Dragon's Love with Dangerous Letters

Chapter 5

After many arguments with Levy and many sighs and grunts of irritation from Gajeel, Artemis finally got her way with the two. It didn't matter how much Levy tried to warn the other female of the danger she was putting herself in Artemis was persistent to go, no matter what it took that girl was going to see her cousin and Levy couldn't stop her. She knew Artemis would never bother to realize that even Levy herself was in danger by just escorting the prince back to PhantomLord. That place accepted no travelers and if King Jose were to find Artemis and herself well the outcome wouldn't be very pleasant for the two teens.

Artemis was surprised at how close PhantomLord really was from Magnolia. If she would've know that you could just walk there sooner she would've gone to see her cousin ages ago instead of worrying about the money she would need to get here. Now here was something. The kingdom was surrounded by woods but just on the other side Artemis guessed would be the sea seeming's how cold it was getting and it was said that PhantomLord was on the edge of the continent. She wasn't even at the entrance gate yet but she could feel something disturbing close by. Levy didn't seem to take much notice to it but then again she has been here before since she's the one who came here often to basically raise Celestine and see Gajeel.

It wasn't long before the three caught sight of three flickering lamps just beyond the trees in front of them. Gajeel muttered something about a gate so Artemis assumed it was the entrance to the PhantomLord kingdom. It was intimidating really, nothing but metal outlining the very edge of the gate when the gate itself was multiply metal bars connected in a tic-tac-toe way. Four guards stood in front, two on each side of the entrance and standing like robots with their eyes glued into the darkness of the forest before them. What really caught Artemis' green orbs was the statue piece above the opening, a dragon's head with its jaws wide open and teeth showing in a threading way, the whole thing glimmered in the moonlight giving Artemis the ability to figure out it was made of sheets of metal.

Just looking at that one piece was almost making the female regret her decision but if she was this close to Celestine What was the point in just turning around now, although she knew that's what Levy, her father, and even Celestine would want when she found out. She could catch sight of the guards stiffening and moving at the sound of the three hitting the bushes nearby. All four immediately lowered their weapons upon seeing us, most likely due to Gajeel, and returned to their previous standing spots except the one inching closer to them.

"Your highness, it's nice to see you've returned." The guard said before looking over at the females in a rude manner.

"They're friends of mine. No need to fuss, I will watch over them. Open the gate now." The pierced male ordered sending a glare back at the guard.

"Certainly." The guard replied and turned to make his way towards the lever that opened the gate, a few things were mumbled under his breath that Gajeel had seemed to catch due to the intense glowering look he was giving.

Artemis watched the gate slowly rise up from the ground and click into place once fully brought up. The three guards who had backed off and continued to stand at their posts bowed their heads when the three past to show respect to their prince. The first road they were set on was a dusty one, nothing but dirt which was something Artemis wasn't used to since Magnolia had all cobble-stoned paths and roads. It was very dark to not even counting the fact that it was night time and the only thing that gave off light were torches that were suspended to the sides of the brick buildings. Artemis caught sight of people hiding out in alleyways, small bags being passed between them that couldn't have been filled with anything good, she spotted many men staring at the three of them, their eyes glued mostly to Levy and herself, and many more thing that she did not wish to speak of or hopefully ever see again. This place really did feel ominous to the brunette and she didn't even make it a good fifty feet into the kingdom yet.

Staying close to the blunette and the raven haired male accompanying her, she halted in her walking path when the other two did. They stopped in front of a building, one rather smaller than the others that had a sign reading "PUB" above it. Two torches hung near its doors and the windows were so dirty you couldn't really tell what was going on inside. Artemis turned to look at Levy who had done the same but never got a chance to ask why they were here for the blunette opened her mouth and spoke first.

"Artemis, you said you had a letter right? I'll take it to Celestine since I know my way around without being caught. For the time being you'll stay here at this pub and wait for us to return. I want you to keep your hood up on your cloak and not attract too much attention, trust me you wouldn't want that. Here I'll take the letter and when we return we should have Celestine with us if nothing goes wrong." The blunette explain while holding out her small hand for the letter.

"If nothing goes wrong?" Artemis questioned, her hand hesitantly stretching out to hand the letter to Levy.

"Just trust us Artemis. Now go inside and we'll be back as soon as we can." The shorter female ordered pointing to the door.

