Hey guys, here is the next update in this fic. Sorry for the long time wihtout updating but anyway, enjoy the read.

Chapter Cover: Shinji dressed in modern clothing as he was wearing a Fairy Tail jacket with some other Fairy Tail characters in the background.

Chapter Seven

Collision of Events

She groaned softly as she was slowly coming to. Blinking, she stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling for a few seconds before she became aware that she wasn't looking at the ceiling of her home but something that was not familiar at all.

That was how Yael Salvatore woke up, glancing around herself in surprise at the room she was in.

It was a fairly simple room, which was completely devoid of any decoration at all and since they were was no window, it was hard to tell just where she was right now. Inside the room, however, there was a small table which had some breakfast placed in a bowl and from the smell, it was probably freshly cooked.

How did I get here?

Yael was seating upon the bed, her long blond hair falling upon her shoulders. The young woman glanced around herself for a few moments as she walked around the room taking in everything. The last thing she actually remembers was meeting that strange man back when she was escaping the village's attack. Yael looked down at the ground as she thought about the village and what had happened and it caused some tears to fall from her eyes at the thought of all those villagers being killed by Minotaur's men.

The door at the end of the room was suddenly opened and the same man from the village stood there at the entrance of the room. He had both of his hands into his pocket as he stared into the room, and chanced a glance toward the plate of food that was untouched.

"Guess you aren't hungry," he said, "Or maybe did you think we poisoned it?"

A grin was upon his face as he stared at her, and Yael stared back.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"You're at the Labyrinth," the man told her with a light shrug of his shoulders, "Anyway, the boss wants to talk to you so come on."

Yael blinked in surprise.

The boss…could he mean…

"You work for Minotaur don't you?"

The man smirked lightly at her.

"Well, Princess got her information right," he said, "I work for Minotaur, one of his Commanders actually, Azil Bruzzer at your service, Princess Yael Salvatore."

A look of fear crossed the young woman's face as she was staring at him, shocked. There is no way they could have known who she really was. Her disbelief must have shown upon her features for the man, Azil let out a large grin.

"Oh…don't worry, we know exactly whose child you are," he laughed, "C'mon…let's go the Boss is waiting to speak with you and he ain't a guy you'd like to keep waiting."

Yael was afraid, that much was true to her. She was worried about what happened to the Village she had grown up in or about her uncle Bart. Standing up, she pulled herself up on her feet and walked forward toward the man who let her walk forward and then, followed after her.

The hallway was actually pretty simple with torches to light up the way they were moving forward. She had heard people write stories about the Labyrinth, the place that Minotaur had made into his lair, but this place looked exactly like any other building she had seen thought, it feels more like a castle than an actual Labyrinth.

The man, Azil, led her straight into a large lush looking room that had a window with sunlight shining from the outside. A table was set in front of her with some foods visible to her and seeing the meal in front of her caused her stomach to grumble quite loudly in the dead silence around her.

"Help yourself Princess," a voice spoke out.

Yael jumped in shock at the sudden voice and turned to find a large man seating by himself upon a purple colored couch. He was simply seating by himself dressed in leather with fur upon his shoulder with the face of an animal oddly similar to a wolf. The man had spiky hair, oddly enough blond in color leaning more into the dirty blond color than normal. Even when he was seating normally, Yael can feel the danger rolling off the man in wave.

"I had a feast prepared worthy of someone of your stature," he said indicating at the table.

Yael looked into those yellow eyes that seemingly shone in the shade he was seating in.

"You're Minotaur then…," she asked.

The man chuckled deeply.

"I am," he said, "And you are Yael Salvatore, daughter of the last princess of Atlasia, Emma Salvatore correct?"

Yael was afraid.

How did he know about this? How did he knew her real name…not even the villagers she had lived in all her life knew…Gods, the village…

"Hyades Village," she asked, "Is it still…?"

"I have no real interest in the village itself," the man said, "You were my only target."

Yael stomach growled again, causing her to blush. Minotaur laughed loudly at her.

"Someone skipped breakfast I see," he said, "help yourself, it's been a while since I had some company for lunch."

Yael looked at the food and took a seat upon one of the empty chairs that were around it. She piled some upon her plate and decided to eat. It was surprisingly delicious she realized and couldn't help but eat some more. Footsteps caused her to look up finding Minotaur standing on the other side of the table looking down at her with a calculating gaze.

"I'm quite shocked that no one made the connection between you and the late Princess," he said, "You look just like her…but then again, the common folks didn't see the royal family that easily back in the day, do they? It took me quite a while to find you too…I raided so many villages looking for you and yet, for five years I never found you at all…"

Yael looked up at him shocked.

"Five years?"

