A Golden Beginning

Rated: T

She became aware of the sensation of falling. The weightless feeling making her stomach summersault and bile rise. She could feel the wind rushing past her face, feel it nip at her skin and tug almost painfully on her ponytail; Yet the wind was not enough to hide the increasing heat. Her skin felt like it was being licked by flames, leaving blisters and scorched flesh in its wake.

Her eyes would not open, her limbs would not move, and her panic was mounting. Hadn't she just been in bed, tucked in by her parents and left to dream about the upcoming summer festivals? She was certain that this was no longer a dream, but rather a realistic nightmare. One she could not get out of.

What had she eaten before going to bed? She'd have to make sure to avoid that again in the future…

With little time to process another thought, she felt her body collide into something cold and seemingly unyielding.

The forest he inhabited was always busy. There was no order, no rhyme and he preferred it that way. The chaos made him feel alive, gave him something to look forward too. Living alone could be rather boring at times, especially when his friends could not be bothered to playfight and goof around anymore.

He was used to loud noises. Well, at least he thought he was.

The Mountains that made up his home rumbled, shook and sprinkled dust right on Natsu's head. Normally this would be ignored with a grumble and swift shift in position, but something was refusing to allow him to go back to sleep.

Swinging his feet up and over the sides of the hammock, he slowly slipped to the floor. Yawning and petting the blue lump of fur that slept on soundlessly. It was a little concerning how heavy of a sleeper the little feline could be.

"When you slept with a dragon what is there really to fear?" Natsu chuckled to himself as he softly padded out of the cave, up the steep tunnel and out into the open. He couldn't help but take a deep breath and stare at the sky as he stretched. The moon was nowhere to be seen, the inky black of the horizon broken only by pinpricks of light. If he stared long enough he'd catch a shooting star or two, silver or gold and brighter than an emergency flare.

"Shooting stars! Treasures!"

The excited chittering of the local forest spirits brought him out of his daze. Natsu's eyes quickly picking out the tiny sprites that disguised themselves as fireflies. They flittered around, chatting excitedly about…a goddess? He had learned early on that sometimes the sprites had an active imagination. You couldn't always believe the tale they decided to tell.

"A golden goddess! A goddess! She fell straight from the heavens and into our hands!"

Natsu couldn't ignore what they were saying even if he'd sewn his ears shut. A constant excited whisper. He sighed as he moved in the direction they had indicated. The sprites got more animated the further out he went, clinging to his salmon hair and ghosting over his short horns. They fluttered around his head in a maddening display of lights, making it nearly impossible to see where he was going.

"Could you all be ANY MORE distracting?" he growled out in frustration and swatted a hand at the collection of fireflies that drifted near his head. With the lights out of his eyes, he pressed forward. Slipping around trees and sinking his toes into the chilled dirt to keep as quiet as possible. Whatever had the sprites truly enamored he wanted to catch it by surprise. He wanted to watch.

Seconds turned to minutes, which to Natsu felt like a slow eternity. He was impatient by nature. Some even called him hot-headed. Maybe if he picked up the pace he would get there sooner? He HAD been practicing on a new way of travel; The only issue being that it usually meant half the forest would go up in flames.

"Here, over here!"

He was brought out of his musings by the tinkling chime and turned his attention to the break in the trees just a few steps ahead of him.

"Hurry, Hurry, HURRY!"

Natsu pushed his way through the last few branches and was nearly blinded by the amount of light that was emanating from the clearing. At first he thought it was coming from the massive amount of fireflies that had accumulated, but was soon awed by the realization that the sprites might not have been lying.

In the middle of the clearing a crater was created, a soft golden light leaking over the lip and obscuring his view of the bottom. He could not stop his feet from moving closer, excitement turning his blood to lava and causing a tendril of smoke to escape the side of his mouth. Natsu could feel his core temperature increasing as he bent over the edge of the cavity. He squinted his eyes against the bright light in the center and could feel himself spiraling towards impulsive as he waited for his eyes to adjust. The second they did, he sucked in a breath at the girl at the bottom. She was on her side and curled in on yourself. Her golden hair was tousled as if she had been trying to shake off a terrible dream, her face was pale, and her lips were parted slightly. They were a soft shade of peach. Natsu was surprised at how hard it was to drag his eyes from her mouth to quickly look over the rest of her. The amount of heat she was putting off was enough to make him consider curling around her and leeching from it; The fire dragon immediately recognizing a kinship to the kind of heat she was putting off.

"A golden goddess!"

The young dragon was barely aware of the near constant chanting of the dancing fireflies. He could only focus on his breathing and the knowledge that he was about to take this mysterious girl home.

"Afterall," Natsu purred absentmindedly, "what dragon could turn down this much gold?"