Taste my Pain

The New Future

Taste my Pain

Chapter 5

Our anonymous could smell her princess as soon as they stopped at the station of Magnolia. Their body stiff after the long travel, they stretched before taking their first step onto the platform where they gave out one last stretch to ease the annoyance within their joints. 

Eyes scanning the area where they took in the busy environment around them, they weren't too used to the hustle and bustle of the city where suddenly, two scents caught their attention. This time, it was close. 

Turning on their heel, they saw two men wearing distinctive clothing in which they narrowed their eyes to examine what they were wearing. Both quite contrasting where the man with black hair wore a large black and gold cape that draped down below their knees where it was held in place by a white ribbon by the neckline. With little armour on him, he held onto a very mysterious aura around himself.

The other man was a blond man who looked playful and cocky, however, was wearing the opposite of the darker-haired boy. Wearing a blue vest with golden trimmings where its edges were covered with grey fur, he wore some kind of weird looking pants with a matching grey top where his upper abdominals were exposed.

They had to admit it, but those men were quite good looking, but what mattered the most was that their scent was familiar. Like two other people that our anon knew and was quite acquainted with. But it couldn't be true. They thought that Dragon Slayers were supposed to have the scent of their fostering dragons...

But somehow, from those two boys, their scent was mixed in with dragon blood and that scent of blood was old and wearing off. And from their own assumptions, they guessed that something must have happened long ago for that bloody scent to be weak.

Looking at the two and trying to get a better understanding of their scent, the anonymous person didn't notice how their strong their own scent was which happened to catch the dark-haired boy's attention where he nudged his friend that looked around before smirking towards their direction.

Thankfully, they were wearing a hooded cloak where it hid their appearance from sight. Their eyes watching the two approach them with their guard and defence evident, they gritted their teeth and took a step back once they stood in front of her.

"Yo, you smell like a dragon. Are you a Dragon Slayer?" the blond one asked with a cocky smile. His hands shoved into his pockets, he leaned forward and tried to have a better look of them.

The anonymous person not liking their method of approach, they backed away slowly as they hoped not to get involved in a petty thug fight that was going to happen out of nowhere. However, before they could do anything, the other boy dressed in dark colours stepped in front of his friend and stopped him from doing anything irrational and stupid for they were part of a guild and didn't want to cause trouble for the Guild Master.

With a blank expression on his face, he just simply stared at them quietly as he ignored his friend's complaining about him interfering. 

Do you know that gaze which seems like they're able to see through everything?

Yes? Well, he had that gaze pinpointed onto them, much to the unknown person’s discomfort.

"You're not supposed to be tackling them with these questions, Sting," the boy said with an emotionless face. Even though he may look terrifyingly cold. He seemed like a calm guy, unlike the other.

"Pshh. Manners this – Manners that – It isn’t my style, Rogue," Sting cussed not liking to be scolded by Rogue. "Anyways..." he turned his attention back to anon which they forced back a growl.

"Are you a Dragon Slayer, or not? We know that you’re a lady but you better answer my question before I force it out of you," he asked, finishing his question.

Feeling like she was placed under a spotlight, she shook her head and played it cool. "I was on a solo mission and came across some other Dragon Slayer in the woods," she lied before talking a few steps back to increase the distance between them. "Anyways, I must report the outcomes of the mission to the issuer." Like that, she hurriedly walked away without looking back.

Leaving them alone, she could feel their penetrating gaze stabbing her back. Finally, being able to let out a small growl under her breath, she was able to quickly escape from their sights. "I must find the princess... I need to hurry before anything happens to her," she mumbled to herself as she walked.

As she walked deeper and deeper into Magnolia, she pointed her nose up to the sky and began to trail the scent of their princess. Well, the assumed scent of her princess. Apparently, their deceased queen had described her daughter's scent before. It was supposed to be a sweet smell of vanilla and strawberries – A perfect combination of a princess!

Thanks to her nose, she was able to detect their princess in no time, until someone, interrupted her where she looked around cautiously. "This scent... Igneel," she muttered.

As she stopped to scan the area, her eyes stopped moving as she saw someone that she had met before when she was younger. The scent of Igneel's child. It wasn't hard to distinguish that cinnamon scent that the dragon was so proud of.

She couldn't recall his name, but what she did remember was his prestigious spiky pink hair. It was something that looked pointy and rigid when really it was soft to touch. 

In front of her stood a panting young man with pink hair looking straight at her with piercing eyes. He had found her. To this day, he still remembered his father's scent which has resulted in him running around to find her.

