Heading on to Tartaros would have to wait a bit longer, however, as there was still the matter of the assassin and what to do about her. Mystogan hadn't recognized Seilah's name, but he had recognized her when Levy and Gajeel pointed her out to him. Here she went by Selena, he told them, and he had considered her a good employee and was shocked to learn she was the one trying to kill him. He decided to play along and pretend he was dead. "Then maybe I can finally start helping Fiore while you go looking for Igneel."
"Much as I would like to have Jellal join us, how long do you think they will buy that you are dead?" Erza questioned, "The minute you start helping Fiore, they'll just send someone back here to either kill you or cause some other problem." Mystogan grinned and said "With any luck, by then you'll have found Igneel and he'll have brought an end to this war. Now, shall we plan my wake?"
The next day it was announced that King Mystogan had died. The castle mourned for the loss of their beloved king and, just as she said she would, a few days after Mystogan's death, Seilah pretended she couldn't deal with him being gone and left. After she had been gone a day, Mystogan revealed he was alive to the rest of the staff, who were thankful their king was still alive as well as shocked by Seilah's deception. They thanked the Fairy Tail members and dragon children for their help in revealing her and bid them good luck on their real work, which they were kept in the dark about of course, as they left the castle joined by Jellal.
"You know, going into Tartaros just got a whole lot more dangerous right?" Carla questioned the group, it was a thought she had been stewing over for days. "I might also have a solution to that." Lucy spoke up. Turning to her Fairy Tail friends she said, "Remember how just after we moved to Magnolia and Dad's business really took off so he sent me to some fancy school in Acalypha?" "Yes, why?" asked Levy. "Well, while there I became real good friends with this girl named Brandish. Turns out my parents and her mom, Grammi, were all really good friends too and they grew up together there."
"You went to a fancy school Lucy?" Natsu questioned. Lucy nodded and said "Yeah, but I only stayed there for about a month. Brandish was pretty much the only normal person there, everyone else were such snobs that I wrote my parents and begged them to let me come home. My mom convinced my father that I didn't really need any of the lessons being taught there and I was saved. Anyways, I've kept in touch with Brandish, who also convinced her mom to let her leave shortly after I did, since then. They both live just a few towns inside the border of Tartaros, they moved there with her father when he was alive."
"Do you think they will let all of us stay with them?" asked Gray, "I mean with Jellal we now have ten humans and three Exceeds, that's a lot of people to put up." Lucy shrugged and said "It can't hurt to ask. Worst case scenario we end up not having as safe a place to spend the nights at while we do our searching." Everyone agreed to this as Erza led the group closer to the end of this leg of their journey. But she and a few others decided to make a short stop as a surprise for the Exceeds in their company.
Not too far from the castle, was the royal Exceed village of Extalia. The buildings, which had all once been Exceed sized, were a mix now of both Exceed and human size. Queen Shagotte had held visits with many visiting dignitaries and thus had seen fit to make places where they could meet, sleep and eat in comfort. It was only as they grew closer that the Exceeds realized where they were going, the first of which was Lily. "Hey, is this where I think it is?" he questioned, causing the other two with him to really take in their surroundings.
Carla gasped and said "It's Extalia, isn't it?!" The Exceeds of the town had all stared in the direction of the arriving party, humans may not be unknown to them but their visits were scarce with those they didn't recognize so they were all curious. They soon noticed there were other Exceeds with them and some went running to tell the Queen and the Elders of the pending visit. Shagotte made haste to welcome the visitors, happiness spreading on her face as she saw a few young Exceeds with them, perhaps the first that they would welcome back!
"Welcome travelers and young Exceeds, to Extalia!" She proclaimed, "Are you here just to visit or did you hear that it is finally safe for the young to return home?" The three Exceeds looked at each other in surprise. They always knew that the plan, when they were sent out, was to one day be returned to their home, to their people, but none had ever thought about it as actually being something they would do. They were all close to their friends and those they lived with. "Well…" Carla said, but stopped, not knowing what to say.
