Author's note:

If you didn't check in yesterday, I added Chapter 9 then. That's why I took so long updating: I had two chapters in the pipes. Make sure you go back and read it, especially if you're a NaLi shipper. Now, to balance it out, here's a fun little Natear chapter.

...by way of August Derleth. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

Ouroboros

"Natsu."

The Dragon Slayer was a smart lad. He knew his name, he stopped. Swiveling around on the bench, he quickly found who'd called. "Yeah?"

Ultear stood directly in front of him, her older body having hit its growth spurt, in more ways than one. Her formerly cute dress had since been replaced with a skin-tight body suit, white with black patterning, and she'd already started filling it out. Erza and Mira were the same way, having each gotten upset when they caught Natsu staring. He couldn't explain why he did it; there was something about their chests that just caused him to… look at them. Maybe it was like Happy's thing for shiny objects; Natsu would have to ask, once his buddy had learned to talk better.

"Ultear!" peeped the cat, who even now was laying atop Natsu's head.

"Hello, Happy," the girl replied, before refocusing on Natsu. "You mentioned once you were looking for a dragon?"

Natsu leapt out of his seat, sending Happy flying as he nearly head-butted Ultear. "Yeah! You seen him?"

Ultear said nothing, peering past Natsu at the adults gathered at the bar. Shade was standing alongside Master Makarov as they listened Macao's nervous rambling. Meanwhile, at the other end of counter top, Ultear's mother was chatting up an excitedly gushing and very pregnant Enno. Enno's hand suddenly smacked the counter, and as he'd done many times before, Shade already had a small meal prepared for the expectant mother (as per Ur's advice).

Noting all of this, Ultear took Natsu by the hand. "Come with me."

"Look, if you found something, tell me! Come on!" Natsu insisted, his dug-in heels squeaking on the wooden floor.

"Not here," she said secretively. "Somewhere private."

That… made Natsu feel weird, hearing Ultear say that. The same kind of weird feeling he got while staring at her chest. Definitely needed to teach Happy to talk.

Once outside the guild, and after ensuring no adults had followed them, Ultear bent down and spoke.

"How much of the East Forest have you seen?"

"The East Forest?" Natsu repeated, sliding a finger under Happy to itch at his pink hair. "All the stuff around here, I'd say, plus some more."

How informative, thought Ultear. "What about Comet Grove?"

"What?!" Natsu exclaimed, waving his hands in front of him. "No way! I ain't gone anywhere near there!"

Ultear put a hand to her hip. "Never?"

"Never," Natsu repeated, before he grinned. "I ain't ready to take on Gramps or Gildarts yet."

"Well," said Ultear, still holding her orb, "I decided to see what was so forbidden about the grove, if both Master Makarov and Gildarts agree about it."

Floating above her hand, the surface of the orb shimmered to display an image. "Look what I found."

Natsu gazed into the orb. The building it showed was cyclopean (a word he'd learned from Ultear), with all sorts of wonky bricks forming a cave-ish entrance to a dark tunnel. The rocky surface of Comet Grove's crater spilled inside, like the entrance was a mouth and it'd somehow drunk the ground. The image blurred.

"Hey, bring it back!" Natsu demanded impatiently.

"This is a memory," Ultear replied. "An image caught in time. I'm skipping all the things the orb saw on its way down."

"No, don't!" Natsu whined. "I wanna see what else is down there."

"Nothing else is down there," growled the time mage, before letting out a huff, "only what I found at the bottom."

Sure enough, the blur reformed into a still image. It was an enormous lake of fire, lava bubbles forming and popping all around. There was a huge rock island in the middle, upon which sat the shimmering form of-

"A dragon?!" Natsu cried excitedly.

"Dragon!" peeped Happy.

Ultear shuffled up alongside the slayer. "Is this the one you've been looking for?"

"Nah."

Which, to the time mage, felt like punch straight to the heart.

"But he might know where Igneel is! Let's find Lisanna and-"

"Let's not," Ultear suggested, rather insistently.

"But why not? She's gotten a lot better at her Take Over stuff since the last time we did a job."

"This isn't a job," Ultear stated matter-of-factly, "it's a covert operation, and the more who know of it, the greater the risk that Master will find out and stop us."

"Uh… Okay. That makes sense, I think." To be frank, Natsu wasn't sure. It's not as if Lisanna was a tattletale or anything. Or, maybe she was? He didn't care. It was just a stupid tunnel and a big lake of lava. That pretty much described where Natsu had been raised.

Ultear un-summoned her orb and turned away. "We'll go tonight. Make sure no one sees you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"...Natsu?"

Sniff sniff.

"What a weird-smellin' smell," Natsu remarked, gazing down the maw that stood before them.

"That would be the grove's glowmoss," said Ultear, before pointing to his head. "But what, may I ask, is that?"

"That's Happy."

