Chapter 2
The first thing Erza noticed when she woke up was that her head hurt. It felt like a hundred vulcans were taking turns in pounding her cranium into dust. In fact, forget her head, pretty much every inch of her body felt that way. Every thought felt like a dagger was stabbed her, she didn't want to imagine how it would feel if she opened her eyes and let the light in.
She probingly opened a sliver of her eyelids and slammed them shut immediately. Yep, the light hurt. Gods, it was almost like when she had a drink out with the girls. If that was the reason why she had such a headache then Erza just hoped she didn't make such a mess again, last time Lucy had not looked her in the eyes for weeks.
Till now though, she did not understand why. She had just undressed her and massaged some hot wax on her back, then made her do some exotic dancing. Nothing worth her getting so weird about it.
Teeth gritted, Erza forced herself to sit up without opening her eyes yet. That simple effort took two tries, her spine and organs protesting moving at all. But she wasn't a quitter, so with a loud gasp she finally found herself upright, feeling dizzy from moving too fast. Each breath felt like needles were poking her lungs. Moving even a little had her limbs aching horribly. But she could move.
Erza was starting to suspect she wasn't waking up from a hangover. This time when she opened her eyes went like the last attempt, but she fought through it, groaning as she took in the world around herself. Everything was a weird mess of shrill yellow, brown, green and gray with some specks of black mixed in. Just trying to look around made her feel dizzy on top of her growing cranial pain, causing her to fall back on her bed, while trying fruitlessly to get her eyes used to the surroundings.
That was when she realized two things. One this wasn´t her bed -being hard and rough instead of the wonderful softness she was used to- and two, she was completely naked.
"Huh, that's odd." She croaked, surprised at how scratchy her throat felt. She thought she'd remember being in full armor before, so what happened to her outfit? Surely she didn't strip herself, so how…
Erza shook her head. That was for later. For now she blinked the spots out of her vision, so she could find out who's bed she was in. This one definitely wasn't hers.
Her vision cleared, bringing the room into focus. Around her was a bedroom, one she didn't recognize; it was smaller than her own, with the bed taking up a lot of the available space. Dimming orange light streamed from a small window. A large drawer was the other thing in her sight, a plain wooden thing topped by a weird little shrine she never saw before: there were a couple daggers forming a little tent around a woman's statue, a warrior she assumed based on the armor and outstretched sword.
There was more in the room beside that, like the shelves over the door holding knickknacks. Things like odd looking stones, several kinds of knives, pendants and sigils, and over the door a spear in good condition. But that shrine kept her attention. It wasn't any god or demon she recognized, what could she be?
Shuffling on the floor had Erza draw back, regretting it instantly when a wave of needly aches slammed into her. She hadn't entirely fought off the nausea when a mass of blankets she overlooked was flopped to the side, and a man rose with a groan. He had a sun baked complexion, dark haired and decently handsome, at the moment wearing a plain nightgown.
The man turned to her and opened his mouth, but immediately whipped around with red blooming on his cheeks. "Um, my lady. You're, uh, awake."
"I am." Erza agreed, relieved that she could understand him. "Who are you, and where am I?"
"I, erm, I am Raffaelo Grimaldi. I am a, uh, a priest. I… can you please cover yourself?" He strained out, covering his eyes.
"Why? Is there something wrong?" Erza peered at her body: everything looked to be in the right place.
He coughed. "You're, uh, naked."
"I know. Do you know where my armor went? I seemed to have misplaced it." She looked around again for her gear, finding nothing.
"Your armor, ah, was ruined. I had… had to peel it off. When I brought you to my home." He said the last part quickly.
"Ruined? How?" Erza leaned closer in spite of a stab of pain in her gut. Somehow he sensed her presence well enough to space himself an equal distance.
"You fell? From the sky." His throat bobbed, and next he spoke he pleaded. "Please, at least use the sheet."
With a huff, Erza yanked up the blanket to her collarbone, grunting an affirmative note. The man, Raffaelo, hesitatingly opened his hand, and when he saw her he dropped the limb with relief.
"Thank you. I am sorry for not giving you one of my nightgowns, but I had to dress your wounds." He still blushed.
"Wounds? You helped me?" Erza felt her suspicions subside. She didn't trust him whatsoever, but she felt he wasn't holding her captive.
Raffaelo nodded fast. "Three days ago you fell from the sky on my way home, you left a huge crater by the road. You didn't look like you were going to live, miss…"
"Erza Scarlet, of Fairy Tail. I thank you for helping me Mister Grimaldi." She gave a perfunctory bow that forced her breath out, but frowned for more than just pain. She didn't remember fighting anything tough enough to lay her out this badly, not recently. What had she gone up against to cause this?
Raffaelo cleared his throat and stood up fully, moving to the door. "I'll go fetch you something. Do you want food or water? You must be famished."
"Some water please." Erza nodded, watching him leave. When the door closed (without a latch she noticed), she flung the sheet aside and grimaced, swinging her legs to the bedside. Needles and creaks strong enough to make her wince followed every move, yet she pressed on.
