After not being able to work much on this one yesterday I honestly didn't think I would be able to finish this one in enough time to put it up, sorry if there's any errors I may have missed.

Chapter 4

Grandine

Lucy P.O.V.

As we're flying over Fire Territory and into Windy Plains, I can't help but miss Igneel and his quirks. While we stayed with him, I quickly learned where Natsu got most of his quirks from.

I peel Natsu's arms off, ignoring his exclamation of protest, and slowly start to stand up. When I'm standing straight, I give Natsu a 'come and get me' grin and start working my way towards Grandine's head, careful to avoiding damaging any of her feathers.

It still surprises me, that while Igneel was completely covered in scales, Grandine is covered more in feathers, and what scales she has are softer, more compliant. When I look closely at one of her feathers, the center is white while the edges are a soft baby blue.

"What are you doing, Luce?"

I look back to see Natsu right at my shoulder. I give him a smile.

"I wanted to watch the landscape change."

He nods as Grandine explains,"It will take us about a day to reach my home, as we have to travel over Water and Lightning Territory, so while you watch pay attention to how the elements react to each other."

We look ahead, and sure enough, the volcanoes slowly disappear into a wide ocean.

"We're about to cross into water territory first, so beware the rain." She warns us.

When we look down, the lava rivers disappear into the water.

And then the rain hits us.

As we fly through, the rain will slow down and then pick up again, but the whole time we're in Water Territory, the rain doesn't stop.

A few hours later, we can finally see land ahead.

"You two need to sit down now we're about to go through Lightning Territory and if you stand you run the risk of getting hit." Grandine instructs us in a patient tone.

We quickly sit down in between her sweeping horns and watch as the ocean clashes with the land on the border of the two Territories. As we watch, lightning strikes somewhere every few minutes, allowing us to see under the darkened skies.

I lay my head on Natsu's shoulder and eventually fall asleep to the rhythm of Grandine's wings beating against the sky.

A little while later, Natsu is shaking me awake. "Luce, wake up. We're about to cross onto the Windy Plains, you may want to see this."

I lift my head and look down to see the ground go from dusty and dry to covered with tall grasses, and from where we're sitting on the sky dragon's back, we can see herds grazing in the distance.

But the view below isn't the most amazing thing about this border. No, it's the sky itself that holds our fascination. The sky fades from angry black to the brightest of white clouds, as we fly farther into the Windy Plains.

After another hour, Grandine descends saying, "Up ahead sits my burrow, where you'll be staying while you train with me."

After she lands, we walk off her tail to find a moderate cave opening but when you enter, there are steps dug out leading down for about thirty feet until you enter a brightly lit room.

When Grandine walks up behind us, she's wearing a white sundress with a baby blue trim and sash across the waist. "Let me show you to your rooms."

The sky dragon takes the lead, and guides us down a side hallway that is well lit and actually has a breeze blowing through. She stops about halfway down the hallway and turns toward two doors on the right hand side of the hall.

Just as with Igneel, the doors have a star and a flame engraved on them, telling the difference between my room and Natsu's.

When I open my door, instead of finding a room made of dirt, I find a room painted white with a bed and a trunk. Sitting on a table next to the bed, is the chest Igneel gave me to protect my keys while I'm training.

After I change into a light blue tank top and white shorts, I step out to find Natsu wearing light blue baggy shorts, and no shirt.

"Natsu, why aren't you wearing a shirt?" I ask, voice dripping with disapproval. I look down the hall instead of at his muscular chest.

"Luce, you're a weirdo." Is all he says as he walks by. I growl at him, but he just chuckles. "Come on, you don't scare me."

I leap forward and tackle him before getting up and sauntering off down the hall. When I hear him growl, in return I laugh and sidestep to avoid his arms.

"Alright, that's enough, you two. Are you here to train, or are you here to waste my time?"

We look up to see Grandine smirking at us.

