*Recap*

"Where are you from?"

"Hargeon." The boy's voice was quiet. "But isn't Hargeon about 20 miles from here?"

He felt the boy's hand tightened in his own as they neared a clearing. "Fliss?" Surely they hadn't reached the exit of the forest yet they still had 3 miles to go. The creature didn't say anything as they entered the clearing; they were all surprised to find that there was a small campsite sitting in the middle of it. Not sure what was going on Natsu was pulled from his daze by a sharp object slicing through his hand. Holding his palm to his chest Natsu let out a sharp yelp before looking down at the wound. He quickly looked towards Mitsuki who was now holding what looked to be a dagger to Fliss' throat.

"Mit-"

"Stay back." Natsu could only grit his teeth as the small boy began to back away from him with Fliss in toe. "So you're one of the poachers kidnapping the animals in this forest?"

"That's right. How does it feel to be tricked by a child?"

"Why would you kill helpless animals just to make a profit?"

"Kill them? Why would I kill them? Selling them is much more sufficient. Although if a few buyers want to make furs out of them or something, who am I to stop them?"

"So you lied to me to get to Fliss then?"

"Of course I did. Don't act so hurt by it, it's business. Besides, do you know how much jewel we'd be paid for this beast? I've only seen one other creature like her and we sold him earlier today to a breeder. He said if we could find a female he'd pay us triple the amount he paid for the male and of course we were interested in his proposition. She's going to be our magnum opus. I mean just look at her! She's a poachers dream sport. Fur from her lower body, scales from the upper, and ivory from her precious tusks. The black market will know the name Weeping Mountain for sure after we sell her to this breeder.

He'll be able to make more and more and then when Fliss and the male can no longer produce we'll sell everything that's valuable about them. Then we repeat the process with the offspring. We'll be the richest poacher's guild in history-"

"Why did your guildmates send you out to look for Fliss alone?!"

"A good question, why would they send their strongest poacher out by himself?" A smirk formed on Mitsuki's face as three other men began to make themselves known. Natsu looked to each of them in surprise, how did he not smell them?

"You really think he'd keep up his end of the deal? The breeder?"

"Of course. Why would he lie to me?"

"Greed."

"Well he needs me if he wants to make more-"

"He only needs you now. Once he has Fliss he'll be done with you and your crummy guild."

"He wouldn't do that. We made a promise."

"Oh yeah how reassuring."

"Be Quiet! You're not even worth my time." Natsu watched restlessly as Mitsuki started moving backwards with Fliss towards his tent. His guild members started making their way towards Natsu in an attempt to surround him. Feeling the start of a fight, Natsu held one of his hands up before Mitsuki's voice rang through the air. "Stop where you are. If you make any moves I'll kill her and sell her valuable parts."

"Why would you do that? You need her for the breeder?"

"I can always get another female."

"Except you can't."

"Try me. I'll find anoth-"

"Fliss is the last of her kind after you sold the male off to that breeder friend of yours." Natsu watched as Mitsuki's jaw tightened. "A-and how do I know you're telling the truth?!" Natsu could feel the presence of Mitsuki's guild members getting closer to him. With a smirk, Natsu matched Mitsuki's gaze. "You really wanna risk it?"

Mitsuki's guild members began to whisper to each other.

"Shove his face into the mud Mitsuki!"

"Yeah, you wanna prove your one of us don't ya?"

Natsu raised his eyebrow in question. "What happened to "strongest poacher" in the guild?"

"I AM THE STRONGEST POACHER AND ONCE I SELL HER THAT'LL BE MY FOREVER TITLE!"

Natsu could only shake his head as he released a yawn. "Sounds lame."

Mitsuki blushed in embarrassment, "Oh yeah well...WHAT DO YOU KNOW?! I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR OPINION I WILL BE THE "STRONGEST POACHER!"

"Stop your whining and kill the bastard already Mitsuki."

"Why don't you three stop standing around waiting for a child to do your dirty work." The three poachers glared back at Natsu retrieving their weapons. "NO!" The group returned their gazes back to Mitsuki who was stomping his foot much like a brat who wasn't getting their way. "THE BOSS SAID THIS WAS MY MISSION TO PROVE MYSELF! YOU CAN'T INTERFERE!"

"Then fucking do something you whinny ass bitch."

Natsu rolled his eyes as he watched the four bicker with one another. It was almost embarrassing how easy it was to distract them. He gave his signature Natsu smirk as he aimed his hand towards the dagger in Mitsuki's grip. After a few seconds he released the tiniest amount of fire which soared through the air knocking the small blade out of the poor boy's unsuspecting clutch. Who in turn jumped back in surprise. The scream leaving his throat was almost resembling that of a whistle. Now seeing her chance, Fliss took off into the forest, galloping out of sight.

Mitsuki yelled after her with a shrill cry. "NO!" This isn't fair! I caught her, you cheated!"

Natsu only shook his head at the little boy before turning to his three guildmates. The men in turn readied their weapons for an attack. It wasn't until he set his hand a light that they all froze.

"YOU DIDN'T TELL US HE WAS A WIZARD!"

"H-how was I supposed to know?!"

"Mitsuki!"

The boy in question looked to them for a moment before rubbing the back of his head. I might've lost...my communication lacrima…"

The men only groaned before returning to their battle stances. "Alright men on my mark."

