And after all the years of not giving up, his perseverance and determination was awarded.
Many believe in the afterlife, while others believe in the reincarnation of souls, some don't find it true and others just don't care. He too, was once categorized as one of the latter – a non-believer. However, life knows how to play tricks on him. It almost made him crazy.
'Thanks for earlier, my name's Lucy'
'Natsu look! I have the mark of Fairy Tail!'
'You see, stellar spirit mages regards contracts, meaning promises with utmost importance. That's why I'll never break promises'.
Onyx eyes opened up, his forehead full of sweat and he was panting heavily. He brought his large calloused hands to cover his face for a moment before sighing.
"It's that dream again…"
Slowly he stand up from lying, another day has come. His feet drag himself to the bathroom and soon enough he was changing his clothes. He checked his self in the mirror; the once little boy has grown up. Little by little his features were changing. Long slender fingers brush past his salmon locks. He thinks that his hair has gotten longer again that he needed another trim. His jaw has become hardened and a little sign of his Adam's apple appearing on his neck. His height has also been another evidence of his growing up.
Natsu Dragneel may have changed physically, but his personality never did. People loved to come near him, probably because of his friendliness. A lot of his peers commented that he was childish, yet in times of seriousness he can be dependent. He's very loyal towards his friends and of course towards his family. Though many times he fought with Gray – his rival, nonetheless they are friends.
Life for him was always fun, however there were times that he felt himself incomplete – like there was a missing piece in his puzzle.
The teenage boy was eating his breakfast when something brushes his legs, looking down he saw his blue cat looking back at him. His hands tap his lap, signaling for the cat to come up. The cat did, meowing to the boy as a sign of greeting. "Good morning Happy".
Sometimes it may seem weird but he also dreams about Happy, as a talking cat with wings. His mind darted to his dreams; lately he has been seeing things in his sleep. Things that may have been really impossible to happen in real life. They were so clear that he felt he was really on that exact moment.
"Natsu nii-chan we should be going or we'll be late for school" Natsu's thoughts were halted at the sudden appearance of his little sister Wendy. And just the same with Happy, Wendy was also included in his dreams.
Fairy Tail Academy, Fiore's top secondary school. Though the school was situated in a little town called Magnolia, students here were topped notch. Many of them were able to attend good universities after graduating.
The boy's onyx eyes focused on the name of the institution. Even that name was appearing in his dreams.
Whenever he sleeps, Natsu felt that he was always in another world. The place was the same, but the timeline was very different. And every time it occurred another situation took place, it seems to tell him a story – a story that had happened a long time ago.
According to his mental picture; he was a young boy bestowed a power to slay dragons. His powers coming from his father of a dragon. Funny enough the mythical creatures' name was very similar to his father. However, one day, the said dragon suddenly disappeared, leaving him all by himself. Until he met an old man, who leads a place for wizards, which were called guilds. And along with his flying blue cat, the members of the guild became his second family.
'It's always more fun when were together'
'We'll never give up'
'I won't betray everyone's emotion that's why I'll never give up'
"Oi! Flamebutt, what's with that face; looking grumpy so early in the morning" Gray Fullbuster, a raven haired boy shouted at him, unbeknownst to this boy, his clothes are missing one by one. Leaving him bare naked in front of other students, most of them were already used to his ways that they just laugh it off.
The teenage boy's thoughts were suddenly interrupted after hearing the remark from is longtime friend/rival. "Before picking up at someone's face – why don't you pick up your clothes?"
Gray looked down to see that he was indeed naked. Blood rushing to his face, he turned his back to Natsu and started to put back his uniform. And after a couple of minutes he was bickering again with the salmon haired boy.
'Ice and fire! It's no wonder why you don't get along pretty well'
The boys felt a strong force pulling them away from each other, yet they hadn't put so much thought about it. However, they came to a stop when both of them heard the mighty voice of their class representative – Erza Scarlet.
"Natsu, Gray, are you fighting each other again?"
Seeing the stern look from the girls face made the two of them shiver. Without regards to her beauty, Erza is one hell of a scary woman. And despite her strict demeanor, it was still a mystery on how Jellal Fernandez was able to woo her.
'Mom, I met this person called Erza today! She's cool and beautiful'
The sound of the bell saved the boys from the girl's wrath and signaling the other students to go back to their sits for classes will start.
"Ojou-sama do you want one of us to accompany you? We can show you around" A tall, white bearded man softly asks a blonde young lady as she gently sips her cup of tea.
"No Capricorn, I would like to go by myself, anyway thank you for asking" doe brown eyes look towards her butler, her lips gracing a soft smile.
"If that is what my lady wishes then so be it, just please don't forget to call if there is anything" the man replied politely. His tuft of white hair moving slowly while he offered a nod to the lady in front of him.
She is Lucy Heartfilia, heiress of the Heartfilia conzern. This young lady grew up in France but decided to live in her mother's homeland, asking consent from his strict yet loving father Jude.
Her long blonde hair was swaying with the wind as she walks through the busy streets of Magnolia. Happiness was clearly evident on her pretty face. It was actually her first time coming to Fiore, at first her father didn't want her to go, he was afraid that his little Lucy might get sadder after her mother's death. But due to her persistence her father finally decided that it would be best for her daughter to know her mother's hometown.
Due to the town's size Lucy was able to see and visit many landmarks. She was also quite happy that the people of Magnolia are very friendly. Offering her a smile and a little greeting on the way makes her love the place more. It was no wonder that her mother always talks about this little town.
The thoughts of her mother passing away brought sadness to her eyes. She may be 17 years old now, but she wasn't fully recovered by the scars from the past. Her mind goes back to the time when they were together; her mother sharing stories about adventure, friendship and love. Her mom specially loved to tell her about unbreakable bonds – stories which caused her to hope that one day she might be able to find those people and with them experienced what her mother always tells her.
