Chapter 2 – The Dragon's Encounter
Makarov lounged about Fairy Tail's main hall in content. For once everything seemed just right, there were no fights, everyone seemed happy and the general atmosphere was just serene. While he did not mind the other more uproarious aspects as well it was a nice change of pace and at least he did not have to fix up the place and waste his time and money on that. The only thing that was being destroyed at the moment was the bar's alcohol supply; Kana, as usual, was contently gulping down as though her body needed to replenish itself of beer rather than water.
"Ah I love peaceful days like this", Makarov said in contentment as he thought about the latest bit of news he had received recently. It had been a report that Natsu had completed his mission and there had been hardly any extra damage at all! As far as he was concerned it was a first for Natsu and the thought of Natsu having an actual contained battle pleased him greatly. "If things can continue going on like this then maybe I'll be able to get the council off my back for a while."
"Hey Ouji-san! I'm back!" Through the front doors of the hall came in the pink-haired Salamander, Natsu Dragneel. His usual grin of exuberance stretched across his face as he stepped into the hall.
"Natsu!" Came the excited shouts of Lucy and Wendy who had been talking to each other. Natsu waved to them, "Hey there Lucy! Wendy!" and then continued on his way toward Makarov who was sitting Indian-style up on a table.
"Natsu, I'm glad to see you back. I heard your mission was quite the success."
"Ya, it was a piece of cake!" Natsu laughed and put his hand on his hips.
"You mean a piece of fish don't you Natsu!" Happy exclaimed as he flew over to Natsu.
"Oh hey there Gramps!" Natsu and Happy quickly gave each other a high-five and then Happy contented himself with just floating around. "A piece of fish huh? I think I'd prefer a piece of meat though." It took Natsu a second to get back on track as he thought about meat, "Those guys were hardly worth the trouble. I barely even got a good work out!" Natsu rolled his right arm around to emphasize that he had plenty of energy to spare. "Oh that reminds me Gramps," Natsu reached into one of his pockets and produced a folded piece of paper that he handed to Makarov, who quickly took it and read the contents, "some guys at this restaurant I stopped at wanted me to give this to you." Makarov's face formed into the perfect picture of a man who realized too late he was in a toilet stall with no toilet paper.
"B-b-but I heard there hadn't been much property damage on your mission!" Makarov stared at the big numbers that were printed in bold with an open jaw.
"Well like I said Gramps those guys didn't even give me a good warm-up, but then I stopped by at this restaurant to have some meat but then some guy landed on my table and ruined everything and I couldn't let him get away with it so I taught him and some other guys that ganged up on me a good lesson! Don't worry Gramps I'm sure they'll remember it for a long time!" Makarov had to concentrate to not rip up the notice in his hands.
"That's what I'm worried about Natsu, or rather that the council will remember it. Oh gods, and I thought I wouldn't have to worry about property damage for once!" Makarov felt his eyes start to mist up.
"Hey Gramps! Are you crying! Gah!" Natsu was sent flying from one of Makarov's suddenly large fists.
Lucy sighed at Natsu's stupidity and Wendy winced when Natsu crashed into the front doors and nearly wrenched them off their hinges; thankfully, both the doors and Natsu were very tough.
"Oy! Gramps what was that for!" Natsu raged for a second then a thought popped into his head, "So does that mean you actually want to fight me? I've been waiting for a time when you would want to fight with me!" Natsu flared up with his hands with fire and charged across the hall toward Makarov. Makarov gave a rather hopeless look toward Natsu, and squashed him like an ant with his hand.
"That was so lame, Natsu!" Lucy laughed at Natsu's smashed figure who for a second glared at her, then burst into his signature grin, leapt up off the ground and wiped his clothes off.
"Ya well it won't be too much longer when I'll be able to fight gramps with my power! You just wait and see!"
"Hmmm, yes, it is good for a man to have high dreams and to strive for them with all his strength. Become a man with your fist!" Elfman nodded toward Natsu with respect while most of the other guild members just laughed.
Wendy gazed at Natsu, admiring his strength and positive attitude about the situation that seemed to just radiate from every cell in his body. Natsu seemed to always be bursting at the seams with and overpowering strength that filled everyone else with the same confidence. "Well do your best Natsu!"
Natsu turned to look at Wendy, noticing her happy face as she encouraged him. Natsu grinned back and gave a thumbs-up. "Well of course, we're members of Fairy Tail so we always give everything our all!"
The guild hall filled with cheers and laughs, giving praise to Fairy Tail and then everyone one returned to what they were doing as if nothing had happened. It was at that point that Gray burst into the guild hall.
