It Was Like A Little Light

By CrimsonStarbird

Seven – A Grand Adventure

Three mornings with the boy; three mornings on which Zeref had been rudely awoken long before he was ready to face the day. Once was understandable, and twice could have been a coincidence, but evidence was slowly mounting in favour of this being a pattern – and if that was how it was going to be then he was ditching the boy at the next available opportunity, and responsible guardianship be damned.

It didn't help that the third instance was the worst of them all. He slowly became aware of something smooth, warm and unpleasantly damp nuzzling the back of his neck. "Go away," he told it, though it came out as more of a wordless grunt. He tried to bat the thing away, but he had a suspicion that his hand was failing to respond to the command. He didn't blame it. He wouldn't have moved either.

He kept his eyes firmly closed and tried instead to sink back into the pleasant nothingness of sleep. It didn't work. The damp thing refused to yield in its quest to make his life miserable. In fact, as offended by the very implication, it began snuffling at his cheek.

With a groan, he rolled over – and found himself face to face with a boar. He blinked at it. It grunted and sniffed his cheek again experimentally, one of its tusks brushing against his nose.

Zeref closed his eyes in despair. "Oh, leave me alone. It's far too early in the morning for this."

The boar did not leave him alone. Instead, it tried to eat his hair.

At that moment, the tent flap was wrenched open, flooding the interior with watery half-light, and something impossibly energetic scrambled into the tent. "Ah! It got inside!" the boy exclaimed.

And then, as if his very existence wasn't already too loud for this hour of the morning, the boy's voice rose to a panicked shriek. "Get away from him!" he yelled, dashing forwards and striking the boar's flank with his small fist.

There was a flash of white light and a pulse of energy, and the boar, which was easily as big as the boy, was suddenly hurtling through the air.

At the same time, Zeref was somehow on his feet, and he snatched the boar-turned-cannonball out of the sky right before it could tear through the tent wall.

While the boy stared, open-mouthed, he marched outside the tent with the struggling creature tucked under his arm. "Don't make me use magic this early in the morning!" he yelled, and he tossed the boar towards the trees. It landed with a squeal and scurried off into the undergrowth. Zeref glared after it, as if holding the entire forest responsible for this disastrous morning.

"Umm…"

He heard the hesitant sound of the boy's voice from behind him, and he couldn't help growling. Rubbing his eyes, he demanded, "What?"

"Are you alright?"

"You mean, other than the fact that I'm awake at this ungodly hour?" he snapped. "What do you think you're playing at, letting animals into the tent at a time like this?"

"It wasn't on purpose! I could hear something rooting round outside, so I went to investigate, and I found the boar. I chased it round the tent, but it must have sneaked inside when I was still at the back. I didn't mean to let it in. I really didn't."

"Oh, but that's not all you did, is it? No, as if letting a wild boar come in and wake me up before dawn wasn't bad enough, you also had to send it flying and nearly destroy my tent with it!"

"But… I didn't mean to do that either… I thought you were in danger…"

"In danger? Me? From a wild animal?"

With eyes wide as saucers, the boy insisted, "I thought it was going to eat you!"

"Eat me? Boars don't eat people! How was it going to eat me when I was bigger than it?"

"…Oh. I guess I didn't really think about that. I just… panicked."

"No, thinking is the one thing that you really didn't do," Zeref scowled. "I'm going back to sleep. Don't bother me again."

With that, he brushed past the boy and returned to the tent, lying down, curling up, and stubbornly closing his eyes. He had hoped that would be the end of it, but a quiet rustling indicated that the boy had followed him inside, and he seemed unable to comprehend that other people didn't like being awake when the sun was still below the horizon.

"You know," the boy ventured, "You were really cool just then."

"What?"

"When you caught the boar. One moment you were half-asleep and looking a bit dead, and then the next, you'd somehow stopped it right before it broke the tent. I didn't even see you move. I didn't know you were that fast, or that strong. I didn't know anyone was. It was really cool."

"…You and your underwhelming ideas of what makes something cool," Zeref grumbled, still not opening his eyes. "You're the one who nearly blasted the boar into orbit just because you thought I was in danger."

"Well, I don't even know how I did that. It just happened when I hit it."

"It's obvious, isn't it?"

