It's been almost a week since we arrived here at Fairy Tail, and Natsu is already hanging out near the request board, looking to pick a job.

Eventually, he comes sauntering over to me, waving a job flyer through the air. "Hey Ciara! I found a good first job for me!"

I smile at him and glance at the flyer as he runs towards me. "Good. I hope that you have fun on the job." I would go with him, but I need to get stronger before going out on jobs. If I don't I'll be nothing but a burden to him.

He smiles at me happily. "I'll let you know how it goes. And soon, you can come with me. Okay?"
I nod happily. "Okay."

As Natsu heads off towards the doors, Lisanna catches sight of him. "Bye! Come back soon!"

Her older sister Mira looks mockingly at Natsu. "Where are you going?"

"I got my first real magic job!" Natsu eagerly waves the flyer in front of her face.

Mira laughs scathingly. "Did you even bother to read the whole flyer first?"

Natsu's face immediately falls. "Uh…well, yeah. It says…please get rid of this…thingy…that's somewhere…doing something…to someone, for fifty thousand jewel." I want to groan. I mean, I know that I've always been the better reader of the two of us, but I still thought that he would have been able to actually read whatever flyer he picked off the board. I mean, it's clearly a job to kill something, but if he doesn't know where to go, then trying to leave the guild is pointless.

Mira starts laughing her head off, and Lisanna yells worriedly at Natsu. "It doesn't say that!"

"Lay off, okay!" Natsu is obviously suffering from a case of hurt pride. And when his pride is hurt, it's hard to get his self-esteem back up. He'll just mask it by being loud and obnoxious.

Mira's next words make my blood boil and writhe in my veins. "Are you telling me that you're so stupid, all you were able to read off that flyer was the reward?" As if you know anything. Who says that this is even the language that we learned to read in?

Thankfully, Lisanna stands up for Natsu. "Be nice, Mira!"

But Natsu is going off like a volcano now. "I can read! Igneel taught me and Ciara how to read and write when we were little! It's just that nothing on this stupid flyer makes any sense to me." And it's no wonder. The language is really different to what we learned with Igneel. And to top it off, he managed to get hold of some books that were written in a language that I haven't even seen in any of the flyers or books here.

"Aw…it's okay." Lisanna tries to encourage him, but his pride has already taken a serious hit.
Natsu starts one of his little tirades to defend himself. "I know the names of all kinds of different foods! Hamburger, spaghetti, rice balls, cake and cookies, stew and soup, and I know… Oh man, this sucks. I swear I know more than just food names!" He falls over, embarrassed and ashamed of himself. "I'm serious, you guys. Igneel taught me to read. He really did. He taught me to read lots of stuff."

Mira puts a super weird look on her face, like she's trying to be cute, but failing miserably. "You're so cute! Please don't cry…"

"Don't be creepy, hands off!" Lisanna sounds almost like a bodyguard.

Natsu freaks right out at Mira's insinuation. "I'm not crying!"

Erza does no one any favors by walking in at this moment. "All of you need to calm down."

Natsu looks even more disheartened now. "Erza…"

"There's no reason for you to be embarrassed. I'm sure Igneel did his best. But its hard to learn to read and write, because there are an awful lot of words." She sounds like she knows what she's talking about. Now to see if that's going to work on my big brother…

But Natsu just pouts again. "Know it all."

Erza kindly offers Natsu a new perspective. "You just have to be patient and study hard. And I could teach you if you'd like."

Natsu turns her down immediately. "No way! Sorry, but you're way too scary!"

Erza gets mad immediately, grabbing hold of him by the hair and dragging him off. "I can't imagine what's so scary about a vocabulary lesson."

"Ahhhhhh! Please, you gotta help me!" Natsu cries out for help, scared of what Erza's going to do to him. Ciara! Please help me!

Help you? Are you kidding? I'm having fun watching!

You meanie!

Lisanna just thinks that this is a great idea, not realizing that Natsu is scared half out of his mind. "It'll be fine! I know you'll do good!"

"That's what he gets for being such a dummy." Gray snorts with laughter, a smirk growing on his face.

But Natsu hears that remark loud and clear, he breaks Erza's grip, throws his bag at Gray's head, and races over to smack his head against Gray's. "Oh yeah, Mr. Walks Around in his Panties?"
Gray takes that challenge right up. "Yeah! You snot-nosed little brat!"

But Erza isn't having any of it. She forcibly separates the two of them and glares almost evilly at Natsu. "Give me three days! Think of me as Igneel number two. In just three days, I'll hammer all the vocabulary you need to be an effective Fairy Tail wizard into your thick skull. And you will not eat, drink, or sleep until you've mastered them!"

Natsu grits his teeth, but when he glances at the job flyer, he relents. "Alright, fine! You win! Teach me the stupid stuff already!"

Erza turns to me as well. "I could teach you as well, if you like."

