This is a companion story to A Dragon's True Purpose. I don't know how long it will be, but I thought it would be fun to write about the years Natsu spends, separated from his mate but reunited with his father, training for his ultimate confrontation with Zeref.

Natsu smiled contently in his sleep, curling himself so that he was pressed comfortably against the softer underside of his father's forelimb. It was a familiar position for the pink haired man, who had slept the same way as a child. He crawled all over the dragon, with a smile brighter than the sun, and proudly said that in his arms was the most comfortable place to sleep.

Igneel cracked one eye open to check on the human wizard that called him father. It was interesting, having a human for a son, but Igneel would never regret taking the young boy under his wing when he found him wandering the forest.

There had been a fire in the boy, stubbornly putting one foot in front of the other in search of someone named Ritsuka. Although he was more stumbling than walking by the time he came across Igneel.

The young boy, two years at the oldest, had been wandering in the forests a week before he accidentally came upon the dragon that hid there.

Dragons had withdrawn from the world of wizards centuries ago, after the Dragon Civil War, swearing to never again teach a human the secrets of their magic. Igneel did not agree with the decision. One man's bad choice did not reflect for all of humanity. But the other Dragon Kings had voted, so all dragons were forced into hiding.

They claimed it was for their safety, to protect dragonkind from Acnologia, but the truth was the dragons were afraid of being driven to extinction by humans that wanted power like Acnologia.

Igneel had never shared that truth with his son, and he never would. To Natsu, it was unthinkable that a wizard would want to kill a dragon. Telling him otherwise would ignite his protective instincts, and Natsu needed to focus on defeating the Black Dragon at the time, not defending a dragon that didn't need it.

The second time he had hid, and subsequently abandoned Natsu, the dragon truly was hiding from Acnologia. For if Acnologia discovered him teaching the same abilities he wielded to a human, the Black Dragon would have killed Natsu.

Igneel had found his new home in a forested mountain, and he waited patiently, over three hundred years to be precise, for the fear to die down, for dragons to be forgotten and become creatures of myths and legends, and then he searched for a wizard with the strength to rise up against Zeref and the beast he created.

But after a hundred years of fruitless searching, the Flame Dragon King was ready to give up his mission as a lost cause. Acnologia must have been unique amongst mortals. Or Zeref was more dangerous than he wanted to admit. Either way, Igneel could not find a human he could teach his secrets to.

And just when he had given up and admitted defeat, Natsu had come along.

Small, pink, and loud, obnoxiously so, the boy had found him. He had tripped over his tail, landing flat on his face. Then he jumped up, screeching as if he had been personally offended, "You stupid rock! Just you wait and see! One day, I'll be the strongest wizard ever, and when I am, I'll come back and break you!"

Igneel had snorted, amused. He had never been mistaken for a rock before.

Natsu had scrambled back, the white of his eyes widening. "Woah, a talking rock. Cool! What's your name, rock? Mine's Natsu!"

"Igneel," the dragon rumbled, shifting to turn in the direction of the young boy. "And I am not a rock."

If Natsu's eyes were wide before, it was nothing compared to when he actually caught sight of what he tripped over. Igneel stood, his head a height of eighty feet up from the ground. With a single exhale, he lit a pine tree on fire.

Natsu took the dragon in with a sense of wonder. "A dragon!" he whispered. "I thought you guys were fairy tales."

The dragon huffed, releasing a billow of dark smoke from his nostrils. "No, human. We are real; just content to live in anonymity away from your kind."

"Dragons are strong, right? Can you make me as strong as you?" he asked. "I'm going to be the strongest wizard ever," Natsu repeated, puffing out his chest.

Igneel looked down at the boy, considering. All these years, he had been looking for a grown human, one that would be capable of using the power he would bestow upon them responsibly and one that would recognize the danger of learning Dragon Slayer Magic. Had he been coming at the problem from the wrong angle? Would it be better to start with a blank slate, a child that knew nothing?

"Prove yourself to me," Igneel decided, "and I will see that no wizard can match you."

He would guarantee that. If this was the opportunity he had been waiting for, Igneel was going to sink his claws into it. This boy would be the one end their problems and save the world.

Natsu gawked at him. "How am I s'posed to do that?"

Igneel laid back down, pointedly putting his back to the boy. "That, human, is for you to decide."

"My name is Natsu," he scowled. It was a cute look for a two year old.

"If you want me to call you by name, prove yourself."

And how amusing were his attempts. Igneel did not react when Natsu brought back a wild pig he had killed by hurling stones. The kid had remarkably good aim and strength for his age, the dragon noted, taking in the six gouge marks on the animal's head. Nor was he impressed by his attempt to block the entrance to his cave. It had been a dismal attempt, for the boy would have never found enough fallen branches to complete his task, and rather annoying at that, because Igneel could not understand how the boy thought that to be proving himself. Unless he thought Igneel meant for Natsu to trap him.

And so it continued. For a week straight, Natsu did everything a two year old could think of to prove himself to the mighty dragon. Every snort of derision and scathing remark from Igneel only pushed him to try harder on his next scheme.

At the end of a week, Igneel called a stop to his attempts to prove himself. "Enough!" he bellowed. "No more of this!" He slammed his tail into the ladder Natsu had built so he could climb the cave wall and leap atop the dragon's head.

The shoddily built wooden structure collapsed.

"Hey!" Natsu shouted. "I wasn't done with that!"

