YAHOO! Finally finished with the next chapter! *throws confetti and dances around happily* I thank you all for being so patient with me (well, some not so much), so please enjoy the second chapter of Team Natsu and the One Ring. And now, without further ado:
I don't own Fairy Tail or LOTR. All characters belong to their rightful owners. I just own my ideas for the plot that keeps this story going. This chapter also went a little longer than I originally intended, but that's just because I ended up getting carried away. But I hope it's still good anyway. ^_^
Chapter 2 Concerning Hobbits, Wizards, and Fairy Tail
"So what is this place we're going to exactly?" Lucy decided to ask curiously, voicing the question that was on her friends' minds as well, after a while of them becoming aquatinted with the old wizard.
"It is called the Shire, and the people who live there are called hobbits," Gandalf explained. "We'll be arriving there very soon."
"Well as long as I have Wendy's Troia spell, I can actually enjoy the ride without the feeling of motion sickness," Natsu was saying happily. "By the way, what's a hobbit?" He was obviously too busy happily enjoying a motion-sickness-free ride to be fully paying attention to what the others were talking about.
"Well obviously somebody wasn't paying attention," Happy stated dryly.
Gandalf began to explain to them what hobbits are, while the Fairy Tail wizards listened with interest. "Hobbits are little people, smaller than dwarves, and they inhabit a land they call the Shire." The Fairy Tail wizards continued to listen with interest as Gandalf described to them what hobbits were like, along with a description of the Shire as well.
"Cool, so do you think we'll get to meet any?" Natsu asked, once Gandalf was finished explaining.
"Um, what do these hobbits even look like just so we know what we're looking for?" Wendy added curiously.
"Hey, I think I see something moving through those trees over there," Happy pointed out.
"I wonder if that's one of them," Lucy replied.
Meanwhile
The hobbit in question that Happy pointed out appeared and was soon standing on a ledge above them. "You're late!" he said, as Gandalf pulled the cart to a stop.
The old wizard turned to look up at him. "A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins," he told the hobbit. "And nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."
The Fairy Tail wizards just watched in confused silence as both the hobbit and the old wizard looked as if they were having a stare-down with each other before they both eventually broke out into laughter.
The hobbit, now known as Frodo, then jumped from the ledge into the cart to hug the old wizard. "It's wonderful to see you, Gandalf!" he exclaimed excitedly.
Gandalf chuckled, returning the embrace. "You didn't think I'd miss your Uncle Bilbo's birthday, did you?" he replied.
The two of them then began to chat with each other, which left the Fairy Tail wizards to themselves as they were still taking in the fact that they were now in a different dimension. They still hadn't expected that job request to suddenly turn into an Anima though, but then again it wasn't all that different from the Anima that sucked all of Fairy Tail and the whole town of Magnolia into Edolas despite the fact that the Anima from the job request was smaller than the Edolas Anima. But it still wasn't all that odd considering it was Fairy Tail, and even Makarov had said that he wasn't all too sure who would send a request like that to their guild either.
"Man, this kinda feels like Edolas all over again doesn't it?" Natsu suddenly commented.
"Aye," Happy agreed.
"Not really. For one thing, we don't really know much about this world since we just barely landed here. Plus Edolas doesn't have any magic anymore remember?" Lucy reminded them."Well all we know so far from what that Gandalf guy told us. That this world is apparently called Middle Earth and we're apparently going to some place called the Shire where people called hobbits live, but that's about all we know so far," Gray pointed out to sum it all up.
"Yes way to point out the obvious there, Gray," Carla stated dryly.
"Hey I just wanted to sum up what we know so far ok?" Gray protested. "Geez, at least I'm not an idiot like Natsu."
"What was that, Icicle-brain?" Natsu shot back.
"Knock it off you guys," Lucy suddenly told them before a fight could break out between the two boys.
Wendy sweatdropped. "Well maybe the longer we're here, the more we'll find out about this place," she suggested.
Just then their conversation was suddenly cut short when Natsu suddenly happened to overhear Gandalf say something about an incident with a dragon even though the old wizard was still talking with Frodo. "Dragon, huh? Man, makes me wish Igneel was still alive," the Fire Dragon Slayer said as his expression suddenly saddened as it only reminded him when Igneel was just killed recently by Acnologia during their battle with Tartaros. Wendy had also picked up on it as her thoughts also suddenly went to Grandina as well.
