The Maiden & Her Guardian Dragon *Discontinued*

Chapter 19: Don't Ever Say That To Me Again.

The three eventually made it back to the inn. Natsu & Gajeel burst through the door in a hurry as Natsu laid Wendy down on a nearby bed. The rest of the group looked at them in disbelief as the made their way over to their friends.

"Natsu, what happened?!" Lucy exclaimed, "What's wrong with Wendy?"

"We were attacked by Night Shade, they're the ones who are controlling the town." He said in a stern voice

"Night Shade? You mean that guild that Wendy, Me, Juvia, & Laxus destroyed?" Gray asked with a hint of disbelief

Gajeel nodded, "Yeah those guys, turns out the guys you fought were just grunts; the boss is here in Lumina."

"Gajeel are you ok?" Levy asked worriedly as she looked at his injuries.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't get beat too bad, its Kid you guys should be worryin about."

The group stood near Natsu who was sitting Wendy's bedside, a look of undeniable regret on his face.

"Erza..." he said sorrowfully, "Can you help her?"

Erza nodded to her friend, "Yes, I should be able to help her if her wounds aren't too severe."

Natsu got up from his seat so Erza could sit and he walked to the other side of the room, his friends following him. After about an hour or so, Erza walked over to her friends; they all looked at her, anxiously waiting on news about Wendy's condition.

"She's out of danger for now. She just needs to rest so she can regain her strength."

Everyone sighed happily, all of them relieved that Wendy was ok. Except for Natsu, he was still upset that he had allowed Wendy to get hurt so badly.

Gray snapped him back into reality. "So what do we do now? How are they controlling the city?"

Natsu refocused himself and pulled the map he got from the secretary out of his shorts pocket. He then began to explain how the town was taken over and the effects of the spell being used on it.

Gray sat and thought about the matter aloud. "So what you're saying is that we have to destroy the sites in order to break the spell."

"Yeah." Natsu answered him sullenly

"Well," Gajeel began as he reclined in his chair. "What are we going to do Salamander?"

The room grew silent as everyone turned their attention to Natsu. He was still distressed about what happened earlier, and he looked at Wendy who was still lying in bed. He clenched his fist in anger as he thought of Romero and turned his attention back to the group; a look of fury in his eyes.

"We're going to take down those sites." Everyone smiled and gave each other a determined look. They knew what they had to do.

"Well since there are 5 sites and 10..." Levy stopped as she looked at the fallen Wendy, "9 of us, one of us will have to go to a site alone."

"I'll go. I'll take the one in the casino, that's where Romero is." Natsu said adamantly, the tone in his voice left no room for an open debate.

Gajeel smirked, "Fine you can warm him up, but after I finish my site I'm going to the casino too." He looked at his right hand as he clenched it into a tight fist, "I still gotta pay that bastard back for what he did to me."

"Well if Natsu is going by himself, where do the rest of us go?" Lucy asked the group.

"Well we have to divide the remaining sites among us, everyone else goes in teams of two." Gray explained as he pointed at the remaining sites on the map. "So who is going with who?" Gray looked around at the group.