Welcome back Lovlies! I couldn't wait to get another chapter out for you! I started just as soon as I fed my previous story's chapter quota. ;) Two FairyTail universes at once is kinda trippy! It's fun, hehe...

Rated M.
M is for MATURE people.
If I can pretend to be, then you can too.

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING! *sob* However sometimes I wonder if Mashima-sama used to follow me around and take character ideas from me and my friends.
At least let a girl dream!

Episode 4
A Journey Begins

Dear Mom,

We're finally almost there. These woods are creepy, like you never know if that thing over there is a branch or something reaching out for you. I can see my worry reflected back at me in Levy's face. Both of us are a little freaked out.

Well, maybe a tad more than a little.

We're hungry too. We came across this family with the cutest little twin girls. They were scared of us at first, we couldn't blame them, it's turned into a dog eat dog world out there. Levy and I have met some nasty people ourselves, but this family wasn't like that. We shared yesterday's meal with them; it was a wonderful way to use up the last of our rations. It doesn't matter, in just a few more days we'll be back in Magnolia, and everything will be as it should be. I wonder how everyone's doing!

Levy's been talking nonstop about what all she's gonna do when she sees the guys again. She keeps talking about everyone and I know what she's up to—keeping us on point instead of succumbing to exhaustion and the devastating reality of everyday. I hope I can be as strong as her someday.

I'm writing while I'm on watch. We can't both sleep at the same time out here and writing in the dark is better than watching the shadows move. How many times have I walked through these same woods with my team? Not once did I ever think they were creepy when I was with him...

Okay! Changing the subject now! I'm going to get your letter wet again! I can't wait to eat Mira's cooking again! Oh, to have some of her salted beef... and her carrot soup! Oh man I'm hungry! I hope those two little girls are doing okay. They had pink hair ya know, a little darker than his, but still, it brought back wonderful memories when I watched them play.

I love you Mom,

~Lucy H.

His eyes lingered on the graceful cursive pen strokes. The way she wrote made him feel as if he'd known her for years... but of course he was being foolish. She'd simply known her mother for years. Reading the words from the beautiful penmanship filled Natsu with an odd feeling of nostalgia. The person who wrote this wrote as though she were speaking to the reader. It was more enjoyable for him if he imagined the letter was meant for him. After all, clearly this letter was never getting to... Mom, so what harm would it do? At least it reaffirmed that there were still good people out there. Something he may have not bothered to remember after following the dragon hunters for two years.

The fire dragon was reading it over a third time when footsteps behind him made him jump up to growl at the intruder. Halting immediately, Natsu cursed himself for not noticing his little sister's scent. How long has it been since that had happened? He wasn't the kind of guy to get caught off guard.

"What do you have there?" Wendy leaned in, hands behind her back.

Natsu hid the letter behind him, folding it and placing it back in the envelope. "Nothing, did Gajeel send you?"

Wendy gave him a frown, "Really? I haven't seen you in over a day, and that's all you have to say to me? Oh big brother," she sighed dramatically, "I thought you knew me better."

"So you sneaked off again, and he's gonna come here lookin for ya?" Natsu rubbed his forehead after tucking the letter safety in his pocket, "that's even worse!"

She giggled and grabbed his hands, "Oh come on, Natsu! Let's go—" she gasped when she saw his wrists. "NATSU! Why do you still wear these things!" Without permission or hesitation, she brought her white sky dragon power to caress his raw skin and mend it anew.

Despite his angst over her spending her power so liberally, he sighed as the constant ache of his wrists faded. Natsu smiled and rested a hand on the top of her head, "Thanks, Kitten."

"I know how stubborn you are, believe me, but I really think you should get elder brother to take those off."

"No." Natsu narrowed his eyes, "I keep them to—"

"Yea, yea," Wendy waved him off, "I know. I've been thinking though," her eyes edged around the surrounding trees, "what if we're not the only ones they branded? Like, not everyone that bears the mark is an enemy?"

Natsu blinked at the new perspective, "Hmm. I dunno," he shrugged.

