Magnolia suffered a great war in the year 2378 which left the city in ruins. The once great city that held the secrets of magic was burned to the ground in a terrible war that lasted 3 years. The city was split in two soical classes, high district and low district, also known as rich and poor. Once the war was over the two districts were seperated. The low district were forced to live in the ruins of the old city while and new city was built over it. The old city was damp, no sunlight reached the ruins and many crime gangs were created because finding money was difficult, if you could call scraps of almost rounded iron money. The high district has tall white buildings with grass, trees and street decorations with gold coins as money.
Year 2726
Levy McGarden sat in the back of her class room half listening to Master Makarov rant on about the rules of being a young woman in the higher district. Her shoulder length curley blue hair tied back and a orange hairband pushing her hair out of her face. She wore the girls accademy uniform which consists of an orange skirt, orange jacket, white shirt, white knee high socks and black shoes. She sighs and rests her head on her hand, glancing out the window. She bites her red lipstick stained lips and closes her mascara and eyeliner framed green eyes. Her day dreaming was disturbed when Master Makarov directly spoke to her "Miss McGarden, can you stand and speak the rules of young ladies." All eyes were on her now. She shifted uncomftably and rose to her feet slowly. "Rule one: We are to be married to the highest bider to help our father. Rule two: We speak when spoken too. Rule three: We do as the males tell us. Rule four: We do not leave the house without permission. Rule five: we follow the rules." She spoke softly and fidgeted. Master Makarov nodded and smiled.
"Well done but could be better" he sighed. "Class is over, you may leave." He added as he sat at his desk. The girls of the acadamey silently stood and marched out of the room. Once outside Levy ran to her best friend Lucy who wore the same uniform, her blonde hair was tied back in a bun and she had simular make-up on.
"Lucy!" Levy yelled as she ran, which gave her many strange looks from her class mates. Even Lucy frowned at her.
"What was that about?" Lucy asked.
Levy just rolled her eyes, "I get bored. So what?" she smiled.
Lucy stopped walking "So what? Levy this is serious. You want to live don't you? Well start acting like a young lady."
"I guess. I'm only sixteen, I don't have to worry about it." Levy looked at Lucy and smiled. "You'll be seventeen soon then you have to follow the rules then because men will start bidding for you." Lucy started walking again next to her friend. "I have a few months before I have to worry about that" Levy shruged.
The two girls walked in the bright sun light for a while, heading home, when they passed the wall. The wall was the only thing that seperated the two districts inside was a ramp tunnel with guards posted at the front was the only entrance/exit. Today, at the time the girls walked past there was no guards. Levy stopped suddenly and stared at the tunnel with wide eyes. Lucy glanced back at her "Levy?" She asked.
"Like you said Lucy, I only have a fews months before my life is practiclly over. Heres the perfect chance for adventure. It's like fate, we have to take this chance" Levy smiled excitedly.
Lucy grabbed her arm "don't even think about it Levy. Theres nothing but criminals down there. You could be killed." Lucy started pulling Levy away but she broke free.
"I'm taking this chance Lucy, if you're coming with me or not!" She frowned and sprinted down the tunnel ramp to the lower district, Lucy's voice fading fast behind her.
The tunnel was dark and the further she traveled the damper and colder it got with faded lights along the wall. Levy began to shiver and she regreted taking the chance for adventure but she continued walking down the tunnel. When she finally reached the end of the tunnel she stood still and waited for her eyes to adjust to the limited amount of light. Levy looked at the ruins of once great buildings with boarded up windows and doors. She folded her arms and began walking around the labyrinth of decay. She stood out like a sore thumb compared to the very limited amount of people she saw and all of them stared at her as she shuffled down the mess of streets. She wondered around for a long time when she finally realised that she had no idea where she was. Helplessly Levy looked around for any sign of where she was. Two boys were walking towards her. One with a white hoody and short blonde hair the other with a black hoody and medium black hair. They seemed hostile so Levy turned to walk away but the blonde one ran and grabbed her arm "Hey cutie, where are you going?" He grinned.
Levy tried to twist out of his iron grip "I was just going home" she whispered. The black haired one took ahold of Levy's chin "There's no way you're from this district little girl. What do you think Sting?" He asked.
