"What the hell was that all about!" shouts out Natsu in anger as he and the others gently lay the woman down on the ground. Lucy puts a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.
"I don't know exactly what's going on, but she was scared. Even when she attacked the villagers, she looked scared." said the black-haired guy.
"How could you tell, Gray?" asked Lucy while Natsu just huffed in frustration. Erza answered for Gray.
"Her eyes, she had that look to them as she pushed us out of the way. But she was brave though. I guess she thought that the villagers were bad and tried to protect us by attacking." she looked down at the sleeping woman.
"She can't be that brave. She was scared of me as well!" cried out the blue flying cat in a happy manner.
"It could be she never saw a flying blue cat before." countered Gray.
Erza walks over to the villager who was attacked. "Are you ok?"
He nods before looking down at the strange woman. "Yea, I'll be fine. Heh, didn't expect to get attacked like that. She gave me a pretty good wallop with that stick. Stronger than she looks, that one." he ends with a slight chuckle.
"I wonder what she was saying, I don't know that language she was using." said Lucy thoughtfully.
"Che, whatever she said, it pissed me off." says Natsu in an annoyed manner.
"Yea, she was probably calling you an idiot." replies Gray mockingly.
"What was that, frost-brain?!" yelled Natsu.
"You heard me, charcoal-breath!" taunted Gray.
"Boys." said Erza in a stern manner. They both shut up quickly and Lucy just sighs at their antics. "Well, whoever she is or wherever she came from, I think it would be best if we take her back to the village. I couldn't detect any magical presence from her, so I believe her to be a non-mage." She looks over to the villagers who are now gathered around the group.
"That is if you're ok with this action. I, of course, don't want to make you and the rest of the village uncomfortable." the red-head states. The villagers all look towards each other, some nodding, others shaking their heads.
"Maybe we should let her go with you guys. If she wakes up in our village, she might attack us with more than just a stick." the green lizard man says calmly. Erza nods at their decision and turns to face her friends.
"Ok you three, pick her up and carry her. Until we can figure out what to do with her, she will be coming with us." states Erza calmly.
"What!? Why do we have to carry her!" yells out Natsu in anger. Erza gives him a frightening glare which causes the younger trio to huddle together in fear.
"Do I have to remind you why?" she asks coldly.
In unison, they quickly reply, "No! We'll carry her!" Satisfied, the scarlet-haired woman nods and turns before walking back to the village. The villagers give the strange woman one last look before opening their wings to fly back to the village and report what happened.
Grumbling under their breath about how heavy the woman was, Lucy, Gray, and Natsu situate themselves around her to pick her up. Natsu grabs her by the legs with his back facing her. Lucy in the middle supporting her back while holding up her gown to keep it from dragging and ripping.
Gray holding onto her under her armpits. As they move a few steps, something clatters to the ground. Curious, they stop to see that something fell out of the mystery woman's clothes. A small, thin, almost hand-sized object is laying on the ground with some odd looking strings attached to it. It's grey with some sort of bird symbol on it.
"Maybe she is a mage. That could be a guild symbol." says Lucy quietly.
"Get moving, we need to be getting back to the guild." Erza sharply calls out. The trio jumps in surprise, and Lucy quickly picks up the item and sticks it her pouch with her keys before they resume the trek back. Because of their burden, it took them close to an hour to get back to the village.
"Go and grab your stuff, its time to leave." Erza barks out as she goes to get her giant wagon of luggage. Setting the woman down just outside the village, the three just groan and rub their backs before heading to the huts that has their stuff. The chief walks up to Erza as the others are grabbing their things and goes to give her the reward.
"Wh-What?! You can't accept the reward…?" stutters out the chief in surprise when Erza refuses to take the money.
With a small happy smile Erza replies, "Yup. Your happiness is enough for us. We appreciate it."
Dumbfounded, the chief says, "Hoga… but…" before being cut off by Erza.
"As I told you last night, this request wasn't officially accepted by our guild. A couple of idiots just rushed into all of this." she tells him.
With a very pleased grin the chief counters with, "Hogah… but that still doesn't change the fact that we were saved. Will you accept this as a thank you gift to friends, instead of a reward to the guild?"
Shaking her head with smile in place, she replies "It's hard to reject it if you put it that way."
Gray exclaims, "7 million jewels!"
"Whoa!!!" Natsu adds.
Ignoring the commentary behind her, she continues on, "But to accept that, would mean going against what our guild stands for. Although we will gratefully accept the additional award: the golden key."
The boys quickly shout, "We don't want that!"
Lucy shouts at the boys, "I want that!"
