Year X778

Wake shivered as he climbed up the side of the mountain. The eight year old was covered in scratches and bruises from the long trek up the mountain. The only thing keeping him going right now was the rain. The rain had always left the boy rejuvenated and full of energy. While he was climbing, the ground gave way and crumbled, causing Wake to grab hold of the ledge before he falls into a presumably endless canyon. He couldn't really tell since it was nearly pitch black outside and he couldn't light a torch for obvious reasons. He kicked his feet off the stone cliffside and flipped over and back onto his feet on the ground. "I really hope the rumors are true. I don't just want to find a bear up there."

He continued his walk up the mountain side and covered himself in his travel blanket. After another five minutes, he noticed a cave up by the summit, seeing a light in a small cave opening. His face beamed with excitement as he figured there was no way a bear could make a fire. He ran up to the cavern, almost slipping a couple of times due to his carelessness. He moved in front of the entrance and pulled the hood off his head, showing off his seafoam green colored hair. "Tsunari! It's me, Wake!" He could feel his heart break as he didn't see who he was looking for, instead seeing 2 kids cuddling by a fire.

One of them was a boy who looked a year or two older than him, having short grey hair and brown eyes. The other one was a girl roughly Wake's age, sporting dark blue hair with a couple of white streaks in it and bright silver eyes. It was impossible to tell their body shape since they were both wrapped in a single blanket, though Wake could tell they were skinny considering the growling their stomachs were making. "Who are you, another kid just abandoned here?" asked the boy.

Wake shook his head, getting a better idea why these kids are all the way up there and possibly starving. "No, just looking for someone. Thought I'd might find answers here." He pulled worn out backpack off his back and pulled out a couple loaves of bread as well as a thermos. "You guys want this? I don't mind sharing."

The girl didn't even hesitate to pull away from the boy, running over and grabbing the loaf of bread and chowing down on it like a wild animal. The boy didn't act as wild as the girl but did accept the offer, grabbing a stick from their little fire and moving over to the offered bread, using the stick on fire to keep himself warm. The girl then started crying as she took a sip from the thermos, finding out it was hot apple cider inside. "T-Thank you. I-I didn't know how much longer I'd last."

Wake blushed a little and scratched the back of his head. Tsunari had never taught him how to deal with girls before so he didn't know how to respond to them. "I-It's nothing. So why are you all the way up here? You said you were abandoned, but I don't see why anyone would leave you all the way up here."

The boy scoffed and turned his head away, taking a sip from the thermos and also feeling the urge to cry. "Our parents brought us all the way up here. Our families have always been close so they brought us on this 'trip' together. Once we made it up to the top, they left all their stuff and us in here. Then.. They left us. Haven't seen them in 3 weeks." The boy then drooped his head and clenched his fist.

Wake bit his lip and turned his head away, understanding how it feels to be abandoned out of nowhere. He sighed and turned back. "I'm sorry to hear that. But if it's been that long, why haven't you tried to climb down?"

The girl pointed outside to the rain. "T-That's why. It's been nonstop rain the entire time we've been here. It's too dangerous for us to climb down. We're probably going to starve up here."

Wake looked outside at the rain, understanding how it might be a problem for these two. He walked up to the cave entrance held his hand out to see how much it was raining. "I'll help you guys climb down. I managed to get all the way up here by myself, I can help you two climb down. What're your names by the way? I'm Wake."

The girl's eyes glimmered like starlight at the kind offer of this boy her age, the reaction getting a blush out of Wake. "T-Thank you Mr. Wake! I'm Crysti. Happy to meet you."

The boy looked uncertain about this boy even younger than him offering to bring the both of them down this scary mountain, but figured it was better than starving to death on this mountain. "Fine, we'll let you guide us. I'm Trevor. Trevor Magnus. How are you gonna guide us down the mountain when the ground's too slippery?"

Wake took a deep breath and opened his mouth. In a rather gross fashion, water started pouring out of his mouth and shaping itself into a ball, growing greatly in size. The ball collected any of the water raining on it and the water off the mountain's stone surface, soon growing large enough to envelope the 3 children, leaving a large air bubble inside for them to breath. "Stay close, it won't be slippery inside the bubble. I saw a path leading down the mountain, but I took the faster way and just climbed up."

