Act 2

27

King Solomon's Mines

"...for women bring trouble as surely as night follows day..."
― H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines

ATTENTION!

At Mslead's request I, Kytrin, will be addressing several questions we've seen repeatedly over the course of the story so far.

1. What is your update schedule? We update every 2 days following the format of post day, read day, read day, post day, etc. This is to give folks a chance to read and review. It is not negotiable unless we decide to be generous on our own.

2. How does aging work? As we have said before, magic causes the aging to slow down. This means Dragons, Demons, Wizards, and Exceed all have the same general lifespan! To be extra clear, in this story Natsu will not outlive Lucy, and Lucy will not outlive Natsu. Apply to all other pairings.

3. Why are some names spelled wrong? Because I watch the Funimation dub version of the anime (or their sub version that hasn't been translated yet), and Mslead likes their spellings of those names. We know they don't match the wiki, but those are the spellings we've chosen and we will be sticking with them.

This is the last time we will answer these questions. We love you guys to pieces, but please ask us new questions. We have over 30 more chapters plus an epilogue left, so I'm certain you'll have plenty before the end! Thanks!

Wendy giggled happily as she lifted an ancient bronze pot out of the dirt and brushed it off, "This is fun isn't it Carla?" She smiled happily at her kitten.

"You're getting all dirty." Carla huffed, but her expression immediately softened at Wendy's happy smile, "But I suppose it is a little fun yes."

The archaeologists had been surprised to discover more people than they'd expected arriving for the job, but Wendy and the Exceed had been welcomed with open arms even though they weren't official Fairy Tail members. It was a novel experience for her, and she was quickly deciding that her new nest was pretty awesome.

Gajeel and Natsu were great brothers, even if they bickered a lot, and Lucy and Levy made really nice queens despite not being dragons.

Best of all, there was none of the glares and hatred she'd experienced away from Grandina. It felt really good to be accepted.

"What did you find there?" Lucy asked with a smile as she came up to join them. Their job was to help deal with any magic that the Nirvits might've left, but that was slow going so they had plenty of time to relax or help out in other ways.

"I think it's a pot!" Wendy exclaimed, eagerly showing the blond who was becoming a kind of sister what she'd found.

"Oh, that's a nice one too!" Lucy grinned and crouched down to study it closely, "Looks like the Nirvits had a thing for dragons too." She pointed to where a dragon had been carved into the side, and frowned a little as she remembered the way Wendy, Natsu, and Gajeel had been treated by their own kind. It still bothered her.

"You know, it still really bothers me the way I've heard they treated you, Natsu, and Gajeel." She sighed and shook her head, "The dragons I mean. It's just not right. And I think if it were me I'd want to get back at them a little."

"How would you do that?" Wendy asked curiously, fascinated by the idea of someone not an adopted human dragon being upset about how her nest had treated her.

Lucy's lips twitched upwards, "Well..." She said after a moment, "I think I'd want to stick it to them in every way. Starting with my name." She grinned wickedly, "If they said I was unfit to be a dragon then I'd be something better than a dragon. Like a dragonslayer or something. And if they didn't want me in their nest I'd just go out and build the biggest, strongest, nest of other dragonslayers there was."

"Dragonslayers huh?" Gajeel stepped in behind Lucy, his lips. His eyes sharpened on her, dark humor coloring his voice. He dropped a hand onto her head, "That would a pretty ballsy name Blondie."

"So what?" Lucy huffed and whipped around to give Gajeel a glare, swatting at his hands, "It's common sense, if you want to stand out with a name on your own, you have to make it impressive!"

Natsu had keeled over laughing at the first, proud, declaration from Lucy, but stopped at her reasoning. A name that was bigger and badder than the others. A way to form a nest and hide what they were without having humans wary over dragons walking among them.

Dragonslayers.

Natsu gave her a crooked grin and he pulled the pot from Wendy's hands, spinning it recklessly on his finger. He caught it between his two palms, ignoring Levy's frantic cries for him to be careful!

"What d'you think Wendy?" He asked her. "You wanna change our name? Become dragonslayers and do our own thing?"

She looked a little unsure. They were dragons after all, but making a new nest and having a fresh start - a name like that was a good way to start it off.

"Dragonslayers!" She repeated excitedly, a fresh wave of hope rushing over her.

Natsu couldn't help but smile at her as he stood up, stomping a foot down on an old rock with paintings on it. He ignored the way his heel was tracking mud on it along with Levy's mournful wails.

"Alright!" He punched the air, securing a light hand on his stomach where his special exceed egg was residing, "Dragonslayers is what we'll call ourselves then!"

