No time skips this time, but there probably will be a few more – not too many, though.
Does anyone want to suggest a cover photo for this story?
Chapter 3: Ruthless Training
The six-year-old boy stared at the wall with hard eyes.
His salmon-locks rather long and annoying, and he much preferred them when they were spiking on the top on his head. But, over the last few months, he had become accustomed to the bangs that cupped his face, he was too busy meditating so that he could break through to rank one.
To his dismay, it was much harder to become a Mage than a warrior, and almost fifty moons had passed since his father had taught him how to meditate then his father had spent a lot of time on land than in the cave.
Since then his father had spent a lot of time on land than in the cave. Although Natsu missed his father when he left, when Igneel returned home he would bring Natsu the pelts of animals so that he could make clothes and bags to store anything they collect in. Igneel had promised him that he would take Natsu to the outside world in due time.
The stories Natsu had heard off of his father of the outside world were glorious, he wished to bask in the sunlight that lit up the world. And, he wished so much to bathe in the waters that shimmered in the sun's light. Instead, he basked in the everlasting flame his father had left to him, and almost every five moons drops of water would drip through the crack above them and cool his skin.
From his father, he learned that people had things such as money, and they did not steal things, which he had learnt was taking things without people's permission, and they all paid for things.
Natsu wanted to break through badly, in his desperation he went a whole night without sleeping. Why? Because if he broke through his father would take him out beyond the crack that he was bound to, and out there he and his father would train from when the sun raised in the east and set in the west.
The boy, though understandably, didn't know how to contain his joy, and when his father came home every night for 50 moons he could feel the determination that emitted from the boy.
Natsu sat down, his legs crossed and his arms on his knees, and his wrist slightly brushing against his rough cut shorts. He took a long breath in, then slowly began to relax as the dots began to fill in the blackness of his eyelids.
He felt that all the dots for the fire element emitted from the everlasting flame and that the ground particles came from bellow him and towards the walls of the cave. Here there were certain parts more concentrated with particles than others, Natsu had gathered that these parts were more earthy than the others, so here there was naturally a higher amount of brown particles.
He then slowly began to shift these particles, taking their natural energy from one place to another, this was the movement of the earth and the fire.
Natsu focus' his-self on the everlasting flame. When he focused on this alone he could move the flame to anywhere he wanted, and when he could move it constantly for a few minutes would he break through, but that was how his father broke through, for Natsu it may be a few seconds or a lot longer.
Suddenly, as though he'd had a burst of energy, it felt like he could move the elements with much more ease. He opened his eyes, hoping that this was his breakthrough. He focused on the flame, but when he tried to move it without having to meditate it didn't work.
He groaned, throwing himself backwards onto the cold ground. Although when he moved the fire element when he was meditating it seemed he only moved a few and took a few sparks, not the whole flame.
Instead, he decided to try it a different way.
If he couldn't control the flames outside, he'd control them through the inside! This was the second method Igneel taught him, being able to absorb the essence and make the fire through your own body. He remembered his father's speech:
"Absorbing the essence into one's body is what allows us to create things like my fist of fire. This uses your spiritual energy, which is limited but can be replenished over time, and the energy you absorb towards your body. For Mages, we have certain spells we cannot use until training one's self spiritually, which is the meditation. Overall, spells are ranked on how much they required in spiritual energy, and we mages only breakthrough when we get this certain amount. But, spiritual energy is used in every spell, you do not have an unlimited supply."
For this, Natsu decided that standing would be a good idea. He knew that it would be physically and mentally easier to use the fire element, as the earth element required you to be able to manipulate the earth essence to move at will. Only few earth essence spells needed to have earth essence brought to one's body.
He focused on the red dots that flickered and floated in the air, he began very slowly to bring them towards him, one at a time. Very soon, but slowly, the dots began to move closer to him body, and when there were quite a few around his body, he focused on his fist.
Igneel had returned, but he didn't wish to interrupt Natsu's training and was very content in watching his son's unwavering determination; this allowed him to watch as he swam in his own thoughts.
He didn't have much time to ponder in his own thoughts as he saw a light emit from the boy's hand, then, with almost a bursting sensation, fire sprung from the boy's hand.
A breakthrough.
"You did it!" Igneel said proudly, looking at the boy, whose eyes had only just begun to open. "As promised tomorrow we shall go above the crevice and train. Be ready for this ruthless training, boy."
The next day, Natsu awoke before the sun. His onyx eyes shined with pure excitement as he began lifting the rod with two lumps at the end. Over the course of the year, the lumps on the end had only grown in size to challenge the boy, and he could climb the wall without so much as sweating, not only that but his endurance had improved too.
Although the boy looked scrawny he was incredibly strong, but it wouldn't show until he was much older than he was now.
For today, his father told him to wear one of the cotton tunics from the bed of clothes, then after putting one on they would leave and he would explain about magical beasts, and train Natsu ruthlessly till dusk.
Considering that the crevice was more than 50 meters above them, Natsu wondered if he could climb all the way to the surface, but didn't want to try to incase he fell from a high height.
After waiting impatiently for awhile, Igneel finally awoke and looked at the boy who was meditating to pass time. He chortled, and then grabbed some of the meat from the night before and ate it, currently in his beast form looking at the boy with his big eyes. His claws covered in leftover meat, and his teeth still gnawing on the bones in his mouth.
"Let us go, father!" The boy bounded up to the dragon, taking a moment to gaze upon his father's scales, "One of your scales in loose, father."
"Oh-ho, it is? I must have loosened it the day before," His father looked at him, and then Igneel decided to tell the boy about his scales, "You see my scales are never permanent, I will lose five in my lifetime. This is the fifth one I've lost, and this scale will hold a magical power that will allow whoever binds with it to use less spiritual when casting spells."