Queen Shagotte held up her paw and said "Do not worry, from your faces I can see that neither of those things is what truly brought you here. Don't worry. May I ask your names?" "I'm Happy and this is Carla and Panther Lily." The young blue Exceed spoke up, seeing as the other two were a little too dazed to be answering. Shagotte smiled and said, "Nice to meet you, and which of you humans are the ones that took them in?"
Gajeel, Wendy, Natsu and Lucy all stepped forward, to which the queen asked "Will you tell us your names? Each parent knows who took in their child, so this way they can know, you can also say which Exceed is the one you took in." "I'm Natsu Dragneel and Happy is my best buddy." "I'm Lucy Heartfilia, I originally took in Happy but Natsu was in need of his companionship more than I was, which we can explain if the parents are interested to know."
"You're darn right we want to know why!" Exclaimed a white, male Exceed stepping forward. "Now Lucky, I'm sure there is a good reason." Said a blue, female Exceed, who put a comforting paw on his shoulder, before looking at Lucy, Natsu and Happy and saying "I'm Marl and this is Lucky, we are Happy's parents. Won't you come visit with us for a bit?" The three agreed and moved off with the Exceeds, while Gajeel spoke up next, "I'm Gajeel Redfox and I took in Lily." Just as with Happy's parents, Panther Lily's parents came forward and they all headed off somewhere private together.
Wendy smiled softly and said "I'm Wendy Marvell and I guess you already figured I took in Carla." The Queen's eyes filled with tears, Marvell was the last name Grandeeney used when she took her human form and she promised Shagotte that she would watch over her child personally, so that meant that Carla was… "Oh Carla, I'm your mother." Shagotte said as the tears finally broke free and rolled down her face. Mother and daughter stared at each other in shock for a minute before embracing each other, the rest of the Exceeds and the humans, minus Wendy, moving off to give them some privacy.
XXX
By the end of the day they weren't nearly done catching up with each other, but all of the Exceeds finally gave into the need for sleep and went to bed. When they awoke in the morning, the dragon children's companions came up to them and Carla said "We know you need to get looking for Igneel, so we want you to go on without us. We all need some time to get to know one another better and you can always pick us up on the way home or send word to Mystogan if something keeps you from coming back this way to meet you at Fairy Tail or wherever."
"This isn't goodbye forever, we just want to spend time with our families." Lily said. Wendy tearfully said goodbye to Carla before rushing off to join the others. It hurt Carla a little to see Wendy so upset, but she also knew in her heart that someday she was expected to rule Extalia and so she, most of all, needed to stay. Gajeel told Lily to watch out for himself, both too macho to admit they would miss each other. Once both had gone off to join those they would be staying or going with, Happy turned to Natsu and asked "Will you be okay without me Natsu? I can always go with you."
Natsu sighed and said "I can't honestly say I will be fine, I mean we've been together forever Happy, but I know the others will be there to raise my spirits if I start moping too much about missing you. You've been wanting to see them for longer than I've been looking for Igneel, it would be selfish of me to ask you to come when you've just started getting to know them. Don't worry little buddy, I will see you again." Happy nodded, feeling somewhat comforted about being separated from Natsu and left to join the others.
Natsu watched him go, only turning away when he felt a light hand on his shoulder. Turning to look he saw Lucy standing beside him, giving a gentle and comforting smile. He tried returning it, before looking back at Happy. He felt just like he had the night when Igneel didn't return, though he would never tell the little guy that. It felt like a piece of his heart had been ripped out and stomped on. He knew that this wasn't goodbye forever, but a part of him worried about being abandoned again, about Happy choosing his parents over himself. It was a selfish thought, he felt, but he just couldn't help but watch as the last part of what he considered his original family walked away.
Answers to Reviews!
FireShifter: Aww I'm so glad it made your day! Glad you enjoyed it!
FTAnt: I'm glad you liked the feel of the last chapter, I was worried I might be over explaining things, but I was like oh well if it is XD Mystery books are some of my favorites (and shows too now that I think about it XD) so I guess that kind of showed with that chapter XD
