Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix
Chapter 17:- A Bad Time to be Queen
"You know, I think its really good of you to continue to shelter us like this, Aberforth-san," Wendy murmured quietly as she continued to dry the inside of a wine glass with a little dishcloth. "What if the Ministry was to come in here to try and find us?"
"No talking about that now, girl," Aberforth said gruffly. "We're about to open up for the day. Don't want anybody hearing you mentioning anything about hiding from the Ministry of Magic. Or anything about Fairy Tail."
"Still, Wendy has a point," Charla noted from where she was sitting next to Wendy on the bar. "This place isn't under the protection of a Fidelius Charm like Grimmauld Place is. Why would you continue to shelter us?"
"Heh, Ministry never comes in here," Aberforth shook his head. "And why would they? They don't know I've got a connection to Albus. I'm not suspicious to them."
"They don't?" Wendy asked. "But you're his brother. How can they not know that?"
"Oh they know he's got a brother. But it's pretty common knowledge that we don't exactly get along."
"Why is that?" Happy questioned.
"It's none of your concern," Aberforth glowered at the cat, making him jump and almost fall back off the counter. "Let's just say we had a pretty big difference of opinion at one point in our lives and we've never exactly made up for it since. More to the point why are you cats still in here? You know you can't be seen when the customers walk in. You don't exactly look like normal cats."
"That would be because we're not," Happy grinned helpfully.
"Why do you let Wendy stay in here then?" Charla asked. "People in this world don't have blue hair after all."
"We have magic, remember," Aberforth snorted. "An unusual hair colour might make people look a second longer than they would do but its not something suspicious. Long as she keeps that mark on her shoulder hidden away you should be fine."
"No problem with this outfit," Wendy smiled, looking down at herself. She wasn't wearing her usual shoulderless green dress with the yellow armbands. She was wearing instead the white shirt under a blue-rimmed black blazer with a yellow sash that had been given to her by Horologium when the Clock Spirit had saved her life. She and some of the others had headed back to Tenrou Island at one point in the last few weeks to salvage the remains of their campsite that Acnologia had blown away with a mere roar. They'd managed to recover quite a few things, including some of their own clothes and possessions, which saved them from having to borrow too many outfits from the others.
"If I might ask you a question now?" Aberforth turned to look at Wendy. "Why did you come back here? Why did you not just stay at Grimmauld Place with the rest of your friends?"
"…Well… I thought you might… be lonely, Aberforth-san. Nobody should have to live on their own," Wendy murmured.
Aberforth stared at her for several moments, momentarily nonplussed. "I… I'm fine. You don't need to think about me like that, kid."
"Maybe not, but you ain't going to stop her," Gajeel's voice came from the door to the back, the Iron Dragon Slayer grinning lopsidedly. "All that mushy crap… it's just her nature to feel it, I guess."
"My theory is she got it from having such a motherly dragon for a foster parent," Pantherlily chuckled. "And if I'm right, I'd guess that Metalicana was a rather crass and standoff-ish sort, wouldn't you say, Gajeel?"
"You implying something, Lily?" Gajeel scowled. "Come here - I'll box your ears!"
"Not in my bar you won't," Aberforth said. "Get in the back, all the rest of you. I'm heading over to open the bar. And somebody milk the goats for me."
"Ah, not the bloody goats again!" Gajeel snarled as the Exceed followed him into the back. Aberforth paused by the door to look back at Wendy through the corner of his eye as she set another wine glass back under the counter. He couldn't remember the last time his bar had looked so clean, although it was still rather messy.
She really was so considerate. Just like Ariana. And although he'd deny it… Aberforth did quite enjoy having them around. All of them. They weren't boring at the very least.
And with that thought, he opened the bar.
For a while it was just the usual sort, the occasional witch or wizard appearing and trying to keep to themselves and most often hiding their faces. Aberforth and Wendy went through the day as usual, serving them their orders but mostly not saying anything. Occasionally a loud crashing noise came from the back, indicating Gajeel had gotten annoyed with a goat again and had kicked something over.
But nothing interesting happened until about midday.
When it suddenly got very interesting indeed.
The door opened and three Hogwarts students walked in, two boys with black and red hair between them and a brunette girl. Aberforth looked up, momentarily baffled, before he realised that it must be the first weekend trip to the village for the students this year. He'd totally forgotten about it. After all, it was not often that students actually came into his bar. They, along with most everyone else, preferred the Three Broomsticks. And even these ones looked a little edgy. They held a brief, muffled conversation with each other by the door, as if concerned they'd be attacked if they took another step further, before slowly making their way to the bar.
"Hello," Wendy said brightly, as she always did. "Can we help you?"
"Can we have three Butterbeers please?" the redheaded boy asked.
"Sure," Wendy smiled and scooped the bottles, reaching up to plant them on the bar. "That will be… um… how much again?"
