Chapter 2: Family?

During the early hours of the next morning, I woke up being shaken by Fro. I groaned,

"Nrgh… So sleepy. W-wait…" I trailed off, looking down, my eyes examining the area.

"Don't worry, they went to look elsewhere and I haven't seen them since. We should probably get going though, b-before they get back," Frosch smiled reassuringly. We continued our journey, having no specific destination we simply walked as far away from the tower as possible. We flew most of the way, only walking when our magic was down only stopping to rest or eat every so often. Our meals weren't anything extraordinary, we just eat whatever we could find. Unfortunately, my rucksack was taken while I was unconscious so I didn't have my secret reserve of fish. They only left me with a jacket and trousers, but I gave the former to Frosch to conceal her small body. Over the years, as she grew and matured, her pink onesie was exchanged for a pink frog dress with a small pink water lily hairclip (or rather ear clip). I guess I've matured as well; then instead of going around naked, I wore black trousers and a jacket. Just like Carla, I also had a human form, I was nearly as tall as Natsu and it kind of pissed him off. Of course, he hadn't changed; he was still as immature as ever. Fro and the other exceeds had human forms too, but we mainly used them in combat. I loved her human form; she was prettier than any girl I'd ever seen. I had never even had an interest in human girls before, but somehow she just looked so perfect like that.

It had been several days and I wasn't sure if we were ever going to get out of this stupid forest. We had flown high enough to find a village or any sign of civilisation, but nothing. We couldn't see the tower anymore, which was pretty relieving. We hadn't been up in a while, but it was kind of tiring to do anything on a diet of berries and leaves. Fro had fallen asleep so I was carrying her on my back, so the conversation wasn't exactly stimulating.

"Hey Happy, is it normal that there's a clearing over there?" asked Frosch with a sleepy voice.

"I don't think so… Oh my god, I-I think it's a village!" I exclaimed and we rushed over to it. There was a meadow with flowers and a field of crops, some sort of farm I thought. I walked to the village, as I looked around, I was very confused by what I saw: Exceeds? I saw Exceeds! We had found their village! The first thought that came through my mind was about Marl and Lucky, I'd realised that our similarities may have meant more than I thought. I wanted to find them. I ran and ran as fast as I could until I reached the edge of it. After walking around a bit, we passed a school and I saw a bunch of teenage girls, giggling and bowing, but one of them didn't seem bothered by any of it. She had white fur and for some reason, I felt as if I knew her, but I wasn't sure how or why. I smiled and then I saw the expressions on their faces started to blush. However the girl still seemed emotionless. I saw her talking with the other girls; she just shrugged and comes up to me.

"Hey so my friends find you attractive, but I don't and anyway we've never seen you here and we were all curious. So, where you from? And why aren't you wearing a shirt it's like spring, it's not that warm."

"I'm looking for Marl and Lucky," I responded, but the girl didn't say anything , she just stared at me in shock.

"He, aren't those your parent's names?" one of her friends asked her in a hushed tone. She simply noded slowly.

"G-guys go on without me, I'm going home," she told her friends before turning back to me, "Follow me."

Finally after walking a while through the village in awkward silence, the girl stopped abruptly in front of a big white house and turned to look at me.

"Your name is Happy isn't it?"

"Y-yes Happy Dragneel, I'm seventeen. This is my friend Frosch Cheney, she's sixteen,"

"Dragneel huh?" she seemed slightly confused, "Anyway we're here," she unlocked the door and shouted: "I'm home!"

"Oh hey hon-," Marl starts, but was so shocked and overwhelmed to continue. She embraced me and as her arms wrapped themselves around her son, she realised I was carrying someone.

"Oh, there's a spare room on upstairs on the left, I'll bring you some clothes for you to change into. You can wash up before dinner; it'll be ready soon. I'm sure we can catch up later," she told me softly.

"Thanks," I replied. After a quick warm reunion of hugs with my parents, I brought Fro upstairs to the spare room. After laying her down on the bed, I went back down to ask my parents where I could find some spare clothes for us. After a quick wash, we changed into different clean clothes. We then went downstairs and explained everything to my parents, we told them everything from the beginning, Fro wanting to find her family and the battle. Of course we didn't share the intimate details, because those were only for us to know. My mother looked at Fro and then started crying as if she recognised her, "Cho won't ever believe this you know" she said. She suddenly grabbed our hands and rushed us out of the house to the neighbour's one. She knocked on the door and it jerked open, there in front of us was an exceed who looked like an older version of Fro.