Natsu began teaching Lucy sword fighting as soon as possible but she wasn't a fast learner. According to Natsu didn't move quick enough and wasn't keeping balance with her fighting.
"This is impossible." Lucy said in frustration.
"It's difficult but not impossible." He told her.
"You make it look so easy."
"That's because I have it mastered. Over the years I've learned to fight better than any knight and I've developed the superior senses of a bloodhound."
Just then he tensed up.
"What is it?" Lucy asked.
"Someone's coming." Natsu listened carefully. "Let's see judging by the sound of their footsteps I'd they're human and they're carrying a sword with a blade of silver, a cross bow, and silver tipped arrows."
"How could you possibly know that just by hearing their footsteps?"
"It's a gift. Whoever this person is they sound dangerous so you go hide. I'll take care of them."
Lucy hid behind a tree while Natsu waited for the person to cone closer. Once he heard the footsteps come nearby he jumped on to the person to attack. Lucy didn't see anything however she did hear Natsu screaming and crying out in pain. Concerned, she came out from her hiding spot and went to help him only to find him beaten to a pulp and hog tied with a young woman in a red shawl standing victorious on top of him.
"So thought that you could rob me did you?" She said. "You bandits don't stand a chance against someone like me."
"My goodness! Natsu are you okay?" Lucy gasped.
The poor man was too dizzy and delirious from the many bumps on his head to respond.
"Are you a bandit as well?" The woman asked preparing to attack her.
"No! No! No! You don't understand! We're not bandits! We're just travellers!"
"Then why did this idiot attack me?"
"He thought that you were a thug or something. Please understand, we were previously attacked by trolls."
"I see."
"Hey Lucy I didn't know you had a twin sister." Natsu slurred. "Aren't you going to introduce me?"
"Is he going to be alright?" Lucy asked the woman.
"He'll regain his senses in about ten to twenty minutes. Now then who are you people?"
"I'm Lucy and the man you just clobbered was Prince Natsu of Alvarez."
"He's a prince?" Erza looked at him skeptically. "He certainly doesn't look the part of Prince Charming."
"Well looks can be decieving."
"You've got that right. When I first saw him I was sure he was some drunk thug from the local pub."
"So um you know who we are but who are you?"
"I'm Erza. I live in the Magnolia village that resides in this forest."
"I've read about that village but isn't it in the other direction?"
"I'm looking for the pub because I want to drill those drunkards for information."
"Information on what?"
"A certain mirror."
"You mean the mirror with the evil spirit trapped inside?"
"How do you know about that?"
"My mother told me stories about it when I was younger."
"Do you know where it is?"
"No. But I don't think anyone at that pub will know. According to my mother only a fairy would be able to find it."
"A fairy?"
"It was a group of fairies and wise men who sealed the evil spirit in the mirror and the fairies were charged with keeping track of it. So if you want to find it you'd have to talk to a fairy."
"That's easier said than done. Do you know how hard it is to find fairies? They hide from humans and try to avoid them the best they can."
"Well I know how to find one fairy. She's my fairy godmother and she's trapped somewhere but that astral line in the sky should lead me right to her. You could come with us and ask her where the mirror is but why do you want to find it? Don't you know the mirror corrupts whoever uses it?"
"I don't want to use it I want to destroy it. The horrible looking glass has only caused misery and suffering and it must be eliminated before it causes any further harm to anyone."
"What has the mirror done?"
"I'm not aware of all it's damage but it's done something terrible to a number of good people and I've made it my mission to free those people from the suffering that the mirror has inflicted upon them."
"Ugh...My head." Natsu said coming back to his senses. "What happened?"
"You were beaten by a girl." Lucy giggled.
"What?!" Natsu looked at Erza surprised. "You mean you're a woman?! I thought you were some red haired barbarian!"
Erza only punched him in the gutter hard knocking him to the ground.
"So is Prince Charming here your bethrothed or something?" Erza asked.
