Chapter 2

[Minerva Orland]

Minerva was a smart child, she knew that much. Maybe it was arrogant for her to think so, but she just felt… so far ahead of the rest of the children her age. Even adults seemed dumb compared to her sometimes. Father seemed to agree with her, which only solidified that belief, really.

Although… On the other hand, she didn't know how to feel about Father agreeing with her. She… didn't like Father very much, if she was honest with herself. He'd always been strict, overly so, in Minerva's opinion, but as time passed he got progressively worse.

Now she was… tired.

His last training exercise had been… was, actually, since she was still at it, to survive alone in a forest. A forest full of beasts, some of them magical at that. She'd been so afraid, so desperate, so… lost. Sadly, not much more afraid than she usually was when Father trained her, but she was still very much so. Furthermore, this time there was something else she hadn't felt before while doing what Father wanted. She felt so… lonely.

However, if Minerva had been afraid before, she'd been terrified when the Vulcan appeared. Some wolves and minor creatures she could fight, she had trained and been trained enough for that. A Vulcan however, was far out of her league, she knew, at least for the moment. They were supposed to be rare in the forest she was in, but of course her bad luck had pulled through and made her situation worse.

Which brought her back to her current situation…

With a wolf puppy licking her face as she tried and failed to push it off of her… Ok, maybe she wasn't trying that hard to begin with, but still. It had been summoned by the man that had gone out of his way to save her from the Vulcan and the pack of wolves. Soon after they had introduced themselves, he'd told her that he needed to think and summoned the wolf puppy with the excuse that he wanted to try his new magic some more.

And wasn't that something, that they had both unlocked their magic in the same place almost at the same time?

Still, while she was enjoying playing with the little canine – She would never admit that though. –, she was also looking at the man out of the corner of her eyes. That and thinking, because there seemed to be a lot to think about for her right at that moment too, lots of things to process. Like the fact that she felt more safe here, in the dangerous forest, with a stranger than she had ever felt back at home with Father.

Alexander Jones.

She'd never seen him around Hawthorn, she was sure of that. After all, nobody there had ever dared to go against Father to help Minerva. Nobody had ever helped her for fear of Father, so… There was no way Alexander knew of them, or else he would have ignored her. Or else, he wouldn't have helped her.

She paused, still awed by that.

He'd helped her.

He'd helped her.

Minerva felt… she didn't know how she felt, but it was warm, like finally going inside her house after a long training session in the winter. It was… calm, like finally getting to go to sleep in the privacy of her bedroom. Somehow though, it was better than both too.

Was this what being… safe felt like?

Whatever it was, Minerva decided that she liked it.

"So, what are you doing here, in the middle of the forest?" Alexander asked out of nowhere, snapping her from her thoughts.

"What were you doing in the middle of the forest?" she shot back instantly. Nervousness creeping in her mind and being nervous made her be defensive. She almost flinched then, as what she said registered in her own mind.

"I… woke up here. I don't have any idea how I got here, honestly," he replied with a shrug and a somewhat sad – helpless? – expression on his face. Minerva wasn't sure he was telling the truth though, but she'd give him the benefit of the doubt because he'd saved her. "So… about you?"

"Father left me here so that I could become strong," Minerva replied, hiding how afraid and nervous and sad she was about that with practiced ease. Nobody cared about any of that anyway. Father would have thought her weak. Others would have stayed silent for fear of Father.

"By yourself?" Alexander asked, eyes wide and leaning back. "Why?"

"So that I could become strong," she repeated, frowning at him. Was he stupid or something? She'd just said that.

"I know, it's just… you could have died," he breathed out, seeming horrified by the idea. The warm, calm feeling returned to Minerva's chest, but she firmly pushed it away. It wasn't time to be weak. She needed to be strong.

"It's what's needed to become strong," she quoted Father's words. She wanted to scream something mean at him though, when his expression turned sad. He was pitying her. She hated that. Minerva hated that every time she saw that on anyone because nobody ever did anything to help her… Why did they look at her like that if they'd do nothing anyway?

… But Alexander had helped her.

Hadn't he…?

