As always, I do not own Fairy Tail, the characters of Fairy Tail, or the locations of Fairy Tail, aside from those I pulled from my head.
Please leave reviews about this story. I have had this idea in the works longer than I had the idea of Back From Legend. I am anxious to see if this story in particular works out better than the other one. I also want to say that I probably won't be going back to my other story, as it reminds me of the reasons that I stopped, and that brings up bad memories. It will be a few years at least before I go back, if I do.
I HAVE UPDATED THIS CHAPTER. Nothing much, just changing a few sentences, fixing mistakes that I noticed, etc.
In a remote mountain range hundreds of miles from the nearest town, resided a small village, surrounded by a large forest and the mountains that enclosed the forest. In this village lived a relatively small amount of people, less than 500. It was a village that had very few outsiders living in it, mostly due to its remote nature and harsh mountains surrounding it, and thus had a very strong, yet old culture. Many of the villagers were competent warriors, due to the dangerous monsters that lived in the forest and mountains.
Thanks to the height of the mountains, many of which stretched over two miles tall, there was little to no trade with other towns. The small village relied solely on the caravan that it ran, which went nearly year round, to stay in touch with the outside world and stay in up to date with what was happening there. To say that the town would die out if the caravan were to stop operating is a great exaggeration. With many creaks and a few rivers, as well as the plentiful supply of wood that it had at its disposal, and the many other natural resources found in the forest, the village would easily be capable of surviving for decades without interaction with the outside world.
It was near this village, full of skilled warriors and craftsmen that a small boy of almost three years was running around in a clearing while his mother watched from the shadow of the trees. She had been observing her son as he explored the world for a little over an hour now. The only sour point of her life was that her sons third birthday was rapidly approaching, or so she believed. Only four more days left to enjoy the life that she had brought into the world. The woman looked up as her husband entered on the other side of the clearing. Her eyes were glued to his frame as he stuck to the shadows so as to not draw the attention of their son. As he neared, he held out his arms, offering an invitation.
Knowing what he was feeling, for she was also feeling those very same emotions, she readily accepted, entering his embrace and wrapping her arms around his torso. After a few seconds of enjoying his warmth, she unwrapped her arms from around him and twisted in his embrace so that she faced their child once more.
"Is there still no news?" the woman asked, looking up at her husband. He looked down at her with eyes full of sadness. After several moments of staring into her eyes, he slowly shook his head.
"No one has heard anything since the incident." He said, looking out to their child.
"Maybe he won't come. Maybe he has forgotten." Said the woman, hope filling her heart once more.
"I would not count on it." The man said, his arms tightening around the waist of the woman he held. "Dragons are not known for having poor memory."
"But why!" The woman cried, removing herself from the arms of her lover to turn and look at him. "Why would a dragon come to our small village? Why would it demand the life of our baby?"
The woman, unable to hold in her emotions any more, fell to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks. The man kneeled down on the grass, wrapping his arms around his wife, her head resting on his shoulder and her nails digging into his back, but he didn't mind. He knew her feelings exactly. If he could, he would go on a rampage, smashing rocks and cutting a swath through the forest until he reached the dragon's cave, but he knew it would be pointless. He was a skilled swordsman. Many, if not all, would call him a master of the sword, but in the end, it didn't matter. Anyone who knew nothing still knew one thing, that beings descended from magic itself could not be killed without magic. And thus the reason his blade stayed in its scabbard. For all his skill with a blade, he knew not an ounce of magic. In fact, there was not a single person in the entire village that knew even basic spells. If he went and challenged the dragon that wanted to claim his son, it would only end with his death, if he was lucky.
Depending on how the dragon felt however, the dragon would kill all the villagers except his wife, due to his challenge. That was the second reason the man did not challenge the beast. He would, under no circumstances, leave his wife to raise a child alone, in the middle of a ghost town. It would be bad enough raising a child, knowing that it was destined to be taken from her, but to do so surrounded by the corpses of her friends and neighbors. She was having a difficult time as is, with the child, but to live in a ghost town too would break her.
