Hi there, chapter 6 it is! This one might feel a little weird, that's just because it's a transitioning chapter... plus I wrote it at about three in the morning last night. Heh.

A couple more things are added to the plot this chapter!

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 6: The Language of Dragons

"Sweet Mavis she's like a damn feather," Gajeel ground out in surprise as he hoisted the small girl onto his back.

Levy's hands hovered over the girl, making sure she wouldn't fall before her arms dropped to her sides.

"Hey, now don't go thinking you're some kind of hero just because you're carrying her," Natsu hissed, his feelings still a little hurt that we all chose Gajeel to carry the fainted little girl. It wasn't that Natsu wasn't strong enough; we just had all figured she'd be a little safer with Gajeel, being as Natsu had a tendency to be a little… hyper… and outgoing. Okay I think we all were afraid Natsu would end up dropping her, or falling down a hill and landing on her, or something along the lines of hurting the small child who was now in our care.

My eyes stayed glued to the completely blank face of the little girl. Her presence still baffled me. I had no idea where she came from; I don't think any of us did. It was as if she had just magically popped up right on the spot, shivering in fear and deathly tired. It had only been a few minutes since she had collapsed on the grassy terrain, and yet I was worried. How long would it take her to wake up?

We had checked her over for any physical harm but found none. All that was on her body were tiny scratches and scrapes but nothing that would've caused her to faint. I figured it was due to the trauma of the situation. How had she gotten tangled up with Raven Tail anyway?

"Oy, even if she's like a feather to me, that's too heavy for you to carry," Gajeel laughed, cackling loudly at Natsu as he frowned.

I tuned out the two boys, and awaited a certain blue Exceed's inevitable fat joke. Whenever weight was brought up about absolutely anything, Happy always had something to say about me. What would it be this time? A joke about how heavy I was to fly around with? Or perhaps that if Natsu were to carry me I'd squish him flat?

I felt my blood boil at the thought and my cheeks grow a little heated, but before I could work myself up too much, I realized the silence. That inevitable joke hadn't come.

I shifted my gaze around, unable to locate Happy anywhere. Where had that little cat gone?

"Hey guys, where's Happy?" I asked.

My companions' reactions were the same as mine had been as they whirled around to look for the cat.

"Come to think of it, was he ever actually with us when we confronted Raven Tail?" Levy asked.

I thought back to the fight and shook my head. Nope, Happy hadn't been there since the start. What was that cat up to?

Natsu's steps grew a little faster in anticipation. As much as Natsu raved and ranted about how amazing Happy was, he honestly didn't exactly care to admit how much he really truly cared for the cat. I couldn't help my smile as Natsu sped up again. No doubt by now he was getting very nervous that something had happened to his Exceed. He was so cute.

I let out a squeak of surprise at my own thoughts and smacked my hands to my cheeks, trying furiously to cover up the blush. What the hell had that been? Those cutesy little thoughts shouldn't be coming up at a time like this, how embarrassing. I saw Levy look at me, but before she could speak up to ask if I was alright, a different high-pitched voice called out to us.

"Naaatsuuuu!"

My head shot up with relief at the sound of Happy's voice. Wait, had I just said relief? As much as I hated to admit it as well, I really did care about Happy. Sure he was a stupid cat that teased me about my weight and my crush on Natsu, but he was sweet, and in all reality I did care about him.

"Happy!" Natsu called out in recognition as we topped the hill, a blue blob with wings flying toward us.

I spied in the distance the museum. The alarms had stopped going off and there were currently a few police vehicles outside the entrance. I even spotted one of the frog messengers from the Magic Council. Since it was a break in by a mage I figured that that was the reason for the involvement of the Council.

Happy stopped to float in front of us but his Dragon Slayer didn't. Natsu plowed straight into Happy, crushing the cat to his chest, tears of joy flying everywhere.

"I was so worried about you, buddy!"

Happy's eyes looked like they could burst out of his head due to the pressure of the hug and he let out a muffled sound that sounded sort of like a mixture between 'why' and 'help'.

Natsu let Happy go after a few seconds when he realized the Exceed was looking a little purple from the lack of oxygen, and backed up. "Where were you?" he asked, taking a deep breath to try and recover from his momentary burst of emotion.

"You guys sure missed a lot!" Happy chirped, shaking out a wing that had been squished in the hug.

"We missed a lot?" I spluttered. "I think you're the one who missed out."

"Really?! What happened to you?" Happy asked, his eyes going wide as he looked us all up and down. "Man, you guys look beat up."

