The small cottage was alive with light and smells, lit candles lining every available space. A large pie sat steaming on the table, crisp scents if cinnamon and apple drifting into the air. A small girl was perched by a window, hands eagerly grasping a book. Her blue hair curled wildly around her shoulders, brown eyes sparkling. "Mother, when will we see the stars?" Her mother laid a gentle hand on her head, the same brown eyes crinkling as she smiled.
"Just wait." The girl grasped at her mother's skirts.
"Tell me the story, please?" Her mother sat, holding her daughter's hands.
"They'll look like bright crystals, finer than the ones in my wedding dress. One by one, they'll twinkle into view. Hundreds, my child. Millions. They're like diamonds sewn into the nicest velvet." The girl sighed in awe, eyes fixed on the sky through the window.
"And remember. If a star falls, make a wish. They will return in ten years, and we will wish together then too. The child nodded, and then gasped, running to the window. Stars were twinkling into existence across the dark sky, the pinpricks of light filling the empty canvas.
"Are those stars?" The girl whispered, face lit up in awe. A star flitted across the sky, and she pressed her hands together, eyes narrowing in concentration. She was jolted out of her dreamlike state by a heavy pounding on the door. Her father walked to it, the heavy wood creaking as he forced it open.
"Can I help y-" He went silent as the sword buried itself in his chest, blood spurting from the wound. His wife, screaming in horror, ran to shield her frozen child. The bloody sword was raised again. She too fell, droplets of blood spraying onto her daughter.
The child looked at the dark-clothed men in horror, gripping her book to her chest. Her arm was grabbed roughly, and flipped over so her wrist was visible. She cried out, the rough fingers digging into her delicate skin.
"She's too small to survive this, ain't she?" A soldier grunted. She quaked in fear. Survive what? And then someone brought forth a pendant, strange runes carved around a star. It shone darkly, like dark silver. A knife was slashed across her shaking palm, the girl crying out in pain. The pendant was pressed into the blood, then onto her pale wrist.
It burned.
She couldn't think, couldn't breathe. All she could feel was the searing pain traveling through her body. Pale runes wove themselves around her skin like a bracket of scars. With a final stab of pain, the pendant fell away.
A band of white runes was carved into her wrist. Thick tears dropped from her eyes- the pain of losing so much and feeling so much pain all too obvious to her. A rough leather bracelet was forced around the runes, and she was shoved to the floor among the corpses if her parents.
"You will serve Zeref, little girl. Do not ever forget it." The door slammed shut, the candles blowing out. The little girl was left in the darkness, alone, on the night of her seventh birthday.