Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.


Natsu and Juvia decide to camp at the mountains until Juvia's leg recovered. Unwrapping that bandage was the most suspenseful moment of Juvia's life yet. Upon unravelling the final winding, Juvia was delighted to see scar-less pale—almost white skin.

"Natsu! Look, Juvia's leg is healed."

"That stuff really is amazing. I got to thank the lady when I get the chance."

"Please send Juvia's regards."

"No problem. So, shall we go?"

"Yes!" Brimming with excitement of exploring a new place, we took down the tent and campfire we set up from the night we spent here. In no time, we were descending the mountain. It really is strange, the trees here are brown and yellow, sometimes red. But looking at the forest below us, green as far as the eye can see. The mystery really is rousing Juvia's eagerness. Looking at Natsu, Juvia can see the same anticipation.

We were standing at where the Autumn colours meets the Summer. It's like a child drawing territory, Juvia can see a point where Juvia is in Greybrook and not a mountain. Natsu held out his hands for Juvia to grab onto.

"Shall we?"

"Let's." Juvia held onto Natsu's hands, excitement shrouding the embarrassment of holding a man's hand.

"Three…two…one...go!" We stepped into Greybrook at the same time. As childish as this is, doing this reminded Juvia of the rare instances of fun she would have dancing in the rain. The two of us laughed at the absurdity of the situation we are in for a good minute. Natsu placed his hands behind his head. "I wonder what kind of things we'll find here."

"Juvia doesn't know, the guidebook didn't say anything."

"Then there's only one way to find out, the best way. Let's go!" There's that smile Juvia has come to like, filled with positivity.

"Yes!"

The animals here are weird, Juvia saw a mouse-like creature running up a tree. It had large fan-like ears, long pink tail and brown fur. Then there is the deer with two antlers and one horn in the middle. And that's just the start, Juvia has never seen any of these animals and judging from Natsu's expression, neither has he. Most surprising was how friendly these animals are. None of them ran away from us if we got close, in fact they possess the same curiosity as we do, running up to us and sniffing our legs. A white 'deer' nuzzled its nose against Juvia's hands and allowed Natsu to run his hands along it's toned body.

We soon came across a lake, larger than the one Juvia met Natsu on that day. The water was crystal clear, giving Juvia a perfect look at the strange fishes swimming around. Some has a flat body that can float on water, another had scales that kept changing colours. Land animals by the hundreds were on the banks drinking. Different species of animals mingled together without any tension. The fishes had no problem with swimming in between the legs of the animals.

"Juvia, I can't believe that I don't want to kill any of these animals to eat them."

"Natsu! Don't ruin the moment! Juvia was enjoying the atmosphere."

"Then let's rest here, we have been walking for a while." Natsu sat down on a patch of grass, to which Juvia sat next to. Juvia didn't notice until she did it, but Juvia was resting her head on Natsu's shoulder, it just feels right. When Juvia noticed, she shot out of her seat and placed a good distance between us

"S—sorry! Juvia didn't mean to—"

"I don't mind, you can use my shoulders, we are a bit tired.

"T—then…" Juvia nested her head back onto Natu's shoulder, enjoying his warmth again.

"Hey Juvia?"

"What is it?"

"Do you think we should come back here sometime? With the others? It seems like good place to relax here."

"You're right, Juvia thinks we should, it'll be lovely."

"I'm kinda tired, should we sleep?"

"Juvia is sleepy as well, the gemstone can wait, we should rest up first."

"Yeah." We both laid down and let the soft winds lulled us to sleep.

It was morning by the time Juvia woke up. If the sun's position was anything to judge by anyway. Juvia found something really comforting below her, Juvia ran a finger to see what it was. Several bumps that were firm when Juvia pressed of them. Whatever it is, Juvia want one as her blanket, it's so great to sleep on. Wait, Juvia has experienced this kind of heat before, and it's strangely like Natsu's. With an ominous feeling in Juvia's chest, she opened her eyes. J—Juvia was h-hugging N—Natsu! Juvia wanted to pull away at once but the thought of Natsu's body heat leaving Juvia rooted her in place.

It was around this time when Juvia noticed something soft and furry brushed up against Juvia's legs, looking down, Juvia found that she was covered by small animals sleeping on top of her! Deer look-a-likes were nested to Juvia's back. The same thing happened to Natsu except even more were on him, presumably attracted by his body heat. Could it be, these animals were trying to keep us warm? If not, why are they rubbing their fur and tails passively against our bare skin? Not that Juvia minded having a bunch of cute animals sleeping on Juvia but, Juvia can't get up without waking the poor guys. And looking at their sleeping faces made sure Juvia can't do that. Time for some delicate operations.