That was when Frodo happened to notice them as well as Natsu's and Wendy's reactions at hearing Gandalf mention the dragon. "Actually if you want to hear about that, you would have to ask Uncle Bilbo about it," the hobbit said at noticing their interest in dragons.
"Nah, it's fine. I actually got no reason to continue looking for Igneel anymore," Natsu mumbled, much to Frodo's sudden confusion as to what he meant.
"Um, long story involving dragons where we're from," Wendy explained to the hobbit.
Frodo nodded despite still being confused about what they meant but decided not to pry at the moment. "Well alright then. By the way, I never got to ask for your names. I'm Frodo Baggins."
"It's really nice to meet you, Frodo," Lucy replied. "We're wizards from the Fairy Tail wizard guild. My name's Lucy Heartfilia. These two are Natsu Dragneel and Gray Fullbuster." Natsu and Gray both looked over at the Celestial Wizard after hearing their names mentioned.
"Nice to meet ya," Natsu told the hobbit.
"Yeah," Gray added.
"I'm Wendy Marvell," Wendy said while introducing herself as well.
"My name's Happy," Happy said as he was eating another fish. "I'm Natsu's best friend and partner. And I also like fish."
"And I'm Carla," Carla added while rolling her eyes at the blue Exceed. "I'm also Wendy's partner and friend. And also, Happy and I are both known as Exceeds originally from Extalia in Edolas although we ended up being born in Earth Land though," she added just incase Frodo also happened to ask if all cats were able to talk where they were from. "And no, it's just regular cats that are unable to talk like we Exceeds can where we come from."
Frodo, however, wasn't sure he understood what she meant by her and Happy being called Exceeds, or anything about the places they referred to as Extalia, Edolas, and Earth Land although he listened with interest as the white Exceed explained it all to him. But there was also one other thing he caught onto that Lucy had mentioned as she had introduced herself. "So you said you guys were wizards?" he questioned curiously. "What kind of magic do you guys use?"
"Well, I'm a celestial wizard," Lucy replied. "And I can give you a demonstration of celestial spirit magic if you want," she said as she got out one of her silver gate keys and called out "Open! Gate of Canis Minor: Nikola!"
"Puun," Plue said as he appeared before her.
"Hey there Plue," Natsu said.
"Hey Natsu, watch where you're setting those flames!" Gray exclaimed, as Natsu had accidently set a flaming hand down onto a couple of the fireworks in the cart and causing them to go off which attracted the attention of most of the hobbits nearby.
Gandalf would have been about to scold the pyro for letting himself get careless like that, but decided to let it slide for now as some of the hobbit children had come running up to see the fireworks go off.
"Way to go, pyro," Gray said sarcastically, while the hobbit children were now cheering excitedly at the sight of the fireworks.
"Crap! Sorry about that!" Natsu called out to the hobbits that were nearby, who only gave him confused looks in return as they had no idea who he was or why he would even be apologizing over fireworks.
"Aye, that's Natsu for ya," Happy said. "Always the first to destroy something."
"Say what?! I didn't destroy anything! That was an accident!" Natsu protested frantically.
"Sure Natsu," Happy replied sarcastically.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Natsu exclaimed. "I just said it was an accident!"
"Don't worry about it," Frodo laughed. "With all the fireworks Gandalf's bringing, there's still plenty to launch during the party."
"Unless Natsu ends up setting them all off with his flames again," Lucy said dryly. Frodo chuckled at the blond girl's comment.
"I wouldn't go jinxing him if I were you, Lucy," Happy told her. "Otherwise that just might happen."
"Well you had better hope that it won't happen, Natsu Dragneel," Gandalf said, mostly directing it towards the pink haired fire breather.
"Great, you're all still holding that against me are you?" Natsu muttered. "Geez, it's not like I set those ones off on purpose."
"Gee Natsu, since when are you the type to sulk about that sort of thing?" Lucy said.
"I'm not sulking..." Natsu mumbled.
"You could've fooled me," Lucy muttered dryly.
"So what kind of magic do the rest of you use?" Frodo decided to ask, with Plue now sitting in his lap. Team Natsu had made room for him to join them in the back, as he was now sitting in between Lucy and Gray.
