Beginnings II

[Arvid Sawyer]

"So, what's this thing you wanted to show me?" Saulus asked, looking about as interested as he ever was about anything that wasn't indulging in something asinine. Which is to say not at all. In fact, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there.

The man was already beginning to recline on one of the trees that marked the edge of the small clearing inside the woods. It was usually the spot where they tended to hang out whenever he had some free time, or Saulus wanted to escape his mother's wrath. A little secret hiding spot between friends, he would say.

It was a little strange, Arvid supposed, that they were friends. After all, they couldn't be more different from each other. Like water and oil practically.

However, they'd quite literally been dragged together once and something had clicked, he supposed. He'd liked listening to Saul talk about his time in the city and Saul had liked that he covered for some of his laziness. From there, they'd stuck together for the most part.

It wasn't like there were many options around for friendship if he was being honest. Some of the other kids were nice and all but they were… Dull, Arvid thought. He was almost concerned that the village was cursed or something because everyone seemed happy just living the plainest life they possibly could. The only people that seemed to stand out somewhat were Saulus and Miko, really.

Arvid wasn't very sure why Saulus put up with him most of the time, admittedly, but if he were to bet, he'd say it was for something selfish. His friend just couldn't be bothered to do something unless it was easy and it gave him something. Not that he thought he was bad or anything, but the other man had his flaws and there was no denying them.

"I wanted to show you this… and test it," he said, pulling out a second Larch and Iron wand he'd made. He'd tried a little more with this one, but it wasn't all that much better, he was sure. All he'd done was hammer in the nails in the shape of a shield that wrapped around the thin piece of wood. He didn't know how good a job he'd done or if it'd make a difference, but he'd tried. Maybe if he could save up some more money, he could get some more tools to better work with the materials he had… and those that he was planning to get.

He'd need a lot of money to get things started.

"And what's that?" Saulus asked, looking at the wand with a raised eyebrow. "Looks like a stick… or one of my mum's toys. You trying to tell me something here, man? Because there's better ways to say that kind of stuff."

Arvid pulled a face, both at the accusation and the fact that his friend had compared his wand to that kind of thing.

"This is a wand, a magic wand. Gross, by the way," he answered, not quite managing to suppress the grin that formed on his face. Admittedly, he wasn't trying very hard. "I got a book from a merchant some time ago-"

"Yeah, I noticed. You couldn't get your nose out of it."

"And it was a book on magic. Wand Crafting magic, to be precise. This is my first… Well, second one. The last one blew up on me," Arvid finished explaining, ignoring the interruption. He was too excited to care about much of anything other than the fact that he made a magic wand!

"Is that why your hand is messed up and you look like that?" Saulus asked, with a raised eyebrow. Arvid didn't know if he didn't care, or didn't understand how amazing wand magic was. He was betting on the former though.

"Yeah, it is," he replied, too happy to be embarrassed or disappointed. "So, I made this one wand to cast a shield spell and I want to test it out. We can try with you just throwing rocks at me or maybe using your magic. Do you mind?"

Saulus looked at the magazine held in his hand for a moment, seemingly debating between helping him and just sitting there and finishing reading it. After a few seconds, he just shrugged his shoulders and left it on the floor. He made sure to leave a heavy branch on top of it so it wouldn't be blown away.

"Sure thing, should we do a countdown here? Also, are you sure that thing is not gonna explode again? Your hand looks really messed up," he said with a vague gesture towards him.

Even as he said that his friend prepared himself, his trademark ashes already swirling in his hands and picking up speed. A slight buzzing sound came out of them as the cloud condensed and became more chaotic by the moment. It was far different from the small smoke he liked to show around whenever someone asked to see his "talent".

Arvid grinned widely and readied his wand.

"It'll be fine, man. I think I fixed the problem," he answered. He likely hadn't, but he was planning on doing something more of a… flash shield instead of trying to hold the barrier up. That should help the wand not blow up. It likely would be damaged, but he just needed to test it against something real. Arvid was pretty sure he'd be happy even if it didn't work and it was just a light show for the moment anyway. "Come on," he urged his friend, feeling impatient and excited.

