Lucy took in a breath as she stared at the forest in front of her. Rows and rows of towering trees went on and on, stretching into the far off distance. A warm breeze blew through the leaves and past her. The sun was just touching the horizon, a signal that the day was coming to an end. The forest would have been like any other forest out there if it weren't for the sound of flowing rivers and silent streams that surrounded her. It was the sounds that her mother would describe Aquarius hearing when she was human, and Lucy just hoped that she could find her here.
After being away from her home for a little over 3 months, Lucy had only been able to find Cancer, the Being of the Giant Crab. Even then, finding him had felt more like luck than anything else. She had only been planning on stopping by a town near the ocean to rest, but when she had heard a woman shout "Cancer," she knew she couldn't leave just yet.
She scolded herself now for not realizing sooner that the town being close to the ocean would have made perfect sense for Cancer to be there. Either way, there was no point in dwelling on it now when that wretched woman who had only abused him and forced him to do things for her was gone. Lucy didn't know how anyone could treat a Being of the Stars the way that lady did, and the irony of the situation was cruel beyond belief.
Cancer had become a Being of the Stars by saving a woman who a group of men was hurting. He didn't even know her name, let alone the fact that she was a Star herself. He had saved her but died in the process. That was why the Star had begged the Celestial Spirit King to make him a Being of the Stars too.
When Lucy had finally gotten to Cancer, she had found him in a state where a woman was using him as a footrest of all things. Then she had thought that maybe cruel wasn't a strong enough word to describe what was happening.
She was glad that she had been able to save him, and, as a result, gain his trust, but it scared her to think that someone as strong as a Being of the Stars was brought down to his knees, literally. Was that how it was for the other Stars too? Were they in situations dealing with as much pain as Cancer had been in? She shuddered at the thought but quickly pushed away any other oncoming thoughts similar to the ones before.
With another deep breath, she exhaled, shaking her hands and steeling her nerves. "Alright, Being of the Stars. Here I come." She went in.
Twigs and branches crunched beneath Lucy's feet as she went further into the woods. The sound echoed in the empty air, but Lucy didn't bother feeling afraid. She had no reason to be when she still had some of the other Beings with her and now Cancer too. It still seemed strange to her that only the Zodiac had become quiet after that fateful day, but she didn't question it for the time being.
Cancer whispered to her, telling her to be careful as the others chimed in. She knew they meant well, and she understood where their concern was coming from. They didn't know what might be waiting for her in the woods. She didn't know herself, but she had to find the Beings of the Stars. Even if it was the last thing she did.
When she heard rustling in a bush near her, her first instinct was to freeze, hoping whatever it was wouldn't notice her. After a few seconds, she looked in the direction of the bush, finding that a red, scaly tail was sticking out of it, swaying back and forth.
"Oh jeez," she whispered.
She didn't account for what was in the bush to have exceptional hearing, so when their head perked up instantly, turning to stare directly at her, another, "Oh jeez," fell from her lips.
Patches of red scales were on his face and arms. Black, medium length horns protruded from his head, but the most apparent characteristic of this hybrid creature were the wings on his back. Deep, deep red that could swallow you whole covered the frame of the wings while the rest of the wings were a creamy color. She had no doubts that they would have felt like leather if she touched them.
"Hey!" he shouted, and she flinched as she was brought out of her thoughts. "You! Have you—"
She bolted, turning to run in the other direction as fast as she could. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Not today, she thought. She knew what he was, knew it as soon as all of his features began to piece themselves together in her brain to make the image of what she only knew as a dragon. Or, at least half a dragon.
Dragons were one of the few creatures to actually have recorded information in books. Lucy spent a good month of summer a few years back reading about them in her room, and now she knew more about dragons than a normal person would, but even she didn't know everything. That was why as soon as she realized he was half-dragon, she also realized that her trying to run would be pointless.
"Hey!" he said again.
He tackled Lucy to the ground, and she screamed. He was strong; she knew that as soon as he went to hold her arms in place, but that didn't stop her from trying to escape.
She could hear the calls of the stars shouting for her in her head, asking if she were okay and if she needed help. She appreciated it, and she would always take their help if she needed it, but she had it covered for now.
"I'm tryna ask you somethin'!"
