The argument Lucy had with her father left her in a very tense and unpleasant mood. Once again the sultan was running her life and not letting her have so much as one say in it. He just wanted to tie her down and keep her as his perfect princess forever. Keeping her away from the world, expecting her to always say and do whatever he wanted regardless if she thought if it was right or wrong. It was infuriating beyond all reason.

"He never hears me, he never tries to understand." She complained to her hand maidens in the palace gardens. "And he refuses to let me live my own life. It isn't fair."

"Who told you life was fair?" Aquarius asked.

"I do love my father and I know he means well, but some of the things he does is just nonsense." Lucy said. "All my life he surrounds me with knowledge of the world and then he seals me off in this palace. It's almost like I'm a prisoner."

"In a really, really, nice prison." Aquarius snarked.

"But having riches doesn't mean having happiness."

"I'll have to trust you on that."

"I wanna see the world. I wanna know what it's like to go dancing in the streets or to smell the spices at the market place or to sail across the seas or climb the mountains. They are just so many wonders to explore. That's what I want right now. Not a husband."

"He just wants to do what's best for you." Aries said. "And he does want to make you happy. He is just under the assumption that marriage will make you happy."

"How can marriage make me happy when I'm not even in love yet? No, forget love, I don't even have any real friends yet."

"What are we, chopped liver?" Aquarius said.

"Oh sorry, except for you two, and you're great,  but I want to broaden my horizons. See what other kind of people are out there. But how can I do that when I can't even go outside?" She sighed again. "You know sometimes I think maybe I should just leave. Go out on my own and see the world for myself."

"I don't know Princess." Aries said. "For someone like you the outside world might be kinda overwhelming."

"Is that a promise?" Lucy joked excitedly.

"I think it'd do her some good." Aquarius said.

"You do?"

"Honey, I've never seen anyone who needed to get out more,. I mean your father is wise but he doesn't know everything and he can be wrong. Everyone has been wrong about something. By the way, don't ever tell him I said. In this realm, pointing out monarch's flaws can cause a person to lose their head."

"Don't worry, you're secret's safe with me." Lucy assured her. "And you're right. While my father is benevolent ruler, he is wrong about some things, and I think he might be wrong about me. I think he's wrong to just keep me here and choose who I can be with. If only he'd listen to me."

"Have you ever tried to talk to him about it?" Aries asked.

"There's no number of times I've tried to talk to him. But he just assumes that I'm just being young and rebellious. That someday I'll understand. Well what abut him? When will he understand? Maybe he would if I did leave."

"But where would you go, Lucy?" Aries asked. "How would you live? With all due respect, do you even know where anything outside of Lazan is? I mean you could get lost or hurt or kidnapped."

"Okay you might have a point there." Lucy said. 

"We understand how you feel." Aries told her. "But you shouldn't make any rash decisions. Especially when you're upset like this. Maybe you should take a moment to relax and cool off,  and think things over."

"A trip to the oasis perhaps?" Aquarius suggested. "It's refreshing waters should ease all your tensity."

"That does sound nice." Lucy said. "Why not? Let's go."

"Wonderful!" Aries said sounding cheerful. "We'll call the guards and gather your bath oils."

Lucy chuckled and then looked up at the endless sky above. Sometimes she wished that she knew someone who could understand what she was going through. Aquarius and Aries were good friends but they couldn't necessarily relate to her. They didn't know how hard it was to have your whole life controlled. To live in a world where no one could hear you no matter how loud you screamed. Little did she realize there was someone out there who knew exactly what she was going through. The circumstances were different but the problem was more or less the same and in time Lucy would find herself forming a lifelong relationship with this person.

...

As usual,  Natsu's stomach woke him up in the morning. That awful empty feeling in his belly that would never be satisfied as long as he lived on the streets, oh how he hated waking up to hunger pains. But it wasn't nearly as bad as going to sleep with hunger pains. What he wouldn't give to just once, go to bed with a full stomach. 

"Morning Happy." He said sitting up. "Oh, I think I have another crick in my back. I need to find a new tarp to sleep on."

He proceeded to stretch and crack his knuckles.

"So what should we have for breakfast? Dates or melons?"

