AN/: Welcome to the first chapter of the sequel to The Dragon Masters! The title isn't official yet and you can vote for the title on the poll on my profile! Anyways! I decided to upload this as kind of a preview. There might actually be a prologue to this story, but I wanted to see how this went first!

If you're reading this then you must have been a fan of the prequel story, The Dragon Masters. I welcome back all of my loyal readers with open arms and some freshly fallen tears! I just can't believe what a big success this has all been! I'm hoping to not disappoint you with the sequel, and hopefully, the third installment of my planned-to-be trilogy. SURPRISE! Well, I hope you enjoy this! I might as well post a final chapter in The Dragon Masters to alert others that the sequel is up, right? Well, enjoy and be sure to review and go vote! ONWARD~!

Once upon a time, there was a Celestial mage named Lucy Heartfilia. She was a dreamer, and her dream was to be in Fiore's number one guild, Fairy Tail. Her dream came true one day in a town called Hargeon. The Salamander of Fairy Tail, Natsu Dragneel, had dragged her away to his guild and she'd felt welcome as soon as she stepped through those doors. Her life was filled with many adventures and challenges from that moment on. It was said that at some point the young, blonde mage had fallen for her pink-haired partner. After that, the legends of the Dragon Was of Leafre began to form. But, here's a secret I know you'll want to hear: all the legends, stories, and rumors of the great Dragon Princess fighting for her kingdom were more than just bedtime stories. It was more than just a legend, it was the truth.

It was a day that stared like the day before had. It was busy, busy, busy, work, work, work, for the mages that had been camping out in the safety of the Grand Palace of Leafre. Lucy had called out some of her spirits to help clean up some of the areas of the palace. Lamps were placed in the darker corridors of the castle and rooms were assigned. Lucy, of course, had chosen to stay in what appeared to be her old bedroom. It was located on the floor beneath her mother's room near the throne room. The rest of them were placed in rooms that were spread apart more, covering more of the palace yet still relatively close to each other.

It had been almost a month since Lucy, Natsu, Gray, Erza, Gajeel, and Wendy had inhabited the palace that had housed the Royal family of the dragon realm. The Fairy Tail mages kept in contact with their guild master throughout their time there. Luka would fly Lucy out into the forest where it was safer to summon a portal and send messages through. She needed to keep the palace safe, and she didn't want the enemy to worm their way through the remnants of a magic portal.

Everyone was working so hard to help in any way that they could. Gajeel was helping reinforce weakened palace walls with his iron. Gray was helping with all the food and supplies, which included gathering them and hiding most of it from the always hungry Natsu Dragneel. Erza was in charge of weaponry and defense. The scarlet-haired mage's job was to take care of anything that had to do with fighting. She was even helping Wendy train so that the young Sky Dragon Slayer could better assist everyone using her magic. The small, blue-haired girl had insisted that she train in order to get stronger. Of course, Wendy was also in charge of all health aspects, which included the healing, treating, and prevention of illnesses that could be present. She was often found in the palace library flipping through the pages of medical books and encyclopedias, learning as much as she could about the medical world in Leafre.

Natsu was the one who worked with Erza when it came to offensive plans. Not only did he do that, but he kept the palace nice and warm on chilly nights. He manned the heating system that ran through the palace. It was very intricate and old, making it quite difficult to handle, but the spirited fire-loving mage had no objections to trying to figure it out. And figure it out, he did. The most important thing that Natsu did, though, was stand by Lucy's side. He was practically her advisor. Sounds devastating, right? One would think so. But, surprisingly, the young man had given the Dragon Princess some great advice when she needed it. He helped her whenever he could and in whatever way he could. He supported her fully as everyone else did, but he lived up to his job title as her protector and kept her mentally intact whenever she began to crumble.

Luka had been keeping Lucy updated on all of her findings. She usually left for days to gather as much information on the enemy as she could. Sometimes, the dragon's long trips would leave Lucy a bit frazzled, constantly worrying if Luka was okay. Everyone had been worrying about Lucy. It had only been about a month and already she was ready to have a total mental meltdown.

