So I'm absolutely thrilled that so many people have followed my story! I honestly didn't think I would get so many. A huge thanks to those who did! As a thank you, I'm going to post Chapter 2 early. Originally I figured I would post once a week, but I had this one done a head of time.
As I mentioned before, I'm still getting used to the formatting here so I wrote (line break) when ever I am switching locations in the story. Sometimes I specifically mention a location as you will see in this chapter, others I do not. I'm still figuring out my writing style. So please bear with me.
Feel free to leave a comment or PM and let me know what you think.
I Do Not own Fairy Tail, but Saphira is mine!
I sincerely hope you enjoy the next chapter.
Chapter 2
Back at the guild hall, Mira had just finished putting up the last of the decorations for the party, so now all they had to do was wait. And patience is not a Fairy Tail strong point.
"Ugh! When is Guildarts going to get here! I wanna fight!" Natsu complained.
"Soon Natsu! You better calm down before you set any of the decorations on fire. You know Mira wouldn't hesitate to use Satan Soul on you. .. You know how she is with her parties," Gray stated.
Natsu immediately paled and sat down. He visibly shivered and said, "She is way worse than Erza and her strawberry cake when it comes to her parties."
Suddenly there was a loud, piercing siren sounding throughout the town of Magnolia. Natsu shot out of his seat and jumped up to the upstairs balcony right next to where Lucy was standing.
"They are finally here!" He shouted over the railing.
The ground shook slightly as the town shifted to create a pathway for Guildarts Clive to safely pass through town without destroying anything. And no matter how many times Lucy had seen this happen it never failed to amaze her, and she often wondered what caused the townspeople to go to such extremes. 'Oh well, I'll ask Erza or Levy one of these days. Right now it's time to meet Saphira!' She was too excited to think about anything else. 'Natsu must be rubbing off on me,' she thought.
(line break)
"Dammit Salamander! This is stupid!" Groaned Gajeel.
Lucy could hear him complain from where she stood with Erza and Levy. And she noticed that all the dragon slayers stood in a line just behind the guild doors. From her left to her right, youngest to oldest, Wendy, Natsu, Gajeel, and finally Laxus. 'Why?' she wondered.
"Levy, why are they lined up like that?"
"Hm? Oh! That's right you've never met her before. I've only seen this once myself and it was just Natsu and Laxus, so I would imagine it wasn't as big of a deal then. So now that she's coming back after being gone so long the other slayers have to defer to her. In dragon society there was a ranking system. Basically the stronger you are the higher your rank. Saphira is the strongest and oldest dragon slayer, the Alpha if you will." Levy explained.
"So she's like a queen in dragon society?"
"Sure… if you wanted to give her a title, that would be it. Though she would probably just prefer Saphira…"
Lucy noticed that Levy started to trail off in her explanation and started to go over the information she had just learned. 'Scary to think someone could be that strong… If she truly is Alpha does she have a Beta? Has she ever… wait a second.'
"Has anyone ever challenged her for the title of Alpha?"
"… yea, Laxus did."
"Nani?!"
"Hai, it happened before he changed, before Fantasia and the attack by Phantom Lord. He was about 19 or 20 at the time. I can't remember, but he couldn't land a single hit. You could tell that she was really angry at him, and it was also the day she left the guild. For most of the guild she has been gone for 10 years, but because we were frozen on Tenrou Island for seven years it has only been three years for us."
"Wow… that's crazy. What is going to happen now that she's back?"
"I have no idea."
Everyone turned their attention towards the door when Natsu said, "Oh man! She's here! I'm all fired up!"
"Gosh he's such an idiot," Lucy mumbled.
"Maybe… but he's your idiot," Levy replied giggling.
"Levy! Shut up!"
(line break)
"Well are you ready kid?" Guildarts asked as they approached the massive guild hall doors.
Saphira shot him a glare out of the corner of her eye and replied, "Doesn't matter if I'm ready or not. We are here anyway." With that said she walked up to the doors and pushed them open. 'Finally… I'm home.'
Before the doors were even halfway open they heard, "Welcome home Saphira and Guildarts!" The entire guild had turned out to welcome home two of their strongest power houses, but first it was down to business for Saphira. 'hm… two new slayers to add to the family… seven including me… this may just work.' Everyone watched silently as she walked over to the first slayer.
"Young Wendy Marvel I believe it is. Right?"
"Yes ma'am! Err...Lady Saphira." Wendy hastily said while bowing.
"There is no need to bow so low young one." Saphira said while pulling Wendy back up to her original standing position.
"Simply bowing your head is just fine and also just call me Saphira. Okay?" The young slayer nodded her head and smiled brightly. "It is nice to finally meet you Wendy." Saphira affectionately patted her head and moved on.
"Natsu Dragneel, it's been a long time." She said while smiling brightly, showing off her abnormally sharp canines. Natsu's grin equally matched hers as he bowed his head. He even managed to catch her off guard with a huge hug, which Saphira adamantly returned.
