Reluctant Fairytales (Gale Fanfic)

Chapter 6

     "Why is Hitherdale so dang far away?" Gajeel complained as they trudged through yet another forest beneath the cloudy sky.

     Levy rolled her eyes, "We have to cross through Aridia, that's it. Or the faster route would be to sail across the Rauberian Lake, but I don't know where'd we get a boat. Besides, we've only been walking for a few hours."

     "Few hours my foot! We've been walkin' all day!" then he frowned, "Correction: I've been walking all day. You've just been lounging on my head all freakin' day!"

    "Yeah, true. And it's hard to believe I could do this many braids in your hair without you noticing."

     "What the-?!!" Gajeel touched a hand to his head, "What the hell, how many did you do?!!"

     Levy doubled over laughing, "A lot! I lost count after twenty!"

     "Gah! Heck, shrimp, I have, like, dreadlocks!" Gajeel shouted indignately, dancing around as he tried to undo the braids. But she just watched, laughing her head off in her amusement. Finally, she agreed to undoing them.

     Twenty minutes later....

      "I hate you."

     Levy burst out laughing, "Your hair's all frizzy!" she laughed, clutching her stomach as her sides ached with laughter.

     "Shut up," Gajeel tied his hair back with a bandana to keep the frizzy parts down, "Hey, I see a castle over there!" he pointed into the distance, and Levy brightened, regaining her composure.

     Then she turned human, crouching down to pick up a piece of crumpled paper and unrolling it, "Hey, you dropped this."

     Gajeel checked his pockets and realized she had the magical beings wanted poster, "H-hey, shrimp, don't —"

     "Wanted?" Levy finished reading it and glanced up at him, "Where'd you get this?"

     "Er, nowhere," he snatched it back hastily stowing it back into his pocket again.

     "You got it from Rauberia," Levy said thoughtfully,"So that's what those people wanted from me when they caught me."

     "Uh, I-"

      "Why didn't you show this to me earlier?" she have him a disapproving look, "It would've kept me from leaving."

     "Yeah, so? That's my problem," Gajeel growled, turning away.

     "Gajeel, you promised me we'd share our problems," she reminded him, turning into succubi form and flying up to his shoulder, crossing her arms.

     He rolled his eyes in irritation, "Blast. Look, I knew if you saw it, you'd leave."

     "Leave?" She blinked.

     He scowled, "Yeah, leave. Flit off to Magnolia or somethin'." he looked away, his eyes glinting with annoyance as he avoided her gaze.

     "Gajeel, I wouldn't have left you because of some stupid poster," Levy rested a hand on his shoulder with a small smile, brushing a loose strand of her hair behind her ear.

   "You left anyway," Gajeel pointed out, turning his path towards the castle.

     "Because I felt like you hated me. It felt like you didn't want to be around me anymore, and I didn't really want to stay around you, so I left," Levy rubbed her arm, glancing away, "But....you came after me. Why did you follow me?"

     "Because like it or not, you're my friend, and the only one I got. So you ain't gonna fly off if I can stop you," Gajeel growled.

     And Levy smiled warmly at him.

     Hitherdale had the same anti-magic law as Rauberia, so Levy was forced to switch back into human form as they reached the large town's borders.

     "C-cold," Levy muttered a few hours later as they paused yet again in a rented room above a dirty tavern. Night was falling, and Gajeel was sitting on the bed, sharpening his sword with a smooth stone.

     "Then get in bed," he grumbled, not bothering to turn to look at her.

     "But Gajeel, I've been thinking..." Levy began, "If your father was a mage, then he probably fled the country since magic was being persecuted. There's only a few countries left that haven't been anti-magic or anything. Magnolia hasn't, and neither has Jensen, Harmonia, Slyveria, and Jangleheim."

     "Yeah, so?"

     "Valerium started out casting magic twenty five years ago," Levy recalled, "Carpagia, almost nineteen years. Arindane, about fifteen, and Hitherdale twelve years. Aridia was doing it nine years ago, Erinheim, six years ago, and Aurelia, two years ago. And now Rauberia." Levy started writing this quickly down on paper, "If this keep a happening in this pattern Jangleheim will banish magic in two years, Slyveria almost two years after that. Then a year later... Magnolia."

     Gajeel frowned at her, "It's just a law. It ain't a disease, shrimp, it doesn't spread like that."

     "It started in Valerium, right?" Levy dug through her bag, pulling out a map. She spread it across the table, pointing in the lowest left corner at a country, "Look, Gajeel. It spreads border to border, up around the edge of Fantasia, around the Rauberia lake, and slightly down. It covers half the continent. All the countries exiling magical creatures are as far east as the continent will let them."

     Gajeel surveyed the map,"That's weird."

     "Exactly. It's spreading around like a disease, just like you said. Laws don't spread like that, it's just not normal."

     "How does stuff like this usually come to pass?" Gajeel sat down beside her, frowning at the map.

     "Something will happen in one country that proves magical creatures are dangerous. Like someone sees someone getting mauled by a unicorn, hexed by a fairy, or eaten by a dragon, and they'll think that magic is dangerous. They'll tell the king and if the king agrees, he can ban magic for the safety of the ones without it. Normally, this would happen completely randomly, not in a perfectly rounded order. Not like this."

     Levy glanced up at Gajeel, who was nodding thoughtfully, "So you think there's somethin' going on behind the scenes."

     "Yes, actually, I do," Levy sighed, rubbing her eyes, "But what? There's got to be a link, something, somewhere..."

     "Yeah, but what does this got to do with me?" Gajeel frowned at her.

     "If we figure out why this madness started, maybe we could stop it." Levy replied, "And if we can stop it, you'll be allowed to travel unhindered through whatever country."

     "Fair point," Gajeel muttered, turning away.

     "And Gajeel," Levy glanced back at him, giving him a small smile, "And don't worry about it. I promise I'll do my best to make sure everything works out in the end."

     "Tch. You're too small to do much."

     Levy frowned, chewing on her lip, "Thanks, Gajeel. Love the support." She picked up the map again as he flopped back on the bed behind her, pulling a pillow over his face. But as she frowned at the map, something inside her told her that though this seemed like it was nothing, this whole situation was everything.