Icy Fire

Team Work

The pair walked outside to discover Ur and Erza sitting beside a glowing fire pit. The food was sitting on a table beside them with enough space for everyone to find a place to sit. Gray laughed as Natsu rushed over to the meat half drooling. Ur handed the pink haired teen a tray. He loaded it up sitting beside Erza. The stars lent them light as the moon came up over the horizon.
"How long was I asleep for?" Natsu asked.
"An entire day." Erza rolled her eyes. "You should have told me you were feeling so bad." She scolded. Natsu shrugged. After everyone else finished eating there was still some food left. Ur had to laugh at his pouting face.
"Go ahead, finish it up." She told him. "Just wash the dishes before bringing them in. Gray can show you were we do that." Natsu agreed with his mouth full of more meat.
Once dinner was over with, Gray lead the way down to the stream behind the house. Here there were several different places set up. In one area there was a wooden box with a screen on the bottom. Gray put the dishes in there. He showed Natsu how they washed them. Pointing down stream he showed where the laundry area and bathing pool were. Up stream was fresh water. This they hauled back to the cabin to drink. Natsu set to work without argument.
He washed all the dishes, neatly stacking them in another wooden box. Moving to the laundry area he glanced around. It had been awhile since Gray had gone back to the cabin to "help clean up". Natsu was sure he was alone with his Exceed. Stripping the filthy clothing off, he washed it in the sun warmed water. Laying it out on special mats to dry. The two friends went to the bathing pool.
No sooner had they dove in did they hear someone calling Natsu's name. The boy sprang up from the deep pool. Gray and Erza stood beside the dishes. Natsu ducked back down in the water.
"Where is he? Why did he just leave the dishes here?" Gray asked. Erza tipped her head back to look up at the sky.
"Maybe he went hunting."
"Dose he do that naked?" Gray had found his clothing. Erza chuckled.
"He's a dragon." She chuckled. Gray's eyes went skyward.
"Is it weird that I keep forgetting that?" he asked the stars.
"No. It means you see the person before the creature. Not many have looked at Natsu that way." His friend commented. Gray let his gaze slide down to her.
"What's his story, anyway?" he asked. She drew in a breath letting it our slowly.
"That you will have to ask him."
"Alright, how long have you known him? Only on the train?"
"No, we met a long time ago. I was ten, Natsu was eight." Her eyes drifted around the area.
"We had both come out of a really bad experience. We stuck together looking out for each other."
"More like you protected him when he got into trouble." Gray scoffed. He was looking up at the bottom of her boot a second later. She glared down at him.
"Natsu is many things, but I will not allow anyone to install his loyalty. He was there for me in a time when I had no one. He forged this sword for me, to give me back my independence." She yelled at him.
"Uh, sorry." Gray scrambled back on his hands and feet, never taking his eyes from her. "Um, when do you think he will be back?" he asked trying to defuse the bomb that was Erza's anger.
"You're his Knight, just call to him." She insisted.
"Yeah.." Gray rubbed at the back of his head. "... I forgot I could do that." Natsu dived under the water. He found that the pool was very deep. As a dragon shifter he could hold his breath for a really long time.
'Natsu?' the tentative voice called in his head.
'Yeah?' he responded.
'Where are you?'
'Swimming. This pool is....' Natsu's mental voice let out a scream. Gray was running towards the water. He was only halfway there, just over halfway undressed, when a geyser of water erupted from the pool.
The rain fell around the ice mage and warrior at his side. A mighty red and black dragon burst up from the depths of the land. A small speck of blue and white was flying beside its head. The dragon reached a height that the thing following it couldn't compete with.
It looked like a very large worm. Dark gray sightless long tube of a creature. It's mouth full of many pointed teeth. A tongue licked out trying to catch the delectable treat getting away. Gravity was its enemy. As the wings of the dragon beat the air to pull its heavy body up out of the water, the worm creature couldn't get any higher. It was falling back down. Unfortunately it wasn't falling back to the water.
Having lunged for the dragon, it was off course. It's heavy weight was coming right for the ice mage. Gray seeing the danger turned to swing Erza out of the way. He would be crushed under the weight of the beast, but he needed to save the girl. Said girl, really wasn't waiting around to be saved.
