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[Year x770, a village on the eastern side of Fiore]
— Dannis Martell —
'What…What happened? Where am I?...' thought a child barely 8 years of age. He was lying still on the ground, with a cut right above his eyebrow. The blood from the cut dripped over his eyes, covering them in a layer of dark red.
"Hey look at that! The kid is still alive!"
"Stop messing around and just kill him. We already got what we came for. Boss will kill us if we're late."
'Wait what..? What are they talking about?'
The boy could hear muffled sounds of people talking. His head was still spinning and all he could see was the blurred surroundings. There was a ringing in his ear that contributed much to the headache that he could feel was growing in pain little by little. Everything was so delirious, he could barely make sense of anything.
"Alright alright, sheesh. Ya don't have to be so stuck up all the time y'know."
The sound of footsteps was getting louder and louder. He could also barely make out the sounds of burning and screams in the background.
'Last thing I remembered, mom was preparing dad and I dinner. We just sat by the dinner table, talking… and then…'
Not yet recognizing his incoming peril, he ignored the sounds around him and tried his best to remember. Memories flashed for an instant into his mind.
'My name is Dannis Martell. My parents were regular farmers and village workers. We were having just another normal day when…fire…explosions…and then…'
A stinging pain suddenly flared as the ache in his head grew even more. A painful throb that forced him away from the memory. That was when he felt someone grab him by the back of the neck and lift him up to eye level with his captor.
"Lookie here, sheesh you're all messed up." Dannis could barely see the look of insanity and blood thirsty smile of the man holding him up.
"That eye of yours looks pretty bad there kiddo, let me help with that."
He only had a second to prepare himself before the thug took out a knife and slashed him right at his left eye.
"AAGHHHH!"
Dannis screamed as the most pain he's ever felt struck at his nerves. He could hear the insane laughter as the man let him go. He dropped unceremoniously to the ground, both hands clutching his now injured eye.
"Oi, make it quick. We gotta go."
One of the bandits that spoke the first time reminded his friend, completely ignoring Dannis's bleeding state on the ground. The other bandits simply had smirks at the sight of the cruelty.
"Tch, fine then. Always ruinin' my fun." The thug mumbled as he walked closer to Dannis's small frame.
Dannis, still clutching to his injury, retreated as far back as he could, the blood creating a trail on the ground beneath him. But he soon found his back against the wall of the broken building that he barely recognized as his old home.
"Alrighty, hold still. This'll be over in 3, 2…"
Fear and pain was the only thing Dannis registered as he found himself in a place he couldn't run away from. His remaining eye showing unshed tears as panic for his own life reigned in his mind.
For the first time in his short life, Dannis's fight or flight kicked in. And something deep inside him awakened.
'DON'T COME NEAR ME!'
Dannis held out his hands that were covered in his own blood towards the coming bandit, he could feel something inside him raring to go out and he let it all go. Opening his one remaining eye, Dannis saw a wave of dark energy pulse out from his outstretched palms that pushed back all the thugs away from him.
"What was that?!"
"The kid has magic! Hurry up and kill him!"
"G-Got it!"
The bandit who cut his eye scrambled to get back up before raising his bloody knife and running in his direction. Dannis, who let out his first burst of magic, quickly found his body weakening as fatigue beyond anything he's felt before washed through his body.
'N-no…please, someone, help me…'
"DO NOT TOUCH THAT CHILD!"
A large fist suddenly crashed into the thug running after him before it sweeped the rest of the men, knocking all the bandits unconscious in one fell swoop. The fist slowly shrank in size as it stretched back and returned to his savior.
Standing on a raised hill was a balding old man with a thick white mustache. He was wearing a weird cloak that Dannis would years later realize as the cloak of the Wizard Saints.
Dannis could barely stay conscious as the old man walked up to him before analyzing him with a critical eye. That was all he could see before he fell into bliss unconsciousness.
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The crackling of flame was what alerted him as Dannis blearily stirred awake. He was lying on a broken log with a Wizard Saint cloak draped over his body, covering it from the weather. A dead deer was being cooked over a burning campfire with the old man from before sitting by the flames.
As Dannis slowly regained consciousness, he realized that his vision was blurry and he couldn't see clearly. He slowly sat up, trying to make sense of where he was and what was happening. He reached up to rub his eyes, only to be met with bandages covering the left side of his face.
He prodded the bandage for a while before realizing what it was and panic began to set in. He remembered everything that happened. His parents' deaths, the bandits burning down the village, the weird dark energy he could only assume was his magic, and how he lost his eye. Tears began as the realization that he had lost half his vision, his parents, and his home made him feel helpless and vulnerable.
That was when the old man from before approached him, sitting down next to Dannis on the same broken log.
"Hello child." the old man said with a gentle tone. "How are you feeling?"
Dannis didn't answer, still feeling dazed and confused.
"It's okay, you're okay." The old man prodded caringly. "Bad things have happened to you, and I'm very sorry things turned out this way. If I arrived just a little bit earlier, you might not have suffered that injury, your parents might still be alive."
Dannis clenched his fists, anger, grief, and fear prevalent in his mind.
"But we can't always be stuck in what ifs. It's natural to feel scared, but remember that you are alive. You are okay. And that's reason enough to keep on going."
The old man then took Dannis by the shoulder and held him close to his chest.
"What you have to do now is make sure that the life you live now is not wasted. You're a fighter child, I can tell. You've got grit and determination, surviving that whole ordeal just proves it."
Dannis sniffled, rivers of tears slowly jutted out of his one eye. Wet spots could be seen on the old man's shirt that he dutifully ignored.
They stayed in that position for a while, until Dannis eventually calmed down and the tears dried off. After making sure that he was okay, Makarov went back to cooking and soon enough, they were both enjoying some delicious meat as they chatted into the night.
"Now then, can you tell me your name?"
"D-Dannis, sir. Dannis Martell." Dannis introduced himself. "But my parents usually call me Danny."
Seeing the obvious discomfort the boy was at being reminded of his parents, the old man simply opted to use his full name. "Dannis it is, then. I saw what you did back there, with your magic. Was that the first time you used it?" The old man asked.
"Y-Yeah." Dannis replied, somewhat nervous with his eyes downcast. "All I remembered was being scared and helpless. I wanted them to get away. And then it just…happened."
"Hmm, must've been your magic awakening. Emotions do play a huge part in you forming your own magic…" The old man muttered, clearly thinking of something. "You've awakened your magic and you've got no place to go. Say Dannis, what's your plan now? Do you have anywhere I could take you? Some relatives, perhaps?"
Dannis shook his head, the reminder of him no longer having any family casted a deep sadness and hatred for those bandits inside him. Being oblivious to Dannis's inner thoughts, the old man continued.
"Well then, how do you feel about joining a magic guild?"
"A magic guild? I mean sure, but do you think any magic guilds would take someone like me? It's not like I have anything to give them."
Dannis was somewhat surprised by the grin that the old man suddenly gave him. "Oh, I never introduced myself to you, did I?"
The next words said would often be referred to as the eclipse of Dannis's Life. The moment that defined the beginning of the legend that Dannis Martell would one day create. The story of how he would one day be called The Dark Swordsman.
"My name is Makarov, a Guildmaster and a Wizard Saint. Now then, Would you like to join Fairy Tail?"
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AN: MC is born at X762, a year younger than Laxus.
MC will be a swordsman and is a user of Darkness Magic (not to be confused with Dark Magic in general). I'll be taking massive inspiration for his moves from other darkness users in fiction, with Yami from Black Clover being the biggest inspo.