Gray POV
When we made our way out of Wendy's personal paradise and into the forest again. We decided to head east, whilst filling Wendy in about everything.
"So Mirajane, Yukino and Lucy are here too?" I nodded in response to her question. "Who else is here?"
"We don't know, but Juvia would hope that no one else was taken by Paw," Juvia said.
"I hope so too," Wendy said softly. "Where are Happy, Carla and Pantherlily though?"
"They couldn't come with us because Levy said that using the spell on them would be too dangerous," Lisanna answered. "So they're in the real world taking care of us right now."
"Speaking of Levy, where is she?" Wendy asked.
"We got separated cause of her losing her papers," Gajeel answered. "She said that she would catch up with us when she got all of them back."
"Should it be taking this long, though?" Wendy asked, a concerned expression on her face. "What if something happened to her?"
"I'm sure that shrimp is fine," Gajeel scoffed. "The wind is probably just making her chase them."
"If you say so..."
We kept walking for a minute until I spoke up.
"So, what's with that scarf you're wearing?" I asked Wendy. "Yukino had one just like it...did Paw give it to you or something?"
"Well yes, she told me to never take it off no matter what. But I'm not sure why," she confirmed, one hand going up to touch the fabric of the scarf.
"Do you think that's what's keeping you from waking up?"
"I don't know, but even if it was then I don't want to take it off," the Sky Maiden answered. "I want to help you all save the others."
"Are you sure about that?" Erza questioned, wanting her to be sure. "Your life is in danger here, after all."
"Of course I'm sure," she nodded.
"Alright then, don't let your scarf come off," Erza cautioned, her eyes staring ahead.
"I'm not planning to," Wendy responded.
We kept walking until we came to a steep dirt path, leading up into the mountains. With glistening white caps, like a perfect storybook picture, the mountain range lay to the east. Like slumbering giants beneath thick blankets of white they lay in dreamless sleep as the eons ticked by like the second hand of a clock.
"Is this the next personal paradise?" Juvia asked, sounding a bit doubtful.
"It has to be," I answered. "But who's personal paradise is in the mountains?"
"The mountains have to be some sort of wall," Erza guessed, ignoring the argument Natsu and I just had. "Paw must have blocked the entrances to the personal paradises to keep us out."
"Then why is there a path?" Natsu asked, scratching his head. "If Paul and Dragon can teleport, then why can't anyone else?"
"It's Paw, not Paul," Gajeel corrected him. "And what makes you think that we know?"
"It was worth a shot," Natsu shrugged. "It doesn't hurt to ask, am I right?"
"Right," Erza answered, "Now let's go."
We all headed up the steep path and into the mountains. Either the mountains went on for miles or the fact that the mountains were a big maze made them feel like we were trekking a long distance. The path twisted from time to time, snaking around ancient trees. Roots criss-crossed, gnarled and uneven– as beautiful as any picture book illustration. I took in the colors with unshielded eyes and used my hands where the path raised in steep, uneven rocky steps, until we finally reached something.
It was a cave mouth of impenetrable blackness; as I stepped in, I watched my shadow dissolve into the surrounding darkness. However, upon further inspection, we reached a dead end.
We walked into dead end cave after dead end cave, small tunnel after small tunnel, for I forget how long until we reached what seemed like the peak of the mountains.
"We're finally out of that maze," Lisanna sighed, relieved.
"It's not over yet," Wendy pointed out. "We still have to go down."
"Seriously?!" Natsu whined, reluctant to go back through another maze.
"Uh-huh," she nodded. "And we're gonna have to go back through again once it's time to leave."
"At least we already know the way," I was frowning, but I tried to think optimistically.
We kept walking until Lisanna seemed to spot something in the distance. She sped up her walk and went on ahead of us.
"Uhhh...Lisanna? Where are you going?" Natsu called after her. Usually he was the one to wander off.
Lisanna stopped and picked something up off the ground, "What is this doing here?"
"What is it?" Wendy asked, heading over to the Strauss girl. "What did you find?"
Lisanna turned around to face us. She was holding a book in her hand that looked brand new, its cover jade green leather with golden binding.