Eventually, his wife cried herself to sleep. The man looked over at his son, who had stayed in the clearing for the last half hour, not realizing his mother's tears, and the man noticed that his son was looking rather tired himself. Looking up to the sky, he registered that he had been gone for far longer than he thought, as the sun was almost touching the horizon. Calling out to his son, the man lifted his wife up, settling her in his arms bridal style. He began to walk in the direction he believed to be his home, still unused to the woods, since he had only lived in them for about four years.
Every now and then the man looked back to make sure his son was still behind him. Even after years, the man still felt the most magical thing about the wood was the fact that even people who lived in them their whole lives still managed to get lost, but not due to poor memory. Markings on the trees disappeared or seemed to move after not even a day. Put an arrow on a tree next to a river and the next week, the same arrow, carved into the tree was now pointing the other direction and was next to a rock, no river in sight. Searching for his lost son in these woods would be a nightmare, as no landmarks were trustworthy, distance to places were oddly long or short, and it was easy to be distracted unintentionally. One could have complete and utter focus on reaching a pillar of smoke and four hours later find that they had been going the wrong direction.
But what truly frightened him about the woods was that it was too easy to forget things. A person could run into the forest, intent on getting revenge on someone that killed their family, but after not even a hundred steps they would have entirely forgotten the reason for entering the strange woods. Even worse was the fact that staying in them too long could even erase whole memories. It was not a quick thing, taking weeks to even begin happening, but it was permanent. None of the memories lost were ever reclaimed, devastating the families involved.
The man looked back as he reached his humble abode, where he and his family lived. Checking that his son was still behind him, the man struggled to open the door, as his sleeping wife was still in his arms. After finally getting the door open, he brought his wife through the living room and into the hallway, heading to the bedroom at the end of it. Once he had placed his wife into the bed, he went to the living room to look for his child. His search was quickly relocated though after he heard a noise in the kitchen. The man entered to find his son covered in flour and sitting on the floor. Sighing, he walked over to his child, kneeling down to rub the flour off of the boy. After several minutes, the child was finally clear of most signs of flour. Resting his hand on his son's salmon colored hair, the man began guiding him to the door of the house.
"Where are we going, dad? I'm tired."
The man looked down at his son's face, pausing to attempt to memorize the expression of confusion.
"I know you are, but we're just going for a walk. It won't be long." He replied, attempting to hide his sadness.
'It is for the best' The man repeated over and over in his head, knowing his wife would be devastated once she knew she had been lied to for the last three years. The dragon had demanded that they hand their child over on his third birthday. His wife thought that that was in a few days. The truth of the matter was only slightly different. After such a long and hard labor, his wife had been asleep for a few days. Knowing her background, coming from a hardworking village where even the elderly worked hard and only the sick and young were exempt from helping out around the village, the man knew that she would be distressed to have been out for many days, even if she had to recover. As a result, he and the other members of the village agreed on a little lie, telling her that she had slept only a few hours, and that her labor was longer than it really was, she could hardly complain about the wasted time.
Gripping his child's hand, the man began the long trek through the woods to where the dragon had been when he last encountered it. He knew his wife would hate him for not telling her their child's real birthday. He knew his wife would hate him for not letting her say goodbye one last time. He also knew it would be better this way. It was like with medical bandages. The faster they were removed, especially if unexpectedly, the quicker the pain would go away, though the pain would be greater in the beginning. His wife had already told her son she was sorry many times over the last few years for making the deal with the dragon, but if they didn't make the deal, the village would have been eradicated, their son included. At least this way, they knew the villagers and their son would stay alive for many years to come.
Looking up to the sky, the man grew worried at the position of the sun. It would be dark in only about half an hour, which was the latest the dragon had given them to deliver the child before he came and killed them.
The man picked up his child, resting him on his shoulder and picking up his speed to a fast walk. He already knew his wife would hate him for what he was currently doing. If he got their village killed because he was going slowly, she would surely hate him even more.
It took only around ten minutes for the man to reach the designated area. He looked around the clearing in the woods, expecting the dragon to have been there already. Just as he was beginning to question if it would come, he felt a tremor rack the ground. Turning around, he was faced with the black scales and blue markings that had haunted his nightmares.
The scaled beast spoke no words, only extended its claws, reaching for the child. When his son attempted to take refuge from the beast by hiding behind him, the man released his sons hand and began to move from his son. At seeing the terrified look upon his son's face, the man could stand it no longer, turning his back to his child, hiding the tears that fell from his eyes.