"Not to me," the boy pointed out, and when that didn't get a response, he continued, "So, maybe you could explain-"

"Can't you see I'm trying to sleep here?"

"…Oh. Sorry."

It only kept the boy quiet for a couple of minutes, but that was good enough to let Zeref slip back into sleep.

Fortunately, Zeref's second attempt at waking up was a lot more pleasant. The sun had actually risen by then, for a start, and there were no wild animals nuzzling his face. Even better, the boy was nowhere to be seen. He remained inside the tent for several minutes, mentally preparing himself to deal with another human being, and then he headed out to see where his charge had got to.

Gildarts hadn't gone far. There was an enormous tree at the edge of their campsite, almost two metres in diameter, and around its trunk a crimson-feathered bird was flying in lazy circles. The boy scurried after it, leaping up to try and catch its rumpled tail-feathers every time it deliberately dipped a little too low. When it saw Zeref watching, the bird gave an indignant squawk and fluttered up to the canopy. The boy sighed as he watched it go, but his disappointment bounced right back to excitement as he too registered his companion's arrival.

"You're awake!" he cried out, dashing over to greet him properly – which apparently meant flinging his arms around him and beaming up at him, because no one had ever taught this boy any respect for personal space. "I thought you were going to sleep all day!"

"It's not my fault. Constantly having to stop your magic from ripping me apart wears me out. And speaking of which…"

"Ah!" The boy jumped backwards at once. Rather than falling into a spiral of panic and apology, however, he stayed calm, and the white lines that had started crawling across the other's body faded before they could inflict any damage.

This earned him an approving nod. "Good. It seems you've got the hang of calling your magic back in. If only you could pay more attention to what was going on and stop it from appearing in the first place, it would be perfect."

"I'm trying…" the boy protested. Then, as if he were actively trying to disprove his own point, he immediately went off on a tangent. "Say, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"You're awake enough not to get mad this time, right?"

"I won't get mad."

"Okay. Then, why did the boar go flying back when I hit it this morning, even though it was way too heavy for me to lift? You said it was obvious, but when I said it wasn't obvious to me, you got cross and refused to talk to me."

"I wasn't cross. I just fell asleep."

"…Oh. Well, can you tell me now?"

"I suppose it's easy enough to understand," Zeref shrugged. "You acted because you didn't want me to get hurt. But you didn't want to hurt the boar, either. You were both trying to use your power and trying to restrain it completely, and because you can't stop it from appearing but you can control it a little once it's there, you found yourself holding a lot of raw magic confined to a very small region of space. When you hit the boar, it had nowhere else to go, so it took form as sheer energy, amplifying the force behind the blow."

"Huh. That's pretty cool."

Zeref nodded slowly. "It's a simple process; one that any competent mage will do without even having to think about it. It's why those who possess and use magic always hit harder, and are physically much tougher, than those who do not. I suppose in your case there is such a discrepancy between your teeny tiny body and the ridiculous amount of magic trapped inside it that the effect is really quite remarkable."

"Huh." The boy considered this for a moment, and then said, "Do you think…?" But he stopped before he reached the end of the question.

"Do I think what?"

"…It doesn't matter."

"If you say so."

"I was trying to make it happen again this morning, while I was waiting for you to wake up," the boy informed him. "But I couldn't do it. I either broke the things I hit, or nothing happened. I had to stop in the end, because my hand was hurting too much from punching rocks."

"Yes, I can't imagine it will be an easy thing for you to learn. For most mages it's entirely instinctive, but since you're essentially learning to use magic backwards, it'll take a long time and a lot of practice before you'll be able to do it on command."

"Can you do it?"

"…I said that all competent mages could, and I do consider myself to be fairly competent, yes."

"Then maybe… you could show me how to do it properly?"

"No."

The flat refusal caught the boy by surprise. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you! I know that you know a lot about magic. It's just that I don't know very much, so I thought I should ask, rather than just assuming…"

"It's not that; I'm not offended." He shook his head firmly. "I don't mind showing you how to control your magic, but I won't teach you to fight with it."

Disheartened, the boy begged to know why, but Zeref was no longer listening to anything that they both could hear. Tilting his head slightly, he added, "Oh? It's not like you to agree with me."

