I do not nor will I ever own Fairy Tail or the Characters that the great Hiro Mashima created.

Thank you for your reviews! I loved them also do read and review this chapter as well. I look forward to them. ~Midnight

Previously:

Just then the little girls eyes moved around looking at everyone and when her eyes landed on Natsu they stopped. She looked at him and then blinked once as a smile spread across her face as she turned back toward the forest and disappeared back into the dark depths. Lucy was looking at the now empty spot confused when Natsu was suddenly off like a shot, running after the little girl into the forbidden forest.

Chapter 2

"Natsu!" Lucy yelled as the pink haired mage disappeared into the forest after the little girl. "Why does he always do this?" Gray said as he took off after their friend. "I think we need to knock some more sense into that thick head when we get back home," said Erza as she followed Gray. "Stupid Salamander," mumbled Gajeel as he too followed the others. Only Wendy, Lucy and Carla were left, as both Happy and Pantherlily followed their partners into the dark forest.

"Do you think that we should follow them?" questioned Lucy.

"No," said Carla primly. "We were told not to go in… Wendy… Oh, child what are you doing?" Wendy had apparently not been listening as she was also running off into the forest after her fellow Slayers and friends; Carla of course followed her in, leaving Lucy alone. She just sighed and with one look back at their camp, she too took off after her pink haired partner.

0o0o0o0o0o

As Natsu was running though the forest his mind was blank. He didn't understand why he was running so hard to catch up to this little girl, other than that he had to get to her. He had to find her. So he just kept running but he didn't know where he was running. Once she disappeared back into the forest she totally vanished, Natsu thought, not even a scent… Wait! Natsu stumbled slightly but re-righted his footing and continued. How come I never even caught a scent to begin with? He just shook his head because he was thinking too hard and it was making his head hurt.

As he continued to run he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye to his right and then he turned toward what he thought he saw. As he tore through trees and shrubbery he came upon something that made his heart skip a beat. As he looked on he started to see red and his roar of anger was deafening to even his ears.

0o0o0o0o0o

"Where did that block-head go?" said Gray as they were running through the forest trying to find Natsu.

"This way," said Gajeel as nodded his head toward another area of the forest. Damn Dragons and their noses, thought Gray, well at least we don't have to go searching through the whole forest for that idiot. Wendy, Lucy and Carla had finally caught up to the others when a deafening roar was heard. Lucy, Gray, Erza, Wendy, Happy and Carla had heard this roar once before when they had been fighting the Oracion Seis and Natsu had been caught in a huge battle with the Dragon Slayer of Poison, Cobra. They all started to panic and even though it was the first time for Gajeel or Pantherlily to have heard it they didn't like the feeling it left behind so the wizards doubled their efforts to try and locate their friend.

It wasn't but a moment later that they finally found Natsu but he wasn't alone. There in the middle of the forest was the biggest lacrima that any of the mages had ever seen. It was as large as a mountain but multi-hued in color but also crystal clear. As the others approached Natsu they heard a horrified gasp from Wendy and when they turned toward her he face was filled with undeniable horror. They also noticed Gajeel was also stopped next to the youngest Dragon Slayer his face full of confusion and at the same time revulsion.

"What's wrong?" asked a concerned Lucy.

"There… There's someone in there," said Wendy in shaky voice as she pointed a shaky finger toward the mountainous lacrima.

"What are you talking about?" asked Erza as she looked back at the lacrima. "Wendy there's no one inside of that lacrima. No one can survive inside a lacrima."

"The kid's not wrong," said Gajeel in slightly horrified voice. "There is someone in that lacrima but I can only see the shape of a child." Wendy was nodding her head in agreement with Gajeel's statement. The others turned back toward the lacrima in shock and amazement. That's when Lucy noticed Natsu standing near it and just looking at it. Thank goodness, she thought relived. He wasn't attacked, but then what was that roar about. Lucy was worried that maybe something had happened so she walked toward him and just as she was going to reach her hand out to him his flames erupted around his body as he let out another roar of pure rage.

Lucy was suddenly pulled away from him by a worried Erza who had already requipped into her Flame Empress armor. As Erza let her go Gray pushed her behind him and then Gajeel did the same until she was all the way behind Wendy who was ready to create a barrier if needed. As Erza raised her Flame blade for battle but she slowly lowered it back down in shock.

"No," she said in a shaky voice. "That's not possible."

"What's not possible?" asked Gray. "What's going on Erza?"

"Dragon Force," she replied in amazement. "But that shouldn't be possible without a power boost. What's happening?" As everyone watched Natsu's skin seemed to take on what looked like scales on his face and arms. His power just seemed to keep growing as his flames became greater and larger. Everyone was on the defense when he pulled his right arm back, with his hand in a fist and it seemed that he gathered all that power into that hand covered in flames.

