"Kelis, why haven't you brought her yet?" a man in a red cloak shrouding his face asked sitting at a chair made of stone in an enclosed chamber inside the cave.
"I am sorry master Jerald," the lady responded, also in a red cloak, kneeling in front of him. "I almost had her at the entrance, but a man got in the way. He keeps unfoiling my plans. I will get rid of him and will have her shortly." She smirked, looking at her crystal ball.
"Good. You are taking too long, don't dawdle or you will bear the consequences," he said coldly.
"Yes, master," she responded frowning. She turned away then, watching as the man and the script mage walked deeper in to her trap. Perfect.
It was dark. The further they went from the entrance, the darker it got. It got to the point where Levy couldn't see even her hands or her feet or Gajeel's broad back in front of her.
"Gajeel?" she squeaked out.
She put her hands in front of her, trying to feel for something. She was terrified of not being able to know where she was going. "Gajeel, where are you?" she said loader this time. She was met with dark quiet.
She felt the walls closing in her then. She didn't know where she was and she was alone. She started to hyperventilate, her legs shaking, her whole body shaking. I can't have a panic attack, I can't! She squeezed her eyes shut.
All of sudden a big warm hand grabbed her wrist. She yelped loudly in response.
"Oy, Shrimp! It's just me!"
She recognized his voice, and managed to calm her breathing to a normal tone. "Where were you and why didn't you answer me!" she yelled out sharply.
"Well, I went on ahead to see how far the tunnel goes and didn't hear you. I remembered then that human's don't have the sight that dragon slayers do in the dark. I forget sometimes," he started chuckling then.
"You.. you..!"
"Are you afraid of the dark?" he said, a teasing tone to his voice.
"I'm not afraid!"
"Oh?" He let her arm go then, and went dead quiet again.
"Gajeel! Don't you dare! You know I can't see in this!"
Silence.
"Gajeel?"
Silence again.
She felt her anxiety rise. She started running, not sure where she was going. He probably left her to tease her. She was going to find him and she was going to beat his ass for leaving her there.
She felt a tug at her dress, lifting her off the ground before she could go much further.
"If you go any further that way, you will bash your head in to the wall."
"Dammit, Gajeel! Put me down!" she yelled kicking.
"Alright, alright, Shorty! Don't get your panties in a wad."
He set her down then.
She turned around then to face him, or at least she thought she did. Not being able to see in the dark made things harder. She could vaguely make out his presence in front of her.
"Gajeel, when we get out of here, I am going to beat-" before she could respond, she felt Gajeel's warm, callused hand on her mouth.
Gajeel was determined to get out of this maze. As they went in further, his eyes were able to adjust to darkness because of his time living with his father. The smell of the cave reminded him so much of his father. He would never admit it, but he missed his sorry ass. He stopped then, listening for the Shrimp. She wasn't behind him. Dammit! He forgot. He had the ability to see in the dark, but normal humans wouldn't have that ability. He ran back and saw her shaking like a leaf, looking like the world was closing in on her. He grabbed her wrist then, not wanting to see her so scared. She yelled out in fright and he let her know it was him. He didn't do the comfort thing, so he tried to make light of her fear, to keep her mind off of it. That didn't work to well with her almost bashing her face against the wall. Once he set her down, he smirked, her face was so adorable when it was angry. As he was listening to her yell at him, he heard something in the distance. He couldn't make out what it was, so he clamped his hand on her mouth, listening. She tried mumbling against his hand.
"Quiet," he bite back sharply. She went quiet then, her eyes wide in confusion. As he kept listening, it sounded like the cave was closing in from the way they came and was getting louder and fast.
He grabbed her wrist then, "We're going to have to run, Shorty!" He took off running the opposite direction of the noise, dragging her behind him.
"Gajeel, what's going on?!" she yelled behind him. Damn, he forgot that she didn't have the hearing ability dragon slayers had either.
"You'll find out soon enough!"
It didn't take very long for her to hear it because when she did it was right on them. Now he knew the cave was really trying to kill them.
"Ahh!"
He heard her voice and then he lost her wrist. He stopped, and turned around. She had fallen. He kept forgetting that she was not as fast and had shorter legs so of course she wouldn't be able to keep up. Not only that, she was probably still weak from losing a lot of magic from earlier. As she scrambled to get back up, he went back and grabbed her waist with one arm. He heard a faint squeak from her when he grabbed her, but he was so intent on running from the sound of the tunnel crushing together. There was no way in hell he was going to let a cave kill him, and he had a responsibility to keep her safe, so that's what kept him running.
