So guess who's back from a long annoying break? Meeeee, Rockingcass12 which you are all allowed to be angry at.

Matters not anymore since I'm providing the longest chapter I've ever written in my life, to make up for my absence. But just because we're evil we're splitting the long update into two updates. We'll post the second one in a few days or sooner depending on the response ;)

Enjoy~!

It had dawned upon Natsu that he would have to give up his quest and live in shame, all because he couldn't take one measly boat ride to Galuna Island. It was shameful indeed since he was sort of broke and the payment for the job he had taken was handsome enough to keep him going for the entire year. He even thought that after he had finished the quest he could negotiate for more due to his… immaculate job performance.

He hadn't given up for several hours though at the docks. He even tried to make a deal with some shady pirates he casually met by a tavern.

Natsu was near the point of setting some boats alight with his sword Etherious, he was so frustrated.

It was dusk, so he decided to walk up and down the pier one last time since some fisherman would only return home at this point and Natsu figured he could try his luck with those lots.

Slumping down the dock he saw a small row boat for two, tied to the dock. He would have remembered it if he had seen it before. He looked around to search for the owner but groaned when he found no one in sight.

His will had diminished and he dropped to the floor with a harsh thump.

"Oh Kid, why so gloomy?"

Natsu's head shot up to the row boat and saw a man clearly perched on one of the seats.

"I-uh… where you here this whole time?" the pinkette asked cautiously.

The man looked at Natsu as if he was crazy "Of course, ya blind or something?"

Natsu's brain was about to combust but still focused on one thing "No, but I might be going crazy… Old man, I need ride."

"Oi I ain't old… where do you need to go?" the man asked cautiously.

Natsu cringed "Galuna Island"

Natsu shut his eyes waiting for the rejection but instead the man stayed silent.

"Hmmm… what ye need to go there fer? The place is cursed ya know"

"A job request, and right now I'm considering swimming."

The man chuckled slightly "Well no need fer that son. Why don't I take ya?" He gestured to his small boat.

Natsu's eyes went wide with disbelief "Seriously? Is there some sorta catch?"

The man just laughed again "A slight catch, but nothing to get suspicious about. Just want to add another job to your quest, without charge of course." The fisherman smiled slyly.

"My first priority is my current job." Natsu replied hastily.

"Oh no, don't get me wrong, your quest is first. I'm just askin' that you complete mine after."

After a long pause Natsu thought it over, although the fisherman knew the answer already.

"What you need me to do?"

"I need ya to kill a Demon."

Natsu was regretting his decision quicker than the blink of an eye. Not the decision to accept two jobs, no… he was regretting that he hadn't opted to swim in the first place.

He was hunched over the side of the small boat ready to throw up his dinner. At least it was night and the sky was dark so the fisherman couldn't see his embarrassing position.

What an odd man in any case. Natsu was grateful he was willing to take him to the island, on request though, still Natsu was grateful he could finally start his job.

The sea was so calm and serene, that Natsu almost felt better from his motion sickness, it was so still; as if the boat wasn't moving at all. Natsu leaned up to check if it was really true that they were at sea.

"There's a strange myth about the shores of Galuna. That in order to survive the island, ya need to be in great physical health, the few survivors of the island say that once they come within a kilometre of the island you get over most of yer illnesses."

Natsu blinked in astonishment "If that's true, then why are people so afraid of the island? I would think people would be flocking here."

The fisherman chuckled "Boy, even though ya don't get sick 'ere. It's what's on the island you should worry about."

Natsu stayed quite, although he thought of what to ask the fisherman about the job he gave him, he was reluctant for there was a strange eeriness emitting from him.

"Yer probably wondering about the job I gave ya" the fisherman smirked at the younger lad.

Mind reader?!

"Uh yeah… I kinda want to know what I'm getting myself into." Natsu raised a brow.

The fisherman looked toward the island's shore as they were slowly coming closer "Well, the demon's name is Deliora. He was trapped about a month ago by a lad at the request of the tribe folk. But the tribe is still terribly cursed by the monster. And to add to the misfortunes, the lad they hired went missing. I'm just askin' ya to finish the job before the trap wears off."

Natsu nodded attentively as he thought that it wouldn't be that hard of a job since half of it was already done.

Mist was starting to surround them and getting thicker to the point where Natsu couldn't see the shore anymore. Panicking slightly Natsu turned to look at the fisherman… but he wasn't there anymore.

"Son of a… Oi! Where did you go?!" Natsu jumped up in a panic.

