Chaos & Salamander

Chapter 57 - Wrong Way

Lucy's POV

"Grrrrrrrr" I growled as I was stuck in a glaring battle with Sting who was glaring and growling back. Natsu and Rogue stood on either side of us, ignoring our behaviour but making sure neither of us started a fistfight. Meanwhile, Gajeel, Wendy, Pantherlily and Carla were chatting together and Kaito and Kyan were staring at me and Celestia.

"Welcome Dragon Slayers and Exceeds" a male voice boomed throughout the hall which caught everyone's attention. We turned to see two men standing at the hall entrance. The one who spoke had purple-coloured eyes, glasses and black tied up hair. The man beside him had green eyes and spikey raven hair. Both were wearing Magic Council attire. "Apologies for our lateness. My name is Lahar and this is Doranbolt, we are here on behalf of the Magic Council to explain the request" the same man, Lahar, spoke.

"What's this about a dragon?" Gajeel asked with his arms crossed. Lahar adjusted his glasses before speaking. "I'm sure your guild masters have briefly explained the request to you. About a week ago, a dragon appeared in the city north of Fiore called Doriloss. For some reason, it has been attacking Doriloss daily around the same time every day and it is unknown why it has specifically begun targeting this city. The Magic Council's Rune Knights cannot get close enough to fight the dragon, but we hope you Dragon Slayers can do better" Lahar explained. "Wait, so the citizens of this city have no clue why this dragon is angry at them?" Sting questioned. "That is correct" Lahar replied.

I began to quietly think to myself. Why would a dragon suddenly attack a city? If the dragon wanted destruction then it would've done it in one attack. What if the dragon is looking for something? If the dragon wanted something from the city then it wouldn't keep attacking every day. It would've just taken it and left. Or maybe it's looking for something that was taken from it. That could explain why the dragon is continuously attacking. Did someone in that city take something from the dragon? "You ok?" Natsu asked which brought me out of my thoughts. "Yeah, I just have a hunch on why the dragon could be attacking this city but I'll need to know more to be sure" I replied as I looked up at him.

"What are we waiting for? Let's kick some dragon butt" Kaito said which made me want to facepalm. We don't even know if the dragon is actually friendly and he wants to rush into battle. Doranbolt walked over and handed a map to me. Probably sensing I'm the most responsible in the group to handle this map. "This map will lead you to Doriloss" Doranbolt said before returning to Lahar's side. "Report back here once you have completed your mission. Good luck Dragon Slayers" Lahar said and then Doranbolt teleported both of them away. Teleportation Magic huh?

With them gone, I began to inspect the map to see the route we need to take to Doriloss. "Tsk, why did he give you the map Blondie?" Sting complained. "Probably because I'm more responsible than you Lightbulb" I retorted with a smirk. "Oh burn" Happy snickered which Sting glared at him. "Well, it makes sense he got burned by a Fire Dragon Slayer" Celestia commented, adding to my insult with a smirk. "Oh double burn" Happy snickered again which made Sting mad. "Give it here!" he complained as he snatched the map from my hands. "Hey!" I complained along with Natsu's growl. At least I memorised the map before he snatched it away from me. "I can lead us to Doriloss better than you Blondie" he said as he began walking towards the doors. "Yeah you can do it Sting!" Lector cheered as he followed Sting and glared at me. Natsu glared and growled back which terrified Lector and made him run after Sting.

I noticed Sting took a right instead of a left as soon as he walked out the doors. Grumbling to himself as he was reading the map. "It's the other way" I called out since he was going the wrong way. A long minute passed before we saw him walk past the doors going the correct way this time. "Shut up!" he complained which made everyone in Fairy Tail except for Natsu chuckle. "We'll follow you Bunny Girl" Gajeel said with a wink. "Yeah, we trust you to get us there" Wendy said. "Lead the way Lucy" Celestia added. All of their words made me smile and then the rest of us walked out of the hall.

After a few hours of walking and correcting Sting when he goes the wrong way, we were walking through the forest and the sun was beginning to set. "Wrong way" I told Sting again for like the hundredth time today which made him finally snap. "Argh! Shut up! I know where I'm going!" he shouted. I gave him a smirk, "alright then, go that way" I taunted him. "I will!" he shouted back and walked in the wrong direction. Rogue, Lector and Frosch followed after him while the rest of Fairy Tail and I stayed back. "Wait for it" I said and a few seconds later, right on cue, we heard them screaming, especially Sting. All four of them ran back to us in a rush with red itchy skin. We began to laugh at them. "If you read the map correctly then you would've noticed that poison lilies grow thick in that part of the forest" I said and Rogue glared at him while trying to scratch his itches. "I can stop the itching" Wendy said and then used her healing abilities to stop their itchiness. Wendy is too sweet and kind. One of the reasons I love her as a friend.

Rogue snatched the map off Sting and handed it back to me. "Rogue!" Sting complained as a minor look of betrayal crossed his face. "I'm sick of you getting us lost. Let Lucy handle the map" Rogue replied which Sting growled at me. I poked my tongue out at him and he recoiled with surprise. "Enough, we should make camp for the night. It's getting dark" Kaito said as he got in the middle of us. "Sounds good. I'll go get some firewood" I volunteered. "I bet I can find more wood than you" Sting challenged which made my competitive side kick in. "Oh, you're so on!" I replied and then quickly began to gather as many sticks as quickly as I could. I'll show that dumb Lightbulb that I'm better than him!