Chapter Text
“On your left!” The deafening crash of steel rang throughout the battlefield, which prompted the remaining bandits to shriek in fear. The force of the blow sent the enemy flying back a few feet, only to stumble into a pitiful ball once he landed.
Lucy whipped her head around, heart pounding from overexertion. She sighed in relief when she heard the falling cry of the silent enemy. “Thanks!” She panted, and turned back towards her current fight. I’m the corner of her eye, Erza gave her a nod. With one more crack of her whip, the opponent fell.
Dried leaves crunched under Lucy’s aching feet as she walked over to tie up the fallen bandit. “Got one more!” and oh, how her body ached. She could almost feel the warmth of the bath that would be waiting for her. Lucy turned to where she had last seen Gray, only to be met with a solid block of ice with a human inside of it. Next to the block, Gray patted the ice proudly and oh my goodness he’s in his underwear again-
“Good work, everyone.” Erza congratulated, letting her Heaven’s Wheel armor fade away. “I’ll call the Rune Knights to take these bandits away.” If she heard Lucy's ‘We're 40 kilometers away from town,’ she didn't let it show. “Where’s Natsu?” The scarlet haired mage looked at her surroundings, trying to see even a single trace that their fire mage had been there, only to be met with undisturbed scenery. Well, undisturbed is… a little to the left of the truth. Erza decided to ignore not only Lucy’s previous statement, but the bull tracks from Taurus, the ice spikes from Gray, and hacked and slashed trees from yours truly and was that Gray’s shirt over there? All this damage, but no ash and charcoal.
Erza looked at Gray, “Have you seen Natsu?”
Gray stopped patting the ice block, and took in the information that his totally-not-favorite rival hadn’t come back from when he’d chased off at least a half a dozen bandits. “Nah, I haven’t seen him since maybe half an hour ago?” He also decided to ignore the routine ‘Gray, your clothes,’ from Lucy.
Erza hummed, “Well, if he’s not back within the next half hour, we’ll go looking for him.” It was concerning that they hadn’t heard from the dragonslayer in a good while, but it wasn’t unlike him to go running off to see whatever fits his fancy outside and even during a battle.
“Maybe the idiot got distracted again?” Gray drawled as he finally spotted his fallen shirt. Maybe he can find his pants and shoes somewhere.
Lucy’s eyes narrowed, “Maybe…”
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Natsu felt pretty proud of himself. The fire mage stood surrounded by a little too crispy and unconscious bandits. Those guys honestly thought they could take him on? Hah, what idiots. Natsu had just finished binding up the mages when he saw it. A faint red sparkle in the corner of his eye. Knowing himself pretty well, of course he’d go and check it out. Mainly because it was shiny though. Curiosity killed the cat, but if it was shiny then it brought the dragon back.
Natsu crept forward, slow, silent, like how a predator stalked prey. Or, more specifically, like a dragon stalked prey. Footstep after footstep, Natsu carefully felt around the ground as he avoided anything that would make noise. Fallen leaves and branches were especially nasty to step on when hunting. Faintly, gently, the back of his throat vibrated into a trill. The thrill of the hunt was exhilarating every time, and he’d never grow tired of this feeling.
Soon, he stood right in front of the source of his curiosity. It was an object, crimson in colour, and the shape and pattern was achingly familiar- for a brief moment, Natsu’s mind was assaulted by bittersweet memories of a kingdom long gone, as he heard faint echoes of wing beats, and if he thought hard about it, he could feel phantom tremors as the byproduct of earth shattering roars.
A dragon egg.
Natsu Dragneel, the dragon in human skin, raised with scales and cinder and flight, found a fucking dragon egg.
Natsu carefully bent down to scoop up the egg - it was a lot smaller than Happy's was, and looked a lot different than - and prayed he wasn’t crazy. Hoped that there was life in this small shell. Begged that there were still dragons out there. As soon as his wartorn hands touched the rigid, yet smooth, crimson surface, he felt it. Warmth… warmth, and movement.
There was life.
So much so that his magic flared in response. If that was happening, then taking the colour of the egg in regard, and how his magic responded, not only would this egg be a baby dragon, but this egg would be a baby fire dragon.
All of a sudden, Natsu felt faint. The pain of Igneel’s disappearance hadn’t hurt nor lessened this much. The juxtaposition made his world spin. The dragonslayer took a deep breath, two, three, and then carefully, oh so gently, picked up the dragon egg and cradled it in his arms. Not too tight, but not too loose, and he let his fire warm it.
For the first time since Igneel’s disappearance, Natsu felt whole.