Erza saw his outstretched hands. Leaping up she placed her feet in them. Using him as a springboard, she pulled the sword free. A cry tearing from her throat as she flung herself at the head of the creature. Gray gaped at what he was seeing. The dragon, hearing his friend, spun around. A flame of blue/ white fire rained down on the worm. Ice protected the girl, but her flame sword cut through it.
Gray managed to place blocks of ice under her feet to get her higher as she tried to reach the worm. The falling creature and raising girl met in the middle. The flame sword dug deep into the body of the beast. Erza hung on. Her weight pulling the sword down the length of the beast. The dragon was coming down with talons splayed. It gouged at the head of the beast, tearing it apart. It was apparent the dragon was doing all it could not to have the hot blood strike the girl.
The ice mage realized this from the dragons thoughts. He froze the blood as quickly as he could so it wouldn't burn the girl. Just before the heavy weight of the now dead creature struck the earth, the girl jumped free. She barreled into the ice mage, sending him flying backwards as she rolled up in front of him. The dragon managed to hold the body of the subterranean creature away from his friends. He dropped it to the far side of their cleaning area.
Swooping back upwards. Natsu flew over his friends. There was an opening large enough for him to land, right beside them. He did so. Lowering his head he brushed his scaled neck over the ground to reach the girl. His head laid beside her.
'Is she ok?' Natsu asked.
'I'm fine, thanks for asking!' Gray grouched. The eye of the dragon blinked at him.
'I can sense you are unhurt. Is Erza...'
"Natsu, I'm fine. Stop worrying." The girl scratched at his scaly neck. She patted his nose. "Good team work." She smiled at him.
"He sees that you have some burns." Gray translated for the dragon.
"They're not as bad as they could be. Your ice magic cooled them before they touched me. They will need some attending too, but it could have been far worse." She told the ice mage. Turning to the dragon. "Go steam dry your clothing. Let's get this cleaned up." The dragon nodded its head before stretching over to were he had left his clothing. Puffing steam from his nostrils he dried the cloth. Happy flipped them over for him.
The little Exceed gathered them up and flew into a nearby bush. Natsu, dragon disappeared. The boy stepped from the bush a few minutes later dressed.
"He's handy, at least he can tell me what your thinking in dragon form." Erza praised. Gently Natsu inspected her wounds.
"Good thing he was able to cool the blood. These are pretty deep still." He frowned.
"Is everyone ok?" Ur came running into the clearing with Lyons at her side. She took in the sight of the mutilated corpse.
"What is that?" Lyons asked.
"It was in a tunnel cave under the swimming area." Natsu stated.
"That area is over a mile deep, how did you get down that far?" Lyons asked.
"Dragon form?" Ur guessed.
"No, Natsu can hold his breath for a very long time." Erza stated.
They worked together to clean up the mess. Natsu took the clean dishes back to the cabin. Lyons, Ur and Gray froze various parts of the beast so Erza could cut it up. The blood being frozen left little mess in the bathing area.
Once the part that was out of the water was cut up, Natsu would pull more out as his dragon. They worked steadily through the night to take care of the beast. At one point, Erza had Natsu fry up a steak like portion. They tested it out.
Although a bit tough, it was edible. Natsu worked to cook the meat into various things like steaks, trail jerky, and a hamburger of sorts. Gray, Ur and Lyons stored it in their near empty meat house.
"Looks like we won't have to hunt for months now." Ur grinned.
"It should last through the winter." Gray agreed.
"Especially since we won't have you around." Lyons teased. Gray threw a snow ball at him. Lyons ducked behind Erza so it hit the girl in the shoulder. She yelled at them brandishing her sword. The boys tossed the ice and snow balls around. Erza batted them away. Happy chased after them as Natsu burned them with his flame. They fell into a heap an hour later laughing.
"We are going to have so much fun at school." Happy cried.
"All the food we can eat!" Natsu agreed.
"Proper training facilities." Erza cheered.
"It sure is going to be quiet around here." Ur murmured.
"Well, I can fly Gray up any time!" Natsu told her. She laughed.
"That would be wonderful." They were all very tired. With the heat of a fire dragon in their midst, they fell asleep under the rising sun.