"Move back!" yelled Erza when Natsu let out another roar as he slammed his fist into the giant lacrima creating a huge crack that just seemed to grow and radiate outward from that point of impact. As the cracks grew in number the whole lacrima started to glow brightly, so brightly in fact that everyone had to shield their eyes.

Once the light had finally dissipated and the others could open their eyes, the scene they were met with beyond shocked them. The little girl whom had led them into the forest was slowly lowering toward Natsu's outstretched arms. Once she was safely in his arms Natsu returned to normal but was still holding onto the little girl. When he looked down at her his face contorted into a look of gut wrenching pain. He lowered his head to her shoulder and mumbled something so low that even the other Dragon Slayers couldn't hear. Lucy was looking at the man who had brought her to Fairy Tail, who had saved her more times than she could count, who was someone she knew she could rely on in times of hardship. She had never seen him like this; she wanted to offer comfort so she slowly started to approach him again. The others, still too shocked too move, didn't try to stop her.

"Natsu?" Lucy said as she came closer to the pink-haired mage. She laid her hand on his shoulder in a sign of comfort, and when he turned his pain filled gaze toward her, her heart seemed to stop. She looked over to the girl in his arms and was relived to see her lips parted and her chest was raising and falling as she breathed evenly.

"Yeah, Luce," Natsu said as he continued to look at her.

"Are you okay?" she asked concerned. Natsu looked away from her and back down at the sleeping child in his arms. As he was looking at the little girl she shifted and snuggled closer into his chest and her little hands reached out and clung to his dragon scale scarf. A smile broke out across his face that was so full of kindness that was so different than when he smiled at everyone else. I've never seen him smile like this, thought Lucy as her heart clenched. Who is this girl and what does she mean to him? Maybe she's related to him but they look nothing alike. Lucy was comparing Natsu's tan skin to the little girl's porcelain skin and even their hair, which was pink in comparison to the girl's midnight blue. Maybe she's another Dragon Slayer that he knew when he was little… that thought made more sense to Lucy and seemed more likely than them being related.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he replied looking back up at her. The others had shaken off their shock from earlier and were surrounding Lucy and Natsu to get a look at the little girl. "Let's get back to camp and get our stuff and head home, huh?" They all nodded their heads silently and that's when Gray brought up a good point.

"Uh, guys… Any of you know how to get back to camp?" Everyone looked back at him with blank stares.

"Uh, I think we can follow our scents back toward camp," commented Wendy. "At least I hope so." Gajeel just started toward where they came from, and the others turned to follow.

0o0o0o0o0o

"Natsu?" asked Wendy as they continued through the forest.

"What is it Wendy?" he replied

"Do you know her?" she asked as she gestured toward the little girl in his arms. Her question had caught everyone's attention. He seemed to be caught off-guard by the question, and then he looked back down at the little girl and back up at the others and replied with, "I don't know."

"How can you not know, you flame-headed idiot?" questioned Gray.

"I don't know," he snapped. "I wish I knew who she is then maybe it would explain why I feel like I know her." Natsu looked so confused by what he was feeling that the others just left him alone. Gray 'humped' and turned away from the pink-haired mage and looked around him.

"Hey, Gajeel," Gray said.

"What?" Gajeel replied grouchily.

"Are you sure that we are going the right way?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," Gajeel, said as he rounded on Gray. "What about it, ya stripper?"

"I just feel like this isn't familiar to the way we came is all."

"It could be because we were running Gray," supplied Erza as they continued on. "None of us were really looking where we were going. Oh, and Gray, clothes."

"Aw, crap!" Gray exclaimed as looked down and noticed his was only in his underwear. Everyone else laughed at the ice mage's antics. As the laughter died down it was again silent and it was really grating on Lucy's nerves. She didn't know what was going on and it freaked her out. She wasn't alone in her thoughts, Erza was also really worried about what had happened and the ramifications if this ended up badly. Soon they saw sunlight through the trees and once they were out of the forest they knew that something was wrong.

When they all looked around they knew that they were not in the same place that they had left their things and where they had camped the night before and they could even hear the faint sounds of a city in the distance. "What the hell?" said Gajeel as he walked over to their things. "This is not where we came in at and what the hell is our stuff already here for?" All of them were confused because none of it made any sense. And when they looked back it seemed as if the forest changed again, almost like it was alive and lead them somewhere closer to their destination.

"Uh…" started Natsu. "Why don't we just head home? I mean yeah our stuff is moved but now we're closer to the town, so what's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal?" said Erza. "Someone touched our stuff and moved it…"

"Hold on Tatiana," said Gajeel gruffly. "I don't smell any new scents on our stuff."