Natsu snorts irritably. "Don't bother. She's a know it all as well. Seriously, everything that Igneel taught us, she can remember like it was yesterday. Whenever he managed to bring us books, she was the one who was always reading them."

I laugh a little. "Well, that's because you and Igneel were more focused on breathing fire than learning from magic books. Remember, dragon slayer magic is hard for me; learning from those books was how Igneel decided to teach me most of my magic. Besides, it's hard for a fire dragon to teach wind magic in the first place. He did what he could, but most of it, I had to figure out myself. Thats why you always got all the practical training. Unlike you, I can read and write just fine. The flyer says that there's a giant centipede rampaging through the forests near Oak Town."

Natsu grumbles at me a little, before being tugged away by Erza. And for his sake, I hope that he can master all of Erza's lessons quickly, because taking jobs is going to be hard if he can't read this version of the language.

But, after Natsu is gone, Mira stares at me like she can't believe her eyes. "How is it that he can't read at all, and you can read off a flyer that you saw from like ten feet away?"

I shrug. "Like Natsu said, I did the most reading when we were living with Igneel. He was writing words in the dirt with sticks, while I was reading…" I think hard to myself to remember what Igneel called it. "Ancient…Mildean? I think that's what he called it. But I'm not sure, it was a long time ago."

"Really now…?" Gramps looks at me curiously. "You must have had a very interesting education…"
I nod. "Well, isn't that a given? Natsu and I were raised by a dragon after all. Obviously, it's not going to be the kind of stuff that most kids learn."

"Clearly not, seeing as Dragon Slayer Magic isn't something you see every day." Gramps' eyes look like they're seeing right through me. But his smile is warm, and that makes me feel better.

But Gray just scoffs at me. "Raised by a dragon? Yeah right. You do know that dragons don't exist, right?"

I turn my gaze on Gray, hardening it into a vicious glare. "You may not believe that dragons exist, but they do. And if it weren't for Igneel, Natsu and I would have died who knows where. And it's not like there's another way to learn Dragon Slayer Magic. You have to be taught it by a dragon!"

Gray glares at me, a slight smirk on his face. "Oh yeah? Well I haven't seen any of that magic coming from you. So why don't you prove it?"

"Gray, that's enough!" Gramps cuts Gray off with a stern voice. "She doesn't have to prove anything if she doesn't want to. Besides, she's still recovering from being sick. It's not good to push her too hard this soon."

But Gray's challenge hits me right where it hurts. And if I ever choose to be like my big brother, it's in situations like this. I glare at Gray, letting a smile creep onto my face. "You want to see some of my dragon slayer magic? Alright. But we'll have to go outside first."

"Why? Afraid that you won't be able to breathe in here?" He smirks at me, not getting what the problem is.

I hop off my stool and walk towards him. "Fine, if you want to see me let loose right here, I can do that!" Wind circles around me, lifting me off the ground ever so slightly. "Last chance to rescind that challenge."

Gray just smirks at me. "Go ahead. Hit me with your best shot."

Oh…you are so going to wish that you hadn't said that. I close my eyes, breathing in deeply, steadying myself. Get ready, idiot. I'm about to blow you away. I focus all of my magic into my lungs, getting ready to wreak havoc on Gray. "Wind Dragon's ROAR!" I puff up my cheeks, before releasing all of the magical pressure in one shot.

A cyclone erupts from my mouth, twisting the air itself into a whirlwind that shoots across the room, slamming into Gray and sending him flying across the room. He flies straight into the opposite wall, but doesn't leave a mark on it, since I went easy on him. If I went full force, I might have sent him through the wall instead.

I float through the air, approaching Gray as he pulls himself to his feet. "Had enough? Or should we take this outside?"

He glares at me, then snorts with frustration. "Jeez, it's like all the girls here are demons."

"What was that…?" I crack my knuckles menacingly. "Demons, you say? Well, I can't speak for Mira or Erza, but I'm closer to a dragon than a demon. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." He covers his head with his hands, trying to protect himself from another blast.

"Hm…" I land lightly on a table, then sit on the edge, swinging my feet playfully. "Well that was fun. It's been ages since I did that. Natsu's always telling me to take it easy. He's worried that I'll get sick again."

"Then maybe you should be careful with that magic of yours." Gramps sounds a bit solemn now. "We wouldn't want you to come down with something incurable now."

"Alright, Gramps!" I smile a bit, turning my gaze back to Gray. "So, did you like that taste of my dragon slayer magic? That roar was something that I learned from Igneel. The element is different, but the concept is the same."

He grumbles a little. "Yeah…whatever…" He gets up, rubbing his head. "You and your dragon…pain in the ass."

"Don't you mean in the head?" I grin at him, aggravating him as much as I please. He glares back at me, before trudging off with his tail between his legs.

I giggle a little as I watch him walk away. Tugging lightly on the ribbons in my hair, the ones that Igneel gave to me years ago, I smile. I really think I'm going to like it here.