Title: Of Slayers and Dragon Tails

Couple: Natsu X Lucy (NaLu)

Genre: Romance/Adventure/Fantasy

World: AU

Summary:For what love can be more forbidden than one with a dragon? Born to a long line of successful dragon slayers, and as the only child born to her father, Lucy is the heir that will continue the slayer tradition. But there is another: Gray, a rising young dragon slayer that pursues her place as heir and if she can't prove herself worthy of her throne, she will lose it.

Fair Maiden © Disney Pixar

Fairy Tail © Hiro Mashima

Of Slayers and Dragon Tails

ZiraUzu

Chapter 3: Seconds and Chances

(July 21, 2014)

xXx

"Mise ri d' thaobh, O mhaighdean bhan, Ar righinn oig, fas as faic, Do thir, dileas fhein…be brave, my dear sweet, Lucy…"

Lucy groaned and stifled a yawn behind her hand as she stretched. The sleepy blonde glanced around, deeming that she had fallen asleep in the gardens behind her father's home again. A worn book lay on her stomach and it quickly clattered to the stone pathway when she leaned up. It landed with a soft thump and the blonde gasped in surprise at the sudden noise before bending over to pick it up.

It had been her mother's favorite book.

Lucy raised a brow and rubbed a finger under her nose as she gazed at the worn novel, whose covers had seen better days and pages had yellowed with age. Once her mother's, the novel was now her own favorite and Lucy had read it quite a number of times since her mother passed. It was both a hindrance and a comfort to her.

Something that she both loved and despised.

Such as the world was, to love and hate the same thing and the thought of feeling both emotions for one object had often puzzled her but she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind for the time being. Clutching the book to her chest, Lucy frowned as she recalled the lullaby that her mother used to sing to her every night before she went to sleep. She had all but forgotten about the melody, considering she hadn't heard it since she was small, her father always refused to sing it for her, even after her mother's death. It had led to many lonely nights.

So why she would dream of such a thing was quite curious. And the fact that she dreamed about the last time her mother had sang the lullaby to her even more so.

Be brave, my dear sweet, Lucy.

Her lips twitched into a small smile. She truly had loved her mother.

Sighing through her nose the blonde hopped to her feet, the metal soles of her boots scrapping along the stone as she made her way back towards the house, her mother's book tucked safely between her arms and her stomach.

As she walked, Lucy began to notice small gray patched scattered across the stone walkway. She raised a brow and crouched until she was balancing on the balls of her feet. Running a finger through the grey patch, she found that it was soft and powdery, easily smudging across her skin when she rubbed her index and thumb fingers together.

Then it was falling.

All around her grey specs fell from the sky; Lucy glanced around, watching as they covered the grass, the house and even the bench that she had once been asleep long. She looked at her fingers again and raised them to her nose.

It smelt like smoke.

It was soot.

Be brave, my dear sweet, Lucy.

Slowly her eyes widened in understanding, and that's when the first screech reached her.

It was deafening. Her hands instantly pressed against her ears but it did little to drown out the dragon's battle cry. Her head pulsed and she felt as if it had been smacked by a boulder. The earth beneath her shook, throwing her off balance. Skin tore as she collided with the ground and she only had time to wince and take a quick glance before she was screeching herself and pressing her hands against her skull.

No.

No, make it stop.

It wasn't going to stop.

Because nothing had ever stopped a phenomenon like this, nothing had ever stopped a dragon raid. Lucy listened as the screeching passed over her but she didn't dare look towards the sky. The sound of powerful wings filled the air and the sound of slayers taking action mixed with the cries of the dragons as they headed towards the center of the village. Large shadows passed over her and she didn't dare breathe. How was this possible? Dragons hadn't raided the Heartfilia territory in over three centuries.

This wasn't the time to be sitting around. Slowly Lucy forced herself to her feet and before she was even balanced she was sprinting towards the armory that her father kept under the house. The doors rattled on their hinges when she threw them open, causing the old wood to splinter as it smashed against the side of the house and the ground. Lucy, however, was in too much of a hurry to care about some broken door.