"I thought we agreed: no witnesses."

"Well I couldn't just leave him behind! The poor guy gets lonely after dark!"

"Lonely..." mewled the blue kitten, before he began pawing at Natsu's temple.

"Aww, it's okay, little buddy. Here." Natsu reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a mackerel.

Ultear's brow furrowed. "How long have you had that?"

"Caught it today," he replied. "Last one, though. Happy already ate the rest."

"And there's no chance of that being our mysterious odor?"

"No, it's not that. This one's coming from inside the cave."

Ultear sniffed the air. "I don't smell anything."

"Don't expect you to," said Natsu, tapping the bridge of his nose. "Your nose ain't a dragon's."

"Neither is my breath."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Natsu whined, failing to notice the smile his friend was sporting as she lead the way inside. "My breath doesn't stink!"

"Your breath catches fire, Natsu," Ultear replied.

"It's supposed to do that!"

"But how do you know it's your magic?"

"Rrrgh, it is my magic!"

"You know, if you pull at your hair like that, you'll eventually go bald."

"AAAGH!"

Natsu's half-crazed cry echoed down the shaft, winding deeper and deeper into the Earth. It suddenly occurred to the two of them just how far down the lake of fire lay, and how long they'd have to spend in the dark.

Natsu gently shouldered his way past her. "I got this."

A small fire appeared, illuminating the fist from which it burned. The inside of the cavern was, indeed, made of a hodgepodge of bricks, all of them roughly cut into the same shape but each looking like it came from a different quarry. Strangely, all of the original masonry was intact, with not a single brick-shaped hole to be seen.

Some birds had made their perch on a series of branch-like stalactites jutting sideways out of the wall deeper in. Crows, by the look of it. A bat hung upside-down nearby, hopefully not a blood-sucker. Natsu hated those.

"So… We go down?" Natsu asked.

"You're leading the way," Ultear reminded him. "Watch your footing. It gets very steep very quickly."

Natsu tilted his head back. "Aah, nothin' to worry about then."

He said as he took one step over a sheer drop.

"YEEP!" Natsu darted back, Happy falling off his head and floating around in the air.

The cat looked down, then back at Natsu. "Yeep," he mimicked, before daintily settling back on Natsu's cranium.

Natsu, meanwhile, had let his fire go out in his leap back from certain splattery doom. He had his limbs hugged to Ultear, who stood immobile as a tree trunk, his body pressed tight to hers.

"Perhaps you should stay close to me," suggested the time mage.

Natsu turned his head to hers, about to answer, except his face was muffled by something; it felt like a pair of over-sized marshmallows.

"Ngh." Tilting his head up, his next attempt at an answer proved successful. "How close?"

"Just leave this to me," Ultear said confidently. Keeping perfect balance, she took a step up on to her materializing orb. "If you wouldn't mind?"

"What?"

"It's very dark in here."

"Oh yeah, sorry."

Sticking out his hand, the interior of the cave was visible again. Not as many birds in here now, which was strange, because Natsu would've thought he'd have caught the sound of them flapping.

"Now don't let go," said Ultear, pulling his head close against her… chest. "Look to your left, for a smashed section of rock. I'll do the same on the right."

"What for?" Natsu asked, despite the fact they'd already begun their descent. He tried to pull away to turn his head unimpeded, but with Ultear holding him close, he sort of got another nose-full of her chest. That was coming back to haunt him, if Erza and Mira were anything to go by.

"When I first sent my orb," Ultear explained, "there came a point where this shaft slanted. My orb cracked the wall, since I couldn't see. The cracks should be visible; they'll mark the change in direction."

"Makes sense to me," said Natsu. His keen eyes-

Wait, did the wall just…? Nah, must've been his imagination. Closer now, he could see the cuts on the bricks weren't worn down or anything. Which was weird, since climbing seemed to be the only way down besides falling. Maybe there was an elevator at the bottom, like in a mine shaft he remembered navigating a few jobs back. Ultear wouldn't have caught it, not with everything being pitch-black the first time around. Wait, that would leave scrapes on the wall, too. Darn it! What was the deal here?! And did that spot of bricks just-

"There," said Ultear, snapping Natsu out of his dizzying internal tirade. "Something wrong?"

"Wh-? Uh, no, nothing's wrong."

"You're holding on tighter than before."

"No I'm not!"

The girl shrugged, a little on the edge of her lip. "Suit yourself. I don't mind."

Leaning slightly to compensate, Ultear took here orb down at a slant, the shaft becoming a chute. Shortly thereafter, both of them could see level ground. It was perfectly smooth, black despite the light shining on it. Upon reaching it, they discovered its surface was reflective. Natsu was suddenly glad they hadn't brought Lisanna. Knowing her, she'd already be on him about peeking up her skirt, and the fact she'd be so… "insincere" about it, nixing any case he had for yelling or arguing back. Come to think of it, Ultear liked to rag on him, too.

