Hello new readers! I'm putting this here to let you know that this is NOT a Skyrim/Fairy Tail crossover. This will take entirely in the Fairy Tail universe, but with the Skyrim plot. That being said, you do not need to have played or even known about Skyrim to read this. But for those who have played it you might be able to predict things easier ;) So, yeah, none of the Skyrim characters will show up, but some terminology from the game will be thrown in, but you really don't need to know what it means to understand the rest of the story. Also, there will be some romantic themes later on such as NaLu, GaLe, etc. but this doesn't really revolve around that. Sorry this is so long I just needed to clear this up! Thanks for reading -Bri :)
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The light was bright; almost too bright. Why was he outside? Despite all the questions going through his mind all he could focus on right now was one thing: he was on a moving vehicle. It didn't matter what kind, but all that mattered was it was moving.
He slowly peeled one eye open, and then the other, as if they had been previously glued shut, but closed them again just as quickly when the vehicle hit a bump in the road. Of course he had to wake up in the middle of this, allowing him no time for preparations beforehand.
"Oi, you're finally awake, eh?," a male voice asked, startling him. His eyes peeled open once more, finally taking in his surroundings. They were in an uncovered wagon, being pulled by 2 horses. Now that he focused, he could see not only one, but three other men sitting with him, making him the fourth person. The one who had talked to him had auburn hair that came just below the nape of his neck, spiking out, with sideburns and slight facial scruff to match. His coat (or cape, really), covered his clothing, and the collar sprouted up to shield half of his face, though it didn't do a very good job considering how tattered and dirty it was.
Inspecting the others, the one that sat in front of him, glaring, had black hair that came down onto his forehead, and framed his face. He was rather pale, and had the black eyes to match his head. But one thing that threw him off was the fact that he was, well . . . shirtless. How he had done that, he had no idea. It confused him considering that they all had their hands bound behind their backs. The third man was a true sight. He was large, height and build wise. His electric blonde hair stood up, and his face was marred across his left eye with a lightening bolt. As well as hands bound, there was also a handkerchief tied around his mouth, preventing him from talking. He wasn't surprised that someone like him was caught with the others.
At this thought, everything came flooding back to him in flashbacks. He was new to Fiore, and hadn't realized that the punishment for stealing a loaf of bread here was going to be way more severe than stealing it in Bosco. Of course, he had stolen it in the capital, Crocus, which I guess made it understandable. Everyone there was stuck up, and the goddamn bread was 1200 Jewels! How else was he supposed to feed not only himself, but his Exceed, Happy, as well? The guards at Crocus acted like hawks, and if someone so much as breathed wrong they were arrested. But, even to him, the act of thievery definitely did not deserve him being executed. They were chopping his damn head off for a loaf of bread.
The man next to him nudged his knee; "You okay? You lookin' real queasy. . ."
He nodded. "J-just motion sick . . ness. Ugh . ."
The man laughed loudly before being told to shut up by the men on the horses in front of them. "Someone like you who did something so bad to end up here is hindered by motion sickness-Now that's funny. Anyway, we might as well get to know each other before facing our inevitable death. I'm Gildarts. How about you?"
As best as he could, he mustered out, "N-Natsu. . .Natsu Drag-" pause for stomach rumbling, "-Dragneel."
"Hey, I've heard of ya. You the one that stole a loaf of bread in Crocus and got sentenced to execution?"
Natsu nodded, just the action enough to make him want to hang over the side of the cart.
"Well, holy shit. I don't know how you managed that but that sure is a sucky way to go out. Oh, and that guy right there," he nodded to the man- well, he couldn't have been older than himself- sitting across from him, "that's Gray Fullbuster."
"Yeah, and what's it to you?," Gray shot back, narrowing his already narrow eyes. Natsu sighed. Just what they needed, another moody I'm-So-Much-Better-Than-Everyone-Else. "Got somethin' to say, strawberry shortcake?," Gray aimed the insult at Natsu, referring to his vibrant spiky pink hair. If Natsu hadn't been bound and crippled by motion sickness he was fairly certain that his fist would've been connecting with Gray's nose in no time.
