Chapter 2: The Freemen
"Ok Natsu, you haven't done anything bad. It's not your fault for riding into some unknown direction." He reassured himself. "Besides, you got a really cool sword and a dagger." That seemed to be the only good thing which has happened in the past week. It's been a day and half since he did his epic horse run and he was yet to see any signs of civilization. And more importantly, his meager supplies have run dry and he was once again frying rodents and birds. "Marty, are we going in circles?" He leaned to the side and asked the horse.
There was a snort from the horse now named Marty, other than that he didn't make any more noise. The Dragon Slayer didn't seem to notice it, bit he was slowly running out of plain lands. Rocks, dried soil, skeletons of people and animals alike could be seen occasionally. It wasn't until Marty stopped at the edge of a cliff did he realise the temperate grasslands were all but gone and in front of him lay a massive red rocky dessert.
"Fuck." He spoke disbelieving the sight in front of him. He climbed down and looked at the horse. "What the hell Marty?! Where the hell did you take us?!" The horse was unfazed and let out another snort. "Don't you take that attitude with me!"
It went on for a while, the rambling. Until his sense came back and made him realise that he was trying to blame his poor mute companion for his lack of navigation. With a heavy defeated sigh, he sat on a tall rock under the burning sun. "If we go straight...we may get to some forest or city. Not the forest we passed, those didn't have any trees or big animals. I'm talking big trees and juicy meat." He closed his eyes as he imagined a large boar roasted with flames still on, a giant tropical bird, huge round steaks. His mouth watered as he continued to imagine, the sight of which made the stallion nervous and let out a few snorts and stomps with his hooves, snapping the Dragon Slayer back to reality.
"Yea...it would be a tough journey. No food, no water...just dessert...miles and miles of un-eatable red rocky stuff..." He let out a sigh and laid down. "If only I could transform into a giant Dragon...we could have flown across..." He let out a yawn and closed his eyes, not at all bothered with the scorching sun above.
Post-Doom Valyria
The land mas was slowly recovering. Trees have slowly began to grow in the rich volcanic soil mixed with Dragons and humans alike. Yet none came back, none had the courage to cross the Smoking Sea to reach the city where the Doom is still believed to rule.
Remains of massive Valyrian Dragons littered the ruins. Some intact while others closer to dust. There wasn't a fight, it was a one-sided battle where none got the chance to act as once again history repeated.
"Natsu Dragneel...the Dragon King...I will take that back soon." A young man of average height with dark skin and long dark blue hair sat in front of a collapsed castle. He raised his hand and rubbed his fingers together, an ache. It wasn't a surprise, the boy had destroyed most of his hand and his leg. A century has given him time to recover and he knew he was strong once again, but the wild emotion he had once forgotten came back. The same one that stopped him from flying out and conquering the world with his darkness.
Fear
He was afraid. The great Dragon was afraid of a boy, not a mere one, but still a boy in almost all aspects. He managed to best him and nearly kill him with just combining a few other elements even when the Legendary God Serena, a being with eight Dragon-Slayer magic that was honed beyond anyone else, failed and fell like a fly. But this wasn't what filled him with fear. It was those moments when they exchanged blows, his eyes. The eyes of a Demon.
And now he was here. He knew, the limbs that grew back knew. He stared at his open palm as his hand shook before closing his eyes, he clenched it. The shaking stilled and a grin came over his face, one that of excitement. "Natsu Dragneel...END...our war's not over, just not now." With his resolve finally made, he knew he needed to grow stronger to be the conqueror once again. And so, the infamous ex-Dragon King stood up. The Doom was finally leaving Valyria.
Near the boarder of the Red Waste
"Gnawwwww!" He stretched his limbs and craned his neck up with half lidded eyes and swiped left and right to see where he was. It was nighttime, the moon was a cresent with thousands of stars above. Pushing up his body, he leaned on his arms. "Hmm...I thought I would have been a Dragon when I woke up..." He was a bit disappointed. With a sigh he stood up and walked towards Marty, who remained under the rock he was tied. "Let's go back to the stream we saw and see if we can carry some water for you." He lit his hand to show the way and lead the horse back to the stream they crossed and chose not to ride the beast.
