"So you met your Aunt, that's nice." Mira smiled.

"Oh, that's why Juvia looked so happy before." Elfman realized. "I bet she told her manly stories about you."

"Oh I bet." Cana smirked. "Isn't that why that lady thought Juvia was his girlfriend?"

Gray scowled at her. Trust Cana to pick on that immediately. "How the hell should I know? Knock it off!"

"Touchy, aren't we?" She returned amiably.

Evergreen shook her head "Well, it is a reasonable thought with how she goes on about you."

"Yeah, that doesn't make it any better."

"Well, I think it's sweet. You're hardly likely to get a more devoted girlfriend, Gray." Mira smiled.

"Don't start! I'm not looking for a girlfriend now."

Cana smirked "Now, huh?"

"Oh, lay off."

Mira saw Erza arriving and perked up "Oh Erza! Have I got a surprise for you..."

"You do?"

"Mmhm. I happened to see this..." Mira lifted a paper and turned it to face her. Erza's mouth fell as she read the words on it. "...So?"

"I'm taking it!" She exclaimed at once.


One of the things Natsu loved about Fairy tail was the unpredictability. Even in their fights, there could be something new along the way.

That was why he thought he was pretty open minded and prepared to deal with anything.

But he just couldn't remember seeing Erza so excited for a job, ever. She almost squealed when Mira showed her the job request and practically rushed to it.

He wasn't the only one who noticed either.

"So you don't know why she's acting like this either?" Lucy whispered.

"Nope, it's starting to freak me out..."

"You never saw the request, did you?" An amused Gray asked.

"No..." The two answered in tandem, giving him curious looks. Happy wanted to come along because he wanted to see what kind of job could excite Erza so much. Wendy came along to help and Carla came to keep an eye out for her. Since Natsu decided that he wanted to find out too, Hope and Lucy decided to go along to try and keep the peace.

Keyword being try of course.

"We're supposed to go and grab some rare herbs from a forest for a client. She's running a pharmacy but she's having trouble getting to the location so she put up a request." Gray began.

"Okay but I don't get why Erza's so fired up..." Natsu said.

"I'm getting there. It's the reward. Part of it is money, the other part is a kilogram of maximum sweet strawberries."

"Maximum sweet strawberries?" Lucy parroted while Natsu and Wendy exchanged a puzzled look.

'You mean that ridiculously rare strawberry Erza used to pick from the valley?' Endymion asked.

"Bingo."

Hope blinked "I remember that...I wonder how she managed to get that much."

"They're really that rare?" Lucy asked, making sure to keep up with Happy and Erza who were walking ahead.

'Erza said the only place she knew they existed was the valley I mentioned. The field used to be guarded by some vulcans. According to her, they were rather...vile.'

"What's with all the past tense?" Lucy asked, a little unnerved.

It was Natsu who replied "You need to ask? They had to deal with Erza. That's bound to change things."

"Point taken...so did the field run out or something?"

"I think she mentioned something about a rockslide..." Gray said.

Lucy suppressed a wince. "That couldn't have ended well..."

"...Well, there's a reason the forest vulcans avoid everyone from the guild." Hope admitted.

"Yeah, Erza almost blew her top off. She said the vulcans messed around so much and they ended up causing the rock slide." Gray added.

Natsu shuddered "Don't remind me. Like Hope said, she traumatized them. It was freaky enough watching that temper. Thanks to her, I couldn't get a good training spot for a month."

'That's because you love to pick fights.' Endymion said flatly. 'Though one would think the first time was enough.'

"Ah, that's no big deal. Those jerks talk tough but that's all they do."

Lucy and Gray seemed curious as Wendy asked for them all "What happened?"

Hope smiled a little. He didn't remember much about that but Natsu had filled him in when the boy started working on his memoria magic. "After they took me in, Natsu ended up picking a fight with a vulcan who just stumbled into the home. Igneel wasn't there, so the vulcan just started laughing when Natsu told him to leave."

"And of course Natsu attacked, didn't he?" Carla guessed.

"Yup, it only burned him and Natsu was still learning to handle his magic. The vulcan got really ticked off and he just charged in so I scared him into leaving."

Now that took them by surprise "How?"

