Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or the classic creatures used from D&D.

Word Count: 6,011

Laxus Dreyar was a prideful man. While not as arrogant and prideful as he once was after the Battle of Fairy Tail, he still had a semblance of pride. It was because of this pride that he refused to admit to anyone, even himself, that he was completely and utterly lost in this damn forest. He had zoned out while reflecting on the past few months and what lessons he learned on this road of self-discovery.

Time away from the only world he ever knew had given him a different perspective not only on life but the beliefs he once held. His arrogance and pride had led him down a dark place fueled by anger. He truly believed that he could stop the whispering voices from insulting the guild and acknowledging him as his own person and how just someone's son or grandson. All of those dark feelings had clouded the beliefs his grandfather had once taught him from years long passed. Fairy Tail wasn't a place where the strongest prevailed, but where members can rely on one another for that strength. Everyone had come from a place of darkness and Fairy Tail had offer them a chance to see and feel the light, something Laxus wished he knew before. He had been blessed with probably the best Gramps and a great opportunity to grow in one of the strongest light guilds, despite being so ill. The guild was more of a family to one another compared to what he and his father had, a toxic and almost abusive relationship. With a clear mind and new lease on life, Laxus realized that there were other options, different ways, to make the guild strong, such as training members in what they lacked, such as hand-to-hand combat or strength training. He could have learned some patience and ignored the taunting voices around him. He should have learned the difference between blood relation and family, that bloodties don't always mean everything. He could of learned to let go of the past and look towards the future. He should have trusted and believed in his nakama. There were many things that he could have done but it was past the times of 'could have' and 'should have'.

By the time he finished his reflection, his mind finally caught up with what his eyes were seeing. Laxus was on his way to Alfield, a small open farm village he and the Thunder Legion once visited in passing. With open fields towards the south, the village was flanked by clusters of trees east and northward. A small river ran through the open fields. The reason for his visit was to experience the Hazel Festival. The festival marked the coming of fall and paid respect to the years harvest. Evergreen had always nagged them about not staying for the festival when they passed by since the village was decorated with fall flowers and various stalls of food and games. Laxus thought he could make up to Ever by experiencing it himself and sharing the experience if he ever came back to Fairy Tail.

Currently, the lightning dragon slayer was surrounded by dead flora and almost barren trees. Before zoning out, he was walking a small dirt path with very much alive flora and full trees and wooden fencing along the road that marked the way Alfield. He was pretty sure that it was supposed to be around the afternoon too. Just how long was he in deep thought? There was something off about this path. When traveling through nature, one would typically hear the wind, nearby animals, or even a running brook. Laxus heard none of that. There were no birds and the wind felt almost stale. Walking with caution further into the forest, Laxus caught several faint scents of other humans several feet ahead pass the dead bushes and trees. His grip on the strings of his duffle bag tightened before passing the flora. He was hoping to avoid any trouble on his way to the village but the eeriness of the land didn't sit right with him.

The sight he saw was not one he was expecting. Something had to be wrong with his nose because he only identify several human scents a few feet ago. In front of him was roughly ten to fifteen families huddling together, roughly about fifty people. The women and children were huddled together while the men were holding what appeared to be farming tools. Their focus had been on the dirt road ahead of them but had changed to Laxus once he came into the clearing.

"Stop where you are!" One of the men screamed, pointing his pitchfork towards the dragon slayer. Heeding the demand, Laxus stopped but did nothing else.

"Are you with one of those things?"

"Are you here to kidnap us too?"

"You're not going to get us! Just wait until the Paladin finds us!" Laxus couldn't get a word in as the men with their farming tools started to inch closer. Things? Kidnap? Paladin? He knew he could easily defeat the group but the smell of fear was strong in the air. One woman stood up from the huddled of woman and children and placed her hand on the should of the first man.

"Harold! I don't think he's with them. He doesn't even look like them!" Her words gave pause to the approaching men. After a few seconds of silence, the men looked less tense and lowered their tools.

"What the hell is going on?" Laxus asked the group, both out of curiosity and concern. Something serious must have happened to force a group this large out of their homes. The man he knew as Harold thanks to that lady was the one to answer him.

"I'm sorry for the hostilities. It's just you came at the wrong time." The man had turned his head slightly to the direction he had previously been paying attention to before Laxus had stepped into the clearing. "Our village is currently under attack and we were evacuated from it about an hour ago with no sign that the coast is clear yet." A few seconds of silence settled over the group before an older man chimed in.