With another shrug, Saulus cocked his fist back, before muttering something to himself. With a punch, the ashes rushed forward like a dense gray wave the size of a grown person. In turn, Arvid looked at the attack, grin still in place as he channeled his magic through the wand.

Immediately, the flat translucent gray surface appeared in front of him and gray met gray… And Saulus' spell splashed against the shield like a ball of mud on a stone floor. Once the attack was completely stopped, Arvid stopped channeling magic through the wand. He was already hearing and feeling the wood of the wand cracking. The thing was also heating up too, so that was…

He sighed as he felt the wood give and start falling to pieces, as if the thing was turning to dust.

Even then, he was still very, very happy.

"Huh, so you weren't talking out of your ass, then. Neat," Saulus said as the ashes settled down. Already halfway toward his tree trunk and magazine. He sat down under the shadow of the canopy, back against the slightly rugged bark as he started to read distractedly. "So, you can make one-time walls and stuff?" he said, for the sake of conversation if nothing else.

"Not yet, this is the first wand I've made… Second, as I said before," Arvid explained, looking at the quickly dissolving wand. "This is all I've made so far but I'll definitely be working towards making better ones, different ones. I just need to get more materials, maybe some tools and better designs… Yes, I can definitely make something more impressive with this, with some time and trial and error…"

He was getting so many ideas just considering that. There were many kinds of trees around, there were some that were older, younger, twisted, or straight. So many different plants, animals, metals, and rocks… He just needed to look, sneak some free time and work in the workshop… He was sure he could come up with something more that would work. Maybe he'd even be able to make something that wouldn't break after a use.

'Not dull at all,' Arvid thought, grinning widely.

"I have to start saving again though," he realized, speaking out loud. Saulus was the only one that knew of his desire to leave. Everyone else Arvid knew would rat him out one way or another and he couldn't risk that. "That's going to suck. I almost had enough to make the trip to Magnolia."

Because if one wanted to see interesting stuff, Fairy Tail's city was the goal. Not because they were the best guild in Fiore, but because they were the most fun. They were a mess, of course, if the magazines were to be believed, but they were a fun mess. That was what mattered.

"Sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you, buddy. Also, Magnolia? What for? You are going to start selling the wands to guilds or something?" Saulus said over the sound of him changing pages.

"I mean, I was already looking to go there before finding this, they sound like they are quite the sight over there. But yeah, I think joining Fairy Tail until I can get my feet under me and have a decent list of wands to sell sounds good," Arvid muttered. He'd been thinking about that the whole month, after all. Admittedly, he hadn't given it proper thought, more like daydreams and such, but that was all in the future anyway.

He didn't have the skill nor the wand selection to really think much… Nevermind the money. He'd have to solve all those problems before deciding what to do.

Saulus suddenly froze for a second, his eyes leaving the magazine for the first time.

"Join Fairy Tail?" he said with incredulity like he couldn't believe what he just told him.

"Sure!" Arvid answered, somewhat caught off guard by his friend's reaction. "I mean, this wand isn't all that much and maybe the first bunch won't be either, but I'll just take easy jobs. Mages go all over the place, don't they? They even come here… occasionally. So, I can gather more stuff to make wands and also see a bunch of cool things and visit interesting places. What's not to love?"

"I get that, but… Fairy Tail? You know they are THE top guild of Fiore, right?" His friend stated with some emphasis. Granted, it wasn't official, with guilds like Phantom Lord out there. But he doubted no one with half a brain would think that the latter could come up on top if they ever truly fought.

"Some say that some of the most powerful mages in Ishgar are part of it. Hell, they even say that the new generation is shaping up to be one of the strongest ever seen. Titania, Salamander, the She-Devil…" he pointed out to him. "No offense, you are my friend and all, but you will be kicked right out the door without even testing you… There is no way they will take a… wand crafter or any other common magic users out there. Isn't it better to try for another smaller guild?"