Today was that one day out of the week when Lucy contacted Fairy Tail. It had been deemed too dangerous to actually leave Leafre; therefore, Lucy resorted to sending letters through.

Dear Master Makarov,

Here is our weekly update. I'll get straight to the point. We're making pretty decent progress for it just being the seven of us. Gajeel has helped strengthen the palace walls a great deal and Natsu's been keeping the heating system running. How he's doing it, I'll never know. Erza is being Erza as usual. She's still helping with all the things that have to do with getting through whatever's coming our way. Wendy, the little darling, is trying her best to be as helpful as she can. She has Erza training her so she can get stronger. She says that if we have to fight, then she's fighting with us. I fear that bringing her here with me was a bad idea. She's just so young and to go through something like war, that's just cruel.

We miss everyone so much! Tell everyone we said hi, okay? Now, about that favor I asked…

Have you gotten any information over there? I've been searching through the history books in the library here, but there are so many of them that range over such a wide gap that it might take me a while to find the right point in time. Luka won't tell me anything more than she already has. I know she's hiding something.

Oh well… Gray has been going on about how he misses Juvia, so be sure to tell her that. Gajeel misses Levy a whole lot, too. Make fun of her for me a bit, okay?

Love,
~Lucy

Lucy whipped out her Universal Gate Key and summoned a small portal. Somehow, she'd gotten very good at using the little thing in the short amount of time she'd been using it. She could feel herself changing each and every day, but she wasn't sure how she felt about that. It was strange for her to be taking on the role of the leader. She wasn't used to it and she didn't think she'd ever get used to it, but that didn't mean she wasn't getting good at it. She'd been training more with Luka as well. Her magical abilities were now almost flawless. She may not have been as strong as she could be, but her technique was something she was proud to boast about.

Quickly flicking the letter through the portal she wasted no time in sealing it shut tight. She'd been very cautious about communicating with anyone who wasn't confined within the walls of the Grand Palace of Leafre. Lucy realized that she didn't quite like what she was changing into. She was always uptight and on edge. She was stressing out big time, and the real problems hadn't even come about yet.

The princess sighed and rubbed her neck. It was stiff and sore from all the stress and training with Luka. Training had taken quite a toll on her, but it was well worth it.

"Let's go, Luka," Lucy said a bit absentmindedly. She knew the dragon was already aware that she was ready to leave, but she felt the need to say it.

"Lucy, I know there's something on your mind," Luka said crouching down low so that Lucy would have an easier time climbing onto her back. "You've gotten very good at sealing your thoughts from me. Your emotions, however, are a different story." Lucy hoisted herself up and made herself comfortable.

"Yes, I know that Luka. Thank you for reminding me that it's only thing I can't keep from you," Lucy practically scoffed. Luka rolled her eyes and huffed out a smoky breath.

"I want to help you! Why won't you let me?" the Elemental Dragon pouted. She hated it when her master was like this. When she was anxious and nervous the dragon always felt uncomfortable. It was unhealthy to let Lucy stay like that, but Luka didn't know what to do to help.

"No, Luka, it's you that won't let yourself help me!" Lucy growled down at her dragon angrily. Using a bit of her magic she commanded Luka to take off and head for the palace. She was done with that conversation until Luka could stop being a stubborn, scaly brat. It had been a long day already and the day was only half over!

The Elemental Dragon Master walked in through a side door of the palace. She swung it open forcefully and stomped inside slamming the door shut behind her. She walked down a small corridor and found herself in a tunnel system. She'd discovered that the tunnels had actually been used by the guards of the palace when her mother was still alive. They weren't a secret from the kingdom, but navigating through them was something only few knew how to do. Lucy could get to the foyer from the tunnels, but only from the side door she'd come in through. She had to remind herself to look for a map of the tunnels later.

After taking many turns and twists she made her way to a large wall. The grey stone was cold against her hands and she pushed on the barrier, pushing her weight to the right to reveal an opening. There were secret doors like that all over the palace; she just needed to find the rest.