Shuffling through the mountains of boxes and debris, Lucy pulled a number of swords from boxes only to find that they were rusted, cracked, or broken completely in half. "Useless piece of crap!" She hurled one of the swords at the stone wall. Why in Mavis's name was her father keeping all these broken pieces of junk? Her breathing turned labored as she moved farther into the armory. Tears prickled at the corner of her eyes as smoke started to roll in through the entrance of the cellar. Lucy gasped and ducked behind a crate of hard metal just as the scaly hide of a black dragon nuzzled its way through the door. It breathed slowly and the sparks erupting from its nostrils caused the crates closest to it to catch fire.

Target practice finally had a purpose.

The dragon shrieked and pulled its head from the armory. It clawed restlessly at the dagger that was imbedded into its eye socket, tearing the flesh around its eye farther and rendering the eye useless. Lucy slipped from the cellar, her stomach turning as the dragon rolled around in the gravel, trying to remove the dagger but only serving to shove it farther into its skull. Tears stung her eyes and bile rose in her throat, she ran as the beast fell to its knees.

X

Gray cursed and bared his teeth at the dragon that had dared to stick its nose into the window he had been occupying. Seriously he had been minding his own business and had been peacefully sharpening his dagger when the beast had shrieked and tried to bite his ear off. He smirked and slashed it across the nose, causing thick, purple blood to pour from its blue hide. Stupid beasts should know better than to stick their snouts into the Slayer's crafting warehouse.

The dragon screeched at him and thrashed its strong neck between the pains of the window, lashing at him with its sharp teeth. Gray hissed and shoved his foot into the monster's snout; he heard a sickening crack as it tumbled from the window and withered on the ground before taking off towards the other end of the village.

"Fuck, Gray! Kill it, don't break its nose! You've angered it now!" Makarov barked and whipped a two handed sword in his direction. He caught it with one hand, balancing it with his right hand and then his left before fisting it with both appendages. "Careful with that one lad, it's a powerful weapon." Makarov kicked the door open and a hoard of slayers spilled from the warehouse. "Hope ye can handle it." Then the old man disappeared into the smoke.

Gray glanced at the silver blade in his hands and clenched his fits around the hilt. It was Heartfilia the Rash's first sword, handcrafted from the scales of the Dragon Queen herself. Or so the story went.

He would be worthy.

Then, with little hesitation, he followed Makarov into the smoke. He had only two goals during this dragon raid: Find and protect his future wife, whether she wanted his protection or not, and kill the beast that had tried to lobe his ear off.

X

Fire.

It was everywhere, all she could see. Brilliant flames licked along every wall that lined the streets of the Heartfilia territory. Lucy coughed as the smoke invaded her lungs but she pushed the pain to the back of her mind. It didn't matter. Nothing about her mattered, only the people did.

Her father had found her shortly after she had escaped their home armory and had instructed her to help the civilians to the safe houses, which lay almost half a day's journey from here. She had been outraged to say the least, claiming that she was capable of helping here.

"I haven't the time to argue with you, Lucy! Your citizens are what's important protection them!" Then he had disappeared into the smoke, leaving her to her given task, which she would carry out without question. Lucy, however, felt a disgusting knot begin to form in her stomach as she ushered the civilians from the burning debris of their homes.

She wanted to be like the others.

She wanted to be a slayer.

It was becoming more and more clear to her now though that she wasn't, and possibly never would be. Her task was to rule her people with a man by her side, not alone. It was her job to protect the people from the danger, not rid the people of the danger. The guilty jealousy ate her alive.

And she hated herself for it.

Lucy grit her teeth and pushed her legs harder, making sure that she led the citizens safely from the fire and into the wood. She would lead them to safety, even if she'd rather be fighting for them.

"Miss. Lucy." A whisper came from behind her as she breached the trees with the civilians that had been lucky enough to escape from the raid. She raised a brow and turned a stern gaze on the elderly man that had spoken, her gaze softening slightly when he gave her a wrinkle-lipped smile, "We know the way, Miss. Lucy. You needn't burden yourself with us any farther."

"No, you aren't a burden! None of you could ever be a burden to me. It's my duty to protect you." She stated as she turned to begin walking towards the safe houses.

"We implied no such thing, Miss. Lucy." The old man took her scarred hand in his. She marveled at the feel of his skin, so smooth and wrinkled against her, which was rough with the calluses that came from years of training. "We know that you'd rather be fighting to protect us than leading us from the danger. Go."

She glanced around her, at the faces of the young and the old, the faces of mothers and fathers and children. These were her people, she loved them and they her. Encouragement shown from all of their eyes. They wanted her to fight for them.