"Stop right there!" Someone shouted from above in a language foreign to him. Natsu looked up to where the sound came from and saw a man in dessert robes with his face masked hold an arrow notched bow at him. There were more, probably a hundred behind that rock the archer stood and five others were standing around him in the shadow, waiting for the right moment to pounce.
"You guys aren't with those horse guys...but you still speak spaghetti..." He cracked his knuckles. The hidden men chose that moment to reveal themselves, five bulky men with short swords that had lightly curved edges.
"Hand over the horse and drop your sword, maggot!" The largest of them ordered, but to no avail the Dragon Slayer understood nothing and stared dumbly at the one who spoke. Two of them slowly crept up behind him. Just as one raised his sword and brought it down, the Dragon Slayer vanished from their sight and made the man trip, eliciting the archer to release the arrow accidentally. The attacker fell dead with an arrow lodged from one ear and came out the other.
The archer was quick to draw another arrow and search for where the strange man had disappeared. The others were doing the same as well. "You killed him..." A surprised voice came from behind causing him to accidentally release the arrow. There was a neigh from Marty who fell. The archer tried to turn, but a blow came to his face that shattered his jaw and threw out a bunch of teeth along as he fell on the rock face first. The swordsmen looked up towards him in surprise. One of them backed away and ran back to the larger group, while the other two spun their swords and prepared to fight.
He made quick work of the other swordsman and reached his stallion. "Marty!" He looked over to the arrow that was on his neck. "Come on buddy! You can't die! Hold on, I'll get Wendy-" He stopped. "Shit. Ok.. I'll have to burn your wound. This is gonna hurt." He caressed his black fur before pulling out the arrow. There was another neigh before he placed his hand over the wound and let his magic flow through his palm. The horses shriek could have been heard a mile.
"Demon! Demon! There's a demon attacking our men!" The man yelled as he ran towards his group. There were a hundred people with forty five of them in similar yellow robes with swords arrows and daggers as the attackers while the rest wore meager clothing and had shackles on their arm that was connected in a line. Slavers. They had been camping for the night before they would cross the Red Waste and the scouting party seemed to have met with trouble.
There was a loud sound that unmistakably belonged to a horse. The other slavers armed themselves, quickly drawing out their swords and notching up the arrows. "What is it? Dothrakis?" The leader, a tall tan skinned man with a golden vest and a brown ponytail questioned his subordinate who was panting.
"No Klako! There's a demon! He killed two of our men and can vanish!" The slaver spoke between pants.
"What nonsense are you-" Klako stopped in mid-sentence to see a ball of fire falling from the sky and land 20 feet away from them. The fire continued to burn brightly for a few moments before it began to clear. A cloaked figure stood in the middle of the crater and the archers fired at him, only for the arrows to burn in midway and fall as ash.
"You are not good people...you are slavers..." Natsu spoke calmly, something strange to those who know him. He pointed at them with his index finger. "Your pals are behind there, take them when you leave." He opened his thumb back to the rocks.
"Kill him!" Klako commanded. The slavers charged at him with a loud battle cry. Natsu narrowed his eyes and summoned flames around him that encased the twenty feet distance between them and burnt the slavers. They rolled around on the ground, some ran into one another. It was chaos and the slaves huddled closer. The only slavers left standing were the leader, the coward and two others.
"Klako! Quick! Let's offer him a sacrifice!" One of them advised to their stumped leader. Another quickly ran in to the slaves and grabbed a pretty faced girl, quickly undoing her chains and dragging her in front of Natsu and pushing her towards him.
The girl cried and didn't look up to face the demon. Too afraid she shivered and stayed with her forehead planted on the ground. All the while, the Dragon Slayer looked on in interest. She heard him walk towards her and stop just in front.
"Get up kid." He said and surprisingly, she got up but still kept her head down. "Do you understand me?" He saw her nod her head, still keeping her face down. "Do you know how to speak to them?" He asked in reference to the slavers to which she nodded again. "Good, I need you to tell them, to leave and take those behind the rock with them and if they ever do something like this again or come across me, I will burn them full."
The girl quickly turned around. "The Fire Lord wishes for the slavers to leave and stop their slaving. If he sees you again he will burn you to ashes." The slavers stared dumbly at her before turning to the Dragon Slayer who let some fire spill from his mouth. They ran like the devil was on their heels.
