Hey guy's remember me? It's me, the author who hasn't wrote a chapter for this story in forever. I'm so sorry. Truth is, I haven't been able to find any enthusiasm to write. If I don't have enthusiasm what I write will turn out bad and I think that would be much worst than my procrastinating. Well on a happier note. I finally wrote a chapter for 'A Falling Star'...enjoy!

A Falling Star

Chapter 15: Please

It was everywhere. It swarmed around her. It took her by the throat and squeezed.

It was Death.

Lucy had appeared in the dead of night within the forest of the Taboo island, along with the star key and her knight protector. They walked endlessly through the white abyss and ended up here. However, 'here' wasn't the same 'here' as she remembered. It only took a second for her to realise where they were. It was Taboo Island from hundreds of years ago during the time of the plague. This plague was the worst Lucy had ever seen. It was like she had walked into a horror movie. The cold, grasp of death had touched everything.

Plants shrivelled, wilted and disintegrated into dust, trying their best to return to the rotted soil. Corpes of decaying animals were strewn on the earth. Tropical birds were charcoaled bones and dull feathers. Tree's bowed to the ground in pain. It was cold; So very, very...cold. Chills rode up her spine to the extent of pain crying out in her mind. Muscles went weak and her body quivered. Her heart trashed violently, desperately trying to escape and run. Breath escaped her chest as it fell still, unable to rise nor fall. Just, still. The stench of decaying flesh almost made Lucy keel over and vomit. "W- What is this?" Lucy's voice horsely chocked on her words.

"This is the plaga mortis." Akio remarked dryly, his eyes remained on the path in which he walked.

"The plague of Death?" Lucy muttered, her hand covering her mouth and nose. Tears rolled from her cheeks at the horrible feeling festering inside of her, its clutches wrapping around her heart and squeezing it tight. Lucy scurried past, squeezing her eyes shut as she hurried to keep up with the Star Key and Knight as they travelled through various unseen paths through the forest. It nostalgically reminded her of the time when the pirates had led them like a pack of wolves, dancing in the tall tree tops and flittering through the flourishing undergrowth. However, Akio and Kouki were not like that all. They moved fluently through the world like they knew the paths off the back of their hands, the only thing they didn't have, was the pirate's smile. Their faces were bland. Empty of colour and emotion. Then she remembered, this was their time.

'Long ago, A plague fell upon the locals of this island. It killed many of the villagers and other beasts. The villagers cried for nights after nights as their numbers perished. A girl of young age, (about 17) decided to try and save the villagers.'

This was their time. This was from their time on the Earth. This was their story. A horrible pang rode through her like an electric shock. 'People had to suffer through this?!' Lucy's inner thoughts exclaimed in a shrill cry.

Tears streamed faster down her face. Cold, sharp stabs of pain scraped down her cheeks as the tears fell. Each one with a ting of light encircling it like a sparkling white aura. It fell to the earth in a silent drop. As it splashed onto the dry floor, it disappeared. It simply disappeared. So simple. Not one trace was left of the tear that fell. There was no tear stain on the floor, no nothing.

Lucy could feel it ever since they arrived. The ghostly feeling. The way they moved was unreal. They never disturbed anything. From a crisp leaf, to a wilting blade of grass, it would not even sway as they touched it. They simply slid through. Just like a ghost they were as dense as air, maybe even more so. "Natsu would have really hated this..." Lucy whimpered softly to herself, she let her hands clamp around her biceps. Without him here, she was lonely. Where was Natsu? A gust of emotional icy air brushed her soul. Where was Natsu? A loneliness she had never experienced so deeply before made her whole existence shiver. "Where's Natsu? He was- He was supposed to have- to have come to? Where is he? Did we lose him? Can we find him? Did her get Lost? Maybe we should look for h-" Lucy began to blabber, her thoughts racing and her heart pounding. She didn't know what it was. The scene before her eyes? The coldness? The loneliness? She didn't know. Whatever it was, it made her panic. Natsu was always there when she panicked; smiling with that goofy grin, telling her everything was going to be okay.

