chapter 2

Natsu groggily woke up as he felt the morning sun rays shine onto his face. He looked out the entrance of the cave, squinting at the illuminating dawn light, silently cursing the sun for he could not eat it. He tried to push himself up but felt a splitting pain in his chest, holding him down to the cold-stone cave floor. The dragon slayer looked down across his body at the cauterized wounds. Igneel had fire, not wind, so the solution to healing Natsu wasn't exactly "perfect". Those would add a few more scars to the collection. The boy looked over his shoulder to see Igneel lying on the cave floor with a content smile. His eyes shifted to the large corpse of Genrok that had been lazily thrown into the corner, startling the dragon slayer Natsu saw one of Igneel's large yellow eyes open before hearing the fire dragon's gruff voice echo through the cave, "It took you long enough, brat! You've been asleep for two days! I got stuff for you to do!"

Natsu let out a languished groan, "Do you have to be so loud in the morning?" His dragon slayer hearing has just started to come in, and it sometimes made him a bit sensitive to sounds that he had previously been accustomed to, such as Igneel yelling at him.

Igneel smiled as he flicked Natsu in the back of his head with his massive claw, "It's already past noon, you brat." Natsu tumbled into the wall, creating a comically human shaped hole.

Natsu groaned again as he sat up, clutching his head in the place that it slammed into the wall, "Could you not do that?!" Yelled Natsu angrily and he glared at Igneel, who merely laughed at the boy's response.

"Now's not the time to be fooling around! I need you to peel off every single scale from that dragon's body." Igneel gestured to Genrok.

Natsu's jaw dropped, "Every… scale?" Natsu yelled in anger, "That's not possible! He has to have over a million!"

Picking up the dead moose that was lying on the ground next to him, the dragon bellowed "Here, eat this and then get to work. It's far easier than you think."

Natsu groaned in annoyance before reaching out his arms and yanking the moose carcass towards him, before spraying a blast of fire across it, singeing off its hair and cooking the flesh. The young dragon slayer ripped into the tough meat with his teeth. As he messily gnawed through the half-raw venison, he asked through his chewing, "So, what's the purpose of all of the scales?"

Igneel smiled, showing his rows of razor sharp teeth, "You'll finally be going to see the humans, boy."

Natsu's eyes immediately brightened, "We're going to see the humans?!"

As Natsu ran towards the entrance to the cave Igneel slammed his tail down in front of the eager dragon slayer, "One, not we, you. Two, not right now. First you need to peel off Genrok's scales. They're important for what's going to happen."

Natsu crossed his arms, turning away from Igneel with a playful pout, "Why can't you go with me?"There it was again: one of Natsu's pointless questions. "I'm a massive red fire breathing dragon. Do you really think I could just walk into a human town?" Igneel knew he could transform, but that was taboo for pure dragons to do unless it was for mating purposes.

"What are you doing boy?! Start peeling off his scales!" Natsu jumped to his feet at the sudden burst of anger from Igneel. This was one of the only ways that Igneel could get Natsu to do anything.

As Natsu approached Genrok's corpse, he could already smell the rot that was eating its way through the slain earth dragon's flesh. Natsu reached out his hand and curled his fingers under a large spike-shaped clake, before lighting his hand on fire and yanking with all his strength, pulling the scale free creating a gut wrenching sound as the strings of tissue that held the scale to Genrok's body were ripped. One down, a thousand to go.

Later…

Natsu fell onto his back, the cool stone soothing his tired muscles. He looked out of the massive cave entrance to see a setting sun with the sky dyed shades of red, orange and yellow. The dragon slayer heard a thud as Igneel landed at the entrance of the cave, blocking the dim evening light. "Did you finish?"

"N-no…'' muttered the boy. How could he? A dragon, especially one the size of Genrok, had far too many scales for him to pick off.

Igneel looked at the large pile of scales Natsu had created with a content smile, "That will be more than enough, take a break." Igneel looked towards the cave entrance, "There is a special surprise outside for you."The scent of cooked meat wafted towards Natsu as he sniffed the air. How he had not noticed it while he had been removing scales, afterall the only cook he knew that good was his "mother". Natsu quickly pushed himself up and stumbled out of the cave, his eyes falling on Anna cooking a steak over a fire. His mouth watered at the sight of the tasty food, something he had been deprived of while out in the wilderness.

"Hi Natsu. Figured you deserved a special farewell meal to send you off." Said Anna.

The boy was about to run over when Igneel flicked Natsu in the back of the head, "Mind your manners and make sure to say thank you!" A rather hypocritical thing to be said by the arrogant fire dragon.

Natsu scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, "Thank you, Anna." As he gave her one of his characteristic smiles. He had been eating half-raw venison and wild fruit for the past year, and an actual meal was a special treat.

Anna handed the young dragon slayer a plate stacked with a large piece of steak, steam still rising from it. Natsu quickly dug into it, finishing it in an instant. As he was about to ask for another play, Anna already had one ready. If there was one thing she knew about the boy, it was his insatiable appetite.

Natsu laid on his back and licked his lips with a content smile on my face, "So when do we go to see the humans?" He had been raised as a dragon, hence why he didn't associate with them. The other dragon slayers he grew up with also had not interacted with the humans, however Natsu's interactions with all of them besides Wendy had been rather limited due to Zeref's heavy demands on Natsu's training.

