~Mark of the Fairies~

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I hope you all enjoy this new chapter ^.^

Lucy Heartfilia, even though her body was shaking violently, her eyes were alight with determination. There was no fear in them. The only emotion coursing through them was the fierce need to protect.

Natsu had protected her.

Now it was her turn.

There was a charred body beside her, a sword laying by the man's smoking hand. Lucy reached down and wrapped her slender fingers around the hilt. With a grunt, she hefted the sword up, and held it out in front of her. Only, with a cry, the sword fell from her grip. Her right hand flashed to her shoulder that was throbbing with waves of pain.

Then, it hit her just as a smirk crossed Jose's face.

Lucy couldn't fight.

Not when she was already injured so badly. Tears of frustration filled her eyes, making her vision hazy.
Why...?

Jose howled with laughter and he started to make his way lazily toward her. They both knew that he had won.

Why...why can't I protect my loved ones?

"Well, Princess, it seems-"
Brilliant yellow light lit up the clearing and thunder boomed! Lucy screamed as a large bolt of lightning lit up the sky and the long bolt zipped down from the dark sky. Heading straight towards the man that had attacked her. Almost as if it knew who its target was.

The bolt hit the ground with a crackle and struck Jose.

Lucy covered her ears and shut her eyes so she wouldn't see the black remains of the Bandit Master...or hear his screams of agony. When Lucy reopened her eyes, the yellow light was gone, and so was the sudden lightning and thunder.

A storm had gone and went in seconds.

Lucy let out a shuddering breath as she slowly turned around to face Levy. The petite girl was looking to the sky with narrowed eyes. Her face was full of immerse concentration, but when she saw Lucy, her lips formed a smile.
"I guess you won, Lu-chan..."

She stared at her friend for a moment longer before nodding. Her voice was laced with shock as suspicion took over her. "Yay, Levy-chan, I won."
But how did I win?

Her thoughts were cut short when two groans filled her ears.

"Lucy-Sama...?"

"...Lady Lucy...?

Scorpio and Taurus came stumbling out from behind a bunch of destroyed boulders, rubbing at their heads, and looking for her with dizzy eyes.
"I'll go take care of them." Levy quickly said before she ran over to them. Lucy watched her friend go before dropping down beside Natsu.
She raised her hands to start trying to help with his wounds...but stopped.

His wounds had already been patched up to the best that they could be. Levy. Lucy decided as she ran her fingers through Natsu's matted hair.
"I'm sorry you got hurt, Natsu." She muttered as she wiped her tears away. "Why did you come here, Natsu? Why did you save me?" She shook her head, her blond hair flying, "Now look at you. All beat up and unconscious..."

"And...still a badass..."

Lucy nodded, "Yay, and still-"

Her eyes bugged and she quickly looked at his face. A smirk was pulling at his lips, one of his eyes fluttered open, and looked up at her.

His smirk turned into a grin.
Her heart kicked up.
"Yo...Lucy...You okay?"

Ba-dam

"Am I...?"

Ba-dam

"Are you asking if I'm alright?!"

Ba-dam

"Uh...yay?"

A crystal clear tear fell and slipped down her cheek.
"You dumb Dragon..."
She whispered as she gave him a watery smile.
"Worry about yourself."

Lucy helped Natsu up after a moment, her heart still beating hard against her chest. Levy had tended to Lucy's Guards and now they were turning the carriage over. The golden vehicle wasn't as bad off as Lucy had previously thought.
Well...at least it still rolled.
Unfortunately they had lost the horses. Lucy was just happy that they hadn't passed away.
The Phantom Lord Bandits had cut them lose.

As she was about to join Levy and Scorpio (who had promised that he and Taurus wouldn't rat Natsu out, he had saved them after all) inside the carriage, she noticed that the Dragon himself was not beside her. She turned around, confusion masking her face. "Natsu?" She asked as she spotted him a few feet away, looking at the carriage with a green face.

When she gave him a questioning look, he raised a shaky finger and pointed at the carriage, "I'm not getting in that thing." Now Lucy was really confused. "Umm, is there a reason?"

"Yes!"

"What? Why not? If you don't think you can fit you can-?"

"That's not it!" He shot back, much to her surprise.

She waited as he got his wits together.

If Lucy thought that was the greenest his face could have gotten, she was wrong. The color in his face rapidly deepened into a emerald green with even some pale purple dusting his cheeks. He put a hand to his mouth and mumbled, "I have motion sickness." She paused, completely taken aback by his declaration, "You are kidding right?"

Natsu sheepishly scratched the back of his head and buried his nose into his scarf to conceal the blush that was steadily forming on his cheeks. He only shook his head as he spun around. Her eyes latched onto his back that was still bleeding heavily from the knife wound he had suffered.

Lucy, with the help of Levy, had gotten the knife out, and had quickly sealed the wound with some cloth. She needed to treat it better as soon as she got back to the castle. Lucy didn't want his wing to get infected.

"Come on, Natsu! You fly! Riding in a carriage can't be that bad." She tried her best to encourage him as calmly as she could. The only sound she got back was of him trying not to throw up his lunch. Lucy sighed as she went over to him. As she stood there, she ranked her brain to think of a way to get him into the carriage. There was no way he was going to fly back or walk. As she did, she looked up to the dark sky, that held a blanket of stars, all shining brightly down on her.

If it wasn't for Natsu, she may have never seen the stars ever again.

With that shocking knowledge in mind, she stepped closer, and wrapped her arms around him. She pressed her cheek to his back, carful to avoid his wings, and closed her eyes. His body tensed up and he looked over his shoulder. Had she fainted or something?
"You okay, Lucy?"

