Chapter Thirty Eight - The 1st Annual Grand Magic Games: The Ball - July 8th, X773

That morning, the group of us woke up and headed to the castle.

I was taking Freed, Laxus was taking Evergreen, Cana was taking Bickslow, Juvia was taking Levy and Lucy was taking Brandish. That way all of the kids were able to get in, and Maggie agreed to take Reedus so we were all together.

The moment we entered, the girls were separated from the boys, and we were surrounded by maids and servants who did this sort of thing professionally - though Lucy insisted on Cancer doing our hair.

At some point, while we were all beautified – though I gave the maids a strict warning about not going to far (we weren't going to be a bunch of beauty pageant mishaps) – Enno, Maggie, and Layla joined us.

"Oh, Ellie-girl, you look so pretty!" Enno squealed, having spotted me first and giving me a huge hug.

Looking around, she started fawning over all of us being adorable children.

After a lot of indecisiveness over what to wear, Levy suggested we pick each other's dresses, and we agreed.

Or, at the very least, the color to wear.

So, in order from youngest to oldest, we decided what to wear.

Levy went first, and after a lot of arguing and picking things out, we decided she should go in orange.

After that was Lucy, who had already picked out a dress to wear - she just wanted us to pick a color. We eventually decided on a light pink with dark pink accents.

Juvia, unsurprisingly, ended up in dark blue, matching her eyes and the necklace she found in the treasure, leading to an explanation of treasure for Brandish and Lucy and a search through all of my treasure for their own necklaces, which led to Lucy finding a gold necklace with a pink pendant.

Brandish (whose birthday was in February) had a silver chain with a green gem the color of her hair, which she ended up wearing with a silver gown.

Cana ended up in purple, matching her eyes and her amethyst necklace, and Evergreen, of course, ended up in green.

And then it was my turn.

There was some arguing over my dress, but eventually they decided on a dress that matched the purple color of my hair and had accents the color of my eyes and moonstone necklace.

All in all, with my hair done in beautiful curls, I felt prettier than I've ever felt in my life, and I was only ten years old.

Enno, who was in a gorgeous red dress that still allowed her to move as she wished, was extremely happy with her get-up. Layla and Maggie stood beside her, Maggie in a light blue dress that made her eyes pop and Layla forgoing her usual pink for a goldenish dress, probably so it wouldn't seem like Lucy was copying her.

They led us outside, where all of the boys were waiting for us. Jude and Gildarts burst into tears upon seeing their daughters (even though Jude sees Lucy dressed up all the time), and Macao seemed brain-dead upon the sight of Enno.

Rex didn't seem to have much brain cells when it came to Maggie, either, so I kept note of them for a possible couple.

Laxus, Freed and Bickslow, who were all wearing suits, looked like rather adorable children, which was probably obvious just from the level of squealing and hugging coming from me. "Oh you guys look so so so so so so cute!"

I had squealed over the girls earlier, so they were out of my system.

"We're not cute, Big Sis!" Bickslow said.

"Fine, you look like very handsome young men," I said, smiling at them and fixing Bickslow's bowtie.

Freed seemed to be crying in pride, and Laxus was blushing and looking away, trying not to meet my eyes.

"Alright, picture!" Reedus, who was dressed as plainly as he could get away with, said. All of the kids gathered for the front row, and behind us were all of the adults, including Layla and Jude, who Gildarts insisted join the picture. The rest of Team B was there too, and Makarov was down in the front row with the rest of us kids, shorter than all of us except Levy.

Makarov even pulled Porlyusica into the picture, and he seemed to be taking her as his date to the ball.

Reedus allowed us to talk as he painted, and even still, it didn't take long at all. Within several minutes, the painting was done enough that he allowed us to leave, though Makarov did have him snap a picture so he could brag about Reedus's likeliness.

The group of us left and joined the banquet hall, where the other teams were mingling. Goldmine and Bob were standing off to the side, having a conversation, and I saw Makarov pull Porlyusica into the room. Goldmine and Bob seemed quite overjoyed to see her, probably since she spent so much time the woods.

"Elle, you look beautiful," said a voice, and all of us turned to see Ame.

"Thank you, Queen Ame," I said, curtsying.

"Elle, you don't need to be so formal!" she said, laughing.

"Are you sure you should be at the party?" I asked. "I mean, Hisui…"

Ame nodded. "Yes, the doctor believes that Hisui will be coming late, and that she won't be born until August. I refused to be cooped up and not attend a party in my own castle!"

I laughed. "Did you enjoy the games?"

She nodded. "Yes, and I think Toma had quite a lot of fun as well." She winked.

The adults behind me were more shocked than the kids. After all, the kids already knew about me starting the games, and speaking with the Royal Family about them.

"Ame, I'd like for you to meet my nakama," I said. "This is Levy, Lucy, Juvia, Brandish, Cana, Evergreen, Freed, Bickslow and Laxus."

She gave a little curtsy. "It's nice to meet you all."

The kids broke out of their stupor and tried to bow or curtsy. "It's nice to meet you too, Your Majesty!" and "It's an honor!" rang out, along with other statements. The only ones even slightly composed was Lucy and Freed.

She giggled at the sight.

Jura approached our group. "Juvia-dono, Laxus-dono."

They turned to him.

He bowed. "I wanted to say that you had a very impressive Unison Raid, earlier."

"Thank you, Jura-san," Juvia said, bowing back.

