eventually natsu reaches the entrance to the forest. several trees surround the area fairly widespread from each other and a path stretches into the forest. natsu walks along the path into the forest for about a half mile until he sees wendy, standing in the middle of the path waving with a picnic basket in one hand.
"heeey, natsu" she says happily
natsu smiles waving back and walks over to her. then the two walk down the path together till they reach a wide open space with no trees or bushes nearby. after pulling out a sheet and laying it out on the grass natsu and wendy sit on top of it. wendy starts to pull sandwiches wrapped in plastic out of the picnic basket and hands a few to natsu. for the next few minutes they eat and talk, enjoying spending time with each other alone. after they finish eating they look around enjoying the scenery. wendy smiles and stretches sitting down.
"ahh such a beautiful day, and a perfect one to go on a quiet picnic like this with just us" says wendy
she then lays down on her back looking up.
"yeah it is. magnolia's weather is great almost all year round, that's why I love it" says natsu
he also lays down on his back closeby to wendy.
"I wish it would stay like this forever, then you and me can go out anytime" says wendy
"yeah me too... I promise.. someday I'll crush all the dark guilds and bring eternal peace to the land, so you and I and fairy tail and everyone else can live happy" says natsu
"ah that would be great natsu, and you know what, I'll help you with that too" she says
"ah heh thanks wendy. oh also I wanna find out what happened with igneel, the dragon who raised me..." he says
"yeah.. I wanna find my dragon too... natsu... will we ever see them again?..." she says looking at him
"I'm sure we will, no doubt about it" he says clenching his fist looking back at wendy
"great. natsu... lets find our dragons... together.." she says holding out her hand
"yeah, together.." he says nodding
he takes her hand and the two hold hands while laying down looking up at the clear blue sky. unaware to them someone had followed and was watching them from a distance. this individual, revealed to be lissana, hides behind a tree and observes the two from a safe distance. she is clearly somewhat distraught by the view of them.
"waaaa... natsu... why wendy?..." says lissana to herself tearing up a bit
elsewhere, walking through magnolia in a group is lucy, gray, erza, happy, and carla. the group is walking while discussing something.
"so happy and carla, you two were with natsu and wendy when they went on this job the other day right?" says lucy
"yes of course. apparently natsu took a job but none of you were available at the time so he asked wendy to join him" says carla
"yeah, cause they were slacking off heehee" says happy
"I'm gonna pummel you, keep talking cat!" says lucy
"naturally the blue cat came with natsu and since wendy was going I decided to accompany them" says carla
"so then you must know what happened between the two and why they're so close, so spill it" says gray
"I must admit I'm curious as to what happened as well" says erza
"well, what happened?" says lucy
"hmmm.. well to be honest we don't really know ourselves" says carla
"huh?" says lucy
"she's right, we weren't together with them the whole time. during the job for a while we got separated" says happy
"huh? separated?" says gray
"yeah, it kinda sucked" says happy
"so then something must've happened between the two when they were by themselves" says erza
"hm apparently so" says carla
"that has to be it, cause the whole time since we came back from that job those two have been stuck together like glue, all lovey-dovey. like me and carla" says happy
"we are not like that!" says carla
"hmm so what job was this?" says lucy
"well we were asked to come to an excavation site and assist the miners with the digging since they were short staffed. natsu did most of the heavy lifting and breaking stuff and wendy was backup with her wind magic" says carla
"hmm I see. did anything happen there to get you separated from them?" says gray
"yeah, we were attacked" says happy
"attacked?" says lucy
"yes, as we helped the miners we were suddenly attacked by a group of rogue dark wizards. I do believe they were after the valuable gems and lacrima the people at the site were digging up, so we fought them off. natsu dispatched a bunch of them in no time and wendy beat quite a few of them as well. the battle coordination between the two of them was rather astonishing. anyway the fight lead us into one of the mine shafts where they fought off the remaining attackers. however, manuvering through the many mine tunnels me and happy got separated from natsu and wendy. then to make matters worse some of the tunnels started to collapse. me, happy and most of the miners made it out ok but I believe wendy and natsu got trapped in one of the tunnels" says carla