400 years ago; Mavis Vermillion. [prologue I]
Anna Hearfilia. She wasn't close to Mavis. In fact, the lighter-blonde had never met the girl until that day.
She lay there, her dull, dead eyes staring towards the sky. Dry blood caked around her human mouth, though the scent of her blood told Mavis she wasn't human. Like the bare-footed girl, she had a wolf that had prowled under her skin when she had been alive. Mavis suppressed her whimper as she crept closer to the woman. The corpse looked fresh and the woman herself only young -by 'look' standards, who knew her real age since shifters not only aged differently from humans but from other shifters, too-; her arm was bent out of place, her left leg missing and a hole through her chest. Looking closer one could see burn marks ranging from mild to sever littering her pale skin. Green eyes scanned the area around before darting back to the lifeless body. The village that the body lay in was abandoned with fire spreading quickly. The damage done could have been either wolf or human, yet...it was only her body, her being, that lay here. Most likely killed by humans, and left to be mauled at by any hungry animal that passed by.
Maybe.
Mavis felt her lip tug into a frown. That couldn't be right, the brown-eyed girls' corpse couldn't be that old. Fire still raged in the background, plus her body hadn't began decaying yet, so the woman could have only been dead for roughly a few hours at most. The young shifter sniffed the air.
Wolf-dogs.
A breed humans kept to sniff out shifters and then set them loose to hunt them down.
Her leg was most likely cut off by a human to stop her from being able to run far. The shorter girl knelt down besides the woman, carefully checking her over. Another wound straight through the throat. Cuts marred her arms. Her torso. Signs of humans finding a wolf living amongst them. Meaning her last moments alive were filled with torture in order to find out names of any other 'werewolves' -as humans so kindly called their species- before burning her alive, something they loved doing to most 'witches', and they were just humans with magical abilities who were often protectors, priestesses or healers and those few with good defense and attack types were usually hunters or leaders of their armies. Mavis shook her head, majority of mundanes -those without any magical ability- believe those different from them or more powerful -even if they are, themselves, the same species- are worth the death penalty. Apparently. Fear was a terrible thing when it involved them.
"May you find the land of peace and rest" Mavis began to chant their traditional prayer for the fallen woman, whose name was only known to her due to the Heartfilia Crest tattooed onto her shoulder, bare via the cut in the fabric; and the iron chain dangling from her neck saying 'Anna'. It was possible that the necklace belonged to her mother, though it was doubtful. "May you be freed from the curse that was put upon our blood" She slowly laid her hand over Anna's open brown eyes, moving it down to close her lids and allow her to finally sleep until she was reborn. Mavis paused, hesitating on whether she should chant the last sentence, not only because she would not hear, but because it was too late and too obvious that she had not been given that luxury. Not when it came to the humans. Her breathing shook as she inhaled, deciding that she deserved the full thing just as they all did. "And may your last moments be without pain. Your last breaths come with ease" clenching her left hand as the last words left her lips, she exhaled loudly, the feeling of a heavy weight lifting from her shoulders. Humans found hunting them to be a sport recently. Even if they didn't think of it that way, they still bled shifters; wolf, rabbit, cat...it didn't matter to them. They continued to torture them and made their deaths long and painful, making certain that their species suffered for being born that way. For being cursed.
Not all humans were so cruel.
Some fought alongside them, both species fighting for peace.
Mavis felt it before she heard it. The cry of a child without her mother. Her lips clamped shut into a tight, thin line. A quick glance back down at the blonde woman, whose hair was soaked in red and brown; a mix of dry blood and mud. The way her death had been, the way she lay, her pale skin looking like moonlight or snow -even if the burn marks littered most of her- she reminded Mavis so much -too much- of her best friend, Zera. The tears fell down her cheeks before she could stop them.
The scenario the jade-eyed girl painted for this woman...was not so different from the one of her childhood. The only difference was that that village -her village- had not been a human one, but a tribe for those like them.
The girls watery eyes closed, slowly opening as she looked up at the grey clouds passing by overhead. Now was not the time to think about it. Looking back at the woman a small, sad smile graced her face. "If, by chance, I cross paths with your child. I will give her this as a memento of your love for her, since I assume you did not get the chance to say a proper farewell" Mavis whispered as she took the necklace from the woman's neck. If she didn't see this woman's child, then she would keep the necklace with the other belongings of deceased shifters she came across, something kept in honour to remember those who have fallen over these past fifty years. Years leading up to the upcoming war.
A war against humans. A war for peace. For a world where shifters -wolf or other- and humans may be able to live side by side.
Unlikely.
Most of the humans who stood with the shifters have explained that that dream wasn't very realistic, though they had wished it was. The most likely thing to happen would be a treaty, and a land split in two. One side for humans; the other for shifters and the other creatures that man believed shouldn't exist.