Anna replied, "In the morning we leave." Anna glared at Igneel, "Make sure he is awake. You've been surprisingly lenient with him as of recently." Anna, although she felt some affection towards the dragon slayer, still knew he was a demon. Regardless of however nice of a boy he was, she always knew his true purpose.

Igneel sighed, "I'll make sure." It really pissed Igneel off that he had to treat Natsu as no more than a method of Zeref's death. He was a demon, but he was still a boy. Natsu had grown on Igneel, and he had even started to see him as Son, however strange it felt to him. Igneel had tried his best to not gain attachment to him after what happened to his other son, but it was difficult.

Anna stood up and gave the boy a pat on the head, "Now get a good sleep, you. You have a big day tomorrow and you need energy for it."

"You got it!" Replied the boy energetically, quickly running into the cave with the setting sun behind him.

The next morning, X377, July 3rd…Natsu rubbed his eyes as he groggily woke up with an annoyed look on his face as Igneel bellowed, "Time to wake up!" but then he heard Igneel say "It's time to see the humans. Anna is ready to take you."

Natsu immediately jumped to his feet, and as he ran towards the cave entrance, Igneel slammed his tail down in front of him, "Huh, I thought we were leaving?" Complained Natsu.

Igneel lowered his head to Natsu's height, "Come closer. This is just something between you and me." Igneel was concerned. His body was already deteriorating, so he wanted to say somewhat of a final farewell to Natsu, as the date of the eclipse gate was coming close, and he would soon be sealing his soul. "Over the years you have started to grow on me, and I almost think of you as a son. You're off to see the humans, and I want to wish you good luck. Know that no matter what happens, I, Igneel, will always be proud of you."

Natsu hugged Igneel's nose, "I'll do my best to keep it that way! But why are you saying this to me?"

"Natsu! It's time to go!" he heard Anna yell from outside of the cave.

Natsu quickly threw the sack full of Genrok's scales behind his shoulder and jumped over the fire dragon's tail and yelled as he waved back to Igneel, "I'll see you tonight!" As he ran over to Anna.

Anna held out her hand as a yellow magic circle appeared in front of it. "Celestial Gate!" Yelled Anna, causing a yellow and blue portal to appear before them. Igneel lived far away from human society as to not be bothered, and there was no way that Natsu and Anna would make the nearly 400-mile trek into town.

Natsu and Anna quickly stepped through the portal to arrive at an amazing sight. A bustling city filled with people. The entrance had a large stone arch with the word "Dargonshine" (A/N: Yes, it's supposed to be "Dargonshine". That's not a typo.) plastered across it. This was a town close to the edge of the Kingdom of Dragnof and was a strategic front for the war against the anti-human faction of dragons, but it had been relatively peaceful in recent years.

Natsu was about to run forward, however Anna grabbed his shoulder to stop him. Natsu turned around as she threw some clothes at him, "Make sure to wear these. You stick out a bit too much right now." She looked at him sternly, "Also, no matter what, DO NOT USE YOUR MAGIC!"

The Kingdom of Dragnof needed all the help they could get, and whenever they found a mage that practiced dragon slayer magic, they hauled them off to turn them into unstoppable killing machines designed for the sole purpose of exterminating dragons. The military and their generals blamed the magic for the cause of dragon slayers going mad, but it was really a result of their military psychological conditioning and brutal fighting techniques they practiced.

Natsu looked down at his body and Anna was right. All he was wearing was a pair of tattered beige shorts. Natsu quickly threw on the red and white clothing, which consisted of a long crimson cloak which he covered with a flowing white Toga. Anna reminisced that he looked like a younger version of Zeref, minus the black and a bit better optimized for combat. As Natsu finished putting on the clothes he found a strange scaly scarf.

He held it in his hands and noticed it smelled like Igneel, "What is this, Anna?" Asked Natsu as he looked up at the blond-haired woman.

"That is a gift from Igneel. He asked me to sew it out of his scales. Kind of like a good luck charm?" Replied Anna. She couldn't tell Natsu that he may never be seeing Igneel again, so she left that part out.

Natsu smiled as he looked down at the scarf before wrapping it around his neck. It went rather well with his current attire. "Thanks Anna!" He had to make sure to remember his manners, as this was a new experience for him, and his back-and-forth banter that he did with Igneel would not work here.

Anna grabbed the young dragon slayer's hand and guided him into the city. All of the new smells invaded Natsu's senses as he looked through everything, ranging from new clothes to scents of food that Natsu had never even heard of before. He didn't want to admit it, but there were many places here that had better food than what Anna would make on special occasions.

However, Natsu had never been to town before, so Anna found herself spoiling Natsu as he ate nearly everything in sight as well as constantly reminding him to use his manners.

As Natsu continued to run around the city, trying to understand every new experience, he asked Anna, "So did you take Sting, Rogue, Wendy, and Gajeel here as well?"

Anna sighed, "No, as they have not yet finished their training." This was only partially true, as the other dragon slayers had yet to be able to kill a dragon, but Anna had a hard time imagining someone like Wendy would be willing to do so, and the other three would probably just get themselves in over their heads. However that was not the original goal for the other four at this point.

However, Natsu was ignoring her, as his senses had picked up a rather familiar smell: the smell of a dragon slayer.