There's A Dragon In The Garden

She was breathing heavily.
Her body ached along with her untrained muscles. Her knees were bent and she was staring at the ground as she tried to gather more strength. Strength she needed to fight. To keep going. The blond's whip, which was her deadly weapon, lay limply in her shaking hand. Sweat dripped down her face and fell onto the ground in sparkling little droplets.
She watched them fall to the ground with anger. Her opponent hadn't even begun to sweat.

Lucy Heartfilia knew she was going to lose.

She could tell by the way her bones ached and howled. How her hands shook around the leather band of her whip. That now laid in a messy heap on the dirt ground. She raised her head, one of her brown eyes screwed shut against the beating sun. Her mouth was parted, her chest heaving, as her lungs fought for cold air. Air that she so desperately needed.
Desperately needed to win.

"Lady Lucy, perhaps we should take a break." The commanding voice tore her attention away from the ground in its intensity. Nobody could not listen when she spoke. She demanding your attention, whether she wished for it or not.
Lucy looked up.
The Captain of the Guard, Erza Scarlet, stood before her crouched form. Her scarlet hair was pulled away from her sharp eyes and put into a high ponytail. The powerful woman had already put away her sword, which now rested in its gleaming metal sheath at her side.
Always present, always ready to be drawn. Her metal armored body clinked as she moved, sending shivers through Lucy. The light grey of her iron made armor reflected off the sun's rays which made the metal itself shine brightly. Almost as if making it come alive. The woman's piercing dark brown eyes met the beautiful blond's. The powerfully, frightening  woman radiated power and strength with her stance alone. Just by standing there, people who were not fools, knew she was dangerous.

She was perfect for being Captain of the Guard.

With difficulty, Lucy straightened. Her chest was heaving as she tried to catch her breath that seemed to always escape from her. Even though Lucy did not want to quit, she knew she had too. She could already feel her head begin to spin, she was going to pass out if she didn't call it quits.  So, the young blond nodded breathlessly at Captain Scarlet, who seemed pleased with her wordless answer.

Satisfied with her Lady's answer, Captain Scarlet came over and helped her hobble over to a chair that had been set up for her Lady. With a wheezed huff, Lucy sat down, her legs cried out in gratitude.
"I think perhaps we should pick up your lessons in a few days, Lady Lucy." The red headed warrior said, with a small smile and a soft voice that she only reserved for her Lady or her King. Lucy took a deep breath and spoke with the grace of a royal.
"Yes, I think that is for the best, thank you." Captain Scarlet nodded once, asked if she could get her Lady anything, and when she said no, the red head left to go back to her duties. Bidding Lucy Heartfilia a farewell.

Once she was gone, the tired blond closed her eyes, and put her pale face in her sweaty hands. Her mind wandered to the day when she had asked the new Captain to teach her the art of self-defense. She had asked Captain Scarlet to help her and to teach her how to defend herself two years back when the scary woman first arrived at the palace, in which Lucy lived. After she had asked, the crimson haired woman had asked her why a princess would want to learn something so dangerous, and, well, un-princess like. To which Lucy had answered, "I don't want to be someone who needs to be saved."

Lucy had seemed to have said the right thing. Erza Scarlet started to teach her self-defense soon after. It was simple moves that she taught her Lady. How to disarm someone.
How to unbalance someone.
How to knock a person out.
How to get out of someone's hold or how to put someone in a chokehold. Basics really. However, Lucy couldn't help but want to know how to fight.
Like how she saw the Castle's Guards fight.

When she had told Captain Scarlet this, the newly elected Captain had asked what weapon Lucy wished to wield. Instead of giving her a straightforward answer, the blond girl answered by coming back and showing the swords woman, her mother's prized whip and her mother's 12 golden, throwing knives. Lucy Heartfilia's mother had been very skilled in both weapons and being a gentle, loving Queen. Her daughter had always looked up to her. She envied her mother's skills of both gentleness and severity.

Now, Lucy just hoped that she could be as good as her late mother someday.

