Please R&R and I shall see you at the bottom of the page
POV: Natsu
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or the idea of this story. I'm just the writer.
A story for a friend, by a friend
"Standby," I yell over my shoulder causing the blonde to race towards where I'm standing under the doorway between the dining room and the front corridor of the house.
We stand in silence for a few minutes before the tell-tale sign of a small tremor begins to shake the house. We watch the nearby picture frames hanging on the wall begin to slightly shake. The clatter of the house shaking fills out ears, but the tremors aren't strong enough to make us worry all that much.
The sound of a crash in the nearby parlor catches my attention and I internally groan wondering what broke this time. I don't think much of it as I hug Lucy closer to me while she continues to look around probably hoping that nothing too important broke. I just hope the instruments upstairs make it out of this in one piece.
Small earthquakes are very common around these parts of Fiore. For a few years now small tremors will ensue due to constant tectonic shifts below the earth's surface. Scientists say that it is because of all the pollution buildup that is slowly clearing on its own. On occasion these small earthquakes tend to cause a few volcanoes to erupt and there have even been cases where a volcano that has been dormant for years suddenly erupted without much warning. Thankfully we don't live anywhere near a volcano that can potentially erupt on us on any given day.
Soon enough the shaking begins to subside until calming down completely leaving only the sounds of a few barking dogs and one or two car alarms blaring out on the street. I keep us standing under the doorframe in case another tremor were to hit, but once I'm sure that everything is fine I release Lucy to let her assess the damage. She quickly heads towards the parlor where I hear an audible groan reach my ears as I make my way towards the kitchen to see if anything else broke in there.
"What was it this time," I ask as I pick up a broken cup that must have fallen over the edge of the table.
"An empty vase," Lucy yells back, "Along with a framed painting,"
I head on over towards where she is with the broom and dustpan and find her picking up the large shards of glass with her hands, "Here, don't cut yourself," I says as I pass her the dustpan so she can empty her shards of glass in it, "Which painting was it," I then ask searching the floor around her for the broken picture.
"The one with the erupting volcano," She mutters while dumping the shards of glass in the dustpan and taking the broom to sweep up the smaller pieces of glass.
I spot the black picture frame lying face down beside her. I lift up the picture and stare down at the painting that is covered in different shades of yellow, orange, red, and black. The vibrant colors and shading make the painting come somewhat alive and I have to suppress a shudder from the memories of the several close calls we've had because of these fiery giants. Not to mention all the other natural disasters we've also had to face along the way.
But volcanoes, with their fiery magma, suffocating smoke, and burning rock bombs will always and forever hold their place on the top of my list of natural disasters. It was, after all, a volcano that destroyed our first home all those centuries ago…
I shield my eyes from the sun with my hand as I look up at the sky searching its blue depths with a curious eye. The sky is completely clear from any bird or floating cloud allowing the sun to shine its brightest. Even the usual animals that roam around us on a daily basis seem to have disappeared as well and this sort of unnerves me.
"Natsu," I look down at Lucy who is currently weaving what she calls a basket out of very thin branches from leaves.
Her brown eyes look worried and her head is slightly tilted to the side showing her deep concern for my actions. I simply shake my head as I continue to help her weave the baskets that we use to keep out food in.
Lucy continues to look at me as I weave my basket but I keep my eyes on my work for fear that if I look at her she might see my silly concern. I mean, there had to be an explanation as to why the animals had disappeared right? They were probably just roaming around in another part of the forest while we remained here by the large body of water that we call a lake.
Sighing, I look up at Lucy to tell her that everything is alright, but I never get to say a single thing as I freeze and sit there frozen. Lucy is also frozen, with her eyes wide as she stares at the water of the lake behind me. I turn to see what she spotted but find nothing other than the water swishing at the shore in slow movements.
My ears perk at the sound of the nearby trees leaves rustling as if a gust of wind had blown through them, but the air seems to be still at the moment. Now that I think about it there hasn't been a breeze all day, just like there haven't been any birds or animals around since this morning.
