Hello all, and welcome to another installment in this fic. I just started school for the fall, so I don't know if I'll be able to post chapter as regularly as during the summer. Thank you to all of my followers for reading through this story, and a big thanks to Potter4me for the beta work. This story would look a lot uglier without ya!
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, which is a good thing, since an American creating Japanese manga would be kinda weird.
Natsu awoke to a multitude of chanting voices.
By the chained one's mercy
Break his chains with mist, blood, treason
Mist: Our fervent prayers
Blood: The red wine of sacrifice
Treason: Vengeance upon the accursed ones
O Lord
Open your eyes
Gaze upon your domains shallow, deep, and dry
Stir your form
Shake the seas, the land, the sky
Unleash your power
Anoint us, your slaves
Hear us, elder dragon
Aethros the Hurricane
Alerted by the word "dragon," Natsu groggily cracked open his eyes, black spots dancing before them as he attempted to remember what was happening. He recalled that, as he was working his way through the mist-shrouded forest with Wendy, Happy, and Carla, the fog closed around him as it had when he fell from the sky earlier. When it cleared, he was on a moving train. The last thing he remembered, as he was immobilized by motion sickness, was being struck on the back of the head and blacking out. The one thing about his attacker that Natsu noticed was that, strangely, it did not stink as the attacker earlier did. Actually, this attacker did not have much of a scent at all.
Noticing that his hands were free, Natsu reached up and felt the back of his head. Sure enough, there was a lump on the back of his head the size of a goose egg. Mmmm...eggs. Natsu promised himself that he would have a fried goose egg as soon as he got back to the guild hall. With sour cream, cheese, peppers, onions, steak, salmon, a whole ham, and a rack of ribs on top. All of it on fire and served with a Molotov cocktail.
When Natsu's vision cleared, he deduced that he was a long ways away from having that snack. The first thing that he noticed was that he was on a porous stone surface, similar to a sponge, but not half as soft of absorbent. As he looked up, Natsu noticed that the material formed a cage around him, in which he was the sole inmate. Natsu rapped on the stone, which chipped under the relatively small force. He wondered why in the world anybody would build a cage of this stuff. As he stood up, preparing to unleash an attack of greater force, the floor rocked under Natsu's feet like the deck of a boat. His stomach immediately shot into his throat and he collapsed to his hands and knees. Fortunately, the rocking eventually stopped, and Natsu looked out between the bars of his cage.
Sure enough, the cage was situated on a large pool of water. The water was devoid of waves and smooth and clear as a pane of glass. Carefully, Natsu crept to the edge of the cage and peered into the water. He noticed that, strangely, the cage floating on the water didn't create any ripples. Natsu stuck his hand through the bars of the cage and into the water. His hand met some resistance, but he managed to make ripples when he put more force into it. Well, at least he wouldn't be motion sick unless he moved around too much, Natsu thought.
He looked out farther and saw that there were other cages just like his, each of which held two or more people. The other prisoners were lying down on the floors of their cages, just like Natsu. For a second, he wondered if they had motion sickness just like him, since a pair of people could easily break out and swim to safety. Then, he peered down into the crystal clear depths and realized with a start that what kept the other prisoners down was not motion sickness, but fear.
As soon as she noticed Nicholas Sturm and his wife's absence, Lucy ran out of the parlor room into the hallway...straight into the pair of people that she was looking for. Lucy's emotions shifted from surprise to relief to anger. "Where did you two go?" Lucy demanded, putting her hands on her hips.
Nicholas smiled sheepishly and replied, "Sorry, I just ducked out to reapply my cologne. You see, my sweat washed it off while I ran from that monster earlier. My wife had to go use the ladies room." Lucy quickly noticed that, sure enough, he had the same terrible stench about him as the other men.
"Well, you should have at least told us when you left," Lucy said with a scowl, "Anyhow, we have come to the conclusion that you and the other guests from your hometown know something important about the killer. We will need to take you back to the Fairy Tail guild hall."
As Lucy finished speaking, Lahar emerged from the parlor room with the two other suspects in tow. The expression on these two men's faces had barely changed from the moment that Lucy and Lahar had arrived. Lucy noted this as suspicious. Lahar looked around the hallway and asked, "Where are the rest of my men? I don't see them here, and they wouldn't wander far from an interrogation room."
"I think that your escort left for some fresh air. It seems that our cologne had a profound effect on them. Your messenger said that he had something to attend to at your base and left altogether," Nicholas replied.
Lahar's eyes narrowed and he said, "Very well. I see that Ms. Heartfilia has told you about the situation, so follow me out." Then, Lahar, Lucy, their four suspects, and Mr. Sturm made their way out through the twisting, garishly decorated halls of the house out into the street.
As they left, Lucy heard Mr. Sturm mutter to himself, "I really should fire my interior decorator. Him being blind in one eye and colorblind in the other probably should have tipped me off. 'One eye's good enough,' I said. Bah!"
Lahar walked into the street and looked around, "I don't see my escort anywhere! Mr. Nicholas, did my escort actually say that they were going out for fresh air? In that case, they really should be competent enough to notice that we were leaving. Where are my men?" At this point, Lahar realized that something went terribly wrong. His already pale face blanched, his fists clenched, and Lucy felt an up swell of magical power emanate from Lahar, the first that he displayed since his appearance in Magnolia.
Behind him, Nicholas took a glowing lacrima from one of his pockets and looked into it. A huge grin broke out across his face, and Lucy, who happened to be in what had to be a great eavesdropping position, heard him say said quietly to himself, "Excellent! It went perfectly, just as planned! Now that our little chain reaction is set up, I can knock over the first domino," he looked up and said, out loud this time, "Mr. Lahar, if you want to find what you are looking for, I would suggest looking up." Lahar looked up, and his eyes widened in shock. The entire escort, six in total, dangled limply in the air, each one of them pinned to the side of the Sturm mansion by a two-pronged spear.
Reviews please!
