Ch 12: Starting of a Festival
Thirteen days later in a dark and dank cave just a day's walk away from Magnolia:
"Natsu, Master said that we were supposed to take this time off and enjoy ourselves." complained Wendy as she followed behind the older slayer that was also their source of light right now.
"He did, but that was when there was an actual resort for us to stay at." he replied while glaring over his shoulder at Sarre, who only smirked back at him while giving him a little wave.
"We could have just stayed at a hotel in Magnolia and relaxed with those friends of yours at Fairy Tail." stated Chelia with a bright smile as she snuggled up to Natsu as they continued further into the labyrinth of tunnels that made up this cave system.
"I don't want to spend any more time with those idiots than I have to." stated Carla, knowing full well that Wendy would start glaring at her for saying such a thing.
"Carla they aren't that bad and I actually think I'm starting to see what Natsu sees in them." said Wendy with a bright smile, not caring for once what Carla thought since she finally got Natsu to agree to come with her when she goes to check up on Erza's hand.
"And what would that exactly be?" asked Sarre in a very sarcastic tone as she rolled her eyes at the young dragon slayer.
"That they're good people, who don't view any of us as monsters like most people do." she replied with a completely serious look on her face now.
"Even after Natty here went full on dragon mode in front of them and almost killed one of them?" asked Sarre with a smirk as Natsu came to a complete stop.
"Don't call me that Sarre, and why the hell are you even still with us?" asked Natsu as he glared at the one woman that could somehow always get under his skin when she wanted to.
"Because I don't have any other jobs to attend to at the moment and it seemed like it might be fun to hang out with your group a little longer." she answered while walking past him and conjuring up her own blue flames and took the lead.
"So this has nothing to do with you constantly asking and trying to figure out how he was able to consume your flames?" asked Chelia with a smug grin as she could visibly see how angry Sarre got just from hearing her say that.
"I'd be lying if I said that wasn't a big reason for me sticking with this sorry lot." she replied only for a deep growl to come from Natsu that actually caused her to feel a slight tingle race up her spin.
"I meant to say impressive Team, but now that it's been brought up again, would you care to inform us how you accomplished something like that? Or why you haven't done something like that in any of our previous fights?" she asked now stopping and turning so she was face to face with the only male of the group.
"That's going to remain a secret for a while, and as for why I haven't shown off my ability to eat your flames until recently. The answer to that would be because I knew you would then do exactly what you're doing right now, which if you can't tell, I'm not really that fond of you following me around asking the same damn question over and over again." he replied as he once again took the lead.
"An easy way to fix that would be to just tell me how you did it." she stated in an excited tone as she walked on the side of him that wasn't occupied with Chelia.
"True, but I think I might enjoy taunting you with this over the next few years." he replied with a chuckle. Causing Sarre to come to a complete stop as her mouth dropped to the floor as the rest of the group started to giggle at her reaction.
"Well this is a first, the famous Sarre is actually left speechless." said Carla with a smirk as they all passed her by.
"Don't worry, she'll be back any second now." stated Natsu as Sarre closed her mouth and let out a deep growl that scared all of them but him.
"You can't be serious about keeping this from me for years!" she shouted loudly, as the group came to a grinding halt. Only for all of them to slowly turn back to the fire devil slayer with deadly glares, that was then followed by a chorus of deep howls coming from further in the cave.
"You just had to shout like an idiot." said Chelia as they all turned back towards the direction that the howls were still coming from.
"Very unprofessional if you ask me." stated Carla, causing Sarre to have a sneer come over her face thanks to their two comments.
"That's enough, we've just lost the element of surprise so this job just got a lot more difficult." said Natsu in a hushed tone as he started to head towards their now loud and excited prey.
The rest of his group followed suit as they all got ready for the fight that was soon going to be coming their way.
"Like this is even going to be a challenge for us, the cat could handle a few cave trolls on her own with no problem." replied Sarre in an irritated tone that they all noticed.
"I have a name you immature brute." hissed Carla as she glared at the woman, who was about to most likely reply with a snide comment until a wave of magic pressure and heat hit both of them. Courtesy of a slightly upset fire dragon slayer that was glaring at both of them with the other two women of their group smiling behind him.
"You two are going to get along from here on out or there is definitely going to be a problem between the three of us. And you two both know how I like to deal with problems that I find annoying." he growled out, causing Carla to look away with a shamed look on her face. While Sarre on the other hand now had a huge grin on her face, obviously liking the sound of facing off against Natsu when he's that upset with her.
But once again before she could say anything back, said dragon slayer decided to cut her off. "Before you see this as an opportunity to fight me, all it will do is cause me to beat you senseless and then report to Master about you screwing up our current job." he said while turning away from her and taking the lead once again.
