Author's Note: Sorry for the wait, I've been extremely busy with work and Christmas stuff. It looks like Snow Day is going to continue further, but instead of being in the same story it is going to be in a sequel and this is the first chapter of the sequel. As always thank you for all your support, reviews, encouragement, advice, etc. Please keep it coming, I like to hear what you guys think. I don't own anything everything goes to Hiro Mashima. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
It was the day after Christmas and Lucy, Happy, and Natsu were on a train headed for a far off village called Hakensdale. The train ride itself was five hours in good weather, but due to all of the recent snow, the ride was slow goings.
"Ugggg….how close are we to the village?" Natsu moaned. He was looking very green and had his head resting on Lucy's lap, trying to steady himself.
"We are a little over halfway there, but we still have some ways to go." Lucy informed him while playing with his hair, hoping to sooth him into sleep so that he had some relief from his motion sickness.
"But we've been traveling for four hours now!" Natsu whined. "Shouldn't we be almost there by now?"
"With all the bad weather, the trains are running slow and it doesn't help that the village we are traveling to is kinda out of the way. I'm surprised that we can take a train all the way there at all. Why don't you try to get some sleep? That might help you feel better."
"I'll…"Natsu was cut off by a gag, after he composed himself a bit he continued. "I'll give it my best shot."
"Let me know if I can do anything to help you." Lucy offered.
"Could you keep playing with my hair and kneading my head? That is helping a lot." Natsu looked up at her and smiled.
"Of course." She smiled back at him. "Now try to get some sleep." She kissed his forehead and he closed his eyes. Much to her happiness, he began to snore after ten minutes.
"You like him!" Happy cooed quietly, doing his best not to wake his sick friend.
"Yes I do." Lucy smiled. It felt so good to admit this out loud, but to be honest, nothing much has changed yet except for the exchange of kisses every so often. Granted, they barely had been dating a day, but it was comforting to see that they were still so easy together now that they were a "thing". Even before yesterday's events, Lucy would have done this for Natsu if he would have asked her to. Lucy looked down at Natsu's sleeping form and felt her heart leap. She was thrilled and now they were currently on their way possibly find Igneel. The rocking of the train began to sooth her too, and eventually, Lucy gave in to her drooping eyelids and fell asleep.
After what felt like minutes later, Lucy woke to an announcement over the intercom that the train had arrived at the Hakensdale station. She looked over to find that both of her companions had fallen asleep too. Lucy gently nudged Natsu and Happy awake, helped grab what little luggage they had brought with them, and lead her teammates off of the train.
Now that Natsu was no longer on a moving vehicle, he was bouncing off the walls with energy and excitement. He kept looking all around them as they walked to the client's house to accept the job. Lucy could see how excited he was to be in a new place, to see the shops, smell the food and possibly find his father. Needless to say, Happy was following his lead and exploring as they went, careful not to get lost. Soon they arrived at the client's house and knocked on the door.
"Hello?" Lucy called. "We are members of the Fairy Tail guild here to accept a job about a possible dragon living in some caves near the village."
After a moment of hesitation, the door opened to reveal a short, plump man with grayish-purple hair.
"Well hello there! I am Mayor Plum. You arrived just in time, please come in." Mayor Plum stepped aside and held the door for them to enter. He led them down a hall way into what looked like a study. "Please sit." He motioned to some chairs. "Can I get either of you anything to drink? Coffee, tea, water?"
"No thank you Mayor Plum." Lucy declined politely and they Mayor sat down. "Can you tell us when the trouble began Mr. Mayor?"
"It was about two weeks ago. One of our farmers said he had seen smoke coming from one of the caves on the outskirts of town. He assumed it was some kids playing in the caves and didn't think anything of it, but after he kept seeing smoke coming out of the caves for a few days he went up to investigate what was going on. He wasn't sure if someone was injured and stuck in the caves, if some dark guild had moved into the area, or what was going on, so he decided to investigate. Supposedly when he got to the outside of the cave, he heard a low rumbling and felt an intense heat coming from the cave. The farmer went into the cave and he only got about 20 feet in before he saw a dragon. Or so he said." The Mayor huffed and then sighed.