Both of them looked astonished that this young boy was capable of magic, and pretty good with it at that. Crysti wrapped her arms around Wake's arm as he was in the center of the bubble, forcing another blush out of the boy. Trevor stood close behind them, picking up their stuff and holding onto the flaming stick so they could better see their way.

They three of them went a couple hours with no problem making their way down the mountain, sticking close together as the path they were on was pretty narrow and one bad move would drop them into the canyon. It was only after they made it to a large level surface that the ground began to shake. They backed up against the cliffside as the shaking was being caused by something moving upwards from the canyon, proof being when a large, long claw spouted from the canyon and hooked itself into the stone.

Wake growled, dropping the bubble, splashing all 3 of them and soaking them. He watched as a one-eyed beast pulled itself from the canyon, its body damaged and scarred. It also showed signs of having wings, but one of the wings had been severed. Once its gaze settled on the 3 children, it opened its mouth, showing 2 long rows of hook-like fangs. It pulled the rest of its body up from the canyon, showing it was also missing one of its legs. Quills rose all around its body as it lunged at the children.

Before the monster got halfway to them, Trevor knelt down and slapped his hand against the ground. A brown magic circle formed under where the monster was, causing an explosion underneath it, sending the monster flying into the air and crashing against the ground. Trevor looked exhausted from this, both because it was an incredibly strong attack for a child his age and the fact he was already weak from starvation.

The monster managed to pull itself back up and glare at the one responsible for that attack just now. It set its sights on Trevor and lunged itself at him, opening its mouth to chomp down on the small child's torso. Crysti ran and tackled Trevor to the ground, knocking them both to the ground and sparing them from the monster's leap, causing the beast to crash into the wall face first. The creature stumbled as it's massive eye had collided with the stone, making it quite dizzy. Once it shook its body and regained its focus, it stared at the two children, sticking out its tongue and tries to wrap it around Crysti's ankle.

"Water Dragon's Flood Talon!" Wake sprung above the monster with his foot surrounded in water. The boy did a front flip to build up momentum and slammed his leg against the beast's tongue, causing it to screech out in pain. Wake turn around to face the beast and took a deep breath and puffed out his cheeks. "Water Dragon's Roar!" A torrent of water shot out of his mouth, crashing into the monster and pushing it back, trying to throw it back into the canyon. The monster caught on quick and stabbed it's claws into the stone to keep it from falling back, waiting it out until the boy was no longer able to summon water to push it back. Wake panted as he was out of breath, never having used a breath attack that long before.

The creature glared at this young boy and bared its fangs at the boy, rushing for him. Trevor came to the rescue this time as he created another explosion under the monster. As it began to fall, Wake took this chance to attack again. "Water Dragon's Pressure Fist!" He surrounded his water in a great deal of water that compressed itself around his closed fist, running up and jumping to hit the monster midair. The beast turned it's eye and tore its claw against Wake's side before it got hit by the punch and sent flying, falling back into the canyon with a loud screech.

Wake fell to his knees and pressed his arm against his gaping wound, pouring water from his mouth and controlling it to cover up the wound and flow the blood back into him, trying to get back to his feet. It was a failed effort as he couldn't even muster the strength to stand, barely able to keep himself from passing out. Trevor looked in fear, turning his gaze to Crysti. "Crysti, you have to help him! You're the only one who can!"

Crysti gazed at the bleeding wound and trembled, looking as if she was about to throw up. She forced herself to keep it down as she ran up to Wake and pressed her hands to his side, creating a bright white light that engulfed the 2 children. When the light faded. Wake's breathing was easier as his wound was closed now, held shut by stitches made of glowing white light. Crysti looked on the verge of passing out after the fact and fell into Wake's arms.

Wake looked at the exhausted young girl in his arms, then up to Trevor who sat down and leaned against the cliffs. "Who are you two? You're incredible." He grunted as his side still hurt but not nearly as much as before.