"Six Sickles," Aberforth replied gruffly, but he'd just noticed who the black-haired boy was, and his eyes had gone up towards his forehead, locking momentarily on the lightning bolt shaped scar visible there. The boy coughed and handed over the money to Wendy, before turning away and very deliberately smoothing down his fringe to try and cover the scar. He looked like he very much wished he'd decided to cover his face too now.
"Enjoy your stay," Wendy smiled.
"Hold on," the brunette girl suddenly frowned. "How old are you?"
"Um… twelve," Wendy replied.
"Then why haven't I seen you before? Surely someone at your age should be in their second year at Hogwarts by now at least, but I don't remember seeing you there."
"Um…" Wendy faltered. Nobody had actually asked her that before, possibly because they either didn't make the connection or didn't care. She didn't know what to say.
"She's a Squib," Aberforth came to her rescue. "Going to a school to learn magic wouldn't help my great niece learn what she doesn't have."
"Oh?" the girl blushed slightly. "I'm sorry… I… I didn't mean to…"
"It's okay," Wendy replied. "I've got used to it by now. Enjoy your Butterbeers."
The girl nodded and turned away, though the redheaded boy stayed stood there for a moment, staring at Wendy. Wendy blinked and opened her mouth to speak, but wasn't entirely sure what to say. The boy was frowning slightly as he looked at her. Or more precisely, looked at her hair.
"Ron… what are you doing?" the girl hissed, nudging the boy in the ribs and making him gasp and redden slightly.
"Sorry…" the boy coughed, grabbing his drink and heading off with the others to the back of the bar.
"What was that about?" Wendy shifted uncomfortably, looking up at Aberforth.
"Damned if I know," Aberforth grunted. "Some people just can't help but stop and stare at something unusual I guess. But I tell you what, this is quite a surprise. That boy with the black hair there. You know who that is?"
"No."
"That's Harry Potter. The kid that Voldemort himself is so hellbent on taking out."
"Really?" Wendy gasped, watching the boy as he settled down to the table with his friends. He looked so… ordinary. Skinny, short, round glasses on his face… at first glance you probably wouldn't think that there was anything special about him at all. And yet… that was the boy she'd been hearing about since she'd got here. Sirius' godson. The one that had beaten the odds so many times and managed to come out mostly on top.
And one critical player in the fight against Voldemort that Fairy Tail had yet to introduce themselves to.
"Um… I'll be… right back…" Wendy murmured, as she headed through the door to where the others were. They needed to know about this.
"What was wrong with you there, Ron?" Hermione hissed at him. "You can't just stare at a little girl just because she's a Squib. That's rude on every level."
"That wasn't why I was staring," Ron glowered at her. "I was staring because of her hair."
"Yeah… her hair's blue. So what?" Harry asked. "She probably had it changed for her."
"You really don't remember?" Ron asked. "I told you. That guy who jumped me two weeks ago. The one that Dumbledore said was extra security for the school? He told me he was looking for a little girl with blue hair. And she's the only girl with blue hair that I've seen around here."
"…Oh yeah…" Hermione's eyes widened, turning back to the bar, only to discover the girl had disappeared. "I forgot about that. You think that might be her? What was the girl's name?"
"Um… Wendy I think…"
"How strange? Maybe we could ask her if she can tell us more about these guards."
"Interesting as this is, we did come here for a different reason, remember?" Harry raised his voice a little. "Hermione, how many people will be coming?"
"Oh… a few…" Hermione replied vaguely. "I asked anyone who I thought might be interested. And who I thought could probably keep a secret."
But when said interested people arrived… and then kept arriving… Harry found himself glowering at Hermione a little. This was not a number he would categorise as a few.
"So that's the kid, huh?" Gajeel murmured as he peered around the door, not used to acting sneaky, but wanting to stay out of the sight of all those students that were filing in. "He's shorter than I expected."
"What are we going to do?" Wendy asked.
"Do?" Charla looked up at her. "Do we have to do anything? He's just happened to walk in here where we're hiding out. We don't actually have to go over and introduce ourselves."
"I know we don't have to but… shouldn't we?" Wendy asked. "I mean… we have promised to help out in the fight against his mortal enemy. Surely he should know we're involved."
"Dumbledore gave Master Mavis permission to let Harry know when she felt the moment was right," Pantherlily replied. "She is technically our leader. I think that she should be the one to decide when we actually greet him."
"But Master Mavis isn't here and he is," Happy pointed out. "Does that mean we should do something about it anyway? Take advantage of the opportunity or something like that?"
"That's what I was thinking," Wendy nodded.
"I dunno," Gajeel grunted as he turned back to look down at the others. "I ain't normally one for caution but remember just about everyone in this world thinks we're the enemy. Probably including him. This ain't a situation where you can just march out there and say, 'Hey, we're Fairy Tail. Fancy a drink?' It'd freak him out. Him and all the others out there with him."
"That's true," Wendy bit her lip.
"I didn't know you could think things through like that, Gajeel," Happy laughed.
"What d'you say?" Gajeel snarled. Happy yelped and was about to scream that he was sorry before Charla clamped a paw over his mouth to keep him quiet.