"Yo Gray! Been taking your sweet time in getting here I see!" Natsu teased the ice wizard as he walked in.
"Oh really?" Gray smirked and tread his way up to Natsu until they were just a foot apart and then pointed to himself with his thumb. "My job was obviously harder than yours Natsu, so it was actually you who took their sweet time in returning from their job since I know you just barely got here ahead of me."
"Oh really?" Natsu imitated Gray's stance which made it look like two statues were having a grudge match with each other. "I definitely did a better job than you droopy eyes!"
Gray leaned in closer to Natsu, "Ya right sharp eyes! My job was definitely tougher and I did it more efficiently than you ever could."
Natsu also leaned in closer as he argued right back, "As if Gray! My job was definitely the tougher one and I completed my job more thoroughly than you ever could!"
As the two argued back and forth, their faces kept getting closer and closer together, until they were actually rubbing cheeks against each other and it quickly turned into a face pushing match with animated arguing involved. Lucy did not even bother looking at them anymore as she knew they would just fight until they had expended all of their energy fighting each other. Wendy, who had not been around them long enough yet to know that they were always like that, was starting to get a little worried. Lucy noticed Wendy's disturbed face and quickly tried to set her at ease. "Ah, don't worry about them Wendy, this is what they usually do when they see each other." Although usually Erza is here to stop them so I don't know how far those two will go. She added in her head as fire and ice tried to overtake each other. As was usual in their fights, neither of them was giving an inch to the other.
The two suddenly started to grapple with each other right when the doors to the hall swung open and there stood Erza Scarlet, looking as regal and in control of the situation as ever.
"Erza!" Lucy exclaimed partially as a greeting and partially as a warning to the two enraged, grappling wizards who instantly froze and slowly turned their heads toward the door in unison. The ice wizard and the dragon slayer put on their biggest smiles, which were the most ridiculous and fake smiles you could imagine. Their faces looked like masks of comedy, and the way they were holding hands while still in a grappling position made them look like the perfect figures to use in a large garden with a fountain shooting up water behind them. Erza smiled and nodded her head in approval, "It is good to see you two getting along so well together." Somehow she managed to delude himself into thinking they were in that position as a sign of friendship rather than a fight that had just been put on deep freeze.
Wendy was amazed, and maybe even a little scared, by the sudden change in Gray and Natsu's attitudes. "Erza really is amazing."
Lucy had to agree but in more fearful terms than Wendy was thinking about at the moment. "Yes she is." She lightly laughed. The laugh was a little shaky. Then Lucy noticed someone coming into the hall alongside Erza with brown hair and little a little bit disheveled. "Oh Erza, who is that with you?"
"This," Erza began and placed an armored gauntlet on the girl's shoulder, "is Loretta. We met while we were on our last mission and she suffered some loss because of me, so I decided I'd try to make up by allowing her to stay here for a bit until she can replace what was lost, because of me." Erza looked pained as she said that and Loretta gave and uneasy smile toward Lucy who understood her plight completely.
Loretta soon recovered herself and took Erza's hand off her shoulder and stepped forward with enthusiasm and gave a short wave to the guild. "My name's Loretta Nolani! It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She started to extend a hand out toward Gray and Natsu but her hand froze mid-way and her right eyebrow started twitching along with the corner of her mouth.
Gray and Natsu, still in their statuesque, position stared blankly at her and puzzlement could be seen in their faces. The confusion was quickly remedied when Kana blurted out from behind a keg of beer she was drinking out of, "Gray! Your clothes!"
Gray looked down in shock to see himself somehow down to his underwear and Natsu very quickly disengaged himself from Gray and jumped a good three feet away. "What the heck Gray! Why did you choose now to take off your clothes you moron!" Natsu yelled from his position away from Gray.
"When did my clothes?" Was all Gray could say until someone threw his pants onto his head from somewhere. Gray quickly put on his pants and gave an apologetic cough into one of his fists. "Sorry about that, I'm Gray Fullbuster by the way." Gray held out a hand for Loretta when Lucy smacked Gray in the head from behind. "What was that for Lucy!"
"Don't just suddenly get friendly after being nearly naked in front of a girl!"
"What are you talking about Lucy, when was I ever naked?" Gray protested and rubbed the back of his head.
"Man that was disgusting Gray!" Natsu said, coming in for good measure.
"Shut up Natsu! How was I supposed to know my pants would disappear huh!" Gray spat back and the two were about to fight again when Erza's presence suddenly loomed over them and the two quickly cowered back.
