~(Y/N)'s POV~

I stood waiting for Natsu at the edge of the forest like we said we would. Eclipse and Void resting on my shoulders. I spotted the familiar salmon hair running to us with a mass of blue and white flying after him. Natsu finally reached me, Happy landing on his head. "Hey Natsu. Did you sleep well?" I asked. He nodded. "Yep. What about you?" He questioned. I smiled a little. "I slept fine. Do you have everything that you might need?" I questioned. He nodded with a bright smile. "Ready to go on my end." He confirmed. Eclipse shot a look over at Happy. "Did you get your guild mark removed?" She asked. Happy nodded. "I caught Mirajane on her way to Fairy Hills and had her remove it in secret." He said. I took a deep breath and looked at the forest in front of us. "Still can't believe this is actually happening. I guess a part of me still wishes this was all one big nightmare." I mumbled. "You and me both." Natsu agreed. "But it isn't." Void growled. I sighed and shook my head. "I still don't understand why this had to happen before S-class Trails. Couldn't Makarov have done this afterward?" I questioned. "But what if on the off chance Natsu became S-class?" Happy questioned. Natsu shot him a glare. "Are you saying it wasn't likely for me to make S-class!?" He shouted. But I just nodded slightly. "I suppose you have a point Happy. If Natsu made S-class then Makarov would have to kick out a fresh S-class wizard. He'd be in quite the bind because of that." I said. I shook my head slightly clearing it of thought. "Hey Natsu. There was something I wanted to give to you." I said, setting my bag down. He gave me a look. I pulled out a cloak of blood red color, with golden flame detail. I draped it over his shoulders with a smirk. "Red looks good on you. The cloak is fire proof and the fabric it's made of is nearly indestructible. I have a feeling you may need it." I said, clipping it together with the ruby seal. Natsu stared at it in wonder. "WOW! Where did you get this?" He questioned, swishing it around like a child, eyes full of stars. I winked with a snicker. "That's a secret." I said. "Oh no fair (Y/N)!" He whined. I just laughed again before pulling out a matching black cloak with purple flame detail. I draped it over my shoulders and clipped it in place with the amethyst seal. "And with that, I believe we're off." I said, closing my bag and throwing it over my shoulder. Natsu picked up his own bag that he had dropped when he got here. Happy, Void, and Eclipse all sat on our shoulders, staring into the dark forest themselves. Me and Natsu stood side by side, collecting ourselves. I turned my head to face Natsu again. "Ready to head into the unknown?" I questioned. He nodded with a smile. "Always." Natsu confirmed. "Alright then." I said, taking a step forward and leading us into the forest. 

~Time Skip~

I set my bag down as did everyone else. We had been walking all day and the sun was starting to set, letting us know it was time to camp. "Natsu do you want to handle getting food today while I set up?" I questioned. He nodded with a confident smirk. "Yeah I got this." He said. "Don't overly burn it will ya'? I don't mind but that doesn't mean the Exceeds do to." I said. "Yeah, yeah." Natsu said dismissively, walking away into the forest. While he was doing that Happy started fishing by the river we were setting up near, not confident that Natsu wouldn't burn the food. Eclipse and Void helped me set up the camp site, helping get the fire ready as well as set up the sleeping bags. Once the fire was prepared I flicked a finger and used regular old orange flames to ignite it. Happy brought back four raw fish. I wrapped each one in a leaf and set them off to the side while we waited for Natsu to get back. He returned later with his catch and I began cooking. The fish were easy enough, leave Happy's raw and cook the other three since Void and Eclipse like their share cooked. When it came to what Natsu brought back from his hunt I knew to cook that thoroughly since it's what me and Natsu would be eating, plus that one extra fish that I gave to Natsu since he was drooling over the smell of it. Dragon Slayers got to Dragon Slayer I guess. After the rest was done we dug in. I ate in small portions but still ate a lot, verses Natsu who was just wolfing his down like usual. Once again, Dragon Slayers got to Dragon Slayer and I was hungry. We also added some of the Exceeds choice foods since Eclipse brought some sweets such as cookies and Void brought things that could be used for tea. I was grateful for that last bit. Once everyone had full stomachs and clear minds the Exceeds started dozing as I sat in front of Natsu. 

