Lost

I felt a whirring sensation as I went through the dimensional rift. I was disoriented, all around me a blur of colors rushed by until I finally came to a stop, landing softly on the ground, but I was too out of it to notice.

Sylvia was gone. Most likely dead.

With that thought, tears began to leak from my eyes. I'd spent four months with Sylvia, learning from her, spending time with her. She taught me so much and treated me like her grandson, only for her to be taken away from me.

I laid down, bogged down by my own sadness when my mana core began to produce a burning sensation and a voice appeared in my head.

"Ahem! Testing, testing... Ah good. Hello Art, this is Sylvia," were the words that roused me from my sadness.

"Sylvia! Can you hear me? I'm here..." I said but was interrupted as Sylvia's voice continued to speak.

"If you're listening to this right now, it means I have shown you what I really am. You're nowhere near ready right now. Knowing you, if I were to have told you who that figure in the sky had been, you would have brashly tried and fight. Little Art, you are barely past the age of four. Upon looking at your mana core, I have realized that you have a rare talent seeing that your mana core is already dark red in color. I will leave you with this: I have infused with you my unique will. This is something incomparable to a normal beast will. Your future progress as a mage depends on how well you will be able to use my will that is embedded into your mana core..."

Thinking back, I recalled the moment when the golden patterns on her face and the purple in her eyes disappeared.

"The moment your mana core reaches a level past the white stage is when you will hear from me again. At that time, I will explain everything and what you do from there is your choice."

'I didn't even know there was a stage past white.'

"Lastly, Art… I know you may be in grief, but remember that you have your family to look out for and the stone I entrusted you with. My only wish is for you to embrace the joys and innocence of childhood, train hard, and make your parents and I proud. Do not go chasing after shadows in a fit of rage. Killing the ones that are responsible for my death will neither bring me back to life nor make you feel better. There is a reason for everything and I do not regret what has happened. With this, I bid you farewell for now. Remember, protect your family and the stone, study what I have left you, and enjoy this life, King Grey."

Those last two words redefined all of my interactions with Sylvia. The entire time she had known about my past life.

'How was she able to find out?' I thought, but I realized I would never know the answer, the only person who held the answer gone.

Laying in a fetal position on the ground, I realized Sylvia was right. I needed to live for a family, even if I still wanted to be strong. I couldn't be strong to the point that I blocked everything else out.

Sitting up and finally taking in my surroundings, I found that I was in a forest. At first, I thought I was in the forest of Elshire, but I realized that the atmosphere was different. According to the books I read, there should be a thick fog permeating the entirety of the forest, but this forest was entirely clear.

'If not the forest of the elves, then where am I?'

Putting the stone Sylvia had given me wrapped in the feather in my pocket, I stood up. I began to walk through the forest, with no real destination in mind. Sylvia said she had sent me somewhere near humans, so I should come across people eventually.

After some time walking, I finally came across an odd tree. The reason it garnered my notice was that there was a door cut into the tree, which implied that someone was living there. Walking up to the door, I knocked lightly on it.

"What is it Makarov?" a female voice said from inside the tree as the door opened and a woman stood before me. She had wrinkles on her face as a sign of her advanced age and bright pink hair.

"Who are you boy? What are you doing in this forest?" the woman asked.

"I seem to have gotten lost. Would it be possible for you to direct me to the nearest human civilization?" I asked politely.

"Tch, don't know why you'd willingly be around more humans. Head that way, you'll end up in Magnolia. Look for the building with this symbol on it. Makarov should be able to help you out, now leave." the woman said, showing me a picture of an odd symbol before slamming the door in my face.

'As odd as that was, at least I have some direction now. No map I ever looked at had a place called Magnolia on it though.' I thought, a fear nagging at me as I began to walk in the direction the woman had indicated.

After some time, I finally began to see buildings. People were milling the streets, some taking notice of my five-year-old form walking alone but not doing anything about it.

In the center of the street, I could see a large building with the symbol the woman had shown me, so I walked in its direction. Opening the door and walking inside, I found a group of people all milling about. Some were at the bar, some were sitting at tables talking to each other. They were all adults, besides one brown-haired girl who seemed to be a year older than me sitting on a table. She noticed me walk in and looked at me in surprise, but a voice next to me drew my attention away from her.

"Hello son, welcome to Fairy Tail. I'm Makarov Dreyar, the Guild Master of Fairy Tail. What can I do for you?"

Looking at the speaker, I found a short old man standing in front of me. He wasn't all that much taller than me and had a beard.

"My name is Arthur Leywin. I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of Xyrus City?" I asked, but I took note of the way he said he was the Guild Master. From my understanding of guilds, there was only one where adventurers went to pick up requests. The way he said it implied there was more than one guild, with this one being called Fairy Tail.

Makarov scratched his beard in thought for a moment before saying "I'm sorry, I've never heard of Xyrus City. I'm sure there's nowhere on Ishgar that has a city named that, although there's a possibility it could be on another continent."

