Juvia was woken by the midmorning sun, full on her face. For a moment she had forgotten the events that had taken place the night before and she expected to wake up in her regular bedroom and later be greeted by the smiling faces of her family. But she awoke to no such sight and realized where she really was.

She heard a knock at the door.

"Come in." She answered.

The door was opened by the kind knight Jellal she had met yesterday.

"Today you shall begin working on the tapestry. Your first task will be to spin thread."

"Right. Just give me a moment to make myself ready, direct to the cotton plants, and then I shall-"

"Cotton will not be needed."

"Very well, wool then. Can you tell where I can find some sheep?"

"Wool will not be needed either."

"I don't understand. How am I supposed to spin without cotton or wool?"

"His majesty requests that the thread be spun from nettle plants."

"Nettles? But that's... That's ridiculous. He can't be serious."

"I'm afraid so my lady and he says that if complain once about the work the deal will be called off."

"But make thread from nettles? That's impossible."

"Not quite. Fairies can do it with ease but I don't think humans can."

"So it's difficult but not impossible. I suppose I can do this. Where do I start?"

"Here the nettle plants grow by the edge corners of the labyrinth walls, gather them up. About a basketful should be enough then break them into pieces and they shall become flax but I must warn you those plants will sting you in such an awful way."

"Thank you for the warning. I shall do my best."

Jellal then handed her a basket and took her to a nearby stream where she could wash her face. After that left she set off toward the walls of the labyrinth where she found many nettle plants growing. However just as the knight had warned, the nettles did indeed sting her hands when she grabbed them.

"They hurt so badly." She said. "But I can't stop. I have to get back home and I must do whatever it takes to do that."

She continued to pick the nettles which burnt great blisters on her hands and arms, but she determined to bear it and filled her basket. It took her many hours but eventually she had a basket full of nettles. Now unknown to her, Gray was watching her work through a magic crystal.

"She's filled the whole basket with nettles." He observed.

The goblins chuckled sinisterly as they thought about the pain she suffered.

"Shut up! She shouldn't have been able to successfully fill the basket." Gray told them. "The pain from those damn plants should've been too much for her to bear. She should have given up."

"She's a stubborn and willful thing." One goblin said. "She'll probably never give up."

"Won't she? She may be able to gather them up but she'll never be able to crush them into flax or figure out how to spin it into thread. It will be too hard and too painful."

It was quite hard for her. Juvia started to breaking the nettles into little pieces and it made her delicate hands feel like they were burning.

"Ah!" She seethed after getting stung for the 50th time. "Oh I don't understand why he wants the thread from this tapestry to be made from nettles."

"Isn't it obvious?"

At once she realized that standing across from her was Gajeel.

"Oh hello again." She said. "What brings you by?"

"I was looking for iron to put in my stew, gives it a little extra spice, and I just happened to see you working. By the way if you want to know why he wants the thread to be made from nettle plants it's because he knows how painful they are and he believes that the pain will be too much for you that you'll give up."

"That's cruel. Does he want me to fail?"

"Not sure but he finds failure very amusing."

"That's terrible. He's absolutely vile and mean."

"You just now figured that out? Listen Missy you're never going to make that tapestry so why not give up?"

"And never see my family again? Not a chance. I don't care if the work he gives me makes me bleed, I'm going to get home."

"Well you're a determined girl, I'll give you that."

"If I may ask, do you know if there's an easier way to doing this?"

"I know a few things."

"Would you mind telling me?"

"Ah...No. Sorry but it's not my place to get involved."

"What if I gave you more iron?"

"You don't have any iron on you. If you did I would smell it."

"Oh...Right. What about copper? I have some copper buttons on my jacket."

Gajeel thought for a moment.

"Well typically I prefer iron but copper does have a very exotic taste."

"So you'll tell me?"

Gajeel was about to answer when he saw something that made him immediately shut his mouth. Turning around, Juvia saw that the source of it was Gray.

"Your majesty, what a nice surprise." Gajeel said.

"Hello Gazel." Gray greeted with a mischievous grin.

"Gajeel." The troll corrected.

"Just what do you think you're doing?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Really? Looks to me that you were just about to help this woman."

"Me? Help her? Ha-ha! Why would I do a stupid thing like that?"

"Grizzle, if I thought for one second that you were betraying me I would be forced to suspend you head first into the bog of eternal stench."

