Hello everybody and welcome back to--

Mira: Dragon Boy and Princess!

Meena: You're going to do this every time, aren't you?

Mira: Yup!

Meena: Well I guess I'll let you do all the talking then. Take it away!

Mira: Well, although Meena-chan has been on vacation, she found time to finish writing this chapter! Let's all give her a round of applause! 

Meena: *clears throat* And?

Mira: Oh yes! This chapter is dedicated to @lunastarx22 for being a wonderful reader who comments her thoughts all the time, and for giving Meena-chan the motivation to get this chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you @lunastarx22 for always commenting and being a fantastic reader! Now, without further ado, here is chapter 40!

            For the next few days, they traveled practically nonstop, stopping only to sleep and eat. Lucy felt bad for the ryus since they were the ones doing all the work as they flew carrying them, but that was the fastest way to get to their destination. Lucy didn't really know what to expect, but she was excited and dreading it at the same time. Every time they rested, Levy and Lucy would seclude themselves in a corner and discuss possible strategies against the dragon. Romeo would join in sometimes, but being so young, he wasn't much of a strategist. Besides, not having seen a dragon before made strategizing hard since they really didn't know what to expect. They asked Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy about more details, but Lucy knew that they still wouldn't know what to expect unless they actually saw it with their own eyes; seeing was believing.

            Through traveling together, Lucy felt that they had all become closer as a group. She had learned a lot about Wendy, Gajeel, and Natsu's childhood, and a lot about Romeo as well. She never knew traveling could be so fun. Unfortunately though, she could no longer go into towns when they stopped because news had finally spread that the princess was missing. Well, it actually went that Lucy had been kidnapped by a monstrous beast which had royally pissed her off, but had made Natsu laugh heartily.

            They had arrived sooner than Lucy had expected, however, and perhaps sooner than she would have liked. Their final day, the ryus swooped low, almost low enough so that Lucy could brush the tops of the trees by extending her arm. Low and behold, the trees dropped away to reveal a magnificent valley surrounded by green mountains on all sides. A huge river ran along the middle of it, and Lucy could hear all kinds of animals below her. She had never seen such a breathtaking place in her life.

            "Home sweet home," Natsu said bitterly.

            She looked up at him to see him grimacing, his eyes seething with hatred she knew was not aimed at the place, but rather at the dragon occupying it.

            "Where do you think he is?" Lucy asked hesitantly, now scanning the valley for signs of any large life form.

            "I don't know, but he's usually out hunting around this time. We shouldn't have to worry," Natsu said, though he seemed unsure himself.

            They flew lower still, fast approaching the juncture of two mountains. Lucy could now see where they were heading: where mountain met mountain, an opening the size of Gajeel was just slightly visible. They finally came to the opening, and one by one, the ryus and their charges entered. Lucy found herself in a small cave that led into another larger one illuminated by burning torches on the floor. As soon as they landed, Wendy started running.

            "Hey, Wend, wait!" Natsu called out, running after her as Happy flew behind him.

            Gajeel followed suit, and Levy, Romeo, and Lucy looked at each other before running in the same direction the ryus had gone off in. They followed the lights on the floor until they finally came to a rather large cavern where the sound of their footsteps echoed off the walls. Huddled in the middle were the three runaway ryus, and they were kneeling beside two bodies. Levy, Romeo, and Lucy slowly approached them, and looked down to see two boys, seemingly a little younger than Natsu and Gajeel. Their bodies seemed to be sloppily bandaged with blood covering everything. One was blond with spiky hair, kind of like Natsu's. He had large wings with white scales and a tail with the same with the signature yellow horns sprouting from the sides of his head. The other one seemed to be his opposite with long black hair that covered one eye while the rest was pulled back in a ponytail, large wings with pitch-black scales, and the same tail, horns also sprouting from his head. They were both pale and their faces were screwed up in pain as they breathed shallowly.