One by one, Juvia cradled the little animals and placed them next to the big ones. It took quite a while to complete, nerve-racking at the same time. Now it's for Natsu. The task was harder for Natsu, since there were more critters on him, Juvia must be more careful to not bump into any of them. With some difficulty, Juvia managed to get the sleeping animals off Natsu.

"Thank you Juvia."

"Natsu?" Juvia whispered. "You were awake? Since when?"

"When you started to move away the little guys."

"Then you could have helped Juvia."

"Don't wanna." He grinned. This guy just loves to mess with Juvia doesn't he? "Well, let's get out of her—whoa!"

"What's wron—ehh?" We were surrounded by a lot more animals than Juvia originally thought. They somehow managed to organise themselves from smallest to biggest. The animals got bigger the further Juvia looked. Wrapped in a circle of fluffy creatures, Lisanna-san would really love this.

"What now?"

"For starters try not to step on any of them."

"Easier said than done! They're pretty tightly packed."

"How about this?" Juvia climbed onto Natsu's back. "Can you jump out?"

"No problem." Natsu said while smiling, revealing his fangs. "Ready?" Juvia clung tighter to Natsu.

"Anytime."

"Then…" Juvia felt her body escape gravity's pull, Juvia saw the rings upon rings of animals huddled up together as Natsu leaped into the air, a combination of earthy colours made up the circle. "Great thinking Juvia." Natsu said when he touched the ground free of anything moving. Juvia got down from the dragon slayer and stretched.

"Now let's find the gemstone."

"Yeah!"

While Juvia wanted to say we worked hard to try and find the gemstone. But we just ended up goofing around. Natsu swung on vines and got Juvia to do it, he caught Juvia every time she fell. We swum across the lake to who is faster, sadly Juvia forgot to propose a bet to get back at Natsu, so even though Juvia won, she got nothing out of it. We climbed trees to the very top and looked at the clouds, Juvia sang again, this time, of a happy and jolly song. Playing at in the forest with someone was something Juvia has never done, she mainly played with herself and water dolls Juvia created. Juvia feels alive with Natsu.

Our time was cut short when we were picking up fruits to eat, Natsu found three sets of human foot prints that didn't belong to any of ours.

"Juvia, looks like we can't mess around anymore…" Natsu sniffed the foot prints. "They're pretty far from here, so I don't think we will run into them. We need to hurry up though…" Disappointment and responsibility was mixed into Natsu's voice. It hurt to see such a jolly man look so dejected.

"Natsu…we can just come back here again."

"Yeah…we were having so much fun though."

"We can bring more people next time, the more the merrier right?"

"Yeah." Natsu gave Natsu a faint smile of reassurance. "We gotta go—What…is…that?" The forest in front of us distorted in a spiral, the space crumpled like fabric then shattered like glass. Suddenly, a stone house chained by vines and moss appeared, doors open, inviting us in.

"Do we go in?"

"Of course! This looks so interesting, come on Juvia!" The sad Natsu that burned into Juvia's mind was just like an illusion, as if the child-like Natsu never left. Natsu pulled Juvia into the house hastily.

All the wooden furniture was eaten away by bugs and broken down by tiny lifeforms, Juvia could barely see what they were supposed to be. The stone tables and cabinets remained, only surrounded by plantation. Right at the entrance, there was a stairway leading upstairs. We followed up the stair to an empty room—or now empty room. On the furthest wall, a bunch of etched words were unblemished, not a single plant could be seen.

"Juvia, can you read this?"

"No, only a few words, our written language must've changed too much from the time this was written. Juvia can only pick out some of the words that is still used today."

"You too huh?"

"Why don't we contact Levy-san? She might know how to read this."

"Great idea! Wait a sec." Natsu dug into his bag and pulled out a lacrima. Soon, we were connected to Fairy Tail. To the bartender, Mira-san

"Natsu! And Juvia! What's wrong? Master said you were on a job, did something happen?"

"Mira-san, is Levy-san there?"

"Yes, do you want me to call her over?"

"Please do."

"Leeevyy! Juvia is looking for you."

"Coooming!" A childish face with blue hair greeted us. "Whats up Juvia? Natsu's with you too!"

"Well, we came across some old writing that we can't read, can you translate it for us?" Levy-san's eyes became full of excitement.

