When Erza finished writing her message, she opened the window to her cottage and made a type of call. In two minutes an owl landed on the window sill.

"Take this to a man named Jellal. He's staying at the Summer palace and he has a tattoo over his eye that matches the royal crest of Northern Fiore."

She handed the owl the message and it flew away.

"What was that?" Natsu asked.

"That message is for someone I know." She explained. "He works as a guard for the royal family of Northern Fiore. In the message I asked him to come meet us here at my cottage because I believe that he can help us get some blood from the prince."

"You really think he'll help us?"

"If we explain the situation then yes. He's a very kind and understanding man."

"How did you meet him?"

"Long story, let's just say I robbed the wrong royals."

The owl flew straight to the Summer palace and spotted Jellal through one of it's many windows. At the moment he was sitting in the library and studying it's many books that contained the histories regarding the four kingdoms of Fiore. The owl perched himself on to the ledge and tapped on the window glass with it's beak. Jellal looked up from his desk and saw the nocturnal bird there with the small scroll in it's talons.

Curious, he opened the window and allowed the owl to drop the message into his hand. He unrolled it and read what was written inside. He smiled when he read that the message was from Erza and that she was asking him to meet her at her cottage for something important. He had been eager for a chance to see her again and at last it had come.

He grabbed a slip of paper and quill which he would use to write her back. He had just put the end of the quill on to the paper when he heard the library door open. He looked back and saw that it was his father who had entered the room. Jellal quickly hid his writing tools underneath a book and closed the window so the owl wouldn't be seen.

"Hello Father." He said. "What brings you by here?"

"I was looking for you. I have come to inform you that the Princess Mirajane has arrived. You are to meet her in the royal foyer and later she will be joining us for dinner."

"Tonight?"

"Of course. Now hurry along to your chambers, wash your face, and put on some more decent looking clothes."

"Father I'll gladly meet her but I don't know if I can make it to dinner tonight."

"Why not?"

"Because...Because I...I have so much studying I need to finish. I've only gotten through three books."

"You've done enough studying for the day and to refuse dinner with a royal princess, why that would be an insult to her and her kingdom."

"But Father I-"

"Don't argue with me young man. No son of mine will be disrespectful. Now I order you to go prepare yourself at once."

"Yes sir." He agreed reluctantly.

Jellal was disappointed that he couldn't accept Erza's invitation but his father's word had to be obeyed not to mention if the king found out he had been sneaking out of the palace in disguise as a guard, heaven only knows what that man would do.

As soon as the king left the library, Jellal checked to see if the owl was still at the window. He was. So Jellal composed a message that said he could not meet her tonight and that he was very sorry for being unable to do so. He gave his message to the owl who took it right back to Erza.

"Oh no." She said after reading it.

"What?" Natsu asked.

"He can't come tonight. Another royal is visiting the palace which means security has to be doubled. He'll have to spend the whole night guarding them."

"Now what do we do?"

"I guess there's only one thing to do."

She went upstairs to her bedroom and pulled something from her drawers. It was a needle which she placed inside of her satchel along with the bottle Gray gave her.

"We'll have to go to the palace and get the prince's blood ourselves." She said. "One harmless prick with a sewing needle oughta do it."

"But what if we're caught?"

"It's a risk we'll have to take. Remember if we don't get this you'll have to suffer the wrath of the shadow beast."

"Good point. Still how are we going to get close enough to the prince to get his blood?"

"We'll dress as servants. Royals and nobles usually consider themselves to superior to look directly at the help so they won't recognize that we don't work there."

"How do you know that?"

"I've had some experience in that department. Now let's go."

He helped her on to his horse and they went to the Summer Palace. When they arrived they went around back to the servants quarters where they spotted some of the servants clothes hanging out to dry on a line. Now they didn't feel good about stealing someone else's clothes but this was for a just cause so they grabbed two outfits from the clothes line and dressed into them.

"Perfect." Erza said after changing into a work dress and apron.

"So what kind of servants are we supposed to be?" Natsu asked.

"I'm not sure but as long as we fool them I don't think it really matters."

"Hey you two!" Shouted a middle aged woman who was dressed much more finely than they were but not as fine as royalty or nobility. No doubt she was the steward of castle and probably knew the faces of all the servants. "Just what do you think you two are doing?"

When she approached them they held their breath. If she outed them as imposters they were in for a world of trouble.

"How dare you two just stand around here and do nothing." She scolded. "Don't you know that there's plenty of work to be done? Especially with the royal princess visiting?"

"Oh yes! Of course!" Erza said relieved that the steward didn't see through their disguises. "We...We saw a snake and we didn't know if it was poisonous or not so we stood perfectly still to avoid startling it into biting us."

