Hi there, people! TM11 here, bringging you a new story, and my first Fairy Tail fic. Now, I know that you guys like RHoG, and some like ToP; but, this fic has been in my mind for some time now. Since I had a bit of writter's block with my Naruto fics and this one wouldn't leave my head, I decided to get to work on it. I already have most of the story planned and some chapters done. I will upload a new chapter every week, unless something happens. Don't worry, though, I won't be abandoning my Naruto fics, just be working on something else until I get over this writter's block.

Now, about this story. This will be a Natsu-is-kicked-out-from-Fairy-Tail fic. He was kicked out after the Galuna Island Arc. Also, in this story, Lucy joined earlier, meaning that canon started on May 3rd and she joined on May 4th. You'll see why this was needed in the future. I don't know what pairing I should do and don't plan on thinking about it too much right now. I'll see what comes to be and then decide.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. If I did, I would make Lucy a better fighter. I do, however, own my plot, my spells and my OCs.

"Mage" – Talking

'Master' – Thoughts

"Dragon" – Dragon and other beasts talking

'Dragon Slayer' – Dragon and other beasts thinking

"Magic" – Spells

Arc 1 – Burning Will, Iron Pride

Chapter 1 – A New Path to Follow

18:55, June 4th, X784, Unknown Forest, Fiore

Walking through a forest, were two lost individuals. One was a young man of possibly seventeen years old with salmon hair wearing a black vest, white baggy pants, black sandals, black wrist bands and a white, scale patterned scarf and carrying a backpack. The other one was a blue, winged cat carrying a green backpack. The two are Natsu Dragneel and his loyal partner Happy, two former Fairy Tail guild members.

As Natsu and Happy walked – flew in Happy's case – through the forest, the dragon slayer thought of what had happened two weeks ago.

You see, a week and an half ago, Natsu had Happy steal a S-Class request, so that they could complete it and show everyone in the guild that Natsu was strong enough to be S-Class. Also, since their friend, Lucy, was on their team, they convinced her to come too, so that she could enjoy the adventure too. The mission had seemed easy too, for a S-Class. They only needed to break a curse placed on an island called Galuna Island. No big deal, right?

Well, Natsu had been wrong at thinking such. First, before they could even get to the island, Gray had come had the request of Gramps, to stop them for going any further with the job. Natsu had quickly knocked him out and, fearing that he would tell Erza, put him on board of the boat of a sailor that had offered to take them to the Galuna Island.

After reaching the island, the group, with Gray now going with them willingly after learning of the past of the Island from Bobo, the sailor that had brought them there, went looking for the village that requested their help.

After being told about the curse and being requested to destroy the moon by the village chief, the Fairy Tail mages had decided to go explore the temple on the Island, where they then found the frozen form of Deliora, a demon from the Books of Zeref.

Gray had then told them of his past, of how his teacher, Ur, had sacrificed her life to imprison Deliora in an everlasting ice shell. They then learn from three individuals that their leader, Reitei, would be using a ritual called Moon Drip to free Deliora and, after confronting the leader, they discovered that it was non-other than Gray's former brother pupil, Lyon Vastia. Natsu had then run off towards the village, since Lyon had sent his three subordinates to destroy it.

After saving the village and defeating the two male subordinates, Natsu had slept in the woods, to get some rest before going after Lyon. The next day, Natsu went to the temple and, in a burst of creativity, had tilted the temple so that the Moon Drip would not fall down on Deliora and, thus, would not melt the ice.

He had then gone to confront Lyon; however, some old guy had interfered in their fight and used some strange magic to make Natsu fall down through the floor. The dragon slayer had come back for round two, but, Gray interfered and told him that he would fight Lyon. Natsu had then left in pursuit of the old man of before, who had used his magic to re-align the temple, not before making sure that Gray would not sacrifice himself like his former mentor.

Natsu had managed to get a good punch on that old man, who had called himself Zalty. However, he had gotten away after the dragon slayer had been distracted by the activation of Moon Drip.

