Author's Note: Yuuki~desu! So like I promised, here is another chapter. It may seem a bit uneventful but is essential none the less. Since this chappie is pretty short, I'm uploading another one in about 30 mintes. Look forward to it and don't forget to Review!
Chapter 12: Iron Way
I can't take this anymore!
Days of walking for hours to get to my destination were long since over for me, but here I was, crawling up the iron mountain along with the Fairy Tail members. It took us 7 hours to reach it by feet.
If only I could fly... I glanced at the pinkette behind me and immediately erased that thought. Yeah, thanks Natsu. Just because you're paranoid, we have to travel extra 7 hours. I would love to use Dark Passage but I knew the fire mage just wouldn't get in. And I couldn't transform and take them to Metalicana's place on my back for the exactly same reason.
Again, I gave Natsu an irritated look, which turned out to be a mistake. My hand slipped and I went down the mountain.
I've had enough! I let claws grow out of my fingers and used them to stop my fall.
"Luciana-san!" cried worried Wendy. That just irritated me more. She was comfortably seated on Grandine's head, floating in air, not having to get her palms cut just to get to the cave near the peak of the damn mountain.
I'm a dragon, not a snake, goddamit! I concentrated big dose of my magical power on my back and made my dragon wings sprout out of it. They were beautiful snow-white colour with occasional violet scales, making me look a bit like angel. Not that I wanted to look like one. Angels are mischievous, snobbish and extremely egoistical creatures.
Still not letting go of the rock I was holding onto, I flapped my new wings a bit. Satisfied with how they worked, I rose into air and willed my claws to disappear.
Merging my human form with some parts of my dragon body was something I didn't do very often but it was like riding a bicycle. Once you learn it, you can never forget it. Not that anyone could confirm that theory. Apart from Acnologia, I am the only living dragon who has a human form. Not to mention that I can shift into it as much as I want to, without any side effects.
I flew to Natsu, opened a tiny Dark Mirror and reached into it, only to pull out a little white pouch with black ornaments out of it. The salmon haired mage was already burning up, unmistakably feeling I planned to do something to him. And he wasn't wrong.
I quickly opened the pouch, took a bit of a black dust in my hand and blew it right into his face. As it was reaching him, he tried to burn it down but with no success. Within seconds he was asleep and I had to catch him by his wrist, so that he didn't slide down the mountain.
"What did you do to him!" shouted Gray. Who would have thought he would be the first one to be worried about Natsu?
"I put him to sleep. He's the only reason why we're climbing this damn mountain instead of teleporting right into the cave." They couldn't deny that. I have offered to teleport us many times during our journey but Natsu would always butt in, forcing others to refuse.
"What was that dust?" Asked Levy instead. She was unbelievably sweaty and looked really worn out. She wasn't the type for physical work. Stupid Natsu.
"Gardo mushroom spores mixed with powdered lavender flowers and a bit of Dream gemstone glitter." "Why the lavenders?" I gave her one of my brightest smiles. "For relaxation. Before I mixed them in, people would try to fight the sleepy effect. With it, they fall asleep right on the spot." "Makes sense." was the only thing she said.
I waited for Erza, who was nearest, to reach me and I handed Natsu to her. I felt more than a bit of regret when I did that. I wish I could hold him a bit longer... Angry at myself for such a stupid longing, I turned opposite side of the peacefully sleeping fire dragon slayer and started opening the portal.
The process of creating the Dark Passage was very similar to that of Dark Mirror. But while the Dark Mirror opened silently and slowly, dark matter that would become the passage, expaned abruptly with booms and sounds distantly resembling thunders.
Basically the portal was a great rip in the dimensional net and everytime it had to breach one of the threads separating different worlds, there were explosions of a highly condensed magical power.
Nonetheless, it scared my audience. Thank the Great Will, Grandine was there with us. She managed to tell Wendy that all of those sounds and energy explosions weren't unusual and asked her to relay her words to the battle-ready mages.
Only when the sounds stopped and the portal showed us an entrance to the cave, did they calm down enough to let their magic go into dormant state.
"Sorry guys. Seems like I had to open the portal through more dimension than I expected." They just stared at me. It couldn't be helped, they didn't know what I was talking about, the theory of the dimensional net is extremely hard to comprehend. It took me 1584 years to finally understand the extent of my power over it.
I didn't carry the title of Dimensional Dragon for nothing. Though I asked my brethren not to call me that. It revealed too much of my true powers and also made them misunderstand what I could actually do.
Sometimes, to show respect, they called me the Space Dragon.
In fact, all of my titles were partly right. Fate because I could see future but at the same time, I couldn't write it or change it on a whim. Space because I traveled between stars, planets and galaxies but in reality, I have never been to space. Dimensional, because I communicated with different dimensions and observed them, sometimes even averting their destructions. But Dimensional Dragon shouldn't be able to create a world of its own.
It was frustrating, not having a name of my own that fit...
I just took a big breath and decide it was time for them to cheer u a bit.
"Dragon of Fate express is honoured to present you their fastest possible mean of transport. The Dark Passage. We would like to ask our dear passengers to come to the travel guide, Luciana, one by one..." And they all laughed which was exactly what I wanted them to do.
"So how exactly does it work?" questioned Erza, wiping away her tears.
"Oh, you know... The same way as the portal you used to get here. You just step in and the next moment you are at your destination."
Gray just smirked, wrenched Natsu away from Erza, slung him over his shoulder and stepped in. Once they saw that Gray indeed did get to the other side safely, they fearlessly followed him.
I waited until the only ones left were Wendy, Grandine and me. "Grandine, I think it the best you fly up. It's kind of pointless to widen the portal so you can pass through, when you can get there on your own in less than ten seconds..."
"Che. Stingy." she said in that childish tone she used when she was happy but didn't want you to know it.
I grinned at her. "Thank you, Nee-chan." I didn't call her that often, but it always made her happy.
She lowered her head and licked me from head to toe. "Eeeew!" It was really gross. The light blue dragon just laughed and flew up with the little dragon slayer perched on her head.