Author's Note: Hi guys! Sorry it's been so long, work sucks, but life goes on. Here is the next chapter. I plan on releasing chapters on a more regular basis now that I'm going back to school. It will probably be once a week and the day will depend on which day gives me the most free time. Anyway, as always, all credit goes to Hiro Mashima. He is a great guy, even though he loves ripping our hearts out like an angry Mr. Gold. Feel free to send in suggestions, comments, etc. I like hearing from you guys, you make me smile. Enjoy!
Natsu and Lucy climbed the path and made it to a circular clearing. Around the edge of the clearing stood the caves. They cautiously started into the center of the circle. Subtle signs of human habitation were able to be found around the area. Scorch marks were seen on the outside walls of the caves along with crude pieces of metal that looked like torch holders. Small bits of clay pot were scattered around the clearing along with bone chip from what could have been primitive tools.
"What is this place?" asked Lucy in awe, bending down to pick up a piece of pottery. "This is incredible."
"I don't know." Natsu replied, "It looks like it could have been a camp at one point in time. This could be the early version of Hakendale. We can ask more about it when we get back into town, but for right now we should probably look for that dragon."
"Right." Lucy straightened, and smiled. "My bad, it's just really cool here, that's all. So which cave is it in?"
"He said it's the middle cave, but we are standing in a circle." Natsu scratched his head. "So which one would be considered the middle?"
"How about we try the cave that is directly across from the entrance of the clearing. That could be considered the middle." Lucy pointed out.
"Good idea. Come on!" Natsu grabbed Lucy's arm and practically dragged her to the entrance to the middle cave. He created a fire in the palm of his hand and led the way into the darkness. The fire created just enough light to see what was just beyond the team as they moved slowly doing their best to keep an eye on their surroundings. Suddenly Natsu stopped and put his hand back in front of Lucy to stop her.
"Did you hear that?" Natsu asked.
"Hear what?" Lucy replied with a shiver. "You better not be messing with me Natsu."
"I'm not. I thought I heard heavy breathing."
"Maybe it's Lucy." Happy said, dodging Lucy as she tried to grab him.
"No, it came from ahead of us." Natsu stopped talking and listened again. "Whatever it is, it stopped. Let's keep going."
"I'm not sure about this." Lucy whined.
"We'll be fine." Natsu grinned. "This isn't the first time we've dealt with dragons."
"Yeah, and last time went so well." Lucy mumbled but followed after Natsu.
As they walked further into the cave the air became colder and sharper. It was so chilly that Happy landed in Lucy's arms to try to keep warm. Soon they approached the curve that Todd the Farmer spoke of. They stopped before rounding the turn.
"Ok, around this curve is where Todd saw the dragon. I'll go first and…"suddenly a loud rumbling cut Natsu off.
"Who goes there!" A deep voice came from beyond the turn. "You have ten seconds to state your business before I roast you."
"I'll handle this." Natsu said and he ran around the corner. "Hi friend, I'm…" A bright light that looked a lot like a fire blast cut off Natsu's sentence. Lucy panicked and ran out after him. When she got around the turn she found him eating the fire that was blown at him. He wiped his mouth and pouted. "That wasn't very nice. I was just about to introduce myself. I'm Natsu Dragneel of Fairy Tail."
Lucy took in the situation that was in front of her. Natsu grinning and waving while a massive dragon just stared at him in shock.
"What the hell?!" the Dragon grumbled.
"You asked who goes there so I answered. I'm Natsu and I'm here to talk to you." Natsu replied. He looked back and saw Lucy standing behind him. "Oh and this is Lucy and the exceed is Happy."
"You just ate my fire. You're not a crispy critter." The dragon deadpanned. "What exactly are you?"
"I'm a Fire Dragon Slayer from Fairy Tail. I was raised by Igneel until he disappeared almost 8 years ago."
"So you're Igneel's boy. That explains everything." The dragon shook his head and bared his teeth in what Lucy hoped was a smile. "You definitely have his personality. I'm Vlad, the Dark Fire Dragon. It's nice to meet you three, actually it's nice to meet some humans who don't want to hurt me."
"Wait, you know Igneel. Have you seen him?" Natsu asked, the excitement in his voice palpable.
"I've known Igneel for a long time, but it has been a long while since I've seen him." Vlad replied.
"You said human have been trying to hurt you. What happened?" Lucy asked.