"Gajeel's right. We should wait for Mavis' approval," she said. "Let's just get back to what we were doing."
"You kidding?" Gajeel snorted. "I'm not moving. I want to hear what's going on."
"That's eavesdropping, Gajeel," Lily frowned disapprovingly.
"Geehee. What's wrong with that?" Gajeel snickered. "Oi, little girl, you better get back out there. Aberforth might need some help serving all those people."
"Oh… okay," Wendy nodded and hurried past her fellow Dragon Slayer back to the bar.
The crowd was getting steadily larger as more and more students filed in, most of them with red and gold symbols emblazoned on their black robes but several with either blue and silver or yellow and black. But Wendy stopped when she noticed one particular person had entered the room - Luna Lovegood, the girl that she'd met at the campus that day. And about two seconds later, Luna's eyes locked onto her as well. The dirty-blonde haired girl gave her a vague but bright smile and seemed to drift over to the bar. For a moment, Wendy wondered whether she'd actually floated.
"Hello Wendy," said Luna. "I wondered if I might run into you somewhere in Hogsmeade. It seemed to be one of the most logical places for you to go."
"Um… hi Luna-san," Wendy smiled back, slightly nervously, not entirely sure what to expect next.
"So, you're a Fairy Tail mage, aren't you?"
"SSHH!" Wendy hissed, looking around to see if anyone heard what Luna had said but it seemed the noise that the crowd of students were making had drowned out her words. "Luna-san… you… you mustn't say that. You know that the Ministry will be looking for us."
"So it is true," Luna said knowingly and Wendy froze, realising she'd just answered Luna's question without meaning to.
"Um… well… yeah…"
"You know, some people say that Wrackspurts originally come from another dimension, but that they were transported across through shared dreams that were being had by people from our universe with people from another. Do they have Wrackspurts in your world too?"
"…I don't know… Luna-san, please… can you promise you won't tell anyone? We really don't mean any harm - none of us. Not me and not my friends. This whole thing with the Ministry's just a really, really big misunderstanding."
"I know. My Dad says that the higher ranking members of the Ministry will sacrifice anything to gain further power. I bet that the Minister thought you and your friends might even be a threat to his Heliopath army."
"His… what?"
"Heliopath army. They're fire spirits that roam across the land, destroying everything in their path and burning anything that they touch, and they're almost impossible to tame because they usually like to pick fights with everything they can…"
There was the sound of cracking wood coming from the back and both Luna and Wendy looked round at the door. The outer edge of the door had splintered as if it had been squeezed too hard and they could both here the sounds of hysterical cackling coming from the other side, along with a few other voices trying to shush it up.
"There are more of you," Luna noted.
"Er… yeah. Luna-san, we really can't talk about this now. Just… can you keep our secret?"
"I don't usually keep secrets. My Dad says that keeping secrets is what led to our government becoming so corrupt in the first place. But I have been keeping this one so far, even when I figured out who you really were."
"Thank you. Then how about you meet me in the alley beside this bar when everyone's gone and I can introduce you to my friends?"
"Okay, see you then," Luna turned around and wandered off, just like that, allowing Wendy to rush back into the back where Gajeel was furiously trying to stop laughing but had mostly got it under control. "Sorry," he snorted. "But it sounded like that girl was describing the Salamander just then. Flaming things that destroyed everything in their path… oh I hope I get to fight one of those things one day."
"It did sound a little like Natsu-san, didn't it?" Wendy giggled.
And as Luna made her way back to the table she was met by Ginny Weasley, who had noticed her talking to Wendy across the room. "Do you know that girl, Luna?" she asked.
"In some ways yes. In some ways very much no," was Luna's only reply as she took her seat, leaving Ginny momentarily bewildered before she shrugged it off and went to help Fred and George round up the drinks.
Eventually the crowd quietened down until every one of them was staring at Harry, as if waiting for him to speak. But it was Hermione that stood up and began speaking, causing all eyes and ears to swivel to her, including those of the Fairy Tail mages, though Wendy tried hard to make herself look busy.
"Erm… hello everyone… thank… thank you all for coming here today. I… I know it was short notice and this is probably taking a big chunk out of your Hogsmeade visit but… well it's really important and um… well you all know that, don't you? We're here to… to discuss the possibility of us studying Defence Against the Dark Arts… properly… instead of reading from a book and boring ourselves out of our minds…"
"Reading a book is boring Hermione Granger out of your mind?" George Weasley snickered.
"Shock, horror! Alert the media!" Fred laughed.
"Thank you…" Hermione coughed. "You know what I meant. Actually practicing how to defend ourselves instead of just the theory behind it. It's no good knowing what a defensive spell does without practicing it after all and… we won't get that from under Umbridge…"
"Got that right," said Terry Boot. "How's she expecting us to pass our exams with that junk?"
"I'm not entirely certain that she is," Hermione replied. "But as you all know… we're hoping that Harry will consent to teach us. And really, given the circumstances, he is the most qualified for the job in a lot of ways."