"Forgive me, I am here to train, I'm not sure what this baka is here for." I say, jabbing my thumb over my shoulder, in Natsu's direction.

"You'll pay for that," Natsu growls, before turning to Grandine and saying, "I'm here to train, too."

Her smirk grows into a grin as she says, "Very well, then. Dinner is ready, and afterwards we'll start with the first step to becoming a sky dragon slayer."

When we walk into the main hall, we find a table is set up. But this time, instead of every food known to the universe, there are only small and light foods.

"Where's the meat? This is all vegetables." He grumbles, with an amusing pout.

As we sit down, Grandine explains.

"In order to train with the wind, you must not be weighed down, and food such as meat can produce opposite effects to what are desired. So, while you stay with me, you will only eat small amounts throughout the day."

Natsu just sits down and eats his meal in silence, ready for training to start. I watch him as he eats, but quickly look at my plate when he looks up.

After dinner, Grandine guides us outside.

"Assume your meditative positions." She instructs us.

I sit down, cross legged, and have the knuckles of my left hand line up with the knuckles of my right hand, and close my eyes, slowing my breathing.

Normal P.O.V.

As the two mages assume their positions, the sky dragon begins. "Now, feel how the air flows around you, how it moves through the grass, climbs any obstacle in its path. You'll feel a pull to join the currents, but you have to ignore it. Instead, you want to guide it; wind is not as stubborn as some of the other elements, you need only apply a little pressure to have it do what you want."

As she says this, the wind blowing across the clearing starts spinning around the two mages in mini tornadoes. Natsu's is a bit off balance, so Grandine advises calmly, "Natsu, don't be so forceful. Unlike with fire, wind doesn't need to be coaxed and prodded. Relax and it will listen to you."

Sure enough, once the mage hears this, his tornado evens out until it's flowing in sync with the one next to it.

"Now, I want you to think of the wind dying down, until it is once again flowing smoothly around you."

Natsu's tornado eventually disappears, but Lucy's starts to get out of hand. When Natsu opens his eyes and looks over, he murmurs quietly, "Luce, calm down, you getting upset isn't helping anything."

Lucy takes a deep breath and is able slow it down, but when her tornado dissipates she flinches as if she's been hit.

"Grandine, why did that hurt?" Lucy asks,as she looks up at the sky dragon.

Said dragon frowns. "Because you were trying to control the wind, not work with it."

Natsu stands up and asks, "Isn't that what we were supposed to do?"

Grandine shakes her head. "No, you can't control the winds, you can only guide and work with them. Trying to control the winds is like telling the tide not to rise, or the sun not to set, it isn't supposed to happen."

Natsu P.O.V.

I frown at her words but Luce says, "I understand. I'll try a different approach tomorrow."

Grandine nods. "Get some rest. If you're gonna learn how to work with the winds, then we have to start bright and early."

We get up and walk to our rooms, thinking over what the sky dragon said.

"Hey, Luce?" She hums in reply so I ask, "Mind if I sleep with you again?" The last part comes out as a whisper but I know she heard me. She does have the heightened senses, seeing as she's already learned one type of slaying magic.

She looks over at me with a smile, as she grabs the handle to her door. "Sure, Natsu, come on in." I grin and walk in before promptly collapsing on the bed and moving over so she has room to lie down.

I close my eyes, but I hear her as she moves around the room. The final thing she does before lying down, is murmur something, and then I hear a faint click. After another minute, I hear another click and then the bed dips from where she lies down next to me.

When she rolls over, I lean over and wrap my arms around her and pull her close. "I love you," I whisper, before falling asleep to the sound of her heartbeat.

The next thing I know, someone's pounding on the door yelling, "Hey, time to get up! The winds wait for no dragon."

I groan and grab onto Luce but she just chuckles. "Come on, sleepy head, we have to get to training, otherwise we'll never see our nakama again."

