Natsu really regretted saying things sometimes, in this case it was more along the lines of thinking something. He mistakenly told Lucy he had an idea of how to get to her. But the truth of the matter was he had a foolish concept in mind that didn't really make much sense at all. But heck since he thought up the idea he might as well run with it at this point.

Natsu began to use his Fire Dragon's Iron Fist and superior strength to start mauling the wet land beneath him. After going about a foot he thought maybe this was a mistake. The earth was soggy and slippery and it had taken him twenty minutes to get that far. He only really accomplished an unintentional camouflage outfit mostly made of mud and coating a vast majority of his body.

Luce, I'm gonna have to try something else. This isn't really going so well. He knew he would regret it but he also sent a mental image to show his botched up effort.

She of course giggled back in his head.

Lucy couldn't help the giggle that escaped from her throat. The man in front of her squinted his eyes at her in confusion.

"He's here isn't he?"

Lucy attempted to cover up her laughter and shook her head. "How should I know?"

"Because you are his mate. Your connection is strong and you can communicate with each other telepathically." He went over to her and clasped her elbow. "Come on then, there's not much point in sticking around here. He would find this hideout sooner or later anyways."

He grabbed the torch and led Lucy along a winding cave path. It was steep and in several places she had to bend at the waist so she didn't bump her head. Her head began to throb in reminder of her injury. She was determined that her injury wouldn't slow her down.

Natsu, just continue to try to scent me out. He is leading me out of the cave.

Okay, Luce, your 'voice' sounds a little closer also. You must be at least closer to the surface.

After thirty minutes through the winding cave path she noticed a light at the end of the tunnel. She also smelled the wet earth and heard the rain. They exited the cave, and she looked around herself for some sign of Natsu.

She wasn't expecting a mud covered humanoid shape.

"Natsu!" She screamed at him. "You continued the digging even after you realized it was a bad idea, didn't you? You idiot!"

"Luce! That's just mean. I was only trying to find you sooner!"

"Yeah with a botched up plan to do so!"

"Enough of this. Congeria Calligo."

Suddenly the two bickering mages were enveloped in a deep purplish blue cloud, the color of the sky at midnight. Neither could see anything. They both groaned and verbalized at each other through their torment at having to deal with their current blindness.

"If you two are done fighting then?" The spell dissipated around them.

Natsu approached the dragon slayer. He lit his fist on fire. "You will be returning my mate!" He got about a foot from the other slayer when suddenly his fist's flame was extinguished. "What the...?"

"Maybe we should hear him out, Natsu?"

"Intriguing, you have control of his flame. That's really unique."

"I have no clue what you are talking about," Lucy crossed her arms across her chest. "But you will explain what is going on here. Why did you kidnap me? What exactly does it have to do with this ring? Don't leave out any details. Got it?"

The dragon slayer growled in disagreement but nodded his head nonetheless. "My name is Hemlock. I am a Chaos Dragon Slayer."

When Hemlock confirmed that he was a dragon slayer Natsu of course began questioning. "Did you have a lacrima imbedded in yourself or were you brought up by a dragon?"

"Visalth was the name of my dragon. From what he told me, he believed it was his brother, Tavrinth, dragon of chaotic destruction, that brought up what we now know to be Acnologia."

Both the spirit mage and fire dragon slayer were dumbfounded. "That was over 400 years ago that Acnologia became a dragon. How is it possible that your dragon would be brothers to the dragon who trained Acnologia?"

"Dragons are kind of immortal, Natsu..."

"Yeah but I figured Acnologia probably killed his own dragon or something. I thought maybe that was lost information."

"Like, I said Visalth believed it was his brother only based on the type of abilities Acnologia now has as a dragon. But he said his power also turned a dark magic even darker. If Tavrinth had been the dragon to train Acnologia he would never have taught him the destructive side. He would have only taught him the chaos magic similar to my own. Who knows maybe when he lost his light, his humanity, he gained access to the other magic."

"His light? You are making that sound different then anything I've heard of before. I think I heard that because he killed so many dragons his humanity was basically ripped from him."

"Visalth told me that, that was only part of what happened. Visalth told me that when Acnologia had turned 24 he had not found or at least had not claimed his mate. A mate is not just our love they are also our light. Visalth believed without that the dragon magic in the slayer probably overtook his humanity."

I really don't know how old Gajeel is but if he is close to 24 he needs to know this!

You think he found his mate?

Natsu, I love you, but you are extremely dense. His mate is Levy!

"I appreciate all this knowledge you are throwing at us. But, what does this have to do with kidnapping me for my ring?"

"Your ring is a dragon gem. I read that a dragon gem can strengthen the bonds between a dragon slayer and mate. My mate, Clarice, she is human. She nearly died when I claimed her. I thought maybe the dragon gem might have some type of 'Holder Magic' in it that she could utilize to protect herself."

"You said earlier that I controlled Natsu's flame. Do you think that was the power of the Fire Dragon Ruby?"

"Fire Dragon Ruby?"

"That's the type of gem that is in my ring."

"Crap...if I had known there were specific elements...I bet I am looking for a purplish blue dragon gem..."

"You mean you kidnapped me for no reason?!?!"

Natsu jumped in the air. "Fire Dragon Iron Fist" Hemlock didn't bother the punch aimed at his left cheek.

"You didn't stop me that time," Natsu said to Lucy.

"We don't know that I stopped you the first time. Besides, he deserved it."

"Yeah, I did deserve it. I admit that. But you did control his flame. I saw your mark and I'm guessing Visalth told me a bit more about mates then your dragon did."

"Igneel didn't tell me much. I didn't really like to sit still and what he told me he tried to present as a story."

You still don't like to sit still. Lucy thought at him and stuck out her tongue.

Natsu gave her an annoyed look that didn't last long. His loving smile quickly replacing it.

"The mark explains it. The combination of your magics represented in the mark says how your magic had the possibility of convergence. I can see you telepathically communicating which is another possible reason for the mark. But when Natsu's flame was extinguished and he was baffled that cinched it. Lucy put out his fire to keep him from attacking me."

Lucy had to admit to herself that it did kind of make sense.

"Ugh, but now I am back at square one. I don't even know anything about gemstones."

"You are probably looking for iolite, amethyst, or there are different shades of spinel being a possibility. They are all purple or violet blue shaded gemstones. I would start researching those."

"Thank you, and again I am sorry. I would probably start training how to control his fire if I were you."

"Ooh two on two fighting. I'm fired up to try that!"

Lucy rolled her eyes at Natsu. Of course that was exciting to him.

Names: The attack that Hemlock does is latin and vaguely means chaos blindess/cloud.

I can't find it now but I looked up a bunch of dark and chaos based names which is where I originally got the name Hemlock.

Visalth and Tavrinth were both names taken from a dragon name generator.

Silly sidenote:  I had to play out the punch with my husband which I didn't alert him and he was like. "Please don't punch me." (Of course I didn't really punch him) After he made me kiss him for compensation lol.