"You see, we've been having disappearances for nearly a year. First it was just one or two people a month but then they were disappearing in larger groups."

"Why not hire a wizarding guild to help find the missing people?" With the alarming amount of people missing, Laxus was sure that someone from a neighboring guild was sure to take the job. For sure if the request had been placed at Fairy Tail, Team Natsu would probably be all over the job.

"We are just a poor farming village son." Laxus' eye twitched at the nickname but held his tongue. Now was not the time for his father issues. "A request like that would cost us jewels that we do not have. The kidnappings had increased significantly by the time we could even try to raise that amount. Not to mention that's when the night attacks began."

"They were creatures we've never seen before." A young male teen whispered from beside the old man. "They only came out at the night but they always came in a large group."

"The ones in charged called themselves the Illithid. Nasty looking things. They got a humanoid body but there was no way in heck they were humans. Their heads were kinda like an octopus with four tentacles surrounding mouth. Had these long reddish fingers that were missing a middle finger." Harold described the creature the best he could. "There were several of those bastards. They also had these hulking giants with jutting jaws, a big head, and hulking muscles. For every one of the octopus bastards, there were at least one or two following one."

Laxus had travelled a good portion of Fiore before his excommunication and in all those travels, he had never encountered a creature that would fit the description Harold had provided. What worried him the most was exactly how many of these creatures existed. If each of these illithid monsters had one or two followers, their numbers could possibly be in triple digits. If they were abducting and attacking a small village, what did this mean for the rest of the country?

"Did they say what they wanted?" He needed details in order to come up with some kind of battle plan to help them. The dragon slayer had learned his lesson about humility and dignity. If they needed help, he would answer their call. That's what a mage from Fairy Tail would do.

"They wanted to turn the village into a breeding ground, called us livestock. Had some kind of security perimeter set up around the village to keep us from running. Threatened to kill the ones they abducted if we tried to escape. The octopus bastards would take a group of us during the night once a week and we haven't heard from our people since. There's no way of getting out of the village with those ugly hulking beasts roaming the forests." A few sobs could be heard coming from the huddle of women and children. Several of the men left the defensive circle to comfort them.

Laxus took this moment to gather the information given. People had been kidnapped for the past year in large quantities and only recently did the kidnappers show up with their demands. It was possible that those that were kidnapped were ok but considering they called the villagers 'livestock' was concerning. If these creatures intended to use the village as a spawning ground they chose a good spot. Alfield was a farming village with a water source, making it sustainable. Taking a look around the group, Laxus took note that no one had any injuries on their person. The men were unharmed but did not look physically fit enough to fight off something like a Vulcan. It didn't make sense. That's when he remembered that Harold mentioned something about a 'Paladin' and being evacuated an hour ago.

There were rumors about a paladin roaming the lands of Fiore but Laxus never believed them. Paladins were 'holy knights' that specialized in divinity magic and fought to drive off the forces of darkness. According to history books, they were considered wiped out after the Dragon King Festival. From what he understood, this 'paladin' was travelling from town to town helping the locals with monsters and dark guilds while avoiding larger cities. The Magic Counsel were trying to track the individual down and were having no luck. The only sign that they were even there was the occasional feathers that marked their path. Whenever they caught hint of them, the rune knights were usually too late and the locals had no interest in helping the knights in tracking down the person. Rumors also addressed the individual as 'Fiore's Paladin', never revealing the gender or identity.

"How did you all escape uninjured? I doubt those monsters you described guarding your village would let you through unscratched." It seemed like Harold was going to respond to his question but the woman from earlier that defended him answered.

"She came out of nowhere." She tilted her head downward to the child in her arms.

"Tyler was desperate and wanted to go find the missing villagers. His father was taken a few months ago and his mother and sister were taken just last week." A wail of agony came from the young boy as the woman ran her fingers through his hair.

"So he did the only thing he could do and tried making a run through the guards but he didn't make it far before one of them grabbed him. The whole town was corralled to the center and made to watch as those monsters tried to make an example of him." The woman paused in her explanation as she shifted Tyler into a better position on her lap. An elderly woman next to her picked up from where she left off.

"Before they could hurt him, she appeared from the sky and sliced off the creatures arm that was holding little Tyler. It was like our prayers were answered by the gods themselves."

"We had visitors from other villages before being blocked off. They told us how there was a paladin roaming the lands with only feathers marking their path. At first we thought it was something being told to put travellers mind at ease as they went town to town, but when that woman appeared out of nowhere with feathers, we knew that this had to be the paladin."