The boat began to rock more rapidly than its calm state before, if not for the creepy island, Natsu would be in trouble because of his motion sickness.

The pinkette lost his balance and thudded harshly as buckets of water followed falling right on top him, almost drowning him in the boat alone. The taste of sea salt was burning in his lungs and his eyes stung harshly that he couldn't bear opening them.

The boat rocked harshly back and forth, so that it capsized into the ocean washing, Natsu in and out of the waves. The force of the ocean pushed him deeper and deeper to the bottom, suffocating him while he was trying to surface for air. Natsu then tried to move with the force of the waves by swimming with the current to where he thought the shore was.

Before he knew it, he passed out.

…

"Is someone here?" a young voice called out.

A young boy was hopelessly lost in the middle of nowhere, memory wiped from his very being. And he was scared… no petrified.

"Can someone please answer…? I'm afraid. Hello?" he called out into a forest he was wondering in.

The sun was about to set and the little boys fear escalated, hopelessly trying to call out louder and louder. It was getting chillier and the young boy realised that when his flesh developed goose bumps from the chilling air that whipped through the trees. His clothes were falling off him as they were in rags and torn to bits as it was.

He yelled one more time before his voice cracked and his eyes were filled with hot tears. He gaged on his own tears and stopped his feeble attempts at finding someone, with his face glued to the floor he managed to find a tree that was somewhat hollow to stay in till the morning.

Still sniffing he hardly noticed the loud sound of wings flapping, a large creature descending from the sky and landing heavily on the earth.

The beasts landing shook the earth and startled the already frightened boy, making him curl further into himself in the cramped space. The young boy tried to peak out from his hiding place to see with his own eyes what kind of creature had made such a loud noise.

The boy's tears were out of control, pouring down his face like a waterfall after a storm out of fear of catching a glimpse of the beast.

It was a Dragon

"Stop your dreadful groaning human." The mighty beast said.

The boy's heart went to his throat in fright, feeling as if he was being choked. He was stunned that the beast spoke, it he hadn't seen it with his own eyes he would never believe it.

The young child tried to stifle his tears in fear of what might happen if he didn't listen to the beast. But the Dragon started walking towards his hiding place and the boy panicked. He swiftly grabbed whatever was in front of him to try and somehow defend himself.

The winged creature faced the open tree, hunching to see the frightened child, as he suspected the child was cowering in fear… although he didn't expect him to be holding something to defend himself.

The Dragon had lived many years and has faced many knights, nobles, other drakes. In fact they were haughty beings that only wanted dominance or a prize and deserved to lose.

But looking at the youngster in front of him, he initially saw fear, but looking closer he could see the lad was determined to survive and he willing to fight with all he had.

The Dragon smirked internally "Why are you afraid of me, boy?"

Said boy lowered his weapon; a small tree branch, slightly, his body still quaking "You're… you're big and you could eat me."

The Dragon leaned up slightly looking towards the sky "That's true… I could, but you wouldn't make a good meal. Yer crying so much yer over salted."

The boy pouted angrily "So it's true, you were going to eat me!"

The Dragon looked down again to see the youngsters face which stopped crying and now had an angry pout. The Beast showed his bare teeth, not to intimidate but to smile largely.

"I never said I was gonna eat ya. I just said you cry too much… besides I don't eat humans, they taste disgusting."

The boy got more frustrated at hearing this "What?! So then you wanna kill me?! That's sick and I… just want to go home…"

The sad tone of the boy affected the dragon also "I'm not going to kill you either… where's your home boy? Maybe I could take you back." He said motioning to his outstretched wings with his head.

The lad sniffed and looked up to the dragon with less distaste "I don't know… I don't know where I come from."

The Dragon hummed at the young lad "Well, it's not like I can leave you alone so…"

The Red Dragon laid down moving his wings to the side giving access for someone to climb on "… I guess you'll just have to come with me." He tried to sound displeased.

The boy's face was mixed with shock and excitement "You… you're serious?"

"I always wanted a hatchling so why not?"

….

Natsu woke up in disarray against the grimy shoreline, twitching from the shock of being spat back on land by the ocean and covered in tangled up seaweed.

The smell of salt was disgustingly strong, even in his half aware state his nose cringed due to his heightened smell and his skin was prickled with sharp shards of sand.

He was reluctant to get up but the persistent waves of the shore kept getting closer and eventually washed onto his face along with the morning sun blaring onto him.

In a hasty manner he shot up from the ground, coughing for air and rubbed his stinging eyes from the salty water. Once composed he finally rubbed his pounding head from either the nostalgic dream or from almost dying out in sea being sloshed around back and forth.

