Chapter Five The Eggs
Nearly a year passed at the guild. Natsu and Wendy had decided to declare themselves siblings. They played with the other children and began taking jobs. Mostly non-dangerous stuff like pulling weeds or putting on a magic show at a school. They had to start out small since they were still children. Even though they had powerful magic and Natsu was as strong as Erza, they still needed experience before going into anything dangerous. Though they were allowed to come with some of the adults to see what the combat missions were like. Macao and Wakaba brought the kids along on a trip to Mt. Hakobe for a job slaying Vulcans, giant monkey-like monsters that tended to populate quickly and occasionally caused problems for humans.
One day, Natsu was in the forest with Wendy. He looked at the pictures of Gray and Erza he'd pinned to a tree and scowled. Even though Natsu had won their first fight, Gray had managed to get stronger since then. Last time he'd picked a fight with Natsu, he had come close to winning. Natsu couldn't let that stripping ice wizard get the better of him! And Erza, she was going on lots of combat missions already while he was still stuck doing boring jobs.
"So you wanna be stronger than me, huh Gray?" Natsu shouted at the picture. "You think you're better than me Erza?"
"Natsu, why do you have to always fight with those two?" a now six-year-old Wendy asked.
"Because I can't let them beat me!" he said.
Wendy just sighed as she turned back to watching the clouds overhead. She knew Grandeena was out there somewhere.
"Mother," she muttered sadly.
Natsu was about to punch at the picture of Erza and Gray on the tree (and probably hurt himself in the process). But as he looked at his sister, he stopped what he was doing and walked over to her. Natsu sat down and put an arm around her.
"You miss her, huh?"
Wendy nodded as tears ran down her face. Natsu brought her in close and stroked her hair. She hugged her brother figure, sobbing softly into his chest. They looked up at the sky for a while, silently hoping as they often did that Igneel and Grandeena would come flying down at them, and they would be an even larger family. Then… something did come down at them! It was falling toward them fast! Natsu gripped Wendy tightly and jumped out of the way as two objects struck the forest floor.
One landed right where Natsu had been just a moment ago in front of the picture of Erza and Gray.
The other nearly landed on top of him and Wendy, if Natsu had not seen it coming and jumped out of the way, they would have been hit. A cloud of dust appeared then dissipated. They looked at the objects, both of which were oval shaped with strange markings on them.
"What are they?" Wendy asked as Natsu set her down. "Eggs?"
"I think so," Natsu said, looking up.
Each egg was much bigger than a chicken or bird sized one, and they'd fallen out of the sky. Could they be-
"Dragon eggs! They must be!" Natsu said.
"Really?" Wendy asked.
"What else could they be? Look at how big they are!" Natsu said as he picked one up. "Let's take them to Gramps! Maybe he'll be able to hatch them!"
"Alright," Wendy said as she walked over to the other one. Being much smaller than Natsu, she had difficulty carrying it.
Wendy struggled all the way as they slowly walked to the guild hall. Then Natsu burst in holding his egg.
"Hey, everybody! Look what I found!" he said.
Everyone immediately began gathering around. They were in awe at the immense size of the egg.
Gray walked up with an impressed look. "Well that's a big egg! Probably enough for everyone to eat!"
His words caused Wendy to hug her egg in a frightened protective stance.
"We're not gonna eat them! We're gonna hatch them! This is a dragon egg!" Natsu declared. "We want to hatch them! Do you know a spell that can do that Gramps?
Makarov shook his head. "There is no way magic can hatch the egg."
"You need to warm them," Erza said.
Natsu grinned. "Guess I'm the right wizard for the job then!"
He let out a breath of flame upon the egg, only for Erza to yell at him.
"Not like that! You'll cook it!" she said.
Suddenly, Lisanna walked up to Natsu. "If you want some help Natsu, I could lend you a hand hatching the egg! It could be fun hatching a dragon!"
Natsu looked at her. "Really? Thanks, Lisanna!"
Erza looked over at Wendy who was still struggling with her egg. "Since Lisanna is working with Natsu, how about I lend you a hand?"
She took the egg from Wendy and held it. Wendy smiled at the her guildmate and occasional babysitter. Whenever Natsu left on missions he would leave his little sister in the care of Makarov, Erza, or one of the other guild members, though Erza tended to be his first choice.
"Where do you think we should hatch it?" Natsu asked.
"Let's go into the woods!" Lisanna said eagerly.
"Well, Wendy and I will hatch this one in my room on Fairy Hills!" Erza said.
The two pairs took their eggs to their chosen spots. In the forest, Lisanna used her Take-Over spell to turn into a giant rabbit and build a house out of straw for them to live in while they kept the egg warm by hugging it.
"Its almost like we're a family," Lisanna said as she looked around. "You're the dad, I'm the mom, and the egg is like our little baby that hasn't been born yet."
