Alright, now the story starts to move along! Surprising new character coming in this chapter, but I think you'll like it. Especially as the story progresses. Anyhow, that's about it, so please review and thanks for reading!
Chapter 6: Healing the Wounded
Natsu was unconscious for another day before he finally woke up.
The pain in his neck had numbed, but his body still felt weak. Weaker than he'd ever felt. Natsu opened his eyes slowly and blinked a few times to focus. He could smell his mother beside him, felt her wing draped over his body, but…
Natsu's eyes went wide as he remembered the battle with Acnologia and the exploding volcano. He tried to lift his head, but something weighed him down.
"Don't move." Sunrose whispered, her head on top of his, "Your wound only just closed. If you move, it'll open up again."
"D-dad…" Natsu gasped, "Wh-where's…"
He felt Sunrose tremble, then something warm and wet landed on his head. Natsu heard her sob and felt a cold fear in his chest.
"He's gone, Natsu. The only one who came out of that volcano was the black dragon…"
"No." Natsu hissed and tried to get up again, but Sunrose was able to keep him down with little effort. His body was still very weak. Natsu growled, "No, he has to be alive. Lava can't kill him! Dad just-"
"He CAN'T be dead!"
The dam broke and Natsu started crying, "What went wrong?! What made that monster come after us?! What the hell did we ever do to deserve it?!"
Sunrose hummed soothingly to calm him, but she was having trouble keeping her sorrow down. When he finally got a grip, she whispered softly, "Keep your heart strong, Natsu. He fell so we could keep going. We'll live on for him, okay? But you have to rest right now."
"It's not fair…" he cried.
"Shh…" she murmured, "Hush, my sweet. Hush…"
Natsu sniffed, but he caught the scent of blood other than his own. He gaze widened as he saw Sunrose's injured leg, "Mother, you're hurt…"
"It's not as bad as it looks." Sunrose reassured him, "I'll be okay. It will heal."
That said, she knew it would be some time before the pain faded completely. Also, she couldn't hunt like this, and neither could Natsu. So she decided on a last resort.
Sunrose opened her jaws and bathed Natsu in a stream of fire. He instinctively sucked in a breath sharply and inhaled the blaze, swallowing until his mother stopped. Natsu glanced up at her, "What about you?"
"I've gone hungry before, Natsu." she murmured, "It won't make me any weaker than I am. Sleep, little one."
"I'm not…little anymore…" Natsu growled, but his eyes were already closing.
/\/\/\/\/\
When Natsu woke again, light was streaming through the cave. He squinted and glanced to his side, where Sunrose still slept. With a nudge of his snout, she stirred and woke up as well with a yawn.
Sunrose judged the light, then sniffed their wounds before she made a decision, "Alright, we're leaving. We can't stay here any longer without food."
Natsu got up and followed her, noticing the limp in her back leg. He came up to her side and murmured, "Lean on me. I'll take the weight off your leg."
His mother nodded gratefully and leaned on Natsu. Her weight was carried easily enough by the young drake, even if he still wasn't 100%.
/\/\/\/\/\
Their pace was awkward and by no means fast, but they managed to cover a few miles of coastline within an hour. Once they reached a high cliff, Sunrose surveyed the landscape.
She didn't like what she saw.
"There's a human village not far from here." she sighed, "It's close enough that I wouldn't be surprised if one of them has already seen us. Other than that, I don't see much else. I don't recognize these lands."
"Any sign of Acnologia?" Natsu asked quietly.
Sunrose shook her head, "No. I think he headed further inland. We'd best stay on the coast for now. Once we regain our strength, we'll try flying to the Fire Capital."
"Why not now?" he queried.
"We'll need all our strength to fly to the Fire Capital." she explained, "It's a long journey from here, and if we run into Acnologia on the way, we'll need every bit of power we have to escape. There's just no fighting that black dragon…"
Natsu growled, "Wait until I get a little bigger, then we'll see who can fight."
