Author's Note: Yuuki~desu! I told you I would update soon, didn't I? :D
Chapter 11: Guilty Liar
When I was passing through the portal, I knew something went wrong with the 'fairies'.
I sure hoped that Natsu wasn't attacking any of the dragons on the other side. Even my Queen title wouldn't be enough to protect him as my guest if he did.
The same second I finally entered the dragon realm, Wendy called out to me. "Dragon-san! Are you all right?" Her gaze slipped to my wounded leg. "I'm ok. Don't worry, the leg will heal." I smiled at her. Unfortunately, smiling meant revealing my sharp teeth, at which she gasped a little. Surely, she wouldn't even notice them if I was Grandine...
Hurt a little by her reaction, I turned away from her to examine the situation. Fairy Tail members (except Wendy who was now standing by my side) were surrounded by a group of dragons. From angry words of my brethren, I understood that they are suspecting the mages of hurting me. You guys are overprotective.
"Step back everyone." I ordered them and they had no other choice but to do as I said.
I went to stand by the humans. The second I approached them, Natsu was trying to jump at me. Fortunately Gajeel had enough sense and restrained him in time. Well, seems like my earlier stunt with the tail made him angry... I turned away from the furious fire mage.
"These are my guests. The ones I was trying to tell you about.." "So you are going to accept these filthy humans who hurt you as your guests? We know you have soft heart and we admire you for it, but this is unacceptable!" cried Edaram, the Dragon of Earth. Soft heart? Where did that one come from?
"Are you trying to say I, your Queen, would be hurt like this by humans? Is that how much you trust my abilities? Trust ME? Moreover, if you look closely, you can see fang marks! Do you understand now?" I was overreacting but I had to make it clear to them. Also, I was desperate to turn their attention to the claw marks, hoping they wouldn't notice my tail. If they did, Natsu wouldn't live to see another day.
"Acnologia." several of them whispered. I nodded and glanced at the humans. They seemed confused. Well, of course they did, they didn't understand a word we said. I just sighed and took on my human form.
"Welcome, humans. I know why you are here." I took in their flabbergasted expressions and tried my best not to grin. Geez, how could I not know? I was the one who sent you here... "You are free to stay here as long as you want to. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me."
"Who the hell are you?" asked me Natsu right off the bat, killer look in his eyes not leaving his face for a second. I put on a mocking smile and answered. "Luciana. Queen of the Dragons and owner of everything you see in this world." That shut him up.
Erza, shaking nervously, took a step towards me and started expected introductions. "I am-" "I know who you are, Titania. I know all of you." I gave them a sweet, innocent smile and wondered what would be their next step. Then I the realized they were too shocked to do anything else than stare at me.
Now I did it. This is becoming more of a one man act... I sighed and started explaining, which meant telling them half-truths. "I'm a Dragon of Fate." Truth. "I can see future." Truth. " That's why I know who you are and why you came." Absolute lie.
They relaxed visibly. "Then, Luciana-san, can you take us to Igneel-san?" asked ever-so-polite Wendy.
"Of course. But wouldn't you rather like to see Grandine, Wendy-san?" "Grandine is here too?" Her eyes widened in surprise. I nodded. "And I can see her?" "Of course you can, sweetie." Without looking behind me I softly called out the Sky Dragon's name.
I felt her lilly scent even before she reached us and I went to stand before Wendy. "Did you call, onee-sama?" she asked kindly, landing behind me. I faced the light blue dragon, still effectively blocking her view of the blue-haired girl. The wind was in my favour. It was blowing Wendy's smell away from my stepsister. "Yes. There is someone who would like to see you, Grandine." With that, I stepped aside in a grand revelation style. The dragon took in a sharp breath and stood frozen in her place. Wendy, on the other hand, started crying and went to hug her adoptive mother in a very similar way I had, when I came out of the cave.
I didn't call Grandine out to meet Wendy out of the kindness of my heart. And I also didn't do it to make the Fairy Tail members forget about their purpose here. I did it because both of them were scarred by their early separation and I felt guilty for that. I was the one who ordered the dragons to move into this realm...
Guilt is another of those emotions that can kill a dragon. Right, I'm doing it for myself. Something inside my mind whispered a very ugly word to me: Liar.
I tore my eyes away from the sweet scene to look for my next targets.
"Natsu, Gajeel, please follow me." I reconsidered my words and added: "Others can come too, if they want to." That's how the whole party (along with Grandine carrying Wendy on her head) ended up coming with me. Luckily, my right arm was healing rapidly and that was the only reason the other dragons didn't follow me. They are too overprotective, I thought again.
Much to my dismay, Natsu still didn't trust me and the only reason he actually followed me was because Levy made him. So now he was watching my back the whole way, ready to strike the moment I did something suspicious.
It really hurts, you know, Natsu... Being hated by the one you care about the most... I did my best to hold back my tears. Then I remembered my decision to be as indifferent to my friends as I could.
I gave up on him. No, on ALL of them, so why should I care? Now that was a mental slap. Yeah sure, that's what I logically wanted to really think, but it still made me stop for a second. And that made the pink-haired mage tense.
Realizing that, I shook my head and continued to make my way to the iron mountain, abandoning the subject of my feelings towards people from my past life altogether. At least that's what I intended to do.