The Red Dragon

Chapter 1

This story was originally inspired by watching How To Train Your Dragon and imagining Natsu as Gray's dragon. It was meant to be a one-shot for an event I was participating in and the more I set to plotting it the more it grew outside of my control. I have been working on it almost exclusively since November and it is my entry for the Fairy Tail Big Bang, a writer/artist collaboration event on Tumblr.

I will link the art as soon as it is up.
This story is currently 2/3 finished and will publish every two weeks.
I would like to thank my artist, selenba, who is not only an amazing artist but also a lovely friend. It was an absolute pleasure to work with you, love!

I would also like to thank  @Eclipsing_Paradise for reading every chapter, sometimes out of order and giving me her honest feedback. It seems fitting that you were involved in my other epic with dragons. ;)

If you are interested in reading other stories entered in this event check out the Tumblr event ft-bb blog where they will all be posted. One last shoutout to my friends at ftlgbtales for putting up with me on a regular basis.

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima

Chapter 1

Natsu Dragneel walked around the main room of his cave trying to find something to entertain him. His father and uncle had been talking about magic for the last few hours now, and they seemed to have completely forgotten about him.

As usual.

Natsu sighed. There wasn't much to keep an eight-year-old boy entertained inside the vast space he called home. He tried to practice his fire magic, but soon lost interest. He pretended that a stick he had collected was a wooden sword and tried to fight his shadow, but he got overly excited and set his makeshift sword on fire instead.

That happened a lot.

He had resigned himself to yet another lonely afternoon when he felt the significant discomfort of his body changing. In just a few minutes, his body had transmogrified into that of a small red dragon. Natsu tested his wings and found he could lift himself up easily.

Looking over to where the two enormous dragons were still talking, he determined they weren't paying the slightest attention to him. They wouldn't miss him if he stepped out for a little while. Natsu's eyes twinkled in anticipation of getting into mischief.

He slipped out as quietly as he could and worked his way to the rear exit of the cave. It was positioned in a way that kept their comings and goings away from any prying eyes of the nearby village.

He stood at the exit, trying to decide which direction to explore. Natsu knew enough to stay away from the village as his father wanted to keep their existence a secret. But there were plenty of other directions he could go.

He'd never gone off on his own before, and his heart raced at the prospect. Natsu was going on an adventure, and no one could stop him!

He sniffed the surrounding air, hoping to catch the scent of an animal he could hunt. Instead, he found a smell he couldn't remember ever having encountered before. It was a scent that was enticing, calling out to him, and so he immediately set off to explore it, without a thought as to whether it was wise to do so.

Flying was the thing Natsu liked best about being a dragon. When he was in the air, he felt free. All of his loneliness and worries just melted away. There was no other feeling like it.

There was, however, one problem.

Natsu felt his body change back mid-flight. He'd flown higher than usual and now he could only flail his arms in panic as the ground rushed at him, hoping he could somehow affect his now different body. But he only fell faster and faster until there was nothing but green and brown in his field of vision.