Natsu ran to the left side of the building, while gray went to the right. He and Gray had just saw them run there. Erza and Lucy stayed back to fight the last two demons. They had no choice but to chase them on foot. Both mages were extremely physically fit, it just sucks running at that point.
Natsu had hoped this mission would be exciting because before they went on the mission, him and Gray got into an argument that led to a bet saying that they couldn't use magic, the first one to use it will be the others slave for a week.
Their mission was to find and capture evil summoners that would promise to leave the village peacefully if they give them everything of value, then go back on their word and summon demons to destroy it.
They had already gotten all but two demons and Erza and Lucy were handling it. Gray had already stripped himself of his shirt that was probably back where they saw the first demon.
He and Natsu had been running for at least fifteen minutes and they were just coming up to a forest.
"what the hell!?" natsu said as he saw two more demons come out of nowhere.
"Go, i got them" Gray said as he ran to the right and got their attention.
"fine". Natsu wanted to fight to but he's stuck with a game of chase.
-–-
The group of mages made an unexpected turn and Natsu followed suit. They were now in a weird looking mini canyon, that for some reason, looked like people lived there. It was probably close to where they have their hide-out, maybe they would get a bonus for finding the stolen goods. Lucy would be so happy.
Another five minutes went by of him mouthing off (with what little air he had) to the summoners. They were all dressed in baggy clothes that were a darkish shade of red or maybe orange. He started getting tired of it and he wondered how the hell these guys could run for so long without even slowing down in the slightest.
They were way ahead now, Natsu couldn't his use magic, there was no way he'd let a stripper win, but they stopped and turned around right when shady red symbols started to fly up from the ground and around Natsu. "WHA-" Natsu could feel his magic being drained. he couldn't tell from where, the trap thing maybe? Natsu could feel his body losing consciousness as he tried to fight it, to no prevail. the last thing that he saw was the summoners turn around and start to run again, and something he couldn't make out.
Natsu woke up in the guild infirmary with his team-mates by his side, plus juvia and Master Makarov. Natsu could only move his head slightly, he looked at them with confusion in his eyes. He understands that he got hurt in there last mission and his team must have found him and carried him back to the guild. What he doesn't understand is what hurt him. He remembers the dark red symbols and how they reminded him of Freeds runes, but they couldn't be because he would still be in the same place the trap had been activated. Natsu was officially confused.
"NATSU" he saw happy sitting on Lucys lap, he could see the theaten of tears in his wide black eyes. All eyes turned to a barely conscious Natsu, they all leaned in to examine him. Happy jumped off of Lucys lap and to the side of his best friend. He looked up at Happy and said, "go get Levy" he looked surprised but left to find her anyway. He got weird looks everyone, but ignored them.
When Happy and Levy came back, Natsu got right to the point, "Levy check me for any sign of a rune" Levy blinked, "okay" she blinked again, "i have to go get my pen first". Then he got even more confusing looks, and again ignored them.
Levy came back a minute later and sat down next to his bed. "A ruin right?", Natsu noded as she hovered her pen above his chest. Then the pen dimly started to glow. Everyone watched as levys face had turned from normal to shock, then to pure worry. At that moment Natsu knew he had been right, but now Levy had to figure out what the ruin said.
Levy looked from the pen to natsu. She had looked so confused, it made everyone worry. Natsu looked up and said, "its a rune right". Levy looked at him. she couldn't seem to answer, because she really didn't know. maybe freed would know about it. she looked at Natsu again and explained, "I have never seen this, ever, and i don't know what it says or even how it works, but i'm going to go get Freed. He may know about what this is" She got up and went to try to find Freed, he had been gone on a mission with his team and she had heard from Mira that they will be back soon, she hopes that they're back.
While Levy looked around the guild, everyone in the infirmary just watched Natsu. "what" he said kinda confused. Lucy was the first to speak "Well you said you think that is a ruin right, well if thats true, we don't know what it says… we don't know what you can or can't do".
Levy walks in and seemed to hear lucy "Thats right, and freed ist here, he and his team are on a mission".
"So for the time being, or until freed returns you will have to stay here" Erza proclaimed, she looked at Master Makarov and silently ask if that was best. Makarov looked like he was in deep thought until he looked up at Natsu. He's in his bed with his eyes closed and arms at his side and still to weak to move.
Natsu had been drained of his magic. When that happens too fast it has this effect on any wizards body, which makes them faint. Maybe he remembered something that could help to rid makarov of his many suspicions. "Natsu" makarov began, natsu opened an eye in response. "I know you are exhausted but you need to tell me what happen, exactly"
Natsu closed his eye again and thought back to what had happened. "We had went on a mission to stop a group of summoners that were robbing and destroying small villages, me and the stripper made a bet saying that we couldn't use magic, and whoever used it first would be a slave for a week"
Lucy giggled quietly, "i'm pretty sure Gray lost" That gave Natsu a pleasant smirk. Gray was beyond pissed, "The bet was fucking off because you were about to get killed by one of those damn demon things"."sure ice slave".
