Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or their background (except what I made up – you'll see), Hiro Mashima does. However I do own the other wacky characters, books, places and whatever. Fun, huh?


Chapter 29 – Books, Dust and Stories

They sat at the kitchen table, eating in companionable silence, completely relaxed.

Setting up the food had been quite an adventure as Gray had seen the results of Erza in his kitchen and he didn't think that Natsu could do something edible so he ordered them around for a while and prepared the food. Natsu had been on his side the whole time because of the bond and also because he was a little more trustworthy than Erza, around food. Erza had sat down, with a slightly offended look (one could also call it a pout) and started the conversation, pulling the others in.

When food was ready they started eating and the silence was light, at first, but soon became too heavy. Erza broke it. "Well boys, as expected, we're going to spend the day with you. Later I'll go to the Guild and pick more books that the Master thought that could be of some use to us. He said he was going to leave them with Mirajane before he left-"

Natsu made a small pause as he picked another piece of food and asked, "Leave? Where did he go?"

Erza's eyes widened a little before she remembered why they hadn't been at the Guild that morning. "Right, you weren't there. Apparently he was called. He said something about the Master of Blue Pegasus needing him. And now that I think about it, Poluchka was going with him… That's odd…" she tapped her chin with a finger, pensively.

"What do you think about it?" Gray asked quickly, also thinking about reasons for the matter.

Erza took a gulp of her alinon juice and placed the tumbler on the table, shrugging.

"I don't know. A couple of scenarios are crossing my mind but without talking to the Master nothing's for sure…"

The sound of a plate hitting the table top made both of them look at Natsu. He had a serious look as he piled his dishes. "For now I think that we should worry with what we have…"

After a small pause the other two agreed.

They ended breakfast in a somewhat lighter note and were only allowed to move to the living room when the kitchen was in order.

Finally, they went to the living room and sat, grabbing books and continuing the boring and time consuming task of searching for any kind of information about the bond.

Natsu and Gray were sitting on the couch, legs touching and they tried to immerse themselves on the old and intricate sayings of these long forgotten books. Happy had been sitting on Natsu's other side but with the flipping of the pages some dust fell on him and he started to sneeze. In the end he went to lie down under the window, where the sun was hitting. It didn't take long until he was napping.

Erza was sitting on the same armchair from the previous day. She was reading one of the largest volumes.

In front of them the poor table was holding the piles of heavy books, emitting some creaks from time to time. Despite its sturdiness, Erza's treatment had been a little rougher than it could handle.

And so, they read and time continued passing by. Books were pulled from the pile, read anxiously and thrown to the floor in exasperation (of course that this was Natsu's behavior). Erza was also doing her part at a more sedated pace. Strangely, Gray was still glued to the first book that he had picked. Natsu noticed (during one of his outbursts) how still he was, eyes devouring the words, almost as if it were Lucy or Levi there instead of Gray. By being looking at him so attentively Natsu was able to see the shift in Gray. From one moment to the other his eyes widened slightly, he tried to take a deep breath but was unable to. His grip on the book tightened until his knuckles were white and were almost to the point of bending the hard cover.

Natsu looked at him, alarmed. Now what?

Gray continued to struggle for breath, only able to partially bring in his much needed air. Natsu scooted closer to him and put a hand on his forearm. Gray's breading eased a bit and then a sudden urge that felt completely foreign to Natsu compelled him to put his arm around Gray's shoulders, making their sides flush against each other. Natsu felt a bit weirded out as this was very out of character for him but he let that slide when he heard and felt Gray's breathing return to normal.

"You sure you're alright?" he asked Gray, still worried.

In return Gray just nodded, his eyes never rising from the pages that had his attention. Natsu found this odd but was only able to exchange a look with Erza before picking another book and continue his task.

Just, why did it have to be so boring?


Gray was feeling much better now that the crisis had past and he could read now too. No longer gazing at the pages and not comprehending a thing.

Why did this happen to him? And every single time!

He looked at the pages before him and hoped that Natsu's presence was enough to protect him, maybe now that they were closer he wouldn't have to feel that pain again because, in Aqueloo's name, sitting here while focusing on this book just to be slapped by a pain that sprouted from the middle of his chest and that gave him trouble breathing – well, that wasn't very productive.

Those few moments in which he had struggled to breathe had been excruciating and despite knowing that he had suffered worse well, right now that wasn't very comforting because he was in pain…

But then, Natsu had noticed and, like some sort of hero, he had gotten to Gray and made it all feel better. This annoyed Gray because, come on, he could stand on his own but this whole thing had him in a lot on the defenseless side. It wasn't the first time that he thought about this but the feeling hadn't changed yet. Rationally there was an explanation and he already knew it (as much of an unknown that it was) but nobody could take from him the feeling that this shouldn't be happening. And with that he was getting in a foul mood that was calmed when he saw something that caught his interest. This was a little paragraph that didn't say anything remarkable but something in Gray made him look at it again. Could it be a lead?