I heard a rumor saying that Minotaur's attack had increased these past five years around Dragmount lands…I didn't realize…

"Why were you looking for me?" she asked.

Minotaur let out a small grin, walking around the table.

"The Salvatore Family had many secrets that died with them when they fell from power," he said, "Some I don't believe actually even existed, but there is one that always stuck with me ever since I was a young child. It was said long ago, a young princess of your bloodline saved a Dragon, which many theorized could have been the Dragon God those Dragon Knights worshipped."

Yael tensed lightly.

"That same Princess formed a friendship with that Dragon," he said, "And that friendship resulted into the Dragon gifting the Princess with a powerful magic."

He was now standing behind Yael, both of his hand on the side of the chair. He then leaned down to Yael's level, his mouth by her ears.

"You know of what I talk about don't you girl?" he whispered.

Yael was completely frozen where she sat. She had cold sweat running down her forehead as she suddenly realized in what position she was just in right now.

"It's just a story," she said, "An urban legend."

"Is that so?" Minotaur said softly.

Without warning, he grabbed Yael's hand pulling her off the chair which fell backward with how sudden she moved. Yael stared up at the taller man, fear palpable all over her form as those mercilessly calculating eyes stared at her.

"We just have to find out then…won't we?" he said with a large grin.

He pulled something out of his pocket and Yael closed her eyes, thinking she was going to get stabbed, however something was placed into her open palm, something hard and cold. When she reopened her eyes, she found herself staring at a strange crystal-like object that was roughly the size of a rock.

That…

As soon as the stone made contact with her palm, it started to glow a deep golden color causing Minotaur to laugh.

"The Stone respond to you," he said, "It responded to your magic…the Magic of the Salvatore Family."

The cheer joy that was in the man's tone was only matched to the pure terror that Yael was feeling in that moment. She couldn't believe that this man even had a stone like that given how rare they had become after the Salvatore Family had fallen.

The man pushed her away causing her to fall upon the ground in a hip, the mad grin upon his lips growing even larger now.

"You will be my guide Princess," he said glancing down at her with a grin, "You will lead me straight toward it, and just like that the Dragon Heart will soon be mine. With that magic under my control, I will be able to fully control Atlasia and none of the others will be able to stand in my way."

He let out a small chuckle.

"You best get comfortable Princess," he said, "You're going to be here a while."

Aesyr opened her eyes blinking softly for a moment. The young woman was in a bed, glancing around herself for a few moments as if trying to get her bearings for a moment before the reality started to sink in. She was in the room that Helen and Ellis had given her the previous night after she had told them her story and what had happened to Elassan.

Just thinking about the Dragon caused something to caught up in her throat. Elassan's death would always feel like her greatest failure in life. She had promised that she would protect him but, in the end, even that hadn't been enough for her to do anything. Shaking her head, the young woman stepped out of bed, her silver hair falling upon her shoulder, a reminded of what had happened to her when she had overused her Dragon Slayer magic in that battle against that Dragon Hunter.

Acnologia.

That was the name he was given, that strange man who hunted Dragons, thought for what reason, Aesyr couldn't even phantom as to why he would want to do something like that. The only reminder she had of him was the scar she now bears, marring her dark skin.

But it doesn't seem that I'll be able to find a place after all, she thought.

When she had started her journey to Atlasia, Aesyr had been certain that she would find something to keep her here, somewhere where she wouldn't be seen as a monster as most in Fiore no see the Dragon Slayers after what had happened with both Acnologia and the other Dragon Slayers losing their mind from the power that was gifted to them…

Thought she wonders if it was only time before the same thing happened to her.

The sound of someone knocking at her door drew her attention from her thoughts, glancing toward it.

"Enter."

The door opened and Helen was there, holding a tray.

"I have made breakfast," she said.

Aesyr smiled lightly at the woman as she entered placing the tray upon the table at the end of the room.

"Thank you for allowing me to stay here," she said.

Helen waved her apology away.

"Hey it's no big," she said, "it's not like we didn't have any empty rooms. We weren't going to let you camp out in the woods."

Aesyr nodded.

"Still thank you."

Helen smiled softly. Aesyr made her way toward the food and started placing things upon her plates.

"Do you have any idea of what you're going to do now?" Helen asked.

Aesyr paused for a moment.

"Not really sure," she said, "I…I had hoped to come here with Elassan and maybe find someplace where I can belong. I can't go back to Fiore with how the situation is there. I had hoped that maybe with Elassan I'd be able to have a home here…"

She shook her head.

"Maybe I should have gone with Ace…," she murmured mostly to herself.

She knew that Ace had gone North but as to where, she had no idea now. Their last conversation hadn't been something that was pleasant to think about.

