A young woman in her late teens walked down the cobblestone streets of Magnolia. Unlike most people, she had walked in from the East woods. She obviously had traveled far on her own, her hair was slightly muddy with grass in it and her clothes were smudged by the same stuff. She wore a black cloak with silver lining that fell to her calves. The collar wrapped around her right shoulder and under her left, only a hole for her right arm. She had gray pants tucked into dark brown boots that traveled up to her knees.
A few people gave her looks due to her not being a familiar face in town, or maybe it was because of her bright emerald eyes that could turn someone into stone with just a glance, or the scowl that could never be erased off her face. Her dark brown, unkempt hair could play a part in these wary looks. It brushed over her shoulders, not having been washed with more than water and never brushed. It could even be the extremely well-traveled air about her.
The woman caught sight of a building still under construction. She heard of a guild here being recently attacked, maybe this was it? It was partially built, with several walls mostly done and most of a second floor in progress. It was going to be a very large building. Outside, there was a makeshift sign with a symbol on it. It was almost like a fairy with a tail shaped like half a heart. It was pretty.
She walked into the construction sight, examining the wizards busy at work. There were a lot of them, making a lot of noise.
"Can I help you?" A woman with long white hair and in a red and pink dress asked with a smile. She sat in the bar stool next to a board filled with requests suited for a wizard.
The woman in black walked up to the one in pink, resting her arm on the bar. "Actually, there is." She replied, her voice smooth and cold, "I heard there's a wizard guild called Fairy Tail here."
"This would be the place! We're still rebuilding, though, due to another guild." The white haired woman said in a high pitched voice. It hurt the ears of the other woman in darker colors.
She looked around, sizing up each wizard in the immediate area. "I would like to join. My name is Laura, since I assume knowing my name would be a requirement to joining."
"Well, it certainly helps to know who we're allowing in our guild." The woman in pink said, "I'll have you see the master so he can properly allow you in." She smiled brighter.
The guild master was a short old man who goes by the name Makarov. His white hair was balding on top with a thick mane of his hair remaining around the rest of his head and a thick mustache on his upper lip.
After receiving her guild mark on her arm, Laura immediately took a job from the request board. She had no need to learn the names of her guildmates. She needed money, for she was flat out broke. With the money she earned from her quick job, she bought some food and fresh undergarments with little to spare.
She would have to work the next few days in order to afford a place to stay, so now, Laura was on the hunt for a place to stay for the night. She didn't know anywhere or have any money.
Laura figured the town would be filled with people, and who knows what the townspeople would think when they saw a disheveled woman dressed in black napping in their alleyway. Instead, she traveled to the outer edges of town. The houses grew further apart, some still under the care of those living in them. They got further and further apart, each one barely close enough to be called neighbors. Most of them were well cared for.
Finally, Laura came across a house that seemed the furthest away from town it could be while still being close enough to get there.
The woman walked inside and began to check the house's condition. It looked deserted with a visible layer of dust over the creaky floorboards and remnants of wooden furniture. She could only imagine how many bugs lived in here. The only problem was light.
"Achoo!" Laura sniffed after sneezing. The dust would be a problem when trying to sleep. She'd have to clean out at least the room she'd sleep in to stay the night. After examining the rooms and making sure the oven won't burst in flames overnight due to it's horrible and unpredictable conditions, the woman decided this abandoned house would be decent.
She looked into the bathroom upstairs; Covered in just as much dust as everything else, but nothing severely damaged. She turned the knob to the bathtub. The water spewed out, splashing her in the face. It surprisingly came out as clean, fresh water. Laura hurried downstairs to take a towel left on the kitchen countertop and hurried back up to scrub the dust and dirt in the tub. It wouldn't be perfectly clean and shiny, but it would be clean enough that Laura could wash the dirt and grime off herself.
While soaking in the tub, Laura stared out the window. The sun was setting. Even though she couldn't see the star itself, she could see the oranges and purples it created in the sky.
The window faced the backyard, which was fenced in despite the house being so far away from everything. The fence was worn down. It would be best just to get rid of it, but she would only bother if she planned on staying here. This place was only temporary shelter until she worked enough jobs to buy an apartment of her own.
Well… this place offered free plumbing, and even if the lights were broken, that's nothing candles wouldn't fix. Maybe if Laura put some work into this house, it would become her little secret.
She doubted any realtors would be trying to sell this place, that's if they even remembered this place. The fact that it's so run down and dirty most likely means no one was trying to get this place off their hands. The previous owners probably had their own grandchildren in another town.
Day one done a little quicker than expected. Laura got into the wizarding guild: Fairy Tail, she earned her first paycheck, and found herself a place to live. This was probably going to be the most comfortable and easy part of her life ever. Not even the dust was that bad.
She climbed out of the tub and dried off with a cleaner towel than the one she had used to clean the tub with. She put on the new clothes she had bought today. A comfy shirt, sweatpants, clean undergarments and slippers. She put her boots back on until she had a room clean enough to sleep in.
With a sigh, she grabbed the dirty towel she had used to clean the tub. It was still wet, so it would clean the dust really well.
Laura moved her stuff into a bedroom, on with a cleaner futon in it. The futon was probably crawling with bugs, but less than others. So she would sleep on the floor in here. Surprisingly, there wasn't that much dust in this room. Probably because the door and window were closed and everything had dust covers on.
The woman quickly wiped the dust out of a corner, making plenty of clean floorspace for her to sleep on with a spot for her stuff. Before she laid down, she returned to the bathroom and rinsed the towel off and hung it up. It would serve her well in the future. She returned to the room she had chosen and curled up in front of her stuff.
After several deep breaths, her breathing settled into a rhythm and she drifted off. Her scowl had lessened since she found this house. Now, it faded to neutral.
A/N: Hi! Author here! So, this story is an alternate point of view of another story I'm writing. Me and my best friend are both writing these stories. I'll just post them both here for simplicity. If you want to go read my other story, it's called the Shadows in My Heart. I hope you enjoy both of these! If you do, leave a review.