The Red Dragon

Chapter 24

His thoughts remained with Natsu, calling to him, telling him how much he loved him and how sorry he was, utterly oblivious to the sound of loud roars behind him or the screams of panic from his attackers. Or even the fact that the field he was on had somehow burst into flames.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" A voice yelled, surprising Gray with the fury behind it. He turned his head slowly, coming face to face with an enraged Fukou. "When are you going to stop being so reckless?! I'm not always going to be around to save your ass."

Gray blinked, having a hard time understanding what was happening.

Fukou appeared frantic, eyeing the flames that were getting ever closer. "Climb on!"

"What?"

"Climb on! We have to get out of here. This is my fire, I can't eat it."

"No," Gray protested weakly but with no less determination.

"We don't have time for your bullshit," Fukou shrieked, and when Gray refused to move, he launched himself into the air, quickly diving to grab Gray in his talons before flying them away from the blazing inferno.

"Let go!" Gray yelled, thrashing as the harsh wind acted against his wounds, "You're hurting me!"

That seemed to get Fukou's attention, and Gray could hear him cursing loudly, the sound of it amusing him slightly.

"If you weren't so fucking stubborn, you'd be riding on my back, where I could protect you from the wind."

Gray screamed in agony, the pain too much for him to handle. He could feel them losing altitude, the ground looming ever nearer until he felt Fukou land using only his rear legs, muscles tensing as he tried to keep his balance. He released Gray, gently placing him on a soft grassy area.

Gray took a moment to look at the dragon who had once again come to his aid. It shocked him to see the amount of anger still present in the creature's eyes, although he was taking deep breaths, almost as if trying to calm himself down.

His eyes shone a beautiful shade of emerald green, and his talons glowed with a red light that sent warning signals to Gray's brain.

"What, uhm, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to heal your sorry ass. Again," Fukou groused, "Do you have a death wish or something? What would you have done if I hadn't happened by?"

"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself," Gray crossed his arms over his chest in defiance, for the moment ignoring the pain the simple movement caused him, as he scowled at the implication that he was always in need of rescue.

"Whatever you say, Princess, all I know is if you keep this up, I'm going to have to learn new healing spells."

"Don't call me that!"

Gray screamed in agony as Fukou healed his wounds, the dragon making no effort to be considerate.

"Ow, damn it! Can't you be gentler?"

"I could, but I want you to remember the pain," Fukou declared with a self-satisfied smirk, "then maybe you'll be more cautious in the future. I always wondered why Atlas did that, now I think I understand."

Gray let the words swim in his brain as the pain subsided, the warmth of Fukou's healing magic still soothing him despite the dragon's attempt to teach him a lesson. He felt his wounds closing up before hearing one last word. "Sleep."

0-0

Gray awoke inside an unfamiliar cave. Upon sitting up, he discovered that all of his wounds disappeared. Gray found no sign of Fukou inside the cave, but after some searching he finally found him sitting outside the entrance of the cave looking up at the stars.