"Well mine's sort of similar to Natsu, except I use sky and healing magic," Wendy said. "We're both Dragon Slayers though, but Natsu learned his magic from the Fire Dragon Igneel and I learned mine from the Sky Dragon Grandina.""And I'm an ice wizard," Gray added, demonstrating by creating the Fairy Tail symbol out of ice.
"I guess that explains the interest in dragons then," Frodo replied.
"Aye. And as for the dragons, they all suddenly disappeared one day but then they returned just recently. And Natsu's dragon Igneel recently fought this other dragon named Acnologia and ki-"
Natsu suddenly quickly covered Happy mouth before he could finish. "Yeah I'm sure he gets it, Happy," he said while not really wanting to talk about that as he still wasn't fully over Igneel's death yet.
"Anyway Igneel the Fire Dragon was the dragon who raised Natsu, and Metallicana the Iron Dragon raised Gajeel, I was raised by Grandina the Sky Dragon. And also Sting and Rogue of Sabertooth too, Sting was raised by the White Dragon Weisslogia and Rogue was raised by the Shadow Dragon Skiadrum," Wendy explained.
"Yeah, but Gajeel ain't here though. And neither are Sting and Rogue," Natsu told her.
"Yeah I know, but I just thought I'd mention it anyway," Wendy replied.
Meanwhile
Back at the Fairy Tail guild, Gajeel happened to sneeze. "Man, either I'm gettin' a cold or someone's gossipin' about me somewhere," he said. "Oh well, not that it really matters anyway."
And also at the Sabertooth guild, Sting and Rogue also sneezed for some reason but brushed it off as they just assumed they might be getting a cold or something.
Back with Natsu and the others again
They continued to chat with Frodo for a while as the hobbit was getting to know about the Fairy Tail wizards, while the Fairy Tail group was getting to know more about hobbits and the Fairy Tail wizards even explained about their guild 'Fairy Tail', and the different jobs that they take on there, along with Natsu and Happy teasing Lucy about her rent until the celestial wizard gave them both a 'Lucy Kick' to the face (which was pretty hard to do while sitting in the back of a cart full of fireworks).They continued talking for a while until Frodo decided to leave as he stood up in the cart.
"Well it was nice to meet all of you," the hobbit told the Fairy Tail group, before turning to Gandalf. "And Gandalf, I'm glad you're back,' he added to the old wizard.
"So am I, dear boy," Gandalf replied, as Frodo jumped off the cart while waving at them after handing Plue back to Lucy. "So am I."
The Fairy Tail wizards and Gandalf rode for a while in silence after that, while the Fairy Tail wizards decided to admire the scenery of the Shire, until Happy decided to start up another conversation.
"Hey, I just thought of something," Happy suddenly said. "Wouldn't it be funny if Wendy's Troia spell wore off, and Natsu started puking up flames that sets off all the fireworks back here?" he suggested with his catlike grin.
"Ok, that just sounds wrong," Lucy told him in disgust to that.
"How can you even suggest something like that, tomcat?" Carla added.
"But isn't that pretty much the same thing as just breathing fire?" Wendy pointed out.
"It still sounds wrong though!" Lucy exclaimed.
"And not to mention, we'd all be going up in flames if that were to happen," Gray added.
"Which had better not happen," Gandalf reminded them. The old wizard had apparently still been tuned in to their conversation. "So I suggest you refrain from putting that idea into your friend's head."
"Say what? Why the heck would I want to set off more fireworks when that last one was an accident?!" Natsu suddenly exclaimed with his fists on fire that accidently set off a couple more fireworks in the process.
"Remind me again who it was who said not to jinx him, Happy?" Carla told the blue Exceed.
"KYAA!" Lucy suddenly shrieked in surprise, as they ended up being near her this time. "NATSU!" she screamed, giving the pyromaniac one of her 'all-too-famous' Lucy Kicks at the same time Gandalf suddenly whacked him on the head with his staff.
Gray snickered at the pink haired pyro. "Looks like you had that coming, Flamebrain. From both Lucy and the old man, that is," he teased, earning himself a whack on the head from Gandalf's staff as well. "Geez, what the heck, old man?!" he exclaimed while rubbing the back of his head.
"I believe I have heard enough of the two of you fighting right now," Gandalf told him, directing it at Natsu as well. "You might get away with this kind of destruction where you are from, but the Shire, or anywhere here in Middle Earth for that matter, is no place for such chaos or petty fighting to be taking place. Now, I do not want to see another flame from you, once we reach Bag End. Is that clear?"
