S.R: Okay now that I'm back from my honeymoon, and have done a bit of searching for inspiration I am ready to work on this. You may notice the way I write has changed. That's because I decided to try and write more like the way the missus and I are for the Pokemon story (and the others that haven't made the cut).
Natsu: So…. How's this one gonna go down now?
S.R: First off I'd like to correct a mistake I made last chapter. I said teams of five and one back up then listed Natsu, Erza, Gray, Gajeel, Laxus, and Mira as the team with Juvia as the back up. If you care to count you'd see the mistake as 7 people listed when we only need 6.
Natsu: So who's dropping from the list and who is the actual back up member?
S.R: Juvia is being dropped from the list obviously. As for the back up member, well logically I should have the stronger members as the team with the weakest as the back up which would mean Gray is the back up… But I want to show him off since in this story both he and Gajeel are part of team Natsu. Which means the back up is either Laxus or Mira.
Natsu: Can't decide?
S.R: I'm debating giving Erza's event to you so we can prove Jura didn't lose on purpose even though you'd already displayed that you are competent wizard. If I do that then Mira's event would become Erza's just so she'd be an active member of the team for the games.
Natsu: Fair point.
S.R: Besides I kinda like the idea of Erza showing off and making you jealous. *covers mouth praying that wasn't said out loud*
Natsu: You are a sic-
Erza: *calls out* Natsu come here for a second I need your opinion on something!
Natsu: You're lucky Erza needs me. *eyes narrow at S.R*
S.R: Now that he's out of the way… Story time!
ERZA'S POV
Once Wendy got the all clear to leave, we signed her out and began making our way back to the hotel, deciding to let Wendy rest before being swamped by the others who were probably worried sick by this point in the day. As we walked back to the hotel I could feel the people around us looking on in sympathy for what happened. I couldn't hear the whispers as easily as Natsu or Wendy but thanks to the endless hours I poured into training my hearing was significantly better than most. Of what I was able to make out from the whispers I could tell very few people were blaming Natsu or I for not sticking by her side. Most of them just sounded sad that it had happened, or were glad to see how protective Natsu was.
I couldn't help but feel proud of him though. Since we left the infirmary Natsu had been focused on keeping Wendy as comfortable as possible, but still maintained a goofy and cheerful attitude helping keep her smiling and happy. He kept his playful personality going right up until she finally fell asleep. It wasn't until I saw him tucking her in that I snapped out of the trance I'd been in watching the two of them and realized we were back in out hotel room. Once he saw that I had returned to the real world he held a hand up to his lips with a sign to stay quiet and led me out into the hallway.
"Normal people aren't blaming us for this but I'll guarantee the older members will chew us out for this when we get back to the guild" Natsu spoke softly as his hands clinched and began shaking.
Just feeling the aura coming off of him in waves lead me to believe he was still pissed off about it. Both at the people who hurt our daughter, and himself for not being there when she needed him. I reached out to try and get him to let go of his anger when I realized it wasn't anger he was feeling but instead that he felt useless and worthless. Changing my movements I pulled him into a hug.
"But she doesn't blame us. Honestly right now the entire guild could yell at us for it and it wouldn't matter to me so long as she doesn't blame us. Besides after the beating you and master gave Ivan I don't think anyone will try that again any time soon" I told him moving my right hand so that it was on his back rubbing circles in a soothing motion.
After a few moments Natsu had calmed down and nodded at me, before pulling out of my hug pointing behind me to Laxus who was looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes.
"Gajeel and I need to have a word with you Natsu" Laxus said in a way that made it seem like Natsu was in trouble. Which he might be considering Laxus's attitude.
"Please don't be too hard on him" I asked Laxus, who snorted at the statement before replying it all depends on Natsu. Before the two walked away to meet up with Gajeel.
NATSU'S POV
"Alright salamander. Flare your magic a bit" Gajeel said the second I entered the room he had chosen for us to met in.
I did as he said and forced myself not to move when he got up close to look me dead in the eye. I tried not to flinch when he grabbed my jaw and forcefully opened my mouth to look at my canine teeth. As he did this I watched some of the tension in his body leave before realizing why he was doing this. Laxus watched on in confusion though so I figured we'd tell him what Gajeel was doing once he finished the examination.
"Eyes and teeth normal, no scales, no claws, calm and collected train of thought" Gajeel listed off for a mental check list before nodding at me.
"What the hell was that about and why would I possibly be needed?" Laxus asked getting a sigh from Gajeel as he realized Laxus didn't know yet. Patting Gajeel on the shoulder I looked at Laxus.
