Introductions to Fairy Tail

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— Dannis Martell —

The days that went by for Dannis after he met Makarov were a blur.

He remembered the first thing he requested of the old master after waking up was his help to bury his family on a clearing close to the village. Their graves were built underneath a willow tree by the riverside. 

He was still too young to help much in the ceremonies, so he just stood there in melancholy as Makarov slowly put down his parents' bodies before digging them back in. 

It was when the graves were finished that he finally realized the fact that he would never see his parents again. His one lone eye gained a glassy look as he quietly mourned for the loving family he once had. Makarov just stood to the side with arms behind his back, a silent companion in his moment of grief.

After about a minute, Dannis then took out a white rose, his mother's favorite flower, before he kissed it softly on the crown and placed it on the center of the two graves.

No more words were said as he turned around and began his journey with Makarov to the city of Magnolia, the home of Fairy Tail.

Ever since then, to Dannis, it was as if the world lost its color. Makarov tried his best to cheer him up, and he certainly appreciated his efforts. But the darkness within him grew stronger day by day.

Makarov also took the chance in their journey to teach him about the basics of magic. Apparently, there are only 10% of people in the world that are capable of accessing and harnessing the ethernano in the air to be able to utilize magic, and he is among the lucky few.

Honestly though, considering the price he had to pay, he sometimes wondered if it was worth it.

Dannis didn't really know much about the kind of magic he possessed. All he knew was that whatever it was, it was capable of pushing against the bandits back in the village and subsequently saved his life. 

According to Makarov, that whole stunt just proved that his personal brand of magic falls into the Caster Magic category and that he'd have to experiment more to find out what it really is. 

And despite his annoyance on how his magic awakened, Dannis was pretty excited about the idea.

It took them around 3 days to finally reach the city, and the first thing that Dannis noticed was that the city was huge. It was far grander than anything he had ever seen, not that he'd seen much considering that he lived his whole life in a backwater village, but still.

Much to his surprise however, the first place Makarov took him wasn't the guild building, but to a weird looking hut on the outskirts of the city.

"We're here to visit a friend of mine. She's a healer of sorts and I want her to do a check up on you, just in case of anything."

Dannis just nodded in understanding of course, and when he was introduced to the old woman named Porlyusica, he was initially concerned with the apparent hatred the woman had to humans in general.

But the look of contempt that he was initially greeted with immediately changed the moment Makarov told her of his story.

"Fine then, let me take a look at you."

Porlyusica then did a whole bunch of checkups and asked a bunch of questions that he had no trouble answering (or were answered by Makarov when it came to the more sensitive stuff). Then it came to the moment Dannis dreaded the most.

Porlyusica slowly undid the bandages that cover his left eye, and although he can't see it, Dannis just knows the bad news after seeing Makarov and Porlyusica's grim expressions.

"Your eye…It's fully gone, the blade cut it right off. Nothing short of the most powerful healing magic could return it, and most healing magic are considered lost to begin with." She said with a soft voice. Despite her apparent hatred of people, her bedside manners were actually pretty top notch.

"Y-Yeah, I figured." Dannis replied with a shaky smile. "Looks like I'll just have to live with it, huh? Besides, mom always did say chicks dig scars." He tried thinking positively, which earned a rueful laugh from Makarov.

"Aye, that they do." Makarov said as he scratched his beard. "However, that doesn't mean that you'd have to live without it." He continued as he looked at Porlyusica.

"What do you mean?" Dannis questioned.

The woman sighed. "We could always replace your eye with an artificial one. A recent breakthrough in prosthetics would make it possible for you to see again with your left eye, and with a little bit of extra jewels, you could get one with a lacrima implanted in it to give it an extra umph." 

"I see…" Dannis commented with his eyebrows furrowed, a frown coming into his face. "That would be great, but I don't have the money to-"

Makarov cut him off with a wave of his arm. "Fairy Tail will cover the costs, don't worry about that."

Dannis could only widen his eyes in surprise before he asked with a shaking voice. "Why…Why are you doing all this?"

"You're a member of Fairy Tail now Dannis, and that makes you one of my children. There's no price that's too high for me if it means your well being." He said with a grin. "And besides, it's much better to use the guild money for this rather than to continuously buy new tables and chairs to replace the old ones. I swear those people are getting worse and worse by the day." He continued with a guffaw as he mumbled the last part.

"Thank you…master."

Makarov's grin widened at that. "Anytime kiddo."

Porlyusica smiled softly as she eyed the scene. This only reminded her that Makarov truly was one of the best and kindest people she knew. Mavis and Yuri would certainly be proud.

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[x770, Fairy Tail Guild Building]

— Laxus Dreyar —

Laxus Dreyar was lounging around the guild one afternoon when he saw a boy around his age sitting quietly by himself. He had black hair and eyes, with one of them covered with an eyepatch.

