A/N: And here we go again.

I don't own Fairy Tail.

I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 20: Memories of a Dragon

July 29th, X784

The sun had begun to rise up into the sky as Iva lead Rocco and Vincent to the edge of the Sealed Forest, the young woman stopping just in front of the tree line to look up at them, a scowl appearing on her face as memories came flooding back into her mind.

"Run, child!"

"Flee this place!"

"Stay hidden… and live!"

"Damn it," Iva mumbled, clenching her fist as she bit her lip, almost starting to tremble before she felt a strong hand land on her shoulder.

"You okay?" she heard Rocco ask as she looked back at him, concern etched onto his face.

"No," Iva answered plainly.

"You sure you wanna do this then?" he asked as Iva turned her head back to stare at the forest in front of them.

"No. But I have to. I have to… See him," Iva choked, struggling not to cry as more and more memories came flooding back into her mind, "I have to confront what happened that day."

"Running away is still an option. We've got other shit to do, y'know," she heard Vincent chime in, "'Sides, I'm not too thrilled with the idea of going in there either."

"Then stay here or go on without me," Iva huffed before stepping into the woods, Rocco shooting Vincent a dirty look before following Iva in, earning a sigh from the older, purple haired man.

"Fine, fine. But I still think we should just move on," he said as he followed the other two into the forest, the three of them falling into a silent march, only the sounds of the wildlife around them breaking the silence.

Rocco swallowed nervously as he looked around at the sea of trees surrounding them, watching as they seemed to move in towards them and shifted behind them, closing off paths and opening new ones, but always opening up as Iva neared them. He could tell that she was using her magic in some way, as if to command the trees to not block her path.

"Shit Iva, you really are moving this forest around, aren't you?" Rocco said aloud as they kept going.

"They still remember me… and dad," Iva answered quietly, "But they don't like you. They want to spit both of you out."

"Gee. Tell them I'm not fond of them either," Vincent requested as they kept walking, falling back into silence.

Iva could only half pay attention to what was going on in front of her as she fell back into her own memories, remembering a time when a young girl lived with a massive dragon, whose scales were rough and hard like tree bark, but was calm and gentle as the breeze through the trees. Every step she took cause her to scream out in her own mind, pleading with herself to not go back there, to keep living the illusion and hope that somehow, he was still alive, even though she knew he wasn't. She had to see it, she had to see what had happened with her own eyes.

"Hey, you're really not okay," she heard Rocco call out suddenly as he grabbed onto her shoulder again, Iva stopping in her tracks, turning around to face the two men.

"He's right, you've been crying for a while now. You sure you really wanna do this?" Vincent asked as he stepped up to Iva, Jinjo looking down at her from atop Vincent's shoulder.

"It doesn't matter if I want to or not. I have to. I have to see what happened. I've been running from this for six years," Iva answered as she wiped her face with her sleeve, "I hate this. I want to run away, but I have to keep going and I don't expect either of you to understand why," Iva stated before turning to walk again, the two men giving each other a look before following after her before they were left behind, the trio falling back into silence until they eventually reached a clearing, where Iva stopped dead in her tracks, "I can't I can't I can't I can't… I can't go in there," Iva repeated again and again, placing her hands over her face, stumbling back away from the clearing until she ran into Rocco, who once again, gently placed his hands on her shoulders.

"You can," he said quietly as Iva trembled in front of him.

"Yeah. You can't come all this way just to give up now," Vincent added, "That'd be a waste."

"I know," Iva responded, "It's just…"

"We know," Rocco said, cutting her off, "You don't have to say it."

"Thanks," Iva said quietly, the three of them falling into silence again as Iva tried to compose herself, "Okay," she eventually said before looking back up at Rocco and nodding, the man nodding back before the three of them slowly walked into the clearing, a cacophony of birds singing and insects chirping suddenly growing louder, echoing into the rocky area. The three of them stopped shortly inside, seeing the wreckage of a building scattered around a fallen tree, "My treehouse," Iva pouted as she stepped into the wreckage before digging into it, kneeling down and throwing planks of wood around until she stood back up, a small dragon doll in her hand, gently stroking it with her other hand before placing it her bag.

Vincent walked past the wreckage as he looked around, marveling at the peaceful feeling the place gave off, but a nearby stream that led down into a crater caught his eye before he slowly walked over to the edge before looking down into it.

"Oh no," he whispered as he eyes fell on a large corpse curled up at the bottom of the crater, which was missing a large portion of its torso, "It's… a dragon," he said quietly, Iva's ears twitching in the distance before she ran over to Vincent and the crater as quickly as she could, Rocco running after her.

"Dad…! No… Nononono… Dad," Iva gasped as she looked down into the crater, seeing the corpse of her father, slowly rotting away and she couldn't help but scream, the sound drowning out all other sounds around them.

. : + : .

