Animal, Person...Or Dragon
Lions and tigers and bears...Oh my!
Chapter 5
The Journey To Oz
"Well...why don't we read one of your many books? They seem...interesting and...different." Lucy mentioned, trying to find the right words to describe his Fairy Tale books. She started to walk up to the many book filled shelves, finding the perfect one. Then she trailed her finger along the stems of the literary collection.
"Why don't I choose one for you? I know every book in my library." Natsu suggested, getting closer to his friend. However, Lucy wanted to pick one herself, he didn't know her preferences.
She shook her head lightly. "No, sit back and let me choose. I want to find one...Let's see..." She kept eying each book carefully, taking one out a couple of times to read the synopsis. After a few minutes, one large colourful book sparked her interest. It was placed on the highest shelf, and Lucy was too small to reach it.
Natsu was about to get it for her, seeing her struggling, but the blonde had too much pride, not wanting his help. The man simply shrugged, stepping back and letting Lucy continue.
To resolve her problem; to be able to reach the book, she started to step on the lowest shelf, giving her enough boost and height to bring the book into her hands. Just as her fingers touched the leather that embraced the book, the bookshelf leaned forward, crashing to the floor. Nothing held it to the wall so the extra pressure from Lucy's body made it crumble.
A squeal was heard from the blonde's mouth as she protected her visage from the danger and debris to come. She could hear Natsu shout her name, running towards her to push her out of the way, instead of being flattened by the large wooden furnisher.
Lucy had closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable. Somehow, waiting to get crushed, did not happen. She felt arms around her then crashing to the floor. More like falling on someone hard and muscled; she fell on Natsu barely getting away. At least he was softer than the hardwood floor.
There was a loud 'thud' then an 'ouch' coming from both parties.
Lucy opened her eyes, seeing Natsu's face opposing hers closely. Sprawled across him, she scrambled off him, after looking into his black eyes for what seemed like forever. She couldn't help herself, she felt his warm breath on her skin and his alluring eyes kept looking into her soul.
Natsu noticed that her lips had almost brushed against his own, but Lucy got off him, just in time. However his heart seemed agitated, like it was deprived of something important. The confused boy did not have an understanding of what he felt. He was oblivious of the fact why his heart had skipped a beat, or he felt his face warming up.
"Are you ok Lucy?" He rushed up onto his feet, inspecting from afar Lucy's body for any scratches or bruises of any sort. He was relieved when she looked positively fine. It seemed she was also inspecting him, with worry on her face.
"I should be asking you that! You were the one who I fell on top of...quite roughly." She exclaimed.
"I'm fine, look I am made of steel." He took Lucy's right hand, placing it on his upper chest, leaving the beet root Lucy to gasp, taking her hand away like she had just touched something scorching hot.
"Geeze Natsu, don't ever do that again!" She hit him hard out of anxiety mixed with anger, hurting her hand more than Natsu. Poor Natsu didn't get her one bit, he was just showing her that he was not hurt. He didn't want her to worry.
"What did I do?!" He whined, touching the arm Lucy had punched flimsily.
"If you don't know, don't you dare think I'm going to tell you Natsu Dragneel!" She screamed, making Happy jump, hissing at her angrily. It was never a good idea to wake up a cat while it was sleeping. Eyes being clawed out was a gruesome event to watch.
"You're such a weirdo Lucy." He declared puzzled. It was a mistake to tell her that since she looked even more furious now.
"ARRGH! Sometimes you are so—" Lucy then seemed out of it, pointing to the crashed bookcase. "Natsu...have you ever moved your bookcase?" She asked with a confused soft tone.
"No, it had been there since I was born. Never remember it not being there. Why? Lucy what's wrong?" He put his hand on her shoulder.
"Look for yourself." With her hand, she moved his head toward the same spot she was staring at.
Protruding from the wall the bookcase had hidden, was a safe. A thick, square, steel safe. Natsu's jaw hung open. Was it his father's? Must have been. The question rattling around in his brain was... Is there still something inside?
The couple went up to the safe, still shocked.
"With that look, I can see you did not know it was there." The blonde chuckled, watching Natsu examine the safe.
"I had absolutely no idea...hmmm...how do we get inside?" He said more to himself. Stupidly, he was just about to use an axe on it, but Lucy stopped him in time.
"Idiot! That won't work! Why don't we try and find the combination to unlock it?" She said. "Now." She cracked the joints of her fingers. "Could you think of what the combination could be?" She asked the pink haired man.
He scratched his scalp. "I don't know...this must be my father's safe, so I have no idea." He answered.
Lucy pondered, scratching her chin thoughtfully. "What about your birthday?...wait, too many numbers." They both stood there, focusing the task at hand. Lucy was having fun, realising how mysterious this was. It was like she was in one of her favorite mystery novels.
Natsu gulped, thinking he knew what the combination was. It seemed not to make sense, but he had to try. "Try 7, 7, 7...the day my father left me." His voice cracked a bit as he spoke, making Lucy furrow her brow, nodding.
