Chapter Ten
Sorrow
"I know it's been a while since we last spoke, Anna," Natsu whispered softly, speaking aloud as he roamed the road back to Magnolia.
"I think you'd be proud of me, I'm still in control, even though he rattles the cage a lot more nowadays." he kicked a small pebble, watching it bounce but having no thought about the stone, his mind elsewhere as he tried to have a one sided conversation.
"I've still got your key, just like I promised, hidden away, but…" he trailed off slightly, gaze shifting to the horizon.
"I met someone today, she looks so much like you, Anna. I thought for a moment that all of this has been one bad dream, that I'd be able to wakeup and find you again." he sighed, thinking back to looking up into Lucy's eyes from the moment he had awoken in Porlyusica's clearing.
"She's a celestial mage as well, but I don't…" he put a soft hand to the pale patch across his chest, the touch bringing him a fleeting memory of the pain he once suffered.
"She's nowhere near ready for your key, and I don't know whether or not I'm ready to face him either." his voice had become almost inaudible as he was caught up in a flurry of his emotions.
"That bastard," he kissed his teeth, his memory going far further to a time where he'd had to fight the Black Dragon and almost lost himself in the darkness that was E.N.D.
"I know that you were so certain that your plan would work but it's been hundreds of years and I've barely been able to feel the changing of the currents." he mused ever so slightly, "I suppose that might not make a whole lot of sense to you now."
"So, your twenty something descended grandkid, her name is Lucy, she's even got herself some of those Zodiac keys, man, I hated fighting those eclipsed assholes, really hope I don't have to do that again." he muttered, remembering the feeling of being utterly thrown around by some seriously juiced up spirits.
"If she's the one that you hoped would one day come along then I suppose that gives me even more incentive to stick around here and watch over them. I wonder if she'll become stronger than you were, now that would be a sight, she might even be able to… To…" as he neared the city limits of Magnolia, his nose picked up a scent that to him was absolutely unmistakable.
"No way, talk about the luck of the devil." he said, staring wide eyed down that path as he managed to place exactly what that scent was.
"Well Anna, it's been good to talk to you again but I've got some work to do, I believe I've just found one of those kids you put through the gate, which means that unfortunately for Lucy, whether or not she feels up to the challenge, she is the one." he grinned, his smile becoming something he just simply couldn't contain.
"Anna," he breathed out, a tear running down his cheek, "It's been over four hundred years, but your plan has come full circle. A celestial mage descendant and the other slayers are finally here. Maybe Lucy will be strong enough to find me an opening to the celestial realm and I'll come and say hello." he said, speaking no longer before picking up the pace and belting down into the town of Magnolia and following his nose.
He knew that smell anywhere, there was nothing else quite like it, that was another Dragon Slayer, though he had no idea which one it would be, but it didn't matter, it was sending the flames of passion burning through his veins.
His long road of loneliness was finally coming to an end.
A/N: Short chapter, I know, but I needed to put a few things in here quite early for later plot points.