Rosemary Village, a small and relatively quiet village that was out of the way of any major towns or cities. For this reason, Rosemary made for a good target for Dark Mages to attack, such as what was happening at this very moment.
The village had been attacked out of nowhere by Zeref Cultists, Dark Mages that worship the Black Wizard Zeref and sought to revive him. The cultists goal was to capture and enslave people from different villages and send them to the Tower of Heaven to force completion of its construction. Their most recent target being Rosemary Village, where they have already kidnapped several people and are now destroying the village to cover their tracks and rounding up any stragglers.
One such straggler was a seven-year-old girl who was coughing from the smoke of her village burning around her. The girl had shoulder length red hair, pale skin, and ocean blue eyes.
This girl was Elna, no last name, and she is searching around for someone.
"Erza! Erza, where are you?!" Elna shouted, worried and fearful that she couldn't find her sister.
She didn't know where anyone was, having been separated from her sister and their friends, Simon and his little sister, Kagura.
Elna still couldn't believe this was happening, it had been just like every other day until suddenly Dark Mages started capturing people and destroying the village. She had been with Erza, Simon, and Kagura when the Dark Mages attacked and had gotten separated during the chaos. Now she's trying to find Erza but couldn't see anything through the smoke and flames.
"Hey there's another one!"
Elna paled when she saw three cultists seeing her and without hesitation she turned around and ran away from them. She didn't want to run and abandoned her sister and friends, but what could she do? She's just a kid who doesn't have any magic or knows how to fight, all she can do is run.
Running into the forest, Elna quickly climbed up a tree and hid herself from her pursuers. She heard their footsteps close by, making the girl shiver in fear at being discovered, but after a while she heard the steps fade away. Though she didn't climb down, still terrified of being discovered.
It made tears appear in Elna's eyes that she couldn't do anything, for all she knew Erza and the others could have been captured or killed and here she was hiding like a coward, instead of trying to do something.
At one moment, Elna thought she fell asleep and somehow stayed in the tree rather than fall out. But when she woke up, she saw the smoke was mostly gone and she could no longer see the glow of the fire. Slowly, Elna climbed out of the tree and ran back to her village only to be horrified at seeing it completely destroyed.
Walking around the wreckage, Elna looked around for any signs of anyone or if the Dark Mages were still here.
"Simon! Kagura! Erza!" Elna called out, hoping they had managed to escape as well.
But after searching the entirety of the destroyed village and finding no sign of her sister or friends, Elna's head fell as she wiped away the tears falling from her eyes. She didn't know if they were alive or dead, and now she was alone.
***
Five days had passed. Elna walked through the woods, not having any particular destination in mind, and an empty look in her eyes.
After seeing her home destroyed, along with not knowing what happened to her sister, either having been killed or captured, Elna had just left without looking back. She hasn't eaten or drank anything for several days, she tried hunting or foraging; but she didn't know how and thus simply kept walking.
Her entire body hurt from walking as well as lack of nourishment and sleep, given whenever she closed her eyes all she saw were the dead bodies of her sister and friends, all of them looking at her accusingly for running away like a coward.
I'm sorry. Elna thought, filled with sadness and self-loathing.
Though suddenly Elna heard footsteps coming towards her and soon a shadow was cast over her. Looking up, Elna gulped when she saw probably the most intimidating man she's even seen.
It was a muscular young man with long, dark blue colored hair. He carries a sharp gaze; his eyes were a blue color, along with having black circles around them. He is dark-skinned, and on his body, he had strange blue markings. His attire consisted of a high collared, black cloak possessing the same blue markings on his body, sharp claws around his neck, a sash around his waist, a gold arm ring tightened around his right upper arm, and baggy pants which are decorated with the same blue markings.
What terrified Elna was just how coldly he looked at her, like she was about as important as a speck of dust. He wasn't even glaring, just his mere presence and the magic he had radiating off of him made Elna feel like she was suffocating. Even if Elna wasn't a mage or trained to use or sense magic, she could just feel the power he contained.
Elna was unable to say or do anything, afraid that even the slightest movement would make the man lash out.
Acnologia regarded the little girl in front of him blankly. He had been resting in the nearby mountains, far away from humans and any other creatures, when he sensed something that made him immediately transform into his dragon form and take flight.
He sensed a Dragon or Dragon Slayer, and he was going to kill them.
But now seeing this girl now, he idly wondered if he had gotten rusty after isolating himself. As this girl was obviously no Dragon or Dragon Slayer. And yet he could still smell the scent of a Dragon on her and sense her magic was similar to a Dragon Slayers, but she clearly had no training in Dragon Slayer Magic or even seemed aware of it herself.
Though this didn't really concern Acnologia and he planned to just kill the girl, anyway, given he swore to eradicate all Dragons and Dragon Slayers. But something stopped him.
It wasn't pity for the girl's weak appearance, looking like little more than skin and bones, with dark circles under her eyes. Acnologia did smirk though when he saw the fear in her eyes, even in his less recognizable human form, he can still strike fear into humans. But yes, it wasn't pity that stopped Acnologia from killing her, he slaughtered thousands of men, women, and children in his four hundred years alive, what would matter, adding one more corpse to the pile. What stopped him though, was something that made his smirk widen.
The girl's potential. She clearly had a connection to Dragons, perhaps the child of a Dragon Slayer, and thus she'd be even stronger than other Dragon Slayers, given she was born with Dragon Slayer Magic. With the proper training she'd make for a powerful mage.
A mage powerful enough to finally give Acnologia the challenge he desires.
Yes, that would be a much better idea. He'll train this girl to become a Dragon Slayer, one that'll surpass all others, and when she's learned everything he has to teach, once she reaches the peak of her power, then they will fight. It will be the challenge Acnologia craves, one that will finally push him to his limits, but if she proves to be unable to provide him a challenge then he'll just kill her, like he's done with all Dragons and Dragon Slayers he's encountered.
Either way, Acnologia wins.
His mind made up, Acnologia turned around and started walking away.
Elna unconsciously released the breath she had been holding when the man started leaving. Though she immediately froze when the man stopped and turned a little looking at her, before jerking his head, motioning her to follow him. Gulping, Elna ran up and began walking beside the man, while she didn't know him or his intentions, something told her if she didn't follow him, he'd just kill her and be on his merry way.