7 Years later

"Bye! Be back soon, dad!" Yelled Natsu, now 16.

"come back before lunch, okay?" lgneel said.

"Okay!" replied Natsu. He then ran out of the cave, toward the forest. Though he goes there every day since he was allowed to, he still never gets bored. He continued to run until he arrived at a river. He then ran up

a small hill, located next to the river, and jumped into the water. He swam for a while, then started heading home, because lunch was nearing and he didn't want to run the whole way there. Then, all of a sudden, he heard Igneel.

"Leave me be! I never did anything to you humans!" he heard Igneel say. Natsu realized what was happening, and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. When he arrived, he hid in the shadows of the cave. He heard the humans yelling, mostly things about how the dragon in front of them was terrorizing the villagers, which confused Natsu. His dad never did anything to the villagers, except keep them out of his and Natsu's territory. Natsu then realized that the humans were using various different magics. There were three wizards, one with long, red, hair, who was holding a sword, one with dark hair that was strangely shirtless, and was shooting ice, and one blondie, that was gripping some keys tightly on her waist. They were probably a part of a guild, trying to get some cash. Just as the dark-haired wizard was about to attack, Natsu jumped out in front of his dad.

"Gray, stop! There's a kid right there!" Yelled the red-haired one and blonde one almost simultaneously. Gray stopped attacking, and all three of the wizards looked at Natsu with confused looks.

"Stop attacking my dad!" yelled Natsu. Now the wizards were really confused.

"uh, kid, that's a dragon. I don't know what that thing did to your mind, but that's clearly not your dad." Said Gray. Now Natsu was angry.

"The only thing Igneel did to me was take care of me my whole life, and he doesn't terrorize the villagers! Yelled Natsu, anger bubbling up inside him.

"Natsu! What are you doing here!? You need to run! Go, while you can still get away!" Igneel yelled, now panicking. The three wizards watched as the dragon, the thing they were sent to kill, thinking it was a monster, tried to save his son from them.

"No, I'm staying here! I've got to save you, dad!" Natsu said, determination in his eyes. Then he turned to the three wizards, "And you three! I'm not a kid! I'm sixteen!"

"sixteen, really? So, you are our age." Said the blondie. "Hey, Erza, why does that ki-boy, think he's that dragon's son?" the red-haired one, Erza, by the sound of it, said, "I don't know, Lucy, but maybe he really was raised by that dragon there." Natsu then realized something. Where did the guy named Gray go? Wasn't he just here a moment ago? The ground then shook, as a loud boom was heard. Natsu turned around to see a giant ice cannon, a hole in the wall, and Igneel and gray looking into the hole.

"Come out, dark magicians. We know that you are there." Said Igneel, and a shocked Natsu began sniffing the air, trying to smell the mages. He caught their scent, but it was bitter. It was like nothing he had ever smelled before, and it was then that he realized that there were truly two sides of the humans, as Igneel had told him before. The dark mages laughed, a cacophony of evil sounds.

"What a nose you have there, dragon." Said one that was dressed in a black cloak, whom Natsu assumed was the leader.

"He's not the only one here with a nose, you know!" Yelled Natsu. He then sensed some of the dark magicians moving to surround them but dismissed it for the moment.

He then charged the closest dark mage to him, who smirked and said, "well, the little kid here is diving right in!"

Natsu then jumped, and yelled, "I'M NOT A LITTLE KID! I'M SIXTEEN! FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST!" said Natsu as the mage was almost immediately seen flying a moment later.

After the fight

"well, that was refreshing." Said Natsu as he stood up from the last unconscious mage. The three mages from earlier were speechless. This boy, that was supposedly raised by a dragon, just beat over a hundred dark mages, one after the other, in one-on-one combat.

A voice then spoke up. "well, that was a mess." Everyone's attention turned toward a large rock, where a small figure stepped out of the shadows.

"Master Makarov!" yelled the girl named Lucy. Natsu realized this was probably their guild master.

"so, I take it there was a slight disruption in the mission?" said Makarov. He then looked up at Igneel, who was covered in injuries.

"what mission did you three take exactly, that involved a dragon?" he asked, concern lacing his voice.

"the one with only a few details about what was going on. the flyer said that there was a problem that was terrorizing the village, we had no idea that it involved a dragon at that moment until they told us that a dragon was terrorizing the village once we got here." Said Erza.

"We apologize for not contacting you on the matter, but the villagers were counting on us." Said Lucy only a moment later.

"I truly do try to stay away from humans, unless they enter my territory. If and when they do, I simply chase them out." Said Igneel as he was walking toward Natsu.

It was then that Makarov noticed the salmon-haired boy. "and who may you be?" he asked, wondering why there was another person here.

"I'm Natsu, Igneel's son." Said Natsu while pointing at Igneel.

'Natsu, I'm afraid I can't take care of you anymore. I am too uninformed of how humans work, it is now time for you to be with humans." Said Igneel with a frown. He didn't want to give his son up, but it was for the best.

"wait, dad!" Natsu said as he watched Igneel fly away.

"DAD!" he yelled, holding back the tears.