"Why here?" Lucy asked while she warmed her hands by the small fire as she sat in the dark cave. They had arrived here nearly two days ago and the blonde had spent the majority of those two days sleeping in peace for once in almost two months.
"What?" the dark haired wizard said confused as he seemed to snap back to reality.
"Why here, why did you bring me here?" the blonde celestial mage asked a little more force fully.
"These are Igneel's lands, the only other person that could survive here is Natsu..." Zeref began but was interrupted by his ever curious companion.
"Then how do you know so much about it?" the celestial mage asked as she scratched her cheek, after sending two weeks traveling through the lands of the fire dragon king had finally dried out Lucy in more ways than one.
I desperately need a bath, the blonde thought as she sighed but the magic canteen that Capricorn had said was a gift from Aquarius may never run out of water but couldn't produce enough water for Lucy to bath in.
"I..." the ex-dark wizard began to stutter as he tried to come up with an answer.
"I mean, you knew exactly were to bring me, the best route, one that looks like at one point in time was well use but now no knows about it. You knew there would be caves here..." Lucy began but was interrupted by her dark haired companion.
"This is the land of a dragon of course there are caves," Zeref said condescendingly.
"But we walked past fifty of them till we got to this one. Why?" Lucy said with a huff.
"Zeref how many time have I told you to not take your brother out to play in the lands of the great protector!" the familiar maternal voice filled the ex-dark wizard's head as he became lost in thought again.
"I am sorry mother," a young Zeref said as he bowed his head in shame as he stood in the living room of their house.
A small wood burning stove sat against one wooden wall that was also filled with jars of food along with a few pots as the floor held a thick woven rug over the cold smooth stone, a large pile of pillows were against one wall and on the opposite was the arch way that lead to the rest of the small house, a low laying table sat in the center as a small pink haired toddler played with a group of stones as he knocked then over with one of the pillows giggling as he did so.
"I know you have been gifted with magic, but your brother is not old enough to begin his training," the woman said firmly as she ran her hand through her long flowing black hair.
"I just wanted to show him a new spell the priest taught me," the small black haired boy said as he pouted.
"I know but..." his mother began but a knock on the door interrupted her. "You stay right here," the woman said as she pulled her long hair in to a bun on top of her head as she walked down the hall way to the front door.
"Zer! Zer!" Zeref heard his little brother call his name as the dark haired boy looked to find Natsu standing next to the stove tugging on the wires of a jumbled mess of tubes on a stand.
"Nastu that's my new experiment don't touch!" the dark haired boy cried out in panic as the pink haired toddler continued to tug on it.
"Zeref, come here," His mother called from the door way.
"I can't mother Natsu is trying to eat my new experiment," the dark haired boy cried out as he tried to get his brother to let go of the wire clutched in his fist, but as Natsu tried to get way from his brother he pulled too hard causing the entire structure to collapse "No!" The serious young boy shouted in frustration as he watched the vials crash to the ground as their contents spilled out on the floor combining together.
"Oh you're just like your father," the boy's mother chuckled as she picked up the toddler as he giggled in joy.
"Yeah destroys everything he touches," Zeref growled under his breath as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Zeref, behave yourself," his mother scolded.
"My my very ambitious what were you trying to find out?" a voice of an unfamiliar man asked as he examined the destroyed contraption on the floor.
"If it is possible to combine pure etherious with organic material," the black haired boy said quickly getting ready for the same confused expression to face to appear on the man's face.
"Intriguing to what end?" the stranger said as his eyes filled with excitement rather than confusion which surprised the boy completely.
"Stabilizing life force to allow a number of health issues to fix themselves," Zeref said as he watched his mother sit on the pile of pillows with his little brother in her lap as he continued to play with the wires that were still in his grip.
The man nodded his head in understanding before he spoke.
"Well you are exactly the type of student we are looking for. I teach at a private academy for mages like yourself, people who challenge the known and unknown. Are you interested in attending?"
"Zeref?" Lucy's voice called out to the man breaking the memory that Zeref had been trapped in.
"What?" the ex-dark wizard said as he shook his head to clear it.
"Where did you go?" the blonde asked as she tilted her head to the left.
"I didn't go anywhere," Zeref said firmly.
"Not physically but your mind wondered off, it's been doing that for a while now," the celestial wizard spoke as she fiddled with the only thing she had found in the cave when they arrived.
The blanket was old and covered in dust and dirt but once she had shaken it clean the blonde had found the soft woven blanket comforting for some reason. The smell that clung to the cloth smelled so much like her mate that she had become very attached to it.
"I don't know what you mean," the dark haired wizard said unconvincingly.
"Well anyway I hope you don't expect me to stay here for the next five months, there is no food here and I am about to run out of the last of the supplies," Lucy said pouting as she only had enough food to last until tomorrow. As the months had started to blur together her appetite had increased tenfold, at least I stopped throwing up a week ago.
"Not too far from here is a place that will have plenty of food for you, it may be a little work to get it but there will be more than enough to feed your ravenous appetite," Zeref said chuckling as he remembered the viciousness that Lucy had used to attack her lunch.
"That has Natsu written all over it," the celestial mage grumbled as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"No matter whose fault it is you still are eating for two," the man said as he pointed to the now visible bump protruding from the blonde's abdomen.
Lucy looked down and ran a hand over her now solid stomach she had the shirt she was wearing was now torn at the sides reveling her rounded belly. Something felt off as she continued to gaze down at her midsection, if she stood up her stomach almost eclipsed her feet. She was growing at a ridiculously fast pace, something is wrong.
"Well then come on lets go," Lucy said as she struggled to stand up wrapping the blanket around her neck like a scarf.
