A/N Thank you WaterDragonMaverick for reviewing I was going to continue this to see where it went but you have encouraged me to write more so thank you.
The sun's heat beat down on the village of Shadowmaple, since it was located in Luria the villagers had become accoustumed to high temperatures and continued their daily lives with out complaint.
Alice Carfala was sixteen years old when she first began milking a cow. She squeezed and watched in fascination as the milk came pouring into the bucket in little portions. The auburn haired girl could'nt help but smile.
Papa will surely be pleased.
"Good girl Daisy." She whispered as she patted the spotted animals neck. Alice carried the bucket with care, (taking small steps to minimize the chance of her tripping and spilling the milk, she always considered herself unlucky) and made her way out into the barn yard where her grandmother was seen scattering bread across the ground, chickens and ducks swarming at her feet.
"Oi Alice" said the elderly woman "Y'e father was looking for you, he wanted to show you... oh what was it?... oh right yes he wanted to show yer something." Alice shook her head and tried her best to supress a giggle.
Grandma can be so forgetfull sometimes.
"I was looking for him myself, do you know where he could be?"
Silence.
"Grandma?"
"Ya what dear?"
"Do you know where my father is?" She pronounced more clearly.
Alice's grandma pointed a wrinkly finger behind her. "Down at the fields I suppose, the boys always been a hard worker, sun must be roasting his skin by now."
Alice nodded and switched the bucket to her other hand "thank you grandma."
"Oh spare me would ya? I know yer kids only be polite cause your told to, back in my day when I was in my prime youth-" she continued to babble on about random things, wether what she said was entertaining or not her grand daughter wouldn't have listened either way.
Alice put her bucket down and hopped over the horizontal wooden fence, she bent back over the fence and grasped the bucket by its handle, hoisting it over. She placed a hand on her head feeling how the heat had made her hair so warm. The girl looked up at the clear blue sky.
Beautiful.
And it all went downhill from there.
Magnolia was a misurable place, it was raining. Again. Unlike the rest of society (which had probably taken refuge in their homes or guilds) a certain salmon haired boy rested in a cave located a good few miles from the city.
Natsu sighed as he leaned his head back against the hard, cold rock. He stared out of the mouth of the cave.
This forest is dead.
The average human wouldn't understand, the trees stood tall and proud against the harsh beating of the wind and rain, the green grass lushious and all the same size.
And why did this bother Natsu? He already knew the answer to that.
Because this is nothing like mine and Igneels forest.
Home (as Natsu called it) was the exact opposite of this place, there were winged fish, bears, Vulcans. The grass was a variety of different colours,shades and lenghts. He would usually play hide and seek with Igneel in the tall grass and snooze in the shorter sections.
Igneel.
Everything reminded him of Igneel. The small fire he'd managed to create was nothing compared to the fierce collosal flames his dragon could produce with a breath from his lungs. Natsu would be wrong to deny that he was slightly jelous, but he admired Igneel as well, he was the one who took him in and taught him magic to begin with. And Natsu vowed that one day he would become stronger than Igneel, so he could fight alongside him, as an equal.
Turns out it was all a dream, another one of Natsu's "fantasies", because Igneel was gone now, and Natsu didn't know if he was ever coming back.
Where the hell are you Igneel?
A loud scream was heard, interupting Natsu from his thoughts. He was positioned quite deep in the cave, there was no reason to go outside, maybe he had misheard something?
Wrong.
The scream sounded again, followed by another deeper voice. As Natsu listened he was able to identify the voices in general terms.
One female and a male.
"Go away! go away! go away!" the female voice yelled, her words broken by sobs.
The man protested "Wait! I'm only trying to help, children shouldn't be here!"
"Help! Its coming! Go away!"
"Whats comi-"
A low growl rumbled, followed by a snarl and one last scream before silence.
Natsu's body tensed, he could hear and feel his heart pounding inside his chest.
Am I scared? No. I'm Natsu the dragon slayer, I'm never scared.
The dragon slayer stealthed to the end of the cave, Natsu poked his head out and looked to his right. He immidiently regretted it.
White scales.
Was all he could see, the back of the beast was facing him, its wings spread out as it sat on top of its prey and devoured it, the scent of blood and magic mingling and travelling to Natsu's nose. He recocgnized that smell from somewhere, and he didn't like it.
Oh god its eating him... Is it eating him?
It didn't look like it, the beast appeared to be lapping up something rather than eating. Though they were mostly white some individual scales had a slight tinge of colour to it, giving the scales a crystal effect.
Is it a dragon?
It's to small to be a dragon, its no where near as big as Igneel.
A wyvern?
Nope. Wyverns are less muscly, but this thing looks just like a dragon, but its not, it can't be.
"Hey!"
