God of War: The Descendant

22nd Chapter: Árnisi

The empty alley was disturbed by a loud, obnoxious voice. One of the pair sighed very audibly, his face somehow shrunken, while the other only looked with distaste. The owner of the voice openly and eagerly ran deep in the alley, finally ending in front of the two conversing mages. He beamed happily and even slapped the older man on the back.

"Nice to see you again, Gildarts!" Natsu was greeted by an even more forceful slap causing him to stagger back a step.

"Same to you, squirt." Gildarts replied eagerly, but not to the same level as the boy, "How did you find me here? What're you doing here?" Natsu blinked at him and scrunched his eyebrows.

"It's because of your smell." He said in an obvious tone. "What else?" He laughed a bit until his eyes set on the brunette. "Adia—I mean, Adrestia? I'm surprised to see you here too. Why are you here?"

"Answer the man's question first."

"Okay?" Natsu's treble voice trailed off as he shifted his gaze back to the taller male. Gildarts rolled his eyes at the girl's response making a display of his white teeth as he smiled. "Since I'd like to hear her answer, I'll tell you why I'm here."

"Please don't tell me you came here just to challenge me to fight."

The dragonslayer smiled sheepishly, "Well partly, yeah. But—" The taller male was midway through his facepalm until another voice joined in. It was high pitched and belonged to a certain blonde girl, now standing at the end of the alleyway. Natsu opened his mouth to speak, but the girl stopped him.

"Natsu, you idiot!" Lucy smacked the boy's head, a fistsized bump forming beneath the thick pink hair, "Don't just run off like that! Me and Happy looked around and you were suddenly gone!"

"S–Sorry!" Natsu rubbed his head, wincing at the bump. A flying cat came into view and he instantly lightened up. "Hey Happy! I'm quite surprised you didn't leave her alone—"

"I was so worried!" Happy hugged his face and let go when he heard a deep cough. His teary eyes turned to see Gildarts and his gentle smile. He shouted with glee, "Gildarts! You're back!"

"Hey there, flying cat." Gildarts put his big hand on the cat's head and petted it. "I still can't get over the fact that you got wings."

"Even after all these years, you're still surprised?" Lucy whispered to herself, not expecting anyone to hear. The cat teased her.

"I never imagined you were emotionless, Lucy."

"Shut up, furball!" The blonde chased the flying cat in hopes of strangling it. Once she saw where it flew off to, she halted in her tracks. Happy was grinning at her hitch. She cleared her throat and ignored the dancing cat floating above. "H–Hey Adrestia! How you doing?"

"You're just like him," Adia directed her gaze at the pink-haired boy, "Always asking too many questions, and always too curious." She scoffed then looked at the cat above her. One glance was all it took to scare it back to it's partner. It went hiding behind the dragonslayer, looking warily at her. She clicked her tongue.

Lucy didn't really expect an answer until she got one. Mild surprise crossed her face, then mild amusement. She rubbed her arm as she spoke, "Well, we can't help but be curious, you know?" An airy laugh escaped her, then immediately died down at her absence of response. "Going back to the topic, what are you doing here?" The brunette raised a brow at her and she slightly choked on her words as she continued, "Not like it's a problem! It's just... While we we're walking, Natsu said he could smell Gildarts, and well... He didn't mention you were here too."