The Tales of the Princess and the Dragon

Chapter 7

Children of Fire

A few months after the coronation, King Natsu and Queen Lucy had already made great progress in improving the Dragneel Kingdom and stabilizing the region. Advanced training was already underway for the Dragneel army to be able to fight against several enemies at a time and for the ranged units to be able to fire at high speeds with great accuracy. Natsu had even finished working on the juggernaut armor for the bigger troops to be able to take a much larger number of hits and keep fighting. Lucy had already begun to improve the economy with her ideas and had steadily repaired the damage done by her father's actions during his time of grief. The entire kingdom had expanded greatly and was now the largest kingdom in all of Fiore. But the greatest adventure was just about to begin.

"Hey Natsu, I need to talk to you about something." Lucy said as they sat down for breakfast.

"Sure Luce. What's on your mind?" Natsu asked through a mouthful of eggs.

"Um..Well...I don't exactly know how to tell you this..." She said hesitantly. Natsu stood and walked behind her to wrap his arms around her. He rested his chin on her shoulder and pulled her up.

"What is it Princess?" Natsu asked kissing her cheek. She giggled and turned to look at him.

"I'm not a princess anymore, silly. But...there might be one living with us soon...." She said slowly.

"What do you mean?" Natsu asked totally unaware of what was about to be said.

"Um...How do I put this...there's going to be a prince or a princess in the nursery in a few months...not adopted..." Lucy drummed her fingers on her stomach.

"Oh." All of the color drained from Natsu's face as he sat back down. He looked as if he had seen a ghost. "So you're..." He pointed at Lucy.

"Yes.." She replied encouraging him to continue processing her words.

" And we're gonna have a..." He gestured between the two of them.

"Or more."

"And I'm gonna be a..." He finished.

"Yes. We're gonna be parents Natsu!" Lucy said crying tears of joy.

"I could have a son...?" Natsu breathed. "But I don't know a thing about what being a father is supposed to be like. Neither of us do. What's...What's gonna happen? I don't know anything about parenting." Natsu said burying his face in the table. Lucy sat beside him and ran her fingers through his rosy hair.

"It's okay. We'll figure this out, my dear. Don't worry. We'll be better parents than ours were. We'll just take it one day at a time. We'll make it through this alright." She soothed. Natsu looked up at her and pressed his forehead against hers.

"Yeah. Thanks Princess." He replied with a smile.

Months later, Lucy was holding an infant with small light-red scales here and there on his body.

"Hm. Those are interesting marks your son has, My Lady." The royal doctor contemplated after verifying that the baby was indeed healthy. Natsu allowed a few red scales to appear on his arms.

"Yeah I've got some of those too. Must be from my side of the family." He replied to the doctor.

"I see, My King. Other than that though, I see nothing wrong with the young prince besides these two small red slits just under his shoulder blades that I don't know what to make of. If anything happens, please do not hesitate to bring him to me. If you'll excuse me Your Highnesses." He said with a bow.

"Did you hear that Luce? Our son is gonna be fine! I thought for sure something would happen since I am a dragon and you're a human. Wow. Our son, a perfect mix of dragon and human." He awed looking down at the little miracle.

"Yeah I can hardly believe it either. I'm a mother...and of a half dragon no less. Natsu, what are we going to name him?" Lucy sighed.

"How about Ignis?" Natsu suggested.

"Ignis. After your father. I think that's a wonderful name, Natsu." She smiled looking back down at baby Ignis. "Get ready for the adventure of a lifetime, my dear. You're a father now."

"Yeah. And there's no one I would rather share this adventure with other than you, my princess." He replied.

Days passed, turning into months, and months into years until three years had passed in the blink of an eye. More improvements were being made to the kingdom since the coronation such as improved armor and weapons and more damage reversed in the economy. More trade routes were being established between further and smaller kingdoms across the country to improve the overall economy of Fiore as well. Meanwhile, inside the Dragneel castle, things were progressing smoothly. Ignus was growing to be a healthy human-dragon hybrid and was learning about and how to control his already developing powers. Queen Lucy was ready to have a new edition to the family as well.

"Ignus," Natsu said as he was teaching his son how to control his wings and fly. "You're going to grow up to be a great dragon boy. You will be a powerful man and you will be the champion of your friends and this kingdom. That's the way! Ignus, you're flying! Keep going! Yes! That's my boy! Flying at three years old. I couldn't fly until I was four or five. That's my boy. Lucy! Our son can fly! Come out here!" Natsu shouted through the open window. Lucy came waddling out of the castle as fast as she could with the baby on the way. Ignus, seeing an opportunity to impress, flew up into the air and flew in circles around the two.