And she would fight.

She glanced back only once, at the faces that shown with love for their future ruler, love for their slayer princess. She could feel it at her back as the tears filled her eyes and she dived back into the smoldering city.

X

Tails and wings, a downed dragon is a dead dragon.

Lucy sifted through all her past lessons with Gildarts, each piece of information that would and could save her life when she came face to face with one of the monsters. The Heartfilia territory was large and she had yet to encounter one of the beasts that had turned her home to ruins and ash. They were slim in numbers then.

Keep to the shadows, even if their eyesight in impeccable, they tend to shoot moving targets out in the open than targets that are concealed along alley walls.

Lucy crouched among the debris, moving only when she was certain that the area was empty. Her sword hung heavily on her back, pressing its weight into her bones as she moved through the alleyways. She wasn't fool enough to take the main roads.

Perhaps she should have.

Rounding a corner Lucy came face to face with a large white dragon. Her scales feathered around her face and her wings stood up straight from her back, only the tips grazed the stone walls of the alleyway. Lucy gazed into the bluest eyes she had ever laid eyes on, and the dragon stared back. Her breathing turned shallow as she slowly backed towards the entrance of the alley and the dragon lowered her head. Her lips pulled back into a snarl, revealing perfect, white, razor teeth that could easily tear through her flesh.

One second.

Two.

Times up.

The white beast thrashed her claws at Lucy just as she threw her dagger. The sharp talons slashed through her flesh, catching on skin and muscle. The pain was immediate. She shrieked as she was thrown into the alley wall, the dragon's claws never releasing their hold, it pulled her towards it until she was lying partially under it. Its mouth mire inches from her head and neck. Her arm pulsed. She was losing too much blood.

And in that moment, Lucy knew she was going to die.

The pain in her arm subsided as her body lost blood and her nerves went dead. Lucy noticed her dagger, which lay useless to her off to the side. She hadn't made her mark, hadn't injured the creature above her in the slightest. Somehow, she wasn't upset. Her breathing was slow, calm as she turned her head, brown eyes blank and void of emotion as she stared into the blue eyes of the beast that would bring about her death.

She was ready.

That's when the blue dragon came crashing through the alley.

Lucy gasped, her eyes suddenly alive as the blue beast was thrown into the creature above her, sending both dragons sprawling into a tangle of limbs, wings and claws. A rough hand clasped under her arm, hauling her to her feet before it threw her over a strong shoulder. The air flew from her lungs as her body went limp.

"Gray." She whispered his name into his naked back, her lips brushing the tanned, dirty skin. Her blood and tears mixed with his sweat and he hauled her away without a word. Pink flashed across her vision and she gasped, only to have Grey's strong hand squeeze the back of her thigh in reassurance a second later.

"I've got you, princess."

So he did. Then Lucy's body finally fell into unconsciousness.

xXx

He thought she was pretty.

A rather strange thought, considering she had been covered in blood, her flesh had been torn open and his best friend had just been about to eat her. And he had been watching. How morbid was that?

xXx

She gasped, her eyes suddenly flying open when a sharp pain shot up the length of her arm. It was excruciating and she wanted it gone, the arm, and the pain, all of it. Just cut the damn thing off! She didn't need it.

"Shh," Gray cooed. She felt his strong hand rest on her shoulder and it pushed her back into her previous position; she hadn't even realized that she had sat up. "Calm down, Heartfilia, I'm trying to fix your damn arm here and frankly your thrashing about is making it rather difficult."

She turned her gaze on him and found that all the hard lines that usually made up his face had melted away. He looked concerned, his features soft as he gazed at her, blue eyes unblinking and calm.

She turned away, "How bad is it?" Her voice came out as a raspy whisper. Ugh great.

"You won't lose it," He said. She felt a slight pressure before another stab of pain flared up her arm. He was stitching up the slashes she realized as another shot of pain came and went. "But I'm no doctor, Heartfilia. It's only a patch up job."

"It'll have to do," She growled out. When he had finished she went to nudge him away and out of her personal space but found that her arm was useless and mobility of the appendage had been severed for the time being. Yay.

"Here," Gray pulled an extra sword scabbard from his supply pouch, which rested casually on his hipbone, "It may not be much but they make a hell'v'a sling." He gingerly placed her arm in the leather rings that usually supported the sheath before stringing it around her body. His hands ghosted over her collarbone as he brushed her hair aside before he tightened the strap, securing her injured arm to her chest. "All patched up, princess."

