Trapped in The Labyrinth

Chapter Four: Shadows Can Be Scary

Shadows Can Be Scary!

-Gajeel, Levy and Happy-

Gajeel groaned as something poked him repeatedly in the side. Flipping over, he swatted away the thing and tried to go back to sleep. But the thing kept poking him until he muttered, "Pantherlily, stop poking me! Give me five more minutes!"

"I think Gajeel bumped his head when he fell," A familiar voice said. Gajeel cracked one eye open, then the other. Instead of being in his bed at home, he was in a smelly old cave with Salamander's cat and Bookworm. Oh fucking great.

"Gajeel, are you okay?" Gajeel turned around to see that Levy was sitting next to him with concerned eyes. He grumbled a response and stood up. Levy followed suit and Happy jumped onto her shoulders.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Happy asked, worried that Natsu would do something stupid and endanger everyone and everything down here.

"Well, there are three tunnels in front of us, so we should pick one and go that way," Levy suggested. Everyone nodded in agreement, and picked a tunnel.

"Right!" Happy yelled in excitement of getting a say.

"Left!" Levy screamed.

"Center!" Gajeel bellowed. They all stared at each other for a moment, waiting for someone to cave in. This continued on for several minutes, until the guys eventually gave up to Levy's pleading eyes. Thus they hiked down the steep left passage-way, not knowing it would lead them to trouble.

-Erza, Jellal, Juvia, and Gray-

As soon as Erza landed on the pavement, she checked to see if everyone else was okay. They had no broken bones or anything, so Erza immediately jumped into business mode.

"Jellal," She said with a little blush touching her cheeks, "Check to see if there are any passage-ways that lead to the outer world around this area."

"Yes, Erza." Jellal said, also with a pinkish blush tinting his cheeks. After a few seconds of staring at each other, Jellal finally proceeded to find the exits.

"Gray, see if you can find anything to light these torches up so we can see better," Erza stated, pointing at Gray with one of the torches.

"Okay Er- Wait, where did you get those?" Gray asked, not even remembering her making torches.

He got a menacing glare from her, and she replied, "Are you disobeying orders, Gray?" Her figure started to glow a dark purple, and Gray regretted asking her a question.

"N-no, no! Of course not E-Erza!" Gray stumbled and began to look around in the debris that had fallen from the surface, and then ventured into one the many tunnels surrounding them.

"Juvia, I want you to help Gray and search for something too." Erza ordered the water mage, whose face began to glow like a red Christmas light.

"Gray-sama and Juvia, alone in a dark cave?" Juvia squealed. She almost fainted from excitement if the ex-quip mage had not scared her into her senses.

"Juvia..." Erza trailed off, her eyes glowing red, "What are you waiting for?" Juvia almost melted into a puddle of water from the red haired mage's heated stare.

"Y-yes, Erza-san! J-Juvia is going now!" Juvia responded as she scampered off to help Gray.

For a few minutes, Erza was alone, making new torches. Then footsteps echoed across the walls and she turned to find Jellal back, looking rather distressed.

"These tunnels are confusing," he reported, "It seems as if they shift to make new tunnels. I almost had a hard time getting back here."

I see... This must be the power of the Labyrinth..." Erza trailed off. There was an uncomfortable silence before Erza said, "Jellal, listen... I-I'm sorry about... what happened earlier..." Erza stopped when Jellal pulled into a hug. He then pulled back, leaving only a few inches between their lips.