Natsu and several others were gathered around a fire that night. Erza frowned, glaring at said fire and said "We've been fighting them for a month now and I know that Acnologia isn't pushing them to fight us as hard as he could be. I think he is putting on a show. The only thing I can't figure out, is why?" Frankly, Natsu didn't care. A month of fighting had made the challenge dull to him, he longed for something different in his routine, something that didn't include smashing his fist against someone all day.
Natsu wasn't the only one feeling this way, though the others tried to put their own thoughts into what was Acnologia's plan. But Natsu let his mind wander to the last letter he had received. True, only two had been sent by Lucy, just as he had sent two, but they were long and filled with everything that had happened to her. This second letter he could tell she was still struggling with the loss of the Celestial Spirits that she had mentioned in her first, though she didn't say as much, and he longed to be there to give her a hug.
He was brought out of his thoughts as a small, but familiar voice yelled in his ear "Hey Natsu, get your head out of the clouds, or should I say the letters?" Gray smirked as he finished speaking and Natsu was severely temped to flick the Sprite off his shoulder, but Gray had suffered an injury to his wing that day and while it had been healed, it still needed some time to mend properly so if he did so there was a whole slew of people who would hurt him. Juvia for starters, and she would be far scarier than his mother or Wendy in this situation.
So he settled for a glare and said "I was listening." The Nymph, Laki, paused where she was working on a piece of wood, using her magic to form shapes with it, as she asked "Oh really, what were we talking about then?" Natsu glared at her, she still held a grudge from when he had accidentally singed her tree several years ago and was always ready to try to call him out. "I don't know what Acnologia's plan is and I don't really care. I just hope he gets on with it soon so we can end this fight already!" Natsu muttered.
The others were surprised that Natsu had been listening and Max, a Seitaad who was currently in his human form, said "Be careful what you wish for Natsu." Natsu rolled his eyes and replied "I said hope not wish Max, but either way he better make his move, this is getting boring!" The others weren't sure if they should roll their eyes or be surprised that Natsu was bored of fighting.
A pair of Phipthere were curled around each other, using the heat of the fire to warm themselves. The red one lifted his head, his tongue flicking out of its own free will as he said "If I could only get close enough to hear his thoughts, we might be able to end this." The other lifted her head and said "It's not for your lack of trying Erik. Acnologia has been good at keeping himself far from where either we can hear him or one of the dragons could snatch him and end this." Erik nodded at his purple scaled companion as he gently replied "I know Kinana."
The Phipthere were like the dragons as far as size, but they were more like snakes in the fact they had no arms or legs. They did have wings however and they used that to their advantage along with their poisonous breath. Natsu was tired of all this talk and stood abruptly, causing Gray to have to hold on tight or risk falling off his friend's shoulder. Natsu's other friends all looked to him and he waved them down and said "I'm just tired, I'm going to get some rest." He gently removed Gray from his shoulder, setting him next to Juvia, who was quite pleased with this.
After he had left the fire, his friends all turned to each other and Gajeel chuckled as he said "Boy does he miss Lucy." Others laughed as Levy's small voice said "I miss her too, but I get what you are saying Gajeel." The last bit was said with a sly look. The way he talked about Lucy, especially after one of her letters had arrived, said how much he cared for her. And both recognized the small scare on Natsu's face, for Gajeel had one just like it from when he had plucked one off his for Levy. They wondered if Natsu realized just how much he cared for the blond or if he was oblivious as always.
XXX
The next morning, Natsu flew over the battlefield. This part of the wide open field was battle scarred and it would be years, if ever, before it fully recovered. Spots marked the ground where Jackal, having returned to Acnologia's side, had caused an explosion to happen, though thankfully there was always a fire dragon like Natsu or Romeo around to help contain it. Small hills of dirt caused by multiple people getting pushed back by a spell in the same place over time were also obvious to his dragon sight, though they were more like ant hills rather than full blown hills from his place in the sky.
He heard the sounds from both sides as they marched their way onto the battlefield, ready to repeat what had been done the day before and the day before that and the day before that. He sighed. Never would he have thought that fighting would lose its thrill… but it had. He half smiled as he said softly "Actually its not so much that fighting has lost its thrill, but rather I just want to see Lucy again." His family had talked many nights about missing the Heartfilias and planned to invite them to come for a visit once the war was over.