"That still doesn't change the fact that this job is a joke." she mumbled to herself as the whole group started to move again.
"You'd be correct if we were facing your normal group of cave trolls." he replied as the howls continued to echo throughout the tunnels. Making it really hard to tell if they were new ones or still just the same howls from when they first gave away that they were walking around in these tunnels.
"And what makes you think this group is any different?" she asked with a skeptical look displayed on her face.
"First off they seem way too organized in their raids of the surrounding area. Not to mention that in our job request it said that witnesses saw them in groups of at least five, maybe even more. That alone makes this different than your standard cave troll elimination job since I've never seen them in bigger groups than three in all of my years as a Slayer." he stated while stopping in front of two different paths that they could take.
"So what, they are finally starting to get smarter." stated Sarre as she came up next to him and Chelia.
"If this was any other species I'd agree with you, but since we're talking about cave trolls which are probably the most stubborn things alive. I don't think that there would randomly be more than five of them that can stand being around that many of their own kind all of a sudden." he continued while bending down and inspecting the floor for something.
"You do have a point there, half of the time cave trolls are already fighting each other and all you have to do is take out the last one standing to complete the job." she replied while now having a slightly serious look coming over her expression.
"Yet somehow we're dealing with a group of at least ten working in complete harmony." stated Natsu as he got back up and took the tunnel leading to the right. Making Chelia and Sarre wonder why he seemed to arbitrarily choose this route after only looking at the ground for a little bit. Carla and Wendy on the other hand didn't seem to have any problem with it and started to follow him without a second thought.
"Wait Natsu, you're now saying that it's a group of ten cave trolls?" asked Chelia as she hurried to catch back up with the two dragon slayers and Exceed.
"Yep!" he replied as another round of new howls could be heard coming from further down their tunnel. Causing the two dragon slayers to draw their weapons as Carla brought out her claws that gleamed in the light of Natsu's flames.
"And how exactly do you know that pray tell?" asked Sarre finding it odd that the three of them now seemed ready for a battle to start any second now.
"The first clue would be the ten distinctive sets of footprints on the floor, which is something that anyone should have been able to notice. But along with that little fact is the foul scent coming from further in that indicates the waste of at least ten cave trolls having been here since the attacks started." he explained right before taking off in a little jog with his two usual partners following suit.
"You dragon slayers and your god damn noses." she mumbled as she and Chelia took off after them. Chelia couldn't help but giggle at how upset Sarre was right now, something that she too felt when she first started to go on missions with the three of them. But after a few years she learned that it wasn't just these three that had this close of a bond with each other, it seemed to be a dragon slayer thing that allowed them to communicate with each other without even needing to say anything.
"I'd get ready for some fun if I were you." he stated while giving the two of them a quick smirk over his shoulder.
"You better listen to him." commented Wendy also having a smirk on her face as she picked up her speed. All in the hopes of passing Natsu, who seemed like he wasn't ready to let her do that and picked up his own pace.
"And why would I ever do that?" asked the fire devil slayer with an upset look on her face. But as soon as she said that the wall right in front of Carla exploded as a cave troll emerged from it bellowing its war cry at them. This caught her off guard, but how the three up front reacted surprised her the most because the two dragon slayers didn't even stop their charge down the tunnel in the slightest. No the two of them left it all up to Carla, someone that Sarre still wondered why they even still allowed to be in the guild after what happened with Happy.
But the next few seconds showed her exactly why she and the other Exceeds are still members and shouldn't be looked down upon just like every Slayer. Without missing a beat Carla slid right between the legs of the cave troll and slashing both calves with her claws. Eliciting a pain filled howl out of said cave troll, but before the poor beast could even realize what had just happened to it Carla was already attacking it again. And she was striking with surgical precision at all of its joints and least protected body parts, such as its eyes and throat. The last two things that the Exceed attacked before the cave troll fell to the ground no longer among the land of the living.
"You would do that because he's your superior and if that's not enough for you, then how about the small fact that cave trolls are extremely resilient to most forms of magic which just so happens to include your fire as well." replied Carla as she swung one of her claws down to get rid of the blood coating them. Only for her to then take off back down the tunnel that now seemed to have swallowed up the two dragon slayers as the other two watched her dispatch the first cave troll by herself.
At that moment gunshots echoed from further in the cave as howls of pain followed afterwards, which was then followed by the faint sounds of the two dragon slayers conversing with each other about something. So with a slight sigh Chelia drew her sword and took off while giving the stunned fire devil slayer a few words of advice. "If you really don't want to be completely pointless on this job you better hurry, otherwise those three will have taken them all out on their own."
