Rain. It could be seen as a miracle from God, a gift from the heavens, or a sign of good times ahead for a weary traveler. But to this child on this night, it's a cold and wet reminder on how alone he really is. He's trudged through this city for as long as he could remember, scrapping up food from trash or stealing from passersby who were on their way to or from some mystery destination. He did this daily, yet the hunger never stopped, the aloneness never stopped. No one ever batted an eye towards him just seeing him like trash, lower than a mangy mutt. He doesn't remember how old he is but he feels ancient with how his bones always ache with each step he took. Steps going nowhere but just away from where he is.
He gazed on with blurred vision at the dozens of moving lights from vehicles all filled with people headed towards home. For a place that they knew they belonged, unlike himself. The bone-chilling rain soaked him as what little he had to cover himself was beyond worn and beyond repair. He took a few steps into an alley and finally, his legs gave out as he collapsed in a puddle. He laid there the hunger too much to bare and the tiredness too draining for him to keep moving. He laid there the only sound he heard was the rain as he did two first that night. The first was pray and the second was cry. He cried as he reached out praying to whatever was listening to send him help, to get him out of this cold, for his mother. The thought of having a mother, someone that loved him unconditionally, someone to hold him when he's scared or cold much like now. The thought would run through his mind but he'd dismiss it quickly telling himself If he had a mother then he'd be in her arms, her care, her warmth right now and not dying in some ally.
He reached out as the tears flowed and he prayed quietly,
"Please god. Send someone to save me. Please, I want my mom." He laid there knowing his prayer fell onto silent ears much as his presence goes on blind eyes. His vision began to blur and the cold was slowly gripping him. He didn't need anyone to tell him what death felt like but still feeling for the first time was scary. But as his vision began to fail him light glowed brightly before him. Whether it was his time coming to a close or not he felt warmth coming from the light. And within that warmth, he could swear he saw a woman holding out her hand for him. Her blonde hair glowed lavishly as he heard her voice,
"Soler, I'm here to take you home." her sweet and calming voice was so clear that it drowned out the noise of the beating rain.
"But you have to stand to get to me. Go on you can do it." The mix of her voice and her warmth overwhelmed him. He wanted to be with her to be in her warm embrace and hear her soft voice coo to him to sleep and away from this place. Slowly with strength, he didn't know he had he began to move. Reaching out to her he limped over to her slowly, steadily, each step getting him closer to his goal of being with her, with her soft voice, her warmth. Closer and closer his steps took him to his utopia. He walked into her warm light until he was consumed by it.
"Man it's raining cats and dogs out there." a young pink-haired boy exclaimed as he looked out the window to the dreary day.
"Aye!" squeaked the blue kitten that rested on the boy's head. The pinkett smirked and took the kitten from his head holding him in his arms and started scratching his tummy, much to it's enjoyment.
"Don't let the weather get you down Natsu. I'm sure It'll clear up before the days out." A white-haired girl, around the same age as him, spoke as she walked up to him smiling. Natsu smiled back,
"You're probably right Lisanna. Plus things rarely stay quiet at Fairy Tail." Yes, the name of the guildhall in the city of Magnolia which lies in the Kingdom of Fiore. The lively guild is considered one of the top guilds in Fiore, definitely a place an inspiring wizard dreams of joining. Everyone in this world has the ability for magic but those who can use and master it are considered wizards and the guilds are places for these unique individuals to gather. Whether for work, housing or to form everlasting bonds with their fellow mages. The Fairy Tail guild especially prides itself on these bonds as the ones formed here are bonds for life. And for the most part, everyone gets along with one another and the wizards here feel more like a giant family than friends. Because of this the guildhall was regularly packed with members and was as rowdy as ever, almost as if the rain outside couldn't be heard echoing from the roof.
"Yo flame brain!" Natsu, Lisanna, and Happy the cat looked as a raven-haired boy came stopping up to them. This boy is Gray Fullbuster the guilds resident ice mage and also the guilds resident streaker who was currently continuing his streak now hence him only wearing his boxers. The other guild members were so used to his stripping now that certain members would call him out on it every time it happened...and it happened a lot.
"Gray your clothes," Lisanna spoke. At that Gray noticed he stripped yet again but he stifled his embarrassment for later as his main objective was too important for clothes.
