I want to start off by saying that I'm sorry for the very long wait for this update. I blame the writers' block and life getting in the way. I would also like to say a big thank you to Darkfire1220 for creating the previous chapters and for allowing me to adopt his story. Now I would like to officially welcome you all to the first chapter of the continuation of 'Dragonearth' and as always, please review and thanks for reading!

Chapter 31: Decisions

"Wow, Luce, these new chapters you wrote are amazing. The character development has progressed so much since the last time you let me read it, but I like it. It really adds a depth of character to the entire story. Plus that twist in the middle, I totally didn't see it coming!" exclaimed Levy, in her humanized form, while holding Lucy's manuscript.

Lucy's cheeks turned slightly pink at her friends' compliment. "Thank you so much, Levy. Finding good inspiration hasn't been really hard with all that's been happening recently."

"And I'm sure that fishing trip with Dragion wasn't any help at all, right?" Levy said in a teasing voice with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"I-I wouldn't go th-that far," Lucy stammers as her face turns from light pink to dark red. "I-it did help me get over my writers' block at least. Anyway *cough*, what do you think of the book Wendy?"

Wendy, who had been sitting with the two girls this whole time, looked up from her own copy of the manuscript and said, "This is really amazing, Lucy. While I may not be as far into your book as Levy is, I'm really enjoying it and I would like to read more if I can."

"Of course you can read more Wendy. You can read as much of my work as you would want."

"Thanks, Lucy. By the way, I was wondering why you started writing these stories in the first place? I'm curious why a human would want to with their short life spans."

Lucy looked over at Levy as her face morphed into one of nostalgia that the dragonelle mirrored.

"Well Wendy, it's a long story from a long time ago. It was well over a decade ago, a few years before you and the others started raiding our territory as a matter of fact, when I was still just a little girl. When I was little, I was very hyper and full of energy. Always running around the house, crashing into stuff and causing my parents to worry.

"It was especially hard to calm me down when it was dark and time for bed. No matter what anyone did, it was impossible to calm me down. The only thing that ever worked was the storybook legends my mother would tell me before bed. I always loved hearing those legendary stories about heroes fighting ancient monsters and villains with the help of their dragon friends and the guidance of the spirits.

"Back then, I hadn't gone up to the Thunder Hall and met everyone yet…"

"Yeah, cause Layla didn't think that she could handle a young Lucy running wild with a bunch of huge dragons walking around that might step on her by accident." Levy interrupted with a small laugh at the memory.

This caused Lucy to stiffen and blush while it made Wendy giggle behind her hand.

"*cough*…Anyway, back to what I was saying, since I hadn't met everyone yet, all I had to look forward to was that book of stories. They always made me so happy when I heard them and made me want to be involved in one of those adventures. I became so fascinated by those old stories that going on an adventure like that became my dream.

"So one day after reading that book again, I somehow worked up the courage to go up to my mom and ask her to teach me how to be a Spirit Priestess. She was surprised at first but after she learned why it was that I wanted to learn, she was more than willing to teach me, and the training wasn't by any means easy. But learning how to be a Spirit Priestess was something that I needed to learn in order to fulfill my dream.

"After a few years, just after I turned ten actually, my parents finally thought that I was old enough to go and visit the dragons in the Thunder Hall. I was ecstatic to finally be able to meet the dragons that lived with us. We left early and made our way up the mountainside to the entrance to the Thunder Hall. When we got up there, we ran into Makarov and Erza in their human forms as they were walking out on their way down to the town and I recognized them from when they visited our house sometimes.

"Walking in, I was amazed by all of the different dragons that were there. There were so many there that I was mesmerized for a moment and I forgot why I was there. It only lasted for a second though, because I was running around like a headless chicken as I tried to make as many dragon friends as I could and that's how I met Levy." Lucy said as she looked over at her friend with a fond look.

"It was funny watching her run around, so I tried to go up to her to try and stop her. I failed but I got her to stop long enough so we could start talking," Levy said while returning Lucy's look with one of her own. "It was amazing. It was almost like we were born to be best friends, we hit it off so well after only just meeting."

"After that, we spent so much time together doing anything we could think of. We would play games like tag and hide-n-seek over by the pond when Levy was in her human form. It wasn't that long after that we learned that some towns were raided in our territory by rogue dragons."

Wendy sweatdropped and turned her head with a nervous laugh.

"Sometimes I would even offer to take her flying with me since I had just gotten my wings, but she was always too afraid."

"Wait, Lucy, does that mean you're scared of heights?" Wendy asked in a shocked voice.

"No, not anymore. I got over that a long time ago when Erza took me flying." Lucy explained.

"We would also talk about anything and everything we could think of," the dragonelle said, continuing the story, "but the thing that we probably did more than anything was read books together. We would spend hours at a time doing nothing but reading together."

