Natsu looked up at the bright Magnolia summer sun with a wide grin spread across his face, his white checkered scarf flapped against the light breeze of the morning. Dressed in a open-chested black vest with gold trimmings, Natsu turned towards the small flying cat.
"Well, I'll be off Happy. You stayin with Wendy and Carla right?" Natsu asked, a callused hand running through his unruly pink hair.
"Aye," was the blue cat's response as he continued to float in the air. "Hey Natsu, how long do you think you're gunna take with the mission?" Natsu froze into a thinking position; his arms crossed as his face scrunched out. This pose continued on for multiple moments, making Happy worry that his closest friend may have been broken.
"No clue," Natsu beamed, breaking into a wide-set grin. Happy chuckled nervously at his friend's simplistic answer.
Natsu barked out a laugh at the blue cat's expression. His green eyes twinkling with mirth as he gently placed his large hand atop Happy's head.
"It's all good, Happy. Where's all the fun in knowing?" Natsu said, ruffling the short blue fur atop Happy's head. "Stay outta trouble and be good while I'm gone, especially around Erza." The pink haired fire mage shuddered at the mention of the scarlet haired she-beast that was a member of their guild.
"Aye Sir!" Happy beamed as Natsu turned towards the road leading to the forest. With one final goodbye, the sandal footed teen disappeared into the green thicket.
Natsu continued forward with reluctance. His energy once shown before was beginning to shift to annoyance as another tree branch roughly slapped his face.
"What's with all the trees!" he shouted upward, flames burning out of his mouth very much like a dragon. With hands already alight with flames, Natsu began burning a path through the forest. Unknown to him though, the fires began to spread off the path and burn the forestry. Green eyes widened at the sight of his flames starting to burn.
"Oh no! Fire! Fire! What do I do? What do I do?" Natsu shouted, running around like a deranged lunatic. Natsu started grabbing handfuls of dirt and tried putting out the flames.
"Stop burning!" Frantically, Natsu began throwing the multiple handfuls of dirt at the burning forestry as he harshly stomped down the flames with his foot. The flames began to simmer down, but continued to burn even with the handfuls of dirt. From the forest, ran a frantic little old lady with a bucket filled with water. Seeing the now small flames, the woman threw the water. Looking like a wet dog, Natsu shook off the extra water that managed to hit him, his high body heat drying off the excess droplets of water. Green eyes looked down into aged angered brown eyes.
"Just what happened here!" the old lady yelled, her graying hair flying out like crazed snakes. Natsu laughed nervously as he explained the fire situation.
"Did it not occur to you that we are in a forest?" the woman said, putting emphasis on the word forest. "Of course it's going to burn and spread." Natsu sputtered, trying to come up with words to simmer down the old woman.
"I-It was takin too long for me ta find a Ms. Spaghetti, and I need to see her bout a mission." The old woman began to look hopeful at the mention of the word mission. Pulling the stuttering teen by the scarf, the aged woman looked Natsu in the eyes directly, a hopeful yet slightly saddened expression on her face as she asked Natsu a very serious question.
"Are you going to break the curse on our Princess?" Natsu stopped his useless babbling and grinned confidently.
"Of course! Fairy Tail always finishes their missions," Natsu boasted. The old woman began to tear up at the fire mage's words, her wrinkled hands shaking slightly as she buried her tear streaked face into her aged hands. Green eyes peered down at the old woman confusedly.
"Hey old lady, do you know where a Ms. Spaghetti lives?" The old woman stopped crying and looked up at Natsu with an angered look crossing her features.
"Don't call me old lady! It's Spetto, not Spaghetti!" the woman growled out before calming down immensely. "I'm Ms. Spetto, come with me. We can discuss this mission in my cottage," Ms. Spetto said walking deeper into the forest. Without another word, Natsu followed the little, yet strong, woman towards a well taken care of wooden cottage not too far from the burned area. Unknown to them, two pairs of black eyes noticed the exchange between the two and secretly followed them to the homey cottage. Their small bodies resting against the ledge of an open window, listening to the conversation held in the comfortable home.
"So, you're from Fairy Tail," Ms. Spetto said in awe as she handed Natsu a glass of water. Setting the water down on the low table before him, Natsu beamed at the old lady.
"Yup, I'll get this done in no time!" Ms. Spetto started tearing up once more, sending Natsu into a stumbling mess.
"Hey, Ms. Spaghetti, don't cry. It'll be alright," Natsu said, trying to comfort the old woman. Wiping away her tears, Ms. Spetto ignored how Natsu said her name wrong and took a seat in a single red plush chair across from idiotic teen.
"This mission you're taking on, was placed nearly three years ago, just after the princess was cursed by that awful witch that took advantage on my mistress' kindness. I actually do not know much myself, for the sorceress sent myself and all the other servants away. I couldn't just stay away forever though, so I went back to see what had happened," Ms. Spetto paused to take a sip of her tea before continuing with her tale, "At the door is a beast, his stature is none to take lightly. It yelled that it was guarding the cursed princess and that it would protect her with his life. I knew I couldn't do anything to help so I sent that request to the council in hopes that perhaps someone from a guild could free my mistress." Natsu nodded vigorously as he stuffed his face with the light sandwiches prepared earlier. With a swallow, Natsu looked at Ms. Spetto and gave her a food filled grin. Ms. Spetto winced slightly at Natsu's ill-mannered display before returning with a slight smile of her own.