Seven Years Earlier

A young Iva Dragomirov sat inside of a treehouse, the young girl holding her hand out in front of her as wooden dragon scales appeared and disappeared from her hand repeatedly as the sounds of chirping birds and insects rang out all around her. Though the loudest sound came from beneath her treehouse as the mighty dragon, Baumdrache, snored. The noise of the dragon didn't really bother Iva as she sat there, the girl having long gotten used to the dragon's snoring. Though there was something about the dragon's sleeping habits that did irritate her.

"It's going to be midday before he wakes up again, isn't it?" the young girl sighed as she noticed the shadows in her small treehouse growing shorter before she stood up and walked over to the open window, leaning out to look down at the massive dragon curled up beneath her house, his brown, moss-covered scales blending in perfectly with the ground beneath him while vine-covered wings remained tucked in on the dragon's sides. Though what Iva felt was most strange about the dragon's appearance, not that she had ever seen any other dragons, were the trees and various other bits of foliage that grew from the beast's back.

Iva let out another huff before walking out of her treehouse and to the edge of the balcony, a vine growing out her hand that she tied to a hook near her door before lowering herself down to the forest floor below, the vine quickly retreating back into Iva's hand once she was safely on the ground as she began to walk over towards the dragon's face.

"Dad!" she shouted as the dragon continued to snore away, "Daaaaaad!" she shouted again, a quick snort escaping from the dragon's mouth, "DAAAAAAAAD!" she yelled a third time, this time receiving a growl in response.

"Child… What have I told you about waking me?" the dragon questioned as one of his massive, dark green eyes shot open to stare down Iva.

"You're the one who keeps trying to sleep in until noon!" Iva shouted back, pointing accusingly at Baumdrache as the dragon lifted himself up with his arms, towering over the small child in front of him.

"Hrmmm… I'm beginning to regret telling you to begin morning exercises at dawn," Baumdrache admitted as he started to stretch out, his wings expanding as the dragon let out a yawn, his maw of teeth opening wide as a roar-like yawn escaped his mouth.

"That sounds like a whole lot like not my problem," Iva huffed as she placed her hands on her hips as she stared up at her father, "You said that you had to make me as strong as a dragon and you said that you would only tell me about my parents once I was that strong!"

"What a curious child. Most do not pursue strength for knowledge. Usually, it is the other way around," Baumdrache chuckled as he lowered himself back onto the ground, crossing his arms as he looked down at Iva, "Very well. I shall make you regret waking me so early today."

"Then hurry up and do it you old lizard!" Iva shouted, pointing up at Baumdrache again as the dragon let out another chuckle before slowly moving one of his hands over to Iva and flicking her, sending her crashing into a tree on the other side of the clearing.

"Land a single blow on my face with your Dragon Slayer Magic," Baumdrache instructed as Iva slowly pulled herself out of the wreckage, the young girl now completely covered in wooden scales.

"That was cheating," Iva gasped as she struggled to stand up.

"There is no cheating in a real battle, let alone in one between two dragons," the dragon replied as he watched his ward pull herself together before trying to charge at him, the girl failing to notice the root growing beneath her, wrapping around her ankle the moment she tried to run, causing her to land flat on her face as the dragon chuckled as Iva growled in annoyance as another root shot out the ground to wrap around her torso.

"Hey! I can't move like this!" Iva protested as Baumdrache nonchalantly laid his head down in his arms.

"I'm aware," he admitted as a large flower sprouted next to Iva's head.

"Not the flower!" Iva pleaded as the flower came into full bloom before it released a cloud of blue pollen in her face, Iva's eyelids quickly growing heavy as the flower moved beneath her head, catching her head as she fell asleep.

"What an unruly child you've foisted onto me, Volko. Perhaps it is better that she does not live life with the likes of you though," Baumdrache sighed before once again closing his own eyes as a rather comfy looking, child sized bed of foliage grew nearby him, roots and vines reaching out to lift Iva and carry her over onto the bed of green before the two fell asleep together in an endless ocean of green.

. : + : .

July 29th, X784

"Why did it have to happen?" Iva mumbled quietly, Rocco and Vincent having brought her away from the crater and back over towards the ruined treehouse, "We… just lived our lives here, in peace. Never leaving the forest. We never hurt anyone," she continued to mumble as Rocco and Vincent looked at her with worry, unsure of what to say, if they could say anything, to make it better.

"Hey… I got a really crappy dad myself, so, I don't know if I'm really the guy to be saying this, but I'm sure the time he spent with you was some of the happiest time of his life," Rocco eventually said quietly, cautiously making eye contact with the girl as she sat, leaned up against the base of the fallen tree.

"Maybe… I hope… I dunno. I was an annoying little brat. Always bugging him with questions and waking him up when he just wanted to sleep all the time," Iva sighed before chuckling slightly as her ears twitched, "I guess he can sleep all he wants now."

"And I'm sure he's having a blast doing it," Vincent added, a cheeky smile on his face as he squatted in front of her.

