I re-read this translation yesterday and I found some mistakes that made me bump my head to the wall… so I'm re-uploading this fanfic with less grammatical mistakes (or I hope so), but the story is the same.

Enjoy!

It was already dark in the woods.

A small figure was running through the brush, leaving shreds of clothes in the bushes and scratching his face and arms with the branches.

He wasn't difficult to track; he made so much noise running that even a deaf would have detected his presence.

The kid wouldn't have more than five or six years old, as much seven. He was ragged and skinny, with black hair too much grown, and he was barefoot. He would be an easy prey for the wolves that followed him, attracted by the smell of blood.

The kid tripped with a root, gave a setback and got the balance to eke. A branch left him a scratch on the cheek, very close to the eye.

A howl.

The sound of pawns running behind him, in front of him, on his sides…

When the first wolf come to sight, the child screeched to a halt and looked towards all sides, desperated. He was surrounded. The alpha took a step forward and began to describe a slow circle to his around. Tightening the few muscles that might have under the rags, the boy prepared himself for the attack.

The wolf jumped.

The boy was able to dodge it, but the herd didn't stood still. After the old wolf, another one jumped forward and managed to capture the kid's right arm. The howl of pain of the child was chanted by the howls of the whole herd, as a taunt. The wolf shook its prey, burying deeply its teeth in the little meat of the so-skinny-human puppy. However it didn't expect that insignificant bit of food punching him between the eyes. It barely hurts, the kid didn't have so much strength, but it was enough to stun it a little.

The kid released himself and, faltering and moaning, reached to a fallen branch.

–I'm not afraid of you! –shouted, flying the branch in his left hand, as if it were a sword.

The wolves showed their fangs and he showed his in return.

A shadow hung over them. Yelping, the alpha turned his back and fled away, followed by the others.

"Well, well, what we have here?" said a resonant voice from above him.

The boy turned around slowly, pale as death. Blood flowed from the wounds of his arm. Beneath the matted strands of black hair two eyes as ruby stared at the enormous dragon who was watching him among the trees. He didn't smell like fear at all.

The creature issued a laugh-like sound.

"You're brave, little one" said. He lengthened a claw toward him. "Hey, hey, calm down" sneered when the child raised the branch "you won't be able to tickle me with that, dwarf, not in a thousand years you could beat me. In addition, I won't hurt you"

–Who… are you? –the child didn't get down the branch, despite how ridiculous seemed to try to confront a dragon with a vulgar stick.

The dragon laughed again and batted his wings. A single ray of moon crept among the clouds and danced over their scales, booting them flashes.

"I am Metallicana, the Iron Dragon" answered.

The little branch bumped the ground almost at the same time as the dragon raised a pawn to hold the little one, who had passed out.

The dragon observed a few moments the inert little figure. He was so weak and skinny that he could break him without wanting it. He snorted and flew off, taking as delicately as he could that little body with his front paws.

…

When the child opened his eyes, he found himself in a stone cave, with a little fire near him. He noticed a strange bandage on his right arm, too coarse to be human but certainly effective, since the wounds weren't bleeding already. He tried to sit down but the pain almost reduced him to tears. He let out a sob and almost instantly covered his mouth with his good hand, praying not to wake the dragon, who was sleeping beside him.

He wasn't lucky.

"Hey, chibi" grated the creature, opening a big eye "You're not going to start to cry, do you?"

–I'm not crying –replicated the child. A single tear was running down his cheek. He dried it angrily, and tried again to get up, more slowly this time.

"You've already shown me you are courageous, dwarf" Metallicana raised a bit his head and pulled the boy's chest slightly with his snout. "But pain is not cowardly or courageous. We all feel pain, chibi"

The child lowered his eyes. He felt weak and dizzy, and completely lost.

–If you're going to eat me, then do it now –whispered.

The laughter of the dragon shaked the stone ceiling and made the fire dance. The air blast from the dragon's mouth stirred the boy's hair and almost knocked him down.

"Why should I eat you? You're nothing but a sack of bones!" mocked Metallicana. "The wolves wouldn't have had enough food of you, and those creatures are small… but not as much as you, chibi"

–Stop calling me chibi_ protested the boy.

"I don't know your name, dwarf" answered Metallicana "I don't even know where are you from. What were you doing running trough my forest, skinning those delicate feet you humans have?"

He lowered his head and didn't answer. The dragon spited and pulled him again with the snout, this time a little harder, just to make him fall sitting.

"I asked you a question, short stuff. From what were you hiding?"

–I was hiding from the people.

"People? Other humans?" the creature stared at him, puzzled "Why?"

The boy lowered his head until his chin touched his chest, but not fast enough; Metallicana realized that he was about to cry.

"Well, well, chibi, keep calm…" the dragon's voice sounded uncomfortable. "Hey, I don't know how the hell should I deal with crying brats, so don't start to whine, or I would have no choice but eat you…"

The kid clenched his teeth and dried his face with his sleeve. The dragon gazed him and asked again:

"So? Why were you hiding from humans?"

–They say I'm cursed.

