7 Chapter 7

"Sorry ma'am, sir, this is as far as I can take you." Said the coachman as the carriage stopped.

"No problem, thank you for taking us." Said Laki as she hopped down the carriage.

"Thanks pal," Natsu thanked the coachman as he followed after Laki.

"I will make a camp not far from here," said the coachman, "After you two are done with the job, just call me and I will take you back to madam Mito."

"No problem, thanks again." Natsu grinned as he waved his hands as the coach turned the carriage around and left.

"Natsu, look." Laki pulled Natsu's sleeves and pointed at the village in front of them. "Isn't that village a little too big?"

Natsu followed her gaze, and his eyes widened seeing the enormous village. "Holy shit. That's not a little too big, that's gigantic! Is this a village for giants!?"

"Giants actually exists?" Laki muttered in wonder.

"Of course they do, what makes you think otherwise?" Asked Natsu.

Laki blushed in embarrassment, "I …I don't know? Maybe the lack of physical evidence? Or maybe there has been no sightings of them for centuries?"

"You're such a nerd," said Natsu, picking his ears with a nonchalant expression.

"Well I'm sorry I wanted physical evidence before I believe in something!" Laki pouted, crossing her arms as she looked away.

"Let's go," Natsu ignored the girl's words as he walked towards the village.

Laki stared at his back for a few seconds before she sighed and simply followed him.

It was only after they neared the village that Laki realized just how ridiculously big the village is. The walls alone stood at probably fifty meters in height!

They have been walking for tens of minutes and the village still looks like it was getting further away …as if they weren't even moving.

She wondered why the coachman couldn't just drove them just outside the village and not leave them in somewhere so far away.

"Halt!"

A thunderous voice boomed as Natsu and Laki halted their steps to stare at the sky, where a large figure was falling.

When it landed, the earth shook and Laki even fell down on her butt with her glasses falling down from her face.

Her mouth is wide open in shock as she stared at the giant that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"This place is strictly for citizens of the Sun Village only! No foreigners are allowed to step foot!" Declared the giant.

"Um," Laki stood up as she took a step forward, "We just want to ask if we could take some fruit that only grows near the Eternal Flame?"

"Impossible!" The giant denied, "The Will of Fire is something only given by the Eternal Flame to whoever it deems worthy! We will never hand one to you!"

"Well, that works." Natsu shrugs as he patted Laki's shoulder, "Let's just beat them up and take what we need to."

Laki blinks, twice, before Natsu's words immediately sank in, "Wait, Natsu—!"

"Come on big guy! If you don't move aside we'll force our way through!" Natsu shouted to the giant, much to the shock and horror of Laki.

"You move aside!" The giant growled at him, "I told you, no foreigners are allowed to set foot in the village! Are humans became so stupid they can't understand speech!?"

"What'd you say!?" Natsu roared angrily as his entire body lit up in flames. "Who're you calling stupid you large dumbass!?"

"Of course it's you!"

"What!? Now I'm mad!!!" Natsu roared loudly as an enormous dragon-like figure appeared under his feet and carried him on its head, "Whoever gets beaten is the stupid one!"

The dragon was made from the Ten Thousand Beast Flame and his own Dragons Flame combined, allowing him to create a dragon-like beast that stood no smaller than a giant.

The giant's cheek twitched in annoyance seeing that, "How dare you try and imitate our sacred Eternal Flame!? Fool, hand over thy head!"

"I'll burn you to crisp!"

Laki, who was on the ground, just stared blankly at the giant and the flame dragon wrestling with a blank expression.

...…

...

…

Inside the Sun Village, in some sort of enormous altar, there is a large figure bathed in flames.

This is the "Eternal Flame", the guardian deity of the Sun Village. Unknown to the outside world who knew about the village, the Eternal Flame is actually a dragon.

Atlas Flame, the Hellfire Dragon. He is the one who created the Sun Village centuries ago and has protected it as its deity ever since.

He usually just spend his days sleeping, unless he was out teaching magic to a 'disciple', or more like a 'daughter' of his.

However, the moment Natsu summoned the dragon made of fire, Atlas Flame immediately felt it and woke up.

He looked at the direction of the entrance of the village, 'This presence …Igneel!?'

What he felt was similar to the presence of his old friend, Igneel the Fire Dragon King, but … 'No, it's similar, but this isn't him. Not to mention it's too weak, it also smells more a human than a dragon.'

"Dad, what's wrong?"

Atlas Flame looked down on his legs and saw a girl around fourteen years of age with long red hair rubbing her eyes as if she just recently woke up.

'If it's not Igneel then …it must be him.' Atlas Flame thought as he was hit by a wave of nostalgia.

"Flare," Atlas Flame looked at the human girl below him, "Can you go outside the village and ask the guard to let the visitors in? I want to talk to them."

