I truly want to apologize for not uploading in so long. I had an enormous school project and have been forcing myself to not write until I got it done (Damn you, school!). Well, I also feel bad because this isn't the most interesting of chapters, but it's a necessary piece of the story (some parts of it more than others). I hope you enjoy :)
"Flam! For the fifth time already, WAKE UP!" Igneel was beginning to lose his patience with the fairy whose head was still down on the wooden table surrounded by empty pints. She had challenged Cana to a drinking contest that had started out as her celebrating that Ventus was finally gone for the evening. Things had gotten a little violent after MIrajane decided to cut them off. Luckily, Erza was there to calm down Cana and Grandine simply hit Flam on the back of the head with a beer bottle, knocking her out. The fire dragon let out a sigh as he gave up on shaking the fairy's shoulders. "Jeez, now what am I supposed to do?" He scratched the back of his head as he looked around at the nearly empty guild. It was far too early in the morning for anyone who didn't stay the night to be there yet.
He sagged his shoulders before walking over to the bar where the white haired mage was humming to herself as she dried glasses. As soon as he reached the halfway point between the table and the bar, a plume of grey smoke puffed up next to him. Dissipating, the smoke revealed Ferr in her larger form, yawning as she floated a few feet off the ground by buzzing her wings. "G'morning, Igneel-san." Still in the air, she turned around and looked over at the fire fairy sleeping on the table. Che grumbled something before flying over to the other fairy. "Flam! Wake the hell up!" Looping her arms beneath the fire fairy's, Ferr lifted her out of the table bench, but wasn't quite awake enough to pay a whole lot of attention to what she was doing. Slipping out of the iron fairy's arms, Flam landed on the wooden floor with a solid THUMP. "Oh, oops."
Igneel sweat-dropped at the scene taking place in front of him. 'Are those two really the leaders of some of the most powerful nations in the land of varies?' He sighed again before continuing to walk toward the bar, not wanted to get caught in the mess. If Flam actually did wake up from falling on the floor, she definitely wouldn't be happy.
"Looks like someone had a long night." Mirajane said with a smile as the fire dragon sat down on one of the barstools. She placed a glass of orange juice in from of him. "On the house."
"Thanks." He took a sip while his eyes slid over to make sure the fairies weren't causing any trouble. "I was impressed at how much alcohol both of them managed to down before we had to stop them. How has Cana's liver not given up yet?"
The white haired barmaid chuckled lightly. "Now that's the real magic. I was surprised by how Flam acted when she was drunk. When she's an adult, she looks so... regal. It's hard to believe they're the same person." Now it was the fire dragon's turn to laugh.
"You want to see her regal, you should've been there when she accidentally drank a spirit that was, like, 120 proof or something crazy like that. She couldn't stop burping flames for ten solid minutes." He was going to take another sip of his drink, but a little creature in distress landed on his head.
"Igneel-sama! You promised you wouldn't tell anyone about that!" The petite form of the fire fairy seemed to fit perfectly on the dragon's head. Ferrum walked over lazily and sat on the next barstool before placing her elbows on the bar and resting her face in her hands. Her wings were laying flat, but her tail came up the side of the bar and started slithering around, inspecting everything on the countertop as if it had a mind of its own, all the while being slowly watched by the iron fairy's dark eyes.
"Eh? I don't remember promising anything like that." Igneel said as he looked up at the fairy innocently truly remembering.
"That's probably because you had a couple of drink too. Fairy liquor not only affects dragons, but it also tends to wipe pieces of memories. That was one strange night." Ferr stated simply, gaining some questioning look from the others at the bar, which she just shrugged off. "So, any word on when the brats are gonna be coming in? We should probably lease as soon as possible."
"Eager to get started, huh?" A gruff voice belonging to that shadow that was now looming over them asked. The iron fairy spun around on her stool as her face lit up with joy.
"Metalicana-sama!" Ferr squealed as she jumped off of her stool and flew toward the iron dragon. His shoulders were too broad for her to give him a normal hug, so she improvised and hung from his neck instead, pulling her legs in towards her chest as her buzzing wings got a little too close for comfort to the person she was hugging.
"Alright, alright. Glad to see you too. Now, can you get off of me?" With a cheerful nod, Ferr released her arms and landed softly on the ground. Metalicana crossed his arms before he continued speaking. "Everyone's waiting outside y'know. They've been waiting for you guys all morning." The blank looks he received in response told him that they had no idea what he was talking. He grumbled something under his breath that sounded a bit like 'simpletons'. "Just come with me." He stated roughly before turning around to go back out the doors of the guild followed by the three others. "Hey, Grandine! I got them!" Is what the iron dragon shouted as he opened the doors, temporarily blinding the three who had been inside and whose eyes had not yet adjusted to the bright sun.
