CHAPTER 35: PIECES OF THE PAST 1/2


At dawn, they returned to the gathering hall.

Light washed over the ruins as the sun climbed above the horizon. It broke through the blue moment, painted the skies in crimson shades, and softly cast its warming rays on Lucy's face. In silence, she stole one last glance of the sunrise before gesturing at Natsu that it was time to go. Then she looked away to hide her smile. She had been smiling for too long now.

Suddenly, after what Natsu had said, all had fallen to place in her mind. She had been so afraid, afraid of being alone, but those words cast away her fear just like the dawn casts away the night. 'Then don't go where I cannot follow you,' had he said. In Lucy's world that meant, 'I won't leave you alone.' It was a promise. She wouldn't have to carry the greatest task on her own. As long as she had him by her side, there was nothing she couldn't do.

By the time they made it back to the camp, Erza and Gray were already awake. They sat in front of the renewed fire, eating breakfast and healing the wounds from yesterday's battle. Gray cast healing spells on the bruises on his face and Erza applied ointment to her frostbites. Both of them raised their eyes to Natsu and Lucy, but didn't say anything. Lucy had not been looking forward to debriefing the battle with them, and she only realised it now.

"So," Lucy broke the long silence and cleared her throat. She hesitated. She could trust in Erza, but could she trust in Gray? That was yet to see. "I'm assuming you both need some answers."

Gray lifted his eyes from the fire to her. "There's quite a lot to talk about, indeed, but honestly, I don't know where to begin."

"How are you feeling now, Lucy?" Erza asked, her tone warm and considerate. "That's the only answer I need at the moment. The rest can wait 'til you're ready to talk about it."

"I'm feeling fine, thank you," Lucy answered and smiled. She was touched by Erza's concern over her wellbeing. "But I have to talk about this now. Erza, grab your notebook and writing supplies. I want you to write down everything and show it to our scholar when we make it back to Whiterun."

Lucy sat down on the other side of the campfire, crisscrossed her legs and took a deep breath. Natsu seated beside her, his gaze locked on the frost mage. Lucy noticed how he pressed his hands into fists to contain his resentment. She had tried to convince him that there was no need to despise Gray for what he did to the dragon's egg, but it seemed nothing would persuade Natsu to stop loathing him.

"But before that, let's make some things clear," Natsu started, still staring at Gray from under his brows. "Do you understand why we couldn't tell you that Lucy is the Dragonborn?"

Gray shrugged with a smug expression on his face. "You tried to be mysterious or something."

"Idiot," Natsu hissed and spat to the ground in front of him. "It's because of the old dragon cult. Ever heard of them?" he asked, but only raised his head a bit, and continued before Gray could answer. "Well, if they learn who the Dragonborn is, they're going to hunt her down. Then they'll capture her, break her, kill her, because she's the only one who can kill the dragons. They want her dead."

Lucy glanced at Natsu again, holding her breath. His voice was scarily low when he spoke, precise. In uncomfortable silence, Gray exchanged a confused gaze with Lucy, and then looked back to the fire mage.

"The dragon cult?" he wondered.

"Yeah. Those fuckers who built these ruins. Everyone thinks they're dead and gone, but so we thought about the dragons. The dragons are back, and so are those who worship them as gods," Natsu explained. "Only a few people know who the Dragonborn is, us included, and now you. That knowledge just can't fall into wrong hands. Do you understand?"

Gray was silent for a moment as the words sunk in, and then he nodded. "Yes."

"Good. Because I'm not afraid to report your death to the Archmage if you –"

Lucy's eyes shot at him. "Natsu, that's enough."

" – you tell anyone and I'm going to burn you alive –"

"Natsu!" she shouted.

Lucy kept staring at him even after he was cut off. He remained silent, didn't even look at her, but only at Gray. Just yesterday, when the dragon attacked them, Natsu had seemed concerned about his fellow apprentice's life. He had even appeared sad, shocked when Gray had disappeared into the blizzard, but now, all of that was gone. There was only hate. Could the incident have really changed that much?

"I mean it," Natsu muttered after a while. "You keep your mouth shut about everything that happened here. Are we clear?"

"Yes, dickhead," Gray answered sullenly. "We are painfully clear."

When had the fear of the cultists grown into this big? Lucy remembered how Natsu had urged her to be more careful back at the College, scolded her for almost slipping the secret to the Archmage. But threatening to kill a fellow student for knowing that? That wasn't like him at all. Personally, Lucy doubted the cultists would be as menacing as the actual dragons. Sure, the fewer enemies they had, the better, but Natsu had truly taken that thing under his skin.

"Are you done?" Lucy asked them both. None of them answered, and so she glanced at the frost mage. "Gray, I'll let you know that I trust you, even without the death threats."

"Well, isn't that relieving to hear," Gray answered, yet somewhat ironical. "You aren't angry about what happened yesterday? With the dragon's egg? It was pretty… rough. A lot rougher than I thought. I'm sorry about that."

Lucy shook her head. Honestly, she hadn't expected him to apologize, but she was glad he did. For the short time she had known him, Lucy knew he could be ruthless at times, but not evil. Gray had his feet on the ground, and enough guts to act upon what was right. "I'm not angry. It had to be done, and I'll tell you why."

And so Lucy told him and Erza about the things she witnessed after absorbing Krosulhah's soul. She told them about the old dragon cult, as it had reigned in these halls, how the bells had tolled when Alduin had been defeated. Erza wrote every word into her notebook, sometimes asking if she had truly heard right. When she said that the dragon hatchling had been Alduin's son, Gray no longer apologized for destroying it.