"You've gotta be kidding me." stated Sarre only for the god slayer to also disappear after them. It only took a second for a grin to come over her face as she too charged in after the rest of them dead set on making sure to not give Natsu anything else to hold over her.
Meanwhile in Fairy Tail's library:
A small blue haired girl slowly made her way through one of her favorite spots in the whole world with an uneasy expression. Because over the last few days one of her best friends decided to thoroughly tear the place apart on her quest for answers. Answers to questions that all revolved around a certain pink haired individual who was actually responsible for her ever having the chance to join Fairy Tail.
"Lucy, are you still in here?" asked Levy in a timid voice, only to let out a startled yelp as a stack of books almost fell on her. And behind said books was a clearly sleep deprived Lucy who surprisingly had a smug smile spread across her lips.
"Yep, and I've finally figured it all out." replied the celestial mage as she stumbled and knocked over a few more piles of books. This caused Levy to rush over to her and give her a shoulder to lean on as she led her friend over to a table that contained most of her work from the past few days.
"What did you figure out Lu?" she asked looking at all the notes and scribblings that Lucy made.
"Natsu's involvement in Fairy Tail and the Council, not only that but his involvement in all sorts of other big events throughout history." replied Lucy, only for her blue haired friend to give her a skeptical look.
"Are you still going on about that Lu? That Salamander guy is just the most famous of those Slayers who show up when things are going bad." she stated back, since her constant reading about what was going on in the wizarding world dealt with them a lot. But unlike most people she was able to see through most of the opinions in the papers and realized that the Slayers were closer to heroes than monsters like most citizens believed.
"Yes I am Levy and it's because he's definitely more than that, which is something that I can now prove with all of this." she said while she started to gather up her things in a hurried manner.
"Okay Lu, but the main reason I came in here was to make sure that you were fine. And also to remind you about the Fantasia Parade tomorrow and the beauty pageant the guild is holding as well." responded Levy with a slight smile, because it now appeared that Lucy would no longer be holding herself up in here all alone anymore.
"Thanks, and I'm excited to watch the parade but why are you telling me about the beauty pageant? That seems like something the male population of Magnolia would be more interested in." she stated looking up at her friend who had a knowing look on her face.
"You're definitely correct about that." replied Levy as she and Lucy chuckled at that.
"But I was telling you because I thought you might be interested in competing in it." she finished with a smile, but was shocked to see Lucy staring at her now with a blank face.
"I think not Levy, not when others like Mira and Erza are competing." stated Lucy as she went back to picking up her things.
"Not even if first place gets two hundred thousand jewels?" she asked as the room became deathly quiet.
"I could pay my rent for the next two months and still have extra to spare." mumbled Lucy to herself as another smile took residence on Levy's small face.
"Does that mean you're going to participate now too?" asked Levy hopefully.
"For sure, I can't let an opportunity like this pass me by without even trying. But before that I need to go and tell Master everything that I've found out!" she declared while racing to the exit, not caring right now that the library was a complete and utter mess because of her.
"I was afraid of that." sighed Levy as she followed after her excited friend. And upon entering the main room of the guild she was shocked to find it quite, all except for Lucy who was currently talking faster than any of them could comprehend.
"My dear you're going to have to take a deep breath and start all over from the beginning, but this time not as fast please." stated Makarov with a warm smile.
"Sorry about that Master." replied Lucy with an embarrassed giggle escaping from her.
"Did I hear you mention Natsu?" asked Erza loud enough for everyone to clearly hear her. This was something that got the interest of a few females of the guild, while also causing a few of their other members to scoff and stop paying attention to them at all anymore.
"That's exactly what all of this is about." stated Lucy as most of the people that actually spent time with the man started to crowd around her. Even a few others that haven't gotten to spend any time with him decide to listen in since there was clearly something special about the man. Cana, Laki and Levy were just a few of the women that seemed to want to learn more about the infamous Slayer.
"Juvia wants to learn more about Natsu-san." said Juvia as she took a spot right next to the celestial mage, who was a little stunned that she seemed to appear out of nowhere after his name was mentioned. Something that the blonde now realized has been happening ever since they returned from the tower, and even Erza seemed extremely interested in him as well since then.
"Okay I guess, so what do you all know about the formation of the Council?" she asked, looking at all of them and quickly realizing that only a few of them probably even cared about something that almost happened two hundred years ago. Lucy knew that most likely Makarov knew all about it and that Erza probably did as well due to her always being a stickler about rules, which all just so happened to come from the Council.
