Hello everyone! Before those who follow me ask about what's happened to Life With A Knight and Dragon, it will come...eventually. I can't really bring myself to work on it very much, especially given my current availability with school; which is one of the reason I made this little story. Working with a more AU-type story lets the ideas flow better. At the very least, think of this story as sort of a...prologue to my primary story.

Of Fire, Ice, and Iron

Year X777

"IGNEEL! Where are you!?" A young boy called out, as he ran out of the cave that served as the home for the boy and his adoptive father. "Come out!" he continued to call out; hoping that his father was simply either gathering food unannounced or playing some kind of game. He looked around, the area was somewhat snowy, having entered the winter season a month ago, yet the cold barely bothering him, as his fire magic abilities allowed him to heat up his body temperature, but these abilities did nothing to presently help him catch sight of Igneel. The young boy searched the surrounding area in hopes of finding the fire dragon for what seemed like hours, these hopes, however, were dashed as the hours passed, night arose and yet he found nothing.

Natsu gave up. Again, he was abandoned. Natsu never knew his real parents, Igneel found him in the woods as a baby; yet, the fire dragon said he didn't see any corpses near Natsu leading to the two to believe he was simply left behind. Thankfully, this didn't bother Natsu as he still had a father, Igneel. Yet, here he was again. Defeated, Natsu began his painfully long trek to the cave, with each step becoming harder as he dwelled on the thought of Igneel leaving. Reaching the back of his home, Natsu almost just broke down on the spot, that is, if he didn't spot peculiar. In front of the small boy was a rather large bed that looked to be made of a mix of grass and hay that was used for the fire dragon and himself for the previous couple years. However, the bed itself was not what caught the young boy's attention; instead, it was a white scaly scarf that was neatly folded right next to it.

"T-this is what Igneel said he was going to get me." Natsu commented to himself. Next the scarf was a…big note that was written very messily, as to be expected of a huge dragon trying to write.

"I am sorry Natsu. I have to go."

Initially, Natsu felt even worse, but soon he was filled with…joy? Yes…joy. Joy that Igneel didn't abandon him; instead he had to leave. Why? He didn't know, perhaps never; but he left the scarf for him. Without further hesitation, Natsu promptly grabbed the scarf and wrapped it around his neck. 'It smells just like him.' Natsu thought to himself with a smile. Natsu walked onto the 'bed' and stood there for a moment before turning towards the slightly distant cave entrance. "Igneel. I promise, I will find you, not matter what it takes, or how long!" Natsu vowed to himself before situating himself on the 'bed' and falling to sleep before beginning this new adventure the next day.

Later that Night, Not far From Natsu's 'Home'

A raspy gasp echoed throughout the snow storm as a young, exhausted girl with scarlet red hair trudged through the snow; the looks of her indicated she hadn't had any form of food or water for a few days and was nearing her wits ends.

'Dammit! I should have known I wouldn't know where this 'Fairy Tail' is!' The redhead thought angrily to herself.

She had been wondering around the country of Fiore for a couple months now, searching for the guild someone suggested she join; a guild called 'Fairy Tail'. Though, difficulties arose as she finished the first week of wandering as she was too distrustful of going into a town to ask for directions. A distrust that led to her once full clothing having been worn and torn down to rags that barely covered the more important parts of her body and no longer provided any form of warmth from the cold due to not taking the time to find replacements.

"Is there anybody out here!?" She yelled out. She couldn't take it anymore, she didn't expect the weather to get so bad, so fast. She was hungry, thirsty, and cold; to top it off, she was also very exhausted. She was on her last legs, if she didn't find someone soon, she would likely perish in the storm. "Anyone?!" She cried again, this time quieter, as her dried throat preventing her from projecting her voice at its fullest. The scarlet haired girl came to a halt, exhausted preventing her from taking any more steps. "Anybody…" She mumbled as she slowly collapse to her knees, before falling face first into the snowy ground as she lost the strength to stay conscious.

With Natsu

"Is there anybody out here!?"

