Gajeel had to admit that he was seriously impressed by this place. The closer he got the more real it seemed to get, and he found himself standing at the edge of a large sports field of some description, though what in the world they played here with those strange hoops he couldn't even begin to guess. But Wendy's scent, while a little faint, was definitely here.
The only trouble was, it didn't seem to lead anywhere.
"Gajeel, what's taking us so long?" Charla wrung her paws together.
"Look, I'm doing my best, alright?" Gajeel snapped, a little more angrily than necessary. He hadn't been able to smell Wendy around the front doors so instead of marching right in the a building that could have anyone or anything inside he'd headed down to the lake to try and pick up where Wendy could have got out, and indeed he had found Wendy's scent by the boathouse and followed it up here with no trouble at all. Except that her scent had now seemed to have vanished into thin air.
"Look, the girl's scent moves around the pitch a little bit, and I can definitely smell her clearly wherever she went, but it doesn't go anywhere. The only scent trail there is is the one she used to get up here from the lake. It's just… gone cold."
"But it can't just go cold, surely," Charla protested. "It has to go somewhere."
"Well, I'm telling you it stops here. And there's no other scent of anything I can pick up that indicated she could have flown away or something. The scent just stops."
"There was some kind of fight here," Mavis suddenly said. "Recently."
"Fight?" Happy turned to look at the ghost. "What kind of fight?"
"I'm not sure. But certainly some kind of scuffle. Look - there are marks in the turf that look very much like something crashed into it dotted around the place. And that's not forgetting the fact that those stands up there seem to have been damaged somewhat. It seems its mostly been repaired now but from the look of it I'd say the damage was quite extensive when it was made. And rather recently too."
"You… you think Wendy was attacked?" Charla's paws clapped over her mouth.
"What kind of coward would attack a lost and confused young girl without provocation?" Lily bristled angrily.
"I dunno," Gajeel thumped a fist into his hand, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "But I'm done snooping around. Now, its really on." And he suddenly barrelled out of the door to the pitch and hurtled across the grounds towards the castle, an angry snarl set across his metal-studded face. Now he was well and truly pissed.
"Gajeel! Wait!" Lily cried as he tried to follow after him but gasped and fell to his knees - his back panging at him painfully.
"I'm with him," Charla whooshed off after the Iron Dragon Slayer. "If they've hurt Wendy, whoever they are…"
"Charla, wait up!" Happy hurtled in her wake while Lily pulled himself back to his feet and started to try and follow when he suddenly found himself gently being lifted up in small arms. He looked up at Mavis, who smiled warmly as she picked him up, carefully avoiding touching his back and motored off after the others.
Gajeel really didn't have a plan of action, but he had rarely ever needed one before. He was just going to bust his way into that castle and rampage through it until he found some answers if that was what it took. It was always what he had done before and usually it worked pretty well for him.
But, as he got closer, his nostrils started picking up another scent - the smell of another human. Another human that just so happened to be walking along past the greenhouses. Gajeel altered his course, homing in on the scent with eyes blazing, a loud roar escaping from behind his teeth as he barrelled in towards the unfortunate soul.
Every muscle in Ron's body stiffened when he heard the terrifying bellow, his imagination immediately conjuring up an image of some massive werewolf or maybe even a dragon as he whirled around, eyes wide and fumbling for his wand. But even as he was dismissing those ideas as ridiculous the stone wall next to him exploded into dust and a viciously snarling humanoid shape burst through it in the same instant, seizing Ron's already reeling body by the front of his cloak and slamming him back against the greenhouse so hard it was a wonder they didn't both go crashing through the glass, although the glass did fracture into thousands of pieces and shower to the floor.
And thanks to the faint light of the greenhouses that was always on even at night, Ron got a very good view of the clenched fangs, twisted snarl, red eyes and wild black hair of the man standing before him.
"Where is the girl!" Gajeel roared into the face of the ginger-haired boy he'd got hold of.