As Natsu decided to fill Happy in, the rest of us readied ourselves for a wait. Levy and I plopped down on the lush grass, helping Gajeel lay the still unconscious small girl down before he sat as well. Gajeel crossed his arms and grunted in annoyance as Natsu continued with his most eloquent way of describing our battle, which included more sound effects than words.

After a few minutes Happy was all caught up with our escapades and was thoroughly shocked.

"Raven Tail?! Really? Why were they after the staff? And who is she? And where was Ivan? And-"

"Oy, we don't know! We don't know any of that." Gajeel cut Happy off with a growl.

I saw Levy smack Gajeel on the arm lightly out of the corner of my eye and whisper to him to be nice. He rolled his eyes in return but stayed silent.

"So where've you been?" Natsu asked, looking to Happy with anticipation.

"Oh! That's right!" Happy said, clapping his paws together. "After you guys burst out of there, this little thing caught my eye," he said, pulling out a tiny slip of paper. "It was lying in the pile of shattered glass from when they broke into the exhibit so I decided to check it out. It's in some language I can't read though," Happy explained, turning the paper over in his paws with a rather downtrodden look on his face.

When he was met with curious looks Happy passed the paper around, handing it to Gajeel first.

The Iron Dragon Slayer didn't even take a glance at it before shoving it into Levy's hands. "We should probably let Shrimp handle this. She's the language expert after all," Gajeel grunted, pushing himself up off the ground, gently pulling the little girl onto his back again before walking toward the museum.

We all followed on cue, standing up from the ground reluctantly and following him. Levy's eyes were glued to the sheet of paper as her finger traced the lines on it, her mouth moving soundlessly as she read to herself. We all walked along in silent anticipation, until Natsu decided to speak up.

"Can I see?" Natsu asked, turning back to Levy and walking backwards for a few steps.

"Just leave her be, she'll figure it out," Gajeel hissed.

"C'mon, just one little peek," Natsu whined.

"If Shrimp can't figure it out I can guarantee your pea brain can't," Gajeel muttered, unable to keep the smirk out of his tone.

My head cocked to the side. Was that a compliment? I had never heard Gajeel, in the months I'd known him, ever give anyone a compliment. Let alone Levy who he tended to beat up on for her short stature.

I noticed Levy had realized this too, as her entire face was a little bit redder than before, her eyes still glued to the words on the parchment.

Gajeel and Natsu continued to argue about the size of their brains for the entire walk to the museum. Happy floated along beside them, apparently just enjoying the fact that he was present now, and not missing out on anything fun.

We all left Levy alone to decipher the message as we entered the museum. The place was crawling with police and it turned out more than just one of the messengers from the Magic Council was here. Natsu fell back and whispered a very poor joke about frogs in my ear as we passed one of them and I couldn't stifle the laugh, slapping my hands over my mouth as I snorted out my amusement as quietly as I could.

I found it was little things like that that made me like Natsu even more. Those simple gestures that showed he cared, and that he wanted me included were what really meant the most.

I looked around the inside of the museum. Rather than the added people, nothing looked different. I couldn't find the curator though, and when I inquired with Happy, the cat had said that the small and stout man that had hired us had left, retreating to another one of his museums for an insurance policy.

"He said that our job wasn't done though," Happy muttered. "Even if the thieves got away with all the pieces, he wants us to go after them to get them back."

I sighed, "And how are we supposed to do that?" We had no idea where they had gone. How would we even start our quest to find them? We hadn't been able to find Raven Tail in the past, so why would we now?

"Well I suggest we first figure out what that piece of paper says," Happy chirped, still prideful of his find.

I nodded, turning my gaze once again to the girl on Gajeel's back. "Maybe we should figure out who she is first," I countered. "She was with Raven Tail in the first place, so she might know where they are."

"That is if she ever wakes up," Natsu added.

With the curator gone and no more evidence, the museum was unimportant to us, and we made a beeline to the entrance to the museum to leave. Gajeel, Natsu, and I were the first to bound down the steps, followed by Levy who was so engrossed in the paper she tripped down the first two before crashing into my back. Luckily I was able to keep my balance and Levy apologized profusely.

"Guys, I don't think I've seen this language anywhere before," Levy admitted once we reached level ground, her trance created by the writing now broken.

"You're kidding!" Gajeel gasped. "You read all those wordy books, and you haven't seen it anywhere?"

Levy shook her head slowly, looking like she wanted to cry. Little upset Levy more than not knowing something that had to do with languages, or history. She loved books, and that tiny head of hers held more information than most scholars could ever hope to learn.

"Well what do we do now?" Natsu slumped, suddenly looking defeated.

"I guess we could take it to someone who studies the written word," Levy sighed. I could only imagine how many people she knew that could do that.

"Or we could take it to Shagotte."

