As soon as they entered the country, they knew something was strange.
Tangun City.
It was their port city. Unlike Cedar Town, this place was full of shops and homes. Some stores had living quarters built on top of it, or even combining the two. The mountains to the east had buildings built inside of the rock. Ladders were pulled and leaned against the rocky terrier and those who lived inside, would swung to a certain side and hop on the ladder. The seven ladders were shared by everyone who lived within it.
"This is how they deal with overpopulation?" Evergreen muttered.
The five of them tried to stay together within this busy town. Every time they tried to glance back, they were inches away from someone's face. "And it's like this everywhere in this country," Freed claimed. He was already tired of this city and they only docked several hours ago.
"I'm guessing hotels are out of the question then?" Bickslow questioned. If it was this bombarded for its citizens, then hotels must not be ideal place to stay.
"We're moving on." Laxus' thick and heavy voice caused them to horde behind him.
"By daybreak, we should be a fourth way to the volcanoes," Freed added.
"And still in this city," Bickslow mumbled.
"Is there any way to know where one city ends and another began?"
"Nope."
"Just great."
"The volcano is right toward the center, so south from here."
Happy flew up and landed on Bickslow's shoulders, which was a bad mistake as the babies began to surround him. "Ah!" he flew away and landed on Laxus' shoulder.
Bickslow lifted one of his eyebrows at the cat's actions. "What's wrong, little kitty?"
"Little~ Kitty~" the babies echoed.
"They are creepy."
In moments, Bickslow's body shaded with shadows. His tone grunted, "What. Did. You. Just. Say. About. My. Babies?!"
"Creepy!" He hid in Laxus' fur.
"Get off me," the blonde uttered with distaste. Happy did not move. He stayed and shook in Laxus' jacket.
Bickslow pulled back his head and started laughing. Tears swiped down his eyes. Happy peeked out of the fur and growled at the Soul Magic User. "That was mean!"
"How so?" he stated in an odd tone and leaned his face forward. His babies repeated it with a cheerier tone.
Happy pouted and turned around, facing forward, on Laxus' chest. Even though, Laxus had enough power in one finger to throw Happy off him, he shrugged and allowed the cat to stay on his chest. Whenever Laxus tried to order Happy, the cat always did the opposite of it. Just like Natsu.
By the time that the sun was barely above the building tops, they already made it pass Desipho Mountains. Even looking back, all they could see was fog that surrounded the top of it. No one even tried building their houses into the mountain at that height. They may have destroyed the other mountains surrounding it, but no one dared touching Mount Desipho.
"When are we stopping?"
"I can't believe they had no cars in this city," Ever grumbled to herself. It would seem that only those in the highest building had cars, which was very few at most. There weren't any rentals, or taxi's that she was used to in Magnolia and Crocus.
"There's no campground. If we slept out here, there's a high chance they will rob us as soon as we set our stuff down."
"So...hotel?" Bickslow brought the subject up once again.
"Or homeless center."
Ever's frown grew. She didn't want to be stuck in a homeless center. Who knows what kind of people, perverts, she would met there?!
"Are there any forest area around here?" Laxus turned back and glanced at the green haired.
"Uh...we could ask around. But I think the last isolated area would be Desipho Mountains."
Laxus shook his head, "We're not backtracking. We can only keep moving forward for now, at least, until we find an open spot somewhere."
Evergreen moaned, "As long as Laxus-san ordered, I guess we have no choice."
"You can still turn back. No one said you had to come along."
She gasped, "Of course I've to come along! If I don't, then you will stay in the friendzone!"
"I am not in a friendzone, I would have already killed them."
She sighed, "Everyon-"
"Shut it.:
"Bu-"
"Evergreen," Freed glanced over. "Maybe this isn't the right time."
She grunted and swayed to Bickslow's side. "You agree with me, right?"
"Laxus-san does what he wants. It has always been like that," Bickslow shrugged. Evergreen's shoulders slumped. No one in this group was on her side.
"Friendzone?" Happy tilted his head to the side. He may have been as innocent as Natsha when it came to this stuff. Evergreen opened her mouth to start ranting once more, but Freed quickly placed a rune on her person. No words came out of her moving mouth. "Why did you do that?" he tilted his head some more at the Rune Mage.
"This is a topic better discuss later."
...
Natsha woke up in a large room. Her eyes gazed through the room, lingering over such oddities as dressers stuffed to the brim, floors that shined like clear ice, a fireplace in the corner that roared with each breath. "Where am I?" Her questioned echoed throughout the room. She stood up from a bed made out of hay.
