The Wall: Commencement

"And on a day we meet to walk the line

and set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go."

- Robert Frost, Mending Wall

Chapter One: Prison

He sat with his back against the cold stone wall, head down. He had just eaten his rations for the day and was left feeling empty and unsatisfied. When he had been back at Fairy Tail he had always had a full belly. He had never really valued the merit of having even three solid meals a day. He used to have about ten – what a waste – now he barely had one. Every day he would be given the same old half-loaf of perpetually stale bread and a murky glass of water, sometimes accompanied by a small hunk of mouldy cheese. The meal was brought by one of the elderly prisoners (one physically incapable of attempting escape, though due to past oversights they still remained under a watchful eyes while carrying out their task).

How Natsu's mouth watered at the thought of spices and meats and chocolates, plates Mirajane ladened high (reminding him of something motherly he never had), and a bowl of simple steaming soup. Everything he used to consume was a distant memory now and he would occasionally find himself wondering if such delicacies had ever existed in the first place. Once he had thought idly, in a state of dipping in and out of consciousness, that they should start a petition. Let them eat cake! But that had been a silly fancy and complaints of any kind were unwise. Natsu was just glad he had anything to eat at all considering their eventual fate.

Death. Eventual death.

That is what everyone who resided in this prison waited for, the day they would eventually be selected out to die.

The dungeon he inhabited belonged to a dark mage who lived upon others magic. In other, more odious (and more unequivocal), words he would eat their very soul and power; bleed away every ounce of their potent longevity until there was nothing left. This, needless to say, cost his victims their lives. This mage was called 'Lord' Ershter Teivel (a supercilious self-designated title); he captured ones who possessed magic like himself. He would keep them in his underground prison, slowly draining their magic over time by an enchantment placed upon the cells. They would all sooner or later die, but some of the less fortunate ones (or perhaps they were lucky depending on the victim's outlook) had been killed instantly when Teivel had been in one of his rages or had just felt especially peckish. He would directly suck the vigour from the mages and Natsu very much doubted it was a pleasant experience.

What Teivel indulged in was cannibalism. It was unorthodox cannibalism, no gorging on torn limbs and organs, but that didn't make it any less atrocious.

Natsu had only been in the prison for a few months or so. He was not yet close to his demise, but unfortunately for the people in the cells adjacent to him they had died. One had expired of starvation and the other of Teivel himself. Natsu just hoped it wouldn't be him next. He wouldn't normally be scared of his own death; before he had been brought here he would have gladly given up his life for any of his friends at Fairy Tail. But now his friends were not here – he was alone – and if there was one thing he had expected in life it was to die surrounded by friends. Now he didn't even have his cell neighbours. Not that he talked to them much, but it had been nice to have another heartbeat around.

He raised his head. He could hear rushed footsteps, scuffling, yelps and squeaks of pain. It was a female voice echoing down the passage, crying out now. He then heard another voice, gravelly, booming, sickening, "Stop struggling, girl! Or I might just snap that pretty little arm of yours."

The sounds of a struggle died down and were replaced with quiet sobbing. "Good. You're going to need to save your energy in this place." He heard the cell door next to his open with a creek and then someone, the girl he presumed, being pushed to the floor with a thud and an anguished gasp.

"I'm going to tell the Lord we've caught another one, seventh this month." the man said. The bars clanged as they slammed shut on the bordering cell, now where that poor girl would spend the rest of her days.

"Wait, I'll come with you. I don't want you taking all the credit." said another voice. It was another woman, a woman he knew (albeit the familiarity being vague and perplexing). She was a woman clearly on the fortunate side of the cells, the side where you were the one to put people inside them.

"Alright then." The man huffed, most likely annoyed that he wouldn't receive all the admiration from his master. Some would now have to go to the woman.

She gave an unnerving cackle that sent chills down Natsu's spine. He was disgusted, and somewhat alarmed, by the fact people existed who took so much pleasure in the sufferings' misery – especially when they were the ones taking part in inflicting it. "Don't worry Haemon; I'll let you claim the next one we find."

"We have ourselves a deal, Ambrosine." Haemon replied.

"Hurry up then, we shouldn't keep the Lord waiting." He could hear she had already started to walk away. He heard another pair of footsteps and the sound of distant laughter. Eventually it died out completely. But he could still heed the muffled sobs in the next cell. The sound wasn't quite clear to him, even with his keen ears. The girl must have been trying to stifle her crying.

