Nalu: The Lone Slayer

Natsu

Lucy's POV
As the pink haired man and the blue exceed appeared in front of me and the supposed, "Salamander," I couldn't help but inwardly giggle at the confused look on his face. "You aren't Igneel." He said.

Igneel. I know that name. My parents taught me a lot about dragons and their culture. Igneel was mentioned as the fire dragon king. This must be his dragon slayer. That would make him the real Salamander.

I slowly backed out of the crowd once the attention was off of me. With the ring that man has, he may as well be able to control every person in the town square. I feel kind of bad for leaving that guy there, but, I really should get going.

At least, that's what I was thinking before he was being chased off by the hoard of fan girls. I sighed. As a child I was taught to always help people. Because of this, my first instinct was to go after them and use my magic if I had to. Then, I figured, it probably wouldn't be the best idea, so I ran into the nearest alleyway and started making my way towards the sound of pounding feet.

The first thing I did when I decided to stay in Hargeon for a while was go out and explore my surroundings. I quickly learned the terrain and found short cuts to different places I'm sure people who lived here there entire lives didn't know about.

So, I used my knowledge to catch up to the hoard of people and quickly got ahead of the crowd by using the alleys. By the time they got to the entrance I was waiting at, I grabbed the man and his exceed and pulled them in. I took off, still pulling them, in the opposite direction of the street.

When we stopped running, we were close to the suburbs outside of Hargeon. After we had caught our breath, Salamander lifted his head and looked me up and down. For a second, his eyes narrowed. 'He must have caught a bit of my dragon scent.' I thought. Every dragon slayer has, at least, the faint smell of a dragon. It sticks with them their entire lives, showing others like them what they are. It's almost like a survival instinct, I guess.

The only problem with him catching my scent was the fact that I had put a seal on myself to eleminate it. 'The seal must be getting weaker.' I thought. 'I'll have to fix that later.'

"Thanks." The man said.

I simply nodded in reply. "It's no problem. I saw them chasing you sobi figured I would help."

"I don't even understand why they were chasing me."

I chuckled a little. "His ring." When he gave me a confused look. "The ring on his finger. It acts a lot like a love spell I suppose. It's impossible to break the spell on yourself unless you are aware of it."

"Then why weren't you affected?" His exceed spoke up.

I quickly thought of a lie and said, "I was. Then you guys showed up and snapped me out of it."

"Oh, well, happy to help. My name is Natsu and this is Happy." He said, while giving me a grin.

"Aye, sir!"

I smiled, slightly and said, "My name is Lucy. It's nice to meet the two of you."

"You, too."

***

After Natsu had taken care of the fake Salamander and pulled me towards the train station, I immediately felt sick just looking at it. I made up an excuse and left the him and Happy there while a went to take the antidote for my motion sickness.

When I got back, Natsu, Happy, and I boarded the train. Everything was fine until the train started moving. As the train lurched forward, Natsu immediately doubled over, wrapped his arms around his stomach, and groaned.

Taking pity on him, without giving away what I was, I pulled him over to my seat and placed his head on my lap. I put my hand in his hair while the other supported my chin, and I began to rub soothing circles through his hair. He was tense at first, but slowly, I felt his muscles relax over me. Eventually, i was able to pull him into sleep.

"Wow. No one has ever been able to do that for Natsu." Happy said.

"This is what my mom used to do for me when I needed to relax. It always lulled me to sleep." I smiled at the memory.

Technically, it wasn't a lie. The first time I had ever been on a train, I was with Melody and Draco. They didn't realize dragon slayers got motion sickness, so I almost immediately felt the effects. Eventually my mother pulled me into her lap and rubbed her fingers through my hair as she sung me to sleep. After that I refused to get on a train without her. She was the only one who could help me. The least I could do was pass that feeling on to someone else.

The rest of the train ride was quiet. When we reached Magnolia the sun was beginning to come up, casting a beautiful glow over the city.

I woke Natsu and Happy and we got off the train. When we were off, Natsu jumped to the ground and I'm pretty sure I heard him mumble, "I'm never getting on that death trap again."

I simply hid a smile and stifled a giggle. As we made our way through town, I finally realized I had no idea where Natsu was leading me.

"Hey, Natsu?"

He turned back to look at me with a cute and childish grin. "Yes, Lucy?"

"Where are we going?" I asked, looking down to try and hide the blush on my cheeks.

"To the guild!" He said, excitedly. "You still want to join, right?" He asked in a hopeful voice.

I gave a small smile and said, "Yeah. Let's go."