For Ever (An Elfgreen Fanfic)

16. Secrets Spilled

This chapter will be slightly confusing... hopefully you'll understand in later chapters. You've been warned!

Enjoy! Make sure to vote, comment, etc.

Thanks for reading!
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The beast weaved through the trees stealthily and the two mages almost lost it several times. But when that happened, the beast would pause and wait for them to catch up.

"This is suspicious..." Evergreen whispered to Elfman, walking briskly to keep up with the beast.

"You think it'll lead us into an ambush?" Elfman asked, looking around cautiously.

"I don't know... I feel like they sent the beast because we found out their plan. Which means it was their plan in the first place..." Evergreen paused. She noticed that the beast's ears perked up when she spoke.

"What?" Elfman asked, oblivious.

Evergreen simply pointed to the beast and put her finger over her mouth to show that she wouldn't say anything more.

The two of them stayed in silence until, finally, the beast stopped moving.

Then, the weirdest thing happened. Neither of the mages were expecting it in the least.

The beast turned into a man.

The forelegs shrunk and turned into arms, and the hind legs grew to become the legs of a man. White robes swirled out of nowhere and covered the guy.

"Oh my god..." Evergreen stumbled backwards, astonished.

"It's you!" Elfman said, recognizing the beast-man.

"Daniel, wasn't it?" Evergreen caught on. She remembered the man from the train ride. He had tried to attack them... He was part of the Serpents of Chaos.

"Are you a werewolf?!" Elfman asked, shocked.

"Follow me," Daniel said, uncomfortably ignoring everything they said to him.

Evergreen remembered the look in the beast's eyes when it had pounced on her, but hadn't harmed her, back at the village. The eyes were intelligent, cunning. She should have known that they were the eyes of a human! How else could someone train beasts so wild and unpredictable? Evergreen's mind was full of thoughts as they tried to take in what was happening.

Daniel walked to a large tree and bent one of the branches. All of a sudden, the trunk opened up to reveal a secret passage that spiraled down underground.

"Go down f-first..." Daniel said, opening the passageway door for them.

Elfman noticed the tremble in Daniel's voice, and noticed that the poor guy was very young, and looked pretty scared. Elfman remembered that Daniel had looked the same way on the train as well--scared. Elfman couldn't help but feel some sympathy for him.

But then he remembered the village hostages Daniel's guild were keeping, and the terrifying beast that he had morphed into before, and Elfman forgot his sympathy. The two mages descended the stairs to the underground lair, staying close to each other.

And they came to a huge, underground room, full of beasts. There were humans, too. There must have been hundreds of them. But this wasn't the thing that surprised either of them.

Evergreen gasped. Daniel refused to look up as he closed the door behind them. He seemed ashamed, almost.

All of the beasts were in cages. And so were the humans.

"What is this?" Elfman said, furiously. "Are those the village men??"

The two mages turned to Daniel to try to get an explanation for this horrific place, but then...

"Welcome to the guild hall of the Serpents of Chaos, Fairy Tail mages," an ominous voice said. A tall figure in white robes walked towards them, past all the cages of beasts and humans alike. "Do you like it?"