Natsu, ever confused, stood there staring at them with his head tilted to the side. "You guys really don't get the element of surprise do you?"

"Ready.."

"Guess we're doing this then." Stretching his back, Natsu pointed his flame covered arm at them.

"Set…RETREAT!"

"Wait wha-?" Natsu watched as the three poachers began running into the woods. "Lame I thought there was gonna be at least some kind of fight." He watched as the idiots scrambled like mice in multiple directions before finally rounding the majority of them up. However when he went to get the third and final poacher (minus Mitsuki) he was met with a disturbing sight.

The man was covering himself head to toe in mud and animal scat...yeah...gross. At least he figured out why he couldn't smell them.

"Wait hold on I thought you said that you couldn't hear or smell them."

"Look after finding out about the animal poop part I did not want to know anything else."

"You go on adventures with a cat who literally carries raw fish in his backpack and you're grossed out about animal poop? You know some hunters actually do that to mask their scents while stalking prey-" (don't know if that's true, please don't quote me on it XD)

"That's disgusting! You're telling me you wouldn't be grossed out by that?!"

"Uh...fair point-"

"Stop nitpicking every little detail. I'm trying to tell you what happened."

"When are we going to see Happy again in your story?"

"Later now hush."

"Fine fine."

"The man had covered himself in mud and other gross things...bleh… *cough* Anyway I rounded them up…" Natsu watched as Lucy held in a few giggles. "Stop laughing at me!"

"Alright sheesh just get back to your story!"

"I'm trying!" Giving her a playful shove he skipped his small recap.

"You people are disgusting." The fire mage looked down at the men he had begrudgingly tied up.

"Don't judge us!"

"Yeah at least we don't smell like rotting raw fish!"

"I DO NOT SMELL LIKE ROTTING RAW FISH!"

"Actually...you kinda do...it kinda reminds me of the cat with wings we captured earlier-" The men froze as they felt a sudden chill in the air. Looking up they all began to sweat as the fire mage snatched their throats.

"Where's. Happy."

Choosing life rather than death, the sad excuses for poachers began to stutter out different answers before Mitsuki's annoying squeal grabbed their attention. "YOU MEAN THIS ONE! I CAUGHT HIM MYSELF!"

"Sorry Natsu but he had a fishy and it looked so yummy!" The Exceed in question was trapped in a cage being hoisted over Mitsuki's head.

Before anyone could blink, fire had surrounded Mitsuki's body. "I suggest you release my friend before things get hairy."

"Mitsuki please open the cage."

"Kid do what he says-"

"NO! I WILL BE GIVEN THE TITLE THE GREATEST POACHER! I ALREADY LOST THAT CREATURE..FLOSS OR WHATEVER BUT I WILL NOT LOSE THE RARE CAT WITH WINGS!"

"THAT IS QUITE ENOUGH!" The ground below them began to shake as the trees and bushes in the clearing started to morph into the form of an old man.

"Oh no, not this guy. I wasn't mentally prepared to deal with him yet." Natsu rubbed his forehead in annoyance.

The group watched as the old man put out Natsu's flames like it was nothing. Mitsuki now seeing an opportunity to escape began to run out of the clearing only for the wind to blow him back.

"Do you know how annoying it was for me to find you all? It was thanks to that numbskull that I was finally able to." The old man hissed as he snatched up the cage from Mitsuki's weak grasp.

"MY CAT WING THING!"

"HIS NAME IS HAPPY!"

"Shut it! Both of you!" The forest creature began to rub his head in frustration before releasing Happy from his confinement. "I've had the worst headache ever since that annoying cry baby first opened his mouth."

The old man turned to Natsu annoyed. "I believe this is your friend?" Natsu gave a small nod as he was handed Happy. "Then you can both leave, I have some Poachers to deal with."

"With all do respect old tree dude...what are you gonna do with them?"

"You really wanna know." Natsu watched as the old man cracked his knuckles.

"You know what I'm good at, have fun doing whatever it is you're going to do." And with that Natsu took his leave with Happy in arms...even if he wasn't sure where the exit of the forest was. Thankfully it didn't take too long thanks to the Forest literally throwing both him and Happy out.

"By the time we got to Hargeon we were so tired we were barely hungry. So we only ate the entire buffet table before going to bed."

"Sounds like the two of you were exhausted."

"I'm going to ignore that sarcasm." They both laughed as Lucy shook her head.

"Natsu if you didn't wanna tell me what happened during your job you should've just said so instead of coming up with that ridiculous story."

"It is not a ridiculous story, it was the truth!"

"Uh huh sure. Next thing you're going to tell me is that Zeref's your brother and Happy's from some other world called Edolas or something crazy like that."

"Don't be absurd, what kind of stories have you been reading."

Before either of them could say another word, Master Makarov had taken a stand on the second floor banister. "ALRIGHT YOU BRATS LISTEN UP! NEXT MONTH WE'RE HELPING THE TOWN CELEBRATE THE HARVEST FESTIVAL!"

"Harvest Festival-" Before Lucy could even ask her question a few of the older men in the guild started gushing about some kind of beauty pageant.

"Say Luce you should enter your pretty."

"Thanks Natsu-"

"Yeah for a walking clutze."

"Alright Cat you're asking for it- Wait a minute- WHEN DID YOU EVEN GET HERE?!"

Hope you guys enjoyed! Happy Holidays and of course stay healthy!