As the sounds of the two sides meeting reached Natsu's ear, he lost the smile that had been starting to form on his face and angled himself downward. It was time to start another long day of fighting and to put away thoughts of Lucy until later. He winced as he landed in his human form, his left leg having received an injury the day before and while Shelia, the cupid with surprising healing talents, had fixed it, much like all of the injuries lately it still needed time to heal correctly.
The healers had been hard pressed and they were all straining each day to keep the magical beings going, so Igneel had told them to concentrate on those with the worst injuries and bringing them to a safe point and then healing the others so they could get back into the fight, but not to do more beyond that unless absolutely necessary. It had helped lower the burden on the outnumbered healers, but in turn many like Gray and Natsu had to be careful for a while after being healed, rather than just jumping back into the fight like they were one hundred percent.
Up in the skies above, Natsu caught sight of the Tengu called Warren. The being's black wings kept flapping as he flew back and forth over the battle field, sending out telepathic messages of warning to his friends and comrades below, while also reporting no sign of Acnologia. Natsu was almost half convinced at this point there was no such person as Acnologia, if not for the fact that his parents had known him themselves.
Gray and a fellow Sprite, Droy, whizzed by Natsu as Flare, a Harionago, deflected an attack that almost hit them with her hair. Gray saluted her as his thanks as the two kept flying, off to do some task or other. A Pixie named Reedus was still stumping enemies with his amazing artistic abilities that came to life before their eyes.
Natsu felt electricity in the air as Laxus flew overhead, followed by the Fairy Evergreen and the Pixies, Bickslow and Freed. The four had been close friends for a long time and while sometimes Evergreen liked to fight alongside of her lover, Elfman, she was almost constantly with her oldest friends. Natsu hit another enemy down with his fiery fist and caught site of Gildarts taking on Jackal. He wasn't sure that was the smartest idea since they both had different kinds of explosive powers, but it wasn't like they could damage the earth any more than it already was…. At least he hoped not.
Suddenly the voice of Warren came screaming into the ears of all those present on the battlefield. "Acnologia has entered the battlefield!" Looking around, Natsu saw the black male making his way boldly into the field. Surprise covered many of their faces, all had been wondering if he would ever make an appearance and now that he finally did they weren't sure what to do next. Everyone knew he was powerful, he had to be to become the leader of the mages in a relatively short amount of time.
Natsu turned as he felt the familiar heat of his father come up beside him. "Stay here." Igneel said, his tone leaving no room for argument from his rambunctious son. Both sides stilled as the leaders headed towards each other, neither side wanting to miss what was sure to be an intense fight. Natsu's fingers gripped into fist and released over and over again as worry for his father filled him. It's not that he thought Igneel couldn't take Acnologia in a fair fight, but rather he wasn't too sure that Acnologia would fight fair.
When they were still several paces away from each other, both men stopped and stared at each other. Finally Acnologia spoke up and said "Igneel, my you haven't changed a bit." His tone was falsely pleasant, even those who would have just stumbled upon the situation would have thought so, but Igneel returned it with a sad tone as he said "I wish I could say the same for you, old friend. Why do you wish for the extermination of my kind?"
Acnologia sneered and said "You don't deserve the power you wield. Your wife gave it to someone like Layla, but you didn't give it to me as well." Igneel shook his head and said "You were not in need of it, neither was Layla really, but you know how Grandeeney worries." Acnologia's eyes flashed with anger and said "Layla was indeed worthy of it, but you should have given me one so she would have thought me worthy of her."
Igneel gave him a glare of his own as he said "I never said she was unworthy of it. Besides she was already married at that point, Acnologia, and while she cared for you she loved Jude." This was the wrong thing to say, at least as far as Acnologia was concerned, for he finally lost his temper and threw himself at Igneel, using no magic but rather a sword. Igneel blocked the wild swing with his arm, his scales having been summoned to that particular point to make a sort of makeshift shield and thus it bounced off harmlessly.
This angered Acnologia even more, his swings though they came faster were more and more reckless, putting not only Igneel in harm's way, but himself as well. Time after time Igneel merely reflected the blows, scales appearing and then disappearing as needed. He was a little slow one time in raising his defense and Acnologia managed to get in a good sized cut on Igneel's left arm, but besides a small roar of pain, Igneel kept going as if it were nothing.
