The Iron Dragon of Magnolia

Chapter Eight: The Hunt

A dim fireplace was the only source of light in Jose's quarters. He was seated in the plush velvet red chair in the centre of the room, directly in front of the flames. Shadows flickered across the dark walls, almost looking like demons crawling along the surface.

Jose was alone in his room, thinking about what the day had progressed to. Gajeel venturing out of the tower, gypsies threatening the town's way of life, and the very gypsies hiding out in the cathedral.

Cowards…Jose thought. His eyes wondered down to what he had grasped in his hand. The handkerchief that blonde gypsy threw to his captain. "No doubt she was trying to bewitch him. Those gypsies always mettle in the Dark Arts.

Once Jose had that gypsy, Lucy, in his mind, she wouldn't leave. Her face was etched into his mind, her delicate and graceful movements of her dance was engraved into him. Even the gypsy's voice and the curves on her body had left a lasting impression on the judge.

"Could it be her using witchcraft on me?! Impossible!" He stood up, still gripping onto the handkerchief, walking closer to the fireplace. He looked up to see the statue of the king of gods on the fireplace mantle. "I'm a righteous man! Immune to these advances from the Dark Arts because of my position and my duty from the gods!" His eyes slipped from the statue on the mantle to his hand. "Unless…this was part of the gods' destiny for me. To purge the world of gypsies and to save this girl from her sins-"

The door to his quarters suddenly slammed open, startling the man at the fireplace. "Sir! There's been a development at Kardia Cathedral."

"R-really now?" Jose stammered.

"Yes, it's regarding the two gypsy girls claiming sanctuary there."

"What about them?"

"They're gone."

"Gone?!" Jose turned around, gripping the handkerchief tighter in his grip. "What do you mean gone?! Didn't Captain Dragneel have the entire cathedral surrounded?!"

"Yes Sir, but they must've snuck out during the switch of patrols," the soldier said.

"I…You-grr." Jose turned around. "We begin a search for the two gypsies in the entire city tomorrow. Pass that message along to Captain Dragneel and the others."

"Y-yes Sir." With that, the door closed quietly behind the soldier.

"They're gone…She's gone," he mumbled to himself. Jose's dark eyes glanced to the piece of cloth in his hand before staring into the flames. "I'll save her from those sins of hers. She'll choose salvation…" He threw the handkerchief into the flames and watched the flames engulf the cloth, charring it and destroying it in the process. His eyes were heavily concentrated on the dancing blaze in the fireplace. "…Or death."

{Line Skip}

It was early morn when Natsu stood in front of his troops. Erza was trying to stand tall, but her stomach was aching from eating too much cake the night before, standing beside the ice mage. Gray was rubbing his arm absentmindedly from Juvia's deadly grip on it last night. The others soldiers, Natsu included, were rubbing their eyes or yawning from waking up an hour or less prior.

"So, Natsu," Gray said, grabbing the fire Dragon Slayer's attention. The latter's sharp eyes peered to the other man. "How was that apology to those gypsies?"

"Oh, I got beat up," he said, a grin etched into his face.

"You too huh?" Gray said, shaking his head. "If you were done in by those two, we're all screwed. Right Erza?"

"Yes, indeed," the redhead said.

"Not by the girls," the pinkette said, "by the bell ringer."

"The bell ringer?!" the two yelled. Natsu quickly nodded his head.

"Gajeel, the bell ringer up in Kardia Cathedral's bell tower?" Gray asked, making sure the captain of the guard wasn't joking around with them.

Natsu nodded again, "Despite all these rumours, he's a pretty strong guy. If I wasn't overstepping my boundaries, I probably could've taken him on."

"Jeez, you're gonna give the rest of us a bad name," Erza said, shaking her head.

Gray nodded in agreement. "How did you ever become captain of the guard Flame Head?"

"HEY!" Natsu pouted, turning away from his two so-called, friends. The cathedral was caught in his line of vision, his onyx eyes landed on the tower.

The fire Dragon Slayer was not smart, but he was observant of everything around him. Who knows when a simple butcher knife on the ground could be helpful in a battle. Anyways, Natsu noticed how the bell ringer of Kardia was protective of the girls. They had escaped with his help.

Now, there were two ways Natsu could go about with this information he theorized. One: he could tell Porla about it and then who knows what would happen to Gajeel or to the girls. Or two: he could keep under wraps and let everything play out the way it would without possibly endangering the weirdly calm bell ringer. Natsu, being a protective man over practically anything that moves, decided to go with the latter.

A darkly painted carriage pulled up in front of the rows of soldiers. Natsu turned around, waiting for the caddy to open the door to let Jose out. As the judge stepped out of the carriage, he was rubbing his dark eyes.

"Something wrong Sir?" Natsu asked. "A bad night?"

"I was…having trouble with the fireplace last night," Jose said, giving his eyes a final rub before looking to the soldiers.

"I…see," Natsu said, standing in front of the judge. "Now, your orders, Sir?"

"Ah~! Yes." A smirk appeared on the judge's face. Natsu wasn't sure what the meaning behind it was, but he knew it wasn't possibly good. "Turn the city upside down if you have to, we need to find those two gypsy girls. The blue-haired one can be dead or alive for all I care, but the blonde…I want her alive."

