Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or it's characters.
-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-
Arc 2: The Tome of Malvel Nickolas!
Chapter 5: Cade's 10th Birthday
Year: X752. 32 years till Canon begins.
Cade POV:
I woke up to the sound of the birds in the trees outside my window chirping at each other. The curtains were draped shut but the sun still seeped in through the cracks leaking into my room. I had always hated waking up in the morning, the struggle to get up out of my comfy double sized bed.
I would have rather tried to go back asleep but that wouldn't be possible due to the birds singing away outside. As I slowly began to open my eyes, I suddenly remembered what day it was.
It was my 10th birthday! Upon remember this, I suddenly gained the strength to leap up out my bed and don my housecoat hanging on my bedroom door. Before quickly leaving my room and entering the corridor that led to the grand hall.
The grand hall of our manor was a huge room. The first level had a stripped wooden oak floor. The main entrance and exit to the manor was a set of large double doors located at the far end of the hall. Across from that, there was a large doorway that led to the dining room.
To the far left and right of room there was entrances that each led to different areas of the manor. The left had the entranceway to the grand library, the right side entranceway led to a lounge. Just close by those entrances was staircases with a lovely red carpet that each led up to the second floor.
The second floor had stripped oak wooden floors like the first floor, with a railing that allowed you to look down at anyone entering the manor. Directly ahead of where I had exited from there was the corridor that led to the grand bathroom. Behind me led to my bedroom, and to my left was a corridor that led to some spare bedrooms.
Above where the entranceway to the dining hall was a doorway that led to the grand bedroom where my parents slept. The staircase to the third floor was located directly back down the corridor behind me from where I had exited a few seconds ago.
The third floor in question has the least amount of corridors out of the other floors, it followed on from the other floors by having the stripped oak floor. There was also a balcony which allowed you to look down on all the other floors.
There were two corridors on this floor. One that led to into a storage room which held all sorts of documents, old books and items the we no longer needed. The other led to a final spare bedroom which was also not being used right now. A chandelier hung from the ceiling coming down to about halfway between the second and third floor.
There was another staircase that led up towards the attic, but it hadn't had a purpose for years now and was just an old room gathering some dust. The door had been long locked and the key was just gathering dust in a key rack somewhere.
As I made my way down the second flight of stairs, I noticed colourful bunting hanging on the wooden railing of the stairs. As well as balloons hanging up all across the second and first floor. By seeing this I got even more excited and quickly made my way into the dining room.
The dining room had a huge rectangular wooden table stretching across the whole room. Another chandelier hung down from the ceiling helping to illuminate the room when it got darker. There were windows to the left and right that were draped shut by some red curtains.
To the right of the room was a large open entranceway with no doors. This led into a decently sized reading room (the room that I entered covered in mud a few days ago) which in turn led outside. The left room led to the kitchens. Hanging on the wall at the far end of the room were two painted portraits of each generation that owned the house.
On the far left painting there was a man with green eyes, brown hair and a majestic moustache while wearing a white striped suit and tie. The women next to him had green hair, red eyes and wore a lovely blue dress.
In the middle of the two of them was a young boy around ten with blonde hair and green eyes wearing a small small suit. The boy in question seemed like he didn't want to be wearing it due to the scowling expression on his face. Just bellow the painting etched on the wood casing was a small metal plate that read the following:
—
Andre Philipe and Ann Philipe with their loving son Cobalt.
—
The painting on the right of that had a man with blonde hair and green eyes, who was wearing a nice black suit and tie. He was standing next to a women with long black hair that was tied up in a bun on the back of her head, she had blue eyes and wore a yellow dress.
In the middle of them stood a boy short jet black hair, emerald green eyes and a birthmark shaped like a lightning bolt, which came down just under his left eye sitting next to his nose. The boy wore a light long-sleeved red shirt with a small brown blazer covering it. Similar to the painting on the left, this one also had a message on a metal plate.
—
Cobalt Philipe and June Philipe with their loving son Cadewell.
—
'Suits were never really my style. I'm glad I was able to wear something a bit more casual.' I thought with relief.