"Then how about," she said, squirming from beneath the dragon above her as she tried to get her feet under him, "you get off of me first!" She brought her legs towards his stomach, kicking him with all her might. He rolled off to the side, most likely in pain but unscathed.
Lucy pushed herself off the floor, taking in a ragged breath. "If you want to ask someone something, I suggest you don't go off tackling them first," she said, scowling at the pink-haired man in front of her.
He rubbed his head, looking at Lucy with a scowl of his own. "Well, you didn't have to go running off like that."
"What did you expect me to do! You're half-dragon!" she shouted, waving her hands in the air. "I had no idea what your intentions were. For all I knew, you were going to kill—"
"Hey!" he shouted, stopping Lucy. "I would not kill someone unless I absolutely had to. I'm not—not some monster."
She didn't expect him to get offended at her comment, but when she looked into his eyes, she was met with fire and pain. His eyes were set, and his brows were drawn together. It was a strange sight with the way he was sitting on the floor, legs crossed together. She might have laughed too if it weren't for the way he had said the word 'monster'.
Lucy cast her gaze down. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, fidgeting with her fingers as she bit the corner of her lip. "I don't—I don't think you're...a monster or anything," she stuttered, trying to form her words in a way that would get her feelings through. "You just...well...I didn't really expect to run into any dragons around here. I mean, it's the middle of a forest." She tried a smile as she lifted her head back up again. His eyes still held that same hard gaze, and her smile waned.
A minute went by with just the two of them staring into each other's eyes as guilt continued to swirl inside of Lucy. It was an all-consuming feeling that hurt her heart and made her throat feel tight and strained. She didn't like it, but if the person in front of her felt a fraction of what Lucy was feeling from what she said, she had no doubts that she deserved it.
He took his gaze away from hers and sighed. Then a fast and quick burst of a hot, blinding fire consumed him, and Lucy gasped, shielding her eyes away from the blinding light.
She thought maybe he had combusted and died somehow, but after a few seconds, she found she was wrong.
When the fire receded, disappearing into nothingness, she turned back to the dragon, and she had to force herself not to gasp again.
He was ruffling his hair, grumbling about something unintelligible, but that wasn't what shocked her. It was the fact that all his dragon features—the tail, the horns, the wings—were gone. The only remotely familiar thing from his half-dragon form were the sharp canines that she could just barely see through his lips. Well, that and his still-pink hair. It seemed that was all natural.
He got up from the floor and walked towards Lucy. She took a small step back when he was only a foot away from her. Did this guy know nothing of personal space? "Hi!" he said excitedly. It was a stark contrast to the way he was mere moments ago. "I'm Natsu."
He stuck his hand out, and Lucy eyed it wearily before deciding to shake it. "Lucy..." she said slowly.
"Great!" he said, releasing her hand. "Now that you know who I am, you can answer my question, right?"
One of Lucy's eyes twitched as she began to question the sanity of the man in front of her. She couldn't tell whether the way he switched from loud to brooding to cheery was anything even close to normal. She almost yelled at him too but thought better of it a second later as she pursed her lips.
Despite being half-dragon, she didn't think he was a bad person—didn't think he wanted to be a bad person either. She closed her eyes and sighed. "Go ahead," she told him.
He grabbed her shoulders, making her jump, and looked her in the eye. They were the type of green that reminded her of pine trees, and she found herself getting a little jealous of his eyes.
"Have you seen Igneel?" he asked her, once again bringing her back to reality.
She blinked twice and raised an eyebrow. "Who?"
"Igneel. He's my dad." Natsu let go of Lucy's shoulders, deciding to fiddle with the fabric of the scaly scarf wrapped around his neck. Lucy hadn't noticed it before until now.
"Is he human or…" Lucy raised an eyebrow at him in question.
"Of course he's not human. He's a dragon," Natsu said.
Lucy put her right hand on her hip, shifting her weight to one side of her body. Natsu seemed to think she knew everything, but that was far from true. "And how was I supposed to know that?"
He shrugged. "So you haven't seen him?"
"I think I would know if I saw a dragon," she said. "The forest may cover up a lot of space, but they're huge, aren't they? Taking even one step would probably make the ground shake."
From what Lucy could remember, they didn't travel much. She didn't think they traveled at all unless they had to. Now begged the question, if they didn't travel a lot, why was Natsu here? He may have only been half-dragon, but he still must have been family to them. Had they really all died off like everyone said they did? It seemed impossible, but she couldn't think of any other explanation that made sense with the information she had then.