"Lucy." A harsh voice growled.

"He could have gotten lost. Natsu always gets lost somehow. We need to-" Lucy blabbered on, spinning around.

"Lucy!" A deeper voice hushed. Strong arms clasped around her shoulders, shaking her gently. Lucy's face darted up to catch the stern, brown eyes locking onto hers. "Lucy. Natsu is not here. Unlike you, who has the power to travel between worlds at will, a knight protector cannot travel to heaven until the star key has passed on. This is a journey for you, and you alone. This is your task as a star key." Like a the bells on the tower of Notre dame, they rang in her mind. It felt like hypnosis, but it wasn't. Lucy knew that. Whatever state she had fell into, Akio had dragged her out of it, no matter her protest. It may have been naive in that bubble, it may have been calm and it may have distracted her, even for just a little bit. Nevertheless, she is a star key. That bubble was a shame to her. And that shame wouldn't be something she would allow. Akio was right. This is her duty. There will be times when Natsu will not be beside her. Therefore, she would have to be strong and do this alone.

"I'm...sorry." Lucy apologised as her body began to calm. A serial feeling had melted her body into it's normal homoeostasis. Noticing this, Akio pulled his hands away, turned and carried on. Kouki looked hesitant to move forwards. As Akio approached, she blinked away her concern, turned and carried on. Lucy's eyes floated over the rest of the scenes like looking of a plain field of grass. Nothing new, nothing exciting and nothing unusual.

For a while, they carried on in silence like that. Until a shrill scream echoed through the forest causing Lucy to flinch and her serial shell to shatter in an instant.

Suddenly she became aware of all the screams of pain, the cries of the children, men and women. Brown eyes darted in that direction, were an amber light signalled life. Kouki and Akio slowed their pace by a fraction. It was a fraction large enough for Lucy to notice. It was dread. Lucy could see it on their empty faces. With his tense shoulders bunched close to his chin, Akio's honey-brown eyebrows knitted together and his eyes dropped to the floor, watching the earth pass under his feet. Kouki's head was raised high, looking forwards calmly. Fluently, her body still moved like an elegant dancer as it approached the amber light. Lucy would have thought she was unaffected by the torturing cries, if it wasn't for her eyes. Ocean, blue eyes looked onwards, with a turmoil swirling underneath them with horror, pain and dread. Lucy had to bind every shard of courage she had left and hold them together if she was to make it through her journey. It would be one of the hardest things Lucy would ever, ever have to experience...

They grew louder and louder. Lucy was able to make a distinction between the cries. There was one man and one child that were crying. Eventually, the child had calmed, but the man still cried and cried even when they arrived.

A collection of small wooden cabins with palm leave thatched roofs, empty windows and door-less doorways were centred in a large opening. Dry mud scattered the area around. The houses curled around a small kindling fire pit in the centre. Grey slates of stone piled up around the edges of the ash pit to form a sort of well. A heavy atmosphere hit Lucy like a dense wall, tightening her throat. Air scratched the inside of her lungs as she breathed in what felt like nails. Crying still rung in her eyes. She caught the sight of a man. Ripped and dirties clothes hung off his blood smeared skin. With strong, broad shoulders and jet black hair, he keeled over a still, pale body. Honey-brown hair spilled over the dry earth, blood splattered over her face. Dark, brown eyes looked up into the dark sky, cloudy sky. Those eyes were empty. It was a visible sign that her soul had already abandoned her body.

Children sat in the doorways with dirt smeared skin and lost, empty eyes. Torn clothes hung from their body, hair stuck and sprung from their heads. They looked so...empty, so alone. The village was familiar to her. Where had she seen it? "The Star Village..." Lucy breathed. It looked so unrecognisable. The old village looked so ancient...so run-down. And it was missing the star symbol on the earth.

"You guessed right." Kouki whispered cooly and she moved next to the stellar mage, joining her gaze on the village. "This is the Star Village before it had received the Star protection symbol."

"Then this is..." Lucy's voice trailed off, looking concerning at Kouki and Akio.