The chief's son steps up and asks, "Then at least let us take you to Harujion."
Erza says simply, "No need… We have our ship ready." The villagers all look to Erza in surprise. She just nods gently before turning to grab the handle of her luggage wagon. She gives her friends a questioning look to see if they were ready to leave. As Gray, Lucy, and Natsu all give a thumbs up, a groan could be heard behind them.
_______________________
My head is in pain. I groan and I roll onto my side to rub my temples. (What a crazy ass nightmare. Demons, and flying blue cats. Never had that before.) As I start to sit up, I notice something. (I'm on the ground. The hell?) I open my eyes and can't make out anything. (Damn watery eyes. Why do they always water up like this when I wake up?) Rubbing my eyes vigorously, my vision returns.
I blink them a few more times to get rid of any leftover blurriness. Looking up and around I soon notice a huge wood wall with some tents inside. (It's a village… what is going on here?) I see the group gathered in the center and I squint my eyes to make them out.
(It's those people I saw in my dream!) Terrifying creatures are surrounding the people, and they are ….talking? (Oh gods. It wasn't a dream…) Panic sets in and a small cry of fear escapes unbidden from my mouth. I clamber to my feet as fast as I can to try to get away. A small wave of dizziness hits and I stumble some before I get my balance.
Turning away, I hear a shout from behind me as I start entering the woods. I look back at that shout without stopping and I see the pink-haired male running after me. (Shit, he's fast! I gotta try to dodge.) I turn back to see where I'm putting my feet so I won't trip.
Way too soon for my liking, I hear his footfalls behind me.
I dodge to my left while turning, so I can try going in a different direction after he misses. Or at least that was the plan. The plan did not include him catching me in a bear hug of a tackle which caused us both to fall and roll down an unseen hill. My dizziness increases until it gets to the point where all I could do was close my eyes and hold on to him.
I pray that the rolling will stop soon. My head hits something just before we stop rolling and I am knocked silly. My grip lessens and my arms flop down to the ground. Breathing heavily from the rush, the world and the sky just spin in a sickening way. I close my eyes in an attempt to shut out the world to wait for it to right itself.
I don't know how long I was like that before I feel like I'm recovering. My breathing slows and weirdly enough I'm feeling calmer now. (Why was I riled up earlier? Ow, my head hurts.) I open my eyes, only to have to shut them again. (Why am I feeling dizzy? What happened? And why do I feel so warm?)
I shift my body a bit to get more comfortable while I try to figure out what's going on. A small groan near my ear causes me to stiffen. Movement is felt that I did not cause and it dawns on me that there is something laying on top of me. Soon as I realize this, my eyes shoot wide open causing me to hiss in pain while narrowing them.
(Big mistake. Ow. The headache does not like sunlight.) I squint up into the sky and let my eyes get adjusted to the light. With the headache subsiding, it gets easier to reason out my situation. First thing I figure out is that I am laying on my back on the ground, and some guy is laying on top of me.
Or at least I'm assuming it is a guy from how deep that groan was. Second, whoever this is, has pink hair. (Why does pink ring a bell? Ug, its hard to think straight.) My body feels like a limp piece of spaghetti, I can barely move my limbs much less anything else to get him off of me. His body is heavy, but not where I couldn't breathe.
With a sudden gust of warm air on my neck, it clicks that this guy's head is on my shoulder.
So that's where the pink hair is coming from. (Pink hair. There's something important I need to remember about pink hair. But what?) Turning my head to look at it better, I get a whiff of something. I breathe in the smell some more and it calms and relaxes me more.
It's very light, so I have trouble trying to place it. Almost on cue, he starts moving again and a weight lifts off of me. I immediately miss the feeling of warmth as he lifts himself up. (So he was the cause of it.)
My thoughts are still jumbled, but piece by piece things are clicking together. His face appears in my field of view, hovering over me. I look at him intently trying to remember. (Huh, odd looking scarf.)
A piece clicks.
(What's that odd mark on his arm? Looks kinda like a bird. Is that a tattoo?)
Another piece clicks.
(He was the one who tackled me. I was running and he chased me down and tackled me!) His head moves closer until we were arm's length apart. (Why was I running?) I still feel weak limbed and make no effort to get up or move.
As my eyes wandered around trying to find more clues, I stop when I get to his face. Or more accurately, his eyes. I can do nothing but stare into those onyx eyes. Mesmerized, I don't notice anything else until a nearby shout jerks me out of that stupor. He moves out of sight and I feel more than hear a thump of him sitting down by my left side.
