The Red Dragon

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Gray walked around the remains of his village, a place he'd never revisited outside of his worst nightmares. He wasn't sure what he'd hoped to accomplish by coming back here; he just knew it felt like the right place for them to talk.

Maybe he'd just wanted Natsu to see where he'd been coming from all this time. Not that he'd ever thought the dragon slayer — no, he corrected himself, Natsu had never been a dragon slayer, he was a dragon — had ever doubted him.

Mounds of scorched rubble lay amidst the few structures that had remained standing, a stark contrast to the vibrant village of his childhood. When he'd escaped during its destruction, he hadn't looked back, not wanting to see the charred remains of his parent's bodies intermingled with the rest.

He'd still been able to hear the roar of the flames as the fire continued to devour everything in its path, the black smoke reaching up towards the morning sky, darkening it as if in mourning for what it had witnessed.

The air had been oppressive as he'd run deeper into the woods, full of smoke and the horrid smell of the villagers' burnt flesh. Gray had kept running until it had felt like his lungs were about to burst, trying to put as much distance as he could between himself, the last cries of his parents, and the roaring laughter of that evil dragon that had tried to kill him.

Now that he was older, all Gray felt was a sort of detached astonishment at discovering the woods had somehow remained unharmed. There had been some cleanup over the years, and even though he was grateful that someone had taken care of the bodies, he wished they'd placed some sort of marker somewhere. Anything to let him know where his parents had been laid to rest so he could pay his respects. He stumbled around, trying to find the location where his house had once stood.

Hearing a noise behind him, he turned to observe Natsu, who had also wandered over to the remains of the village. His features exhibited a fury Gray had never witnessed before.

"Natsu?" Gray ceased his search and ran over to the dragon, startled to see Natsu showing so much emotion considering he'd probably seen much worse over the last few years.

"This is not what red dragons are about!" Natsu seethed, "They stayed away from humans, and once my father decided to side with them, they protected them. This should never have happened."

"I know that now," Gray assured him, "I think it took talking to your father for me to accept all the things you'd been trying to tell me over the years. I hadn't wanted to believe that dragons could be intelligent or have complex emotions. If I continued to think of them as mindless beasts, then I wouldn't have to face my guilt. It was much easier to blame everything on Deliora and anyone like him."

"Your guilt?" Natsu looked puzzled, "What are you talking about, what could you possibly have to feel guilty about?"

"I — I killed my parents," Gray admitted out loud for the first time, "Or rather, I may as well have," He cut Natsu off before he could try to convince him any differently.

"Deliora destroyed our village, yes, but if it hadn't been for me, my parents would have survived."

Gray oriented himself, walking towards the spot where it had all happened, and Natsu followed, his previous fury doused by his concern at Gray's words.

"The roars of the dragon woke us up, although we didn't know what it was at first," Gray began, his eyes becoming cloudy as he surrendered himself to the memory. "We were luckier than most. We'd been planning to go camping that night, so we had bags packed. My father went outside to see if he could help, but he returned quickly, whispering something to my mother."