But the one to first answer her question was none other than the guild's resident bookworm. "It was formed right after the King of Fiore decided that he would legalize the formation of guilds, and its sole purpose is to keep all guilds in line and get rid of ones deemed as dark guilds." she replied with a little sparkle in her eye.
"That's exactly what happened, but do you know who the original members of the Council were?" asked Lucy now having a really smug grin on her face.
"I don't remember the names but I do know that they were supposedly some of the strongest mages at the time. They were strong enough that the Witch Hunters actually started to listen to them and not get in their way, otherwise they knew that they would be wiped out just from a single one of them turning on them and hunting them like they do to other mages." she stated with her own smile.
"Exactly, and after looking through countless books and even going to the Council's own public library I was finally able to discover this list. A list that has the names of the ten original Council members, which is actually the inspiration of the ten Wizard Saints." said Lucy as she placed a note in front of them.
"You've gotta be joking." stated Mira, one of the first people to read through the list of names.
"Nope, right there is the name of Natsu Dragneel which proves that he is one of the founding members of the Council." she replied as the list was quickly passed to all of the other girls so that they could see it.
"Whoa there Lucy, you are kind of jumping the gun on this one because all I can read is Natsu D since the rest of the last name is illegible." pointed out Cana as she placed the list of names back down on the table.
"Who else would it be?" asked the celestial mage with an expectant look.
"How in the hell would I know, but I'm guessing that whoever the person was, is that they are definitely dead by now." she stated before taking a huge swig from her bottle of booze. This caused Lucy to glare at her until she remembered why she even looked into the founders of the Council and turned to look at Erza. Who currently looked like she was in really deep thought about all of this.
"Didn't you say that Jellal mentioned Natsu having the same name as one of the Council's founders?" she asked the knight.
"That he did, but it was only just that Lucy. So it's definitely more likely that Natsu was just named after this mage that helped establish the Council." replied Erza with anything but a confident look on her face.
"And this Natsu also just so happened to be a fire mage as well?" asked Lucy as she laid down a few page that were records of a Natsu D under the Council's behalf dealing with all sorts of issues. That varied from the easy extermination of some monster terrorizing the region, to something as hard as the complete extermination of a dark guild that was unfortunately proving to be a problem for everyone else sent by the Council.
"Once again they all just say Natsu D, and it makes sense that Natsu's parents would name him after a great fire wizard." said Ur with a slight frown since she knew that this was definitely not what the girl wanted to hear from her.
This caused Lucy to let out a disappointed sigh, but she knew that this was just only the beginning of what she uncovered over the last few days of research. "Okay, but this next piece of information is too coincidental for my likings." she replied while putting down a piece of paper that had the Council's seal on it.
"Lucy how did you obtain this?" asked Makarov as he looked at it in disbelief since he knew that the seal it had on it was only used for top secret documents that were never supposed to see the light of day.
"I was able to access a certain restricted room thanks to the help of Loke." she answered while looking away with a slight blush and also a guilty look.
"He seduced the woman guarding the room didn't he." accused Mira with a small smile as a few of the other girls smiled with her, while the others looked disgusted at the celestial spirit for using his charms like that. Rather than responding Lucy just quickly nodded her head affirmatively since she really didn't want to go into detail about that part.
"You do realize that if someone other than me from the Council found you with this they could lock you up and I wouldn't be able to do anything to stop them." stated Makarov as he locked eyes with his newest trouble maker, who so far seemed to be at the center of big events with the guild and its members. This caused the poor girl to start freaking out as she tried to explain why she did it, which had something to do with one of her spirits not being able to help her find any information about the Slayers and it was supposed to be his only purpose.
"So you decided to break into the Council and find your own answers?" asked Cana with a huge smirk.
"Yes." mumbled an ashamed Lucy, who was then startled when she was brought into a hug by said drunk.
"You are definitely a true member of Fairy Tail, no one but a Fairy Tail mage would do something that stupid." she said in a proud tone while offering the blonde a drink.
"Unfortunately she is correct about our guild being the only one stupid enough to do something like this." stated Makarov while pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head back and forth.
"Okay, I know what I did was extremely stupid." said Lucy only for Erza to tsk at her.
"But did any of you even read what that report says?" she asked, seeing that most of them in fact didn't even take the time to read it after hearing what Makarov said about it.
"I did, it says that just a month after Natsu D stepped down from his position within the Council the guild known as Slayers was created. And that for some reason they didn't have to go through any of the usual things that a guild needs to do to be recognized as a legal guild by the Council." replied Lisanna with a slight smile, since she could see where Lucy was going with this.
"Exactly, this makes me believe that it was because of this Natsu D person being one of the founding members of the Slayers. And as we all know, Natsu Dragneel just so happens to be one of the founding members of that guild." stated the celestial mage with a confident grin.
