Hello, and welcome to Black Steel Gajeel! This is a prologue of sorts, and will not be focused on your favorite Iron Dragon Slayer, but on the dragon that raised him. Hope you enjoy! (Also, I own nothing but a laptop and my twisted, irreparable mind.)

-Lichenwing

Black Steel Gajeel

Ch. 1

Of Dragons and Dreamers

Five dragons perched atop the rocky cliff, each comparable in size with a mansion. Their scales ranged from scarlet red to midnight black, and their eyes shone with a keen intelligence. At the foot of the sheer drop at which they crouched, a glassy lake spread out as far as the eye could see. It's surface shimmered with an eerie iridescence, and each of the huge beasts stared into it with determination.

If you looked close enough at the lake, you could see shadowy shapes flickering across the water, almost like a muted video tape was being projected onto it. If you looked even closer, the blurry forms would begin to take shape into people, trees, houses. And if you had a dragon's eyesight, the images would seem as clear as if the events playing out on the lake's surface were actually happening right in front of you.

The red dragon's tail flicked back and forth like that of an aggravated cat. "This is taking much too long." His voice's deep baritone sent shivers across the water, and the silvery-scaled dragon sitting next to him scoffed.

"It's supposed to take a while, Igneel." Metalicana was almost always fed up with his impatient younger cousin. But who wasn't? The supposed 'Fire Dragon King' could barely sit still long enough to have a decent conversation with a rodent, let alone a beast as sophisticated as another dragon.

"What did you say, metal head?" Igneel growled, locking horns with his cousin. Thus began a wrestling match of sorts, with the two reptilian beasts leaning into one another and spouting unsavory comments.

"Well, this is interesting." Weisslogia commented from the sidelines, leaning into her twin brother, Skiadrum. The dark, heavy-lidded dragon rumbled his agreement.

Grandeeney discreetly muttered a few things about how much better humans were than dragons.

Metalicana growled. "Oh, you wanna go there, do you?" The two scuffling males payed no heed to the other dragons, focusing their glares on one another only. Soon their voices had raised to such a crescendo that their friends couldn't even hear themselves think.

After a few more minutes of the intense bickering, Weisslogia decided she had finally had enough. "Boys," she said in a cool voice, waltzing right up to them. When they refused to let up, barely even noticing their smaller white-scaled friend, her usually gentle eyes narrowed. "Boys." Now her voice had a bit more iron to it, but the two cousins still continued to argue. "Fine," Weisslogia hissed. Skiadrum, the only one who noticed his sister's growing anger, backed away, dragging a plaintive Grandeeney along with him.

Of course, Grandeeney internally thanked the gods for Skiadrum's brotherly instinct as soon as Weisslogia began to glow. Though she was considerably smaller than the average dragon, the female was well known for her ruthless, lightning-quick magic.

Before her targets even had a chance to blink, Weisslogia leaped up, spreading her wings, and whipped her long tail out from behind her. All of the white glow emanating from her body had already concentrated down in that seventh limb, and when her tail made contact with the two troublemakers, they didn't stand a chance.

There was a splash as they landed in the lake below.

"Oops." Weisslogia grimaced, turning to her brother. "I think I might have gone a bit overboard."

Skiadrum shrugged, not at all fazed. "Meh."

As he flew back up to the summit of the cliff, Metalicana shook the water from his scales. He wasn't going to fight with Igneel again any time soon. Or, at least not in front of Weisslogia.

"Now then," Weisslogia said in a condescending tone. "Are you ready to behave?" Two damp and humiliated dragons begrudgingly lowered their heads in compliance. Metalicana could already feel his scales rusting over, and Igneel's competitive flame had finally been extinguished.

Temporarily.

"Let's go over what we are doing here once again." Now it was Grandeeney's turn to patronize her kin. "We are here to choose our legacies. The people we will teach our magic, and whom we will place upon a great deal of importance."