He knew she must be brave. Well, braver than most he had seen in this place. Weeks ago, near to his time of arrival in this dismal death row, a mage a few cells down hadn't stopped screaming. They were hysterical from the moment they were dragged into the moment they were dragged out (for their excessive noise) never to be seen (or heard) again. At least this girl wasn't like that. She had enough composure to keep herself together at any rate. She was attempting to hold in her suffering.

After a few more minutes of listening to the restrained whimpering, he could no longer bare it. "Are you alright?" he asked.

The girl shrieked and it sounded like she toppled backwards into the wall. "W-Who are you? Show yourself!" she demanded, with a forcefulness that was somewhat reduced by the tear-thick quality of her voice.

"I'd love to show myself," and he meant it quite truly, "but I'm in the cell next to yours."

"You were captured too? Why are we here?" The girl asked him in a hushed tone.

He sighed, resigned, knowing there was no easy way to put this. "To die..."

The girl's reaction was unexpected. She simply said, "Oh."

But of course her lack of reaction wasn't acceptance, it was shock. Natsu felt guilty, horrible and more so he felt obliged to leave the poor girl with a little more information than just the knowledge of her sure death. He had been too blunt, too pessimistic. This place had changed him.

"We've been brought here for... some mage – a complete twisted fuck. He, uh—Oh man, this is gonna be hard to explain." Natsu dragged a grimy hand over his face, rather stressed. He needed to be gentle about this, but he couldn't sugar-coat it either. He needed to find that fine line between the brutal pragmatic shell of himself and a past personality that was so much more assured and heartening to others (it was a line he found himself swaying from quite dramatically as of recent).

"First off," he began firmly, "if he ever visits the prison don't even look at him. Just keep your head down. Don't give him an excuse to single you out. If that fails..." If he were truthful he would say, then you're screwed. But, he had a new appreciation for secrecy and so chose to omit that fact. He told her, hoping his voice did not display the telltale signs of doubt, "Make sure to call him 'Lord'. Suck up to him and stuff. That might get you out of a pinch."

"Call him 'Lord'..." she repeated numbly.

"That's right," He felt shameful even endorsing such grovelling, but what else was there to endorse? A mass jail escape? Unlikely. "He eats— Well, from what I've heard, he has to eat magic to survive, or for pleasure. No one seems very sure..."

"This mage? He's going to kill me?"

Acting clearly was not Natsu's forte. His white lie had been disregarded in an instant. "I'm sorry. I know it's a lot to take in, and when you've got family and friends back home... That'll make it even worse."

"No." The girl replied, "No family and no friends. They're... They're all gone."

He wondered what the girl meant by 'they're all gone'. Did she mean they were dead? He felt truly sorry for her if that was so; she seemed too good-natured for this, for all of it. The fact that she was here now and had lost her loved ones, it made her undeserving, didn't it? What warranted any of them deserving to be here?

Despite it all, he felt his mouth stretching into a weak grin. "No friends, you say? Then... how about us becoming friends?" He was sad, with himself and the situation he was in, to find no real force behind his words. They lacked the substance and verve they may have once possessed.

She said nothing for some time and Natsu thought, with great embarrassment, that she found him far too audacious (especially seeing as she was in a fresh state of terror due to her capture) or maybe his lack of spirit was off-putting, but it soon became apparent that she had just been in consideration. Deciding she liked the boy, she just about managed a smile too. "I'd like that." It was a shame neither mages could see them.

"Now that you're my friend," the girl said tentatively, "I'll need your name."

"Natsu, Natsu Dragneel. The Fire Dragon Slayer." Even now, a hint of pride managed to creep its way into his voice. It startled him. "What about your name?"

"Lucy Heartfilia..." She hesitated before taking her cue from Natsu's introduction. "The, uh, Celestial Spirit mage."

"Lucy?" Natsu said, testing the name on his tongue, "Lucy, I like it."

"I like your name too, Natsu." Lucy's laugh was somewhat more dull and melancholic than Natsu would have liked, but it was so much nicer than hearing her cry. Natsu leaned back against the wall that separated their cells and closed his eyes, with the air of a boy who was much more content than he had been for some time.

Edited 03.11.15