Chapter 8: In Fieri

Lucy couldn't believe her luck. The dragon had left her alone by his own volition, no underhanded methods necessary, and she was free to go. He looked so ridiculous, flitting from stall to stall and sampling—no, stealing bits of their wares. Though there was no denying his trickster nature, the glint of infantile delight in his eyes was too true to ignore. Could there really be a side to him like that, untouched by his torture? Even if there did exist that half, she still had to return to Crocus. If not that, then somehow alert the Rune Knights of their presence.

"Excuse me," Lucy said, trying to catch the attention of a pair of older women carrying baskets of fruit and fish. "What town is this?"

"Hargeon," one answered with a friendly smile, then she frowned as she scrutinized her. "Dear, you look as if you've been dragged halfway across Fiore!"

Right on the nose, she is, Lucy thought sourly. "I've been on a long journey, ma'am. It wasn't pleasant either."

"There is a little freshwater pool at the western edge of town," her friend said, pointing towards smaller buildings. "The women often use it to bathe in warm weather, but since it's fast approaching autumn, it's empty these days. You can clean up there, and find a vendor selling sewn dresses."

The smarter decision was to contact Gray immediately, but Lucy was sweaty, dirty, and in desperate need of a bath, so she nodded and bowed her thanks to the two before hurrying in the direction of the indicated pool.

One visit to a generous vendor and a cool but refreshing soak later, Lucy was stooped midst the bushes working her fingers through her soaked curls. The navy sundress fit her well enough to be presentable, and thankfully so did the boots he threw in. She looked into her reflection at her golden hair and smiled, rising to her feet.

"From what I've heard, Hargeon is a port town," she murmured, slipping through the trees until she was on a hill cresting the city. "It should be big enough to hold a Rune Knight garrison."

Everything she passed amazed her as she searched the town, although not to Natsu's level, but the excitement was there. Even though she had been on a few excursions into Crocus, it was always guided and not very expansive, and she, a storyteller, always listened with keen ears to guards as they told tales to one another of their birthplaces, places they've fought in, towns they miss the most. She was glad to finally have her own adventure, even if the conditions were…undesirable.

"Excuse me, is there a Rune Knight garrison here?" Lucy asked a fisherman coming up from the pier.

"Yeah, lady, it'd be down the street, 'til you reach the bridge, then cross it and make a left. Biggest building 'round." She thanked him and followed the indicated path, waving to the passersby she saw.

Nobody has recognized me yet despite my looks, she thought, looking around at the idle townspeople. Perhaps because I haven't been too far out into Fiore and they've never seen my face? It worked in her favor and against her at the same time, but she simply took a breath and straightened her back as she continued her way. This will simply be another thing to speak to Father about upon my return. She started slightly from her own thoughts, then gave herself a smile and an awkward laugh. I would never have considered speaking out to him before… Maybe this unsought excursion had some benefits after all?

She tightened the dual clasps of the heavy utility belt she'd acquired where her keyring hung jangling. She still lacked the magic to summon any of her Spirits, but she thought that Loki would have showed up on his own by now despite her protests. Even if he would endanger himself by wasting his magic, he would always be there to protect her—his words, not hers—so she expected him to show his furred head a lot sooner than he had, which so far was chalking up to not at all. She rubbed the cool gold of her Keys fretfully but there was no response from her Spirits. "What could be happening?" she wondered aloud as she crossed the bridge. She stopped and leaned against the railing as a school of silver-scaled, rainbow-finned fish circled and dived beneath the frothy waves, and she laughed in glee.

"Nice town, isn't it?" said a new voice from behind her. She looked up and saw a slightly older man with dark brown hair and plain features smiling good-naturedly at her.

"It really seems so!" she agreed. "Oh, but I shouldn't be here—I'm heading to the Rune Knights'—"

"The outpost? It's not too far from here," he said, jerking his thumb behind him. "I'll walk you?"

"Mm… I guess that would be fine." He offered his elbow, and the way he did so made her laugh again.

"That's a nice sound," he remarked as she clutched his forearm. "What's your name, milady?"

