Erza launched herself into the air, ignoring the rain pouring down and stinging her scales.
She had to become stronger. Faster. Better. And the only way to do that was to work hard and power through. No matter how much her muscles ached. No matter how much her lungs burned. No matter how much her heart pounded. She would only stop until she could physically no longer keep moving.
Or when a pair of jaws latch onto her tail.
Erza craned her neck around, looking at Wendy, who was trying to pull her back to the ground.
"Wendy! What are you doing?" she hissed. She decided to cooperate, if only to get an answer out of the young Sky, seeing as she was unable to answer through a mouthful of scales and fur.
Once they were on the ground, Wendy used her magic to calm the storm around them, redirecting it. "Irene asked me to keep an eye on you, because she's worried about you!" she exclaimed, before shaking water off of herself. "Don't you think you're pushing yourself just a bit too hard?"
"We're Dragons, Wendy," Erza took this moment to shake herself dry as well, "We can handle being pushed to our limits."
"Even when another Dragon, who has been a Dragon longer than we have, tells you otherwise?" Wendy raised an eyeridge, "Erza, Irene is worried. I'm worried, and the others are too! And I'm a healer, so when I start to worry, it's bad!"
"You are a healer in training," Erza corrected. "And you tend to exaggerate," she booped Wendy's nose with a claw. Wendy shook her head as her feathers ruffled, "Well, Irene doesn't!" she snorted, "I'm serious, Erza. Please take it easy?"
"Alright.. I'll start easing up on the training," Erza assured. Wendy tilted her head, "Promise?"
"I promise."
xXxOxXx
Erza was startled awake, jolted from her slumber when her mother violently flinched. Groggy, she sat up and looked up at Irene. "Mom..? What's wrong..?"
Irene glanced down at Erza, startled. "Oh.. I'm sorry, Erza.. I didn't mean to wake you.."
"What happened?"
"Just a nightmare, dear.." Irene assured her, nuzzling the top of her daughter's head with her snout. "Go back to sleep.."
"What was the nightmare about?" Erza asked. Whenever she had a nightmare, the two of them would talk about it. It helped her, so she was hoping it would help Irene too. Irene merely shook her head, "Don't worry about it, dear.."
"You don't want to talk about it..?"
"No.. This is a nightmare that has haunted me for a while.. But don't worry. Knowing you're here, knowing you're safe.. is enough to help me.."
Erza tilted her head, so Irene's recurring nightmare was about Erza? She supposed it made sense. Irene was a mother, so it was obvious that one of her fears would be harm coming to her child. Her only child, no less.
However, that didn't stop her from being unnerved by whatever it was Irene was afraid of. She was one of the strongest Dragons Erza knew, so she didn't particularly want to meet whatever it was that had Irene so afraid. Sure, Erza may not be the strongest Dragon, so if anything stronger came by, it could potentially be her end, but neither Irene nor Belserion would let any harm fall upon her, so it really shouldn't have been a concern.
So the fact that it was had Erza too unnerved to try and fall back asleep.
xXxOxXx
Erza laid on her stomach, basking in the sunlight. It was peaceful and quiet aside from the usual hustle and bustle of people living their lives in Magnolia, but that's all but become white noise for her.
The sound of a twig snapping behind her stirred her from her lazy stupor. Erza exhaled heavily through her nose as she mentally counted down from ten and pushed herself up. By the time she reached one, she leapt out of the way, right as a flaming ball landed on the spot she was resting in.
"Natsu.." she rumbled quietly, irate that he disturbed her rest, "Don't you think about anything but fighting?"
The Fire growled and reared, flapping his wings, "Not until I beat you, Erza! I will become stronger than you!"
Erza rolled her eyes with an affectionate chuckle. Natsu was always so determined, something she could respect the Fire for. She could see the raw determination that blazed within his midnight forest-green eyes, and realized he wasn't going to let this go easily, so she decided to humor him. "Alright, I'll spar with you, but don't think I'll go easy on you."
"I wouldn't want anything less!" Natsu lunged at her. Erza leapt out of the way again, causing him to stumble over his talons, before tackling him and wrestling him to the ground. Natsu threw her off.
Erza backed up, then started circling around Natsu, keeping her eyes on him and her muscles tense. The two of them lunged at the same time, clashing and wrestling while clawing and biting each other.
"I see you two are having fun."
Erza pushed Natsu away and glanced up, spotting Irene smiling down at them, "Hello, mother!"
"Hello, dear," Irene nodded, then turned her gaze to Natsu, "Makarov is looking for you, Natsu."
"Me? What for?" Natsu tilted his head.
"Perhaps to discuss the building you destroyed yesterday?" Irene reminded, giving him a look. Natsu ducked his head into his shoulders, "R-right.. I'll go find him.." before stalking off. Erza giggled quietly, "He has a good heart, but he's just so destructive."
"Unfortunately, his element is destructive by nature. I trust he doesn't intentionally destroy anything, but he is still trying to learn to control his flames better."
"I'm sure he'll get the hang of it one day. He's determined like that."
"Reminds me of someone else I know," Irene grinned down at Erza.
Erza laughed.
xXxOxXx
Erza sat and watched Jellal fly by. Par for the course for any and all Night-related Dragons, Jellal looked quite majestic. She watched as he twirled through the air effortlessly, as the sunlight bounced off of his beautifully iridescent scales, and as he smiled happily as he danced around in the sky without a care in the world.
On one hand–or talon, in her case–Erza couldn't help but envy him, honestly. He put no effort into looking so majestic, but it still came naturally. Meanwhile, Erza had to put in a lot of effort into just making her scarlet mane look somewhat presentable.
On the other, she admired him. Not just for his looks, but for his personality as well. He was always so kind and noble, willing to help out no matter the problem. He was also supportive and patient.