I frown at the thought of never being able to fight in another guild brawl and quickly get up. I go to my room to change, while Luce does the same, and then we walk to the food table. Again, seeing no meat, I growl in annoyance.

"I can't wait to learn these moves so that I can actually have some meat with my meals." I complain.

Grandine snorts. "Well, you're in luck, because today is the first of two weeks where you learn the support spells, then the last week is spent learning the attacks."

Luce stops eating and asks,"So, sky dragon-slayer magic is more about support then offense?"

Grandine shakes her head. "Not necessarily, but the support does make up a large portion of it."

"What's the big deal with that troia spell that Wendy uses, and why won't it work on me anymore?"

She looks at me and replies,"Ah, yes, I had forgotten that. You other elements have trouble with motion sickness. Troia is only helpful a handful of times, before your body becomes immune to it. There is hope, however, once you master troia yourself, you will no longer have motion sickness."

Luce looks up and says, "It makes sense why Wendy doesn't have motion sickness like the other slayers and you do."

Grandine nods. "Well, since you two are finished eating, we can go ahead and start with that spell first, though, supportive type magic isn't really about physical training."

We both watch, as the dragon stands and walks over to a bookshelf and pulls out several large books before saying, "The offensive moves are easy to learn, but it's the supportive that can't actually be taught, You have to read these and follow what they say."

I groan at the thought of reading, but Luce shoots me a reassuring grin."Don't worry, Natsu, I have a set of gale force reading glasses. After I read them, you can use the glasses to make it faster."

I grin back. "Yeah, you're right, it shouldn't take long, seeing as you're one of the smartest people I know, besides Levy."

Luce blushes, but quickly stands up and takes the books from Grandine, while the dragon states, "Once you read these, it should be easy to use the spells, but I'm afraid I'll have to leave you two alone for the day, as I have to fly to the capital for a meeting. Will you be okay by yourselves?"

"Don't worry, Grandine, we can take care of ourselves. Go to the meeting, we'll see you when you get back." Luce assures the dragon as she starts reading through the books. Grandine nods and walks out the cave entrance before quickly transforming and taking off towards the capital.

I walk outside and sit in my spot from yesterday so I can meditate again, and so I don't mess with Lucy's concentration.

As I close my eyes, and slow my breathing, I can see the thread the wind offers as a guide, and quickly grab hold of it. Like yesterday, I can feel the wind surround me, but I don't bother to do anything about it, instead, I get lost in my thoughts.

When my thoughts travel to how the guild is doing while we're away, I don't notice the whispers at first, but freeze when I recognize the steely voice that can only belong to a certain scary knight with red hair.

As I focus in, I can hear her say, "Gray, did you see where that beast came from?"

"Sorry, Erza, I was busy fighting my own battle."

I hear a sigh and then, "What are we gonna do? It took Natsu and Lucy."

I'm wondering why they're speaking like it happened recently.

"I don't know, Erza, but I think we need to get back to the guild and tell Gramps. He'll know what to do."

Then it clicks and I chuckle, thinking back to what Layla had said about time differences. It's a shame I can't see them. I think, as I listen to the silence between our teammates.

I'm startled out of my meditation when I hear, "Natsu Dragneel, get down here this instance!"

I open my eyes only to feel myself fall hard.

"Ouch, Luce, what was that for?" I whine,as I sit up, rubbing the back of my head.

"Want to tell me why you were floating ten feet off the ground?" She asks with a huff.

I look around and ask curiously, "I was?"

She nods before adding, "I finished the books, it's your turn. I left the glasses sitting on top in plain view."

I nod and stand up, stretching cramped muscles and ask,"How long were you reading?"

She shrugs. "Maybe two-hours, at most."

I nod and walk into the cave to go read the books, ready to get it over with. I sit down in front of the books and put on the glasses, scrunching my nose at the weird feeling and open up the first book.