"I'm not sure 'qualified' is the right word, Hermione," Harry muttered, a little darkly. "Or the word 'most.'"
"Regardless of who or who isn't the best choice for teacher," Hermione ploughed on. "We need to learn how to defend ourselves from… what's really out there. And you all know what that is. Even if the Ministry want to hush it all up… it really is true that… Voldemort's returned."
The loud and fearful reaction that spread around the gathering made Gajeel snort from where he was hidden behind the door. "Morons," he muttered. "Nobody from our world's scared of using Zeref's name."
"Oi, have a little more respect, Gajeel," Pantherlily nudged his foot. "Voldemort is a much more recent threat to them before his rebirth than Zeref was to us."
And so the meeting progressed on, most of the members of the audience adding in their opinions, positive or otherwise. It seemed that the majority of them were strongly in favour of the idea, though one or two didn't look quite as keen as the others. A girl with reddish-blonde hair was looking a little shifty throughout the whole thing and the loud, blonde-haired Hufflepuff named Zacharias Smith seemed to be trying his hardest to make himself as distasteful as possible. As he tried to grill Harry for information about an experience that was obviously quite traumatic, Pantherlily had to actually grow to his battle form and grab Gajeel by the shoulders to stop him from walking out into the bar and thumping the boy in the face.
But most of them lavished praise on Harry for all the many achievements that he'd accomplished in the last four years, which made Harry look more uncomfortable than anything. And the expression on Harry's face when a certain asian girl started contributing to the compliments - an expression that looked like he was struggling to stop his insides from floating out of himself - was not missed by Wendy.
But in the end, every one of them signed their names onto the peace of parchment that Hermione presented to them. And eventually they all began to file their way out of the bar. Luna caught Wendy's eye briefly before she wandered out with such a dreamy expression that Wendy wondered whether she would forget entirely. But she excused herself from the bar shortly afterwards.
Eventually Harry, Ron and Hermione were the only ones left, and Hermione rolled up the parchment with a broad smile on her face as they stepped up to head out. "Well, I think that went really well," she said. "Not only did they all sign but most of them looked really keen on the idea, even the students that are older than you, Harry. What does that tell you?"
"That they're mad?" Harry asked. "I dunno why Angelina came after she's been so mad at me recently for missing all those Quidditch practices."
"Obviously because despite her temper and dedication to her sport, she believes you, Harry. Every one of them do."
"Except possibly that Zacharias git," Ron interjected. "But after what he did I don't really care what he thinks anyway. But we did tell you Harry that more people would believe you than we thought, didn't we? Most of that lot in there were people you knew. We all know you're not mad."
"Not all of them though," Harry murmured. "Seamus didn't turn up."
"He'll come round, mate," Ron clapped him on the shoulder. "They all will eventually. Sooner or later."
"Considering what's out there… I'd much rather it was sooner."
"Yeah… anyway I didn't really know who all of those people were. I understand why you asked most of them, Hermione, but not all of them."
"Well some of them just overheard me talking about it with the others. In retrospect I probably should have been more careful but alls well that ends well. Although Michael Corner and his friends only came because Michael's dating Ginny of course."
"SAY WHAT!?" Ron roared.
But before he could launch into a barrage of questions, Harry suddenly said, "Hey… isn't that Luna?"
The trio stopped by the edge of the Hog's Head, staring down the alleyway at the side of the dingy bar, and sure enough there was Luna, with her head cocked to one side and her eyes bulging a little more than usual. Standing next to her was the blue-haired girl from the bar, but Luna wasn't talking to her. She was talking to someone just out of sight, through an open door.
"What's she doing down there?" Hermione asked, sounding worried. "Who's she talking to?"
"I dunno, probably the bartender. But there's that girl again," Ron noted. "You reckon we should go ask her what her name is. See if she really is this Wendy person?"
"That's really none of our business, Ron. We can't just… Harry wait…!"
But Harry was already in motion, walking down the side-street towards where the fourth year girl was standing. He already knew the Hog's Head wasn't really the place to go to if you wanted to talk to someone trustworthy and concern for Luna's well-being moved him before he could think about it. Ron and Hermione quickly caught up with him, though they both looked nervous.
Both Luna and the girl had their backs partially turned to the three of them. So they didn't see them coming until Harry walked over and said, "Hey Luna. What's going… on…?"
"Oh, hello Harry," Luna smiled.
But Harry didn't reply because he'd just spotted the guy that Luna was talking to and had to keep from taking a step back, his hand almost immediately going for his wand. He was a real bruiser of a man with a strong build, metal studded face and a wild long hair. But his reaction was absolutely nothing compared to Ron's. Ron yelled and stumbled backwards so fast that he crashed into the wall, eyes wide as Galleons and pointing up at the man.
"Harry! Hermione! That's him! That's the guy that attacked me while doing my rounds two weeks ago!"
"What?! You mean that's the extra…" Hermione started before halting, staring open mouthed at Gajeel's left shoulder. Harry's eyes followed her gaze and locked on the large, black symbol emblazoned on the man's skin.
