-Year X772-
In a mansion in the countryside of the land of Fiore, there was a woman lying in bed, her newborn babe sleeping in her arms. The woman was a beauty. Layla Heartfilia had brown eyes that sparkled in the light and long golden hair that always seemed to shimmer with a hint of otherworldly beauty. But upon closer inspection it would have been easy to see that the woman was also fragile. Sick, with an apparent weariness that couldn't be attributed to pregnancy and childbirth alone. The woman was weak. She was dying. The only other person in the room was a man with the head of a goat. The most loyal manservant one could ever find; the celestial spirit Capricorn.
"Ms. Layla." The goat-man had a furrow in his brow and worry in his eyes as he cautioned his mistress. "You are too tired. As lovely as your baby is, the strain of carrying him has weakened you even more. You have maybe two or three years left."
"I know Capricorn." The woman said, with a sad smile down at the child in her arms."
"Jude will blame the boy."
The woman lifted her head up, and instinctively brought her child closer to her chest. She kept a determined expression for a few seconds before letting out a sigh and allowing a single tear to slide down her cheek. The tear glinted in the light as it fell. There was a multitude of colors inside the tiny drop as it slid down her face and hesitated on the edge of her jaw. It dropped down, unnoticed and landed silently on the sleeping baby's forehead.
"I know." She whispered. And curled around her child. "Caprricorn. I must ask you to do something for me. It will be dangerous, and I apologize for that. You must go. Bring my son to the forest in the east. I have a friend there. A dragon; Weisslogia. He will raise my boy."
"Yes my lady." Capricorn replied. "And your daughter?"
"She will be safe enough from my husband's ire, and I cannot lose both of my children at once. Now go. I will tell Jude that the babe was stillborn, and that you took him back to the spirit world for a celestial burial at my request."
She held her child and pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek.
"Be safe my child" she whispered before holding him out to her friend.
As he turned to, she grabbed his arm.
"Wait. Give Weisslogia his name. A name so that Lucy can find him someday. Sting Eucliffe."
With that, Layla Heartfilia, born Layla Eucliffe, let her second child be taken away from her. And wept.
Across the mansion, in a room filled with light and brightly-colored toys, a little girl played with her doll.
"I love you Michelle." The girl smiled down at the doll with the innocent joy of a child who has never felt unloved. "But I can't wait to be a big sister for real."