"She fought off what she could before making a path for us to escape, yelling that she would set off a signal when the coast was clear. We ran about two miles away from everything and haven't heard from her since." Harolds' grip on his pitchfork tightened. "It's possible she's still fighting them. We heard the sound of a war horn being blown as we ran into the forest."

"By the time we reached the edge of the clearing we saw more of those giant creatures rushing to the town. We don't even know how this signal is suppose to even look like." The look of despair and sadness was on each of the villages. They were mourning for their homes, their livelihoods, and especially their missing loved ones. A sigh slipped out from his lips. So much for avoiding trouble. He was basically running in head first into it like a certain flame-brain.

"A dragon made of lightning will shoot out in the sky. That should be bright and large enough to catch your attention." With that, Laxus shot out towards the direction the men were facing earlier with lightning body. Lightning body made two miles look like child's play.

Reaching the village clearing, Laxus released his lightning body and took in the sight and sounds. A small part of him was irritated because this village was definitely not Alfield. This village was a similar size, if not a bit larger than Alfield, was lacking a river running through the nearby fields, and he would have remembered a leafless, forty foot tree sitting in the middle of the town. There were loud sounds of growls and snarls coming from the center of town. Upon entering the deserted village, the scent of something absolutely purid and blood assaulted his nose. Body pieces of yellow large creatures littered the dirt roads. Laxus came to the conclusion that these were the monsters playing warden to the village. Mixed in with the body pieces were discolored purples and blacks. Upon closer observation, he came to conclude that the purple and black body pieces were the illithid.

The sounds he heard were getting louder and he could now make out the sound of metal clashing and voices.

"Stupid human! Stop moving!" A low, guttural male voice screamed out.

"Standing still would do me no good." A woman's voice echoed like a string of pearly bells through the deserted town. The sound of the male screaming rang out while Laxus' nose was assaulted with a wave of fresh blood.

"Bitch!"

"And? At least I don't fight with all the skills of a trained ape."

"GRAH!"

"I've seen fungi with more charm."

There standing in the middle of town was a large circle composed of both creatures, about eight of the giant creatures and five illithids. The creatures were armed with either a great club with metal spikes or wooden javelins. The illithid lacked a weapon but their hands glowed an eerie purple glow. That's when Laxus saw her, the so called Paladin of Fiore. The woman had long, silky silver hair that was tied in a thick braid accompanied by white feathers. She wore a silver Valkyrie-like suit of armor with golden lining at the heel and top of her greaves. The knees of the greaves and elbows of her gauntlets had a small spike coming out. A sash of white feathers covered her left hip. On her right arm was a round silver shield and she held a double edged sword in her left hand. When his greenish blue eyes met with a strikingly bright sapphire pair, something primal surged through his body.

Protect.

A low, husky voice whispered in Laxus' mind. Before he could even give thought to the command, the woman sprung into action. She ran towards the large creatures whose arm was cut off and proceeded to stab it in the lower abdomen.

"Channel Divinity: Thunderous Smite!" A series of lightning bolts reigned down from the sky striking several nearby creatures as the blade that was embedded in the creature lit up with lightning, effectively electrocuting the beast from within. Once the body fell with a thud, two more of them charged at her. Taking this opportunity to strike, Laxus raise his hand in a punching motion.

"Lightning Dragon's Breakdown Fist!" A large oversized lightning fist shot out towards where the illithid stood. Clearly focused on the woman, they took no notice of Laxus until the attack landed. The attack hit its targets in full force. The two illithid injured screeched back in pain, practically keeling over. Quickly shifting to lightning body, Laxus dashed over to the circle and punched one of the injured illithid with a fist engulfed in lightning. Seeing a new threat, two of the giant-like creatures turned their attention towards him, one running with a raised greatclub while the other threw its' wooden javelin. Sidestepping the javelin, which pierced the chest of the other illithid, Laxus light both of his fists up with lightning before charging in with lightning body.

Teleporting in the face of the one running, Laxus landed two hits on the giants face before zipping behind it to release a series of lightning punches before landing a strong kick to its back, causing it to fly off towards one of the buildings. At this point, the monster that threw the javelin had reached Laxus with its hands clasped together aiming downwards towards him.

"Die stupid human!" Laxus raise his arms up in order to try and block the attack from the nine foot beast when he heard a voice rang out.