"Oh not fruit again. I'm sick of fruit? Why can't we ever have fish?"

Natsu jumped suddenly when he heard a voice reply. He looked all around the area, his black eyes scanning for any sign of a person in the shelter he lived in. But he could see nothing. Nothing and no one. No one except Happy.

"Hello?" He called suspiciously. "Is someone here?"

There was no answer.

"Did you hear something Happy?" Natsu looking behind himself.

"No. Did you?" The voice replied again.

"There it is again!"

"There's what again?"

Natsu slowly turned back around and looked at the cat, upon realizing that the voice was coming from where the feline sat. He bent down at Happy's eye level and looked at him almost fearfully.

"Did you...Did you just talk?"

"Huh? What?" The cat responded in perfect human language while sounding just as confused as Natsu, who jumped again upon discovering the source of the voice. 

"Whoa, Whoa...Wait a minute. You can understand me?" Happy said.

Both the cat and his master were in complete total shock over what was happening. They didn't know what was happening or how to comprehend this. So they did the only rationale thing. They screamed.

"Ahhhhhhh!" They both cried out in terrified shock.

Natsu bolted from the the hovel, hyperventilating like he was about to be taken to the underworld.

"Okay, okay, deep breaths Natsu." He told himself. "Get some fresh air to the brain. You're just imaging this."

"Wait! Stop!" Happy called, following after him.

"No! Bad cat! Stop talking!" Natsu ordered him.

"Wait! Come back! Don't leave like this pal! I'm freaking out here!"

"You're freaking out?! My cat is talking like a human! That's impossible...Unless, you happen to be part parrot."

"I am not! I am a full mammal thank you very much! But how are you understanding me? I know humans are technically more intelligent than us, but they're not that highly advanced. Especially you."

"Hey!"

"Sorry buddy but you can't even read."

"Oh this is not happening! This is not happening!" Natsu said. "I'm not really hearing my cat talk it's...It's the hunger pains! They finally made my brain snap! Oh Ma, always warned me this would happen! That's why she always bugged me about eating enough protein!"

"You're not hallucinating this Natsu! You're really hearing!"

"Then...Then...Then you're not Happy! You're...You're some kind of demon in cat form!"

"What?"

"Who are you? And what have you done with the real Happy?"

"I am the real Happy you idiot!"

"Prove it!"

"Last time you gave me a flea bath, you were so hungry that you almost ate one of my fleas!"

Natsu turned red in the face with shame and humiliation as he recalled that awfully desperate moment in his very extreme state of starvation. Of course he didn't actually eat the flea, but he still couldn't believe that he thought about going that far.

"Alright so you are the real Happy. But if you're really him and if I'm not losing my mind, how are you talking to me?"

"I don't know. I'm a cat. How could I have all the answers?"

"Well I don't know who else to ask."

"Hey maybe that weird fortune teller lady might know?"

"What weird fortune teller lady?"

"The one next the pottery stand. We pass by her everyday in the market place. How have you not noticed her?"

"Well normally I'm too busy thinking about how I can keep myself from starving to death, to pay attention to anything that's not food. Anyway, how can this broad help us?"

"She's a fortune teller, she's bound to know all about the weird and the supernatural. Well either that or the desert heat has driven her totally insane. Let's hope for the former."

"No let's hope that the desert heat has driven me totally insane. I can live with being poor, homeless, and hungry. But poor, homeless, hungry, and insane? Oh lord, if it comes to that then death is the only thing left for me."

"I wonder if cats can hallucinate. Maybe I'm the one going insane? What do you think buddy? Am I the crazy one or is it you? Personally I think it's you. Between the two of us, you are the loose cannon."

"Do me a favor, don't talk to me until we meet this fortune teller. Because I'm this close to running off to find the nearest nut house. If we even have those here, and if we do, can I even afford to go there?"

Natsu was sure that he had lost all form of sanity and he wouldn't be blamed for suspecting that. Living on the streets, running around in the blazing hot sun, getting alone scraps for meals. Anyone would snap under those circumstances. But thankfully, Natsu was far from losing his mind. In fact, he was on his way to obtaining a good fortune that was grander than any gold or jewel.