"Go where?" Zeref asked as he turned around to find the blonde gathering her stuff as she struggled to pick up her bag.
"To the place with the food, I want to start getting a stock pile going as fast as possible," Lucy said with a grunt as she finally got her bag on to her shoulder.
"I thought you wanted to rest?" Zeref asked a little panicked as the girl began walking out of the cave.
"Yes but if this isn't the final destination then I want to get there soon, I keep expanding and at this rate the amount of time I have left before I won't be able to move much," Lucy said chuckling as she continued forward. "So which way?" Lucy asked as she stood at the entrance of the cave.
"Left," Zeref said quietly as he watched Lucy walk in the direction her had told her.
The blonde walked for about an hour and a half until she noticed that her black haired guide wasn't going to follow her. Shrugging her shoulders she continued walking until she saw what looked like the remains of a city ahead of her. The air was thick with tension, the feeling of powerful and dark magic still lingered as the girl continued forward.
Broken cobble stone began appearing underneath her feet as crumbled buildings lined the sides. There were no sounds to fill the wind other than the girl's tense breathing.
"What happened here?" Lucy asked as her voice shook in fear, but continued onward.
As she came to what appeared to be the center of town the celestial mage found what looked to be a temple but half of it was turned to utter rubble while the other half was left to disrepair. But despite its dilapidated look she could tell that the building had at one time been rather ornate. Large spirals reached up into the sky, as the overhanging roof held what seemed to be the design of carved flames along its edge. Walking up the steps that lead towards the building she was gazing up a the ornate stone Lucy wiped away the dust and dirt from a panel reveling a gold plate with strange writing on it, the etching seemed odd there were a few words she recognized as fire draconic and the others she didn't.
"Palace of… Protector…Fire…" the blonde mumbled as she tried to make out the script pulling out a note book she tore out a piece of paper and used the pencil she had made a carbon copy of the etching. Afterwards she made sure to seal the paper with her hairspray so it wouldn't smudge. Maybe Levy can read it, Lucy thought as she tucked the parchment back in to the note book before putting everything back in her ready bag that Capricorn had brought her.
Looking in through the small opening that she guessed used to be the front door the inside was as she saw what looked like a ferocious dragon gripping the celling with its claws as it's mouth was open but the sculpture had been broke either due to time or what had caused the destruction of the other half of the temple. And alter like area was against one wall as jugs, and bowls lie tipped over with spider webs and dust coating the items, there seemed to be one open hall way but another that a large stone was covering.
"I'll looking in to this place later," the blonde said to herself as she turned to walk down the steps as she did so she heard a very familiar voice laughing. "Natsu?" Lucy asked out loud as she heard it again but this time it seemed to be higher pitched like that of a child.
Hearing it again Lucy raced down the street right across from the temple. The houses around here were still in piles of rubble but every once in a while she found on that seemed to have been left mostly intact. She heard the laugher again and followed it. Getting further and further in she began seeing patched of scorched earth that the celestial wizard had guessed at one time had been gardens but now the ground seemed to be just as dry and unusable as clay she had just spent three weeks crossing.
Hearing the laugher again she continued forward as she came upon a house standing all by itself, in all the destruction that Lucy had seen this house appeared to have been the only one spared. It looked like it was made out of clay; a small opening which the blonde guessed was the door was covered by a sheet of what looked like very heavily woven material the fluttered lightly in the breeze. As what appeared to be a small window had been left open. Approaching cautiously she heard the crash of waves coming from what appeared to be the other side of the small house. Walking around she found the house set upon a cliff that over looked the ocean that was cut off by a large ridge of rocks creating a secluded section for miles, there was a well-worn path that looked easy enough to climb down even if she was beginning to wobble. And to the left there was a large garden full of fruits, vegetables, and beans. Inspecting the plants Lucy realized that they were all still in perfect condition.
Returning to the front she carefully moved aside the sheet and stepped into the house. On her left was a short hall way that broke off in to three separate doorways looking into each room she found them to be bedrooms one was a complete disaster a mess of pillows were piled up on the floor with a blanket haphazardly crumpled on top of them as what she guess was supposed to be the bed was leaning against one wall with toys packed to the brim against the wall. Another was immaculately clean with selves full of what appeared to be hand written books but Lucy couldn't decipher what they said, placing the book back she continued on. The third she guessed was the master bedroom as it had a small washroom inside of it. A large mattress covered in pillows sat on a few pieces of wood so it say just barely off the floor with two large blankets neatly folded on the end.
Walking down the hall on her right she came to a large open room. A wood burning stove sat against one wall with shelves of jars and a few pots and pans. Another held a large pile pf pillows as a low sitting table was set in the middle of the room. On the table was a piece of parchment turning it over Lucy discovered it was a painting of a small family, a father, mother, and two sons, but upon taking a closer look she realized that they all looked familiar.
The man stood the tallest pink spiky hair sprouted from his head as his eyes and a wide infectious grin that Lucy knew she had seen before along with the white scaled scarf wrapped around the man's neck. The woman had dark black hair and dark eyes the little boy in front of her who was no more than four years old at her feet as she smiled softly and the boy looked anxious. Taking a closer look at the very familiar face of the small boy Lucy let out a surprised gasp as she spoke.
"Natsu!" the celestial mage cried out as she took a closer look at the two parents and couldn't deny that she saw her husband's resemblance in both of them. His mother's eye's and the near spitting image of his father, thought Natsu was much leaner than the bulky man in the picture it was there was no denying that these two people were his parents.
Taking a deep breath she looked over at the other boy in the picture as she clutched the parchment tightly as she uttered the one name she never thought she would as she looked at the serious elder boy in the picture.
"Zeref"