The first of (hopefully) many more that would help them?

He read the paragraph again,

'The month of irrigadio.

The land is ready to the cultivation of maize and potato. In the zones of less frost in the morning it is now possible to cultivate wheat, oats, barley and rye.

The afternoons are still very warm, making the earth dry and stiff. The water isn't enough to support both us and our agriculture.

People are starting to go away. They think that our endeavor is in vain, but there's still a large part of our village that remains strong. We were born in here so we won't abandon our land that easily.

Maybe the new moon will bring new hopes and strengths to a village that's losing all hope.

The cattle's health is still good, there were no sick animals since the last entry.

Maybe the sun will be merciful.'

The last line was scribbled in a slightly shaky handwriting. Had the writer been shaking? Gray blinked to try to focus his blurry eyesight.

What the hell had been that?

He had just read those lines but his mind had conjured images – maybe it was more appropriate to call it flashes – of places, people, sounds and scents. It had almost been as if the writer had been reciting the happenings. But how was that possible? To react with a sort of déjà vu feeling to the simple writings of-of the Log of Land – Eleutario edition, volume XIV? He didn't even know where that was! And since when did he understand anything about agriculture? This was completely foreign to him but, there was something that kept pulling Gray to the pages of this book. Something was calling him and he had no way to resist it.

He opened the book many pages ahead and his eyes passed distractedly over pages, ending up glued to the last paragraph of his current page.

'This month proved to be full of surprises.

First a catastrophe fell upon us. The thin line of water that was our only source of water ran dry, then half of the cattle fell ill, had to be culled and the meat was considered inappropriate for human consumption. Deprived of that source of food we had to give our last hopes and efforts to the land.

With very strict measures we cultivated and were able to survive with the minimal food.

Then came the day that he had a visitor-'

Gray's eyes opened wide as a gasp caught in his throat.

He found himself standing in the middle of a street. The hard sun bleached the houses and gave them a light brown color. Looking around Gray was unable to see movement. Nothing moved and there was no sound – this might as well be a deserted village.

Then there was a loud crash, people yelling and the sound of several feet running. Gray followed the sound but was careful enough not to be seen. He came to a stop in front of a window and didn't see a reflection. He tried to touch the wall to support himself but his hand failed to touch it. He tried to put his hand on the wall again and saw as his hand just crossed it.

Several commands on the form of a shout brought Gray from his contemplations. He ran to where the action was. A small crowd was turned to the village's entrance but Gray couldn't see what was happening. But that was no problem to him now, right? With a smile he went to the front and stopped.

In front of those hard-looking farmers a green-haired girl was standing in a defiant pose, arms crossed and one eyebrow cocked. She appeared to be waiting for some kind of answer.

Gray took the time to look at her. She was of an average height and quite skinny. Her green hair was short but the bangs covered her left eye, the eyes were red and fiery and she was wearing grey shorts, a bright blue top with a vest of a glossy black and the ensemble was finalized with jackboots that were also of a glossy black. Some bandages peeked from under the top and covered her right arm and hand. The soft tinkling snapped Gray's attention back to her face where a long earring made of a silvery metal, on her right ear, moved with every movement of her head.

She was not amused, that was for sure.

She was looking at the crowd with a calculating look, spending a few instants more looking towards the place where Gray was standing (for moments he thought that she was seeing him) before turning and ending her assessment of the crowd. She looked back to the guy that was in front of her.

"You're saying that you don't want my help?" her voice was low and had a slight accent. "In exchange you only have to provide food for me and my partner."

The man – that probably was the village's chief – shook his head emphatically. "It's not that we don't want to – we can't abide to those conditions at the moment. Don't you see that my people don't have anything-?" he cut himself, "We're out of the maps and forgotten, left here to die under the ruthless sun-" he stopped when she lifted a hand.

"Very well…" she let go of a dramatic sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "We'll start the job without pay until you have the means – but you'll have to try to support us."

As the chief nodded in approval a large gust of wind rose and a shadow fell over them, seconds later the ground shook with the landing of a huge and majestic green dragon.

Gray looked up, in awe. So this was a dragon. No wonder that Natsu wanted to find Igneel, these creatures were… Gray didn't even have the words to define…

And then he felt Natsu, warm against him, pulling him out of this vision or whatever this was.

With a sharp intake of breath he found himself staring into Natsu's concerned eyes and the first thing he did was gasp out, "Now I get it…" much to Natsu and Erza's confusion.


A/N: A new chapter! And in Christmas Eve. You may consider this a small present from my part. I hope you enjoy this small chapter :D I know that a part of this chapter was pretty straight-forward fantasy type but hopefully it won't be something too usual.

This isn't beta-read yet (they also need their vacations, you know?) but I'll correct it as soon as possible.

With this said, I hope you all have a great Christmas. And do you know what would be great presents to me? That's right, reviews. So, feel free to do so… ^^

By the way, I have a FT Christmas fic half written, it's nothing of too amazing but do you think that I should finish it and post it tomorrow?