"Just Lucy."

"'Just Lucy,' hmm?" He chuckled. "Short and sweet." She flushed a little and laughed off the compliment. "I'm Aris." They made idle conversation where Lucy found out that he was just as interested in books as she was, and she jumped at the chance since none of her friends in the castle did read. He maintained a stream of knowledge too, so he wasn't just faking to get on her good side. She only broke away from the conversation as the surroundings changed into the freight storerooms near the docks.

"The garrison is around here?" she asked, covering her nose against the strong scent of fish. Standing behind her, Aris let out a slightly irritated noise.

"Hmm, it should've been. Maybe I had my directions wrong?"

"I don't know, maybe you—" Suddenly, her Keys burned hot as the sun on her hip, startling her. It took only a moment for her reflexes to kick in and she dropped into a crouch, narrowly avoiding a blunt projectile that had her ears aching from the rush of wind it produced. She sprang forward into a roll to put distance between them, then jumped to her feet while fumbling with the clasp on her keyring. Aris sighed, switching the stick to his shoulder.

"It would be easier if you'd lay down for this. Part of the allure here is your beautiful face, Princess."

"So, you knew who I was the whole time?" she said, undoing Taurus's Key.

"It wasn't hard. A golden-haired young woman by the name of Lucy? That's one coincidence too many." He snorted, shifting the stick back to attack position. It looked like it was taken from any old tree and she couldn't see how he gave it the power he did. Then he advanced, raising it above his head with both hands, like a sword. "Gravity Magic: Rend!"

"Open, Gate of the—" She broke off as he swung down and the air pressure tripled, giving his attack incredible force. She was thrown onto her back and cried out in pain as Taurus's Key went flying from her grasp and landed a few feet away.

"The black market would love to play around with Princess Lucy Heartfilia," he continued as he approached her. "Particularly seeing as what's going to happen to the rest of the royal family." She glanced at her Key but found it too far to reach. Instead, she rolled over and put her hands out, releasing a blinding flash of light fueled by her magic. He grunted with pain and staggered backwards. She got to her knees and clutched the Key in both hands.

"Taurus, I summon thee!" Her skin itched and burned from trying to force a summon with her current level of magic, but she wouldn't quit, even as her head spun from the effort. "Taurus!"

"Luuucy!" A mass of gold magic in the form of the raging bull manifested in front of Aris. His battleax countered the magically enhanced weight of the stick, and after a moment his ax shattered the thin wood, breaking it into kindling. Lucy would've felt triumphant if not for two things: forcing her magic left her with a near paralyzing sense of nausea, and Taurus had yet to take a solid form. Still, his ax, which wasn't quite as ethernano-based as he was, was solid enough to glint in the sunlight as he swung it towards Aris.

"Impressive," he said as the blade drew close to his neck, "but only just." The ethernano shifted as the air grew in weight, then the battleax changed directions and crashed into the cement. Taurus disappeared just after, although the weapon remained, and Lucy's knees crashed into the ground painfully. Her chest ached as she gasped for breath, feeling a fire not unlike Natsu's racing across her skin. She was blinded by the agony and couldn't react as Aris drew close, Taurus's blade throwing up sparks as it dragged over the concrete. "Let me move these from you." There was a clink, then the warm presence of her Keys was gone. He leaned in closer and took her chin in hand, and his skin felt cold as he scrutinized her. "You really do resemble the late Queen."

"Get—away," Lucy said, acid dripping from every word. For all her effort, Aris only raised an eyebrow.

"Feisty, too. They'll like that…until they break you."

She glowered at the sound of it. She wouldn't willingly allow anyone to ever break her, Mama taught her to be stronger than that, but in her whole life, only one ever came close to doing so. For anyone else to manage it felt like a cheat.

"Try," she challenged, spotting her Keys dangling from the side of his belt. She let her hand inch upwards towards it. She couldn't feel her magic responding to her call, but she had pushed her limits before and she would do it again in a heartbeat. "You'll find that it's a lot harder than you—"

"Hey. Let her go, will you?"

