Hello lovely readers and devoted followers~! Yes, I'm starting a new story! Or rather, posting a story that I have been progressively working on. This is one that myself, Smile-chan and M-chan have been working on together and I thought it would be nice to allow you guys to check it out. I will be posting this one more erratically as my other story takes priority for followers!
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and all Characters belong to Hiro Mashima except the OCs.
Prologue: 400 years ago
27km away from the border towns of Hargen, Fiore and Largon, Stal'Riam, a simple cottage nestled within the safe confines of a forest clearing. It was located on the western front of the vast continent of Stal'Riam, a massive country who dwarfed its neighbor, Fiore. The cottage itself wasn't rare, yet the barren location was. For what truly set this mighty continent apart from its neighbours, was the amazing truth that the people of this country had discovered, a mystical force they dubbed 'magic'. Through various meanings and rigorous discipline, these people could bend the very Earth to their will. Armed with this knowledge, they advanced in weaponry, war power and industry and it was common for their citizens to live in villages or cities. Yet there was a catch. This strange magic came at a terrible price, as for some reason the lure of this force drew the Dragons that roamed free in the skies from near and far. And everyone began to realise: Magic meant Dragons and Dragons meant Death. Frightened by this knowledge, the guardians of Stal'Riam declared a new law. Any one man, woman or child with too much magical potential was to be hunted down and executed immediately, or risk the destruction of the area and all the civilians. And this is where that little unbecoming cottage comes into play.
~()~
A rather tall three-year-old sat cross-legged on a cloth couch. Her icy white hair spilled to her shoulders and her eyes crunched shut so hard that veins were beginning to show on her young forehead. Fists were clenched and her entire body was rigid. Anyone without a 2km radius could easily understand, or more accurately hear, why.
"MUM! MITHA IS PULLING MY HAIR AGAIN!" her blue-white eyes snapped open to glare at her two younger siblings. Although they called off the same age as her, they had been born ten months later, making her not quite a year older. The first one was a rather pathetic little boy with ragged black hair and eyes. He wore a children's toga of black and white with gold trim and was currently crying his eyes out, for similarly obvious reasons. His twin, identical in every aspect except for slightly longer hair (hers reached below her ears while his was still at the ears and her bangs hung lower) and other obvious physical differences that came with different gender, was currently refusing to yield any mercy as she gleefully knotted her fingers in clumps of her brother's locks and yanked them with sadistic glee. As her squeals got louder and the boy's crying got more whiny and annoying, the elder one snapped.
"WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP!" she roared, bounding to her feet. Despite her rather young age, her astonishing physical agility and strength and an already prominent memory marked her out from her peers and ensured that when she stood staring them down, it was adequately menacing.
"MUM IS TIRED AND SORE AND YOU TWO NEED TO GIVE HER SOME PEACE."
The two black haired twins were silent and then they simultaneous grabbed her white cloak and pulled puppy dog faces, also identical.
"B-but Big Sis Ki-Kiana . . ."
"Why are you yelling when wimpy bro is the one making a racket?"
The white one, Kiana, took a careful breath, cooled her mind and placed both hands on their heads. They looked up blinking.
"Mitha," the girl blinked and Kiana looked at the boy "Zeref," he blinked "how many times have I told you . . . THAT I DO NOT CARE ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR PATHETIC EXCUSES?" with that last exclamation both twin's heads were forcibly rammed into the other's and they howled before dropping and rolling like little pins on the ground. Kiana pouted, and flicked a stray lock of white hair over her shoulder.
"Kiana." At the soft call, she immediately perked up and ran to the second room in the cottage. Seating up in the bed, a young woman with lines already showing her forehead and veins visible on thins hands, lay. Despite her fatigue, smile lines were evident around her mouth and she cradled the bundle sleeping in her arms with the gentleness of any mother. Kiana stared at her two day old sister in amazement. Already, she had the warm olive skin colours of their mother and a few stray strands of brown hair like their fathers. The twins got their black hair from their mother and their frigid skin from their father (seriously, they colour was like white combined with more white), while Kiana's white locks remained a mystery. The girl blinked at her new sister.
"She is so small."
"You were that small, once." Her mother smiled and Kiana flushed, a combination of embarrassment and pride. Then her heart faltered as the corners of the smile turned down.