"Oh, Luce you're back!" Natsu shouted when he saw her come through the opening on the wall by the stairs. He watched as she pushed the wall back into place and then clapped her hands together to rid them of the dust that had collected on the wall.

"Hey, Natsu," Lucy greeted tiredly. She approached him and wrapped her arms around his torso tightly. She felt so secure in his arms. "You done for today?" she asked calmly.

"Yeah, I think so," he answered rubbing his hand in small, soothing circles on her back and gently kissing the top of her head. "I think we all should be. We haven't had a day off since we got here." He pulled Lucy away from him a bit and touched his forehead to hers. "Luce, you need to rest." At this Lucy sighed and closed her eyes. She rested her head on his shoulder and snugged into him a bit more.

"I know, I know. I feel like someone should be serving me as a dish at one of those fancy fire-food places you love so much," she giggled a bit a rolled her eyes, "My brain feels fried!"

"Then it's settled. We'll all finish up for the day, take a nap, then we'll just all spend some time together or relax," Natsu announced. The blonde in his arms smiled at his words.

"That sounds really nice. Can you tell the others? I think I'm going to start on that nap now."

"Sure thing, Luce. You get your rest, okay? I love you." He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

"I love you too, Natsu," Lucy said back returning the small kiss. With that she dragged herself up to her room at the top of the castle.

Lucy hoped to flop down onto her big, comfy bed and just sleep until she couldn't feel the stiffness in her neck anymore. She mentally scoffed at herself. Yeah! Like that would happen! She groaned and continued to climb up, rubbing her neck as she went. Finally, she got to the top of the stairs.

"Lucy-san?" a small voice inquired. Lucy craned her already throbbing neck to look behind her. The little Sky Dragon Slayer was running up the stairs to catch up to her. "Natsu-san said that you were in pain. I came as quick as I could. Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked quickly.

"My neck really hurts. I nice massage would really help, but you don't have to do anything, Wendy. Really, it's alright," Lucy assured the small girl. But, she insisted on helping. Wendy followed Lucy all the way up to her room and instructed her to sit down on her bed while she climbed up and sat behind her. She used a bit of her magic to help with the pain in her neck then began to massage the sore muscles with her small hands.

"Oh my goodness, thank you so much Wendy," Lucy drawled out happily. She already felt a million times better.

"It's no problem at all, Lucy-san!" Wendy leaned over onto her hand so she could see Lucy's face. She hissed in pain when she put pressure onto her palm.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked worriedly. The blunette shook her head and assured the blonde that she was fine, but Lucy didn't buy that for a second. She took Wendy's hand into her own to examine it and the girl winced at the contact. "Wendy, what happened to your hand?" Lucy gasped.

"It's nothing!" Wendy yelled trying to pry her hand from Lucy's grip. Lucy gave her a stern look, one that demanded that the truth be told. "I just cut my hand while training with Erza-san today. It's not a big deal," she insisted. Lucy's gaze softened. Wendy always tried so hard to act tough like everyone else that she often put her own wellbeing aside for others. That's what she'd always done.

"Wendy, it's not a bad thing to let others care about you every once and a while," Lucy said softly. Luckily, there were some medical supplies in the room, courtesy of Wendy herself, and Lucy was able to tend to the cut on Wendy's hand. She felt like she was mothering the little girl that everyone had grown to love so much. But, she didn't really mind. For some reason it just felt so natural.

"Thank you, Lucy," Wendy said shyly. She wrapped her petit arms around her neck in a quick hug then dashed from the room. Lucy smiled warmly after the girl. She'd finally dropped the honorific from her name. Maybe having Wendy there wasn't such a terrible thing after all. She was such a sweet little girl.

END NOTE: Well, how was it? We had some NaLu fluff in there, along with some minor plot here and there. I'm going to be having a lot of interaction between Wendy and Lucy, if you haven't noticed. Anyone want to take a guess as to why? Don't forget to go check out the poll and vote for the title! Also, you can like my page on Facebook where you'll get random updates on what's going on! XD I love you all so uch and thank you for being so supportive! Mwah! Kisses!

~Alice-chan