"Gray 'accidentally' froze an entire town, including its people, and since he couldn't prove it was an accident, well, here he is," Gildarts informed.
Natsu gave Gildarts a skeptical look, one asking how the hell do you freeze an entire town on accident? Across from them, Gray smirked. "Yeah, I get it. I don't know if you've heard of it, but I'm part of this wizards college. It's not an actual college, though, just some place all the wizards in Magnolia can hang out. It's called the College of Fairy Tail. You probably already figured it out, but I specialize in ice-make magic, meaning I can sculpt anything out of ice. But you most likely wouldn't understand."
Natsu sighed again, not bothering to hide how annoyed he was with the ice mage. Of course he understood magic. Even if he wasn't originally from Fiore, he still knew of the famous College of Fairy Tail. Bosco wasn't an exactly lavish place, so they needed news from other kingdoms to keep them occupied, and it just so happened that they neighbored Fiore.
"And that over there," Gildarts nodded once more to the man sitting next to Gray, "is Jarl Laxus Dreyar of Pergrande Kingdom. Started the entire civil war goin' on in Ishgar. Legends say he killed the High King just by yellin' at him! I mean, it's no secret that he did kill the High King, but c'mon. Can you believe the things people make up?," he scoffed. Laxus sent him a look, and dear Earthland if looks could kill Gildarts would already be dead by now. The wagon came to a halt, Natsu immediately perking up and looking in front of him at where they were. There was another wagon next to them, with 2 other men and 1 woman whom he didn't recognize. The trail came to a circle clearing, a tree stump right in the middle of it with a hooded man standing next to it, wielding an axe. Natsu shivered.
"Alright everyone, off the wagons, hurry the hell up we don't have all day," the heavily armor clad woman told them, ushering them off. When they were all off she brought out a clipboard. "When I call your name please proceed to the clearing," she cleared her throat.
"Kingdom loves their damn lists'," Gildarts whispered.
"Gray Fullbuster," she called. Gray walked forward and into the clearing, receiving looks from the others and the crowd surrounding him since he wasn't wearing a shirt. Natsu swore he could hear girls giggling. "Gildarts Clive." He nodded back to Natsu, as if giving a silent farewell, before stalking off behind Gray. "Jarl Laxus Dreyar." She said his name with disgust. "You have brought shame to our kingdom. I hope you're happy about the consequences you will be fac-" Before she could even finish, Laxus walked away, obviously annoyed. Natsu couldn't blame him. The woman came to a stop before him. "And . . who might you be?"
"Natsu Dragneel," he muttered, embarrassed that his petty actions landed him here. She rose her eyebrows. "Execution for stealing a loaf of bread? This can't be right. Oh well, Jarl Makarov doesn't lie. Off to the clearing." Natsu scoffed before walking away. Just because these were his last 10 minutes on Earthland didn't mean he had to spend them being nice.
The seven of them stood in a wide circle surrounding the tree stump and hooded man. The previous armor clad woman gave a small speech, about how if we had just avoided doing those things we wouldn't have ended up here, blah-blah-blah. Natsu zoned out the entire time until the first person was called to the stump. Holy shit. It's actually happening. The man closest to the woman walked to the stump before being pushed down roughly on his knees. His neck and head were laying on the flat top, neck exposed. The executioner raised his axe, and in one swift motion brought it down onto the man's neck. Natsu and the others visibly flinched, as if they were the one's in his place. The recently severed head rolled into the basket next to the wood, as the body fell limp. "You monster's! How could you?," a female voice shouted from the crowd surrounding them, no doubt most likely related to him.
