A Dragon-slayers instinct is not something to ignore. Natsu had spent the majority of his life fighting and living with his instincts guiding him, he trusted them deeply for they had never once led him astray.
Maybe that's why he could seem a little dense at times?
For a man who runs on instincts it could be difficult to differentiate between them and his own thoughts. No matter how they could make him look he always followed them.
That is why he had spent the last hour and a half staring at a particular request on the guild halls notice board, he couldn't explain why but he had one hell of a bad feeling about it. He couldn't figure out why but for some reason he desperately wanted, no needed to know.
He reached out and pulled the notice from the board and continued to look at it questioningly. Making up his mind he headed off towards the two other dragon slayers of the guild with the request in hand.
Luckily for him both of the mages he was looking for as well as the guilds three exceeds were gathered at a single table.
"Gajeel, Wendy take a look at this." Natsu stated with a lot less enthusiasm than usual, which did not go unnoticed by the iron dragon slayer.
Wendy looked at the request and read it out aloud. "Needed; mages to destroy monster. Reward: 800,000 jewels." She said with bug eyes as she read the reward. "That is a big reward!" She squealed.
"Why are you showing us?" Gajeel grunted curiously.
"I have a weird feeling about it." Natsu replied cryptically. "I want to check it out and I thought you guys might want in."
"I'm always ready to help!" Wendy cheered giddily.
"Aye sir!" Happy added.
Gajeel continued to watch Natsu. "Alright." He said with a curt nod. He didn't know why but for some reason he was concerned about Natsu's 'feeling'.
"Meet here again in an hour." Natsu said before walking towards Mira who was behind the bar as usual with a drunk Cana hassling her as usual. "Hey Mira I'm taking this mission with Gajeel, Wendy and the Exceeds." Natsu said happily as he showed Mira the request.
"I'll write it down for you Natsu." Mira said with her usual cheery grin. "This is exciting, all of the dragon-slayers on one team. I think I'll call it… 'The Dragon Guard'." She added with a chuckle. Mira blanched for a second. "Oh no… the damages…" She whispered to herself as she watched a chuckling Natsu walk away and out of the guild.
Cana couldn't help but laugh to herself. "Makarov aint gonna like this." She declared through her laughter.
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A few hours later Erza, Lucy, Levy and Lisanna arrived at the guild after a day of shopping to which all the boys had quickly refused when the girls asked them to join them.
"Maybe I bought too much?" Lucy asked herself as she placed her heap of shopping bags down next to Erza's. "I'll have to go on a mission soon if I wanna eat this week." She added with a giggle.
"I fear I have to agree." Erza stated as she looked over her own pile of shopping bags. "Perhaps we should go on a mission as soon as possible."
"I'll get Natsu." Lucy stated with a smile knowing the pink haired mage would jump at the chance to do a mission.
"I'm afraid he's not here Lucy." Mira interrupted her scanning of the guild. "He went on a mission earlier today with Gajeel and Wendy."
"Why would they go together?" Lucy asked bewildered.
Mira shrugged but Macao continued after he joined them from his table. "I heard Natsu say that he had a bad feeling about the request so he got Gajeel and Wendy to go with him." He clarified.
"Why would Natsu enlist the help of the other dragon slayers?" Erza asked in confusion.
"I don't know." Macao answered. "But I don't think Natsu's 'feelings' have ever been wrong, and Gajeel had a weird look in his eye as well when he looked at the request."
"You should have stopped them." Erza stated, worry clear in her authoritative tone. "If something could spook Natsu and Gajeel then it is most likely a very bad thing."
Macao raised his hands in defence. "No offence Erza but not even you could stop all three dragon slayers, they looked pretty intense… well Wendy looked as sweet as usual but you know what I mean."
Erza knew he was right. Natsu was very near to his goal of surpassing her and she knew that. Gajeel was not quite as strong as Natsu but she had seen what those two are capable of when they worked together. Wendy may have been shy but there weren't many people in the guild who were as strong as she was. Macao was right and she knew it, if they were hell bent on going then no one could have stopped them.
Erza heaved a sigh in defeat. "Very well then. We shall just have to wait for their return and hope they had no problems." Erza then turned to Lucy. "How about you go pick a job for you and I to go on?" Erza asked kindly.
Lucy nodded her head with a smile as she walked over to the request board. "Can I come?" Lisanna asked happily.
"Of course. Go tell Lucy before she picks a job." Erza instructed. As she watched the white haired mage move towards the blond she couldn't help but feel an overbearing sense of worry rest in her gut. She knew of Natsu's 'feelings'… they had never been wrong before.
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A few days later the three women returned to the guild after a successful mission. Lucy and Lisanna were getting on like a house on fire, both being so similar made it easy to become close friends. Throughout the mission the two had bonded well whilst it was clear that Erza was very distracted. As soon as they had entered the guild hall Erza marched straight up to the bar where a less than lively Mira was standing.