"…What?" blinked the boy. "Oh, Mavis again, right? I guess if she doesn't want me to do it either…"

"Not at all. You should definitely learn to fight properly. It would be a waste if you didn't… so she says. I don't care either way, of course. But she does respect my decision that I shouldn't be the one to teach you."

"Why not?"

"Because you're not one of mine, kid. I'm only doing this as a personal favour." He rested his hand atop the boy's head – amidst that bright orange hair, which had only become brighter with each successive night, as the improvised baths in the sea had steadily washed away the grime of neglect. Gildarts, who had stopped flinching from him long ago, gazed up with trust and concern. "If I taught you to fight, it would commit you to one side of a war you're far too young to understand, and I won't do that. That's what she agrees with."

The boy deserved a normal teacher; one who could pass on magical knowledge and fighting expertise without caveats or burdens, and allow him to make his own choice in life once he was old enough to do so. If he decided to stay with Mavis's guild, and all that might one day come with that, then so be it. After everything that had been forced upon him as a child, the boy had the right to decide his future for himself.

"I don't understand at all…"

"Then you'll just have to trust that we know what we're doing, won't you?"

"But if you won't teach me, who will?"

"Kid, any mage on the continent could teach you to fight like that. And most will jump at the chance to pick up a student with such magical potential, as long as you keep your destructive tendencies under control around them."

"You… really mean that?" The boy's eyes were wide and shining, and more than that, they glimmered with such hope. It had been so long since such a look had been directed at him that the words Zeref had been about to say fled from his mind.

"Do you think…?" The boy began, only to falter once again. He swallowed, and had another go. "With the bird that we rescued, and the boar, I was wondering if… no, it's silly."

By now, Zeref thought he could guess what the boy was trying to ask. He was the least qualified person in the world to answer it – there had even been days, bad days, when he would have killed for less than what was implied by it – and the mere thought of trying to give an answer, of trying to smile as he did so, was uncomfortable enough to stem any words of reassurance trying to clamber out of his mouth.

So he did not answer. He was under no obligation to try and do so if the boy did not even ask it. Instead, he said, "Come on. Let's go for a walk."

The boy stayed exactly where he was. "Every time you say that, something bad happens. Usually involving me and the ocean."

"I just don't like staying in the same place for too long, that's all."

"…You're really not going to throw me in the sea?"

"I won't. We can go inland if it makes you feel more comfortable."

The boy pondered this suspiciously, but when he could not find any obvious tricks, he nodded his assent. They set off. The forest environs merged into exotic, jungle-like surroundings so smoothly that neither of them noticed they had changed biomes until the boy blundered into a natural booby trap of vines. There he tripped and hung upside-down until a burst of power freed him, while Zeref definitely did not laugh, because Black Mages were not supposed to be amused by slapstick humour and he had a reputation to protect. It was warm here, but not humid or damp. The great ferns and mighty trees rustled with life.

Between the unusual fauna and the vibrant flora, they hadn't been walking for more than a minute before the boy's trepidation vanished completely. Bounding on ahead, he peered at an enormous drooping flower. When he lifted up a petal to see inside, a sapphire hummingbird shot out and flitted around him, much to his delight, before flying off. He then proceeded to lift all the other petals on the bush, hoping to find more hidden birds, as if succumbing to the temptation of the advent calendar on the first day of December.

"We're like explorers!" he informed Zeref, when he finally caught up. "Going where no one has ever been and discovering new animals!"

Zeref frowned at him. "It's not really exploring. I know exactly where we are."

"Well, I don't. So if I walk in front, it still counts, right?"

"…Sure, why not?"

Gildarts let out a whoop of joy and shot forwards again, this time running face-first into the flank of a great woolly yak with impressive horns. He bounced straight off and fell on his backside; unfazed, he scrambled straight back to his feet and stared at the creature in wonder. "Sorry!" he said to it. "I didn't see you there!"

The yak fixed him with a baleful look. Gildarts reached out and gently patted its nose. It snorted through his fingers, and then licked them optimistically, before coming to the conclusion that the boy wasn't edible and lumbering off through the trees. He watched it go with a broad grin. Then, after throwing a glance over his shoulder to check that his companion was keeping up, he dashed off again.