            Lucy looked at the three ryus and Happy gathered around the two, and saw pained, sad expressions on their faces. Natsu wrapped his arm around Wendy, and pulled her to his chest as she started to sob silently while Gajeel grimaced and looked away. Happy looked like he was biting the inside of his cheeks hard as large tears streamed down his face. Not able to bear seeing them like that, Lucy snapped her fingers to get their attention.

            "Well, first things first, we have to change their bandages, and clean up their wounds. Levy, Romeo, help me. You guys, go and get some rest, you've been flying all day," she ordered.

            They looked at her in a bit of a trance before they started moving. It seemed that they were all too tired to argue. They all moved to the other side of the cavern where Natsu settled Wendy on his lap and leaned against Gajeel who had Happy curled up in the crook of his neck.

            "Alright, let's get to work," Lucy said, kneeling down beside the two boys. "Levy, I need bandages and rags right now."

            "Gotcha," Levy said, starting to rummage around in her backpack.

            Lucy needed water, but she didn't want to go and waste their drinking water because there wouldn't be enough to clean the both of them. She turned her head when she heard a faint sound. It sounded like...running water. She got up and went to the wall of the cave to see a small stream of sparkling water running along the edge of it. Perfect. She ran back over to Levy and grabbed the rags that were offered to her, running back to the stream to soak them in it.

            "Alright," she said, handing one rag to each person. "We need to clean all the blood off, but we can't let the water get into their wounds because that would be pretty painful and it could cause an infection if there isn't already..."

            She wouldn't know what to do if their wounds were infected. Just focus on what you can do for now, Lucy.

            Lucy knelt beside the blonde, and started slowly unwrapping the poorly wrapped bandages; they must have done it themselves. Levy was doing the same to the black-haired one with a queasy looking Romeo helping her. After she had done that, she placed the wet rag against his skin, causing the blonde to sigh, and his face to relax. Lucy frowned, and put a hand to his skin. It was burning! She shuffled over, and touched the ravenette's forehead. It was the same.

            "Crap, their wounds must be infected," she muttered.

            Levy and Romeo's heads snapped up to her with panicked looks on their faces.

            "It's okay, we're just going to do the best we can," Lucy said, trying to convince herself more than anything.

             She glanced behind her to see that Gajeel and Happy were sleeping soundly, as was Wendy as she snuggled into Natsu's chest. Natsu, however, was clearly awake as he absently stroked Wendy's head, probably how she fell asleep in the first place. His eyes were open and blank as he stared at her. He seemed to have heard what Lucy had said, and looked the saddest that she had ever seen him. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest, and she turned back to the blonde boy at her knees. She put the rag back against his skin, causing him to sigh in relief again, and carefully cleaned all the blood away, making sure not to get water in the wounds. His chest was covered in deep gashes, as was the other boy's. Fortunately, their wings seemed to be intact, but they were still in bad shape.

            Once she had finished wiping him down, she set to work on wrapping his wounds, which was harder than it looked because she had to lift him to get the bandages around his torso. Miraculously, he didn't wake up, but he was quite heavy. Levy and Romeo seemed to be doing the same thing, and were struggling to lift the ravenette. By the time they finished, Lucy was sweating from the heat coming from the fires on the floor. She dunked the rag in water again, and placed it on the white ryu's forehead; she needed to bring his fever down.

            She sat back on her hands, and sighed, turning to look at Natsu who was still staring at her with the blankest expression on his face, looking utterly broken. She got up, Levy and Romeo watching her, and walked over to him, kneeling at his side. His hollow eyes followed her every move, and she gently grabbed his face in her hands. She leaned forward and kissed him, then started moving around his face, placing butterfly kisses on his cheeks, his eyes, his nose, and even his horns. She pulled back when she finished, and rubbed her thumbs against his cheeks comfortingly. She placed her forehead against his, and said, "Everything's going to be okay. We'll figure it out."

