I do not own Fairy Tail.NOW I KNOW that this is really late and I do apologise, I wanted to get this out earlier but it was just... not ready. I would finish, proof-read it, and then decide I hated it and rewrite the whole thing. But here it is... finally.Every new 'scene' will have the first word in all caps and bolded in an attempt to make the story a little bit better seperated. Please review and tell me how that works out. THE Port town was bustling amidst midday heat, and Erza was sweating in her armour. The docks were crowded and despite her strength it was tiring to pull her huge cart of luggage through the gathered fishermen.
Gray followed directly behind her, grumbling quietly. If Erza was uncomfortable in the heat, he was in agony. The Ice Make wizard hated the heat. It reminded him far too much of his rival. Not that he really rivalled Natsu anymore...
Lucy walked along happily behind Gray, collecting all of the clothes he subconsciously shed, and handing them back to him. She was wearing her usual skimpy outfit and so wasn't bothered too much by the heat.
Cana had disappeared into a bar, claiming that Erza would be able to just send Gray to fetch her when they found a boat.
A rather unfriendly-looking man with a large cloak obscuring his body, rose from his crouch and watched the strangers pass.
He caught a glimpse of a strange mark on the chest of the man, and his eyes widened. He used his left hand to pull out a piece of paper, and sure enough, the symbols matched.
"Hey Fairy Tail! Over here!" He stood tall and waved with his normal hand.
Erza turned around at the shout, spotting the man in his small boat. Noting the size of the tiny dinghy, she frowned as she realised she would have to leave her beloved cart behind. Or possibly requip the cart away... but then she would be incredibly tired.
Oh well.
Her sudden halt brought Gray crashing into her luggage, and Lucy into Gray.
"Owwwww..."
Both of the younger mages groaned and rubbed their heads, reeling from the impact. Looking to Erza while Lucy continued to make pained noises, Gray rose a questioning eyebrow. Erza looked to the dock where the man stood waiting and pointed with one hand.
"That man called out to us, I believe he is our ride to Galuna Island."
Gray shrugged. "So what are we waiting for? Let's do it."
Erza grasped his shoulder and smiled, then dropped her hand and walked off towards the small boat. She cut a swath through the people around her with her enormous luggage cart, her friends following quickly behind.
"You're the wizards from Fairy Tail?"
The man looked at them harshly. Erza nodded, while Gray and Lucy smiled at him.
"We are responding to the request on Galuna Island. We would be delighted to help you, ...?"
"My name is Bobo. Jump on board... although your luggage won't fit."
Erza grunted. Her luggage glowed for a moment then disappeared, and she stumbled a little to the side, into Gray. He held her shoulder for a moment until she was steady on her feet again.
Suddenly Bobo frowned, and looked at each of them in turn.
"Weren't there meant to be four of you?"
GRAY Lay on his back, his side leaking precious red liquid onto the coarse sand of the beach. He couldn't lift or turn his head right now. He could, however, curse. Which he did. Emphatically.
"Fucking Lyon! Fucking Deliora! Fucking Erza! Fu..."
In between his rather colourful exclamations, he quite suddenly lost consciousness. Erza looked down at him with a frown. She withdrew the pommel of her sword from his crown slowly, as if worried he would suddenly spring up.
When he didn't, she sighed and flopped gracelessly onto the sand beside him. Resting an armoured hand on his forehead, she stared out at the destruction.
The village that had hired them was gone. It turned out that through a rather peculiar set of coincidences, the demon that had killed Gray's parents and teacher, the other student of his former teacher, and himself and the other Fairy Tail wizards had ended up in a no-holds-barred, explosive battle for survival. The weakened Deliora, whose body was robbed of its immortality by Iced Shell, had been throwing around enormous beams of energy. Lyon Vastia, Ur's other student, had been foolishly trying to take the demon on in ranged combat. At least, until a blast of... something... had taken a huge chunk out of Lyon's leg and he had passed out.
At that point, Gray had intervened. As much as he may have hated Lyon in the moments leading up to his decision, he would never leave the man to die. He selflessly and recklessly jumped in front of the incoming blow from Deliora to pull Lyon out of harms way. In return, he had recieved a nasty punch to the side from a wooden golem, courtesy of the doll magic user he didn't know the name of, who had assumed he was attacking Lyon. His side had split open and he had been thrown to the beachfront.
