Day Three - Lesson Learnt the Hard Way
The weather was brisk, for an early Summer's morn, though there was no coldness to the air. There was a cloudless, flawless, sparkling blue sky, and a beating sun that seemed to be making up for a time when there was none, and a breeze that pressed heavily, welcomely, against the skin as it rushed towards an unknown destination. The leaves on the Rainbow Cherry Trees lilted in the calming air, dancing to a wild and aimless tune. There was a 'wush' travelling with the air, not distracting but white noise, carried through the broken streets to a never-land, up from the small lake-port that had stilled from their fishing to bask in glory. Many of the town chose to stay simply in the town, dancing in their hamlets and socialising in the markets. Fairy Tail was much the same, ice lining the doors and the Guild's pool cramped for space – both in the pool and on the decks.
There was one who spent her time in thought, thinking that there were some lessons that just did not come easily to any of the Guild, and there was no doubt that the whole of their family had faced difficulties in their times – there were many good things that had happened over the years but also very, very sad things. As Evergreen cast an eye about the room her smallest finger twiddled a lock of her magnificent brown tresses, the Fairy Queen's thoughts were elsewhere for once. Usually she would be focused so intently on Laxus, or Freed, or Bickslow, but for the day she would look to another place. Another time in her past.
Evergreen sat on a deckchair, her hair billowing as if petals in the breeze, a fashion magazine opened absently in her hands as every so often she flicked through it with a spare hand. Yes, those had been different times for all those involved – so many things had come to pass, and it had resulted in conflict amongst the friends. They had been so young.
It was no secret that Evergreen had not grown amongst those at Fairy Tail but had joined at a later stage. She had been the last of her little Tribe to join the Guild, but she was grateful that it had come to pass as it had. For one, Evergreen had resolved at that time that she must not, not ever, go without her glasses. It was not as though it was about controlling her Magic – all in her Legion were perfectly capable of controlling the Magical elements of their eyes, no matter what was whispered amongst the jealous people.
It was about power.
That is what those glasses meant for her, just like the helmet meant something for Bickslow - though in his case it was mostly kinky. In the time before she had come to know Fairy Tail, Evergreen had been a priest's daughter in a town closer to the coast. There had been an incident when she was younger, and that had caused them all to move to another town, but as they had moved Evergreen had lost her father and therefore the comforts she had been given as a daughter of the town. There had been a boy.
There always was.
He had still been kind to her, he had no reason to. Older than her by a handful of years, not enough to make a huge difference - but there was some troubles in their friendship. It was at that point that Evergreen had started to develop her fascination with Fairies and subsequently Fairy Tail. The boy had had the most startling black hair she had ever seen, and had been very kind to her despite the way he was treated by others. This boy had been the son of some carpenter, she supposed. Evergreen had loved the little toys he would make, none of them were perfect, no of course not, but he was kind enough to make them for her, and so Evergreen had treasured them. One in particular was a rough little thing, not even sanded to perfection as she would have wanted, but it was of a dragonfly. The reason the boy had made it for her was because she had expressed a deep interest in Fairies, and the boy - it was at this point Evergreen reminisced over the fact she could no longer remember his name - had seen a dragonfly when he had been fishing in the steam that bordered the edge of the town.
It had been love, Evergreen supposed, a childish, puppy-like love on her part - but she knew that the boy had valued her companionship as much as she had liked his. Before she had left, she had gotten her first pair of glasses. And that was why she had to keep them on, because he had told her that she looked cute in them. Evergreen had never taken them off after that, and had found that people looked to her with a new sense of respect. That had been an easy lesson. Leaving the town had provided a lesson that hit paved her future; one of the men leading them away from town had made some comments to her, and in her huff at leaving the boy behind, Evergreen had taken her glasses off and prayed to the Fairies - and low and behold, the man was turned to stone.
Evergreen had ran that time, the summer grass thick under her soles.
Later that year, at the end of that summer, Evergreen had joined Fairy Tail. She had found Freed and Bickslow there, following like lost puppies after Laxus. Learning to control her Magic had been very difficult, thought Bickslow had helped her to do that. And it had been fun, especially when she could practice with Bickslow's Babies - that was even how he had gotten one of them. When they had been younger Bickslow had convinced one of the older Mages to let her practice on him, you know, so that she could see if she could unfreeze people! But at the time she could not, so Bickslow had managed to pull the Mages soul from their paralysed body and had carved it a new body. Makarov had forbidden her from practising on Light Mages after that.
The hardest lesson that had come in her life had been in the form of Freed, and man that man was an absolute idiot. Upon finding out just how lacking her education was, Freed had forced her into having lessons with him - and with the Rune Magic that was not overtly difficult (besides, Laxus had ordered it). There had been so many subjects to learn - languages, religions, sciences, histories, geographies, music, business, Magic, mathematics, and literature. Those had been some very hard lessons to learn when it came to it, though Evergreen could not hold it against Freed, because now she had an advantage. Freed had also told her that the glasses had suited her - his fifteen-year-old self had haughtily mentioned that they gave her an air of much needed intelligence. Doubtlessly Freed had learnt the hard way just how difficult it was to get out of her snares. A Medusa in her own right, that was what Evergreen had found him muttering to Laxus later that week.
Yes, Evergreen thought, some lessons were learnt the hard way and others were just easy. And as Evergreen looked to where Freed and Bickslow were bickering, she let her mind be cast back to that summer, and when many sorts of memories offered themselves to her, Evergreen could not help but wonder what had happened to her first love.
And she would disagree with him, she was more than cute in her glasses.