Reaching the temple and going to Deliora's resting place, Natsu had found that the group was all there, along with Erza. As Deliora was freed from the ice, Natsu had stated that they could beat the demon if they all worked together. Gray, however, had once again tried to use Ice Shell and sacrifice himself to imprison Deliora once again. But, Natsu had stopped him once more, not wanting his rival to die. And good thing that he had, for, after Deliora had been freed, the demon had broke apart due to the ice sagging its life for the ten years that it had been imprisoned.

The group had then got back to the village and, after breaking the dome of crystallized Moon Drip residue, and thus making the villagers realize that they had been demons all along but had forgotten due to the memory loss after effect of the Moon Drip residue, went back to their village. Though, not before Erza telling the others that there would be punishment for stealing a S-Class job.

And they had indeed been punished, well, Natsu had. It had been Natsu the one to tell Happy to steal the request, and it had been him that had got the idea to bring Lucy along. It was also him the one that had knocked out Gray and, thus, partially forced him to go along with the job.

Because of all of this, and because of the danger that Natsu had put his guildmates in, Makarov had, albeit reluctantly, banished him from the guild, shocking everyone.

All members had complained about it, saying that it was too high a punishment. However, Natsu had accepted it and, after Makarov had erased his Fairy Tail tattoo from his shoulder, left along with Happy, who had decided to go with him since he was his father. Thus, both mage and cat had left Fairy Tail, leaving many of their friends behind, crying in sadness, Makarov included.

That had been almost two weeks ago. After leaving Magnolia, Natsu and Happy had decided to travel a bit, living of the wilderness and eating whatever they could catch.

At present time, though, they were trying to find a village where Giants were said to live. Natsu and Happy had heard about it in a town a couple of days ago and had traveled here immediately, after asking for directions of course. However, they had not counted for the forest to be so big and were now completely lost.

"Natsu, how are we gonna get out of this forest?" whined Happy.

"I don't know buddy. I've been trying to smell the scent of a Giant, but, haven't had any luck so far," said the dragon slayer.

"How do you know how a giant smells, Natsu? You never met one before," asked the cat curiously.

Natsu looked at his adopted son with a grin, "Giants look like us humans, only many times bigger! So, they must smell similar to us too!" he explained his logic excitedly.

"Well, either you are wrong about how a giant smells like or there aren't any giants around here. You would've smelt them already."

"Yeah, you must be right," Natsu agreed with a nod. "We should try to find a river or a lake. It's getting dark and we don't have much water left because someone used all of it to wash their fur," he said with a small glare at his winged companion.

"Hey, unlike you, I'm not as protected against hot temperatures! My fur was all sweaty, so, I had to wash it!" the flying cat argued in his defense.

"You didn't need to use almost all of our water for that, though!"

"We were in the middle of a desert! Where was I supposed to find water!?"

Whatever Natsu was going to say, it never left his mouth, for, when he opened it, he immediately closed it as he heard a noise with his dragonic ears, his head turning to the direction of said noise. It seemed like someone breaking a twig or something like that.

"What is it Natsu?" Happy asked as he saw his father figure turn his head around.

Natsu put his right índex finger on his lips motioning to Happy to keep quiet, "Shh, I heard something. I think there is someone around here," he said as he concentrated on his senses of hearing and smell, trying to locate who or what had made that noise.

A few moments later, he caught the smell of an individual to his northwest, "There!" he proclaimed as he looked and pointed at that direction. As Happy looked at where Natsu was pointing at, said dragon slayer heard whoever made the noise running away from them.

"Damn, they're running away! Come on, Happy!" the salmon-haired teen said as he went on hot pursuit of the individual, Happy flying right beside him.

The individual was not very fast, for Natsu and Happy were already able to see catch up enough with them to be able to see their figures, though, not enough to see any details about them, only that they were two individuals.

"Blaze, use your wings!" Natsu heard one of them, the taller one, plead to the smaller one. Natsu then looked at his winged companion and said, "Happy! One of them has wings!"

Happy nodded in understanding and quickly got behind the dragon slayer, grabbing onto his backpack before rising into the air. Just in time too, as Natsu saw the ones they were pursuing take to the skies as well.

