So, here is the next chapter of this story, I think it should 15-20 chapters long at the end. Though, I'm not completely sure yet.
So, good reading!
Chapter 2: Meeting new people
Natsu was now on the train, suffering as usual from his motion sickness. Though, with the years, it had started to heal a bit. As he was on the train, he noticed a little girl, who he assumed was around 8 years old, who was glancing toward him, seemingly trying not to be noticed. Though, when she saw he had noticed her, she went toward him.
"Mr, are you the Salamander?" she asked tilting her head curious
"Yes in fact I am, why the question?"
"Wow, I can't believe I met you, my friends will never believe me!" She squealed excitedly
"What's your name?" Natsu asked
"I'm Anna, Mister Salamender"
"You can call me Natsu"
"Okay Mister Natsu" She seemed thoughtful for a few seconds then asked. "Can you show me your fire magic?"
"I think I can, but only a little bit, otherwise I might destroy the train", he said, lighting his hands on fire.
"Wow!" the little girl stated watching the fire in awe. She started to reach for it with her hand, but Natsu saw her and quickly stopped the fire. The little girl pouted at that. "Sorry kid, but you would have hurt yourself if you had touched it" he explained.
"But it looked nice" she countered pouting.
Then, a woman came seeming quite worried.
"Oh Anna you're here, I was so worried" she said relieved as she hugged the little girl.
"Mama, look it's the Salamander!" the little girl squealed
"Oh, I'm sorry sir for my daughter's behavior"
"Don't worry, it's really not a problem, I like having people to talk to" Natsu answered smiling
"Thank you very much"
"Mister Natsu, can you sign this picture please" the little girl asked holding a picture of Natsu and Happy
"No problem", he answered quickly writing a small message on the picture.
"Arriving in Crocus in 5 minutes" They heard from the train's speakers.
"Well, I have to go, it was nice meeting you Anna!" Natsu said smiling at her before starting to walk out.
"Goodbye Mister Natsu!" Anna waved
This small talk with Anna had brought a smile to Natsu's lips, he really liked talking to people, and when he could make them happy just by setting his hands on fire and signing a picture, he really liked it, he was always delighted to see people happy especially if he was the one responsible for it.
After a few hours of walking, he arrived into a small village not far outside of Crocus that was where the request was sent from. He went toward the mayor's office to have more information.
"Hello, what can I do for you?" asked the receptionist
"I'm Natsu Dragneel from Fairy Tail and I'm here to complete the job which was sent to our guild by this town"
"Oh, thank you very much Mr. Dragneel, I'll see if the mayor is currently busy" the man went toward the mayor's office and came back a few minutes later.
"Okay, you can go in Mr. Dragneel, the mayor is waiting for you."
"Thank you Sir" (Even though most people don't realize it, Natsu has learnt to be polite over the years)
So he went into the office to be greeted by the Mayor, though, he was surprised to see Natsu alone.
"You came alone for the job Mr. Dragneel?" the man asked seemingly worried
"Yes, don't worry, I can easily take care of such a dark guild by myself, so, what can you tell me about this guild?"
"There name is Hell's Gate, we know that their headquarters is located somewhere in the forest east of the village, they are around fifteen members, most of which are specialized in fire magic"
'it seems like it will be even easier than I thought', Natsu thought
"Then, that'll be really easy", Natsu stated
"But you should be careful they have two hostages, they kidnapped them because they didn't have enough money to pay to the dark guild, they had already given them all they had"
"Don't worry, I'll bring them back." Natsu answered determined.
And so, he went toward the forest east of the village, thanks to his nose, he really had no difficulties spotting the guild's headquarters.
He could hear at least 8 voices coming from the first floor, and could smell dried blood in the basement, he figured that must be where the hostages were held prisoners, he knew he needed to stay unnoticed until he reached them if he wanted to keep them alive.
In front of the guild were two mages on guard, one was already asleep, so Natsu only had to shot a small fireball at the one awake before he could be noticed to be able to go in unnoticed.
So, he had already two guard knocked out in front of the entrance, 8 mages on the first floor, that leaves five people to be spotted. Though, he could only smell two more people on the ground floor and one in the basement (not counting the two prisoners), so he guessed the last two must have been on a mission. He quickly went downstairs without being noticed, once there he was face with the guard who realized too late that someone was there and was unable to do anything.