One after the other the next two unknown faces were walked over, and the executioner, though hooded, looked as if he showed not even a single bit of remorse for the victims as the action repeated two more times. "Natsu Dragneel," the woman called, staring him straight in the eyes. Natsu blew out a deep breath, heart pounding uncomfortably against his chest as he stalked over to the middle of the clearing. He was pushed onto his knees, head laying on the wood, facing the tower behind the executioner. This was it. This was where it all came to an end. All over a loaf of bread. He bid silent farewells to all he held dear, which was really only his Exceed, Happy. The executioner raised the axe, about to deliver the final blow when . . . a rumble came about the village. "What in Earthland's name is that?," someone shouted, and it didn't take long to figure out what he was talking about.
The sky turned a murky gray as a dragon completely covered in flames flew in a couple of circles before landing on the tower he had been facing, shouting out a deafening screech. The executioner fell, and everything was blown into chaos. Natsu's vision blurred and he stumbled trying to get up without using his hands. A large burly hand grabbed his arm, hoisting him up and stabilizing him, and from far away he could hear "hurry up! We need to get out of here!" before being dragged.
Even with his shaky vision, Natsu could still recognize the black hair and shirtless torso in front of him. Why had Gray helped him? He was fairly certain that the ice wizard grown to hate him in the short amount of time they spent together in the moving death trap. But even as annoyed as Natsu had been, if the roles were reversed he still would've helped Gray escape. He might not have liked the guy, but it's not like he wanted to see him die if he could've stopped it.
Gray pulled him into a small tower, only two stories high and a spiral staircase wrapping around the pillar in the middle. "How'd you get your hands free," Natsu asked once they were inside.
The black haired boy laughed, turning Natsu around and undoing the rope. "If I can get my shirt off then it was pretty easy to get the rope off."
Natsu rubbed his wrists as another tremor shook the village, as if a violent earthquake suddenly hit. Inspecting the tower, he saw that Gildarts was with them, but Laxus was nowhere to be seen. As much as he scared him, he silently hoped that Laxus was doing okay and hadn't been harmed at all by the dragon. Although, knowing that the lightning scarred man managed to kill the High King, he shouldn't be too worried.
Gildarts sighed, dragging his hand down his face. "Dragons haven't been seen in Ishgar for over 400 years. Especially not ones as powerful as this one. What the hell are they doing here now?"
Gray shrugged. "Well, it's not like they weren't ever going to come back. When the dragons were killed there were only a couple of Dragonborns alive who could actually kill them. The ones who were killed by regular humans were bound to come back sometime. It's just weird that it's happened so soon."
Coming from Bosco, Natsu heard all sorts of tales about dragons-where they came from, what different types there were, when they existed-but he never thought that he would see one in real life, especially not now. Gray was right. Why had the dragons returned so suddenly?
The dragon outside continued causing chaos, and Gildarts ran up the steps to the top floor. "Come on, we gotta get out of here," he called behind him as Natsu and Gray followed. As soon as he reached the midpoint, the wall crumbled, and the dragon could be seen on the other side, hanging off the edge. Everyone ducked while the beast spewed fire into the tower, narrowly missing the man in front of him. "Shit!," he shouted. When it disappeared, almost the entire ceiling was missing, and they were all at risk of falling through the floor. "We gotta jump down," Gildarts told them.
"Wait- what?," Natsu asked with an incredulous look on his face, "jump down? Are you crazy?" Normally he wouldn't have denied this opportunity, but this situation was far too different than others he had been caught in.
The auburn haired man nodded. "It's not a big drop, and with the first floor blocked off it's the only way we can get out of here, so get movin'." He pushed Natsu forward, who stumbled before leaping off the second floor and breaking into a roll and standing up.
"Watch out!," Gray called, but it was too late before he landed directly on top of Natsu, who could only stare as the ice mage fell from the tower. They both groaned, Natsu pushing Gray off of him. "Watch it, ice brain!," he insulted. Narrowing his already squinty eyes, he was about to fire something back before Gildarts came down on top of him, making Natsu break out into a fit of laughter.