Zeref dutifully followed, though he dropped back a little further, widening the gap between them once again. The wild animals were much more likely to approach the boy – and a lot less likely to spontaneously drop dead – if he wasn't nearby, and he didn't want to ruin the boy's mood by getting too close.

From here, the boy's progress was as clear as day. While his power was still destroying any unfortunate rocks that happened to be in his way, it had virtually stopped doing the same to living creatures. The boy hadn't even noticed that he was petting all the animals he came across without harming them. On the few occasions that those white lines had appeared, streaking across fur or scales or feathers, he always noticed straight away, and brought them firmly back under control before they could deal any permanent damage. Even when he had stumbled once or twice into Zeref, his power remained dormant, and the pain that the Black Mage had grown accustomed to never came.

Gildarts's magic was learning. Now that he could control it somewhat, by forcing it to back down whenever it tried to break something that was alive, and letting it be when it was an inanimate object, it was coming to understand that there were some things it was allowed to destroy, and some things it was not. As Zeref had promised, it wasn't trying to hurt him. He doubted that the boy would ever reach the complete subconscious control that most mages had naturally – his magic had simply grown too wild to be stuffed back in that box – but, with enough practice, he might be able to make it safe towards other people.

Most importantly, since the boy had stopped being constantly on edge, feeling resented, and fearing his own magic, so too had the uncontrollable bursts of devastation become few and far between. His power coupled to his emotions, but to his distress far more than his happiness. When he was relaxed and cheerful and far too entranced by the wonder of everything he laid eyes upon to even begin to hate his own existence, his contentment alone held his power in check without him even having to think about it.

Yes, he might never have discovered the feeling of control if he hadn't been shown a method for reaching it, and yes, he might have stopped trying long ago if his companion hadn't encouraged him, but ultimately, it wasn't those things that had made the difference.

It was because he was happy.

Because he had been able to stop panicking and make progress. Because he had become able to see that the power which caused so much grief and suffering could also be useful. Because he had made a friend around whom he could relax without fear of harming them, and he had come to realize that he wouldn't always have to be alone.

Because the powers that be, which had seen fit to give this twisted magic to such a young and innocent child, had also shown him mercy, and dropped him into the lap of the one man in the world who had been able to help him – and in doing so, a fate that might have been filled with despair and self-loathing had been avoided.

"Happiness, curiosity, optimism," Zeref murmured to himself, as he watched the boy scramble into some bushes and scramble out again just as quickly, pursued by a giant rainbow snake. "He certainly didn't learn those things from me."

And, as was so often the case when the switch rails shifted and his train of thought was sent racing off down a direction he disliked, he scowled, and added, "You know, I don't even know why I needed to be here. I'm starting to think that your insistence on getting me involved had less to do with helping him, and more with wanting to watch me suffer having to put up with him."

The forest did not deign to answer that accusation.

The boy chose that moment to dash back over to him – apparently his speed, like his enthusiasm, had no setting between 'off' and 'high' – in order to grab his hand and pull him onwards. "Look what I found!" Gildarts crowed, presenting to Zeref a perfectly ordinary cave mouth with a level of excitement more appropriate for having discovered a secret civilization. "What do you think lives in there?"

With a frown, Zeref took stock of their surroundings, and answered, "Probably bears."

"Bears?" The boy's eyes grew comically large and unsettlingly shiny. "I've never seen a bear before! Are bears nocturnal? Do you think they're asleep right now? Do you think if I'm really quiet, I might be able to sneak in and take a look without them waking up?"

"I don't think brown bears are nocturnal-" Zeref tried, but apparently the boy's question was rhetorical, because he was already trotting off towards the cave.

Zeref folded his arms and waited. He wanted no part in this.

Or so he tried to tell himself, but he could not glance away from the shadow-veiled maw that had swallowed the boy, and for the first time in decades he found the silence unnerving. Just as he was wondering how long he should leave it before going in after him, the boy reappeared, sprinting towards him and yelling at the top of his voice: "RUNRUNRUNRUNRUN!"

"What's the matter?" he asked, still very much bemused.

The boy slowed down just for long enough to inform him in a deadly serious whisper, "Brown bears aren't nocturnal!"

And then he grabbed Zeref's hand and dragged him back the way they'd come as an enormous bear burst out of the cave mouth and thundered towards them.