Sting nodded "She looks like a princess Rogue. Are you lost princess?" He laughed darkly. Levy struggled even more to brake free. She headbutted Rogue and twisted out of Stings grip, she ran as fast as she could as far as she could away from the two guys. They ran after her and they were fast. As she ran she lost one of her shoes and she felt tears rolling down cheaks. Soon she ran straight into someone else, a tall guy. This guy had long messy black hair, facial piercing, a black strap top and ripped jeans. He growled at her. Levy was stood between three hostiles with no where to go. She was shaking with fear and had mascara running down her face because of the tears and only one shoe. She looked pathetic and the tall stranger must have thought so too because he looked at her and frowned. Sting and Rogue ran up to them and looked at Levy. "Hey princess. Why'd you run? We only want to have some fun" Sting laughed. The stranger pushed Levy behind him and glared at Sting and Rogue. "Back off!" Yelled Sting. "This doesn't invole you" Rogue stared at the stranger but he didn't back down.
"Get lost freaks" He snarled "feel big chasing a little girl?" He asked. Levy looked from behind him, confused. As the two thugs laughed at the stranger. Sting ran towards him getting ready to punch the stranger but he grabbed Stings hand and crushed it, causing Sting to yell in pain, leaving behind blood covering both of their hands. The stranger then threw Sting into a wall. "Leave!" He demanded. Sting slowly got up, looked at his crushed hand and at Rogue before the two of them ran away. Levy stood shaking staring at the stranger. "T-thank you" she whispered. "Go home." The stranger stated and began walking away. "But.." Levy started but stopped when the stranger glared at her. "Go home!" He yelled. Levy stepped back then turned and ran again.
After a while of running she slowed down and started walking again. She past a run down old coffee shop. The wall was compleatly knocked down, bricks randomly piled up next to cracked tables, broken chairs and a worn counter. There were a few people inside so Levy kept her head down ignoring comments such as "You lost girly?" and "Wrong side of the wall aren't you?!" She continued to walk around for hours, everything looked the same to her. Eventually she sat on a damp bench, put her arms around herself to try and keep warm and looked down helplessly. A voice came from behind her "You're lost"
She was too scared to look behind at who was talking. "I'm not lost. I can handle it." She sniffled.
"Oh yeah? You've walked past that coffee shop at least 4 times in the past 2 hours." Levy looked up to see the same coffee shop as before. She felt her eyes water up and tears began to fall from her eyes again. "Damn it" she whispered.
A moment of silence before the man behind her spoke again "I can show you the way out of this hell hole if you want" Levy stood and faced him. It was the long haired guy from earlier. He looked at her carefully with his red eyes. Levy nodded to him and he walked off, she followed him slowly. She kept her head down and stayed at least 4 steps behind him. Once they reached the exit Levy ran to the start of the tunnel, she turned to the stranger and smiled. "Thank you." She said. Opening her bag she pulled out her purse and gave him two gold coins. "Payment." she said as he stared wide eyed at the coins. "Is there a converter you can use or something?" She asked and he nodded putting the coins into his pocket. "Thanks" he muttered. "I'm Levy" She shook his hand. "Gajeel" He frowned at her confused. "Nice to meet you Gajeel. Thank you again for your help" Levy bowed and ran back into the tunnel stopping half way to wave goodbye to Gajeel.
When Levy walked into her huge house she stopped in the hallway to look into the mirror. Her hair was a mess, mascara and eyeliner stained her cheeks and she was very pale. Times like this made her glad that her father worked all day most days because if he saw her like this he would probably beat her. Levy's mother was in the libary with her younger brother. The maid was the only one who seemed worried about her at all because as soon as she saw Levy she hugged her. "Oh sweetie, where on earth have you been? What happened? You look terrible" the maid fussed with Levy's hair and face. Levy smiled. "I'm fine, however I would like a bath, please." She said.
"Right away." The maid smiled and ran upstairs to run the water for Levy's bath.
Levy lay in the bath, thinking about what happened today. She lay fully back until her head was under the water for a few moments before sitting up again and looking at the clock. Thats when she decided that tomorrow she was going back to the lower district because she wanted her last few months of freedom to be adventurous and a couple of thugs weren't going to make her hide away in her pretty house in her pretty district where she always felt alone.