Both their heads snapped towards the road leading back into central Hargeon but found the view obscured by the very irate dragon positioned on it, although only one of the pair knew him to be a dragon. Natsu wore orange shorts and a short red velvet wrap that blew lightly in the wind, but the real show was the fury etched into every sharp line of his face. Astoundingly, he wasn't emitting any fire or heat, but he still felt like a force beyond nature as he stalked forward.

"I said," he repeated as Aris lazily observed him, making no moves of any sort, "let her go." It vaguely occurred to Lucy that Natsu was speaking the primary language of Fiore now, rather than the old one he was using previously. She didn't even know he could do so.

"You're no Rune Knight, considering you don't have the jacket," he said. "So, what, you're her lover?"

"Not going to repeat myself." He came to a stop a few feet away, his eyes burning jade chips. Aris straightened and his Gravity Magic simultaneously activated, causing Natsu to drop to one knee with a surprised noise. "Nice!" he said with a smirk. A vein throbbed in Aris's forehead from his laidback attitude and Lucy gasped as the gravity doubled even more, making her skull feel as if it would implode. "Nice," he repeated lazily without moving an inch.

"You can't be immune to my gravity—it's impossible for any human!" Aris fumed. Natsu sent a manic grin his way as he rose to his feet, rolling his shoulders to loosen them up.

"Surprise," he said before leaping forward. He sped up, he sure as hell did, because by the time Lucy opened her mouth to gasp, he had Aris pinned to the ground by the neck, slamming his head into the concrete over and over, over and over—

"Damn, I'm getting this dirty," he muttered in his natural tongue, pulling away from the head wound gushing blood over the hem of his cloak. Aris was still on the ground, but Lucy could see his chest moving faintly. "Dirty thief, stealing what's mine. Anyway, we're done here." He looked at Lucy, then back at Aris with furrowed brows. Reaching down, his hand slipped around the brass ring—

"Don't touch my friends with your bloody nails!" Lucy screamed, stilling him. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, then back at the Keys with a droll smirk.

"Is that what you're frantic about, now?" he crooned. "Sullying the pretty gold of your…friends?" He clenched his fist for a moment, then snatched her Keys up and tossed them into the air. Lucy staggered and fell forward, skinning her elbows and palms, but she quickly returned to her feet and caught them, hugging them to her chest with a relieved sigh. His sigh was more exasperated. "Your friends would've been sold away if not for me. Where's my thank you, huh?"

"I wouldn't be in this situation at all if not for you!"

"Oh, is that so? You didn't seem too upset chattin' it up with this bum here." She flushed at the implication but stood her ground. "Not until he threatened to have his way with you, which I also could've let happen—I feel I deserve a lot of gratitude on that part." She held her silence, unwilling to indulge him. He glared for a moment, then his expression eased to something more…sinister. "Ah, I see." His hand snapped out, latching onto her wrist, and the other cupped her cheek, the callouses of his palm scraping her skin. "You'd rather I did it, don't you?"

"No," she wheezed, feeling out of breath and even hotter with his contact. She had no magic, not even enough to stun him, but she forced it anyway, feeling as though she was drawing water from a dry well.

"Because I don't mind, if that's what you desire. You are the crowned princess of Fiore, after all—who am I to refuse you?" He was nearly purring, making him sound even more obnoxious. "The world is full of dangerous creatures, something you wouldn't know from being in the castle so long. It would do you some good to learn to handle yourself."

I'll show you handling myself! She attempted to blind him with her magic as she'd done to Aris, and instead, the heat beneath her skin reached a boiling point. Her mouth clamped shut as her knees buckled, and although she hated to admit it, Natsu prevented her from smashing against the ground.

"Ngah!" He grunted in shock as he supported her full weight. He set her in an elevated position on the ground, crouching alongside her. "What the hell, Princess? What's your problem now?" She couldn't respond even if she wanted. Her mouth was occupied by quick and short breaths, and her skin was pale and clammy from fever. He set a hand over her forehead, mouth skewed, and after a moment he pulled it away with a sigh. "It's beyond magic exhaustion," he said, gazing at her with lidded eyes. "You've damaged your container, trying to force ethernano that isn't there. Because of that, ethernano is seeping into your body with the energy causing abnormal effects to your system." He groaned. "Now I have to watch myself, plus your ass. Thanks a lot."