"Sorry Lucy but we don't actually know that about him." pointed out Mira with a slight frown. "All we know is that he has been a member for a really long time, and because of that rumors about him being a founding member have spread around the country." she finished still slightly frowning.
"But that Sarre chick said Natsu was part of the guild before she was." stated Lucy.
"True, but once again we don't know how old or how long she's been a member of their guild." responded Erza, who still looked like she was thinking of other things at the moment.
"Fine, so I take it all these reports about a fire mage from the Slayers won't convince you that it was Natsu?" she said while dropping a small binder full of articles about a fire mage from the Slayers saving the day.
"Probably not Lu." answered Levy, expecting to see her friend become upset after hearing this. But instead the blonde seemed to only become more confident in her next piece of evidence that she was going to show them.
"Okay then I want to see you all explain this!" she declared as she unfolded an extremely old painting. As they all looked at it each and every one of them had their mouths drop open and could no longer form any coherent sentences.
"Not only that, but after going through some of the guilds records there are a few mentions of an old friend of the guild coming to help out in dire situations. And every time it happened they couldn't help but mention how impressive his fire magic was." she said as the picture finally returned to her.
"That would make him easily over a hundred years old." stated Makarov with a look of complete disbelief on his face.
"Who knows how old he is, because the only thing that seems to have changed about his appearance is his number of scars." said Ur while also having a similar look to her master.
"How do we even know this is real?" asked Cana, who didn't want to accept the man on the far side of the picture was the same pink haired mage that brought Lucy to their guild only a few months ago.
"Because it was in our library and why would anyone make something like this up?" Lucy asked back in a slightly angry tone, since she knew that she would be the most likely candidate to do something like this.
"Someone could have planted it down there for you to find." suggested Mira, hoping that this wouldn't cause any problems for the guild.
"No, it is definitely real because of who else is in the picture." stated Makarov now having his usual expression when he was giving a lecture to one of his members.
"The small girl in the center is the first Master of Fairy Tail, Mavis Vermillion. And right behind her is Precht Gaebolg, the second Master who gave the position over to me before he went off and hasn't been seen or heard from since. To their right is Warrod Sequen, who is one of the Ten Wizard Saints which is something that all of Fiore knows. But most people don't know is that he was one of our guild's founding members." he finished while looking at the picture with a slight smile as he looked at the last unidentified person. Something that Mira noticed and couldn't help but ask if he knew about the blonde that had his arm slung around Natsu's shoulders.
"Master, do you also know who seems to be really friendly with Natsu if it's actually him?" asked the barmaid in a gentle tone.
"I do." he replied as his smile only grew as he continued to look at the picture in silence. "That's my father, Yuri Dreyar who taught me everything I know about what it means to be a mage and more importantly what it means to be a mage of Fairy Tail." he answered, causing all of them to let out shocked gasps.
"You mean your dad was friends with Natsu!" asked Lucy, almost shouting loud enough for all of Magnolia to hear her.
"It would appear so… I wonder if that friend of his he always talked about was him as well?" he asked himself as he inspected the picture he was now holding.
"This definitely makes me want to have a few words with Natsu." stated Ur as she looked at Makarov who was still looking at the picture of his father fondly.
"You're definitely not the only one." stated Erza as she and a few of the other girls nodded their heads in agreement.
"Well it's a good thing that we know Wendy will be dragging him here with her the next time she comes to check on your hand." said Mira with a smile as she looked at her old rival.
"That should be any day now." stated Juvia with a bright smile since she still wanted to thank him for helping her join up with Fairy Tail.
"Maybe he'll come tomorrow during our little beauty pageant." said Ur with a devious smirk.
"You do realize that he's already spoken for, who is also one of the Slayers and goes by Chelia." pointed out Lucy, who really didn't want to imagine what would happen if the two women got into a fight. This of course caused them to get into a little discussion about what might happen and Fairy Tail once again became rowdy like it usually was.
Back with the Slayers:
"Well that was just as easy as I thought it would be." stated Sarre as the last cave troll fell to its knees no longer having a head thanks to her.
"Unfortunately I have to agree with her on that." replied Carla as Sarre started to glare at the Exceed. Who couldn't care less about it and was more concerned with why Natsu was bent over and inspecting one of the cave trolls for quite a while.
"Did you find something Natsu?" asked Wendy, who also noticed him looking over the corpse.
"Maybe, but I would need to look at all of the other cave trolls." he replied while a shower of blood shot out from the troll underneath him.