Without her even noticing, a flare from the fireplace caught a strand of hay on fire.
Within a moment, her hay bed was gone.
"What?"
...
They should have gone about it better.
They were meters away from the Volcano, yet caught in nets. Laxus was moments away from zapping the net opened, but a tribe leader appeared behind a tree. Others scattered through the trees and bushes, hiding behind them and gazing at the newcomers. "These is people of Iceberg?"
"No, Stella."
Freed coughed to clear his voice, to get their attention but none came his way. They continued to debate with each other over which country they came from. And none of the answers were right.
It wasn't until the tribe leader clucked on a hallow tree that caused them all to silence. He stepped out into the light, and his white skin complexion blinded them. "What is you people?"
Freed gave a small smile. He was finally being acknowledged. "We are mages from Fairy Tail in Fiore."
He nodded. "We is Ararat tribe from Joya. You is not from Minstrel?"
"No, we are only traveling through."
He cocked his head to the side and his green eyes gazed through all of their members. His eyes lingered on the blue cat; something that was new to him. After a grunt from one of his people, he went back to green haired boy, "Your business?"
"Searching for a lost person. She's pyromaniac and this was a place we thought she may be hiding." Freed already knew he was getting glares from Laxus as soon as he mentioned Natsha's strange behavior.
The tribe leader nodded and leaned his feathered staff onto the ground; to say he meant no harm. "None came from those lands, but you is exception. First we seen of Fiore mages."
"We still can take a look, right?" Evergreen suggested. Natsha could still be around. Maybe there are some traces or clues of her being here.
"You may. As long as you do not touch violet carnation."
"We won't," Freed promised. Evergreen's eyebrow rose at their strange demand. 'They are worrying about violet carnations?'
"This is starting to get cramp," Bickslow complained. He crackled his neck as it was in an awkward position.
"Yeah," Laxus agreed. He didn't even wait for the tribe people to untie the ropes. He zapped the string that held them and they all fell to the ground. Happy was safe as his wings expanded and he landed safely onto of Freed.
"You is mages," the tribe leader grinned; they did not lie to him. The other tribe people backed away from them, slowly and silently. They watched from the shadows as the mages stood up and dusted themselves off of dirt.
"Do you guard this Volcano?" Laxus questioned.
"We have ever since the first of us came here from Iceberg."
Laxus nodded. "We are going up now," Freed stated, but all of them stayed in place. Their eyes followed them as they climbed up the rocky path.
"What was their problem?" Evergreen remarked as soon as they were out of view of the tribe people.
"It's their customs," Freed shrugged, "This is the only reason why they kept this place safe from being overpopulated like the rest of Minstrel."
Bickslow yawned, "Too bad we can't sleep here."
"Feels like they will catch us again with their nets," Evergreen added. "I wonder what they will do if we do touch the violet carnations..."
"Don't even try," Laxus' voice halted her thoughts. He already knew this was the wrong place. Natsha's scent was no where around. And if these tribe people have been guarding this place, they would have noticed if a Dragon nested here. But, like Evergreen, it couldn't harm to take a small glance at the place.
They got to the top and looked around. Happy skipped along the edge and looked down into the lavapit. He gulped. A gap of air erupted from it and lava sprayed along the rock walls.
"So this is Tambora Volcano," Laxus announced. Other then a bush of purple flowers, there was nothing special about this Volcano.
"There's shit," Bickslow stated. "Nothing at all."
"Just a lavapit," Ever added. Another gap of air erupted from the lava's surface. Happy hopped and Bickslow was the only one to glance his way. "And those flowers."
"Midi next?" Freed suggested.
"Exactly," Laxus agreed.
"What if Natsha fell down there?" Happy questioned as he pointed to the lava.
"She could handle that," Laxus stated. "She's not a Fire Dragon Slayer for nothing."
Happy nodded and slowly backed away from the edge.
One Volcano down, two more to go. For once I'm proud of myself, I actually wrote most of this chapter from one viewpoint instead of skipping around like I do in the other chapters. More LaxusxNatsu moments are on the way. And next chapter, we will be shown the other groups.
general yumi: Laxus had an whole arc just to come into terms that he thinks of the guild members as friends/family. The volcano only appeared once on the map, unlike the mountains; Freed only assumed there would be volcanos in the two other regions. Thanks!
EpicAsianOrangeTiger26: It's okay, I was only teasing. But, those two didn't have much of a part in this.
rinpup14: Everyone has those words that make them wail, and Happy's is Stray cat.
darkhuntressxir: Had to add some humor somehow.
Thanks for all of the reviews!