Maybe…

"Why hasn't anyone helped you?" Alexander asked and Minerva didn't know why, but something in her was elated and hurt by that question. It meant that she wasn't the strange one for asking herself that all the time. However, it also meant that nobody cared because nobody had helped her…

Did that mean Alexander cared?

"They were afraid of Father," She replied neutrally, her eyes turning back to the wolf puppy in front of her.

"Are you afraid of your father?" Alexander asked then, and Minerva determinedly didn't look at him. Her eyes started to sting but she held back the tears.

"No," she answered, and she thought that she did a good job. Her voice didn't crack and she wasn't looking at him. So, there was no way he would notice, right?

"Nobody has helped you?" he asked, evidently disbelieving her answer. Was he calling her a liar?

"No," she sharply replied before frowning. "I don't need help."

"Minerva, you need help," he told her then, softly. 'Almost like he cares,' she thought to herself.

"Nobody will help anyway," she said then and silence took over the forest. The only sound that reached her ears was the leaves moved by the wind and the breathing of the wolf puppy. She wanted to laugh at herself. She'd almost thought he would-

"Do you want me to help you?" Alexander asked this time and she felt her breath catch in her throat. She had heard that wrong, right? There was no way he'd said that, right? "Minerva, do you want me to help you?" he repeated when she didn't say anything.

So long, she'd begged for others to help her. Until one day she had given up, realizing that there was no escaping from Father. That she needed to be strong, like he wanted her to be. That being strong would be the only way for her to be happy.

And now…

And now…

"Yes," she breathed out, her voice cracking with a sob, her sight becoming blurry. "Please."

[}-o-{]

[Alexander Jones]

Alexander watched as Minerva continued to hug the wolf puppy to hide her tears with a sad smile.

He didn't remember much about her character, honestly, just that he had seen her be kind of a villain in the Magic Games Arc and that her father was Sabertooth's Guild Master. He remembered them being proper pieces of shit but not really actual villain material. They had been awful people, but he was pretty sure they hadn't actually tried to kill anybody or anything around that level. That more or less put them above most Fairy Tail villains that he remembered on the moral scale.

Still…

Alexander definitely didn't know this part of her story, that was for sure.

That wasn't surprising, really, since he wasn't that much of a fan of Fairy Tail. After the seven year skip, he had stopped paying all that much attention to it and just continued watching because he had nothing better to do. That led to him knowing very little about what came after that. Hell, it had been so long that Alexander barely remembered how the story before the skip happened.

'Doesn't really matter anyway, I guess,' he thought with a wry grin. 'I've already changed things.'

And if he hadn't already, he would change them soon, because there was no way Alexander would leave Minerva to her fate. Her father had left her alone in a forest that was filled with beasts. No, he refused to leave a little girl there by herself.

"How old are you, Minerva?" he asked then, momentarily pulling her attention from the animal he had summoned.

"I'm ten," she muttered shyly. She looked so… small. 'At least she's not crying anymore. Testing the puppy card was definitely a good idea,' Alexander thought to myself.

'Ten years old though…'

He was furious. If he ever got his hands on her father, whatever his name was supposed to be, he hoped to have strong enough cards to give the bastard a piece of his mind. To do something like that to a child… He knew people in the Fairy Tail world were crazy strong even when they were young, but still. He had never had children of his own, of course, since he had been single most of his life. However, it made his insides churn to know that there was a father out there that would do such a thing.

Alexander looked down at his hands, one of which still held all his cards. Slowly, carefully, he looked at them one by one. They didn't look like much. Especially since he now knew that he couldn't afford to use too many of them too fast or he would pass out.

He'd have liked to figure out how much they cost to cast. To be able to test things and learn how his magic worked besides "have card-cast card". Hell, he didn't even know what the Blessing of the Wind and Curse of the Storm actually did… even if he had somewhat of an idea. However, being in the middle of a dangerous forest meant that I couldn't afford to play around and find out.

So, for the moment he stared at his last card.

[Switch]

He'd gotten that one when Minerva asked for help, so he guessed it had to do with the spatial magic she possessed… Or maybe he was reading it all wrong, he supposed. He wished he had known more about the series, maybe things would have made more sense then.

