Chapter 6: Washed Up

Polaris walked towards the shore yawning. The storm from the previous night had washed up tons of debris which he was then sent out to clear. The sun was still low in the sky and the air chilly. Broken pieces of wood and metal littered the beach. As Polaris walked along, he examined each item before sorting it into different piles based on the material. A tuft of black hair caught his attention and he rushed over. Checking for a pulse Polaris stood and rushed the young boy back towards the village.

Blinking Calder slowly opened his eyes only to wince from the sun. Groaning he rolled, attempting to move away from the light, only to have his muscles scream at him in pain.

"You awake?"

The unfamiliar voice instantly alerts Calder and he pushes to stand only to yelp and fall back on his knees. He looks up with wide eyes at the strange man on front of him. He had long shaggy brown hair that was tied back. He was lean but fit with piercing grey eyes. The man steps back, hands held up nonthreateningly, "Sorry, my name's Polaris. I didn't mean to scare you Kid."

Calder flinches at the familiar nickname, "Gajeel." He rasps out while frantically looking around, "Where is Gajeel?"

"I don't know who Gajeel is Ki…" He stops himself after Calder's reaction, "You were the only one we found on the shore." Calder let out a strangled gasp, feeling himself panic. It was all his fault.

"Shhhh." A voice tries to soothe. Polaris stands closer, but still not touching. "You're okay, but you need to breathe. Come on, take a deep breath in." Calder tries to do as instructed and takes a deep stuttering breath that catches in his throat. "That's it, nice and slow. In…and out. In…and out." Calder isn't sure how much time passes, but eventually he's able to even out his breathing.

"Water?" He asks, voice ruff. Without a word Polaris is gone, returning quick with a large glass of cold water that Calder quickly gulps down. His magic hums slightly and it soothes his throat. Once he's done another glass replaces the now empty one in his had and he happily drinks that one down as well. A third glass is placed in his hands and he starts to slow down, sipping this one as he looks up at the man. "Thanks."

"No problem." Polaris smiles a bit in relief, "You feeling a bit better?" Calder grimaces, but nods. "Anything else I can get you?" Shaking his head Calder looks down at his feet. "Alright, just let me know if that changes, we should probably get some food in you soon." There's a moment of silence between the two before Polaris sighs, "I don't want to get your hopes up, but there is a chance this Gajeel washed up somewhere else."

Calder shrugs, "He wasn't doing great before the storm separated us." Thinking of how sick Gajeel had looked he whispers, "I should've listened to him."

Polaris sighs again, "Kid," another flinch, "Sorry. Look…You can't change the past. The only this you can do is learn from it and move on." He chuckles a bit sadly, "Trust me dwelling on your mistakes is no way to live." As the silence stretches on he stands, "I'm going to make you some soup, give a shout if you need anything."

Polaris leaves and Calder thinks over everything. The fight with Gajeel, his denial of the truth and what it cost him. "I'm so sorry Gajeel." He chokes out as he cries, "You were right. I shouldn't have lost control and I should have listened." He sniffles, "Maybe then you'd still be here." Taking a deep breath, he shakes his head, "I shouldn't assume the worst." He tries to stand only to fall back to the bed. "Once I'm healed I'll find you." He promises to himself.

An hour later Polaris returns with a bowl of warm soup, silently handing is over. "Thank you, Polaris." Calder manages a watery grin, "My name is Calder James by the way."

Polaris smiles, "Nice to meet you Calder. How are you feeling?"

Calder carefully moves his muscles around bites of soup assessing the damage, "Sore."

"Well you're welcome to stay here as long as you like; at least long enough for you to heal up." He lets out a short laugh, "Not that I think you could leave right now if you wanted anyway."

Calder laughs a bit with the older man, "Thank you, I do appreciate it." He fiddles a bit with the now empty bowl, "Any chance I could get some more of that soup? It's very good." He pauses then smiles sheepishly, "And some more water if it's not too much trouble."

"Sure Calder." Polaris gets up and pauses at the door, "Do you want to talk about what happened when I get back?" He shifts from foot to foot, "Sometimes it helps instead of holding it in." He laughs again, "But don't be afraid to tell me to mind my own business. I'm told I can be a bit nosy."

"Maybe after some more soup." Calder sticks his tongue out at him before laughing as Polaris just shakes his head and leaves with a grin on his face.

After some more food Calder tells Polaris the short version of what happened. That him and Gajeel were looking for their parents when things had gotten heated and they had lost control in the storm before getting separated in the waves. He left out that his magic was the cause of said storm. Polaris was right, he wasn't strong enough to head out yet and the last village he lived in had been against mages, better to be safe until he got to know him further.

Afterwards he told Polaris that he wanted to sleep. Once the older man was gone, he let his body relax and looked out the window towards the ocean. Sleep came easily, his body feeling heavy. Tomorrow would be a new day.

~~A New Life~~

Calder quickly began to heal. A couple days after he awoke, he slowly made his way outside with Polaris to sit in the ocean breeze. The two had slowly been getting to know each other, Calder still tentative to fully trust.

"What is it you do Polaris?" When the older man turned to look at him, he flushed a bit, "I mean, I've been here a couple days now and I haven't seen you leave to fish or anything."