"No your majesty!" Gajeel cried dropping to his knees in a rather pathetic manner. "Not the eternal stench!"

"Oh yes Gajeel." He said pinching the troll by his ear as hard as he could.

"Owww!"

"Leave him alone!" Juvia demanded.

Gray flinched and faced her with a glare.

"Did you say something?"

"Yes." She replied, not backing down. "Leave him alone! He didn't do anything wrong!"

He released Gajeel and approached her.

"I'm sorry but who the hell do you think you're talking to?"

"From the looks of it I would say a bully. What gives you the right to treat someone like that? You should be ashamed of yourself."

"My you really are one stupid girl. Because no one in their right mind would dare speak to me like that!"

"Well someone should. If you want to make things more difficult for me fine. I can handle a bully, I've dealt with bullies everyday of my life back home but I won't tolerate you picking on my friends."

"Friends? You mean to tell me that you consider this repulsive little scab your friend?" Be said pointing to Gajeel.

"He's not a repulsive scab! And yes I do consider him my friend. Something I doubt that you have many of."

For a moment it looked like he was about to go off and do something terrible to her but then he calmed down.

"You better watch your mouth lady because I can make this task of yours more difficult than it already it is."

His final words before walking around.

"You sure got his attention." Gajeel said.

"I don't care. I'm not afraid of him."

It was true. She wasn't frightened of him. She didn't know why but to her, he didn't seem that scary at all. In her eyes he was no different from Mary Hughes and her gang.

"Why did you say that?" Gajeel asked her.

"Say what?"

"That I was your friend."

"Because you are. You may not be much of one but so far you're the only one I have in this place."

"I've never been anybody's friend before. In fact nobody around here has liked me enough to be my friend."

"I'm happy to be the first."

For a brief moment Gajeel was touched by her words. But then he remembered what happened to those who went against Gray.

"Well I don't need any friends! Friends just get me into trouble with Gray and that's the last thing I want!"

"No need to get angry. I was only trying to be friends."

"I don't need friendship. You see you have to understand my position, I'm a coward and Gray scares me. I don't want to do anything to provoke him so I'm out of here!"

With that said Gajeel ran away as fast as he could. Juvia sighed then proceeded to get back to work. The pain from beaking each of those nettles just kept getting worse. She wasn't sure if she could stand it any longer.

"Oh...This is impossible."

"Hello." A kind voice said from behind her. Juvia turned around and looked for whoever said hello but she didn't see anyone. All she saw were trees and brambles. No, no there was something. It was very small and green. She walked closer toward it and saw that it was a little green cat. He was an awfully cute little fella.

"Did you say something?" She asked.

"Yes. I said hello." He answered.

"My goodness, you can talk."

"Yes I can. Is that a problem?"

"No. No it's just that cats don't talk where I come from."

"They don't?"

"Nope."

"Strange. Do cats have names where you're from? Mine is Frosch.'

"I'm Juvia." She introduced.

The little green cat looked down at the markings on Juvia's hands.

"Where did you get those marks?"

"I got them from nettles. I'm supposed to make thread from them but it's very difficult and they hurt my hands."

"That's because you're doing it the hard way. I know an easier way to do it."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh."

"Could you tell me how?"

"Of course. First of all don't break them one by one with your hands, crush them with a rock or stone. It'll be quicker and less painful."

So Juvia found a medium sized rock that was quite hard and started crushing the nettle plants causing them to turn to flax. The process still caused her a little pain but it wasn't as bad as before. By sun down she had finished her first task perfectly.

"Thank you for the advice Frosch." She told the green kitty. "It was very helpful."

"You're welcome. Will you be leaving now?"

"Yes. It's getting late so I should go."

"Where do you live?"

"Right now I'm staying at the castle."

"You're staying at that scary place?"

"It's the only place I can stay at for now. Where do you live?"

"I don't really have a place to live."

"You mean you don't have a home?"

"No. Unless you count a hole in the ground."

"Oh you poor thing, I can't just leave you outside in the cold. Why don't you come stay with me?"

"I don't know. Goblins live in that castle and goblins scare me."

"Don't worry I won't let them bother you. You'll be safe with me."

"Alright."

She put Frosch in her basket and hid him under all the flax she had made then walked back to the castle.