"Anyway, They started to run so me and Gray followed, one of them summoned two more demons and he stayed back to get rid of them." Natsu takes a breath and continues "Well, i followed them. It was weird… They never got tired, i mean that literally, because i would have been able to hear them breathing or smell them sweat. We ran for like, twenty minutes. Then they ran into a canyon or a mini one i think, it looked weird, like people were living there, i thought it might have been were there hide-out was." He opened his eyes to see what was going on around him. They had all taken a seat as close as they could to his bed(except a very pissed off Gray), giving him there undivided attention.
"Thats when it got all freaky" he said in deep thought "They all turned around at the same time, a second later there were these symbols things that looked like Freeds runes, they came out of nowhere, what's when my magic drained." Just the thought it felt sent shivers down his spin. "I fell" he continued with a sigh "I tried to get up but i couldn't, i only could look up. I saw them start to run again" he fell silent, he couldn't explain what else he had seen, it was like a shadow, but it wasn't human or an animal, he would have been able to smell it, even if he had been in that condition.
"But." Natsu mouthed still trying to find the words. Everyone saw and knew what he had said and they all leaned in closer, except for Master Makarov. From what was heard from Natsu, it all pointed in a direction, a very, very bad direction.
About two minutes of deafening silence went by, Gray decided to break it. "But what, asswipe-" Erza punched him hard enough to make his head bounce off the small table next to the bed. Gray yelped in pain, which brought Natsu back from his undefined memories. Grays cry made Natsu half hysterically laugh, half giggle because his condition.
Natsu cursed silently, laughing like that had made his body ache more than it already did. He had his magic taken from him before, it was horrible. The pain was indescribable, and just like now it hurt to move, but something was off this time. He felt sore and broken just like before, but there is something more. It was like something was put into his body, especially his stomach and throat. he doesn't think that he would detect it if it wasn't for his enhanced senses.
Master Makarov had silently got up and went to his office to get a small notebook and pen. He walked in and immediately said "Natsu this is very important" He sat down in his chair "You have to answer all of my questions with as much detail and as accurately as you can, got it" Makarov hoped, no prayed that he would answer these questions wrong. Everyone, except Erza and Natsu looked very confused. Makarov wished that he could kick them all out, but it wouldn't help. Knowing all of them, it would only make things worse if they were left out. Plus, this is their family were talking about, and if there family was endangered in any way they would try to help anyway possible.
He sighed, even though Natsu was acting his age at the moment he would still have to make this as simple as possible, not only for Natsu but him as well. "What did the group of summoners look like, and what were they wearing?" He started Natsu closed his eyes again and thought back "It was dark, so i didn't get much detail on the cloths but i know that they had really long, kinda baggy shirts that went to about their knees that had three black stripes, the end of their sleeves had black too. long baggy pants. The color was like a dark red or maybe orange, i don't know. Gray was there too so you could ask him".
Gray thought for a second "The color was dark red, I know because one of those assholes ran right past me. Also he is right about the black stripes, but not just on the sleeve. It was all around the edges of the cloth. They also had something black covering their faces, and all of them had the same thing on." Makarov inwardly frowned, knowing a lot of dark guilds liked to do the whole 'look alike' thing, but a lot of dojos do that as well and that would explain why they wert tired after running for a long period of time.
"Did they ever say anything" cause maybe they were the gloter type. "No", "Did they even make a sound?" It was probably a stupid question, but still. "No, not one".
Makarov wrote the whole story plus the questions down and he went over a few times just to make sure. He doesn't like this. Even though it was just a rumor along the members of the council, he couldn't help but be nervous. Because normal rune magic was something to fear, but ancient rune magic was on a whole different level.
"Natsu, what did they smell like" There was a moment of silence, which in retrospect is very weird considering this being fairy tail. Especially with some of the most problematic people all in one small room. Natsu looked really uncomfortable with that question. Natsu had thought back to when the chase first started because that was when he was the closest to them. He didn't pay attention at the time but now he can only remember one scent, but there were five of them. Then it hit him, The one scent he had was a human, but that wasn't completely true. It smelled like there was something attached to them, he couldn't explain it. Then he remembered what he had thought earlier, about how he felt something more this time. By now his eyes went wide and his mouth went dry. It was difficult to detect his own scent, so he wouldn't have noticed, at least not right away.
Everyone watched Natsu's expression change in a matter of seconds. This for some reason made Lucys stomach turn. It was probably because Natsu was barely ever freaked out by anything other than food and or food money.
"Happy go get gajeel" Natsu said in a low voice. Happy looked at him "Do i have to, he scares me" Natsu looked up at him. Everyone was shocked to see that look in his eyes. Natsu looked terrified, shocked and maybe even more than all flew over to Natsu, and leaned in close to his face. Happy looked straight into his eyes, and saw how bad this was. He not so gently hugged the side of his face for a fraction of a second and quickly flew off.
"Natsu, i know how this is but you have to-" Makarov was cut off. "I know and i will i just need to know something first."