Lucy also explained to them the things she had learned about the reproduction of the dragons. Through Krosulhah hadn't directly discussed the subject with her, now she just knew. Little pieces of the knowledge were within her reach. Now she could intuitively tell that while dragons were immortal, unable to die of old age, there was only one period of a female dragon's entire lifespan when they could breed, only once. Laying the egg permanently destroyed their reproductive organs – a dragon's eternal life came with a price.

During that fertile time, the male dragons of the area would fight each other for the chance to continue their bloodlines, and the winner, the strongest, would claim that right. For Krosulhah, it had been different. As Lucy thought about it, she realised she now referred to the frost dragon as her, not it, anymore. Alduin had claimed her right away after the resurrection, with no ceremonies, no consent.

Yet still, Krosulhah had been forced to think that as a blessing, a gift, a privilege to bear Alduin's son, or one of his sons. Who knew how many had he sired? Unlike the female dragons, the males had no limitations to that matter. The number of one's offspring was just a measure of one's strength, and Alduin was the strongest of them all. The firstborn of Akatosh.

However, Lucy had also learned that after the conception, the male dragon would take no part in taking care of the mother, or raising the hatchling. They formed no families. Alone, the mother dragon would carry the egg, and once laid, protect it with her life. The whole process took years to complete, and during that time, the mother dragons were fairly more aggressive and territorial than normal. The dragon would choose a lair, usually atop of a mountain, where they would grow and raise the hatchling until it would be ready to leave the nest.

Even after leaving the lair, the bond between the mother and the child was still strong. It took decades before they would separate, which was, in an immortal dragon's life, actually a very short time. The connection remained after they had gone on their own ways, and they usually came to aid one another in a battle. Knowing all this was important for understanding the ways of dragon lives, but the toughest lesson here was to know how expecting dragons behaved. And Lucy hoped with all of her heart that she wouldn't have to cross paths with one again soon.

When Lucy had told them everything she was capable of telling, everyone fell silent for a long while. There was a lot to let sink in. Their gazes focused on the campfire, its crackling being the only sound in the dim lit stone hall. In the silence, Lucy realised she was hungry, but she only had a loaf of dry rye bread and some frozen snowberries. While she ate them, she pensively dreamt of visiting the food market of Whiterun once again.

"So, Lucy, how did you learn that you are the Dragonborn?" Gray asked suddenly. Natsu paid him a murderous stare, but Lucy answered anyway.

"We were in Kynesgrove, a few days before arriving at the College," Lucy started. If Gray already knew who she was, there was no point to shut him out. He deserved to know the whole story. "We were supposed to investigate the dragon burial mound there with Erza when Alduin appeared. He raised a dragon from the dead, and escaped. Then we fought the dragon, and I killed it, and absorbed its soul."

"And that's when the Greybeards called for you. It could be heard in Winterhold, too. I think it could be heard all over Tamriel."

"Probably," Lucy answered. "They summoned me to High Hrothgar. After that, Stormcloak soldiers took us to Jarl Ulfric at Windhelm. He, and his most trusted men, know who I am. As a reward for saving Kynesgrove, he gave us money and weapons, and he even pardoned Natsu's bounty if he'd escort me to the monastery. He didn't trust I would survive the pilgrimage alone."

Gray nodded slowly, and turned towards Natsu. "So that's why you took her there? To get your criminal history swiped under the rug?"

Lucy squeezed her eyes closed, wanting to smash her palms to her face. She didn't want them to start another quarrel right after closing the previous one. Why couldn't they just come along? What in the name of Talos had made them hate each other so damn much?

"No," Natsu replied, still reeling at him. "Ulfric might have asked me to escort her there, but if it was only because of that, I wouldn't even be here now. I only had to take her to the monks, not stay there with her. I did that because she's a friend, and I'm still here for the same reason."

Gray scoffed. "Friend. Hmph. I see, there's only one thing you're after. That's all you damn elves want, some sweet Nord pussy –"

Lucy extended her hand in front of Natsu before he sprung up and stormed at Gray. His eyes burned in rage, but Lucy wasn't sure if it was because of the miscalling of his race, because he wasn't actually an elf, or doubting the sincerity of their friendship. She knew Natsu had the purest soul a man could even have, so it was directly insulting for Gray to assume he was only after her flesh. In fact, Lucy felt like Gray was projecting his own desires here. If someone didn't have clean flours in the bag, it had to be Gray.

"Cut it off, both of you," Lucy commanded sternly and forced the fire mage back to the ground. "This is no place for talk like that, so keep your filthy tongue contained from now on. Got it, Gray?"

Gray mumbled something that Lucy couldn't hear. Erza, who had been silent so far, rubbed the bridge of her nose and dragged her hand down her face. At that moment, Lucy guessed she was ashamed to be a Nord, too. Ashamed for Gray, at least. Unfortunately, he was one of those rock-headed Nord men who thought Skyrim belonged only to them, all the lands and the women too. If he really thought that, he was mistaken, since Lucy belonged to no one.

"Sorry. That just slipped," Gray said then, avoiding looking into her. "However, I'd like to know one more thing. The real reason why you are here."

Lucy took a deep breath, hoping with all of her heart that he would behave this time. When she had been alone with Gray back in the College, he had acted like a decent lad. He truly had. But every damn time he was in the same room with Natsu, he changed completely. Now he was barely balancing between a nice guy and a total douchebag, which made him probably one of the most conflicted persons Lucy had ever met. Those two brought the very worst of each other out.

"Well, as a final trial, the Greybeards asked me to retrieve the horn of Jurgen Windcaller from Ustengrav," Lucy explained. "We decided to pass through these ruins not just to save time, but also to find clues about how ancient Nords killed the dragons. And well, so far we learned the Skyforge Steel deals them some very good damage."

Gray lifted his brows, his eyes widening. "Ustengrav? I know where that is."

"You do?"