He grasped her around her shoulder blades and beneath the knees, hoisting her into his arms. He was warm through the cloak, and her body was pressed against the hard planes of his. Perhaps because of that cloak, he smelled much more of the sea than his typical aroma. He glanced around with a grimace before shaking his head a little. "No, no, needs a healer, someone that knows about magic…can't find that here…"

He tensed his legs before he leapt high into the sky, the cool wind relieving some of the heat plaguing Lucy before they dropped down near the thick of the pier where the air reeked of smoke from the coming and going crafts. He jogged a few paces to keep his momentum, then they were running, and to Lucy's amazement, she was held carefully as to not be manhandled too much. She took notice of the bandage patch over his cheek and the dressings wrapped around his hand, plus thinner bandages around his skin where his scales had left his dermis grossly inflamed. He, a dragon, could get injured as well, and injuries made him just as weak as she. It was possible to even kill him, if need be, as demonstrated by Gray, and she'd like to think of herself at Gray's power level magic-wise. But currently, until her magic returned, she was completely at his mercy.

"…not…going…"

"What? What are you blabbering about now, foolish girl?"

"I'm not…gonna let you…" she managed before another wave of agony cancelled out her voice. Natsu looked down at her with a maddeningly self-righteous smirk.

"Speak up, will you?" But she didn't have the energy to indulge him and left the matter alone. After a while Natsu grew bored as well, and his run was a silent one as they passed the workers of the docks hauling large crates to the freight ships. He wrinkled his nose in distaste until they were past it all, trotting down a path leading through a thin stretch of waterside forests and sediments. Along one side were scrawny trees with bushy manes of bronze and ocher; to the other, russet and dusky grit edging frothy cerulean waters.

She wondered if she could get another chance to contact Gray. There were plenty of Rune Knight outposts around Fiore, but Natsu could sense and avoid any sign of civilization, and he wouldn't indulge her wishes to go to town either. But—she was getting ahead of herself—if what he said about her magic was true, then she would have to put her energy into surviving. She knew a lot of magical disorders from her extensive time in the library, and things to do with the containers were especially volatile. She couldn't imagine anyone knowing information as old and strong as to fix one.

My magic is hurt, she thought suddenly with a gasp, going rigid in his arms. My magic is hurt and my friends can't come and I've damaged the one gift Mama gave me before passing. I couldn't protect myself from a rogue dragon and I couldn't protect Gray and I couldn't even protect myself from a typical criminal on the streets. If Natsu hadn't shown, Aris would've taken me. What kind of princess am I? How could I ever think of ruling Fiore like this?

"—Princess?" Natsu was saying. It seemed he had been saying it since she became impassive. He came to a stop and stooped down, setting her on her knees. She squinted slightly, then, despite her wishes not to, burst into tears. His eyes enlarged until she thought they would pop out of his skull. "Princess!" he exclaimed in exasperation and…anxiety? She scrubbed her eyes furiously, and when that didn't work, hid her face in her arms and hands.

"I'm no better of a ruler than Father!" she wailed. The last thing she wanted was to look weak to him, of all people, but things simply became too much for her to stand. She tried squeezing her Keys to her chest for comfort, but for some odd reason she couldn't feel her Spirits on the other end as well as she usually could, and the emptiness of it made her cry even harder. He made a strained noise that couldn't be described in human terms, then his hands were carefully set on her quivering shoulders.

"You're better," he said in a tense voice. "You're better than your father, than those blowhards, and you're better than Fullbuster. You are, Princess."

"Obviously, I'm not!" She recoiled from his touch and shoved him away. He stumbled and fell onto one knee but didn't even growl in warning. His eyes did narrow, but she found it devoid of antagonism, and more of a…familial protectiveness, odd as it sounded.