"Daddy look! Flying!" Ignus cried in delight. His small wings gave out and he plopped into his father's arms with a smile. He ruffled his son's wild blonde hair and tickled him under the arms receiving a squeal of laughter.

"That's not good." Lucy said with a look of worry written on her face.

"What's wrong Luce?" Natsu asked her walking over to her before stopping in his tracks a few feet away from her. "That's one strong heartbeat. I can hear it from here. It sounds like our kid is ready to come on out. Let's go get the doctor!" He ran to the doctor's quarters in the castle wing beside theirs and brought him to their bedroom where Lucy was.

"Another one with the same birthmarks except these are pink this time. Is there anything I should know, Your Highnesses?" The doctor asked cocking an eyebrow at the two. Natsu and Lucy exchanged a look.

"If you needed to know, we would tell you, good doctor. Is she healthy is what I want to know though." He responded.

"Yes, my king. Your daughter is very healthy. She is going to be a great princess just like your son will be a great prince as far as I can tell. Nothing to worry about. Now then. If you'll excuse me, it's very late and I have urgent matters to attend to such as sleeping. Queen Lucy, King Natsu." He replied with a bow and a salute. He shuffled back to his living quarters and disappeared through the doorway.

"So that happened. Again." Natsu commented. "But hey she's healthy! What should we name her, Princess?" He asked. Lucy tapped her chin in thought and looked at Ignus.

"How about Layla? After my mother. Everyone says she was an excellent queen in all honesty and I want to do her honor." She decided.

"That sounds perfect, Lucy." Natsu responded with a smile. "How about it, Ignus? How about calling your sister Layla?"

"Lay-la!" Ignus replied having slight trouble with the articulation resulting in laughter filling the room.

Three years later, Natsu had successfully taught Ignus what he was exactly, the bridge between the human people and the rest of the dragons still living among the humans. He also taught him how to control his appearance to look like a full human which wasn't hard since he was already halfway there, but he had to teach him how to alter his appearance to turn into a full dragon which was difficult for Natsu since he was full dragon and not half. Ignus learned how to breathe fire, fly, control his appearance, cloak his fists in fire, and use his heightened dragon senses, but that was the extent of his powers. Although these were the extent of his powers and couldn't do many of the things his father could such as cloaking his entire body in fire, forge dragonmetal like his father, or fly as fast as him, he could cloak certain parts of his body in fire which would make him lethal in close quarters combat in later years, he was extremely agile in both human and dragon form while flying even for a dragon kid as young as he was. He could control where his fire went to an extent but would give him more control over it in time and he could see and hear as well as Natsu could. Layla, their long pink haired daughter, was progressing at the same rate except in smarts. At the age of three, she was already speaking full sentences and was doing math and solving riddles. At the same time she was progressing in brain power, she was also honing her skills with her blade-like claws, flying, and fire breathing as well. Her scales were pink like her hair and although she was speaking full complex sentences, she was shy, reserved, and slightly timid but she was also head strong like her brother and could figure out a way around problems. A horse came galloping at full speed through the front gates and then the inner gates with an unconscious rider.

"Woah there horse. Let's see what you've got there. Lucy could you please go fetch the doctor while I get this man into a room? Ignus, could you please go prepare a sandwich and a bucket of water for the man and bring it to the guest room?" Natsu asked them. They went to ease the unconscious rider off the horse when he grabbed Natsu's arm.

"No my liege. I...have a message. An invasion...two months....hundred thousand monsters....coming for you.....Acno...paper in my....pouch..." He rasped as he fell onto Natsu unconscious again. He put the rider on his back and carried him to the guest room inside so the royal doctor could examine him while Ignus brought the food and water.

"He'll be fine. He just needs some sleep and plenty of water when he wakes up. He must have ridden for several days without stopping long at all. He's severely exhausted and he'll most likely sleep for two to three days after he drinks more water." He explained. "It's good you brought me a patient like this. I was beginning to think that all I was good for was just checkups on your children and delivering babies. Come get me if his condition worsens. I must be off. Your Highnesses." He bowed and left. Natsu left to go retrieve the pack the horse was carrying and found the paper the scout was talking about.

"It says that there is an invasion force of about one hundred thousand monsters and beasts headed straight for us. Their leader, Acno, was reported to rant about dragons and how he's killed several including..." He stopped reading and fell to his knees as tears began to pour down his face. "So that's why you never came back for me, Father."

To Be Continued