"Finished admiring yourself?" Ultear asked sardonically.

Speaking of rags…

"I'm not, actually!" Natsu shot back, jabbing a flaming finger at her as Happy hopped off his head. "I think I wanna stare at myself some more! Got a problem with that?!"

"I don't," Ultear admitted, a hand resting on her hip as the corner of her mouth curled up. "But that dragon might leave before we get there."

"Yeah? Well- Well-"

"Happy, what are you doing?" Ultear called, peering past Natsu.

At the edge of the light from Natsu's literal hand-torch, his blue cat was sneaking up on… a bird? A black one, too, idly pecking at its own reflection on the smooth ground. The thing practically blended in with the floor, as well as the empty space beyond. If the thing weren't pecking at itself, it might've escaped being lunch.

And as if Happy were reading Natsu's mind, he cried out, "Food!"

The bird (was it a crow? Hard to tell) squawked and fluttered away, but Happy was in hot pursuit, zipping along this way and that. Natsu wanted to cut out the light, before his buddy tuckered himself out, but Ultear squinted and trotted away towards the wall, inspecting it close. So, looks like Natsu was stuck being a lamppost.

"Happy, didn't you eat enough already?" said Natsu, looking for someone to kvetch at. "Seriously, you're gonna start putting on weight if you don't cut back."

"Aye!" peeped Happy, ignoring Natsu, as he'd knocked the crow out of the air. Pinning its wings with his rear paws, he gave it a smack on the head with his front one.

Boop.

"Wrong."

"Eee! Lemme go lemme go lemme go lemme go!"

"Happy, you can talk?!" Natsu's surprise was replaced with a different kind, as he saw that Happy no longer had the bird, but he was being held upside down by a human hand. And the voice that went with that hand was one that Natsu took a moment to place.

"Ravenjerk! Whoops." His outburst interrupting his concentration and causing his flame to go out.

"Isn't that nice," sneered the spirit sarcastically, still where he'd been once Natsu got the light back on. "All these years to learn it and you ssstilllll get my name wrong."

Ultear was pressed to the wall, eyes wide with fear. "What are you doing here?"

"I ask the same of you, Ultear." Ravenlord's yellow eyes shifted slightly to the left. "I also recommend against pressing oneself to those carvings."

"Wh-" Ultear's next question was cut off when she leapt off the wall, whirling around, eyes wide and wary with fright. "It moved."

"Are you suuurrre?" Natsu prodded, eager for some payback.

"As sure as I am of who my mother is."

"The imagination does funny things, you know."

"I don't need your advice, Ravenlord."

The harvest spirit smirked. "Oh reeeeally."

He promptly dropped Happy, who zoomed over to stuff himself down Natsu's shirt, shivering.

"Funny," Ravenlord said with far too much satisfaction for Natsu's liking, "because if you'd followed my advice instead of questioning it, the wall wouldn't have gotten so friendly."

Ultear had no response to that, leaving Ravenlord open to quietly murmur, "Thinks he's right, for he's not often wrong..."

"Oh, come on, Ultear! Rock doesn't just move on its own, you know."

"I think we have more pressing concerns, Natsu." Ultear's eyes were now darting from Ravenlord to the carvings and back again.

"I'll say!" Natsu agreed. "Once we clobber this jerk, we gotta catch up to that dragon!"

"You know, strangest of things," remarked Ravenlord, still blocking the way. "I've been to the chamber beyond, and I've seen no dragon."

Before Natsu could retort, Ravenlord's yellow eyes grew wide as he leered at the pinked-haired boy. "So am I blind, Natsu Dragneel, or just a liar?"

"Pick one, I don't care!" Natsu's 13-year-old fists caught fire. "Just get outta my way."

Ravenlord shrugged. "Very well."

The fire went out, plunging the tunnel into darkness again. "Wait, what?"

Once the lights were back, Ravenlord was over by the wall. Looking at the carvings, Natsu could make out the images of some kind of old-looking building. Huge tentacles were coming out of it, with little masks on the end of them, which they were sticking onto the people nearby. Further to the left, that same building had some kind of… Waterfall? Leak? Something was coming out the front entrance, where the tentacles were about to, except this whatever-it-was flowing out was colored red. Not red like blood, more like burnt jasper. Natsu couldn't see what happened next, as Ravenlord blocked his view.

"Do you know what this place is?" the spirit asked them.

"Gramps never gave it a name. Never mentioned it either," said Natsu. "Why? What's it to you?"

"I stand to gain," said Ravenlord, rather plainly. "You two should leave, before the creature realizes where you are."

"And what if we don't, huh?" Natsu marched up to Ravenlord, crossing his arms and leering up at the bird-creature's face. "You gonna do something about it?"