He started to see a light up ahead and thought they finally made it to the exit! Finally! But he could hear the roar right behind him now, it was deafening. He had been running through the maze of tunnels for a quite a while, and he could feel his legs getting tired and his muscles tense, so he was more than happy to see the exit.
Or at least that's what he thought. Once he came out in to the light, it wasn't an exit at all, but a bigger cavern with crystals that lit up the place. The previous tunnel he was running in clamped shut leaving it eerily quiet. Dammit.. he thought he was out of this death trap.
"Gajeel, you can set me down now.." he heard her say quietly.
He looked down and realized then that he still had his arm firmly around her tiny waist. She weighed nothing to him. He felt his face heat up and set her down quickly and looked the other way. He still couldn't understand why her closeness of her body made his mind fuzzy and his face heat up. It was probably from running. That had to be it.
"Wow, this place is beautiful!" she said loudly. Once he actually looked around then, he would agree with her. It had a charm about it that Gajeel had never seen before.
"Oy, Shrimp. That cave writing you were studying earlier, did it say anything about this cave not wanting visitors? Like did it something like you will die if you enter?" he asked glancing at her.
Her brows furrowed in thought. "I wasn't able to decipher very much of it, but what I did decipher, it didn't mention anything like that. Do you think the cave is trying to kill us?"
"Well, I don't think that everything that happened until now is just coincidence," he responded. He noticed she had gotten closer to him at his response which made his mouth twitch upwards slightly.
She moved closer to him instinctively. She never even considered this place might be trying to kill them. She looked around the huge cavern and realized that the there was a huge ravine that dropped to a deep dark pit and there was a five foot wide rock bridge about half a mile long that lead to the other side. She cringed looking at it. Gajeel started walking towards it.
"Come on, Shorty. The faster we walk over this bridge the faster we can get out of this death cave."
She nodded and followed close behind. She tried to think happy thoughts that nothing was going to happen.
She heard him speak as she followed close behind making her jump.
"You okay back there Shrimp?" he asked glancing behind.
"I- I'm fine!" trying to put on a brave face.
He nodded as he faced forward again continuing their walk. They walked in silence, Levy intent on watching his back rather than looking down. They were halfway there without any hitches. Maybe the cave was being generous for once. Or at least she that's what she thought.
A gust of wind out of nowhere picked up from her left side. She held her arms up to push herself against the wind but it was too strong. She noticed Gajeel was having a hard time against the wind too. She then felt a stronger gust pick up and she felt her body being picked up off the ground.
"Gajeel!" she yelled out closing her eyes panicking reaching her arms out towards him. She felt his hand close around her arm pulling her towards him. She opened her eyes and could see the panic look in his eyes.
He knew she was scared as they walked over the bridge. He could hear her heartbeat going very fast. He himself wasn't fond of the concept of going over the bridge, but it was the only option. They were about halfway towards the end with no hiccups, but he kept on guard for anything. When he felt the gust of wind from nowhere pick up from one side, he was not surprised. He shielded his face and stood his ground trying to keep his stability. The wind picked up even stronger than before and he heard her shout his name sounding panicked. He looked behind him and saw the shrimp floating towards the edge. His heart stopped. He was terrified. He had never felt this frightened before. He grabbed her wrist then before she could go over the edge and pulled her towards him, holding her back with one arm and her head with the other against his chest. Like hell he would let the cave have her. He faced the opposite way of the wind, letting his back take the brunt of the wind. He stood his ground, but the wind got even stronger, pushing him towards the edge. He bent down on one knee, making his body into metal for the extra weight and put his hand into a sword into the ground for the extra stability. He could feel her shaking against him, and hated that she was scared.
As soon as it started, it ended, leaving it eerily quiet. He turned himself back into regular form and let go of the Shrimp sitting down next to her. He was tired.. he wasn't used to using so much magic in one night. He looked at the Shrimp and could see her eyes had a glazed look, like she was far away.
He put her hand on her head, ruffling her hair, "Hey, we'll get out of this; we aren't Fairy Tail for nothing."
She looked at him then, and he could see her slowly smile and nod in response. "You're right, Fairy Tail doesn't give up!" she responded, a determined look now in her eyes.
