Chatting About the Past

"Feng Lan! Wake up!" Early in the morning, Lisanna stood outside Feng Lan's room, pounding wildly on the door.

"Huh?" Feng Lan crawled out of bed and rubbed his eyes groggily. "It's only four in the morning!? What's going on?"

"Feng Lan, you promised you'd take me out to play today." Lisanna's childish voice came from outside the door.

"Lisanna, look outside. It's only four. No one's going to be open for business yet." Fighting back sleep, Feng Lan staggered to the door, opened it, and spoke to Lisanna.

"But I can't sleep. Let's go out now~ We can just take a walk in the forest nearby." Lisanna looked utterly pitiful.

"Uh... fine. I'll take you for a walk." Seeing the listless Mira and Elfman, Feng Lan realized he wasn't the only victim.

"Yay! Let's go!" Lisanna's expression immediately brightened as she skipped out of the inn.

Forest east of town

"Tell me, are all kids like this? They're going out to play the next day, yet they can't sleep the night before." Feng Lan yawned until his eyes watered as he complained.

"Maybe. But which other kids are you talking about?" Mira wore a thick coat and rubbed her hands together. "Lisanna, put your padded jacket on properly!"

"That unlucky brat Natsu. Who else could it be?" Feng Lan said helplessly. Seeing the nosy looks on Mira and Elfman's faces, he continued.

"Back then, Natsu and the others hadn't learned magic yet, so their parents—the dragons teaching them—wouldn't let them go out alone. They had no choice but to get me, since I already knew magic, to lead them out." Feng Lan spoke with a nostalgic look. "But they often came to bother me before dawn, making it impossible for me to get a decent night's sleep. So I had to bring Wendy in and let Slokard watch over her while she slept. After all, Wendy was the youngest and needed plenty of rest."

"What about Natsu and the others?" Elfman asked.

"Uh... I gave them the water dragon treatment." Feng Lan scratched his head.

"Feng Lan, Mira, Elfman, look over here!" Lisanna jumped and waved, pointing off to one side.

"Wow! It's... it's so beautiful..." When they reached the spot Lisanna had pointed out, Mira said in astonishment.

A pool of crystal-clear water reflected the pale moonlight on one side and the dazzling dawn on the other. Gentle ripples spread across the lake, making the light shine even more brilliantly.

The four of them sat down by the lake and admired the breaking dawn.

"Hey, what do you think the moonlight exists for? Why does it work so hard to shine in the darkness?" Feng Lan looked at the moon that was about to set and asked Mira and the others.

"I don't know... Does a natural phenomenon like moonlight even have a purpose?" Mira and Elfman replied.

"I know! Food tastes better when you eat while looking at the moonlight." Lisanna answered proudly.

"Slokard asked me that question too, and my answer wasn't much different from yours." Feng Lan smiled. "But Slokard's answer left me completely confused. Even now, I only understand a little of it. I still haven't fully grasped it."

Feng Lan paused, looking at the moon that had fully set and the dawn that had completely broken. "...'Before dawn arrives, someone must shine a little light into the darkness.' That's what he said."

"So moonlight exists because someone is afraid of the dark? That's such a profound sentence." Lisanna tilted her head as she guessed.

"Could there be another meaning behind those words?" Mira felt that the sentence could not be as simple as its literal meaning.

"Yes, there was another meaning..." Feng Lan closed his eyes and said softly. "But what does dawn refer to? What is the darkness? And who is the person who illuminates it? Those questions have always troubled me, yet Slokard never gave me an answer."

"Feng Lan, why did Natsu acknowledge you as his big brother?" Unable to understand the deeper meaning of those words, Lisanna changed the subject.

"That... was because, once..." Feng Lan said nostalgically. "Once, after Natsu and the others had just mastered every spell of their own Dragon Slayer Magic, the five of them teamed up to challenge a dragon in order to prove themselves."

"A dragon!? A real, actual dragon?" Elfman cried out.

"Yeah. If I remember correctly, the one they provoked seemed to be an Earth Dragon." Feng Lan nodded. "But how could they, having only just learned Dragon Slayer Magic, possibly be a match for a dragon? The moment I heard about it, I rushed out to stop them."

"But who would've thought they'd run so fast! By the time I got there, Sting and Rogue were seriously injured and unconscious, Gajeel had injured his leg and couldn't stand, and Natsu was covered in fatal wounds, barely managing to stay on his feet. Wendy wasn't hurt too badly, but she was so timid that she had long since been frightened into not daring to stand up."

"So you got there in time and brought them back?" Mira asked curiously.

"No. Think about it—I wasn't that old back then either. How could I possibly have escaped from a dragon's sight while carrying five people by myself?" Feng Lan shook his head.

"Then... what did you do?" Mira became even more curious.

"So that became the first time I... slew a dragon!" Feng Lan looked at his clenched fist. "I don't know where I got the strength back then to fight that dragon without stopping for an entire day and night. Maybe it was my determination to protect Natsu and the others. At the final moment, it gave me unprecedented magic power, and the dragon eventually fell before me."

"So... you really have slain a dragon!?" Mira cried out in shock. Lisanna and Elfman were so frightened that they could not speak.

"Yeah! And because I'd used up too much energy in the battle, I immediately drained that Earth Dragon's blood dry afterward. Once I drank all of its blood, I felt incredibly comfortable, and my magic power surged! The pain from my wounds vanished, leaving behind only incomparable exhilaration!"

"Wait... you said the first time? You've slain more than one dragon!?" Mira noticed something wrong in Feng Lan's words.

"Yeah! Altogether, I've slain more than ten dragons. There were Earth Dragons, Rock Dragons, Wind Dragons, Wood Dragons, Bone Dragons, and more. Every time I killed one, I drank all of its blood. Not only did that let me feel the accomplishment of slaying a dragon, it also greatly increased my strength."

The more Feng Lan spoke, the more excited he became, and a bloodthirsty expression gradually appeared on his face. His demeanor clearly frightened the three children a little.

"Uh... sorry, I got carried away. Look, it's daylight now. Let's go to the shopping street. I'm paying today," Feng Lan said awkwardly.

"Okay! Let's go, Mira, Elfman." Lisanna still did not take anything to heart as she grabbed Elfman and ran toward town.

"Was what you said true?" Mira asked, somewhat doubtful.

"If you don't believe me, then..." Feng Lan had not even finished speaking.

"You really are amazing! Maybe you can even beat Gildarts!" Mira said, her eyes shining.

"You believe me?" Feng Lan asked in confusion. Normally, if someone heard that a kid his age had seen dragons and even slain them, they would probably think he was an idiot. That was why Feng Lan rarely mentioned it, and he had never expected anyone to believe him.

"You had no reason to lie to us, and I believe you have that kind of strength." Mira folded her arms.

"By the way, who is Gildarts?" Feng Lan asked with a smile.

"Gildarts is Fairy Tail's acknowledged strongest mage," Mira said. "Once you defeat him, I'll defeat you, and then I'll be the strongest mage!"

Feng Lan looked at Mira and smiled sincerely. "All right, hurry up. Those two are going to leave us behind."

"Ah, Lisanna, Elfman, slow down!" Mira hurried after them.

After playing all day, on the return train,

Feng Lan looked at Mira, then out the window. I don't know why, but whenever I'm with her, I always feel the urge to tell her what I truly think, he thought. Even secrets I usually never tell anyone—I feel like I can safely tell her. Then, because he had gotten up too early that morning and because of a Dragon Slayer Mage's motion sickness debuff, Feng Lan watched the sleeping Mira and smiled before falling asleep himself.