"Hm, okay." The girl, Flare, simply nodded at Atlas Flame before she jogged towards the gate to meet the guards.

Atlas Flame stared at her before sighing, giving a small grin as he stared at the sky.

'Four hundred years …I didn't think I will get to meet you again, son of Igneel. If you're still alive …it means their plan succeeded.'

He curled up on the altar and closed his eyes, taking a rest.

'Which also means, the time for the Dragon King Festival is fast approaching.'

...…

...

…

"Natsuuuu!!! Can you stop fighting?!!!" Laki screamed from a distance. She doesn't want to get involved in the fight between the two behemoths, she might turn into paste.

"No way!! He started it!!!" Replied Natsu, controlling his dragon to tackle the giant on the chest.

"Urgh!? You stupid human!!!" The giant stumbled down on the ground, causing a quake, "You're the one who started it!!! I was just doing my job!!!"

"As do I!!!" Natsu replied back as his dragon used tail attack, hitting the giant on the face and causing said giant to be sent flying from the force.

"You're being a real jerk right now!!!" Screamed Laki.

"Tell him to stop first!!!" Natsu screamed as he ordered the fire dragon to punch the giant on the face.

"No way!!!" The giant roared back, grabbing the dragon on its jaws, "I will never apologize for attacking an invader!!! Besides, aren't you the one who started this first!!!? I was just telling you to not step foot in our village!!!"

"Grrr!!!" Natsu growled before taking a deep breath, "Fire Dragon's Roar!!!"

At the same time, the fire dragon also spewed out a large torrent of flames towards giant. The flame engulfed him, and Natsu couldn't help but reveal a smug look.

However, his eyes widened in shock seeing the giant completely unharmed and even managed to tackle his dragon to the ground.

"Fuck!" Natsu managed to not fall from the dragon and quickly controlled it to grapple away from the giant …to no avail.

"Gyahahaha!!!" The giant laughed as he tightened the hold on the dragon's neck, "We, giants, have been blessed by the Eternal Flame to have a body that is completely resistant to flames!!! Unless you're a dragon, you can't even hope to hurt us with your puny flames!!!"

"Why you—!!" Natsu glared at the giant in frustration, "Dammit!!!"

He poured every ounce of magic power he has to the dragon to force it to escape from the clutches of the giant.

But even so, the giant did not even budge.

"Useless!!! The giant's innate magic, reinforcement, allow us to reinforce properties of anything we want!!! Including our physical strength!!! Even a true dragon won't be able to beat us in physical strength, much less a cheap imitation like this!!!"

"Damn! This giant is ridiculously strong." Natsu couldn't help but grit his teeth in frustration.

As he tried to think of ways to get out of this predicament, he suddenly noticed a girl probably a little older than Wendy, give or take a year or two.

She was running towards them and seems to have come from the village.

He blinked in surprised, before turning towards the giant, "Hey old man, there's a little girl that came out from your village over there."

"Hm?" The giant loosened his hold on the dragon before turning towards the gate and saw a little girl running towards them, "Flare!? What are you doing here!?"

Natsu took this chance to escape and banished the dragon, only to hop on the head of the giant. "You know her?"

The giant nodded, "We raised her since she was kid. She is also learning magic from our guardian deity."

"Org!!!" The girl screamed while waving her hand to the giant. However, she suddenly tripped, and fell down to the ground.

"Aaahhh!!!! Flare!!!" The giant, Org, panicked seeing the girl tripped and hurried towards her, only to stop upon seeing Laki help her up.

He sighed in relief, "Thank you, human girl."

"She's Laki," said Natsu, sitting on the giant's head. "She's my partner in this job."

Org's cheek twitched in annoyance, "Like I said—"

"Org!" The girl, Flare shouted at the giant with Laki standing beside her, "Dad said to let them in!"

"Hm? The lord Eternal Flame did?" Org stared at her in confusion.

"Yep, said he wanted to talk to them." Said Flare.

"I see." Org nodded as he picked up Natsu from his head and put him on the ground, "since lord Eternal Flame said so, then you may proceed. Flare will accompany you."

"Thanks man!" Natsu gave him a thumbs up, "You're really strong! Let's fight again sometime!"

"Gyahahaha!" Org laughed, "Say that again after you train your body, human man!"

"Thank you, and I'm sorry for my friend." Laki bowed to the giant, "He's very impulsive."

"Nah, it's alright." Org nonchalantly waved his hand, "Now, off you go. Don't keep lord Eternal Flame waiting."

"Once again, thank you, and sorry." Laki bowed her head once again before grabbing Natsu and turned towards Flare.

"You can follow me!" Flare puffed her chest in pride, "I'll lead you to dad! I'm Flare by the way."

"I'm Laki, a mage from Fairy Tail."

"Natsu, same with her."

"Nice to meet you two!" Flare flashed a smile, "Now come on! Dad is waiting!"

With that, the three went inside the village.