With the Slavers out of sight, he let out a sigh and looked down on the burnt bodies. He then proceeded to walk through them to the kneeling slaves. The girl was quick to follow. "Kid, what's your name?" He asked her.
"Brenoris." She timidly replied.
"Bre-noris? Too hard, how about I call you Reny? My name's Natsu, Natsu Dragneel!" He spoke in his usual cheerful tone. He turned around and looked at Brenoris who still didn't meet his eyes. "Come on kid, you can look at me, I won't bite." He spoke reassuringly. The girl was short, maybe a little over Wendy's height, had long black hair that reached her mid back. Brown eyes stared at him in wonder and fear. She couldn't be older than 15. "I need you to do something for me."
"Yes my Lord?" She asked in fear.
"Ask them to line up, so that I can break their shackles." The girl stared amazed for a moment before nodding and doing as she was told. It only took a few minutes before all forty-nine of them were free and rubbing their arms. Natsu turned to look at the sound of hooves to see Marty making a slow walk towards him. "Took you long enough." The Dragon Slayer grinned at the horse as it stopped in front of him and brought it's head down. Natsu rubbed the stallion affectionately. "Yea. That wound was nothing but now that you have a battle scar, you are just as badass as me to look at!"
"My Lord, what do you want us to do?" Brenoris approached him from the side.
Natsu turned to look at the now freed slaves standing behind her. They all held eyes that held expectations. "Meh. I don't know. You guys are free now. Go back to your homes." He spoke disinterested.
"My Lord, if I may." A middle aged man stepped to the girls side, his head still bowed in respect. "We don't have a home. Our homes were destroyed and we all come from different places. Our family taken from us or killed, our lands burned. There is nothing left for us." He too spoke in the common tongue.
"Uh..." Natsu was out of words. "Ok guys...I don't know how to help you." He spoke sadly.
"Lead us." Brenoris spoke softly. And the ones who understood the common tongue supported her. "Lead us." She repeated in the Eastern tongue. There were a few men and children, the rest constituted women of 30 and below and they all began to chant.
"No no no stop! I am-" He tried to dissuade them. "Hey cut it out!" They didn't stop. "Hey listen! Listen!" He shouted, making them all stop and stumble back. "I won't lead you. I am not a leader. I was planning to cross that red dessert back there but Marty will need food and water, so we were planning to go collect stuff. So this is what we have decided, we will, go back to your villages and save them." His eyes burner with determination.
It was decided by the better part of the Freemen, as they have called themselves, to camp here for the night. The Slavers had lot of supply and it seemed they too were planning to cross the Red Waste.
Natsu controlled his hunger for the sake of the starving slaves but still managed to get some portions of the supply. "I have been stuck in a forest for a few days." He said between bites.
They formed a group around him to listen to what he had to say. "Forest?" Brenoris questioned.
Natsu looked up from his food, waving the bird leg. "Yea. You know the one where those horse guys come screaming?" He made an easy reference.
"The Dothraki sea? It's no forest, it's an open steppe of grass plains." Brenoris explained.
"Yea? Well you suck too." Natsu snapped causing the girl to flinch.
"On what my Lord?" She asked fearfully.
"Huh?" He looked at her.
"You asked me to suck." She reminded him.
"Eh? Don't take it literally! I meant you were boring with your accurate facts and corrections." He waved of her lack of understanding and continued to dig in. "How many of you know how to ride a horse?" Only two hands were up. "That is gonna be a problem..."
Setting of the story.
It's mainly from 2 points right now. Others will follow.
1. Natsu Dragneel
The events our protagonist faces takes place after the Doom, Century of Blood and the Targaryen conquest but before the Dornish war. He is in Essos if anyone is yet to figure that out. His motion sickness, is still there, but he has overcame the problem before when imagining the animal as a friend. I just skipped the whole horse and man bonding. It should have been a give away when Natsu personified the stallion as Marty.
2. Acnologia
At the end of the battle he was sent into a different timeline, i.e the Doom of Valyria. Yep. He's the Doom and had spent the last 100 years recovering from the loss of limbs in the peninsula he shattered. He decimated the it much like Tenro.
Thanks for the reviews. Some were useful while others, not much.
Again I insist you drop a review and promote more writers to come take up these sorts of crossovers.
