The core members immediately got into defensive stances while the others and Lucy remained calm at the sight of white creature. The dragon lowered its head, as if crouching down, to meet the eye level of the fairies that he didn't recognize. He didn't say another word as he scanned each of the fairies, the breath he lets out through his nostrils bringing a small gust of wind. He remained like that in silence, as if waiting for one of the fairies to do something.
The more the dragon slayers stared at the dragon, they realized that he bore no ill intent or hostility towards them from what they could sense. If anything Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy realized that his eyes held the same gaze as their own dragon parents. When the three looked to Lucy, she just watched them with an amused look on her face, meaning that she wasn't worried the very slightest. And considering Nashi was with them, it meant that this dragon was a kind one.
With that figured out, the three dragon raised slayers eased up on their stances and placed a reassuring hand on one of their nakama, shaking their heads and sending the silent message to stand down. When the dragon noticed this, he brought his head up to look at Lucy, his eyes squinting as they both shared a chuckle. When the rest of the core members saw that, their guard loosened and they stood up straight as Lucy clapped her hands with a look of pride on her face.
"Told you that they wouldn't attack you, Weisslogia." Lucy said.
"Must you always gloat whenever you prove yourself correct, your majesty?" The dragon, Weisslogia, asked. "You were the one who suggested this to the rest of the council."
"You all didn't seem to trust me or Kai when we said that they are worth your trust." She reminded, the dragon rolling his eyes in response. "Now stop intimidating them with your fangs and transform so the others may enter when they arrive."
Weisslogia sighed and a bright light enveloped his body until it shrunk to a human sized height. "Very well, your majesty." Once the light faded away, an old man of pale skin, with long white hair and a long beard stood in place of the dragon. He was dressed in a simple navy blue sage robe and in his hand was a large wooden staff.
"Mama!" Nashi greeted as she ran up to the blonde girl. Lucy stood next to Weisslogia once she was down the stairs and picked the peach haired girl to carry her once they were at arm's length away. Then the child looked to the old man and bowed her head before greeting him with her normal smile. "Hello Master Weiss!"
The old man bowed in return. "Welcome back Miss. Nashi." He said before turning to the rest of the fairies. "To those whom I already know, welcome back as well. To those I am only meeting today, welcome. My name is Weisslogia, the white dragon."
The Tenrou Team just stared at the old man and Lucy with confused and flabbergasted expressions, their jaws practically hitting the ground yet again. Not only did they just meet a dragon, but that same dragon transformed in a human. What's more is that he addressed Lucy as if she were some all mighty ruler. Of course that didn't stop Reedus from taking advantage of the scene and immediately sketched their faces down while Kinana took a camera and snapped a photo.
"Hold on now! Back up just a couple of seconds!" Laxus said, shaking his head before pointing at Lucy. "The hell is going on here!? You know a dragon!? And what's with this 'your majesty' business!?"
"Of course, she's affiliated with us dragons." A much calmer voice replied, the dragon slayers hearing footsteps coming from behind Lucy and Weisslogia. "As the others who have already been here before, addressing your guildmate as 'your majesty' is only a formality befitting of her title. She is our empress after all."
This newcomer seemed the same age as Weisslogia, however, the way he had aged seemed better than the old man. He had his ashy black hair tied up in a samurai's ponytail with a smaller beard growing on his jaw while his red eyes pierced through the core members' souls. His skin did not show many wrinkles and shared a colour much like Natsu's. He was dressed in a light grey traditional samurai's outfit with a kimono of a dark japanese style drawn cloud pattern following the hem overtop, while his hands were tucked in the sleeves.
"Master Skiadrum!" Nashi greeted with a wave.
The black haired man bowed at her greeting before doing the same to the fairies. "Greetings, I am the shadow dragon Skiadrum."
"Amazing...!" Makarov exclaimed, turning his attention to the blonde woman that he now knew was not only the fourth guild master, but an empress among dragons as well. "How did this all happen?"
The two dragons, now changed to humans, turned to their empress who only held a small smile. "To make the long story short, I encountered them by chance around six months after your death." She began to explain. "Since Acnologia was the one who made you guys disappear, I thought finding one of your dragons could help me bring you guys back."
"You purposely looked for our dragons, Lucy!?" Wendy asked.
"To say I looked for them isn't necessarily true..." Lucy said with a sheepish smile as she scratched the back of her head. "The reason I wanted to take a training trip, it's because I was trying to figure out a way to summon one of your dragon parents."
When the dragon slayers heard that, they stared at the blonde girl absolutely speechless. Besides Acnologia, Laxus had never encountered an actual dragon. But even so, he knew that those creatures held massive amounts of magic power. Natsu, Wendy and Gajeel on the other hand, knew that their dragons were very powerful and for Lucy to try to summon them meant that she needed enough magic to sustain both a dragon's body and their magic supply. Meaning she needed a lot of magic energy.
"EEEEEHHH~!?" The four slayers cried.
"Yes, but instead of summoning a dragon, one of her attempts opened up a gateway to this place." Weisslogia continued. "A separate world that stands as a nexus for us dragons, the ones who helped fight with the humans during the war 400 years ago and survived."
"Ever since our defeat in that war and the disappearance of our last queen, Irene Belserion, those of us who survived decided that it would be best that we disappeared completely from the human world." Skiadrum added. "Just as her majesty's celestial spirits have their own world, it would be best to call this place the Dragon's Realm."
