9
'That was refreshing,' Zeref thought as he got out of his bathroom after taking a nice, warm shower. The cool air of his bedroom felt great on his naked skin. He didn't bother putting a towel on as he made his way to his dresser to collect some clothes.
He got to his dresser and pulled it open, and just as he was reaching in to get his clothes a knock was heard at his door.
"Come in," he said, and then pulled out his royal garb. He didn't need to turn around to know who walked in, he knew the moment he heard him speak.
"Your highness, I've come to tell you…" Invel began, but then Zeref heard a gasp and shift from the man. He smirked in amusement - Invel had turned around.
Zeref looked over to see his right-hand man with his back facing him. "You were saying, Invel?"
Invel cleared his throat and straightened his back before speaking again. "The package that you had me sent to Natsu Dragneel should be arriving at his place by morning," he reported.
"Ah, good. Then I should get everything done for today so I can watch how he reacts tomorrow," Zeref said as he put his clothes on. "Thank you, Invel. It's safe to look again, by the way."
He heard Invel sigh a breath of relief before the silver-haired man turned to face him. "If you don't mind me asking, your highness, but I couldn't help but notice your lack of care for me seeing you with nothing on to cover yourself. Why is that?"
Zeref smirked and replied, "Natsu and his 'son'/best friend, Happy, made a bet about if I cared about people seeing me in the nude or not. As you can see, I don't. So Happy won that bet."
"How will the flying cat know that he won?" asked Invel. Zeref pointed toward his bookshelf.
"I have a camera recording over there. I plan to give it to Natsu's guild so they can see who won," he said. "Now, what's left on my schedule, Invel?"
"Natsu, I'm heading toward the guild to find us a job!" said Happy. "Oh, before I forget, there is something on the table for you!"
Natsu struggled to open his eyes. Last night was awful, he kept tossing and turning in his hammock, which made him fall out of it. After the fifth time he fell, he tried to sleep on the floor. He did get some sleep, but it wasn't enough to stop his eyes from burning when he finally got them open.
He stood up and looked around. He heard Happy telling him about something waiting for him on his nightstand - since it was really the only table he had. He looked to see a box with the lid already open.
'Happy should know better than to open the box himself,' he thought as he peered inside. He felt his jaw drop as he saw that inside the box was an eyeball. Panic almost filled his entire being, but then his nose picked up the scent of glass. He got closer, trusting his nose more than his eyes, and found that the eye was fake. "Thank god. Zeref didn't pluck someone's eye out just to curse me," he said, relieved and made eye contact with the glass eye again.
The eye was shiny and green. It looked like a normal eye, one that people used to replace their old ones and not for a Halloween decoration. It didn't stop the uneasy feeling crawling up Natsu's skin, the thing kept staring at him.
Now that he thought about it, something felt off, or rather looked off. There were dark spots appearing in his vision, and he was able to see pink in some places, and his clothes.
'What is going on with my eyes?' he thought but shook his head. 'I'm just tired - it's messing with my sight.' He was about to close the box when he noticed a note on the inside of the lid. He sighed, "I knew it was from Zeref."
Once you make eye contact with the glasseye, you'll grow eyes all over your body. -Zeref
After reading the note, Natsu began to really take notice of the many things around him, literally. He could see the hammock behind him, the door to his left, the clothes that are at hand level. Now he understood why his sight was so crazy. Using his two main, normal, everyday eyes, he looked down at his arms and hands. They were covered with eyeballs. He lifted his shirt and saw more eyes. His legs, the top of his feet, his back, everywhere he looked, there were eyes! Eyes everywhere on his body! He even looked down his pants and sighed in relief. It was the only place that didn't have eyes.
"Natsu, I'm back!" the voice of Happy called out from the living room. "I found a job for us! We have to find a gold dragon skull in this cave that's not too far from here." Natsu knew he didn't have to turn around to show Happy his horrified expression, but he slowly faced the door and saw Happy come into the bedroom.
Happy opened his mouth to say more about the job, but then his eyes landed on Natsu. The job request fell out of his paws and onto the floor. Silence ruled the room for a minute, before Happy's laugh could be heard ringing off of the walls.
Natsu's eyes, all 100 of them, narrowed at his friend as the flying cat continued to laugh quietly now. Happy couldn't breathe, and Natsu thought he looked bluer than normal, but it was hard to tell with the color of his fur. His wings had also vanished, making him fall to the floor, but he didn't stop cackling. His paws were kicking in the air with his arms wrapped around his stomach, and big, fat tears wet his furry cheeks.
Happy gasped in a breath and said, "Zeref made our job easy!" He took another breath. "With how many...EYES you have, there is nothing you wouldn't be able to find!" Happy started laughing again, his little fist pounding on the floor repeatedly.
