A/N: Hey guys! It's been two months, so I'd thought I'd give y'all an update and a quick tease to more of the story. Anyways, I just started writing chapter eight! I have no idea what that means, because I have no clue how many chapters there're going to be, but whatever! I probably would've been farther along in the writing, except I changed part of the plot halfway through chapter six, so I had to go back and rewrite a bunch. Anyways, onto the tease! And thank you for supporting Lucid!

"Good morning, Mom!" Natsu greeted as he bounded into the dining room for breakfast, where only his mother sat.

"Wow, honey! You never smile so early in the morning. Good dream?"

Natsu laughed as the image of Lucy with her cheeks puffed out popped into his head. "Yep!" he answered his mother. He grabbed a muffin and quickly scarfed it down before saying, "I'm gonna go find Gray and kick his butt."

Grandine laughed. "I'm not sure you want to. We have a visitor from Fiore that should be arriving at any time." The look of terror on Natsu's face as the boy realized his mother's implications caused Grandine to laugh again.

"E-Erza's returning!?" Natsu stuttered out. Grandine nodded her confirmation, and Natsu was immediately out the door towards the barracks in order to warn the knights and trainees of Erza's return. Natsu was afraid, and with good reason. Erza Scarlet was a red-headed female who was the top knight in all of Fiore, the kingdom neighboring Natsu's kingdom of Kasai. Erza often visited the Dragneel castle, and whenever she caught Natsu fighting with someone, she beat the living daylights out of him. In fact, anyone she caught fighting would get a beating. Every single one of the Kasai knights both respected and feared her. They wanted to fight her to test their strength, and yet they didn't want to be knocked into next winter. The woman was a beast on the battlefield. She always had dozens of weapons on her that were pulled seemingly from nowhere. The woman had shortswords, longswords, claymores, halberds, scythes, rapiers, sickles, axes, maces, bastard swords, daggers, staves... Natsu couldn't even name all the weapons he had seen her wield. She did have two swords that she definitely favored, however. They were a pair of broadswords that she would use together, called her "Heaven's Wings". It was a fitting name, because the guards were fashioned after angel wings. Erza also had lots of different armor, but she didn't demonstrate different armor as much as she did weapons.

Natsu entered the building where most of the knights lived. As far as quarters for the knights of Kasai went, the exceptions of boarding in these barracks were few. Skiadrum, Atlas, Metalicana, and Weisslogia, all part of Igneel and Grandine's personal guard, were housed within the main structure of the castle. Wendy, Natsu's younger sister, had an attendant, named Mystogan, who also lived in the castle. Natsu didn't really trust him, since his face was always covered or hidden from anyone's sight, but Wendy seemed to like him, so Natsu hadn't argued about his presence. At least, not after a year of him being there. Gray, being the prince's attendant, also had quarters within the castle. Just then, though, Gray happened to be at the barracks, talking to some of the other soldiers and trainees. Before Natsu could announce why he was there, a certain blond yelled to him.

"Hey, Natsu! I want to fight you!" Natsu was very close to accepting, a hand already on the Fire Dragon's hilt to fight against Sting, the son of Weisslogia, and his "Holy Light" longsword, but then he remembered why he was there. He shook his head furiously.

"I can't right now, Sting! Erza's coming!" At the mention of the red-haired monster, the men in the room were instantly in a rush, running around like chickens without heads, trying to make the barracks clean and presentable.

"Lady Erza is returning? How delightful!" A small, female voice spoke up from the back of the room Natsu was in.

"Wendy? What are you doing here?" As he said it, his blue-haired teenaged sister appeared in his line of sight.

"Hello, Natsu!" Wendy greeted. "Romeo was complaining about a migraine again, so I came down to give him some medicine." Natsu rolled his eyes, but his face held a smirk. While he may not be thinking of romance, his sister and the dark-haired trainee certainly were. When even Natsu could tell that they had crushes on one another, it was pretty obvious. Romeo was the son of a veteran soldier from Fiore, but due to circumstances that Natsu didn't know, Romeo and his father had ended up living in Kasai, which, obviously, was where Romeo was training to be a knight.

"Hey Natsu, you gonna challenge Erza again?" Gray remarked snidely. Gray was teasing Natsu for the last time Erza had been there, when Natsu had wanted to fight her and ended up being knocked out for two whole days. Not that Gray knew firsthand. Erza had caught him running around with only his underwear on, and so she had knocked him out for two days as well. Another knight, Loke, had tried to woo her and became a victim of her fist as well. Natsu hated the tone in Gray's voice, so he blurted out something that he just knew he would come to regret.

"Yeah, I will!"

"What!? Are you crazy!?," at least five people shouted at Natsu.

"Nah! I've gotten stronger since last time! I can take her!" Most of the men rolled their eyes, muttered 'it's your funeral' under their breath, or started their bets on how quickly it would take for Natsu to be knocked out. Natsu was about to yell his annoyance at their reactions when they heard a pounding knock at the door. A hush fell over the usually loud knights. Natsu didn't know who it was, but somebody shoved him forward towards the door. Putting on an attempted confident look, Natsu reached for the handle and opened the door.

A/N: I'll see you next time!