Natsu squinted as he looked up a tower made of ice that glittered in the shadows of the forest.

"See anything?"

Gray stood at the top of the lookout tower, peering around. The sun was shining beautifully, birds flew above the bright tops of trees that stretched on and on, endless bubbles of fluttering green, as far as he could see. He knew this was a large forest; he overheard Lucy say it would take two days to cross it. However, he saw no end and no shadow that would have been the road that weaved through the woods.

"Maybe a little higher," he mused.

Gray pounded his fist into his hand, and the lookout tower rose more, soaring high. He was now twice as high up above the trees. He pulled out a compass and made sure it was pointing east. That should be the way to the village they were heading to.

"Wait. I think I see—"

"Gray!" shrieked Natsu.

He heard it a second later. The tower was cracking. Gray grabbed a guardrail as the structure swayed and began to topple over. To his surprise, even the ice up here on the platform had webbings of cracks spreading out as the entire ice tower began to shatter like glass.

"This is impossible," he whispered. There was no way his ice could just crumble like this. No way!

The tower leaned heavily over in a slow fall. Gray's stomach surged. He had to think fast.

"Ice-Make: Slide!"

Just before the tower fully fell, a slide formed, and Gray leaped on, sliding toward the ground safely while hearing his creation crash into the trees behind him. Halfway down the slide, it too began to crumble.

"Dammit! Ice-Make: Tarzan!"

Okay, so he totally made up this one, imagining somehow swinging from vine to vine, but the vines were ice. Luckily, as he fell on the demolishing slide and into the shadow of ominous branches, he saw the blue flash on a branch, grabbed it, and began to swing. Gray reached out, and another ice vine formed, letting him swing to the next tree. On the third vine, the ice snapped, and he was falling once again.

"Shit! Ice ... Ice-Make..." Think, Gray! Think!

Before he hit the ground, someone caught him. Both went falling, but those powerful arms had broken the worst of the fall. They slid over leaves and finally came to a stop. Gray rose onto his hands and knees and looked down to see Natsu, sweaty from racing after the tower in order to rescue Gray. Now Natsu was on his back, leaves in his hair, face in pain, but as the tower and slide stopped crumbling and the forest went silent, his eyes opened. He smiled as he stared straight up into Gray's astonished face.

"Are you hurt?"

Gray blinked in confusion. Benumbed that Natsu, of all people, had saved him, he shook his head.

"That's good." He grinned in his wide, innocent way, and Gray felt a flush warm his cheeks. "Now, get the hell off of me."

Gray jolted, realized their positions, and scrambled off. Natsu sat up, rubbed out his shoulder, and fluffed through his hair to get the leaves out.

Gray looked at the twisted debris of ice. "What the hell did you do to my tower?"

Natsu froze in confusion. "I didn't even touch it. I thought you must have built it too high, so that made it fall."

"The base was wide enough, and there was no breeze to blow it over."

"No breeze? There was a horrible wind, practically a tornado. You didn't feel it up there?"

Gray looked back at the tower in confusion. How could there have been a wind on the forest floor but not above the treetops? Plus, he had not heard any leaves rustling. A strong breeze would have rustled the branches. Wind did not mysterious blow down on the forest floor but not above the forest canopy.

"This whole forest is messed up. It's like even if you go up, you move to another spot of the woods."

Natsu laughed. "At least you came down in the right place. Did you see anything?"

"I thought I did to the east. We'll head there." Gray pulled out his compass. He arched an eyebrow at it, gave it a shake, looked around, and then glared at the compass again.

"This makes no sense. The tower fell in the direction of what I saw to the east."

"So?"

Gray showed Natsu the compass. "East points toward the base of the tower, the opposite direction that it fell in."

"Do you mean it switched directions?"

"I mean compasses obviously don't work here." Gray shoved it deep into his pocket. "Dammit, how are we supposed to get out of here when we can't even follow a straight direction? What the hell is wrong with these woods?"

"Calm down. They're enchanted. I've heard stories about these sorts of magical forests. If you get too far apart, they'll put you somewhere else. You must have gone so high up, you passed some sort of barrier and got switched around. It really is a good thing you landed close to me."

Gray glared over at Natsu, but he had to admit, if he was going to be lost in the woods like this, it was better to have someone with him. Even if it was a flame-brain like Natsu.

"You saw something to the east. That's also the direction to the client, right? So we'll simply keep heading east, no matter what way the compass says is east. The woods will probably twist us around, but we just have to trust my nose and your compass."

Gray ran his hand through his hair. "Yeah, that's all we can do. Stay calm, keep on moving."

They got up, and Gray followed the compass to the east. Natsu walked beside him, determined not to get separated. However, as hours passed and the forest grew darker, Natsu's pace began to slow. Gray kept stopping for him to catch up. Natsu looked uncomfortable, he kept holding his stomach, and Gray wondered if he was about to get sick.

"Are you okay?"

Natsu frowned, but he rubbed his stomach again. "Before I left to take a dump, I gave Happy my pack to hold. It had my food. I haven't eaten in a while."

"Sheesh, we had lunch. Can't you wait for dinner?"

He frowned in shame. "Yeah ... sorry ... it wasn't a big lunch. I gave part of my food to Happy since he was still hungry. I often give portions of my food to Happy and just eat a little snack afterward."

Gray pouted. Hearing how Natsu cared so much for Happy touched his heart. Natsu looked worried now, and Gray guessed it was from thinking about his blue friend. He pulled his pack around, yanked out a granola bar, and shoved it over at the Dragon Slayer.

"Take it. I don't need it."

"Wh-what? No! I mean, that's your food."

"Yeah, and we're stuck together with just my supplies, so we have to split. When we get out of these woods, you owe me, got it?" he said sharply. "But for now ... for now ... you need it, I don't." He thrust the granola bar at him and shouted, "Just take the damn food, flame-brain!"

Natsu drooled as he snatched the sweet snack away, opened the wrapper, and chomped into granola rolled with dried berries, nuts, and honey. Gray saw him smile with joy, and he began to blush. What an idiot, looking so happy just over a little bit of food!

"Hey, we'll walk another hour, but we should stop before it gets too dark. We'll see if we can catch anything to eat."

"I heard a river up ahead," Natsu said with a mouth full of granola.

"A river? That's helpful. You can follow rivers out of forests. At this point, I'll be happy to make it out even if we end up in totally the wrong spot. Okay, we'll make camp near the river and use that to guide us out."

"Sounds good." Natsu burned the granola wrapper to not leave behind trash. "Thanks for the food, Gray. I really needed that."

Natsu grinned joyfully again, and Gray felt heat in his cheeks. He looked sharply away and walked a little faster. The sooner they got out of these woods, the better.

Art by becausewhenyoupracticeyouimprove
Story by Rhov
Written for the Gratsu Artist x Writer Challenge: http://wildrhov.tumblr.com/post/147848230864/lost-in-the-woods-chapter-2-the-woods-are-just