Standing up was so simple, yet took so much effort. Erza wasn't sure if she actually could, but she had to try; with a gasp her feet landed on the wood floor, growing worse the more weight she put on them. That was bad, which led to problem two: her balance was gone. Picking up her head left Erza woozy, her feet felt as if they would slip out from under her. She had to grab the frame to stabilize herself, teeth gritted from strain.
Upon finally standing up, free from the bed's embrace, Erza felt like pumping a fist in victory. But if she did she would find herself hitting the floor in no time, forcing herself to wait until she was steadied first. A minute of listening to birds outside and Raffaelo opening cupboards nearby passed before she felt ready enough.
Light engulfed her body, Requip magic doing what it was supposed to. Only this time it was slower, more effort intensive than she was accustomed to. Like she was wading through water instead of air. That gave her pause when the light dispersed, just in time for Raffaelo to open the door.
"Miss Scarlet, you shouldn't…" he paused, a platter of bread and a cup in hand shaking a little when she met his confused gaze. He had put on some plain white robes and combed his hair, making himself presentable.
"Oh, this. My requip magic." Erza explained, flinching in pain when she tried to tap her breastplate.
"I'm sorry, requip 'magic?'" He repeated dumbfoundedly.
Grunting from effort, Erza managed to cross the room in a semi dignified stagger so she could snatch the mug first. She needed water more than food, though her stomach growled. After draining it in one gulp she nodded.
"Yes, I'm a wizard." She explained.
While in some places wizards were thin on the ground, generally very few people she ever met were ignorant of magic. It may not have been common, but to one extent or another everyone knew something about wizards.
So when Raffaelo took a step back with visible fear, Erza felt confusion. "You're, you are a wizard? But…"
"I understand if you never personally met one before today. But I'm no more dangerous than any other." She downplayed it; boasting of her strength could come later, when she could back up her words.
"You can't be. You're, uh, I don't know of any magic like that. It's nothing like the simple spells I know." He looked as dumbfounded as she suddenly felt.
"If you can cast spells, then you are a wizard too." Erza raised a brow when she shook his head.
"No, I am not a mage. My abilities aren't due to wild magic, I can only use what the blessed lady Myrmidia has bestowed upon me." He raised his hands non threateningly, a glow forming in his palms as he whispered something under his breath. He held out the glow to her without stopping, and when it touched Erza her many aches faded away. But only for that part, the rest of her body still felt like something chewed her up and spat her out.
Erza raised a brow when he stopped, finishing his mumbling to tip his head; he did say he was a priest, but this definitely wasn't like the kind she was used to. And the goddess he mentioned…
"Mister, or should I say Father Grimaldi." Only now was it dawning on her that something about this house felt off to her. The place was rustic, but that didn't add up to the other things he mentioned. "Who is Myrmidia?"
"You don't know?" Raffaelo's brow raised. "Lady Myrmidia is one of the gods of this land. She guides us in our lives, teaches us to live honorably and justly. To those who beseech her aid for a noble cause, she is willing to help."
"And… What are these lands? I fear I may be a long way from home." A pit in her stomach formed, growing heavier no matter how much she quashed the feeling.
"Here? We are near the city of Magrilano. It is a few hours walk away, but I undertake the journey without complaint. Where are you from?" Raffaelo asked, still looking uneasy and confused.
"The Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia specifically. Do you know of it?" Erza dearly hoped the answer was yes, as she didn't recognize the names he gave her.
"I… no." He shook his head, inadvertently giving strength to her stomach pit.
Clearing her throat, Erza took a wincing step back. "I apologize, I need to step outside for a moment."
"I, ah, very well." Raffaelo frowned, leading her into a quaint yet definitely rustic home. It wasn't a large one, so they didn't go far to a thick wooden door. He swung it open for her, and Erza was through before he could protest.
One step, then two. Erza paused, taking in a scenic plain that possessed a few rolling hills topped by trees, lacking signs of habitation aside from a few unpaved roads, with warm weather that felt more like southerly lands. The sunset bathed the whole landscape in a pleasant orange glow. Definitely not Fiore.
A sharp gasp whipped her around, ignoring the stabbing pain everywhere to see why Raffaelo was alarmed. Only to be confused by him staring into the sky, visibly horrified; under his breath he whispered more of what she presumed was prayer. Following his gaze, her own throat clenched.
There were two moons in the sky. One was smaller than the real one, thin and wispy as daytime moons usually were, hugging the horizon opposite of the departing sun. But the other: not only was it larger than its brother, it was also a sickly green, the patterns on the surface making her skin crawl. It was bright enough that she strongly suspected it was emitting its own light.
Without meaning to she unclenched her jaw, feeling revulsion that wasn't due to her injuries. It looked like a sore on the sky, made worse by it going straight up instead of following the other, as if it were trying to take over the sun's territory now that it was leaving.
"Blessed Myrmidia, Morrslieb is out before the night. That, that's never happened before." Raffaelo muttered in terror. "This is a bad omen, oh it is a bad omen."
Erza swallowed a lump. "I don't think I'm in Earthland anymore."