There, Natsu quickly went to free the two prisoners, who were a couple of young adults sleeping in each other arms, Natsu noticed rings on their ring finger and guessed they were married. The woman had long white hair, quite similar to Mira's while the man had very short red hair. He gently woke them up.
"What do you want?" The man asked aggressively, placing himself protectively in front of his wife.
"Don't worry sir, I'm a Fairy Tail mage", Natsu said, showing his guild mark, "I'm here to get you out and get these dark mages arrested. For now I need you to stay here and keep quiet please"
"Okay" they both nodded.
Then, Natsu dragged the unconscious guard upstairs and once on top of the stairs, far enough from the cells to be sure not to harm the prisoners in the fight, he launched a fireball toward the ceiling, causing a small explosion and effectively getting the attention of the ten mages who weren't already knocked out.
They quickly got all around Natsu.
"Well Well, look what we have guys", one of them said, Natsu guess he was the guild master
"A lone fairy tail mage, I think you're in some trouble young man"
"On the contrary, I think you're all in a lot of trouble", Natsu answered smirking.
"Oh let's see" "ATTACK!" he shouted
Out of the ten mages, Natsu soon spotted seven who were using fire magic, he quickly knocked out the three who were using other magics to be safe and then easily got all of those using fire magic by eating there fire. As soon as it was done, he got out a communication lacrima and called the council, who would arrive in half an hour to collect the criminals.
As soon as it was done, Natsu went back downstairs to the dark guild's prisoners.
Both of them were quite worried due to the battle they had heard happening upstairs but were relieved seeing Natsu coming back.
"It's okay now, the dark guild's taken care of", he told them
"Oh thank you sir!" exclaimed the woman, bowing in respect.
"No problem, now come on, I'll get you back to your village.
And so, he quickly helped them toward the village, he noticed the woman's quite large belly, but gave it no second thought.
When he arrived at the mayor's office, he was surprised to see Natsu back so soon and relived to see the former prisoners were okay.
After a few minutes, the couple was talking to the mayor.
"But what will we do now, we don't have anything left, these dark mage took everything we had" The man asked
"I can't do anything for you, I'm sorry but-"
"How much is the reward for the job?" Natsu interrupted
"4 million jewels, but could you let me finish?" the Mayor asked annoyed
Natsu turned toward the couple
"Don't worry about anything, I don't need the reward, I should give at least three quarters of it to you, you need it far more than me" he said smiling
The couple was dumbfounded at what Natsu just said.
"We couldn't accept, it's too much sir." The woman protested
"No it's not, don't worry about it, though would it be okay if I spent the night at your house, I don't really want to have to walk to Crocus right now, I'd prefer to go back tomorrow morning" Natsu asked
"Of course, it's the least we could do", the man answered
And so, just a few minutes, the three of them were walking out of the mayor's office toward the couple's house, with four million jewels.
"So, what're your names?" Natsu asked
"I'm Selena, and he's Joris, and you're Natsu Dragneel, the Salamander, right?" The woman answered
"Yes, I am, what gave it away?" he answered jokingly
"I don't know, the pink hair, the scarf, the fire magic, you're quite easy to identify" Joris answered
They continued to walk until they reached the house.
"I'm going to go cook something" Selena said
"No honey, you should rest, it'll be better for the both of you I'll do it, don't worry" her husband answered
"Okay, if you insist" she answered smiling
So, she and Natsu went to sit the living room.
"So, what did he mean "you both"?" Natsu asked
"Oh, I would have thought you'd have seen by now, I'm already 7 months pregnant" Selena answered "that's one more reason we're thankful for the money, it'll help us be able to provide everything for our little baby when she's here" she continued
"Well then I'm even more convinced I did the right thing giving it to you, you really need it more than I do" Natsu answered grinning "I'm sure this little baby will be awesome with parents like you both" Natsu continued
"We sure hope she will be" Selena confirmed giggling.
And so, Natsu ended up really liking their company, which they did too like having him as their guest, so he ended up staying a full week and, as he was leaving, he promised he'd be back soon.
I hope you liked it, I really liked writing it. Thank you for reading.
alexeliatrope