The young-looking blonde sighed heavily, placing her dainty hands in the dirt on either side of herself, she moved to stand and dusted herself off. A whistled tune echoed from the treeline behind. The humans were preparing to attack soon. Two crow-like calls. Two allies had died from injuries. A howl from Zeref, her mate. He was back at the camp with news on the enemy's movements.
The daughters grief-ridden cry echoed once again.
Giving the corpse one last look, Mavis turned on her heel and headed back towards her camp, two miles south-east, east.
It wasn't hard to say that war had come sooner than anticipated. Nor was it unexpected that it lasted six decades. However, five years after the treaty was a made, she met a young wolf-shifter. Her golden hair and big, lively brown eyes could not be mistaken. At first Mavis had thought that the dead woman she had seen in that village had come back to life. Either to thank her or curse her. Turned out that had not been the case.
"Layla Heartfillia." the Anna-look-alike smiled softly before looking down at her feet sadly. "I saw you...that day when my mother-" her voice broke, Mavis watched as the teenaged girl swallowed thickly, probably wanting to get rid of the built up lump she felt. "Thank you... for closing her eyes when I couldn't bring myself to" was all she whispered. How she knew it had been the shorter, older woman in front of her; how she had been certain, since she must have watched from a fairly far distance, Mavis did not know, nor did she ask; instead she moved her hands to the back of her slender neck to undo the iron clasp. That day was the first and last time that Mavis had worn that necklace, she wasn't sure why until after she had spoken to Layla. The bare-footed woman placed it in the girl's palm and closed it with her own on top.
"I believe this belongs to you now".
Maybe fate was real, and we really are all connected in some way. Perhaps things happen for a reason. Mavis thought long and hard about it for a while, she believed that fate was real. Destiny, however, was different. She was sure that destiny was what one made it, not what was decided or set in stone. Everyone chose their own destiny; but certain things -not all- that happen along the way, that was fate.
She knew that the moment she had smiled and watched Layla walk away that she would not see that blonde again.
Just as Mavis had saw Layla's mother… she would see her daughter, though she did not know that back then either.
But when she did meet her daughter… it would be when the young -too young- girl cried over the death of her father, her last relative.
She knew -somewhere deep down- that there was something about the Heartfilia bloodline that was more cursed compared to other shifters. Something hunted them down. One by one. The main reason would be to do with Lucy herself. The girl was different to the other Kami-wolves, including Mavis herself. She was still a shifter, though she had a third form, a more powerful and concentrated form. A form that she had been born with. She still looked human, though the wolf ears and a single tail said otherwise -her human form took time and practise and was not as easily accessible as her wolf and semi-human form until she had turned fifteen.
She was not like the 'Akuma' bloodline, like the mighty and much feared E.N.D -a shifter who, too, had a third form, one that allowed him to wield flame- though this form -however similar to Lucy's in appearance- had nine tails, not one. 'Nine-tailed Fire Demon' was a name used by many for him. 'Fox-fire' was what the humans called his power, often mistaking his red-like fur for that of a fox rather than a wolf. No, Lucy was rare unlike those in the Akuma bloodline -many of them could phase into a third form due to the power of their blood though their tails ranged from one to eight, E.N.D being an exception- she was different because her bloodline was called 'Kami'. They were a sister-line to the Akuma's, but they were not bred for offensive magical power and none had a third form. None, of either bloodline, had been born with their third form being their natural form. Though a prophecy had been told amongst both bloodlines of a shifter whose natural form would be that of Lucy's. A child born with an extreme amount of celestial magic.
That was how the bloodlines got their names. Kami, for magic of the heavens and Akuma, for their demon-magic, or curse-magic in some cases. Only the warriors of these bloodlines -those like the 'Zodiac Keys' and the 'Demon Gates'- were able to control their power and use it. Children within the bloodlines that showed traces of being able to use magic were taught how to wield and use it to the best of their potential and raised to become protectors. The Zodiac's were few, since only twelve -to outsiders, but those within the bloodline knew of the thirteenth- shifters from all three Kami clans -Heartfilia, Agria and the royal bloodline- were able to use magic. The Demon Gates were hunted and narrowed down from ten to eight due to the death of E.N.D and their 'Demon Slayer' Absolute Zero, whose names were only known to those who were members of the Tartaros clan, the only Akuma bloodline.
Sometimes fate could be funny, and not in a happy or laughable way.
That Layla's daughter would be the reincarnation of Layla's own mother.
If Mavis had known back then that crossing paths with Anna would have turned her life completely upside down; that it would have caused her to be dragged into this huge mess of life, death and war all over again
...that it would lead her to meet E.N.D again…
She would have still entered that burning village and lived through everything thrice more if necessary.