"I'll dress later! Right now lizard breath here is in for it!" he declared with passion. Natsu handed Lisanna Happy knowing what was to happen next and was ready to take his challenge. Natsu and Gray clashed heads each glaring angrily at each other,
"What do you want you no good streaker?" Natsu almost groaned,
"What I want is for you to own up to this beating coming your way!" Gray fumed. Natsu looked at him confused,
"Coming my way? For what?" Grays anger only rose,
"For taking that bandit job yesterday when I clearly said I was going to take it!" The job he spoke of came back into his memory much like Gray telling him he was going to take it. A sly smile spread over Natsu's face,
"Aww, I'm sorry you were to slow to take it ice for brains! Maybe you should be quicker next time!" the mage's anger peaked at the snarky reply,
"Oh you're done now lizard lips!" the two boys had begun to cast their magic, Gray with his ice and Natsu with his fire. This would be a good time to mention Natsu magic is dragon slayer magic, the magic that was created to take down dragons themselves who are the most powerful creatures that ever existed. Natsu surprisingly enough was raised by one of those very dragons, his name being Igneel who raised Natsu teaching him dragon slayer magic along the way. A few years back Igneel disappeared and now Natsu continuously searches for his father figure to this day. But currently he was gearing up for another bout with Gray, well he would have if it wasn't for a red-haired girl in armor coming over and pushing them part with ease,
"Natsu, Gray this is no time for fighting." the redhead in question is Erza Scarlet one of the tougher of the young mages in the guild. She's a year older than Natsu and Gray and, though the boys won't openly admit it, she's stronger than the two. She's a straightforward kind of girl who only wants her guild family to stay as close and bonded as always and will push far beyond her limits to protect any and every one of them. Her current sights have been set to try and get Natsu and Gray to get along better. Though it seems her efforts haven't been working, she wasn't going to give up on the two. She looked at two boys with a lazy stare,
"I don't know what it is that you two are bickering about but I'm sure it can be resolved without violence. And Gray put some clothes please, you need to get out of that striping habit already." Erza groaned. The ice mage recovered first getting back up with a fury and passion,
"That can wait Erza, right now Natsu and-" Grays words died off as he stared into the eyes of death that were Erzas,
"What was that?" she questioned darkly. The boy's clothes seemed to materialized on his body as he sweated bullets from her gaze,
"N-nothing E-Erza." he nervously fumbled back. The other boy in discussion had recovered and was watching the interaction laughing his tail off,
"That's what you get Gray! You know not to talk back to Erza you strip-er." Erza pointed her death gaze at Natsu who handled it no better than Gray did,
"What's so funny Natsu?" she questioned just as dark. He rapidly shook his head,
"N-Nothing E-Erza." he responded. Erza looked at the two boys having settled the disagreement and sighed before shaking her head,
"Honestly you two the way you act could give the guild a bad name. Plus your antics and sense of destruction gives Master a constant headache to deal with." Erza lectured. She paused in her ranting noticing that Master Makarov didn't even try to intervene between the two. He usually does something when they bicker like this but not this time. Erza took a glance around the guildhall to notice Master sitting on a table with his eyes closed and a solemn expression on his face. She walked up to him looking at him curiously,
"Master is something wrong?" She asked him forgetting about the boys. The small man didn't respond right away, in fact, it took a few moments before he opened his eyes and looked at the doors,
"The air feels off today my dear. I feel something fateful is bound to happen today." Makarov responded but not truly to her. Erza looked at him puzzled not understanding what he meant by this. She was on the verge to ask him but was stopped by the sound of the guild doors opening. Erza expected it to Mira coming back from her job with Laxus but she was stunned and shocked to see a boy with dirty white hair wearing tattered clothes and looking incredibly weak struggled to step in. The whole guild went silent as they watched the straggly boy take a few steps in reaching out with his bony hand and then collapse on the floor before them all. Everyone hesitated for another few moments too stunned to move. Erza was first to snap everyone out of it when she shouted,
"Quickly he needs help!"
*A Week Later*
Everything Soler saw was black. He could tell he was in some sort of dream by the sounds of the voices that he would hear. He couldn't make out what they were saying but he could tell that they sounded concerned. This was weird since no one's ever been concerned for him before, everyone's just pretended he didn't exist. At times even he wondered if he existed since no one would want a life like this. Just then a light broke through the hazy darkness bringing back that warmth he felt before. The warmth of his mother. Though he couldn't see his arms or even knew if he had a body in that scape he reached for that light with all he had pushing for it not wanting it to go away. His efforts were rewarded as it grew brighter and brighter until his vision was consumed by the light.
