Chapter thirteen

The Fine Art of Almost Dying

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It is a widely accepted notion that when faced with turbulence, reactions to said turbulence switched to flight or fight but the lesser-known response was freeze that meant paralysis, like a deer caught in headlights. Which was exactly what happened to Lucy.

All she could think at the moment was, like this could grow any worse than-

She shut her thoughts on the chance if Fate heard her and was inclined to causing more blissful misfortune.

"Hello, Dragneel." She said, almost backed up against the tree.

"I can honestly say I've waited a long time for this." He grinned, a twirling flame that danced on the tip of his fingers.

Lucy wondered if she could still get out if she could still reach Wendy and Gray; she simply held her satchel close to her body. It was a fool's chance of hoping and she would like to think that she didn't qualify for one. At least not in this case.

Shadows of trepidation, of failure and disheartening delay recurring in the hollow spheres of her mind. She could pray, beg for mercy but that's what she would've done about ten years ago. Not today. Not right now. Besides, from him? No, she'd rather die at his hands than beg for the kind of mercy she knew would never receive.

Natsu, on the other hand, let his gaze settle on her, his prize, he wondered how her soul would taste like. Probably delicious with the amount of innocence that seemed to still linger in her scent, it was addictive. He had waited long enough for the little girl to pass into the Fae realms, he didn't why really. It was funny, it almost felt like Wendy would be a stern obstruction in his way even though she was just a human but something in him refused to hurt that child and so he had patiently waited instead.

Besides, now he was here.

For her.

To claim what was his.

Wow, Lucy thought with derision as she read the signs of the air between them, if that doesn't make me feel like a piece of cattle, I don't know what does.

To think that everything led to this; from that moment she had entered that room in Klomino to now, everything boiled down to this in the end.

The dark forest around them wailed in the rustling of the leaves, unaware of the birds that now gathered around them, flying to witness what had stirred the queer forest from its long lost slumber.

"Although I gotta say," Natsu folded his arms, cocking his head to the side as he appreciated her durability. Not just anyone could find the resources for entering the Earthland realm of Faes. "For someone who knows she's gonna die, you look pretty chill."

"Yeah because there's nothing the can probably change your mind of doing whatever it is you want to do to me." She replied, coldly.

"Hey, there might be one or two things you could do." He offered, raising his brows in joy.

"Like?" She said, humouring him in a vain attempt of stalling.

Natsu appeared to think for a while and Lucy for a fact knew it was a show. He knew what he wanted exactly what it was, the matter of getting it, however, it was still a prominent question mark.

"Kneel." He said experimentally, "Like you would in front of your Saviour."

Lucy stared at him blankly and then she laughed like it was a drunk joke cracked at a bar as Natsu's face betrayed nonchalance as it moved to mild confusion.

"Destroy my soul if you must, fiend," Lucy growled. "But there's no way I'll kneel to a creature whose wings are made of every life he's taken." She declared, inclining her head to the side, rigid by her beliefs.

And that hit.

That hit dangerously close to home.

"You don't know anything about the lives I've taken." Natsu seethed darkly, his eyes growling in red anger with a slight hint of his fangs baring themselves.

She chortled, oh, the nerve of her.

"I've read of the lives you've taken." Lucy snarled at him, ire drawing into her aura as she walked to him. "Of the weapon you've become, of the sins that stain your essence."

She stood right in front of him, placing the tips of her fingers on his chest as Natsu watched her move slowly to his ear.

Natsu couldn't help but think this woman really seemed like she wished death for dinner. Risking to come this close to him, staring a demon in the eye and daring him to do something about it.

"You, Natsu Dragneel." She whispered. "Are a monster in the rawest sense of the word."

Reacting on base instinct, Natsu grabbed the blonde by her waist before pushing her roughly to the bark of a tree behind him, he pinned her hand above her head as she let out an audible gasp. Warmth turned into heat as he dipped down to meet her eye and Lucy felt like she may have just pushed her luck.

"You don't see it, do you?" He asked, his grasp burning the skin on Lucy's wrist with a promise to leave a mark.

She winced slowly and it made Natsu smirk.

"I wasn't made into a weapon, I was born as one." He growled. "And as for my sins, I feed them with no regret."

Darkness loomed over his physique with only his eyes sharpening its blades and the call of death was certain in it.

