Chapter 5

Several hours after they had arrived back to their home Igneel and Natsu continued to watch over the boy and his snake as they slept in peace now that they had been healed. Once they had escaped any danger and the boy was healed the first thing Natsu noticed was that the boy's clothes were completely in tatters, and they were rags to begin with.

The boys snake woke up first and had a first tried to attack Natsu, but after he calmed her down and gave her food after placing her next to Eric the snake calmed down considerably when she coiled herself on his chest and went to sleep.

Eric opened his eyes only to shut them again when he was staring at the sun. He would have rolled over to avoid the sun but he felt a strange but familiar weight and heat on his chest. When he looked down and opened his eyes he saw his beloved snake friend. "Cubellios" he said waking up the snake as he gently stroked her scales on her head.

The now named Cubellios had what appeared to be a snake's version of a smile on her face as she slithered up Eric's arm and gently curled herself on his neck and shoulders. Eric let a smile grace his face before he quickly turned around with fear in his eyes. "I can hear you, who are you? Where am I?" he asked in rapid succession.

Natsu emerged from the trees with some cooked meat in his hands and walked towards Eric. Natsu approached with a smile on his face. "My name is Natsu, it's good to see that you are up but you should really eat some food you look like you need it. As for where we are, well you are in mine and my dad's home, we are somewhere in the middle of a really big forest." Natsu said.

Eric wanted to believe that he was free, but it was too good to be true so he took a step back and shouted at Natsu. "Stay away from me!" he then threw his hands at Natsu as a large wave of a red-ish black energy surged towards Natsu. Natsu looked on in surprise as the wave of unknown magic charged at him only to immediately diverge to the left.

Both Natsu and Eric watched in surprise as the poison traveled up to Igneel's mouth and then disappeared as the dragon consumed the magic. "Attacking your saviors is a strange form of gratitude Human." Igneel said. Eric looked on in pure horror of the creature before him, he had heard the sounds of battle from where he was in the tower but he never would have imagined that noise he heard was a dragon attacking.

Eric merely thought when someone had shouted out a dragon attack that it was a kind of human magic not a real dragon. His terror seemed to leave him though as Natsu seemed to pout at the dragon. "Come on dad he is just nervous, there is no need to be mad at him. But I was serious you do need to eat." Natsu said as he once more approached Eric.

The boy now much calmer allowed Natsu to approach and sat on the ground with him and started to eat. Eric still felt strange as the dragon watched them eat the whole time but slowly let it go as it didn't seem to bother Natsu. After they had finished eating Eric did indeed feel better, so he thanked Natsu and asked him if he could tell him how they got here.

Natsu then explained to Eric how they had come across the tower he was being held in and took out all the guards and evil hearted people. He continued to say that as they were leaving Natsu spotted him injured on the ground and had taken him and his snake back to his home with Igneel and along the way healed both him and Cubellios.

Eric again thanked them and then explained that the tower had been created by the evil men they had destroyed. He explained that they had gone into villages and killed all the adults and then taken the children. From what he had overheard from guards Eric explained that the tower was meant to be some way to revive a man by the name of Zeref.

At the mention of that name Igneel let out an irritated sigh but let the boy continue his story. After some time had passed and the boys had finished exchanging stories Natsu asked Eric what he would do now that he was free. "Well I'm not sure, I've never had any parents as I was an orphan in my home village; I don't really have anywhere to go now that I am free." Eric said sadly.

"Can he stay with us then dad? We have plenty of space here for him, ppppplllleaseeeeee." Natsu begged as he drew out the please while giving Igneel his best innocent look. The dragon let out another large sigh before agreeing to the boy's request. Natsu Immediately jumped for joy while telling Eric that they would be the best of brothers.

Igneel and Natsu had discovered that Eric had a lacrima inside his body that contained dragon slayer magic, and it had absorbed some of Cubellios' poison which is why Eric had been able to use magic when he first tried to attack Natsu. When Natsu heard the news, he was overjoyed that his new brother would be able to train with him and Igneel.

Igneel seeing as how it was a new element to Natsu taught the two boys how to use poison dragon magic. Eric got the hang of it almost immediately, but Natsu had some trouble with it at first. After a week though both boys were able to use it good enough for Igneel to teach them some techniques for the magic.