"What is the name?"
Looking back over his shoulder, the man saw the nightmarish dragon staring at him. Seeing that the monster was beginning to become impatient after the several seconds of quiet, the man hurried to answer.
"The boy's name is Natsu."
Uttering a strange sort of grunt, the dragon kicked off of the ground, whipping its wings out a flapping hard. As it took off, the father noticed the front right paw of the beast was closed, most likely to contain his son.
Bowing his head with grief, the man swore that, even if it was the last thing he did, he would see his son once more. Turning back to the woods, the man began his walk back to his wife. It would be difficult to explain this to her.
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(Two years later)
Natsu, now five years old, was panting and gasping, standing in the middle of a vast plain. His master had managed to find this land, full of boulders of varying size, ranging from about half the size of the average human to some that were larger than most yachts.
Natsu's master had brought him to this plain, full of rocks, for one simple purpose: to destroy the rocks. It allowed his master to have a judgment of his power. Currently, he was destroying rocks about the size of a one man fishing boat. He had succeeded in destroying the ten or so that his master had grouped together in front of him, but it had left him exhausted. He turned to his master to see what was expected of him now, only to see his master move aside and reveal a second set of boulders about the same size and containing close to the same amount.
"Again."
"B-but master, I can't-"
"I said, AGAIN!" The dragon raged, lashing out with his long tail and obliterating a nearby stone, the size of which was akin to a large house. Natsu flinched at the action and struggled to not react when some of the debris hit him. It was expected, after all, for him to never show emotion, and pain was among them.
Knowing that his master would punish him for taking too long, Natsu set to work, forcing aside his exhaustion to destroy the boulders. It took around five minutes, which was almost twice as long as before. Looking back at his master, Natsu could tell he would be punished tonight for how slow he had been; his master was not forgiving in the least. Shuddering, Natsu wondered if his punishment would be the same as last time or if his master was going to try a newer torture. He had learned in only a few short weeks that he should never assume his master had run out of ideas.
Natsu had no idea why his master was so cruel, or why he was so prone to cause pain, especially in one that he was training, but he got the feeling that his master had not had another pupil before him. He did know though, from past experience that his master was going to drain as much energy out of Natsu as he could before they finished training for the day: it made the pain from torture worse. He was not looking forward to his future.
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(Months later)
Natsu had grown substantially in the last year or so, more than he had in the previous two years. He was still small, by human standards, being only six, but he was already a head taller than most kids his age, and he certainly sported more muscle, thanks to the training he had undergone in the last few years. But what struck everyone most was not his height or his muscle or his hair, but rather his scars. For a child of such a young and ripe age, he bore many scars, ranging from tiny cuts to the massive set of claw markings that started halfway up his neck, ran down his chest and stomach, before finally dipping below the waist of his pants.
That was another thing Natsu was not yet accustomed to with his masters training. His master had heard Natsu complain once of the cold when they had traveled through some mountains and now, no matter where they went, Acnologia forced Natsu to wear pants instead of his usual shorts, as well as a long sleeve shirt, with an oppressively heavy cloak. Because the darker a color was, the more heat it absorbed, the clothes were all black. It helped a little that, due to his master being a dragon, they did not often cross towns or cities, and as a result, his cloak had many holes in it, mostly at the bottom, and his shirt, having gone the last few months without repair, was currently missing both sleeves. It did not help that his master had found out he had been "too slow" to avoid the wolves that had removed the sleeves while attacking.
Currently, Natsu was unfortunate enough to be walking in a desert, his master flying high above. Natsu did not fully understand why he was walking while his master flew, observing him. All he knew was that it was some sort of test that his master had devised. Natsu was honestly not surprised. For the last few months, his master had been taking him to all sorts of remote locations to fight and kill rare beasts of all types. This was probably just another scenario where he was supposed to kill some tough monster.
Scanning the land around him, Natsu's confusion grew.