After that, it was on Erza to keep the fight away from her mangled friend, as well as protect Lucy and Cana while they attacked Deliora from range. After a very tense and exhausting hour and a half of combat, Deliora fell.
Erza turned her eyes away from the wreckage of the village, willing herself not to think of the corpses of the villagers that she knew would be there. They- no, she had failed! Failed an S-Class quest... They hadn't solved the villagers problem at all, they'd not only made it worse but indirectly caused the villager's deaths.
It was a terrific blow to her pride as a mage. How could she now face the Master? She was brought out of her thoughts by a gentle touch on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Lucy smiling down at her. For just a moment she felt an urge to slap away the smile, but she saw easily enough that it didn't extend to the girl's eyes.
"Cana just waded out to wash some of the blood and dust off her. She'll join us in a moment, alright Erza?"
The senior mage nodded. She couldn't bring herself to speak. Glancing sideways at Gray, she winced. Why had she knocked him out? Damn, she was too impulsive. She was just angry that she had...
A gasp tore from her lips. In her anger, she had attacked her already injured teammate! Gray had been the only one of the Fairy Tail crew to take more than a glancing blow and he had recieved that damage in acting like a real hero, a true Fairy Tail wizard, saving someone he didn't need to.
She removed her hand from his head and saw the lump forming from her strike. Her head hung in shame, and tears threatened to fall from her eye. She would hand in her resignation to Fairy Tail as soon as she returned... yes, that was a fitting punishment for her betrayal.
She was snapped temporarily from her more morbid thoughts when Cana returned from the water, wielding a bottle of booze.
"I don't know about you guys, but I *hic* wanna get home... seeing as the villagers aren't reaaaaally gonna notice if we take their boats, I say we pick the biggest and make trails."
Erza nodded mutely.
'What would Natsu do?'
The question ricocheted off of the inside of her skull like a fly off of a tank. She couldn't help but compare this mission to the 'team' mission she had gone on with Natsu and the First.
As she allowed herself, Gray slung over her shoulder limply, to be led to a boat, she thought about the two missions.
When she had fought alongside the two Wizard Saints, they had been quite clearly leagues above her and it had showed. She simply followed their instruction. Even so, their decision-making had been excellent and there had been no civilian casualties.
Here though...
She had been the one in charge, the one responsible, and it was on her that all of these people had been injured and killed. And worst of all in her eyes, she hadn't even managed to apprehend the people who had been causing all of the problems in the first place! They'd just... vanished, their injured leader with them!
"Maybe I'm not cut out for this..."
She mumbled under her breath as she jumped over the side of the boat and sat down, lowering the unconscious boy onto the deck.
WENDY Could hardly believe that she was standing on the edge of the country. Her adoptive father and... uncle? Brother? had led her all the way to the borders of Fiore, and they were now standing atop a small, grassy, knoll. In front of the party of four stretched a seemingly endless sea of grass. It wasn't the vibrant green of the guild she had grown up in, nor was it the greying and dying grass of the deep forest. This was like a shimmering curtain of golden fabric, laid across the gentle rolling hills.
"Daddy? Why is this grass so different?"
Before Natsu answered, he reached up to the young girl seated atop his shoulders and grasped her hand. Carla smiled from her place on Serena's shoulder. She had finally relented and allowed him to simply carry her when they were flying, and they had in fact become firm friends over their love of tea. Apparently, the refined senses of a Dragon Slayer meant that the more nuanced tastes of various tea varieties were enhanced, and Serena was a self-proclaimed expert in them.
"Well, Wendy, that is wheat. This is about where the country of Bosco starts. We are swinging around through the wheat-growing region because there is a smaller chance of us being caught. We aren't really supposed to be in their country without permission, but we are only going to spend a day here.
The farmers out this way grow huge fields of wheat which they cart off to the cities to be made into flour for bread! We'll only be seeing a little bit of it though, because we'll turn off into the Wildlands of Merydia before long. That's the best way we have to reach our destination."
Serena was looking pensievely up at the sky, and called out to Natsu.
"Hey, you remember the last time we saw the blue-and-gold?"
Natsu chuckled, an image of a short-tempered brunette with a remarkable degree of handiness with a frying pan coming to mind.
