Hunting- Chapter one

~Dragon realm~

He growled low in his chest as the older, and bigger, dragon reared up on his back legs, the small sparks fizzling at the back of his open maw a sign of the incoming breath attack. Natsu sprung forwards, feigning a shoulder pin then ducking to swipe Laxus' feet out from under his heavy frame. The lightning dragon grunted as the air left his lungs, rolling out of the way of a fiery claw swipe to the face.

The two dragons that were watching just shook their heads, the gray scaled one letting out a loud sigh while the ice blue one began bouncing on his feet.

"Gray..." the gray dragon mumbled.

"What?" He asked, halting his bouncing to look at his friend.

"Do you ever think that we'll come across a female pod, its been nearly five decades and all we've seen are other males. I feel that we are a dying breed."

"Jellal, you are depressing as hell sometimes. I bet we'll find a group of females before we reach Tenrou." Tenrou was a special nesting island for dragons, where both sexes could rest in close quarters. The only problem was that a male could not begin to court a female there, elder guardians there were dragons older than 1000 years old that had spawned a hatchling of their own. Those were, in most cases, the over-protective parents of the incoming dragons.

Also, the strongest dragon of their time would be there, and no one wanted to be caught chasing his daughter around like a lost puppy.

"Hey, Ice bucket, come fight me!" The hellfire dragon that had fought the lightning dragon was now in a pouncing position, facing the ice eater, muscles flexing and rippling. Gray smirked and copied his stance, icy claws tearing at the ground as his tail whipped playfully behind him.

If these two dragons liked anything more than they did fighting, it was unknown. As they launched at each other, the lightning dragon from earlier came up beside the grey scaled dragon, shaking his gold scaled head with a loud sigh.

"Those two are gonna kill each other one day."

"Don't we already know... Wanna go out for a hunt?" Jellal grinned and nodded at the idea, following Laxus as he lead the way away from the clearing the group of wandering males had settled in. Gajeel watched them go, one red eye tracking them before slipping closed. Laxus huffed and shook himself free of any imaginary dust.

Both fully grown and standing nearly sixty feet tall, the the fallen angel dragon and the lightning dragon made quite the dangerous looking pair. Laxus was all gold with a few red scales that trailed from the corners of his stormy grey eyes to the base of his horns. Large, white dragon's wings were pressed against his back, as wide as he was long.

Jellal had two sets of soft silver birds wings, and his tail is a thick fan of feathers once it reaches about three quarters of the length. His scales are a mix of dark and light greys, with patches of creamy white as well.

They ducked through the undergrowth, eyes searching for their next meal. Because of how huge dragons got, they usually hunted Slashers, which were larger than average deer that had gnarly looking hooves that could cut through almost everything, sans dragon scales. An adult could eat seven to ten per day.

The herd had about fifty slashers, enough to feed the entire group. Just as they were about to attack and kill the lot of them, two small blurs darted out from the bushes, one black as night, the other a tan orange colour. The two dragons had all of the slashers piled up in less than three seconds.

The bigger of the two had black scales that were tinted in blues and purples, with silvery white scales scattered like stars in the night sky. On her legs, the scales made tribal patterns. Her wings were wide and soft, black with grey speckled feathers that nearly draped down to the ground. Her tail had a thick fan of feathers, similar to Jellal's, the feathers blending from black to a rose colour. Her talons, surprisingly, were dark red.

her partner had tan orange scales that blended to look like a shell, darker orange stripes running across her back, making it look even more realistic. Her tail was long and segmented into two halfway through its length, each tip ended with spikes that could gut even Gajeel's steel hide. Her wings were a sandy white, and seemed to be abit shorter than average, her claws serrated and metallic grey in colour.

"Nice job Lu, no way Erza could tell us that we can't go on hunts now! We didn't even lose one!" The smaller one squealed. Laxus chuckled quietly and rolled his eyes, settling himself down. Just because they'd lost their prey, didn't mean they'd miss out on the golden opportunity of finding females. It wasn't like they were claimed or anything, a male would never let his mate out of his sight if they weren't at Tenrou.