Wendy let out a happy little roar of excitement at that while Gajeel chuckled darkly, but the broadening grin on his face said he liked the name as well. He certainly wouldn't mind slaying a few dragons. Starting with that bitch Mother Glare.

He kept that to himself though while Lucy laughed at his nestmate's antics.

"I'm glad I could help!" She exclaimed even as she stood up and tugged Natsu off of the rock he was standing on before Levy tried to shoot lightning or something at him.

"Levy's going to fry you or something if you keep mucking up the site," She scolded, but couldn't entirely hide her amusement at how all three had adopted her idea so easily. At least Natsu wasn't being a brat about it and let her drag him off. This time.

"Yeah, yeah." Natsu huffed, but it was all for show. The more he chewed on it the more he liked the idea of being a dragonslayer. It was like biting into an unexpectedly tasty fire.

And the more he liked it the happier he got. Lucy really was pretty smart when she wanted to be.

He glanced at the other two, a warm feeling curling in his chest. Being a nest meant he had to share. At least with those two. Wendy more than likely didn't have a hoard comparable of size to his own, or even a hoard at all, but Gajeel would come close.

Still, Natsu found he didn't mind the thought so much anymore. Perhaps it was because he accepted them as his nest, or because of something else.

He didn't know, but he also didn't care. There was a part of himself that felt at peace for the first time in ages. Despite what lore said, dragons weren't meant to be solitary creatures. They needed a family.

And as frightening as the thought of him making a new nest was, courage steeled itself in his veins. He could try it again.

Just one more time he would do this. Dragonslayers, all of them pushed from their mother nest to make a new one of their own.

A soft voice murmured in the back of his head. It was filled with doubt and uncertainty, but Natsu smothered that evil little whisper.

He relaxed a little and dropped down to the ground while Levy poked around the ruins with the care of an archaeologist.

His hands found the egg he was caring full, thinking it wouldn't be long before it hatched. The warm, blue thing was smooth in his hands, almost fragile. Natsu grinned widely at the sight of it, far more interested in that then whatever Levy was doing.

"We're making good timing dragonslayers!" Her voice carried over, laughing on the wind, "But we're still going to be here for another day to finish translating the ruins on the south wall."

"Oh that's a bummer," Lucy sighed and came up behind Natsu, dropping her hands on his shoulders when she knelt behind him.

He felt a warm shiver run along his spine and curl in his stomach, making him feel content.

Natsu held obediently still as Lucy began to rifle through their bag, no doubt taking stock of their supplies. She let out a frustrated sigh, her fingers moving up on the straps around his arms to try and tug the pack off.

He bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from smirking at how she was struggling to try and pull it from his back, "Natsu you pig! You burned through all of our supplies!"

Making a big show of yawning, he shrugged lazily, "Big deal!" He grinned at her, "We can always just get more. Or Gajeel and I can find something fuzzy to eat."

Lucy and Levy looked positively horrified at the thought.

"Gihi!" Gajeel cackled, "Wouldn't be a problem!" He smirked wickedly at Levy, "All kinda good huntin' in this area."

"Not happening!" Levy huffed back, looking a little green, "You and I are going to head back to the village and pick up some more! The archaeologists don't have the means to cope with dragon appetites as well as paying us!"

"Ain't that more an argument for huntin'?"

"No it's not! I doubt the archaeologists want to see animal carcasses around their site!"

"The old farts ain't even here right now anyway!"

The old men had been required to head to a conference or something about their discoveries, and so weren't around to even need supplies.

They would've retreated to the village with the other diggers helping out except this section of wall had been magically encrypted. Or something. Gajeel was a little vague on how exactly word magic worked.

Regardless, Levy was needed to deal with it as part of her job. So they couldn't leave just yet.

At least it was the last bit before the season was over.

"Exactly!" Levy agreed and tugged on Gajeel, "That means they can afford to feed us right now! So come on! We'll take Wendy with us and get her a few things too!"

Gajeel grunted, muttering something under his breath over having to do all the work while Natsu got to sit around and play mother hen, but stomped off after Levy.

Wendy trailed after the older dragon, her arms still filled with her kitten.

Snorting at Gajeel having to go grocery shopping, Natsu stretched out and twisted his head towards Lucy, "You gotta admit, it would be easier if we could just go out and hun-"

"I'm not watching you slaughter Bambi's mother to satisfy your enormous appetite," Lucy replied haughtily, sticking her nose up in the air.

This earned her a deeply confused look from Natsu, who didn't understand the odd reference. And having no frame of reference, he shrugged.

"Who's Bambi?" He asked.