"It must've been scary..." Happy said, referring to when she first visited the realm, but Lucy just shook her head in response.
"It was beautiful when I found myself here." She said, remembering the sense of pride she felt when watching the dragons fly through the sky and walk on the floating islands. "I was so in awe at what was before me I didn't even notice that Kai landed in front of me after flying with the others."
"Hold up! That weirdo is a dragon too!?" Natsu and Gray cried.
Lucy only laughed as she nodded. "Yes, he's the water dragon of the younger generation's dragons. And when the other dragons found out I was there, they all gathered around completely surprised." She said suddenly pointing to the two dragons next to her. "I still remember these old geezers' faces when they saw me."
"Old geezers?" Weisslogia repeating with a distraught expression.
"Majesty please..." Skiadrum muttered, making Nashi pat his head in comfort.
"When I realized that they were all staring at me, I had a feeling that they weren't going to harm me unless I came for bad intentions. So I honestly asked them if there were any chances of you all surviving a roar from Acnologia and if there was a way to locate the island and bring you home." Lucy explained.
"We understood her sadness and because of her absolute loyalty, we and the others all tried to help." Weisslogia said. "We observed the island, hidden behind clouds, and sensed a faint magic aura that was of pure magic power. We had concluded that you all were alive and that you would all return in due time."
"Once we settled that, because of her majesty's magic potential, we offered to train her in the ways of the dragon." Skiadrum added. "Of course, we didn't tell her we planned to name her empress. But she was very eager to learn the art and trained long and hard for seven years without losing motivation."
"Seven years!?" The core members cried. "And you didn't even bother to check on the guild!?"
"That's the thing, you guys!" Romeo interrupted. "That's why time as been so weird on her! When Lucy came back to the guild, she was excited to see how much we had grown. But while seven years passed for her, it had been only a month since she left in the first place."
"Only a month!?" Erza asked. "But how!?"
Lucy nodded and scratched her cheek. "You see, three months in this realm is the same as a day back on Earthland. Which is why I told you not to worry about how long we'll be gone." She explained. "I never really noticed it while I was training, but I never got older because my body follows the flow of time on Earthland. But my magic energy had increased by seven years."
"That's why we agreed that Lucy become the fourth master." Macao added. "That first year was the worst on us and it made a lot of members leave. But when Lucy came back, she made sure that even though we were rock bottom, no one was too look down on us."
"After that, I told everyone else about my training and how the dragons made me their empress. Even though they didn't need a ruler to guide them, they felt it best that they give me some form of authority since I learned dragon slaying magic from a lot of the dragons here and still learning others." Lucy said, finally finishing her story.
"No way, Luce! You're now a dragon slayer too!?" Natsu asked, the reason she's such a confident fighter now making sense. "That's insane! Does that mean I can try your fire?"
"Of course you ask her something like that." Carla said with an amused sigh.
Everyone laughed at the white exceed's remark while the core members looked at the celestial mage with pride. She not only went out of her way to find out what happened to them, but went so far as to try to summon a dragon. She agreed to learn the dragon arts to become stronger for her nakama and became guild master so that no one would forget the strength and might of Fairy Tail, even though they had become the weakest guild during their first year.
"Master Weiss? Master Skiadrum?" Nashi spoke up, making the two dragons turn their attention to her. "Where's Grandpa?"
"He's with Master Kai and Master Ava." Skiadrum replied. "Do you wish to see him?"
"It's because Papa came back and I want Grandpa to see him again!" Nashi said while pointing to Natsu, the two dragons looking to Lucy with teasing grins.
"My my, your majesty." Weisslogia said. "I never expected you to mate so quickly after your nakama returned to you. Are you planning to have a second child anytime soon?"
"If you both don't shut it, I might just send you to Takeo to cut up." She threatened.
Once Nashi asked about her grandfather, Makarov stepped up with the rest of Team Natsu behind him. Now that most of their questions had been answered, only two remained: why was she still as young as she looked despite the fact that her body still grows the same rate as Earthland? And who exactly was this grandfather that Nashi wanted Natsu to meet so badly? The first one they weren't so worried about since they knew Lucy would tell them eventually. It was the second one that bothered them.
"Nashi said she wanted her grandfather to see Natsu again... what is she talking about?" Makarov asked.
Lucy's expression softened before she looked out the window, looking at the island where the old man she needed to hit was. "Romeo already told me that you guys know about my dad, so I'm sure you know that that's not the person Nashi's talking about."
"So then, who is it?" Carla asked.
The blonde girl looked at her daughter, Nashi smiling like she usually does and nodding rapidly, urging her mother to tell them who her grandfather was. "Nashi loves her grandfather because he is the one responsible for teaching her magic with my assistance and as you all know by her attack back that the guild, she is a fire dragon slayer. So I'm sure you know the answer... right Natsu?"
When Natsu heard that, he only had to think for a moment. He was the only fire dragon slayer that he knew and he only met Nashi a little over two weeks ago. The only one who could teach Nashi fire dragon slayer magic was... his dragon parent. "No way..." He said as tears began to well up in his eyes. "You mean..."
Lucy nodded when she realized he got the answer. "Nashi's grandfather is your father, Natsu... the fire dragon, Igneel."