"Yes. This is our...home." Kouki smiled gently.

"Or was." Akio butted in. Just as his words finished a roar of thunder shook the earth and lightening flashed across the dark, night clouds. Rain poured instantly onto the little village. Dry, cracked earth quickly turned into slippery, sluggish mud. For a moment, Lucy waiting for the cool, tingling rain was over her body. It never came. Lucy looked up at the sky, then down again at the palm in which she held open. Just like her crystal lined tears, the normal rain disappeared as it touched the ring of golden light that was wrapped around the three time travellers.

"AKIO!" A voice screamed over the grieving man's sobbing. Lucy's head snapped quickly in the direction of the voice, then Kouki and Akio followed slowly afterwards. A girl, taller than Lucy and Kouki but no where near as tall as Akio, came sprinting across the mud. A dark, black fabric wrapped her body, showing her curves generously. It scooped down over her chest but covered a majority of her cleavage. The fabric had short sleeves the went over her thin shoulders and down over her flawlessly pale skin. A rip in the dress ran down from the bottom all the way up to her thin waist. Short black hair, in a pixie cut, flicked up over her ears. Mud was splashed all over her dark, sheen strands of hair that curled in the rain. For a second, her foot slipped and her body skidded to one side, dropped onto one knee with her leg spread out to one side. Using her hands, they sprung her body up from the slippery ground, pouncing forward like a jungle cat. Black eyes shot forward with wild determination. Not only that, but in there, was fear. A shell-shocking and blinding fear bubbled beneath her almost pitch black eyes. Lucy let a gasp escape her lips as she recognised the person. "Amira..." Lucy whimpered. She looked different. Almost unrecognisable different. Almost. Since Lucy was able to realise it was her.

"Amira," Kouki muttered. Lucy turned to see the black haired girl's blue eyes intensely locked onto the past-version of the pirate. Ice blue eyes filled with so much pain, regret and loneliness. Kouki's thin black eyes brows pulled up as her lips tipped down. Tears looked as if they could appear in her eyes at any second.

"AKIO! QUICKLY!" Amira screamed as she scrambled towards one of the huts on the other side of the village. Water poured over the hutch roof as a young, brown-haired teenager stepped from the hut. The water drenched his dark hair instantly. It fell against his tanned face and his vest clung to his broad shoulders and darkened the fabric green pants that hung from his waist. A white sash wrapped around her belt. It hugged a long, wooden, and plain sheet to his waist. A simple, wood and woven bark hilt peaked from the top of the sash. Water spilled over his toned, muscled abs. Warm honey eyes locked onto Amira with a softness and gentle...fear. Concern was already ablaze in his eyes. It was Akio. Those eyes still had that gleam of a gentle kindness. However, the eyes of the Akio who had looked directly into her in the woods was different. They had seen far more things, experienced so much and learned more than a usual human. Akio has definitely grown compared to the child stepping out into the rain who resembled the Knight Protector.

"What is it?" Young Akio whimpered.

"You must...come quickly..." Amira panted, gripping onto Akio's damp vest for support.

"Why? What is it?" Akio demanded, trying to catch Amira's sodden face. A flicker over his eyes showed he had realised something. Straightening his body, he glanced around, his eyes darting back and forth around the village and the forest edge. "Amira..." Akio growled, his fist tightening around the blade's hilt. "Where's Kouki?" Amira's body flinched. Slowly, she straightened her body and softened her panting. Seriousness covered her face as she glared at Akio with her dark eyes against his furious brown ones.

"She's gone!" Amira growled.

"Gone where?" Akio cautiously replied.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK!" Amira snapped.

"She wouldn't have done!" Akio shook his head vigorously, stepping back from Amira as he denied her.

"WELL SHE DID. SHE'S GONE! SHE ACTUALLY DID IT!" Amira screamed.

"NO. SHE SAID SHE WOULDN'T!" Akio bellowed, distraught, his fist clasping around his hilt.

"AKIO. GO GET HER!"