Confused as to where my mother was I made my way into the small reading room and was greeted with a large banner that read 'Happy 10th Birthday Cade!' Different coloured balloons were layered out across the room. In the middle of the room I saw a small bundle of presents of different sizes with my mother standing right next to them.
"Happy Birthday Cade!" My mother cheered as she ran over to hug me, me returning the favour by running back over to her and hugging her tightly. After we released each other I looked at the presents.
"Mama! Are all of these presents mine?" I said with excitement as I looked over them all.
"Yes they are Cade! I was about to go upstairs and wake you up just there, but it's seemed that you've saved me that take now." My mother replied smiling at me.
"Can I open them now? Or do I need to wait before everyone else arrives later on today?" I asked looking up at her. Sometimes I felt it was best to wait before the people who got me certain gifts arrived so I could thank them immediately. But then again… the presents were right there in front of me…
"Of course you can Cade! Just sure to properly thank all of the family and friends that hit you gifts when they arrive today ok?"
"Sure! Thanks Mama!" I grinned happily as I began to tear into the nearest present. This present was quite thin and had decent length and breadth. Inside of it there was a new sealed board game which I had always seen in Magnolia as I went into town with my parents.
There was a tag thinly taped onto the packaging, which read: 'happy 10th birthday Cade! love from your Mama.' "WHOAAAA" I said wide eyed mouth open in shock. "You got me Vulcans, Dragons and Mermaids! I've always wanted this for ages! Thanks Mama!" I thanked, hugging her once again.
This was a game that involved 2-4 players each picking a random magical creature from a set of cards. Then the strength of the card picked up will allow the player to move across the board accordingly. Whoever reaches the end first wins.
"Well what did you expect? Mother knows best after all." My mother remarked before raising her eyebrow at me and smiling back at me. I normally just rolled my eyes at that rather annoying phrase that she always kept saying, but this time I didn't mind.
The next present was a rather small yet thick one. As I tore off the packaging I saw a book titled 'Ten Ways You Can Secure Yourself A First Date.'
My face turned red as I frantically turned around to look back at my mother. "Gah! Who bought this for me?!" I cringed, as I gave a weird look to the book.
My mother thought for a moment "I think that was from Pierce and Charles." She said affirming herself.
"Oh… yeah that… that actually makes sense." I muttered, as the pieces began to fit together in my head.
Charles and Pierce were the two main butlers in charge of maintaining the huge manor, they had gotten a nice vacation 7 days ago and were due back today. They also had an habit of constantly asking me if I had my eye on any girls recently which I found annoying, and I had a feeling they knew that.
The next few presents were really just the average type of presents a child would get on their birthday. A few new books here and there, some new socks and some new shoes after my last set lost a fight with the mud out in the garden.
As I finished opening them I asked my mother a question. "By the way, who is coming round today? Also when are they coming?" I inquired.
"Well let's see here. Your father is coming back later today I know that, your aunt and uncle from my side are coming here from Bosco, your grandparents from my side are coming here, your uncle from your fathers side is coming here, a few of my aunts and cousins are coming round but they're just here to pick up some things they needed from the manor chances are they will stay a bit for the free food… Hmm… I think that's everyone?" She finished, not sounding sure if she listed everyone or not.
"Ah yes! How could I forget, Master Makarov from the Fairy Tale Guild is coming round to see you and help your father with… something, and he is bringing a guild member around your age as well." My mother added.
I suddenly grew quite excited at the idea of meeting essentially, my fathers boss, the man who ran the Guild that he worked at. Also he was bringing a boy around my age? Maybe he could be a new friend. But that reminded me of something just there.
"Oh yeah! I also asked Lilly if she could come two days ago when we were in town." Lilly was a friend of mine who lived in Magnolia. We met a few years ago when her curiosity led her to climb over the stone wall that brought you into our garden to see what was on the other side, her landing right in front of me as I was running round the garden. We quickly became friends after and I would either go down to town to see her, or she would come up here to play with me.