Shooting flames from his feet to increase their speed, Natsu and Happy quickly cut the distance with the individuals ahead. When they were close enough, Natsu breathed in a good amount of air before launching his spell.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" he called out as he breathed a torrent of flames at the figures ahead, hitting them straight on and causing them to crash into the ground in a small clearing.

"One strike win! That was awesome, Natsu!" cried Happy in excitement. The dragon slayer grinned cheekily at his partner over his shoulder, "You bet Happy! I'm just that awesome!"

They quickly landed near the crash site and found the knocked out figures that they had been pursuing. The dragon slayer and winged cat were then quite shocked at what they saw.

One of the individuals, the taller one, was a pale-skinned young woman of average height with long, dark red hair that reached her waist. She had full lips and possessed an extremely voluptuous body, with very large breasts matched by similarly large hips, endowing her with a virtually perfect hourglass figure. She was wearing a light-brown, sleeveless sun dress of mid-thigh length, that showed quite a bit of her cleavage, and brown sandals.

However, it was the other figure that shocked them. It was covered in pale yellow fur that was longer on its haunches. Tufts of dark orange fur covered the insides of its large ears, and it had a white muzzle with longer fur on its cheeks. It had a pointed, black nose, small paws with no visible toes and slim legs. Its tail was long and had a dark orange tip. It also had a red ascot around its neck. Oh, and it had white, feathered wings sprouting out from its back too.

"A flying cat!?" Natsu cried out in shock, his eyes wide opened and mouth agape. He looked Happy and said, "There are more cats like you!?"

"There are more cats like me!?" The blue winged cat cried out with the same expression as Natsu, repeating the question his partner had asked him. He then got a thoughtful expression on his face, "Do you think he likes fish like me too?" he asked to Natsu, who sweatdropped at the stupid question that only Happy would ask in a situation like this.

Natsu then looked at the passed out girl and cat and sighed while scratching his head, "I guess we should mount camp and take care of them until they wake up." It was the least they could do for attacking them for no reason. Natsu wasn't one to attack girls, unless they were like Erza and they were sparring, so, he was feeling a bit guilty for attacking such a pretty girl.

'Wait, pretty!? Where did that come from?' he thought a bit surprised from that stray thought that had crossed his mind. He shook his head to clear it and then looked at the downing sun, "The sun is setting down. I'll go get some food, while you stay here and take watch over them. Ok, Happy?" he asked.

Happy turned away from his thoughts of fish and nodded at the salmon-haired teen, "Sure thing, Natsu. You can count on me, aye!" he declared as he puffed his chest.

Chuckling at the blue cat, Natsu placed the red-headed girl and the her cat partner under the shadow of a tree and beside each other. Taking his backpack off his back, the dragon slayer then placed it beside the girl and left Happy with them as he went back into the forest to hunt for their dinner.

20:03, June 4th, X784, Unknown Forest, Fiore

Flare was in pain; her whole body hurt. The last time that she had been hurting this bad was after one of Atlas-sama's training sessions. As she opened her eyes, she took account of her surroundings. She could feel wood touching her back and grass under her butt, which meant that she was leaning against a tree. She tried to remember what had happened to her to be in so much pain and gasped as she remembered.

She had been walking around the forest, gathering some plants for medicine and food for herself. There must be more than enough food for her in a village full of Giants, but, she still liked to cook and to provide for herself.

The redhead had gone to the forest many times, always accompanied by her loyal friend Blaze, a winged cat that she had found as an egg on the outskirts of Sun Village. She knew that there were dangers in the forest, but, she also knew that Blaze and she were capable of defending themselves from most of them, or get away fast enough if the need be. So, she hadn't been that much worried when she walking around the forest, thinking that it would be the same as the other times.

She had been wrong, though. During her search for edible plants, she had smelt a new scent, one similar to her own and Atlas-sama's. A human scent and dragon scent mixed together, and there was the scent of a cat too. She had let her curiosity get the better of her and followed those scents, only to find, to her shock, another human, just like her, though different too, and a winged cat, just like Blaze, arguing with each other.