"Not to mention that they are basically going to be our children…" Skiadrum murmured under his breath. He knew that the other two male dragons were most definitely not ready for the responsibility of parenthood, even if they did adopt an uncultured orphan as intended. These dragons needed dragon slayers, but they weren't about to kidnap a child with parents of his or her own. The plan was to search with his Shadow Sight spell for children who had been orphaned, and then take them in. So far, they had had no luck. The shadow dragon wasn't sure if he should be pleased or disappointed that so few orphans existed in Fiore.

Igneel huffed, though whether it was towards Skiadrum or Grandeeney, one could not be sure. "We get it. Now let's go pick out some kids already!" He scampered back to the edge of the cliff and was soon squinting into the watery depths with new vigor.

Metalicana rolled his eyes, but still walked over to settle back on the summit.

Skiadrum and Weisslogia curled back up next to one another.

Grandeeney sat a few meters away from the rest of the group.

The black drake was the first to speak up. "Have we tried the Boundary Forest yet?" His sister shook her head, and Skiadrum stood up, untangling his tail from Weisslogia's. He took a few steps forward, then, so fast that he was just a blur of gray, he dived off the edge of the cliff. Though the other four dragons stared, flabbergasted, at the lingering dust cloud where Skiadrum had been standing, their smaller white counterpart just smiled peacefully. About half way down, the dark dragon thrust out his wings. He was yanked violently up by the wind, and his muscles would be sore for a few days, but he had done what was needed. Skiadrum was now floating gently down towards the lake. When he got close enough to touch the water with his snout, he spoke softly, "Shadow Sight, Boundary Forest."

The water started to bubble. A small amount at first, but then more, and more, and more, until the lake had been completely taken over by froth. But Skiadrum didn't recoil. The water was still cool to the touch, even if it appeared hot enough to burn a human's skin from their bones. Still, he flew back up to sit with his twin and inspect his handiwork.

After a few moments, the fizz began to clear away, and there in the water was a crystal-clear depiction of a forest. Or, more accurately, a war zone. Trees twisted up in gradual battles for sunlight, and the birds in their boughs wrestled for every scrap of fruit available to them. The monsters that the woodland were famous for trampled everything in their path as they wandered aimlessly, titans in their own right.

The gathered dragons scrutinized every inch of that forest, Skiadrum calling out for the images to zoom in or out. But, after an hour of relentless searching, the lack of results was starting to grate on their nerves. They had looked everywhere, but had absolutely nothing to show for it.

Then, Grandeeney gasped. "S-stop!" She called, bluish-white feathers rising on the nape of her neck. Startled, Skiadrum obliged. "There." The sky dragon pointed with a slightly shivering claw. "Found o-one."

Sure enough there was a small child, barely even a toddler, sitting petrified in the shadow of the thorny brush. Her long, unruly blue hair was adorned with leaves and nettles, and scrapes ran up and down her body. Her ankle was twisted at an unnatural angle, and as she tried to stand up her face was contorted by the pain. A panther was sleeping less than five feet away, chest easily rising up and down.

In less than a second, Grandeeney was gone. The only trace that she had ever been there was the lingering smell of pine trees.

"Well," Igneel stated the obvious, "I guess that means that the bluenette is Grandeeney's."

"We looked over the entire Boundary Forest, let's just look somewhere else." Weisslogia nudged her brother, and Skiadrum complied, leaping from the edge once again. The small dragon barely had enough time to call "TRY CROCUS!" before her counterpart had reached the water. A small flick of a midnight tail signified he had heard her, and then Skiadrum whispered to the lake:

"Shadow Sight, Crocus."

The town was large, larger than any other place in Fiore. People bustled back and forth, stopping to chat with one another. Vendors called out from their stalls, attempting to sell their wares to the passerby. It was surprisingly clean, with only the occasional bit of litter on the street. And there he was. A small boy with salmon-colored hair and tattered clothing, running up and down the street and calling for someone, anyone, to notice him.

But, the venders pushed him away. The bustling people shoved him out of their path. Those in conversation were unwilling to talk to him.

"Two. I got this one." Igneel said, serious for once. He spread out his mammoth, blood-red wings and sprung into the sky.