Faintly smirking as her eyes landed on something that was once Igneel's, she was quite intrigued to see the boy wearing Igneel's precious white scaly scarf that he used to boast about being rare. She thought that the scarf may be old and tattered, but there it was, looking well looked after and maintained without any rips evident on it.

"Oi, you there! You smell like Igneel – Are you Dragon Slayer?! Where's Igneel?" the boy yelled out with a finger pointed out to her. His breathing still heaving, his face showed a tint of loneliness and sadness as he confronted her.

"Young people these days, always running around and pointing at people with a dragon's scent," she chuckled as the pink-haired continued to stare at her in confusion. "Please tell me what happened to our dragons in X777..." Approaching her, he kept his eyes locked on her as he seemed desperate to know what had happened to the dragons. 

She couldn't help but chuckle to herself. Lying to get him to forget his questions, she replied to him with a well-used response that she's been using whenever Dragon Slayers would come to her and ask her about the disappearance of the dragons, "I don't know where they all went, but I'm sure that they're safe and watching over you all."

Satisfied with her answer, she was glad that there were many Dragon Slayers out there still looking for them. What made her sad however was the separation between both parties where they were unable to contact each other.

Watching, the boy looked at her with a big grin, he nodded to her answer. "Yeah, you're right! Igneel wouldn't be one happy dragon if I kept on being sad. Thank you for telling me that. I'm –"

She ignored him and ran towards the sweet scent of vanilla and strawberries when she finally got a strong trail. As she ran, she didn't realize that the boy from before had managed to pull off her hood. But she didn't care about it. All that was on her mind was to meet their princess and to protect her from any dangers that may come facing towards her in the mere future that was slowly approaching.

As she continued to chase after the sweet smell, Natsu stood there awkwardly as he tried to process what had just happened. He was just about to tell her his name when suddenly she ran off. 

And what do you do when someone runs off? 

You grab them. And so, when Natsu reached out to hold onto her shoulder to ask her what's wrong, he accidentally grabbed onto her hood to reveal a woman who was at least twenty-eight at age. With sky-blue hair that which was tied into a high ponytail, she had a pale complexion like Lucy's. She was also wearing an earring of a hanging dragon's wing.

As she ran, he tried to catch her attention by calling out to her, but she never replied. Instead, she was running towards something. To someone. 

Smelling the air to get a clue of who may have caught the unknown lady's attention, he caught the scent of Lucy... Standing there ignored, he just watched as the lady ran after the scent which screamed Lucy. 

Not understand how such a woman was in a hurry to catch up with Lucy, he stood there awkwardly for a couple of moments before walking back to the guild feeling weird.

And while he headed towards the guild, Anon continued to run. After several minutes of running, she managed to catch up to Lucy who stood in front of her with a confused expression on her face. "I... Finally... Caught... Up... With you..." she said.

Lucy just stood there dumbfounded with Plue in her arms and her bag to the side. "Umm, is there something the matter?" Lucy asked with a worried face.

The lady stood up properly before bowing down to Lucy, "I'm here to look after you... It seems like you're leaving Fiore so we'll discuss this on the train where we'll be able to have some privacy compared to here," the mysterious lady replied before straightening herself.

The blonde awkwardly nodding, she followed the lady where she was mesmerized by the sky-blue hair which shined brightly in the warm sunlight. Her hair looked so smooth and healthy where, if she were compared to her own, made her hair looked dead and dry.

"How do you know me?" Lucy asked as she followed the woman from behind. Watching the woman look over her shoulder to smile, she felt like the woman should be trusted and that she'll be safe when around her.

"Let's just say that we've been looking for you," she replied where Lucy furrowed her brows. As they continued to walk with a comfortable silence falling in between them, they both bought their tickets to the nearest city and headed onto the train where they sat in an empty carriage. 

Plue returned to the Celestial World as they soon walked in and once they were seated, the unknown woman raised her hand to chant something in a foreign language that Lucy couldn't understand where moments later, a magic circle opened up.

A barrier was made. She made a barrier surrounding them for which she apologized. "I'm sorry for surprising you, but I needed to put up a barrier so no one could hear our conversation from outside," she said with a kind smile, her body relaxing, she slowly sat up straight. "I understand that you may not believe or trust me in any sort, but I can reassure you that I have no ill intentions and I have a job, which is to protect and guide you."

Lucy nodded. She didn't know exactly why but, she trusted this lady a bit too much to be boarding the same train, carriage, and destination as herself. If this lady was going to provide her with the answers, then she'll stay.

"It must be rude for me to do sudden things like this, but allow me to explain everything, Princess Lucy."