"…Fairy Tail…" he breathed. "You… you're one of those Fairy Tail guys!"
"Well, this just got awkward," Gajeel muttered.
"Quick! Let's go!" Ron yelled as he pushed himself to his feet, grabbing Hermione and starting to try and pull her back down the alleyway, but they stopped in their tracks when a small blue cat with white wings suddenly whooshed out of the door next to Gajeel.
"Wait! Stop! Don't go!" Happy cried. "You can't tell anybody we're here. We can't let the wrong people find out about it!"
"What the…!" Ron gasped, and their momentary hesitation was all the time that Gajeel needed to suddenly barrel out of the door, rebound off a wall and leap straight over their heads. Harry turned and whipped off a Stunning Spell at Gajeel as he passed but Gajeel's skin changed to iron scales in a second flat and the spell rebounded off his arm to hit a wall instead. He came crashing to the ground behind them, cutting off their way out of the alleyway.
"Oi, you ain't going anywhere until you've heard us out," he smirked, as both Ron and Hermion also drew their wands.
"Oh… oh my God…" Hermione blustered, staring wide eyed at Gajeel's metallic skin, her jaw feeling like it was going to hit the floor. "I don't… I don't believe it… you're actually made of metal…!"
"Observant, aren't you?" Gajeel chuckled.
And even in the face of what looked like terrifying danger, Hermione couldn't hold her curiosity at bay. "Can you actually turn your arm into a blade?"
Gajeel snorted and lifted his arm, morphing it into the Iron Dragon Sword in an instant flat. Ron looked like he was going to fate, Hermione looked astounded, Harry looked just plain shocked and Luna… looked vaguely interested.
"Perhaps doing that in the street where anyone could walk past and see you is not a good idea, Gajeel," Pantherlily said as he stepped out from the door with Charla.
"Good point," Gajeel nodded, morphing back until he looked like an ordinary human again. "Still… this is a rather untimely development."
"Well… we were going to meet them eventually, right?" Wendy said a little sheepishly. "Guess… sooner is probably better than later."
"Aye… and it was probably always going to be a shock when it happened so this is as good a way as any," Happy agreed.
"Perhaps, but its still not ideal," Charla wrinkled her nose.
"Okay, can somebody else tell me that they're seeing talking cats… just in case its just me and I really need to go and see Madam Pomfrey," Ron mumbled.
"They are certainly interesting," Luna noted as she crouched down on her knees in front of the cats. "What species are you?"
"We're Exceed, Miss Luna," Lily bowed his head slightly. "A pleasure to meet you."
"Welcome to our universe. We hope you enjoy your stay," Luna smiled as she if she was some hotel attendant greeting an ordinary customer.
"Hold on a second," Harry looked around suspiciously, as if not sure what direction to point his wand in before settling on Gajeel because he looked like the biggest threat. "What are you doing here?"
"What do you think we're doing?" Gajeel raised a studded brow. "We're hiding from those imbeciles you call a government."
"Because you're the ones that broke into the Ministry two weeks ago and trashed the place," Harry pointed out. "To be honest it seems fair enough to me that they'd be looking for you."
Gajeel growled. "I saw the stories those jokes sent out to the public. Shouldn't always believe everything you read, kid."
"Are you saying you didn't trash the Ministry?" Harry asked.
"Oh no, we did," Gajeel grinned savagely. "We definitely did."
"But it was because they had our friends," Wendy pushed her way past Harry to step between him and Gajeel. "Please, you have to believe us. We only broke into the Ministry because they had some of our friends held prisoner and we were trying to break them out."
"We didn't try, we succeeded. Geehee. But the girl's right," Gajeel nodded.
"What and we're supposed to believe you're just some innocent party?" Ron asked, glaring at the Iron Dragon Slayer. "You broke into our school and attacked me even before you attacked the Ministry."
"Because he was looking for me," Wendy protested. "Because we were lost in a strange world we didn't know and I got separated from everyone else. Gajeel-san was just trying to find me and make sure I was safe. He didn't mean to hurt you."
"Though he can be a little scary," Happy muttered.
"Wait… wait… you're saying all that stuff they said in the papers… about you being from another universe… that's… really true?"
"Well, put it this way," Charla said as she stepped over to Hermione and folded her paws, looking up at her with a slightly deadpan expression. "Is there anything like us in your universe? Is there anyone like him, who can turn his arms into swords, or her who can shoot tornadoes out of her mouth. It was her that damaged your Quidditch pitch by the way."
"You did that!?" Ron gasped, staring at Wendy in amazement.
"Yes, it was very noble of her," Luna said conversationally. "She was defending me from the rather unpleasant bullying I was receiving from the Slytherin team. And the result was quite fascinating."
"I… I don't believe it…" Hermione gasped, a hand over her mouth. "Another universe. People and creatures that really are from another universe. This is… this is… astonishing. I can't process it."
But while Harry was also astonished he was also not so ready to drop his guard yet. "Why should we trust anything you say?" he asked. "You've already admitted to attacking the Ministry. How do we know the rest of it isn't a pack of lies?"