Before the boy could give an answer, a light started becoming visible from lower down the path they were taking down the mountain. A young man roughly in his twenties was leading an elderly old man up the path. Both of them were wearing raincoats and the young man was holding up a lacrima emitting a bright light, using it to guide both of them up the path. They both looked surprised to see the three children together in the pouring rain. "There they are!" The young man ran up to the children and checked to see if they were okay.

The old man looked at a poster in his hand, emitting a dark green aura from his hand to look at a poster in his hand. "That's quite odd. The request said there would only be two children. Were the man so close to death he misspoke?"

"It doesn't matter. They look cold. They need to be brought to a warm residence. Grelmor, do you think your magic will be able to bring us back to the cabin?" asked the young man, guiding Trevor over to his feet and over to the other children.

The old man, apparently named Grelmor, looked offended at the question asked of him. "I'm hurt that you would even ask that of me, Xander. I happen to hold a substantial amount of magical power. I could launch you halfway across Ishgar if I wished it. I mean Fiore. Forgive me for using the ancient term. Alright, hold on young ones, this might be a bit fast." The old man pulled out a cane from seemingly nowhere, spun it around above his head and slammed it against the ground, forming a magic circle around all 5 of them. A green aura surrounded all of them and within a few moments, all of them were sent flying off across the sky, being carried by the green aura.

Wake looked like he was gonna be sick as the young man named Xander held onto him, the young boy not enjoying the fast travel at all. Trevor held Crysti tightly as he was thinking in his mind on how exactly they were going to land. After roughly 5 minutes of this high speed travel, they all landed on a circular platform by a large wooden cabin. None of them were hurt despite the sudden landing and looked up at the old man. He turned to the children and the young man. "You see? And you dared to doubt my power? Hahahah- Agh! My hip!" He leaned to the side and pressed his hand to his hip, grunting as he turned around and walked inside. "B-Bring the children in and get them something to eat. I need to take care of this."

Xander nodded as he gently pushed against the children. "You don't have to worry. We have plenty of food end beds to house the three of you. We have some questions to ask you but that can wait until morning." After he convinced the children to go inside the cabin, he stepped into the open kitchen and started cooking up some eggs.

The children looked at each other before eating the food, Crysti eating it like a wild animal while Trevor ate it normally. Wake on the other hand wouldn't touch his food, as there was a detail of this cabin that made him pretty sickly. While it looked pretty plain for a wooden cabin, with a couch, a couple of empty rooms save for beds, and a fireplace, the walls were decorated with a pretty grimly sight: The edges of the main room were decorated with a large rib cage, large enough to possibly be a dragon's. "W-Where did you get those bones from?" asked Wake.

The old man walked out of what was probably the bathroom, sighing as his hip felt better now. He overheard the question so he was the one to answer. "These old things? They've been a family treasure for generations. The rest of the skeleton is buried underneath the house, I just keep the ribs inside because they offer very good reinforcement, keeping the house from falling apart even in the worse of weather."

Relief swept over Wake as this meant that the bones weren't from anytime recent. Though his sickly feeling still wouldn't fade. "Would you mind if I ask what these bones go to? They're really big."

Grelmor chuckled and looked into the dark blue eyes of the young boy, grinning as he could see great promise in this young boy. "You should be careful what you ask, boy. Bad things can happen to those who learn things that they shouldn't. Now go ahead and eat up. We have some questions for you all and it would be best for everyone if you're well rested to do so." With those words, he stepped into one of the bedrooms.

After eating their meals, Trevor and Crysti yawned simultaneously. Xander led them both to the spare bedroom where all of the children would be sleeping. After making sure the children had fallen asleep, he came back to the kitchen and started washing the plates, seeing that the remaining child had still not touched his food. "You know, I can already tell that you've been in a fight. Eating healthy and sleeping properly is a good way to make sure wounds heal."

Wake turned his head and felt his stomach growl, closing his eyes tightly. "I know that. I just don't like eggs, okay? Could you.. Get me a glass of water?"