A strange feeling below my chest leaves me feeling unsettled and a bit on edge. It's almost the same feeling I get whenever I see Lucy smile or hear her laugh, only this time it doesn't bring any comfort like it usually does. No, it feels wrong and it somehow tells me that something really bad is about to happen, but what?
Below us, the ground begins to slightly shake while a loud rumbling noise fills the air almost sounding like the noise my lower chest makes whenever I need to eat. It sounds like that noise, only this noise is louder and fills the air with a fearsome roar.
Our baskets and tools shake on the ground scattering across the grass seeming as if they are trying to run away from the fearsome noise. Somehow this scattering makes me think of the missing animals and how if I had noticed sooner we could have followed them to wherever they were hiding from the monster that sounded hungry. Maybe if we leave now we can find somewhere to hide before the new strange beast found us.
I try to stand up but the shaking of the ground causes me to fall back and land hard on my behind. I cringe at the slight pain I feel from the fall as I rub the spot where I had hit myself when I fell.
"Natsu!" Lucy yells at me, but I can barely hear her over the sound of the loud rumbling that cause my ears to ring with a strange unknown noise.
The world around me also looks distorted and for a moment I feel like I'm looking at three Lucy's at a time as she tries to crawl towards me with little success. Every time she tries to make her way towards me the violent shaking causes her to fall. She doesn't give up as she continues to try to get to me until she finally reaches where I'm sitting and launches herself into my arms and burying her face into my chest.
She clings onto me as I try searching for whatever is causing all of this to happen. My eyes then land on the large land that towers over us far away from the side of the lake we've never been on. As I watch the land the shaking around us begins to subside until finally the land is calm and the air is quiet again. Even so, that odd feeling inside of me tells me that this isn't over yet.
"Lucy, we must go," I says while trying to push the shaking girl away from me, "Lucy," I groan as I continue to pull at her as she clings onto me unwilling to let go of me, "Get up," I cry as I finally force her to let go of me.
Her eyes stare back at me with an expression I have never seen on her usually smiling face. It's an expression that leaves a bad taste in my mouth and it's an expression I cannot call other than fear. Yes, the fear in her eyes is enough to have me pulling her back towards me and whispering soothing things so that that ugly expression will go away.
"We need to go," I say and her head nods as I slowly help her stand up.
I then look around the large expanse of grass and water thinking of where to go next. Sure, I know I said that we needed to leave, but the thought of going anywhere else other than staying on this land we knew had never crossed my mind. I mean, who knew what awaited us over the hill of land we have never dared to cross.
Taking that chance now, I take Lucy's hand and lead her towards the hill and away from the large mountain that had at once seemed like the protector of this land, but now it seemed more like something dangerous. If my instinct was right than maybe leaving this land for now would be the best thing we could do.
"Natsu, look," I look back over my shoulder to see dark clouds billowing out of the top of the mountain, "What is that," Lucy then asks as she continues to point towards the sky that is quickly filling up with the gray clouds.
"Danger," I simply say before pulling her arm and walking faster away from the dark clouds that seems to chase us.
Soon enough I'm running as fast as I can without letting go of Lucy's hand as she tries to keep up with my speed. For once she doesn't ask any questions as she clings onto me while running as fast as she can with that same expression of fear filling her eyes like the dark clouds are filling the sky. I ignore her expression for now as my chest pounds with that familiar throbbing that leaves me breathless and uneasy. It's almost like it's telling me to run faster, and that's just what I do.
We soon reach the bottom of the hill, but I don't stop there. Instead I race up the side feeling my legs ache from the amount of energy I have never used before. I'm probably sure that Lucy is getting tired also, especially since her breathing sounds as if it's getting heavier.
"Natsu, slow down," Lucy yells while tugging her arm so that I can let go of her.
Instead I tighten my hold on her and yell, "No," over my shoulder as I pull her along knowing that if we stop now we might not make it out of here, "Almost there," I then yell as the top of the hill comes into view, "Hurry!"
Just as we're about to reach the top a sudden explosion has us flying up in the air and landing hard on the ground. The ringing from earlier assaults my hearing and my vision is spinning causing everything around me to look distorted and strange. The sound of something putrid fills my nose and all the light that had been there earlier is gone with darkness taking over my vision.
