In Secret (Sequel to Behind the Scenes)

Dragons at a Carnival

Gajeel's P.O.V.

"Alrigh', ya bastards. Go do what ya want. Don't steal nothin', an' don't cause trouble." I leveled a glare at the kids in my group, making Nikita laugh. She seemed to have caught on that my meanness was a bit of a show. The small girl lunged for my hand, latching on and tugging me towards the rides. I grunted and cracked a small grin before allowing her to pull me, the boys all trailing behind us.

"Gajeel! I wanna go on that one!" Nikita pointed at a ride set up to the side. There were ridiculously colored, oversized cups sat on saucers and arranged on a series of rails. In the middle was a wheel type handle that people were grabbing onto as they sat on the bench seat that went around the edge of the cups.

"Alrigh' then, let's go." We stepped in line and waited our turn. The cups were big enough I could ride with all of the brats in my group, so I made them slide in, seating myself on the closest spot to the cup's door. Just in case.

"Okay, everybody! Are you ready for some fun? Pull on the wheel to spin your cup faster!" The woman running the ride was ridiculously perky as she made her announcement, waiting just another moment before grabbing a lever at her waist and throwing it to the side to start the ride. The kids lurched to grab our handle as the cup began to slowly spin, the base moving in a wide circle on the rail it was mounted on. On top of that, the rail we were circling on started sliding in a circle around the main ride's pedestal. Ryos and Steven almost immediately turned green, which made Fitz start laughing. I reached out to grab the wheel in the middle.

Spin faster, eh? Giving it a strong pull, I felt the cup beginning to whirl a little more. I kept going, pulling harder than was probably necessary as the world sped by in a blur. Nikita was squealing with laughter, and all three of the boys had their heads down, groaning as they clutched their stomachs. I had to admit that I was having fun, and before I knew it the ride was ended. Nikita leapt out of our cup, stumbling a little from her dizziness. The boys, on the other hand, they were all three practically crawling. I threw my head back laughing and reached in, scooping the younger two up, one under each arm, and turned to walk out of the ride.

"Come on then, Red. Yer practically a man, ya able to walk out on yer own?" The boy glared at me as he stumbled out of the ride, still clutching at his stomach. I left the gated area that surrounded the cups, still chuckling to myself as I set the two young ones on a bench and walked to a nearby booth. When I got back to where I'd left them, Fitz was leaning against the fence, Nikita peering around in interest at everything else around.

"Here. This'll help ease that. Where ya wanna go next?" I passed them each a cup of lemonade, hoping it would calm their stomachs enough that we could continue. I was actually enjoying this more than I had expected to. Fitz sipped at his drink, straightening as he did.

"I would like to try that one over there." The redheaded boy said, pointing at a roller coaster on the edge of the fair. Steven and Ryos groaned, their faces still slightly green as we all turned to head to the new ride. "C'mon, ya wimps. This one doesn't spin." They stumbled to their feet behind us, no doubt their pride demanding that they attempt to keep up with the rest of us, at least so early in the trip. By the time we got through the line to the ride, they seemed to be back to their normal selves, talking and laughing with the other brats.

This ride was shaped like a large flat "U". It had several cars hooked together and pulled you back about fifty feet into the air before dropping the cars so they shot down and rocketed back up the other side of the rail. There it would hesitate for about ten seconds before it dropped again, plummeting backwards of course. It repeated the motions five times before stopping in the middle again. Each car sat four to six people on two benches, so I climbed into the back seat of the front car with Fitz and we let the three smaller ones share the front seat. Nikita was practically bouncing with excitement, the boys on either side of her letting out simultaneous groans the moment the cart started pulling backwards.