"Thanks." It came out as a whispered rasp again.

Slowly, so as not to bump her arm, Lucy glanced towards the opening of the little makeshift shelter that Gray and her currently sat in, only now realizing that it was actually part of a collapsed roof that had wedged itself up against the nearby wall, creating a small, concealed space. The street outside was deserted. "Where is everybody?" The silence was unsettling.

Gray crawled up behind her until they were pressed shoulder to shoulder, "Probably at The Ring. From what we gathered there weren't that many dragons, only about eight or nine." Lucy noticed that he was digging his fingers into the dirt beneath him. "To think that so few of them could cause all of this." Lucy remained silent, letting him calm down from his momentary flair of anger, "We managed to down a few and concealed them within The Ring, and the others most likely retreated when they saw their comrades being herded like cattle."

"Don't talk about them as if they're humans." Lucy scoffed , "Comrades my ass. The Ring's on the other side of the village. Chances that we'll run into others?"

"Slim, but its best to be on your guard."

The Ring was the arena were the Slayers held sporting events and festivals, though it also doubled as a dragon execution and torture ground. The place had always made Lucy's stomach drop and turn, just knowing that a public gutting had happened in the same place where the Slayers sometimes held celebrations had never sat right with her, despite the thorough cleaning.

Slowly and cautiously the pair eased their way from their hiding place. The silence hung in the air so thick that Lucy could almost taste it. Gray nudged her forward and strapped a crossbow to her backside before handing her a dozen arrows in a quiver and a special one that would open into twin blades when shot. She slung the quiver over her good shoulder and let Gray clip the special one to her hip, right next to the crossbow if she was in dire need of it. Gray glanced at the crossbow and then at her injured arm before rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"I realize now the chances of you being able to use that efficiently are rather slim, princess."

"Don't call me princess. And lucky me my arm was broken when I learned to use a crossbow." Gray smirked at her sass but said nothing more as they ran down the street.

Night had fallen some time ago and now their only source of light was the dying flames that still licked at the charred wood of the burnt buildings of the village, holding on to the last stretch of their lives. They ducked around corners and slunk through the charred remains of buildings, narrowly escaping a few times when the ceiling suddenly collapsed. The air was still deathly silent.

Then they reached the town square.

In the center of the square there was a giant fountain, which was built in honor of Lucy's ancestor, the first Heartfilia, who had founded the Heartfilia territory. And on top of that noble monument sat the one of the most terrifying creatures from Slayer lore. It was supposed to be a myth, they didn't exist.

They didn't exist!

Cold sweat broke out over Lucy's entire body as she stared up at the creature. Her eyes locking with its own piercing green orbs and in that moment she was paralyzed, unable to move even if she had wanted to. Its scaly red hide glowed in the moonlight, shinning like fresh blood. Lucy's eyes followed the ridge of its vast, bony wings, which were currently folded against its back, down to its powerful shoulders and then its tail, which was wrapped around the neck of her ancestor and then continued to fall down the length of the statue. The ridges on its back blended in with the ebony on the night sky.

Fire Eater.

Lucy only blinked once and then it was on her.

xXx

AN: Hello lovelies! Well that was exciting wasn't it? I hope I made the raid interesting enough, I tried to make it detailed but sometimes things just run away when I'm writing. I'm happy with it at least! This whole chapter is mainly from Lucy's point of view, with only a quick glance into Gray's and a very, very tiny glance into Natsu's. This surprised me actually, considering I prefer writing from Natsu's perspective. Originally I was going to put a long section from Natsu's perspective but that was when I didn't know what was going to happen with this chapter.

Gray is actually nice in this chapter! He's a sweetie! I think he's bipolar. I'm still not sure how I want him to turn out because, well, I kinda like making him in asshole, yet I also like making him a sweetheart. Life conflictions! And just to be clear, even though there are hints of GrayLu this isn't a GrayLu story it's 100% NaLu, just in case people were wondering if I was changing my mind about the pairing. No. I'm a fulltime NaLu shipper and honestly wouldn't put either Natsu or Lucy with anybody else but each other.

Why do my authors notes always turn into rants?

I apologize for my lazy editing!

Read and Review! I love feedback!

Love dearies,

ZiraUzu