"Atlasia isn't exactly what you were expecting huh?" Helen said.

She shook her head.

"No."

Helen had a light frown upon her features.

"I sometimes think about leaving it all behind to," she said, drawing Aesyr's gaze, "I mean, the Dragon Knights are no more, safe for Shinji. Our numbers have been dwindling down for years and for everyone it was just like fighting a battle that we have already lost."

Aesyr frowned lightly.

"Then why did you stay?" she asked.

Helen looked at her.

"Because it's home," she said, "I have lived in it all my life, heard all of the stories and legends that exists about it. I can't just abandon it just because things are hard right now. I just have to believe all hope isn't gone forever…"

A sad smile was upon the woman's lips.

"I thought Elassan's return would have been that spark we needed," she said, "But…he is dead and that is all the more reason we shouldn't give up…"

The sound of someone arriving drew both of the women's attention. It was Ellis and the man had urgent look upon his face.

"Helen, we need your help down in the hall," he said, "There is a rider from Hyades village that arrived late last night."

"Hyades Village?" Helen said shocked standing up.

Aesyr looked at them in confusion, but she recognizes the dread easily enough on Ellis's face.

"Something had happened," he said, "And it's not good."

Helen let out a swore before quickly leaving the room following after him. Aesyr watched them go for a moment before standing up as well.

Shinji was looking at the man from Hyades with concern. He was dressed in light armor probably one of the soldiers that used to guard the village from bandits and whatnots and the man had been dead tired when he was brought in last night. He had collapsed and had only regained consciousness some minutes ago and he had send Ellis to go find Helen and bring her here.

The group returned and Shinji was surprised to see the outsider girl, Aesyr among them.

"Alright," he said, "Tell us exactly what had happened."

"Bartholomew send me," the man said looking up at them, "He told me to ride as hard as a could to get a message to you Shinji the Dragon Knight. The Village of Hyades was attacked by Minotaur's men."

Shinji feel his eyes widen in shock.

"No…?" he said shocked.

Helen gasped, placing a hand upon her lips and even Ellis was shocked.

"What do you mean attacked?" he asked.

"I saw the fires burning the homes as I left," the man said, "I was lucky to even managed to get away."

A thousand thought ran through Shinji's mind from where he sat, too shocked to move. Hyades Village was not even remotely close to Dragmount. A quiet village to be sure, but nothing within it should have drawn Minotaur's attention at all.

Unless he somehow finds out about her…

"Was Bartholomew alone when he sends you off?" he asked.

The man nodded.

"What about his niece?" he asked.

The man was confused about the question but he shook his head.

"No, I don't remember seeing the girl at all," he said, "He could have sent her off somewhere to hide during the attack."

No…Bartholomew wouldn't have sent you if he had believed that he could handle it by himself. If Minotaur had attacked the Village, then that would mean that one of his Commanders have been present…and if Minotaur had sent one of his top men there…

Shinji turned his gaze toward Ellis.

"Ellis, prepare the chariot," he said, "We're going to Hyades Village…all of us. If Bartholomew had sent for me, then the situation must have been more serious than we think."

Ellis looked at him surprised but he nodded, setting off to work on the order he was given.

"I'll get my medical equipment then," Helen said, "If the town was attacked, they're going to need a healer."

Shinji smiled at her gratefully, and the soldier looked at them.

"If you're heading back, then I'm coming along as well," he said, "Hyades is my home, I can't abandon it no matter what."

Shinji looked at the man for a few moments but he nodded as the man left the room as well following the direction that Ellis had gone. Shinji let out a sigh running a hand through his hair.

"What's in that village that has you so worried?"

He glanced toward Aesyr. The woman's eyes were piercing and he felt like she could see right through him with just a look. He let out a small sigh.

"It's not a what," he said, "It's a who?"

She blinked.

"A who?"

The young man nodded.

"If you're asking should that mean that you're coming along?" he asked.

Aesyr paused for a moment, before glancing toward him.

"If Minotaur had attacked that village," she said, "Then there going to be more like that Karmer guy that attacked us back at the Port city isn't it?"

Shinji crossed his arms.

"They are only two others that are that strong," he said, "Saul and Azil. I have never faced them in combat myself but if they are on the same level as Karmer, that should give you an idea on how strong they are."

Aesyr stayed silent for a moment.

"Then I'll come as well," she said.

Shinji nodded. He was inwardly glad she decided to come along given how powerful she was in her battle against Karmer. If she was with them, then she would definitely give them an edge in the battle that they were surely going to get drawn.

Wait for me Yael…I'm coming.

The news reach our heroes and Shinji face his new goal...

Next Time: The Dragon Knight's Secret Mission

Jacques0 out.

R&R