"Alright. So I guess we can start specialized fire training now. Knowing you if I tried to sleep you'd pester me to start early anyways." I said while sweat dropping. Natsu nodded with an eager expression. "Alright." I said, clapping my hands together quietly. "So the thing is, mastering many different types of fire is different from mastering one type. I was always taught that when I gained another type of fire, I had to tame it. Become it's master. Bottom line, don't let the fire run wild with you. Show it who's in control. You already have good mastery over your dragon fire. Being able to shape it, and being able to keep it from burning people you don't want it to burn. But when you switch to a different type of fire, you have to have that same control on something that could have completely different levels of intensity. You're following right?" I questioned. He nodded. "So I've just gotta tame different types of fire right?" He asked. "In simple terms yes. But it's really hard. Because each fire is different." I said. "For example, this is something someone with complete mastery over a single element of fire can do." I added, standing up. I ignited some dragon fire around my body before letting it form around my hands. The fire began shaping until it formed the shape of a bow with an arrow ready to fire. I quickly aimed at a tree and shot the fire arrow, landing a solid hit on the trunk. The fire arrow slowly dissolved leaving only one scorch mark on the tree. The fire bow slowly disappeared and I sat back down. "Notice how it only burned where I wanted it too. That's what complete mastery can do." I said. Natsu nodded with an excited expression. "So cool." He mumbled. I smiled a little. "Let's try getting you used to another fire element, I'll let you eat my flames until you learn to summon them yourself." I said. I held out my hand and purple flames ignited around it. "Purple Flames." I said. "The kind that Macao uses most often." Natsu said. I nodded. "Right. Purple Flames are some of the easiest to master but fire is still fire. Before you can summon it, you have to tame it." I explained. Natsu nodded, taking my hand as the flames transferred over to him. He ate the purple flames before igniting them around his hand once more. "Alright. Good. Remember, tame the fire. Make it do what you want. It shouldn't be too difficult. Try envisioning what you want it to do, if it doesn't do it, keeping trying until it listens." I instructed. Natsu nodded, eyes focusing on the dancing purple flames. The raging fire slowly began to calm down now a small flame at the palm of his hand. It then grew in size, before shrinking again. The flames grew in size again, this time enough for me to feel the heat. But it wasn't scorching, just pleasant. "Good. You can control size, try grabbing something without burning it like Macao did." I instructed. The purple flames in his hand, shrunk into a small tendril, reaching over and grabbing a random stick on the ground and bringing it over. The flames dropped it into my hand and I inspected the stick. "Hm. There are a few scorch marks, so you don't have complete control. But enough control to where the stick didn't burn. So I'd call this lesson a success. Keep trying until whatever you pick up has no scorch marks. Tomorrow morning when we start moving again I want you to try and summon the same purple fire. Since I now know that you can tame other types of fire pretty easily, maybe this training can go quicker than anticipated." I said. Natsu nodded with a smirk, extinguishing the flames. "Right." He said. "Hey (Y/N)?" He added, giving me a look. "Yes?" I questioned. "Thanks for doing this. It means a lot." He said, avoiding eye contact a little. I snickered patting his shoulder. "Anytime." I said. With that I snuggled into my sleeping bag and watched the stars until I fell asleep. 

The next morning we got our things packed up and started moving again. While we were walking Natsu started trying to summon the Purple Fire from last night. Eclipse asked me what he was doing and I explained our training excise last night. She dug around in her bag before pulled out the book on Fire Magic. Natsu shot the Exceed a look as she smiled. "This is my favorite book on Fire Magic written by my favorite author. When (Y/N) practiced summoning new flames I'd always read it aloud to her and it'd help. Would you like me to read some off to you?" Eclipse questioned. Natsu shrugged. "Why not? I'm sure I'll have to relearn the basics of fire magic for every new fire I start using anyways." He said. Eclipse cracked open the book to page one and cleared her throat. "Chapter 1: The Basics of Fire Magic. Fire magic is a powerful yet dangerous art. And it's not suited for everyone who tries it. Having said that, you'll never know unless you try. If you already know how to use fire magic, and are simply trying to learn a different type, go ahead and skip to Chapter 5." Eclipse flicked through the pages with a smile. "Chapter 5: Taming Different Fire. The process of gaining different fire varies from person to person. Others will find it easy, others will find it difficult. So the steps will be used in different order for different people. Those that have been using fire magic for most their life will probably find the taming part easy. What comes hard is summoning and control. Does that sound about right?" Eclipse questioned. Looking over at Natsu. He nodded. "Yep. Hit the nail on the head." He confirmed. Eclipse nodded. "For summoning, think about what fire feels like. More specifically, think of the type of fire you want to summon. Think of all the properties of fire, think of a roaring flame. How hot is that fire? What color? Have you seen it in action before? If so what have you seen it do? Referencing back to chapter one, once you have the right picture in your head, and you've thought of everything you feel necessary, you should focus those thoughts and observations into one spot, where you're trying to summon the flame. You should feel a tiny spark of magic in that spot, and once you feel that spark ignite it. Never practice new fire without an experienced fire user close by though. Just in case you accidentally set yourself, or something else, on fire." Eclipse read. Natsu closed his eyes, seeming to be focusing and I nodded. "Think of what the Purple Flames felt like Phoenix. What was it like controlling them? Did you find it easy or hard to tame that type of fire? You're already a master of Dragon Fire. And that's definitely harder to learn than you might think. Something as simple as Purple Flames should be of no issue." I said. Natsu released a breath and relaxed his muscles. Purple Fire roared in his hand and he opened his eyes with a smirk. "Summoned." He said in an almost cocky tone. I pat his shoulder with a smirk of my own. "Great. But do you still have the same control over it from last night?" I questioned. He tested it out, growing and shrinking the flames. Then he grabbed a nearby stick and dropped it into my hands. It still had scorch marks on it but I still smiled in pride. "Great. Now all you need to do is master control. Eclipse go ahead and keep reading." I said. Eclipse nodded and continued to the control step.

This continued for a while and I was honestly shocked with how fast Natsu was learning. He was quickly able to master purple fire, and move on to the next stage. I was both impressed and proud. Very happy with how quick he could pick up the basics. Then again, he is the son of Igneel. I shouldn't be that surprised. We set up camp at sundown and me and Natsu spared a little. I wanted to test how well he could alternate between his normal dragon fire and the purple flames. Turns out he was very good at switching back and forth. But he struggled with summoning both at the same time. Either way, with this rate of learning, something tells me he could easily get on my level. I was reading by fire light when I heard Natsu snoring. I smiled, shooting him a look. If he can learn this fast the levels he could possibly reach in a short amount of time is insane. I thought. I set my book down before extinguishing the flames. I rolled over in my sleeping bag and closed my eyes, allowing myself to sleep.