"Channel Divinity: Warden!" A white transparent shield surround Laxus. Looking up, once again, greenish blue eyes made contact with sapphire. The woman held a glowing white hand in his direction. The dragon slayer gave the woman a nodded of appreciation, which her returned before their attention was casted on the creature trying to make its way through the barrier.

"I can't hold it forever! There's still a few of them left." The woman shouted as the white glow intensified.

"Take it down. I got this." Laxus made eye contact with hers once more, determination strongly portrayed in his eyes. Unable to argue with him, the woman nodded as she turned her attention to the nearest creature. As the barrier shimmered out of existence, Laxus was prepared to end this.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" A large burst of concentrated lightning and electricity erupted out from the slayer. The damage done by the attack was extensive, destroying large portions of houses in its trajectory. Not only was the creature brought down, but another one of them was caught up in the attack and taken down. A small, nearly unnoticeable smile graced his face. Looks like he hadn't lost his touch since his banishment. The smile quickly disappeared when he remembered that there should be a few more still up and about. However, that didn't seem to be the case.

Standing in the middle of everything, the woman stood victorious with bodies littered around. Her foot rested firmly on top of the chest of one of the last illithids while her bloodsoaked sword was held pointed to its skull.

"I know that you're still connected to the elder brain, mind flayer."

"Then you know you will not get away with this human." The illithid hissed, its voice low and raspy.

"Luckily for me, I had set up runes surrounding the village that interfere with telepathic messages going in and out. Unfortunately for you, there are no reinforcements coming." It hissed out in anger, trying to grasp at her but she just shifted more weight onto its' chest.

"We have more sources of livestock. The colony will flourish and thrive while we feast on the brains of your race." A small laugh passed through her lips at the illithid's words.

"Why do you laugh human? Your -." A grunt of pain stopped it from talking further. She was practically using its' body as a step with the amount of pressure she was using.

"Considering the fact that I've been hunting your specific colony since your arrival in Fiore, I know exactly how far you mind flayers can travel before losing that connection to the elder brain. This was the last town I needed to free before going after your little colony and purging your kind from Fiore."

"Inconceivable! A human like you cann-" The illithid was stopped once more but not from the pressure on its chest. She had stabbed its skull with her sword.

"Enough. I cannot allow your kind to continue to harm the people of Fiore anymore." Taking her foot off of the now dead illithid, she drew her sword from its' skull before flicking it free from the fresh blood.

Laxus couldn't help but stare at the woman in front of him. Despite a hard and difficult fight, her appearance seemed to stay in tack with blood splayed primarily on the breastplate and a few bumps and scratches. Her hair and sash of feathers remained blood free. A streak of blood had dried over her cheek. Upon further examination, he could not smell a hint of her blood spilt meaning that all the blood belonged to the creatures that laid at their feet. She looked radiating with the setting sun glowing through the leafless branches behind her.

"Are you okay?" Her silvery voice snapped him out of his daze.

"I'm fine. What the hell is going on? I got the jist of it from the villagers but it seems like you know more about the situation." The woman's sapphire eyes lingered on Laxus' form before turning attention to the bodies laid strewn behind him. Strapping her sword to her side, the paladin began to kneel down and began to move the bodies of the illithid into a pile.

"Right now we need to burn the bodies. Well, not the ogres, but for sure the mind flayers. If we leave even one of their brains intact, others will come and collect them."

"What's the purpose if they're already dead? What could the living ones possibly use their brains for?" The pile of the newly dubbed mind flayers was growing with every body added. The paladin slowly made her way towards Laxus. As she got closer, the dragon slayer couldn't help but notice details that he would have missed from far away, such as the engravings that were carved in her sword and armor or the way the feathers intertwined within her braid.

"When a mind flayer dies their brain is given to an elder brain. They are considered the heart of a mind flayer colony I guess you can say." She had walked passed him and approached the closest mind flayer, which had collapsed due to Laxus' first attack. Even with his heightened senses, he almost barely registered the swift action of the paladin unsheathing her sword and stabbing the skull.

"Elder brains are held in a vat of briny fluids that consist of all the brains of dead mind flayers in the colony." The mind flayer was hoisted over her shoulder as she approached the one pierced by the javelin. "Mind flayers are a telepathic race and the elder brain serves as their central networking system. The saying goes that 'one mind flayer sees you, and they all see'. If a dead brain is put into the vat, all of its' experiences is shared with the whole colony."

