Firelight [A Fairy Tail Fanfiction]

Prologue

Layla and Jude were a little anxious as they exited the doors of their long-time employment. Layla was heavily pregnant, their baby would be born within the next month or so, and setting out to build a shipping company of their own would be stressful under normal circumstances, but the overwhelming feeling from the couple was excitement. There may be challenges, but that's life, and they were excited to introduce their baby into the family.

Layla paused, not quite wanting to let go of the business that had brought her to her new family, and turned to get one last look at the place before they went.

Her laughter brought Jude to a stop beside her, turning to look back at his wife.

Layla snorted. "It appears that we work at the Love and Lucy," was all she said.

He started laughing just as hard as she did.

The sign, the one proclaiming that the shipping business was the Love and Lucky, had been wearing down over the past few years, the aging caretaker pushing back fixing it up, and the effects showed. Where the 'k' had been was only a shadow, the old wooden letter lying in the grass.

The couple laughed some more, jokingly stating that the old caretaker had no excuse not to repair the sign when Layla's laughter suddenly cut off.

The little baby, hearing the laughter of its parents, decided to join in on the fun, kicking almost in time with her parents.

Jude placed his large hand on Layla's stomach and leaned in close to the baby, as though he was listening. "What was that?" he questioned. 

"Jude, what-" Layla began, but Jude hurriedly shushed her. 

"Quiet now, I'm having a very important discussion. Please do continue, child." He had a very serious expression, listening intently, before standing up with a decisive nod. "Well, that's that, then!" Jude chuckled, "She's decided, her name will be Lucy!"

"What?" Layla chuckled. "You can't name our baby after a damaged sign, that's just mean!"

Jude shrugged. "You're going to have to take that up with our little princess, she was quite adamant about it."

"The baby might not even be a girl!"

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The baby was indeed a girl, and her name was Lucy Heartfilia. She was small, delicate, and her parents were immediately in love.

Layla hardly left her side, not wanting to miss a single moment of her daughter's life. It seemed that every day their daughter did something extraordinary, the day that she rolled over, her first laugh, her garbled first words that might have translated to "more carrots", Layla was there for it all.

Layla was there for her first steps, her first run, first dance, everything.

She was there the first time that Lucy used magic. If there was one time that Layla could have missed something, that would have been it. The two of them were digging in the attic for an old dress when, suddenly, Lucy stopped her excited chattering.

Her face was scrunched up like she was thinking very hard, and her little tummy gurgled unhappily. Lucy groaned, wrapping her arms around her middle.

"Mommy... don' feel good..." she whimpered.

It didn't take long, maybe half a second, for Lucy to collapse to the floor, but to Layla it felt like an eternity. Lucy's bony knees connected with the old dusty floorboards, a loud thump disturbing the quiet of the attic, but the noise and bruised knees weren't the primary concern.

The flash of golden light was unlike anything Layla had ever seen. 

A corona, a halo, a pulsating aura wrapping around the three-year-old, blanketing and spasming as Lucy shook. Wrapping, strangling, surrounding, caressing and tearing at the little girl, the magic power seemed... angry...