Flare had hidden herself immediately, telling Blaze to do the same. She had never seen or been in contact with another human, so, she did not know how to act or if they were dangerous. With that thought in mind, she had chosen to be cautious and had tried to leave unnoticed. To her bad luck, she had stepped on a twig, alerting the other human of her presence. She had immediately started to run away, least they try to harm her, Blaze flying beside her.

Their pursuers were fast, though, and quickly caught Blaze and her; even after Blaze had taken the two of them to the skies, their pursuers just doing the same and catching on once again. The last thing she remembered after that was feeling hot, very hot, like she had been burning, and then crashing into the ground. Darkness had been all for her after that.

"Oh, you're awake!"

Flare heard someone say and, looking up, she saw a boy with pink hair smiling at her from where he was sitting near a bonfire, a piece of meat in his hand. She immediately deduced that it had been him that had attacked and made Blaze and her crash and tried to get away. Her body, however, was too hurt to move quickly.

Seeing her trying to move, the pinkette told her, "You shouldn't move; you're still hurt," he advised, before a guilty look came upon his face, "I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have put that much power into my Roar. I heard you near us and smelt your scent. Since we were lost, I thought you could help us. I guess I got too caught on on the pursuit. I wasn't expecting you to have a winged cat, like Happy here," he ranted as he tried to explain his actions and apologize.

His eyes then widened and he said, "Oh, yeah, I'm Natsu, Natsu Dragneel, the Fire Dragon Slayer," he introduced himself with a grin. He then pointed at the blue cat sitting across him, who was biting on a fish while looking at her, "And this guy here, like I said, is Happy."

"Aye! Nice to meet you," the cat greeted with a full mouth.

To say that Flare was shocked, would be an understatement. She had never thought that she would ever meet another human, much less a dragon slayer. And then there was another cat like Blaze, which surprised her even further. She was still nervous, after all, the boy in front of her was the one to knock her out, even though he apologized for it. She wasn't sure she could trust him, but, his apology seemed sincere. And he hadn't done anything to her while she was knocked out.

She was about to introduce herself, but, a groan on her right stopped her. Looking at her right, she saw her friend, Blaze, leaning against the same tree as she. His eyes opened a bit as he groaned again.

"Blaze!" she called out, relieved that her best friend was ok, if a bit roughed up, like she was.

The yellow cat looked at her with groggy red eyes, "F-Flare...?" he mumbled. His eyes then shot wide open as he seemed get a hand on his senses and started looking around. Upon seeing the pinkette, Natsu as he had said his name was, and the other cat, Happy, her best friend got up, with some difficulty, and got in front of her.

"Who are you!? I won't let you hurt Flare! You'll have to get through me first!" he yelled in her defense.

"Hey, hey, I didn't hurt her. Well, I guess I did, but, I didn't mean to! I got all fired up and overdid it!" Natsu said, his hands raised in a non-threatening way, as he tried to placate Blaze. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you guys, ok. I already apologized to her and all. We just want to find this place called Sun Village. Right, Happy?" he asked as he turned to his companion.

"Aye! We were told that there were Giants there and Natsu wants to fight one!" said Happy.

Hearing that, Flare was shocked again. Blaze too, but, he still didn't move from his spot in front of the redhead. Fight a Giant? Was he crazy?

Finding her voice, Flare voiced her question, "W-Why w-would you want t-to fight a Giant?" she stuttered out.

The pinkette grinned at her and responded, "Because they must be very strong! I want to be the strongest mage ever, so that I can have the strength to protect my friends and find my father! To become strong, I need to fight and beat strong people!"

Flare didn't know what to say. She was still a bit shocked and scared of being in the same place as another human. Blaze, though, didn't have any problems in saying his mind, "You're crazy if you think you can beat a Giant."

Instead of being angry, like Flare thought Natsu would be, the pinkette laughed, "You're not the first one to call me that, and probably won't be the last. I'm crazy? So what? I won't know if I can beat a Giant or not until I try, won't I?" he asked with that grin still on his lips.

Before Blaze could respond, they all heard a growl coming from the redhead. Flare's face lit up in embarrassment, while Natsu only grinned.

