Juvia smiled as she watched Natsu and Lucy dance together by the bonfire, the way they laughed and just playfully moved with each other. Lucy truly was an incredible dancer. She let the music move her body has the wind would move a fallen leaf on an Autumn's day. She was so light and so graceful. Then there was Natsu, who didn't have a well-balanced bone in his whole body but he didn't care how he looked. He was just focused on how much fun he was having.

Juvia then chuckled to herself when she spotted Erza eating up pretty much anything strawberry that had been brought to the celebration. Strawberries, strawberry muffins, strawberry preservatives on bread and rolls, strawberry tarts, strawberry cake, made her wonder how she didn't get a bellyache from all that. Or how she was able to keep her figure like that with the way she was eating. Then again maybe she used magic to do it.

Juvia soon felt herself get hungry and decided to eat a little something. Nothing much, she was starving but was scared of looking like a pig or eating too much of something before someone else got the chance. After all, if Erza ate up everything strawberry, she could just magically conjure up more to replace it. Juvia on the other hand, wasn't sure if she could do that. She chose to eat one of the apples picked from the harvest. According to Anna, nothing was more delicious than an apple in the Fall.

There were three basket fulls of apples. One contained apples that were ruby-red, one contained apples that were golden-yellow, and one contained apples that were emerald-green. They were all so bright and fresh-looking, not a single bruise or sign of rot. No doubt they would taste heavenly, but which one should she try?

"Help!"

Before she could make up her mind, her ears picked up a desperate voice crying out in the night. A voice that she recognized despite the great distance.

"Gajeel?" She wondered. "No. It couldn't be."

"Help! Somebody help me! I'm too handsome and talented to die!"

"Oh no." Juvia groaned, yep that was Gajeel alright. "What has he done now?"

She quickly left the gathering and followed the cries for help into the woods. Before entering, she had a moment of hesitation. It looked awfully dark in there, and thick and dangerous. She almost felt the urge to turn right around and run as far away from that place as possible. However she couldn't bring herself to do it. Gajeel was her friend and he had saved her life once before, if she couldn't do the same, how could she possibly live with herself? So bucking up her courage, she entered.

"Hold on Gajeel!" She said. "I'm coming!"

Inside those woods the wind howled and whistled, pushing branches in her path as she trudged forward. Juvia felt her skin crawl. In her worst nightmares she had never imagined a place so horrible.

"Gajeel!" She called out. "Gajeel where are you?! Please answer me!"

How does she get herself into situations like these? She had thought to herself. She should have just stayed home.

"Help! Help!"

Finally she caught sight of the black cat running toward her frantically.

"Save me! Save me!" He leapt into her arms. "Save me from these mongrels!"

Juvia felt him tremble like he had a brush with death. She held carefully and attempted to calm him with a pat to the head but suddenly she too started to shake and shiver. In that moment she could see the yellow, fierce eyes of a wolf pack approaching her from the mist. Gajeel whimpered and she felt him stiffening under her hands.

The wolves grew still for a moment and made way for a very large, blonde wolf to step forth. As he drew nearer to Juvia, his appearance started to change. He stood on his hind legs and transformed into a fairly tall man with yellow eyes and scurffy, shoulder-length blonde hair. These were not wolves, they were werewolves.

"Hand over the cat, girl and we'll leave you be." He said. "We have no business with you, just him."

"No!" She said, feeling the urge to hold Gajeel like a teddy bear. "You can't have him. He belongs to me."

"He trespassed on our turf and if that wasn't insulting enough, he scratched my nose." He pointed to the bleeding scrape on his nostril.

"Gajeel!" Juvia scolded him.

"It was an accident!" He quickly said. "I got lost and you startled me!"

"We're not interested in your excuses, fur ball!" The blonde man snarled. "This pack takes its territory very seriously, we set boundaries and we expect all creatures to respect them and us, or they pay the price!"

"Aren't...Aren't you being a little unreasonable?" Juvia said trying to not to let them know she was afraid. "I mean, how was he supposed to know that was your territory? It was just a simple mistake. Can't we just talk this out?"

"That's not how we do things around here. Now last chance, give us the cat."

"No!"

"Suit yourself. That just means a bigger feast for us."

Juvia gasped and jumped back at the implication.

"I'm...I'm...I'm warning you...I...I'm a witch!" She stuttered. "If you don't...If you don't leave me alone I'll...I'll use my magic to turn you into something! Something bad!"