My eyes widened as realization set in. I'd never even heard of Ishgar, and I had looked into world maps extensively in my time since my rebirth. Sylvia's portal had sent me to at the very least another continent, if not even farther than that.

I fell to the ground, the realization that I was even farther away from my family than I had thought I was. Before I could fall too far into that though, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Why don't you come into my office and we can talk about it?" Makarov asked kindly.

Nodding my head and standing up, I followed him up the stairs and into his office.

"From your reaction, I can assume Xyrus City is where your family is," Makarov stated.

I nodded my head and said "Yes, and I've looked at maps my entire life. I've never even heard of Ishgar, which means I'm at the very least on an entirely different continent."

"Hm, it's possible some kind of teleportation magic could've sent you here. How did you end up getting separated from your family?" Makarov asked.

My focus was drawn to that thought process. My understanding of the mana core magic system said that there were only four elements: fire, water, earth, and wind. There were also deviants of those four elements, such as lightning, ice, gravity, and sound. Races such as elves and dwarves had their own deviants, but space wasn't one of them.

"Space magic exists?" I asked.

"Of course it does. There are all kinds of magic, every person can have one unique to them, although there are some common threads." Makarov explained.

'I'm not just in another continent. I'm in another world. This magic system is entirely different from the one that I learned. I would need to somehow find a person who could use dimensional magic just to get home, assuming I could even find the right dimension.'

Pushing that thought out of my head for the moment I said "I and my family were traveling to Xyrus City when we were attacked by bandits. I helped to fight them off, but in the process, I was pushed off a cliff and fell into some kind of vortex. Then I ended up in a forest where I found some lady with pink hair who directed me here."

I altered some aspects of the story, entirely leaving out my interactions with Sylvia and simply acting as though I immediately went from the fight to the forest.

"Oh, you fought them off? How old are you?" Makarov asked.

"Four" I answered simply.

"A four-year-old was able to fight off a group of bandits huh. I assume you know some kind of magic?"

I nodded my head as Makarov looked to be in thought.

"It's not unordinary for someone your age to know magic, but to actually be able to apply that magic in combat is an entirely different story."

Shrugging my shoulders at his response, he laughed.

"Well, be that as it may, I can at least help you until you find a way home. We have an extensive library here you can use to try to find some mention of your home. In the meantime, why not join Fairy Tail?" Makarov asked.

'I don't have anywhere to stay, so joining a guide would be a good idea.'

"I guess that's my best option. Why is the guild called Fairy Tail though?" I asked.

"Do fairies really have tails? Do they even exist... Like them, this place is an eternal mystery... A never-ending adventure! That's the philosophy Fairy Tail lives by."

'A never-ending adventure huh.'

Following Makarov out of his office, I was led to the bar where he reached behind and pulled out a stamp.

"Where would you like your guild mark and what color?" Makarov asked.

'So guilds here have marks distinguishing which you belong to. I need to spend time in that library, to at the very least catch up on this world's society.'

"Will my age affect the mark? If I grow, won't it become warped?" I asked Makarov.

"Of course not, the mark is magic. It will change and grow with you."

Nodding my head in understanding, I unbuttoned my shirt and pointed to the left side of my chest.

"Right here in blue, like my eyes," I said.

Makarov reached down, lightly pressing the stamp against my chest as the mark appeared on my chest in blue.

"Everyone!" Makarov yelled, drawing the room's attention.

"I'd like for you to welcome our newest member, Arthur Leywin," he finished.

A cheer went up around the room as people went back to drinking. At this point, the girl I had noticed earlier walked towards me.

"I'm Cana Alberona. How old are you?" she asked.

"Four and a half" I answered.

"I'm five. There's finally someone in this guild around my age. What kind of magic can you use?" she asked.

Thinking about my response for a moment, I guessed I could just pass my magic off as a kind of strength enhancement. Once I began training more, I should be able to use the elements. In my past life I could use all four, so it should be much the same here as well.

"I can strengthen my body and once I train more I should be able to control the elements," I explained.

"Coooool. I use Card Magic, I'm not very good at it yet though," Cana said, looking down.

"That's fine, we've got plenty of time to improve."

"Yeah you're right," She said, bounding up on her toes.

"Come on, I can introduce you to all the geezers," Cana said, grabbing my hand and leading me towards a group of men sitting at a table.

I was quickly introduced to everyone in Fairy Tail, learning their names and memorizing them. Cana told me about how she was excited to start taking mission requests when she got older, which drew my attention back to finding out more about this world. Giving Cana a quick excuse, I slipped off to the library.

Spending a few hours in there, I managed to get caught up on the basic knowledge of this world. Magic functioned completely differently from what I was used to, but it didn't seem like my magic had changed. Ethernano in the air was what people absorbed into their magic contained, which seemed to work fine for my mana core.

