Icy Love~A Fairy Tail GraLu Fan-Fic

An Unexpected Encounter

Lucy's POV

  "So this Lamia Scale.....is it a nice guild as well?" Aramantha asked, as we rode in a horse-driven carriage. Erza had somehow (once again, using her amazing skills) managed to find this source of transportation. It definitely saved us a lot of time, and saved us a lot of energy as well.

    "Are you calling Blue Pegasus a nice guild?" Gray asked in a disbelieving voice. His encounter with Hibiki-kun had clearly not lost it's effect yet, and he was still rather grumpier than usual.

  "Well......the members there had very unique personalities, I'll give them that," Wendy jumped in before Gray could answer. 

  "That's the nicest way to put it," Gray mumbled, shoving his hands into his pocket.

  "Lamia Scale has many mages in it that I'm sure you'll look up to. They have some of the strongest mages," Erza replied, answering Aramantha's original question.

  "R-really? They're really strong?" Aramantha stuttered, widening her eyes. 

  "Yes, but they definitely mean no harm," I replied smoothly.

  "My friend, Chelia, is in that guild!" Wendy added, beaming.

  Aramantha relaxed sligthly, "so there are also younger people in the guild?" 

  "Of course. Though I think Chelia is the youngest one. Don't worry, I know that you'll like her. She's a very nice person," Wendy reasurred Aramantha.

  "All guilds have nice people in them. You needn't need to worry about that to the guilds we're leading you to. All of them were our allies when we needed help," Natsu explained.

  "Oh....I see," Aramantha replied, sounding as if she was deep in thought.

  A sudden jolt made the carriage halt to a stop.

  "What happened?" Erza demanded, instantly jumping out. The rest quickly followed her actions.

  "M-ma'am, I cannot continue any further. There are people blocking us," the driver stuttered. He pointed in front of them and sure enough, there were 7 mean-looking people standing on the road firmly, none of them looking as if they planned to move any time soon.

  "Who dares to block us?" Erza asked with a glare. The 7 men glared back at her equally angry, and the middle person stepped out a bit.

  "You may not pass unless you pay the fee," he demanded. He had  rather scratchy, raspy voice, making you feel like he hadn't used it for a long time.

  "What fee?!" Natsu yelped. I sighed silently. Natsu was always short on money, probably because he always seemed to spend them on food. There was no way he was going to be able to pay anything to them.

  "A fee of 30 000J," the leader replied.

  "You're joking, right?" Gray asked, as he smirked, "you know there's no way anyone would pay you that much just to get through."

  "Well sir, actually, you have no idea how many people do pay us. Because if they don't, well.......if they don't have the fee, then they won't be allowed to leave," the leader shrugged, grinning in a rather sly way.

  "Are you saying you're keeping prisoners here?" I demanded, angry.

  "No way, not prisoners," the leader replied dismissively, "we would never do something that nice."

  "So what you're saying is that you kill anyone who doesn't pay your fee," Natsu summed up flatly.

  "That's about right, young lad!" the leader replied. He had the nerve to sound cheerful, and even throw in a smile.