It had been two weeks since the group of them had left the guild, wandering from town to town until eventually settling in a guildless town in between Crocus and Magnolia. It was a simple town, a few houses, a bakery, an inn, a library, a large clock tower in the middle of the town centre that also served as the mayor's office. It was almost perfect to the group, and Natsu had decided to ask the mayor if they could have their guildhall here after asking the opinion of the rest of his travelling group. Once they had booked into the inn for the night, opting for 3 rooms, they had all gone into Natsu and Wendy's room to talk.
"So how do you all like this town? It's quiet, we've got everything we need here, plus we won't be competing with another guild here. Even better, we won't to run into any of the fairies unless they are specifically wanting to come here! It's perfect!" Natsu said while grinning, getting a nod from Wendy, already enraptured by the amount of cake and sweets they sold at the bakery.
Gajeel was next to speak, frowning. "I still think we're too close to those fairies, but I'm not going to deny that this place has a cool feeling to it. It reminds me of the town that Metalicana taught me so I'm down for settling here Salamander." Levy looked surprised that Gajeel would agree, because she thought that he would be the one to reject the idea the hardest. She looked at him suspiciously, before dropping it. "Sure, I've a feeling that the library here is something to behold too, I was only in there for about an hour earlier and found books I've never heard of, so I know for a fact that I'm coming back even if we don't start the guild here."
"Speaking of the guild, Natsu, seen as though it was your idea, what is it going to be called, and what's the mark going to look like? It's obvious you're gonna be the master, so It'd make sense for you to name it, yeah?" Mira said with a sweet smile, one not uncommon for the silver-haired barmaid
"Slayer's Pride." Natsu said with a cheeky smirk, while pulling a notebook out from seemingly nowhere. It had a mark on the front that none of them but Happy had seen before. It was a simple mark, A triangle inside a flame, with a dragon's head at the top, a human head in the middle which was the biggest of the four symbols, an angel's head on the bottom left and a devil's head on the bottom right. "But we won't just accept slayers obviously, our guild will be a refuge for the forgotten, a haven for the rejected, but most importantly, a home for a family that won't go behind each other." Everyone in the room smiled, nodding at his words.
Laxus grinned, lightning dancing at his fingertips. "So, I guess we are going to be what fairy tail would have been if you became guild master, eh Natsu?". Natsu donned his signature grin at this, and nodded as he passed around the notebook for everyone to look at the mark on the front. Levy opened the notebook and found something shocking. A date. Specifically, the day after he met Lucy, and found out that Macao had been taken over by a Vulcan. She flicked through the notebook more, found blueprints for a guild-hall that was, in Levy's opinion, just right. She also found notes on how he would have gone about doing the S class trials, ranging from tests of strength, to tests of the mind. He even had his own version of That, and it was worse than Fairy tail's that. If this was anyone else she wouldn't have been so surprised, but this was Natsu. He had put his heart, body and soul into keeping fairy tail together, and she had just found that Natsu had been planning to leave.
"Natsu, how long had you been planning to leave Fairy tail? The notebook starts the day after Lu-Chan joined." She grimaced when she saw the look on his face, she knew the next few minutes weren't going to be the happiest.
"I should have known you'd have opened it Levy, you were always too curious for your own good. Oh well. I've been thinking about this for a while now, I guess since Lucy joined the guild, I thought I had finally found someone that I could be me around, I was still hurting from when Lisanna disappeared. I kept the notebook as a backup plan, even though I thought I wouldn't need it. About two months after she joined though, I had a feeling she only saw me to make money, and loved me because of that. I was almost ready to give up on fairy tail after the Oracion Seis stuff went down, but my Wendy here gave me the strength to carry on, albeit a little longer. That Dragonoid was the last straw though."
Wendy beamed at being called "my Wendy", knowing that the people surrounding her understood what Natsu and Wendy had, but frowned again at the mere mention of the Dragonoid. She understood what he had went through when he was there, as her and Natsu's magic had been siphoned away from them in Edolas.