Is that what they call seeing your life flash before your eyes?

Either way his mind was muddled and sore, in fact even thinking about how he had survived made his head pound harder.

Damn Fisherman's fault…

'Where did he go?' he wondered

He didn't really want to think about it, the sooner he gets his gear and gets the job done the better…

His gear!

Natsu patted himself for his sword and his bag but found nothing at all. He never knew he could, but he jumped so high and frantically searched for his belongings.

He stomped and dug through the sand, doing anything he possibly could to find his stuff and then… got hit with a coconut at the back of his head.

"OI WHO-" he turned around to yell but saw his gear neatly placed on the sand with no one in sight

All that was behind him was his gear neatly placed on the sand, nothing impaired in the least, not even damp. It just made the hunter confused and disarrayed, not to mention severely creeped out.

"This place is freakier than I thought…" he said aloud.

That being said the grin on his face gave off a different emotion than a few moments ago. It was toothy and wicked in its own way, which only meant one thing – He wanted to explore.

He put his gear into their allocated places and had a good look at the island from the shoreline. Even though he wanted to explore, he needed to first have an idea of what direction he could find the dragon's nest, then he could explore on the way.

Even though he was childish, he still wanted to get the job done and to finish his secondary assignment.

As he looked to the rest of the island from the shoreline he noticed how the island curved like a crescent moon and that the landscape was rough. There were two very noticeable parts of the landscape; that was a temple of worship that was well disguised but only the tip of the building was left bare.

The cherry headed hunter decided that was definitely a suitable place for a dragons nest. Maybe small wyverns could take refuge there if they really needed to, but never a dragon.

Dragons don't live amongst vegetation, and very seldom do they live enclosed area like a building. They prefer the solitude of a desolate place, either in a cave or very tainted ruins.

The temple should be well persevered with the height of it still durable, so Natsu stroke that off his list.

The dragon would most probably be high up, were they prefer higher altitude so they can take off as they pleased. Also it must be somewhere with no plant life, so perhaps close to the edge of the island?

And if this dragon was claimed to be the last one, who is rumoured to be named Acnologia, and has many specs on him like a desolate destructive type, there is a good chance the beast would prefer to be near magma or lava due to his nature.

That's tough to pinpoint since there is no visible volcano.

Natsu scratched his head and sat down on the sand facing the sea to think before running off on a so-called cursed island.

Piecing all his knowledge together he knew the beast would be somewhere high, devoid of life, preferably hot or more specifically near magma, and then also may be nesting near ruins. He also had to take into account that the maiden he's saving is in a tower.

He hadn't spotted a tower, but maybe it was because the island was large that he couldn't see one?

He looked toward the ocean again and noticed small islands forming at the tip of the crescent point of the island. For a new island to form, lava must meet water. He then began to squint to observe more.

He saw that the point was barren of vegetation, as well as the position being high enough for the beasts liking, although Natsu didn't see any debris or buildings on top or the side where the waves crashed against… or maybe something else?

His mind was set to head in that direction, call it intuition or instinct but it was calling to him.

And once his mind is set there's no turning back.

He stretched and clicked his joints before leaving the shoreline, he noticed that he couldn't walk to the crescent tip along a shoreline because there was no more shoreline, but instead steep mountains leading into the ocean. So he would only be able to get there by going through the forest.

He smiled ferociously knowing now there was nothing stopping his inner child from exploring on the way there. He looked once more to the sky where the sun's position showed it was still early morning, and he would like to find the nest before the sun sets since Dragons are mostly nocturnal. On the other hand he wouldn't mind a challenge; slaying the beast in his prime, but that would go against his teachings.

That what he was doing wasn't for pleasure but out respect for his father.

It was mid-afternoon and the blonde maiden was restless and unsettled. She paced up and down her room constantly looking out the window. She bit her nails out of nervousness and twirled her hair out of impatience.

She looked outside the tower once more only to see her captor was not resting as he usually did. It was interfering with her plan and throwing her off tremendously, for she had calculated and strategized this for many days, months, years in fact.

The beast normally slept during the day, but for some reason today he seemed more tenacious and restless. The plan would certainly have to change due to the irritable dragons sleeping patterns or… she would have to die trying to escape- Which she was more than prepared to do.

The blonde princess couldn't remember when she started to think like that. Perhaps after countless knights travelled to the island in a feeble attempt to rescue her only to then die from some weird omen from the island or becoming a snack of the beast guarding her.