Natsu looked at her with eyes wide and eyebrows raised. Lucy side-eyed him. Did...did he—"Huh," he said, "I never thought about that."
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Lucy shouted, exasperated. He hadn't thought of this before coming to the forest? At all? Then she remembered, he had been in a bush when she got there! She looked around, hoping to find a fallen tree that she might be able to sit on. There was one behind her, and she gladly took a seat on the log as she sighed.
"What were you doin' in the forest?" he asked, completely ignoring her outburst. He began to walk around, looking for something that she wasn't sure of.
She hesitated for a moment, not sure if giving out any information on the Beings of the Stars was safe. She told him anyway, careful not to reveal any specifics. "I'm...looking for someone too," Lucy said. Another moment of hesitation, and she added, "You...you wouldn't have happened to pass a town near any rivers or streams, have you?
"Mmm, can't really remember, but I don't think so," he said, and Lucy's shoulders went slack. There went another piece of hope.
Another broad grin crossed his face as he turned back to face Lucy. "But if you're lookin' for someone too, that means we can help each other out, right?"
"I don't know if we would even be able to help each other," she said, putting a strand of her hair behind her ear.
"Of course we could!" he said. "Ya can't honestly say you've done much progress alone, can you?"
She paused before answering him, biting her lip again. "That still doesn't explain how you could help me," she pointed out.
He scratched his head and closed his eyes, chuckling. "Well, I'm a dragon, aren't I? I can protect ya or something!"
Lucy puffed a breath out. "I never said I needed your protecting."
"That's not what I'm saying! I was just offering."
Lucy eyed him for what felt like the 50th time just that day, crossing her arms as she tried to figure this guy out. He confused her to no end, and as her writing brain began to come out, making her try and describe his personality, she found couldn't understand him. Maybe that was just it; maybe he was just a confusing person. "W...well, what if we have to go different ways because our leads are different?" She tried.
"We can worry about that later," he said, waving away her comment.
"B-but what about—"
Natsu laughed, cutting off Lucy's next question. "What're you getting so worried about? You aren't gonna get anything done if you keep waiting for things to always be good. That's what Igneel told me."
Lucy gave a slight smile, looking down again. "Sorry," she muttered.
"You know you don't have anything to say sorry for, right?"
She looked up at him as he finished his sentence. Another huge grin sported his face, and as she looked into his eyes, she saw a deep sincerity that she had not seen in anyone's eyes since before her mother died. It made her heart ache for her mom, but she felt a warmth that she realized she had been missing too.
She smiled back, her grin now wider than it had been before. Natsu's energy was infectious, and it made her want to agree with what he was offering, so she did. "Okay," she said, sighing as she got up from the log, "let's team up!"
His smile grew, and before she could even begin to protest, he grabbed her hand, and she felt that same warmth she felt in her heart in her hand as he led her away.
"Alright, I'm all fired up!"
She looked towards the direction he was rushing towards, only to see that it was in the opposite direction from where she came from. "W-wait!" she shouted. "That's not the right direction! We're just going near a stream near the forest!"
Natsu laughed, tilting his head back as he did. "I know," he said. "We've still gotta get someone else to come along!"
"Hey, you never mentioned another person was joining us!"
"He's not exactly a person, but he's my friend, so we gotta get him," Natsu said, not slowing down his speed at all as Lucy stumbled behind.
Lucy's eyes softened at his words, and she smiled again. Yeah, Natsu is definitely a good person, she thought, and she had definitely made the right decision. She picked up her pace to match his, and they went off to the start of what Lucy felt would be the start of a great adventure.
...
Hello! This is a new story of mine that I had an idea for from a one-shot that I wrote. I hope you enjoyed reading it! I won't be updating for a while so that I can get the whole plot sorted out, but I'm hoping for the next chapter to be done by January of 2021. I hope you'll stick around until then!
I don't know if there's anyone who has made a fanfiction story that revolves around Constellation lore, but that is where I'll be getting most of my inspo from, along with Fairy Tail, of course. It's also very late, but I really wanted to get this done today as a little birthday present to myself, so yeah!
There's a lot to be revealed, and a lot of stuff to come, but I'm excited, and I hope you will be too! Thank you so much for reading, and I'll see you when I update next!