"That's how my writing career started, with the two of us reading books. It was when Levy and I were reading together in my room. I was reading my favorite book which was the one with the legends when Levy asked me "why I read that book so often," so I told her about my dream to go on an adventure."

"I was astounded and impressed when I heard her dream. We weren't any older than twelve years old and she wanted to go on an amazing adventure. I asked her what she wanted to do during her dream and she told me this wild story. When she was done, I thought it really cool, and I told her that she should write it down."

"I ended up listening to her and wrote my dream down on paper. After I was done, I gave my finished story to my mom and Levy to read and I haven't stopped writing since." Lucy finished her story with a happy look on her face.

"Wow Lucy, that was a nice story," Wendy said.

Lucy was about to respond to Wendy's praise when she noticed that Mira was walking over towards their table, humanizing as she walked.

The Fairy Tail Thunder Hall is naturally big as it was made for draconic use. The hollowed-out mountain's great hall is a very large cave that has a high ceiling that can allow for a dragon to stand at full height or even hover a little off the ground and is wide enough to accommodate all of the dragons of the Thunder to be present and still have room left over.

As the Thunder Hall was built for dragons, it had been cleared of obstacles so the dragons have room to live in, however, that doesn't mean that it has nothing in it. Even though the hall was built for dragons, it was still open for all of the people of Magnolia to come and go as they pleased, though few ever did. When humans did stay for longer periods of time, there were tables built into an alcove that was the right size for any human visitors.

"Have any of you seen Lisanna? I haven't seen her all day." Mira asked as she walked up to the three girls.

The two dragonelles shook their heads no, but Lucy said yes.

"Yeah, I thought I saw her flying outside when I got here."

"She's outside? Doing what?" Mira asked confused.

"Just flying around the mountain in circles I think. I don't know if she's still up there though."

"Why don't we go check on her?" Wendy offered.

The three girls glance at each other for a moment and shrug. They stood up and the four of them made their way over towards the entrance to the Thunder Hall.

Upon arriving, they turn their gaze's to the sky to see the Tigress Dragonelle still circling the mountain. Even from down on the ground, it was obvious that something was bothering the young dragonelle.

"She looks like she's thinking about something really hard," Levy said breaking the silence that fell over them, "It's kinda strange, she never used to just go flying all on her own, unless it was to hunt."

"That's true. She's been acting a lot differently lately. Like she's always distracted." Mira said.

"How did she use to act?" Wendy asked.

"She used to wear her feelings on her wing, you could always tell what she was feeling at any given moment," Lucy explained, "She didn't like it when the people she cared about, whether dragon or human, got hurt. So whenever an argument started in the Hall or if dragons from another Thunder wanted a fight, she would try everything she could to stop the fighting. She also used to be so understanding. Like if someone was being really annoying, she would try to get them to stop being annoying."

"Yeah, and now she's been acting secretive, she participated in the fight with Jose, and she's snapped at people when they do something stupid or are annoying." Mira finished.

"You know, now that I think of it, she didn't start acting like this till a couple of months before Wendy and the others came to the Thunder. And she's been spending a lot of time with Natsu recently, I wonder if there's a connection." Levy pointed out.

Lucy bites her lip as the memories of Lisanna's past with Natsu come to mind.

"I doubt that there's a connection between those two, and besides, we shouldn't get involved in their personal lives."

"Lucy, aren't you concerned with how Lisanna has been acting?"

"Maybe a little, but I'm sure she has a good reason for it."

"If she does have a good reason for how she's been acting, then I want to hear it." Mira interrupts, "Why don't we just go ask them."

"Mira, I really don't…"

Lucy's concerns fall on deaf ears as Mira reverts back to her dragon form.

"Levy, why don't you come with me to talk with Lisanna. Wendy, Lucy, why don't you go talk with Natsu."

Levy and Wendy nodded while Lucy just sighed in defeat.

/\/\/\/\/\

The two girls made their way over to Natsu's cave. It was easy to find the Fire Drake's cave since it was covered in scorch marks.

Walking in, the girls expected to find Natsu still asleep in his cave, snoring louder than an avalanche. But what they found was the drake wide awake and looking like he was preparing to leave.

Wendy reverted to her dragon form and padded up to the lager dragon, "Are you going somewhere Natsu?"

"I'm just going hunting Wendy, nothing major. So, what's up?"

"We were talking with Mira and Levy about Lisanna's behavior," Natsu's left eye twitched at the mention of Lisanna, "and Levy noticed that there was something going on between the two of you."

"I haven't noticed anything weird about Lisanna lately. What did Levy see that made her think there was something going on with us?"

Lucy strode further into the cave to stand near Wendy's side, "She noticed that the two of you have been spending a lot of time together recently, anything you want to tell us?"

Lucy winked at her dragon partner to show that she was just putting on an act. Natsu smirked at Lucy's message.

"Guys, we're just friends. The Thunder doesn't let us be anything different, remember?" Natsu said with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"I guess you're right, but then why are you spending so much time with her?" Wendy asked.