"And I'm assuming that by burning the bodies it'll damage the brain to the point of it's unusable by the colony?" At this point he was beside her, grasping onto the javelin to pull out. Once it was pulled out, he copied her action and stabbed it in the skull before hoisting it over his own shoulder. While killing humans was a taboo in Light guilds, the rules regarding creatures were vague due to the various requests to take out certain beasts harming towns. Having killed a fair share of wyverns and vulcans, whether on purpose or accident, Laxus didn't seem phased in killing these mind flayers or ogres considering the harm they were causing. However, he didn't expect such monsterous creatures to even exist in the first place.

"It's been the best solution I've had so far. It seems that with the combination of them being barely in range of the elder brain and a rune barrier blocking out telepathic messages was a good decision since they were unable to relay my attacks to any mind flayers within five miles." She turned her head towards him, her lips curved in a smile. "You're analyzation of the situation was pretty fast."

"Years of going on missions helped prepare me for that I guess. I wasn't an S-class mage for nothing." He felt a small pang of pain in his heart at his words.

"I have to thank you for the help you provided. Mind flayers are extremely sensitive to bright lights and your lightning was an excellent distraction. Sunlight doesn't do anything because they have special lids over their eyes to block out the sun." The two deposited the last of the bodies in the pile before she raise her hand outward.

"Channel Divinity: Sacred Flames." Bright flames of blues and purples unfurled themselves out of her palm towards the pile. The two stood in silence before the woman let out a squeak. Surprised at the sound, Laxus downwards to see her face covered with her hands.

"What's wrong?"

"I totally forgot to tell the villagers what the signal for 'the coast is clear' was. It'll take forever to find them and bring them back to town! The sun is almost set too!" Her teary eyes peeked out from her hands. Here was a woman who fought, killed, and stared down vicious monsters without batting an eye that was panicking about returning some villagers to town before the sunset. Laxus couldn't hold back a laugh.

"It's not funny you jerk! What if they get attacked?" She glared at the laughing man.

"Don't worry about it. They're only about two miles out and I gave them a signal of my own." Raise his fist to the sky, Laxus created a dragon shaped out of lightning. "Now all we got to do is wait." The smug dragon slayer smirked towards the paladin, who looked at him with deadpan eyes.

"Are you sure they're going to see that?" A little irritated by her questioning, Laxus sent out another dragon, but instead of it appearing and disappearing, the dragon made a dash into the forest.

"It'll find the villagers and alert them. Happy now?"

"Very." The two were quiet before a small laugh came from the woman and a smile curled at Laxus' lips. For the next twenty minutes, the duo worked together to rid the town of the dead, adding any mind flayer pieces to the burning pile. There wasn't anything they could do about the ruined buildings except try and offer some kind of compensation to the villagers for destroying them. The flaming pile of mind flayers had extinguished themselves roughly ten minutes into the clean-up, leaving nothing but a pile of ashes. Satisfied with what they could do in twenty minutes, the paladin and dragon slayer decided to rest at the edge of town so they could catch sight of the villagers as soon as they made it through the forest clearing. The duo felt absolutely exhausted and could go for a bath. The womans' once clean, white appearance now dirtied with blood and dirt. Laxus wasn't faring any better. He had abandoned his traveling cloak and shirt during the cleanup and just wanted to turn in for the night. A nice roaring fire made by the woman was burning brightly between the two. While the silence was nice, Laxus needed answers. This whole day just had too many loose ends to tie up.

"I asked earlier and at this point it's becoming a habit today, but can you just tell me what is going on? I understand that these mind flayers were kidnapping people and trying to turn the villages into essentially breeding grounds for livestock. From just that I can conclude that they are feeding off people but that doesn't explain how creatures like that even exist in Fiore. I've been to many parts of the country and never once heard or seen something like that." If the magic council or the guilds had been aware of such beasts, there could have been preventative measures in place to ensure the safety of the people. Then again, having dealt with the magic council, Laxus knew that all they cared about is saving their asses and not tell the populace in fear of riots and the like.

"My contacts in Seven had reached out saying that there was a migrating ulitharid and its followers on the loose. An ulitharid is considered elite nobility in mind flayer society and have the ability to turn into an elder brain. Only one in a hundred mind flayer tadpoles develop into one. Unfortunately they lost their exact location but from tracking and observing their moving patterns from where they did pass and were spotted, it was clear that they were heading towards Fiore." She shifted her position on the floor, pulling her knees to her chest.