"I mean, you might be right," Arvid replied, running his fingers through his hair as he considered that. Saulus wasn't wrong, and he'd know. He spent most of his time reading magazines that wouldn't shut up about mages, after all. "But still, they sound like the best for me. If they reject me, that's fine. What's the worst they'll do? They sound chill, from what I've heard and read myself. I'll just go somewhere smaller if that happens, or maybe I'll just do independent work. A worse option, but meh."

"Your funeral, V," Saulus told him with a sigh. "Just trying to look out for you. You will just waste your time and money there. People with mediocre magic like ours don't belong to places like that. They are reserved for people with those fancy Lost Magics, and other powerful stuff. Not for a dime a dozen people like us."

"I mean, they can't all be A class and S class, right?" Arvid replied, not really bothered by his friend's attitude with the whole thing. That was Saulus, after all. All cynicism and little else. "I don't remember the exact number of mages in Fairy Tail, but the number wasn't small and we only hear about… What? A dozen of them. The rest can't be that good. And besides, just going to Magnolia would be worth the money and the time. Might as well give it a try."

"That is true, but even then, they must be there because they have some sort of potential, right?" his friend asked, looking at Arvid like he'd gone insane. "I mean, think about it. They are the strongest guild in Fiore, meaning that people should be making days' worth of queues to join them. Yet, they have less than one hundred registered members and only one base," Saulus tried to explain, his hands trying to express his feelings. If anything, this was probably one of the few times Arvid had seen Saul be so vocal. "Hell, even Phantom Lord has branch guilds in multiple cities. Fairy Tail admission conditions must be insane."

"I'm not saying you are wrong, you know more about this than me," Arvid replied, still refusing to be discouraged anyway. "Still, they are my favorite of all the choices. If it doesn't work out, I'll go from there. I can't not try."

"Whatever man, I am just calling it right now," Saulus told him, giving Arvid a shake of his head as if he were a sad case. "I won't pay for the cheer-up food when you come back crying. Will wait for you here, I guess."

"Oh? Don't have to worry about waiting for your friend, dear," a voice said from the forest. Arvid could see the way Saulus visibly tensed and shuddered. Sweat was already gathering on his forehead already, somehow. "After all, you aregoing with him," the voice continued as its owner showed herself in the clearing. She had her hands on her hips and a frown directed at Saulus.

"Hello, Mrs. Lambent. Beautiful afternoon, isn't it?" Arvid said with a smile.

"Hello, Arvid. It truly is a wonderful day. Thank you for fixing the table last week, by the way. Already made sure to leave your pay with your father. A little extra for you too, of course," the slightly plump woman said with a smile before directing her gaze back to her son.

"Thanks, Mrs. Lambent. That's very kind of you," he replied, smiling a little wider. That'd go straight into his Going-To-Magnolia funds.

"Uhh, hi, mom-"

"Saulus, dear. I think it will do you some good to make a trip and perhaps land a job while at it. This is a perfect opportunity! You will beaccompanying your friend to Magnolia, right?" She tilted her head slightly but both of them knew that that it wasn't a question.

"But, mom. I don't even have the money for a trip like-"

"Your brothers have already moved and made a life on their own. Olmert is about to open his third branch and even his kids are already learning the ins and outs of his business. Meanwhile, you are wasting away here." A sour face crossed Saulus's face at the reminder. He never did like being told that kind of thing. "Now, come. We need to start preparing your stuff. Better now than later when you find a way to weasel out of it."

The other teen directed a look of help to him, but Arvid just shrugged his shoulders. He couldn't help him here even if he wanted to. Which he didn't feel like doing at the moment anyway. That would teach him not to call his cool magic mediocre. He might be a bit miffed about that deep down.

Just a little bit...

With a sigh, Saulus stood up and walked right behind his mother like a prisoner about to be executed.

"Also, Saulus?" his mom suddenly said as they walked away.

"Yeah?"

"How did you get that magazine?… And where is the bread?"

"..."

Arvid just chuckled to himself.