"Has Natsu returned yet?" She questioned worriedly, completely forgetting her manors and that there were five other people on that mission including the Exceeds.
Mira shook her head. "Not yet. But they weren't scheduled to be back until some point today."
"True." Erza replied dejectedly. "But I half expected Natsu and Gajeel to do so much damage that they were sent home." She added with a dry unamused chuckle that she added to try and sound convincing… it failed.
"Don't worry Erza they'll be-" Mira started but she cut herself off when she saw the newly dubbed 'Dragon Guard' enter through the guild doors. The guild went silent when they saw them. Erza felt her breath hitch.
Natsu limped in first. His entire left leg was heavily bandaged from just above the knee down. His right forearm was also bandaged and there was a hefty bandage placed on his chest. Gajeel's forehead was wrapped tightly and he had a long scratch mark going down from his left shoulder to his right hip. Wendy looked ok but she was still relying on the iron dragon slayer for support. Strapped to Natsu's back was a large object wrapped in cloth.
Their clothes were in tatters but they all had massive smiles on their faces, even the one on Gajeel's face looked genuine.
Erza was quick to return to her normal state. "What happened?" She asked, her voice cracked ever so slightly.
Natsu's grin spread even wider. He took the object of his back and set it down in front of himself, he then unwrapped the cloth around it to reveal a massive and sharp tooth.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Natsu declared loudly and with a flourish as the guild gazed at his trophy. "May we present the tooth of Acnalogia!" He roared in excitement.
The guild paled. Even Erza. "What?" She croaked.
"The mission was a trap." Gajeel informed as he set Wendy down next Levy. "Some bastard wanted us to get mixed up with Acnalogia." Throughout this he was still smiling.
"You defeated Acnalogia?" Gray asked in awe.
"Not quite." Wendy answered bashfully. "When we realised what was going on Natsu told Gajeel to take me and run while he distracted him." She stated shyly. Many guild members, Erza included, felt like congratulating Natsu on his decision but were too shocked to say anything. "Naturally Gajeel told him where to shove it and decided to fight as well and I couldn't leave them so we fought him together."
"Long story short Natsu realised that Acnalogia's weakness is its mouth. After Natsu punched him in the face and his tooth fell out he ran away." The White Exceed Charles informed.
"With his tail between his legs!" Gajeel added with a roar and a mighty laugh.
Natsu was still silent with that shit eating grin spread across his face. It was there up until the point Erza decided to punch him in it with her armoured fist.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Erza screamed at the pink haired mage. "You knew something was wrong with that mission and you went anyway!"
Natsu groaned but looked her in the eye when he spoke. "I did what was right." He intoned.
"What was right?" Erza repeated darky. "Risking your life like that is never right!" She yelled angrily as she went to punch him again. Natsu ducked the blow and retaliated. No matter how injured he was he would never turn down a fight.
Natsu and Erza continued their brawl for hours, with no one stopping them. Mira took Wendy to the infirmary despite the blue haired girl's insistence that she wasn't hurt that badly and that she didn't want to be a bother. Gajeel proudly regaled the rest of the guild with their tale of triumph.
A few hours later the guild was pretty much empty. Erza and Natsu were still fighting but they were smiling as they did. Finally it came to an end when Erza tripped and landed on the pink haired dragon slayer who went tumbling to the floor with Erza on top of him. The two burst out into uncontrollable laughter after sitting in silence for a few seconds. It had been a fun fight.
When the two had finally calmed down Erza looked towards her friend. "I don't care how tough you are; the next time you get one of those bad feelings of yours make sure you let me come with you." The red head stated softly.
Natsu grinned. "Alright Erza, next time I will bring you along." He replied through his heaving pants of exhaustion.
"Good." She said warmly before standing up. On her way up she gave Natsu a quick kiss on his cheek leaving him blushing on the floor. She made her way to the guild hall doors. "Good night Natsu." She called over her shoulders, never looking back so that he wouldn't see her blush.
On her way home she couldn't help but wonder how powerful Natsu and the other slayers must really be if they could scare off something as powerful as Acnalogia. She also couldn't help but wonder if it Acnalogia was the kind of creature interested in revenge. If he was… then they could be in for a worrying time. Erza couldn't help but shudder at the thought.
The image of Natsu flashed into her mind. She smiled. 'He'd protect me… he always has.' She thought to herself in her short moment of weakness and perhaps loneliness?
Natsu was running a similar train of thought in his own mind. After facing Acnalogia he and the other dragon slayers had come to a startling discovery. A discovery that will seriously come back to bite them all in the ass if and/or when Acnalogia decides to rear its ugly head.