Ravenlord's lip curled. "Hardly. But should the beast catch on to your presence, it's likely you'll be e-" He paused, his eyes rolling up to the top-left corner of their sockets, searching for a better word. "Devoured."

"Why the sudden concern?" Ultear asked, the suspicion in her voice heavy enough to cut up and sell by the pound.

"No reason, not yet." Ravenlord then smiled at her. "But if I'm right, then I shall be your only way out when the chase begins."

"What? The dragon?" Natsu thumped his chest. "I'm a freakin' dragon slayer! I got this!"

"I believe I already… Oh, never mind." Ravenlord waved him off and turned towards the shaft from whence Natsu and Ultear had stopped. "On the other hand…"

He resumed walking. "Probably not..."

He stopped again. "But then, I could… No, it wouldn't work..."

"What do you want?" Ultear must've seen something Natsu didn't, and he was the one with the light!

"I'm sooooo glad you asked," Ravenlord replied, spinning around, his feathery cloak fluttering against his body. "A wager. Should you need my help to escape once you inevitably incur the wrath of the dw-" Once again, right word. "-diner..."

He turned his gaze squarely on Natsu. "You, boy, will be in my debt, to the tune of a single favor."

Natsu knew well enough to keep his trap shut, if it meant Ultear got out of paying. Not that there was any danger of that.

"And what if we get out on our own?" the time-mage in question inquired.

"Then, I shall owe you each a favor, equal in value to… Shall we say, one life or one million jewel?"

"Deal." Both guildmates said it at practically the same time.

"Excellent." With a twist of his body, Ravenlord shapeshifted into his namesake and fluttered away. The flapping of wings stopped almost as soon as he was out of sight.

Natsu looked to Ultear. "You think he was serious about being eaten?"

Ultear looked back at him. "Why would he lie?"

"To scare us off!"

"And for what reason?"

Natsu wracked his brain, probably the hardest he'd thought since picking his last job. "Because he doesn't want us meeting the dragon, finding Igneel, and-, and-"

"As long as you understand, Natsu," said Ultear, affectionately stroking his hair before having her hand swatted away. "Even so, we should be cautious. If there really is a dragon down here, it may not be friendly."

"Friendly or not, I'll get him to talk." Natsu thumped his chest again. "No problem."

"I'm sure you'll find a way."

As they walked on, Natsu finally got a look at what the last part of this carving was: the masked people forming a line, handing buckets of the red stuff to each other, the last one in line dumping it into some kind of… Glass? Like, the kind Shade gave out at the bar, only fancier and more snobby-looking. It was held by a massive tentacle-hand which ended at the border of the picture. After that, the wall was a mess of more tentacles sculpted on to the wall. He saw another carving on the other side of the tunnel, but the pictures were too small for him to focus on. He told himself to take a look on the way out, once he'd talked to the dragon.

After walking across what felt like hundreds of feet of black-mirror floor, Natsu saw a soft orange glow at the end of the tunnel.

"Finally!" he exclaimed, killing his torch-hand. He had running to do, and setting his clothes on fire would only slow him down.

"Natsu! Wait!" Thank goodness the tunnel was a straight line, for even with the glow at the end, seeing the walls up to the edge of that glow was nigh-impossible.

Natsu, meanwhile, had come upon an enormous lake of something. It definitely wasn't lava, because this big cavern felt the same as the rest of the place; Natsu'd felt more heat from his own hand while lighting the way. The walls were carved out of rock, not like bricks but like a really pretendy sculpture Natsu had once seen, where the guy who'd made it tried to sell him on the jagged, jewelry-like surface was "a van-guard", or something like that. The ground, on the other hand, was that same polished black stone that Natsu could see himself in, but weirdly, it didn't reflect the orange glow from the not-lava.

What was that stuff in the lake, anyway?

He didn't get long to think about it. A fountain of it started bubbling and churning at the center of the not-water, and in seconds a massive head was rising above the surface, dripping with the glowing orange goo.

It was exactly like Natsu had seen in Ultear's orb: a stubby horn on the tip of its snout, like the one Igneel had, plus the pointy horns on the top of its head. At first, the dragon looked a lot fatter than Igneel, until more of that orange stuff fell off and settled on a leaner, more muscular shape. It didn't have wings, only nubs on its back, to mark where its wings kept folded against its sides.

Natsu suddenly found himself so nervous that he didn't know what to say. He'd never met another dragon besides Igneel before. What was standard procedure for talking to dragons? Did he have to bow? Do a dance? Click his heels? If he pissed this big guy off, no way would he find out anything from him.

The dragon broke the awkward pause, saying nothing, but rather raising a claw above the lake and beckoning Natsu forward. Natsu was nervous about even putting his foot in the stuff, which didn't smell like anything he could name. Dazed and confused, he jerked his head to Ultear. She wasn't any help; for her eyes were on the lake and the dragon. Something didn't sit right with her. Natsu could tell.