She cranked the nob. "...click...click...click..." They heard something from inside the mechanism latch open. It had worked like a charm.
"It opened...do we look inside?" Lucy asked, not knowing what Natsu wanted to do.
She only saw Natsu nod slowly, and she stepped back, letting him do the honors. Turning the handle, he swallowed a large amount of bile down his throat, sweating immensely. The nervousness overwhelmed him; he didn't know what he was going to discover on the other side. A letter addressed to him? A stash of money? Jewellery? A large piece of steak?
The hinges from the safe creaked open, revealing a most bizarre and wrongly placed object. A book; a large stash of papers sown together and enveloped by a beautiful jewel encrusted cover and back. The couple didn't know how to react. What was a book doing behind the bookshelf, safely hidden away? Was it that precious?
A few minutes later, the dusty old book sat on the coffee table with two curious humans facing it. They didn't know if they should touch it again, distraught that it would crumble to pieces or the ink fade away. At first glance it seemed centuries old, mainly because it was caked in dust bunnies and skin particles.
"Should we touch it? I was already freaking out when we were moving it here." Lucy asked.
"I don't see the problem, it's only a book...right?" Natsu replied, not sure of himself.
"Well it's your book, you open it. I don't want to be responsible for contaminating the book." She declared, not wanting to get into any trouble...and especially owing a debt to someone.
Before lifting the cover to look inside, he inhaled a large gulp of air and exhaled, shooing the dust away. They could now read its title.
Your personal Fairy Tale
Author: How about you open the book?
The book seemed like it was speaking solely to Lucy and Natsu. Of course, that would be impossible.
"So what are you waiting for? Open it." Lucy nudged the pinkette's shoulder with her own.
"Ok, ok, I'm doing it." He gently opened it to the first page. That was when strange things started happening. Only the first page was covered in words, all the other pages were as white as a sheet.
Natsu began to read out loud;
"The male opened the book, afraid to damage it, whilst the blond sat next to him waiting impatiently. They found the pages all blank except one. The boy read aloud. Their journey had commenced."
"This is...about us!" Lucy exclaimed, flabbergasted.
"Yeah..." Natsu didn't know how to respond, all his daydreaming about Fairy Tales, dragons and magic books had finally come true. The world of happy endings and magic were real! "Luce...what does the book mean...commencing our journey?"
Before she could reply, she magical book glowed, and what seemed (and felt) like a tornado swept through the whole house, pulling then into the growing book.
"I THINK WE ARE ABOUT TO FIND OUT!" Lucy screamed wind ruffling her hair, latching onto Natsu's hand while he held onto his cat.
"LUCY! HOLD ON!" He screamed, being forcefully pulled, not being able to move freely.
"WE ARE GOING TO DIE! I DON'T WANT TO DIE...I AM STILL TOO YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL!" The blonde cried, clutching hard onto Natsu's hand.
Darkness, that's all they were succumbed to after Lucy's high pitched tearful cry. Their future was clouded, no idea what to expect next.
Lucy and Natsu groaned, along with Happy meowing groggily. With Natsu still half-unconscious, Lucy sat up, clutching her head from dizziness.
She looked around, they were sitting in a completely different forest, and on a really strange coloured path. A yellow brick road. Eye's widening, she knew where they were. It was supposed to be impossible, magic realm travelling books didn't exist.
She slapped Natsu across the face, waking him up faster.
"Why did you hit me?!" His voice trailed off when he found himself entirely out of his quaint little cottage. He sat crossed legged with a dumb look on his face, and then touched the golden bricks he sat on, like he making sure he wasn't hallucinating.
"Toto...I don't think we are in Kansas anymore." The blonde mumbled, reciting a quote from the book she had read more than she could count. She always loved the story with the girl named Dorothy and her little black dog Toto. She always envied Dorothy when she was a child, wanting desperately to have her flashy ruby red shoes. A vivid imagination was what she had.
"No kidding...WE'RE IN THE WIZARD OF OZ!" Natsu jumped up, smiling like the Cheshire cat.
"I know...we probably just bumped our head and are still in your house. Or maybe I am in Montreal, in my cozy dirt cheap apartment, dreaming..." Lucy kept rambling on, panicking.
"I don't think this is a dream weirdo. Don't you see? We can go on an awesome adventure!" He bellowed, his attitude not changing one bit; albeit they were sucked inside a magical book and were now in the Land of Oz.
"I don't know how you can act so calm." The blonde shook her head. Lucy hoped there were no flying monkeys around, they creeped her out.
So...how did you like my chapter? Tell me what you think and I need more ideas for Fairy Tales. Tell me which one you want me to incorporate into Animal, Person or Dragon Fanfic. Don't worry NaLu will come eventually...
Dorothy: How do you talk if you don't have a brain?
Scarecrow: Well, some people without brains do an awful lot of talking don't they? (Remind you of someone?)
welshcanadian14