"Natsu, enough." Sunrose warned, "You're nowhere near big enough to take on a dragon like that. In fact, there isn't a dragon alive who could take it on. If there was, it'd already have killed that black beast…"
"That doesn't mean we should just give up." he growled, tail lashing.
Sunrose smiled at him, "You really are your father's son. That's exactly what he'd say. I'm not saying you should give up, Natsu, but just know which battles you should fight. Don't go on a suicide mission for revenge."
Natsu seemed to relax a little, so Sunrose sniffed the air, "We should go hunt some of the livestock from the human village. It's not much, but it should give us enough energy to fly away from these lands."
The young drake sighed, "Great. Humans."
/
Sunrose couldn't hunt with her injured leg, so she hid in the deep woods while Natsu stalked the human's herd of cattle.
He waited until the humans weren't paying attention, then struck like red lightning. A cow on the edge of the herd suddenly disappeared, too fast for the other animals to register.
Natsu dragged the catch back through the woods and over a small trail where human footprints littered the ground. He froze as he caught another scent and dropped the cow to whip his head sideways.
A little girl was staring at him.
For a moment, neither of them dared to move.
Natsu swallowed uneasily and muttered, "Uh, can you please not scream for help?"
The girl gasped, "You talk!"
He blinked, "Um..yes?"
She clapped happily and walked over without hesitation, "My name is Kagura. What's your name?"
Natsu stared at the kid. Didn't she know he was a dragon?
Is she crazy? he wondered as the kid reached out slowly to pat his scaly hide.
The girl giggled, "You feel funny!"
"Um..thank you..I guess..?" he managed, then spoke lowly, "Hey kid-"
"Kagura!" the girl reminded him.
"Yeah, Kagura." Natsu corrected, "Don't you have parents? Haven't they told you what a dragon is?"
She blinked, "Parents?"
Natsu nodded, "Your mom and dad. Your parents."
"Don't have any." she said easily.
Orphan, huh? he realized. Natsu sighed, "Well, look. I'm a dragon, okay? So, you should probably stay away from me. I'm not always so nice."
Kagura smiled, "But you talked to me. No one except for my brother does that! So you're nice!"
Natsu again found himself speechless. This kid cannot be normal. There's just no way a human would call a dragon nice.
Kagura suddenly tried to climb onto his back, making him protest, "H-hey! What do your think you're-"
"Go horse-y!" she cheered.
This kid must be insane, he decided. Natsu sighed. What the heck was he supposed to do? He stared at the kid and shook his head in disbelief, "Oh, what the hell- hey!"
Kagura swatted his leg all of a sudden and looked up at him with a pout, "That's a bad word!"
She's mad because I have bad manners?
"Won't your brother be worried?" he tried.
Kagura shook her head, "Nope, he's been away from the village for a while. An old lady gives me food sometimes."
Well, that explains why she's a so thin, he thought, noting that the girl was indeed rather underweight, even for a child her age. Natsu let out an exasperated sigh, "Oh, fine. What do you want kid?"
"You have wings!" she exclaimed, "Can you fly?!"
"Yes, I can fly." he replied.
"I wanna see!" she chirped.
"Can't. Sorry." he said.
"You just said you could!" she protested.
"Well, I can't right now." he said.
"Liar!" she accused.
"Hey! I just can't, okay! I mean, I could if I wanted to-" he defended.
"Well, I wanna see you fly! And I'm not letting you go until I see you fly!" she pouted.
As if to prove this, Kagura grabbed his leg and didn't let go.
Natsu thought about shaking her off and just ditching the kid, but caution outweighed what he wanted. If the kid got hurt, someone was bound to notice her scream. And she seemed innocent enough, so he felt like killing her would be a crime.
I must be as crazy as she is, he thought. Natsu sighed, "Alright, get on my back."
"YAY!" Kagura cheered. She tried to clamber up his leg, but it didn't work because she just slid off.
The girl pouted again, "I can't- kya!"
Natsu's tail wrapped around her middle carefully and set the girl on his back. He gripped the cow with his claws and glanced back at her, "Hold on tight, okay? Don't fall off!"