Natsu looked back to the dragon, up into its eyes. Actually, he looked into the solid-blue orbs that he assumed were its eyes. No hints there, either. This dragon was harder to read than Natsu's first book. Welp, as Igneel taught him, when life gives you a fire-bath…

"Jump in it."

So Natsu did just that. And immediately regretted it.

The viscous goo clung to him like a second skin, getting into his shoes, soaking into the bottoms of his pants. In fact, it almost felt like this stuff was crawling up his legs, just to get him deeper into it.

"Natsu, get out of there now!"

"What?! Why?" he exclaimed.

"Ravenlord was right: there is no dragon here!"

Natsu immediately tried to walk himself out of the knee-deep swamp he'd stupidly dropped himself into, but found the stuff now pulling at his legs, keeping him pinned to whatever floor he was standing on. He now knew it was crawling up his legs, suctioning into his skin like an octopus to try and pull him under.

"Hey!" he shouted, swatting at the stuff, only to be grabbed by his hands. "I ain't nobody's lunch!"

He threw an angry snarl at the dragon, bearing his tiny fangs at the monster. It was then he realized: dragons had lungs easily four times the size of a human being, yet even in this literal echo chamber of a cave, he never once heard the thing breathing.

The "dragon" began to melt, the blue in its eyes dissolving into more orange as it lost form. Its horns wilted like candle wax as its body crumpled in on itself. The goo level got higher, now up to Natsu's waist as he struggled to break free.

"Rrrrgh, LEMME GO YOU STUPID GUNK! Fire Dragon..."

Happy, who'd been clinging to Natsu's head through thick and thin, zoomed off behind Ultear.

"ROOOOOOAAAR!"

A torrent of flames spewed from Natsu's open mouth and on to the stuff that enveloped his legs. The force of burning ethernano pushed the goo down but a thin film of it still stuck to him.

"Natsu, grab on!"

The young Slayer looked up to see a familiar orb floating above him. The goo made a swipe at it but the orb simply floated around it, almost bonking Natsu on the head as it swooped back into his reach. He didn't hesitate this time, cleansing the goo on his hands with a Fire Dragon Talon blast, before taking hold of the orb.

When it zoomed up, Natsu immediately lost his grip.

"Ack!" He instinctively slapped at the goo, getting it on his hands again. It slid around his fingers when he tried to blast it, latching on to him and now throwing itself further and further up its arm.

"Natsu, grab my paws!"

The slayer knew that voice, even if he'd only heard it speak three words at a time before.

"Happy!" Indeed, floating above was Natsu's little blue buddy, his wings only as far out as his paws, but nevertheless determined. The blue cat caught Natsu's hand between his paws and began pulling, only to find himself being dragged towards the muck as well.

"Don't let go, Natsu!" squeaked the cat. "I'll get you out!"

"I ain't letting go, but you better make good or I'll be orange juiced!"

"Keep pulling, Happy!" shouted Ultear. "I'll see to that muck!"

Ultear's orb rushed in and barreled through the gunk that clung to Natsu's right leg. The orb was immediately snagged by another tendril, but disappeared as soon as it stopped. It quickly reappeared above Ultear's hand, before smashing more slime off of Natsu.

"Almost… Got it..." Happy looked like he was ready to throw his little back out, from how hard he was puffing and straining against the death-grip that The Lake had on Natsu.

"Screw you, sludge!" Natsu barked at his tormentor. "Fire Dragon Half-Wing Attack!"

Like the coil of a whip, a line of fire slashed through the remaining slime on Natsu's leg, washing over his skin while parting the orange tendril with its ferocity. He immediately went sailing into the wall, knocking a brick loose along with the last of his baby teeth.

"Thaanks… buddy..." he croaked, leaving a small red line as his face slid down the wall. He felt himself get caught, then a small ball of warmth settle on his chest.

"...-tsu? Natsu!" Ultear's voice broke through the haze on his mind, and he tumbled out of her arms.

"Uh'm okay..." He was still soar from that hard landing, even if the second one had been softer. The Lake was roiling, its fluid contents sloshing all around the edge. "Sucks to be you, Snot Lake."

Then, to Ultear, "Guess it was alive?"

The time-mage nodded. "I tried prying it off. My magic had no effect."

"It's not the, mmm… 'slime' that's alive," Ravenlord's voice echoed.

Sure enough, the lake began to roll over the edge, the level rising in the center as it sped towards Natsu and the others.

"Ah crap, run!"

"I have a better idea!" Ultear proclaimed, grabbing Natsu and jumping atop her orb. Happy clinging to Ultear's flowing hair, the oldest member of the trio flew them back into the hall, quietly cursing herself for falling for the slime's shapeshifting. Something shattered against her orb, and the next thing she knew, all three of them had run chest-first into a clothesline. Going slack, its outline cast in the glow of the approaching Lake, Ultear was the first to see its other end.