"Yes," he said and nodded. "I could show you some directions. I'll be heading back to Morthal, which is one the way. If we leave this morning, we'll reach the town tonight. You could stay at my mother's place if you want, for food and bed." Gray looked at Lucy, then rubbed at his forehead. "And… thank you. All of you. I wouldn't have made it without your help yesterday."

"It's… okay. Thank you, too," Lucy replied, faked a quick, awkward smile, then eyed at Erza and Natsu. "What do you think? Should we stop by at Morthal?"

Natsu only buried his face into his hands, not saying anything. Lucy already knew what he thought. 'No fucking way.'

"I'm fine with that," Erza answered. "I'm always open to free food and a free bed. And you did well in the battle, Gray. Your mouth might be full of dirt, but you're a decent warrior."

Gray smiled shortly. He seemed very aware of the amount of dirt in his mouth, and confident in his skills at battle, but getting a compliment from a Companion wasn't what he got every day, and it showed through the smugness on his face.

"So, it's decided. Morthal it is," Lucy declared then. Three against one, if Natsu's answer was no. "But there's one thing I have to do first."

"What it is, Lucy?" Erza asked.

"The frost dragon's lair is here nearby. I want to go there," Lucy answered. "I'm not sure if we could find some answers there, but I feel like it will be worth checking it out."

"Alright. We better get going right ahead."

When they had gathered their gear and put down the fire, they headed out again. Lucy led the way through the maze of the streets, down the stone gates in the mountain pass, and from there to a small path rising to the hills. It was barely visible among the trees and rocks. Not too many travellers had threaded up to that path lately, but as if a map was drawn to her head, Lucy knew exactly where to go.

Along with the sun, they climbed towards the sky. The narrow path rose along the mountainside, and from time to time there were clear steps carved on the stone. She glanced at Natsu, who walked in silence by her side. Memories flashed in Lucy's mind once again, but she struggled to speak about them. There were no words to describe the unimaginable cruelty she had to witness. The ruins of Labyrinthian grew small underneath them, and eventually, they reached the summit, the dragon's lair.

They passed below another ancient gate, and stepped on a level platform that opened to the precipice. A walkway made from stone extended over the edge, ending into the nothingness of an endless fall down to the ruins far below. Lucy shuddered at the sight. She remembered that, too. She remembered people forced to walk down that path to their deaths, all for the amusement of the priests, and the pleasing of the dragons.

The group dispersed from there. Erza wrote notes with her freezing, bare hands, Gray stopped by the edge and admired the view opening to the north, and Natsu and Lucy examined the strange table in the middle of the platform. A human skeleton lay on top of it, with an old, rusted blade struck through its ribcage, straight on the heart. Beside it was a small, golden avatar shaped like a dragon – a shrine of Akatosh, the Lord of the Dragons.

"What happened here?" Natsu asked her.

Lucy looked down at the table, which she now understood was an altar. "Sacrifices."

As if upon a common decision, they spent a moment of silence. Lucy placed her hand upon the skull, watched into those empty eyes which had stared into the skies for thousands of years, as if bound to this altar by magic. Though her heart was breaking, she pulled herself back together when she sensed familiar energy humming behind her.

She turned, and saw a word wall.

The majestic monument stood in the embrace of the mountain, echoing the same ominous magic she had felt before. It was built the same way as the one in the volcanic tundra, yet time had treated this differently. Centuries of ruthless winter winds had whipped it bare, gnawed it from the edges, polished away the ornaments made by man. Only the carvings remained, the writings of the dragon language, from where the magic pulsated.

Lucy, drawn to that magic, walked close to the wall. Natsu followed her, but stopped behind her, as if walking too near to the carvings would hurt him.

"Can you read this?" Natsu whispered in awe.

Lucy traced her fingers upon the marks. She felt the power on her fingertips, and remembered once thinking about how one could harness that power only through understanding what it meant.

Now she did.

"Here shall the bravest Nords fly to the embrace of Akatosh, those born of the skies, to the frost of a night," she read out loud, surprising even herself. Her mind had directly translated the text from dragon language to the common tongue. "And where these cold winds whip the stones bare, the blood shall freeze upon this Altar of the Skyborn."

Then she remembered the words of power Krosulhah had used to summon the whirl of frost.

Fo, Krah, Diin.

Frost, cold, freeze.

Lucy raised her hands on his lips, as if to seal them before a breath of frost would escape her throat. Perhaps this was what the Greybreads had meant when they said her training would be completed on the field. She would learn new Shouts directly from the dragons, but the magic of these word walls would help her understand them as a whole. When she had learned Unrelenting Force from Sahklonir, she had only been able to utter one word, and the rest had been forgotten.

Lucy realised she had fallen deep into her own thoughts, and Natsu had been staring at her for a while now, still in awe. "Did you really read that, or just made that up?"

Lucy nodded. "I read that. It was meant to encourage those who were sacrificed here to please the dragons."

When she turned around, she accidentally kicked a frozen bone on the ground. It clattered as it slid forwards on the ice. A thin layer of fresh frost had covered the blood, the brutal marks of the feasts Krosulhah had kept here. Beside the word wall, was a pile of bones and half-eaten remains of horses, goats, bears, anything the dragon had hunted and brought to her nest. Lucy's gaze sharpened as she noticed a chunk of flesh and bones, rolled separately from the rest of the parings.

It was a small, human hand.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she forced herself to look away. A hand so small could only belong to a child. Shivering, she wrapped her arms around herself and met Natsu's restless, worried gaze. Then his eyes moved past her, and found it too. Lucy saw him flinch. He stared at it, much longer than Lucy dared to, as if unable to tear himself out of the sight. 'Do you remember that, too?' she could almost hear him ask. She hadn't remembered that kill, but now she did.