"What the… gah… who are…?" Ron went white as a sheet, his body feeling like it was trying to got stiff as a plank and limp as a sheet at the same time.
"Wrong answer!" Gajeel bellowed and flung Ron sideways to land sprawled on his back on the stonework, thankfully clear of the broken glass. "I'll ask again, where is the girl? What have you people done with Wendy Marvell?"
"Who?! I don't know who that is… who are you?" Ron babbled slightly as he scrambled backwards, Gajeel advancing towards him as he seized his wand and frantically searched for some spell he could try and use - he knew how the Stunning spell worked but he'd never used it before or tried it. Damn, he should have been practicing it alongside Harry last year when Harry had been preparing for the Triwizard Tournament.
"I am the Iron Dragon Slayer!" Gajeel snarled. "And I'm looking for the blue-haired girl that found herself at this castle yesterday - now what have you done with her!"
"I dunno her! I swear!"
"Hoh? Not talking, huh? Well, maybe this will loosen your tongue!" Gajeel raised his arm and suddenly morphed it into his giant, chainsaw-like Iron Dragon Sword - the Tetsuryuuken - and glared menacingly at Ron.
And Ron took one look at the long blade that comprised Gajeel's arm and slumped backwards, eyes rolling into his skull as he fainted dead away. Gajeel grunted in annoyance and stepped forwards to look down at the boy, nudging him with one foot to see if he was faking it. But then he spotted a little badge pinned to the front of the boy's cloak and he bent down to examine it.
"Prefect?" he murmured. "What the bloody hell is that supposed to be?"
"I think you probably could have handled that a bit better," Charla said from where she was standing on the top of the wall with Happy, while Mavis and Lily were just arriving. "That boy looks about fifteen or so. I doubt he's in charge of the place."
"I know he ain't in charge of the the place, but he might know something."
"Sounds like he didn't to me. And you terrified the life out of him," Happy rubbed the back of his head. "That would be enough to get me to talk unless you wanted to know where I keep my stash of fish… wait a minute… it's been six years - MY FISH WILL ALL HAVE ROTTED! NOOOO!"
"Is that all you ever think about?" Lily muttered.
"More to the point, Gajeel - do you smell Wendy anywhere around here?"
"If I did then I would have…" Gajeel started before he suddenly faltered, his studded brows lowering as his nostrils twitched repeatedly. "Wait a minute… I… I think I'm… getting something."
"You smell Wendy?" Charla perked up. "Where? Where's the smell coming from."
"It's faint but its…" Gajeel suddenly stopped when a musical trilling noise filled the air, the clear notes seeming to waft in from all around them and causing them all to turn their heads in several random directions almost comically to try and locate the source.
But it was Happy that quickly gasped and pointed up to the top of the greenhouse. "Look! Look at that!"
All of them swung around to face the same direction and beheld a rather large, red feathered bird standing on the roof above them, its beautiful plumage almost seeming slightly luminous in the half light of the greenhouse. It cocked its head to the side as its gaze seemed to wash over all of them at once and it raised its wings to sing out another greeting.
"What is that?" Lily asked.
"It is not a bird that I am familiar with," Charla replied.
"Nor I," Mavis agreed. "But I sense great benevolence coming off it. Whatever it is, it is definitely intelligent. And, I would wager, friendly."
"And it's where the smell of Wendy is coming from," Gajeel noted, stepping forwards and sucking in a deep breath through his nose. "Yep, definitely the source."
"WENDY TURNED INTO A BIRD!" Happy cried. "I THOUGHT THAT WAS LISANNA'S THING!"
"SHE DIDN'T TURN INTO A BIRD, IDIOT!" Gajeel roared back before forcing himself to regain his composure. "But she did touch this bird. I'd stake my life on it."
"Um… please, Mister Bird - do you know where Wendy is?" Charla asked imploringly, her eyes shining with hope.
...
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