Chapter 3

This was like a dream come true. I was just sleeping on a cloud and my body was light. Everything was just so relaxing, its like the burdens of life just melted away. I heard a deep, echoing voice. "Are you awake yet, Karina?" It was my father's voice. He emerged from the clouds, with his usual go-lucky smile and his brown hair was still unruly. He was wearing the same clothes he wore the day he… 'died'. He still looked as young as he always did. I got up and asked him, "Father, is this… heaven?" He just stood there smiling without a word. I walked closer to him but when I got in front of him, I fell through the clouds. I called to him for help, but he simply said, "This is the penalty for using magic. Accept it, Karina." Tears rolled from my eyes as I yelled to my father and reached out to him for help, but he just watched me fall. I blacked out when I finally hit the ground. It was hot, my body felt like it was on fire. I was conscious, but I couldn't open my eyes no matter how hard I tried. I heard someone laughing. "Who's there? This isn't funny." The person just laughed more and said, "Open your eyes." I was able to pry my eyes opens, but was unable to move. The person that was laughing, that's still laughing at me. It's Tanzeru. "Tanzeru?" I couldn't believe it. "I want you to feel the pain I felt, … that day." He laughed maniacally. Lightning struck me from above, I could feel it in the deepest marrow of my bone, and all I could hear was him laughing at me and mocking me. "Get up, Karina! Eh, Big sis, can't ya do it! Get up! Get up!"

I felt a tug on my shirt and I suddenly jumped up. Somehow I ended up in an infirmary of some sort. Natsu was gripping my collar and his fists were on fire.

"Geez, how can I sleep, if you keep screaming in your sleep…" he snarled.

"I was sleeping… huh. Guess that explains a lot." I whispered to myself.

"Eh, What did you just say!" he said pushing his forehead into mine.

"Get out of my face dragon-breath! The flames on your fists are giving me nightmares and making me sweat, idiot!"

A short, old man with a funny hat walked into the room just when I was ready to punch Natsu's lights out. "How was your sleep? That was pretty dangerous what you did before." His voice was raspy but calming. He sounded like a no nonsense, but loveable grandfather. He glanced over at Natsu with an intimidating glare and Natsu let go of my collar.

I had a couple of bandages on my face and my stomach was wrapped up, probably because of Natsu's punch, so the lightning didn't have much of an effect on me. The only reason I blacked out was because I came back to my senses during the last second and my fear consumed me. Natsu's arm was in a cast and arm sling, his torso was wrapped in bandages, and there were smaller bandages all over his face, but it was amazing that he even survived that lightning strike. As expected of a dragon-slayer.

The man turned away and said "Follow me, both of you." He sounded a bit scary, I was afraid I might get in trouble for fighting Natsu or something. Scared or not, I still followed since Natsu didn't even hesitate and I didn't want to seem weak. We walked into a room full of chaos, that resembled a bar room. Everyone was fighting, or talking, or drinking, but when we walked in, everyone went silent and stopped what they were doing. We became the center of attention as everyone there started staring at us. The short old man jumped on the bar table and sat down.

"Attention Fairy Tail! Listen up!" he yelled. It was awkward to be surrounded by so many people you don't know after trying to kill their friend. Tanzeru pushed through the large crowd of people and made his way to the front. "Tanzeru!" I couldn't help but feel happy to see Tanzeru since he was the only person I knew in the crowd. He knocked me in my head and said, "Idiot. Don't do anything crazy like that again!" Everyone started murmuring again. A girl with white hair and a red silky dress walked to the front. She smiled at me and then turned towards the crowd.

"Settle down everyone. Master Makarov has an exciting announcement to make."

"Wait a minute, 'master'? Could Fairy Tail possibly be a guild?" I never would have guessed just looking at them.

"That's right! We're very famous for having the ability to destroy entire towns, docks, and other things within an hour!" It was amazing how she could say something like that with a straight face.

"I don't think that would be fame, but then again that does explain why Natsu destroyed the shop-house we were living in for the time being." I thought I should bring up the reason I fought Natsu in a subtle way.

Master Makarov jumped up and screamed, "What! Natsu destroyed something else! We don't have the money to fix anything else, all the reward money went towards fixing that town they destroyed!"

Natsu grunted and argued, "The place looked abandoned, how was I suppose to know anyone was living there."

The girl with the white hair interrupted and said, "Master, what about your announcement?"

"You're right Mirajane. This matter can wait."

"You're just avoiding having to pay us…" he interrupted me by clearing his throat.

"We have a new addition to the Fairy Tail family. Everyone I would like to re-introduce you to Tanzeru Van Kreizer."

Tanzeru took a bow. I was struck speechless from shock. Tanzeru did this without me telling first, he never did something like that before. While everyone was cheering and applauding, he just stared into space. He turned towards me and said, "I told them how we ended up in Magnolia and Lucy offered to let us stay with her for a while as long as we help pay rent." Master Makarov asked, "Are you sure that it will be okay, Lucy?" Lucy emerged from the crowd and said, "Don't worry, at least now, it will probably be easier to afford rent and I probably won't be late."

Tanzeru said "Now that you're up, you can join too. We can find jobs easier now."

"No thank you. If you want to stay here, that's your own decision, but I'm not staying." Everyone stared at me. The crowd had a mix of expressions but I didn't care. As I was about to walk out the door, I crashed into someone and was knocked to the floor. The person had on a hard armor and they extended their arm to me and said, "I'm sorry…" they paused for a few seconds and then continued. "Is, that you… Karina?" I looked up and I couldn't believe my eyes. "You couldn't be. Is that you… Erza!"

It seems like our friend Karina refuses to join Fairy Tail with her brother. I wonder why. It also seems like Karina and Erza know each other somehow. Who knows what's gonna happen next! Well, actually I know what's gonna happen next, but you don't and I can't tell you yet. But you can guess. Please send reviews or else I will think no one cares about this story and I'll stop here. Please, think of the children.