Connected to the stone wall, amidst a placard of roiling, serpentine and very much moving stonework.

"Natsu!" She looked down to see her teammate still a little worse for wear, spitting out one of his molars as his eyes glazed over.

Even though her mother had taught her otherwise, Ultear decided that, surrounded by a growing garden of stone tentacles, now was an appropriate time for a "vulgar interjection". Doubly so when she remembered The Lake was gaining on them.

"Out of my way!" she barked, her orb smashing its way through a writhing wall. This did little to slow its growth, or the approach of said wall's tips towards her. "Arc of Time-!"

Nothing. These stone tendrils were unaffected by her magic, too.

She tried to uncouple the foundation that kept them tethered to the wall; nothing.

She tried to tear a piece of the polished black floor free and use it as a shield; nothing. That meant…

"It's all alive." She was too horrified at the thought to speak louder than a whisper. Desperate, she tapped into her Ice-Make magic.

"Very astute, Ultear," came Ravenlord's smug, victorious call. "Yes, you two picked a rather nasty lifeform to go plundering for dragons. The Ouroboric Shrine, or at least this particular blueprint of it. Regardless, I think it's taking a liking to your succulent magics, however diluted they might be. A few more minutes in its viscous liquid, and you'll be swimming in your own self."

"How can something like this have carved stone on the inside? How did it get here?!" Ultear was speaking out loud, even while the tendrils began to snake around the gaps in her ice.

"You assume it behaves according to biology. This creature wasn't born or grown, Ultear. It was built."

That almost made her lose focus on her next spell. Almost.

"Beyond this world or the next, in dimensions where such concepts as 'life' and 'spatial relations' are more malleable, creatures like this one are constructed and given intelligence, then sent to these more static realms at the behest of their creators' master. Here they serve as portal, place of worship, museum and factory all in one, whichever fits the master's designs."

"I really wish he'd shut up," Ultear muttered to herself. She still had to figure out a way to outrun the orange slime, and Ravenlord's chatting wasn't helping matters.

She heard the fiend in question chuckle. "If you insist, child."

With Ravenlord gone, Ultear made the conscious choice to get her act together.

"Ice-Make Rosen Decke!"

Borrowing her mother's spell, Ultear conjured a modified wall of brambles, two of them, to lay out a path to the shaft ahead.

"Happy, take Natsu and fly on ahead!" she commanded.

"Wh-whuh?" The cat was still confused, shaking Natsu's half-conscious body.

"Now, cat!"

"Uh, uh, aye sir!" he squeaked. The mage to whom he spoke didn't waste time correcting him. The tentacles had already given up worming their way through the much finer fibers of the Decke; she could hear the coarse sound as they ground against her ice, reducing both it and themselves to dust to get to her. She quickly conjured a second helping of thorns with another Rosen Decke spell, just as an orange glow permeated her ice.

It was moving upward.

The Shrine's juices were climbing her thorns, leaving a hole behind for the tentacles to snake through.

"Ice-Make…"

In that moment, Ultear's mind blanked for the first time since she'd escaped the Bureau of Magical Development. Watching that strange living liquid eat away at her ice was horrifying and yet oddly fascinating. Some part of Ultear's mind wanted to know more, her natural curiosity compelling her to scrutinize and study the way that slime moved, almost like a natural liquid acting against gravity. Or how this ice didn't seem to be melting so much as "unmaking" her Ice-Make magic. No water flowed from that mass, no impurities showed themselves in the orange mass despite how much water it was taking in.

Or was there? Was that a spot of clear in the jasper flow, just now? Perhaps if she could get a closer look, just for an instant…

And in the next instant, the cloud over her thoughts parted.

"B-Block!"

A cube the size of a young cow came sparkling out of her hands, barreling along and smashing into the tendrils. She couldn't afford to waste time seeing the damage.

"Happy!" she called down the still-crumbling Decke walls. "Fly out of here!"

"But I can't see!" the cat called back. "And my magic's low from getting him out of the goo!"

Another vulgar interjection. The same one, lest Happy let it slip around her mother. She refused to die here, a sentiment she'd had when escaping the Bureau.

With Natsu still worse for wear, it was clear to Ultear that he had a concussion. She'd have to fly blind.

"Give him to me," she ordered, the cat letting go and dropping Natsu into her care. Slinging him over her shoulder, she only hoped she had the fortitude to survive whatever was left for this Ouroboric Shrine to throw at her.

Her orb had yet to fail her. Once summoned, it carried her up the shaft. This being her third time, she knew the relative moment it would curve to vertical. Ultear breathed a sigh of relief when she saw The Shrine's liquid flow between the cracks of its own masonry, so fine a liquid that it couldn't pass over the minute gaps in the brick work.

"Just a little more," she whispered to Natsu. "Then we're free."