The foul creature gave her his name once but she refused to ever utter it. She hated it with such a burning passion that just thinking of his name made bile rise up her throat.

'Acnologia'

She had no memory of him in her past, not that she remembered much in general except some faces and a few vague memories. She's almost certain the lack of her memories was because of him.

All she knew was that he was responsible for her being trapped here and she wanted to leave immediately.

Over the years, during the day time, she had collected what she could from the remains of those who had come for her, she had to do it swiftly and quickly since Acnologia's heighted senses always woke him up within 5 minutes or so. The beast would wake and then roughly push his face up against her tower window to check if she was still there. She knew his pattern thus her trip to collect would only last less than four minutes and then quickly going to her chamber to pretend to sleep.

So now today was the day she'd break free, being prepared to fight the beast but though she'd hoped to have a head start while he slept.

He wasn't giving her a chance though… maybe he knew she was trying to leave? But how?

Deep in thought she tried to deduct why he was acting up like he was, and with her new knowledge she calculated a new escape plan

'The last time he acted up like this was… when someone was coming to rescue me…'

Her head snapped to the window to look outside, hoping to see something. Although she couldn't see anything right now the uneasy beast below was a clear sign of the inevitable.

A new plan easily mended itself from the remains of the previous one. She whipped her head creating golden waves that spiralled around her to look in her closet, biting her bottom lip.

She briskly walked to the wardrobe and opened it to view a suit of armour made of different pieces of material and metal but it was completed. She had many a chance to get a full body of amour but pieces were either destroyed or they didn't fit hence her scavenging pieces here and there.

It wasn't like her to be doing this, but it was a perfect chance to escape. What other time would Acnologia be distracted? It was slightly conceited but she was planning on fighting, so it's not like she's letting the knight become a meal. No not at all… although that being said her nerves where telling her to flee instead of fight. It goes against every natural instinct so it will just have to be fought against.

The beast growled loudly outside and stormed off going deeper into the ruins, most likely hiding in wait or taunting its prey to find him first. That meant Lucy didn't have much time left.

She dashed to her bed to grab her bow and arrows and an extra item she scavenged on her last dash and run; a sword.

She hadn't had a lot of experience in dealing with weaponry so she couldn't tell if it was a great sword or not, but it was beautiful.

It was a two handed sword, nearly half of the weight of the blonde. It had a white blade which was unusual to Lucy, when she had found it and brought it back it took days to get the blood stains off the polished white blade, especially in between the carvings on the blade. She assumed it was the country's crest carved into the blade, but then again she found it unusual that the other images found on it was of the moon and stars surrounding it and then at the bottom there was a language she didn't know but it seemed wistful and enchanting. The handle of the sword was the centre of the beauty, the cross guard and grip was gold and both had different styles of engraftment and swirled in patterns of perfection.

Lucy really didn't want to use it though… seeing as it was beautiful and that she struggled pulling it around. She had practiced using both her weapons whilst Acnologia slept, but she hadn't practiced much with the sword.

It didn't matter right now since her body moved on its own. Dropping her gown to the floor her body flinched at the breeze coming through her window, she slid her fingers up and down her silky arms in an attempt to stop her flesh from getting goose bumps. She retrieved both a linen shirt and underpants which she had to make herself from the materials she had in her wardrobe, she had to be wise on her limits on sowing equipment that was already in the wooden closet. She then proceeded to put on her armour piece by piece but she briefly stopped for a moment feeling something in the air change… feeling something close.

Her mind wandered off while she put on the pieces, she wondered if the knight this time stood a chance or perhaps was like the rest she witnessed getting killed- egotistical, showy… not honourable in the least.

It had never been something she'd enjoyed watching, especially when she was younger, the first time she witnessed it left her mentally scarred for many months. Now it was simply an observation of what not to do in battle against Acnologia.

Her hands were shaking now and a cold sweat ran down her face and fell onto the floor, her nerves were near collapsing and her big brown eyes turned darker as the sky was dimming.

Once she was fully dressed the metal from her armour clanked with every movement made. With one last adjustment she pulled her long blonde hair into a tress, picked up her helmet and looked into a vertical mirror hanging in her chambers.

She sighed deeply, dreaming about the sweet feeling of freedom and that it was still a far way ahead.

For a knights battle is worth more than she expected.

We'll that's a wrap for now, will be back soon with the second half.

Remember that if we get good response we'll update earlier and P.S. there might be some Nalu for you guys in the next chapter.

*Evil laughs* till then, ciao!