"At the time, I was on a coastal island completely on the other side of the country dealing with an outbreak of carrion crawlers, nasty little buggers. The message didn't reach me until a few month ago, giving them enough time to find and create a lair for the ulitharid to become an elder brain." Her forehead now rested on her knees. While her face was now obscured from his vision, he could smell the salt beginning to form from her. Crap, he wasn't good at dealing with crying women.

"I should have dealt with those carrion crawlers quicker. I could have received the message quicker. I could have prevent the ulitharid in settling down and infecting the nearby villages. I would have saved hundreds of lives that were lost and who knows how many people are still alive in the lair! I cou-"

"Stop it." Laxus interrupted her ramblings. She was doing exactly what he was doing when he was first kicked out of the guild, doubting all the decisions that were made and thinking about a possible future based on those choices that would never happen now.

"The time for 'would of', 'could of', and 'should of' is done and over with. Focus on what you're going to do next to stop more people from suffering." He could hear a few sniffles coming from her direction and continued to speak. "Everything happens for a reason. If you didn't take care of those carrion crawlers properly, I'm sure that the island they were on could have gotten worse. Stop beating yourself up and move forward."

Laxus wished he had someone to talk to him like in the past, a voice of reason in the sea of madness. The least he could do is try and guide her out of whatever darkness she was facing. Looking at her, he couldn't help but think that she looked younger than she did before. Her chin rested on her knees with her arms wrapped around them. It was her eyes that caught him, just like before. They glowed bright but there seemed to be something haunting behind those sapphire jewels.

Comfort.

For the second time today, a low, husky voice growled in Laxus' mind. That made him jump, eyes scanning back and forth trying to figure out where this voice was coming from. The voice itself sounded familiar yet foreign. The last time he could recall hearing it was when his father forcefully implanted his lacrima. His time during the implantation were hazy from all the pain he was under. Laxus was lost in thought of where this voice was coming from and why did it appear now of all times when her pearly bell-like voice echoed in the empty village.

"You're right. I forgot how it felt like working together with someone else and not having just myself to talk to." A small smile appeared on her face. "I'm just really tired I guess and the stress just got to me right now. Being alone does that to a person. Ever since I got that letter I've been tracking them down and gathering as much information that I could before I plan an all out attack. I just came from freeing another village before heading over here" A sigh left her lips before continuing. The fatigue that showed on her face didn't fit her. For all this talk about how powerful this paladin was, she was still one person, still a human being.

"You're not alone anymore." Her face shot up to meet his, shock in her eyes. "So tell me what the plan of attack is."

"I can't ask you to do that! You've already helped enough with the ogres and mind flayers here and getting the villagers."

"Well you're not asking, I'm demanding and don't think about sneaking out of town. I'll be able to find you." His eyes were full of confidence and determination. "And if we're going to be partners in this plan I'm going to need to know your name. Can't exactly call you 'woman' or 'paladin' all the time. Would be a bit weird after awhile." She let a huff escape her lips.

"The same can be said about you stranger."

"Feisty. Keep that up and I'll call you kitten." Her eyes slipped down into a glare.

"Don't you dare Sparky." If Laxus had met her before the Battle of Fairy Tail, he would have probably shocked her for such a nickname but she looked more relaxed during their small banter. Before he could respond, his eyes were drawn to the forest clearing. Several lights were burning through the clearing and the familiar scent of the villagers broke through. The paladin also caught sight of the lights as she stood up with a smile.

"They're back! Your little lightning trick worked!" Laxus' eye began to twitch for the second time today. There seems to be a lot of repeating actions on this day. Unlike the first time, he did not hold his tongue back.

"Little? Trick? Same can be said about your height kitten. How old are you even?" She barely reached his chin in height.

"Don't call me kitten! I have a name and I'll have you know I'm 23." Her back was towards him with her gaze still resting on the returning villagers that began entering through the forest clearing. It was Laxus' turn to stare at her with deadpan eyes. No way kitten was a year younger than him.

"And what would your be, oh great Paladin of Fiore?" Tilting her head towards him, her lips curled into a smile as her eyes met his once again.

"Leona. My name is Leona, the Paladin of Fiore. And you?."

'Brave as a Lioness. I guess kitten really does fit her.' Laxus though before introducing himself.

"Laxus. Just Laxus." He wouldn't be tied down to the Dreyar name, his grandfather's, nor Fairy Tail. He can be 'Just Laxus' in this moment right now.

Everywhere the paladin went...