"I am exactly the kind of monster you read about, Lucy." His eyes locked hers in a gaze and she knew he was telling the truth. There was the war though, she thought carelessly as Natsu left her wrist which now seemed like a scar and Lucy knitted her brows when he took a few steps back

He's transforming, a voice inside screeched as realisation struck a gold mine.

He was changing into his real form and the darkness grew venomously as a hand reached out with fingers long and sharp as knives, a mist inked in black starting to surround the forestry around her.

They say when one is faced with danger or inner turmoil, they recall the people who are precious to them or things that invoke belief in some sort within them. But for Lucy, nothing found its way to her except for that little epigraph she had read on the original painting of Temptation and Sins at a museum in St. Petersburg. Which was funny because she didn't like that painting one bit.

It brought her to look up to the now dark blue heavens dotting white imperfect specks. 'Neath the eye of the stellar skies, she thought as the Russian lines travelled thought her mind surreally, I tread my soul for the stars to guide.

Lucy's gaze fell back at the demon in front of her, completing his transformation to his real form as a Stygian fog covered the expanse of the woods around them.

"But I wonder, Dragneel." She probed when the shadows hesitated only for a blink of an eye. "Did the war kill whatever you had left as well?"

Natsu stopped completely as he heard her utter the words that had been echoed in the most wicked part of his soul and that was saying something because his whole being was wicked enough. He took a breath to stabilize, allowing a moment of lethargy meant showing weakness and he, of all, couldn't afford that.

The blonde stepped back further as her hand touched the bark only to find it wasn't there, he blinked at the left hand disappearing into the bark and Lucy fell backwards into the bark as the tree enveloped her into the Fae realm.

Natsu's hand reached out to her almost caught her wrist with a sharpness that wasn't enough to hold her or pull her back to him.

Then she wasn't in front of him anymore.

On the other side, Lucy stepped into a world where the first thing she noticed was a mind-numbing headache.

It was almost as if something had crushed her brain, was now attempting to put the pieces back to its original position and seemed to be failing spectacularly.

Lucy opened her eyes and caught a glimpse of the pink-hued skies, marching by the lines of pastel violet and was now slowly immersing to a daunting variant of midnight blues.

Was the Fae entrance cursed or something? Jeez, did Gray forget to mention something again?

Lucy screamed in pure agony and so immersed in her pain was she that she didn't notice the presence of another person approaching her.

"Dùin do inntinn."

The blonde couldn't even chance a look at the person who cast the spell at her because as soon as it was casted her eyes went stark wide, they shut out all the lights she knew. Lucy collapsed on the ground in the arms of soft, small arms.

The fae merely stared at her unconscious form before thinking: why, in the name of everything pretty and shiny, was a human in the Fae realm?

She chanted magic to make the blonde to be invisible to everyone except her and she brought her to her little blue cottage, her home.

She smiled at it, it sure had been long since she had returned home. Albeit, she hadn't predicted a return with an otherworldly creature, let alone a human.

Her gardens had wilted and the fae reminded herself promptly to mend it as soon as she was settled in her house.

She flew up to her window and her wards welcoming her as she opened it to place the human child on the clean sheets of her bed and the fae knitted her brows together with a pout forming. There was no reason that could explain why a human was here, the borders were strict, one couldn't just waltz into the Fae realm as and when they liked.

But, she thought calculatingly, if she came through the Wallowing Wayward Trees then there is a valid explanation.

The Wallowing Wayward Trees were a group of trees in the human world that had served as an entrance to the Fae world for all non-Fae creatures (read as humans) who had intentions that were pure of hearts.

Or in very rare cases, the trees would willingly engulf a human simply because they thought it right. Nature knew things better in alignment with the grand scheme of Fate and Destiny and when it did strange things most people, at least Faes, don't question it.

Yet that seldom occurred, the fae pouted, had she simply lost her way and accidentally stumbled across the forest to those trees?

The Fae shook her head, well, it was a thing among human to attract trouble maybe this child had just done that. If so, that meant her memory would have to be erased for protection of the secrecy and Levy immediately sent a flying lacrima for the address of the issue in the head Court of Fae.

Sooner or later, she would inform the guards as well and they could take the human away to their own realm in the event of it being a mistake. Not that the Fae kingdoms and courts weren't amiable with humans, they adored and loved the children of God who were made of flesh and bone.

Mainly because no truer being could retain innocence. Perfect in God's own image.