"Bethrothed?!" Natsu and Lucy gasped while blushing.
"Oh no! No! No! No! No! No way! Uh-uh!" Lucy said nervously.
"She's just a scullery maid I'm escorting!" Natsu said equally nervous. "It's nothing like that! I was just being a gentleman! That's all!"
"Geez a simple no would have sufficed." Erza said. "Anyway Lucy are you positive you don't mind me joining you on your quest?"
"No not at all."
"Wait a minute you invited this crazy chick to come with us?!" Natsu said.
"Of course. She needs help."
"She looks like she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself to me!"
"She needs a fairy's help!"
"Then why doesn't she go find her own fairy?!"
"Hey I thought princes were supposed to help damsels in distresses?"
"Does that damsel look like she's in distress to you?!"
"Hello I'm right here." Erza said.
"Look I started this quest so I say she can come with us and if you have problem with this then you can go back to Fiore and marry Minerva!"
"Oh gross! Don't even joke about that!"
They bickered for hours but in the end Lucy won the argument so Erza was now their newest traveling companion and to repay Lucy for the favor it started to get late Erza killed a bear and served it for dinner. Unfortunately Lucy lost her appetite after watching Natsu and Erza eat their dinner like a pack of ravenous wolves.
"So I guess they didn't have time to teach you table manners in the castle huh?" Lucy asked Natsu.
"What's that supposed to mean? Hey I wanted the liver!" Natsu said when Erza started eating it.
"I killed it so I get to first dibs on everything." Erza said.
"But the liver is the best part!"
"Which is why I should have it!"
"I should have it I'm a prince!"
"And I'm someone who could turn you inside with my eyes closed! Back off!"
She gave him a threatening death glare which frightened him into hiding behind Lucy allowing Erza to finish her meal. Once they had eaten they began to exchange stories about how they ended up here.
"So a young prince is escorting a servant through a dangerous forest and here I thought chivalry was dead." Erza said. "Though your so called prince didn't act so chivalrous toward me. A prince should know better than to attack a lady."
"And in what universe are you a lady?!" Natsu shouted. "I've seen men more feminine!"
"And I've seen drunkards act more gentleman like."
"You're an amazing hunter Erza." Lucy said. "Have you always been able to hunt and fight like that?"
"No. Actually I was trained to hunt and fight by a friend of mine from the village. He was a huntsman who was forced to fend for himself at a young age. He was fourteen and I was fifteen when we started training and he tried to make me pay for lessons so I lopped him on the head to get him to teach me for free. However my grandmother was a wolf slayer in her day so I think some of my fighting technique is also genetic."
"Is this huntsman your boyfriend?"
"Eww. No he's more like the annoying little brother I never wanted and besides he once told me that he froze his heart so that he could never fall in love."
"Metaphorically speaking right?"
"No he literally froze his heart."
"How the hell do you freeze your heart?" Natsu said.
"Our priest Reverend Makarov makes special potions, medicines, and elixirs that are used to help people in the village. He tried to make a potion that would make humans able withstand cold weather but accidentally made a potion that would freeze a person's heart making them cold, bitter, and incapable of feeling emotion. Makarov didn't want to give it to him but he was persistent and once he took it his heart became frozen."
"That's awful. Why would he do that?" Lucy asked.
"I don't know. I guess he didn't want to get his heart broken."
"If you ask me I'd rather have a broken heart than a frozen one."
"So they guy will never feel anything?" Natsu asked. "He'll have a heart of ice forever?"
"I once asked Makarov if there was a curse and apparently only warm tears of love can thaw a frozen heart of hatred."
"Warm tears of love?" Lucy said.
"Makarov says that true love is the most powerful and simple form of magic. It can transcend time or realms, it can break any curse, and it can overcome any evil."
"That's so romantic." Lucy sighed. "I can't wait for when I find my true love."
"They say love hits you when you least expect it." Erza said. "And I have a feeling you're definitely going to be that case."