"So she's trapped by a monster? I'm all fired up! If I just beat him, then the curse would be broken!" Ms. Spetto nodded unconfidently to the pink haired teen's assumption.
"I don't think the situation will be that simple, but perhaps. Natsu, if you do break the curse, then Fiore may finally live under the royal family once more. Maybe all the guild wars will finally end," Ms. Spetto sighed out, her wise eyes glancing into her cup of tea the mood of the room serious, Natsu nodded before rising to his feet abruptly.
"This princess is pretty important to you right? If she's that special then I will definitely free her." With a confident smile and a light wave, Natsu left the smiling teary eyed woman before continuing on his mission.
Still hidden at the ledge of the window, two small figures glanced at the retreating pink haired figure before looking to each other. Small sharp black eyes twinkled mischievously, his russet tail twirling in delight as a pair of tan dipped paws rubbed together sinisterly.
"You hear that Frosch? The mistress is going to want to hear about this. I bet that stupid Fairy Tail won't even complete the simple mission. Sabertooth would have been there by now and finished the mission if we wanted to," the russet colored cat scoffed to a green cat doned in a pink frog suit with a long cat tail curled out. The large black eyed cat nodded gleefully in response, a bright smile spread across her face.
"Yeah, Frosch thinks so too!" the green cat responded automatically to the russet cat, "Lector, we should be going back to Rogue and Sting soon so they could tell the mistress." The russet cat in a simple opened blue vest nodded, his arms crossed as a smirk spread across his features.
"Guess you're right. Wait til Sting hears this though, he's gunna laugh all night!" Lector proclaimed as he and Frosch poofed out their white angel-like wings and speedily took off towards the town next over.
Fuelled with new determination, Natsu pressed onward, ignoring and dodging all obstacles he would have faced in the vast forest. The forestry soon started to thin out as sunlight began to grow brighter and brighter with each step the pink haired teen took. Happy to finally be out of the forest, Natsu ran without a second's thought, his knee length tan trousers swishing as the material brushed past one another while the black material over the back of his pants flapped out wildly.
Natsu let out an excited roar as all of the forest was finally behind him. His fists shot up to the air in a sort of victory pose before he slowly lowered them to the back of his head. Walking at a leisurely pace, Natsu walked towards the raised meadow dotted with light pink flowers. Every so often, Natsu's nose would turn up in the air as his nostrils would flare open.
Natsu sniffed at the air, trying to locate the castle the proclaimed princess waited in. So far he couldn't sniff out the distinguished old castle smell, the scent of flowers overpowering all. With a slightly disappointed frown, Natsu decided to just go where his gut felt like going. Continuing across the meadow of flowers, the green eyed teen looked around him carefully, hoping for some sort of sign of the old stone castle Ms. Spetto mentioned earlier.
Out of the corner of his eye, Natsu noticed something gray looming over a small hill to his right. Excited to finally find the castle, Natsu yelled out happily before running towards the large gray castle.
Natsu could see the large stone castle come into view as its appearance grew in size as he came closer and closer.
The castle appeared dark and taken care of fairly well. Although dark in appearance, the shape didn't seem menacing to Natsu in the least bit. Made completely out of stone, the castle stood strongly and sturdily, appearing simple and more of a defense castle rather than one made for show. As Natsu neared the tall iron built gates, a tall white figure charge threatenly towards the pink haired fire user once he stepped foot onto the castle grounds.
"You won't pass me! I'm the guard of this castle, and I will protect the cured princess with my very life!" Natsu barely managed to dodge a large ax as he jumped back nimbly, landing a few feet away from the ax weilder.
"Hey! What was that for, you stupid cow!" Natsu shouted to the very tall and well built cow before him. Eyes narrowing and nose hoop gleaming in the light, the ax weilder quickly lifted his large ax easily and slammed the battle ax down at the pink haired teen.
"My name is Taurus, and I'm a BULL!" the bull shouted before throwing his ax towards Natsu, spinning almost like a boomerang. Heating his body up immensely, Natsu dodged the spinning ax and charged towards the weaponless guard.
"I don't care who you are, you stupid cow, but if you're keepin the princess in there then I gotta take you down." Now alit in flames, Natsu threw out a strong flame filled punch towards the tall humanoid bull in only a speedo. Taurus let out a moo in response before slamming his bandaged fist to Natsu's side, sending him into a broken vine covered fountain.
"Stupid mage, just because I don't have my weapon doesn't mean I'm completely defenseless," Taurus shouted, catching the returning ax in his hand easily. With a loud moo, Taurus charged towards the fallen Natsu, his horns held out dangerously in front of him.
Natsu struggled to get up, his body already scratched up from the sharp edges of the broken old marble that once shined. Pushing himself up just in time, the fire mage caught the bull by the horns, his own muscles bulging in strain at the sudden impact. Slowly, Natsu's body flickered to flames, his green gaze shifted to a glare as his sandaled foot made contact with the bull's abdomen.
"Stay out of my way, stupid cow."
Oh gosh, chapter three. I hope it turned out okay for you guys. That battle was definitely not planned, but I couldn't help myself. Can't believe I didn't say this last chapter, but thank you guys so much. I'm just super happy with those of you who favorited, reviewed, and or followed. I'm glad you guys liked my fic so far, I hope I don't disappoint in the end. Please leave your thoughts in the review box, it'll really make my day to hear what you all thought and how I could make this fic the best it could possibly be. Again Thanks again guys!