'If master wants me to kill some beast, then why is there no beast to be seen? I have been walking these sands for almost four whole days now, yet have seen no signs of life at all, much less anything that would give me any sort of trouble. Maybe it isn't a test of strength. Maybe it is a test to see if I can survive in a-'
Natsu's thoughts were interrupted by a slight tremor in the ground. He stopped walking, spreading his legs and bending his knees, preparing to fight. He smirked, thinking that his master assumed a beast that lived under the sands would provide any sort of challenge for him. Spotting a slight rise of sand moving at him rapidly, Natsu bent his knees further, preparing to jump. Timing himself, he leapt to what he assumed was a good height, only to spot a shadow come at him from the massive column of sand that erupted from where he once stood. Before he could come up with some way to avoid getting hit, the beast smacked him to the side, landing him into a dune while the monster fell back into the cloud of sand.
Pulling himself out of the sand, Natsu whipped his head in the direction of the cloud, waiting for it to settle. Judging by the shadow that he could see, it appeared the monster had no intention of going back down under the sand.
When the sand finally settled after a little over a minute, Natsu realized this was no test of strength or speed or any singular thing. It was a test of everything that he had learned under Acnologia's tutelage.
The beast he was facing was a dragon.
A light brown on the upper portions of its body, the stomach and inside of its legs, as well as its neck were a sandy color.
'Maybe around one hundred feet from head to tail, about twenty five feet tall. For a dragon, rather small.' Natsu thought, taking in the fact that the scales on this dragon were small, only about the length of a finger. Thanking his luck, Natsu was preparing the knowledge his master had told him about fighting dragons. 'The larger the scales on a dragon, the harder it is to pierce the layers. With larger size comes greater thickness and less gaps to slip between. This means that it would be far easier to pierce the hide of a dragon with smaller scales, as well as more gaps to slip an attack into. Smaller scales also have some ability to flex, meaning an attack can slip in that much easier.'
(I realize that past fight scenes of mine have not been the best, so this is a test to see if I can actually write a good fight scene or if I will have to bring in a second party to help me with them. Since this is a test, I am hoping for reviews in particular about this next bit. Try to be descriptive about things I did right and things that need improving, so that I avoid what happened in my other story.)
Gritting his teeth and adjusting his stance, Natsu ran to the right. The dragon already knew where he was, but that didn't mean he was just going to run straight into a meat grinder. Once he was close, Natsu noticed that the dragon suddenly tensed, looking like a spring ready to launch. Gathering his energy for when the dragon sprung at him, Natsu prepared to cast a spell. Seeing its front claws leave the ground, he took his chance.
"Chaos Dragon's Propulsion!"
Speeding up by a fair deal, Natsu made it to the tip of the tail before the dragon had fully completed its leap. Jumping into the air with his enhanced speed, Natsu had a clear view of the dragons exposed back.
"Chaos Dragon's Roar!"
Letting loose a blast of black energy at the dragon, Natsu planned to take out its wings. Unable to see the extent of the damage due to the dust cloud that sprung up, Natsu had no choice but to prepare to cast more spells.
Landing on the ground, Natsu kept his eyes on the cloud, waiting to see the dragon once more. Feeling the vibrations in his feet, Natsu realized his mistake almost too late. Seeing the maw of the dragon come out of the ground around him, he realized the dragon was trying to swallow him whole, Natsu reacted as fast as he could.
"Chaos Dragon's Claws!"
Aiming for the lower jaw, Natsu slammed both of his energized feet into it. Feeling the jaw give, Natsu did his best to throw his torso through the space his feet occupied only moments before. Just barely making it out of the jaws, Natsu rolled away to recover. Seeing that the dragon had yet to fully submerge, Natsu took another chance to attack.
"Chaos Dragon's Barrage!"
Shooting countless bolts of energy at the dragon from his right hand, Natsu charged up another attack in his left, only to curse when the tail of the submerging dragon smashed into his head. Flying back several feet, Natsu landed in a heap in the sand. Dazed, Natsu looked around weakly for the dragon. Remembering what had already transpired, Natsu quickly shot himself into the air. Upon seeing the dragon emerge from the sand, Natsu launched the spell he had tried to use earlier.
"Chaos Dragon's Blast!"
Shooting out a single, much stronger beam of energy than before, Natsu's eyes widened when the attack went into the dragon's right front leg, exploding when the beam was about halfway through. As a result, the leg of the dragon was blown off entirely. Sensing the weakness of his enemy, Natsu attempted to end the fight before he got hurt even further.