The voice jolted Natsu awake. Looking around to see only darkness. Grunting, Natsu sent a small flame to the burn pile he and Igneel used to cook their food and provide lighting. "I thought I heard someone scream just now." Natsu mumbled to himself as he took a brief moment to listen for anything else. Unfortunately, the storm muffled out much of the outside noise, filling the majority of his home with the sound of wind. After a brief instant of listening in, Natsu heard nothing. "Must have been my imagination." He shrugged, assuming he was simply hearing things due to being alone. He then turned back on his side to resume sleeping.

"Anyone!?"

There it was again! This time Natsu knew he heard something. Within a moment's notice, Natsu jumped up and bolted to the cave's entrance. Upon reaching the entrance, Natsu knew why someone would be calling for help: You couldn't see at all. That posed a problem; assuming one didn't have enhance senses like himself. Natsu, to the best of his ability, put his nose to good use, hoping to catch a scent of something that didn't…smell…like snow or trees. He did this for a minute as he cautiously walked around the cave entrance before he caught the scent of….raspberries?

'Good enough!' Natsu thought quickly as he raced to the scent, emitting high amounts of heat from his body to melt the snow in his path to both make reaching the source of the scent easier as well as enabling him to see his path back to the cave. Upon just reaching the peak of a nearby hill, Natsu looked down the hill to see a mob of scarlet red hair amongst the vast white of the land. 'A girl? What's she doing way out here?' Natsu thought before quickly letting the thought go as he knelt down to the girl. "Hey! Are you alright!?" Natsu asked loudly, hoping his voice could be heard over the storm. No response. Natsu briefly thought grimly of the situation before he remembered Igneel teaching him how to check if someone was alive if they were unconscious: check for a pulse on the neck; and that he did. Luckily, Natsu felt a pulse. Faint, but it was there; but would be gone if she didn't get proper shelter as well as food and water soon.

Hoisting the girl up on his back, Natsu slowly began his strenuous trek back to his cave; hoping desperately that the storm didn't sweep away his path as he would be unable to find the cave on pure sight alone until the storm passed. The girl on his back wouldn't last that long if that was the case. Luckily for the duo, the path was slightly blown over, but not so much that Natsu couldn't follow it back to the safety and warmth of his home.

Minutes later, Natsu had arrived at the back of the cave with the redhead still on his back. It seemed as though with the heat suddenly hitting her cold skin, she seemed to start breathing a bit more steady, though still shakily as she was still cold.

Natsu was slightly at a lost at what to do next. He had never met another human; it's was just him and Igneel as well as the occasional animal that strayed too close to them. Igneel never told him how to act around another person, let alone treat them if they are in trouble.

Hoping he wasn't doing anything bad, Natsu gently slid the redhead off his back, gently putting her on the ground before turning around himself and wrapping his arms around her; eventually warming his body up to much higher temperatures to hopefully warm the girl. In moments, it dawned to Natsu that he made the correct decision as the girl's breathing finally returned to normal and seemed to almost be sleeping relatively peacefully. Content with the results, Natsu cut off the heat, breathing a sigh of relief as he did so and brought the girl near the fire in the cave; setting her close as to not get cold again.

With this done, Natsu let out a long yawn, he was tired, especially since he both didn't get but a few hours' sleep and spent a few moments continuously using his magic to warm the redhead. Yeah, he deserved some sleep, he concluded as he turned back to the 'bed' and promptly fell on to it, before finally falling quickly to sleep.

The Next Morning

The night went by quietly as both occupants of the cave slept in peace; Natsu being tired to begin with and the girl having just been saved from severe hypothermia, and likely even death. The morning, to Natsu, wasn't too out of his once everyday schedule: Wake up, find breakfast, and train. The only differences of this was that he would have to find more than his usual amount of breakfast and that he wasn't going to train; instead, he was going to begin his search for Igneel.

Alone to his thoughts, Natsu barely notice the redheaded girl beginning to stir in her sleep; indicating she was about to awaken. Her single eye open with a jolt. "Where….where am I?" She asked with hints of fear in her voice. Understandably, to Natsu, she was rightfully fearful of what had happened to her in the time she was out.

"You are in my home." Natsu answered, earning a quick turn of the head of the scarlet haired girl, as she looked at him with a mixture of surprise and slight anger.

