AN: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima! ^_^
A huge thank to everyone who has made it this far and made this story possible! Hope you enjoy this chapter and (if you're not following the advent calendar) I hope to see you in the New Year! Hope you have a great Christmas! And remember, if there's a translation you need for this, check out Rovr u nerrna viparketh et rka nuthouha ik Gajiru!
Chapter Thirty-Four
A shiver crawled over her and she held her breath, unsure of what was making her so tense. Are there any large predators out here? There probably is, but why would it want to come after her? She noticed a small circle of light shining on her shoulder, making her wonder if she was sane as the thought of looking out of it popped into her head. She had just abandoned her family and everything she knew to go live with a man she had once assumed to be a barbarian. In fact, she apparently had so much faith in him that she had run off into the middle of a forest without even checking to see if he was winning the fight against her uncle's men. If he did not, she would be lost out here forever.
She turned slightly and bent her knees, lowering herself just enough for the peephole to be at eye level. She looked out into the forest, watching for any signs of movement. It lay before her eerily still, the silence echoing in her ears. She gulped, suddenly feeling trapped. She glanced back up at the opening, green light from the canopy above still coming in undisturbed. Was whatever had taken an interest in her aware that she was in here? The hollow became darker. She closed her eyes, not daring to move. She waited for the silence to pass, knowing it would not. She cracked her eyes open and squeaked, earning a nose of amusement from the staring ruby eye on the other side of the peephole.
"Good hiding place, Vkrepr." A voice called through the walls of the hollow.
"Gajeel! You scared me! Why did you do that?!" She exclaimed angrily, glaring back at him.
"I was sure it was your tracks I was following, but I had to make sure that it was you hiding in the tree. You are impressively small, Vkrepr." He teased, knocking on the outside of the tree. "Can you get back out, or am I going to have to climb the tree?"
"Give me a minute." She grumbled, straightening up and looking up at the opening, hearing his little laugh at her response.
She raised her arms and took a deep breath, readying herself for what she was about to do...again. She gripped onto the edge of the opening, hauling herself upwards with all her might. She shuffled her arms along the branch outside the opening, her stomach resting on the lip. She could feel Gajeel's gaze on her, making her cheeks burn in embarrassment. She could not even pull herself out of a hole in a tree and he could get himself over a wall bigger than him and still seem weirdly graceful. How could she expect him to take her home to his mother? He was probably mortified right now, just watching her make a fool of herself. She reached a hand back to her waist, pulling the book free and laying it onto the branch in front of her.
"Vkrepr?" Gajeel's voice called from the ground.
"I know, I am an embarrassment..." She groaned, burying her head into her arms as she lay there, her legs still dangling in the hollow of the tree.
"Embarrassment...? I do not understand? I was just going to suggest that you threw down the thing you have just put onto the branch...?" He replied and she could hear the confused frown in his voice.
"Thank you..." She called back sheepishly, not looking at him as she picked up the book and dropped it over the side of the branch, knowing he would catch it.
She took another deep breath and hauled herself forward. She was surprised at the difference of not having the book tucked into her skirt. She brought her legs out onto the branch with relative ease, pride swelling in her chest. She moved so that she was sitting on the branch and swung her legs over the side. She grinned down at the male below her as he stood staring up at her, holding her book in one hand. She tilted her head, studying him, wondering what the expression on his face was. She waved down at him, beginning to laugh as he waved back as if he were trapped in a daze.
"Are you okay down there?" She inquired, swinging her legs as if she were a child.
"Amazing..." He gasped, still staring back up at her, before suddenly shaking his head, looking away from her. "You did very well getting out of there so easily...and getting up there in the first place...being so small...and having this thing against your waist." He finished, still not looking back at her as he raised the book.
"Thank you..." She mumbled, blushing slightly. "I thought I had done terribly and that you would be embarrassed of me..."
"Our females would have had the strength and size to get up there easily...but they would not have fit inside the tree...for your small size...I could not be more impressed by you." He replied, finally looking back at her, a pink line visible across the top of his nose, travelling across his cheeks to almost reach his ears. "I shall help you down...I do not want you to fall and hurt yourself...not after we have come so far..."
"Think you can catch me?" Levy challenged, smirking down at him, eliciting an impressive grin that would have terrified any other living being.
"You trust me, do you not?" He returned, an almost musical note to his deep voice.
"Of course, Gajeel – you have caught me before! In fact, you have already caught me four times." She smirked, watching a confused frown form across his handsome, studded face.
"Three." He corrected, watching her.
"Four. I would not be here if you had not. You caught me in the bookstore and then when I fell out of the bathroom window. You caught me when I dropped myself out of my bedroom window." She replied, smiling happily down at him. "And you have caught my heart."
"Then let me catch you a fifth." He returned seriously, reaching his arm up to her.
She slipped herself off of the edge of the branch, falling feet-first towards the ground below. His arm wrapped effortlessly around her waist, clutching her against him, her bare stomach against his exposed chest. She stared, breathless, into his beautiful, mesmerising rubies as he looked back at her. He glanced down at her lips, before returning his gaze to her hazel eyes. She brought her hands to his cheeks delicately, rubbing his cheekbones caressingly with her thumbs. She lowered her head, resting her forehead against his, not looking away from his eyes. She slowly closed the gap between their lips, kissing him gently, feeling her body being lowered down his in an impossibly slow motion. She felt her toes reach the grass before she realised her head was now leaning back instead of forward.