[}-o-{]

In the following days and weeks, Arvid worked like he never had before. Or, maybe about as hard as he'd worked when he was trying to get the magic book from the merchant. He certainly felt just as motivated, if not more. Getting the money quicker meant he'd get out of Wintergreen faster and that meant he could go around, meeting new people, seeing new places, finding new materials to work with.

He couldn't wait.

However, no matter how eager he was, he still needed to make some wands so that he'd have something on him when he tried to be a mage. Else he'd be… just a normal person, and that just wouldn't do. He likely could make some money doing the odd carpentry job, but he'd rather use magic. Wands felt a lot more interesting, after all, and they meant that he could let loose on his creativity instead of bending to the whims of other people's tastes.

With that in mind, whenever he managed to get some free time in between working with his father, working to earn some extra money and spending time with Miko and Saul, Arvid went exploring. He needed to keep an eye out for any material that seemed special in any way. His first wand might have been just regular wood and nails, but he wanted better for the rest of them. He hadn't learned magic only to make mediocre stuff.

No, he wanted to make art. He wanted to pour his all into something. He needed to make them beautiful, powerful and interesting. Using leftover pieces of wood, random scraps and forgotten things was out of the question. He could do better than that. He would do better than that.

So, off into the forest near Wintergreen he went.

He didn't find much, admittedly. Mostly, he just found some trees that looked a little odd and stood out somewhat from the rest. Maybe there was one that grew in a funny shape, or another that had some kind of mark. From all of those, he took a branch, either one that was easy to get or one that was part of what caught his attention.

Besides those, he also picked up some other things.

In a particularly rocky place where the mountain close by started getting steeper, he found a batch of stone dust. Granted, that wasn't so rare, but it was so fine and it had this fascinating reddish color that he couldn't just leave. So, coming back with a glass vial, he picked some up to use as a wand core.

Another finding of his was, interestingly enough, done while inside the village. While out on one of his personal jobs to earn extra money, the kind Mrs. Palmer had told him that he could take whatever he wanted from the shed out back. It was supposed to be filled with trash that her late husband had accumulated. From there, he'd taken a lead piece that looked like it'd fit right in – sort of, at least – as a wand core too.

By far the best find was a piece of lava rock he'd found in the mountain though. He wasn't sure where the hell it had come from though, because there was nothing even remotely similar to a volcano close to Wintergreen. Arvid wished there was something like that close by. It'd certainly make things a little less boring, if nothing else. As it was, he wasn't going to look at a gift horse in the mouth.

With those materials in hand, he set out to make the wands with them. Unfortunately for him, none of the resulting wands were stable… at all. The first wand, with the red dust core, was probably best of the bunch, at least potential wise. He'd drilled a hole through the middle of the wand, which had taken some work since it needed to be so thin. He'd managed it though, even if it took a while.

However, the materials he'd used for it were really clashing in terms of compatibility. 'Maybe it's because I used dust? Or maybe the wood just isn't the right one,' he mused, noting some things down on his notebook for future reference. 'Maybe some kind of pattern or a more elaborate design for the wood would help? I did just make it a plain one.'

Ultimately, the point was that he now had a wand that could control dust, in a similar manner as Saul could his ash. He couldn't create the stuff though, nor could he use it for long or the wand would fall apart due to the incompatible materials.

The lava rock core wand met a similar fate, really, except that this one started burning up from the tip as soon as he tried to use it. It did, however, create enough heat to easily melt stone… So long as he touched it with the wand, which made things a little awkward, but still, pretty cool. And it seemed to hold together at least a little better than the dust wand.

The last wand – with a lead core – was more useful, if a little less showy and impressive. A gravity wand, as far as he could tell, that allowed him to make stuff float. The metal had already been shaped though and it hadn't allowed him much room to manipulate it, which meant that his wand ended up looking kind of… rough, compared to the others. At least the lava rock one he'd been able to chip away until he had a good enough shape, but the lead had been a little more difficult. He'd had to use a twisted branch that was thicker than he'd have liked.

The result was a wand that burned energy like nobody's business, but at least the effect was cool.

