Scarlet Hair on the Beach at Sunset

Earth Land, Ishgar, Magnolia.

May 8, x776.

Instead of taking the morning to train after breakfast, Alfonzo returned to the kitchen and began cooking for his and Elicia's birthday celebration. Usually, they would have their celebration meal around dinner time, giving them the whole day to complete a C-Class or below quest. But since they were planning to take their first B-Class quest today, they decided to celebrate at lunch time so they could leave for their quest on the same day, in the evening.

While Alfonzo was cooking, Elicia was content to sit in the guild hall and work on some sketches for the new clothing she was designing. Meanwhile, Cana, Gray, Ultear, Laki, Alzack, Levy, Jet and Droy were in the backyard training as hard as ever.

"Hey, where is Elicia?" Evergreen asked as she entered the guild hall. "Is Elicia here?"

"I'm over here." Elicia replied energetically, yelling over the hustle and bustle of the Fairy Tail wizards who were already drinking in the morning.

Hearing Elicia's voice, Evergreen looked in the direction it came from. When she saw Elicia waving at her, she started walking toward her while reaching into a worg-skin purse that she was carrying.

*Bang!*

After reaching the table that Elicia was sitting at, Evergreen pulled her hand out of the purse and slammed it onto the table, causing the papers that were spread in front of Elicia to rustle a bit. When Evergreen pulled her hand back, it was revealed that she had slammed a stack of Jewels onto the table.

"I finally have the money." Evergreen said proudly. "Now, I want you to make that dress for me. But make it green, got it."

Picking up the stack of Jewels, Elicia began counting it carefully. Then, when she finished counting, she nodded in satisfaction.

"Sure." Elicia said with a smile. "I have no problem making the dress for you, I'll have to take your measurements again, though. You know that dress is pretty form-fitting, and I refuse to sell a dress that doesn't fit my client perfectly."

Nodding in understanding, Evergreen adjusted her glasses before she spoke again.

"When do you want to take my measurements?" Evergreen asked.

"If you're free, why don't we go back to Fairy Hills and do it now." Elicia suggested. "I'll be leaving on a quest that will probably take a few days this afternoon. So, if you can't do it now, we can do it after I come back."

"I'm free now." Evergreen said. "So, we can go now."

"Okay, let's go." Elicia said with a nod. "It should be ready before Fonzie and I leave for our quest."

Gathering her sketches, Elicia stood up and began walking toward the guild hall's front door with Evergreen following closely behind her. As they walked past the kitchen, Elicia turned her head in its direction and shouted.

"I've got to take some measurements for a dress, I'll be back before lunch is ready, though."

"Okay, I'll see you when you get back." Alfonzo replied from the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Evergreen was thinking about what Elicia had said before she stood from the table.

'So, Alfonzo and Elicia are taking a quest together, huh?' Evergreen mused. 'I guess I should tell Laxus.'

Over the last couple of years, Alfonzo and Laxus had not fought even once. However, it was clear to anyone who looked at them that they did not like each other very much.

Evergreen on the other hand had dropped most of her hostility toward Elicia. It was hard to stay mad at the person who made ninety-five percent of all the clothing you wore, after all. And she really did not have much hostility toward Alfonzo to begin with. Though her outward attitude would change drastically whenever she saw either of them when she was accompanying Laxus.

A few hours later, Elicia returned to the guild hall after taking Evergreen's measurements and cutting most of the necessary material needed to start producing the dress. At around the same time, the rest of the younger members of the guild also entered the guild hall.

"Hey everyone, how was today's training?" Elicia asked energetically.

"Everything went well." Laki replied while adjusting her glasses. "But now I need to feed my stomach."

Although they still found the way Laki spoke rather weird, everyone nodded in agreement with her statement.

"Well then, I guess you're in luck." Alfonzo said as he left the kitchen while using his [Metal Magic] to levitate a large metal platter that carried all the food he had prepared for the meal.

"Whoa, whose birthday is it?" Jet asked while his eyes lit up at the feast Alfonzo prepared.

Hearing that question, everyone looked at Jet as if they were looking at an idiot.

"It's Fonzie and Lici's birthday, you moron." Cana snapped while rolling her eyes.

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Jet replied with a scowl.

"So, you two will be taking your first B-Class quests today, right?" Levy asked, interest clear in her tone.

"That's right." Alfonzo replied as he started putting down all the food that he prepared on the table their group usually sat at. "We'll be taking this one together, too."

Although both Jet and Droy felt some jealousy when they heard how interested Levy was in the two older kids' quest, they also found themselves interested when Alfonzo said that he and Elicia would be going on the quest together.

"Don't you usually take quests alone?" Droy asked curiously. "Is this quest a particularly difficult one? Is that why you're taking it together?"

"Not really, it's only an investigation quest." Elicia said with a smile. "But before we even started taking quests, we both decided that we would take any quest below the B-Class alone."

"Right." Alfonzo added as he set the last dish on the table. "We thought taking lower ranked jobs alone would help us when it came to setting our foundations as wizards."

Although they all somewhat understood what Alfonzo's explanation meant, at the same time they had a few questions they needed answers to.

*Bang!*

However, before they could ask their questions, the doors of the guild hall were flung open, slamming into the walls they were attached to. When everyone looked back to see who had opened the door so violently, they saw Ur standing with her back to the light, smiling brightly.

"Well, I guess Aunt Ur is back." Alfonzo said as he took his seat.

