Dragon Boy and Princess

Chapter 41

Hello, everybody! I know this is overdue a couple days, but it was hard to wite this chapter actually because the timing for the climax wasn't quite this chapter, but the story needed to progress anyway, so this is what I came up with. Hopefully, things will start to happen quicker by next chapter! I'm actually excited for what's next, but it's going to be hard to write I think, so I welcome the challenge! So without further ado--

Mira: here is chapter 41!

Meena: Hey, you're here! Long time no see!

Mira: Hey, you seem to have had a good vacation!

Meena: Yup! The beach was great!

Mira: Great! Ah, we forgot about the readers. 

Meena: Crap! Alright, back to the story!

            Lucy was back in the hallway leading to her parents' room. She had just had a nightmare, and wanted her mother's comfort. Subconsciously, she knew she was dreaming, but it didn't make it any less real. She clutched her favorite doll to her chest just as a heart-wrenching scream echoed through the air. She willed her younger self not to run to the room, not to open the door, but before her very eyes, her tiny, pudgy hand reached out and grasped the knob, twisting it and pushing it open. She knew what she was going to see. Knew that it she would find her mother's dead corpse on the floor with a gaping hole in her chest, but this time, the scene was different. Her mother was standing, quite alive, in the middle of her room. The strange thing was that a dark vortex was open in the air in front of her. Her mother seemed to be speaking to it.

             "I'll never let you—" Layla was saying.

            "Ma—" she heard herself say, but Layla whirled around, cutting her off.

           She had a panicked look in her eyes, and hurried to clamp a hand over her mouth.

            "Who's there?" a gravelly voice boomed.

            "No one," Layla hurried to say, holding Lucy behind her.

            Just as Lucy was about to peek around Layla's skirt to get a glimpse of what lay in the vortex, the scene became blurry, and Lucy was ripped from her mother, spinning in what seemed to be nothingness. Except that suddenly the nothingness formed into shapes and colors, and finally into images she recognized, all from that night. Scenes from the only version she knew and the new one she'd just dreamed mixed together, whirling around. What the hell was happening?

            As her thoughts ran rampant in her mind, she could feel her consciousness pushing through, and knew she was waking up. She tried hard to hold on to the dream, wanting desperately to know what it meant, but it slipped right through her fingers, and she jolted awake, banging her head against something leathery.

            "Ow!" a voice underneath her exclaimed.

            Wings unfurled, and a head of pink hair and curious onyx/green eyes were revealed to her.

           "What's wrong, Luce?" he asked, his forehead now creasing with worry. "You're sweating and trembling."

            She looked down at her hands that were pressed against his bare chest. They were indeed trembling, and now that she paid attention, she could feel cold sweat covering her body.

            "It's nothing, I—"

            She looked around to see Wendy, Romeo, Gajeel, Levy, Sting, and Rogue all scrunched up against her and Natsu. Oh, and interspersed in their big group cuddle were four colored balls of fur corresponding to the four exceeds that had been missing from their group until recently: Panther Lily (Gajeel's), Carla (Wendy's), Lector (Sting's), and Frosch (Rogue's).