"You really should learn to keep better track of your clothes Gray." Lucy thought as she watched the two cower before Erza like scared rabbits trapped in a burrow of their own making. "Sorry about that Loretta," Lucy apologized sheepishly to the girl who thankfully had already recovered from the initial shock, "they just tend to be a little unique I guess you could say," she said trying to put it as light as possible.
Loretta just laughed and waved one of her arms as if shooing away a fly. "Na, it's ok. Actually I grew up with several brothers so I'm used to that sort of thing it was just the part where he had his pants off and they were stuck in that weird pose. Kind of gave off a scary vibe if you know what I mean. At least everyone seems interesting, I think I like this place already!" Loretta stretched out as if she was in her own home.
"You're pretty amazing to be able to just accept everything so quickly." Lucy responded, and a tiny bit of respect could be heard in her voice.
"Ha ha ha. Well ya I suppose so, sometimes you just got to go with the flow after all!"
"So you admit you're amazing?" Lucy could not help but think in her mind and quickly realized Loretta was probably a little eccentric, but around Fairy Tail that was fairly normal.
Loretta took some time to look all around the guild hall to see what the place was like. It definitely looked she had ended up in a nice place. She was not quite sure how long she would be able to stay but eventually she would have to leave to continue her search for Silvaria, the dragon of sound. Well until that time came she was going to enjoy herself a bit. She glanced back over to where Erza had been lecturing Natsu and Gray and noticed that they were now free from Erza's strong gaze. Natsu grinned over to her and Gray just looked rather impassively at her; they really had the characteristics of their respective elements though she admitted she was not quite sure where running around nearly naked fit into being icy.
Now that everything had been settled she decided to go over to the two to have some proper introductions with them. "Well as you already heard I'm Loretta Nolani so you two would be Gray Fullbuster and Natsu Dragneel, the Salamander!"
"Yep that's us!" Natsu shook a bit wildly while Gray's handshake was a bit more regular, but still firm.
"Say Natsu? You're a dragon slayer right? Can you tell me what happened to the dragon that raised you?" Loretta asked the pink haired fire dragon slayer.
Natsu did not speak for a second but then he responded to her question, "Ya, Igneel, the dragon who raised me just disappeared about seven years ago on July 7. I've looked for him everywhere but I have yet to even get a clue on where he might have gone."
Loretta absorbed the information and reflected on it, "So Silvaria the sound dragon disappeared the same time Igneel did."
"As did Metalicana and Grandine…wait! So you're a Dragon Slayer too Loretta?"
"Yep!" Loretta replied quickly to Natsu sudden question.
"Awesome! That means we have four Dragon Slayers here in Fairy Tail! You, me, Gajeel, and Wendy!"
"Four Dragon Slayers right here? And all the dragons disappeared on the same day too. So where are the other two?" Loretta found herself eager to meet the other Dragon Slayers, she had heard of Natsu before but the other two she had no idea of and being able to meet other Dragon Slayers like herself was an exciting prospect. "Fairy Tail is a really amazing guild to already have three Dragon Slayers in it," she could not help but think since Dragon Slayers were very rare; certainly not very many dragons ever taught people how to become Dragon Slayers.
"Well I think Gajeel went out on a mission and hasn't come back yet but Wendy is right here!" Natsu strode over to a surprised Wendy and put a hand on her shoulder. She was not expecting to be pointed out or for Natsu to suddenly come over to her so she started to fidget a little bit and tried to be polite by keeping eye contact with Loretta.
Quickly Wendy gave a short bow toward Loretta. "Pleased to meet you, I-I'm Wendy Marvell. Pleased to meet you Loretta-san."
"So you're a Dragon Slayer as well huh? Happy to meet you Wendy!" Loretta got down on her knees on a whim and gave Wendy a quick hug. "Nice to meet a fellow girl Dragon Slayer." Loretta winked at Wendy who was a little taken aback by her spontaneity but soon found herself getting taken along with Loretta's exuberant attitude and gave a happy nod to back to her. Loretta then got back on her feet, "I'll make sure to talk with you sometime later. So Erza, where are my accommodations going to be? Your place?"
Erza thought for a brief moment and then nodded, "Yes, I should be able to make a place for you to sleep while you stay here. It was my responsibility for what happened anyway so I'll be the one to give you lodging for now. I live in the Fairy Hills dorm behind the guild; I'll show it to you once you decide to settle in."
"Sounds good Erza! Let's go over after I finish introducing myself to everyone here." Loretta quickly jetted around to the various people in the guild giving them greetings.
