Men and dragons

"Don't fall behind!" Grandeeney had assumed her human form and was walking slowly along an invisible path, scanning all the plants that dotted its edge. Erza followed her and from time to time stopped to pluck the colorful dried leaves that hung from the lower branches.

"Memorize this plant well." Grandeeney explained to her, pulling off a small piece from a small shrub to show it better. It had beautiful green leaves, oval and slightly pointed despite the fall season. "This is ipecacuana. It is a plant that can cause..."

Natsu's voice cut her off sharply-"Oh! I remember that thing! I ate it once!"

"Yeah!" Igneel echoed him; he, too, had assumed his human form to walk better in the middle of the forest. "You kept spewing fire all over the place! It was one of the worst days of my life!" The dragon underscored the point by settling a fist on his son's head. "Don't ever again use as a side dish things you don't know about!"

Grandeeney tightened the piece of shrub tighter - "That's why it is useful as an emetic to expel poisons and in small doses also as an expectorant..."

"But you're always the one who tells me that a dragon slayer to grow must also eat vegetables!" Continued Natsu understanding his voice. Igneel roared-"Vegetables are not random plants!"

"Aren't they the same?"

"Stop it!" Hissed Grandeeney between her teeth, petrifying Natsu and Igneel with the sound of her voice - "You are ruining our lesson! Why are you following us?"

"We are not following you." Igneel answered her - "We are also having our lesson."

"WHICH IS?!"

"How to silently stalk prey."

Grandeeney rolled her eyes, resuming walking with a snort - "Do you know what that would take for you? A lethal dose of elskozia!" Grandeeney marched away, leaving Igneel and Natsu behind. - "It's a sleeping plant." Erza explained to them, seeing their confused looks. Before long all three of them started walking again.

"Grandeeney is right, though!" Erza exclaimed after a few steps-"Natsu, you should be quieter!"

"Why do I have to be quieter?"

"Because I just told you that and I'm older, you should always listen to those who are older than you."

Through her powers, Grandeeney had determined, after careful examination, that Erza was roughly a year or a year and a half older than Natsu. As a matter of practicality, the dragoness had also decided to move Erza's birthday to early summer and have it coincide with Natsu's (after all, they had both first arrived in the forest during the same season). Since Grandeeney had decided on this new rule, Erza wasted no opportunity to use it to her advantage, though in vain. Natsu didn't go for it and didn't like the idea of having to obey someone because they were simply bigger than him. Each time he had a different objection, "I have been in this forest the longest, so I am the bigger one!" "I have been a dragon slayer longer!" "I am taller!" And then, " I am more mythical!"

There was just no convincing him....

"I still can't believe you're bigger!"

"And yet it's true!"

As the two argued Igneel chuckled under his mustache. Everyone knew since prehistoric times that air and fire were a dangerous combination; blowing on coals is never a good idea. The more air you add to the mixture the more the flames swell and become arrogant. Perhaps that was why he and Grandeeney had never gotten along. It was already a miracle to be able to stay within a kilometer radius without the dragoness trying to bite him. Surely it was about the miraculous effect produced by their little dragon slayers.

"Erza!" Grandeeney called, and the little girl hurried to catch up with her. She had stopped up ahead near a group of long reeds. They grew near a marsh and were of the same family as those that lined the lake, tall, with thin green leaves and a brown, hairy end. "We've already talked about this one, typha latifolia. Do you remember what you can use the rhizome for?"

"You can make flour with it!"

"Oi, Igneel!" The dragon recoiled upon hearing Natsu pulling him by the edge of his sleeve - "But were the fire dragon slayers born first or the sky dragon slayers?"

"Oh!" Exclaimed the dragon - "Now that's a good question! The first ones were born four hundred years ago."

"Were they the fire ones?"

"Actually dragon slayers of all elements were born at the same time."

Natsu let out a snort.

"You see..." Igneel explained to him-"Four hundred years ago there was a huge war between humans and dragons and because of that the first dragon slayers were born."

"The leaves if you dry them can be used for..."

"REALLY?" Natsu's voice covered Grandeeney's again, tearing her a grimace.

"You see, four hundred years ago dragons were the absolute rulers of the world. They controlled the mountains, the valleys, the sky and the seas. But they did not get along with humans, most dragons considered them mere ... morsels to munch on."

By now not even Erza was listening to her teacher anymore; her ears had automatically tuned in to the story Igneel was telling.

"The shaft on the other hand, if cut and sharpened properly can serve as an excellent spear." Grandeeney hurled the barrel she had detached angrily, and Igneel to avoid it was forced to lower his head. "Hey, what's the matter with you?"

