The Dragon Father

The Clue

The first week came and went. It went too quickly.

Natsu had gone mad with worry. He had scoured half of Fiore non-stop. Nothing. Exhaustion, hunger, thirst, none of it hindered Natsu, he was too busy going mad with worry.

Acnologia had also gone mad with worry. He didn't know how Natsu was concealing himself, but the Dragon King had flown around the world many times and sensed nothing. Erik had found nothing. Even Serena had come up with nothing. Acnologia roared in anger as he soared above the world and decided to go around the continent again... he needed to find Natsu and Lucy... mostly, he needed to find Natsu.

Tyregenium cackled with his game. Lucy was hidden from Natsu's senses, and Natsu was hidden from the other's senses... all the handiwork of Tyregenium, naturally. He giggled to himself as he thought of the inevitable end to this sad, sad game.

At the end of the first week, Natsu considered heading back to Magnolia to receive his clue. He didn't have to. The clue appeared on his doorstep. He opened it to find a boat in a bottle on the floor in front of the abandoned building he had slept in.

The boat proved two things. The people behind this game were tracking him, and Natsu couldn't sense them. After that, every human around him became a suspect. 

He contemplated the boat for two days as he continued his search, and then concluded that it was trying to tell him that Lucy wasn't in Fiore. He would have to take a boat and scour the rest of the world.

'It isn't much,' he thought grimly, 'but it narrows it down by a country. I only have five days.. I have to keep going.'

"Dammit," Acnologia growled sending a table flying.

"You've got to calm down, this isn't helping anything!" Serena ordered standing up and attempting to end Acnologia's minor tantrum.

"You're absolutely right!" Acnologia growled pacing the guild, "Standing here in this guildhall is doing absolutely nothing!"

The remaining guild members, with the exception of Makarov, were cowering. Serena stood before the Dragon King unafraid.

"The whole guild is looking, all the guilds are looking," Serena reassured him.

"And why haven't they found him!" Acnologia hissed looking at the table that would soon be his next victim.

"I-I don't know," Serena sighed.

"I don't damn know why either!" Acnologia growled kicking the table away.

"Destroying house-hold items is NOT GOING TO HELP!" Serena cried.

"It makes me feel better!" Acnologia growled.

"Acnologia... you have to-"

"What about the council," Acnologia interrupted, "Can the council help?"

At this, Serena took a pained sigh, "That's something else I need to tell you."

"What!?"

Serena grimaced as he came clean, "The council is undergoing a change in power. The Wizard Saints are being pushed out and... they're going back to the old ways of the council."

"What," Acnologia growled.

"...It happens tomorrow, I know you guys have been stressing out about this whole missing persons business so I didn't tell you all."