"Stop! Thief!"

Natsu and Gray had been caught swiping food from the market and the guards were immediately alerted.

"I told you we should have just grabbed the melons and split but no!" Gray said to Natsu as they ran. "You just had to get the sausages too!"

"We've been eating fruit for the past week! I need meat!" Natsu said.

"You idiot! Thanks to you the butcher saw us and called the guards! We are so going to end up in jail and it'll be all your fault!"

"Not if we managed to ditch the guards! Let's split up in the woods and once we've lost them, we'll meet up later!"

"Where?!"

"Now's not the time for specifics! We'll find each other! We always do!"

They headed into the woods and quickly split up, going into different directions. It was a long chase, the guards tried their best but they couldn't keep up with either one of them. Eventually both Natsu and Gray managed to escape them.

"Phew!" Gray sighed when he was sure that the guards were gone and that he could finally catch his breath. "I can't remember the last time I've run for so long but at least they're gone. Now where am I?"

He had been so desperate to get away from the guards that he didn't exactly pay attention to where he was going. Apparently he had ended up in some place where the trees were so high up that it's leaves seemed to block out the sun making it very dark.

"Spooky. No wonder people think these woods are haunted."

He remembered hearing stories from the townspeople about how the woods were filled with trolls, witches, and other monsters. He never believed in them but that didn't mean that this part of the woods where he was didn't make him feel a little unsettled.

"Alright I just need to retrace my steps and remember how I got here in the first place."

Gray tried to remember how he ended up here but he just couldn't not to mention he always had trouble with directions.

"Hmm...I guess I could just sit here and wait for Natsu to find me." He thought. "Then again he's not a much better navigator."

Not sure what else to do, Gray sat down by a tree and decided to wait. After an hour of sitting in the quiet darkness, his ears picked up a faint noise in the distance. It was that singing again, the same one he had heard sometime ago. He could hear it a little better now and despite it being so faint, he could tell that it was a woman's voice.

Curious and hoping that the voice would lead him back to town, he followed it. However he only ended up going deeper into the woods. When he realized how much deeper he was going in, he considered going back but now he could hear the voice much better.

"The sky is clear blue
No matter what we do
The road is long
But I see the light
That shines at the end
The arms reaching in
I know that you are waiting for me."

It was so beautiful and lilting that Gray found himself being drawn further in. Then smack! he walked right into something. Or at least that's what he thought.

"Ow! What was that?!"

He felt like he had walked into a brick or stone wall but the funny thing was he didn't see a wall. He didn't see anything except trees, grass, and roots. In fact from his view there was nothing there and he should have been able to continue walking but something was in fact. Something he couldn't see. He raised his hand up and he moved it forward until it touched something hard. He felt around it and started visualize what it was he was touching. It was a wall, an invisible wall.

"That's interesting." He thought.

Suddenly he heard the sound of horse shoes. Thinking that it was the guards who had caught up with him, he hid a nearby tree. the horse came closer but it wasn't a guard riding it, it was a woman. A woman in her late thirties to early forties who had a sour rexpression her face. She got off of her horse and looked around herself as if she was checking to see that she was alone. She then walked over toward the left and disappeared through something along with her horse.

"Is that some kind of a secret entrance?" He wondered.

He climbed down from the tree, moved to the left side of the area, waited a few minutes, and then walked forward. He went right through the invisible wall and found himself looking at a very impressive mansion.

"Whoa! I wonder why this lady is trying to hide her house behind an invisble wall?"

With his curiosity gnawing at him, he decided to have a look around.

"Your magic is becoming much stronger my dear." He heard voices coming from the open window of a room. "You've just turned twenty correct?"

"Yes Mother." He heard a second voice say.

"Then that means when the next full moon rises your powers will have finally matured."

"Really? What does that mean?"

"I'll tell you eventually."

"So if my powers will be mature by then that means they won't be untrollable anymore right? That means I won't have to be locked away anymore."

"Not quite dear. Matured or not you'll always be a threat to humanity so I'm afraid that you can never leave this place."

"But Mother-"

"It's for your own good. Besides don't you like it here with your dear mother? In a beautiful mansion all to yourself?"

"Yes but I...I want to make friends and maybe one day meet someone special."

"Oh darling who could ever want to be friends with a homely little thing like you?"

"Ouch!" Gray thought to himself. "What kind of a mother says that to a kid?"

"Well Mother has to go now. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes Mother."

He hid in a nearby bush when he heard the woman coming back and he didn't come out until he was sure that she was gone.

"I should probably get out of here." He told himself. "but it probably wouldn't hurt if I took a look inside and swiped something of value."

With that said he proceeded to look for the nearest door.