It was Natsu who answered "He made my fire really strong and it turned up about Igneel's size so he got spooked real quick and took off."

"So your magic even affects other types like that?" A surprised Lucy asked.

"Yeah, Future Drive only works on spells after they're cast so the timing has to be just right because the effect lasts for a short while."

"And yet you still fought those guys regularly?" She addressed Natsu.

"Well, I wasn't going to let that one time scare me."

"I'll go on a limb and say it was much more than one time." Carla deadpanned.

Gray looked at his rival "So Igneel never found out, huh?"

Natsu blinked "How'd you know?"

"I figure if he's half the good dad you make him out to be, he would have punished you for that attitude."

The dragon slayer said nothing to that, making the ice mage smirk knowingly.


"Oh, this place looks a lot better!" Happy exclaimed as he looked around Hargeon.

"Come to think of it, we haven't been back since that day..." Natsu trailed off.

"Does this have anything to do with why people keep giving you dark looks?" Wendy asked as they passed a shop.

"Meh, it's no big deal."

Lucy gave him an unimpressed look "How is you destroying the entire port not a big deal?!"

Wendy blanched while Carla raised an eye.

"They got it fixed up, didn't they?" Natsu retorted.

"Way to miss the point!"

"I told you that creep pissed me off! It just happened!"

"Yup, classic flame brain." Gray muttered while Erza sighed.

"Hey, neither of you get to talk! You destroy a lot of stuff too!"

"Do you hear us denying it? Start taking responsibility for your actions." Erza said sternly.

Carla let out a breath "I'm guessing this is what Endymion meant by you continuing to try keeping things peaceful, Hope."

He half-smiled "Yeah, it just ended up like that anyway..."

"Has anyone ever told you that you have the patience of a saint?"

"Try all of us." Gray said with a snort. He took a step back, noticing a shop at the corner. "Isn't that the pharmacy from the request?"

"Yeah, let's go." Erza said, leading the way.


The client was an middle aged woman with dark hair named Marigold. After she invited the group to some tea, they got to business. "Now about the request..."

"You wanted us to get you some herbs? The request wasn't really clear." Lucy wanted to clarify.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I wouldn't have a problem doing it normally but my mother needs some help back in the old house and I'm preparing to leave. I need to settle things in order. She could use some of the medicine I can make from those herbs so I really appreciate the help."

"So what kind of herbs are we talking about here?"

"Oh, here." Marigold took out a paper. "I've written down all about the ones I need. They're not too far away but getting some of them can be difficult. I've been having trouble lately."

"Don't worry about a thing, lady. We got you covered." Natsu assured as Erza picked up the list.


Marigold smiled "I'll be counting on you then."

The first wasn't too hard to find, it was right near the town's outskirts in fact. Thus leaving nine more to go. The team split up to search, with Gray, Wendy and Carla finding the second one near a waterfall. All Wendy had to do was propel herself up with her magic and pick it.

"This one?" Happy questioned, taking an herb on his paws.

"No, it's similar but the tips should be purple." Hope answered.

"Okay..."

Natsu stood on a cliff, holding a dandelion-like plant with the flower part being blue "Hey guys, this is one of them, right?"

"Yeah!" Happy called back. "...When did he even get up there?"

'He just does things by his own pace.' Endymion remarked.

Lucy ended up finding the purple tipped herb instead "Okay, that's two." She put it in a bag. "The others probably found some more so would you take it easy already?"

"I can't!" Erza said at once. She had practically dashed all over the place in her attempts to get the herbs. Let's just say those attempts definitely caused more harm than good. "I've missed the taste of those strawberries for so long...even now, I'm so excited that I finally get the chance to have some..."

"Yeah, yeah..." Lucy shook her head. Erza was already very...intense when it came to certain things, like cake, but now she was very adamant on getting some of those strawberries as soon as possible. The celestial mage wasn't sure how the knight mage could use them, mainly because the latter can't cook to save her life, but she supposed it will become clear later.

A while later, they found the rest of the group near the waterfall, talking to two men and a woman. One of them was examining a coach up close.

"Hey, what's going on?"