"Yeah…" Iva muttered as her ear twitched again, a scowl appearing on her face as she began to sniff the air.

"What?" Rocco asked as he watched Iva bare her fangs.

"Someone's snuck into my forest," Iva growled before she quickly shot forward, slamming her hand on the ground as a large tree root burst out of the ground just before a gunshot rang out, her scales appearing all over her body before they looked up into the air to where the gunshot came from as a man descended from the sky, covered from head to toe in black armor that had red lines of lachrima running up and down it in geometric patterns.

"And here I thought it'd be easy to take one of you out early," the armored man declared, his voice distorted by his helmet.

"Who are you!?" Iva demanded to know as she stood up, the other two following suit to look at him.

"I'm hurt you don't know me. Are the Bounty Hunter's Guilds looked down upon so much by Mage Guilds that you don't even know who the top Bounty Hunter is?" the man chuckled as he strapped his sniper rifle to his back before pulling out twin pistols from the holsters on his hips.

"Droga Kauri," Vincent said lowly as sand began to stir up around him.

"So, you do know me then," Droga chuckled, "You must've had a bounty on your head at one point."

"And I did my time," Vincent bit back, "So what're you doing here?"

"The pretty little girl there's got a pretty little bounty on her head… And I'm here to collect," Droga answered as he pointed the guns at her, "Don't worry, they want you alive and intact. Your friends, not so much," he added before quickly pointing the guns and Rocco and Vincent and firing, a root shooting up in time to protect Rocco while the bullet harmlessly passed through Vincent's sand body as Droga quickly took to the air, jets of flame shooting out of vents in the back of his body armor, propelling him upwards while Iva took after him.

"Iva!" Rocco shouted as he activated his Hippocampus Take-Over, quickly taking off after her, Vincent following suit while Jinjo flew away to safety.

"So that's the dragon, eh? Just a big dead lizard then," Droga stated as he looked down into the crater to see Baumdrache's body, "Well, that's one objective down. Time to see what this brat can do," he chuckled as he watched Iva launch herself into the air with a large root, Droga firing down at her, his bullets harmlessly bouncing off her scales before a vine shot out of the girl's hand before wrapping around his ankle, weighing him down as she tried to climb up it, "Think you're smart, do you?" he said before aiming his right arm at the vine, a stream of fire bursting out of the vambrace he was wearing and burning the vine and sending Iva falling back down to the ground before he shot several fireballs down at Rocco and Vincent.

"Rocco!" Vincent shouted as Rocco pulled water out of the nearby stream, turning it into a large shield that extinguished the fire before it could hit them as Droga landed on the ground behind them, the lines on his armor turning yellow before he pointed his left arm at Rocco, a metal wire shooting out of the vambrace and wrapping around him before electricity shot through it and into Rocco, "Dammit!" Vincent cursed before he sent sand to wrap around the wire, hardening as it turned to glass and blocked the flow of electricity, allowing Rocco to break free as Iva dashed past him.

"Plant Dragons Spiral Horn!" Iva shouted as she pulled back her arm before throwing a punch that sent several twisting tree branches out of her arm and towards the bounty hunter, spiraling as they moved to impale him, but he managed to sidestep them as the lines on his armor began to glow red again as he flew away, firing down at them with his pistols and forcing them back on the defensive.

"Poor little mages. All too reliant on their one, single magic," Droga mocked as he hovered high above them, "Makes it all too easy to pick you apart one by one," he chuckled as he landed up on top of a cliff overlooking the crater, the lines on his armor beginning to glow yellow before he began to fire off bolts of lightning from his vambraces as the three mages scrambled to take cover behind a boulder.

"Fucking shit!" Rocco cursed as the three of them caught their breath, "This element switching crap is getting annoying!"

"He can burn my plants and he can zap the two of you. Is he really making fools of all three of us at once?" Iva growled.

"I think I've noticed something though," Vincent said in between pants, "He lands before he changes elements. I think he can only fly if he's glowing red and using fire."

"Got a plan then?" Iva asked as she stared down the sand mage.

"I think so, yeah. Rocco and I just gotta keep him focused on us with his lightning long enough for you to get the drop on him," Vincent suggested.

"That's it?" Rocco asked just before another volley of lightning bolts impacted against the boulder, noticeably cracking it.

"Got a better idea you can explain before our cover is gone?" Vincent countered.

"Nah. That'll work then," Rocco sighed.

"On three then," Iva said, "One, two, three!" she announced before the three of them dashed around the boulder and towards Droga, rushing to enact their plan.

Credits:

Baumdrache, the Plant Dragon – Dreadburner94

A/N: And chapter 20 is finished. Hope you enjoyed it. Spat this chapter out real quick before I needed to get ready for work.

But I'd like to thank Benthino, Grimnack and MyDearWatson for the reviews! They are appreciated as always.

That's all for now.

Your host,

Dreadburner94.