"You have been gone too long! I've grown a lot stronger!"
"I'm sure you have Natsu. I'll test your strength later."
"YOSH! I'm all fired up!" He shouted as Saphira chuckled and moved on to the next slayer.
"Gajeel Redfox a.k.a Black Steel Gajeel." He took a moment to give Saphira a once over, clearly not happy with his current position. 'This is the woman who's got everyone in such a fucking tizzy? Well she's taller than the shrimp, I'll give her that… probably about five feet ten inches…' He thought as he evaluated his situation considering challenging her. But the second he got back to her eyes he thought better of it. So he bowed his head and in turn she nodded hers. A mutual sign of respect.
"Welcome to the family Gajeel. I look forward to testing your metal." He gave her another nod and she walked over to the last slayer. 'Her eyes were dark… and promised a lot of pain had I not deferred. I'll bide my time challenging her.' Gajeel thought as he watched his new Alpha walk away.
'Damn I do not want to do this. My dragon half is practically clawing to find a way out. If I can just keep my cool… everything will be fine.' So she took a deep calming breath and said, "Laxus Dreyar… staying out of trouble, I hope."
Laxus bowed his head, much to the entire guild's relief and replied, "Indeed… trying to atone for my past sins has been challenging. Though I believe you are the last one I have to convince."
His voice was calm as he stared directly into Saphira's crystal blue eyes. And the guild hall was silent, no one daring to move a muscle as they waited to hear her response. Any of their concerns were quickly abated as she replied, "We shall see."
A huge sigh of relief was uniform among all members as Saphira calmly walked away and up the stairs to master Makarov's office, with the slayers falling into step after her.
Downstairs
"Wow! That was way too tense. Thank Mavis that's over!" Lucy exclaimed. Now that the worst part was over the guild members went right back to whatever they had been doing. Lucy went back over to her table with Levy and sat down. As she did, her thought went back to Saphira. 'She is very beautiful with her long black hair. It reached past her butt it was so long in fact it was almost to her knees! How she manages all that hair I would love to know! And what I wouldn't do to be as tall as her and have her amazing figure! Must be a dragon slayer thing cause all the guys are super ripped… Wendy you are so lucky!' She sighed and then jumped into the conversation Levy and Erza were having.
Upstairs in Makarov's Office
The master of Fairy Tail had added more chairs in his office in preparation for this meeting. So in the center of the room there was six chairs, one chair for each slayer and one for himself. As everyone took a seat Laxus ended up sitting directly across from her. 'Great now he is in my direct line of sight. Why couldn't master sit there… The conniving old geezer probably set it up this way.' She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He was sitting two seats to her right and immediately felt her eyes on him and gave her a huge grin. 'Yep. Definitely guilty.'
"So Saphira… What news do you have for us?" The master asked.
"For starters, the reason Acnologia hasn't shown up in quite some time is due to a serious injury he sustained about seven months ago. Since his birth is somewhere around 400 years ago he has a great fear of his own mortality. Dragons can live for centuries but even the strongest can fear the possibility of death. So he began to search for a way to slow down or completely stop the aging process. About a year ago he came across my story and sought me out… You see a male who sleeps with me gets to share in the magic of semi-age petrification. But this can only be done once and I wish to share this gift with my mate. And he's most certainly not Acnologia!" Saphira shuddered at the very thought of being cursed in such a way.
"So let me get this straight," began Gajeel. "You are over 200 years old and you have never had sex?"
"Really? … I give you all this information and that's the only thing you have a question about." She asked in a deadpanned voice. "Yes I am still a virgin. But given the prospect that you can only have one other person live your lifespan wouldn't you want it to be your mate as well?"
"Well yea, I guess. How do we even find our mates?" Gajeel asked.
"Wait… your dragons never explained…" She looked around at the blank faces around her and found her answer. "I guess I did have more time with my dragon than you guys did with yours… Fine, I'll explain so listen close. When a dragon slayer matures all you have to do is touch your would-be mate and his or hers magic will leave a mark on one of your palms. If the other person isn't a slayer or not mature enough they will never know the exchange happened unless of course you tell them."
"Really?! That's so weird yet awesome!" Natsu shouted.
"Kinda magical too," Wendy added.
"Sure… I guess," Saphira mumbled as her right hand clenched up, which didn't go unnoticed by Gajeel.
"Alright children, you are to stay in close proximity to Magnolia. If you take a job be sure to have a communication lacrima at all times. Once we get intel on Acnologia's location we will dispatch a team immediately. Now if you will excuse us I need to talk to Saphira privately.
Saphira stared at the wall while the slayers filed out of the office. She had a feeling she knew what this conversation would be about. 'He's going to try to convince me to tell Laxus. No way in hell I'm doing that!' She thought with a sour face.
"Saphira?"
"Yes master?"
"You were seriously injured during your fight with Acnologia weren't you?"
Her eyes widened as she turned her attention towards the short guild master. 'Okay… Not the direction I thought this would go in.'
