Solitary Princess - Nalu ✔️

Chapter 32

The forest was eerily quiet as the group jogged along the path leading to Natsu's home. Lucy struggled to keep her breaths even as they rounded a corner and saw the light of flames through the trees. she could hear some shouts, but it was much too quiet to be called a battle ground.

When they made it into the clearing, Lucy didn't see what she expected to see. There was no fighting at all, but many people were occupied trying to extinguish the fire latched onto the building. It looked like the fire had just been sparked, but if it continued to spread, it would climb the walls and consume the large posts supporting the structure of the building and make the whole thing collapse. Right now, luckily, it was only about the size of a small room on a section of the building that was only a single story tall.

Lucy stood at the edge of the trees, not quite knowing what to do. But Levy rushed forward to grab an extra bucket, so Lucy followed quickly behind. She trailed the small girl through more trees to a stream about a minute's run away.

Lucy didn't have too much trouble keeping up, but by the time they made it back to the building, another whole section was consumed. At this rate, the entire building would be destroyed beyond repair before they could put the fire out.

Lucy threw her water into the flames  and watched as it hardly did anything. She hurridly looked around, her eyes searching for a solution. All those years of lessons had to be good for something.

Then she spotted a shed not too close too the fire. She rushed inside and saw outdoor tools along with a huge hamper of laundry and some cleaning and food supplies. She grabbed all the shovels she could hold and rushed outside.

There were a few people within ear shot, so she screamed, "EVERYONE GRAB A SHOVEL AND START THROWING DIRT INTO THE FIRE!"

People paused for a split second and studied the princess, but Lucy made eye contact with a shocked Gajeel who immediately yelled at everyone to obey.

She threw the shovels to the ground and people ran to her, either grabbing them from the ground or going into the shed to grab more.

Lucy tensed as the first shovel of dirt was thrown into the fire, "DON'T PUT TOO MUCH ON ONE SPOT, SPREAD IT EVENLY."

She watched as little by little, an edge of the building was extinguished. But doing calculations in her head, Lucy knew it still wouldn't be fast enough to keep it from spreading. Not to mention, it'd do little for the sides of the buildings.

She ran back into the shed and shouted for help. The buff kitchen worker ran in and together, they grabbed an entire bin of baking soda and took it outside. She ran back in and grabbed a giant tub of salt reserves and mixed it with the baking soda.

Together, they tossed handfulls of it into the lower parts of the fire. It began to release carbon dioxide which put the flames out at a much faster rate than the dirt, but they ran out of the mix and still had an entire room alight.

Lucy ran into the shed again and prayed for something else. She noticed a side door and threw it open to find bedding reserves. She grabbed a few blankets and began to beat at the flames with the help of a few others.

A few people who didn't have shovels or blankets continued to get buckets of water.

With everyone working together, the flames died down at a faster rate than they were burning and the night began to become dark again.

The princess layed gasping on the ground in the light of the moon, nerves spiking and addrenaline still rushing through her veins. The fire had been stopped right before it reached a major supporting pillar that would've brought the whole building down. They had quite literally arrived in the nick of time.

Lucy sat up and looked around. She hadn't seen Natsu at all, but recognized a few people from the castle. Her lungs were still burning from the smoke and her eyes were overflowing in an attempt to get rid of the ash stinging them.

She shakily stood to her feet and wiped her nose with the back of her hand, causing it to burn even more because of some remaining salt on her hands.

She stumbled at first, but steadily made her way over to where she could barely make out Levy working in the moonlight.

The small girl was hovering over someone lying on the ground. She tore some cloth, probably from the shed, and wrapped it around their arm to stop bleeding.

Lucy looked around and saw a few others also injured and immediately jumped to help. She began to sooth burns and stop bleeding as efficiently as she could. She didn't quite know how to fix a break, but her basic medical training was more than enough to save their lives.

More injured were carried to the spot where the two women worked, and Lucy put her full focus on the tasks placed in front of her. Her mind thought of nothing except helping her patients and the only sounds she made were to occasionally bark out orders for more water or cloth if she needed it.

Then she heard a yell and running footsteps towards her. Lucy looked up and watched as Grey placed a body right in front of her. He said something, but Lucy couldn't hear as she looked down at her new paitient. He was covered in ash and not breathing, but Lucy didn't need to see the color of his hair to know who he was.

She fought her own thoughts back as she placed her ear to Natsu's chest and her fingers to his neck.

She listened.

And felt.

And heard nothing.

She hurridly sat up and began to perform CPR. She snapped his sternum on the first push and clenched her teeth, reminding herself that was normal as she repeatedly pressed his chest, throwing her weight onto him. He was unresponsive.

Lucy paused after 30 compressions and took a deep breath before tugging his chin up and pressing her lips to his. If she wasn't already coated, she would've immediately noticed the ash between their lips. But as it was, she could only feel how cold his lips were against her own as she breathed her own air into his lungs.

She had repeated the compressions and ventilations two more times before he started to cough horridly. Lucy quickly turned him onto his side as he began to vomit up ash and bile.

She finally let tears cloud her vision, and as soon as he was done hurling his insides, the princess pulled him to her chest, careful not to squeeze him too tight or stifle his breathing.

"Natsu... oh god..." Her voice broke as she listened to his breaths slowly start to even out.

She pulled away, trying not to look at his face and grabbed a water bucket, "Drink." She commanded, but the general didn't need to be told twice. He gulped water down before pulling away to gasp and gag again.

Lucy studied his body, looking for further unjuries, avoiding meeting his eyes. She could feel his gaze on her as he heaved and drank. She quickly soothed a few burns and cleaned and bound some of the deeper cuts. She paused her fussing only when he grabbed her hand in his.

Lucy met his gaze finally, and his wet eyes tried to tell her something that she hadn't been taught to read.

Natsu attempted to choke out something, but she shushed him, not wanting permanent damage done to his already hurting vocal chords, "Just... stay quiet for now and rest."

Natsu let himself lie back on the ground as he gripped her hand, not breaking eye contact until his lids fell closed and his grip slackened. Lucy closed her own eyes and took a shaky breath, reminding herself he was just sleeping.