Kagura grabbed his back spines and smiled happily, "Hey, what's your name! You didn't tell me!"
"Natsu!" he answered, then spread his wings and leaped into the air, but did his best to just hover over the trees.
The girl on his back squealed in delight, "Whee! We're flying!"
But Natsu wasn't thinking about the flight. His mind was racing.
What the hell am I going to tell mother?
/\/\/\/\/\
"You brought a human here?" Sunrose repeated.
Natsu shuffled his feet awkwardly, "Look, I didn't know what else to do. I didn't want her going to tell the villagers about us, but I just couldn't eat her, either. She's the weirdest human I've ever met."
Sunrose stared down at Kagura with piercing blue eyes. The little girl offered a bright smile, "Hi!"
The dragonelle raised a scaly eyebrow, "Indeed."
Natsu nudged the cow towards her and sighed, "What do we do with her?"
"Does she have any family in the village?" Sunrose asked.
"I think she said she had a brother." Natsu recalled, "But not in the village. No mother or father."
"There's two dragons! Yay!" Kagura squealed as she patted Sunrose's leg.
Sunrose's bad leg.
The dragonelle hissed in pain, "Watch it!"
Kagura yelped and backed off with a scared look in her eyes, "S-sorry…I didn't mean to..ugh…"
The two dragons froze as Kagura's lip trembled, her eyes filled with tears, and she-
"Wahhh!"
Natsu cringed. They were in deep forest, but weren't that far from the village. If someone heard this…
"H-hey, it's okay!" Natsu stammered, "Don't cry! Uh, she's not mad, she's just hurt! That's why she acted all scary!"
Kagura stared at him with a tear streaked face, "I'm not in *sniff* any trouble?"
"No, you're not." he reassured her. "This is my mother. She was hurt, so we had to stay here for a bit. But she won't hurt you, okay? So no more crying."
The girl wiped her eyes and tried to smile, "Okay."
Natsu sagged with relief and glanced to Sunrose, "Are all human children like that?"
"I wouldn't know." she answered, "I mean, this is the first conversation I've had with a human that doesn't involve the words, 'Die!' and, 'Please don't eat me!' This child is an oddity, that's for sure."
Kagura tried patting Sunrose's front leg and jumped back, staring at her with wide eyes. But the dragonelle hummed, "I won't snap, little one."
Now reassured that she was in no danger, Kagura touched Sunrose more calmly and giggled, "You're just like Natsu! All scale-y!"
Natsu shook his head in amazement, "This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my entire life."
"Well, it's weird even for me, so don't expect to find something this strange again for quite a few decades, Natsu." his mother said.
Kagura smiled up at Sunrose, "Can you fly too?"
"I can, little one, but not now. My leg is hurt. See?" the dragonelle nodded towards her injury, making the girl gasp.
Her eyes were wide, "Does it hurt a lot?"
"Sometimes, little one." Sunrose murmured.
"Wait here!" the kid chirped, then ran off into the underbrush.
Natsu glanced at his mother, "Eat fast. I don't know if she went for another villager or what, but I think we should be ready to leave quickly."
"Agreed." Sunrose muttered, then tore into the cow.
/\/\/\/\/\
Ten minutes later, Kagura was back with a handful of blue stalks that had a single, huge leaf on the end.
She offered them to the injured dragonelle, "Here! These'll make you feel better!"
Natsu sniffed the blue stalk, "What-"
"It's okay, Natsu." Sunrose purred at Kagura, "She's smarter than she looks. I know this plant. It's a natural painkiller. Could you give some of those to Natsu, little one? He's injured too, you know."
Kagura gasped and quickly divided the plant, then offered a handful to each dragon.
Natsu crunched the stalks up hesitantly. It tastes like spearmint.
It took a minute, but the ache in his neck faded, leaving him with barely suppressed relief.
Sunrose looked more than a little relaxed now. She sighed, "Oh, that's better…"
Natsu was impressed, "Thank you, Kagura. That was…well, it was kind of you."
