/Author's Note/
Chapter 5! What can you get inside the forest?
Sorry for every mistakes in grammars and spellings..^^;
/Special Thanks to/
AznAkatsuki , darkhuntressxir , Younggirl , ocdanime , Indh13
for the review! ^^
/Disclaimer/
Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. Not mine.
Chapter 5 / Dilemma
2 days had passed since Natsu become a kitten. 5 more days left for them to bring Natsu back to his human form. They checked out from the hotel and started to walk until they reach the boundary gate between Verdale City and the forest outside.
"The nobleman's house is 2-days-walk from here though this forest. You could see a mountain from here." The gatekeeper pointed the mountain. "And the nobleman's house is in the foot of the mountain."
"Why would a nobleman stay in a creepy place near the mountain?" Lucy asked.
"It's said that his little sister suffers from a disease caused by the smoke in this city. That's why he moved near the mountain to get the fresh air for his little sister." The gatekeeper informed. "But sometimes he would come to this city to buy some groceries with his butler. And he really is a nice person. I'm sure he will help you people."
"Thanks for the information, mister." Erza thanked the man. "Let's go then."
"By the way, be careful for wild animals in the forest. And bandits. I heard there are some bandits live in the forest. You should be very careful since you bring 2 women and 2 cats with you."
"Don't worry. We're mages from Fairy Tail!" Happy said.
"And I'm nyot a cat, meow!" Neko-Natsu pouted.
"T-talking cats?" The gatekeeper seemed confused.
"Okay, the conversation ends here. Let's go now before we waste more time." Gray started to walk into the forest, followed by the others.
=====meow=====meow=====
"The gatekeeper said we just have to walk all the way through this path. And we will arrive in the nobleman's house in 2 days." Lucy said.
"Don't get too far from each other and don't go to another direction except this path. Watch your back because we don't know what's waiting out there." Then, Erza looked at Gray. "And don't let Natsu out of sight."
They walked through the path. Until Neko-Natsu started to feel his paws in pain again. "Sorry, meow.. My paws seem can't hold it anymore, meow…"
"Come here, kitty." Gray offered his hand. "You could rest on my shoulder like before. So we could still walk to save some times." Neko-Natsu grinned and hopped on Gray's shoulder, resting his body there.
CLICK!
The two looked back only to see Happy was holding a camera. "Aaaww~.. Another picture!" Happy smiled mockingly and gave the camera back to Erza.
"Would you stop that, cat?" Gray yelled at Happy.
Neko-Natsu's ear twitched. Eh? I thought I heard som- When he turned his head to the left, he could see a bear, no, a giant bear was approaching them. "Uuhh.. Guys? Meow…" While the others were fighting about the camera, not paying attention at all.
"Guuysss… meow.." Neko-Natsu's eyes widened seeing the giant bear came closer, still had his eyes on the giant bear. "There's a GIANT bear over there! Meooww!" He finally shouted, making the others snapped out from the fight and saw the bear.
"Roooaaaaaarrrrrr!" The giant bear roared very loud and ready to attack them.
"Requip!" Erza called out her swords and charged the bear, making it fell uncouncious. "There. Done." She smiled proudly and hold her swords back, while Lucy and Happy gave her applauses.
"Grrr…" Suddenly, all of them were already surrounded by the wild animals.
"W-what are we gonna do now?" Lucy shivered.
"We'll just have to cut them all then. Let's go, Gray!" Erza picked up her swords.
"No! We can't! It's in the middle of the forest and we might destroy the forest if we're using our magic!" Gray shouted stopping Erza.
"But.. but.. There are so many of them." Lucy looked around, still terrified.
"RUN, meow!" And they ran as Neko-Natsu shouted.
=====meow=====meow=====
"Are they gone yet?" Lucy asked while looking around from the tree.
They climbed up to a big tree after running away. "Let's wait for Happy." Erza said. Happy was flying across the forest to check whether those wild animals weren't chasing them anymore. And then the blue cat came back.