There were any number of ways in which Zeref could have dealt with the threat. He could have killed the bear without so much as raising his hand. He could have scared it off, using either his own magic or by triggering an explosion of the boy's errant power. In fact, he probably wouldn't have had to use magic at all – if he stood there and waited, the bear would likely have recognized him and backed down.

But he did none of those things. The boy was terrified, but also incredibly excited; drawn onwards by the thrill of sheer adventure. Solving the problem was not the best way forwards. There was a part of him that recognized that, and though it was not a part he had cared for in a great many years, he listened to it now, and allowed himself to be pulled through the forest at a breakneck pace.

Somehow, the boy managed to find the breath to pant an explanation as he ran. "She had baby bears!" he gasped, in an awestruck voice. "Really fluffy baby bears! I think she thought I was going to steal one! I wasn't, though. I just wanted to cuddle it for a bit. I'd have put it straight back."

"…Stop talking, before I throw you to the bear."

The boy gulped and ran faster. They were only managing to stay ahead of their pursuer on such uneven terrain because his magic was flooding from his feet, smoothing out the ground and destroying all obstacles in their path – a useful ability, but not useful enough, as far as Zeref was concerned, to compensate for the pain it was causing him as it tried to destroy his feet too.

A deafening roar tore through the forest. "She's getting closer!" the boy shouted, somewhat unnecessarily, because they could both see the beast closing in.

"This way."

"But- there's a river-"

"We can cross it," came the calm response. Zeref knew this island better than anyone else alive, after all. The river was deep and ferocious, enough to give even a mighty bear second thoughts about swimming it, but he had no intention of swimming himself. Exactly as he remembered, the trunk of a great dead tree stretched from one bank to the other – a perfect natural bridge. "If you destroy the tree, the bear won't be able to follow us."

"Ah!"

And then they were both tearing along the bridge. It was wide and sturdy, but no sooner had the boy set foot upon it than it wasn't sturdy any more, and very soon it would no longer qualify as wide either. The boy wasn't controlling his power at all. Lightning fractures raced along their escape route and it began to break up under their feet.

Sensing the danger too late, the boy put on an extra burst of speed, but it wasn't going to be enough. They were only halfway across when the entire tree shattered.

That was when Zeref called his power to him.

This was the magic that had broken time and created life and reshaped history; magic he had sealed deep within him in the vain hope that suppressing it would also suppress the curse upon his body. He buried it, along with any temptation to use it as he had in days gone by, because this present existence of his did not require it – just as he had taken to not eating, for he did not need to in order to keep this body alive; or as he had ceased training, for this body would maintain its present state without any effort on his part; or as he had stopped doing anything at all, because that way he could remain half-alive, half-awake, and the days of his self-imposed exile would slip by and he would not have to live through them.

But for all the time he had spent pushing it away, it came to him faithfully, without a moment of doubt. A ghostly black wave pulsed out from his body, crossing every horizon in the blink of an eye. It stole the colour from everything it passed over – from sky and sea and the Tenrou Tree itself – and with colour went motion. The greyscale world was a world outside time: impossibly still; perfectly preserved; at once full and empty and wrapped in infinite silence.

Only he and the boy still moved. All the colour had been taken from the universe and granted to them: the intense blacks of his robes were tar-pits that captured all light, and the whites so bright they could only have been divine; for the first time, he could see the protective golden aura encircling the boy with his own eyes, and it far outshone the lustreless sun.

He seized the boy bodily and leapt across to the nearest chunk of tree. There was nothing above or below it, but it moved no more than the stilled wind or the frozen river under their combined weight. Then they were gone again, his feet finding the next stepping stone of their own accord – as if he had never stopped doing this; as if all the years of suppressing it had been for naught; as if adventuring and fighting and changing the world with a single whisper of magic ran still in his blood.

The moment he touched the far bank, his magic released without conscious thought. He blinked and the world was once again a storm of colour and sound, overwhelming after the emptiness; determined to make up for lost time. The last of their bridge plummeted into the water. The bear scrambled to a halt on the opposite bank. His heart was pounding in his chest, old and somehow familiar, and he wondered how long it had been since he had last felt this much like a living human being.