"You're making it really hard to loathe you right now…" She sniffled and raised a hand, which he grabbed quickly but not too roughly. "No magic. Do you really want to kill yourself? Because that won't solve your problems."

"Then what, do I sit here and let you hurt me?" His expression was more distressed than anything as he released her, letting his hand drop to his lap.

"I, well, uh…"

Lucy scrubbed at her eyes with a furious noise. "I could do no more than sit by and let life and fate toss me around like a helpless—helpless little Lucy doll!"

"Life and fate, huh?" he said, looking heavenward with a sigh. Then he looked back at her with a hard expression. "They don't mean nothin', okay? Life is what's happening now, every second you breathe, and fate is only what happens next. There's no supernatural bullshit to it, nor are they gods you should bow down and worship. You are what you make of yourself, and if you decided to lay around, that's all your fault."

"It wasn't—"

"Being King Jude's figurehead was your choice, was it not?" he interrupted. "So was to let yourself be led along by that prick. You did it all, not some extraordinary force." She let out a whimper and his tone softened a tad. "But you also chose to help me as I laid on Jude's spotless floor. You did me a service whereas no one else in the kingdom would bat an eye at my state. That is true princess-y-ness right there." He smiled pleasantly at the memory, and for a moment, she could finally see into Natsu's mind: one who had been played by the kingdom and through every single day of his life, and finally found a gentle hand after a century of such. She could empathize with the intense relief and gratitude he felt.

"You wanted to be free," she said, astonishing herself with the kind tone she used. "That's not to say you went about it the right way, oh gods no, but I can understand."

"You understand," he repeated. The word buzzed between them with all kinds of vibrant energy like a new sort of magic, like a… Like Unison Raid, she thought hazily. The magic of unity. Of the time they spent together, backbiting and snapping their teeth and turning away, this was the moment that they united, that their cores combined. Perhaps he sensed it as well, because he reared back slightly, and as he did so, tears formed in the corners of his eyes. "No… You know, don't you?"

"Freedom after a life's imprisonment," she whispered as the wind picked up. Tufts of leaves fell away from the trees as they rocked and swayed, gusting over and passing between them. She turned to watch them blow over the water before settling on its surface to be taken away with the tides. "That's what this is, isn't it?" She didn't know if she was talking about Natsu or herself, but she felt it didn't matter at that point.

"And you want to steal that from me," he said bitterly, bringing her attention back to him. He glowered past the streaks of tears on his face. "When you would no sooner walk back into the castle with a big smile plastered on, you want to take another's liberty away. Such is humans' cruelty at its best."

"Natsu, I…" She was treading dangerous depths now, but she had already plunged her head beneath the icy surface—what would it matter to submerge the rest of her body as well? "I'm not going to take your freedom. Who am I to do so?"

He snarled, but there was something overly defensive about it, like he was scared for her words to be true. "You humans are all the same: you're liars and cheats."

"But you told me," she said with a smile, "that I am not like the other humans, did you not?" He gaped for a few seconds before snickering.

"I could only imagine what Gray Fullbuster would say, hearing this conversation."

"Also, speaking of Gray, I want to see him. I want to go back, Natsu. The castle is in danger and I want to be there." He looked away from her again with a pained grimace.

"No. It's dangerous." Her temper flared despite herself as she tightened her fists.

"For you or for I?" He growled, head snapping back to hers.

"For both of us. You're not a fighter, Princess. You would be killed quickly. And where would the kingdom be without its princess? You're more important to it than hordes of throwaway Rune Knights." He stood abruptly, shaking his head to dry the last traces of tears. Lucy forgot she had been crying at all. It seemed funny that the dragon, who hadn't interacted with too many people in his long life, knew just the right words to make her feel better. Or was she just that transparent?

"You're—" She attempted to stand before a dizzy spell hit, and Natsu caught her for the second time that day.

"You're still sick," he stated dully, bringing her back into his arms. "Come on. It's a long way still and talking ain't gonna move our feet." He was still Natsu the runaway dragon, and she was still the unwilling princess, but something had undoubtedly transformed between them. She feared to know what it would mean.