While some dragons burned down cities, some hunted for lost children in the woods. The suffering caused by the return of the dragons came in scales big and small.

Lucy caught him from the sleeve, gently tugged it. Finally, he turned his gaze back to her, as if trying to say something, but failed. Lucy shook her head, and without letting go of his sleeve, she walked with him to the edge. They stopped at a safe distance away from the fall, staring down from the precipice that stretched over the ruins of Labyrinthian, all the way into the distant horizon.

And then, at the ancient altar for human sacrifices performed by the dragon cult, Lucy sensed the deepest pathos in the atmosphere, a monumental sorrow – the very land itself was a barrow.


As twilight began to swallow the world around them, they finally arrived at Morthal.

They had walked westward on the road that ran north of Labyrinthian, and Natsu recognized the smell of a swamp from afar. It made him restless. The torches of the distant town glowed in the fog like little gleaming wisps. He had once seen a wispmother around this area, a terrifying ghost of a frost queen, and never wanted to see one again.

Ominous, twisted trees surrounded the town. Morthal was built on the southern edge of Drajkmyr marsh, the same enormous, festering swamp that dominated the landscape from here to Natsu's old homestead. The marshland eventually connected to the Sea of Ghosts, and one could see to the coasts of Solitude from where the swamp finally met the sea. A thick, constant mist had shrouded these lands, just like it had been when Natsu had last been there, over five years ago. As if nothing had changed.

"Hey, before I forget to tell you, there has been a vampire, or vampires, on the run, so watch out for your necks," Gray said suddenly, breaking the silence that has been as persistent as the fog. The last time someone had spoken, it had been Lucy cracking a joke at the stairs on the northern side of Labyrinthian, right there where Natsu had one fallen. "Some of the townsfolk had been turned lately, while others have been preyed on. Suspicious disappearances, that kind of stuff. No-one knows who's behind that, except that it's a vampire."

Or then, something could've changed.

"Vampires?" Lucy asked with widened eyes. She walked beside Natsu, and peeked past him to get eye contact with the frost mage on Natsu's right side. Erza was somewhere behind them, as her armour slowed her down.

"Yeah. Those blood-sucking undead shits. I fucking hate them. They say they can break through your mind and make you willingly offer your blood to them as a meal. Can you believe?"

Lucy shuddered from disgust. "By Ysmir, how does one even defend against them?"

"By burning them," Natsu commented nonchalantly.

"That's your answer to anything," Gray scoffed. "Have you ever even seen one? Or fought against one?"

For the entire day, Natsu had been barely hanging by the thread in containing his anger. Back in the College, he had been forced to share some lessons with Gray, and that seldom went well. It was impossible for Gray to shut his damn mouth, just as impossible as it was for Natsu to not shut it with his fist. Eventually, the teachers had made a common agreement to put them in separate classes.

"No, but I know they're vulnerable to fire because they're undead," Natsu answered and rolled his eyes. "They combust like dry leaves. You wouldn't stand a chance against them."

"Combust like dry leaves?" Gray repeated with a sneer. "Man, do you like, get hard from burning people alive? Because you sound like you really, really love doing that."

"Yeah, almost as hard as you get from gutting frost trolls. Fucking creep."

Gray grinned. "Hey, little firebug, that's unfair –"

"Can you guys just fucking stop?" Lucy cut them off. "Gods damn you. Now, tell me, how can I defend against a vampire?"

"Burn them –"

"Shut up, man," Gray interrupted him. "You won't burn anything if you're under a vampire's charm. The most important thing is to create a mental defence. Don't trust the strangers here. Assume that everyone is a vampire, and your mind will recognize if they try something weird. Never let them catch you off guard. Vampires, especially in towns, won't attack directly. They want to remain hidden. Remember that, and you should be okay."

Silence stretched on from there. For the rest of the way, Natsu kept thinking if he really enjoyed burning people alive, or if Gray had been exaggerating. And no, he didn't get aroused in any way from doing so.

The road led them to the edge of a town. There wasn't a gate or walls surrounding the town, only two guards standing posted to the sides of the road. They stopped there for a moment to wait for the Companion to catch up with them. She had been exceptionally silent, but Natsu found that relieving. He didn't have the nerves to deal with both Gray and Erza today. Damn it, how he missed travelling just with Lucy.

Natsu looked around at the town. There was a Jarl's longhouse on the left side of the main, cobblestoned street. From there, the streets were actually wooden planks lined up as paths between the houses. The town was built on a swamp, and falling from a path meant a very cold bath in the salty bonds of water. Boats were anchored by the docks, as most of the townspeople were fishers, rowing into the marshlands each day to catch some fish and crabs.

"So, Gray, your mother lives here in Morthal?" Erza asked as she reached them.

"Yeah. Adoptive mother, to be exact. My brother, again, adoptive, takes care of her. He's a total dick, but my mother will let you stay for a night, if I tell her you're with the College," Gray explained. Natsu couldn't help but think that maybe being a dick was a family flaw in their case. "But please, try not to bother her. She's sick."

"What's wrong with her?" Lucy asked, her tone considerate and warm. It still amazed Natsu how she could be so forgiving and caring. After everything that happened yesterday, and how lowly he had talked about her this morning, she still didn't consider him as a fiend.

"It's a long story," Gray sighed as he gestured at them to move forward. "She doesn't have long to live. She might get through the next winter, if we're lucky."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

Was the damn ice worm begging for some sympathy points from Lucy? Natsu rolled his eyes as Gray lead them onward on the darkened streets, until they arrived at a familiar door. And the moment Natsu saw it, he wanted to turn around and run. Gray knocked on the door, and Natsu stepped back, behind Lucy and Erza, almost hoping no one would notice if he left.

Right when Gray knocked again, the door opened.