"FInally! Thank you, Metalicana." The pink haired dragon, clearly annoyed, marched over to the group of three. "Flam, Ferr, are you two ready to leave?" The iron fairy nodded lazily as the fire fairy jumped off of Igneel's head before changing into her larger form in a tower of flame, nodding as it dissipated. "Then follow me." She led them to where there was a large group of people, nearly all of whom where members of Fairy Tail.
Ferr flew over to where Gajeel was talking with Levy who was holding Pantherlily in yet another death-grip. The rest of Team Shadow Gear stood behind the blue haired girl, but looked like they didn't want to be woken up as early as they were. The poor little exceed looked like he was desperately trying to escape the clutches of the small girl, but to no avail. Metalicana was the one to help him gain his freedom after he convinced Levy to let him go, suggesting that she should give Gajeel a hug before he leaves because a certain fairy wasn't at all good at 'being careful'. The iron dragon slayer was either too embarrassed or enjoying the hug too much to be angry at his father who was laughing at the facial expressions of Jet and Droy.
Flam and Igneel walked over to where Natsu and Grey were just beginning to get physical with their argument. 'It's too early in the morning for this.' The fire dragon thought as he sighed out loud, glancing at the sun that had just barely come up. Luckily, Erza's threatening glare and inaudible warning managed to calm the fighting pair down. Well, calm meaning they weren't going at it anymore. Now, they were anxious about trying to not be killed by the armor mage. The one with the most to fear was Happy, who was currently being held in Erza's arms. It took Lucy a couple tries, but she did manage to get the blue feline away from the armor mage unharmed. Igneel slipped the little silver case with the charcoal sticks into Natsu's hand. "Take this with you. The land of the fairies isn't the safest place for humans to be." He whispered quietly so that only the fire dragon slayer could hear him, acknowledging with an almost invisible nod. Before the dragon had time to say anything else, Natsu grabbed him in a tight hug, not pinning his arms, but still catching him off guard. Igneel returned the embrace with his own strong arms. "Don't worry, Natsu. I'm not going anywhere." The silence they created was neither sinister nor scary, but rather warm and gentle, expressing feelings that have no words to match their power.
'I'll make sure of that.' Grandine thought with a smile before she turned away from the fire users to walk toward her own child. Ventus had come back from the land of the fairies and was standing with his arms crossed as he chatted with Wendy. It didn't look like the earliness of the departure wasn't bothering him at all. Romeo on the other hand, looked like he was ready to fall down as he struggled to hold Carla, who was still asleep, in his arms.
"Ah, Grandine-sama!" The air fairy walked quickly over to the dragon. "There has been a change of plans. Wendy and I are going to work in the land of the fairies like Ferr and Flam. We decided it would be safer that trying to find somewhere in Earthland where other humans couldn't find us." Grandine, although sightly caught off guard, nodded in response.
She stepped back so that she had all three groups in her field of vision. "Alright! Is everyone ready to go?!" Catching everyone's attention as she shouted into the early morning air that was clean and crisp. After receiving several weary nods, she responded with a cheerful smile and a wave. "Bon voyage, then! Hope you have fun (and come back in one piece)! See you in about a month!" It was at that point that most of the people who had gathered realized that the air dragon had far too much caffeine in her system for a normal person.
"Here we go, Brat!" The iron fairy shouted before punching a sizable hole in the ground that went down so far that the bottom was simply a well of black shadows. "See ya, Metalicana-sama!" Were the last words she yelled as she went down the hole feet first, grabbing the back of Gajeel's mess of hair, pulling him down the hole behind her. The dragon slayer didn't have time to shout because he neither saw the fairy punch the hold in the ground or feel her grab the back of his head until it was too late. The bottoms of his boots were the last thing to be seen before the mouth of the hole snapped shut, sealing off the path to the fairy realm.
Flam chuckled lightly, trying to hide her mouth with her hand. "She's having way too much fun." The fairy turned to face the pinkette that she would be taking with her. "Ready?" After receiving a nod of acceptance, Flam spun back around on the balls of her feet and held out her hand, palm up, with a small flame resting in it. The fire began to snake its way around the width of her hand until it created a large vortex, the size of a normal door. When the fairy removed her hand, the inside of the swirl began to disappear, creating a ring of fire around a wall of darkness. Motioning for Natsu to follow her, Flam walked through the portal, swallowed by the black completely. Even the glow of her flaming wings was consumed. Hesitating no longer than a millisecond, the fire dragon slayer followed. After he, too, was consumed by the dark, the ring of fire shrunk until there was no more black and snuffed itself out.