"Gajeel was afraid that after my little display with Ivan that I might have lost control over my magic." - Natsu
"But he wasn't over using his magic? - Laxus
"It's not very common knowledge, only those that were raised by Marquis class dragons or higher know about it or even have a chance at doing it." - Gajeel
"Okay, but why is that?" - Laxus
"Well first off you need to know the hierarchy of dragons. All dragons after hatching are called Hatchlings. Once they've grown enough to start hunting they're called Wyrms. After they learn to fly they are Welps. And once they turn 100 they are given a rank based on power. From lowest to highest rank they are Hell-kite, Uber-kite, Grand Hell-kite, Dragon Lord/Lady, Draco Baron/Baroness, Marquis/Marchioness, Dragon Emperor/Empress, and Dragon King/Queen." - Natsu
"So Marquis class or stronger is pretty rare" - Laxus
"Yeah. Marquis class and higher make up about 5% of the total dragon population. Even though we're adopted we gain the same rank as our parents which means if we ran into dragon slayers with the same element the one with the stronger parent has the stronger magic." - Gajeel
"But that is because while training with our parents we use our magic and mimic their abilities so much that it forces our magic container to evolve and grow strong enough to properly use the same level as our parental dragon. Because our magic container evolved to be more like a dragons magic container we have what the dragons call a partial-seal container. Every living being that uses magic has a physical seal on their magic container that limits the flow of magic to what their body can handle. But When a being is strong enough to overpower that seal completely which is the case of Marquis class dragons, in order to protect the container from being damaged from the extremely heavy flow of magic they develop an emotional seal." - Natsu
"Could you dumb it down a bit for me?" Laxus
"Basically our magic container is like a cup with a funnel attached. The funnel controls the flow of magic leaving the cup. As you get stronger the funnel gets bigger to compensate. After a certain point though the funnel becomes too large. To fix that Marquis class dragons and stronger have evolved to the point their emotions control the size of the funnel" - Gajeel
"But what's this have to do with Natsu possibly loosing control of his magic?" - Laxus
"I'm the son of a Dragon King, which means the flow of my magic is controlled by my emotions. If my emotions become too strong I'll lose control. We don't want that because if I lose control there's an extremely high chance of becoming like Acnologia" - Natsu
"Wait you mean Dragon of the Apocalypse is actually a dragon slayer?!" - Laxus
"Yup… If I lose control of my magic I'll slowly slip into dragon force and slowly go insane. The only way to prevent that would be to knock me out long enough to regain control. Which is why you were asked to be here. It would at least take both of you to subdue me at that point." - Natsu.
"Okay… Now that we've got that out of the way" Laxus
"WHAT THE HELL WERE THOSE BLACK FLAMES YOU WERE USING!" - Gajeel
ERZA'S POV
It had been about twenty minutes since Natsu walked away to talk to Laxus and Gajeel. Considering I didn't feel anything unusual I assumed they were talking normally, at least until I heard Gajeel.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE THOSE BLACK FLAMES YOU WERE USING!"
Thinking about it I remembered watching Natsu's fight with Jura and he didn't use any black flames. Which means he used them after I took Wendy to the infirmary but before they turned on the TV so we could watch the fight. 'Don't tell me he did something stupid' I thought to myself before jumping over to the side of the bed once I noticed Wendy beginning to wake up.
"Where's daddy?" She asked me after yawning. I told her he had to talk with Gajeel and Laxus.
"Oh, that's good. Gajeel should know what to do." - Wendy
"What are you talking about" - Erza
"Well to explain it simply. The strongest dragon slayers have to keep control over their emotions. If they get too strong there's a chance of loosing control of our magic, which could and normally does lead to insanity and full on dragonification, which is what happened to Acnologia." - Wendy
"Do I need to start filtering the lessons those two have been teaching you?" - Erza
"I've known this. Once I was old enough to understand Grandeeney taught me this. Apparently it only applies to the strongest dragons and dragon slayers. Grandeeney was a Dragon Queen which means I inherit the title." - Wendy
"Oh I see. Do you know what titles Natsu and Gajeel inherited?"- Erza
"Yeah. Daddy is also a Dragon King. Uncle Gajeel is a Dragon Emperor." - Wendy
"So when your older and have trained enough you will be stronger than Gajeel?" - Erza
"In terms of magic yes. My magic container could possibly become twice as large as his. But as he's told daddy and I he's actually a Metal Dragon slayer, and not just and Iron Dragon slayer. That means his skin is not only as strong as dragon scales, but as hard as whatever metal he chooses to use at that time… Well once he learns to use the other types of metal. Plus he has more mass which means even if I have the same amount of muscle he'd be physically stronger because his muscles will be stronger." - Wendy
"Huh… you learn something new everyday. Well now that you've gotten a bit of rest do you feel better?" - Erza
"Yeah! I wanna go see grandpa!" - Wendy
I couldn't help but smile at her cheery attitude. After a few seconds I chuckled. Why? I realized that Natsu also calls him that, though with a lest respectful version of the word.
"Alright then sweetie, let's go find him." I said grabbing her hand as we left the hotel room. While walking I decided that at least until we got back to the guild and things had settled down again that at least one of us (between Natsu and I) would be with her all the time. Honestly we should have set that rule when we decided to bring her with us for this event, but she's so well behaved we didn't even think anything could happen.
THE NEXT DAY
We were all sitting in the stands. Fortunately we were just a small group in the stands, as just like Natsu and I predicted the others were extremely worried about Wendy and were smothering her in attention. Thankfully Natsu and I have brought her out of the shell she was in when we first met her. Otherwise she'd be hiding behind us because of how shy she was. I had already talked it over with Natsu on my decision that one of us would be with her at all times until things had calmed down again, and he whole heart-idly agreed. I was about to see if anyone wanted anything from the stands before the games began for the day but as I opened my mouth I had my attention drawn to the announcers booth as they called for the beginning of the day.
S.R: So... I know it's been a while since this was last updated. But I'm not apologizing. I've had other things get posted since then, and have worked to try and improve things. It's been a while since I've actually cared about getting reviews (meaning I don't want to force them, but I am glad for the ones I get) but I want to ask for them this time. I want your opinions. Is it more presentable and easier to read this way? Does it help that I label who says what? If so should the character whose POV it is have their name for the label or should it be the word "me"? Should the labels be regular print or bolded? Stuff like that. I'll be copy and pasting these questions onto the next, uh let's say 3 chapters to give you all a decent amount of time to review with your opinions on that stuff. Any who till the next update. Peace out!