"I'm guessing going to Hawthorn would be a bad idea," Alexander mused, forcing himself not to react when he saw Minerva tense up. "So… Do you know the way to any other nearby village or town?" he asked, keeping his anger in check and only using soft words instead. No need to put more pressure on the poor girl, she seemed terrified enough as it was. He couldn't stop a grimace though, when she shook her head.

"Sorry," she quickly apologized, which made him feel even worse.

"Don't worry," Alexander reassured immediately with a small smile. "Guess we'll have to wing it. Go in a direction your village isn't on and look for a path or something. Shouldn't be too hard, right?"

Even if he said that, he knew it wasn't that simple. What would they eat? What would they drink? Sleep might even be a problem if it rained or something and he couldn't say he was looking forward to sleeping on the ground.

"No, that's a terrible plan," he decided before Minerva could comment. He was slightly concerned that she didn't seem against that stupid plan from the very beginning, even if she was a kid trusting an adult to know better. "No way we can make some easy money in Hawthorn and get away quickly, is there?" he asked the child then.

Alexander expected her to get nervous once again, and he was right. Fortunately, she still seemed to think about that for a moment. That was good. They needed some money, or at least supplies, since that's what most of the money would be for. Some cooking utensils would be nice, same for a tent or two…

"Stealing?" the girl half-answered half-asked and Alexander deflated.

"Any other way we could get money, or just food and water?..."

"I don't think so…?" she voiced then, seemingly withdrawing and growing increasingly more nervous.

"Don't worry, Minerva, we'll find a way. I'm just trying to find an easier one, ok?" he reassured softly, getting a hesitant nod from her. Then, he sighed. Stealing… could be done, he guessed. Alexander wasn't above doing that, especially if a child depended on him. The problem was that he likely wouldn't get away with it unless he was strong or good enough, which he wasn't. "Not to mention that it would set a bad example, I guess," he mumbled to himself as he continued considering options.

What did it say about him that that was the last thing that came to mind?

"We could steal from bandits though," Minerva replied, apparently having heard him. Alexander had the sudden urge to smack himself before he considered her words. Bandits though…

"Stealing is always bad, Minerva," he told her seriously, before laughing bitterly as he deflated. "But maybe we can make an exception..." he added as he paused, narrowing his eyes. "What do you know about these bandits?"

He was a terrible babysitter, that much he knew. However, as he saw the little girl's face lit up, Alexander told himself that at least he was better than her other option. It wasn't a great reassurance, but it was something. He would see about becoming a better example later.

[}-o-{]

'This is just… sad,' he thought to himself as he walked inside the bandit camp. He wasn't very worried, considering that the place was empty. He was even less concerned since he had two wolves (White and Black) keeping watch in case anyone came back.

Even then, he didn't think anyone would, since the Wolf Puppy had been surveilling the campment and had "told" them when the people inside left. From there they waited for a while and then came in. No problems whatsoever, really.

And that's why Alexander thought it was sad. After all, surely the people there would leave someone to guard the place, right? Nope, everyone had left. He didn't know why that was, but he didn't much care, since it worked perfectly well for them.

He did think it was a tad… anticlimactic, he supposed. He'd walked all the way there, worrying and strategizing. Wondering how to best use each card and the struggles they might face. He'd come up with a number of things that could go wrong, things that could make their chosen path much harder than it needed to be.

Instead, they found a camp, waited for some time and then just walked in when it was empty.

It was certainly… something.

Alexander didn't know what, but it was something alright.

"Let's see what we can find, yeah?" he asked Minerva, who nodded with a slight smile and started looking around. 'I'm a terrible role model,' he couldn't help but repeat to himself with a grimace.

Letting his eyes roam around the camp, he omitted the obvious, which were the tents. All of them looked pretty much the same, except for two bigger ones. If he had to bet, Alexander was sure that one was for the leader or whatever this group had acting as one and the biggest one was to store things.

With that in mind, he decided to check those first, since those would be the most useful.