The air fury let out a light sigh. "Those two always had a thing about being flashy." He tilted his head down to look at the small girl with dark blue hair. "Got everything you need?" Not waiting for any response, Ventus bent down and wrapped one of his strong arms around Wendy, surprising her when he lifter her up, resting her on his hip. Beating his feathered wings intensely, the air fairy lifted the both of them off of the ground and in moments, disappeared behind a cloud high up in the sky.
They left behind a silence that wasn't necessarily uneasy, but definitely had a feel of unnaturalness to it that no one like. "Hm, I wonder why they didn't just go through a door. That would've been a whole lot simpler." Igneel thought out loud as he scratched the back of his head, receiving several looks of curiosity.
"What'd you mean 'door'? I've never heard of a door that leads to the land of the fairies." The raven haired mage asked the fire dragon with his arms crossed. At first, Igneel looked surprised, probably from realizing that he had been thinking out loud and was now doomed to explain something .
"Um, well..." He muttered as he tried to look for a good example, his eyes finally resting on Lucy. "Here we go! Okay, it's actually a lot like celestial magic." He reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a small, but intricately carved, key. It looked different from the silver celestial keys in that it was made of a duller metal and that instead of an astrological symbol in the base, it had a smooth, blood red stone. "The fairy realm is a plot-off dimension like the celestial world and can only be reached by using magic. I can use this key to unlock any door, making it a portal to the land of the fairies. This one specifically opens in Flam's kingdom. Does that answer your question?" The ice mage nodded in response while the iron dragon started talking.
"You still have that, Igneel? I lost mine in the first five minutes after Ferr gave it to me." The grey haired dragons said with a look of genuine surprise on his chiseled face. Grandine only face-palmed.
"Why did you lose it? Gifts from the fairies are special." She spoke to him with an edge of scolding in her voice.
"I didn't think I would need it. Full sized dragons don't usually fit through the doors that key was designed for." The iron dragon said as he brought his hands up and shrugged. The female dragon sighed.
"I expected this kind of carelessness from Igneel, but not from you, Metalicana." Of course, this was nowhere productive slowly.
"Hey! I'm not that careless!" The three dragons continued to bicker for a few moments as they were watched in silence by the members of Fairy Tail. No one was quite sure what to do. Would their argument become physical and end with them destroying half the town? Or would it be more dangerous to try and stop them and have their anger be redirected toward the guild members?
"If you don't mind, I have a question of my own." Erza raided as she stepped forward toward the dragons who stopped fighting the instant they hear the armor mage speak. "Just out of curiosity, which on of you three is the strongest? Either when you were dragons or as human?" She asked the three of them, all of whom looked surprised at her question.
With only a moment's delay, the fire and iron dragons pointed toward and named with a straight face. "Grandine." Who blushed brightly as they continued. "For both."
"B-but, you guys are r-really strong too." The embarrassed dragon tried her best to get out, but wasn't being all that successful at convincing anyone.
"Please," Metalicana scoffed at the woman. "We've both sparred you as dragons and we've lost every single tim. I remember you clearly saying one time that you didn't kill me because you had 'more important things to do'." The pink haired dragon gave up on arguing, but began to shrink away form the group that had taken an interest in her strength.
"Plus, you've saved our lives so many times I lost count." Igneel stated as he flashed Grandine a bright smile, trying to be nice, but simply making it worse. Or maybe he couldn't hide his amusement at what he could tell was coming next.
"Grandine, I humbly request a dual to evaluate my strength against you own." The scarlet haired mage asked as she bowed at the waist before the dragon who had given up on speaking.
"Hey yeah! That sounds like a plan!" Grey stated as he advanced with the group of eager onlookers behind Erza.
The air dragon continued to shrink backwards away from the looming band of mages looking to test how well she could fight. 'Please come back soon!' She pleaded silently to the fairies and dragon slayers, hoping that they would be a large enough distraction to take the attention away from her.
I'm sure we've all had crazy morning like that. Well, maybe not exactly like that, but still crazy. I'm not quite sure on how I want to organize the training chapters. One per group? Several chapters split into threes like in the previous story? Please tell me which one you think would work best :) I hope you enjoyed