"Anyway, shouldn't we all get some sleep? We've got a lot to do tomorrow, and I'm guessing this town isn't going to let us just have our guild here without helping them first." Natsu laughed, while the others just grinned and nodded. He watched as the others left his and Wendy's room whilst she changed into her nightclothes, jumped onto the bed and giggled. Natsu turned around and smirked softly once he saw Wendy, her clothes leaving little to the imagination.
"So, Natsu-kun. What was that about me giving you some strength to carry on with Fairy tail, hmm? I hope you weren't just saying that so you can get me to watch that film on that movie lacrima I just happened to notice in your bag..." she smirked and let out a playful giggle when he jumped onto the bed. "You know I wouldn't do something so shallow my dragoness." He said while pulling her towards him, pressing her body up against his and capturing her lips in a kiss. She led her head into his shoulder, breathing on his mate mark. "I'm glad, Natsu-kun." She sighed contently, before being lulled into sleep by how warm and gentle he was.
Happy and Carla looked at this display of affection, and silently agreed that they should leave the two Dragon slayers be, before curling up on the sofa. "Ne, Carla?" Happy whispered, getting her attention before carrying on. "Thank you. Natsu's been a lot happier since he found Wendy. Before, when we were alone, he would sit in his house, staring at his memory wall. Other days he would go over that notebook we saw earlier time and time again, working on everything in there, until he thought he had the perfect setup from what he learned in fairy tail. It killed me to see him like that, and only I knew what he was really like, it broke me to know that I couldn't do anything to keep him Happy. Ironic isn't it, He named me Happy and that was the one thing I couldn't make him when he needed it." He paused for a few seconds, letting his words sink in.
"What are you getting at, tomcat?" She looked at him sceptically, as this was a side of Happy she hadn't seen before. "I'm tempted to say that Edolas and Daphne was a good thing, as being in Fairy tail hurt Natsu more than he would care to admit. He realised that, only because Wendy had kept him in that guild for just a bit longer, while being there for him like nobody before her. I guess what I'm trying to say is that without Wendy, I fear that Natsu would have just bared with the pain of being in Fairy tail and just carried on. So, thanks for letting her join the guild and become part of our lives…" Happy quietly said, with tears in his eyes.
Carla was taken back, she didn't know that Wendy had such a big impact on the pair's life. She had thought that Natsu was just another brash fool that took everything in his stride. She had moved closer to happy, and gave him a hug, wiping his tears from his eyes in silence. "It's not me you should be thanking, tom cat. You should be thanking Wendy. I had never known you two were so close, and I never thought that Wendy and I were the light in your darkness, although I suppose it makes sense..." Her tone of voice drifted off, internally berating herself for being so cruel to Happy and Natsu. Without either of them realising it, their tails had curled around one another as they drifted off to sleep.
- The next day-
Natsu woke up to a familiar scent at the door, barely sitting up in time as Gajeel knocked on their door to wake them up. "Oi, Salamander, you better be up by now. Me and Levy are going to have another look around the town. We'll meet you in the town centre at 10:30 to speak to the mayor." Natsu groaned, signalling to Gajeel that he had heard him and was getting up. He looked towards Wendy, who was still asleep. Briefly, he took in her scent of what he deemed to be a mix of a Grassy meadow and Vanilla as a wave of peace enveloped him. He slowly kissed her awake, before smiling at her with his signature grin. "Morning Wendy". Wendy's eyes fluttered open to see a grinning Natsu "Good morning Natsu-kun, why'd you wake me up, is something going on?" Wendy sat up in the bed, eyebrow arched at Natsu in a questioning manner. "We're supposed to meet the mayor at 10:30, wanna stop by that bakery on the way there?" Natsu said softly, as to not wake up the two exceed still asleep.
