"An egg hatched a cat? Are cats even born from eggs?!"
Kei was momentarily baffled. He could've sworn cats were mammals. Oh, but normal cats didn't have wings either.
Well, never mind then.
"Do you want to raise her?"
Kei remembered from the original storyline that Wendy did have a white-and-pink cat named Carla or something like that.
"Mm."
Wendy held the cat close to her chest. The cat didn't resist, staying calm and obediently in Wendy's arms.
"She'll be called Charle from now on!"
Wendy had always dreamed of having a little sister, and she'd even thought of a name long ago.
"Charle?"
Charle suddenly repeated the name.
"Eh! You can say your own name? Yes, it's Charle! I'm Wendy! Wendy!"
"Wendy?"
"Yes! And I'm your Onee-chan! Your sister!"
"Onee-chan?"
Wendy beamed with joy upon hearing Charle call her "Onee-chan." She hugged Charle and started twirling around in circles.
"A flying cat?"
Juvia exclaimed as she looked at Charle.
"A talking, flying cat?!"
Gajeel had snapped out of his earlier depression, sounding utterly astonished.
"Looks like normal people still find it hard to accept."
Kei nodded as he finally saw a normal reaction. He was starting to think everyone would be like Wendy and find it perfectly natural.
Afterward, the group sat down to have a meal.
"Alright, Gajeel. As per our agreement, you should tell me where that Dragon Slayer is."
Kei looked at Gajeel and asked.
"I just heard about it. Apparently, there are two guys over at Sabertooth who use Dragon Slayer Magic."
"I've been collecting information about dragons, so I paid attention when I heard about them."
After getting beaten down by Kei's punch, Gajeel was no longer arrogant and had become very obedient.
It proved that using fists to explain things was the simplest way to get results.
"Sabertooth, huh? Fine, the next destination is Sabertooth."
Kei recalled that the Sabertooth Guild had two Dragon Slayers: one of light and one of shadow.
Light and shadow sounded powerful! Kei couldn't wait to taste their Dragon Powers.
"Wendy, let's head to the Sabertooth Guild."
Kei called for Wendy, ready to leave.
"Wait! I have a question! Are you guys raised by dragons too?!"
Gajeel blurted out before Kei could leave.
"Yes."
Kei nodded.
"Then... Did the dragons that raised you also disappear on July 7, 777? Have you found them yet?"
Gajeel pressed further.
"Grandeeney didn't disappear! She just drove us away because we needed to learn to be independent!"
Wendy interjected.
"Huh? Driven away? What are you talking about?"
Gajeel looked confused. He thought the dragons just vanished mysteriously. What was all this about being driven away?
"Don't you get it? Why are you just like Natsu, so clueless?"
Wendy looked helpless. Why were both of these guys acting like total idiots? Didn't the dragons tell them anything?
"Dragons didn't just disappear. They just didn't want to see us anymore.
You know that story about an eagle pushing its chicks off a cliff to force them to learn to fly, right?"
"I don't know that story, but Metalicana did throw me off a mountain once, saying it was to toughen me up."
Gajeel admitted.
"You threw your kid off a mountain?! Aren't you afraid he'd die?!"
Grandeeney couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"That was to toughen him up! Only by constantly enduring shocks can his armor become tougher! You don't have scales, so you wouldn't understand."
"Besides, he survived, didn't he? That's all that matters."
Metalicana's approach to child-rearing was simple: let them live. If they survive, then the method was correct.
"You... You're just irresponsible!"
Grandeeney suddenly felt very worried for the other children. Would they also be subjected to such terrible care?
"Hmm, I guess that's kind of similar."
Wendy pondered for a moment and continued, "The dragons left us to force us to become independent."
"We have to become strong on our own, find our own territory, prove our strength, and only then will they come back!"
"How come your dragons didn't explain this to you? Grandeeney told us everything!"
Wendy tilted her head, not even suspecting that what Kei said was a lie. She just assumed the other dragons were incompetent and irresponsible.
After all, Grandeeney was clearly the best!
"Oh, so that's how it is! That bastard Metalicana must have forgotten to tell me!
He's always like that! Once, when I was a kid, he tossed me down a mountain and didn't come back for me until three days later!"
Gajeel shouted, sounding both frustrated and convinced. After all, with how scatterbrained Metalicana could be, this explanation made perfect sense.
"Wait, you left your child at the bottom of a cliff for three days and nights?!"
"That was an accident. I got hungry, went off to eat something, and then took a nap. By the time I woke up, three days had passed."
"I rushed back to get him right away. And hey, this 'Independence Reason' thing is genius!"
"Grandeeney, you really are the Wise Sky Dragon!"
Metalicana tried to change the topic as quickly as possible.
"But why did all the dragons disappear specifically on July 7, 777?"
Gajeel raised another question.
Wendy couldn't answer, so she turned to Kei.
Crap, he's asking me. Think fast, brain! Find a way to explain this!
Kei's mind worked quickly to come up with a reasonable explanation.
"Hmm, Wendy, have you noticed that all of us are about the same age?"
"Whether it's you, me, Natsu, or Gajeel, we're all around the same age, aren't we?"
Wendy thought about it, then asked Gajeel about his age. After confirming, she nodded.
"It does seem that way."
"Exactly! July 7, 777 was the official Dragon's Independence Day!"
"It's a special holiday for dragons where they drive away their children who have reached the right age to make them independent!"
"Kind of like how humans have Christmas. Dragons also have their own festival."
Kei felt pretty proud of himself. What a genius explanation!
Wendy and Gajeel both nodded, their expressions lighting up with understanding.
(End of Chapter)
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