"Of all the nonsense you could talk about, you had to bring this up?" Hissed the dragoness but Igneel shook his head - "What? We were going to have to tell them sooner or later anyway!"

"Was there really a war between humans and dragons?" Natsu continued to insist, he was already imagining the scene - "Did you fight too?"

"This big head was the first who came up with the idea of teaching humans dragon magic to defend themselves." Grandeeney explained to him, crossing his arms over his chest - "He was the fool who gathered dragon slayers and dragons to fight on behalf of humanity."

"Hey! Don't talk like that! You were also on the team! That's why you learned all this stuff about medical arts, weaving and that stuff humans do!" Igneel blurted out but the dragoness turned her back on him by going back to looking for medicinal plants. - "You can tell that youth had clouded my faculty of judgment. One learns many things through experience."

"Did you really lead an army of dragons and dragon slayers to save humanity?" Natsu drew Igneel's attention again by tugging him by the arm. Suddenly his father seemed to him even bigger, stronger, and more incredible than ever. - "Yes." The dragon nodded-"Me, Grandeeney and a handful of valiant dragons and dragon slayers faced no less than ten thousand enemies!"

"Metallicana, Skiadrum, Wessiology, Atlas Flame..." Scanned Grandeeney as if each name was more eloquent than the other - "What a handful of valiant ones!" His voice was so ironic and venomous.

"AND WHO WON?" At this question Igneel chuckled and rested a hand on his son's head to tousle his hair - "But it's obvious: we won. Otherwise I would not be here talking to you and neither would you and Erza. Probably the humans would have been destroyed."

"You're right! And look what we got in the end! What a wonderful result!" Grandeeney's voice interrupted him again-"It's true: we saved humanity but because of that war our race almost died out, the magic we taught them was lost in successive generations, and humans have become the most arrogant and conceited masters this planet has ever had! They trample and abuse nature and kill each other as if they did not belong to the same species. They break all the laws of life and death and have learned new, increasingly terrible and destructive arts. Zaref, Etherion, Face or some other devilry and you will see that someday humans will become extinct on their own! They too will disappear and our effort will have been doubly futile!"

"Are you..." Erza ventured - "The last remaining dragons?"

"Not quite the last." Igneel confessed to her - "But I don't know what happened to the others. At the end of the war there were very few of us, and with the centuries that number must have dwindled even more. They probably decided to retreat to the sidelines, too."

"It used to be that you couldn't go for a walk without encountering a dragon." sighed Grandeeney - "Now you can't walk around the world without finding humans all over the place. They should be thanking us and instead we have to stay holed up in forests and caves to keep from scaring the hell out of them and getting attacked. They are afraid of too many things humans."

"They are afraid of dragons?" Natsu exclaimed - "That's impossible!"

"And yet it's true." Erza explained to him - "Before I came here too I had only heard bad stories about dragons, they are all afraid."

"But that's stupid!" Natsu stomped a foot on the ground - "Igneel and Grandeeney are good, it's not fair for them to be afraid of them! Are they afraid of dragon slayers too?"

"I don't think so." Tried to reassure him Igneel - "The dragon slayers were a thing of last resort four hundred years ago. And I'm sure when you are old enough to travel the world and talk to other people about how dragons are made maybe they will change their minds."

Natsu immediately ignited his fists-"Then let's hurry up and finish this training!"

"Don't put nonsense into his head." When Igneel turned around he discovered that Grandeeney had moved several steps away. - "Some things never change. Come Erza, quickly!" In her eyes was contempt and anger but also a hint of melancholy. Igneel shook his head, not knowing what to say to her, and Grandeeney turned away, disappearing in large strides into the dense forest with her pupil. Perhaps she was thinking about the humans she had taken care of four hundred years earlier and how they had repaid her. She had a point in feeling disappointed in that way. They had fought for them, worked hard to save them, and in the end all they had achieved was to extinguish their own race.

A real shame... But Igneel despite everything still could not bring himself to hate humans. He would have made the same choices a million times over and kept hoping for a better future.

When he had heard strange noises at the edge of the forest eight years earlier and discovered little Natsu, he had known immediately that fate was giving him a second chance. Taking care of him and teaching dragon slayer magic again may have been just a small drop in the bucket, but there was still a chance that one day that drop would benefit all of humanity. Perhaps even to the remaining dragons.

Being in the company of those little humans made him happy and Igneel would have gone through all the centuries of his life again, wars and cataclysms just to be back there in that little corner of the forest with them. And deep down he was convinced that Grandeeney felt the same.

-—-

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