He looked up at her, despair clear in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but an ear-splitting roar ripped through the air, the cavern walls shaking. Everyone bolted awake, and even the blonde and ravenette bolted up. The blonde looked around wildly, icy blue eyes bright with panic, the ravenette the same except with bright red eyes. Their eyes fell on Natsu and the rest, and despite the situation, they grinned.

            "Natsu! Gajeel! Wendy! You're alright!" the blonde exclaimed.

            "Glad to see you up and about, Sting," Natsu said gravely.

            "Aye sir!" Happy exclaimed as he flew in circles above the boys' heads.

            "Welcome back," the ravenette said softly.

            "Good to be back, Rogue," Gajeel smirked as Wendy threw herself at the two.

            "Oh, it's good to see you too, Wend," Sting said, wrapping an arm around her. "But it kind of hurts, so could you let go?"

            "Right, sorry," she apologized.

            The roar sounded again, and a chill went down Lucy's spine. Just then four balls of fur rocketed into the vicinity. Lucy didn't even stop to look at the things and looked instead at Levy who met her gaze. A silent understanding passed between them as the roar shook Lucy down to her very core. They both got up and started sprinting towards the exit.

            "Lucy!" Natsu yelled after her.

            "Shrimp!" Gajeel yelled as well.

            They ran out onto the ledge of rock between the two mountains just in time to see a giant white underbelly swoop upwards, causing their hair and skirts to whip up at the force of the wind, and they gripped onto the mountainside for dear life. The form started flying away again, and now Lucy could see a large black scaly tail whipping behind the huge thing. It suddenly swerved back towards them, its back now visible. He had pitch-black scales with blue designs swirling between them. Its wings were massive, as was its head. As it flew right at them it opened its giant jaws, exposing its razor sharp teeth, and let out a mighty roar. The air shook with its intensity, and Lucy had to put her hands over her ears to keep from going deaf. The dragon terrified her to her very core as she stood paralyzed, watching its form get closer and closer. She was vaguely aware of Levy tugging at her arm, but she seemed to be as petrified as she was. Just as it came close enough for Lucy to see herself in its giant dark orbs, a column of fire shot past her, and a strong arm yanked her back by her waist. Lucy saw its giant teeth snap closed inches from her face, and scrape against hard rock as she was pulled back into the cave.

            She was hurried back into the main cave, and shoved roughly against the cavern wall. Furious onyx eyes met her own, and Natsu's hands were tight around her upper arms, squeezing so much it hurt.

            "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?" Natsu yelled in her face. "YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN YOURSELF KILLED!"

            "I-I'm so-sorry, I—" she couldn't even talk she was still in shock; the dragon wouldn't leave her brain. All she had seen in those eyes was destruction, pure destruction.

            "WHAT? SORRY WHAT? WHAT EXCUSE DO YOU HAVE?" he yelled.

            "I wanted to know what we were up against," Lucy said, finding a bit of courage again in the face of Natsu's anger.

            "Because you didn't get enough of an idea when I described it to you over and over again?!" he screamed.

            "I-I'm sorry," she said, feeling guilty because she knew how terrified Natsu was bringing her here in the first place.

            Tears came to her eyes as she remembered the dark giant, and her knees shook underneath her. It seemed that the fear was catching up to her. Her knees buckled, but Natsu caught her, sinking down to the floor with her.

            "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" she continued to mutter, as Natsu's arms held her close to him. "I'm so sorry."

Meena: I can't believe we made it to chapter 40!! Thank you to everyone who has stick with this story so far even if it took some time to get to this point. This chapter was a bit shorter than usual, but I felt that it was appropriate to end it here. This story is actually nearing its completion, and I'm actually excited because that means that I can move to new projects! Yay! I've enjoyed writing this, but I think through writing this I've become a better writer, and I want to try that out on a brand new story, so I'm excited to finish this. 

Mira: More Nalu??

Meena: Yes, and Naruhina hopefully.

Mira: Ooh! Things to look forward to!

Meena: So thanks for reading.

Mira: And we'll see you later. 

Meena and Mira: Ja ne!