From up above, she heard Ravenlord snicker.

A small speck of light appeared, high above at the shaft's apex. It started to grow, faster than her approach should have made it.

"Oh… No…" Ultear could now see the section of the cylindrical shaft above her, thanks to the orange slime seeping from the walls.

Pooling every ounce of magic she still had, she made sure to cradle Natsu's head so as not to snap his neck. Her orb rocketed towards the ceiling, straight into the tubule at the center of the orange mass above. The wind of her wake jostled the liquid, tossing it about even as it began to snap shut around her. Her capacity for magic was greater than most, thanks to all those horrible experiments she'd undergone as an infant. She could feel her windpipe burning in pain, like she'd breathed too heavily while working too hard. This was a toll she'd have to pay.

This top portion of the shaft was a lot longer than she'd remembered it being. It was as if it was stretching out before her, more bricks being added to the top as the light from the cave's mouth still seemed so far away. Would she even be able to make it?

"Leave my thoughts alone, you disgusting worm!"

It was too late. That second's worth of doubt was all it took for the creature's slime to snap around Natsu's leg, hanging ever-so-much lower than Ultear's foot atop her orb. Her ascent was arrested, as she wouldn't let her friend be devoured, not while there was so much left for each of them.

The Shrine, though, had other plans.

"NO!" Cry as she might, even managing to conjure a second orb to beat back the Shrine's fluids, Ultear still found herself awash in otherworldly orange matter. It tingled at the touch, the sensation of thousands of tiny straws sucking on her skin flooding her senses. Ultear thrashed and screamed but slowly, surely, that sensation began creeping up her neck.

"My offer stands, Ultear Milkovich."

Ravenlord… This was his fault. If he hadn't been so cryptic, Natsu and she wouldn't have gotten into this mess. He'd known exactly what this Ouroboric Shrine had been capable of and yet he'd still allowed them inside. For what? A grudge that Natsu and Lisanna (who wasn't even here) had almost forgotten about?

"Say the word," he cajoled from above, "and you'll be free."

The time-mage felt herself tiring, and not just physically. Her magic was rushing out of her body, that "thousand straws" analogy proving sickeningly accurate. Her vision blurred, that cloud on her thoughts becoming a heavy dew. She could barely spare the thought that, if she accepted, Natsu would be the one to do this mysterious "favor" for Ravenlord, not her.

But, before her vision was reduced to a mass of orange, her last thought was that Natsu would at least be alive.

"Please..." She was so weak her shout came out as a whisper.

Then, everything went black, a feeling that was somewhere between "ash" and "sand" the last thing she was aware of.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"WAH!"

Natsu bolted upright, shielding his eyes from the sun as it poked out from between the treeline.

"What the-?"

"You're finally awake, kid," said a familiarly gruff voice.

"Uh oh."

"'Uh oh' doesn't begin to cut it, Natsu," said Gildarts, squatted down next to a campfire as he roasted some de-feathered bird on a spit.

"I'm sorry!" the boy blurted out, dropping to his knees and planting his face on the ground. Or rather, in the fire.

"Hey, hey, you're messing up breakfast!" Gildarts shooed him away from the pit, turning the meat this way and that to try and even out the roast. "Wipe that ash off your face, while you're at it. I meant on the grass, Natsu!"

The panic-stricken boy pulled his filthy mug out of the dirt and nodded, sprinting over to the ledge where the grass grew on the cliff face. Down below, Comet Grove was noticeably different. All that weird glowmoss wasn't glowing anymore. The whole place had been bluer than the ocean when Ultear and him snuck in, and now it was all greenish, almost yellow. No sign of the cave, or the orange slime that had been hiding inside. Instead, a deep, dark hole sat on the spot where the cave had been. Some kind of waterway-looking thing swerved away from the hole, going all around the grove before ending at another dark hole, same size as the first. Looked like something big had dragged itself all over the place, in the same pattern Happy made when he chased birds.

"Ravengourd!" Natsu exclaimed. "Where'd he go?"

"Never heard of him," said Gildarts, gesturing to the unconscious form of Ultear, who lay behind Natsu. "The only ones here were you two plus the cat."

Seeing the state she was in made Natsu want to kick Raventurd's sorry butt even more. Ultear looked sick, a bad rash covering the backs of her hands as well as her neck. Her lower jaw was only a little red, like a sunburn, and her face could pass for a small blush.

Natsu wanted to grind his teeth. She looked like she'd gone bush-diving in poison ivy. That was gonna itch when she woke up. But when her eyelids started fluttering, he curled his fingers into a fist, and when she opened her eyes, he gently nudged her shoulder.

"Thanks," he said. "Thanks for getting us outta there."

Pushing herself from prone to sitting, Ultear smiled. "Any time, Natsu."

"Perfect timing," remarked Gildarts, taking the spit off the fire. "Here. Not as good as Shade's cooking, but I think I made it edible. Eat up; I got a feeling it might just be your last meal."