"Chaos Dragon's ROAR!"
Loosing an even stronger roar than before, Natsu was forced to land and wait to see if he was successful until the dust cloud settled from his two attacks. Panting, Natsu remembered the attack he had just used, knowing with a certainty that it was the strongest he had yet to use in his short life. Feeling a hot wetness trickle down his forehead and close to his eye, Natsu raised a hand to prevent himself from being blinded. Pulling his hand back down, he appraised the blood there, thinking back to when the dragon's tail hit him.
Growling under his breath, Natsu looked back to the cloud of dust and sand, seeing that is was in the final moments before it disappeared. Walking forward, Natsu stopped at the crater his "Chaos Dragon's Roar" had created in the sand. In it, he found his enemy. Bloodied, with broken wings and cracked claws, the dragon wasn't quite defeated. It was on its last legs though.
As Natsu stared at the dragon, judging its remaining strength, he looked at his own reserves of energy. Starting off with such a powerful propulsion spell, as well as using two roars of significant magnitude, for his age at least, Natsu was lucky to still be standing. He began to question the wisdom of his master having him fight this dragon. The dragon was severely injured, true, but he had used almost all of his energy just to get it to this point.
Seeing the dragon make its way into the sand once more, Natsu cursed the fact that he had wasted time. Knowing the dragon would be slower due to its injuries, Natsu focused on his greatest weapon; his sense of hearing. Hearing the sand move over the ruined scales of his opponent, Natsu knew exactly where it was and how fast it was going. Sensing that it was trying to circle around behind him, Natsu turned around, gathering the last of his energy for one final attack. Seeing his foe leap from the sands, he unleashed the spell.
"Chaos Dragon's BLAST!"
Natsu stayed conscious long enough to see his attack go down the throat of his enemy, before his world turned to black.
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Jerking awake with a yell, Natsu looked around at his surroundings to see only sand and the moon. For a few seconds, Natsu played with the idea that he had only imagined the entire fight, but the signals he was receiving from his body quickly convinced him otherwise. Feeling a shudder, Natsu jumped up, twisting to face behind himself, thinking that the dragon had come to finish him off, only to see his master standing before him. The two stared at each other for what felt like several minutes before Acnologia stretched his front leg, which Natsu had just noticed was clenched, out to the boy. When his claws were directly above Natsu, Acnologia uncurled his hand, dropping a white scarf made out of some kind of scales down onto Natsu.
The boy looked over the scarf for several moments before looking back to his master.
"What is this, master?"
Gesturing with his head, Acnologia pointed at the crest of the dune that they rested next to.
"The spoils of your fight."
Natsu looked back to the top of the dune before taking off for the top. Upon reaching the crest, the last of the breath in Natsu's lungs was forced out. There, lying in the sand of the desert was the dragon that had tried to eat him before he passed out, only…its neck appeared to have exploded halfway down its length. And sure enough, on the right side of the dragon, which was facing up from the dirt, was a spot devoid of any scales.
Looking down at the scarf in his hands, Natsu couldn't help but to feel an immense amount of pride, though knowing that his master would disapprove of showing emotion, Natsu kept it bottled up inside of himself. He had finally earned the right to the title of "Dragon Slayer."
Hearing his master come to stand at the crest of the dune with him, Natsu turned to face the dragon, paling at its next words.
"Unless you wish to fight this hatchling's parents, we must leave now"
Looking back at the corpse, Natsu began to question the pride he felt moments ago. He had killed only an infant. 'Hatchling' referred to a dragon too young to fly, which for most dragons occurred less than two years after birth. It was after learning to fly that the parents taught it how to fight with magic, and not just its natural weapons. It also meant that the dragon Natsu had just killed had little to no experience fighting at all, yet it had almost killed him. That also meant that it wasn't, overall, a terribly large threat, compared to an actual dragon. He shuddered once more, knowing that if this fight had been one of the parents, he would, without any doubt in his mind, be dead this very moment. Thinking back to how easily that dragon went under the sand, Natsu felt cold. He couldn't be certain, but he had a hunch it's parents could also do that...yet did his master know that it was the young dragon, or did he, like Natsu, not know until he inspected it?