"We all thought the farmer had lost it, but he insisted on what he saw and wouldn't shut up about it. So I had the farmer lead a couple of the town's soldiers to the cave to look into what was going on. When they got there they reported the same abnormal phenomenon. The soldiers went into the cave and came face to face with the dragon that the farmer was going on about. Luckly, my soldiers made it out safety and even got a couple shot in on the dragon, but since then we've had to ban any farming that took my people to close to the caves. My town depends on farmed crops to make a living and if we can't farm, my people will starve."
The Mayor all but pleaded to the three of them. "Can you help us get rid of the dragon?"
Before Lucy could even cut in to accept his plea Natsu stood up and got really close to the Mayor.
"We will take the job, but only on certain conditions. One: we just have to get rid of the dragon, in other words, we have to get it out of the area. We will only kill it if we have to. Two: we go on this mission alone, other than having someone lead us to the cave. Three: unless given the command by us, you will not attack the dragon. Am I clear, Mr. Mayor?" Natsu nearly shouted at the end causing the Mayor to cower. Lucy was confused on why Natsu was so angry, but she allowed him to take care of this, after all, he knew the most about dragons between the two of them.
"Yes, sir." The Mayor squeaked.
"Good. Then we accept the job. Come one Luce. Let's go." Natsu reached for Lucy's hand so they can leave, but Lucy stopped him to bring up her own questions for the Mayor.
"Before we leave, we need to know the name of the farmer and where we can find him. Can you give us that information? Also can we speak to the soldiers who were sent to the cave that day?"
"Yes, you can speak to anyone you need to and can access whatever information you need. Just please help us get rid of this dragon." The Mayor pleaded again as he wrote down the contact information about the farmer and the soldiers.
"We will." Lucy stood and shook the Mayor's hand. "Thank you for all you help sir. We will let you know if we need anything else."
"No problem. Good Luck." The Mayor responded, but then shrunk back from Natsu's glare.
As soon as they were out of the Mayor's house and out of ear shot Lucy then turned to Natsu.
"Ok, what's up? What happened that you were so harsh to the Mayor?" Lucy asked, doing her best to be patient and understanding with him.
"They attacked a dragon who was living peacefully until some nosy people began bothering it. It could be Igneel that they attacked. The dragon I knew would not have tried to hurt people, and I don't think Metalicana or Grandeeney would have tried to hurt someone either. It makes me angry." Natsu's hands were clenched and he glared at the ground. He only began to relax when Lucy put her arm on his shoulder to calm him.
"It's ok. I understand. That's why I got the information about the people involved. I want to ask them what happened. Not only to try and figure out who the dragon is, but to get a description and so that we are prepared for whatever comes our way." Lucy took his hand and squeezed it. "It will be ok. Why don't we get dinner and find an inn since it's getting late. We can start our investigation tomorrow."
Natsu smiled at Lucy and nodded.
"That's a good idea. Let's go get food Luce!"
Later that night, after checking into an inn and eating, Natsu and Happy fell asleep quickly, but Lucy wasn't so fortunate. She was kept awake with thoughts about what they were about to possibly face. What if there is no dragon, but an illusion created by a dark guild? What if it is a dragon? What if it isn't Igneel, but a malevolent dragon? What if it is Igneel, but he is no longer the kind dragon who had raised Natsu?
So many thoughts bounced around her head, and she couldn't tell Natsu any of them. As it is he had his hopes set so high, that Lucy couldn't bear the thought of hurting him with her fears. She could only have faith that no matter what came their way, they would be able to get through it. Finally, after hours of tossing and turning, Lucy fell into a worried sleep.