"Hey, Erza!" Jellal called down. "Do you uh.. maybe want to go flying together..?" he asked shyly.
He was also adorably awkward. Erza smiled, "Sure!" before flying up towards him. Jellal beamed giddily, "Alright, let's go! I found this really pretty spot I wanted you to see!" He quickly took off, with Erza right behind him.
Once they reached a certain part of the forest, Jellal dove towards the trees, disappearing between the branches. Erza followed him, trying to keep up before she lost sight of him. She dove down in between the branches, thanking her lucky stars that her scales were too tough to get scratched up, before landing on the ground beneath. Upon looking around for Jellal, she instead spotted the Heavenly Body Dragon digging at a hole in the ground, before climbing inside.
Erza tilted her head, a cave? "Is this what you wanted me to see?" she asked as she followed him in. There was just barely enough light to see.
"Yep! Look!" he clawed at the wall, prying a piece of stone loose, before knocking it into the sunlight. Erza walked closer to it, and upon closer inspection, realized that it was actually quite shiny.
"I tried to show the others earlier, but.. they didn't really seem all too interested.." Jellal admitted, "I thought it was really pretty and I was hoping you would too.."
"It's very pretty," Erza grinned, pawing at it and rolling it along the ground. She could understand why their human friends didn't see the value. Dragons were far more easily impressed by shiny objects than humans were, afterall. She batted the rock towards Jellal, then motioned for him to hit it back.
Jellal obliged, swatting the rock, and the two spent quite some time down there playing with it. They only stopped when Jellal noticed how dark it was getting outside. "Oh.. it's getting late.." he said, "We must've lost track of time.."
"Indeed, but we had a lot of fun, didn't we?" Erza fluttered her wings happily, Jellal nodded, "Yeah! Do you want to do this again someday..?"
"Sure!" she playfully booped his nose, prompting him to giggle. Before she could do anything else, Jellal nudged the rock towards Erza, "You want to keep it?"
Erza tilted her head at it. She'd never quite received a gift before. "You.. want me to keep it?" Jellal nodded fervently, "Yeah. If you want to.. that is.." he murmured awkwardly. Erza smiled softly, "Yeah, I-I want to."
She hoped she sounded less awkward to Jellal than she did to herself.
"But I'm going to return the favor someday," Erza smirked. Jellal shook his head, "Y-you don't have to.."
She pressed one of her talons on his, "I want to."
xXxOxXx
Erza was sitting in the Guildhall, lapping up water from a bowl as she listened to Sho and Milliana chatting, with the two showing each other their new magic. She kept a feathery ear perked as she drank, letting them know that while she wasn't looking at them, she was still listening intently.
"So, with these cards- Sister, look out!" Sho suddenly shouted. Erza jolted as someone latched onto her neck–with a loud battle cry of "ERZA!"–causing her to jump away from the table and thrash around, trying to throw her attacker off.
"Mirajane!" she hissed, "What are you doing?!"
"Putting you in your place, you she-beast!" Mirajane laughed, keeping a tight grip on Erza's neck to thwart the Sage's attempts at throwing her off. This did nothing to deter Erza from trying, at least, as she bounced and thrashed while whirling her neck around and snapping her jaws at the girl on her back.
"I'll make you regret this, she-demon!" Erza snarled, more than willing to spark up another spat with her rival.
"Be careful, Mira!" Elfman exclaimed, right at the same time Milliana exclaimed, "Careful, Erzie!"
"It's Mira who needs to be careful!" Erza hissed with a smirk. She wasn't going to let this arrogant little human get away with this.
xXxOxXx
"Hey, mom? Where did we come from?" Erza asked one day, not immediately noticing Irene flinching. "I mean.. all elements of Dragons have their own kingdoms, right? Where was ours?"
"It's.. difficult to explain.." Irene answered. "We did have a kingdom.. but.. as far as I know.. only three of us survived when it fell.."
"Only three of us..?"
"You, Belserion, and me.." Irene clarified. "Not long after I had your egg, our kingdom was attacked.. my mate had been killed.. and so did most of our Dragons.." She shuddered slightly, "There was only so much I could do… I had to keep you safe.."
"Who attacked us..?" Erza asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer, but needing to nonetheless. Irene slowly turned her gaze towards Natsu–who was sleeping in the sun along with Wendy and Gajeel–and sighed quietly, "The Fire Dragons did.."
"What..?" Erza asked quietly, feeling as if her breath had been knocked out of her. "But.. why..?"
Irene shook her head solemnly, "I don't know.. I've never stopped wondering.." She slowly settled onto her stomach. "I tried so hard to rescue as many Dragons as I could.. but a Fire Prince found them.. No matter how hard I tried.. I failed them.."
"Don't blame yourself.. You did what you could.." Erza nuzzled Irene's shoulder. Irene grimaced, "I should have done more.. I was their Queen.. I.. I.." she paused when Erza flinched away. "Y-you.. you're a.. a what..?"
Irene turned her head away, as if suddenly realizing that she forgot to tell Erza this important tidbit of information earlier. "I.. was.. a Queen.. but that changed when we lost our kingdom.."
"We were Royal this whole time and you never told me..?" Erza asked.
"You never needed to know. We have no kingdom to rule over anymore.." Irene responded, sounding despondent. She closed her eyes, "It was my greatest failure.. but the bright side.. is that I kept you safe.." she admitted. "You and Belserion are all I have left.. I promise, I will not let anything happen to you.. To either of you.."
Erza slowly raised her gaze up to Irene. "Nothing will happen.. I promise.." she gently nuzzled her mother's neck. It all felt so overwhelming. She was a Princess all along? Even if she had no kingdom, no Dragons to rule over, she would still be the best Princess she could be.