Gajeel fixed him with a flint-like eye and said, "Same reason why you believe that your godfather, Sirius Black, is innocent."
Harry stepped backwards as if he'd been physically struck. "You… you know about Sirius?"
"Indeed we do," said a voice from up above, prompting everyone to turn their heads to the edge of the roof, where Mavis Vermilion was standing, staring down at the scene below. "We've met him in fact, and he seems to be a thoroughly pleasant man. And based on everything we've heard about you, Harry James Potter, Ronald Bilius Weasley and Hermione Jean Granger, we know you to be good people too."
"Who are you?" Harry asked, as Mavis stepped off the roof and slowly floated to the ground next to him.
"I am Mavis Vermilion, founder of the Fairy Tail guild. And I suggest that we all adjourn into the back of the Hog's Head to continue this conversation. There's a lot that we have to discuss."
"Ugh, does this forest never end? What the hell am I supposed to do in a place like this? Where's a nice road when you need one? How am I supposed to trudge through all this foliage like this while wearing heels? And for that matter, where the heck is 'here' anyway?"
Such was the almost continuous tirade that spilled from the lips of the bespectacled brunette woman making her way through the trees of the Forest of Dean. Evergreen was not sure how long it had been since she'd woken up in the middle of an unfamiliar woodland all alone, but she was sure it had been hours now. It certainly felt like hours, particularly on her feet. While she was wearing wide two-inch heels on her feet rather than full six-inches, they still were not exactly the most comfortable or practical of footwear to have on when forcing your way through bushes and patches of mud. And that was what she'd been doing for a while now.
Not for the first time, Evergreen considered just trying to fly out of this place. But while she was certainly capable of flying thanks to her Fairy Magic, her magic was not really built for long distance flight. It was more designed to help her make fast dodges and swoop in to attack at speed. Maintaining it for prolonged periods took up quite a bit of magic. And she was already feeling tired from all this walking so it seemed that preserving her magic might be the better idea.
But that didn't stop all this walking from being irritating as hell. Especially considering she didn't seem to be getting anywhere with it.
Despite the sound of a gentle breeze wafting through the trees and all the local birdsong, it still felt horribly quiet to Evergreen. Hence the tirade. Not only was it genuine griping but she was attempting to calm her nerves with the sound of her own voice. Because what she wanted to be hearing was the sound of her friends, the rest of Fairy Tail, who were supposed to all be here with her. But they weren't. She was alone. And considering the last thing she remembered was a huge black dragon about to blast them with an incredible breath attack… she was actually rather frightened.
Not that she'd admit that to anyone of course. But she could admit it to herself. Why wasn't everyone here? How in the world could she have gone from Tenrou Island from one moment to… this place… in the next? She was cold, dirty and very, very lost.
Eventually she came to a stop and placed her fingers to her temples, rubbing her forehead in an attempt to calm her frayed nerves.
"So ironic," she muttered to herself, looking out through the trees at the seemingly empty forest around her. "Whenever all those boys got loud and angry and started fighting each other all I wanted them to do was shut up. And now that I've got peace and quiet… all I want is for all the noise to come back. Because the noise would mean… I wouldn't be alone."
Sighing and deciding she needed a rest, Evergreen stepped over to a large oak tree and slowly slid her back down its trunk until she was sitting at its base, hugging her legs and resting her chin on her knees. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so… miserable. She'd not felt like this even when Laxus had been expelled from the guild for trying to take it over. Because back then, even though she was losing her greatest idol, she still had the rest of the Raijin Tribe with her. And she still had the rest of Fairy Tail, who she began to open up to a lot more after that. No matter what she did, she always had someone there in Fairy Tail to support her. She'd never been alone.
She hated being alone. She'd never really told anyone this, not even the other Raijin Tribe members, but she usually couldn't stand solitude. It was part of the reason she'd joined the Raijin Tribe since they were almost always together. And even when she went into her room at Fairy Hills she disliked too much isolation. It was part of the reason she'd filled her room with statues, other than the fact she loved art. It didn't feel quite so lonely with all the stone people there with her.
And she hadn't felt so alone as she did right now since before she'd joined the guild.
"I will not cry," she murmured to herself. "I will not be so weak as to cry. You watch. I will not…" she swallowed, realising she was talking to nobody and that just upset her more. "What if I never see… any of them again?"
One face in particular flashed into her mind - Elfman's. Which surprised her slightly considering she assumed she'd be more likely to think of Freed or Bickslow or Laxus. But… Elfman was the one there with her throughout all the events of Tenrou Island. And she could just imagine him saying now, 'Pick yourself up and keep going, Ever! A Man doesn't break down and cry because he's all alone!'
"I'm not a Man, you dolt," Evergreen muttered as if she was actually replying to him. It was at this point that she'd probably hit him in the head with her fan. But what she wouldn't give to have him here right now, encouraging her, pushing forward with his bullheaded determination. That was sure what she needed right now.