There was as much hate in the boy's words as suffering in his red eyes. Metallicana gazed him again, from the tangled hair to the tiny feet he had had to heal, only two hours ago (A real NUISANCE, since they were so small that his claws had barely bandaged them). The wounds on his arm would heal soon, but the scars would remain lifelong.

The boy glanced at him, annoyed.

–What are you looking at? –spitted –. Be careful, I might throw you a "mex*"

Metallicana laughed again.

–You mean "hex*", dwarf. And I doubt you would be capable of something like that.

He began to like the boy. He was the first human being who could hold a conversation with him, a conversation without pleas for forgiveness, praise for his greatness or battlecryes of "I'll kill you!"

And he had something…

"Why did they say that you're cursed?"

–The hell if I know… It has always been like that. I go down the streets and no-one gives me a single piece of bread, I have to crawl inside chocks to steal food.

"Steal food? Souldn't your parents take care of you?"

–Parents? –The boy blinked, puzzled –. I don't have any of these…

"Have you survived alone?"

–Yeah, how else? The other children… they say that I'm a monster and monsters don't have parents.

He said it so naturally that Metallicana guessed easily that he truly believed it. That scrub had suffered more than he appeared.

"So, you're orphan…"

_Same for you, lizard! _ answered the child, believing the dragon was taunted him.

Metallicana gave him a little push, struggling not to laugh out loud. It was so funny that a microbe like that boy dared to stand up to him…

Gradually, the great iron dragon was becoming aware of the life of his little guest:

He had learnt how to survive in the streets and he did so. He didn't know when he was left behind or where were his parents, but he didn't miss them, he had learnt to take care of himself. But sometimes it comes to his mind memories of someone calling his name, and singing him a lullaby. He remembered perfectly the melody.

_ I don't know why, I remember that when it's raining… it was sung by a woman, she had a beautiful voice…

Metallicana assumed that it could be the only memory of his mother the child had. He thinked about to stop asking him questions, but there was one thing left

"Why did they say that you're cursed?"

The boy stayed in silence. He looked at his hands and lowered his head.

–It's said that, when I'm around, bad things happen. The priest said it was magic or something like that…

"Magic?" the dragon made the boy rise his head with the claw "Chibi, do you have magic?"

The boy shrugged.

"This is not a curse, short stuff. It's a gift. In what kind of ignorant-village have you been?"

The kid shrugged again and yawned. His eyes where closing. The dragon snorted slightly when, without any trace of fear or bashfulness, the little one laid his head on his paw.

"Ok, chibi, you can stay here. But, at least, tell me your name…"

The little one's eyes were almost closed.

"Have you a name?"

–Gajeel… –whispered the child. He curled himshelf and fell asleep.

The Dragon grinned. He lowered his scout enough to push the kid a little bit closer, and then covered him with his wing. Gajeel hummed in his dreams and tried to wrap with his tiny hand the great metallic paw. He was so little, so fragile… the dragon felt the urge to protect him, to teach him everything he knows, to take care of him.

"Be not afraid, chibi. I'm here. And I'll still be here in the morning"

Outside, it was pouring.

…

A voice was singing next to him. A sweet and familiar voice, accompanied of the sound of the rain.

A memory from his childhood made him relieve for a moment that the scaled wings of a dragon were protecting him, that the throbbing pain will disappear, that the voice will vanished, engulfed by the rain, back to his first memories.

But there weren't wings what were covering him, it seems more like sackcloth, rough and old. Every centimetre of his body was aching, and he felt totally empty of magic.

However, the voice and the melody didn't disappeared. They changed.

–Last day was a violent battle.

Another voice, also familiar, was speaking.

–¿Do you remember, Lu-chan? The 7th July we lost to destiny.

Someone was sobbing; he felt the smell of ink and tears on old parchment.

–Death… and more death… and… and… my dear… also…

He knew that voice… he knew that habit of reading out loud everything she translated or wrote

–I can't write more, Lu-chan. I can't continue.

And chiefly, he knew that smell.

–Someone, help us…

He heard a sob ant the noise of paper being folded and put in an envelope. Someone busted into tears.

–Le… vy… –managed to whisper.

He felt too weak to raise his head.

A face appears in front of him. A little face with messy blue hair, taked back from her eyes by an orange bandana. Despite the brown eyes were full of tears, the thing that worried him the most was the horrible scar that crossed her forehead, and the wound on the chin.

–What… have they… done to you?

Levy silenced him gentle, touching his lips whit the tip of her finger

–You should better be quiet. You have been ill… Sleep, okay? Don't worry about anything… –he could barely stand conscious… What happened with the rest of the guild? Why Levy was hurt? –I'm here, okay? It's my turn to protect you…

Her turn of protect him… He wanted to say that it was his duty to protect her, that he wanted to know who had done those wounds to her to make them pay…

But he falls into the darkness he had just left, accompanied of the lullaby of his childhood and the voice of Metallicana repeating:

"I'll still be here in the morning"

…

Out of the hideout Levy had found for both of them, it was pouring.

* Sorry but I can't translate properly my wordplay. In Spanish I play with "Despojo", (that means remain, dispossession, whatever is left behind…) and "Mal de Ojo" (Evil Eye, you know, in some cultures gypsies are supposed to throw that type of curses).