Her thoughts were in the clouds that she didn't know where her legs were taking her, until her eyes set upon a beautiful sakura tree. Lucy's feet moved slowly towards the tree, noticing that there are other trees besides the one she was in front of. They may all be the same, but the one in front of her caught her full attention.
Suddenly, as if struck by an unknown force, the blonde girl sees an image of that very same tree. Colored petals were being blown away by the wind, as the large tree sits itself on a boat and were floating its way in the river. Illuminated by the moonlight, the flowers different hues make it much brighter. It's as if seeing a rainbow in the dark of the night. A rainbow sakura tree.
"Okay class, so here you can see the factors that makes this type of sakura tree emit different shades of colors. As it was generally called rainbow sakura…" Freed sensei continues to explain the topic on the board despite most of the students, especially boys, sleeping in his class.
Natsu always thought that Freed sensei's classes were boring, however he might excuse this one topic just for today. Dark eyes focused on the diagram of a fully grown tree. Its petals were in full bloom. During the day the flowers were normally pink, but when night time comes these flowers changes to different colors – particularly that of a rainbow, thus it was called rainbow sakura.
'Hanami!?'
'I'll go, I'll go, and I'll definitely go!'
'C'mon, Magnolia's rainbow sakura are beautiful right? I always wanted to see them ever since I got to this town'
"Natsu kun, Natsu kun!"
The teenage boy shot his head towards his teacher; the image of a bubbly blonde girl with big brown eyes was long gone. After muttering a short apology, his mind started to wander where these things are coming from. It's really annoying him, sometimes he had this hunch that he had lived before and had died because of an accident. Nonetheless it was too good to be true, these people around him are very similar to the ones he have. The only difference is that in his fantasy they were mages while in reality they were just normal people.
Natsu's head started to ache, soon enough he felt himself falling from his chair…
'I wanted to see you again…Lucy…'
A soft smile graced upon pink lips, was the last image he saw before he was consumed by the darkness…
The skies were dark and oddly enough, the moon which should have a normal bright whitish-yellow was tinted in blood red. Looking around, he felt that the place his seeing had undergone a tragic event. Torn buildings were everywhere along with the rubbles on the ground. His eyes fought its way to find even a single person, amidst smoke and dusts around.
He felt himself moving; he debated on the idea whether it was his mind or his own body moving to its own accord. In the end, he found himself not caring at all.
A very loud sound came out of nowhere, along with a very strong wind force. There in the distance, he saw that a flock of mythical creatures were soaring – dragons. Huge scaled bodies, with wings of enormous sizes were flying towards his direction. Natsu started to panic; he could die any moment if he would not hide somewhere; if there would be any hiding place.
The salmon haired boy started to move when his peripheral vision caught something or rather someone. His dark eyes squinted to adjust its vision.
A few feet away from him, sits a girl with a blond hair which was tied into two pigtails. Her clothes were a little torn and dirtied. She looks like she's in pain or something as her left hand holds her right arm. He saw that the girl's lips were moving yet he can't fathom what she was saying.
The boy felt that he was needed to be beside that girl, to ease what she was currently feeling. Unconsciously, his feet moved while his eyes were still fixed on the blonde. He needed to be with her.
Since his whole attention was focused on the distant girl; Natsu didn't notice that a dragon behind him was fast approaching their direction. Its mouth wide open as the creature begins to breathe enormous flames. The fire going towards the girl's.
Time seems to stop for him, as the place where he is currently standing was engulfed by fire. Fear crawling on his nerves yet not for him, but for the girl's life.
His thoughts were diverted to the sound of someone slurping. Soon enough, the flames which were scattered were now being sucked into one direction.
"Sorry I'm late Lucy"
He thought that his eyes might have been playing tricks on him, because in front of him was an exact image of his self. A teenage boy with salmon colored locks, huge expressive dark eyes and the same built – heck, even the voice was exactly the same.
Realization struck him like a bolt of lightning…
This guy standing in front of him was his past.
Now he was able to fit the pieces of the puzzle. His memories from before were flashing on his mind. The dreams that he has been seeing has now given him the reason on why they are appearing. Those dreams of his were not just a simple fantasy. They were telling him a story and that they really did live before. It was no wonder that his friends were quite familiar to him; Happy, Wendy, Erza, Gray and many others.
His onyx eyes fixed its gaze to the blonde girl.
'But where are you?'
"Bastard, quit being so cocky!" His past, told the dragon. It was amusing to see his self speaking to the mythical creature. "I'm a Fairy Tail wizard, Natsu Dragneel!" the boy brought his fist to collide to his palm; his eyes so intense, it looks so intimidating. The present Natsu saw the red insignia of a bird like image on the deltoid of his past self. A similar insignia on Lucy's right hand, although the difference was that her was pink in color. The boy remembered that in his present time, the symbol was the emblem of the school.
"And I'm a dragon slayer!" as soon as the past Natsu utter those words, the dragons prepared their stance to attack; their wings fluttered widely to carry their own body weight making their enormous body leaning a little backward and opening their mouths to breath-out fire.
The boy un-noticed by the other, stands straight and with admiration looking in his eyes he sees how awesome and brave his past had been. Past Natsu retaliate with full force; attacking with his own fire.
Hours have pass, but the battle continues, neither of them backing out. Even the blonde girl started to fight, siding alongside the dragon slayer. Present Natsu wanted to help, but he couldn't. His presence was just nothing for what he is currently seeing are his memories from the past. He had a thought that this vision appeared so that he can understand his present and probably become a way for him to search for the other girl – his present Lucy.
Unfortunately, all battles must come to an end.