She outstretched her arm and waved her hand, hoping to make something happen but as you probably expected, she had nothing. No magic, no spark, zero.

"Cute." The man said sounding somewhat amused. "Now let's eat."

Juvia ran for her life. Her heart raced with fear when she briefly glanced back to see the werewolves chasing after her with bared fangs and wild, savage looks in their eyes. Her breathing was shallow and panicky, her grip on Gajeel became tighter so she wouldn't drop him. She tried to seek out some path that could lead to the field or to any place public but they forced her to run toward the darkest part of the woods, where no one from the gathering would be able to see her or hear her.

Well there was one person who could see and hear her in that part. Gareth, the werewolf who had been staring at Juvia earlier was nearby enjoying a leisurely dinner of squirrel that he just killed when he heard the growling and snarling.

"Hmm...Looks like someone pissed of Jerome again." He thought.

He heard a feline's yowl. That was enough for him to deduce that they were terrorizing a cat who probably wandered on their turf or something like that. He just shook his head and shrugged. Oh well, he thought, it is just cat after all. But then he heard a girl scream and something about it made his heart instantly panic. He went in the direction of where the scream came from and that's when he saw them chasing Juvia.

He had to act fast. If he didn't, she wouldn't last long. He knew exactly what they were trying to do, but he knew a little trick that would give him the upper hand. He only hoped that he would get there in time.

All too soon, Juvia skidded to a stop at a tall mountain that served as dead end. There was no way she would be able to climb up, yet she still made the attempt. She started to go up but the rock was too slick, she slipped and tumbled onto the forest floor. A jolt of pain shot through her ankle and she would be unable to stand back up for at least a few minutes.

"Run Gajeel! Run!" She told him.

But the cat only moved to stand in front Juvia, arching his back and hissing threateningly at the werewolves as they came closer to them, an attempt to protect her. They leered at the half witch and her familiar, moving toward them menacingly.

Suddenly there came a howl and Gareth bounded over the mountain, landing between Juvia and her attackers. There was a tense moment where they all just stood there looking at each other, Gareth growled under his breath, his eyes warning them to leave now or they'd be sorry. But instead the pack charged and there went up a terrible whirlwind of howling and snarling. Juvia grabbed Gajeel again and watched in horror as they bit and snapped and clawed. The pack tackled Gareth furiously and slashed at him with their teeth and claws but shockingly they were no match for him. One by one, he grabbed each of the other werewolves and hurled them away.

At long last the pack gave up and was sent yelping and trotting off in defeat. Gareth watched them all leave, making absolutely sure that they weren't stupid enough to come back for round two. Once the cost was clear, he turned around and strolled down to Juvia with a smile on his face.

"Hey." He called as if nothing had happened. "Are you alright?"

"I..." She stood up slowly, taking a moment to steady her heart rate. "I think so."

"What are you doing in these woods at this time of night? Don't you know that-"

But he stopped short when she pulled down the hood of her cloak, allowing him to see her face much better than earlier. He thought she was pretty at first glance but now, up close like this, he was convinced that she had to be the most beautiful creature to have ever existed. Her hair, her face, her lovely eyes, made him feel warm inside.

Juvia had also become quiet upon having a closer look at him. For someone who was classified as a monster, he was certainly very handsome. And well-built, he wore no shirt with that jacket of his and which made it easier for her to see his toned and muscular chest. She blushed a little and almost looked away.

"Ahem!" Came the irritated cough of Gajeel. "I'm still here, you know?"

"Oh! Right!" Juvia said. "Well um thank you for the rescue back there, we'll just be going along now and- Ah!"

But when Juvia tried to walk away she felt that same shot of pain in her ankle and fell down.

"Looks like you sprained your ankle." Gareth said. "Don't worry, I think I know someone who can help with that."

"Oh really, you don't need to bother. I- Eeep!"

He swept her up into his arms as if she weighed nothing.

"Relax." He told her. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise."

Normally Juvia didn't trust strangers. In fact, she often ran from them first chance she got and would do anything to avoid them if possible at all. But for some reason she felt that she could trust this person. That he wouldn't hurt her for anything in the world. There was also something very familiar about him. She had the strangest feeling that she knew him, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out why. As if something was blocking her mind from making the connection.

"Okay." She complied, slowing putting her arms around his neck.

"It's not far from here." He reassured her. "You'll be better in no time."

He proceeded to carry her down a nearby trail.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Gajeel called, following after them.