"Whoa," came an awed whisper, as the boy wriggled free of his grasp. "That was so cool!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zeref said, fighting down that uncharacteristic excitement until not a trace of it showed upon his face. It wasn't as though not talking about his magic could make those few frozen seconds not have happened, but he didn't want to draw attention to his transgression nonetheless. Especially not to someone who already seemed to think that his rule-breaking was a good thing.

"Everything stopped!"

"You're imagining things."

"I'm not! It was all grey and quiet and it was like time had been turned off! It was amazing!"

"It's an illusion caused by adrenaline. It always seems to slow things down in a crisis."

"It never has done before, though."

"Clearly you haven't been in enough magical battles."

"I've been in none," the boy pointed out.

"There you go, then."

On the other side of the river, the bear concluded that pursuing them further would be too much trouble, and returned to her cubs. "We did it!" the boy cheered. "We got away!"

"You know, when I told you to destroy the tree trunk, I meant once we'd already crossed it."

An apologetic grin. "I know. I didn't mean to break it like that. I wasn't really paying attention."

"Tell me something I don't know," Zeref sighed. "Well, have you learnt your lesson about wandering into unknown caves now?"

"Oh, yes." The boy gave an emphatic nod, looked him dead in the eye, and whispered dreadfully, "Caves have bears in."

"Yeah, that's not quite the moral I was going for, but I suppose it'll do."

"So, let's go and find some more caves!"

"…Were you listening to anything I just said?"

Apparently not. "Bears are awesome, aren't they? They're so powerful, and fast, and they're fuzzy and terrifying at the same time. Maybe we'll find a bigger one this time! Let's look for the biggest, darkest cave we can find!"

"…Right," said Zeref. "Kid, is there anything you're afraid of?"

The boy clutched the front of his robes, gazing up at him dramatically. "Monsters!"

"You say that, but then you go and run face-first into every dark cave you can find… Don't you think that's a bit of a contradiction?"

"Oh, I'm not scared of meeting the monsters," the boy assured him, as though it were obvious. "I'm only scared of being eaten by them."

"And you don't think one is going to lead to the other?"

"Not if I run quickly enough!" came the cheerful response.

"…That's far too energetic a philosophy for me, kid."

Suddenly, the boy became serious again, releasing his grip and stepping away from his companion. "I used to be afraid of being alone," he said to his feet. "I didn't mind being in the basement on my own for a bit, but I was worried that I'd be there forever… or worse, that I'd come out and mummy and daddy would have gone away and I'd be all on my own…"

A frown, and then a smile, flowing into each other without resentment. "But then I was left on my own, here on this island, and it was because I was alone that I met you. And even when you're slow sometimes and lag behind, I'm still not alone, because there are the bears and the birds and the snakes and all the awesome animals I get to meet. If being alone means making new friends then I don't mind it at all."

"Yes," came Zeref's soft response. "You never know what you're going to find when you step out into the world."

And he managed to refrain from adding: Or who you're going to meet. Because, just as you're ready to give up on the world, you might meet an interesting dragon or a kind girl or a kid who needs you, and the next thing you know the adrenaline is soaring and your heart is racing and you're living like you haven't done in decades-

The boy chirruped, "So, come on, let's go and explore some more caves!"

"That's really not the sentiment I was agreeing with," Zeref sighed, knowing that they were going to spend the rest of the morning scouring the island for poor, unsuspecting bears whether he liked it or not.

"Besides," the boy chattered on, "If we run into another bear, I might get to see you use magic again."

Zeref looked at him in surprise, and then gave a slight smile. "Not likely. If you try dropping me in another river, I'm leaving you to fend for yourself."

The boy grinned up at him. "You're in a good mood again, aren't you?"

"I am not."

"Yes, you are. Time for another adventure." And, making it very clear that he wasn't going to accept no for an answer, the boy darted off into the bushes.

Zeref raised his eyes to the sky. "I am not in a good mood," he reiterated, and hurried after him.

"Try that one too."

Zeref pointed to a palm tree a little way along the beach. It was the fifth one he had so indicated in as many minutes, and the boy needed no further prompting to dash over and give it a swift kick. The blow probably hurt him more than it did the tree, but that was without factoring in the white cracks that had immediately shot out from the point of contact, ripping through the bark and seeking out the large palm fronds above. There wasn't enough power in it to destroy the tree outright – he had been trying to hold it back – but the leaves didn't share the toughness of the tree's trunk, and a shower of shredded greenery cascaded down towards him, along with two coconuts the size of bowling balls.