An hour and a half later, I close the last book and heave a sigh of relief. "I am never doing that again, even if you bribe me." I say to myself, as I stretch and walk out of the cave to find Luce leaning against the edge of the cave, asleep.

When I walk over, she lazily lifts an eyelid before rubbing them and asking, "How long have you been finished?"

I shrug. "Not long, only a few minutes. Wanna try those supportive spells we read in a fight?"

She stands up and smirks. "Fine by me, but let's get a bit of distance from here, so we don't destroy the cave."

As we walk I get an idea and suggest,"Why don't you call out a few of your spirits for some fun as well, I'm always looking forward to a fight with Loke."

She nods and runs back to her room to retrieve her keys while I walk to one side of the practice field. When she returns, her keys are at her side and she's wearing a smirk.

First, she calls out Loke and Capricorn, her two best melee fighters, and says, "This is just for fun, we want to try out the new spells we learned. How do you guys feel about it?"

Loke smirks and cracks his knuckles. "This is gonna be fun, you ready Natsu?"

"What are we waiting for? Lady Lucy is ready to fight." Capricorn nods his affirmation.

Before I ignite my fist, I recall the lessons I had learned on self armor boost and chant, "Lle Amor, Lle Vernier, Lle arms."

Sure enough, as I say them, I can feel the boost flowing, just as if Wendy had done them. I look over to see Luce doing the same thing, as well as giving her spirits a boost using the 'Armor' spell.

As I watch her, I become confused, because Capricorn and Loke are melee fighters, so why not use the 'Arms' spell instead of 'Armor'?

When she moves, I move, using, "Fire Dragon's Iron fist" on Loke, but when I back away, Loke doesn't have a scratch. Then, I understand.

"So, you used 'Armor' so that my hits are less effective?" I guess,as I dodge a blow from Capricorn, only to fly back from an uppercut by her.

"Yeah, I'm surprised it took you that long to figure it out," she says as she jumps back.

I grin. "Let's see how you two do against this."

Just like Dad taught us, I ramp the flames and the heat up, and before the spirits can move, I'm swinging with, "Fire Dragon King's Demolition fist!"

"No fair, you're still holding back." Luce accuses me with a frown.

Loke looks at me in shock."That hit was 'holding back'?"

I shrug,and he shakes his head. "If that hit was holding back, I don't even want to know what full-out is like; you're gonna be even stronger than Erza when you get back to the guild."

"So, does that mean you give up, you chicken?" I challenge, staring at the lion spirit.

"Hell no, it just means this fight is about to be a bit more fun." He retorts with a grin.

When I look for Capricorn, I see him sparring with Luce, so I turn back to Loke and taunt, "What are you waiting for, you ginger-haired freak?"

He growls and leaps at me, saying, "Flame brain, I'm taking you down."

I duck to dodge his kick and give a sharp upper cut, catching him across the chin and forcing him back a few feet. When he stands up straight, he chuckles and wipes his chin with his hand. "You still hit like a girl."

I point over to Luce and raise an eyebrow. "That's fine, because it looks like that girl just beat Capricorn." When Loke looks over, his jaw drops when he sees Capricorn going back to the spirit realm and Luce cracking her knuckles, walking over to us.

"Nice job, Luce, how did you finish that fight so fast?" I ask,when she gets close enough.

She grins."He leaves his back wide open when he kicks." I nod and advance towards Loke, while Luce watches.

After another hour of trading blows, Loke holds up his hand and says, "You win this time, Flame brain, but next time you're going down," before going back to the spirit realm.

After he disappears, I huff and Luce laughs. "I'm glad I didn't fight Loke, he looked like he was actually out for blood." I shrug and walk back to the cave, with Luce trailing behind.

"I'm gonna go to bed, see you tomorrow." I say, as I turn down the hall towards our rooms. She nods and sits back down at the table to read some more.

When I reach Luce's room, I walk to the bed and fall in, quickly falling asleep, and choosing to ignore my hunger, for once in my life, and just think about what I heard in the wind.