Soler was slow to open his eyes to see a stone ceiling above him and felt something soft under him. Ever so slowly did he move his head to wake up his stiff neck, a few pops escaping as he moved it. In his view, he was able to see a glass cabinet with several glass containers of sorts in it. A counter was set next to it that had a faucet and sink much like that of science labs. He couldn't see much else but he did feel that there were other bodies in the room with him, and if there were other people in the room it meant he had to get up and see who. Gradually Soler sat up in his bed waking up the rest of his bones and muscles that he guessed haven't been in use for a good while. Once he was up his eyes immediately went to the bushel of red he saw near the foot of his bed. As he examined closer he could see that it was red was hair was attached to a sleeping girl in armor. He couldn't see her eyes but he couldn't help but admire how cute she looked sleeping so soundly. But now the bigger question is why was a cute redhead snoozing at the foot of his bed.
"So you're finally awake?" Soler whipped around faster than he should have giving himself a headache. The small man chuckled as he walked into the room with a glass in his hand,
"Easy there child you're quite safe here. Now drink this, it should help ease your headache and give you some strength." he handed Soler the glass filled with the mystery liquid. Soler took one cautious sniff. Not smelling anything weird he took a small sip. When the sweet drink hit his mouth he couldn't help but wash down the entire glass wishing he had more. He heard more chuckles coming from the small man who had hopped up on the bed with him.
"It's good to see the living link magic worked. I was truly afraid we were going to lose you." he said. Soler looked at him confused,
"N-Not make it?" he asked quietly. The man nodded,
"Yes, I would assume you don't remember much of how you got here right?" Soler nodded, "Well, I'll just say that when you showed up you were in a near-death state my boy. I won't ask what it was you went through before you got here but I'm just glad you are still here with us." he explained. Soler was quiet after taking in the information partly because he was trying to accept what he said and to try his hardest to remember anything. Sadly he doesn't remember getting to this place at all. All he remembers is,
"Mom," he whispered.
"What did you say, young man?"
"Oh uh, n-nothing sir. I-I thank you, sir, for helping me. I don't know what I have to do for payment but I'll-" Soler stopped his stammering by the hand the man raised,
"Enough talk of that young man. You sound so afraid and it saddens me to hear a child speak in such a way. Young man, you don't owe me anything for helping you. I and anyone at this guild wouldn't hesitate to help someone in need of help. And second I am not the one who saved you, it is thanks to that girl sleeping down there who saved you." Soler looked back down at the sleeping girl feeling incredibly grateful to her whoever she is,
"Yes, Erza was quick to volunteer to help you recover with Living Link magic. It was the only way to give your body the strength it needed. Of course for the link to stay strong the one attached must stay rejuvenated so that the other can get the strength it needs. I couldn't since my old age and bad habits wouldn't help but Erza was ripe and ready to help you. You should thank her when she wakes." the old man said. Soler gazed at Erza his heart feeling quite weird looking at her but he didn't know why it was feeling that way.
"By the way young man.' Soler looked back to the man,
"I have a feeling that after a week's worth of sleep you must be quite hungry, and with you looking much better than when you got here I expect you could eat quite a lot. So why don't you get dressed into these new clothes and lets the three of us go up to the guildhall." the old man jumped down from the bed leaving Soler's new change of clothes where he sat. The old man made it to the door and stopped,
"Oh, I also forgot to tell you my name, how foolish of me. My name is Makarov Dreyar the current master of this guildhall. So let me be the first to welcome you to Fairy Tail."
And this one is done. Man, the first chapter of a new story in a new year. Feels kinda good ya know. Anywho welcome to the new story guys and to those new welcome to me Solerwolf and my style of writing. I hope you enjoy. I don't know who read the latest chapter of my One-Off tales but if you haven't its cool, (Though I recommend you read it), I put at the end of that chapter some goals of mine this year and how I want to be more involved in these communities and such. But I won't say all I said there but I will say again that I have a Tumblr page that I'm trying to get up and going so I ask you guys to check it out sometime. Here's a link . It's really a good and quicker way for you guys to ask me questions and send in prompts for ideas and such. Anywho this is Solerwolf signing out!