Really, humans might be trouble to the Fae kind but each and every one of them was worth so much more. Although there was some evil Faes who would lure them into traps now that she thought about it, the human was lucky to have been found by her.

However, these weren't good times in the Fae kingdoms.

There was a stirring that was being felt by all Faes, there was going to be a conflict in the future and every Fae feared that it was a war. The Great War had done a lot of good with a lot of harm as well, not that innocence was a virtue among them to lose it in the first place but the War had destroyed even the worst of them all. The fae shivered at the remembrance of the Great War.

Her gaze fell upon her right arm which looked like it had been burned.

"What the hell?" She muttered as it looked like it was going to leave a scar.

"Slànaich," She said, issuing the healing charm on the skin which refused to recover. She frowned at the failure of her magic and she proceeded to touch her skin only to have her finger feel like they had been scourged in a Dragon fire.

The fae retreated several steps in caution as she studied what she was dealing with. Someone had imprinted on this human, this fire, she knew all about it and had seen it in the war. That kind of fire never left anyone standing and it belonged to only one person she could think of. And she'd really rather not think about him as the answer.

She looked back at the bed in ponder, just what kind of trouble had this human got herself into?

She heard a groan from the bed and saw the human child wake to consciousness as she readied herself for any possible offensive attack that might come her way.

Lucy's eyes of brown fluttered open steadily, the blonde grunted at an unfamiliar house. Okay, that had to stop, exactly, how many more times was she going to wake up in houses she didn't recognise?

"Gray, you could've warned me about the migraine." She murmured as the Fae furrowed her brows.

"I'm not Gray." The fae stated, intrigued.

Lucy blinked before shooting up to sit upright in caution and regretted it immediately as her back was in throes of mild pain. Lucy yelped before she slowly turned to face the Fae who had raised a brow as if she was questioning her existence and the first question she asked her was:

"You have pretty hair."

"Oh," the fae blinked disoriented. "Thank you, child of God."

"Child of God?" Lucy said entertained. "Is that what you call us around here?"

The Fae didn't know how to answer that instead, she perked her concerned eyes at the blonde. "Is your headache alright?"

"I think?" Lucy said half confused and half relieved, she didn't think she'd slip out of his clutches but whatever it was that saved her, Lucy thanked it profusely in her head. Though she couldn't help but feel a little smug over it. I mean come on, she thought in justification of it, exactly how many people can you name who have successfully evaded a demon twice?

The first time was sheer dumb luck because she held his scarf as collateral, pretending to burn it with his own fire. This time was also sheer dumb luck but with lesser resources, she inwardly grinned at how he would be feeling at the moment.

Lucy couldn't say she envied him for it but would it be too much to ask for if she could see his misery over missing a shot again? Probably.

"I apologise." The fae smiled, attracting her attention to the contrite nature of her tone. "When a human for the first time steps into a parallel world they tend to encounter a change in temperature and pressure, it results in a small headache."

"Small headache? I felt like a piano crushed my skull." Lucy said more to herself than the fae before her.

The blonde stretched her body cautious to the pain still there but it seemed that she was unaffected by the burn on her wrist. Which could mean she wasn't aware of it in the first place but the fae wouldn't bet her magic on it.

"It's alright," She said, waving dismissively, "I didn't trust that book when it said Faes are real but well I'll be damned," Lucy murmured before her eyes surveyed the wings attached to the back of the Fae, curiously eying her now.

She smiled awkwardly at the Fae, "Hello miss, I'm Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia."

The Fae blinked before recognising there was no danger as she returned her smile, her wings rising upwards as she introduced herself with pride and joy.

"Levy McGarden." She grinned. "The Royal scribe to the Queen, I welcome you to Fae lands of Fiore."


Look who's back on time.

Hello, lovelies.

So the part I of this book is going to finish pretty soon and when Part II starts, things will get slightly more complicated. Part I has been a nice ride, more of an introduction really.

I know you're prolly thinking, Chaol you're screwing with us, who puts so many chapters as an introduction and for the setting?

Well, I do. I needed more character development before the game started, I needed you to see characters in a different light and I had to build up a strong foundation for why needed to see them that way.

Anyway, important notes, from this chapter onwards, there are gonna be new introductions, some expected, some not so much.

Also, chapter's are gonna grow longer when Part II begins and with weird-ass plot twists that you didn't see coming.

Hope ya'all have been safe and sound in quarantine and are staying at home. Take care alright?

All the Love,

Chaol.