"Three to go."

Two boys closer to the bluenette in age, one a messy blonde, the other with a dark curtain of hair hanging over one eye. They sat together on a bench, watching people walk past with somber eyes. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know why.

"Ours, but I can't go yet." Skiadrum turned to Metalicana. "Pick 'em fast."

They looked up and down Crocus, Magnolia, and many other cities, but there was not another orphan to be found. Metalicana sighed. "You go — I'm fine without." Skiadrum looked unsure, but he also looked about ready to take his sister and run. "Go," the larger silver dragon urged, "You can do without one more dragon slayer."

And that was the only persuasion the smaller drakes needed. The twins were gone in a streak of black and white. After they had disappeared from the horizon, Metalicana stood up slowly, making an act of stretching his long legs. Then, his tail smashed against the ground and pushed him up into the sky; in a snapping gust of air, his wings were open, and he was soaring away from the cliff and the lake at its feet.

"Don't need another dragon slayer…" He muttered as he flew. Even though they were his own words, they stung. Did the world not want him to pass on his legacy? What were the chances of there only being four parent-needing orphans that had not yet been picked up by an orphanage in all of Fiore? But, he decided, this drake was not going to take no for an answer. Metalicana beat his wings harder and sped across the barren landscape that was the no-man's-land between the human and dragon territories. His spade-shaped muzzle cut through the frigid air like a knife through paper. No, this drake was not about to take no for an answer.

Soon, as the sun fell below the skyline, the trees began to grow greener, and the sounds of bird songs populated the air once more. The silhouettes of houses could be seen in the distance, and if he looked hard enough, he could see small shapes running back and forth. And… fire?

As he got closer, Metalicana's eyes widened. This small, peaceful-looking village on the edge of nowhere was under raid.

Screams pierced through the night air, shrill noises that would keep him up at night for years to come. Heavyset men wielding axes, swords, guns; they all raced across the town, terrorizing it's inhabitants.

"Kill the adults! Take the children!" A particularly large man bellowed from atop his horse. His men scrambled to obey him. Soon, carcasses littered the ground, and Metalicana's eyes narrowed as he surveyed the mayhem that he was now directly above. He snorted and went into a dive.

"EEEEEK!" went the man and his horse as Metalicana picked them up with one huge forepaw. The raiders stared at their now blubbering leader with wide eyes. The children took the chance to wiggle themselves out of their attacker's grasps and ran off in the opposite direction.

That is, except for one.

The boy was small, with a untamable head of raven-black hair shoved up into a tattered cap. He stared up at the dragon with wide eyes, halfway through kicking his captor in a particularly tender area. The boy's leg dropped to the ground, and he staggered over to Metalicana, mesmerized. The dragon, in turn, tossed the man and his horse away half-heartedly. They screeched as they disappeared into the distance, and the rest of the raiders abandoned the village, racing after their leader. Metalicana bent down until his chin was almost touching the ground, and then he opened his mouth to speak.

"What's your name?"

"G-Gajeel. Sir. I mean Dragon. I mean—" The boy, who Metalicana now knew to be called Gajeel, stuttered helplessly until the dragon nodded his approval, and abruptly stopped talking.

"I am Metalicana, otherwise known as the Iron Dragon." Metalicana curled his long tail around and gently touched it to Gajeel's back. "Where are your parents, child?"

A tear slipped out of one of the boy's eyes. He pointed, eyes glued to his feet. When Metalicana's eyes came to rest on the area where Gajeel was pointing, he sucked in a sharp breath. A house, burned completely to the ground. And a few bones in the ashes.

"Tell you what," The dragon's voice quivered. "How about you come with me?" Gajeel nodded furiously at the question, and Metalicana bent down even more. He lowered his long neck to the ground, and as if the boy had read his mind, he scrambled up, gripping onto the drake's horns.

Together, they soared away from the remains of Gajeel's village.

Maybe the world wanted Metalicana to have a son after all.

BOOM! FIRST CHAPTER DOWN! Please review! Suggestions make me write better. :)