"Sure Natsu-kun, I wouldn't mind going there for some breakfast. Shouldn't we wake up Happy and Carla first though? It would be rude to keep them asleep for something as amazing as the bakery in town" she gleamed, eyes sparkling at the mention of the bakery, her new favourite shop. "Nah, they're good. They'll be asleep for another hour yet, we'll just leave a note when we leave." Wendy nodded and got out of bed, showered, dressed and then started work on breakfast. Natsu took the opportunity to get into the shower and get dressed, before their day begins.
Natsu set about finding the two exceed once he got out of the shower, wanting to find where they had run off to this time. He found them, lying on the sofa, curled around each other with their tails intertwined. "Hey Wendy, come and see this, bring the camera too" Natsu laughed, as Wendy came over to see what the fuss was about. Once she saw the two cats though, she went into hysterics and woke the pair up.
"Ne, Carla, you didn't tell me you liked sleeping with Happy. We'll have to get you two your own bed once we sort out the guild and its housing eh?" Wendy said as she smirked, with a knowing smirk on her face as the white exceed blushed up a storm. Happy piped up before Carla could even get a word in. "Aye sir! And then we can eat all the fish in peace and Carla would have to accept them then!" Carla scowled, then remembered what Happy had said the night before. "I guess one fish couldn't hurt, but that is it tom cat. I don't want to see you try and give me another fish for the rest of the day, is that understood?"
Wendy and Natsu were shocked, never once had the white exceed accepted a fish from Happy, the younger dragon slayer giggled, and went back to making breakfast. Natsu was the next to speak.
"I wonder what the magic council will think when they find out we're making our own guild, what do you think Happy?"
"I don't think that they should know it's Natsu Dragneel leading this guild, they'll try and disband the guild quicker than I can requip a fish into my hand." Carla's eyes bulged when he said this, as she and Wendy didn't know that Happy knew any other magic other than Aera magic. "Wait, happy, you can requip? Why don't you use it when you're fighting then?"
"I can't use it for fighting, I'm too small to use a decent weapon. So, I use it to store all of the food and medical supplies me and Natsu need while we're travelling. You guys didn't find it odd that we never ran out of bandages? When you spend time around mages your entire life you manage to pick up a few tricks" Happy winked and went back to eating his fish.
"I doubt they'd object too much to me running a guild, it can't be that hard anyway. Anyway, are we all done? I think it's time we should get a move on if we want to go to the bakery before we see the mayor." Natsu said gleefully.
It didn't take long for the four to get to the bakery, and even less time to get to the town centre as the clock tower was in the middle of the town. Natsu looked around while Wendy nibbled at her cake, looking for the rest of their group. He spotted Levy and Gajeel next to the library with Pantherlily in tow, while Mira and Laxus were coming out of the inn they stayed the night at.
"Right, let's do this. What's the worst that can happen?" Natsu grinned, as he went up to the doors on the clock tower. He knocked three times before a short man answered the door. "Are you the wizards here for the wyvern extermination?"
"Nah, sorry to disappoint you. Although we could do it, quite easily. But we'd like to talk to the mayor of this town, I think he's expecting us? I'm Natsu Dragneel?" Gajeel snickered, "Damn, I never knew salamander could be formal, I would have guessed. Gihi."
"Oh, sorry for my rudeness Mr. Dragneel, let me go and get the mayor now!" The short man sprinted back into the building with an alarmed look on his face before coming back a few minutes later. "He's all ready for you now Mr. Dragneel, you and your friends can go on up."
Natsu nodded at the rest of his group and they were guided to the mayor's office. Natsu's eyes widened when he walked into the room and saw the mayor. "I remember you! You were in a bandit camp that I took out a few years ago, you've done well for yourself haven't you, old man." He said while sporting his infamous grin
"Ah, Salamander, come in! come in! Yes, that was me. I'm glad you remembered! I assume these are your friends? What a wonderful group you've got, care to introduce me?"
