Fairy Tail: Swallow the Fire

6. The Symphony of Our Freedom

“Where did they all go?” Wally asked, “It's not like they’d just leave everyone here alone, right? Where are the guards?”

“Maybe…they just didn’t expect anyone to try and escape the island?” Jellal mused, “We're out at sea…that would discourage most people already.”

“But we should have seen someone by now,” Simon said, “Something isn’t right about this…”

“I know, but we can’t go back now. No matter what.”

I looked down with tightened fists. We all continued forward down the stairs as I had begun to develop second thoughts. It’s not normal. We should have seen guards by now. Something was wrong.

This escape shouldn’t be this perfect.

Nothing should be this perfect…

I was about to voice my worries when Jellal stopped suddenly.

“W-What is it?” Erza asked with worry in her voice.

“I thought I heard something.”

He looked back where we were coming from, but no one could see anything. That didn’t stop the feeling that something had changed…that terrifying feeling of an unknown monster breathing down our necks…

Jellal looked forwards again and I could tell from his face that he had begun to feel the same pressure and worry I had started to feel. The lack of guards was something we couldn’t ignore even if we wanted to. Their lack of presence made them more prominent in the back of our minds.

Then we heard a deep growl from within the darkness.

We glanced up and saw the shadow of a large creature in front of us. It was one of the guard’s beasts they used. Large doglike creatures that had no fur or eyes, they seemed instead to rely on smell and hearing to see and their large maws were the size of our heads. These predators alone were enough to strike fear in us.

“In here,” Sho said softly, pointing to a room.

All of us went inside as Wally closed the door behind us. We were all breathing heavily as the sound of growling and heavy boots grew stronger as the hound and guard approached the door.

“Smell something?”

We all froze as the sound of growling accompanied a scratching on the door. If that door opened, it was all over. I felt people grab my arms, the blonde and red hair telling me it was Erza and Sho.

The scratching on the door stopped and the guard gave a light chuckle that echoed through the door.

“You already had your snack. You’ll get some more tomorrow. Now come on, you big glutton.”

The footsteps walked away and left us in a dead silence, causing me to release a breath I didn’t know I was holding and for the other two to release the grip they had on my arms.

“That…was too close,” Wally said as he fell to his knees in relief.

“Yeah…,” I said in agreement as I tried to calm my heavily beating heart.

“Um…guys,” I heard Miliana say softly.

I turned my attention to her and opened my eyes in surprise. The room was filled with crates upon crates filled with different salted meats, fruits, and vegetables. I didn’t hesitate to grab an apple the moment I saw it and started crying at the delicious sweet taste of the fruit.

“This must be the storage room,” Simon said as he started looking through some barrels off to the side that had fish in them.

“This is probably the food the boats brought in,” Jellal said, “There's enough food in here to last for a few months. For the guards at least…”