"What? How's that possible?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Gajeel yelled. He was aggravated about something. "Either way, Salamander is right for once."

"Hey!" yelled Natsu as he grabbed his pack. He was still holding the little girl as she had yet to let go of his scarf.

"Let's just go home." Even thought the others were still concerned they soon ignored it because due to their stuff being moved, by whatever moved it, they were able to get home almost a week early. So they all gathered their stuff and head to the nearest town on their way home to Fairy Tail.

0o0o0o0o

They were finally back in Magnolia and everyone had strained looks on their faces but not all for the same reason. For everyone besides Natsu, it was because of Natsu's actions, or rather inactions, within the last day or so that it took them to get back to Magnolia and the fact that even though both Gajeel and Gray tried to pick fights with the ever ready for a fight Dragon Slayer he never responded to their taunts. This unnerved both guys to the point they thought that maybe he somehow was sick even though Wendy had used Troia on both Gajeel and Natsu so they wouldn't get motion sick. The girls had strained looks because of Natsu as well. He was not acting like himself and it was freaking them all out including the Exceeds.

Now Natsu on the other hand had a strained look because of the little girl in his arms. She had yet to waken and it was making him worried. He turned to the others and said, "I'm gonna take her to Gramps and see what he can do." With that Natsu veered off toward the Guildhall. The others looked at his retreating back and shrugged their shoulders as they followed him back as well, because they also wished to talk to the Master about what was going on with their pink-haired friend.

As Natsu entered into the noisy guildhall he stopped trying to see if he could spot Master Makarov; soon their other guild mates noticed the dragon slayer stopped near the entrance and were met by a surprising sight. Soon the guild that is always noisy was over taken by a shocked silence. Everyone was looking at Natsu as he made it over to the bar and Mira, totally oblivious to the stares he was receiving.

"Hey Mira!" Natsu yelled. Mira turned at her name being called and stopped short in her greeting, "Hey, welc… Natsu who's that?" she asked pointing to the slumbering girl. Natsu shook his head a Mira's question and asked one of his own. "Do you know where Master is?" he asked.

"In his office," she answered. "Natsu what's going on, who is she?"

"I don't know Mira that's sort of why I'm looking for Gramps." With that Natsu left for Master Makarov's office. Everyone was still looking at Natsu as he made his way up the stairs and toward Master's office and when his disappeared there was a sudden flurry of voices. The others had not been far behind the pink-headed mage and once they entered they were met with questioning eyes.

The only one to approach the group was the petite blue-haired solid script mage. As she approached her eyes held unvoiced questions directed toward the group of mages. "What was that about?" asked Levy. Gajeel just grunted and moved around her to get to the bar. Lucy looked at Levy's face and saw a sad look come over her eyes for a split second before it disappeared.

Why does he always act like that when I try and talk to him? Levy thought. I mean he was so nice during the S-Class trial and I thought we were getting closer but after the Grand Magic Games he started to pull back again. Why? She looked longingly at the Iron Dragon's back before she looked back at her best friend with a smile.

"Sooooo, can any of you explain why Natsu had a little girl in his arms?" she asked again.

"We can, but…" started Gray before he was suddenly interrupted by a wail.

"Gray, my darling! You have returned to Juvia," wailed the rain-woman as a gush of tears flowed from her eyes. "Juvia *sniff* Juvia was so LONELY!" She threw herself at him and held on. Grey just went along with it now used to the crazy woman's antics.

"Anyway where was I?" he asked.

"You said you'd explain why Natsu has that little girl?" supplied Levy.

"Oh, right. Well long story short the forest that was near our last job apparently had some Dragon Slayer connection and flame for brains…"

"Where was your last job?" Levy asked interrupting Gray.

"Glen Rose. Why do you ask?" asked Lucy.

"Well, because," she said as she walked over to a table covered in books. "After the Grand Magic Games I looked up information about dragons and well there was one constant that I saw, or at least one name that kept coming up, Drachenwald, it's written in a dead language but from what I can guess and decipher it means Dragon's Forest. I was finally able to translate it but you guys were on your mission so I couldn't ask you if your dragons ever said anything about it." Wendy shook her head.

"None of our dragons ever told us about the place," she supplied, which caught Levy off guard. She looked over at Gajeel who just looked away mumbling something she couldn't hear. Gray went on to explain what happened and as he continued everyone within ear shot became wide eyed and turned to stare at the door that Natsu and the little girl disappeared through.

0o0o0o0o0o

Finally finished. Sorry about the long wait. If anyone is wondering Drachenwald is German. I hope to get the next chapter out soon.