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 am only the writer.
A story for a friend, by a friend
My silver wristband vibrates as I place the manila folder with its many pictures on a nearby shelf. I look down reading a familiar name that shines with a white light that makes excitement and fear run down my spine in shivering waves.
Sitting down on my office chair I slip on an earpiece before pressing the green button that flashes under the terrifying name, "Hello," I say to no one in particular waiting for the person on the other end to answer. I cringe at the silence as I'm tempted to rip out the earpiece in case the person on the other side decides to blow out my eardrum like countless times before.
"So how is Lucy doing?" A stern yet cheerful voice asks from the communicator attached to my ear making my spine crawl with old and somewhat unpleasant memories.
I sigh heavily, a small pained smile playing on my tired face as I spin in my chair, "She's fine," I say while not at all surprised that that would be the first question she would ask upon me answering the call, "And hello to you too," I mutter thanking the heavens that this she/devil is nowhere near me lest she pop out and kick me to the ground with her amazing strength.
The woman on the other end chuckles, amusement coloring her voice, sounding as if I've just said a joke, "Hello Natsu, how have you been," she asks sounding sarcastic.
"Just peachy," I mutter as I continue to spin myself in my chair not caring that I get dizzy enough to pass out, "And you?"
Silence meets me for a few long seconds before she asks, "What happened this time?"
Pausing my spinning, my eyes land on the small map hanging on a nearby wall with the top half ripped off making the missing land unknown. I remember what I did when I received the map as a gift and the anger in Lucy's eyes when I ripped the top half into shreds. Even so the shadow of that missing piece glares down at me with a vengeful memory that will probably never leave my mind.
"Lucy wants to move to Pergrande Kingdom to be near Levy," I mutter while glaring back at the empty part of the wall.
"Uh-oh," she says while sounding a bit worried knowing full well how that topic tends to get me riled up, "How did you take the news?"
"Not well," I say after blowing all the air out of my lungs, the memory of my guilt from last night seeping into every pore of my body, "She brought the topic up and I just snapped."
"Natsu…"
"I know, I know," I sigh heavily while bending forward and running a hand down my face, "I shouldn't have snapped the way I did, but just the name of that place boils my blood. I really wish she'd choose somewhere else to go than that place," I grumble making the woman sigh deeply. I'm more than thankful that she isn't screaming profanities and threats at me like she usually does.
"I can understand what you're coming from, I really do, but don't you think it's about time that you let that hatred go? It's been more than millennia since that incident and even Lucy has learned to put that memory behind her. Don't you think you should do the same?" she asks in a soothing tone, but her words do little to calm me, "Natsu, those people are gone. The Earth claimed them all long ago."
The sincerity in her voice makes me feel even worse. She has a point, as does everyone else, but even then I can never forget or let go of that past. What had happened that day had been enough to change me forever and caused me to look at the world with different eyes.
"Just try not to think too much about it," Erza says seeming to want to change the topic and I can completely understand the feeling. I welcome the change as I settle back in my seat, my temples lightly throbbing.
"So how are things where you're at?" I ask completely curious as to where my favorite explorer is at now. The thought of both Erza and Jellal going off to space to discover new places leaves my heart aching for the memory of an adventure, "Where exactly are you two now?"
"A few stars away from Jupiter," Erza says with a dreamy sighs escaping her lungs, "It's absolutely beautiful here. Oh Natsu, how I wish you were all here to see it."
The familiar ache runs through me like a lightning bolt, "Is it as beautiful as Earth," I can't help but ask knowing that Earth's gray-blue sky is the only sky I've ever been under.
Erza pauses, seeming to pick her words, as she sighs again in wonder, "It's as beautiful as the Earth when I first woke up to its wondrous sky. The air is even cleaner than the air that surrounds the mountains back home." An image pops in my head and I so wish I could see it with my own eyes. Perhaps I could someday convince Lucy to take a trip and join the Fernandez couple on their journeys.
The ring of the front door's bell rings through the silent air signaling the end of my short conversation with one of my best friends. I'm unwilling to hang up not knowing when will be the next time that I get to talk with my wise hard headed friend, but I live a life with a schedule I must keep while she can roam free to her hearts content, "Well I have to go," I murmur with a dejected sigh, "I'll talk to you soon."
"Alright," Erza sighs understanding that I need to go even when there is still much we need to talk about, "Take care, both of you, and if anything happens you can always call me." And with click of a button Erza Fernandez is gone and my unexciting routine of a life greets me just beyond my closed door.
Dark clouds cover the familiar blue sky. If I didn't know any better I'd think that another mountain exploded making the clouds so dark, but I am now familiar with the sight of a storm and the feel of cold rain running down my back.
The dripping sounds of water deep inside the cave are almost drowned out with the sound of the actual rain just outside the opening of the cave. Cool air swirls around me, but the warmth of the nearby fire I built keeps me from shivering too much. I watch the rain make ripples in the nearby lake that stands only feet away from the cave and feel a small drop of water hit my nose before running down my face and falling onto my hands.
Many days and nights have passed since Happy's death. Upon following Lucy's orders and what we thought was right, we built a bed of wood with Happy lying on it before setting the wood into flames. The fire raged on until there was nothing but dark grey dust where Happy's body used to be. Almost like the fire that flickers next to me.
After a long time the women back home all stopped crying so much, but even then their smiles and bright laughter will not return so easily. The only time I'd catch Lucy with a sincere smile would be when she would find things that remind her of Happy before tears would consume her once again. I can understand her pain only to a certain point because even though Happy was my son as well I never had the chance to hold him within me like Lucy had. Lucy's pain would always be greater than my own.