Lucy sighed while rubbing at her blood shot eyes. She hadn't gotten much sleep lately. More and more had she begun to see her dead mother appearing in her dreams.
I think it is because of my upcoming birthday.
Lucy's lips curled into a disgusted frown. She would be turning 17 in a couple of months. Months that were just flying past much to fast for her liking.

When she turned 17, it would all be over.

Her life.

Her dreams.

Everything that she was and what she could have become.

Gone.

How Lucy missed her mother so.
If her mother were here, she would be soothing her gently hands through her daughter's silky locks of golden hair. She would be humming a soft tune, one that could calm Lucy down in moments without fail. She would tell her small, frightened daughter that it would all be okay. That as long as she were here with her, then all would be well.

But, you are not here, mom. So, all will not be well.

With another breath she got up and made her way over to the door that would take her out of the large training area. The area in which she was in at that moment, was concealed by 4 large, wooden walls that seemed to brush against the clouds above. This is where the training for Guards and such took place. This is where Lucy Heartfilia had been training in secret.

The doe eyed girl hadn't brought her throwing knives with her today, only her whip. She had been late this morning and hadn't been able to get them. Captain Scarlet hates tardiness, Lucy thought with a shudder, recalling a dreaded time when she had been late.
What Erza Scarlet had done to her...

Plue, Lucy's little white dog, happily whined when he saw her, his little body constantly shaking.
"Hello, Plue, come on," She called to him with a clap of her hands. He got up from his place near the large, wooden door, and followed her out. She walked outside the training area and looked around her.
Her chocolate eyes scanned the silent path for any sign of movement. Plue helped her out by listening closely for any sound. His ears swiveled this way and that, before straightening, and he began to trot along ahead.

Good, nobody's here then. Lucy trusted her dog with her life, better then she did half the Guards here.  She hurriedly closed the door and followed after Plue at a swift pace. She had her whip hidden in the bag that she had over her shoulder. It would be safe in there as long as nobody saw it.  Lucy pressed herself up against the wall, carefully glanced around the corner, then rounded the corner when she and Plue were both satisfied that no one was there either.

Nobody knew about her lessons except for Levy, Lucy's head maid and lady-in-waiting, the petite blue haired girl was her only real friend, (besides Plue and her books,) in this prison called her home.

Sure, the blond also had Gray, Juvia, and the Strauss siblings, who worked here. But, Levy was closer to her. The little bookworm shared her sense of humor and her love for books. Levy had been with Lucy since the day she lost her beloved mother. Lucy treasured every moment she spent with the energetic little bookworm.
She probably won't be awake for another two or so hours. Lucy thought to herself as she smiled down at her white dog, who seemed to smile back at her. Perhaps then I will join her in the library after she is done with her morning duties.

Plue had been calmly walking beside Lucy, deep in her thoughts as she was, that she didn't notice the way her little dog suddenly became stiff. They had just passed the Garden, where Juvia worked, when without warning, Plue suddenly began to bark, "Pun! Pun!"
Lucy quickly snapped out of her thoughts by her dog's unique barking. She looked down at the little dog, who's barking had only increased.
"Pun! Pun! Pun!"

Plue never barked.

"Plue? What is it?" His Master asked him as he bared his fangs at the Garden's entrance. He could sense something that his Master's senses were dead to. Lucy's brows furrowed as she tilted her head to look at the Garden's entrance.
Her eyes could not pick up what the little white dog was seeing.
Before Lucy could do anything else to calm her angry dog, he took off with a howl, and a swish of his little white tail. Then he was gone. Vanished into the heavy thicket of flowers and leaves.

"Plue!" Lucy called for him as she hurried after him. Her father, Jude Heartfilia, had gotten her Plue a good four years or so ago. The amount of sheer joy she had felt as she was handed that little bundle of fur could not be expressed in words. Only in heart. Lucy assumed that her father had gotten her, Plue so she would no longer be a bother to him. She would always try and gain his attention in some way. Whether it be reading a story book in his study quietly or making him food...
He would always tell her to leave. Sometimes he would yell.