"I'm allowed to spend time with my friends right?" Natsu responded.

Feeling that the conversation had ended, Natsu lightly flicks the little dragonelle with his tail playfully and strides out of his cave.

Jumping down into the great hall, the drake walks over towards Erza.

"Hey Erza, let the old drake know that I'm going hunting for a while 'kay."

The Blade Dragonelle looked at him in bewilderment, "You know Smaug isn't going to like that you're skipping out on training to go eat."

"Then tell him that I'm not going to take any more moments for granted anymore. He'll know what I mean by that."

With that, he extended his wings and took off out of the Thunder Hall, passing a certain Tigress Dragonelle as he went.

Lisanna…

/\/\/\/\/\

While the others were talking about her, Lisanna was having her own internal debate.

I want to go and join Natsu at the waterfall cave.

If I go, then I'll be taking a huge risk that can't be undone.

But if I don't go, then I'll regret it for the rest of my life.

But if I do go and we're found out, there will be severe consequences for both of us.

Who cares if there are consequences, I care about the hothead and isn't that what's important?

But what about Mira and Elfman? If we're found out, it won't just hurt me and Natsu but them too.

It's just like Layla said, don't we all deserve to find love as much as the leaders do?

Layla isn't a dragon. She doesn't know how bad the consequences of this choice could be on the Thunder, Natsu and me.

But after all that the two of us have been through, all the moments we've shared, the kiss we had, it just wouldn't be right to not try to be with him.

But I know that I will get my heartbroken. It isn't a possibility, it's almost guaranteed.

Natsu said that rules are only a suggestion and he's right. It's not about rules, it is about our hearts and my heart is telling me to try.

Even if…

Lisanna couldn't finish her thought as she was interrupted by her sister and Levy flying into her path. The three dragonelles stopped in front of each other.

They stayed there in midair staring at each other for a moment before Mira gave a quick jerk of her head towards the mountaintop and took off in that direction.

Upon reaching the ledge at the peak, the dragonelles reverted to their human forms to talk.

"What's going on Mira, Levy? Is something the matter?" Lisanna asked in confusion.

"Lisanna, we're concerned about how you've been acting lately," Mira said bluntly.

A confused look comes over her face, "What are you talking about Mira?"

"You have been acting differently lately Lisanna. Even Lucy's noticed and it's starting to worry us." Levy said as she stepped closer to her friend.

"I don't know what you're talking about Levy. I've been acting the same as I always have."

"No, you haven't. You haven't for a while now and it's becoming more and more obvious by the day. You're hiding something Lis, and it's about time you stop hiding from your friends."

"Levy, really, I'm hiding nothing. You guys are worrying about nothing." Lisanna said before turning back into a dragon and flying away.

Lisanna hoped that would be the end of that conversation but Mira was having none of it. She and Levy became dragons again as well and followed the Tigress Dragonelle.

Mira circled around her sister and stopped her again in the air, "We're not done talking Lisanna."

Lisanna tried to turn around but found Levy at her back, boxing her in. Seeing that she was trapped, Lisanna turned back to her sister to continue their conversation.

"You never used to hide things from us Lisanna, and now that's all you seem to be doing. Please, just tell us what's going on, I promise that we'll listen to whatever you have to say and anything you say will stay between us." Mira pleaded.

It was at that moment that Natsu flew past the trio heading south. Even after he pasted, Lisanna kept her gaze on the retreating form of the Fire Drake.

"Does it have something to do with Natsu?" Levy asked with a knowing voice.

Lisanna was startled at the question and turned toward her friend. Lisanna opened her mouth to respond but hesitated.

That hesitation was all the two needed to come to a conclusion.

"I promise you, there is nothing wrong and it has nothing to do with Natsu," Lisanna said finally before flying back into the Thunder Hall and going straight into her cave to continue the debate from earlier.

The others are starting to figure it out. If that isn't a sign that this is a bad idea then I don't know what is.

Even so, I've made my decision. I'm going to follow Natsu to the waterfall cave.

Even if it means getting hurt in the process?

Yes. Because nothing of worth comes without a level of risk.

Having made her decision, Lisanna decided to go to sleep for the night and head to the cave in the morning.

/\/\/\/\/\

When Lisanna woke up, it was barely light out. She was much too excited and nervous to get much sleep, so she was ready to leave quickly. She made her way out of her cave and down into the great hall to see that Mira was the only one awake at this hour. Just my luck.

"Mira, I'm going hunting for a few days, let master Makarov know please," Lisanna said before walking to the entrance.

Mira did nothing but nod as she watched her sister leave.

Lisanna leaped from the ground and just as she was about to fly outside, she ran face-first into a runic barrier.

"The hell…" Lisanna cursed as she went reeling.

"Lisanna what happened?" Mira called as she ran to her sister's side.

"She ran into my magic." a voice called as a black and green dragon rounded a corner from outside the Hall.

"Freed."