Over the next week and a half, Grandine teaches us the more offensive spells, and every day we manage to master a new spell, until there's only a few days left before we leave with Metalicana, and there's only one spell left to learn.

"Now that you've mastered the basic spells, it's about time I teach the Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Shattering Light: Sky Drill."

I look at Luce and ask, "Isn't that what Wendy used at the Grand Magic Games to bring her fight to a draw?"

Luce nods and Grandine says, "So that means she's received the notes I left with Porlyusica for her." Luce nods again and Grandine moves onto the lesson.

"For this one, you want to move into a wide stance, spreading your arms wide and causing a fast wind barrier to form, which surrounds you and your opponent and prevents either from escaping. Then, move your arms in a counterclockwise direction, causing the wind wall to contract inwards around your opposition, sending them flying upwards into the air and crashing back down to the ground." The sky dragon demonstrates this, as she explains the move to us.

When she repeats the motions, Luce and I follow suit, until Grandine says, "Now that you have the movements down, complete the spell. The other is your opponent. Natsu, you're up first."

I nod and turn towards Luce, who turns towards me. I spread my arms wide and a few minutes later Luce is picking herself up off the ground, grumbling,"Did you have to hit that hard?"

I frown and say apologetically, "Sorry, Luce, I don't think you can pull off a spell like that."

Grandine snorts. "Of course not, this is a secret art, not a roar, claw, or wing attack. The amount of force behind it depends on the strength of the mage or dragon wielding the spell."

Luce nods and gets into position, quickly locking me in the barrier before I can say anything. When the spell hits me, it feels like Motherglare crashed me into the eclipse gate instead of the other way around.

When I stand I groan, "We definitely know who's the strongest wizard, ugh, remind me never to truly piss you off again."

Luce smiles but walks over and quickly heals the worse of my injuries before Grandine says, "Congratulations, you have learned everything I can teach you, so until Metalicana picks you up the day after tomorrow you're free to do what you want."

I raise my fist in the air yelling, "Yosh!" before grabbing Luce and hugging her.

Luce laughs. "Come on, I'm hungry."

After we eat, Luce walks down the hall to get a shower while I walk into my room to get some sleep.

With nothing much to do for the next day and half, I go back to meditating, hoping I can pick up those whispers I heard that day.

Sure enough, when I focus, I can soon hear Erza speaking to an old man. "Master, we don't know what happened to Natsu and Lucy. We were fighting the mages, when a dragon appeared out of nowhere and picked them up."

A sigh. "Very well, Erza, thank you for telling me. Send out groups to search the area where you fought the mages. Maybe we can find out where the dragon is living, and hopefully we can find them alive."

"Yes, Master."

I'm again snapped out of my concentration when Luce yells, "Natsu, let's go, Metalicana is here!"

I jump up from where I fell."Yeah, I'm coming." I walk over to the metal dragon and taunt him. "Hey, Metalicana, is it just me or are your scales starting to rust?"

Metalicana huffs, "Get on, before I decide to carry you by your scarf."

I laugh and jump up, getting comfortable, while Luce comes running out, fastening her keys to her belt saying, "Sorry, Metalicana, I had to find my whip."

"Well, stop chatting, Luce, and let's go. I want to start training as soon as possible so I can kick Metalhead's ass when we get back." I grin, giving her a hand up.

Once she's situated, Metalicana doesn't give a warning, but takes off flying towards metal territory.

I'm sorry if you don't like the skipping but I can only think of some much to write for a certain time period. Any Ideas for Metalicana?

I have to thank Bluedog197 for the idea of using the light and airy foods, oh and Blue? I know Luce didn't destroy anything in this chapter but next chapter is still waiting to be written. ;)

Reviews people. I need the reviews. Hell even flames are welcome.

Grizzly out for the night.

P.S. No clue :)

New A/N

Edited 12/20/2016 by xSteleAliniax.