"Yay..." She whispered, "Just...thank you."

Lucy was safe now.

🌟🔥

It was hell getting the Dragon into the carriage that he kept insisting was made by the Devil (and also with the help of Gray). In the end, Taurus was the one who had to wrestle the hurt Dragon inside. As soon as the carriage started rolling, being pulled by both her Guards, Natsu had collapsed bonelessly down across one of the damaged seats, moaning and groaning. Until Lucy had had enough and had placed his head on her lap so she could soothe his headache and rolling stomach.
And the thing is, it worked, the Dragon had fallen silent as he drifted off to the Land of Dreams.

During the ride, Levy had started to work on Lucy's damaged shoulder. The Princess could not have stopped the scream she released when her friend had to set her limb back into place. It was by far the worst physical pain she had ever experienced.

Now here they were, in Lucy's room, with her dressing Natsu's wounds. It had been a long night with a battle that she never wanted to fight again. It had almost drained all of her energy. So, it had been a relief when Gray had come running to her, the Strauss sisters close behind. They had bombarded her with question after question. Asking what had happened. If she was alright.
Then, Gray had explained to her how Natsu had just taking off without so much as a word, leaving behind even Happy. Lucy couldn't help the tired smile that crossed her bruised face.

With the help of Mira, Lisanna, and Gray, Lucy had brought Natsu back into her room and set to work. She didn't know when, but some time in between her dressing the Dragon's wounds, her friends had left her. Probably giving up when she never answered their questions and feeling relived that she wasn't hurt.

Lucy had just finished wrapping a deep slash on Natsu's arm when his body gave a shudder, and his eyes opened. They were stilted until they adjusted to the light, making his pupils widen. His eyes flickered back and forth in confusion before they landed on her. He grinned, "Yo, Lucy..." Natsu mumbled as he tried to sit up, only for her hands to push him back by his shoulders.

"Nuh-uh." Lucy chided as she rubbed an antibiotic that had a nasty scent onto a small cut on his cheek. "Don't you dare try to get up. These wounds are too serious for you to just hop up and go wild." Natsu scoffed, "Bet not."

Instead of pointlessly arguing with him, she instead asked him a question, one that she had been wondering about.
"How did you know?"

"Huh?" Natsu squinted at her, scrunching up his nose against the foul smell of the medicine.

"How did you know that I was in trouble?" She elaborated, her fingers gently rubbing the sticky medicine into the wound before she dressed it. "Ah, I heard ya." Natsu waved it as he gritted his teeth together from the sting that the horrible smelling gunk brought him. Lucy's eyes went big at his simple explanation. "You heard me?"

He nodded and tilted his head, making his hair fall away from his ear, "Dragon hearing."

"Well then how did you find me?"

Natsu smirked, "I could smell your fear and I just followed your scent till I found ya." He tapped his nose with a glimmer in his eyes, "Don't ever underestimate a Dragon's nose." By her blank look, Natsu took a breath to ease her confusion.
"Well, all Dragons have something you would call a sixth sense. For example, even though you were far away, I could still pick it up."

Lucy was listening to this new bit of information with rapt attention.
"How did you know it was my scent?"

"Cause you have a nice smell," he said with a shrug, then a wince as he immediately regretted the action. "It's like vanilla and ink." Lucy's cheeks reddened at his words and she shook her head to get rid of it. She cleared her throat as she scooted to his left side and lifted his burnt sleeve to assess the damage done to his shoulder. Her hands froze just over his bicep, her eyes scanning over the skin, a strange symbol tattooed in his skin had caught her eye.

"What's this?" She muttered as she traced the outline of the emblem with her fingers. The color was a ruby red and the symbol, to her, resembled...a bird? No, that didn't seem right...
"Huh?," Natsu twisted his head to look at his own shoulder, a soft smile came to his face when his dark eyes took in the strange tattoo. "Ah, that's my Mark."

"Mark?" Lucy asked absentmindedly, still trying to figure out what the shape really was.

"That's my Mark of Fairy Tail, Lucy."

"Fairy Tail?" Lucy whispered, testing the word out.

Natsu's smile turned into a nostalgic one, as if he was watching happy memories play in his mind's eye. His hand reached up and his fingers wrapped around the soft fabric of his scarf. "Yay, it was my home for a long time. I haven't been back for a while now."

Lucy hesitated before she asked her next question. By the way he spoke about this place that he had called home and the way his eyes softened to a lighter green, Lucy knew how much this place meant to him. She had to be carful of her questions.
"Why haven't you gone back?"

Natsu played with the ends of his scarf, and Happy, who had made himself comfortable on Natsu's stomach, joined in at pawing at the frayed edges. When he didn't answer right away, Lucy began her healing process once again. More than once did Lucy want to smack herself for asking such personal, painful questions.

As the minutes ticked by, Natsu stared intently up at the ceiling, a look of deep concentration settling over his face. It was only a few moments later that Natsu let out a triumphant laugh, startling the Princess. "I got it!" He declared grandly and suddenly he was in her face, eyes wide and bright, a joyful laugh coming from him.

"I'm gonna bring you to meet them!" He smiled so brightly that the sun itself seemed to dim in comparison.

"Lucy! I'm gonna bring you to
Fairy Tail!"

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The Princess will be forever grateful to her Dragon that came to rescue her in a time of darkness. The Dragon has revealed many secrets as to who he is. He has even told the Princess about his home before his time at the castle. Now, he wants to share his memories and his home with her.
The Princess has never been so thrilled...and terrified.

Let the Adventure Continue!

This chapter is for
mystery_bubbles