"There should be enough for five of us... Let's get back, Erza will kill us if we leave late, and i really wanna see papa again..." 'Lu' whined, picking up half of their haul in her front talons. She sat back on her haunches and waited for her friend, then waddled off when Levy was ready. Their bellies were out in the open, so it wasn't hard to tell they'd never got into a real fight. Any dragon would know to never show their bellies, even if they were in a safe place.

"Lu, how far is Tenrou from here?" Levy asked. Jellal bristled as he answered the question mentally. Tenrou was a three day trek then a half day flight over the ocean.

"three and a half days. You know, papa said that the tree's going through its season again, there's gonna be a dance and everything! Plus an empress is showing up!" Empress was the title of a pregnant dragoness, to be exact, a pregnant dragoness that was the eldest in her nest.

"Really! I haven't seen an empress..." their voices faded as they got further away. Laxus jumped to his feet and they followed the duo, low to the ground, trying to hide. The females had set up relatively close to them, although their camp was by a stream and had trees blocking the sky out. There were six, two curled up by a fire, one floating in the stream, one hanging from a tree by her tail, and the two dragons they'd followed.

One of the dragons by the flames jumped to her feet and sauntered over, ruby coloured scales bright against the dark of the forest. She was two heads taller than the dark scaled dragon, and a head shorter than Jellal.

"Good job you two. I was really worried that you wouldn't find anything." Lu scoffed and gave a cocky smirk.

"You forget, my dad's the strongest and the smartest dragon in the past two thousand years. He raised me, so i know how to catch a slasher." She boasted, the tan orange dragon beside her nodding.

"I forgot, how is he these days anyway? I haven't seen him in the past three centuries."

"My gods Erza, he's been so demanding, always sending letters saying that i have to tell absolutely everything that happens. It's annoying." Erza chuckled and shook her head.

"He's worried about his daughter, you are, after all, the only hatchling he and Layla had, plus you just fully matured two decades ago." Layla, where had they heard that name before? Laxus and Jellal had been to Tenrou on multiple occasions, and they'd only ever heard of one Layla.

"Oh shit..." the lightning eater swore loudly. The three females' heads turned to face them, eyes wide. The dark scaled dragon reacted first, launching forwards at them with a roar.

"Erza, Levy, get everyone out of here!" The others complied, Erza pulling the sleeping white and black dragon to her feet and Levy dragging the water dragon onto dry land. The one that was hanging darted over to Erza and the other dragon.

Jellal rolled out of the female's reach, only for her tail to smack him in the face and blind him momentarily. She dropped her jaw and let out a breath attack, a stream of darkness and what looked like pure sunlight spiralling together towards Laxus.

The crackling funnel of lightning that clashed with her attack pushed it back a few feet. 'Lu' cut off her roar and jumped into the air, wings carrying her high above the tree tops. Her amber coloured eyes narrowed at them as she took in a deep breath ready to unleash another breath attack.

The fallen angel dragon reared back on his hind legs and pumped his wings twice, bringing himself to the dark scaled dragon's level.

"We don't want a fight, we'll leave you be if you stand down." He reasoned. She didn't seem to believe him, a huge ball of blackness and sunlight tearing through the sky at him. Having nearly no time to react, all Jellal could do was block with one set of his grey, feathered wings.

He howled in pain as it hit him, the attack searing some of his feathers, freezing others into ice. subconsciously, he realized she wielded an element that was both hot and cold. She could be extremely deadly.

When the pain had faded, he realized that she was right infront of him, tail wrapping around his throat. Laxus, who was hovering just below them, glanced off to the right, scoffed, and glided back to the ground. Why wasn't the lazy brute helping, Jellal seriously didn't want to hurt this female.