"Well that's great!" My mother replied with a grin.
"Now then, you need to have your breakfast now, you must be really hungry. I haven't set anything up yet, I thought you might want to see what there is. After that you will have to get dressed, everyone is coming at around 1:00pm I believe."
"Ok! Let's see what there is." With that she led me into the kitchen where I decided to have pancakes, with some jam on toast after. Then I went back up stairs to get changed into some nice clothing. As it was my birthday party today, and not one of my parents parties, I could wear some much more casual clothing this time.
As I then started to bring my presents up the stairs to my room. I heard the doorbell go off from the grand hall. We had installed lacrima speakers into each of the manors rooms (except the basement) so that we could hear when someone is at the door. I saw my mother exit the dining hall and run to the door from the railing on the second floor.
As she opened the door she was greeted by two men in their early 20's each wearing sunglasses on their heads which were over their hair. They had red and green haiwen shirts on and were wearing shorts with sandals. They were each holding large brown suitcases.
"Ah, Pierce, Charles welcome back. How was your vacation?" My mother asked, happy to see them.
"Ah it was excellent! They built a brand new resort over where we were staying. I recommend you and your family go there sometime when it is finished." Charles answered on the left.
"Indeed. I considered getting some sun on my skin, but then I realised it may be a bit awkward to arrive back with a tan." Pierce added on the right.
"Well I'm glad you had a good time gentlemen. Now then, head back to your lodging to get changed and come back here, I need your help to prepare the food for everyone." My mother ordered. Charles and Pierce lived in a small cottage which was located a good five minutes away from the manor on the path that led back down to Magnolia.
"Of course M'lady!" The both of them said as they turned to head back to their lodging to get changed. An hour or so later, they returned wearing much more formal clothing this time, the both of them looking quite well dressed.
I was in the lounge relaxing while reading a book when I heard a voice behind me. "Ah there you are Cade. You liked the gift I got you?" I turned around to see Charles smirking, who was wearing a black suit and bow tie.
"Oh… That was your idea was it now?" I said with a grunt, bringing my book back up so I could read it.
"Hey you're a growing young man after all, that book will be useful in your future when you're trying to pick up a girl." He remarked in a teasing manner.
I rolled my eyes and went back to reading, choosing to try and pretend he wasn't there. An hour later I head the doorbell going off again. I saw Pierce go to the door to answer it, and I saw him look down presumably to speak to someone much shorter than him. He then turned to where I was reading my book.
"Cade, one of your guests have arrived, shall I see them in?"
"Yes please let them in." I replied leaving my book in the lounge to enter the grand hall to see who it is.
She was a girl my age, with short brown hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a simple red striped short T-shirt. With blue shorts and black shoes.
"Lilly!" I smiled and ran up to hug her, as she then returned the kindness back to me. Lilly then broke the hug to look at me.
"Cade! Happy 10th Birthday!" She said smiling. "What did you get?" She asked curiously tilting her head to the side.
"I got Vulcans, Dragons and Mermaids! My Mama got it for me when she went to Magnolia a few days ago. Other than that I got some clothes and some new books."
"Woah cool! When can we play it?" She asked excitedly.
"Um, I don't think we will be able to play it today due to the party. We could always play it some other time." I suggested.
Lilly looked a little said when I said that, but she quickly regained her energetic spirit "Oh ok… Well how about we play hide and seek in the meantime?!" Lilly suggested with enthusiasm. Lilly and I always liked to play hide and seek around the house and in the garden due to all the hiding places that there was.
The basement and the attic were out of bounds as we couldn't get in there and the places were also quite creepy. I always liked to sneak downstairs while she was climbing the opposite staircase, meaning she would almost never be able to find me.
"Erm Cade, I don't think your mother would like it if you started running around the house hiding in different places when you have more guests to arrive. Perhaps another time?" Listed Pierce, who I had forgotten was there.
"Awwww…" Me and Lilly both collectively said at the same time, Lilly's smile dropping a little.