"BUT-"

"NO. It's Kouki we're talking about here. Not some stupid girl. Kouki won't give need to go get her. Please." Amira pleaded, tears rolling from her mud stained cheeks as the rain flattened her dark hair over her face. Akio's body hesitated.

"We're not talking about Kouki going into the forest alone. We're on about..." Akio grumbled, his voice trailing off as his eyes gestured upwards. A mountain stood tall, it's peak disappearing into the dark, thundering clouds of the sky.

"It doesn't matter. Whether it be the forest or going to the beach, or even if it's TABOO!" Gasps escaped the whole village as their eyes darted towards the screaming pair. At first they had taken no notice of their existence, but now they looked like the biggest, most eye-catching thing in the world. "We are Kouki's friends aren't we?" Amira pleaded, her knee's dropping to into the thick mud that instantly climbed up her bare thigh. "I know you care for her!" Akio's body stiffened, his eyes softening and his cheeks blushing slightly. Quickly, he became irritated and hid it. His body remained stiff and hesitant. "Go...please. I can't save her, but you can. Please, go. Go Akio...for me?" Akio flinched, moving back a step further as he looked directly into the girl's pleading eyes, as she bowed in front of him. After a long moment, the thunder cried across the sky and Akio moved to speak. Guilt stirred in Amira as she used those final words. It wasn't because of the words that she felt guilty. It was the guilt from the fact that she knew, that he would never say no. Never. It felt wrong. It was true that Akio cared for Kouki, but the past was always on his mind, so Amira couldn't be sure if Akio would actually go. However, there was no time. If Amira was to save Kouki, she would have to be certain that she did everything possible. Even if it made her feel guilty.

"I will go." Akio grumbled, shifting the sword on his sash as he moved slowly walked past her at a cautious and steady pace. Amira looked relieved as she slowly rose from her knees. As she turned, she saw the back of the young, brown-haired boy as he moved under the rain; water slid across his skin, twisting and turning as his muscles moved. Amira took a step forward towards him, but before her foot was able to touch the floor, it stopped. "You are not coming, Amira." Akio hissed, his back to her.

"But-"

"Go home Amira. Go home to your kids and husband." Akio growled, more fearsome than last time.

"No. I want to save Kouki too!" Amira retorted, taking a step forward and moving to take another. She froze in her steps. It had move too fast for the eye to see and it was too quiet for the ear to hear. Nevertheless, the blade rested only a mere few millimetres from her neck. Rain drops fell onto the blade and glided across it's smooth surface which glinted in the smallest break of moonlight. Akio's gaze was directed to the wet floor by his feet as his arms was raised steady. "Go home, Amira." Sympathy, dismay and unhappiness registered on her face as she looked on the brown-haired boy.

"Akio..." she whispered softly.

"Go home,...please." Akio pleaded, his gaze turning to reach her. Thunder and lightening rocketed across the sky as his dark brown eyes cut into her heart and soul, shooting her with his emotions. Amira stopped and stared at him for a long moment, before, finally, she nodded gently. Moving it back, she placed her foot next to her other one in the mud, reclining from their stand off. Akio had won. She would not be going with him. At least, she can put her faith in him, to save Kouki. As the sound of smooth metal stroking wood had reached her, the blade was already in it's sheath. Akio, turned as walked cautiously and proudly through the town. Eyes of every villager watched him with either doom, sympathy or grief. It was like they were watching a man walk to his grave. Maybe, that was true.

"Thank you Akio." Amira whispered, as the figure disappeared out the mouth of the village, into the direction of the mountain of Taboo. As he disappeared, Amira dropped to her knee's once again, letting the rain pour over her as she looked up to the sky, her hands clasping each other over her chest. Amira prayed into her palms as her emotion poured out into that plea for the heavens. 'Bring them back alive...

'...Please.'

There's hidden tension between Amira, Kouki and Akio. But how will this affect Akio? Will he be able to get to Kouki in time?

And So, Lucy starts a journey on her own and begins to find out the true story behind the legend of Taboo. But how will this affect Lucy's resolve?

If you liked falling star try checking out some of my other stories.

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-A-ccentric