But as she sat there brooding quietly, she heard something. Perhaps if she hadn't been so focused on how quiet it was she would not have heard it all, but… yes there it was again - quite a distinct rustling noise coming from somewhere close by. Like a bunch of leaves shifting in the wind… or by something else.
Evergreen froze. Her expression didn't change and she fought to keep herself from looking suspicious but she focused all of her concentration into her hearing, listening so hard she felt as though she could hear a pin drop. But she didn't hear a pin drop. She heard another rustle, ever so faintly. And another. They were coming from the treetops… and seemed to be getting closer.
Slowly closing her eyes, Evergreen allowed herself to give in even further to her hearing. The rustling slowly stopped to be replaced by teensy little scratching noises. Like something sharp on wood. It was directly above her now. And still getting nearer. There was only one thing Evergreen could conclude… something was crawling its way down the tree trunk. Towards her.
And that something was definitely not a squirrel.
When the scratching was about ten feet above her head, Evergreen acted. She threw herself forwards, diving into the air and extending her four fairy-like wings just a high-pitched wailing shriek erupted from above her. She rolled sideways to dodge whatever it was as it leapt at her, and as she looked around she caught a brief glimpse of something with large pupilless yellow eyes and an obscenely long, pointed nose hiss at her before it vanished sprinted off into the foliage.
But almost instantly she could hear scuttling as whatever it was whooshed its way through the tree branches back towards her. She dodged backwards as it came flying at her again from an entirely different angle, where it hit a tree trunk and rebounded off it to come at her again, moving so fast that it appeared only as a brown and green blur. This time Evergreen responded offensively and whipped around in the air to deliver a cracking roundhouse kick to the creature's gut and sent it flying backwards into the bushes again with a grating squeal. But the silence was only momentary before she heard the scuttling again and saw branches shaking as whatever it was moved in a rapid zig-zag to come back towards her.
"Alright, whatever you are," Evergreen's eyes narrowed, bringing her hands together in front of her and a yellowish glow appearing between her palms. "I've had enough."
"Gggrrryyaaaahhh!" the thing screeched as it erupted out of the leaves again, flying right at her face. But Evergreen ducked and rolled, swinging herself underneath it as it sailed over her head. She spun around and flung her arms out wide, dragging the yellowish glow out with her as she murmured:-
"Yōsei Kijū… LEPRECHAUN!"
Even as the creature vanished back into the branches and tried to scuttle away, hundreds of small, needle-like energy blasts were materialised in front of Evergreen and fired into the foliage like bullets from a machine gun. A machine gun with a very wide range. Most of them missed the target but there were so many of them that the creature was still pelted with dozens of little needles and it squealed, dropping out of the trees and landing on the ground on its back, singed and cursing.
"Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!" it hissed, looking up at Evergreen. "What is it? What in the woods is it? Is not human!"
"So, you can speak, can you?" Evergreen grimaced as she alighted on the ground in front of the creature and created a particularly large energy bullet in her hand that she aimed at it. "What are you? Why did you attack me? And don't even think about running off or you might find this one a little more difficult to take."
The creature looked up at her and for the first time Evergreen got a good look at it. It was like some kind of gremlin creature, about three feet tall. Its yellow eyes flashed at her from over the top of its foot-long nose that ended in a sharp point. Its mouth was filled with sharp teeth and its body seemed to be rather spindly, with its arms covered in what looked like thorns. It almost looked like it was made of wood, but it wasn't. In fact, she could see its ribs quite clearly through its bark-like skin, but it did look have what looked like a crest of leaves sticking out the back of its head. It was rather charred by Evergreen's attack, and Evergreen hadn't been using full power. If she had, she wondered if she might have killed the thing.
But whatever it was the creature proceeded to ignore her questions and asked, "What is you? You is not normal witch! Wings! No wand! Throwing light balls. You is more like fairy, but you is human sized. What is you!"
Evergreen's eyes widened. "Did you just call me a fairy?"
"Is that what you is?" the creature hissed. "I has never seen fairy like you before."
"But you have seen fairies?" Evergreen gasped.
"Of course I is seeing fairies. Fairies live in this wood. Comes outs at night, glowy, glowy. But they is nothing like you. Is you special Fairy?"
"Oh yes," Evergreen smirked, lowering her her hand and striking a slight pose, one hand moving up to tousle her hair and the other wrapping around her waist while she stuck one leg out. "Yes, I am a very special Fairy indeed. You see… I'm a Fairy Queen."
"Really?" the creature seemed interested, pushing itself up onto its backside and leering at her. "You is Queen? You is royalty?"
"Indeed I is… I mean, am!" Evergreen shook her head and smirked. "There's one that goes by the name of Titania that claims to be the Queen of the Fairies, but I've always said I should be Titania. I am the one with the Fairy Magic. I am the rightful Fairy Queen."
"You is special fairy. Yes, easy to see. Humans no have wings, so Fairy you is. Making sense now," the creature grinned toothily.
"And what, might I ask, are you?" Evergreen pointed a finger at him. "What possessed you to try sneaking up and attacking me, hm? Tell me that and I may have mercy on you."