"Let's leave now, Master."
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(Years later)
Natsu, now roughly ten years old, maybe eleven, was wandering around in some woods. He was currently looking for his master. He had woken up fifteen days ago to find his master was gone. At the time, Natsu though nothing of the disappearance, as it would not be the first time his master had left him while he slept. It was the first time his master hadn't come back within five days. Thus, Natsu was searching for any clue at all to the dragon's location.
Eventually, Natsu came across so many scents at once that he had to physically cover his nose to protect himself from the assaulting sensations. Feeling the direction of the breeze that had brought the scents with it, Natsu ended up outside a house. As he approached the house, a woman wearing a high collared red cloak ran at him from out of the house, waving around a broom.
"GO! Get away from my house, filthy human. Be gone."
At seeing the blank stare and no reaction from Natsu, the woman lowered her broom and looked closer at the child. Seeing the tattered state of his clothes, with a missing sleeve and many poorly done patches, she set her broom against the side of her house.
Walking up to the boy, she set her hand on his head while she looked at him closely. Seeing the top of a scar on his neck, Porlyusica stuck two of her fingers into the ragged collar of his shirt, pulling it out to get a better look at the healed wound. Unable to see the full scar, Porlyusica backed up a few steps from the child.
"I am a healer. I would like to take a look you and see if you have properly healed from your injuries."
Natsu, understanding the request, merely shrugged and took off his cloak and shirt. Upon seeing the old injury, the woman gasped, looking to be sick.
Porlyusica stretched her right arm forward, tracing the lines of scar tissue from his neck down to his stomach, following the rest of it with her eyes until it disappeared beneath his pants. Pulling her gaze from the large scar, she noticed he had many more scars, though none quite as serious as the first. Looking back to the largest scar, she decided to see if the boy would comment.
"That is a rather serious scar for one so young to bear. How did you get it?"
After a pause of several seconds, the boy responded.
"My master ordered me to fight, so I did."
Disappointed by the lack of detail, Porlyusica merely shrugged. She couldn't force the child to talk if he didn't want to. She would just have to be happy he spoke at all. Judging from his appearance, she had assumed he couldn't speak himself. At least the boy's master had taught him that much. Looking back to his clothes, Porlyusica decided to do something about the ragged appearance of his, as well as devise other plans.
"Come boy, I will get you some clothes at the nearby city."
Looking down at his clothes, Natsu decided there would be no harm in replacing his torn clothes. Following the woman, Natsu wondered if he would ever see his master again.
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Porlyusica was currently waiting on the boy to catch up with her. He had found clothes, much to her confusion; the boy had found clothes very similar to the ones he was wearing when they met. At least the clothes were cheap, as no one in their right mind would wear a thick long sleeve shirt, thick pants, and a heavy cloak, not in Magnolia anyway.
She had found out, while shopping for the boy, that he had been taught magic, though she had no clue how strong it was or how good he was at using it. She was planning on seeing if the boy would stay at Fairy Tail, as a guild would be the best place for a mage who had so obviously fought before. She was worried for the boy. In the few hours she had known him, he had never smiled once, nor had he expressed his feelings on things, such as the clothes. When asked about them, he merely said "They will suffice" and walked off with them to see if they fit. No emotion at all in the words, merely stating them.
When he ate a sandwich, he ate it fast and she almost didn't notice that he ate it, as if he was trying to hide it. If she hadn't look at his food often, she would not have even noticed it had rapidly vanished from his plate when she wasn't looking. As for his drink, she actually didn't notice when he had finished that. She merely glanced at it once and was surprised to see the beverage missing, only the glass and straw left. He had even eaten the ice cubes without her noticing. When questioned about the habit, he merely said "being caught sating hunger or thirst was an advantage for other predators" while calmly looking through cloaks, trying to find one that would fit him.
Porlyusica had never met a child who was so serious and calm at all times. Then again, she had never met a person who had survived receiving a wound like the one she had seen on his front. And his eyes were the eyes of a survivor of a tragedy. The eyes of a person who had seen too much, yet had the misfortune of now living with those memories.