"There's no sign of them. I think they already gave up chasing us." Happy confirmed.
"That's good." Erza nodded. "Considering it's gonna be dark soon, we're staying here for the night. Gray, Natsu, Happy, go find some firewoods and anything edible for eat. While I and Lucy are gonna find some water and wash."
And so, the three boys went deeper into the forest to find some firewoods and food. Neko-Natsu brought the firewoods and put them one by one using his mouth near the place they agreed to gather up because he couldn't bring all the firewoods himself. Even Happy could be more useful than me in this state. He sighed while bringing another firewood.
After searching for about an hour, They finally finished collecting the firewoods and the foods.
"Okay, I think it's enough. Let's bring them back to our place." Gray carried all the firewoods on his shoulder, while Happy brought all the foods using his green fabric and flew preceding Gray and Neko-Natsu, leaving the two walked behind.
A yellow butterfly flew in passing Neko-Natsu in front of his eyes. Meow~ Butterfly meow~! The black kitten's eyes widened and his 'cat sense' made him following the yellow butterfly.
"Oi, Natsu! We're you going! Gray dropped the firewoods and chased Neko-Natsu. "Wait! Natsu!"
Butterfly~.. I wanna~.. Neko-Natsu was very focused following the butterfly, not paying attention to Gray's voice.
"Grrrr…" Hearing the growl, the black kitten stopped. There were 3 wolves following him from the beginning. No tree was around so he couldn't climb on to the tree to keep himself away from those wolves.
"Fire Dragon's-" Neko-Natsu stopped. Crap I forgot! I can't do my magic right now!
"Groooaaarr!" One of the wolves jumped on Neko-Natsu. I'm done for! The black kitten shut his eyes tightly.
"Ice Make – Prison!" The wolf was trapped in a prison of ice, thanks to Gray suddenly appearance. "Dammit! I shouldn't use my magic power too much in this forest!" Then he kicked another wolf backward, making it ran away.
"Gray watch out, meow!" Neko-Natsu warned, but the other wolf had already attacked Gray and bit his left arm. The ice mage punched the wolf and it released him immediately. The two wolves ran away after the ice prison disappeared.
"Are you okay, kitty?" Gray asked Neko-Natsu and sat down beside him.
"Are myou?" Neko-Natsu asked back. "Myou're the one that injured, meow!"
"You mean this?" Gray looked at his left bleeding arm. "It's not a big deal, kitty. Just a scratch. It will heal in no time."
Suddenly, Neko-Natsu was licking Gray's bleeding arm.
"H-hey.. What are you doing, Natsu?" Gray asked confused. Why is he licking me?
"Thanking and helping myou, I guess.. meow.." Neko-Natsu was still licking Gray's arm, not even bothered to take a look at Gray's face. That's, until he's totally aware of what he's doing. He pulled back immediately, covering his face with his paw. "M-meow… I-it's that..'cat sense'… m-meow.. Haha.." Neko-Natsu started to walk back to their place. "L-let's go back, meow! The others can't make fire without the firewoods, meow."
Gray didn't reply anything. He just stood up, took the firewoods, and followed Neko-Natsu. Back to their place under the big tree, the three of the group had already waiting impatiently, especially Erza since she interrogated the two until late night.
After finished eating, they turned off the fire and decided to take a sleep on the tree, preventing wild animals attacking them while they're sleeping. Everybody chose their own different tree, but not too far from each other. As for Neko-Natsu, he slept on the same tree together with Happy.
Gray watched the two sleeping forms from another tree. Should I just tell him? He did act like he likes me back.. But…if I'm wrong and it's really just because of his 'cat sense'… will he hate me afterward? And with that thought, he fell into a deep sleep.
A/N: I'm actually a little bit confused here. Looks like this story is gonna be longer than I thought. It can up to 10 chapters or so (I dunno, maybe haha). Should I just continue flowing with the story or cut some scenes to make it shorter? Thanks for the advices before! ^^