"Do the rest of them have collars like this one?" he asked while lifting up a steel collar so that they could all see it. The collar was pretty plain, which is probably why none of them noticed it while they were fighting with the cave trolls. But now that he had removed one of them they could see that on the inside of them there were some magical runes, that they unfortunately had no idea what they were used for.
"This one has one as well." answered Sarre as she grabbed the one off of the cave troll that she had already removed its head moments earlier. She also could tell right away that the runes carved into it were really complicated and definitely not done by an amateur.
"These two are also wearing them." stated Chelia as she pointed to two different trolls.
"Mine was wearing one until I apparently broke it by accident." replied Wendy in an embarrassed tone as she held up a collar missing a large piece out of the front of it.
"It would appear that all of them were wearing them when we came here." concluded Carla as she removed a few of them and re-equipped them into her pocket dimension.
"I have a feeling that these collars are why they were acting so out of character." said Natsu as he tied one of them to his belt for safe keeping. Something that Carla rolled her eyes at since she already put a few of them in her pocket dimension, but didn't say anything about it since she knew he was just being thorough.
"You're probably right on that, but it really didn't seem to help them against us." pointed out Sarre with a little smirk.
"I would wager that is due to whoever put these on them not being in the area and ordering them around like I am guessing they did for all of those attacks." he replied while moving over to a different cave troll and starting to inspect it.
"You actually think that there is a wizard out there capable of controlling cave trolls?" asked Chelia in disbelief as she came up behind him.
"Is it really that hard to believe when you consider that our whole guild is composed of wizards with lost magic? Magic that was designed for the sole purpose of killing mythical beasts and gods that are near invincible when put up against normal wizards." he stated while taking a few samples of the cave troll and throwing the collar to Carla. Who caught it and then put it with the rest that she already stored away and then proceeded to start gathering the rest of the collars to do the same with them.
The other three noticed what the two were doing and Chelia along with Wendy joined in to help speed up the process. "Are we seriously going to remove every single collar off of them?" asked Sarre as she watched the rest of them continue on with the grizzly work.
"Yep, and we're each going to keep one with us so no matter what happens at least one of them will make it back to the guild." replied Natsu as he looked at her with a stern look that she just grinned at.
"Like anything could take down our little group. I don't even think that the whole Council would be able to stand a chance against us." she said while twirling one of the collars on her finger.
"You should really watch out so that pride of yours doesn't get the better of you Sarre. If it ever does then our guild will most likely lose one of its strongest members, and we barely have enough members as it is." he said with a frown as he turned away from her and headed towards a different cave troll that still had a collar on it.
"Did he really just compliment me?" she asked in disbelief as she looked at the other three.
"He really respects what you do for the guild." replied Wendy with a bright smile.
"I would say that he's only just stating facts." responded Carla before getting straight back to removing more collars.
"Don't mind her." stated Chelia as she and Wendy snickered at Carla's antics.
"Just because the only thing that you two usually do is fight, doesn't mean he doesn't consider you a friend and member of his family. He would honestly do anything for any member of our guild if it meant that they were happy." finished the god slayer as she looked at the man she was speaking about. Knowing that he could definitely still hear them and decided to remain out of it most likely because he was a little embarrassed by such words being spoken about him.
"He shouldn't be worried about my pride when being that kind is definitely going to cause him more problems." replied Sarre as she too started to watch the dragon slayer with a slight smile. She was now wondering if he was only ever fighting with her because he knew it was what she really wanted to do with him and didn't want to disappoint her since none of the other members really put up much of a fight for her.
"You're telling me? Pretty much the only reason he has any wounds are because he is always trying to protect someone else from getting hurt." said Wendy with a frown, which Chelia was also sporting at the moment.
"Okay everyone, let's roll out of here so Wendy can check in on Erza sometime before tomorrow night." stated Natsu as he started to head out the tunnel that they came in from.
"Does that mean we'll spend the rest of the day with them?" asked Wendy with an excited smile as she raced after him.
"I was planning on only being there for as long as your checkup." he said while looking at Wendy now pouting at him.
"But I guess it couldn't hurt to stick around for a few hours." he finished, causing Wendy to quickly bring him into a hug while cheering thank you over and over again.
"Why in the world is she so excited to hang out with a regular guild that is only going to treat us like monsters?" Sarre asked Chelia in just a whisper.
"Fairy Tail isn't your normal guild, well at least according to Natsu it isn't. And it's the same one that he keeps making friends with over the years, which also includes the small group he most recently made over the past few years." explained Chelia with a slight smile.
"That still doesn't explain why Wendy is so excited." stated the fire devil slayer.
"She's excited because this means Natsu hasn't really given up hope on this bunch just yet." she replied.