"Who are you!? What do you want with me!?" The girl demanded, as she summoned a small short sword to her hand as she backed up, only to quickly find herself against a wall.

Natsu simply close his eyes and sighed at the annoyance that was sure to come, but he understood. 'Something bad must have happened to her for her to be this distrustful of strangers; especially to such a degree she draws a sword.' He thought to himself grimly. After giving some thought on his answer in order to not invoke a provoked assault form the redhead, Natsu finally gave his answer. He brought his hands up in surrender, "Relax. I promise you no harm. I simply heard your cry for help last night and when I found you, you were unconscious in the snow. I simply took you back here and warmed you up." Natsu explained. "I have some fish cooking here, it's almost done if you would like some."

The girl didn't move; she didn't dare to. 'No one is this nice. It must be a trap!' She thought quickly. "How do I know you won't just kill me or sell me back to slavers!?" She demanded again.

Natsu's expression turned quite serious at the mention of slavers. 'So, she was a slave huh? That explains the reaction I got.' He noted to himself. "If I wanted to do any of that, wouldn't I have done so while you were unconscious? Besides, I know you're hungry, I can hear your stomach rumble." Natsu answered, finishing the answer with a grin, which earned a small blush of embarrassment from the redhead. Another moment passed and Natsu could see the redhead was slowly losing to temptation; she just needed on final push. "If you don't want any, more for me." Natsu commented with a grin as he turned back and walked to the fire; sitting down and grabbing one of the many cooked fish that sat over the fire.

Another rumble sounded throughout the air, almost causing Natsu to laugh at the redhead's losing battle. Finally, the girl relented. She stored the sword away in her pocket dimension as she slowly, almost cautiously trudged over to the fire, sitting across from Natsu and even then, slowly taking a fish before she began gorging it down.

"So…you got a name red?" Natsu asked nonchalantly.

The redhead didn't answer right away; opting to finish the fish she was eating. Once she was done she looked over. "Why do you want to know?" She asked cautiously

"Do you people not give each other's names when you first meet?" Natsu asked with a look of mock annoyance on his face. He really couldn't blame her for being so cautious.

The girl gave Natsu a look that almost said 'Are you stupid?' before asking, "You act like you're not human." The girl commented harshly.

Natsu gave a sigh. "As far as I know, I am human, yes. I say it like that because you are the first human I have ever met." He stated, earning a look of surprise from the redhead.

'H-he has never met another person?! How has he last this long? What about his parents?' The girl thought in shock at the almost gloom answer the 11 year old boy gave. "You…so you've been all alone your whole life?" The scarlet haired girl asked, with a look of pity.

"Well, I had someone. My adoptive father, Igneel. I never knew my real parents. Igneel found me in the woods when I was just a baby and he said that he didn't see anyone else nearby. So yes, I had someone; that is until he mysteriously left yesterday." Natsu explained, his own mood turning gloomy at remembering the thought of Igneel leaving him without saying a word to him; only leaving the scarf and an eight worded 'good-bye' note.

Silence overtook the cave as the two of them ate the rest of the fish in silence, Natsu suddenly losing his appetite at having to remember what happened yesterday, but the girl continued to eat to her hearts content.

"Erza" The redhead said.

Natsu turned his head to her with a look of surprise written on his face. "I'm sorry?"

"Erza. My name is Erza." Erza repeated.

"What? No last name?" Natsu questioned, though he was unaware of the pain he brought the redhead.

Upon asking what her last name was, Erza was forced to remember who it was that gave her, her last name. A friend, almost a crush, who ultimately turned his back on her. "It's…." She started before stopping, a mixture of pain, sadness, and regret washing over her features before she finally could muster the willpower. "…Scarlet. Erza Scarlet."

'That's not a bad name.' Natsu commented to himself. "Why did you hesitate?" He asked, though he did so kindly, taking note that upon just asking her of her last name in general he saw the pain it caused. When he got no answer he decided to let it go. "Eh, you don't have to answer it. I can see it's hard for you." He finished before leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes. He needed a small nap.

"What's your name?" Erza suddenly asked the rose haired boy.