"I saw this book lying on the ground," she told us. "There's not a speck of dust on it, so it doesn't seem like it was dropped a long time ago."
"Any idea who dropped it?" I asked her.
"No clue. It's not a journal, so there's no name on it," she answered as she inspected it. "And it doesn't look like there's anything that could tell us who dropped it."
"It could turn out to be useful in some way," Erza suggested. "Let's bring it with us just in case."
We kept walking after that. However, there were many more books scattered along the path, with some of them even being stacked on top of each other, and all of them looking like they had just been bought.
I didn't understand why there were so many books strewn about, and I'm sure the others didn't understand either. That was, until we came upon what appeared to be a town, but it was very...abnormal. Quirky, if you wanted to be polite.
"I think this explains all of the books everywhere..." I commented, observing our new surroundings with some disbelief.
"How does this place tell us where those books came from?" Gajeel asked, looking at me in confusion.
"Just look at this place," I gestured to the town. If you could even call it a town, that is.
The houses were the only normal looking things about the place, being made out of metal and wood. Everything else was much different.
There was a road made out of hardcover books, the trees were made of books with the leaves being made out of pages; the benches were metal but painted to look like opened books, the lampposts were metal as well, but the ends of them was the glowing word 'light' which were most likely drawn by a light pen, and there were signs everywhere which all had library rules inscribed on them.
"With all of the books in this place, there's no way those books from earlier didn't come from here..." I finished.
"He has a point," Lisanna agreed with me, setting down the book she picked up earlier on a nearby bench.
"Do you guys think that this could be someone's...whatever it's called?" Natsu spoke up. I sighed at his stupidity.
"It's called a personal paradise, dumbass," I looked at him. "And it might be."
"Who's do you think it-?"
"Shh!" Gajeel quieted Wendy as he walked forwards.
"Ga-?"
"SSSSSHHHHH!" Gajeel hissed. "Quiet!"
"What's the matter, Gajeel?" Erza asked him. "What do you hear?"
"You don't hear that?" he asked, frowning. "Listen closely."
We all silenced ourselves, trying to hear what Gajeel was hearing. I didn't hear anything for a few seconds, until the faint sound of humming started.
Is that humming? By the looks on the other's faces, it seemed like they heard it too. "Where's it coming from?" I asked.
Gajeel walked around, listening for where the sound was strongest until he stopped at the upper path.
"It's coming from over here," he said, motioning us forward. "Come on."
We followed Gajeel to the source of the humming, finding a familiar face sitting at a merchant's stand that of course, sold books. They were reading one of the books as they hummed a cheery tune.
"Shrimp?" Gajeel cautiously approached Levy, who was sitting there. He didn't seem sure if it was actually her or not.
"Hm?" she set down the book and looked up at him. "Oh there you guys are! I've been looking all over for you!"
"Levy? What are you doing here?" Erza was clearly suspicious. "How did you get here before us?"
"Well, it took me awhile to get back all of my papers because of the breeze. Eventually, they just got blown into a pond..." she frowned at the loss of her papers. "After a while of standing there in shock, I decided to go looking for you guys."
"That doesn't answer my question," Erza frowned at her.
"I was getting to that...I thought that you guys would have already found Wendy, so I left the personal paradise and headed east," she continued. "I wound up getting distracted when I walked past this town, but it looks like it was a good thing because it gave you guys time to catch up with me."
"Oh," Erza still seemed to be wary of the blue haired girl.
"It's good to see that you're alright, Levy." Lisanna smiled.
"And it's good to see that you guys are alright too," she smiled back.
"Did you learn anything about this place before we got here?" Juvia asked.
"Well, this place is too big to search in one big group, so if we did that then we'd be here for a really long time. So I guess we're gonna have to split up," Levy answered. "Also, I heard something come from one of the houses that I passed by, but I'm a bit too scared to go in there on my own...can one of you come with me?"
"I'll go with scaredy shrimp and take a look at the big scary house," Gajeel teased her. "The rest of you go look around town."
"Come to the entrance to the town once you're done looking around," Erza addressed us.
After that, we all split up.