Soon Acnologia began to pant, overexerted by both his swinging around of the sword and his anger. His movements started to become slow and sluggish and while his right hand man, Invel, made a move towards helping his leader, he made the move a moment too late. Igneel finally took the offensive and landed a blow to Acnologia's neck, effectively knocking him out. He quickly gathered the fallen mage and moved towards his lines, who were quick to cover his retreat, crowing their victory not only the battle, but the war as well.
Invel tried to regroup the mages but many were afraid after seeing the leader who had led them so strongly for the last month bested so easily and they scattered. A few faithful stood beside Invel, Mard Greer and Jackal being two of these, but they knew they were no match for the magical beings and so they too were forced to leave. The magical beings let them go, it would be awhile if ever before the mages tried to take them on again, they were sure.
Once he was sure that no one would be trying to snatch Acnologia, Igneel snapped on some of the magic dampening cuffs, the kind without a chain as he couldn't bring himself to do it to his old friend, before motioning for a nearby dragon. "Bhikhu, take him to where we are keeping the other prisoners of war, but don't let him near the others and keep an eye on him."
Bhikhu nodded his understanding and took the still unconscious Acnologia away while the other magical beings began cheering and celebrating. Gray surprised Juvia by pulling her into a kiss, Levy snuggled into Gajeel's neck in their form of a hug, while Erza and Jellal hugged each other. Seeing all his happy friends, Natsu felt a pain of longing for Lucy to be with them as well.
XXX
As the friends all ate lunch, Levy smiled at Gajeel and said "Now that that is over, what do you say we get on with our wedding?" Gajeel smiled down at the Pixie and said "I'm all for that." This gave Natsu an idea and he said "If you hold off a little longer, maybe we can get Lucy out here in time to join us." Levy squealed and said "I would love that!" Erza smiled and said "I'm looking forward to meeting this Lucy. If she is half as interesting as you all say she is, I think we will become good friends." Natsu knew that they would, after all once Lucy got over the fear that the mages had instilled in her and others about dragons and she had quickly been open to being friends with any magical being.
"Millianna should be here soon and we could send a message back with her." Natsu said. "Why not invite her whole family out here while you're at it." Came the voice of Grandeeney from behind her son. "I would love to see Michelle again!" Wendy declared as she thought about the fun her, Romeo, Shelia and Michelle could all have. Jellal and Erza were thinking how good it would be to be able to have a real visit with Millianna, the brief ones they had had when she delivered a letter or two and waited for the recipients to write a reply had been far too short for their taste.
"I'm gonna go write it so its ready the moment Millianna gets back!" Natsu declared, jumping to his feet and rushing off to find some writing supplies. A real grin was on his face for the first time in weeks, and while it still would be some time before Lucy arrived, a month at least with Millianna having to fly back and there being no magical beings for transportation this time for Lucy, he was sure it would fly by as they made preparations not only for her visit but for the wedding of his cousin and Levy.
As with the previous chapters, I'll answer the reviews right after my magical being info thing, so if you aren't curious about that and have a review that you wrote on the last chapter that you want to see the answer to, feel free to jump ahead to there!
This time I will be covering Tengu! Now when you search for Tengu you'll find a really weird looking dude with a red face and large/long nose. The one I saw and based Warren off of was a humanoid raven like creature (you can find it by searching Tengu Raven Form on Google, scroll down until you see a raven humanoid thing in blue clothing holding a sword) and the page said that along with shape shifting and teleporting being one of their powers (which if I had gone looking for Warren's magical being type sooner, I might have thrown Mest in with him, lol) they could speak telepathically to humans and since I need telepathy to be the thing or one of the things the magical being I chose for Warren to be able to do, I picked it. Plus I could put Warren in the sky with it and help with the war that way so win win. The image I told you about is basically how I pictured Warren looking while writing this chapter, so def go look it up if you got the chance!
Answers to Reviews!
Ember Reverie: ugh I know, I hated doing that to the poor little Nikora (I love those little guys!)! We shall see if the Celestial King's gift backfires or not! Dun dun dun!
FireShifter: yeah the poor Nikora : ( True true though! I definitely wouldn't put it past any of them, lol. Back at you!
FTAnt: lol woot woot for Lucy and I'm glad you enjoyed it!