[}-o-{]

"Lots of useful stuff," Alexander mused as he looked over the pile of stuff they had managed to get from the bandit camp. Next to him, Minerva hummed while the wolves barked. Still, his focus was on the things they had gathered, thinking if they'd missed anything.

They'd gotten a backpack for him, big enough to hold many things and the tent they had taken down, while there was a smaller cinch bag for Minerva to use. They had rations, water, the Earthland version of a lighter (which worked with some sort of lacrima embedded on the metal contraption), among other little tools that would come in handy. Even clothes, although there wasn't anything Minerva's size. That last thing was expected, but still unfortunate.

"Did we forget anything?" Alexander asked his little partner who hesitated for a moment before, picking up something from inside her bag. He'd thought it was empty, waiting for them to distribute their loot, but it seemed he'd been wrong. With a tilt of his head, he regarded the little wooden box that Minerva passed him.

There were cards inside and he immediately knew that they were magical and not just because there were too few of them to be from any sort of deck. They weren't blank though and the design on them was nothing like Alexander's were. 'Can I use these ones?' he wondered, feeling the slight tinge of magic – which was actually really weird for him by itself – and eyeing one that seemed to have a yellow and red fire design.

As he thought about casting magic with it though, no words came to him like they had with his own cards. He was almost disappointed, for a second, before he felt something else happen. Instead of a chant coming to him, his magic seemed to just… react. Alexander felt something warm move through his arm towards his hand, pooling on the bits of skin that were touching the card. So much so, that he almost felt like his fingers would get burned.

Nothing happened though, even after he waited a moment.

With a deep breath in, he let the warmth move towards the card, similar, but not really, to how casting magic went. His eyes widened then as, slowly, the card lost its design on both sides and turned blank, just like the two white cards that he still carried. 'So, I can erase someone else's magic from cards?' he wondered as he looked at the now empty card.

'I'll have to look up how Card Magic works at some point,' Alexander decided, turning towards the other cards. There were only three more, two with lightning designs and one with what looked to him like rocks. He turned them all blank after a moment, feeling himself grow slightly tired.

Almost as tired as the wolves had made him, which was no small amount but still manageable. He wouldn't be able to use any more magic though, except maybe a puppy… Still, it would be better to stay on the safe side.

"Great find," he praised once he remembered that no, he wasn't alone. He felt bad for ignoring Minerva for all of a second before he saw her expression brighten as she beamed at him. He couldn't hold back a grin of his own as his hand moved almost on its own to pat her head. Fortunately, she seemed to take to that well, not shying away and her smile remaining. "These will definitely be useful," he added, looking at the cards in his free hand once more. It'd be nice, considering how quickly he was getting new cards.

Running out of blanks could be troublesome.

Regardless, after that, his eyes moved to the side, where he'd set down a sword that he had taken too, just in case they came across something that the wolves couldn't take down on their own or as a last resort. Alexander was really hoping he wouldn't need it though.

"Ok then, let's just put everything in the bags and-"

He blinked as he saw a now familiar glow come from the cards in his hand.

Checking, Alexander saw that two blank cards had lit up this time. He blinked a few times until the light dimmed and he could see the designs on them. Although, the first one made him tilt my head, confused.

[Storage]

That name explained the strange design though. While all the cards he had seen so far had some kind of drawing on them, this one seemed to have the picture of the inside of a chest occupying it all. Or, that's what it looked like to him, at least. It was also divided in four with lines that looked… blurry, faint. Like they were there, but if he wasn't focusing he wouldn't notice them.

'Is this what I think it is?' Alexander wondered, slightly excited. After a moment of staring at that particular card, he turned to a canteen full of water we'd picked up.

"Spell Card, Storage," he intoned, proceeding to press the card against the canteen full of water. He was pleasantly surprised when it worked exactly as he expected, the object disappearing inside the card. With a look at it, he saw that the canteen was now occupying one of the four divisions of the card. 'So, this is like an inventory in video games… but with only four slots, huh? That… kind of sucks…'

With his eyes narrowed, he looked between the card and the stuff they would need to carry. This would need some more testing, and this time he wouldn't be able to put it off. Lowering the amount of stuff they had to carry themselves was very much a priority. Especially if he wanted to avoid Minerva having to do it at all.

