It was safe to say that Igneel did not particularly care for humans. They were small and weak and killed far too easily. They paled in comparison to new born hatchlings and were useless in a fight. And, due to some rule to keep peace between the two species, he wasn't allowed to eat them either.
His life had been mainly spent ignoring or avoiding the puny things, but every year on July Seventh, he would return to a tangled forest on the edge of a human village. Thinking back on it now, the mistake that forced him to make the annual trip was a stupid one. At the time, he was a relatively young dragon who had grown bored of listening to the Elders. Naturally, Igneel had always had a rebellious streak within him but somehow when he had reached nine hundred and forty five it had erupted along with a large flow of pride – or, as Grandine called it, arrogance. One night, after battling that bastard Metallicana, he was on an all time high – having won of course – and was doing loops and zooming around the sky as you do when you're nine hundred and forty five. It had been a good fight after all.
And so, after winning the fight and flying around crazily, he'd landed in a field without checking his surroundings. He cringed at just the memory, even now. That was the first time he'd ever woken up from being stabbed by several pitchforks at once and encircled by humans all at the same time. It had been like Metallicana, Grandine and all seven Elders deciding that it would be fine to give him Chinese acupuncture first thing in the morning. He was young and startled and one of the strongest dragons Fiore had to offer, therefore it should have been no surprise that he shot out a strong barrage of flames – out of reflex entirely. It ashamed him to admit that the prodding and the humans where a genuine 'SURPRISE!' to him. In the end, he had scorched the entire field and killed several of them in the process.
The Elders had not been impressed and called a huge meeting. Igneel couldn't remember exactly what had happened during it, only that his stupid mistake had reduced him to a guard dog – or dragon – for the village. At first, he was diligent to his job. He slept and ate watching the village constantly for signs of attack, but, after staring at the place for a hundred years or so, he concluded that the place was so far out the only people he'd seen leaving were a couple of love struck teens who seemed to be skipping town and the Village Chief slipping out for a piss after teaching the younger ones how to hunt.
It had been the same dodgy Chief who had actually started leaving food on the edge of the forest. He'd woken up one morning to find a deer tied to a tree and just eaten it to fill his belly out a little. Thinking with his stomach, he hadn't bothered to sniff it first which was stupid because if he had perhaps he would have discovered that it had been coated in some poison for wild animals. Igneel shook his head as he flew, despairing at his own stupidity. The village had lasted one hundred years without an attack and the day he decided to take off to find Grandine to heal his stomach ache, was the day some stupid bandits decided to attack the town.
The dragon slowed down its pace as the accursed village entered his line of sight, it's people were nowhere to be seen, hiding indoors to 'sacrifice their sunlight' – more like cower in fear. He'd missed the last Sacrifice Day because he was now an Elder and there had been an issue with a strange man named Acnologia. It had been an eye opener to say the least. A man with so consumed with the power of a Dragon Slayer that he was on the verge of something so black and dangerous that a human with also driven by power had taken an interest in him. The dark mage, Zeref.
He swooped down, deep in thought.