He warned Lucy if the dog caused any sort of ruckus then he would get rid of him. Her father's cruel words came floating back to her as she ran.
"If that dog makes so much as a sound, I'll see to it that it shall be thrown into the moat!"

Plue hadn't, in all the years Lucy had known him, even once barked. It seemed as though the little dog had heard Jude's nasty words also.
The dog kept silent for all those years.
Only whimpering and huffing when he wanted to be petted.
So, for him to all of the sudden bark now, Lucy knew something couldn't be right. That something must be terrible wrong. Lucy picked up her pace, she stumbled once or tried on a root, but kept on going. Plue's faint barks in the distance. Lucy called for Plue again and again. Raising her voice from a whisper to a yell as worry began to blossom in her stomach.
What if Plue gets hurt?
Her heart plummeted at the thought. She ran faster.

Lucy had just rounded a hedge full of brightly colored roses when she caught sight of Plue's white tail. She let out a breath of relief as she rounded yet another pile of flowers. The blond's rapidly beating heart started to calm when she caught sight of her dog. A relieved sigh escaped from between her lips as she walked towards Plue. "Plue, come on now. What are...you..." However, Lucy's words trailed off as did her steps when her eyes took note of his stance.

Plue's back was arched, the fur on his back, and neck were standing on end. His tail was stuck up straight in the air and his claws were digging into the ground as he snarled at something Lucy was blind to. "Plue...?" Lucy whispered unsuringly as she took a hesitant step forward. Her booted feet crunched leaves, Plue's ears swiveled toward the sound, but he did not look in his worried Master's direction.

The dog didn't look at Lucy, he kept his dark eyes straight ahead, growling at something in front of him. With her heart in her throat, Lucy took another step closer, and the clearing finally came into full view.
Lucy Heartfilia could see what her dog was seeing.
Her eyes trailed to where Plue was looking and what she saw made her blood run cold. The first thing that Lucy noticed was all the blood. It ran down the concrete and over the rocks in some kind of a bloody river. It splattered over the emerald green grass, now turned russet. The flowers that once held the colors of yellow and baby blue, were now stained crimson. They wilted against the heavy droplets of blood that had landed on them. Gleaming droplets trickled down the petals, meeting the grass as it fell.

The flowers are crying blood.

Her eyes followed the blood trail until she found the source of the blood flow. When her shaking eyes, filled with fright, found what they had been searching for...Lucy's whole spirit froze. Her breath caught in her throat. Her heart no longer seeming to beat. The scared girl's trembling hand flew to her opened mouth to stifle her scream of horror.

What am I seeing?

Wings.

Big, red, scaly wings were the second thing that she unfortunately saw. They were high in the air at an odd angle. The wings towered over her trembling body. As she dared to look closer, it looked like one was broken.
It...explains the-the odd angle.
Lucy thought numbly as her eyes continued their examination.

Her eyes traveled down the wings long length, taking note of the two sharp talons that protruded out of the wings bones on both sides. Lucy's eyes went to what the wings were attached to.
The most horrible sight of them all.
Her eyes felt like they were going to pop out of her head in a bloody spray. Lucy's breath was shaky, like the rest of her, as she stared at the pale body of a boy.

Those wings...Her eyes traveled up again, belong to a..., back down her eyes went. "A boy..." She whispered, her breath knocked out of her by that simple knowledge. She couldn't advert her gaze if she tried. Her scared eyes were locked onto the winged boy. Her knees were trembling, her breathing was labored, and her mind was not working.

She couldn't help but think...that the boy...the boy with wings resembled a..."Dragon."

Plue snarled.
Lucy sucked in a gasp.
The boy with wings shifted.
Lucy Heartfilia, crowned Princess of the Celestial Kingdom, was petrified.

Oh my Mavis, there's a Dragon in the Garden...

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And so the kindhearted Princess has found her injured Dragon.
The Fairy Tale begins!

Let The Adventure Continue!

This chapter is for 0BananaCop0