"I have had enough of your foolishness." The child reared back like Igneel had struck him. For a second, the dragon felt guilty for scaring the boy. Then he steeled himself. He had to test Natsu. Another weak-willed human would not learn their magic and turn it against the dragons.

"Just let me have one more chance," the pink haired boy begged.

Igneel stood his ground against the puppy dog eyes. "No," he said firmly. "I have given you more than enough chances. All you have done with them is annoy me."

Natsu glared. "Then 'splain what you want me to do. I'll do anything."

"Go back to your humans," ordered Igneel.

The boy's voice was quiet when he answered. "I don't have no one to go back to."

"LEAVE ME!" the dragon roared with a spurt of fire to scare him. Natsu fled the cave in tears and Igneel settled himself on the ground despondently. He had hoped the boy would ignore his fears and stay. Perhaps it was too much for him to ask of such a young boy. It was only natural that he would run from an angry dragon.

Igneel lasted maybe an hour before his guilt drove him out of his cave in search of the boy he had terrified. He had only meant to test his courage, for he would need it for this undertaken, not to drive Natsu away.

There was a weight as something landed on his head, scrabbling at the scales for balance.

The dragon instinctively threw his head back and tossed it from side to side to knock it off. The thing latched onto a loose scale and Igneel roared in pain as his thrashing threatened to rip it clean off.

Igneel ceased his wild tossing. The thing scrambled across his head and he caught a flash of pink as it slid down his brow and onto the bridge of his nose, where it threw its arms around the horn at its tip.

Natsu swung around his horn, short arms bulging as he hung in front of the dragon's upper jaw. "I caught you, Igneel! Now you have to teach me."

The dragon carefully lowered his head to the ground before the boy's arms became weak and his lost his grip. Staring Natsu down with one yellow eye, he agreed. Natsu had surprised him. The boy had not given up after all, just developed a plan that finally worked. "Very well, child—"

"Nastu," the boy interrupted fiercely. "You promised to use my name. And my name is Natsu Dragneel."

"Dragneel, is it?" Igneel questioned. Natsu nodded strongly. That was bold of the boy, claiming the dragon as his last name. "Very well, then, Natsu Dragneel. I shall make you the strongest wizard that ever lived."

The newly named Natsu Dragneel beamed up at the massive dragon with a toothy smile and threw his left arm over Igneel's snout. "Thank you, Igneel. You won't 'gret this, I promise."

Igneel had smiled, nudging the boy into his cave and let him curl up against his front leg where he would be provided warmth throughout the night. And Igneel had not regretted his decision to raise Natsu. In fact, he couldn't be prouder of his son. He had grown and learn so much since Igneel had started him on breathing flames and reading and writing.

"Igneel."

Said dragon looked down at his resting son once more, but Natsu had only murmured his name in his sleep. Igneel would have been surprised if the boy was awake already. Mavis had said it would take time before Natsu recovered from his battle with Acnologia.

But Natsu continued to mutter his name, and then he opened his eyes and realized that his father was wrapped around him.

Natsu inhaled deeply, taking in the familiar and comforting scent of ashes that he associated with Igneel.

Igneel.

All of his memories from Tenrou Island flooded his mind. Acnologia. Erza's pain. The thought that he was dead and his relief that he was not. And the despair when Mavis Vermillion told him he still had to fight Zeref.

That's right. Mavis had said his father was coming for him. He vaguely remembered being cradled in the fire dragon's talons.

But where had Igneel taken him? His eyes felt heavy and now that he was conscious, Natsu could feel the ache assaulting every part of his body and now that he was awake, he also wasn't numb to the pain and he groaned. His entire body felt like it was on fire and simultaneously being stuck by a thousand needles. He didn't know how long it had been since his battle, but Natsu could tell that he was still dangerously low on magic.

"Natsu? How are you feeling, young dragon?"

He groaned again. "Like I've been pulverized by a monstrous dragon."

"I suppose that would be accurate," Igneel laughed deeply. "Not that I can empathize."

Natsu would have leapt to his fight swearing to beat the dragon into the ground for laughing at him if he could move. But seeing as he couldn't, he settled for telling him to shove off.

"Do not strain yourself, my son. Grandeeney, will be here soon."

Natsu mumbled something unintelligible. He knew that name, but he was in too much agony to put a face to it, and he was pulled back into darkness.

A white dragon landed on the craggy and scorched landscape. 'Igneel would return to this volcanic region,' she thought.

Grandeeney was quite unlike her fellow dragons. Instead of scales, her body was covered with thick tissue like the keratin of bird's legs. Her feet resembled a bird's talons as well. Then there was her head. Her skull was rather broad and flat, and it was covered in fur that extended down to the top of her chest.

"I'm here, Igneel," she called out. A plume of smoke was her answer, rising from a sea of rocks. Grandeeney maneuvered her way through the igneous rocks. She let her eyes rove over Igneel's foster son. The physical injuries did not require her assistance, but she was not sure there was anything she could do for the damage Natsu had done to his magical core.

She told him as much. "The injury to his core may be incurable." Wizards were not supposed to compress their magic inside themselves and release it all at once. "But I will see what I can do."

"Thank you," Igneel said.

Grandeeney lowered herself to the boy's level, digging her claws into the rock so that he was under her foot. From there, she let her magic seep out and directed it into his body. It would be a long night of healing.