The beast turned to face Natsu, blood staining its claws and dripping off its small dagger-like teeth, it turned its head to the side in a questioning manner and beared its teeth, as if it were smiling at Natsu.
He glanced to his left to see that the girl he heard screaming earlier was now hiding behind a nearby tree, the man however had not been so lucky. The mangled body had a blood oozing gash starting from his shoulder and going down across his torso, his face ruined, scarred, bloodied, no longer human looking.
Natsu tried to ignore the sickening scent he smelt. His fists clenched as fire engulfed his hands. "Stop hurting people you bastard" he spat. The dragon looking beast growled, lowering its head. But Natsu wasn't going to let it attack first.
"Fire dragon's roar!"
The flames flew from Natsu's mouth, charging fiercly towards the reptile, the beast shielded itself with its scaly wings, absorbing the fire, one of the pure white scales turned to a very feint shade of red.
He sucked in some air and then let more flames fire out of his mouth "Fire dragon roar!" The scaly beast stood up on its hind legs, opened its mouth and sucked in Natsu's fire. All the scales shimmered bright red as the beast drew in a breath.
This time it was the other way round, flames fired at Natsu. He smirked.
Thanks for the food.
The fire mage's cheeks hollowed as he mimicked the earlier action of the creature.
The little girl clutched her teddy tighter to her chest, sobbing uncontrollaby yet trying her best to be quite.
I tried to warn him.
The man outstretched his hand "Hey, where are your parents, its not safe to be out here alone."
"Run!" She cried "Get away from me!"
"Come back I'm trying to help!"
I tried to warn him and now he's dead, because of me he's dead, and I'll die to. Its only a matter of time before it finds me.
She could hear the creature grunt in pleasure as it lapped up more blood from the man.
Maybe I should just surrender, it's only killing people because of me, yeah thats it.
She slowly stood up from her crouching position.
I'll put an end to all of this, maybe it will kill me quicker, if I struggle it will only be more painful.
"Hey, stop hurting people!"
She froze.
"Fire dragon's roar!"
Silence.
Maybe I won't have to.
She poked her head out from behind the tree, disbelief present in her eyes as she watched the endless cycle of Natsu shooting flames to the beast, and the beast absorbing the fire and shooting back. Neither opponents being granted the upper hand.
This is just... ridiculous.
Natsu panted, exhausted from using so much magic power, he drew in one last breath "Fire dragon's ro-"
"Open, gate of the golden bull!"
A blinding blue light seperated the fire mage from his opponent, he brought his hands up to his face in an attempt to shield his eyes. The light moved, shifting and changing until it eveuntually formed the silhouette of-
A cow?
The light vanished, and Natsu couldn't believe his eyes. There, standing on two legs right before him, was a cow. A wave of emotions hit Natsu, confusion, happiness and finally, anger. As far as he knew cows didn't just randomly appear out of blue light, they didn't stand on two legs, wear speedos, or carry a giant black axe with red markings.
On the other hand.
I can roast this guy, beat the crap out of that imposter dragon, and save the cow for dinner.
He grinned.
Perfect...Wait a minute.
The spotted animal swung his axe at the creature, barely giving it any time to dodge.
This guy's trying to steal my fight!
The cow swung again, this time hitting the creature hard in the shoulder, the beast roared in agony and backed away hissing, yet too scared to attack.
The weapon was raised once again, followed by a loud "moooo!". As the axe came crashing down the beast spread its wings and flew up, directing a final screech of hatred at its attackers before gliding off into the distance.
"Get back here you coward!" Natsu growled at the retreating figure, he was thinking of chasing it, but his ears twitched at the annoying ring of a cowbell.
"Moo, victory to the bull!" the muscular "bull" declared, flexing his muscles. Natsu spun round and pointed an accusing finger at the spotted beast.
"Stupid cow!" he yelled "I could have killed it, and you got in the way!" he pounced, but the cow vanished, and Natsu found himself lying on top of some girl.
She gulped.
He doesn't even have a top on.
"umm.." she tried to move but her hands were pinned down by the salmon haired boy on top of her.
Natsu frowned "You're not a cow."
She pouted. "Obviously I'm not a cow, I'm a girl."
His frown deepened "A girl?"
"Yes a girl, your a boy and I'm a girl."
His eyes narrowed as they scanned her blonde hair. She scrunched up her face as Natsu leaned in and sniffed her, she felt his warm breath on her nose. Her heart thumped loudly, and she struggled to get away, but Natsu's grip on her wrists only tightened.
Her eyes shot open as something warm and wet brushed up her cheek, she blushed deeply and felt her face heat up.
"Y-You l-licked me." She stuttered "W-why did you li-"
"You taste salty" Natsu stated "Cows don't taste salty, so you're not a cow."
Now it was her turn to frown "umm thanks?"