Natsu promptly opened his eyes and gave her a grin. "Natsu Dragneel! Fire Dragon Slayer!" He answered with a toothy grin.

Almost belying her former attitude, Erza's features suddenly brightened. "That's a cool name!" She complimented with enthusiasm.

Natsu was taken aback by this. 'She was all gloom just minutes ago! Now she's all enthusiastic about my name? What is with her?' he questioned himself with his thoughts. "T-thanks. Anyways, you can have what I didn't eat. I'm going to get some more sleep, feel free to sleep on the bed as well." Natsu stated before he pushed himself off of the cave wall and trudged over to the bed.

"A-alright. Thanks by the way. For everything." Erza thanked, greatly appreciated the generosity the Dragon Slayer was showing to a complete stranger.

"No problem. Night Erza."

"So why where you all the way out here?" Natsu asked as he was walking southwards alongside the redheaded girl.

Erza hesitated to respond, not wanting to have to talk about recent events in her life. "A uh…friend suggested I join a guild known as Fairy Tail. He said it was a great place. That it would treat people like me as family." Erza answered.

Natsu stood confused at this. 'People like her?' He asked himself."What do you mean 'people like you'?" Natsu asked.

"I'm a mage." Erza answered. Though despite this response, Natsu still had a look of confusion. "I mean you can control fire, you use magic, so you're a mage as well." She explained.

"Oh! So what can you do?" Natsu asked quickly upon realizing he was a mage.

"I…I don't know what it's called, but I can summon weapons." Erza responded, summoning a rather worn and beaten short sword.

"I see. So, if you're looking for this Fairy Tail, why are you way out here? There's no one around for miles."

"Well. The thing is, I only lived in a small village. I don't know where anything is, and I didn't feel comfortable asking for directions." Erza answered, red starting to show on her face from the embarrassment at being too shy to ask for help. "He only told me it was in a city called Magnolia."

"Hmm. Well, I can't help you there as I've never been in civilization." Natsu stated.

"So what are you going to do? You going to look for your father?" Erza asked.

"You bet!" Natsu answered pumping a fist into the air. "Though it will probably take some time."

"It may be a long shot, but the last town I passed through I heard some of the locals talking about some monster attacking towns. I doubt its Igneel, but I don't see why it would hurt to check it out." Erza suggested.

"Sure! If it's not, I get to beat up a monster!" Natsu yelled, his fist set ablaze from the excitement. "Where is this monster?"

"I only heard it's to the West." Erza answered. "I'm sorry I don't know more."

"It's fine!" Natsu reassured, "If I find it, I find it. If not, that's fine as well." He finished as he walked ahead a ways before stopping abruptly. "Would you like to come along, or would you rather go find Fairy Tail?" He asked.

Erza gave it some thought. She could either continue to try to look for the suggested guild, or travel with the only person she could now consider a friend, thanks to his friendly nature. She chose the latter. "I'll go with you. At least then I know someone. Promise after this we can look for this Fairy Tail?" Erza answered, following up with a question.

"Sure! Let's head out!"

A Couple Days Later, In a Small Town

Natsu and Erza had just walked into the town and the two, or rather Erza, immediately notice something: These people seemed…saddened, deprived; some almost looked homeless.

"These people. It looks like a nearby town was recent attacked and these are refuges." Erza commented with a sad look upon his face.

"Yeah. I know for a fact it's not Igneel, but we should try to take care of this monster." Natsu commented looking back at the redhead, until he bumped into someone.

"Hey!" A boy yelled, as he turned around to look at who bumped into him, setting his eyes on Natsu. "Watch where you're walking Pinky!"

Natsu immediately looked at the person he walked into. He had raven spiky hair, about the same height as himself, and was wearing…nothing but his boxers? "Sorry, I didn't mean to. By the way, why are you wearing nothing but underwear?" Natsu asked upon apologizing to the raven haired boy.

The raven haired boy quickly had a look of confusion upon hearing the rose haired mage's question. He looked down and quickly saw that he indeed lost all his clothes. "Gah! Again!? Dammit Ur!" he cursed, to who Erza could only assume was either his parent, relative or guardian.