And so, Jose started a large-scale hunt for the gypsy girls, Lucy and Levy. Natsu did everything in his power to locate the two before Jose did, he felt the need to protect them from the judge's grasp…Especially over Lucy. Gajeel on the other hand was worried for the two, more so over the petite blue-haired girl. They hadn't made contact with him or the three cats in a week and Jose Porla was becoming more desperate to find the two.

The city was engulfed in flames from the judge's desperateness. He had begun to lock people, innocent people, in the dungeons along with gypsies who were refusing to spill the whereabouts of the girls.

The judge was getting tired of looking for the two. His patience was waning and was turning to a thin line. Soon, enough, he was taking more harsh measure in the search. Not simply accusing and arresting innocents, but endangering their lives also.

Natsu, along with a couple of loyal soldiers by his side, had decided that Jose was taking things too far for a simply search of the girls. Eventually, the fire Dragon Slayer had hit his breaking point.

{Line Skip}

"Judge Jose Porla has never done anything like this!"

"Has he gone mad?!"

A distressed group of villagers who lived just on the outskirts of Magnolia were crowding along the path leading up to the miller's home with his family. Jose Porla was currently interrogating the miller and his family on the location of Lucy and Levy. In the group were two hooded figures, hidden away from the soldiers standing in front of the crowd. One had a yellow cone-like nose poking from the hood's opening and was shaking more than the other.

"What's going to happen?" the shaking figure asked.

"I don't know right now," the other hooded figure said. "But after this we have to leave the town quickly or else someone else might be hurt for helping us."

"Do you think that Alzack-san and his family will be safe?"

"I don't know Levy-chan," the hooded figure said, lowering her voice when she mentioned Levy's name. "I just hope that, if anything did happen to them, they'd be arrested and nothing more."

"And if they're not Lu-chan?"

The hooded blonde sighed heavily. "We have to leave. No matter what Levy-chan."

Meanwhile, in the home of the miller, Jose was looking around the simple belongings of the family. Alzack, a tall man with spiked black hair, stood protectively in front of his wife, Bisca and their two daughters, a dark blue-haired girl and a younger dark green-haired girl. Natsu stood in a steady position, ready to interfere with Jose if he decided to endanger the family.

"So, you four haven't seen the gypsy girls, Lucy or Levy, then?" Jose asked, picking up a fairy-like talisman from the table.

"No Sir," Alzack answered. "We haven't seen them since their performance last week."

"I see," Jose said, turning around and holding up the talisman. "And this? Is it not a gypsy talisman?"

"Yes, we bought it from the vendors during a past festival," Bisca said. "Our daughters adore fairies and decided to buy one for them."

"Interesting," Jose said, putting it back down on the table and heading for the door. "If you do say you're innocent, then you have nothing to fear. But, for now, you will be placed under house arrest until the matter is settled."

"But, Judge Jose, we speak the truth," Alzack pleaded. "We are innocent. We have no knowledge of-"

"Then, like I have said before, you have nothing to fear," Jose said, placing a hand on Alzack's shoulders. "The gods will show that you are innocent when the matter is dealt with." He turned to Natsu. "Captain."

"Yes Sir."

The two men walked out of the house, closing the door behind them. Jose lifted a block of wood on the side of the miller's home, barricading the home and sealing the people in it.

"That should do it," Jose muttered to himself before looking to Natsu with a dark gaze in his eyes.

"Is there something wrong Sir?" Natsu asked.

"Set the mill to a blaze," Jose ordered.

"What?!" Natsu said, a growl nearly emitting from the back of his throat.

"That's an order Captain," Jose said. "I need to set an example to the rest of the gypsy-loving citizens that I will not be made a fool of. Now, follow orders Captain Dragneel."

Natsu turned his stare from Jose to the home before him. Those were innocent people that Jose wanted to kill. All for what? Two girls that probably will never be seen again in this town? It was ridiculous. The pink-haired captain looked back to the judge, taking a step back from the mill.

"I will not."

"What was that, Captain?" Jose spat.

"You're risking the lives of innocent people and of children," Natsu said. "I won't be part of the massacre you're planning on the city."

"It's hard to find good help these days," Jose said, closing his eyes and rubbing them with a hand. "I have to do everything myself."

The judge grabbed a torch that another soldier was holding. He set it underneath the windmill that spread the flames to the main part of the home. Soon, the entire mill was engulfed in flames. From inside, the children of the family were screaming from fear. The door was being pounded against from the inside in an attempt to escape fiery deaths.

Natsu had no time to think. He crashed through the window and immediately came running out of the mill with the two children in his arms, shielded from the flames and smoke while their parents ran after him. The home was collapsing as Natsu handed the children back to their parents. He turned to the house and started sucking the fire into his system to lessen the damage from the flame.

Once he had taken care of the fire, he was surrounded by other soldiers. He glanced to Erza and Gray who were keeping the crowds under control and not getting involved with the situation between the judge and the captain. Natsu glared to the judge before him.

Jose's eyes held a deep set hatred and were full of anger towards the fire Dragon Slayer. "That's quite enough from you, Natsu Dragneel."