The Dragon's Key

The Key

I do not own Fairy Tail or it's characters, I just like to sail my favorite Fairy Tail ships ;)

Fire consumed me. To my very core, all I felt was intense heat. Pulsing through my veins, swirling in the air that I breathed. I grasped at his shoulders trying to ground myself in any way I could from the all-consuming feeling. He looked up at me his eyes resembling reptilian ones with glowing green irises and pupils that formed into thin slits. I moaned as he leaned in and nipped at my bottom lip with his sharp fangs, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Now you're mine" was the last thing I heard.

One Month Prior

"Are you absolutely sure we're going the right way Happy?" I said with a sigh as my blue exceed companion and I pushed through the thick underbrush of the forest for the second day in a row. Well I struggled to walk through it as he happily flew a few feet above me.

"Geez Lucy have a little faith! I'm a cat after all and we are known for our excellent sense of smell and direction" He chirped happily.

"Dogs are known for their excellent sense of smell and direction, and you're not actually a cat, you're an Exceed Happy..." I grumbled exhaustively as another branch smacked against my leg. We were members of the well-known Fairy Tail guild and had chosen a job to find a long-lost treasure deep in a forest on the other side of Fiore.

It took us two days on the train to arrive at a nearby village where we stayed a night being de-briefed by an old man named Eiji Katobi. He was the one that put in the job request and he owned a local museum and wanted the treasure found to add to his collection. He was offering 1,000,000 jewel for whoever could bring it to him, and that would cover my rent for so long I couldn't help but take the job.

Happy has been my partner ever since I joined the Fairy Tail guild a year and a half ago, and we went on every mission together, even if he got on my nerves sometimes. We also liked to take our friends Erza, Gray, Wendy and Carla with us too but they were already on jobs when we chose this one.

"Why does the stupid map to the treasure have to be so confusing anyway?" Happy complained a few minutes later and I sighed. He was right on that one, all we received to help us find the treasure was a crumpled piece of paper with a small riddle scribbled on it that said "Deep in the trees is a dragon's keep, the path is treacherous and very steep, gold and flames is what you will find, but be sure to be swift and keep in mind, only a heart that is celestial and pure, will be able to find the door."

The note was found in an abandoned castle near the forest we were currently in, and there was a well known cliff deep within it that not many people have been able to journey to because of the dangerous terrain. So Happy and I figured that must be where the clue is talking about, but the only part we are unsure of is what it means by only a pure heart will be able to find it. It was also strange that it said there is a dragon's keep, but dragons arent still around...are they?

I screamed as I grabbed onto a branch to find a snake slithering on it and hissing at me. Happy swiftly dove down and grabbed me before the snake could strike at me and we flew up above the trees. Happy had been carrying me on and off as we wondered, but I didn't want to exhaust him so I would tell him to let me walk for most of it. But once we reached above the trees the monstrous-sized cliff in front of us came into view.

"We finally made it Lucy!" Happy exclaimed excitedly before dashing through the sky towards our destination. We slowed once we neared the cliff to start searching for the hidden door with a sky view. After about an hour of flying close to the edge of the cliff, I started to wonder if we were wrong to think this was the right cliff.