Life After Near Death

Fiery Fantasies

"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before."

—Edgar Allen Poe

Gray was having a hell of a dream. He was trapped in a stone tower built on a rocky island. All around the island lay the crackled and tortured surface of a frozen lake. There was no exit from his prison but a window that overlooked the lake and a snowy field beyond, dead and barren. In the bleak sky, the clouds rolled tumultuously like angry, argent bubbles ready to burst and release Hell on Earth.

As if being captive was not bad enough, Gray was stuck in a white and pale blue princess gown, full skirt and puffy sleeves with a tiara on his head. He threw the tiara away, smashing it into the wall, but no amount of pulling would get the dress off. He was ready to just shred the fabric when the light from the window snuffed out. When he looked over, a giant dragon's eye was peering in.

"Is my princess all right?" the red beast asked in a deep and rumbling voice. "Were you lonely while I was gone?"

Gray backed away to the far side of the room, but he tripped on a spinning wheel, and the threads wrapped around his legs. He struggled, but suddenly he could not move his legs at all. They were trapped, tied together.

"Does the ice princess need some help?" the dragon asked. "You're not helpless, so stop acting like you are."

Gray still struggled to break free from the threads that bound his legs, but there was no way to walk. His fighting was in vain. The threads kept getting tighter, until he lost sensation in one leg. Suddenly, Gray began to cry. He was not even sure why. The tears streamed down, thick sobs that shuddered from deep within his soul.

"So you needed to cry, huh?" the dragon said with a hint of sadness to his voice. "That's why you've locked yourself away in your little fortress of frosty solitude, like the ice princess you are."

"Shut up," Gray yelled, still sobbing and feeling humiliated for crying in front of this strong and noble creature.

"If you can't use your legs, then I'll make you realize that you can use the rest of your body."

Gray looked up into those slit-pupil green eyes. The rest of his body? He looked down at his hands. His legs might not work, but he had the rest of his body. He used his arms to pull himself backward.

"Ready to get out of here, ice princess?"

Suddenly, there were flames outside the window, a raging inferno. Gray shielded his eyes from the intense heat. When it faded, instead of a dragon, a man with pink hair, devil horns, and a light dusting of scales on his cheeks stood in the room. He peered down at Gray with narrow, fiery eyes.

Gray gasped at the sight. "Natsu?" he whispered. His heart began to speed up just seeing the pink-haired man wearing a crimson tunic with gold embroidered wyverns, standing over him like a prince of dragons gazing down at his betrothed ice-devil princess.

With a gaze that made Gray tremble, the fiery demon strode forward. Gray tried to crawl back across the floor, but he could not escape.

"You look cute in that dress," Natsu said with a sly smile.

"Bite me!" he snapped angrily.

Natsu smirked hungrily. "Really?"

He scooped Gray up into his arms and carried him to a bed. Gray could not escape, and he felt immobilized with fear of this demonic fiend. He was dropped down onto the mattress, and Natsu climbed on top of him.