He raised an eyebrow at her "For what?"
"For- oh nevermind." Seriously how stupid can this guy be. "Would you mind getting off me?"
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"Because I still haven't figured out if you're the cow." he said leaning in again, their noses nearly touching, a serious expression present on his face. She pouted and puffed her cheeks out.
"But I thought you already figured that out, and I already said I'm a girl!"
"Giiiirl" Natsu drawled out, unfamiliar with the word or its meaning. "What is a giiirl?"
The girl sighed.
How am I supposed to explain this, its like he never went to school?
"A girl is... well... the opposite of what you are, I'm a girl, you're a boy and the.. "cow" as you call him was also a boy."
Natsu reinforced his grip on the girls wrists, making her wince. "So you know that cow, but you're not the actual cow?"
"No! Have you even heard of a celestial spirit?"
His face showed that of utter confusion. "Cele...celest-"
She spat in his eye, and he immidiantly got off her. "Ugh gross, what the hell was that for!"
"You're calling me gross? she regained her composure and lifted her chin up, point an accusing finger at the boy "You were the one who licked my cheek!"
He pouted, and the girl couldn't help but think he looked a bit cute like that. "I was only tasting you."
"Which is even worse, you should be ashamed of yourself for treating a lady like that."
Natsu scoffed and poked her chest "You're not a lady you just said you were a girl"
She blushed and crossed her arms over her chest "Wether I'm a lady or a girl its rude to touch someone there."
"Why? you can touch mine if you want, so we're even" he grinned, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
However this only frustrated her more "You don't understand theres a big difference an-"
"No there's not" he quickly grabbed her hand and placed it where his heart was. The two stood there in comfortable yet awkward silence, until Natsu winced a bit.
The girl began retracting her hand, only to be stopped by Natsu.
"Its nothing" he reasured her with a warm smile "Your just really cold thats all."
"Oh. Well you're really warm"
Natsu rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, a proud grin present on his face Well I'm Natsu the dragon slayer, I was raised by a fire dragon so of course I'm warm."
Her eyes widened with amusement "Really! you were raised by a dragon"
He nodded.
"Well I don't believe you"
"Well I don't believe you have a pet cow"
"He's a celestial spirit and his name is Taurus, he's one of the twelve golden zodiac keys and he's a bull." She stated
Natsu sighed in defeat, what this girl lacked in strength she made up for in brains, he honestly didn't understand much of what she said other than the fact that the cow wasn't a cow and it had a name.
"Wait you haven't told me your name."
The blonde girl's face softened and she smiled lightly, bowing as she introduced herself.
"Its Lucy, Lucy Heartfillia."
Natsu flashed his devilish grin, making his fangs clear for Lucy to see. "Well Luuucy" he grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her over his shoulder "Looks like you owe me a favour"
"What are you doing!" she cried "Let me down!"
"Your cow got in the way of my fight and messed things up, and I saved you from ending up like him." he nodded his head to the bloodied corpse on the floor.
Speaking of him I should probably take him with us.
With his free hand he grabbed the corpse by the foot and dragged it along, making his way into the forest. "So" he continued "It's only fair you come with me"
"No." Lucy argued "No it's not fair, where are we even going?"
Natsu stopped.
Where am I going?
"Fairy Tail! wait no."
"No?"
"Yes no"
"Hey Natsu, Welcome to Fairy Tail!"
Do I really hate that place?
Most of the guild had accepted Natsu, but the children his age, didn't seem to like him at all, apart from Lissana. Alot of them either picked fights with him, or just ignored him completly and talked about him behind his back, but its not like he couldn't hear, he was a dragon slayer afterall.
Though the guild had invited him to stay he refused, he didn't want to forget about Igneel so quickly, to be loyal to the first new family that showed up, perhaps maybe if he waited in the cave, or in the forest, Igneel would come, and take him home.
Lucy gave up fighting against Natsu. It was kind of pointless. Instead she rested her head on his back.
At least I'm safe now.
Back in Magnolia, the Fairy Tail guild was having some trouble, well.. one wizard in particular.
"Laxus!" called Makarov, his voice fuming with anger and he didn't even know why.
"Coming, coming calm down old man." He made his way to the floor of the guild, but his smirk was soon wiped off his face when he saw the magic council troops lined up.
What are they doing here?
A soldier stepped forward from the line and opened a small scroll which he began reading off of. "Are you sir Laxus dreyar"
"Umm yeah" Laxus replied with a confused frown on his face "Can I help you?"
"Laxus by the order of the magic council you are here by under arrest, come with us willingly or we will take you by force."
"Whoa wait a minute, on what charge?"
"Murder sir"
Makarov shook his head displeasingly, tears threatining to fall "Oh Laxus, what have you done?"