Chapter Text
The constant destruction of Fairy Tail had left its library, both magical and regular, deprived of new additions. It was during the time when the next generation began to be born and grow up that the guild remained intact for a long period; this unexpected peace allowed them to build up a large collection of books for the first time in a long while.
A large percentage of what they had, in fact, were books donated by the residents of Magnolia. No one in the guild turned them away because, sooner or later, every book would serve a purpose.
One afternoon in Magnolia, Nasha came across one of those books. It was one of those rare days when the building was quiet and the children lingered there, waiting for their parents to return; the thing was, the little girl had a very clear mission: Lucy’s birthday was coming up, and she wanted to find a gift that would put a huge smile on her mom’s face.
After rummaging around for quite a while, her fingers brushed against a small book with a navy blue leather binding. As she pulled it out and dusted it off, the title appeared: “A Princess Trapped”.
Nasha smiled from ear to ear. She sat down on the rug, crossed her legs, and nestled the book between her knees. Thanks to Lucy’s reading lessons, she could handle complex words pretty well, so she was sure she could figure out if this story was the perfect gift for her mom.
She opened the first page and began. At first, the story was wonderful. It described a beautiful princess who lived in a huge palace, surrounded by luxury, but who felt terribly lonely and trapped by her father’s strict rules.
“She’s just like mom before she ran away from home,” she murmured, feeling an instant connection with the main character. “It seems I got lucky.”
“Lucky with what?”
The girl looked up and found herself face-to-face with Greige and Justin. Greige had his head tilted in a gesture of genuine curiosity; Justin, on the other hand, remained composed.
“Hey, what are you guys doing here?”
“Looking for you,” Greige replied. “Yajeh and Shutora sent us.”
That statement made Nasha raise an eyebrow, intrigued.
“Since when do you guys listen to the twins?”
“Since we lost at rock-paper-scissors,” Justin explained, with obvious regret in his voice. “But we can tell them you’re busy with something.”
“I really am, Ju!” Nasha shrieked. She was annoyed that they’d interrupted her reading. “If I want to give my mom a book as a gift, I need to know if it’s fun.”
“Do you think Aunt Lucy needs books?” Greige exclaimed. “I thought she and Aunt Levy already had plenty.”
“Yeah, I know, it’s just that…”
Fortunately, any further comments were cut short when Justin simply tugged at Greige and told him they couldn’t linger. Nasha quickly gave her friend a thumbs-up and was grateful that he’d inherited some of aunt Erza’s knack for “dragging someone away.”
Once she made sure she was alone, she settled back in and resumed her reading. The story got exciting when it began to describe the appearance of a colossal dragon with red scales, fire-breathing breath, and strength capable of shaking mountains with a single flap of its wings.
“It’s dad!” she said proudly, puffing out her chest.
To her, there was no creature in the whole world cooler than a dragon. Her dad had magic and had been raised by one, so she assumed without a doubt that the dragon in the story was the hero. She couldn’t wait to read about how the dragon and the princess became an inseparable team as they traveled the skies of the world.
However, as she turned the pages, the story seemed to take a different turn. There was no mention of friendship, freedom, or shared adventures; the text spoke only of “the ruthless beast” and the “tears of pain from the poor, helpless damsel.”
Nasha frowned, puzzled. She couldn’t understand why the princess would cry about being with the dragon. It was true that her parents sometimes fought, but she’d never heard her mom say that her dad was ruthless.
“This is weird,” she said, briefly suspecting that maybe this wasn’t the right story. “Oh, right! Maybe it’s that ‘dramatic moment’ mom says stories need.”
Hoping that the part where the dragon was described as a cruel creature and the princess as a victim would end soon, the girl kept reading. Disappointment hit her head-on when a knight in shining armor and with a blessed sword climbed the mountain; the story presented him as the hero of the tale.
That was when the tragedy struck. The dragon fought to protect his home, but the knight’s blade pierced him. Cruelly, the pages celebrated the creature’s death, detailing how the gleam of his scales faded and how his last breath of fire died out.
Meanwhile, the princess, relieved, fell into the knight’s arms to return with him, marry him, and live “happily ever after.” The page was accompanied by an illustration: a bleeding dragon lying on the ground, its gray eyes lifeless, while a man in shining armor raised his sword toward the sky in a gesture of victory.
Nasha was taken aback, her eyes fixed on the page. At that very moment, an icy chill ran through her, and a memory struck her: her mom’s nightmare, in which she was married to a man who wasn’t her dad and who wouldn’t let her write.
Although her mom had insisted that she was feeling better now, and Nasha trusted blindly that her dad would find a way to make her smile, a terrible thought took root in the little girl’s mind. In books, the knight always rescued the princess from the dragon. And the only way to do that was if the dragon died.
A tear rolled down Nasha’s cheek, falling onto the drawing of the defeated dragon. Her crying soon turned into uncontrollable sobbing as she clutched the storybook to her chest.
“No, I don’t want that…” she murmured, her voice breaking, “I don’t want my dad to…”
One floor below, the doors to Fairy Tail swung open, and Natsu shuffled in, exhausted from a grueling mission. He was about to bellow his usual loud greeting, but he stopped short. His nostrils flared. Above the smell of beer, food, and sweat from the guild, the air carried the subtle yet unmistakable scent of his daughter’s tears from the upper floor.
Without saying a word or greeting anyone, Natsu crossed the hall, climbed the stairs, and pushed open the library door, planting himself in the hallway in a tense, combat-ready stance.
“Nasha?”
Nasha looked up. Her face was streaked with tears, her nose was red, and she was clutching a book to her chest. Upon seeing her dad, the little girl began to cry even harder, letting out a heart-wrenching wail that finally broke the silence of the room.