The boy would be trouble. That much was plain to see. Igneel could feel it right down to his worn old bones and long tail, right from the moment he saw him. On the edge of his territory, a rope tied round its neck, wearing nothing but a pair of black shorts. The first thing that hit him was the stench of fear. The boy was thin, his ribs were visible. The dragon had pitied him, in fact, he still did.
Maybe that was what had influenced his decision.
The dragon saw the boy first, which should have been physically impossible since Igneel was the size of a building and the boy the size of his red pinky nail but the boy had had his eyes closed and was leaning against a tree. The second thing that had struck the Great Fire Dragon was the colour of the boy's hair. Pink. Sakura blossom pink. No, more of a fuchsia colour. Igneel wondered if it was human.
When the boy finally noticed him, he let out a squeak, a whimper and tried to run but there was a rope round his neck and he fell down, choking painfully. Why was it tied up like that? It spluttered around on the ground, rolling from left to right. Igneel waited for it to recover, fascinated by the small thing.
Then, it jumped up but did not run this time. Having clearly learnt his lesson, he began to claw at the knot round his neck but whoever had put him there had tied it pretty tight. He couldn't get it off.
And then finally, filled with desperation, it opened its mouth to sob piercingly. Great heart wrenching sobs, mixed with screams and cries for a mother that wasn't there. Igneel felt his old heart tug.
"Don't eat me!"
At that point, the Fire Dragon laughed. Loud and thunderous, it echoed right through the forest. Was the boy stupid or just really sheltered? Perhaps it was because the villages in these parts were too far from cities for news to reach. "I can't." He snorted, between breaths, surprised at how bitter-free his voice was, "I'm not allowed to."
The boy looked up, eyes wide. "You... you can talk!" His fear forgotten.
Igneel bristled. "Of course I can talk." Really, what were humans teaching their young these days? "You can talk and I talk too... you got a problem?"
"...Cool..." The boy's small mouth formed a large 'o'. "It can talk!" It muttered excitedly, "It can really talk!" After a pause, he added. "You're not going to eat me then?"
"No." The boy looked confused. "I'm not going to eat you."
The moment the words tumbled out of his mouth, the boy's muddy face burst into a beaming smile. "Phew! They told me that you was gonna get me and gobble me up." He gave the dragon a proud smile. "They were wrong!"
"They?"
The boy looked remorseful, a strange expression on a small child's face. "Mommy and Daddy... it's 'cos I spilled the bucket and the stuff inside got wet. They said I was going to get fed to the dragon god. I'm a bad boy." Tears welled up in his eyes and fat droplets began to roll down his cheeks. "I'm sorry!"
Another surge of pity greeted Igneel like an old friend. He didn't fight to resist it but lowered his head to the ground so that his eyes were almost level with the lowest branches of the trees. How small the boy was! Even standing up he only reached Igneel's left nostril – the smallest one. Reaching forwards, his claw bit through the rope. Almost instantly, the small pink haired boy shrugged the rope off and ran forwards to hug Igneel's face.
The dragon grunted in surprise at the impact and resisted the urge to swat him away, certain it would kill him. He allowed the boy to sob for a moment before politely telling him to stop slobbering over his nose. After all, it wouldn't do to have a dragon catch a cold from a human child… he didn't know if this was possible but he didn't want to have to be laughing stock to find out.
It was getting late and the sun was already casting long shadows.
Igneel stared at the boy blinking back at him. This human was a question that had never been posed before and he was being forced to pose it to himself. What to do with a human child?
He supposed he could just send him back to his parents but found himself strangely adverse to this action. If the parents had just left him there to die for the sake of some myth – A dragon god? He snorted. Where had that come from? – then perhaps it wasn't safe for him to go back there. And yet, Igneel knew that he could not look after the child himself. Perhaps Grandine could, but not him. He hardly knew where to begin with such a tiny trusting creature, let alone how to raise one. He was probably more likely to send the boy up in flames out of his own impatience than teach him anything decent.
Igneel made up his mind. Grandine would probably love of take care of him anyways. He was about to voice his thought when the boy grinned at him. "I'm Natsu, thank you for saving me Mister Dragon. Can we be friends?"
Nope. The boy was far too trusting. Asking a ten-story building high dragon to be friends? He'd barely make it one step out of this forest alone. Grandine was a member of the Elders and she would be far too busy travelling between the Dragon Realm and Earthland to care for Natsu. It was a given that he would end up wandering or something and wind up dead. Besides, it looked like Natsu – a strange name – liked him.
"Not Mister Dragon, Igneel."
"Igneel? Igneel... that's a funny name."