Chapter Text
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A young girl made her way through a large forest. The girl had light, almost white-green hair, large golden eyes, and cinnamon-colored skin. She had a large bruise shaped like an adult's handprint on her face, she had scrapes all over her hands and knees, and her feet had blisters from her walking and running for an unknown amount of time for an unknown distance barefoot on unknown terrain. The nearest civilization was over a hundred miles away in the opposite direction from where she was heading. She was in nothing but a very old tattered dress; when she was younger, the dress was the right size for her, as it reached her toes like it was supposed to, but now it barely reached her knees. The dress seemed to have been white but now had lost its vibrancy and had many different stains ranging from mud to smoke.
The young girl was scared and utterly alone. It was getting dark by now once again for her, and she had been running and walking for an unknown amount of time. The girl perked up slightly when she noticed there was a cave made out of roots from a tree up ahead. As the young girl looked around her as she approached the rooted cave, she noticed many different plants, rocks, and other earthy things that she was unaware could be found in a forest.
'I thought the green spiky plants grew in the large sandy lands, not here...' The girl thought to herself as she reached the cave.
As the moon grew fresher in the sky, a young girl curled up at the entrance of the cave and closed her eyes, drifting into sleep quickly due to exhaustion and her lack of water and food over the past few days.
The young girl woke with a jolt as she heard a soft rumple from behind her. She turned her head to see large eyes that didn't seem to have one color, but they reminded the girl of the mini flowers she had seen in her short life staring at her. The girl scrambled out of the cave and into the clearing area she had seen the night before. She continued to scramble back until her back hit a large tree. The creature with the big pretty flower-like eyes slowly left the cave. The creature was large; it had dark forest green scales and lighter scales that matched the girl's hair on the creature's underside. The creature had large horns and even bigger wings, both horns and wings being a mint green color.
'Dragon!?' The young girl thought in shock. She didn't know many things, but she knew what a dragon was; it was one of the things her parents had told her and her big brother about before... before... before they changed.
The dragon looked at the young girl curiously before lowering its head to her eye level. "Hello, young one, how are you? And what is your name, dear?" The dragon spoke in a soft female voice that calmed the young girl down.
"I-I'm all right, ma'am; my name is Av-Avani Ami-Amity Dra-Drac-Dracona." The young girl responded that her ma taught her manners after all. Though it was hard for her to pronounce her name correctly, she did, even after struggling a bit.
"What are you doing all the way out here? You're quite a ways from home.” The female dragon asked as she lay down in front of the girl.
"... My folks didn' want me anymore; they only wanted my Ba instead, so I left..." Avani responded by lifting her hand to her bruised cheek. Avani had a very heavy accent that made it slightly harder for her to speak.
The dragon hums lightly, tilting her head as if she were making a decision on something before she looks at the girl again. "My name is Eathmrana. I am an Earth and Plant Dragon, and you, Avani, will be my dragon slayer." The female dragon, now named Eathmrana, said as she looked at the girl with soft eyes.
Over time the young girl would meet other dragon slayers and train, along with their respective dragons. The eldest being Gajeel Redfox at twelve with his dragon Metalicana, next was her at 11 with her dragon Earthrana, then there was Natsu Dragneel at nine with his dragon Igneel, next there were Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney at six with their dragons Weisslogia and Skiadrum, and lastly there was Wendy Marvell at the age of four with Grandeeney. Something she found amusing is that Skiadrum and Metalicana were siblings—even from the same hatching litter! - and their slayers, Gajeel and Rogue, are half-siblings sharing a Pa, which they both take heavily from in appearance apparently, but different Ma's. When they all meet up, Avani spends most of her time with Rogue and Wendy, for they are calmer and not as rambunctious as the others.
She would also meet another dragon that was not currently training a slayer; this dragon was Eathmrana's mate, Hemlock.
Hemlock was a large dragon with dark purple scales and venomous green eyes. He had horns that were the color of tough poison berries—snowberries, they are called—that matched his wings. When they had met, he asked her to learn some of the knowledge of his slayer arts, not for him but for his future Slayer. He told her how that time dragon Amarantha told him it would be a long time before he would meet his slayer. His slayer would be forced into it but would survive the lacrima implant, and his pseudo-sister Avani would be able to meet him and teach him the ways of a proper poison slayer. Avani was excited and agreed; after all, she would get a pseudo sibling when the time comes, and she could be very patient when she needed to be.
The years would go by quickly, and before she knew it, she was with the other Slayers, their dragons, and the lady named Anna Heartfilia. Being sent through a big door with just the other slayers and Anna herself. Avani could tell something was wrong and that she and the other dragons did not trust Anna fully but were still letting her take them somewhere. But she would follow for now, like Eathmrana had asked of her.
When through the door and separated, all Avani could remember of the day that she stepped into the door was that the dragons didn't trust the Anna woman, and that's something that wasn't quite right about it all.
Later in a few years, she would learn that she was the only one out of the dragon slayers to fully remember their childhood. The only day she couldn't remember clearly was the day that involved the big door and the woman named Anna that she could not trust.
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