"There's a snake here!" She shrieked.

"It's gone now." Natsu said. "Slithered away into the forest. So no danger here."

"Oh thank heaven." She quickly regained her composure. "Well in that case get back to cleaning the stables."

"Excuse me?" Natsu said.

"Stable boy, you're supposed to be in the stables cleaning up after the steeds."

"Oh yeah! Sorry!"

He quickly went to find the stables, Erza tried to follow but the steward grabbed her arm.

"Where are you going?" She asked. "You're supposed to be in the kitchen scrubbing the pots and pans for tonight's dinner."

"Oh...Right."

"Wait a minute I've never seen you around here before."

"Uh...Are you sure?" Erza asked getting nervous.

"Positive." She looked at Erza skeptically. "Oh you must be the new hand maid his majesty sent for."

"Yes! Yes I am." She lied.

"Then you don't belong in the kitchen. You should be in the guest chambers attending to Princess Mirajane."

"I know but I'm new and I've never been here. I got lost."

"Quite right. Follow me then."

Poor Erza wasn't sure what she had gotten herself into. She was walking on thin ice by masquerading as a servant and if her true identity was discovered she would probably rot in a dudgeon. But she decided that the risk was worth it. Natsu had saved her life twice and since then he had been a good friend to her. How could she call herself his friend if she wouldn't try whatever she could to save his life in return?

Erza followed the steward up a grand stairway and down an impressive corridor until they stopped in front of the tenth door on the right. The steward gave the door a polite knock.

"Yes?" A cheerful voice from the other side said.

"Your highness I have your new hand maid with me."

"Thank you. Send her in."

The steward left. Before entering the bed chamber Erza made herself look more presentable and remembered everything she knew about how hand maids were supposed to behave. She carefully opened the door and walked in with caution.

The princess Mirajane was sitting at her vanity, brushing her long, moon light colored hair that shined like pure silver when the light hit it. When she stood up from her chair and turned to face her, Erza curtseyed respectfully with her face turned downward as that was what all servants were to do once in the presence of someone royal or noble.

"You can face me if you'd like." Mirajane said in a kind voice. "I know I'm supposed to think I'm too superior to make eye contact with a mere servant but we're both human beings so I choose to disregard that silly expectation."

Erza looked up at her face and she was amazed by how fair and radiant she was. Not only was her hair a sight to be hold but so were her glistening eyes, her perfectly sculpted body, and her silken robe lined with gold stitching. She had the exact appearance of a fairy tale princess.

"My you're much younger than my last hand maid." The princess observed. "And a lot lovelier too."

A princess as magnificent looking as her thought that she, a common peasant was lovely? Was she jesting?

"Could you please help me change for tonight's dinner?"

"Yes my lady." Erza replied.

She shed her robe, leaving her in just her under dress. Erza helped her cinch up the laces of her corset and then the bodice of her gown.

"I appreciate you for coming to assist me although I do think King Lysander was doing too much by sending for a new maid." Mirajane said. "I would have been content with one serving here. I guess he just wants to butter me up for the arrangement."

"Arrangement my lady?" Erza asked.

"Oh you probably don't know. I'm visiting this palace because the king hopes secure a marriage between me and his son. I'm not sure if I'll agree though."

"Do you not like him?"

"We've only met briefly so far and he is very handsome and polite but I don't really know him that well. Hence why we're having this big dinner. So that we can converse properly and get to know each other."

"So prince will be in the dinning hall tonight?"

"Why yes. Where else would we have dinner?" She giggled.

"Shall I attend this event with you my lady?"

"It's not necessary but who knows? Maybe my laces will come undone." She said with another giggle.

Alright so she had an opportunity. She would go with the princess to the dinner then casually slip over to where the prince was dining, give him a small prick, say that it was an accident caused by her dropping her needle, and get just a few small drops of blood into the bottle. Then she would be in and out of there like a door mouse. She just hoped that she wouldn't do anything that would screw it up.

...

Nakku took the kids all around the town, showing them the houses, shops, and other buildings. They passed by a few of the residents who did give a kind smile to the kids but just didn't acknowledge Nakku's presence. Not that it bothered him, he was used to it after all. Now it's not that the townsfolk didn't like Nakku it was just that they all knew how much the mayor hated him and bad things tended to happen to those who fraternized with him. It wasn't fair and it wasn't right and a lot of them were ashamed of their behavior especially since Nakku was so friendly but they couldn't help but be afraid.

"Why do they do that?" Nasha asked.

"Do what?" Nakku replied.