"Oh well, we can do it another time I'm sure." I said trying to cheer her up. She smiled back at me a bit when I said that. "By the way is Cornelia coming today?" Cornelia was a friend of Lilly's. She was a few years older than the both of us, and had long brown hair with a fiery attitude if you annoyed her enough.
"Ummm I think she's busy today." Lilly mentioned biting her nail. "Is your dad here?"
"He's away on another S-Class job." I remarked proudly. Father was the only S-Class wizard in the Guild with the exception of the Master. According to father there were other S-Class wizards a few years back. They all formed a team with Master Makarov, there was six of them but all of them except the Master chose to leave the Guild to follow their own paths.
"Oh ok, well there is some snacks out now if you want to come and eat some right now?" I implied trying to think of something for us to do.
"Oh yes please! I'm really hungry right now. Hopefully I'll still be hungry enough for dinner, after I've had some of those snacks." Lilly said, laughing after saying that as we both made our way into the dining room.
Along the way I told Lilly about the boy from Fairy Tale. She seemed quite excited to meet her when he got here. Mainly because we had never really seen a wizard around our age that was a part of a guild before.
As the hours passed by more and more guests started to appear. First was my aunt and uncle from my mothers side, then it was followed by my grandparents from her side as well, after that a swarm of her cousins and aunts arrived (them not paying me much attention, not that I minded considering that I barely knew them anyway), next was my uncle Jack from my fathers side.
He was a man in his 50's with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. He was the older brother of my father and while he was originally meant to inherit the family manor, he decided he would much rather explore the world and see all the magnificent sights that could be seen all across Fiore and the other countries. According to father, the luxurious lifestyle didn't suit him that much. He left at the age of 18, which left my father to inherit the manor. I was walking into the grand hall when I saw him moving towards me.
"Hey there Cade. How's it feeling reaching double digits now?" He questioned with his usual smile as he made his way over to me.
"Weird… I don't feel like I'm ten years old yet. Did that ever happen to you?" I asked.
"Honestly I still don't feel like I'm over 50 years old, I still feel like I'm in my 30's!" Uncle Jack said laughing. "By the way, where's your dad at? I was hoping to hear about some more S-Class quests from him." He looked around the grand hall where all the guests were. Lilly had gone to the bathroom, Pierce and Charles were serving drinks to everyone and my mother was talking to her many cousins and aunts.
I sighed. "He went on a S-Class job a few days ago, I thought he would have been back by now." I answered a little sad that he hadn't came back just yet.
"Ah don't worry, Cade. I've known the guy for years and nothing I've came across in the wild could ever bring him down, and I've met some pretty tough creatures." Uncle Jack stated reminiscing about the good old days.
"Did you ever win against them?" I said glancing up at him.
"Well…erm, I may have had to run from some of them… but I did make sure to give moral support to the people who were fighting." Uncle Jack said sweating a bit as he was clearly remembering all the times in which he used his good old trick of running away.
As I was about to ask what kind of creatures he had to run from, I heard the doorbell ring. "That must be Papa!" I said with a smile, as I ran to the door before Pierce or Charles had the chance to open it.
But instead of seeing my father, I saw a short middle aged man with blonde hair that came out at his sides, he had black eyes and a moustache. I noticed that his hair had grey streaks beginning to show themselves. He was dressed in a formal attire, with him wearing a white tunic with what looked the Fairy Tail symbol on the left collar, and black pants, all in which was covered by a formal white coat with white fur around the edges, on the coat there was a strange medal. Behind him I noticed a child about my age (maybe a few years older?) who was behind the short man.
"Ah hello there young man!" He greeted smiling. He looked at me curiously before asking me a question. "Are you by any chance Cadewell Philipe?"
"Oh uh, yes I am" I replied back.
'Who is this man? I haven't seen him before' I wondered.
"Well then, happy birthday then young man!" He said before giving me a big smile and offering out his hand to me.
"Uh, sorry to be rude… but who are you?" I asked kindly, trying to not offend him.
The middle aged man seemed like he had just been hit by a train, with the kind smiling face fading almost immediately and being replaced by a look of pure shock.