The two non-S-class Fairies swallowed, and they hadn't even started eating.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Anyway, I don't know what this Ravenlord thinks he knows," said Master Makarov, seated atop the bar counter in the Fairy Tail guild hall, "but his reading on magical fauna is sorely lacking."

Natsu and Ultear sat perfectly still, having endured not one but two thunderous dressing-downs from the diminutive guild master, the second one due to Natsu opening his big mouth on the subject of how, the heck, were they supposed to know the Grove was dangerous?

"I'd known about that creature for some time," said Makarov. "It's known as a Masonry Mimic, the only known one of its kind. It possesses an ambient mind magic, inflaming its victims' curiosity until they're compelled to crawl down its throat."

Natsu felt his skin crawl. He saw a nauseous tingle travel through Ultear's flesh as well. They'd gone spelunking down into a monster's lower tract. That such a monster even existed, and had nearly swallowed them unawares…

"But where'd it come from?" Natsu asked, desperate to get his mind off the thought.

"I couldn't say," replied the guild master. "It only appeared here while I've been in charge. Master Precht never made mention of it, though he did speak of the Comet."

The elderly guild master took a sip from his drink. "It has appeared elsewhere, though. Information is scarce, as it never remains long enough to be studied. From what little is known, that molten jasper it produces is its digestive fluid, luring victims into itself by taking the shape of whatever its catch most desires."

"Oh, so that's why it looked like a dragon!" Natsu exclaimed, realization blooming on his face, "'cause what I want most is to find Igneel, and I've been keeping an eye out for other dragons while searching around for him!"

"Then the Mimic must have sensed your desire for Igneel's whereabouts," declared Makarov, "and presented you with a facsimile of a clue."

Natsu's fist rattled the table. "Screw him, then!" His fire was but a flash, as he readdressed the guild master. "Speaking of facts, Gramps, how come you didn't tell us about-"

BONK!

A second, less-audible collision sounded from Natsu's face falling forward against the table.

"We're very sorry for going against your will, Master Makarov," Ultear said politely, her orb disappearing as it rolled off her friend. She bowed her head, and with her hand manipulated Natsu's head to simulate the same, like he were a sock puppet. "We'll never go near the Grove again."

"Ah, it's fine." Makarov waved her off with his hand. "The Mimic's gone, and from what Gildarts told me, it swallowed the Comet on its way out. The magic in the grove should return to normal in no time, though I suspect the glowmoss will remain."

He hiccuped. "Heh heh, might make quite the spot for romance."

Whatever Makarov might've said next, his mind was changed when a hand laid on his shoulder left his arm locked in place, courtesy of the flower-shaped ice-brace around the joint.

"You didn't have my daughter in mind for that 'romance'," Ur stated matter-of-factly, "when she's older."

"Lighten up, Ur," said Gildarts, a quick tap of his finger reducing the ice-brace to powder. "You'll scare off the good boys."

"If they were good," Ur countered, "then they wouldn't be scared of me."

Her eyes then fell upon her daughter, a half-smile creasing her cheek. "Say, Ultear, Natsu isn't afraid of anything, right?"

The time mage's eyelids drooped as she met Ur's gaze. "I'm not answering that, Mother."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Night had fallen, but there was one Fairy who could not sleep.

At her home, her mother asleep in another room, Ultear beat herself silly, her face bright red (and not from the irritation) beneath her pillow as she pounded at her skull.

Whatever its catch most desires.

Master Makarov's words kept echoing in her head. She'd had a stressful day, and keeping a cool head, after that revelation had nearly caused her to blow her top, was a Herculean effort unto itself.

Whatever its catch most desires.

She'd come within a hair's breadth of the biggest embarrassment of her entire life, one of her most closely-guarded secrets nearly deciphered in front of the whole guild, had Natsu's thick-headedness not spared her. Lucky her; now she'd could count down the days until someone arrived at the inevitable conclusion, someone who wasn't her mother (possibly; it was difficult to tell at the moment).

Whatever its catch most desires.

The shape the Shrine-Mimic's juices took had been slightly different than what she'd seen in her orb. It was the minor details, like the twin whiskers she'd seen drooping from its chin, in place of a stubbed horn on its nose. Logical, because while the shape in the lake was tailor-made for a certain pink-haired boy, the shape in the orb had been a memory. Her memory.

Whatever its catch most desires.

Ultear groooaned and hammered at her cranium again. The pieces of the puzzle were all there, and if she was smart enough to figure it out, then eventually someone, even someone as slow as Natsu, would do the same.

Whatever its catch most desires.

The monster's catch had been her, that first time: her orb, her eyes, her desire. And the desire it gleaned from her, the thing it had fabricated in order to lure her into its gut?

Was the means to give Natsu his greatest desire.