"Why is it that whenever he pass somebody walking on the sidewalk they''ll look at you like you have the plague or something?"

"Oh that. It's nothing to be worried about. Folks around here just think it's better to avoid me."

"Why?"

"Because certain people with a lot of...High position? Don't like me very much and the townsfolk don't want to make people like that angry because that could lead to bad things happening."

"By certain people do you mean the mayor?"

"What?" Nakku said trying to sound surprised but failing at it. "No. No. No way. Why would- How did you know?"

"I've met the lady and she reeks of politic abuse." She answered. "Also I've seen the way she looks at you. She totally hates your guts."

"And she's evil." Greige added.

"Now I wouldn't go that far." Nakku said. "I mean she may cross the line between right and wrong sometimes but evil? That's a bit of a stretch don't you think?"

"No she's evil and she wants you dead. Says so right here in my book." Griege said.

"Oh God not this again." Nasha groaned. "Greige what you read in that book is not real."

"Yes it is." He argued with her before turning his attention back to Nakku. "She's an evil princess and she's obsessed with trying to kill you."

"Uh-huh." Nakku said thinking it was a joke or something. "And why does she want to kill me?"

"I haven't figured that out yet. I'm still trying to find her origin story in here but I do know yours."

"Is that so?" He chuckled. "Can I hear it?"

"Sure."

"I'm so not listening to this." Nasha put her earbuds in and turned up her music.

"Your real name is Natsu, you're from another world, and you're a knight." Greige explained. "You perform good deeds for nothing in return and almost everyone loves you."

"A knight huh? Well it's better than that rumor I hear about myself being the town drunk." Nakku said.

"You come from a very poor family and you lost your father when you were a kid so you were raised by your mother."

Now that made Nakku flinch a little. Now as far as he knew he had never been a knight but he did lose his father as a kid and grew up with a single mother throughout his teen and young adult years. But no one knew that. Not even Elkis. No one knew because he had never told anyone.

"How did you know that?" He asked.

"It's in my book. See?"

Greige showed Nakku the illustration of a boy crying in the arms of his mother. A boy who Nakku recognized as looking like himself when he was young and the boy's mother did in fact resemble his own mother.

"Your father had to leave you because he had been tricked into slavery by an evil king." Greige said.

"Kid that's not what happened." Nakku said. "My dad was killed by some gangsters because he reported a crime that their king pin had committed."

"No you only think that because her curse took your real memories and gave you fake ones."

"Who's curse?"

"Princess Lucy's."

"Who's she?"

"In this world she's the mayor. But in Fiore she's the princess of darkness and she cast this curse to ruin the lives of everyone by bringing them to this world and making them forget who they really are."

"Right." He chuckled. "I'll admit she's does try to make life harder for some people but I don't think she has magical powers."

"I'm not making this up. It's all here in my book."

"Just because someone wrote it in a book doesn't mean it's real. I mean science proves there's no such thing as magic."

Griege huffed in frustration.

"Why must adults always rely on science? Can science explain Christmas? Or where Earth came from? Or why dead flowers come back to life when I touch them?"

"Hold up! Rewind! What did you just say?"

"Uh...Can science explain Christmas?"

"No the last part. About dead flowers coming back to life."

"Oh that..." Griege looked like he had just said way too much. "I wasn't supposed to mention that. Forget what I just said."

"Now wait a minute. What are you talking about?"

"It's nothing."

"You said that dead flowers come back to life when you touch them. What does that mean exactly?"

Before answering, Griege looked back to make sure that Nasha still wasn't paying attention to him.

"Okay I'll tell you but please don't tell anyone else. They'll think I'm a freak."

"Why? What did you do?"

"Sometimes when I touch a flower that's wilting it starts blooming again. Like it's blossomed for the first time."

"Is this like a game or something?"

"No it's true." Greige looked out the window and spotted Vastia's Flower Shop. "Pull over there."

"Why?"

"Because I wanna show you."

Nakku had no idea where this was going but he did as the boy requested. After that he followed Griege out of the car and over to the stand at the front of the shop that held some wilting daisies and azaleas. The very instant Greige's fingers made contact with the dying flowers, their fallen petals rose back into place and they became full in bloom.

"I told you."

Nakku just couldn't believe his eyes. Did that really happen? Was he seeing things? He had to be. Otherwise why else did he just observe a little boy revive dead plants?

"How...How did you do that?" Nakku asked in shock.

"I don't know." Griege said. "But I've been able to do that for as long as I can remember."

"But that...They...And you...What?" He said rubbing his eyes and shaking his head. "That's it no more Irish coffee in morning."