Kagura smiled happily, "You're welcome, Natsu! Can we fly again?"
"Er…" he glanced at Sunrose helplessly.
She nodded, "I'd say it's time she was flown back to the village. It's almost time for the humans to sleep. And time for us to rest."
Natsu nodded, "Okay. Time to go home, Kagura."
He picked her up with his tail and set her on his back again carefully.
Sunrose smiled teasingly, "I never thought I'd see you with a human on your back."
"Well, this is an exceptional human." he muttered, then flew off before she could tease him further.
The dragonelle watched her son fly off with soft eyes. Igneel, Natsu is just as we wished him to be. Strong and fierce, but he's gentle too. You'd be so proud of him…
/
Natsu flew Kagura to the edge of the woods surrounding the village and set her down, "Alright, I have to go."
"Will you come back?" she asked.
He hesitated, so she grabbed his leg, "Please come back! I've never had a friend before!"
Natsu leaned down and snorted, "I'll try to come again, okay? But I can't stay for long. Humans…well, the other villagers don't like dragons as much as you do."
Kagura looked up at him with the biggest brown eyes he'd ever seen, "Promise you'll come back?"
"Okay, I promise." Natsu said.
That made her smile, so she trotted down the path back to the village. Natsu watched her go, then turned away.
/\/\/\/\/\
He walked through the woods for a bit, deciding to follow his nose in the darkness, but it was slow going. Natsu hadn't gotten far.
Geez, Kagura sure is lucky it was me that found her and not Smaug. He'd have snapped her up without a second thought. Most dragons would.
"HIIIAAAAHHHH!"
Natsu froze at the scream. His head whipped back towards the village. Kagura?!
Without thinking, he launched himself into the air and flew back towards the human settlement. His sharp eyes weren't as good in the dark, but he saw well enough.
There! Kagura was struggling to get away from three fully grown men, who appeared to be angry with the little girl.
Natsu dove down to get closer, trying to make out the furious tones.
"Little crook!"
"Trying to steal our produce!"
"This damn kid's pestered me for the last time! Tie her up and toss her in the water!"
Natsu's blood boiled with anger. Oh, no you don't.
As he dove down, one of the men tried to gag Kagura, so she screamed, "NATSU, HELP!"
"RRAAAAAAHHHH!"
The bellow made the men cringe, and also caused every living thing within a five mile radius to freeze. They had heard the roar of a dragon more than once in their lifetimes.
He crashed into the ground full force, making the ground shudder. The three men froze in terror.
Natsu hissed, "Get. Lost."
They didn't hesitate to turn and run for their lives, screaming their heads off. Natsu noted with satisfaction that at least one of the men had wet himself.
Kagura scrambled over to him, grabbing his leg with a cry, "That was scary! They were trying to hurt me!"
"Hush, little one." Natsu murmured, but he picked her up as he did so. She couldn't stay here anymore, and neither could he or Sunrose. They had to leave. They had to leave now.
Natsu set Kagura on his back and took off, hovering high over the village as a group of people with torches came out in a mob, looking around for the beast that had suddenly appeared. The three men were still freaking out, much to his amusement.
But Natsu's amusement was short-lived. He flew back to where Sunrose was already waiting, looking up for him to fly overhead. She took to the air and met him above the forest.
His mother stared at him, "What happened?"
"I'll explain later, but we have to go." Natsu urged.
Sunrose sighed, "Where? Where can we go?"
Kagura peeked out over Natsu's back, "My brother went across the ocean! We can find him! He'll help us!"
Natsu glanced to his mother, "Do you know what she's talking about?"
"I think she means the continent north of here." Sunrose said thoughtfully, "I've never been there, and it's supposedly a long journey, but…I don't think Acnologia ever goes there. It could be a safe place to heal before we return to the Fire Capital."
"Then across the ocean it is." Natsu grunted, then flew off towards the vast, dark waters with Kagura on his back and Sunrose close behind him.