
"No problem! Stop by again if you need anything!" they waved goodbye. "And good luck!"
We left the shop and began heading for the second floor.
Reader-san POV
It was a few seconds after they had left and I went back to the book I has been reading.
"Ah...it feels good to have served a customer," I gleefully sighed at the nice feeling it left me with. "Along with helped one."
I sat there for a bit just flipping through the pages that were huge to me, until someone flicked me on the back of my head.
"OW!"
I rubbed the back of my head as I turned around to see who did it, only to see Master standing there with a displeased look on their face.
"Master! What was that for?!"
"You know what you did," Master growled at me. "You told them where Wendy is."
"How do you know that?"
"These walls are thin as paper, it wasn't hard for me to hear you," Master snapped. "The hard part was leaving Wendy unattended when those horrible people are here and know where she is."
"Then shouldn't you be with her right now?" I asked, somewhat confused. "And shouldn't you have gotten her out of here when you heard me talking to them?"
"First, I would be if I didn't have to punish you, and second..." Master trailed off, before appearing annoyed. "Dammit!"
"Pu-punishment? Master! Please!" I couldn't stop myself from paling in fear of my dismal predicament. "Have mercy!"
"No! You deserve to be punished for what you've done!" Master refused. "Now...what's a fitting punishment for you?"
I could only stare at Master as they tried to conjure a punishment for me.
"Ah-ha! I've got it!"
"Reader-san, you are hereby forbidden from eating any other foods besides your least favorite ones, alongside the grossest ones you can think of!"
"But, but-"
"No buts!" Master interrupted. "Now go home and tell your family what you've done."
"Okay..."
Master disappeared after that, and I assumed that they had gone back to the roof.
I then placed a closed sign on the counter before fluttering away back to my home to tell my family about what I had done, just like how Master had told me.
I didn't say what Reader-san looked like or what gender they were because it's supposed to be you, aka the person that's reading this story right now...anyways.
Review plz?