"Does that mean if one were to wear it they would be able to cast more spells?" The boy inquired, slightly intrigued.
"Yes, it allows one to cast more spells. To cast one forbidden spell at saint level, it would take up a majority of one's spiritual energy, so the user can only cast one. With my scale, the one who holds it can cast maybe two or three forbidden spells when they enter saint level."
Natsu took all this in and then spoke and he said, "Could I have this one? When it completely falls from your body, father?"
"We shall see, now son, let us go." His father began to transform into his human form and then gestured for the boy to come to his arms.
He picked the boy up, placing the boy onto his back. Natsu clung onto his father as they began to rise into the air, he watched as the ground slipped from beneath them and the rocketed towards the sky.
Upon breaking out into the air, Natsu eyes had taken seconds to adjust. But when they did – oh but when they did.
The sight was glorious. The sky was a bright blue colour, with small white pieces of cotton in it. And, to the east was a ball of blinding light that barely touched the peak of the mountains. There was a haze of green and brown, and he knew from everything his father taught him, that these were trees. And, that this immense green, would be a forest.
"What is the name of this forest, father?" Natsu spoke loudly in amazement, his own eyes wide with excitement.
"This is the Forest of Magical Beasts."
Natsu and his father found a patch of grass, that was a fairly sized clearing, then made this space their training ground for the day.
"Today we shall focus on you earth element," His father spoke clearly, his eyes became hard as they usually did when they were training. "You will raise the earth with your own magical power today, or you will get half the amount of food I usually give you, and I shall eat your other half in front of you while you eat the other."
"Father! That is cruel!" The boy yelled, his eyes wide from shock, but they were filled with determination.
"Then you had better being, boy." Before these words had left Igneel's mouth, the boy had begun.
It was no easy task to move the earth, and they both knew this very well. Natsu at first tried to take the earth element to himself, as he had done for the fire element, but this did nothing other than raising a few bits of the dirt. This would be good for projectiles, but not for making spikes in the earth.
He thought back to all the teachings that his father had taught him, all the help that his father had given him through their training. But he couldn't grasp to any of it.
Instead, he tried harder, but this time he'd try gathering the energy at different places of his body. He'd start with his fist, and then his chest and stomach, and then work his way down towards his feet.
For the first hour of the day Natsu tried gathering the earth around his fist, although this did work, it wasn't in the way he wanted. Gradually the bits of the earth would cover his fist, and then when he punched outwards they dispersed sharply into the air, slicing through the air like a hot knife, and then buried themselves deeply into the tree trunks.
He next tried his chest, he did not know what this would do, but his father suggested that vulnerable areas can use earth magic for protection. And, as his father suggested it was true. He found that it created a chest piece like armour over his chest, although he could not hold it long and it crumbled like dust to the floor.
Already, the boy had begun sweating and he had just reached the three-hour mark. He looked at the sun to tell the time and could tell it was almost noon; Natsu decided it would be better to take a break and continue later.
He walked towards his father, who did not raise his head to see the boy. And, instead he addressed him, and said, "There are many who are ahead of you, you are not the strongest, Natsu," He eyed his son a little, feeling the boy's ego was a little over-sized, "There are many who you will meet when you are older who will surpass you and be able to squash you like a bug. When I have a friend to take you to the Mage school, you will be the same rank as them."
"When will I reach rank four, to be able to attend that school?" Natsu asked, his ego slightly deflated.
"I believe when you are ten." Instead of replying to his father, Natsu out on a hard far and his eyes became filled with an emotion Igneel had never seen before.
He sat down on the floor beside the lake, his father was perched on a rock, meditating. Natsu cupped his hands and reached into the water, taking a gulp full to refresh himself.
"About what I was going to teach you," His father said, catching the boy's attention, "When one kills a magical beast, they can skin for its hide, but in the forehead of the beast there should be a magical crystal. Depending on the rank of the beast that you killed, you can get a certain amount of money, but only beats of the third rank have magical crystals in their foreheads."
"Does that mean that a rank three beast magic crystal is worth less than one of the fourth?" The boy inquired, slightly interested in the beasts.
"Yes exactly that," His father nodded to confirmed this, "I shall go through the list of ranks, and how much they will sell for."
His father explained to him the different prices, magical crystals of a beast of seventh rank or high were worth more than 10,000 gold, and a saint level crystal could be worth more than 20,000 gold in some cases.
Soon, the salmon-haired boy began to train again, this time nearer to his father just in case his father gave him any tips. But after a few hours, he deiced to return to where he had been before.
Natsu returned to his area, the emotion that filled his eyes was not one of determination, but one of understanding.
You could not take the earth, or control it to your will, it is alive and it has a will of its own. That is why they look alive in his eyes as those colourful dots. Instead of taking it and trying to make it his own, he would ask for it and hope that it will lend it to him.
He began focusing himself on borrowing the concentrated earth, and then being slowly raising it into the air instead of bringing it to him; he now knew why spells that brought the earth to protect him were higher levelled spells, they required a high amount of spiritual energy.
His father watched, a gleam in his eye. The ground began to rumble and in a sudden burst, a spike rose from the ground, splitting the air with its sharp ends. One after another they rose from the dirt beneath their feet, some raised higher into the air than the others.
"Congratulations, you have broken through to rank one of the earth element magic." Igneel smiled proudly at the boy.
Natsu stood rigidly, his body limp; beads of sweat cascaded down his face like a slow waterfall. He gave a weak smile and collapsed onto the floor in a heap. He breathed deeply, but with a sense of achievement, he held a smile on his face.