"Wait, does that mean he gave up on the ones before this?" asked Sarre as Wendy was still celebrating up front with a chuckling Natsu.
"I wouldn't really say that, it's more like what you first said. They eventually started to see him more as a monster than the friend that he still was to them. Of course this usually happened when he was forced to not hold back in order to save them, but you know how much that counts for normal humans." answered Chelia with a frown quickly coming over her face.
"And that's why everyone else in the guild doesn't even bother with trying to make friends outside of our own kind." stated Sarre as she shook her head, because she just like everyone else in the guild tried to have friends outside of their guild. But each and every time it only ended with them eventually calling them monsters and saying that they never wanted to see or hear from them ever again. And after that happens to you enough times you eventually give up trying.
"It seems like this might be the last time that he even tries, which is why Wendy is trying to help him prove that he was always correct about us having a chance at being treated like everyone else." she said as a small smile returned to her face.
"I wouldn't mind being proved wrong on that." replied Sarre as she too had a small smile come over her face as she and Chelia watched the two dragon slayers in front of them. That thanks to Wendy now somehow had Carla caught up in it as well, which was incredibly surprising considering how serious the Exceed usually is.
The next day roughly at two in the afternoon at the borders of Magnolia:
"It doesn't appear to have any negative effects on us if we pass through it." said Chelia as she stood back up from reading the runes that surrounded the whole city.
"And what exactly do they do, because usually I just destroy any sort of traps like this while I'm on my own?" asked Natsu as he couldn't help but be impressed by the mage capable of casting runes that contained all of Magnolia inside of it.
"That is also what I usually do." commented Sarre as she nodded approvingly at said dragon slayers methods, while the other three women looked at the two of them like they were complete idiots for being so reckless.
"Anyways, it would appear that it only prevents members of Fairy Tail from leaving the city." she answered.
"No kidding, it seems one of them is trying to get out as we speak." stated Carla as she pointed at an extremely large and round man hitting the runes just a few yards away from them. He was for some reason still completely oblivious to their presence, which was going to change thanks to Wendy in a few moments.
"Reedus you wouldn't be trying to go and get outside help now would you?" asked Freed as he appeared from a cloud of runes. Effectively scaring the poor man, who Makarov sent out to fetch Porlyusica in the hopes of having a remedy for the girls currently turned into statues.
"Why are you doing this Freed, aren't we friends?" asked Reedus from the ground and was now visibly shaking in fear thanks to the sword Freed had pointing at him.
"Just because we're in the same guild doesn't make us friends. My only friends are Laxus and the rest of the Thunder God Tribe." replied Freed as he slashed at the man cowering before him. But right before his sword would have connected, a loud metallic clang rang out as he was then shoved back due to a blue haired woman.
"Well if you aren't a friend of his then there is no reason for me to hold back against you." spat out Wendy as she glared at Freed with pure hatred for attacking an unarmed man that apparently at least considered him a friend before all of this.
"Who the hell are you!" shouted out Freed in anger at this unidentified woman, but before she could even respond something even more shocking happened. Which was his ward keeping all of the members of Fairy Tail trapped inside of Magnolia came crumbling down after one hit from another unidentified source.
"Actually we were wondering the same thing?" asked Natsu as he and the rest of his group walked up next to Wendy, all of them sporting excited smirks since they didn't think they would get to fight today.
"My name is Freed Justine and right now you're getting mixed up in Fairy Tail business so please leave before I'm forced to make you." he replied, trying his best to sound intimidating but some part of him was telling him not to mess with these strangers. Especially the pink haired one that was now openly laughing at his comment with the rest of them either snickering or chuckling along with him.
"Wow, did you really just try to threaten the person who just destroyed your runes?" asked Sarre as Natsu continued to laugh at him.
"Y-you just got lucky!" he shouted back as he pointed his sword at them.
"Only if that was true Freed, but unfortunately for you I did exactly that and just so you know every other person in my group could have done it also." replied Natsu as he gestured to the rest of his team.
"You're lying, there is no way that five random mages are that strong!" accused Freed as he looked at the cloaked figures, with three of them still having their hoods up.
"Who said that we were just random mages?" asked Natsu as a grin slowly spread across his lips.
"See this is why I was against putting on these ratty old rags." stated Sarre as she threw her cloak to the side. Letting Freed get a good look of her beautiful figure before her other cloak covered it all back up again, but not before he was able to see her emblem. And seeing that emblem instantly struck fear into his heart, because Sarre wasn't the only one to remove her cloak. Each one of them besides Natsu removed them, showing off their similar gear and same emblems, an emblem of one of the most feared guilds in the whole country.
