Chapter 3
Pain
A highly unpleasant sensation to inflict upon a person, both physically and mentally.
"Lucy!" His voice thundered through the old building, shaking the very timbers that held it together. He paced and panted, the splashing of water beneath his feet evaporating into steam as it dared cling to his scorching skin. "LUCY!"
Her trail had long since gone cold, leading him to the same dead end over and over again.
"Lucy, can you hear me!?" He clattered on the paper thin walls, punching holes through the flimsy material until there were no walls left to confine him.
Her sweet, comforting smell no longer lingered in his nose. Try as he might, the putrid stench of whatever dragged her off was far too pungent for him. It dominated his senses, thickened his throat full of bile, and threatened to spew from his dry mouth.
His heart pounded; his nerves were shaken.
"Lucy!"
Whatever had taken her was in for a world of hurt the moment he found it. What was it even after? And why Lucy? Was it going to do to her what it did to the other girls?
A nauseating thought. A fear he dared not dwell upon.
This was not how he'd anticipated their mission panning out. It'd been the most mundane of requests: "defeat the monster terrorising our village." How often had he been subjected to such a task? And what was it that he had so badly missed this time?
The unending questions flooded his head, an uncomfortable pit forming in the bottom of his stomach the longer he sought his brain for answers.
It was a crushing feeling, and in a moment of turmoil, such deep rooted fears became his reality. She'd been taken from him; slipped out from right under his nose. Where? He didn't know. Why? Well, he'd get to that.
Another dead end. Another minute wasted. The frustration was bubbling up beneath his skin; a fury unlike any other.
The mangled bodies pierced his mind, a foul reminder of what lay in store should he fail.
Never.
He would never let that happen. He'd find her; he knew he would. If she needed him to, he wouldn't stop at the house; he'd burn the entire forest to cinders before he'd let her get hurt.
Steam turned to smoke, emanating from every pore. A fire smoldering so hot in his belly, like magma boiling within its chamber, ready to erupt and unleash its devastation.
That's what he'd do. He'd burn it all until Lucy was returned to the safety of his clutches. His frustration turned to rage, filling his lungs with such stale air before letting out an almighty draconic roar, decimating not only the building but the nearby forest, too.
Branches cracked and crumbled. Black scorch marks flared up the contours of the withered and wrought tree trunks; the smell of smoked wood hung in the air as red and orange flames danced to the tune of their own devastation. The dragon slayer stood hunched in the center of it all, a feral glint to his eyes as everything fell to ruin.
He gave little thought to his desolate surroundings. Exposed and free from that hellish house and those gloomy trees, he could see things a little more clearly.
And yet, as he scoured the menacing landscape, there was still no sign of her.
"God damnit, Lucy, where are you?!"
The heavy patter of rain extinguished the last flickering embers licking at the edges of the clearing, washing away the piles of ashes to form a boggy bed of mud and debris around his feet.
"Shit!" His fingers clenched and dug sharply into his palms; a thick layer of sludge spreading up his legs. "SHIT!" He grunted and fell to his knees, a dreadful, raw cry bellowing from his lips.
With one unforgiving punch to the ground, the mud bed engulfed his hand and collapsed in on itself, sucking him down with the force of quicksand. Giving him little time to pull himself out, his body was swallowed whole like a mouse to a snake.
Much like a baby being birthed by its mother, the sludgy sinkhole released Natsu with a squelch. Covered in sludge and muck, he fell from the underside to the cold floor with an unceremonious splat. He groaned and gasped as sharp pointed stones stabbed his skin, the hard, jagged rock jolting his back. He laid there for mere moments, blinking the dirt from his eyes. The light from above dimmed as the hole he'd been so carelessly dropped from began to close quickly, as if hiding a secret from the surface above. The unmistakeable hum of magic in the air.
He sat up and ignited his hand, revealing a stone passage that led far beyond what he could see. It was unsurprisingly dark and dank below the forest of nightmares, exacerbating the smell of that creature even more. But amidst the foulness, he finally caught the whiff of another. Something sweet and attractive that widened his pupils like a shark to a blood trail. The hint of a smirk lifting the corners of his lips.
"Found ya."
Hope you enjoyed it!
So, originally I wasn't going to do a chapter for Natsu and instead go straight to Lucy, but I feel this helps set the scene a little more. Chapter 4 is in the works!