Natsu blushed at this comment. Lisanna did as well.
…
Meanwhile, Erza and Wendy covered theirs in a warm blanket. Since they had the time, Erza took the chance to train Wendy herself.
"Alright Wendy, I know you are still a long-ways away from taking dangerous jobs, but I'm gonna make sure you have the best training possible for it!"
Wendy was scared by that. Erza then requipped a sword as tall as Wendy and handed it to her. The little girl tried to lift it, but it quickly fell back to the floor, putting a slight crack in the room. Erza's room at Fairy Hills was filled with scratches on the walls from her training sessions.
"It appears you're not strong enough to wield a sword just yet," Erza said. "Very well, we shall start small and work our way to the top! When I'm done with you, you won't be such a helpless little girl anymore!"
"I thought this was gonna be about us hatching the egg! Not turning me into a monster!" Wendy whined.
"This is for your own good!" Erza snapped. "You have powerful magic and you will need to learn all you can if you expect to survive! Right now, you run out of magic a lot, and you need to be able to fight if that ever happens! Here, try these!"
She requipped a pair of wooden training daggers and handed one to Wendy. The girl took it nervously, but her hesitation soon subsided as she felt the lightness of the weapon. Erza then began drilling her on the moves.
"Daggers aren't as big as swords, but don't underestimate them. They can be just as deadly in the hands of a skilled user," Erza said.
Wendy practiced with the dagger for several times, the small blade slashed at the air. Then she switched hands and repeated the process, and Erza gave her the other one.
"Block with one then attack with the other!" Erza said as she requipped a wooden training sword and came at Wendy.
The girl flinched and put her left dagger out in front of her, blocking the blade. She opened her eyes and saw she'd blocked, only for Erza to swing again and make contact with her. It didn't hurt much at least, Erza made sure to hold back against the girl.
"Block and attack!" the young female knight repeated.
She struck again and Wendy blocked, this time managing to stab at her with the other dagger.
"Be quick!" Erza said as she stepped back and avoided the short blade.
They continued to train, leaving their egg covered in the warm blanket.
…
Natsu and Lisanna woke the next morning and smiled at each other.
"Morning dear," Lisanna said, instantly slipping into playing the role of the wife.
"Morning," Natsu said, blushing.
Then they both noticed something.
"The egg is gone!" they screamed.
They ran to the guild, thinking someone from there might have taken it. Or worse-case scenario, that Gorian monster they had met yesterday after building the base had taken the egg and eaten it. When they asked everyone at the guild, they found it was Elfman, Lisanna's brother, he had taken their egg to make sure it got warm. He handed it back to Natsu, and suddenly the shell of egg cracked open and disappeared in an explosion of light, from that light, a creature emerged. It was a small blue cat with a white belly, and matching wings on its back. Everyone was in awe at the sight and smiled as the creature landed on Natsu's head. He took it in his arms as everyone watched.
"He's like a bluebird of happiness, isn't he?" Lisanna asked. "Everyone suddenly became really happy when he hatched."
"Happiness huh?" Natsu repeated. "Well, I think I'll name him Happy!"
The baby winged cat looked at Natsu and then spoke in a high-pitched voice, "Aye!"
In Erza's room, she and Wendy looked at cat similar to Happy who had just hatched from her own egg. She was pure white and sat there calmly. Wendy took the baby cat in her arms. Unlike Happy, the white one didn't have a smile on her face. She was rather neutral it seemed, calm and collected.
"What are you gonna call her, Wendy?" Erza asked. "You found her after all."
"I don't know," Wendy said. "Carla maybe?"
"I think Carla would be a good name," Erza agreed.
And so Fairy Tail had yet another pair of new members, in the forming two flying kittens! They celebrated the occasion with their usual enthusiasm, brawling and wrecking their guild hall.
Authors Notes: Well, Happy and Carla have been born! Please give me your suggestions for how their relationship could develop in this Au? It would likely be different than it was in the anime since they would be raised together. Carla was probably annoyed with Happy most cause of his crush on her after he fell in love at first sight and always tried to show off. He might not go overboard in this AU so he might not be as annoying for her, still a bit though. That's my thoughts at least.
As for why I had Erza work with Wendy, I had the idea for Wendy learning daggers since I started this fic as an extra skill. I mentioned she'd learn something different in my last authors notes. Lisanna will eventually learn another combat strategy as well, in the form of a sword! She used one in Edolas so I thought why not have her get one when she comes back? Erza seemed the best one to train Wendy in that regard, so had her start that here. Let me know if you have any ideas about what their weapons could do, I already have plans but would love to hear them! Maybe I'll even take one of my reader's ideas instead! It will likely correlate to their powers, or maybe give them new abilities!