"Hehe, yeah. She was a real firecracker, wasn't she?"
"Wonder if she's still around?"
Natsu shook his head with an amused smile.
"Go on. Just catch up before we get to the border on the other side."
With that, Serena took to the skies, leaving Carla to fall less than gracefully to the ground with a small "Oomf!" The Exceed dusted herself off and fluttered up to Natsu's outstretched arms, and they continued on, Wendy keeping an eye on the ever-shrinking form of their companion.
THEY Stopped for the night an hour after sunset. The fields of wheat, Wendy decided, were just as beautiful after dark as before. A small campfire sat in the middle of a cleared circle of the wheat. Natsu didn't want to accidentally set the field on fire. Sitting out of the wind, Natsu crossed his legs and Wendy happily settled into his lap. They had only some long-keeping biscuits and a few pieces of fruit left, but that wouldn't be a problem after they reached the Wildlands.
The pair sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, and then a faint rustling alerted them to Carla returning from her toilet. The Exceed sat herself in Wendy's lap, and the small family sat gazing into the campfire.
Carla drifted off to sleep in record time, warm and safe. Wendy felt her father's breathing slow and knew he wasn't far off either.
"Daddy?"
Natsu cracked an eye he hadn't realised that he had closed.
"Yes Wendy?"
"Do you love Serena?"
The question floored Natsu. It was so simple and yet so deep, especially coming from the child sitting in his lap. She had never asked something like this before, and to be perfectly honest, he wasn't sure he knew how to properly answer. He decided to try anyway, stubborn git that he was.
"... Yes. He's my brother. He's my family. Until you came along, he was the person I cared most about in this world. But... ah, he... um... heck, I don't know how to explain this..."
Wendy smiled and twisted to look at him. In the innocent way a child tries to comfort their parent, she reached up and put her hand on his cheek, patting it slightly. He reached up and engulfed her tiny, cold hand with his large warm one and smiled down at her.
"It's ok Daddy. I love you."
He chuckled. Letting go of her hand, he pulled her (and by extension, Carla) into a deep hug, one that promised safety to the girl.
He held her for about twenty minutes before her breathing became slower and more rhythmic, and he knew she was asleep. As his eyes closed, he whispered,
"I love you too Wendy... Good night."
THE Next morning brought a messy-haired Wendy a gorgeous pink finger of sunlight peeking through a thin band of cloud. The tips of the wheat had a delightful glow that, and a gentle breeze tousled her hair as she carefully removed Carla from her lap, placing the Exceed on Natsu's leg as she stood gingerly.
Facing towards the fresh sunrise, she began to slowly stretch herself out, straightening her legs and arms. She smiled as the gentle light kissed her face softly.
She stood thus for several minutes before the grunting sounds of Natsu's begrudging waking stirred her from her reverie. It was going to be a good day!
THE Wind was fast, biting and cold high up in the mountains. Snow blew through them more often than not. Hailstones the size of oranges sometimes pelted the mountainside.
He didn't feel any of it though. He hadn't been bothered by something as trivial as weather for a long time. Several centuries, in fact.
Lately though... he had felt something stirring. An urge was beginning to rise up in him, a sense of urgency and duty. It didn't help that he could sense Dragon magic. He still wasn't sure how far away it was, but it wouldn't be long now... then he would be able to destroy these last remnants of the Dragon lineage and rid himself of this ridiculous urge.
Damn that Black Wizard. It really angered him that such an insignificant brat had gained such incredible power. Zeref had never had to work for his power! He hadn't had to fight, tooth and nail, for every drop of blood from a Dragon!
He growled and raised his head slightly. It was honestly boring waiting for these Dragon Slayers to come to him. He just wanted to destroy, yes, destroy them, destroy everyone, everything! He would destroy them ALL!
The urge faded and he laid his head back down. He was not the King of Dragons for nothing. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction of coming to them. If they wanted to die by his claw? They could climb to stand at his feet first.
AND IT'S OVER ALL TOO SOON! There will hopefully be more sometime soon but again, no promises.
Now I know some of you might not like how I skipped over Galuna and the fight with Deliora, but I have reasons for that and it will become apparent rather soon what they are.
LOVE YA'S!