"Aye sir," Natsu replied.
They soon arrived at what the Fairy Tail group assumed was this 'Bag End' place. The Fairy Tail group climbed out of the cart as soon as it came to a stop and followed Gandalf up to the hobbit hole. They noticed a sign on the gate that read: No Admittance, Except On Party Business, which made the Fairy Tail wizards wonder what kind of hobbit lived here.
"'No Admittance, Except On Party Business'? Kinda sounds like whoever lives here doesn't like visitors or something," Gray commented after reading the sign.
"Sounds like how I feel when Natsu and Happy are inside my apartment uninvited," Lucy stated dryly.
"But Lucy, your place is always the best place for us to train and workout," Natsu protested at hearing the Celestial Wizard's comment.
"Aye!" Happy agreed.
"Yeah and then my apartment starts to reek of sweat because of you," Lucy muttered irritatedly in reply to Natsu and Happy just acting so carefree about that.
Their attention was suddenly drawn back to Gandalf who had gone up to knock on the door which was answered by a shout of "No thank you! We don't want any more visitors, well-wishers, or distant relations!"
"And what about very old friends?" Gandalf answered back, just as the door suddenly opened and an older looking hobbit stepped out.
The Fairy Tail group just watched the reunion (or whatever you wanna call it) between the old wizard and hobbit, until Bilbo happened to notice the strange group standing somewhat awkwardly behind the old wizard after a while. "Gandalf, you brought guests with you?" he asked Gandalf, as the old wizard looked behind him at the Fairy Tail group.
"Ah yes, just a group of young wizard children I happened to run into on the way here," Gandalf replied. "And quite the rowdy bunch too, I might add."
Lucy sweat-dropped. "That actually happened to be just Natsu and Gray fighting. And also Natsu accidently setting off fireworks," she said. "By the way, my name's Lucy," she added, introducing herself to the old hobbit followed by Natsu, Gray, Happy, Wendy, and Carla all introducing themselves to the old hobbit as well.
"Well it's a pleasure to meet all of you," Bilbo told them while welcoming them all inside.
Once they were all inside, Bilbo had then offered to make them tea or possibly something a bit stronger to which Gandalf had replied that just tea was fine. And Carla had obviously objected to Wendy drinking anything, saying that she was too young for any of that, although the young Sky Maiden was too busy looking around and admiring the place with the others, so she was hardly paying attention to the white Exceed.
Natsu and Happy (after the blue Exceed had asked for some fish) were now snickering at Gandalf, who had accidently bumped into the chandelier above him and then ended up bumping into the doorway as he was turning around.
"Ha ha! Now that's what I call funny!" Natsu snickered.
"Aye! Maybe hobbits should make their houses bigger," Happy joked.
"Yeah, you said it, little buddy!" Natsu replied with a grin, as he too ended up bumping into a nearby wall.
"Says the pyro who also ran into something, but that's karma for ya," Gray said, as he couldn't help snickering at the pyro wizard, while being careful not to bump into anything. "At least Wendy, Carla, and Happy don't have to worry about that problem though."
"Aye, that's true," Happy agreed, as he ended up flying straight into a wall.
"Tell me you didn't just do that on purpose, tomcat," Carla told him.
"Aye, I wasn't looking where I was going," Happy moaned, rubbing his now sore nose as Carla just rolled her eyes at him.
Meanwhile
Lucy had taken an interest in the book Bilbo had been writing as she began flipping through it.
"Wow, so this guy is writing a novel too just like I am," she mused to herself, as she came across the part with the dragon. "I bet Natsu would be interested in this dragon." And without even thinking, she called over to the pink haired pyro. "Hey Natsu, I think you might be interested in this dragon!"
"Well it may not be Igneel but I guess it couldn't hurt to see this other dragon," Natsu said while going over to join her before suddenly noticing the book Lucy was looking at, "Eh? Hey Lucy, I thought you said there was a dragon somewhere. This is a book."
Lucy sweatdropped. "Yeah I know it's a book, but look. This guy looks like he's writing a novel," she explained. "And look, there's a part in here about a dragon." She then pointed out to him the part with the dragon.
"Cool," Natsu replied while looking at where she was pointing in the book.