"Would you like some boar?" he chuckled as he took the leg of the cooked boar that was above the bonfire and presented it to her.

"We don't take things from strangers," said Blaze, though, the meaning of his words was lost as his stomach also growled in hunger. It was Happy's time to offer food to his fellow talking cat.

"Do you want some of my fish? Fish is the best thing in the world! Aye!" the blue cat offered as he took another fish out of his backpack.

Flare's stomach growled again, so, she decided to trust them, since they hadn't done anything harmful to them, except for knocking her out, though, that had been already apologized for. So, accepting the leg of boar meat from Natsu, she smiled at him in thanks and, after smelling the meat for anything poisonous, and finding nothing, she took a bite. It was toasted, just like she liked it.

"It's good," she said.

Seeing his partner eating without problems, Blaze decided to trust these two too and bit his fish, which led to a shocking expression coming to his face. "This…this…" he mumbled.

"What?" asked Natsu and Happy curious, while Flare looked at the yellow cat with fear for his wellbeing.

"This is the best thing I ever ate!" the cat said as he started munching on the fish with gusto.

"I told you so! Aye!" Happy cheered, while Natsu could only laugh and Flare giggled. Natsu turned to the pinkette.

"So, can you help us reach Sun Village?" he inquired.

Flare thought it over. Natsu seemed to be a nice boy, and she would be lying to herself if she said that she didn't want to find out how other humans were like. Plus, no matter what he said, she couldn't really believe that he could ever do anything to a Giant. They were too strong for that. With that in mind, she decided to help them.

"Yes, Blaze and I live there and know how to get there. We'll take you there tomorrow, since it's already dark," she answered and then added, "Oh, and I never introduced myself. I'm Flare Corona."

"And I'm her guardian and companion, Blaze! Yeah!" Blaze introduced himself with a grin, before going back to eating his fish.

"Nice to meet you, Flare and Blaze. And thanks for helping us," the dragon slayer thanked. "Man, I can't wait for tomorrow. I'm all fired up!" he cheered.

Flare giggled at Natsu's eagerness while thinking, 'Maybe I should take him to meet Atlas-sama. He did said that I would one day meet a great friend. Maybe Natsu is that friend.'

08:00, June 5th, X784, Sun Village's Gate, Fiore

"Wow! It's huge!" yelled Natsu and Happy as the group came out from the forest and saw the gate that led to Sun Village. Like they said, the gate itself was huge, arching above them tens times higher that anything they had ever seen, including Natsu, who had seen a dragon, and they aren't known for being little.

As they approached the gate, Flare said, "Happy, you'll have to carry Natsu and follow Blaze and I. The village is very big, so, if we want to meet Atlas-sama quickly, we'll have to fly."

The blue cat nodded from his position on top of Natsu's head, "Aye! You can count on me."

"Hey, Flare, who is this Atlas you're talking about?" asked the dragon slayer.

"Oh, he's the guardian of the Sun Village. He lives on a mountain not far from here," she explained and then pointed up ahead at a mountain with the biggest flame that Natsu had ever seen, "Look, that's Atlas-sama, also known as the Eternal Flame by the Giants here."

"SO BIG!" yelled both Natsu and Happy again. The fire dragon slayer then started to drool, "I wonder how good those flames taste," he was then hit upside the head by Blaze's tail.

"Baka! You can't eat those flames. They aren't normal flames, they're a dragon made of flames! The protector and guardian of this village!" chided the yellow cat from his place on Flare's right shoulder.

At hearing that, Natsu's body immediately froze. He then looked at Blaze dead in the eye, "Did you just say that those flames are a dragon?" he said in a very serious tone that Flare did not think he was capable of.

Blaze was a bit disturbed by the sudden seriousness of the pinkette, but, nodded nonetheless, "Yes, he's a fire dragon and hee was the one who created the Sun Village. His name is Atlas Flame."

Getting the confirmation that he needed, Natsu dashed in the direction of the flame while shouting, "LET'S GO HAPPY! THIS ATLAS COULD KNOW WHERE IGNEEL IS!

"Aye!" the blue cat cheered as he brought out his wings and took Natsu into the skies, carrying him in the direction of the of Atlas' mountain.