Laxus gave a nod to Jura. "Thanks. Your magic isn't too shabby, either."

I snorted. "Just give him a proper compliment, you damn tsundere."

"Not a tsundere, Elle," Laxus growled, a tick mark appearing on his forehead.

I couldn't help laughing.

My plan was going perfectly, so far. Everyone was a lot stronger, some of them catching up pretty quickly to where they were before. In addition to that, we had won the Grand Magic Games, and created a huge spectacle while doing so.

And even better than that:

We got our trampoline.

The food was delicious, and I made a note to try and get the recipes from the chefs, if possible. The rest of the kids seemed to be enjoying it, too, and it seemed like Laxus was trying to sneak away all the food he could eat before someone told him off for his empty hole of a dragon slayer stomach.

And then came the dancing.

None of us really knew how to formerly dance (except Freed and Lucy, who still had some etiquette lessons), but we all tried anyway.

I danced with all of the boys, and let me just say now, Laxus was by far the worst.

Reedus decided not to dance, and Rex seemed occupied following Maggie around, losing his brain cells.

Macao and Wakaba danced with all of us kids, and I must say that they did a pretty good job, (though Wakaba told me it was because Macao wanted to impress Enno).

Freed, though stiff, was also graceful enough, probably from his training. While Bickslow had no idea what he was doing, he was nimble enough to avoid my feet.

Laxus was not.

"That's my foot!" I hissed.

"I'm trying my best!" he hissed back.

Then try to best of someone better! I wanted to say, but didn't, because he wouldn't get the reference.

I missed YouTube. YouTube probably could have taught Laxus how to dance.

I could just tell my feet were going to be sore by the end of the night.

As for the girls, we mostly held hands in a big giant circle and skipped around a lot. Just about all of us were red-faced and tired by the end of the night.

Halfway through the night, a guard came to me with a time: Midnight.

Not long after arriving, I had asked a guard to deliver a message to Toma, telling him that I wanted to speak to him privately.

Now I knew when.

The banquet, which started at six and ended at eleven, finally finished, then it was the time for everyone else to return to our hotel.

"Guys, I'm going to be a bit late," I told the kids. "I have some things that I need to do, alright?"

"What sort of things?" Laxus asked.

"THINGS," I said.

He sighed and everyone else giggled, and we split ways.

Makarov just sighed, and pretended not to notice.

I was lead to a private room by a guard, and not long after, Toma entered.

"You wished to see me?" he asked, however it was much more cordially than my last visit.

"Yes, Your Majesty," I said, bowing. "I have news of the future we must discuss."

He quirked a brow. "And Ame isn't here because..."

"Because it concerns her," I said.

He paused, interested.

"I don't have any information regarding the Royal Family until X791 in the previous timeline," I continued. "I'm here because I want to warn you. Please do not take this as a threat, because I care about her, too. But in the Year X791, there is no Queen of Fiore."

It took a bit for Toma to process this before he began yelling. "Warn me? WARN ME? For what? So I can just accept the death of my wife?"

"Of course not!" I said. "I don't know what happens to Ame. I don't know if she dies, or when she dies, or even anything about her! I didn't even know her name until I met her! I'm saying that I want you to have the best healers on staff, in case she originally dies in childbirth. I'm saying that I want you to get your guards better training!"

The tension eased between us.

"I don't know what happens to her, Your Majesty. And that makes it harder to prevent it. But I want you to be on guard for anything."

He hesitated before nodding. "Is there anything else I can do?"

I paused. "Do you know of any mages especially good with wind?"

He thought. "Aria in Phantom Lord is particularly good with air."

I shook my head. "No way. Do you know anyone unaffiliated?"

Toma hesitated. "I believe I overheard conversation on one of the guards' children. One of them has been getting into disagreements because his son wants to be a guild mage, but his father wants him to join the Rune Knights because he's particularly talented for his age. Now what was the child's name? Erigan?"

My heart just about stopped. "Erigor?"

He nodded. "Yes, I believe that's it. Why?"

"Just...something that could come in handy," I said. "After all, I need to learn Saturn."

We bid our goodnights, and I teleported back to the hotel. It would be too late to speak with Erigor.

I wish that there was more that could be done for Ame - after all... Healing Magic was lost.

Chelia wasn't even born yet, and Wendy wasn't in this time.

And they were the only Magical Healers I knew.

Yes; Healing Magic was lost.

But so was Planetary Magic.

It was Saturn's second most difficult spell, right below Saturn's Tornado, and if the comparison of the book was right, it would take more power than either Venus's or Pluto's highest spells. It could quite possibly be the hardest Planetary spell because of it's difficult nature, and precision.

Saturn's Healing Winds.

So I needed to learn Saturn by the end of July, if Hisui was to be born in August.

Just in case. Just in case.

I got something of a mean PM, so some happy encouragement would be nice. The thing about writing is that you start off doing it for yourself. But then other people get hooked, and you start doing it for them, too. And then you get a bad comment and you start to think... Nobody likes this, and I know I'm doing this for me, but I don't really matter, so should I even continue? I look through old reviews to encourage me, but then I worry about the newer chapters.

So, uh...even if you don't know like normally review, even just a tiny thing like "I'm reading and still want more" or something would be nice.

And the 'prettier than ever' thing is based on the fact that I, like Elle, am nineteen, and the prettiest I have ever felt was when I ten and was the flower girl for my uncle's wedding.