Chapter 1: Visions of the Past

July 7, X777

"Where am I?" I wondered as I looked around.

In front of me there was nothing but open land as far as the eye could see. There were some trees scattered around but for the most part, there was a lot of sand, which occasionally swirled up in the air and blinded me temporarily. In my hand was a sword. It had a black hilt with a strange chain wrapped around the blade. I tried to pull the chain, but it wouldn't even budge. It was like it was glued onto the blade or something. I noticed something odd about the hilt of the sword; there was blood on it. I looked on my hand and saw that there was blood on there too. At this point, I went into a state of shock. My body was trembling, shaking violently. I nearly vomited at the thought of a dead body popping up in my mind.

"Why in the world was there blood on me?" I pondered, with tears beginning to run down my face.

I then turned around and wasn't sure of what I was looking at. Below the cliff on which I was on, I saw some buildings below. They appeared to be made up of rock and stone, and square in shape. I could somewhat see into one of the buildings. A candle was lit on what looked like a table. I could faintly see some plates of food, as if someone was getting ready to eat dinner. Over at the next building, I could see that it was reduced to rubble. Nothing remained except for some pieces of stone and some furniture, such as a chair and broken pieces of a bed. Throughout the settlement, there was smoke that clouded most of the buildings; but I could tell that there was immense damage in the area. I couldn't figure out why I was there though. I couldn't remember anything.

Two years later: (June 25, X779)

"Hey Drayden?" I heard a voice say. I was too deep in thought to respond.

"Hey Drayden!" the voice called out to me again. This time I was taken out of my imagination and returned to the real world.

The voice had been that of Gray Fullbuster. As usual, the dark blue-haired ice mage was missing some articles of clothing. He was shirtless but had on his black pants and shoes, which told me he was in the process of doing his unusual habit of subconsciously taking his clothes off. It truly baffled and disgusted me at the same time, but I never made a plan to tell Gray my feelings about it. It probably wouldn't matter anyways. He would still continue to do it regardless of what I said.

From the look on his face, he appeared to have been somewhat exhausted. He was also out of breath, panting loudly. I was soon reminded that before I left the guild hall, Gray was having his usual arguments with another young, pink-haired mage. And after their arguments the two would typically fight, which would last for hours sometimes. This was made evident when I examined him more closely, seeing that he had some fresh bruises on him. I proceeded to get up off the soft grass that I was lying on and stretched my arms and legs.

"Are you alright Drayden?" Gray asked as I was stretching.

To be honest, I didn't have an answer to his question. Those thoughts I had, of the ruined buildings and smoke, deeply disturbed me. And the worse part of it all was that I had no recollection of how it happened. The only thing I could remember that day was my name. It was frustrating not knowing anything. I felt as though I was in a dark cave with no exit in sight. However, I didn't want to trouble the ice mage or anyone else at the guild, so I lied and told him that I was okay. He must have accepted my response, although reluctantly as his expression showed some doubt, and we proceeded to head back to the guild.

Before we headed back, I couldn't help but ask Gray where his shirt was. And as usual, the "stripper" was shocked when he found out that he was without a shirt, so I tried to give my purple jacket to him. However, he rejected the offer, stating that he didn't need it. I chose not to argue with him, not that I was in any position to do so anyways.

As we were walking back to the guild, I looked up at the sky and saw the beautiful sun beaming down on us. It was midday in the summertime, so I expected the heat, but there was a cool breeze that made me forget all about it. The sky itself was in its perfect color of blue, with an occasional cloud aimlessly floating by. In the distance, I could hear the townspeople going about their day. I saw a couple with their kid shopping around. The kid seemed to be upset over something, but I didn't think about what that something was. For some reason, that kid gave me a weird feeling. It was like I could relate to that kid, even though I had no recollection of ever being in that situation. It was truly confusing, but I managed to let it go when Gray decided to start a conversation.

"So why'd you run off like that?" Gray asked.

It then hit me that I had run off earlier. Prior to me running off, I had a brief flashback, and in it I saw a figure standing in front of me.

"Run! Get out of here!" the figure shouted to me.

Then, as quick as it appeared, it vanished. I don't know why, but the sheer thought of the voice was enough to make start sobbing. As my eyes filled with water, I began to choke. I was sure that I would've started crying vehemently if I didn't get out. I don't know why that voice did that to me, but after some more minutes of crying, I decided to rest myself in the nearby grass. As much as I considered Gray a friend, I couldn't tell him what was going on.

"No reason in particular. I just needed some fresh air was all" I lied.

"Fresh air huh?" Gray replied. His tone was clearly skeptical, but he kept going anyway. "The Master was looking for you. He said that he wanted to talk to you about something."

"The Master huh?" I thought to myself.

Then, before I knew it, we were in front of the Fairy Tail Guild.