"Do you have to go?" Karen whined, clinging to his coat, "stay here! Become a mage in Blue Pegasus!"

"No, Karen, I can't do that--"

Eir was troubled, but he guessed this was a normal thing with children. He's glad that, even in this world, children could act spoiled and adorable like this.

It was a little early in the morning-- the sun was just beginning to warm up the world from the cold dawn.

"Are you sure you're alright? You have a slight fever."

Eir flushed slightly when the older girl set a palm on his forehead.

Why was everyone in Blue Pegasus so beautiful? The ladies were gorgeous, the men were handsome, and even the teenagers were on the path of elegance and fashion.

(Oh wait. I'm a teenager.)

The Pretty-People guild, Yeah, he'll call it that.

"I'm fine..." he stepped away, dismissing their concerns.

His body heated up, his head didn't feel any less heavy than yesterday, and his fingers were cold-- but this was exactly why he needed to get back as quickly as he could.

He bowed, "thanks so much for your hospitality."

Against the worried eyes of the Blue Pegasus guild members, Eir excused himself, and set off on the route back toward Magnolia.

-

He made it across the mountain before he got caught up in a magic battle, nearly got decapitated, and was forced by the Mages involved to sit down and rest.

"The heck were you doing travelling with that kinda fever? You wanna die? Huh?!"

"Toby, shush."

Splashing some water from the river onto his face, Eir let out a sigh of exhaustion. The sun was high in the sky-- was it noon, now?

The group of three were around his age, though the tallest one, with a smooth bald head, looked about Reedus' age. The other two called him Jura.

They had been hunting magical beasts when Eir came in the way and nearly got himself caught up in some rather sharp rocks. Thankfully, Eir's reflexes prevented a lethal injury, but once they investigated the cause, they didn't let him leave.

He felt a hand on his forehead.

"Shirotsume is nearby. You should go to a clinic there," Jura said, gesturing in the opposite direction, "it wouldn't do to risk your health any further."

"Ah, no--" Eir quickly refused, "I'm in a rush. What I have isn't... something a clinic can deal with, so I'll need to head back to Magnolia first..."

"Magnolia? That's another three hours away by foot," the blue-haired one spoke up, a little taken aback, "you're not going to make it in your state."

"That's long!" the one with dog ears exclaimed.

"Why are you getting angry?"

Eir let out a dry laugh. Looking back into the stream, "once I get to Kunugi, I'll get on the railway and I'll be there in half the time. My guildmates will be worried if I don't make it home by evening."

The oldest of them scrunched up his brows, evidently frowning.

"Yuka and Toby, you two go on ahead and collect the reward," he said, "I am still worried, so I'll accompany this boy on the rest of his journey."

"Eh?" Eir stood, stunned.

"Okay, since Jura said so, we'll have to obey," Yuka muttered, sounding irritated but his body moving to retrieve the dog-boy from his yelping on the other end, "let's go, Toby."

"Because Jura said so?!"

"You're getting angry at the wrong thing, Toby."

And that's how Eir found himself with a babysitter. They waved Yuka and Toby away as they headed to the nearest town to report their catch. They agreed on meeting Jura back in the guild in the evening to divide their spoils, and then went on their way.

This time, when they started walking, Jura carried Eir's belongings and made sure to let the younger boy lead the route. They made their way at Eir's pace, and paused for breaks as often as he needed.

"So you're from Fairy Tail? We're from Lamia Scale."

Jura was a nice, very gentle giant once you got to know him. It's strange to find sixteen-year old wearing a kimono, much less in the forest, but Jura somehow made it his image.

"Lamia... it's down southwest from Magnolia, right?" Eir murmured to himself, "it's so close. And if I recall, you guys are a pretty strong guild too..."

"Humble words," Jura turned away, "Fairy Tail is rising up the ranks to be number one in Fiore. Lamia Scale is still nothing in your shadow."

Eir set a hand at his guild mark. Well, the guild was the show's namesake. By the time the story rolls around, it would most probably become the strongest this world had to offer.

But Jura-- Jura was strong, Just standing beside him, Eir could feel the overwhelming magic power this man had to hold. And unlike his own, this man had it all tamed and controlled. Maybe the key to it was how firm, how strong he stood.

Humble? Jura was the embodiment of the word.

"That's not true," Eir told him, "Lamia Scale is second only to Fairy Tail. So when the fairies are in a pinch, we'd have to turn to the lamias, right?"

They've only known each other for about an hour, but Jura already likes this kid.

-

"It's normal for you?" Jura was flabbergasted to hear.

"Yeah..."

Eir had barely managed to make it to the town, and by then Jura had to carry him the rest of the way onto the train.

"Before Master brought me to our magic doctor, this would just come in... well, waves," Eir made a vague gesture, "I was born with a bit too much magic, and apparently it isn't flowing in the right direction? So yeah. It kinda... misbehaves."

"And you get fevers?"

"I get anything," he all but groans, "it's bearable most of the time. People just overreact--"

"Taking care of yourself is not an overreaction!" Jura hissed at him, catching the attention of about half the train around them.

Eir flinched, arms up defensively in an old instinct.

"Oh uh-- sorry, just... I'm used to it," he tried, lamely, unable to look in that direction. "There's not much Porlyusica can do about the symptoms, but the medicine helps. Lowers my magic amount and improves the flow, that kinda thing. There's no permanent cure, so there's no sense in worrying about it..."

Jura stopped him there.

"I've changed my mind," he crossed his arms, "I am walking you to your guild."

"Wait, what?"

-

In hindsight, the Wheel of Fortune Card probably didn't point to love or a fateful counterpart of any sort. There was a slightly different meaning to it that people tended to mislook-- it usually called for a change in fate.

Jura marched into the guild, only to find Master Bob talking to Master Makarov in a Lacrima Crystal regarding the very child he was holding.

They then had a nice, long talk about a certain selfless little white-haired idiot. It was the closest the three guilds have ever come to communication in a long time.

Let's just say this incident with Eir did wonders in improving relationships between guilds, even though he wasn't particularly trying to.