Our entire group froze in surprise, slowly turning to face Happy, who had suggested the idea.

"What?" Happy asked, buckling under the pressure of our stares as he slowly floated to the ground, his wings disappearing.

"Why would Shagotte know anything about this?" Levy questioned.

Happy shrugged. "I don't know if she will. But what I do know is that Lily talks about her all the time, and has mentioned that she has a thing for extinct languages."

"Really?!" Levy gasped.

Levy hadn't ever taken much of an interest in Exceeds rather than Lily; and even then he was more just a cuddly little toy to her, or a fuzzy playmate. But by the sparkles in her eyes at the new fact learned about Queen Shagotte I could tell Levy's interest was greatly piqued.

Happy nodded. "Isn't Lily on a trip to visit the Exceeds from Edolas right now anyway? We could probably just stop in and say hi and see if she knows anything," he suggested, shrugging, a proud little smile making itself known on his face.

Levy nodded, dropping her arms to her sides and looking around. "How far away is the village the Exceeds are living in? I know it's North from here, but exactly how far?"

"Not that far," Gajeel grunted, adjusting the small girl on her back. "It would take a few hours, but I think we could probably walk."

I saw a queasy look appear on both Natsu and Gajeel's faces at even the thought of using a different mode of transportation, and decided that one train ride for them was enough.

"Alright then, you know the way?" I sighed.

"Sure do!" Levy squealed, putting her tiny fists on her hips and turning on her heel to face away from us. "Here we go!" she called, marching ahead without a moment of waiting.

I quickly bounded after her, but not without hearing Gajeel's groan.

"Oy, do I really have to carry this girl all the way?" he sighed in exasperation.

I could hear Natsu's feet pounding on the cobblestone as he rushed past me, calling back over his shoulder, "I thought you were big and strong enough to carry her! Too bad you didn't let me do it! Who has the pea brain now?"

Natsu snickered to himself before running ahead like usual. I glanced back over my shoulder to see the most unamused look on Gajeel's face. I couldn't help my grin. Even if they argued constantly, sometimes it was even a little bit enjoyable.

0=0=0=0=0

Shagotte shook her head, "Sorry, I've never seen a language like this before." She gently set the paper down on the table next to her and looked up at us all with regret.

It had taken us three hours on the nose to reach the Exceed's village. We had been welcomed with open arms and escorted to Shagotte right away. She had been very excited to see us, even though we didn't have Carla with us, who was really who the Queen was wanting to see.

I had expected the village to be tiny and quaint, but much to my surprise it resembled a town. Houses big enough for people to reside in comfortably as far as the eye could see. There were countless amounts of Exceeds, so I assumed for each family to have their own house, it would reach the equivalent of a small town.

Lily apparently had been visiting for around a week, and of course Gajeel and his Exceed had a very tearful and amusing reunion. Lily apparently went on annual trips to visit the cats he had lived with for so long in Edolas, but this was the first time a human had ever visited them

The houses looked inviting on the outside, and after being lead into the Queen's I realized they were just as homey on the inside. They gave the feeling of a log cabin, a fire crackling in the fireplace, and colorful rugs spaced out on the wooden floor. Squishy recliners and chairs were aplenty and I found myself having a hard time choosing which one to sit in.

Once inside Queen Shagotte's house Levy and I had explained our situation in detail, while Natsu and Gajeel sat by, awaiting an answer. We had set the little girl down in a chair; she still had shown no signs of awaking throughout our entire trek to the village. Three entire hours and she was still out cold. Perhaps we had been wrong, she hadn't fainted, she was in a coma. I sure hoped not. Not only for her sake, whoever she was, but because she was a steady lead in our mission.

Shagotte had scrutinized the sheet of paper for only a few minutes before shaking her head slowly and telling us she had no idea.

"The languages I specialize in are symbol-based languages, not ones with English letters," she explained. "I'm so sorry."

Levy and I both sighed in disappointment. Well there went that idea. The piece of paper and the little girl were the clues we had, and neither one seemed to be very helpful at the moment.

Once again I felt my heart sink. Not only would this job be a waste of time in that we weren't getting anywhere, and would most likely be fired, another guild asked to pick up where we left off, but my time with Natsu was a bust.

I glanced over at the salmon haired Dragon Slayer who was sitting on a very small stool, his legs crammed underneath him as his eyes roamed over the inside of the house in curiosity. Why couldn't I just get up the courage to tell him how I feel? It would make this whole situation so much easier. I supposed it was because I was afraid of how he'd react. If somehow I got him to realize how I felt without having to tell him upfront, maybe he'd take it better.

Levy sat forward, "Do you know of anyone who you think would be able to read it?"

