The town of Shirotsume was famous for its metal works. They made swords, knives, cooking utensils, bolts, nails, screws, and many more items used daily. They were made for demons, dragons, angels, and any creature that needed the object. It was one of the most successful towns in Fiore.

When one goes to Shirotsume, one hears only the sound of metal clanking against each other. They would smell the fire going in each of the blacksmiths' houses, the chimney always spouting smoke.

Among these rows of houses resides two dragons. Metalicana and his beloved son, Gajeel. They were iron dragons, which made it harder for them to make anything with iron as they were very tempted to eat it. Metalicana and Gajeel managed it somehow, though. Well, Metalicana ate beforehand while Gajeel... snuck in bites. They started their mornings early and finished late in the evening.

It was one such morning when Gajeel was sitting in the corner of the workshop forging a sword. The sword was requested by an angel and was quite hard to make. Metalicana never trusted Gajeel with such works. Gajeel was still surprised at Metalicana's sudden change of mind and was determined not to sneak bites of the delicious iron to show his gratitude. But, controlling hunger is a very hard thing to do.

So he ate some.

And once he ate some, he wanted to eat more.

Despite what his brain told him to do, Gajeel decided to listen to his stomach instead.

"Gajeel!" Metalicana's loud voice jolted Gajeel out of his dream world. "What on Earth are you doing?"

"I-"Gajeel didn't realize that it was a rhetorical question.

"Don't. Now we must gather more iron, thanks to you. You know what? You should do it. Gather iron all by yourself. And be back before sunset!"

Before Gajeel could contemplate what was going on, he was standing outside the door with a sack on his shoulder. He sighed and made his way to the quarry, where most blacksmiths collected the metals they needed.

Levy hummed happily, buzzing from tree to tree like an overlarge butterfly. She was free! After all these years of confinement, the fairy council had finally decided to set her free from their clutches even though she had no wand.

You see, Levy's wand was stolen when she was a very young girl. Many tried to find the wand as a wand less fairy is a threat to all. Unfortunately, they failed, resulting in Levy having to spend her entire life in special rooms so she didn't go 'crazy' with magic.

A fairy needs a wand in order to project their magic out towards the world. They can use magic without their wands but it is a bit harder to control. Experienced fairies can use their magic without wands since they have many years of familiarity with magic and it's weird properties. Since Levy had no experience with magic whatsoever - since her wand was stolen when she was a year old - she couldn't possibly try and use magic without it. The effects might be catastrophic!

But wait! You might ask 'can't she just get a new wand?'. Well, the answer is... No. Why? Because a fairy is born with a wand. She can't possibly make another one as the original wand is a part of her. Therefore, Levy can't just 'get a new wand'.

But, recent data showed that Levy was quite stable with her magic. She didn't need to be under surveillance when she was not harmful to the world. She had little magic that could erupt into something more if she didn't have her emotions under control. Fortunately, Levy was a happy-go-lucky girl, and rarely got angry.

So, here she was, dancing, fluttering and doing whatever she wanted in these woods.

Gajeel grumbled under his breath as sweat protruded from his pores. He had been mining for a few hours with some result. He wondered if Metalicana was still mad and whether or not he could go back home. Gajeel didn't want to take the risk. But, the sun was at its highest, burning down everything below. Gajeel felt his iron piercings scald his skin as the sun burnt on.

He glanced behind his shoulder. There laid the woods, dark, scary woods. It wasn't that scary to Gajeel though. He thought the woods were enticing and would be cool to live in. Unfortunately, Metalicana didn't quite agree. Frankly, Gajeel thought Metalicana was scared.

'It looks nice and cool,' Gajeel thought. 'A few minutes' rest won't cost much'

With that thought, Gajeel walked into the woods.

He inhaled the woody scent of the barks and listened to crickets chirping. The birds were singing beautiful melodies and butterflies were everywhere. The music brought back memories to Gajeel. He loved singing. But, even though his singing brought joy to him, it brought pain to everyone else's ears. He had good guitar skills though. And he often played the guitar during festivals or when they had nothing to do.

But it had been so long since he even touched his guitar. After his mother, Mil, died, he found no solace in music. In fact, music was torture to him as it brought back painful memories of his mother's last days on Earth. She had been diagnosed as allergic to iron - a rare case for an iron dragon. This meant that she couldn't eat her normal supply of iron and finally died of starvation. Metalicana and Gajeel had to watch her die, crying when her stomach grumbled, guilty for not being able to do anything except watch her sparkling eyes lose their sparkle forever.

Thinking about the past often brought tears to his eyes. But, he never showed it - especially in front of Metalicana. He hated crying, it made him feel pathetic and weak. He decided to think about something else instead to he wpuld forget the sad bits of his small life. He thought about how nice Mil's iron shakes were. He thought about the feel of her lips against his cheek. He thought about her voice accompanied by his guitar. Her voice was perfect unlike that of Gajeel's. It made Gajeel jealous sometimes, how he had inherited his father's voice instead of his mother's.

Metalicana often told Gajeel the story of how they met. He joked about how her voice made him think he was in heaven and she was an angel. She was beautiful and not ugly at all unlike Gajeel. Gajeel had piercings all over his face, Mil did too, but hers made her look more elegant while Gajeel's made him look like a gangster.

He thought about how she sang lullabies when he had a bad dream. Her lullabies were soft sounding just like this voice-

Wait!

Where is the voice coming from?

Gajeel ran towards the source, eager to find it. The voice sounded similar to his mother's. Now, Gajeel knew it couldn't be his mom but he was still a tiny bit hopeful.

He sharply turned a corner.

There, standing in from of him was not his mother.

Oh, no. It was a small butterfly-like creature with light blue hair. And, she was the prettiest thing Gajeel had ever seen.