A Pirate Tail

Chapter 5

Natsu woke up the next morning with a headache. He groaned and put a hand to his head. He looked around and expected to see his small captain's quarters but he was surprised to find that he was on the deck, over the side of the ship. He scrambled back and fell on his butt.

"What the-? What am I doing?" He stood up on unsteady legs, grabbing the edge of the boat for support.

"What happened to me last night? What on earth could have caused me to go on deck and almost throw myself off of the deck?" Natsu turned around and saw someone standing there, he reached for his sword to find that he didn't have it on. He frowned and clenched his fists,

"Who's there?" A light chuckle filled the air and Natsu began to feel uneasy. Then, a man very well known by the Fairy Tail crew, Natsu growled,

"Sting. What are you doing on my ship?" Sting smiled and tapped his head for emphasis,

"Looks like Rogue hit you a little bit too hard Natsu, you aren't even remembering us boarding you last night." Natsu's eyes widened in anger and surprise,

"You did what?" Sting smiled and put his hands on his hips,

"I boarded your ship and took your new crewmember, and she's hot. How did you manage to find that one?" Natsu's rage built up until he was prepared to kill the intruder,

"How dare y-" Sting put a finger up and gestured behind him to something Natsu hadn't noticed before. His whole crew was tied up against the railing with Sting's crew ready to throw them overboard. Natsu immediately stopped moving and moved his concern to them instead of Sting. Which was a big mistake. Sting took the opening and smashed Natsu's head with the butt of his own sword, his eyes rolled up in his head and he fell to the ground. Erza lunged against her restraints and bit the man's hand that was holding her mouth,

"NATSU!" She tried standing up but one of the pirates kicked her in the stomach, shutting her up immediately. Sting grinned, looking at the Fairy Tail crew, he reached down and grabbed a bunch of Natsu's hair and bringing him up in the air,

"You're slaves are loyal to you Natsu." He looked over at Erza with a horrible grin.

"You'll never get away with this Sting." Sting grabbed some rope from off the deck and smiled at her,

"You sure about that?" He started wrapping up Natsu's arms and legs before he sat him up on the rail of the ship, holding only his hair to keep him from falling. Erza's eyes were filled with horror and she stopped moving completely. Gray frowned and pulled against the rope holding him, worried for his friend's safety. Sting looked back at Natsu, sighing,

"It would be so easy to kill him now, but I need more begging. I need to see more drama before I drop the poor loser to his death." Erza glared menacingly at Sting but didn't show any signs of begging for Natsu's life, knowing Sting would drop him anyway. Wendy held in her shouts for her older brother, as were the others. Sting smiled brightly before throwing Natsu on the deck,

"Seems like you need more motivation than that." Sting looked to the other pirates on the ship with a horrible grin, "Get him, boys." The men rushed at Natsu and started kicking and punching him, some of them were actually taking out their swords and threatening to cut his fingers off. Erza couldn't take it anymore,

"STOP THIS!" She stood up abruptly and ran at Natsu. The men were so surprised that they didn't move until Erza had draped herself on Natsu's battered body. "You will not lay another finger on him, or you will suffer the wrath of Fairy Tail." The men laughed and grabbed Erza's hair, yanking her off of Natsu.

"Make another move like that Scarlet and I'll have to punish your crewmates." Erza glared at the men as they threw her back in her spot. Natsu groaned and coughed up blood, having woken up. Sting looked down at Natsu and put his foot on Natsu's head,

"Seems like we need a little bit more blood so that we can make sure that the sharks will rip you to shreds." Sting picked Natsu up by his hair again and put him on his previous spot on the rail. Natsu coughed again and his eye opened a slit,

"How about a sword..." Natsu's eye widened before Sting stabbed straight through the stomach. Erza screamed and the rest of the crewmembers pulled against their restraints to try to reach their captain. Sting laughed manicaly before dropping Natsu into the ocean. Gajeel looked up at Sting, pure hatred in his eyes as he got up from his seated position on the ground. The ropes around his wrists fell to the ground and he pulled out two hidden knives,

"How dare you hurt our captain?!" Then all at once, everyone of Fairy Tail jumped up and started attacking the other pirates. Erza looked over to where Sting threw Natsu off board and jumped into the icy water. Gray watched as she jumped and threw a ladder over so that she would be able to get back up. Sting laughed,

"It is pathetic for you to fight us Fairy Tail! I have one of your crewmates, and there's nothing you would do to cause her harm. Levy smiled and looked behind Sting, he turned around and felt a punch to the face. Lucy shook her hand in the air from the pain of punching him but a smile was plastered on her face,

"That hurt but it was so worth it." The rest of the pirates fell to the deck, defeated when Gray heard a splashing sound and someone calling his name. He looked over to where the ladder was and saw Erza with Natsu. He sighed in relief and looked over at Gajeel,

"Hey Gajeel, help me lift the ladder up." Gajeel grunted and they both brought the two pirates back onto the ship. Erza coughed the seawater out of her mouth then looked down at Natsu who was pinned beneath her body and the deck of the ship, she quickly rolled off of him and undid the ropes that were still on his wrists and ankles. She flipped him onto his back and put her head to his chest,

"Crap. Wendy, come here!" Wendy rushed to Erza, barely holding in her tears,

"What's wrong?" Erza put her mouth to Natsu's then started doing cpr. Wendy's eyes widened in horror,

"He's not breathing." Wendy was frozen, she didn't know what to do. Erza sighed deeply but continued her work,

"Wendy...I know this doesn't look good, but is there anything else that we can do to help him?" Wendy shook her head numbly.

"N-no..." Natsu gasped and coughed violently, getting rid of the water in his lungs. Erza sat back on her heels and sighed,

"He's alive." Natsu turned back on his back and put a hand to his stomach which was bleeding heavily. Lucy rushed up to him and frowned at the rest of the crew.

"Well we're not done yet! We got rid of the drowning problem but we still have the tremendous blood loss and infections." Wendy immediately snapped to attention.

"Right. Lucy, can you help me bring him to his bed so I can treat him please?" Lucy nodded and the two girls brought Natsu to the back room. Erza lied down on her back and took a few deep breaths,

"Wow. That was exciting." Gray nodded,

"Yeah. They came out of nowhere and just attacked us while we were all sleeping. Seems like Rogue did a number on his head too, because when he woke up the first time, he seemed really confused." Levy nodded and sighed,

"Yeah. We'll probably have a lot of explaining to do." Gray looked around in mild confusion,

"Hey guys, where are Juvia and Romeo?" Gajeel looked around in confusion before going under the deck to see if they were down there. He came up a second later with an amused smile,

"They slept through the whole thing." Everyone was silent for a moment before they all started laughing,

"We probably shouldn't be laughing like this when Natsu is in such bad condition." The rest nodded and stopped their laughing. Gray smiled,

"I'm sure he'll be fine. He's a stubborn mule, he wouldn't die that easily." The rest nodded in agreement,

"Yeah but he sure gave us quite the scare." Erza laughed and nodded,

"Yes indeed.