Erza went alone, Wendy paired with Natsu, Gajeel of course went with Levy, Lisanna went after Erza so that way Erza wouldn't be alone, and I went with Juvia.
"Where should we start looking Gray-sama?" Juvia asked me, her voice eager. "Wherever Gray-sama wants to start looking is where Juvia will start looking too, because Juvia will never leave Gray-sama!"
"Hmmm..." I had...mostly...gotten used to the stuff that Juvia would say, so it didn't bother me to hear that, as it was normal. "How about that way?"
"If that's where Gray-sama wants to go, then Juvia will follow!" she answered gleefully.
After Juvia said that, we walked down the book path to look around the right half of the town.
Erza POV
I wandered around the town for a few minutes, looking for anything that could be useful, but so far I hadn't found anything that fit into that category.
Judging by the way that this place looks, this has to be someone's personal paradise. I thought to myself. I mean, a big empty town that looks like this can't just be a normal empty town, right?
I passed by a few merchants stands, which were all selling books, writing supplies, magic items like light pens and gale force reading glasses, etc, but they didn't catch my attention.
So it has to be...
In the distance, I saw someone walking in my direction carrying a large stack of books.
Who's that? I was unable to catch a glimpse their face. All I could see was a bit of earthy brown hair peeking from behind the books.
They were halfway towards me when they turned towards a house and began trying to open the door without dropping the books.
"Ugh...come on..." they grumbled in annoyance. "Open up..."
Is that...Cana? I was able to see them better now.
Cana managed to get the door open without dropping any of the books that she was carrying, and went inside the house, kicking the door shut behind her.
That must be the Cana from earlier. I determined, humming softly as I thought. What is she doing out here?
I went over to the house and started trying to look through windows, but most of them were covered up by curtains that were weaved from pages. Finally, I found one that had an opening big enough for me to peer inside.
What's going on in there? I wondered as I tried to get a better look past the curtains.
I saw Cana going around a neatly furnished room, passing out books to Jet, Droy and Kinana who were all in there. But that wasn't the only person who was there.
"Do you think that this will be enough books?" Cana asked as she walked around the room.
"I'm as sure as I'll ever be!" Levy was inside, wearing a scarf that had different colored books on it. "Reading is so much fun, don't you guys agree?"
"It sure is," Droy said, bobbing his head up and down.
"Reading takes you to places that not even I can get to with my speed," Jet admitted.
"It's like one big adventure without any of the dangers of a real one!" Kinana said optimistically, a smile on her face.
"Exactly! No danger, no risk, but still a lot of fun!" Levy beamed at the people around her. "Now shush, it's reading time and that means no talking...got it?"
Everyone quietly nodded and began to flip through their books in complete silence.
That...that can't be the real Levy, can it? I was thoroughly confused. We found the real Levy a little while ago, and even though she seemed strange, she was still the real one, so this one has to be fake...right?
I noticed that there were some papers sitting on a nearby table and I recognized them as Levy's papers after a few seconds. Not only that, but why would there be a fake Levy here just entertaining these people?
She's real...that's the real Levy. I took a step back from the window. But why did Paw go after her? And how did Levy fall for it? Did she put some sort of spell on her?
Questions raced through my mind at a rapid speed, until I focused on a single, unpleasant thought.
If the real Levy is in there...then who the hell is with Gajeel right now? I wondered. Every fake person has been dressed in pajamas just like the people in there, but Paw is always dressed in normal clothing.
It didn't take more than a second for me to realize who they were.
I have to warn him before it's too late. I thought desperately.
I was about to take off running when there was a painful pang in my head, causing me to stop in my tracks.
"A-ah!" I exclaimed. "What the-?"
"Don't...ge...st...pun...not...sta..." I heard someone talking to me.
"Wha...what's happening?" Confusion and fear twisted in a warped combination in my stomach. "No...I-I can't let this distract me, I have to warn Gajeel before it's too late."
I held my head with my hand as I went back the way I came, trying to ignore the strange voice that was trying to talk to me until it stopped after about a minute. Once it faded, I was able to start running and let go of my head.
Happy Late/Early Halloween to everyone!
Review plz?