"Don't call me 'aunt,' you little bastard." Ur shouted as she began stomping toward the table where the children were sitting.

As soon as she made it to the table, she reached down and pulled Alfonzo into a headlock while grinding her fist into the top of his head.

"Go ahead, call me aunt again." Ur said.

"Let go of me, old lady." Alfonzo said defiantly.

At that moment, a vein bulged on Ur's forehead as she gritted her teeth.

While Alfonzo struggled to get out of Ur's grasp, the rest of the children laughed at what has become a common sight whenever Ur returned from a quest.

"Hmph!" Alfonzo snorted as his face was squeezed into one of Ur's breasts. "if you don't let me go, you won't get any of the food I just finished cooking."

Immediately, Ur froze. Then, she looked at the spread that was laid out on the table and gulped audibly.

"*Whistle* You really went all out, didn't you kid?" Ur asked with a mischievous smile on her face. "What's the special occasion?"

Snorting once again, Alfonzo considered denying her from eating even if she let him go. However, he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop her if she decided she was going to have some of the food, so he kept his mouth shut.

"Come on, Ur." Elicia said with a giggle. "You know it's me and Fonzie's birthday."

"Oh, I guess it is." Ur said with a smile. Then, she dragged Alfonzo out of his seat and pulled him toward Elicia.

A moment later, she released Alfonzo from the headlock before she pulled both he and Elicia into a hug.

"Happy birthday, you two." Ur said with a happy smile on her face.

"Happy Birthday!" The rest of the children said as well.

After that, Ur released both Alfonzo and Elicia from her hug. Then, everyone took their seats. A moment later, they all began serving themselves from the variety of dishes Alfonzo had prepared.

"So, how was the quest, Mom?" Ultear asked.

"Yeah, you went on another S-Class quest, right?" Gray asked with interest shining in his eyes. "You were gone for three months this time, I think."

"That's right, it was three months." Ur said after chewing a mouthful of chicken parmesan. "And as far as the job went… Crap! I forgot to report to Master."

Immediately after that, Ur stuffed the food that was skewered on her fork into her mouth and rushed toward Makarov, who was sitting at his favorite spot on the bar with a plate full of all the dishes Alfonzo prepared.

Seeing Ur rush to report her quest, the kids could not help but laugh. Then, they continued to eat as they waited for Ur to return. When Ur eventually returned, she wasted no time telling the group of kids about her quest while they all ate.

Eventually, the meal ended, and everyone went about their own business. While Alfonzo returned to his dorm to make sure that he had packed all the essentials for his first B-Class quest, he could not help but think about his most important project.

'The cars are almost complete. The only things I'm missing are the fuel sources.' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'Finding large enough rechargeable lacrima crystals is turning out to be much harder than I thought it would be.'

Over a span of almost two and a half years, Alfonzo made a lot of progress toward his car project. So much in fact, that he had actually made three cars instead of just one. However, all three cards were forced to stop production because of the fuel source issue. Although lacrima crystals are quite common in Earth Land, rechargeable ones are much rarer.

"Oh well, I guess those lacrima will come when they come." Alfonzo said to himself with a shrug. "There's no point in stressing over something I can't do anything about, right?"

Like that, Alfonzo continued his trek back to the males' dorms. Then, after making sure he had everything he needed, he made his way to Fairy Hills to make sure that Elicia remembered to pack her own luggage.

Knowing that Elicia would be taking her first B-Class quest with Alfonzo today, the dorm supervisor and owner of Fairy Hills, Rucho Hammitt, the father of Chico C. Hammitt, another young Fairy Tail wizard, allowed Alfonzo to enter the all-female dorm to check on Elicia's progress when he arrived.

When Alfonzo arrived at Elicia's dorm room, however, things were exactly as he expected them to be. Elicia, who was busy sewing together pieces of fabric to make Evergreen's dress, was nowhere near ready to leave for the quest.

Currently, a pile of necessities was laying on her bed while her suitcase was only halfway packed with her clothing.

"*Sigh* You know making Evergreen's dress could have waited until we came back." Alfonzo said in an exasperated tone as he began neatly packing Elicia's luggage.

"But she gave me the money ahead of time." Elicia said without even looking up from her work. "So, I couldn't make her wait like that."

Only shaking his head in response, Alfonzo continued to pack Elicia's bags for her.

"Thanks, love you." Elicia said, still not looking away from her thread and fabric.

"Yeah, yeah, I love you too, Lici." Alfonzo said with a small smile on his face.

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Southeastern Coast.

A few hours later, at sunset, Alfonzo and Elicia finally caught a train to Lupinus town. At the same time the train pulled off, a small boat carrying a girl with long, bright, scarlet-red hair, brown eyes, and a dirty eye patch covering her right eye, washed up on the beach from the sea.

It was clear to see that the girl was not in very good shape. On top of appearing to be malnourished and wearing little more than a cloth that was tied together to mimic the appearance of a dress, she also had several, visible wounds that looked like they had not fully healed yet.

Before the boat was even firmly lodged on the beach, the girl jumped out of it onto the sand. Then, she looked in a certain direction.

"According to what the cultists said, I should have ended up in Fiore." The red-haired girl said. "I hope I didn't drift away from where I intended to be. Well, I saw a port town in that direction when I was approaching the beach. So, I guess I'll find out where I am if I visit it."

After that short conversation with herself, the girl wasted no time walking toward the town in the distance with steady and measured steps, making it look like her poor condition was not affecting her at all.