Natsu growled at his misfortune. He decided to leave his friend to die on the floor as he grabbed a notebook from his draw. He bought it sometime last week and began to write ideas on how to get Zeref back when the time came.
'See how he likes it with having fly eyes,' he thought, and then an evil grin formed on his face. 'I should hit him with everything all at once, or better yet, prank his whole country.'
Natsu closed his book and put it back in his draw. After he closed it, he felt and saw soft paws grab his arm - luckily being mindful of the many eyes on it.
"Let's go, Natsu. We have a train to catch!" Happy said as he dragged Natsu toward the front door of their house.
"Wait, Happy! I don't want people seeing me like this!" Natsu shouted in a panic.
"We don't have time to grab a cloak, Natsu. The train will leave any minute now."
"That didn't seem to stop you from taking your time to laugh your tail off!"
"Everyone has time for a good laugh! Now stop fighting me and get moving." They left the house behind while they argued, and before Natsu knew it, they were in the city with people gaping at him like a bunch of fish.
They made it to the train station, giving Natsu a feeling of dread. He kept asking himself if it was going to be worse or not with the number of eyes all over his body. He had a feeling it would. They got on the train and it began to move, proving Natsu right. His motion sickness was in fact worse.
'Place let this be over soon…' he thought as he passed out from the pain.
Thankfully, Natsu was able to get off the train with Happy's help before it left again. As they were making their way to the cave where the skull was said to be, Natsu said, "When we finish this, we're walking back."
"Aye...I can't blame you. You looked worse than I ever saw you," said Happy. "But did you see the look on everyone's faces? They were funny."
"Hard not too…" said Natsu, thinking back to the people they passed by to get to the forest. They stared at him like he was some kind of alien that could see through their clothing with his many eyeballs. Natsu had decided to move a lot faster to the forest and get to the cave. He wanted to find this skull as quickly as possible so he could go home and stay there until the curse wore off.
"There it is!" exclaimed Happy, catching Natsu's attention. He looked up to see his flying friend point out the cave that was just ahead of them and covered in moss. If Happy wasn't keeping an eye out, they might have missed it thanks to the bush that was planted almost completely in front of it.
"Let's get this over with," said Natsu as he entered the cave and began his search for a golden skull.
They went deeper and deeper into the dark, gray, rocky cave for about ten minutes. They were losing light, so Natsu lit his hand on fire.
"AH!" he shouted in more surprise than pain. The glow of the fire almost blinded the eyes on his hand. So out of reflex, Natsu closed them. It felt weird, kind of like when closing one eye, but more uncomfortable.
"You okay, Natsu?" asked Happy.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's keep going," he said, and the two were moving again.
It took another ten minutes until they saw a gold glow down a forked path. They followed the glow and entered a wide cavern with a small lake and a pedestal in the middle of it. On the pedestal was the golden dragon skull they were looking for.
"I'll get it!" said Happy, who then flew over the black water and hovered over the skull. Natsu watched but noticed something moving under the surface of the lake and heading for his blue friend.
"Happy, look out!" he called out, and then whatever he saw came out of the water with a roar. Natsu heard Happy scream, and one of his eyes spotted him holding the skull in his paws, but most of his eyes were focused on the monster that broke the water.
It was ugly. It had frog-like, seaweed-colored skin, fins on its head, and flippers for hands and feet. It looked like a fish on steroids. Lots and lots of steroids.
"Happy, get out of there! I'll deal with big and ugly!" the dragon slayer said as he jumped into the air. "Fire Dragon's: ROARRRRR!" A huge stream of fire burst out and slammed into the monster. It gave a cry of pain and fell into the water again. Natsu was on the hard, cold ground again, waiting to see if the creature would come back up, but nothing did. 'Did I knock it out already?' he questioned thoughtfully. He was a bit disappointed, but shrugged his shoulders and left the cave with Happy following close behind.
They gave the skull to the collector, who freaked out when they saw Natsu's many eyes, but then decided that it was a part of his magic. Natsu didn't bother to correct him. They took their reward money, split it between each other, and left for home.
"Just reminding you, Happy. We're not taking the train," said Natsu firmly.
"But it will take us two hours to get back on foot!" protested Happy.
"Maybe you should have thought of that before dragging me out here with my curse."
This was fun to write! I'll have to show you how everyone reacts to Zeref's video of himself from earlier in the chapter. So that part will continue.
Natsu: Just how many eyes did I have on my hands?
Enj/Dark: You had one big one on your palm, one at the tip of each of your fingers, and maybe 2 or 3 on the back of your hand.
Natsu: Each?
Zeref: Of course, don't expect anything less. :)
Enj/Dark: Please review! ^-^