"Gray! I thought I asked you to at least address me properly!" A female voice called out, causing the raven haired boy to freeze upon being caught. From around the corner came a woman with dark purple hair wearing a tan jacket and jeans. She looked down at the boy who was with a redheaded girl and rose haired boy before looking back at Gray…in only his underwear. "Gray! What have I told you about stripping in public!?" She scolded.

"I swear! I didn't know I did it!" Gray argued back, already comically angry with the woman.

Ur quickly dropped the scolding she was giving Gray before turning to the two other children. "I apologize for his behavior. It seems in the process of teaching him, he has acquired a rather disturbing habit. I'm Ur and this is Gray Fullbuster, a downright bothersome brat at times, mind you. What are your names?" Ur asked politely.

"I'm Natsu Dragneel."

"Erza Scarlet."

"Nice names. I can tell you're mages as well, judging from the magical power I can feel within you both." Ur commented. "But what are you both doing here? Don't you have parents?"

Natsu simply had a blank expression when he heard the question. "They abandoned me when I was young. Foster Father had to leave." He answered almost jadedly.

Erza on the other hand was not so jaded about it, instead adopting a look of sadness as she looked down to the ground when she answered. "Mine were killed a year ago."

Ur had a look of astonishment upon hearing the children's answers. 'One never had parents and the other had hers killed? I thought Gray had it pretty rough' she thought somberly. "Well then, what are you doing out here for?" she finally asked.

Natsu decided to answer this one. "I'm looking for Igneel. I heard a monster was in the area and I thought it was him at first, though Igneel never attacked humans. Now we're here to stop this monster."

"I think demon would be the correct term. Better yet, try a demon from the Book Of Zeref." Ur corrected, earning a look of shock from Erza. "You'd best stay away from it. It's way out of your, and my league." She further suggested to the two young mages. "In the meantime, you can stay with us for the night and you can head off tomorrow."

Natsu and Erza nodded at this, silently agreeing with each other that it's best to accept the free housing and opportunity to rest rather than quickly get back to traveling and followed the purple haired woman.

At Ur's House

"We're back!" Ur called as she walked into the house followed by Gray, Natsu, and Erza.

"Finally done chasing Gray down eh?" A male voice sounded, footsteps sounding as he made his way to the door; revealing a young boy just as old as Gray with spike white hair. "You're taking on more students Ur? Gray was already too much if you ask me." He stated rather smugly.

"Lyon! Don't be rude!" Ur retorted, agitated at the boy's attitude. "These two have just traveled a long ways and I offered to let them stay here for the night.

"Hmph, whatever." The boy replied before walking off to a different section of the house.

*Sigh* "That boy, he's good at heart, but he has serious pride issues." Ur groaned to herself before looking at the children with her. "Would you guys like something to eat?"

"Sure!" Natsu and Erza replied.

"Fine by me." Came Gray's 'bored' reply despite not being directly asked.

"So this 'Igneel', you're looking for, what's he look like?" Ur asked Natsu as she along with Natsu, Gray, and Erza were eating; Lyon eating by himself in another room.

"Igneel's a giant red Fire Dragon!" Natsu answered quickly with enthusiasm, hiding the pain that he still felt when he remembered Igneel's departure.

Ur was only moderately surprised. "Oh? You're a Dragon Slayer? That's quite rare nowadays seeing as Dragons haven't been seen for quite some time." She commented. "What about you Erza? What are you doing out here."

Erza fidgeted in her seat for a moment, still not used to being treated generously, but finally she spoke. "Natsu found me in a blizzard and helped me get back up on my feet, but I was looking for the guild known as Fairy Tail."

"Oh? Makarov's guild?" Ur asked with surprise, earning what could be a nod from Erza, despite not knowing who Makarov was. "Well, you're quite a ways off, sadly." Ur answered, briefly glancing upon the saddened expression, "However, Magnolia, the city which it resides, is basically a straight shot south of here. I'm sure people could direct you to the city should you ask."

"Thanks!" Erza thanked with a smile on her face.

"It's no problem really. I don't know the guild master all that well, but I have ran into the guild's ace, Gildarts. He was a rather…unique, but a nice man." Ur explained.

