Ashes. Ashes and smoke. Ashes and smoke and a child's voice.
Overhead screeched the demon-like figure of Acnologia, the Dragon King.
A boy in his teens walked silently through the ruins of burnt buildings wrecked streets. There were occasional screams and screeches as the death toll rose. The aura of magic from the now charred town of wizards was sinking lower and lower as the fatality flew skyward. The fatality level stopped climbing. There was no one more to die, well, except the emotionless teen and the small singing child still clinging to his mother's dead body. Tears stained his face, and he willed his lifeless mother to wake up and come back home with him. He was singing the lullaby that his mother always used to sing him to sleep.
The unemotional teen stumbled upon the last boy alive. This face was familiar to him. It was his younger brother. Zeref stared at the singing young boy, Zensu. Zeref sighed. Perhaps he had gone too far. Another sigh passed through his lips as the looked down at his dead mother with the small boy singing at his feet.
Flashback
There had been sunshine in the room where the argument had happened. Zeref hated sunlight with a passion. It was too cheery for the real world. Too cheery for all except his little brother. Zensu loved smiling. He smiled all day every day. Even when he cried, his lips were pinned up high on cheeks creating adorable dimples. He was only four years old, yet he had the magic power of one of the ten wizard saints. But there was no time to think about his brother.
His mother had insulted his own magic power, and his father had told him that turning 16 doesn't make you have super strength. Zeref hadn't even implied the last part. Being a 16 year old with hormones, he had gotten defensive. His father beat him to the pulp and sent him to his room. Zeref had stayed there for the last two days. He didn't drink or eat anything. He hadn't shared a word with anyone except his little brother through the door. Zensu often would just talk and Zeref would listen. Sometimes Zensu asked him questions and begged until he answered them. Once he pleaded for Zeref to come out for so long that Zeref had to send a magic beam out of the door to zap the small child before he went away.
His mother often called Zensu downstairs to go out with her while his father prepared for the celebration. He would be turning four, and since he was finally big enough to cut the cake, it would definently be a birthday to remember.
Zeref then realized that the parents that had beat him senseless were the ones setting up for this cheerful event as if it had never happened. That sent him over the edge. His eyes flashed red. He let out a screeching call and with it released a powerful bolt of magic that exploded the house on contact. And with it, his father. The call summoned Acnologia, the Dragon King and master of chaos. Zeref ordered destruction from the huge black figure. The dragon quickly did as told, even he was afraid of Zeref. The dragon knew what Zeref could do, what his magic power could do. Chaos in the city. The air began to smell of death.
End Flashback
Zeref cleared his throat. The boy turned around. His tear streaked face was covered in dirt and stained with blood.
He wasn't smiling.
"Hey, do you remember me?" Zeref asked the boy in as sweet a voice as he could manage at the moment.
"Zeree!" The little boy shrieked and ran over to hug his older brother.
Zensu was still rather short, being only four years old, compared to Zeref. The boy ended up hugging Zeref's waist.
Thank God he doesn't know that all this was my fault, Zeref thought.
Finding someone alive that he knew seemed to cheer the small boy up to no end. A tiny smile surfaced on his face.
"What's that?" Asked the now peppy little boy.
Zeref was full on surprised. The boy had grabbed his hand and was holding it tightly. When he heard the question, his eyes followed the small pointing figure up to the giant shadow beast figure of Acnologia.
"That," Zeref replied "that is a mighty dragon."
"A dragon?!" The little boy exclaimed in wonder.
"Yeah!" Zeref said with enthusiasm.
He had just thought of a great idea to take the boy's mind off of the mess that he had made.
"And that dragon might just teach you some cool moves if you ask him nicely."
The little boy's eyes widened at the thought of learning to be like a dragon. Zeref used chaos dragon magic as well as some other lost magic arts that he had picked up. The small child had always looked up to his brother and at the thought of being like him, he nodded his little head so furiously that Zeref thought it might fall off.
"Mister Dragon, sir," Zensu said "will you teach me how to use your type of magic?"
At the lack of response, the boy's head dropped. He was disappointed and sad. The dragon had given him no response.
Zeref looked at his brother's depression.
"Well, you heard him, Acnologia!" Zeroed shouted at the dragon.
With that the dragon swooped down and scooped up both of the boys on the ground. The little boy's face was almost shining with delight as they swooped out of the burning town and into the country. Zeref almost smiled, but he caught himself just in time.