"What!? Your father never told you about me?" He said, rather taken aback by this introduction. He quickly however regained his composure and returned to his calm demeanour that he showed before. "I'm Master Makarov of the Fairy Tale Guild young man, did your father not say I was coming?"
"Oh! I'm sorry Master, I just didn't know what you looked like that's all. My papa did mention you to me a few times, my mama also said you were coming but I just forgot that's all…" I felt a bit sad for forgetting the man was coming.
"Don't worry about it Cadewell, there's no harm done." He mentioned, waving his hand as he smiled once again. "Would you mind if me and one of my fellow guild members came in?" He moved to the side a little revealing a young ginger haired boy. Now that I got a better look at him I could see that he was around a few years older than me.
His hair was slicked back. He wore a long-sleeved green shirt with a brown coat and trousers. "This is Gildarts. Your father thought that the two of you might get along well so he invited him as well." Gildarts smiled at me upon looking at me. As I returned the expression by smiling myself, I looked back to Makarov.
"Sure! My papa invited you so you can come in!" I moved out of the way to let them enter. As they entered a few of the guests looked towards Makarov and Gildarts, some of them began to whisper at each other and point at the medal on Makarov's coat.
"Ah Cade, are these more of your friends?" Questioned Pierce from behind me. I noticed that he too saw Makarov's medal, his eyes widening for a second before returning to normal.
"My father invited them here Pierce. This is Master Makarov of the Fairy Tale Guild, and this is Gildarts who is also a Fairy Tale member." I said gesturing my hand to the both of them, while also saying that loud enough for everyone in the grand hall to hear.
I saw that Uncle Jack had been glancing at Makarov's medal before raising his left eyebrow with a curious smile on his face. Charles and my mother were elsewhere and Lilly was still in the bathroom. A few moments after saying that the rest of the guests returned to talking with each other.
I then turned back to Makarov. "Uh… sorry about that. They might have not been expecting a Guild Master to arrive, that's all." I mentioned scratching my head.
"I suppose that medal would give you a bit of unnecessary attention, wouldn't you say?" Came the voice of Uncle Jack as he came forward to the three of us (Pierce having left just then). He then lowered his hand towards Makarov. "Jack Philipe, I'm Cobalt's brother. It's nice to finally meet you." He said smiling at Makarov.
"Ah so you're Jack, Cobalt has mentioned you to me before." Makarov greeted shaking the man's hand back. "You can say that again about the medal though. I only wore this outfit as I felt I should be well dressed here." Makarov replied back.
"Yeah well, if anything you're the one making me feel undressed right now." Uncle Jack said sheepishly as he was only wearing some casual clothes. He and Makarov then went on to talk some more.
Before I could ask about the medal Makarov was wearing I saw the boy called Gildarts approach me.
"Hey there." He greeted. "I'm Gildarts, I joined Fairy Tale a few years ago now."
"Cool! What kind of magic do you use?" I said back to him
"I use Crush Magic. It's really powerful though, so I'm only sticking with some of the basic spells until I get a better grasp on the others."
"Oh, I haven't heard of that magic before." I said to him, while later thinking of the magic. "Hey, did you ever meet my papa at the guild?"
"Oh yeah! He was really cool and occasionally helped me train my up my magic. There was one time that I went all out against him out at the back of the guild and ended up blowing a huge hole in the wall of the guild which surprised him and Master. But after that he said I wasn't aloud to train near the guild anymore till I get a better grasp on my magic." Gildarts said laughing nervously.
"Woah really?! Maybe when I join the Guild, we can train together if that's what you want?" I suggested to Gildarts.
"Really?!" Said a now surprised Gildarts. "Wow, that'd be great! I don't get to hang around with many kids my age. Well that is exce-"
"Cade!" Shouted Lilly as she ran over to me. "Is this the boy you talked about?" She said looking at Gildarts who in turn was looking a bit confused as to who Lilly was.
"Yeah, Lilly this is Gildarts; Gildarts, Lilly." I said introducing the two of them to each other. "See I got this board game for my birthday. You can play it with two people, but I think I'd be more fun if we all play. Do you want to play with us?" I suggested to Gildarts.
