The Princess and the Commoner

Chapter 7: Captured

Lucy ran out the guild doors with tears streaming down her face. 

"Where did he go?!" She looked around frantically for the man that took Natsu but he was gone. Lucy sat on the ground but kept looking around, "Please...you need to bring him back. He's my best friend..." Lucy put her face in her hands and started crying. She thought she could cry forever, that the tears would never stop falling. But after a few minutes, Wendy, Happy, and Gray rushed to her side and asked her what happened, 

"He t-took Natsu..." Lucy took a deep breath and looked up at her friends with sadness in her eyes, "A man went in Natsu's room and took him away." Gray clenched his fist and covered his eyes with his bangs. 

"Lucy, did you see the man's face? Or something that could tell us something about him?" Lucy nodded slowly, 

"Yes. He had some kind of dragon symbol on the cloak he was wearing. And it was covered in flames that were surrounding the dragon." Wendy gasped sharply. Lucy looked up at her friend and looked in her eyes; they were filled with horror. "Wendy? What's wrong?" Wendy looked up at Gray who was now looking at Lucy, 

"Are you sure Lucy?" Lucy nodded then frowned, 

"What does that symbol mean?!" Wendy looked at Lucy and put her hand on her shoulder, 

"It means that the person that took Natsu was from the royal family of the Tartaros kingdom. And there are only two people who are in the royal family. So..." Lucy's eyes widened in horror, 

"Zeref..." Wendy nodded her head reluctantly, 

"Yeah. He took Natsu back to the Tartaros kingdom." Lucy took a deep calming breath and stood up. 

"Ok. That's alright. We can go get him. We need extra food and some things to stay the night in the woods maybe. And we need a good team to go search for him." Lucy smiled and looked at her friends who were shocked by her reaction, 

"Lucy, we can't. It would start a war between Tartaros and Fiore." Lucy shook her head and smiled brightly, 

"Nope. Fiore has no army to fight with and I don't count as the princess because both of my parents are dead. We formed a small government of sorts to control the country until I am old enough to rule by myself. So I'm not considered a princess and we have no army to fight anybody. So there will be no war if we are trying to save Natsu." Lucy frowned at Gray as he was trying to say something, "But I am still the princess to you Gray. So you have to do everything I say and when I say it!" Gray sighed in frustration, 

"You are so stubborn Lucy." Lucy smiled and squealed in excitement. Then Lucy, Gray, Wendy, and Happy heard someone coming from the guild and they looked to see who was coming. Lucy looked and saw Erza, Carla Wendy's exceed, a black exceed, and... Lucy looked at the door of the guild in pure shock. She looked at Gray with a questioning face and he shrugged with a light smile on his face. Gajeel looked over to the group and his eyes widened in question at Gray. Gray was getting tired of looks and threw his hands in the air, 

"I'm tired of this looking and glaring! Someone start talking please!" Lucy frowned slightly and pointed at Gajeel, 

"What is he doing here?!" Gajeel looked at Lucy in frustration, 

"And what is she doing here?!" Gray sighed and looked at Lucy first, 

"Gajeel is not actually a palace guard. He was actually a member of Fairy Tail working undercover to see what the kingdom was up to. And Gajeel..." Gray looked at Gajeel and continued, "Lucy is here because she wants to become a member of Fairy Tail and she wants to help Fairy Tail get Natsu back." Gajeel's eyes widened and he looked at Lucy, 

"What do you mean get Salamander back?" Lucy frowned slightly and she looked Gajeel in the eyes, 

"Natsu got kidnapped by Zeref Dragneel. And me and a couple others are going to go get him back." Gajeel laughed slightly and pointed at himself with his thumb, 

"Then count me and Lily in." Lucy frowned slightly, 

"Who's Lily?" Gajeel pointed at the black exceed standing beside him, "Oh. That's Pantherlily?" Gajeel nodded and Lily smiled, 

"Nice to meet you princess." Lucy nodded slightly, 

"Nice to meet you too Lily." After introductions, several people volunteered to help Lucy get Natsu back, including Gray, Happy, Lily, Gajeel, Wendy, Carla, Erza, and Lucy herself. 

"Ok, lets get some supplies and get going at first light." Everyone nodded and headed towards their homes. Crap, Lucy thought, I don't have a house to get things from. Just the castle and it would look suspicious for me to go and get supplies and camping materials. Lucy put her hand to her face, thinking about what she should do. Then someone came up to Lucy and tapped her on the shoulder, 

"Do you need some things for your trip Lucy? I've got some extra things at my house if you don't mind using old things." Lucy turned around and Erza was standing there with an amused face, 

"Yes! That would be amazing Erza. But are you sure that I can use your things?" Erza smiled and nodded her head, 

"Yeah. It's no problem, I don't use them anymore." Erza grabbed Lucy's hand and started dragging her to her home. On their way to the house, Erza had been explaining where she lived, 

"You see, I live in somewhere called Fairy Hills. It's where all of the girls of the guild can sleep instead of buying an apartment somewhere else." Lucy listened intently, she had never heard of these things before and was excited to learn about them. 

When Lucy walked into Erza's room, she saw rows and rows of armor she had never seen before. It was amazing. And Erza had so many different armors that she had to rent 3 different rooms to store them. Lucy looked around in amazement at all the armor. Erza laughed at her reaction and led Lucy to a room where there was all kinds of supplies that Lucy could use for their travels. 

"Here you go Lucy. You can use any of these things. Be free to grab whatever you think you'll need. You probably won't need to grab much though because I usually pack everything we need for our trips."

"Thank you so much Erza. I don't know what I would do without you!" Lucy slightly bowed to her friend in thanks. 

"No problem Lucy. And whenever you need any kind of help, just ask." Lucy nodded and Erza left her to grab her things. She looked around the small room filled with supplies. 

"Well...I'll only bring a few things since Erza said she was bringing most of it." Lucy went through the items and grabbed things she thought she could use on the journey: sleeping bag, water canteen, tent, small packages of food, extra clothes and some other things. When Lucy grabbed all she needed, she had a small bag with what she thought she really needed. 

"Ok Natsu. Don't worry, I'm coming to help you." Lucy put the bag on and headed towards the room Erza said she could sleep in. "Just wait a little bit longer, ok?" Lucy laid down on the bed and fell asleep almost instantly.