Feeling a sudden tugging on her sleeve, Porlyusica jumped. Whipping around, she saw only the boy standing near her. Looking closely at him, she had to admit the clothes matched his personality. A thick long sleeve black shirt with purple trim, black pants with a black belt holding them up, and a cloak with a spacious hood. She was surprised however, at the addition of a white, scaly scarf added to his attire.
"You didn't steal that scarf, did you Natsu?" She asked, having coaxed his name out of him during their lunch. It felt odd, applying the name 'summer' to a boy she had never seen smile and to the most serious person she had met so far in her life.
"The scarf is mine. My master made it for me years ago. I merely picked it up. Where are we going?"
Still suspicious, Porlyusica had no actual proof the boy had stolen the scarf, so she decided to ignore his possible theft and answer his question.
"I know of a place you could stay for a while, if you want to. It is a place for mages such as yourself." It took a few moments, but then Porlyusica registered what the boy had said before he asked his question. "Wait, what do you mean you picked up the scarf? When I found you in the woods, you didn't have it then. That means the scarf was at least as far back as the woods."
"I used my magic to go back to where I stored it."
Blinking, Porlyusica processed that little bit of information. The wording of that sentence implies that the boy himself was actually present at the location and didn't use any sort of magic to bring it to him. She blanched, beginning to realize the speed the boy must possess in order to make a several hour hike, past her house, to his scarf, as well as the return trip, in the less than ten minutes it had been since she last laid eyes on him, and as the woods were highly dense in most parts, he couldn't have been using his full speed or he would have smashed into a fair deal of trees.
'Less than ten minutes, yet still going slow enough not to bear any marks from hitting anything. You are beginning to interest me a great deal, Natsu, as well as terrify me.' Thought Porlyusica, shuddering at the hint of an even greater speed than what was displayed. It explained why his master had expected him to fight beasts dangerous enough to leave a scar like the one running down his front. It was rare to find a dangerous beast that could strike with speeds anywhere close enough to hit something as fast as that.
Walking forward, Porlyusica saw where the side street they were on connected with the main road running through Magnolia. Nearing the turn, Porlyusica turned and looked back at Natsu, taking in his choice of clothes, as well as his interesting hair color, which he had told her was natural.
"Once we turn here, you will be able to see the place I am taking you to. Trust me when I say you will know it when you see it."
Natsu, interest piqued, merely nodded and followed her to the main street. Immediately, he could tell what she meant. Positioned at the end of the main road was a building proudly displaying the name 'Fairy Tail' on a sign. Following Porlyusica to the building, he stayed behind her as she pushed open the door. Upon opening, Natsu was assaulted with a wall of noise, actually disorienting him for a moment. Realizing that Porlyusica had moved into the building, Natsu hurried to her side once more.
Upon seeing a short old man in silly clothes sitting on the bar in the back, Porlyusica headed toward him, calling out what Natsu assumed to be his name. Hearing his name, the man looked up to Porlyusica, then to her side, at Natsu. Seeing the child, the old man, apparently called Makarov, raised his eyebrows.
"Is there something you never told me, Porlyusica, or is this a surprise to you too."
Snorting, Porlyusica said "Don't be ridiculous, the child isn't mine or yours. I found him wandering in the woods. He is a mage. I thought he could spend his days here."
"The woods?" A man on one of the barstools asked. He turned around to get a better look at the kid Porlyusica brought. Wearing a long, torn black cloak, no shirt, some armor belt covering his stomach, and ragged pants and boots, this man with red hair was a rather odd person, in Natsu's opinion, as he had never seen someone who dressed anything like himself before. Upon seeing Natsu, the man got off the stool and bent down to his level.
"Hey, kid…..nice style."
Giving a thumbs up and a ridiculous grin, this man was definitely ad oddity.
"Gildarts, knock it off. He was wandering the woods alone. For all we know, he it's been weeks or even months. He doesn't need you in his face." Makarov said, addressing his guild's ace.
Before any more assumptions could be made, Porlyusica decided to speak up.
"Actually, the boy and I have done some talking on the way here. He has a violent past, but otherwise it seems to have been relatively well. His master often found beasts for him to fight, and he was injured a few times, but other than intense training, he hasn't mentioned any horrible tragedies in his life. I think his master just simply abandoned him. That is why I brought him here."