From the looks of the adults in the guild, Laxus noticed that no one really knew the boy either. The boy was just there alone, keeping to himself while reading a book that Laxus could recognize as a book regarding magical theory.

Naturally, he asked his grandfather about the boy. After all, Gramps is the Guildmaster. He should know everyone in the guild. 

"Hey Gramps. Who's that?" He asked, catching Makarov's attention away from the mug of alcohol in his hand.

"Hm? Oh, that's a kid I brought back to the guild yesterday. How about the two of you make friends with each other?"

Laxus beamed. There's no one his age in the guild. There's finally someone that he can spend time and play with!

Laxus then eagerly made his way to the black-haired boy, the idea of making a friend exciting him. He thrust his hand out to the boy, catching his attention.

"Hi, my name is Laxus Dreyar. What's yours?"

The boy then looked back up at him, and shook his hand slowly.

"Dannis. Dannis Martell." The boy, now named Dannis, introduced himself. Laxus smiled at the apparent successful introductions. 

"Let's be friends!" Laxus announced.

"Eh?"

Dannis looked confused, which made Laxus twist his head in confusion.

"You do know what the word 'friends' means, right?"

Laxus could tell that annoyed Dannis quite a bit. "Of course I do. I just didn't expect someone to literally get in my face and declare our budding friendship like that."

"Well too bad, cause that's how I do things!" Laxus replied with a grin, which earned an eye roll from his new friend. "It's settled then! As of now, you and I are friends!"

Dannis just shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Nothing wrong with having a friend in the guild."

"So, what kind of magic can you use?" Laxus asked with a curious tone as they sat by one of the empty tables. Around them, the guild had fallen into chaos as brawls and drunken fights happened all over the floor. As a veteran of the shenanigans Fairy Tail falls into on a daily basis, Laxus was more than capable of ignoring everything happening.

The same could not be said for Dannis.

"Are all these people crazy?! They're gonna kill each other!"

"Relax, no one ever goes that far. Besides, it's all in good fun. There's no better practice than testing your skills out on your own guildmates." Laxus said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"You people are insane."

Laxus just grinned at that. "That's Fairy Tail for you."

Alex sighed at the simple but apt description. "Anyways, I don't really know my magic. It's just this…" He made some vague gestures of his hand in an attempt to find the appropriate word. "...thing."

"Thing?"

"I can't really describe it. All I know is that the master said it's a form of caster magic and that I could push people with it."

"Hmm, a form of telekinesis or gravity magic, maybe?" Laxus inquired.

"Maybe. I really don't know anything much about it yet until I start experimenting."

"Then try using it! Your magic!"

Laxus said with the best encouraging smile he could manage, which only slightly helped since Dannis gave a nervous smile of his own.

"I, uh…don't really know how yet."

Laxus blinked. How can someone born with magic now know how to use it? Isn't it as natural as breathing? 

"Then, er…try closing your eyes!" Laxus exclaimed as he tried his best to remember the lessons that his father and grandfather gave him to teach him how to use his magic. He didn't really remember much of it since magic always came easy to him.

"Close your eyes, relax, and uh, try feeling it down your core." Laxus tried to recite the words that Gramps once said to him. 

Dannis simply blinked twice, before shrugging and doing as he instructed. Laxus watched as Dannis took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Laxus waited in silent anticipation…

And that's when it happened.

A burst of raw magic blew him off his feet. Laxus was knocked back and the force of it made him crash painfully onto a table. When he regained his bearings, he could hear a pained scream as he saw his friend on the floor, writhing in pain as his body twitched and convulsed. 

Laxus immediately got up to try and help Dannis, but he widened his eyes and took a step back in fear as around Dannis's prone body, a black liquid started pooling around him. 

The debris of the tables and chairs on the floor simply got swallowed into the inky blackness. 

"GRAMPS! GRAMPS HELP!" Laxus screamed.

"We need to get him out of there!" The guild brawl around him had immediately stopped the moment everyone noticed what was happening. They could all hear Dannis's pained grunts and screams.

"Get back!" Macao stepped in. The older mage raised his hands and unique purple flames came blasting out of his palms. Much to everyone's surprise however, the darkness simply swallowed the flames.

"What the-"

"Step aside." The voice of their guildmaster immediately caused all eyes to fall onto the aged wizard. Makarov finally made his appearance as the guild parted for him. 

Makarov kept walking before he stopped right at the edge of the pooling black liquid, he then did a swipe with his fingers and the darkness pulled itself back inside Dannis. The tables and chairs that were swallowed all got launched out simultaneously.

His friend is still a sweating and writhing mess when Gramps gently picks him up from the floor.

"Someone get Porlyusica."

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AN: Dannis has made it to Fairy Tail! And we see the first meeting of him and Laxus.

I really like implementing proper rivalries on my characters. Those who read Warping Hero and Marionette would know this. This time, the friendship/rivalry between Laxus and Dannis will be an integral part to the story.