The brunette gave Levy a small hug and whispered for her to be careful before following her orders, putting up her hood, and slipping inside the pub. It was at least lighter in here than it was outside. Artemis could see the male and female she had just been standing with pass the dirt stained window-pane before disappearing from her sight all together. Sighing, the girl took a seat at the bar counter and asked the bartender for a glass of water. While waiting she looked around the pub, her green orbs scanning the whole room. Some of the men sitting at a table near her were rather creepy, their skin littered with tattoos and their ears covered in piercings making the brunette assume that this kingdom had a thing for sticking a lot of metal into their skin. The females who worked at this pub seemed overworked and tired just like Artemis was herself. They didn't just seemed tired though, they had something else expressed on their face and with the way they kept flashing glances at the two guards in the back that Artemis had just noticed, she knew what that other expression was, it was fear. The girl drew her brows together and watched one of the waitresses pass, which was when Artemis noticed them, the long scars along their sides that could be noticed due to the short tops of their uniforms. She tried to keep herself from inhaling so sharply from the sight; some of those scars had looked fresh too. Now she knew what Celestine had meant when she said this place was terrible, the thing Artemis didn't understand was why? Why did they have to suffer whatever gave them those scars? Then a thought hit her, what if Celestine herself had scars because of the kingdom's cruelty? The thought made the teen furious; she could feel the heat rise to her face due to her anger. If they had even dared to lay a finger on her cousin she would make sure they wouldn't have seen the day of light again.

"Here you are Miss, your water." The bartender said placing the glass in front of her.

"Thanks." She replied and turned away from the horrendous sight of the waitresses.

"Say, I haven't seen you around here before and this is the most famous pub in town. You aren't an outsider are you?" The bartender asked, his hazel orbs narrowing dangerously at Artemis.

Artemis didn't know how to respond. Levy had told her to lay low so answering truthfully would end in the worst circumstances but Artemis wasn't the best at lying either. No matter how she took this it wasn't going to end well and not answering was definitely out of the question because the man would become suspicious of her being so quiet. Then again acting as a mute might work.

"Hey, you have some speaking malfunction or something? I asked if you were an outsider." The man spoke louder than he had before, his patience slipping.

The waitresses roaming the room seemed to become fearful of the man's loud tone. They slowly backed away towards the pub's back room while the two guards sitting at one of the back tables stood to see what was going on. Artemis's heart began to race and she tried to use her hands to say explain to the bartender that she was mute or at least she was pretending to be. Her hands didn't seem to want to move, her entire body didn't seem to want to move. The brunette's worries increased as the guards began to come closer, the bartender was now yelling in her face at the top of his lungs still trying to get her to answer the question. She felt a hand clamp onto her shoulder and she looked up to meet eyes with one of the guards, a lump in her throat seemed to prevent her from breathing anymore.

"Hey you, answer the man's question. Are you an outsider or not?" The guard questioned, the hold he had on her shoulder tightening.

"N-No I'm not an outsider." Artemis immediately answered.

"Alright, what's your name then?" The other guard questioned.

Artemis was speechless. She had no way of answering this question and if they were asking for her name then they had to know all of the people around this area rather well which made her pretty well screwed. Gulping, Artemis tried to hide the necklace around her neck that read her name and that her mother gave her many years ago as she tried to figure out a new name for herself. The bartender unfortunately saw it and ripped it from her hand yanking her forward while reading the engraved letters.

"Here, her name is Artemis Elise." The man announced causing the eyes of both guards to narrow.

"That name isn't common here in this kingdom. Sounds like something from a kingdom up north. Artemis Elise huh? Yeah I ain't ever heard of you before." The first guard said yanking the brunette from her chair and pulling her arms behind her.

"H-Hey! Get your hands off of me!" Artemis snapped trying to wrench herself from the guard who was currently putting her in handcuffs.

"We'll let go of you don't worry. We'll just 'escort' you to our king first outsider." The second guard hissed, the word "outsider" rolling off of his tongue like venom.

Both guards shoved Artemis outside while she continued to resist. This only ended in her being hauled over one of their shoulders and being carried like someone who had a pair of broken legs. 'This cannot be happening', the girl grumbled in her mind hoping that Gajeel and Levy were just around the next corner and were going to save her. 'This is what I get for just wanting to see my cousin. Can my life get any worse?'.