I just want him to be fucking sixteen already, the action shit happens then! But the important shit, like the actual pendant, happens in his childhood!

Only three more chapters till he's twelve then stuffs happens.

Chapter 8: Back to Where it Began

The sky had been the like the clearest of glass the morning of Natsu's birthday. The sun was glaring down on the ground, beating it with its unbearable heat.

It made sense that Natsu had been born in summer, but he much preferred the cold weather as it lowered his body temperature. To stop his forehead from over heating he had to wear a piece of cloth to tie his hair back, so you could only see his salmon locks from behind him.

Sat outside, the boy felt cradled by the blanket of light that came from the bright sun, but he was not in the manor garden. And, with not being confined to a small space, or at least that is what it felt like to him, he felt more at home than he had felt before.

This was the first time Natsu had run off from home and escaped into the wilderness. And he brought Happy with him.

The cat-like creature wouldn't leave him alone. It slept with him; ate with him; followed him, and trained with him. For the first time in almost four years, and for the first time in an eternity, Natsu had made a friend, although it wasn't human.

"You are not a panther, you are too small and fluffy to be one." Natsu laughed, slightly rocking backwards and forwards.

The cat-like creature, Happy, simply mewed in response, and then expanded and shortened its tail as it tried to show off. Happy had grown in size a little over the five months Natsu had had him, but Natsu hadn't had any mental messages like Gildarts said would happen. It'd be even longer before anyone else could hear Happy's voice too because he could only physically speak when he became deity levelled.

"I wonder who your mother is, Happy," Natsu sighed, falling backwards onto the soft grass, one arm fell limp onto the group beside him, while the other reached out towards the sun, "I was raised by my father alone, I never had a mother and they are needed to have children. They are the life that births the child."

The small, blue-furred, creature pounced onto its master and began to claw at Natsu cotton, ripped shirt; beginning to hiss and stand rigid, Natsu knew something was wrong.

He reached sat up, reaching towards the hem of his rough cut pants. He felt rather pleased that he had got his hands on a couple of the knives Cana used to train with, they were sharp and light, some had holes in them, whereas others were solid structures.

He began to use the wind, closing his eyes as he surveyed his grassy and vibrant surrounding. Amongst some tall grass, there was something blocking the wind from moving. He clasped on a knife.

"Whomever is lurking in the grass, come out," Natsu commanded, his nerves becoming like steel, "If not, I shall burn you out."

Remembering clearly that he was a fire Mage of the third rank as of a month ago, this meant that he could now use a mediocre spell he had taught himself. He still hadn't broken through to the second rank of an earth element user, but he was making quick progress as a fire Mage.

"I guess you have chosen the latter of the options." Natsu fist was engulfed by a bright flame, and he moved it into a small ball on his hand.

Thrusting outwards with precision and strength, like a ball from a cannon, he set the grass where the intruder was hiding on fire. It began to burn in bright flames, crackling and flickering slightly causing the mysterious figure to jump out.

He sighed, watching as a small girl patted out the fire on her clothes. She looked like a rich man's daughter, as she wore lots of jewels around her neck, and her dress was flashy and bright. He was unimpressed by this girl and found it slightly annoying she was spying on him.

"This isn't a place for a girl, especially not of your stature." Natsu made a sound of annoyance as he spoke, taking his seat on the ground again.

The girl stood from her kneeling position, watching the fire burn on, and pushing her white hair behind her ear said, "I am visiting my friend, and her father, and I am going to tell father a peasant boy set me on fire."

"Be my guest," He said, waving off her hollow threat with a yawn of boredom, "You were the one lurking in the grass, and I assumed you were a threat when you did not come from the grass."

He stood, walking to the flame and putting his hand into it. The girl watched in horror and then tried to pull his hand out of the flame. When it finally left the bright, red flames it came out unscathed.

"You should stay here, a man who I treat as my father will think it my signal flare and come find you," Natsu began playing with a flame in one hand, then watched as the flame engulfed the knife in his hand. A flaming knife would make a good weapon, "Bye."

"Marry me!" The girl yelled, her face flushed a little, "I also want to become a Mage, if we were to marry we would be very powerful. Like a prince and a princess."

"I'd rather have someone who relies on me, and I can protect them like a dragon," Natsu chortled, blowing out the flames on his knife, "When that man comes, tell him I will not be home for a few days, and if he comes with a girl, my sister, tell her I took her knives."

He waved slightly, then disappeared amongst the trees.

The sun had begun to set, and a black dust began to settle on the sky.

He had finally found it.

He had run all day, following a familiar path that Gildarts had led him on. He remembered it vividly as that was the same day his father had been taken from him, he was going to train there and break through as an earth Mage.

He looked down into the homey abyss, slightly smiling as a single tear fell from his face. It fell down into the cave; down to his home. And he followed it, lowering himself down onto the rocky wall, and he began to descend into the place that had been home for the beginning of his life.

Climbing down the rocky walls took, what felt like the longest time to Natsu, about half an hour, he hadn't even reached the bottom of the wall when he jumped off the wall. He felt his feet land firmly on the ground and looked around in the dark.

His eyes began to adjust to the darkness of the cave, but Natsu created a small flame on a stick. He looked around at all the clothes on the floor, then dumped them on top to feed the fire.

"I'm home, father." He looked aimlessly around, taking in everything about the cave. He never noticed how small it had been, to his younger self this place could have been a maze.

The blood stain from when his father was taken from him has washed away. He walked over to the floor where his father was taken, standing in the same spot, and closed his eyes.

But, something didn't feel right. There was a lot of spiritual energy coming from around him.

He twisted and turned, looking to the sides of himself but there was nothing there. Then he turned around, and there, lying untouched, was his father's last scale, the scale that would allow the amount of spiritual energy used to be almost halved so that one could cast more spells.

He picked it up, clutching it closely to himself, and then, with a burning look in his onyx eyes, he ripped off his shirt, pulling off the soft hem on it. He had begun to thread it through one of the cracks on the scale, as it was like a thin piece of string, and then wrapped it around his neck.

He walked to his makeshift bed, the next morning he would train. The more he trained, the sooner he could save his father...