Chapter 28- Just So Bloody Fairy Tail
Levy's POV
My heart heavy with worry I left the others behind, the crushing guilt only slightly lessened by the need to find Gajeel. Maybe he was fine, maybe he's gone down with Wendy and Natsu, maybe I would end up wasting all our time searching needlessly like a child lost in a market.
Still, I'd made my decision, and I was stubborn enough to stick with my choices. And if Gajeel was in danger as I feared...
I had to reach him.
The length of my legs had always proved to be a slight issue when it came to running of any kind- in fact my slight frame and lack of motivation meant I wasn't particularly skilled at anything other than swimming where my small, child-like figure made me relatively streamline. So even running at full speed, and ignoring the burn of my lungs, my pace frustrated me; I needed to be faster, I needed to run like the...
"Solid script: Wind!" I called out to the air that surrounded me, raising my hand and visualising letters glowing in front of me, forming from the swirling breeze and gathering into a powerful mass. And to my delight they came- a huge living W, I, N and D. As I leapt gratefully into the controlled magic storm the winds wrapped around me and threw me forwards. Suddenly my feet were an inch above the earth and I was running on nothing but the gale, my speed more than doubled so that oxygen whistled past my ears and burned my eyes. I couldn't have cared less: I was flying.
The truly amazing thing was that the magic seemed to know where I needed to go- it jerked me from the path I had intended to follow and carried me towards a huge, dark green maze. As the magic of my word drained from the wind, it began to disperse and I slowed, my feet connecting once more with the ground leaving me to complete the final hundred meters or so to the entrance. This was the place- I could taste Gajeel's metallic tang in the air even though I had none of the sense of a dragon slayer. There was a cool, iron chill in air that was only present when I was with him.
Gajeel's POV
Crap.
Getting into the maze had been no problem- I'd simply followed Lily's scent trail through the hedges without even stopping to think about where I was going. That thoughtless action had cost me; my own scent had dispersed everything so that I couldn't even move in the direction where Lily's scent grew weakest...
Besides, when I left the maze I had no idea what I was meant to do. The trail had been cut off with unnatural suddenness at the centre of the maze leaving me clueless as to the cats location. I needed Levy- she was good at figuring out puzzles and making me feel like an idiot.
Fed up with all the stupid green I reached into one of the bushes that created the towering maze walls, my thick scale-like skin protecting me against the ivy like brambles. I was surprised to find my fingers enclosing a thick, sturdy branch amongst the far smaller, emerald leaves. Deciding to ignore the unusual contrast in sizes- after all, there are some pretty weird things in nature- I began to climb, wincing as strands of my thick, luscious hair tangled with the plant and tore.
The wall seemed to grow as I climbed it (I mean faster than the usual rate of photosynthesis) and I got the feeling there was magic involved. It took me a full ten minutes to scale the evil bush, and when I had I sort of wished it had never come to a stop.
Let's go back to when I was running mindlessly towards the maze.
All I was thinking about was Lily, but from the corner of my eye I'd still noticed the size of the maze. Just a little more than 100m by 100m, I'd calculated. That's 1000m squared. And the hedges couldn't have been more than roughly 2.5m in height. So why now, when I looked around me, did the maze seem endless?
I was stranded in the middle of a green ocean- an ocean that was criss crossing, weaving, winding, teasing. From my tiny life boat the hedges clung to the distant horizon, or faded into freezing mist, or reached up so high that I couldn't see what lay beyond them. Even if I could have sprouted wings (or, more realistically, been carried by Lily) I got the feeling I'd have had to land from exhaustion before I got anywhere. It would take days, weeks, months to find my way out, and honestly my mind was cultivating an idea that no matter how far I ran I would never find the end. This was just so bloody Fair Tail- one moment I was rescuing a comrade and the next I was lost in an infinite, malicious maze.
But how? How had the neat little garden maze grown into an untameable wilderness in the space of half an hour? What was something with such powerful magic doing in a freaking holiday resort?
A soft breeze swept over me, blowing the leafy hair from my face and bringing with it a sense of dread.
If only Levy were here.
Levy's POV
The moment I stepped into the maze I knew that something was seriously wrong.
I turned back to the entrance, turned another 360 degrees, blinked twice. There was no entrance.
"Calm, Levy. Don't freak out. Just find Gajeel and then get out," I chided to myself, and with false confidence I set off to the left.
I walked for twenty minutes, becoming more and more lost, a heavy, damp silence smothering me. My own footsteps were silent, leaving nothing but my own breathing to echo in my ears, and the ferocious beating of my heart.
Shadows reared out of every dead end, the decaying hands of twig offering me an easy way to escape the hell. I calmly refused, and followed my tracks (I'd been tossing down everything I had to leave a trail; hair bobbles and jewellery, mint imperials, and eventually my shoes and socks) like Hansel and Gretel heading home from the forest. At least the hedges weren't twisting and forming new passages- a feat I had fully expected- and instead seemed to be enjoyed the pleasure of watching me loose all sense of direction on my own.
That's probably why I didn't react at first: I figured the ragged grey wings were just a trick of the light, the earthy sword-like talons merely roots.
It wasn't until the creature let out a blood chilling screech that I fully realised, and by that time it was too late for me to anything but raise my hands and screamed the first word that came to mind.
"Solid script: barrier!"
Gajeel's POV
I probably wouldn't have heard the high pitched shriek if not for my sharp ears, and I later mentally thanked Metallica for teaching me to use my magic to spread my awareness of sounds to up to 1km. I was already running in the direction of the cry when the second, human voice reached my ears.
It was Levy.
And she needed protection.