"Come on big brother," Wendy smiled, changing the subject. "Let's go let off some steam." She laughed and pulled him away and Natsu started laughing as well, her merriment was contagious. The sky dragon led him to another part of the creek and pushed him in with a mischievous grin.

He yelped and made a big splash, then guarded his face from his sister's splash as she joined him. "It's time to get over being mad, big brother, or I'll dunk you good!

Wendy had stolen away his sour mood yet again, to his credit though, the letter he'd discovered had softened him up for her manipulations.

o.o;;

A buzz of flies was prominent in the field before the two FairyTail wizards.

"Mavis..." Gray stared, astonished at the sight of so many dead bodies piled up and blackened by fire. Not a thing moved in the darkened crater left from the destruction that had been wrought, just the stench of roasted dead lingered here.

"I can't think of anyone more likely to have done this than him, Gray." Erza folded her arms, not tempted in the least to go down there to try and salvage anything useful.

"So, what..." Gray slipped his hands in his pockets, "he's protecting us from afar? That's a bit out of character don't you think? He would've come and rubbed it in our face."

"I don't know..." Erza frowned. "We'll circle around and look for a trail. There's got to be something."

"Shouldn't we clean this up?"

"No." The battle maiden's features hardened, "let them stay and feed the ground. It will serve as a warning to someone who might dare come to cross FairyTail. Should they find us with ill intent in their heart, they'll recall this and hopefully know it is the power our guild still wields."

"Except that it's not." Gray tsked.

This made Erza turn on him, "Natsu is still a member of our guild, Not a thing has changed that."

"Chill out." Gray sighed, "I get it, just saying, he's not with us. We'd have a hard time duplicating this kinda devastation. Man... the whole hoard huh?"

"Yes," a smile played on her lips, "Igneel would have been proud. Now let's go, we don't want the trail to grow cold."

"Yea."

They searched around the area for most of the day to no avail. The sun was yielding to the moon's graces when Erza finally called Gray over.

"Anything?" He asked hopefully.

Her curtain of red hair swung as she shook her head. "It is a tad frustrating that we are struggling to achieve something he would be able to do so easily."

Gray had to smile at that, "He had the nose of a bloodhound."

"Has, Gray. He has the nose of a bloodhound. I won't entertain the idea of speaking about him like he's gone when evidence clearly shows the contrary."

Shaking his head, Gray chose to stay silent and simply admire the straight forwardness of his partner's hope.

o.o;;

Wendy was swimming away from her brother as fast as she could, he was coming after her with a vengeance after the stunt she'd just pulled. She was laughing and carelessly grazed a hand across some floating debris when she was suddenly grabbed at the wrist. Cold clammy fingers squeezed and pulled her head under the water; the blunette tried to cry out for help but it came out only as a strangled gurgle.

"Sis?" Natsu watched as her head sank into the water in horror, "WENDY!"

The dragon submerged into the depths and could barely make out that his sister was struggling with an incredibly water logged creep. It was reaching for her sluggishly, but she could not break free of its grip. Natsu swam over as fast as he could and dislodged its arm in one enraged pull. He pushed Wendy toward the surface and grabbed the creature by its remaining arm and began to tug it to shore. Its skin was slippery and felt as though it could rub right off if he clutched it too tightly. It was now focused on him as his head cleared the water's surface and grabbed his load by the back of its shirt and tossed it onto the bank with disgust. Natsu stared at it with his lip curling. Its skin was bloated from being in the water for so long and moved slowly. It was trying to roll over to get a view of the meal it wanted so badly when Natsu put it out of its misery by placing a fierce stomp right on its head.

Wendy winced when she heard the vile crunching sound that sounded its demise. Covering her nose to guard against the foul stench, she came to stand next to Natsu. She then took his arm, bothered that he still just stared at her attacker. "Thank you, Brother."

"These things shouldn't be in our water. Who knows what damage they could do in there."

Wendy pulled at his arm, "Let's go home." She did not want to find out if any others were out there.