Guilds were collections of mages who accepted requests, with them being ranked up to S rank, who was the strongest in the guild. There was a magic council that dictated Guilds and made sure they followed the rules, along with Dark Guilds, which were guilds that broke the rules and needed to be dealt with by mages.

'Maybe I can find someone who uses space magic. Or I can try to find somewhere to learn it myself. For now, I need to get stronger, so what happened with the bandits will never happen again.'

Suddenly, a sharp pain emanated from my mana core. Grabbing my stomach in pain, it shortly passed.

'Was that Sylvia's Beast will? Why is it causing me pain though?' I wondered. Trying to think about it, I examined my mana core mentally. I could see the markings around it. Attempting to absorb more mana into my core, I could see them flare up and react, causing another sting of pain.

'It looks like the will isn't completely assimilated with my mana core yet. I have no idea how long it's going to take, but I can't progress my core anymore until it's done.' I realized.

Without that avenue of progression, I would need to refine my techniques and manipulation of mana for however long it would take for the beast will to finish assimilating. I could work on fine-tuning my movements enough, getting more used to my younger body to make sure I didn't make mistakes in fights thinking I had a longer reach.

--------------------------------------------------------------Before I knew it, three years passed. I lived in Fairy Hills, a normally girls-only living space, but Makarov made an exception for me since I had nowhere else to stay. Over that time, Cana and I had spent time together. Taking Sylvia's words to heart, I didn't focus only on training but also made sure I spent time with the members of Fairy Tail and enjoyed my time. I would play all kinds of games with Cana, while we also would work with our magic. I finally managed to get used to my younger body, no longer making mistakes because I was used to an adult body. My use of my mana core was also a lot more refined as well.

All this time, I hadn't been allowed to go on requests by Makarov. He said I had to wait until I was eight, which was apparently the lowest age you could be. Cana had turned eight before me, but she told me she would wait until I was eight too before going on her first mission.

I turned eight tomorrow, but today I could feel that Sylvia's will had finally finished assimilating with my body.

I was currently standing in the forest alone. I wanted to test out the will without anyone else around, not sure what outward effects it would have. For the first time in three years, I began to absorb mana from the air. Rapidly introducing more and more Ethernano to my core, I could feel my beast will ready to be activated. I felt a warm sensation as hot air was leaking from my pores. When my body was hitting its limit, an explosion formed from my body, destroying some of the trees around me. Markings formed around eyes as the world seemed to shift.

Looking around, the formerly moving leaves of the trees were frozen. Dust was frozen in the air from the explosion and the shattered bits of the tree were stationary.

'The beast will freezes time?' I thought in shock. The most interesting part about it was that I could feel that this wasn't its full power. I was only at the first stage of utilizing Sylvia's will.

Suddenly I began to feel light-headed. Using the beast will having drained me as my vision faded to black, the last thing I saw was the trees beginning to move again.

Opening my eyes and sitting up from the rough ground, I rubbed my neck. I had fallen at an awkward angle, which led to a rock digging into my neck.

'What happened?' I thought before recalling my use of the beat will.

'Sylvia's beast will is powerful, but I can only use it for a short time before it drains me completely. I can finally train my core more though,' I thought with some excitement. Being stuck at the Dark Red stage all this time had been annoying.

Standing, I walked back in the direction of the guild, continuing to passively utilizing Mana Rotation like Sylvia had taught me to continue to absorb Ethernano into my core.

Walking into the guild, I found Fairy Tail's members just as rambunctious as they always were.

"Are you excited Art? Tomorrow we get to go on our first mission," Cana said running towards me and hopping up and down.

"Yes, I'm excited."

"Guess what? Today a new person joined the guild and he's our age too." Cana said.

"Really, what's his name?" I asked.

"Gray. He's over there," Cana said, pointing to a corner where a boy clad in only underwear was sitting at a table.

Hearing his name brought me up short for a second, as memories of my past life flooded by in an instant.

'What are the odds he'd have the same name as I used to?'

"Why is he only dressed in underwear?" I asked Cana.

She glanced back at him, realizing he only had underwear on as she covered her eyes with her hand.

"Ah, Gray put on some clothes," she yelled across the room.

Her voice brought Gray out of his brooding as he looked down and realized he was undressed. He got up and ran around the room, looking for his clothes until he finally found them and got dressed. He then walked over to the two of us and said "Sorry Cana, it's a habit."

Cana removed her hands from her eyes and said "It's alright. Tomorrow Art and I art going on our first mission, do you want to do it with us?"

"You know you could've introduced me first Cana. I'm Arthur Leywin, feel free to call me Art," I said, holding out my hand.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Gray Fullbuster," Gray said, taking my hand and shaking it.

"Yeah yeah Art, so Gray you want to come. Art turns eight tomorrow so we can finally do a mission."

"Okay, if you guys want me to come," Gray said with a nod.

"Yay."

'I don't think our first mission will be as exciting as Cana hopes it will be, but tomorrow should be interesting at the very least,' I thought.