Chapter 7

AN: it was pointed out to me that I was spelling Rogue as Rouge and Gray as Grey. I apologize deeply, I want to thank you my fans for telling my about my mistakes, that is why I love your reviews and PM's so much. I know that Frosch's gender is unknown but I have made them a girl, also Frosch will still be an airhead with directions, but she will know that she is a cat but still has an obsession with frogs. She will also be able to fly just like all the other Exceeds will even Lector; and Carla will not have visions of the future.

As another note, Jellal and Mystogan will be different people, let me explain. Jellal and Mystogan will be twin brothers who were separated when Jellal got caught and sent to the tower of Heaven while Mystogan managed to escape. On that same note Edolas will not exist, while I did enjoy the arc the only thing it did was bring Lisanna back as well as the Exceeds to Earthland, as such all the Exceeds are already on Earthland as Edolas does not exist. This means that Happy, Carla, Pantherlily, Lector, and Frosch's story for being separated will be explained later. Finally without any more delay onto the chapter.

Once another day had passed and all four ice wizards were ready to leave, they got into the saddle on Igneel's back with everyone else and headed off. Igneel then took in a large breath and told his passengers that the next closest person to them was Sting.

Natsu then explained that Sting was an opposite of Rogue when it came to magic, and slightly personality as well. He told the others how he was very loud and energetic, but also still very kind to others.

Natsu did say that he was strange though; he had a strange sense of happy go lucky energy. At that everyone let out a chuckle seeing as how Natsu acted the exact same way as how he described Sting.

When the group had finally managed to track down Sting though he wasn't at all acting how Natsu had described him. Sting much like Rogue had a talking cat with him, but he had a very serious and somber look on his face.

When Natsu asked him about it Sting told him that he had killed Weisslogia because the dragon had asked him to. Natsu slapped Sting with a light enhanced palm to make him look at him. When he knew he had Stings attention he then explained to Sting what Igneel had told Rogue about dragon memory manipulation.

After Sting had learned the truth he cried tears of joy and thanked Natsu for telling him. Once Sting had composed himself he then explained to Natsu and the others how he had come across his friend that was silent the whole time Lector.

When everyone looked at lector they could tell that much like Frosch he was a cat, but at the same time he was red not green. The two cats got along well though, when they first said hello to each other they realized they would be good friends.

The cats had then started a game of tag with one another as they flew around while Sting was introduced to everyone else and told of the group's goals. After the group had been talking for over an hour or so Natsu turned to Sting.

"So what do you think Sting, do you want to join us on the trip?" Natsu asked. Sting smiled and said that he wouldn't mind but that he would ask Lector what he thought first. When Sting then called Lector and Frosch back over to the group he asked Lector what he thought of travelling with them. Lector had instantly agreed saying it would be fun, but everyone laughed when Frosch piped up saying he agreed.

Natsu smiled to himself as Igneel said that they only had one more person to go before they could start looking for more information on the symbol. His smile did disappear though soon after, when questioned on it Natsu answered sadly.

"My friend Wendy, I practically think of her like a little sister, but I never thought how frightened she must be on her own. Both she and Grandeeney are very kind and peaceful people, but all this time she has probably been all by herself and frightened." Natsu said. At that the others also got quiet.

Igneel let out a huff before telling Natsu that she would be fine as she was raised by a dragon to be tough. At that a smile again came to Natsu as he nodded an agreement. Three days after they had left where they found Sting Igneel said they were closing in on Wendy, but he also said that he could smell that she wasn't alone.

When Igneel spotted Wendy she was with four other people, but he could tell they meant her no harm. He then looked around and noticed they were in an isolated area so he quickly descended down to their level.

Wendy had been having a nice conversation with her friend Mystogan; two weeks ago she had been running around looking for Grandeeney when instead she found him and his friend Pantherlily. The two had met when Pantherlily found Mystogan injured and took him to the home of the Exceeds to get healed, but they deemed it an insult to help humans and banished him.

Shortly after Pantherlily was able to get Mystogan healed she had bumped into the two of them. For a week they had traveled together before Wendy found two strange eggs. At the end of the week the eggs had hatched into two other Exceeds that Wendy had named Happy and Carla. When she asked Pantherlily about the eggs being not in the home city he let out a sigh and explained to her.

He said that the Exceeds still followed an old way of living and as such had cruel ways of doing things. One of those things was that every one hundred years a hundred eggs were gathered and shot into the world to help the humans become "accustomed" to their presence.

Wendy had tears at that but was very grateful for Lily telling her. The next week she then spent with all her friends while both her and Mystogan were looking for their missing family. Much like Wendy Mystogan had been separated from his family and was looking for the missing person.

Wendy's conversation ended though when she smelled something familiar. When she recognized what the smell was she had a smile large enough to split her face. When Igneel landed in front of her cracking the ground she only smiled more and tried to run forward before Mystogan stopped her.