The next morning

The children all woke up together and were greeted to the smell of pancakes. Trevor and Crysti ran up and happily started eating the pancakes happily. For Wake, Xander just gave the kid a glass of sugar water. Wake had never had sugar water before and honestly wasn't the biggest fan of it, not having that big of a sweet tooth. He drank it anyway and felt refreshed. He turned his head and looked at Grelmor walking out of his bedroom, dressed in an old looking robe. "I hope the three of you slept well. Because we have some questions for you."

Xander pulled up two seats to the counter and stared at the three children, who all looked uncomfortable at the prospect of being questioned, like they did something wrong. "I don't believe we've introduced ourselves. My name's Xander, and this is my master, Grelmor. We're both freelance wizards, taking random jobs to keep us situated here. What are your names?"

All of them were hesitant to speak but knew that they could trust these two at this point. "I'm Wake." said the younger boy. "Trevor. Trevor Magnus." said the older boy, using a tough guy tone to hide the fact of how weak his body felt. "C-Crysti Syrin." said the nervous girl.

Xander sighed as two of those names definitely stood out. "It's just as I feared. He wasn't delusional after all. Ahem, Trevor and Crysti. Are you aware of what became of your parents?"

Crysti looked like she was about to burst into tears as she was forced to remember what happened to her. Trevor saw the expression on Crysti's face and grit his teeth. "I couldn't care less about those four. They abandoned us on that mountain, leaving all their stuff behind to give us hope that they'd come back. They left us to die!"

Grelmor groaned as these children clearly didn't know the trust, estimating just how long they must have been up there to come to that conclusion. "I'm afraid that the fate of your parents is a lot harsher than that. A man showed up in town, covered in blood and too hurt to be saved from death. He said his name was Terrence Magnus, and that his wife and family friends had been killed by a monster up on the mountain. He also said that two children with your names were left up there, hopefully still alive."

Both Trevor and Crysti went pale when they received the news. Crysti started bawling her eyes out and Trevor slammed his fist against the counter, his face still angry as tears poured down his face. "Y-You're lying! My dad was the strongest earth wizard ever, and my mom was an awesome fire wizard! There's no way they'd die to.. a monster.. on the mountain.." His eyes went wide as her remembered the monster that they fought on the mountain. "I-It can't be true.."

Xander grunted as he felt his heart ache for these children, having a weakness to seeing children in pain. "The man said that he'd give us twenty percent of his family's money if we saved the both of you. But seeing that you're both alive, I can't bring myself to take it."

"N-No." said Crysti, wiping her eyes as she tried to put on a brave face. "Mr. Terrence would never take no for an answer. He'd want you to have the money he promised. Isn't that right Trevor?"

Trevor stared down at his feet and nodded. He knew his family had a lot of money stored up and would be fine with only eighty percent of it. Besides, he'd still be with Crysti, who would inherit all of her family money. "Yeah. The two of us will be fine without that amount. We'll find a place to live and train our magic. Then we'll find a guild and do some jobs there. I'm sure that money will last us till then."

Grelmor raised his eyebrow in amusement at the prospect of these young children having developed enough magic. Then again in this generation, it was pretty commonplace nowadays. "Hold that thought, we'll come back to that. Now, as for you.." He turned his attention to Wake, who'd been silent this entire time after telling his name. "Mind telling us what you were doing on that mountain?"

Wake growled and turned his head. "I was looking for someone, that's all you need to know. I didn't find them and found these two. I tried to help them down the mountain when that monster you mention showed up. It was obvious that we couldn't kill it but we tossed it back into the canyon that it climbed out of. Well, Trevor and I did. Crysti healed up the wound that the monster left."

Grelmor looked at the children with interest and an idea popped into his head, causing him to chuckle. "Well, I know you children are quite young and have a lot of room to improve. If you're willing, you can live here and I'll teach you how to properly utilize your magic."

Both Trevor and Crysti looked at each other, silently asking each other if it would be a good idea. They didn't see why not since they have nowhere else to go, plus this old man seems nice and has quite a lot of magic power. They turned back to the old man and bowed their heads. "We would be happy to learn from you."