Chirping excitedly, Gildarts jumped into the air to try and catch them – heedless to the fact that each one was larger than his head and could knock him out quite comfortably – but Zeref got there first, sweeping them both out of the air with a deft agility that belied his usual apparent reluctance to do anything at all. The two coconuts settled momentarily onto his upturned palms, and then both disappeared in a modest burst of light.

Gildarts had suspected he had been hiding the coconuts they gathered with magic, but this was the first time he'd caught a glimpse of it in action, and his eyes widened with predictable astonishment. "Whoa. You made them vanish!"

"Requip," the other told him calmly. "It's a useful little piece of magic. I'd forgotten I learnt that one. I bet I've got all sorts of interesting things stored away in there." Not that he was about to start emptying his pocket dimension in front of the boy. He highly doubted he'd been using it to store useful things like cooking utensils back in the day.

"Can you teach me how to do that?"

"You really ought to focus on the magic you have before you start worrying about learning other kinds, kid."

This was accepted as good advice; the boy backed down without further protest. Instead, he asked, "What do you need so many coconuts for, anyway?"

"You'll see."

The boy trotted along beside him as he strolled across the sand. Much of the island's shoreline was taken up by beaches, but this was undoubtedly the best of them all. If it had been attached to the mainland, rather than a magical island out in the middle of nowhere, its unspoilt golden sand, gentle waves, and idyllic smattering of palm trees ready and waiting for a hammock to be stretched between them would have made it a tourist favourite. As it was, it was empty save for the two of them; their own private paradise.

"Here will do," Zeref announced, stopping in the middle of the beach for no obvious reason.

"Here will do for what?"

He didn't answer the question. "Sit down."

"…Right here?"

"Yes, right here."

The boy obeyed without further objection, sitting cross-legged on the sand and awaiting further instructions. Zeref returned the stored coconuts to his hand one by one and set them down in a circle with the boy at its heart, a ritual sacrifice to the gods of sunbathing and rum-based cocktails.

"Don't touch!" he warned, and the boy froze with his outstretched hand millimetres away from the first coconut. Under that stern glare, Gildarts returned his hand to his lap and shifted shamefully as he waited for the coconut ring to be complete.

"What's this for?" he burst out, the moment it was done. "Is it a magic circle? Oh, are you going to summon something? Like an earth spirit, or a demon, or something?"

Zeref blinked at him. "…No, I'm not going to summon any demons using a magic circle made of coconuts. They'd come, certainly, but they'd never let me live it down."

"…Oh." Disappointment was hardly the most appropriate reaction to not meeting a demon, but it was what he received nonetheless. "Then… what are you going to do with the coconuts?"

"This is a test."

The boy's eyes grew wide. "A test? What sort of test? Is it spelling? I'm really bad at spelling. But that's not my fault! I wasn't allowed to go to school with the others, and I'm not very good at remembering things-"

"No, it's not a spelling test. Why would I care how good your spelling is? I'm testing you on how well you've learnt to control your magic."

"Okay! What happens if I pass? Do I get a prize?"

After a moment's consideration, Zeref said, "If you pass, I won't throw you in the sea tonight."

The boy's face lit up as if he'd been offered his heart's desire. "Awesome! So, what do I have to do?"

"Nothing."

"…Nothing?"

"That's right. You have to sit there and do nothing. If you break any of the coconuts, you fail. If you move any of the coconuts, you fail. And you may not leave the circle of coconuts until I tell you otherwise. I'll know if you do. Is that understood?"

"But that's easy!" the boy exclaimed. "I can definitely do that!"

"That's the spirit. Well, then; I'll see you in a few hours." And with that, Zeref began walking back towards the forest.

"Ha, this is going to be easy!" Gildarts crowed. "Don't leave the circle, don't break the coconuts. Easy. I can do- hang on a minute." And as the penny dropped, and his mountain of optimism flipped to become a valley of despair in point-one of a second, he shouted after his companion, "Did you just say a few hours?"

But Zeref had already gone.

"…Oh dear," breathed Gildarts. "Ohhhhh dear."