"Well she seems pretty nice." Lucy commented as they watched Loretta start introducing herself to Makarov.
"She is also quite strong, maybe even on par with you Natsu," Erza said, remembering the battle with the monster and how she had met Loretta.
"I'm just glad I was able to meet another Dragon Slayer! Come to think of it, what was she a Dragon Slayer of?" Natsu asked while trying to remember if she had said anything about her powers.
Erza quickly answered him, "If I remember correctly she is the Dragon Slayer of Sound."
"Of sound huh? So then she would eat like…music and stuff?" Natsu and everyone else started thinking of how Loretta would be able to eat sound, except for maybe Happy who was only thinking of fish.
"I know this may sound rude," Carla spoke up interrupting the party's thoughts on Loretta, "but would it not be best for us to at least keep an eye on her for now? After all we have just met her and we've even let her into the guild hall already."
"Carla! Why do you have to be like this all the time?" Wendy protested after hearing her cat companion speak.
"I'm just saying we should be cautious that's all. While I doubt there is any cause for concern I just worry that sometimes you are too trusting. Just because she is a Dragon Slayer does not instantly make her a friend."
Wendy found she could not argue with Carla's logic. "Well I know, but she seemed kind enough…"
"Ah don't worry about it!" Natsu interjected himself between Carla and Wendy and put his arms around the two. "Let's just enjoy the time we have together and get to know her better!"
"Natsu-san." Wendy instantly felt better though Carla looked a little pained at having suddenly been grabbed from the pink-haired Dragon Slayer. It did not help her mood that Happy was right next to them as this happened and said his usual 'aye!'.
"Well I suppose I better escort her to the dorm now," Erza stated plainly, "I'll see you all later then." The stately Titania walked away from the group toward Loretta and waved back to them. "Well are you ready to go yet?" Erza asked once she reached Loretta who was talking a few mages at one of the tables.
"Oh, ya I'm ready. It will be interesting to see where you live Erza!" Loretta said some quick farewells to the mages and hopped over to follow Erza.
Loretta had been right, it was certainly interesting to look at Erza's room for the first time; it was actually five rooms all put together by pretty much removing the walls separating the rooms and lining them all up. Looking down, it was almost like a museum hallway of various exotic and normal to practical and impractical armors and various weapons. In fact it almost looked like a trophy collection of all enemies she had fought and humiliated by taking their prized armors and weapons; Erza certainly had the ability to do that though if that were the case she doubted the armors would be so intact and shiny.
"You've got a really interesting place here!" Loretta bounded from armor to armor, seeing how the various curves of the armors reflected her face back to her; there were definitely some interesting results.
"Since my storage space is limited I keep all my extra things here. There may not be too much room so forgive me if you do not find the room to your liking."
"Oh no! Not at all! It will do just fine! Besides, with all this stuff I think your place looks rather cool. It kind of looks like wherever I plant myself, although more organized." Loretta grinned at her own joke and made a face in a random breastplate by stretching her mouth with her hands and rolling her eyes. After she was done making facing she soon came face to face with 'it'.
'It' was something that did not belong in the hall of implements of destruction and defense, it also had something which no other outfit or armor in the room had on, and that was frills, and a swan head. Needless to say, it was one of the scariest items of clothing Loretta had ever seen. "Erza, I must say I'm rather afraid to ask what this is." The swan head that came from 'it' stared back at her and Loretta tried desperately not to shy away from its gaze. She failed.
"Oh that, I never use it, it is just that it was a present from Natsu so I never got around to getting rid of it. You can have it if you like." Erza said as she was preparing a place for Loretta to sleep.
"Oh that's quite alright; I wouldn't take a present that given to someone else." Loretta replied cheerily, but on the inside she had several thoughts going. One was that it was one of the weirdest and scariest things ever, two was why in the world did Erza allow that to be on display, and three was what in the world had Natsu been thinking when she had given that to her! Surely he could have given her anything other than that!
Very quickly a bare spot with a mat had been prepared as a sleeping area for Loretta and after a little more talking and bedtime preparation the two female mages bid goodnight to each other and went to bed.
It took a while for Loretta to get to sleep though because back in her mind she knew that out of sight, in Erza's dorm room was that strange thing, staring out from somewhere in the darkness. It took a few hours for her to finally drift off to sleep and the last thing she thought was, Well I'm kinda glad I'm able to stay here for a while, I'm sure there will be interesting things in the future for me to see.
Author's Note: So not too much going on in this chapter I'm afraid but hopefully I'll be able to start writing more soon. Well hope you enjoyed it, probably be awhile before the next chapter is up just to warn you.