"We were wearing them so that the citizens of Magnolia wouldn't freak out at the sight of five Slayers strolling through their city. But I do enjoy not wearing them." explained Carla as she put them all into her pocket dimension, which caused Natsu to no longer have his either.
"Oh dear god, what in the hell are you all doing here?" asked Freed as he started to back away from them and more specifically the man he now identified as Salamander.
"Oh nothing much, just decided to stop by Fairy Tail and say hi to a few friends of mine." he replied while slightly enjoying the terrified look on the man who just moments ago was doing the same thing to one of his own guild members.
"Who the hell in Fairy Tail is friends with a monster like you?" asked Freed as he continued to back away from him.
"Quite a few actually, your Master for one and a few of the women in your guild." he answered, noticing that when he said women Freed became even more terrified of him.
"Seems like he might have done something to them Natsu." stated Wendy in a growl as she and Natsu started to walk towards him. Clearly she too picked up on Freed becoming more terrified after Natsu's very broad list of friends.
"Well if he did, then I will enjoy giving him a little lesson on what happens to people who mess with my friends. And if I recall correctly the last person to do something like that was Jellal and it really didn't end too well for him did it?" he asked, knowing that the death of Jellal was made public about a week ago and the whole country knew about it.
"Fuck!" squeaked out Freed before he quickly teleported away in his runes.
"Why did you just let that coward run away?" asked Sarre as she came up to the two dragon slayers. That she knew both could have easily stopped the man if they wanted to.
"If we did that then he wouldn't have been able to lead us to the rest of his no good backstabbing friends." spat out Wendy as she actually spit to her right side.
"Wendy that is very unladylike, but your strategy will definitely yield results." stated Carla as she grinned at her partner. But before any of their group could say anything else they all turned to the man that let out a little whimper in fear.
"And the person we just saved is already scared of us." said Sarre in a disgusted tone as she started to walk towards Magnolia.
"S-s-s-sorry, b-but the stories a-about your guild m-makes you all out to be monsters." stuttered Reedus as he tried to get up, but only did after Natsu gave him a helping hand.
"It's fine, we're used to everyone believing those rumors about us." replied Natsu with a small grin, that made Reedus feel a little more at easy.
"Yeah, but I shouldn't have since I've heard what you've done for our guild." he stated, still slightly nervous to be so close to Natsu and the rest of his group.
"Seriously don't worry about it Reedus, but if you can't accept that then how about you give me one of your paintings." said Natsu with a bigger grin than the one he had before.
This of course caused Reedus to become a complete mess since he had no idea how Natsu even knew about him painting. "S-sure thing Mr. Salamander." he mumbled while not being able to look at him.
"You can call me Natsu if you want, and I only asked that because I noticed you painting in the corner the last time I was at your guild. And it was probably some of the best I've ever seen, but weren't you in a hurry to be somewhere?" asked Natsu, only for Reedus to take off in the opposite direction of the town. But before he was gone the man stopped and turned around to them with a smile on his face.
"You're totally correct, sorry about leaving right away but I need to go and get help. Thanks for saving me!" he shouted before taking off as fast as his skinny legs could carry him.
"He was definitely an odd man." said Sarre as she appeared next to them again.
"I thought you decided to head into town without us?" asked Chelia with a smirk.
"I did, but then I realized that I had no idea where I was going and most of the citizens would probably be too afraid to tell me." she replied in a bored tone.
"You'd be wrong about that Sarre, Magnolia is probably one of the most accepting towns towards mages in the whole country. And every member of Fairy Tail is unique in their own way, which is why it has always fascinated me over the years." said Natsu as he started to lead the group into town.
"I guess that is at least a step in the right direction." she stated, while internally she was excited to see if it was indeed true. Because if what Natsu just said about Magnolia was true then she could definitely see why the dragon slayer kept trying to make it work with Fairy Tail if their city was like that.
"To Fairy Tail!" cheered Wendy as she took off towards the town with the rest of the group following after her with nowhere near as much enthusiasm.
End of Chapter
Author's Notes:
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter that gave you a little glimpse into Natsu's possible past, while also setting it up for the Fighting Festival that will definitely not go like it did in canon. So I also know that it's been forever since I've updated this story, which I'm sorry about, but I've been focusing on my more popular ones recently. But like I've always said I won't ever just leave a story hanging, meaning that sooner or later I'll get around to writing for it. Well I guess that's all I've got for the notes at the end of this chapter so feel free to leave a review or pm and I'll reply back whenever I can.
Oh and if you would like me to update faster or possibly start a new story I have information about my page that I set up on my profile page.
Until the next Chapter
Digem Out!