"For some odd reason humans have this idea that the best way to show their strength is by killing things that are bigger than them, so naturally I am a target." Vlad shrugged. "Recently there's been a lot of dark guilds out searching for what few dragons are left, but no one know what their aim is for us. I've been moving from place to place to avoid being captured and recently found this group of caves. From my explorations, these were once inhabited by humans, but they left a long time ago. I was able to live peacefully for a while until some old man found me living here. I didn't mean to scare him off the first time, but when he came back with armed men I got angry, and rightfully so. Every time men with weapons show up, someone gets hurt and this time it was me. One of those bastards threw a spear and it got me in the eye." The dragon pointed to an eye, which they could just see in the light that it was bloody and injured. "I've never hurt anyone, but they always insist on trying to hurt me."
"Those bastards." Natsu slammed a fist into his hand. "What did they think they were doing? This is unacceptable."
"What do you mean?" Vlad asked.
"We were sent on a mission by the same village that sent the soldiers. They were supposed to do what we are doing, investigating, but it seems like they were only here to attack." Natsu began to pace.
"Natsu, I think the soldiers overreacted. I don't think that they are inherently evil, they were scared, but it doesn't excuse the fact that they injured you, Vlad." Lucy said softly. "Could you lower your head so that I can see your injured eye. I'm no healer, but I may be able to bandage it until we can find one that we can trust."
The dragon thought for a moment and then obliged.
"Yes." He rested his head on his front legs. "Thank you. I'm happy that my fire didn't work against you three. You're not bad people."
Lucy took out some water and gently poured it over the wound. She began cleaning it as carefully as possible, doing her best not to hurt the dragon.
"Do you know anything about the dark guilds rounding up dragons?" Lucy asked.
"Not much, other than that they aren't really found in this kingdom. I recently came to Fiore to get away from being hunted, but it seems like I didn't come far enough into the country." Vlad winced as Lucy put some salve onto his eye.
"Sorry," Lucy cried and tried to work more gently. "If you aren't from Fiore, where are you from?" She began bandaging his eye.
"Bosco. It is a country filled with forests, in fact, that's where I last saw Igneel. It was a nice country until the dark guilds began gaining power, now it is over-run with them. Before the dark guilds showed up, all we had to worry about was some hot-headed 'hero' trying to slay us, but now that the dark guilds are in power, the dragons that are left are being hunted down and captured. I don't know why we are being taken, but it can't be a good reason."
"Do you think Igneel could have been captured by the dark guilds?" Lucy asked.
"No." Natsu replied. "I was raised in Fiore."
"And last I saw Igneel was long before he would have been raising Natsu. In fact, it's most likely that he left Bosco and found Natsu afterwards." Vlad explained.
"Fair enough." Lucy sat back. "I'm done. How does it feel?"
"Much better. Thank you Lucy." Vlad lifted his head. "So now that you 'investigated' me what are you going to do?"
"I don't know." Lucy looked at Natsu. "I can't force him to leave after he has found a peaceful place to live, at least, mostly peaceful. Do you think we can talk the village into staying away from the caves? They don't use them anymore and as long as no one bothers each other, you both can live in peace."
"I can agree to that." Vlad said.
"What if we take care of the dark guild in Bosco?" Natsu interjected. "We could do it and then you could go back to your country Vlad."
"I like that idea more." Vlad replied truthfully. "I like Fiore, but Bosco is my home. Could you do that?"
"Of course." Natsu beamed.
"Hold on Natsu, before we take on this huge mission, we need to take care of a few things." Lucy cut in.
"What do you mean?" Natsu asked, confused.
"First, we need to convince the village to let Vlad stay until we take care of the dark guild. Second, we need to find someone to heal your eye. I know someone who can do it and that bring in my last point. We will need some help with this. I know you want to take care of this yourself, but this is a little bigger than the three of us. We need our team." Lucy smiled.
"But I want to fight the bad guys." Natsu pouted.
"Trust me you will, but we need Wendy to heal Vlad and we could use Erza, Gray, and the others to make sure we have this covered." Lucy reasoned. "You could even make it into a competition on who takes out the most dark guild members."
"Fine." Natsu huffed. "Will you be ok for a couple days? We have to take care of some things, but we'll be back soon with help."
"I've been fine for over 500 years. I think I can handle a couple days." Vlad smiled. "Your dad would be proud of you."
"Thanks!" Natsu beamed. "Come on Luce, let's take care of these errands so we can go kick some dark guild ass."
Author's Note: Yeah, Vlad is kinda a lame name but I couldn't think of anything and I asked my brother for a name. He came up with Dragulae and Vlad, I'm pretty sure he was watching Van Helsing or some vampire movie like that. I liked Vlad the best out of the two so I went with it. Sorry! :D