"Oh, you. I thought it was Falion asking for some Daedra hearts, for the thousandth time this week," said a fair-haired young man from the doorway. Then his eyes found the three others standing behind Gray. "You've got company?"

Gray nodded. "Met a few fellow apprentices on my way, and offered them a place to stay for a night."

"From the College?"

"Yeah. Except that one of them is a Companion, though."

The man hesitated for a moment, but then stepped aside from the doorway. Gray followed him in, and so did Erza and Lucy. She stopped at the doorstep and glanced over her shoulder, to make sure Natsu followed them too. He did, yet grimly.

"I'm Lyon, this horkerface's brother," the fair-haired man introduced himself. Natsu had forgotten his name, but remembered his face. It hadn't changed that much either. "Welcome to the house."

Natsu, the last to step into the house, closed the door behind him and stayed there, unable to move forward. All out of a sudden, he felt so frozen, taken over by a distant memory he had thought to have forgotten long ago. The house still smelled the same. Right from the entrance was an alcove for an alchemy lab, and beside it ran many shelves full of potions and ingredients. There was a counter desk in the middle of the hall, and behind it stood the stairs to the upper floor.

Nothing much had changed, indeed. The sons lived upstairs, as Natsu remembered. Gray had said they could stay in Lyon's room for the night if he'd succeed in persuading his brother to sleep with him – or in the same room with him.

"Where's mom?" Gray asked as he stripped his travelling cloak and placed it on the hook on the wall. A bit hesitantly, Lucy did the same, Erza and Natsu following after her. The house was warm, a pleasant change to the cold moisture in the outside air.

"The same as usual."

Gray nodded and led the others to the quarters on the western wing of the building. If Natsu remembered correctly, the kitchen and their mother's study was there. Awkward, he didn't step away from the doormat – he didn't want to proceed deeper into the memories he would so much rather forget.

"Hey, it's you!" Lyon exclaimed suddenly, pointing at Natsu. "The boy from five years ago. I would never forget that damn hair."

"Nice to see you, too," Natsu answered, his sarcasm as clear as a day.

"You should go with them. Mom always wonders what happened to you. You should tell her before she dies."

Natsu didn't say anything as he reluctantly went after Lucy, Gray and Erza.

"Mom, I brought in some friends," the frost mage said as he stepped into the study room. "I think you'll recognize one of them."

Natsu was the last to follow them in.

A bed was placed in the corner of the room, and a small table stood beside it. Three candles on the table cast faint light to the face of the figure lying in the bed. Natsu flinched. While nothing else in the place had changed during these years, nothing familiar was left of this poor, frail woman. Ur was her name. That he still remembered.

Her face had shrunken in, her skin pallid and thin, and her hands were as thin and fragile as branches. Her once-dark hair had turned white as snow. She turned her head towards the voice, and her eyes found directly into his, but Natsu knew she didn't see. The illness had clouded her once-bright eyes in a dingy fog.

And still, she lifted her hand, pointed her finger at him.

"You," she mouthed a whisper, "come closer."

Natsu swallowed, stepped closer. He walked across the room in silence and stopped by the bedside. The woman still held her hand up, and Natsu caught it. Her weak fingers curled around his, as if to make sure it was really him.

"I knew you'd come back one day," Ur said quietly, smiling. "Well, did you find your brother, young man?"

Natsu shook his head. "No, I haven't."

"Not yet, but you will. I feel it in my heart you're going to find him eventually. Not a single search has ever lasted forever. They all come to an end."

"Yeah," Natsu whispered back. He thought for something else to say, but no words came to his mind. He just watched her as she let go of his hand and collapsed back to the bed. Slowly, she turned her head towards Lucy, her neck creaking along with the laboured movement.

"And you, out there," she whispered, her voice becoming drained. "What is your name?"

"I'm Lucy, my lady."

"No need for courtesies, my dear," Ur chuckled softly, then her blind eyes found Erza. It made Natsu wonder if she could still see something, after all, or if she was just sensing their presences. "And you, brave warrior, who are you?"

"My name is Erza," she answered.

"Thank you," the old woman said, and then looked at Gray again. Then Natsu realised that she wasn't truly old. She hadn't been old five years ago, only around her forties, but now she looked like she had lived more than a hundred years. "You've brought many friends to our home tonight, my son. Seems like you're finally learning."

Gray smiled, probably the first genuine smile Natsu had seen today, or ever. "We fought together in Labyrinthian, so I offered them a place to stay."

"I know. They're welcome here," Ur replied and closed her eyes. "I must rest now. I wish you all good fortune in your battles to come. Take care of each other."

Natsu realised his hands had begun to shiver. Gray had never told him what caused Ur's sickness, but if it had turned her to this, it was a terrifying disease indeed. There was no cure for it. When Natsu had last been here, she had been training his older son to be an alchemist. It seemed Lyon had now become one, but still hadn't been able to heal their mother. And now, she was far beyond any salvation, just waiting for the death to come. Just like Natsu's own mother had been.

They left the room, and Gray led them to the kitchen. A large baking oven was built to the masoned wall between two chambers, as it would keep the whole wing of the house warm. Grey picked up some clean rags from the cabinet and headed to the stove, where he placed them into a kettle filled with water. While the rags soaked, he opened the wrappings of his blood-stained robes and dropped them to the floor.

Unbothered by his topless state, Gray took a wet rag from the kettle and began to clean up the ugly grazes on his chest. At least this time there was an actual reason for him to get undressed. Most often, there wasn't.

"Anyone else wounded?" Gray asked, glancing over his shoulder to the rest of the group. Lucy had been nervously looking at the kettle for a while now, trying her best to avoid staring at the frost mage's bruised, naked chest. "Natsu, you'd better take care of that cut in your head. Your hand looks kinda nasty, too."