I turn my head gingerly, mindful of my headache, in the direction the shout came from. Three seemingly familiar people were running down a hill in our direction. (I seen them before. I know I did. Where though?) A few seconds tick by, then the last piece clicks into place. Fear shoots through me and fuels my limbs into action.
(Crap, it's the demon allies. Gotta go, gotta go! Move arms! Move!) It takes a lot of willpower to push myself into a sitting position. I barely notice the blue flying cat as it flies into the arms of the guy. They start babbling happily to each other while I'm focusing on escape. I scoot away on my butt a few times before feeling up to turning over for a crawl.
I pick up some distance from Pinky and the cat as I make a desperate attempt for escape. Gathering my legs under me, I make a push to stand upright. That was the plan until something strong attaches to my ankle and yanks, causing me to fall.
I twist quickly out of reflex to land on my side and use my arms to protect my head. (Thank you Theater Arts![1]) I push my upper body up enough to look behind me ignoring the new wave of dizziness and pain that assaults my mind. Pinky has a grip on my ankle while giving me a very intense look, and I consider kicking his hand to break free.
That is until I see Mr. Grumpy-face and Blondie almost upon us, with Red leading the pack. (What is that in her hand… a sword? A sword! And she is heading over here and looks angry! Shit shit shit shit!) I try yanking my leg free, but Pinky's grip only tightens.
I start crying as I realize that I'm not getting away. As she gets close to within striking distance, I curl up as much as I can into a ball and use my arms to protect my head. Her footsteps stop in front of me and a sob escapes.
(Mom, Dad, I love you. I'm sorry...) I feel something touch my head, and I curl into a smaller ball. Whatever is on my head moves back and forth with nothing else happening. Just the movement on my head.
(Wait, is she stroking my head? What the hell is going on?) I relax after a couple of moments when there is no change in the situation and I dare to peek out from under my arms. Red is crouched in front of me with a soft and gentle smile on her face. To say I'm surprised is putting it mildly.
(What is going on? I thought she was about to literally unleash hell on me.) I relax slightly and uncurl my body as it seems that she isn't going to do anything harmful to me. She stops stroking my head and leans back on her heels. The blue cat says something while flying over our heads which causes Pinky to reply in a shout.
Startled, I look quickly over at him to see an angry pout accompanied by a blush on his face. I would be a liar if I said that blush wasn't cute on him. I feel my cheeks warm a little in response. Noticing that he released his grip on my ankle, I tuck my leg in closer to me. I look away from him only to see the other two watching me with amused expressions.
A low, gentle voice brings my attention back to the woman in front of me. I look at Red as she looks at me, also with an amused expression. (What the god given heck is going on here? It doesn't seem to be like they are going to hurt me. But then what was that bit about the demons?)
She says something to me in the gibberish that I can't make out. I tilt my head to the side confused and shake my head that I don't understand. She thinks for a bit and taps an armored hand to her chest and says a word. When she then points at me, I get what she wants. My name.
Sitting up in a cross legged position, I tap myself on the chest and say, "Krystina." She repeats my name in a garbled up way, so I repeat it slower and with more enunciation.
"Krys-ti-na."
"Klis-ti-na." She says. Close enough. I had worse butcherings of my name. I nod in approval before pointing at her to repeat her name. Listening, hard as she says it, I sense an odd inflection. (Almost sounds like a mixture of 'R' and 'L'. Probably going to mess it up. Oh well, no one is perfect.)
"Erza." I say and she gives a nod of approval. (Well at least I didn't mess that up too much. Maybe. Now I don't have to keep calling her Red.) I look at the other two as they come over to crouch near us. Blondie by Erza's right, and Mr. Grumpy-face by her left. Blondie goes next on the name game.
"Lucy." I blink in surprise and blurt her name out. (What the hell, a name in English? What are the odds of that?) She close her eyes and nods happily. A low voice male voice sounds off near me.
"Gray." I look over towards the black-haired in surprise and get a bigger one for my troubles. (What the heck!? Why is his shirt off? Sure he looks good, but what kind of playboy stunt is this?)
"Eh!?" I blurt out in response of seeing him topless. (Huh. Looks like he has the same tattoo as Pinky.) A quick glance to my side confirms this. I also see the same mark on Lucy's hand. (Ok, are they part of some sort of gang?) I lean away from Gray, and Erza says something to him which causes him to freak out.
I hear boisterous laughter coming from the side, so I look over and up to see Pinky standing up nearby laughing his ass off. He says something to Gray which causes Gray to yell back. Pinky is about to shout again when he glances over to me and sees my gaze.
He points to his face and says happily, "Natsu."
Looking into his eyes, I smile and whisper back, "Natsu."