Never before had he more feared for his life than in that moment. Mystogan had seen a lot of bad things in his life like the destruction of his town and the murdering of his parents, but never had he felt the level of fear he had staring at the giant dragon that towered over him. When he noticed Wendy try to run to it he stopped her though for fear it would crush her instantly.

When the dragon lowered its head he grabbed his magic staff and prepared to fight for his and Wendy's safety when a boy jumped of the dragons head and ran at them. Wendy then with great force broke out of his grasp and ran at the boy while screaming "Natsu-aniki!" over and over.

As he watched Wendy and the boy hug he also saw several other people and two Exceeds get off the dragons back. When he noticed all the friendly people and the fact that the dragon wasn't attacking he nervously stepped forward.

Wendy while jumping for joy had then told Mystogan and the others all about her big brother Natsu. After Natsu then was introduced to all of Wendy's friends and she his Wendy finally thought about Grandeeney and asked Natsu if he knew where she was.

Natsu had then bent down to Wendy's level and told the little girl about where Grandeeney had gone and why. Wendy had cried when learning the information, but then smiled when she asked if she and her friends could come with Natsu. Natsu had of course accepted and grinned at his little sister figure.

Mystogan had watched on happy for Wendy finding who she was looking for if only indirectly, but had then been surprised when she asked if they could accompany the large group. He was even more surprised though when the boy who looked to be slightly younger than him agreed.

Mystogan had tried to decline, but Wendy had piped up and said that with more people he could find his brother faster. That had led to Ur telling him that they were searching for a magic guild and that at a magic guild he would be able to go on missions all over to look for his brother and that when done with the missions he could use extra money he earned to look even more until he finally found his brother.

After seeing all the support that so many people were giving him Mystogan had thanked every single person profusely before agreeing to go with all of them.

Nearly everyone seemed to get along really well, but over the course of a week's journey Gajeel and Pantherlily had become the best of friends and rivals at the same time Wendy, Carla, Ur, Ultear, and Flare all seemed to get along very well but Natsu just chalked it up to them all being girls.

On the same hand Natsu also noticed that even though their magic was completely opposite Sting and Rouge got along very well and were even able to recognize that their magic worked well together. Mystogan was at first quiet, but him, Eric, and Gajeel all got along really well; Natsu on the other hand had no problem talking with anyone and by weeks end everyone acted like one large family.

Also at the end of the week though the group had caught a supposed lead about the symbol which led them to a town that was constantly plagued by rain. Igneel had landed outside the town to not draw attention, and when everyone had gotten off Natsu said he would go into the town first to see if there was any useful information.

Igneel agreed that sending just one person would be good as it was a small town, and they could then think on where to go next if there was not another lead. With that Natsu had departed for the town.

When he did get into the town though he noticed how heavily the rain was truly pouring, not to mention that he had never felt rain this cold before. After he had walked around for several minutes he had finally been able to find a few people.

When Natsu drew the symbol and asked them about it, none of them had an answer so Natsu had let out a sigh of depression. He was about to turn around and head back to Igneel and the others when he decided to ask them about the rain.

All the people he was talking with had then gotten scowls on their face while saying it was caused by that stupid rain woman. After they said that the group took off in anger while mumbling some more about some person they called the rain woman.

Natsu surprised by their anger decided he would look for this rain person and ask them why they were making it rain. Right when he was about to go looking though he heard a soft sob. He could tell the person was trying to be quiet as he had barely heard it with his superior hearing.

When he was able to track down where the sobs were coming from he was able to see a girl with blue hair leaning against a tree while cradling a strange white doll in her hands. Natsu approached the girl who seemed to be his age and put a hand on her shoulder, the second he did two things happened.

The first was the girl turning her head to look at the sudden presence and locking eyes with the person who's hand was on his shoulder. The second was caused by the first, the second Natsu and the girl's eyes locked Natsu felt strange.

His heart sped up incredibly fast, he started to sweat for no reason, then finally he started to tremble, when all this happened and became too much for him he had collapsed to his knees and took in shaky breaths.

The girl fearing she had caused the boy pain tried to leave but was unable to when he gently but firmly grasped her wrist. 'He's warm' was the first thing she thought. Natsu now better but still breathing hard asked "What's your name?" the girl looked at him surprised that he wanted to know who she was, suddenly her heart started to throb hard and her cheeks tinted pink before she put a hand to her chest near her heart and said "My name is Juvia, Juvia Lockser."

AN: I will not be having Juvia use the third person as that will be too hard, and as for Natsu meeting Juvia first it just played out that way, it doesn't mean he will love her more. The whole idea for me which will be hard but fun to write is that Natsu will love each girl equally but struggle with trying to figure out how to show them that.