"Sure, that sounds like fun! There's not really any other people my age at the guild I can hang around with." Gildarts said with a happy, laid back shrug.
"Yayyyyy!" Cheered Lilly "Ok, so when can we start?" She said curiously. But before I could reply I heard Makarov call out to me from behind me.
"Excuse me, Cadewell… actually how do you want me to address you? Some people seem to call you Cade as a nickname." Makarov said to me
"Just Cade is fine, thanks for asking." I said back to him. I made my way over to Master, leaving Gildarts and Lilly to get to know each other better.
"Right then. So Cade, I heard that your father went away on an S-Class quest about a week ago. I was out of the guild at the time so I didn't know until a few hours later. Now he left me a note in which he detailed the job description, now he also wrote saying that he would be bringing back a certain item from the museum." Makarov explained.
"I was hoping if I could see this item at any point after you receive it? I won't be taking it from you I just want to look at it if that's ok with you?" He requested stroking his moustache as he said this.
"Sure I don't mind you seeing it! I just wish he would be here to see everyo-"
"Look!" Shouted Charles. Everyone had turned upon hearing him shouting to see him holding the door with one hand as he was just about to close it, while pointing outwards with his other hand. "It's Sir Philipe coming down the path, he's returned!" He cried with joy.
It was at that point that everyone swarmed to the main entrance of the manor in which the long path stretched out, eventually taking you down to Magnolia. Myself, Gildarts, Makarov and Lilly were at the front with my mother, uncle Jack and the rest of the guests behind us.
On the path in the distance I saw a large figure wearing a cloak with a rucksack slung over his shoulder. The sun was setting at this point and shined in the direction he was coming from, which made it hard for me and everyone else to see his face.
"He always did like to make a last minute entrance!" Said my mother chuckling to herself.
As the distance between the group of us and him closed, I couldn't contain my patience any longer and ran out to meet him halfway with Gildarts following hoping to see his friend again. However, Makarov was the first to notice that something wasn't right about this.
Surely Cobalt would have ran to meet his child had he seen him running? He used his magic to get a clearer picture of who he thought was Cobalt, but he was in for a shock when he saw that not only was that figure not Cobalt, but that the figure had armour bearing the crest of the Royal Knights on it.
"Oh no…" He muttered with dread in his voice as he ran after the two boys, with June confused by the matter and choosing to follow him. The rest of the group following along not to long later
As I finally finished running after making my way to my father, I was about to hug him before looking up and being surprised to see that the man I was running to… was not my father at all. The man was of decent height and was well built, he had dark brown hair that was quite spiky.
He had a slightly longer nose than most people and had brown eyes. He wore a set of grey armour with some red stripes located on it, there was also an insignia I didn't recognise located on the right of his armour. He wore a brown cloak over the armour and held a large rucksack which I recognised.
"Oh… I'm sorry I thought you were someone else." I apologised with a little bit of disappointment. "Wait how do you have that rucksack?" I asked with curiosity as I looked up at the man. At this point I heard Gildarts stop beside me, him looking equally confused, and a few seconds later Makarov joined us.
The armoured man looked down at me. "You… You're Cadewell aren't you? He sighed with a sad and grim expression on his face.
"Yeah… how do you know my name?" I questioned back curiosity.
"I'm… so sorry young man…" The soldier said with sorrow in his voice "As you know your father went on a S-Class job request a few days ago. I was the Commander of the squad of Knights that accompanied him."
"But where is he?" I said, now a little concerned about what happened to my father.
The Commander grimaced like he really didn't want to say this next part.
"He is dead. I'm… so sorry."
What a moment to ruin a great day am I right? Anyway, that's the truth revealed to the family about Cobalt's fate. I wonder how Cadewill take the news…
In this chapter we also got to see more of the Manor and meet more important characters for this story. I am excited to write about Makarov and Gildarts in this story, they are much younger than they are when they first appear in canon.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you all in the next chapter!