Rubbing his chin, Makarov appeared to be thinking while Gildarts, standing with his back leaning on the bar behind him, scowled. Before either of them could speak, another voice intruded.
"Come on, gramps. You can't possibly be considering taking in a brat like this."
All heads turned to look at the newcomer, a boy about an inch taller than Natsu, with spiky blonde hair, wearing a yellow shirt, brown pants, and a pair of headphones over his ears.
"I mean, come on. Look at this kid. He practically screams social outcast."
"Laxus! That is enough. This decision isn't yours to make." Makarov said, preparing to scold his grandson.
"It is fine." Natsu said, turning the attention back to himself. "Tell me, if I join your guild, do you have resources I can use to locate my master?"
"Of course, boy."
"Grandpa!"
"Laxus! You are already in trouble. Do, or say, any more and you will regret it."
"But gramps, he practically said it himself. He is only joining us to use us." Grabbing Natsu's shoulder, Laxus proceeded to shake him with one arm. "If he's just going to-"
In a split second, Natsu whipped out his right arm, catching Laxus in the stomach. Flying over twenty feet away, Laxus finally ended up landing on a table, breaking it in half. The noisy guild building immediately fell quiet, almost all noise ceasing. Feeling every eye in the building on him, Natsu spoke to Laxus.
"Do...not...touch me." He ground out, glaring at the boy who pushed himself off of the ruined table.
"You little!" Laxus shouted, running toward Natsu. Before he reached him, Gildarts put himself between the two boys
"ENOUGH!" He yelled, giving Laxus a death glare.
"B-but he hit me." Laxus yelled
"And you started it. He is trying to decide if he should join our guild, and before he can even think it through fully, you acted hostile. HERE! In Fairy Tail, which boasts about how it offers a family to anyone willing to join, you dare to be hostile, start a fight, and then try to pin the blame on the other party. How dare you! Maybe I should punish you in place of your grandfather?"
Blanching, Laxus became very pale, very fast. If there was any person he feared more than the master, it would be the guild's ace, Gildarts. Turning around, trying to preserve the last of his dignity, Laxus walked out of the guild building, everyone watching. The building was silent for several long moments before Natsu spoke up.
"If you do indeed have the resources to help me locate my master, I would like to join."
Looking at the boy, Makarov sighed. "Fine. Just try not to get into any trouble while you stay here." Makarov said, though he knew the odds of that happening were low. There were very few in the guild who had yet to get into some sort of trouble, and those who had yet to be in trouble never left to go on any jobs.
"Speaking of staying here, where will I be staying?" Natsu asked, gaining the attention of Makarov and Porlyusica, as well as one other they had all assumed had lost interest in the boy.
"Well," Makarov started "normally when someone joins the guild, they stay in the guild's apartments, but they require rent. This is usually not a problem, but seeing your age, I feel uncomfortable sending you off on requests. You'll just have to stay with someone, I suppose."
Looking around the guild, Makarov noticed all of the members purposefully avoiding his gaze. Apparently none of them wanted to take in such an anti-social looking kid who was quick to throw punches. Before he could come up with a solution, one presented itself. Gildarts ran over to the boy, picking him up and throwing him over his shoulder, ignoring the poor kid's protests.
"I'll take him. I like his style!" Gildarts said, jabbing a thumb at his chest. With that, he proceeded to run out the door with the guilds newest member. Shocked, unable to do more than blankly stare, Makarov watched as the duo disappeared.
Looking over at Porlyusica, he said, "W-well, I... I suppose that takes care of that."
"...His reason is for taking in the boy is... questionable. Will he be okay with that man? Gildarts has destroyed Magnolia several times already."
Thinking, Makarov took a few seconds to gather his thoughts. "I honestly don't think we have any say in the matter. I have never seen him more energetic about anything before."
And with that began and ended Natsu's first day at Fairy Tail.
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I am going to do things differently with this story. The last one I did, I updated the story whenever I finished a new chapter. With this story I plan on updating on Friday's, and hopefully, if I have a new chapter ready, I will update again on Monday's, after seeing the reviews from the last chapter over the weekend and making any necessary alterations.
I WANT TO BE CLEAR. The updates on Monday are not promised. They are only if I have a new chapter ready to be put out on Monday, after the Friday update.