"I see." Erza spoke, thereby ending the topic of conversation.

Natsu, not wanting silence to engulf the air decided to ask. "So what magic do you use?"

"Ah! That's right, I asked so much about you two that I didn't tell you anything about me, except my name! My apologies. I use Maker Magic." Ur answered enthusiastically before seeing the confused expression written on Natsu and Erza's face. "It's magic where a mage can form objects to put it simply. The particular type that I, as well as Gray and Lyon, use is Ice-Make." She further explained before stretching out her left palm while resting her balled right hand on top of it and concentrated magic power to her hands. In a few seconds she opened her right hand to reveal a rose; particularly a rose made out of ice.

"That looks cool!" Erza complimented.

"Eh, it's just a flower made of ice." Natsu deadpanned, not caring too much from the type of maker magic at the moment.

"Yes, it's just a flower, but with Maker Magic, provided you have the imagination as well as the skill and magic power, you can make just about anything you can imagine." Ur explained before Natsu saw she quickly made a large sword out of ice. "It's not something you should underestimate even if you use fire magic."

"So could you make things such as animals out of Ice?" Erza asked, curiosity showing through her eyes.

Gray just gave a 'hmph' at the question, while Ur just sighed. "Well, I guess you could say you could, yes. Lyon in fact does it quite often, dubbing it Dynamic Ice Make. He can in fact make animals or creatures out of ice, but at the cost of it able to…animate itself, it loses much of the power as he uses Ice-Make with one hand instead of the two needed to get full effect." Ur explained. "Anyways, we should be getting some sleep. Gray if you would, please lay out some futons for these two."

"Whatever." Gray simply replied as he walked to the other room to grab the futons.

"Well, it looks like we'll be heading to Fairy Tail as of tomorrow." Natsu commented once Gray left the room.

"Yeah, sorry about this." Erza apologized.

"It's fine."

"Here you go." Gray spoke suddenly having just appeared back into the room with a futon. "I only found one. Hope that isn't a problem." He finished with a smirk aiming at Natsu who didn't catch the ulterior meaning to Gray's words.

"Thanks." "The rose haired mage replied as he took the futon from the young ice mage

"Good night Natsu, Erza." Ur called as she walked out of the room followed by Gray.

A very large rumble shook Natsu and Erza awake in the middle of the night, one that quickly followed by part of the house they were in to be torn off from a nearby explosion.

"The hell?" Natsu called, as he shielded his eyes from the flying debris coming in from the outside of the building.

"Dammit! It's Deliora again!" Ur called as she quickly appeared in front of him. "Quickly! You, Gray, Lyon, and Erza need to get away, I'll hold him off!"

At the very moment she finished her demands Gray ran into the remainder of the room. "Ur! Lyon's gone! He said something about Deliora and ran off"

Ur narrowed her eyes in anger as she snarled. "That idiot! Doesn't he know how powerful Deliora is? He'll just get himself killed unless…." Her eyes widened in realization. "Iced Shell…"

Natsu was about to ask what the Ice-Mage was talking about, but she quickly darted out the front of the house towards the cause of the explosions followed by Gray. "Where are you going? I thought she said for us to leave?!" He called after the raven haired boy.

What Natsu saw next made him take back his former opinion of the boy when he first met him; he turned back to Natsu with tears in his eyes. "Ur is the only family I have left, I'm not going to lose her as well!" He answered before turning his back to the Dragon Slayer and running in the direction of Ur.

"Should we go with them?" Erza asked, fear showing on her faces as she saw people running in sheer panic, some severely injured from the sudden attack.

Natsu's facial features hardened, his resolve quickly being cemented with his decisions. "Let help them."

"Finally, I can prove that I have surpassed you, Ur."

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the story, it's not very refined, I know, I had most of this written out and just sitting in my computer files. Decided to finish it up and post it and see what you think. Should I get the time, I'll finish this story, it will likely only be one or two more chapters long. At least until Natsu, Gray, and Erza join Fairy Tail. Anyways, if you liked the story, Leave a review. If you have questions, leave that in the review or shoot me a message; I'll answer it. Talk to ya later!