"Yeah, this is Wendy Marvell, Laxus Dreyar, Gajeel Redfox, Levy Mcgarden, Mirajane Strauss, Happy, Carla and Pantherlily. Former wizards of Fairy tail. Which is what we came to speak to you about, I noticed this town was guildless?"
"A powerful group, I've heard of you all. You're the Sky Maiden, Leader of the thunder-god tribe, Black Steel Gajeel, the Tomesmith and the Majin! You all are just what I need to get rid of the Wyverns threating our town. But we can deal with that in a few minutes. Yes, our town is guildless. Not many mages come through this part of the country thus we don't attract many people here." Gajeel's eyebrow was raised at Levy's nickname, but brushed it aside for now. He had heard a lot about the Tomesmith, but he never realised that it was his Levy the whole time.
"Well maybe we can change that old man, we're looking for a town to set up our own guild. We all left fairy tail due to… an incident that happened." Natsu's brow furled and his face contorted when he mentioned the incident. Wendy moved to put her hand on Natsu's to comfort him while Happy flew onto his shoulder comfort him.
"Well Natsu my boy, I think we can strike a deal here. You can get your first official request for this guild you're making, and if it's completed, you all can set up your guild. By the time you get back, I will have got the papers needed from the council and have it approved. All you will need to do is provide the name and the stamp for the guild!" The mayor laughed, and smiled gleefully. "You see my boy, that wyvern problem is a real menace, so I need a group of strong wizards to take them all out. There are a few Ice wyverns in the mix, so you should have no problems with them."
Natsu smirked. "You can count wyverns as good as dead Jii-chan, we'll be back before sundown!" His famous grin making its way to his face. "Levy, as you're the smartest out of the lot of us, I want you to start making a plan and a backup if something goes wrong. However, if more than three of us are seriously injured, our Exceeds will fly them directly to Wendy and then come back to get the others. Okay?"
"Sure thing, Master Natsu." Levy teased. Gajeel smirked while Laxus and Mira let out a laugh
"So Jii-chan, what part of the mountainside do you need us to go to find these wyverns? The quicker we can get there, the quicker we can get back" Natsu said while hearing levy mumbling and writing down a small set of plans with a light pen. She looked at Wendy. "Wendy, don't you have a spell that allows you to solidify the air underneath your feet for a few moments?" Wendy looked shocked, not knowing others knew about that spell. "Yeah, it doesn't require a lot of magic either, I can do about 30 steps before having to stand back on the ground, why?" Levy's eyes lit up
"They're on the side closest to us, that's why they're such a problem. They don't come close to our town, but it is a real pain when we need to go foraging for food or some of the children go there to play. Wyverns as you know are extremely territorial, and sometimes people go missing. However, they always seem to come back alive, albeit with a few broken bones, but they never go into the woods again. We think that they're defending something there, but we've got no idea what." The mayor's brow furled in confusion, then sighed. "If you could find out what they're defending and make sure it at least moves to another part of the mountain we would be eternally grateful and would happily compensate for your guild halls construction also. But we would need proof of the causes' removal."
"I've got it! Natsu, both plans are done, and both can be easily executed without any major injury or damage to the wildlife nearby." Levy said with excitement. She knew her strengths weren't in battle, they were planning the battle. Gajeel smirked in pride. It had taken her little under five minutes to put two plans together that had little chance of going wrong.
"That's great Levy, we're about to leave anyway. See you, old man. We'll be back before you know it." Natsu said, waving as he started to walk towards the door.
"Sure thing Natsu, just make sure you all come back. You all might be strong, but a pack of wyverns aren't pushovers either! If the person that took the request happens by once you're out, I'll let them know that they can go, unless you're wanting help?" The mayor said carefully, knowing what a pack of wyverns can do to a group of wizards if unprepared.
"Nah, we won't be needing help. Tell the mage or mages to either wait here or go home." Natsu said in confidence, as he knew his group would be able to handle the wyverns. The nine mages left the building to go and find the wyverns.
They would not be prepared for what awaited them when they got back.