He smirked, that was the Shrimp he knew. He realized his hand was still on her head and drew it back sharply, looking the other way. He could feel his heart speed up, but couldn't understand why. He heard her get up then. As he looked over, he could see her reaching her hand towards him.
"Thanks for being here, Gajeel. I couldn't have done this without you."
He grabbed her hand then as she helped him up.
"Heh, this is nothing!" he said smirking down at her. She smiled a huge smile in response, which made him grin even more.
"Alright, onward!" she raised her hand up and walked ahead of him with a determination in her step. He followed close behind, his arms crossed, smirking at her antics.
Just as they started once again, they felt the earth shake and stopped. They heard a crash behind them and saw the large sharp stalactites come crashing down on the side of the bridge where they started causing the bridge to break and they kept coming down right towards them.
"Fuck!" Gajeel yelled out as he followed after the Shorty, she was already ahead of him, but he easily caught up to her. It was a couple of feet behind him now, and he knew that he had to grab her now if they had any chance of escaping. He ran and scooped her legs in one arm and her back in the other and continued running. She grabbed on to the front of his shirt, her fists turning white as she put her face in to his shirt, squeezing her eyes shut. He felt the ground start to break up as he continued running and jumped from falling piece of rock to another falling piece. He could see the end now. He was so close! He knew he wouldn't be able to jump it though, so he lifted her above him.
"Gajeel?!" she yelled out in fright.
He threw her as gently as he could but hard enough he knew she would be able to make it. He saw her land and he jumped.
There was no way in hell she was not going to say she wasn't terrified. She thought for sure they were going to die this time. There was no mistaking it. She just hated that she didn't get a chance to tell him her feelings. All this was going through her mind when she felt him wrap his hands against her waist facing him and put her above his head. She yelled out his name. What was he doing? She wasn't able to process it until she was traveling through the air. She closed her eyes and felt herself hit the ground. She put her arms up to support her and looked and saw him jump, but didn't see him make it.
"GAJEEL!"
She heard the last of the rocks hit the bottom as she scrambled to get up towards the edge. Once she was at the edge, she tried to peer down towards the ravine without getting to close.
"Gajeel! Please respond!"
She was met with complete silence. Oh, mother of Mavis, no.. she couldn't stop the tears from flowing. She heard a metal clanking against rock. She stopped crying and listened, there it was again. It was close. She peered over the edge further and looked down, and she saw the familiar mane of black hair about ten feet down. "Gajeel!"
"Oy, oy, I hear you, Shorty. Trying to concentrate here."
She could see he was intently trying to maneuver his blade into the rocks so he could get a firm grip as he worked his way up. As she watched him, she saw him having a hard time maneuvering his blades and keeping his magic up in general. "Dammit!" she heard him roar as he was having trouble keeping his blades up. She bit her lower lip, trying to think of a way to help him. She got up and started to pace along the edge. There has to be something she could do.. That's when an idea came up.
She went to the edge again and yelled to him. "Gajeel, I have a spell that will help you, but I don't have much magic right now, so it can only help you for a short time."
"Oh, and what's that?" he asked glancing up at her.
"Just hold on! Solid Script: Energy!" she said as she wrote in the air forcing the magic energy towards Gajeel.
It entered him, rejuvenating his magic energy. "Gihihi! Thanks Shorty!" he said as he sharpened his blades once again and worked his way up quickly.
She just smiled down in response and just hoped her magic energy held out until he got to the top. He was really close, only two feet away from what Levy could tell, when his swords wouldn't pierce the side of the cave wall.
"What the hell!? Not this again!" He punched hit after hit, when she can see what little energy she gave him was starting to give out. She could see there were no hanging spots he could use to just climb his way out. "Gajeel stop! You're magic energy is depleting!"
"You don't think I know that!" he yelled up at her. She cringed, she needed to help him and fast, or he might fall and die and she wouldn't allow that. She laid the front of her body on the ground and went over the edge as far as she dared. She could grab him if he reached his hands out.
"Gajeel!" He continued ignoring her, still trying to slice the wall.
"GAJEEL!" she yelled louder.
He heard her then and looked up and his eyes went wide.
"Dammit Shorty! Get back! You could fall!"
She ignored him, reaching out her hands to him.
"Grab my hand!"
"Like hell I would, if I die, I am no way in hell taking you with me."
"Gajeel, please!"
"I said no! Now get back away from the ledge!" he said as he looked forward trying to make a dent in the wall.