"A deer."

"And I killed a deer's mother?"

"Yes."

Natsu looked even more confused over this, "Well ya. I've done in tons of deers, probably a lot of them were does too! What's it matter?"

"It's the principle of the thing," Lucy argued

"What principle!" Natsu exploded hotly, "Food is food, and deers don't even come around this area you weirdo!"

"So now I'm weird?" She shot back at Natsu, who growled and hugged his egg closer to his chest.

"Yes" He huffed at her, edging closer to her for each word he spoke.

"You're making a big deal out of a deer!" Natsu grumbled at her, "Can't get much weirder than that."

"It's a figure of speech!" Lucy protested, pushing in closer to him, "I just don't want to see you kill something!"'

Natsu blinked at that, not actually having the words to dispute her words. He stared, his eyes locking onto hers, mouth parted and breathing slowing.

What an odd saying. And an even stranger way of getting her point across. Something in his gut twisted at the way she spoke about him. It made him feel a little warm and confused as he stared at her large, brown eyes.

Lucy's own breath hitched as she suddenly realized just how close she and Natsu had gotten while they were arguing. Not that they hadn't been close before, or even closer than this, but something about right this moment had her breath catching as something hot and eager knotted in her gut.

She stared up at him, not sure what to say as their pointless argument petered away into silence. They were just...there. She could feel his chest brushing against hers and hot tingles shivered pleasantly over her from the contact. It was electrifying, and suddenly she was acutely aware of everything about him. The way he smelled of fire and smoke. The way his warm breath felt against her. Even the way his eyes were darkening with confusion and something that had her wanting to melt against him.

He licked his lips, perhaps unconsciously, and her eyes automatically dropped to them. She'd never considered them before, but now she was seized by the sudden, wild, desire to press her lips against them and find out if they were as soft as they looked.

She tore her eyes away to look back into his and felt her breath catch again as something seemed to shift between them. There was a dark intensity and hunger in his eyes. She'd seen looks like that before, but never had it ignited a fire within her like she felt now.

It was wild and intoxicating and he seemed to feel it too as suddenly they were pressed together fully, though she wasn't sure who had moved to make that happen. She raised her hands and curled them gently around his shoulders.

She wanted this. Wanted to make her desire reality. How long had she wanted this? She didn't know, but Natsu offered no resistance as they leaned in, seemingly eager to meet her halfway.

It was clear Natsu wasn't thinking much about the why. But he was edging close enough for Lucy to almost feel him. Was he really going to-...?

His eyes snapped to the right at the last second, his body tense and focused. Suddenly he was no longer looking at Lucy with a darkening intensity, but somewhere in the distance.

Before she could open her mouth to question him, Natsu's arms locked around her and he was jumping backwards, the ground erupting in soft sand.

The sound was faint at first, so quiet it almost went unnoticed. But the scent was enough to tear Natsu's eyes upward and away from Lucy. Arms locking around her and moving on instinct alone, he was able to escape that first attack.

Cursing himself for taking so long to notice it, he skidded back and nearly tripped over the same rock he had been dancing over earlier. His egg was still tucked protectively by his side as he stumbled over the ruins. Lucy was locked against his other arm, a real, guttural growl erupting from somewhere low in his chest.

He didn't know how he missed the approach, of not one, or two, but three strangers, but they had clearly moved with such a subtle step it was easy to overlook them.

Especially when he had been in the most intense staring contest of his life. His heart raced in his ears, blood thumping with confusion.

What was that?

He didn't know.

Instead he directed his attention to what he could understand. And that was the three new interlopers.

Just three, but Natsu could feel an incredible amount of magical power emanating from them. A sort of pressure that left him growling. If he had the ability to transform, it would have been enough for him to shift and give all three of them a hard swing with his tail.

But as that wasn't an option, he slowly released his arm from Lucy.

They had some dangerous company.

Mslead here! I had Kytrin answer the questions in her very precise, practical way in the hopes of dispelling any further confusion. You can see her A/N up at the top! Please read it! Alright guys, short chapter, but we have fun on the way!

SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! - Raiza-chan - KaUiA (Oh I am so glad you enjoyed the last chapter! Lucy was born in our world, nothing too out of the ordinary there with Layla or anything! Sorry, cool theory though! You'll have to wait for your answers!) - silver light of dawn (Dragon family structure is pretty fun to think about. I love Paternal!Natsu) -OgaHilda - (You are surprisingly not the only person to call Natsu pregnant!) - Talesoftwofairies - MoOnyMoon (Nah the exceeds won't be able to change shape in this fic. And yes, this story will have lemons. Act 3) - bluebirdeyes (me too buddy, me too) - guest account (thanks a bunch! We had fun making it) - sagittarii (Natsu's scarf is a fun mood ring) - Guest (Oh I would agree. We read through the fic, but since there are two of us writing sometimes the perspective gets blurry.) - Become's one with the story - Angela-the-neko - Animallover (Natsu is definitely aware of Lucy. He has been for a whiiiiile. It's going to be a fun ride for the next couple of chapters, that's for sure. ) - .3 (Sorry you're confused, hopefully Kytrin was able to answer your questions up at the top!) - KittyCrow12 (Oh yeah, we had to lay the groundwork for them to appear!) -Snavej (*holds you tightly* do not cry! It is a happy day!) - Pixelbow ( SEE KYTRIN? PEOPLE THINK I'M HILARIOUS! I'm glad you like their little family) - Guest (omg yeah. Wendy makes her grand appearence! It's a fun day that's for sure. And Happy Halloween to you too!) - CrimsonLightKey (Natsu SHOULD be arrested for it. I agree. And the whip seems like it was everyone's favorite. I hope you had a safe Halloween too!) - CharonLumia - Chouxes (YES THAT IS ONE POSSIBILITY) - YuyuiHime - sarara1.8 (GOOD. Don't think I forgot about you) kirby42280 - Saracasim - Cora-DragonSoul (Thank you! Oh I'm sorry you thought it was awkward. Wendy has always been a little hard for me to write) panicatthediscofreek7 (ROGER THAT!) - Guest (Oh never apologize for pointing something out! We addressed it at the top of the chapter!) - Wonderwomanbatmanfan (Hahaha we almost got ya!) - Skylovesdragons - Intangibly Yours - Sara lovelymusic (You can count on that!) - Trollala.X (OH ATTRACTION EVVVVERYWHEREEEE. Natsu has always been soft. He's just a ball of goo and fluff. You're right on though, this story is a lot about Natsu's growth ) - FairyDemonDust - Musicality (Oh Kytrin and I talked about it a lot. In fact Snogfairy helped me bounce ideas off too! So you should thank her too!) - HammyJessa - Etrinity (I'm glad SOMEONe loves my humor. Fufufu.) - Dark-Angel-of-Wicked-Chaos17 - Guest - fanficlove2014 (I see you ensnared another into this fic. Good job. You have earned your stay! Natsu's brain can't quite catch up to the rest of him!) - animequeen100 (I'm glad you like it! Happy will make his appearence soon! Hahahaha don't worry. Patience. Paaaatience.) - Aurora (The gates are Lucy's primary attacks in this fic, however she will definitely get her chance to shine soon.) - SakuraPetal91 - Dragodden (ohohooho, wasn't it? Yeah I kind of find it interesting too!) - wishyouweremedontya (Yes, a dragon exceed for all! We've answered that question a couple of times already, but Kytrin answered it for you up above!) - ThatOneExoticPotato (OH! CRAP. I was supposed to update that on Halloween. SHSHFHAHEWOAAA! I'm glad you liked it!) - rrrrRANDOMmm - Fireshifter (absolutely! I hope this was fast enough for you!) - Little Red (HAHAHA. Maaaaybe.) - Twishadowhunter (Ohhh, you'll find out ;) patiennnnce.) - the-clumsy-one (OH YEAh. They can definitely see it for themselves now.) - thewritersheart (Everyone is SUPER PUMPED about Happy's Egg. I'm so glad everyone loves this little exceed so much~) - chelsannful - Amelia Loves Anime (Oh, maybeeee. The state of his scarf is in constant flux) - wonderlust714 (omg. NO DON't BINGE READ. This is a marathon not a sprint!) - Seriphia (Wendy is a healer, which is appropriate in forming the nest. Yes. Thank you. For the... ah, licks. Kytrin and I shall treasure them always. And yes. We totally know fanfiction2014!) - Avengerika (Oh no! I hope you're okay now! I hope this brought you a little bit of cathartic enjoyment! Feel better!)

SINCE WE GOT OVER 50 REVIEWS AGAIN, HERE IS A SNEAK PEAK TO THE NEXT CHAPTER AS A SPECIAL THANK YOU!

-::-

Lucy caught sight of him as they ran for one another, Natsu reaching a hand out for her, relief tearing through him at the sight that she was still okay. She was fine. Leo was wrong-

But her face went pale and the sun suddenly went dark as something large and towering rose up behind him.

"Natsu watch out!" Lucy screamed, and he turned, lifting his arms just in time for a massive purple claw to bare down on him, slamming Natsu into the ground.