Good morning my faithful followers. Now, what do we have here? It's a new story! I honestly have no idea where the idea of this story came from (besides my mind), and I decided to run with it. Also, I'm having doubts about my other stories so I wanted to create a new story to help chase away to doubts. I just hope it works. Tell me what you think.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Feet pounded on the rain-soaked earth. They raced through the thick forest and the dense rain. Heavy panting accompanied the footsteps that showed no sign of slowing. One man, followed by many, ran through the rain in the dead of night. There was no moon tonight which just made the forest that much darker. It proved to be both a good cover as well as its own evil death trap. The rain plastered his clothes to his body and while he should be slowly freezing to death, he was sweating. He didn't know how long he was running for but he had to keep moving. A small bundle in his arms shivered from the cold. That's right. Even if he was sweating, the same couldn't be said for his precious bundle. He kept running. He had to keep running. If not for his own safety than for the preservation of his precious bundle. He tripped and he twisted his body so the child landed on him rather than being squished between him and the ground. He needed to protect his baby so he stood and kept running. Their home had been attacked and they were after his only child. His wife already had been murdered and he would stop at nothing to protect his baby.

The man stumbled into a clearing and heard men yelling behind him. Barking soon followed and he knew he had to hurry. For once since the rain started, he was glad it was raining. At least the rain could clean up all of his scents and almost hide all his tracks. He looked to his right and dashed in that direction. Soon he came upon a steep, grassy, cliff-ish slope. He rushed down it, sometimes slipping but quickly regaining his balance. He soon reached the bottom and kept running. The next thing to block his path was a large and seemingly deep, swift moving stream. Across from the stream was a large clearing and caves beyond that. The man crossed the surprisingly shallow stream and ran into one of the caves. Not long after running into the cave he bumped into something. He fell backward and his bundle gave a whimper. The object moved and the man came into contact with huge, yellow, slitted eyes. Lightning flashed outside and in that two seconds of light, the man saw the huge snout that the eyes sat upon. This man had run directly into a dragon's den. A real fire breathing dragon. Maybe. He had heard that there were many different types of dragons and he couldn't be sure which type this one was. They were by far the most fierce, most dangerous, most fear-striking creatures in the entire realm of Earthland. And he had found one of the few left in existence. That gave him a brilliant idea that could easily take a turn for the worst. Hopefully, it would end well. The man looked into the golden slitted eyes of the huge dragon and tried to speak.

"P–please...t–take my...c–child...pr–protect them...please!" The man managed to pant out to the dragon. The large creature didn't say anything but instead held out one of its large taloned claws to the man. The man slowly and gently placed his baby into the dragon's claw and, before letting go, he kissed his only child's small forehead.

"I'm s–sorry it h-has to be this way. This is the only way to protect you. I would keep you with me if I was able to protect you by myself. I'm sorry I couldn't save your mother. I'm sorry I couldn't keep you safe. I'm sorry I have to give you up. I hope you can forgive me," he whispered to his still sleeping child. The man slowly made his way to the cave's entrance, all the while watching the dragon and his three-year-old baby. His eyes followed the dragon carefully as he tucked the child between his snout and his body and pulled his tail around to shelter them from any outside and prying eyes. The man sighed in relief before running back outside into the darkness of the night and rain in hopes of leading the men away from his child. He would do anything to save his baby.

XXX

Elsewhere, in a forest somewhat far away was a small child who was wandering alone in the dark. The stars gleamed above the child as if mocking his every step, every sound, every thought, and every movement. Nothing seemed right and everything was in the wrong direction. After the abandonment, the betrayal, the violence, the hatred, everything was broken in the child's eyes. Love was false, freedom was illusory, justice was cold, imagination was ordinary, and choice was nonexistent. What could he do? Where could he go? The small child looked up at the stars and noticed heavy rain clouds in the distance. This just had to get worse, didn't it? Of course, the child being only four-years-old their thinking process wasn't quite this deep. Upon seeing the rain clouds, they knew they had to get out of the rain. These dense trees didn't provide any cover and would easily soak him through. The world was getting darker and darker and more dangerous with every second that passes. What would he do if he couldn't find shelter within this unforgiving forest? Would he die of starvation or be eaten by some savage animal? Was it possible to find someone in this dark forest or would he die alone and afraid? So far, the world had been against him every step of the way and it didn't seem like it was going to stop anytime soon. What did he do to deserve this level of cruelty from the world?

However, after minutes of walking, the young child had no luck in finding any shelter. The holes they found in the different trees were either occupied by some animal or too small to even climb into. The bushes he tried to hide under gave as much protection as the trees and the child quickly moved to find a new place to hide from the rain. However, nothing seemed to work. The cover from the trees and bushes were useless, the holes the trees gave were not made for him, the holes in the ground were too small, etc., etc., etc. The child kept walking hoping that something, anything, would assist him in some way. Soon the child's tired feet brought him to a large range that ran alongside the forest. Hmm. Maybe this would be a better place to find a new home. Of course, there weren't many caves at all and it was mostly just smooth surfaces or long cracks that were barely inches wide. Or deep for that matter. After what seemed like hours of walking, the young child came across a huge cave. It was so much bigger than anything that he had come across so far. This would definitely be the cave for him. The only problem was the fact that after minutes of walking, the child ran into something hard and was thrown back. The child fell back onto their butt and looked up at what made caused their fall.

Large, yellow, slitted eyes gleamed in the darkness which would cause any normal human to shudder in fear. But the child felt anything but fear. The child watched in awe as this large creature started to unroll itself pushing the child further and further away from it. As the child was pushed out of the cave by a large snout that covered the front of a huge face of the most ferocious creature that he had ever heard of. A huge black dragon. Night had already fallen and it was impossible to tell the actual color of the dragon.

"What are you doing here, human?" the dragon boomed. Instead of crying or running away or even experiencing fear, the young child instead latched its small arms around the dragon's snout. To say that the dragon was surprised was the statement of the year. The dragon could easily tell that the child was angry and alone and when the beast pulled the human off his face, he could tell that this human was at least tolerable. It has fallen asleep in his talons and showed no signs of waking up soon. Its small body was shivering against the cold as it slept. He could definitely work his human.

Can you guess where this is going? I bet you can even guess who these small children are. Or maybe you can't. They could be anyone from Natsu to Gray to Gajeel to Jellal if I so pleased. As for the other, it could range from Lucy to Lisanna to Erza to even Levy if you really thought about it. But who are they really? I guess you'll have to find out later. If you want you can leave a review and try to guess who they are. Come on, I dare you. Till next time!

~Brought to you by Jazmin Gato

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~Peace out!