The Queen shook her head, "Sorry, I don't know of any Exceeds who would be able to, and you people in Fairy Tail are the only humans I know on Earthland," she looked down at her lap. "I'm sorry I couldn't help." It was obvious her regret from the events in Edolas was still weighing heavy on her.

Levy sighed, "That's alright. I guess I could go to the library and try to find a book on it that maybe I passed over, or maybe Fried would know something about it; we could ask him." Levy slouched over, bringing a hand to her chin in pondering.

The house fell silent as we all were engrossed in our own thoughts. Fried might be a good bet. He wasn't exactly as enthusiastic about languages as Levy was, but he was very knowledgeable in them, since he had to be very articulate with his magic. I supposed I could go to the library with Levy, maybe two sets of eyes would be better than one, even if I wasn't as well-versed in that kind of stuff.

"Hey guys, what's so hard about this? I can read it."

I think we all froze for a second, wondering if we had imagined the chipper voice or not.

I slowly turned to Natsu, who was holding the tiny slip of paper, looking at us like we were insane. Natsu could read it. Natsu. The boy who had thought awesomeness was an actual word until just last year? Really? I had a hard time believing it.

"You're kidding," Levy spluttered, her pride hurt just the tiniest amount. "What does it say then?"

Natsu shrugged, looking down at the paper again. "It's kinda silly. All it says is, 'The staff of ancient Almia. Two worlds merged. Under the power of a King, either great destruction or joyous harmony will follow.'" Natsu made a face. "Then there are these little pictures. I can't tell what they are though."

There was a moment of silence before Levy interrupted. "Let me see that again," she snapped, snatching the piece of paper out of Natsu's hands. She pulled it close to her eyes and frowned. "How can you read that? And I don't see any pictures."

Levy shoved the paper to me, silently asking for a second opinion. I took it and hesitantly glanced down at the language. It was English letters alright, but in crazy orders, with dots and slashes all over the place. If I had to have guessed I would've said a two year old had scribbled away and somehow had written this. And sure enough I didn't see any pictures. Just worn tan paper with boxy black letters on it.

I shook my head, "Sorry Natsu, I don't see it either."

Levy frowned further and grabbed the paper out of my hands, shoving it into Gajeel. He rolled his eyes before looking down at it. It was obvious he had no interest whatsoever in the piece of paper and would've trusted whatever we said, but the minute he looked down at it his eyes widened slightly.

"Salamander's right. That's exactly what it says. And what's with the weird pictures? I mean what is that? If it's supposed to be a mountain, it's terribly drawn," he grunted, casually handing Levy back the paper.

I had never seen Levy more confused than she looked in that moment. She looked from Natsu, to Gajeel, and then back again with a sort of baffled panic. She had never met a language she couldn't crack, and yet two of the densest people on Earthland had read it with ease. Lily, Happy, and Queen Shagotte looked just as puzzled.

"But, wha-" Levy cut herself off, again frantically looking between the two Dragon Slayers. "Why can you two read it?!" she nearly shouted in frustration.

Natsu and Gajeel shrugged, which made Levy even more worked up. I had no idea what the heck Natsu was talking about. I hadn't seen squat on that paper that made sense, yet he had read it like child's play.

"Of course you can't read it."

A very small and hesitant voice made itself known in the room. Everyone, Exceeds and humans alike turned toward where the voice had come from: the small recliner in the corner, where the blue haired little girl who we had left sitting there, fainted, was now very much alert. She had her legs crossed as she leaned forward in what seemed to be curiosity. How long had she been listening to our conversation?

"W-What?" Levy asked quietly, nearly shocked silent by not only the little girl's state, but her statement as well.

The small girl's big green eyes flicked to all of us in rhythm before she lightly cleared her throat. "Of course you can't read it." She repeated herself.

Levy's hand clenched the sheet of paper a little tighter. "I-I know, but why not? What language is this?"

The small girl smiled, her eyes sparkling. "It's the language of dragons, of course."

So there it is! I hope you enjoyed it! Who is this girl who knows about dragons? *rubs hands together* You'll see. Hehe!

If you're bored or interested, again, I'd be forever grateful if you checked out my collab with shadowninja2000 on her account called "Fears and Promises", there's a link at the bottom of my profile to it. It has a super complicated plot/job too, so if you like that kind of stuff, you would probably like that! Plus the little sprinkle of romance, and who doesn't like that? XD

Anyway, thank you all so so much for the reviews/favs/follows last chapter! I love them all, and if you leave a review with what you thought of a chapter I will love you forever! They just make me so happy! Gah!

This'll be my last chapter for the year, no surprise there. So I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year too! I'll see you all in 2014!