"It's fine." Polaris laughed, "Well, you see, I used to be an adventurer." At Calder's wide eyes he grinned, "Really! I traveled the lands of the Alvarez Empire helping people where I could."

"The Alvarez Empire?" Calder interrupted, confused.

Polaris paused, "Yeah, the largest country on Alakitasia?"

Grimacing Calder looked down, embarrassed, "The only place I've heard of by name is Fiore. I don't even know where exactly the island I was born on is."

Polaris hummed, "Well Fiore is part of Ishgar, which is the continent east of us, across the ocean." Calder nods slowly, trying to understand. Polaris continues, noticing the confusion, "There's a pretty good library in the nearby city. I'm sure they have some maps we could take a look at so you can have an idea what I'm talking about." He grins, "The only way to get there is by walking, but we could make it work."

Calder smiles, "That could be nice."

"As I was saying," Polaris continued, "I traveled across the lands and used my magic to help out those that I could."

"You can do magic?"

Polaris chuckled at the interruption while Calder mumbled a sorry. "It's alright to be curious Calder. Yes, I can do magic. Reconstruction magic to be specific."

"Reconstruction magic?"

Looking around Polaris reached out towards an old hammer laying next to the fence. "With my magic I can take an object, like this hammer, and turn it into something new." There's aa moment before the hammer in his hands seems to crumble to dust. Then that dust swirls around and reforms into a hatchet. Polaris gives it a little bit of a swing before handing it to Calder. Calder examines the tool, impressed. "It's easiest to transform to something similar or made up of the same components, but it's a trick that can come in handy."

"How does it work?" Calder looked up at him with wide, excited eyes.

"What I'm actually doing is deconstructing the original object to its base particles, then I'm rearranging those particles into a new form." Polaris explains, "There are much more impressive magics out there, but I make do."

"This is amazing Polaris." Calder continues to examine the hatchet, "I've never seen anything like this before." He looks up and reaches out to return the hatchet to Polaris, but he grins and pushes it back into his arms.

"You can keep it. Maybe it'll come in handy." He ruffles Calder's hair a bit, "Consider it a gift."

Looking between Polaris and the hatchet Calder comes to a decision. He reaches out with his magic and pulls some of the water out of the air and lets it swirl around him before he lashes out with one arm and three spears of water strike out at a tree, leaving a mark before splashing to the ground.

"You're a water mage!" Polaris grins happily.

"Well I'm actually a water dragon slayer." Calder laughs, "But it's probably best to not show off my more destructive abilities."

"Really?" Polaris let out a breath, "I thought all the dragons had died out 400 years ago."

Shrugging Calder looked out towards the ocean, "I don't know anything about that, but my dragon, Cordelia, disappeared a year ago. Same with Gajeel's." He trailed off into a whisper.

"Is that how you and Gajeel met?" Polaris prodded gently.

"Yeah." Calder couldn't fight the grin, "Cordelia and Metalicana, Gajeel's dragon, have known each other for ages. The two of us grew up like brothers when we were together. He's an iron dragon slayer."

"You'll have to show me sometime." Polaris looks around, "Away from the village maybe."

"That's probably a good idea." Calder narrows his eyes, "Wait you never told me what it is you do here in the village. Something to do with your magic I'm assuming?"

"Ah right right." Polaris settles back down, "Yes, there isn't much more to the story. I used to travel and help people with my magic. Of course, I never really took on combative requests, though I am trained in hand to hand combat. Instead I would help out with small things. Helping a farmer rebuild his barn, that type of thing. Eventually I grew tired of wandering and came across this village. I have an agreement with the villagers; I help fix up any broken items and clear up the shore when the tide brings in debris after storms by turning it back to its base components. In return I can live here in peace, my own little retirement if you will."

"Sounds like a good trade." Calder stifles a yawn, the sky beginning to grow dark.

"Common," Polaris stands and jesters back towards the house, "You should get some more rest."

Together they head back inside, enjoying some food before separating for bed. Calder was comfortable here. In some ways it reminded him both of his home village and his time at the shore with Cordelia, Gajeel, and Metalicana. It was bittersweet, both a comfort and painful. Polaris was kind and seemed to make it his goal to make Calder laugh. He seemed to thrive off the laughter of others and he genially seemed to care for Calder though they had only known each other for a couple days.

As Calder tossed and turned, trying to sleep, he thought of Gajeel. This could've been the perfect place for him and Gajeel to live. A place of both land and sea, with places nearby where they could both continue to learn.

The moon glowed bright over the ocean as Calder listened intently to see if Polaris was still awake. The house was quiet, Calder quickly gathered his things, including the hatchet. With soft footfalls he made his way through the house and out the gate. As he reached the water he looked back towards Polaris' house and down to the hatchet at his side. One day he would be back, but first he needed to find Gajeel.

In the dead of night, while everyone else was asleep Polaris watched the figure dive into the ocean. "Be careful out there, Hatchling." He whispers out into the empty night.

Hello Darlings!

How is everyone doing? What do you think of our latest chapter? This one kinda ran away with me, but I had a lot of fun writing it. I love Polaris, I hope you guys do too!

Tell me what you think here or you can find me on Tumblr as life-from-the-ashes

~Lystra