The next day, the other dragon slayers and the Exceeds arrived at the dragon's camp. They came in two groups: Sting, Rogue, Lector and Frosch in one and then Laxus, Wendy, Gajeel, Carla, Panther Lily and Happy in another.
Everyone was curious to meet the Queen. If things went well, they would finally learn why the dragon's had mysteriously disappeared so many years ago.
Igneel gathered everyone together and brought them to the bottom of the waterfall. Now that they were closer, Lucy could see that there was a cave directly behind the falling water.
They stood on the embankment for several minutes. Igneel kept looking up along the cliffs. He was probably waiting for Zeref—Lucy hadn't seen him all morning but he had said the Queen wanted to meet with him also.
Around the river's bend, five dragons suddenly took flight. Other dragons turned to see what the commotion was. They began growling and backing away when they saw who was approaching.
Of course, it was Zeref.
The Black Mage walked towards them with a blank expression on his face.
Laxus was the first to speak. "Shit, this guy? Is he looking for a fight?"
"No, it's okay," said Igneel. "He won't cause a problem and I asked him to come here."
All eyes were on Zeref as he came and stood next to Lucy. "Sorry I'm late," he said to Igneel.
"It's not a problem. I was actually expecting one more. Ah—there he is now."
Lucy looked in the direction of Igneel's gaze and grimaced. Cobra, the poison dragon slayer was approaching. He had once been a member of a dark guild and should have been in prison for it, but it seemed that he had somehow escaped.
One Cobra joined them the group waded through the river and passed under the waterfall's curtain. They all filed into the narrow cave and tried their best to dry themselves. Natsu took the lead and used his fire magic to light the way. Unfortunately, Lucy was too far back to make use of the light and kept tripping. Zeref came up behind her. "Would you like me to carry you on my back?" he offered after her second stumble.
"No, that's okay," she said quickly. She would rather skin her knees to the bone than give Natsu another reason to be mad at her.
Zeref sighed and held out his palm. A ball of fire appeared added to the dim light of the cave.
"You can do fire magic also?" she asked.
"Of course, I am the son of Igneel." He smiled a little sheepishly. "I would have preferred the back ride but I can't have you hurting yourself again. You seem to be accident prone."
Cobra was watching the exchange between her and Zeref with great interest. He leaned over to whisper to her. "Your thoughts are noisy today. Had a little fight with Natsu, hmmm?"
"A mind reader eh?" interrupted Zeref.
Cobra looked at him. "Not exactly—I hear thoughts." His eyes narrowed. "But I'm not hearing any of yours."
Zeref smiled and showed his fangs. "Can you hear them now?"
Cobra's eyes widened and he paled. "Zeref," he whispered.
"I see my reputation precedes me."
Cobra stopped walking and Lucy glanced back at him. He was staring at Zeref with a mixture of hatred and fear. Perhaps the two men had some sort of bad blood between them?
They finally arrived at the end of the path and reached a small room—the Queen's den.
Lucy looked up with a sense of awe. Queen Natasha was was completely white with red eyes. As they approached, she sat up.
"Hurry up," came a gruff voice that sounded like it had experienced many things. "My patience is thin."
They hustled into the room and formed a semi-circle around the Queen. She looked around the group, studying each member.
She sniffed Happy. "What are you?"
"I'm Happy," he said cheerfully.
The Queen huffed and a trail of smoke escaped her nostrils. She continued looking at the group. Next she paused at Lucy. "You're not a dragon slayer," she said slowly.
"She came here with me." Natsu walked over and stood by her.
Lucy relaxed a little. It was good to know Natsu still had her back when it counted.
The Queen regarded him for a moment and then turned back to the group.
"Thank you all for coming. I will tell you all why I have summoned you're here but first, I know many of you would like to know why you lost your parents so many years ago."
She looked around the group and then continued. "You see, for the last 400 years, the remaining dragons have been surviving in secret. Acnologia went on a killing spree, and our entire species was nearly annihilated. We had no way to fight him, so we went into hiding. It was a pitiful existence but we had no choice."
"Many of my brethren have died trying to kill the Dragon King. We tried everything to no avail. We've even tried to kill him by using the link that binds him to his brother."
Lucy could see confusion on a few of her friends faces so she spoke up. "Zeref and Acnologia are brothers and their lives are linked through magic—but Zeref is immortal."
There were a few murmurs and Queen nodded before continuing. "Yes, Igneel was quite furious when we tried to kill his sons. But we acted with Zeref's blessing."
"What happened?" asked Wendy. Her eyes were wide.
Zeref smiled and leaned down until he was at eye level with her. "I allowed myself to be tied up and then the dragons tried to rip my heart out. A black wave of death escaped my body, killing six dragons and every piece of vegetation and wildlife in a 2 mile radius."
Wendy's eyes widened even further. She was practically trembling.
The Queen cleared her throat. "Yes, to say it went poorly is an understatement. We needed another plan so I found a great Oracle. This Oracle had the ability to see a thousand different futures. If there was something that could be done to save our kind, the Oracle could find what it was."
"The Oracle told me that in order to defeat Ancologia, we would need to train another dragon slayer. So, we began a search for orphan children, took them in and trained them."
"We believed we were on the path to redemption, until one day, our flock came under attack from none other than the Dragon King himself. He found the location where most of the dragons were hiding and began killing us one after the other. He was about to kill myself when Diamente, the crystal dragon cast her most powerful spell—a transportation spell. The spell sent all of the dragons, except Acnologia, into another realm where we lived in a semi-suspended state for these last 17 years. When the First was summoned recently, it created a rift between the two worlds and all of the dragons were able to travel back to this world. Now that we are back, we must continue our plan to kill Acnologia."
The Queen finished talking and looked around the group.
There was a brief paused and then Zeref burst out laughing.
The Queen glared at him. "What's so funny Zeref Dragneel?"
He continued laughing. "You're crazy if you think one of these kids is going to be able to kill Acnologia. I don't even think they could give him a belly ache if they let him swallow them whole."
"Let me be the one to determine that. I would like to assess each of their skill-levels so I am declaring a dragon slayer tournament."