"Good. Now, to better understand what I'm working with, why don't we all tell each other what our magic is. I'll start." Grelmor cleared his throat and held up his hand, surrounding it in the green aura. "My magic is known as Soul Make. I can create artificial spirits from my magic and warp them to whatever shape I please."

Xander smiled and was the next to step up. "Let's step outside. That's where my magic is best utilized." He walks out the front door and guides the others to follow. He steps a good distance away from the others in the middle of the open grassy field. He holds his hands out and points his open palms at the ground. "Terra Shift: Dessert World!" A large magic circle appeared under his feet and the ground under him began to glow. The grass began to wither away and the dirt and rocks began to crumble and split until all that was left within the range of the magic circle was sand. "I can manipulate the terrain of any area around me into a new environment that I've been to and understand its properties."

Trevor looked amazed at this magic. He'd never seen earth magic like that before and it honestly made him excited. "Alright, me next!" he said excitedly, running through the grass until he found a small rock. He picked it up and formed a magic circle on the surface of the rock. He threw the stone into the air and watched it explode like a fire cracker, the debris scattering. "I can make rocks and other earthly material explode, though it has to be touching earth that I touch. I can't detonate a rock in the air if I can't touch it."

Grelmor whistled with impress at the boy's unique earth magic. "I've met a lot of earth wizards in my day but never anyone with magic like that. For lack of a better name, let's dub it Eruption magic." He turned his gaze to Crysti now. "How about you little lady?"

Crysti looked down shyly as everyone's attention was now on her. "W-Well, my mom was a Celestial Spirit wizard and my dad was an Iron Make wizard. According to my mom, she said that the magic I have is something called 'Star Maiden' magic."

Grelmor raised his eyes in surprise and examined Wake's side, seeing that his wound was almost nonexistent at this point. "That explains quite a lot. Star Maiden magic is as rare to come by as strong Celestial Spirit wizards. You're able to perform feats of healing magic. And if I remember correctly, highly experienced ones are capable of forging Celestial Spirit keys."

Crysti's eyes lit up with excitement at hearing about her magic. She could barely contain her excitement as she started jumping for joy. "Hooray! I can be helpful!" She turned her head to Wake. "Hey, Wake! Tell them about that water thing you do!"

All eyes turned on Wake, who sighed as he didn't see any way out of this. "Fine. But this doesn't mean that I'm accepting your offer to stay." He opened his mouth and poured out water from it, the water forming the shape of a badly designed snake and circled around Wake's feet. "I can use Water Dragon Slayer magic. I can produce water from my body and can even manipulate its movements, but only the water I produce myself. I can also recover my stamina and magic by consuming any water not produced by myself."

Xander was the one to whistle this time. "Dragon Slayer magic huh? I thought that was just a myth." He turns his eyes to his master. "Looks like all those stories about Dragon Slayer magic you told me weren't so ridiculous after all."

Grelmor placed his hands on Wake's shoulder. "I see. So you possess magic that I've researched my whole life. I can teach you ways to use it that some could only dream of. So why not take the offer to stay? You'll be free to leave to find whoever you're looking for, but at least you'll have a place to come back to rest. Besides, you've become friends with these children, why not stay friends?"

Wake looked up at the old man and then down at his feet. He knew that there was so much more for Tsunari to teach him, but didn't want to wait to find her to continue his training. This old man proclaimed to know how his magic works, so it was too tempting an offer to resist. He looked up at the two kids that he'd made quick friends of and wished to stay with them as long as possible. He also kind of liked Xander, never having had someone to look up to before of his own species. He turned around to face Grelmor once more. "When do we start?"


And that is the first chapter of my new story. Now I know that Slayer OC's has been done to death by this point which is why I personally won't add anymore than Wake. I hadn't originally planned to do a story like this but was asked to join a collaboration project. I had no reason to refuse so this is my contribution to it. Let me know if you like what you saw and wish to see more of it. Also, feel free to send me ideas on what kind of magic you'd like to see. I'd love to incorporate new types of magic into this story without touching on overused types. That's all for now, tune in next time for the next chapter of this new adventure.