That's when he felt something wet roll down his cheek. It was coming from above him. When he looked up, he saw her reaching down crying. It made his heart clench.
"Gajeel.. please," she sniffled.
"But your hands are hurt, Shrimp."
"I don't care about my hands, Gajeel! I need to see you alive! My hands can heal, you can't!" she yelled out between her tears.
She was right, but he was so frustrated that he was the one putting her danger.
"Alright, alright."
He reached out his hand and wrapped around her wrist. He didn't want to put so much weight on her hurt hands. She wrapped her tiny fingers around his wrist and pulled up as heard as she could. He tried his best to scale the wall, to reduce the weight for her. Once he was up far enough, he grabbed the edge with his free hand and climbed up with his own strength. He crawled over the edge and collapsed face down on the ground breathing heavily. He looked over and could see her back against the ground, sprawled out, breathing heavily too. She did it. He couldn't believe it, but she did it.
He heard her move, and opened one eye to see her stand up, and closed it again. He never thought ground could feel this good. All of sudden he felt a small foot jab him in the arm sharply.
He opened his eyes and leaned up, using his hands support; glaring up at her, "What the hell was that for?!"
She had her hands on her hips, glaring right back at him. "For worrying me, you dolt!"
Before he could respond, she went on her knees to hug him, her arms crawling around his back and her head on his shoulder. "And this is for saving me," she whispered in to this his ear. "Thank you Gajeel."
His body went tense to her close proximity. He could feel her body pressed against his and he knew know more than ever how much of a woman she was and what that made him feel. He could feel himself losing control, her smell wafting his nose, teasing him. She pulled away, standing up, fidgeting with her skirt. He was glad she did, because he didn't know how much longer he could control himself. He noticed the pink touching her lips, and forced his eyes to look elsewhere. This wasn't the time or place, he told himself. He never realized this feeling, but as time went on, he became fully aware of what she was doing to him. His old man would say that he had chosen a mate, but he quarreled with himself over this logic. He didn't have the right to love her, especially after what he did to her when they first met.
She still couldn't believe she hugged him. Her cheeks were flushed from what she did as she bunched her up her skirt with her hands in embarrassment. She avoided looking at him, and that's when she saw what looked to be a huge door that had an ancient language all over it.
"Oh mother of Mavis!" she screamed as her eyes lit up running to it!
"What the hell?!" he said glancing at her.
"Gajeel! Look! I think this might be the way out!" she said as she continued examining the ancient language on the door.
"I sure hope so. I'm more than ready to get out of this damn hell hole," he grumbled as he lay on the ground. He opened one eye watching her as she worked to transcribe the weird language on the door. She stood on her tiptoes to examine something towards the top, her dress coming up slightly, and he didn't miss seeing a hint of silver.. Fuck. He put his hand over his eyes, cringing. He could feel the heat tinging his face that also coursed through his body.
"Gajeel? You okay?!" he heard her ask.
"I'm fine!" he yelled out sharply.
"Okay, if you say so." He could hear her continuing to work, mumbling a different language. He let his hand drop to his side closing his eyes concentrating on her voice and her heartbeats, letting his energy gather back. They stayed like that for what felt like five minutes.
"I've got it!" she yelled out excitedly.
He rolled on his side, laying his head on his hand, his arm supporting him, watching her; her excited energy making him smirk. She spoke in the weird language again, her pen writing as she spoke when all of sudden a bright light appeared. He shielded his eyes, and could see from the shadow of his hands she was doing the same.
This was not what she expected to happen. A bright light burst from the door causing her to shield her eyes from the blindness. She felt a cold hand wrap around her arm and start to pull her towards the light. There was no way she was going to be pulled in there. She tried to wrangle out of the unknown person's grasp, but whoever had her arm had a death hold on her arm.
"Gajeel!" she yelled turning back towards him. She could see his eyes were wide with surprise and what she thought looked like fear and that he was already trying to run towards her. She reached out her bandaged him, but when she looked at it, she saw it disappearing. She looked back up, and could see Gajeel so close but then it all went black. She still felt the unknown person's hand on her arm and turned around. That's when she felt something hard hit her head and a shooting pain from that spot, then darkness.
A.N.: I'm soo sorry this took forever to update.. I'm going to hopefully not take as long on the next chapter because I left this on a cliffhanger. You can hate me know for leaving this on a cliffhanger for you! :P