"Wait!" yelled Flare, but, they were too far to hear already. She then looked at her partner and said, "We must follow them, Blaze." The yellow cat nodded, brought out his own pair of wings and took Flare to the skies, following the other winged cat and the dragon slayer ahead of them.

08:10, June 5th, X784, Atlas Flame's Mountain, Sun Village, Fiore

Natsu and Happy quickly reached the top of the mountain where the biggest ball of flames that they ever saw rested. The fire dragon slayer quickly approached it and yelled, "OY! ATLAS FLAME!"

The pinkette and cat waited for a few seconds, until the flame started to move and change form. A massive body, a pair of wings sprouting from its back, two pairs of legs, all filled with claws, a tail and finally a head. All characteristics of a Dragon, the only difference between this one and others of its race, would be his body being completely made of flames, giving the dragon an overall impression of a burning skeleton.

"Who dares to call out the name of the mighty Atlas?" the huge dragon asked as he looked down on Natsu and Happy.

Natsu took a step forward and said, "I do! My name is Natsu Dragneel! Son of Igneel, the Fire Dragon King!"

Looking down at the dragon slayer with a more focus, Atlas' eyes flashed with recognition. Though, it was only for a second, so, neither Natsu or Happy noticed.

"The Son of Igneel you say? I can smell his scent on you, yes. Very well, what do you want, Son of Igneel?" he asked as he noticed Flare and Blaze approaching and landing near them.

"I want to know where my father is! He left me on June 7th of X777 and I want to know why! I need to find him and beat his ass for leaving me!" declared the pinkette with determination in his eyes.

'He was abandoned by his father?' thought Flare with sympathy. She also had been abandoned as a baby, only for the Giants to find and raise her. She knew of how Natsu must have felt.

Atlas was silent for a few moments before answering, "Unfortunately, I do not know of my friend's whereabouts, Son of Igneel." At hearing this, Natsu's head dropped. He had hopped that Atlas could have known of his father's location. "However," the dragon started, making Natsu look up at him once again, "I do know of my friend's personality. He would never abandon his own son without a very good reason. Do not think that he did so because you're weak. Igneel would've never taken you in if he thought so. In his own words: 'Everyone starts weak, but, as they face the hardships of life, they become stronger everyday.'" He quoted.

Natsu smiled at hearing his father's words once again. Seeing him smile made Flare, Happy and Blaze smile too, happy for their friend. The pinkette's face became serious again as he said, "Atlas-oji, I have a request that I want to ask from you."

The flaming dragon chuckled at the dragon slayer's way of addressing him and said, "Then speak of it, Son of Igneel."

"I want you to train me! Help me finish Igneel's training in the Dragon Slayer Arts!" the pinkette declared, which shocked everyone, minus Atlas that is.

The dragon locked eyes with the dragon slayer, their contest went on for a whole minute, neither backing down, until Atlas nodded, "Very well. I shall train you, Son of Igneel. On one condition."

"Name it!" the pinkette said. He would do anything to become stronger.

"You shall help Flare with her own training and education. She has lived in this town since she was little, so, she does not know anything of the world outside, the world of you, humans. You shall help her gain the knowledge and strength that she will need to adventure through the world outside of this village's walls. In exchange, I'll help you become stronger than you could ever think of! This I, Atlas Flame, the Purgatory Dragon, declare!" the dragon declared.

Natsu's lips turned into a grin that threatened to split his face in half, "You got it, Atlas-oji! I'M ALL FIRED UP!"

And that's the first chapter! I hope you guys and girls liked it. If you did, please review! I love reading your opinion.

Now, for a little challenge to you. I based Blaze's looks on a creature for another anime. My challenge to you is: What is the name of said creature?

You have until my next uptade, which will be on March 29th, to give me your answers. The prize? A spoiler! Whoever gives me the right answer can ask ONE question about anything about this fic. What will happen next? Will Natsu join Fairy Tail again? Anything!

Now, before I leave, here is a clue for you. The name of the creature rhymes with Kin.

That's all I'm going to say. See ya in a week, on March 29th.