Wendy turned to them and explained. After the two groups met up, she and Natsu had overheard the sound of their ride crashing and found the three in this shape. Apparently, their coach had been washed away by a big wave until it crashed into the other side of the cliff, badly damaging two of its wheels in the process. She had just finished healing their injuries.

"You got washed away? So there's a mage somewhere around here?" Lucy questioned.

"That's what we presumed but Wendy and Natsu never found another person's smell, Hope tried searching too but that didn't work." Carla informed.

The woman hung close to the man sitting next to her "Darling, what should we do? The rumors about the beast of the forest were true after all..."

"Yeah," the man wrapped an arm around her. "I thought it was just some lie but I guess that could be why Marigold has been having a hard time getting herbs."

"That's what we're doing for her." Happy piped up.

The man blinked, then noticing the dragon slayers' guild marks "Oh, you're guild wizards...So you never saw anything like this on your way?"

"Nope, nothing."

"You guys should get back to Hargeon. I don't know about some beast but I guess we'll just have to see what comes out of this." Gray said.

The couple were all too happy to agree and so left. The coach driver called for them to wait only to grimace when he was reminded that he was already paid so they had no reason to.

"I wonder if Margiold might have seen something like this." Erza mused.

"Could be, she did say she was having trouble getting herbs. We just never asked why." Happy pointed out.

"Well, there's no point standing here, let's finish what we came for." Lucy said, getting agreement from everyone.


"This isn't like you. Fair warning, ash brain, keep thinking this much and you'll fry your brain."

"Shut up!"

Hope looked at Natsu "Something on your mind?"

The dragon slayer crossed his arms "Yeah, I don't get it...I heard that guy mumbling something. 'Damn giant must be messing with me again' or something like that."

"Giant?" Happy repeated.

"Well, seeing as it's you, there's no point in asking if you heard right. He might have something to do with the beast." Hope commented.

"That's true." Carla looked at Natsu." You could have told us this before."

His eye twitched "I tried! You guys were already going and the guy pretty much ran off when I questioned him. What a waste..."

"Who cares about that? We just need to take care of our own job." Lucy pointed out.

"Sure you're not scared?" Happy asked with a grin.

"Of course not!" The answer came with a tone a little too high to be entirely convincing.

"I don't care what type of beast it is! Nothing is going to stand between me and those strawberries!" Erza declared so passionately that it seemed flames surrounded her for a few moments, unnerving most of her friends. It was similar to how she would get when she beat up the boys.

Hope looked amused "Nothing new there, how about you just channel that energy into looking for the rest of the herbs?"

"Of course!" She responded at once. "I'm assuming you've started looking?"

"Mmhm, that way." He pointed to the southern path.

"I've asked this before but how the heck can he stay so calm when she's like that?" Gray wondered.

'The same way he gets to keeping you lot from getting in trouble.' Endymion pointed out.

"He's totally used to this," Happy remarked, nodding.


With Erza's drive and Endymion's magic, they were able to find most of them fairly quickly. The problem came with the last two herbs on the list.

"I think we've been all over the forest now..." Gray looked around the clearing they had just arrived in.

Happy and Carla flew to the group, the former looking a little freaked out. "We found them..."

Lucy eyed them closely "There's but in there somewhere, right?"

Carla nodded "But...we found what I think might be the beast too."

"Ehh!?"


The beast in question was bigger than all of them, towering over the trees. He was a giant!

He was currently leaning against a rocky wall, looking bored. He wore viking like armor over somewhat ragged clothes, making him seem intimidating. There was a scar on his leg and face, which held intense dark eyes. A massive axe rested on a boulder about as big as the giant himself.

"A giant?!"

Natsu whistled "Huh, never seen one before..."

"So the herbs are in the area beyond that boulder, correct?" Erza questioned.

"She completely ignored him..." Wendy muttered, unknowingly voicing what the cats were thinking.

"Erza's scarier than that guy if you ask me..." Gray trailed off.

"Ain't that the truth." Natsu added, nodding.

"Why're you guys so calm about this?" Lucy demanded. "You're telling me we have to get past that guy?!"

'I fail to see the problem.'

If the blond could glare at Endymion, she would have. "Yeah, that's not saying much coming from you!"

'You've already dealt with worse.'

The giant moved before she could respond, glaring down at them "Humans..." Everyone looked at him. "Come to try and capture me again, have you? Fools!"