"But really Kiana, you should not abuse the twins that much. Even if they do regularly make a racket."
"But father always beats them up when he comes home." A shadow flashed across her mother's face and Kiana stiffened.
"Mother, is there something wrong with father?"
"No."
"You said he was on a trip to gather some new medicinal herbs but were you lying?"
"No." At the snap, Kiana jerked back. Her mother's breathing was short and ragged. "I'm not. He will be back anytime soon. Soon."
Noticing her first daughter's wide-eyed stare, she forced a smile.
"Here, take your sister out to her other siblings. It will relieve them from their boredom for a while. Her name is Bellus."
"Bellus." Kiana murmured, taking and cradling the small child in her arms. A tingling sensation came from her fingers and her eyes widened.
"M-mother! I can feel . . . magic-!"
"Yes." Her mother smiled. "She is very gifted in the ways."
"Seven containers." The lady blinked.
"I'm sorry, but what did you say, Kiana?"
"Bellus has seven magic containers." Seeing her mother's astonished stare, she shifted slightly. "I can tell. Like I know that Zeref has five containers and Mitha has none." At the words, a haggard look entered her mother's eyes.
"A-and you? How many do you have?"
The girl shrugged. "Cannot tell."
Her mother leaned back, further confusing the three-year-old.
"Twelve containers" the woman murmured, black hair hanging in her eyes "in one family. At the least that is four over the limit."
Kiana cocked her head. "Limit?" Her mother jumped then the smile was back.
"Oh, don't worry about it. It's not important. Now go and play with your siblings."
"Yes, Mother."
~()~
That night, for the third in a row, their father didn't come home. As she lay her siblings down to sleep on the couch, their new sister curled between them, Zeref's stray hand caught Kiana's cloak.
"Big sis Kiana . . . where's Papa?" The girl blinked then grinned.
"Do not worry little wimp, he will be home soon."
"Not . . . a wimp." She smiled, affection showing as he trailed off, wrapping his hands around his twin's body and she doing the same.
"Kiana. Please come here now." At the curt voice, the girl returned to her bedridden mother.
"Mother, what is-?"
"There is no time for that." She reached down and clasped her eldest child's hands. "I need you to do something for me."
"But-"
"I need this, Kiana."
"O-okay." The lady breathed deeply.
"You remember the town nearby? I took you there to buy some bread once."
"Yes, I remember."
"Good. Go there. Do not be seen. See what the villagers are doing and then report back to me. Do you understand?" Slightly alarmed by the urgency in her mother's eyes, the girl nodded.
"Good, now go. Go!" Startled, she turned and crept past her siblings, out the small door and into the night. She ran through the dark trees, in her mind's eye the path mapped out clearly. She jumped over a log, ran past the small hedgehog burrow and landed on the road that led into town. She followed it for three minutes before reaching the villages, thatched roves visible by the glow rising from it. She frowned. At this time of night, there should not be that many torches alight. Recalling her mother's instructions, she moved off the path and peeked through a crack in the houses to see into the village center. What she saw set off warning bells even though she did not know why. A man stood on a raised platform, waving a sword in the air. Below him, the whole village and various other residents of the scattered hamlets were gathered in the square, brandishing torches and makeshift weapons.
"Near here, a family is living with more than the limit of magic. Is this allowed?" he roared. A tremendous 'No' came from the crowd punctuated with cries of 'monsters', 'doom bringers' and 'dangerous'. Kiana's blood ran cold.
"Is it justice that they should live at ease, when their very existence draws the Dragons?"
"NO!"
"Is it right that they can defy the King's Council?"
"NO!"
"IS IT RIGHT THAT THEY LIVE?"
"NOO!" At the tremendous roar, coupled with wildly brandished pick axes, scythes, spears and swords, Kiana reached her limit. She turned and sprinted the whole 2km distance to her safe cottage. She managed to get through the door quietly but the moment she entered her room, her wild eyes brought a condemned look to her mother's face.
"My child."
"M-mother! I heard them! They said, they said that we're monsters! They're going to kill us! Are they not lying?" Her mother's face was shadowed and Kiana's breath choked as slowly her last hope's head shook.