"You found her then?" Metalicana grunted, startling them both, breaking them apart in their flustered attempt to seem as if they had not been doing anything. "Her apparel suggests that you have already taken her as a mate, but that reaction tells me otherwise."
"Father, this is Levy. I know I have not earned all my studs yet, but I wish to choose her to be my pura." Gajeel stated, turning to face Metalicana boldly.
"I know that, you fool of a boy!" He growled, shaking his head. "You will need to earn your final stud, just as all the other males of the Ragkiz family before you...but I will not disagree with your choice once you have. She has shown true strength and determination to have made it this far. She has used her intelligence to work her way around every obstacle put in her path. I am very impressed."
"Thank you, Father." Gajeel grinned, turning back to her and kissing her again.
"She may not be of much use as a female of our family, but I can think of a few uses for her...At least she looks like she may actually be capable of bearing your children – I do need a strong hrutgvit." He grumbled, running his eyes over her.
"Father!" Gajeel snapped, his face crimson as he broke away from Levy to stare in utter disbelief at his father.
"Gajeel...what is a...a 'whrut-give-it'?" She asked nervously, looking up at Gajeel's flushed face.
"Hrut-g-vit." He repeated, smiling awkwardly at her, but still refusing to meet her eyes. "It is not something we have really...specifically...talked about...We...We sort of...have...but...we did not directly discuss it...He is talking about the result of...of pureth..."
"Are you saying the two of you wish to be together, in every way, but the thought of the meaning of such a thing never occurred to either of you?!" Metalicana exclaimed, shaking his head at them in despair.
"It has...to me and I believe...to Vkrepr too, but we have not discussed it...exactly." Gajeel defended, or at least, tried to.
"You are talking about Gajeel and me mating...and having children...? Did you just say...you need a strong...'grandson'...as in, you need Gajeel to have a good strong male heir?" She offered, feeling her cheeks begin to heat again.
"You were right when you told me she was a quick learner...Her pronunciation is not perfect, but after living with us for a few years, she should get it. Our descendants will be impressive with her in their ancestry – she will be able to teach them things others cannot. She may even be able to help you converse with your Princess." He nodded, a small smile at the corner of his mouth.
"Vkrepr...in case you misunderstood, Juvia is just a friend...She has never been more and it will always be you that I choose as my pura." Gajeel added sternly, cupping her face in one hand. "E nixa oio, Vkrepr."
"What is 'nixa'?" She mumbled, moving onto her toes to rest her forehead against his.
"It is our word for 'love'..." He whispered, nuzzling his nose against hers.
"E nixa oio rii, egeir." She replied softly, catching his lips briefly.
"I am only an idiot for you." He mused, kissing her again.
"We should get moving or we will never find a good camping spot by nightfall." Metalicana grumbled, rolling his eyes at them.
Gajeel stole another kiss, nipping her lip lightly, before breaking away with a grin as Levy puffed her cheeks out, glaring up at him. Levy grinned as a large tanned hand made contact with the back of Gajeel's head, catching him by surprise and making Levy laugh as a string of grumbled words she had not heard before escaped him. He aimed a murderous glare at his father's back as the older male started to move on ahead of them, carefully picking out a path through the undergrowth. Gajeel began to follow, clearly not happy about having just been told off. Levy moved to go after her grumpy future pura, yelping as she took a step, Gajeel's head snapping around to look at her in obvious concern.
"Sorry...I...I was running...running through the forest and I was not watching where I was putting my feet...I must have stood on something..." She mumbled, looking away from his gaze.
"Your feet are stirr too soft, Vkrepr...I wirr carry you." He sighed, shaking his head.
"No, it is fine! I can walk, really!" She exclaimed, trying to take another step, failing to hide her pain from Gajeel as he glared at her.
"I wirr carry you. Your feet are stirr too soft – arr you wirr do if you try to wark is make it worse. If you make it worse, it wirr be ronger before you can wark again." He growled, earning a sigh of resignation from her. "You wirr need to carry your thing though." He added, lifting up the book. "What is it?"
"It irz ah boork, Gajeel." Metalicana answered, a note of sarcasm to his voice.
"I know that!" He snapped back, glaring at his father.
"It is a book about a woman who travels to a land of dragons and falls in love with one, even though they know that it is more than just forbidden. They have to fight to prove themselves, although I will not spoil the end of it...I hoped to read it to you." She replied sheepishly, taking the book from his hands.
"A woman who falls in love with a dragon..." Gajeel echoed thoughtfully, crouching to allow her to climb onto his back.
"Very appropriate." Metalicana nodded, watching as Gajeel stood back up with Levy gripping onto him. "I would like very much to hear the story too, if that is not too much to ask?"
"I would be honoured, thank you!" She grinned over Gajeel's shoulder, happy that the head of Gajeel's family, his father, wanted to spend some of his time listening to her read one of her books.
"Your arre wercome, girrl."
"Too many 'r's, Kurkar."
Ri da kitretoag...