Natsu didn't have time to react before Gray picked another rag, squeezed out the excess water and tossed it at his face. He mumbled a faint curse as the warm, wet cloth hit his cheek. Annoyed, he caught it, turned away and wiped the dried blood off his forehead. He had forgotten about that already, and just wondered why his head kept hurting so much. Then he cleaned the bite mark on the back of his right hand, the hot water stinging on the broken skin.

"You girls hurt?" Gray continued while wrapping linen strips around his wounds. Erza and Lucy shook their heads. Gray answered with a nod as he went to put the bloody rag into a barrel. When he came back, Natsu followed his example.

Gray pulled one of the chairs from under the table, tapped Lucy on the lower back to urge her to sit down, making her flinch. "Take a seat, everyone, I'll ask my brother to fetch us something to eat," Gray said, and walked to the door. "Lyon! Come serve our guests a meal."

Natsu stared at the frost mage and seated next to Lucy. She was blushed, nervous, yet still somehow unbothered. From what Natsu had understood, she had been good friends with some Nord guys from her hometown, so maybe she had, unfortunately, gotten used to this kind of behaviour. It made him mad, but it wouldn't be polite to punch a man in his own home, at his own table, after being invited as a guest. He'd save that steam for when they'd be out of the damn house.

"What am I, a servant?" asked Lyon annoyedly as he arrived.

"Yes, you are, darling. Fetch some wine, too."

They sat around a round table as Lyon, though reluctantly, filled four plates with cabbage stew and poured four cups of wine. He brought them to the table and stood there for a moment, until Gray shoved him away.

"You can go now," he said. "We have things to talk about."

Gray followed his brother to the door, closed it, and cast a faint spell on the wood. A flash of green light enveloped the walls of the room, then faded.

"What was that?" Erza asked.

"I muffled the walls. Nothing that is said here will be heard from the outside. An Illusion spell," Gray explained and glanced at Natsu. "Useful when it comes to keeping things secret, because I like living. So, everyone, please enjoy your meal."

As they ate in perfect silence, Natsu began to wonder what point there was in casting such a spell if no-one was going to say anything. He swirled his spoon in the cabbage, finding his appetite completely gone.

His thoughts circled around Gray's mother. She might not have been his biological mother, but she was still very close with her adopted sons. Ur had once been a scholar in the College of Winterhold, but quit a wizard's life after getting ill. She had been exceptionally good in her prime days, as Natsu had heard from Igneel, who had been one of Ur's students. It was such a pity that the world was losing another great mage.

"There's one thing I have to talk with you, Natsu," Gray started after a silence, his mouth full of cabbage. "What you did in Labyrinthian –"

Natsu sipped his wine, his food still untouched. "Saved our lives. No need to thank me."

" – was reckless. Absolutely foolish, out of control. You acted from your anger, not from the real mastery of magic – mastery of yourself. Your rage cast that spell, not you. And you know what happens to mages who let their emotions control their magic." Gray sneered and swallowed. "You guessed right, they die."

Natsu could barely believe what he just heard. Did Gray really have the guts to mock him for what he did? He raised his eyes from the wine cup to the frost mage. "And who're you to tell me how to use my magic?"

"Listen to me. I know damn well you used everything you got into that one shot. That's one of the principles a mage should never do. You have to spare your magicka, balance your attacks, so that you don't run out of it on the most crucial moment," Gray said and took a long gulp of his drink. "Because what if you had missed?"

"I knew I wouldn't miss," Natsu answered. He squeezed his hand around the cup. If he hadn't cast that spell, the dragon would've killed them all. Gray knew that very well himself. This lecture was as useless as it was stupid.

"Yeah, but what if you did?" Gray repeated, but didn't give him a chance to answer. "You even improvised that spell, too, didn't you? You had no idea how it would work. You risked everything for something which could've blown up on our faces."

"And what would've you done? Got any better ideas?" Natsu asked, his voice rising with his anger. "At that moment, I was the only one of us who could fight. I did what I had to do."

"And why was that? Where were you even for the most of that battle?"

Natsu pressed his mouth into a thin line. Lucy glanced at him, as if she had been wondering the same thing. He had never told her why it took him so long to rejoin the battle.

"Stuck in a fucking burial crypt with a group of Draugr," he answered then.

Gray laughed. "And how the fuck did you get in there!?"

"The dragon destroyed a part of the town where we were at," Lucy commented, jumping in for Natsu's defence. "We were separated, as the collapsed gate blocked the way. He was probably just trying to find a way out –"

Gray turned his eyes at Natsu. "You stupid piece of shit. Separated? We were almost killed meanwhile! I had to save Lucy from the dragon's frost breath while you –" Natsu tried to retort, but Gray interrupted him in an instant. "What if I hadn't been there? What if I was already dead? She would've died, too!"

"No, she wouldn't," the fire mage finally managed to say. "She's a lot stronger than you think. She can take care of herself."

Lucy looked down at her plate, making him know she didn't trust his words. Damn it. Natsu hadn't seen what had happened while he was stuck in the crypt, and it seemed the battle hadn't gone so well as he had thought.

"If you truly think that, you're bullshitting yourself, and her. She's a novice. Just a novice, even though she's the Dragonborn," Gray said. Natsu shuddered, remembering saying the same words to her himself, but it was so long ago. "I bet you're supposed to look after her, and what did you do? You left her alone. You got separated from her, and just thought she'd somehow make it. And guess what, genius, she wouldn't have. You would've found her as a frozen statue once you would've gotten out of that fucking crypt."

Natsu went silent as Gray slammed his palm to the table.