"No. They do no lie. A family with more than eight magical containers is sentenced to execution by the law."
"But . . . but . . . they cannot!
"They can and they will." Before Kiana broke down, a strong hand grasped her wrist and she lifted up tearing eyes. She gasped as her mother slid out of the bed.
"Mother! You are not strong enough!"
"I am! For this! Now go get your siblings, but do not wake them!"
She hurried out and gently scooped up the three. Luckily, she had learnt that they all slept like logs. When she returned to the room, her mother leaned against the bed, panting. Her fist was clenched. When she returned her mother gestured to the bed.
"Quickly! Quickly, but gently! Gently. They must not wake."
She laid them on their beds and then jumped as a sharp pain shot through her ear. Almost immediately it was gone and she blinked as she saw her mother pulled away a large needle.
"Good. You handled the piercing well. Now quickly, quickly, put this on."
She handed her daughter a small earing with a grey gem on the end. Having witnessed her mother put on one several times, she knew what to do and struggled to clasp in through the new hole. The moment it did, she felt a wave of exhaustion came over her but she blinked it away. She was now three, not two. She could stay awake. She looked over where her mother had been attending her sibling. A grey ring was slipped over the baby's finger and two grey gems, tied in a strong cords, hung around the twins' necks, resting against their chests.
"M-mother, I don't understand!" Kiana gasped, voice shaking. Her face was grasped in her mother's hands and she blinked and the soft look there.
"I know. I know. I should not ask this, but I must. We won't have enough time otherwise." The girl blinked and felt tears rise, her heart pounding painfully in her chest. "Now, my daughter. My brave, strong, courageous daughter, you must listen."
"I-I am listening."
"Good. Take your siblings. Then run." At the word, Kiana's eyes widened. "You heard me. Run. Run as hard as you can, as far as you can and do not stop. You must leave this area. Do you understand me?"
"I-I understand." She replied shakily. Her mother nodded and smiled reassuringly.
"Good. You will be a strong, beautiful woman one day. I know that." Kiana blinked as her mother tied her siblings to her before grasping her shoulders.
"But listen to me. Listen to me right now. I trust you. With my whole being. Promise me now, right here, right now, promise me you will protect your siblings not matter what." Their eyes linked and they stared into the other's soul. "Promise me you will protect them until our world itself ends."
"I p-promise, mother. I promise."
A crash sounded outside and the two looked in fright to see that outside the window, lights were beginning to brighten the forest. In Kiana's eyes all she could see where the torches, the weapons and the angry people. Her breath caught and she felt herself tremble.
"Do not weaken yourself. You are brave and you are strong, do you hear me?"
"Yes."
"Good, now go!"
She turned and ran out the door, her mother's voice calling behind her.
"Go! Go and do not look back!"
As her four children faded into the night, the woman lowered her arm and took a deep breath. She knew what she had to do to protect her children.
~()~
As she ran, dread overwhelmed Kiana's heart and she hesitated before glancing over her shoulder. Hiding the three slumbering infants under a rock, she darted back and hid behind a tree on the border behind their clearing. Her eyes widened in horror. Standing outside the house, clad only in a nightgown, her mother faced the jeering crowd with her chin held high. The man who had been on the platform came out and faced her.
"Where are they?"
"I would not know who you refer to." The man snarled and the men dressed similarly to him shifted restlessly behind.
"Yes, you do. I speak of your children. By law, they should die!"
"You will go through the pits of hell before you lay a finger on any of them!" Her mother yelled back defiantly. The man spat and raised up his sword.
"Attack!" he roared. The people charged and her mother shifted her stance. Kiana, invisible to all others, watched in amazement as a blue glowing seal appeared under her mother's hands. Suddenly, gusts of wind roared out, sending people flying. They were thrown into trees, bushes and branches. Kiana winced as one landed unconscious only a few feet away from her. The man bared his teeth.
"Look out! She's a wind mage!" As the others hesitated, he grimaced and charged forward. A gust of wind was sent hurtling but he dodged and pulled his sword up to swing. Unhesitatingly, a red seal appeared under her mother's left hand and she dragged a broadsword out, easily meeting the blow. His eyes widened.