"Thousands pardons, Majesty," the creature bowed its head and raised its arms in quite the ridiculous pose because it ended up sticking its nose into the ground. "Thought you was trespassing human. Humans tasty so me hunting."
Needless to say, while being referred to as a special fairy had gone right to Evergreen's head, that brought her right back down to earth. She had been about to explain that actually she was a human, unfortunately, until that last sentence pulled her up short.
"You eat humans!" Evergreen's eyes widened. "What are you?"
"What me? Erkling. Me is Erkling," the creature looked up and suddenly those teeth looked a whole lot more menacing. Evergreen swallowed. She'd already proven she could handle this Erkling creature so she had nothing to fear from it. Nevertheless, she'd rather she was out of its company as soon as possible…
…on the other hand… she could use a guide to get her out of the forest. And he seemed to have respect for the Fairy Queen.
"Yes… well… I was just visiting this forest on my… annual rounds to visit all the Fairies of this land," she quickly improvised, drawing herself up regally and putting on an air of superiority… which wasn't that hard for her, honestly. "But this time I got separated from my… royal escort. If you would be so kind as to escort me to the edge of this forest, I will ensure that the Fairies rain gifts down upon you."
"Oh, Fairy Queen very giving," the Erkling pushed itself to its feet, slightly unsteadily due to its injuries but with its head still bowed. "Think me does what Fairy Queen says, yes. Is Fairy Queen all fairies ruler?"
"Oh yes, without doubt. All fairies are my loyal subjects," Evergreen tossed her hair. "They obey me without question and would do absolutely anything just to take a look at me. Ah, it's a hard life to be so loved."
The Erkling gave a rather savage grin and said, "All fairies devoted. All fairies love. So lucky to meet."
"Indeed you are," Evergreen smiled. "Now, be a good Erkling and escort me to the nearest edge of the forest as I asked."
"Oh, escort we shall!" the Erkling snickered. "Escort we shall!"
"Wait… we?" Evergreen's eyes widened. And a split second later all hell broke loose as about a dozen brownish blurs launched themselves out of the foliage all around her, descending on her en masse. Evergreen had no warning and even as she tried to extend her wings and fly away, the other Erklings were upon her, several of them grabbing at her body, one landing on her head and a couple more on her legs. She thrashed and kicked, lifting into air as they swarmed all over and and spinning around to send a couple flying away, but the others clung on.
Evergreen raised her arm to prepare another attack but two Erklings suddenly seized the arm and pulled it behind her back, while more did the same with the other. Evergreen gasped as she felt something loop around her wrists to pin them together and whipped around to see that the Erkling were tying her hands with some kind of vine. And the Erklings scrambling over her had more! One of them had snagged her ankle with one and the two more were trying to haul her flailing other leg in while others were scrambling there way round and round her torso, working together to wrap more vines around her chest, trapping her arms to her sides beneath her wings and breasts.
"No! You horrible little… vermin! Get off me!" Evergreen thrashed her legs out as wide as she could to kick another two off but suddenly several of them jumped off, back down to the ground, holding trailing vines in their hands that were attached to the bindings Evergreen had already received. Evergreen was jerked down with them and yelled in undignified rage, thrashing as the Erklings massed together to haul on the vines and pull her down by her wrists and body. And she was so busy trying to fly back up that she forgot about her legs, and the Erklings still clinging to them suddenly snapped them together and bound her ankles in the blink of an eye.
"You… no! HOW DARE YOU NNNRRMMMM!" Evergreen's eyes widened as suddenly a very thick vine was looped around her head from behind and pulled between her teeth, gagging her. She coughed and tried to spit it out but it had already been tied tightly in place by surprisingly dextrous hands. She struggled madly but the Erklings hauled her back to the ground where they jumped on her with yet more vines and pinned her to the ground, rolling her onto her front.
What followed next was a mass of flailing limbs and screaming from both sides where it was almost impossible to make anything out, but in the end the result was clear as the mass of Erklings stepped back, many of them holding taut vines attached to some part of Evergreen to hold her still. Evergreen herself had been thoroughly immobilised. She was lying on her front and had more vines wrapped around her knees and thighs, as well as just beneath her shoulders and waist, pinning her wings to her back. In addition her ankles had been pulled upwards and attached to her wrists by a short vine that meant she couldn't stand up if she tried, and all ten of her fingers had been trapped together by strands of ivy, leaving her hands totally useless. Her glasses had fallen off, but they were now clutched in the hand of the first Erkling, who limped over to leer into Evergreen's terrified face.
"Fairy Queen great prize," the Erkling sneered at her. "Fairy Queen give Erklings what Erklings want. Because Fairy Queen now ours."
"MMMMRHHH!" Evergreen squirmed, but the taut ropes the Erklings were holding left her barely able to do that. With her hands secured like this she couldn't use her Fairy Magic, and her Stone Eyes wouldn't work on these creatures because they were not human.
She was at their mercy! Trapped! Helpless!
Alone!