Just as he was about to kick her off, a blur of red tore her away from him, the dark reds of his traveling companion's scales a relieving sight as the two crashed to the ground.

Natsu and Gray were play fighting when the hellfire dragon got a feeling that something was wrong. So, he'd cut their game short and looked around. Gajeel was asleep in the harsh sun, the reflection of it's light blinding against his steel scales. Laxus and Jellal were nowhere to be seen.

"Hey Ice princess, I'm gonna go see if anything's up with Sparky and Jellal." Was all he said as he jumped into the air, beating his fiery wings to carry him higher. He looked around with a critical eye, spotting a dark coloured creature but overlooking it. Natsu didn't find anything with the first scan, but when he looked over the surrounding area again, he realized that the figure resembled a dragon, from the long tail, horns, wings and build.

It's tail was curled around a grey scaled dragon's throat, whom he realized was Jellal, claws reaching out to attack. The hellfire dragon didn't waste a second, racing towards his friend and the unknown dragon. When he was close enough, he paused for a millisecond, focusing on the dragon's side, then tackled them off of Jellal, forcing the dark scaled dragon to the ground. The dragon roared at him, lashing out with sharp talons and catching the side of his neck. He snarled as they hit the ground.

His opponent whined in pain, lying on their side, wings spread at their sides as they tried to breathe.

"Natsu, don't kill her!" Jellal's voice rang in his ears, and the hellfire dragon took a good look at the female. She was, to say the least... beautiful.

She seemed to embody the night sky, with a slim but curvy frame. Her wings were soft and downy looking, and he wondered if they would be warm if she wrapped them around him. Her sharp talons reminded him of his own scales, dark red. Her body seemed slightly smaller than an adults', so he guessed that she was around his age of five hundred and fifty.

Amber eyes watched him as she dragged herself to her feet, white teeth bared in a snarl. His once dormant animal side roared to life, trying to get control.

It saw her as a possible mate, and it wanted to show her that he was a good candidate. Narrowing his eyes, he lowered into a low pouncing stance, a possessive growl ripping from his throat.

"What's your name?" The question came out before he could stop himself. A dragon's name was one that stated their power, their last name would be the brand of magic their strongest parent held, which was usually passed down to the child. So, if a dragon's last name were Caelum, that would say that the dragon had a magic that was similar to sky magic.

"It's only right if you introduce yourself first Hotshot." She spat back, straightening herself slightly. He grinned at the response, it wasn't like telling her was a bad thing, he was from a extremely powerful line of dragons after all.

"Natsu Dragneel Flamma-Dei, the hellfire dragon. But i go by my first or middle name." Her eyes widened as she recognized his name.

"Y-you're the son of Igneel the flame god dragon?!" Her reaction was hilarious to him, and the laugh he restrained turned into a snort.

"Yea, i am. Now who are you?"

"Lucy Heartfilia Deus-Chao, the eclipse dragon..." that was his cue to freeze. This female- Lucy, was the daughter of the chaos god dragon? She seemed so different from her father, yet so similar. The tribal markings on her legs were nearly identical to what he'd heard her father's looked like.

"Damn, who would've thought I'd meet a element god's kid outside of Tenrou..." he muttered. The urge to dominate the eclipse dragon infront of him grew stronger, and he wasn't one to go against his urges.

"You may want to beat me and be some possible mate, but i want to beat you and find my friends." She sounded tired, and he gave her another look over. He could see her ribs and her body seemed too bony to be healthy. No doubt about it, she hadn't eaten properly in a long time. Natsu could probably just nudge her and she'd fall over.

Deciding to keep it short, he darted forwards, barreling into her flank to knock her down. She grunted as she toppled over, using her momentum to roll to her feet, lashing out with a fury he hadn't seen in any dragon for a while. He ducked under the attack, getting underneath her and springing up. His back pushed against her soft underside, sending her up into the air then crashing to the ground, mouth open wide as she gasped for air, body curling in on itself.