"And I could see that you're the one who taught her magic. Because she's just as reckless as you in a battle. You've barely taught her the mere basics of –"

"Gray," Lucy interrupted harshly. She had eaten only a few spoonfuls before Natsu and Gray had started arguing, and now she wasn't eating at all. "That's enough. That is my responsibility. He has taught me to be careful. He really has. The recklessness, well… that's just me overestimating my power. I'm working on that."

"Who are you to say, anyway?" Natsu asked him, unable to hide the utter annoyment in his voice. "Heading to dangerous ruins just to kill a horde of frost trolls?"

"I'm a man who has actually studied magic, not just fucked around causing a mess. I've trained. Read. I understand what it truly means to be a mage. You're just... you're just pretending to know what you're doing."

Natsu closed his eyes for a second and held his fingers in the bridge of his nose, taking a very deep breath to keep his rage in chains. "I know pretty damn well what I'm doing."

"No, you don't. You've survived this far because you're gifted. Just like your brother. But because you're gifted, you think you don't need to train like the others, and that's as far as the gift can take you." Gray paused and pointed at himself. "I was raised by a scholar. I've practised the simplest spells a thousand times. I don't have a single crumb of talent myself, but I'm devoted to magic, and that's why I'm stronger than you. And that's why I will live longer than you. And if she keeps following your example, she's gonna –"

"You should shut up already, man. I have trained. We have trained –"

"See, you've forgotten to teach her the most important fucking thing, which is self-discipline. But how could you teach it when you can't even do it yourself? Just as Igneel didn't," Gray said scornfully and drank a mouthful of wine. "And that got him killed."

Mentioning Igneel was simply too much, yet still, he had had a similar kind of a conversation before. It had been with Erza. It seemed that his enemies were very gifted in picking up his weakest spot. It took a lot of self-discipline not to burn this fucking man to death, right fucking now.

"No, it was the damn Imperials –"

"The real mastery of magic takes years, decades of dedicated study, and what have you been doing all this time? You could've been as good as your brother if you just focused on the right things instead of burning stuff and drinking mead for the last five years," Gray sighed. "You can't control yourself, and you can't control your magic, and that's why it's going to destroy you."

Natsu glared at him from under his brows. "The only thing that's going to get destroyed is your face if you don't shut up now."

"In your dreams, bitch. You know that's true. But I'm not going to let you destroy her, too. She's the Dragonborn, Natsu. She needs a better teacher than a runt like you," Gray said and sighed, tapping the side of his wine mug with his finger. "That's why I'm coming with you to Ustengrav."

And then, Natsu's mind exploded.

"No, you fucking aren't," he muttered quietly after a moment of shocked silence. He kept staring at Gray in disbelief, shaking his head. He knew he'd snap at any moment if Gray wouldn't take that insanity back.

"Yes, I am."

Natsu glanced at Lucy, terrified, but couldn't say anything. If Lucy would've opposed the idea as strongly as he did, she would've already said it. She was still looking at her plate, leaning her chin to her closed fist, deep in her thoughts. Natsu cursed internally. She was considering Gray's offer. Even Erza, as stone-cold and silent as she was, didn't show any signs of disagreeing.

"You, Natsu, are very skilled at Destruction indeed. I'll give you that," Gray continued, his tone more confident now. Mocking, almost, knowing he was winning. "But what do you know of Alteration or Illusion? Restoration? What spells can you cast in those schools of magic?"

"Candlelight," Natsu named silently. Fuck it, he thought. "Healing. Steadfast Ward."

Gray extended his arm, and pulled an apple from the basket through the air. It landed on his open palm. "Can you do this?" he asked, and then threw the apple at Natsu. Natsu caught it and turned it into ashes as he closed his hand into a fist. The ash slipped through his closed fingers.

"Fucking bragger," he mumbled.

"Can you detect life? Turn undead? Trap a soul? Reanimate a corpse?"

Natsu bit his tongue. 'And what would you do if I decided to burn this house to the ground? Reanimate the corpses, including yourself?' he thought, but didn't say it. "I can reanimate a corpse, I just don't like to do that."

"You know what, that's your fucking issue. You only do the things you like to do, in other words, play with fire, and don't even bother to learn anything else. You're lazy, rock-headed –"

"I haven't wasted my time practicing some useless spells I'd never need!"

Natsu hoped the soundproofing spell hadn't expired yet, because he simply couldn't stop yelling.

"But she could need such spells," Gray answered with a smug grin. "This isn't about you, you selfish prick, it's about her, and the fate of the whole world. Give it to your hands, and you're just going to watch it burn." He paused for a while, glancing at Lucy. "At least hear her out on this matter. It's her decision, not yours."

No matter how he tried, Natsu just couldn't see it. He couldn't even imagine being able to stand Gray's presence any longer than was absolutely necessary. His blood was already boiling. Lucy had to know that. She just couldn't –

"Natsu…" Lucy started suddenly. The way she avoided looking into him made Natsu very nervous, and then his heart fell. "I think he's right. He… He could also teach me. He should come to Ustengrav with us. I need to learn all the magic I possibly can, and you, well…"

"You've got to be kidding me," Natsu mumbled, dragging his hands down his face.

"It's for the –"

He raised his voice again. "I'm not stepping into any fucking crypt with that arrogant, perverted bastard –"

"Let's give him a chance!" Lucy shouted over him. "What he said is true. He saved me in Labyrinthian –"

"No fucking way. I'm not going to –"

"Then it's your choice," Erza interrupted him after being silent for the entire conversation. Natsu cast her another murderous glare. Natsu didn't want to think that the three Nords were teaming up against him, but it was beginning to feel like it. At least like he was being replaced.

"You can't be fucking serious," Natsu whispered, shaking his head. "You can't seriously be considering taking him –"

Suddenly, Lucy's eyes turned cold, and that shut him up. "I've already made my decision. He comes with us, like it or not."