'Not the best set of wands ever… but they'll do,' Arvid thought, counting the days until he had enough money to get away from Wintergreen.

Things were looking up.

The sound of heavy feet going up the stairs made him tense before he pulled a piece of cloth to cover his creations.

"Arvid, what are you doing?" he heard the low voice of his father ask behind the door. "You have to come help me."

"I was about to go, dad," he replied, moving to open the door and come out of his room. He didn't even have to lie, he had been about to do that. "It's early anyway, what's the rush?"

"You should be early," his father said, more matter of factly than accusing, as if there was nothing else to say on the matter. The sky was blue, the sun was bright and Arvid had to be early for work. "You've been awfully distracted," the man pointed out then. "Let's go."

"I have other things to do, you know?" he asked, rolling his eyes as he followed his father.

"You are a Sawyer first, son," the man told him. "Besides, Saul is a bad influence on you. You should stay away from that bum."

"He's not that bad."

"Oh, he totally is. At least tell me that you are spending time with Miko too. Your mother likes her."

"I can be doing other things, you know?" Arvid asked, shoulders slumping.

"It doesn't matter," his father said then. Because of course it didn't matter. All that mattered was- "The business comes first. The Sawyer family has been doing this for-"

"Seven generations," Arvid finished for his father with a flat voice.

"Good to see you listen. Now, if only you could appreciate that," his father said, making him roll his eyes. "We've been doing this for seven generations. I know you are young and want to do other things, but this is what you'll have once I'm not here anymore. It's our legacy, what we've built."

'Is it though?' Arvid couldn't help but wonder in the privacy of his mind. 'Because it feels like it's been the same shit since I can remember and I doubt it was much different before I came around.' He voiced none of that though. He knew better.

"I have heard that you are doing extra work though, so that's good," his father said and Arvid was honestly surprised he cared. Must have been because it was "part of the family business", he supposed. "I don't know why you are doing that by yourself though."

"I just want some extra money, that's all," Arvid said, not seeing a reason to lie… about that, at least. "It's mostly stuff that they wouldn't even have brought up. Adjustments and such, much cheaper than they should be, because otherwise I'd get nothing at all."

"Hm, not sure what you need money for. Your mother and I can provide for the family."

'But you'd never provide for a trip far away from here,' Arvid thought.

"I just don't like having to ask for money, dad," he said instead. "I prefer to earn it myself," he added… and he should have left things there. He should have kept his mouth shut and then be done with things. As it was, his father seemed to be in a particularly chatty mood, but he'd surely go back to being the silent giant in a moment. And yet… "I was thinking of going on a trip for a bit. Maybe Magnolia."

His father, predictably, laughed.

"What for? There's nothing out there that can't be found here, and if there is, then it's not worth the time, nor the money, nor the effort," he said, almost word for word the same thing he'd always say when Arvid commented something of the sort. "Don't be silly, Arvid."

"Yeah," he whispered as he stopped for a moment and watched his father continue walking, not even noticing that he wasn't following. "Silly me," he added before shaking his head and continuing to walk.

He'd be far away from Wintergreen soon, and the silly one wouldn't be him.

[} Chapter End {]

Adrian: You guys have no idea the overly complicated system I came up with for Arvid's wand crafting. It has more than ten rolls for each wand and google sheets stuff. I might have gone a little insane there for a bit… More than usual. But it was fun.

And it's obviously Arc's fault.

Arc: I tried to stop him. Multiple times. He just wouldn't listen. He made a roll system for the roll system…

Adrian: Didn't try hard enough, evidently.

Arc: *sigh* Anyway, we got a lot from Arvid's motivations here. He is well on his way to becoming the best wand crafter to ever wand craft.

Adrian: The very best, like no one ever was~... What? Why are you looking at me like that?

Arc: … And I am the weird one…

Leaving that aside. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. If you are curious about the wand crafting system (or any other questions about the story, we are not picky) we will be more than happy to explain anything (in the Discord server).

Adrian: In case you didn't notice, that's Arc's way of asking for ValidationTM. Give it to us… Right now!

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