Getting up, Gildarts glared at them. "Can you two quit acting like children for 5 minutes? We have bigger problems to worry about," he motioned to the dragon flying above them. "Now let's go."
They followed behind him the entire way, weaving through running crowds of people (whilst tripping over a few) and heading towards the village entrance. The double-sided sign said "Welcome To Hargeon!" in bold letters. They chose to host an execution at the ports? Well, it did make sense for the dragon to show here first, right next to the ocean. Easy access.
"Out of our way, traitor," Gildarts growled. Natsu turned to see Jarl Laxus was standing in front of them, feet spread apart in a menacing manor. If it was meant to intimidate, it wasn't working all that good. Maybe his black fur lined coat ruined the aura.
The Jarl scoffed. "Running away from a fight are you?" He moved his head and stared at Gray. "Is this how Fairy Tail wizards treat their kingdom?," he raised his eyebrow, clearly mocking him.
For an ice wizard, Gray looked as if he was heated, about to charge at the Jarl. "You have no damn right to talk down on the college your grandfather runs. It's not our fault you were too much of a coward to face him and went and betrayed us." He paused to press a closed fist against his open palm. "Now get out of our way before I make you."
Laxus stepped to the side, but he didn't look fazed in the slightest. As we ran by he called to us, "I'll remember this, Gray Fullbuster. I'll remember the time you threatened your superiors."
"Wait, so we're not gonna help them at all?," Natsu asked.
"There's nothing we can do. This isn't exactly a magic run village. It's a port town. Not to mention that we wouldn't be able to take down the dragon with only one mage and no dragonborn. Sorry if you think we're bein' harsh, but it's not our fault. They can take care of themselves," Gildarts said flatly.
"Yeah, plus they tried to execute us. Why should we help them out, ya know?," Gray suggested.
He did have a point, but Natsu couldn't help but feel guilty. For his eccentric and wild nature this was a new feeling for him. While he didn't care about a lot of people, even the ones he didn't know he felt should be protected. I guess you could say Natsu didn't hold grudges very well, unless it was worth it.
They finally stopped running awhile up the road, almost to where Hargeon was just a speck on the horizon. Flames and smoke rose well above the buildings, and the dragon could be seen flying away, but not over the ocean. Over the land. This made Natsu feel sick to his stomach at the thought of more towns being terrorized due to that beast.
"Ya know, now that I think of it, that dragon looks kinda familiar," Gildarts narrowed his eyes at it and nudged Gray, "isn't it called Atlas-somethin''?"
"Atlas Flame? Out of all the dragons I doubt we would be unfortunate enough to have to deal with that one. But it is a possibility, considering it's one of the strongest. I'll tell the College master about this back in Magnolia. He'll be surprised to see me, but we might be the only mages in Ishgar who can take it down without the help of a Dragonborn."
He nodded. "Well, I think it's about time we go our separate ways, eh? Thanks for helpin' me out and stuff, but I got lot's more adventures I could be goin' on- by myself. Maybe we'll cross paths again someday." Gildarts gave Natsu and Gray a very . . manly hug. The whole slapping back one armed hug before walking down the hill to the right of them.
Now it was just Natsu and Gray. Gray rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Uh, I know we didn't get off to a very good start, but I know you're new to Fiore and stuff, so I'll help you out a bit. Keep going Northwest and you'll end up in this really tiny village next to Magnolia. There's a blacksmith there, name's Gajeel Redfox. You can't miss him. He's got black hair and metal all over his body. Since the dragon's headed that way I would appreciate it if you could give him a head's up. I have to go back to Magnolia to tell our college master about the problem, and Gajeel can point you in the right direction wherever you need to go."
Natsu nodded. It's not like there was anywhere else he needed to be, so he might as well help the neighboring villages. Gray gave a slight wave before heading North, while Natsu went Northwest to find the so-called Gajeel Redfox.