"Huh? What're you talking about?" Happy asked.

But the giant seemed to be very angry at the thought "I've had enough! None of you are going to get out of here!"

Gray frowned "Get ready, here he comes!"


The giant's temper turned it into a fierce battle right from the start. He was clearly very determined, refusing to go down. If his appearance proved him to be a strong fighter then all this fight did was reaffirm that impression.

The first thing that matched the giant's temper right from the get go was Erza's drive. The knight mage couldn't help but think that the giant was the only obstacle to getting their job done, which meant getting the maximum sweet strawberries. So there was no way she was letting him stop her.

"Take this!" She slammed him with a big hammer.

Since the armor dulled most of the impact, he was able to keep giant hit the ground with his fist, making enough force for the ground to shake. He smirked and raised his axe for the following strike...

"You're getting on my nerves. Ice Make: Cage!"

The giant stopped when the magic circle flashed, leaving him to be trapped in the icy construct. After recovering from the surprise, he quickly swung his axe and destroyed it.

"Scorpio!" Lucy summoned the spirit. "Get him!"

He smirked "Sand buster!"

"You're annoying!" The giant grunted as he struggled to move.

"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" Natsu cast, forcing their enemy to try and dodge the flames. He was forced into a corner as a result.

"Luminous tornado!"

"Sky Dragon's Roar!"

The giant was sent crashing down by the vortex of wind and light and Erza took the opportunity to strike once more.

"Circle Sword!"

"I feel kind of sorry for him." Happy told Carla.

"Hm, I'd say don't bother but I can see why. He never stood a chance."


"Lucy-san, I'm thinking maybe we hit him a little too much on the head." Scorpio commented.

"Seeing this, I'm inclined to agree." His summoner muttered

'This' meant the giant's attitude. Once he woke up after Erza knocked him out, he was insistent on blocking their path more than ever. This lead to a fight developing between him, Natsu and Erza.

The giant, who they learned was called Gregor, had come to the forest because he needed time to rest after being attacked by a group who had wanted to capture him and sell him in the black market. After that, he had decided to get some payback at the humans and he knew for a fact that one of them lived in the town right nearby.

The main problem now was that Gregor, had changed from the warrior they had seen to someone practically as childish as Natsu at his worst. They were still trying to understand how that worked.

"Get out of our way!"

"I said no, you dumb human! You can't make me!" And for good measure, he pulled his tongue at Natsu.

"Why you..."

"Seriously?" Gray muttered while the rest sweatdropped.

"I can't believe I was scared of this guy..." Lucy shook her head.

Erza walked up to Gregor "You heard him, move!"

"Oh, so you're as deaf as you are dumb? Forget it and get lost!"

"Why should we?! We've come a long way to get here, you know!"

"Because I said so!" Gregor seemed to have forgotten that he was talking to the humans who had given him a beat down.

This was a point Erza was all too happy to remind him of. She re-equipped her arm with a large gold and silver arm guard before punching Gregor's stomach, making him gasp in surprise.

"You will get out of our way or I will make you!" She snapped, fed-up with this pointless argument.

Gregor managed to hide his fear for the most part, deciding it was better to just get those humans away from him.

"Fine, how about you try to get that boulder out of the way? You can use whatever way you want. I'll even give you a map of the forest if you do it before the end of the day."

Natsu smirked, flames surrounded his fists "Are you kidding? That's easy!"


Unfortunately, he had spoken too soon.

It turned out that Gregor had set a blockade around the field behind the boulder, which meant that they couldn't use destroy the boulder as it could lead to the blockade falling apart and destroying the field. This lead to the team trying to think up ways to move the boulder out of the way.

They came up with a bunch of idea. Erza tried to use one of her armors to do it but the boulder was too heavy. Happy suggested making the ground wet around it to make it easier to push, but that was a no go.

Natsu turned to the person standing closest to him "Hope, can't you think of any way around this?"

"Well..."

The two were distracted by Gregor's laughter.

"Hah, so you really can't do it!" He jeered.

Natsu scowled "Lay off, moving something that big when we have to be careful isn't easy."

"Really? Well, you mages are pathetic, aren't you?"

"What was that?!"