Natsu felt a pang of worry go through him when she didn't move to stand or shift into a more comfortable position. That worry dissipated when she spat a ball of darkness and sunlight at him, missing his face by a few inches. The air it had cut through was hot and cold.

He growled and slithered over to her, placing a foot on her shoulder and thigh, pinning her to the ground. His neck craned downward, jaw opened and around her neck. If he wanted to, he could kill her where she lay.

She was still, Natsu could feel her muscles tensing and relaxing under him, her eyes looking around desperately for something, probably a travelling companion. He raised his head so that he could speak without his teeth puncturing her scales.

"Looks like i win Luce. What's my prize?"

Erza didn't like the current situation at all. Lucy was MIA, probably fighting with a male, Juvia had turned into water and hid in the stream, Mira was bouncing with energy, ready and eager to get in a fight. Lisanna was trying to keep everyone from running off in different locations along side the blood dragon. What worried her most concerning her dark scaled friend was that she hadn't eaten properly in months.

"Lisanna, I'm going to go find Lucy. When Mira calms herself, get her to continue taking us to Tenrou." She ordered. The white and black dragoness nodded and gave a reassuring smile.

"Alright Erza, try to bring Lucy back in one piece! Maybe you'll find her fighting with a male... oh i hope he's handsome." The junior matchmaker of their ragtag group cooed. If you had enough of an imagination, you could see pink hearts replace her pupils.

"If he finds out that his daughter has a candidate for a mate, he will be the most possessive father at Tenrou, and usually Gildarts holds that title. I personally, will see to it that whomever she chooses is worthy as well." The words were heavy with an unspoken threat, and the dark dragon shivered.

'Scary... she's worse than Mira...'

Erza stalked off, following her friend's unique scent of roses and almonds. It was heavy in the air, along with three foreign scents. Caramel and spice, morning dew and copper, as well as sugar and salt. The final scent made her mouth water, embarrassingly enough. It didn't take long to find the eclipse dragon, and the blood dragon was beyond surprised.

Lucy was pinned beneath a young and powerful looking dragon. His red scales reminded her of fire, and it didn't take genius to see he had some brand of fire magic. She stayed hidden in the bushes, trying to listen in as she watched their quiet conversation. Lucy seemed abit uncomfortable with someone being on top of her, not used to being beat by anyone except Erza or Mira.

'Well, it has been a while since she's dealt with anyone other than us...'

"Could you get off?" Erza chuckled at her spitfire friend. No way she'd just sit there without snapping for much longer. She was so focused on the two that she didn't notice the rustling bushes behind her, or the approaching presence.

"That would be Natsu Dragneel Flamma-Dei. I'm guessing the female's a friend of yours?"

She spun with wide eyes, focusing on the gray scaled male that stood before her. He was, to say the least, handsome, and the blood dragoness found herself captivated by his warm and mature hazel eyes, the way they danced with curiosity mesmerizing. Too surprised by his sudden appearance, she gave a small nod. Erza Belserion did not get flustered over any male, she got down to business and showed him who was boss, but this male made her stop and try to get herself back together.

"What's your name, I'm Jellal Fernandez Angelus, the fallen angel dragon."

"E-e-Erza B-Belserion Vi-vi-vindicta..." she managed to get the words out. If she was in her human form, she'd be as red as her scales. (Yes dragons have human forms... I'm weird deal with it) Jellal gave her a smile that made her want to turn into a puddle of overloaded emotions.

"That's a beautiful name, it fits you well... Your friend, she was anxious to fight me and my companions off, should i expect the same from you?"

(A/N: and there you have it! You guys voted for Hunting in the poles, with 17 votes to the second place, War Between Worlds, 9 votes. Hope you guys enjoyed this first chapter! I'll update as soon as i can! Don't forget to leave a review, every one counts!

Okay? Okay.

Bye)