While Alexander thought about how to go about that at all, he turned to the other new card. Immediately, a wide grin spread over his face. It was just what they needed, again.

'Did my luck just do a one-eighty on me? I sure hope so,' he thought, elated. Why? Not only did it seem to be a new type of card, with a blue background, but the picture in the middle of the card was a tent, not unlike the one they had taken from the bandit camp, with a campfire in front.

[Campment]

'I wonder if I can use the card twice though, so we can get two tents...' he mused to himself. It was certainly something to test later.

"Sir?" the call snapped him from his thoughts and he turned to see a curious Minerva. "Did you get new cards?" The poor girl looked as excited saying that as he had felt when he saw the light himself.

"Yep," he confirmed with a nod and a wide smile. "One of them lets me store some stuff inside it, but not much, just four things, by the looks of it. The other is, I think, supposed to make a tent and a fire appear."

"Does that mean we can leave the tent?" she asked, clearly happy at the prospect. He didn't know why though, it wasn't like he would have made her carry that, honestly. 'Although, did she think I would?' That was a sobering thought.

"Yep. Now, let's get the food and canteens inside the backpack, ok? The bedrolls can go inside the Storage card, since they are so big," he started, and before he even finished with the first sentence, the girl was already on it. He blinked at her for a second before sighing. Crouching next to her, Alexander decided to just start helping or else she would do all the work and he would feel terrible. "Either I can store the full backpack inside the card too, or I'll carry it myself. If that works, we can put some in the cinch bag together with the lacrima and such and put it in the storage too. That would take the four slots I have."

"Then I could carry another bag with food and other things, right?" Minerva asked and he stopped, almost twitching. That seemed to take her aback, as she quickly backpedaled. "I mean, I thought that would be a good idea, but we can leave it at that, Sir, I didn't-"

"Alex," he interrupted her softly with a sad smile. She blinked at him then, clearly not understanding where that had come from. "Call me Alex, or Alexander if you want, just not Sir."

"Yes, S- Alexander," she replied quickly and he almost sighed again. He would have preferred Alex, but whatever.

"Also, it's a good idea, actually. But I'll be the one to carry that bag. You are a child, Minerva. You don't have to carry anything heavy like that if you don't need to," he explained to her slowly as he finished packing a backpack. Pulling out the Storage Card, he used it again, first to pull out the canteen and put it inside the backpack too. From there, he cast the spell once more to store the whole bag. Pleased that the idea worked and he could store more stuff than he'd first expected in the card, he picked up the two bedrolls and did the same.

'Ok so, I can pack another full backpack for me, that much more food and water will be great,' Alexander thought, turning towards the bandit camp, thankful that they hadn't gotten too far from it while gathering the stuff. He could have stored the cinch bag, but it seemed like a waste when he could store something bigger, like another backpack. 'Maybe I can pick up some more non-essentials?' he wondered.

"Alexander?" Once more, Minerva snapped him out of his thoughts with a shy call. "Thank you."

"For what?" he asked, amused by her timid approach. She was even poking her fingers together for god's sake. How adorable could one child be?

"For being nice."

"Don't mention it."

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Before anyone jumps at me complaining about how the bandit camp thing went, I want to explain that I rolled for it and this fucker got a Nat 20.

So, I guess Alexander started off in easy mode other than that first encounter. I really didn't wanna write it being that easy, but I don't like rolling for stuff and then ignoring the roll. Feels wrong, like I'm cheating, even if I'm the only one who knows.

So, hopefully you guys don't mind too much, yeah?

I'm a little nervous about that first part with Minerva. I feel like it could have been written better, but maybe that's just my overly self-critical skills at work. Let me know what you think, yeah?

Either way, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: /UTDransjJZ

Random Question: I'm probably gonna ask this a bunch through the story, but any card ideas that you can come up with? I'd appreciate it if you can keep it somewhat non-broken. Maybe within the realms of the cards Alex has right now.

See you.