"Requip too?" Her counter swing lurched him off balance and a blast of wind hit him square in the chest launching him bodily. As more and more attackers fell, excitement started to fill Kiana as her mother downed foes one after the others, the glowing seals and cool demeanor making her stand out compared to the others. Just as she was sure her mother was about to win (after all, the man from before was lying dazed on a Thornberry bush), a sickening crunch filled the air and the battle stopped. Kiana watched in gob smacked horror as her mother watched, surprised as the spear broke through her abdomen, going all the way through. The junior soldier stood behind, gasping as he pulled out the spear. Kiana stuffed her face with her hand to prevent a cry of distress that welled up from within. The man climbed out of the Thornberry bush and walked over, grabbing her face.
"Where. Are. They?" she replied by spitting blood in his face. He grimaced and jerked a head. "Check the house and burn it."
"Never."
"What?"
A smile formed on her mother's bloodstained face. "Never will I reveal or betray my children. Never." She lurched to her feet and a giant wave of wind roared, sending all skidding back. A dagger appeared in her hand and the man gasped.
"What do you think you're-?" she smile and raised it.
"Never will I speak against them." She thrust the dagger and speared her vocal cords. Kiana's world went red and it slowed down. She saw the men rush over, the main one yelling about 'only means to find them' and only she saw the final, silent, message that left the lips of her beloved mother as she fell to the ground, dead.
I will always love you.
Only by clutching her throat so hard her vocal chords couldn't vibrate did Kiana manage to stifle the scream that ripped through her very being.
~()~
She felt her body writhe and her heart thudded as her mother's blood spilled out on the ground. She felt, rather than saw, the man curse and gesture angrily at the house. She didn't even flinch as the house burst into flames. A man went to chuck her mother's body in the fire, but the main one stopped them grudgingly.
"Don't. She deserves to be buried with her husband. A mother willing to give her life for her children is worthy of that."
Mother. Father. Why?
"You're positive you can't detect them?"
"No, commander, their magic has gone off the scale."
"Damn it." She looked up slightly as they started to clear. The fire from the burning house flared shadows over the clearing and created unearthly tongues in the sky. She watched, mesmerized when the man spoke.
"Get the hounds. If we can't use magic detectors, we'll track their scent."
As he turned, she backed up and fled under the cover of darkness. She found the three just where she had left them and hurriedly secured them again before tearing off into the night. The combination of grief, confusions and tiredness hit her like a wave once the adrenaline wore off, but she gritted her teeth and continued to run. Forest turned to grasslands with spindly trees. A stream came by and she ran in it for several kilometres, masking her scent and using it as a guide. The moon rose in the sky three times but she didn't acknowledge it, or her fatigue. She just ran. She didn't notice that the three others had kept sleeping. She didn't care that her feet were bleeding and kept to water or grass to hide the blood trail. All that mattered was running.
~()~
The third time the sun rose, Kiana spotted a small village in the distance. Without a thought, she ran, her entire body shaking with exhaustion. Her throat was parched and rough and her eyes blurred the landscape into a single smudge of colour. She winced as her sore feet touched stone rather than soil and sensed people milling around her. A shove hit her back and she sprawled on the ground.
"What's an urchin doing here? Get out!"
"We won't feed you!"
"Leave now, pest!" Sharp things hit her and she tried to move, but her fall had been the last straw and her body now refused to obey her will. Suddenly, the pain stopped with the flying projectiles.
"What do you think you're doing? You're all a disgrace!" The single male voice cut through the noise like a knife and she lifted bleary eyes to see a man marching through the crowd. He was tall, well built and had mid length dark hair. Black marks spiraled out from his shoulders and his face was too fine for her to make out. One of the shapes stirred.
"Acnologia, what are saying?"
"These kids are starved! Are you really going to turn them away?" Kiana didn't hear the rest, as she closed her eyes and the world faded to black.
Cool! First Fairy Tail fanfic and its all about Zeref's life 400 hundred years ago. Kiana is my OC, Mitha is M-chan's and Bellus is Smile-chan's. I hope you love them all like we do!
Review if you wish for me to continue posting this. Otherwise it will probably be held on a back burned for a bit . . . (watching Smile-chan's corner in dread and fear)
Thank you~Capulet-chan