"Really!? Let me see, quickly!"

"Here."

"I see…ummm…this looks like something written from about four hundred years ago, maybe even longer than that. Give me a second…

"Okay, this is the translated text, you got to tell me what happened when you get back okay? Then here goes:

Dear Travellers,

To be able to come here, means you have a kind heart and a pure motive. My name is Demetrius Vidal, the wizard that is responsible for creating the mountains you have conquered to get here. I hope is wasn't too hard of a journey.

"I originally created this place to get away from the evil and greed that is around my time, I wish that we have moved past such selfish ways of living. But alas, the likeness of that happening is slim. As you might have already noticed, this place has no predators, making every animal you meet very friendly. Wanting to make this place a safer place for these animals and to protect this place—my treasure—Vertwyn Garden. I contacted a genius wizard—to which he doesn't wish to have to his name disclosed—in helping me construct a barrier to ensure that all foreign wildlife cannot get in the garden.

"As a reward for getting in this house, and for showing me that there is still purity after the years that must have past, I planted a special tree that bears gemstones as fruit in the middle of the forest. That isn't technically true but, being adventurous people that got over the mountains surely, surprises are something you enjoy.

"Of course, I cannot fully let magic to do my work, that's why I have an old friend to judge whether you are worthy of my gift. Again, I'll leave that for you to discover.

From a friend of the distant past,

Demetrius Vidal.

And that's it. I want all the details when you come back okay?"

"No problem, see you later Levy. Thanks!" Natsu said. "I'm all fired up now! Let's go Juvia!"

"Yes!" Unprecedented levels of excitement welled from deep inside us, we ran straight to the centre of the forest, thankfully, the playing we did brought us really close to the centre in this massive forest.

Just walking past a wall of trees, we came across a clearing of plain grass. Right in the middle, was a huge tree—bigger but not taller than the other trees—with transparent trunks and branches, Juvia could see the tree giving off a rainbow radiance, illuminating the grass with a white glow. The tree has no leaves, as the trees seem to take what it needs from the ground. Inside the trunk, Juvia could see yellow liquid flowing up to the branches. Magic! And such pure concentration! From the branches, the magic poured into the huge amount of fruit that was hanging. They all looked unique, from colour to shape, each fruit looks like master craftsmanship, giving off different colour auras made from magical energy. So that's where the white light is coming from! The magic in so intense that the fruits must release them in the form of light.

Despite the density of magic power gathered here, Juvia felt nothing but gentleness and positivity. Natsu seems to be looking at something else, up in the sky. Blazing wings the size of buildings stacked together, talons ten times larger than the sabre's fangs, a majestic bird frame, all this coated in golden flames perched on the tree. A phoenix.

It's like the sun took physical form and came down to greet us. The grass caught on fire just from the heat alone, the same golden flames danced around the fields as the legendary bird. The flames from the guardian was put out, showing the stunning red feathers that tapered to gold ones at the end of its wings and tail. A pair of green eye stared at us, unmoving, waiting for us. Juvia then felt another source of heat coming from next to her.

"Natsu! We can't fight that! This has already become an S-class job! We must retreat!"

"And skip out on a fight like this? No way!"

"Natsu! Don't make Juvia knock you out and drag you away from here! Quick! Before it attacks—"

"This is lovely! A phoenix and a tree that prints money." A rough voice emerged from the forest. "Listen Odis, Brady, if we bag these two, we'll be set for life." Sinister-looking men stepped in, all of them preparing their magics. A tall blond man stood at the centre, smoking a cigar, scars dominated his face. The one on the left has green hair and a buff figure. On the right, a cloaked man stood holding a tome in his hands.

"Yes boss! The life of the rich awaits." The cloaked one said.

"Those two over there! Get out of here before we kill you!" The boss shouted.

"The only one that should be going is…you guys!" Natsu vanished and punched the cloaked one in the gut, sending him flying to a tree. "Juvia, back me up! I'm getting fired up." Natsu's hands were coated in gold flames, scales were showing up at different parts of his body. When did he eat the phoenix's flames!? Juvia could only dumbly nod and prepare magic of her own.


Thank you for reading! We finally get to the crux of the quest, let me know what you think of the pacing!

Since no one has said anything about my fighting scenes, I don't know where can I improve on. So, if the next chapter turns out bad, please forgive me. Another thing I want to know is if I am jumping from scene to scene too much. It's been bothering me for a while now. So do tell me what you think.

Thanks for the support! Look forward to your feedback!