I try to move but a pain runs up my arm making me groan as I lift my head to find Lucy unconscious just a few feet away from me.
"LUCY!" I cry as I push myself off of the ground while ignoring the pain that comes with the sudden movement, "Lucy," I call again as I scoop her into my arms and shake her to see if she'll wake up, but she doesn't seem to want to move, "Lucy, open your eyes," I urge while shaking her again, "Wake up," I call out once more while tapping her cheek repeatedly.
Another explosion has me covering Lucy with my body as the horrible smell intensifies and a warm sensation swirls in the air. When I look up again I am completely mesmerized by the sight that stands before me.
Darkness, unlike the night sky, surrounds the land and sky as dark swirling clouds hang above our heads. The mountain which had caused these large clouds to form is spitting out more black clouds and what looks like orange water. The water shoots up into the air and runs down the side of the mountain taking down trees and grass with it. A few of the trees it touches light up in dancing colors of orange and red making them look like tiny suns that quickly blacken the trees before they disappear into the orange water.
Black things fall from the sky and when I try to wipe them away from Lucy's face they leave a line of black when there had only been a spot there earlier. It's a beautiful sight that I could spend many suns watching from this distance, but deep down inside of me I know that we need to leave. The animals had left so it only made sense that this beautiful view was dangerous and that we could no longer stay here as well.
Lucy stirs in my arms and I unwillingly tear my eyes away from the orange light that continues to pour out of the mountain to look down at my confused partner. I help her stand as she holds her head where she probably hit it earlier when we both fell from the explosion.
She looks back at the sight I had been staring at and takes it all in as her eyes race across the destruction of our home. She covers her mouth with her hand as her eyes glisten under the orange glow of the bright liquid. What she doesn't see is the dark cloud that is racing on the ground right. Towards. US!
"Let's go," I say while taking her hand again and pulling her away towards the edge of the hill we had been racing towards.
What I don't expect is the hill to completely end and lead straight down towards water like the one we had at the lake, only this one seems darker and is hard to see the bottom. Either way it is now our only way out.
"Jump," I tell Lucy who looks at me as if I was crazy.
"WHAT?! NO!" She yells while pushing me away.
I grab her hand before she can get too far away from her as I notice that the dark cloud on the ground is getting closer, "We have to jump," I insist as she continues to shake her head and attempt to try and get away from me.
"No!" She yells again while looking down the side of the hill where the water awaits us.
"Lucy, we need to jump," I say as I take her face in both my hands so that she's forced to look me in the eye.
"Natsu, I'm scared," She whimpers and I feel my chest tighten at thought of what I'm about to do next.
"I know," I whisper to her as I pull her into a hug and throw us both over the side of the cliff sending us flying down towards the dark unknown water.
{And the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Great clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from above
But if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?}
- Pompeii - Bastille
So sorry I didn't update last week, Ihad a few issues with school and a lot of chores to do at home, but I am back and hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter. I was also having a little bit of writers block with this chapter but it's all better now.
Shout Outs
Great thanks to my Fantastic Favorites...
- Psycho GamerOtaku
- Dragneel1550
- advanceshipping4ever
To all of my Fabulous Folloers...
- ftx777x
- Psycho GamerOtaku
- Dragneel1550
- advanceshipping4ever
And to my Fantabulous Reviewers...
- Splendora Lopez = I know right, I cried my eyes out when she passed out after their kiss, and yes I have read Fairy Tail Zero and I loved it. The global warming has somewhat to do with it but not really. The 'Impending Doom' is actually quite greater than that, but you'll just have to wait and see. Other than that I wonder how your collaboration is going, and yes, in a sense Natsu and Lucy are Adam and Eve in this story.
- kiteo-kun = Sure, I'd be glad to add in any ideas you or anyone else would like to give me. I'm open to any and all suggestions and I'd be more than happy to add it into my story.
Well that's all the shout outs for today.
If you are enjoying my story please Follow, Favorite, and Review - remember, reviews are a writers candy - and if you have any questions or ideas you'd like to see put into the story you can also PM me and I'll gladly add it in.
Until next time my lovelies.