Completely stunned, Natsu stared at all of them in silence. Gray was smiling, that damned bastard. This was what he wanted, and Natsu doubted his intentions were pure. They never were.

He couldn't take it anymore.

"You know what," he said then and stood up from the table, his meal still untouched. He wanted to take the damn plate and toss it at the frost mage's face, but didn't, just to prove he had some self-discipline. "I'm too fucking tired, and not drunk enough for this shit. Fuck you, and I'll see you tomorrow!"

He marched to the door, and the moment he laid his fingers on the knob, the soundproofing was dispelled. He heard someone rising from the table too, and quiet footsteps followed him to the hallway.

"Natsu, wait," Lucy whispered, tugging him from the sleeve of his robes. "Where are you going?"

He yanked his arm away, and picked up his cloak from the hook on the wall, forced to turn towards Lucy as he dressed into it. "To the inn for a drink. Ain't nowhere else to go in this gods-forsaken town."

"But –"

Natsu didn't stay to hear her out. He knew she would've persuaded him to stay, but right now, he just couldn't. He had to get out, cool his head, and then he could think about it – otherwise, he would really burn the whole house down. Natsu stepped out of the door and slammed it shut behind him, finding himself alone on the cold, dark street.

And in that instant, he regretted it.

Would Lucy now think he had abandoned her, against everything he had promised just last night? He wouldn't leave her alone, never, not for a too long while at least, but had he just left her there with them, with Gray? The chilly night air brushed gently against his overheated nerves, and he understood how stupid it all had been. But, going back to the house immediately would look even more foolish. Natsu glanced over his shoulder to the closed door behind him, almost, just almost knocking on it, but faltered.

He walked through the dim pathways, trying to remember where the inn was. A lone guard passed by him, but he didn't ask for directions, for he had absolutely no energy left for talking. All he needed was sleep. Sleep, and some mead or wine to help with that. As he had spent the last night watching over Lucy as she had screamed in her sleep, he hadn't gotten an eyeful for himself. Who would watch over her nightmares tonight, if he was to stay in the inn instead of with her?

Now only angry at himself, Natsu kicked a stone into the swamp right below the wooden pathway. He heard it fall into the water – a familiar sound, as he had once been throwing rocks into the same swamp with his brother. Strange, how some small things came back to him, at moments like this. Lonely moments, he recalled. He had been doing that a lot on his own after Zeref had been gone.

Finally, Natsu found himself at the inn's door. He stepped into the warm tavern, found a few other patrons there, paid them no attention as he headed straight to the bar counter. A dark-skinned Redguard woman kept the inn, and she didn't look too busy tonight. Natsu searched for his coin purse from his pockets, but didn't find it. Then he went through his knapsack, and it wasn't there either. Damn it, he cursed silently. Most of their gold was now under Lucy's possession, leaving him with only a few septims on the bottom of the bag.

"What can I get for you, sir?" the woman asked patiently.

Natsu tossed the coins to the innkeeper. "All the wine I can get with this."

The innkeeper counted the septims, picked a bottle from below the desk, and passed it to him. Natsu just nodded as thanks, then headed to a table. He hadn't had enough gold to rent a room for the night, but such things often took care of themselves. Wouldn't be the first time he had slept on the floor of the common hall of some dusty inn.

Sighing deeply, he rested his head into his hands and closed his eyes. Why couldn't things just once go right for him? Sometimes, when shit like Gray joining their team happened, he began to think that maybe he was cursed. Some said he was lucky, blessed by the gods, but that wasn't true. He was fucking cursed by all the evil Daedric Princes combined, he was now sure of it.

Just as Natsu opened the wine bottle and took the first sip of the sour, red drink, someone approached him from the right side.

"Well, aren't you a handsome one," said the stranger, a dark-haired woman in a rather revealing, green dress. "You and I should spend some time together."

Not this shit again.

"Hey, leave me alone," Natsu muttered, knowing his next warning wouldn't be so friendly. He rubbed his forehead with his left hand, and placed the other one on the table, squeezing it into a fist. "I'd really like to drink at peace."

The woman smiled. "Come on. I like those with a little… fire in their blood."

Just when Natsu was about to say something very harsh about fire and blood, he felt a soft touch on the back of his right hand. The woman traced her fingers over the wound, her touch stinging the edges of his broken skin. On the very edge of punching her to the stomach, Natsu turned his gaze to her face.

As he saw those gleaming amber eyes, he froze completely, and then everything was dark.


A/N: Hi guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter! I've got a lot to say about this one. This chapter stands for transitioning between Labyrinthian/Frost Dragon part to Morthal/Ustengrav part. I kinda think of them as two separate parts of the same story arc, but just like Whiterun was its own part, the next one will be too.

When I was planning this part, I didn't really have much ideas. My original plan was to get into the crypt and get out, simple as that, but that felt very boring, so I decided to spice things up a bit. The things that are going to happen next are not there just for the sake of adding some spice though, but they serve as sneak peaks to very major plot points for the future. I have things to introduce, to put it shortly, because the second "book" of the trilogy is going to circle around these themes. I bet all Skyrim players know who's that mysterious woman in Morthal's inn :P

And yes, nothing good usually comes out when random chicks go harassing Natsu. His behavior in this chapter kinda bugged me, and I've kept debating myself whether or not I should do this to him, but then the inner Satan in me was like…. 'Yes do it bitch.' Any opinions about Gray? I think I really like writing him. He's conflicted as fuck, being an asshole and a nice person at the same time. Please keep in mind that he's also very traumatized. I think that he's a bully who's deep down just lonely and broken.

So, next up, I'm going to reveal why Natsu and Gray dislike each other, how Ur knew Natsu, and a few more things. See ya then! Thanks for all the support!