The squeak in her voice made Natsu turn to her and notice that she was very shaken up. Try as she might, she had a tender heart and was not a fighter. He smiled and put a protective arm over her shoulders, holding her securely and spread his warmth to his sister's shivers. "Alright, Kitten." He grinned, hoping his smile would cheer her spirit, "let's go see what else Brother has in store for me."

As they walked, Natsu brought a hand to his pocket and warmed the letter that was undoubtedly soaked and most likely, no longer legible. Regrettable. He hoped not, the wizard already wanted to read it again. The girl in the letter had been heading to Magnolia. He casually wondered if she made it. Nice people probably didn't have much of a shot in a world like this. Still though... the letter didn't look aged. Maybe she made it.

He collected his ducks and roasted them as they walked, slightly begrudging one to the sweet girl beside him; Wendy never ate enough, making allowances for her brothers' appetites. The walk back to the plateau was peaceful, not so much when they met with Gajeel. He jumped down to meet them before they came up. "We gotta go."

"What are you talkin about?" Natsu cocked an eyebrow.

Gajeel's gaze centered on him, "They know we're here, and they're lookin for us. It's only a matter of time til they find us—so I'm sayin—we gotta go."

Wendy started bouncing, be it for anticipation of nervousness, they couldn't say. All Natsu realized was, even though he'd kept the swarm of freaks from trampling their plains, the end result was still the same. "So two years of watching and waiting, and now that they're coming our way, we gotta run?"

Gajeel did everything in his power not to yell at his irritating brother, must he challenge him on every little thing? "Did you miss the part where they controlled the very sky to put out your fire? Unless we have to, we are not going to engage them! Now, we gotta go!"

"Where?" Wendy worried at her bottom lip.

"Magnolia." Natsu pipped in, he looked to his sibling's quizzical faces, "what?"

"Are you nuts?" Gajeel sighed, "That town is overrun with those things, and you just wanna go there like it's a casual visit?"

"They've probably wondered off by now," the fire dragon argued, "and I think it's a damn good place to lay low while those hunters are on our trail. It's not like they're gonna think to return there! It's a wasteland!"

"And yet it's right where you'd think to go." Gajeel grumbled.

"Full circle, yea." Natsu frowned, "if we're not gonna be following them anymore, I'd like to make damn sure that I'm where I know they're not coming. Besides," He flashed him a grin, "don't be scared big brother, you got the strongest dragon right here one your side!"

Gajeel growled.

"If we must go..." Wendy started, "I suppose it's not the worst place we could go."

Folding his arms, Gajeel sighed, "We'll sniff it out and go from there, if it'll make you babies happy."

The smile on Natsu's face grew widely and evolved into an excited leap with a pump of his fist. He couldn't explain to them why he wanted to go so badly without showing them the letter—something he had no intention of doing—but he was relieved they were going with him. He had a nagging feeling he would check out the town with or without their consent. He couldn't even explain to himself why he wanted to check out the writer's destination but if Gajeel thought they needed to leave, it was just about as good as any other place to head. And maybe he'd get rid of the odd feeling that was itching the back of his mind.

Wendy gave Natsu a sidelong glance, "You're not going to burn the whole place down are you...?" There was something to the why he was so excited to get to Magnolia specifically, and she wanted to find out.

Her brother gifted her with a handsome grin, "Only if you want me to, Kitten."

All three of them turned around when they heard voices off to the other side of the plateau. Gajeel quickly motioned for them to go into the direction of the woods and for once, his brother simply nodded and led the way.

I want to meet this person that would give the last of her food to children she doesn't even know. She's either very kind... or really dumb. Either way—she's definitely weird.

I've got about 20 so different directions this story could turn right about here... and I can't decide which direction to take! Bear with me while I try and make a decision! Thank you for reading, and-thank you VERY much for reviewing. Seriously guys, thank you! On with the licking!

fanficlove2014: Well, Natsu's curiosity has got them heading back to Magnolia, so we'll see!
WolfyLeigh: I'm so glad you're enjoying it! I hope you'll keep letting me know how the tale makes you feel. So far this story isn't catching many eyeballs with only nine reviews! ^^;;

Just for you,
Seriphia
aka Lick

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