Running my hand down the rough rock under me, I hold the urge to look behind me because the cave is one we lived in once. It's the very cave that Happy grew up in before we learned to make warm homes out of branches and large leaves. Even some homes made out of the animal's fur that we hunted. It's the home where we taught him to grow into a man and the only place I can escape to.
It hurts to see everyone back home so sad and hard to see the young children grow up without their father. Many times they asked where their father went, but after silence answered their pleading questions they learned never to ask again. They missed their father but could never understand why he would not return to play with them.
How do you explain death to a child when you don't understand it yourself?
The answer eventually came to us with two new couples and the sweeping fiery color of red with a destructive force no one could ever understand. The woman whose strong eyes could set fear into whomever she looked at along with a fierce tongue that can silence even Snow. Erza is the name of the woman who with strong kind words that explained a concept we did not understand. She had an air about her that loomed higher than a mountain and like a mountain she could explode with a rage that was simply unimaginable, a rage that matched her fiery red hair.
She told us about the two children she had had and lost to wolves they were hunting and to the very water that kept us alive. She explained to Lucy how hard it had been and how with time the pain would ease but never disappear. Life, as she had learned, was too short to dwell on something that could not escape our grasp and that one day perhaps we would join our children in a new world.
Erza was not alone with her own partner accompanying her along with another couple. While Erza was headstrong, loud, and demanding, Jellal was completely the opposite of that. While her hair was a fiery storm of a red his was a soft calming blue like Happy's had been and like Juvia's is. Erza's eyes burned fires while Jellal's soothed like a calming stream. In fact, Jellal would be the only one who could calm Erza's terrifying storms with soft words and equally strong arms.
The other couple that accompanied them were equally oddly combined with the male being so much taller than Gray and me both while his companion was a female much shorter than the others. Levy is the name of the small female with large brown eyes and short blue hair while her partner, Gajeel, is tall with dark black hair and piercing red eyes, almost as red as Erza's hair. Gajeel had temper on him that could bring Gray and me to challenge him while Levy was as nice as Juvia and Lucy on their good days.
Both couples were a miracle when they showed up out of the grand blue of the world and it did not take long for them to join us completely. Upon living together we learned from each other new things that we had not known or thought about along with them learning from us as well. We did not know that following the animals as they move around the large land could keep us from going so far to hunt and they learned that you can plant food on the ground making the migration with the animals unnecessary.
Sighing, I notice that the rain is starting to let up which means that I should be heading back before Lucy starts to worry. She doesn't like it when I get home after the sun is gone. She thinks that something might happen to me like what happened to Happy and has almost prevented me from being alone all the time. Thankfully that since some time ago her hands have been full keeping her attention away from me long enough for me to escape here and have some time to myself.
After Happy's death things were hard living in camp but like I said, after some time ago a small piece of light emerged into our lives. Lucy and I had another baby, a girl this time with golden hair, brown eyes, and light skin like her mother's. Sol is the name Lucy gave the baby because she is a glowing light in the darkness of a world we have still yet to understand. Because of Sol Lucy started smiling again with the radiance I had gone to miss. A radiance I had thought she had lost after Happy was gone.
"Natsu!" My ears perk up at the sound of Erza's voice calling out from somewhere at the edge of the forest. My back crawls with fear as I extinguish the fire with some wet dirt before running out of the cave towards the loud authoritative voice that demands for me to return home.
Climbing up a small hill I spot Erza and Gajeel waiting with their arms crossed a few feet away seeming to be waiting for me. Before I walk towards them I glance back at the cave one last time feeling my chest hurt before I make my way towards my companions and home.
{You will rest your head
Your strength once saving
And when you wake you will fly away
Holding tight to the legs of your angels
Goodbye my love
Into your blue, blue eyes
In your blue, blue world
You're my baby blue.}
- Baby Blue – Dave Mathews Band
I'd like to take this moment to have a small moment to say that my heart is heavy with the death of one of my favorite actors. Alan Rickman was an inspiration who came out in a lot of movies I watched growing up along with Harry Potter as my favorite Professor Severus Snape. People thought I was crazy for liking him (P.S. I've only read the first and last the Harry Potter Books) but he was my favorite character nonetheless. I know this is not FT related but I just had to put it out there because this man was a genius.
Nothing much more to say other than that this chapter took me a while to write and that the final 'immortals' have finally appeared. More on them on the upcoming chapters.
Shout Outs
Great amazing thanks to my Fantastic Favorites...
- dragonxqueen
- Natsu FireDragon Dragneel
To my Fabulous Followers...
- dragonxqueen
- powerade101
- Stellar-Water-Mage
And to my Fantabulous Reviewers...
- Risa98 = Yes the flashback will continue throughout the entire story with a few chapters in between as exceptions. For now the flashbacks will continue in chronological order until around the middle and the end of the story they will get a bit scrambled. They most probably won't catch up to the future but will give you insight on how they lived and why they do what they do with some things. Also I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
- Splendora Faye = I give my sincerest apologies but more heartbreak is on the way, you have been warned. Also the others will now start coming out in the upcoming chapters and although most of them did not have much show time they will be incorporated more in the chapters to come.
Well that's all the shout outs for today.
If you are enjoying my story so far 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 this story you can also PM me and I'll gladly add it in.
Until next time my lovelies.