Gregor just yawned "This was rather dull. That's what I get for raising expectations."

"All right, that's it...!"

"You're taking this so lightly." The two looked at Hope."You make it sound like removing that wall is so simple but that's all it is, talk. Can you actually do it?"

"Of course I can!" Gregor said, insulted.

Lucy got a sly look while Erza smirked, knowing where this was going. "I bet you can't. Talk's cheap, you know?"

"Not to mention boring. Natsu and Gray may be destructive but they can at least back up their boasts. You on the other hand? Clearly, not so much." Erza added with a bored look.

"We're just going to have to figure things out somehow. We don't need some geezer to help." Gray sneered.

"You said it." Happy huffed.

"Oh, that's it, you brats! Watch this!" Gregor lifted the giant boulder at once and placed it on his left side."See? Piece of cake!"

"Oh it is, I suppose. You are strong after all." Carla had to fight to keep the smirk of her face while Wendy hid her smile behind her mouth.

"I told you so!"

"All right, hand over the map, tough guy." Natsu grinned.

"What?! I don't have to!"

"Yes, you do. We got the boulder out of the way."

"Are you blind, kid? That was me! You backed out of the deal!"

"No, you did." Hope smiled when the giant looked at him. "You gave us until night time to get the wall out of the way. Not break it, just remove it. You also said by any means necessary, there wasn't anything about us having to do the actual work. Just make sure it gets done before the time limit."

"Wha...? But..." Gregor struggled to find some way to dispute that claim but realized he couldn't. They just used his own words against him.

"So, the map please." Erza requested.

The giant sighed "Fine, you sneaky humans, hold on a minute."


Gray burst out laughing "Hope, that was brilliant!"

"Yeah, his face was priceless! Serves him right!" Happy grinned.

'It certainly does.' Endymion chipped in, after all the grief Gregor gave them, this was more than fair in his book.

"Yeah, nice work!" Lucy added.

Hope just smiled "Thanks."

"I feel bad for him..." Wendy admitted.

"Why? He was insufferable." Carla remarked. "Besides, seeing as you've done more than enough to help with how you healed his injuries, just leave it at that."

"Yeah, let's just get this over with." Gray agreed and they quickened their pace to the field.


With that out of the way, the team was able to finish their job. They also gave the map to Marigold and went back to Magnolia.

"You know, this just hit me but seeing as Erza can't cook to save her life..." Gray scowled when the redhead glared at him. "...It's true and you know it." This was the one subject he wouldn't back out on in front of her. Mainly because Gray was still sore over the time where she offered to make him and Mira lunch, and how they both got sick right after that. "Anyway, how is she going to make use of her share of strawberries?"

"If you must know, I was going to ask the baker on my way to Fairy Hills." She responded.

"I won't bother. Hope, can you make something with my share?" Happy asked.

"Oh, good idea, Happy! I want in this!" Natsu chimed in.

Hope hadn't expected that and his expression showed that much. "Sure, if it works for you." The two cheered, eliciting a smile from him. "So, what do you want?"

"We'll leave it to the chef." His childhood friend responded.

"Aye Sir!"


Later they all gathered at the Dreyar's house, finding that he was finishing up the desserts with the maximum sweet strawberries.

Makarov, who had been welcomed by Team Natsu when he heard of this, tried a spoonful of the jelly in front of him. His eyes widened "I'm starting to see why Erza made such a big deal over this stuff."

"Yeah, it's delicious!" Lucy beamed.

"The taste's amazing, right, Carla?" Wendy said with a smile.

"It is...maybe that's why those strawberries are rare."

"Wouldn't surprise me." Gray nodded. Erza was too busy eating the cake she had made to comment, thinking that her taste buds had just gone to heaven. "Compliments to the chef."

"Aye! Nice work, Hope!" Happy chirped.

The boy smiled in response. "Thanks, glad you like it."

Natsu was about to speak, possibly voice his agreement when he noticed Erza looking at his plate, making him pull it close. "Don't even think about it."

"I wasn't going to!"

"Yeah, right! I know how you get around cake. Remember Bisca's birthday cake?"

"That was only one time. I was hungry!"

The rest listened to them and just laughed, deciding to leave the two to it.