Igneel had been regretting this day immensely, it had come upon him much faster than he wished. Nearly one year ago he and Natsu had encountered Eric and Cubellios, but today was July 6th of the year X777. Igneel knew that tomorrow would be a make or break day for him. If Natsu still needed antibodies to counter act his dragon magic then Igneel would have to leave, but if not he could remain with the two boys he had come to see as sons.

At first he had been worried about Eric having the same problem, but he was lucky to discover he was wrong about Eric. Since his body had time to mature before he learned to use magic unlike Natsu, Eric's body had taken to the antibodies Igneel gave him discreetly almost immediately and recreated the antibody at a fast enough rate that Eric would never encounter the problem of turning into a dragon.

Natsu was still right in the middle, he was making them but not at the right rate. Igneel only hoped that when he checked tonight that would change, because if it didn't than he would have to hide inside Natsu to speed up the creation of the antibodies. Even if he was able to get Natsu into a safe level of antibodies quickly he would still have to stay inside Natsu for a full seven years because of the laws of the spell he would be using.

Igneel let his eyes drift over to his two sons; both were fighting each other with smiles on their faces as they threw punch after punch at each other steadily putting more and more magic behind each attack. Igneel then turned his eyes to the opposite scarfs the boys had Natsu had on a white scaled scarf while Eric had a black scaled scarf. He did get the scarfs for the boys so that in case he disappeared they would have something from him, but Natsu's was also different from Eric's.

Natsu's magical power had been growing at such a rapid rate that Igneel had to help the boy control his power, so he had gotten the boys scarfs and then placed a magic suppression seal on Natsu's scarf. This would allow Natsu to still use his magic, but at the same time it wouldn't overflow not allowing him to use it properly or hurt others. Igneel then let out another sigh as he called the boys over to him.

Igneel decided that if he didn't tell the boys it would only be worse, so before the two boys and snake went to bed he told the boys everything about dragons and their magic that he had kept from them up to that point.

Both boys were extremely saddened and surprised by the information, but they also both took it very well for ones so young. Igneel couldn't really imagine their pain though. If he disappeared Natsu would lose the only parent he knew and Eric who had finally had a family and been free would lose the parent figure that actually cared for him.

Igneel sighed letting his thoughts come full circle. "There is still more I have to say to the both of you." Igneel had then proceeded to tell the boys of how he had found Natsu; he then drew that symbol on the ground that he had seen on the orb around Natsu.

"Whether I'm here tomorrow or not there are two things I want you boys to do, the first is that I want you to find all the friends you made Natsu and travel with them in a group, it may seem silly but friends are irreplaceable and having them close by will be good for the both of you. The second is to find out what the symbol I found with you means." Igneel now let out a tired and sad sigh; this was just like Grandeeney said it would be impossible.

Once the two boys had nodded their heads saying they understood Igneel spoke again. "I hope this will not be my final lesson to you boys, but on the chance it is I must tell you about it. Dragons and dragon slayers have what are known as mates, the simplest way I can explain it is that they are the person you will love your entire life.

"I know that for now it won't make sense to you but heed my lesson well. The signs that you have found your mate include a rapid beating of your heart, a quickening of breath, the loss of thought, and total loss of reason. Believe me when I say eventually it will make sense." Igneel then laid his head down and the boys curled into his side.

When the boys had been asleep for a solid hour Igneel gently moved away from them and stood up to his full height on all fours. Igneel then took a deep breath before he leaned his head down to the boys, he checked Eric first and just like before he was safe and didn't need help with antibodies. Igneel then turned his vision to Natsu who was snoring loudly and exhaling little bits of fire.

Igneel got a true look of happiness in his eyes before he lightly nudged Natsu in his sleep to show him his love. 'Now is the moment my son.' Igneel thought before he breathed some magic onto Natsu and looked at the amount of antibodies in his system and the rate at which they were replicating.

Igneel let a giant tear slide down his face before he lay back down on the ground next to the two boys and smiled happily. 'Luck seems to be on my side, I will see you boys in the morning.' Igneel thought with joy before falling asleep himself.