They were both soon interrupted by Bilbo's continued rambling from the kitchen. "I can make you all some eggs if you like," the old hobbit said, as he began looking around for Gandalf. "Gandalf?"
"Just tea, thank you," Gandalf said from behind him.
"Oh right," Bilbo replied, as Happy suddenly flew past him and into the kitchen happily exclaiming "Yay! Fish!" and immediately began munching on a fish.
"Puun," Plue said with a lollipop in his mouth.
"Hey Happy, Plue, don't go hoggin' all the food!" Natsu exclaimed while rushing over to join the blue Exceed and the dog celestial spirit in the kitchen.
"And that's exactly what they do sometimes when they raid my apartment back home too," Lucy said with an annoyed sigh. "Except for Plue, of course," she added, as Bilbo only chuckled at that.
Just then there was suddenly a knock on the door as they heard someone calling out Bilbo's name followed by the old hobbit jumping back against the wall so whoever it was wouldn't spot him.
"Looks like you got some company out there," Gray said, as he just so happened to be standing next to the window and looked out when there was a knock.
"I'm not at home!" Bilbo whispered before slowly moving over to look out the window. "The Sackville-Bagginses," he said, moving back away from the window again.
"Who are the S-" Wendy began, only to have Bilbo quickly put a hand over her mouth to shush her before she could finish.
"Please keep your voice down, Miss Wendy," Bilbo told her. "They're just some relatives, and they've never forgiven me for living this long. And I wish to go about unnoticed by them."
"I'm sorry, I'll try to be quieter," Wendy said, once Bilbo had removed his hand away.
"I hope you don't mind me asking, but is that the reason why you have that sign out there?" Lucy decided to ask, referring to the sign on the gate that said 'No Admittance Except On Party Business'.
"Yes, and I've got to get away from these confounded relatives hanging on the bell all day and never giving me a moment's peace," Bilbo said.
"If you want, I could ice 'em for ya if you don't want 'em around," Gray suggested, as he suddenly had ice in his hand while leaving Bilbo to wonder how he wasn't even cold just by touching ice.
Natsu, eager to join in, ignited his hand on fire. "Or maybe I could just-""No way! I don't wanna get in trouble because of you guys!" Lucy exclaimed frantically. "That especially goes double for you, Natsu!"
"Hey, I was just kidding, Lucy," Natsu told her.
"All the same, it would be best if all of you refrained from revealing your magic while you remain in the Shire," Gandalf told the Fairy Tail wizards, as Bilbo continued going about getting tea ready for everyone (and a glass of milk for Wendy)."Aye sir!" Happy said.
"Yeah, you can totally count on us to not use magic while we're here," Wendy added.
Gandalf nodded reassuringly, at least hoping they would keep to their word on that, before proceeding to talk with Bilbo.
Later that evening, Gandalf and Bilbo were sitting outside talking with each other and smoking their pipes. However, they were soon interrupted by Team Natsu causing a ruckus inside.
"You were right, Gandalf," Bilbo said with a chuckle. "Quite the rowdy bunch indeed. I bet they would fit right in during the party."
"Hey, what do you think you're doing, Natsu?! You can't just go and eat someone else's fireplace!" they heard Lucy exclaim.
"Man, those sure were some tasty flames," Natsu said with a grin after eating the flames that were in the fireplace.
"Just don't go setting the house on fire, you pyro," Gray said.
"Oh yeah! How about I set you on fire, Ice-stripper!" Natsu shouted.
"Seriously, you guys need to knock it off!" Lucy told them.
Wendy sighed. "If only we had Erza here with us to help keep them in line."
"Now that's something we can all agree on," Carla agreed, followed by Happy's "Aye!" of agreement.
Back with Bilbo and Gandalf
"As rowdy as they are, they're also quite an amusing bunch," Bilbo admitted, chuckling again.
"Yes I suppose they are, in their own way," Gandalf replied.
"Gandalf my old friend, this will be a night to remember," Bilbo said. "And perhaps for them as well," he added, referring to the Fairy Tail wizards.
Oh, and I hope nobody minds that I sum up most of the parts from the LOTR movie because I don't want to copy it word for word so I just summed up parts of it for this chapter. And I also made a little change. The part where Gandalf is still riding through the Shire and when the hobbit children come running up to him, and he sets a couple fireworks off for them before continuing, I thought it would have been funny if Natsu did that by accident instead.
