He walks through the forest, while looking at the ground. A sad look on his face. He stops and looks up at the blue sky above him. Everything looked so peaceful, and silently he wishes that it could always be that way.

He tried to find an isolated area. And area where he knew he wouldn't harm that many victims. An area where he could just be alone and that was only one place he knew.

Tenrou Island.

There weren't many inhabitants, save for a few species of animals. But they never approached him willingly.

He walks around the forest and stops when he sees something. Maybe his eyes were deceiving him.

A child, a boy was there in the field walking. He had long blue hair in a braid. A ruby on his forehead and he was dressed a white shirt that showed his midriff with a red sash wrapped from his shoulder to his waist, which held a short staff. He was also wearing white fluffy pants, a ruby gem on his forehead and a flute around his neck. His attire seemed way far from normal.

The boy's blue eyes caught sight of him and he began to make his way and the black mage freezes, slightly frightened.

Move. He thinks to himself but he can't. Instead he watches as the small child stops a few steps in front of him, a small, innocent smile on his little face.

"Hey mister!" He says holding his hand out. "I'm Aladdin! A traveler!" He greets.

Instead of doing what he wanted to do and get away far as possible he takes a deep breath and says, "What are you doing here, on this island?"

The boy puts his hand down and tilts his head to the side. "Hm? I was looking for other people! Ugo says I should look for people and ask where to go. But you're the only I've seen so far mister."

The black mage turns around and takes a step forward, making the child drop his smile and take on a look of confusion. "You should leave-"

And it happened, the thing he dreaded the most. First the unbearable pain in his head slammed into him and he takes his head into his hands, bending over and groaning.

"Mister..?"

"R...un..." He manages to choke out to him, he can feel it. It'll only be a matter of seconds unt-

And it did.

He didn't want to look back at where the little boy was. He didn't want to look at the area around him because he knew that there would be nothing there. Just death. He takes a shaky breath and slowly stands up.

"M-mister..." The small voice came and a tug on his cape. He freezes and slowly turns around to see the little boy staring up at him with wide eyes and clutching his dark robe, a look of confusion on his face. The raven stares at him in shock, mouth agape. Were his eyes playing tricks on him? Was he really there unharmed?

"Mister?" He asks again and this time the raven gathers his mind." Are you okay? " He says nervously to the child making sure not to scare him away and to also see if it weren't his imagination. The child tilts his head to the side. "Mhm! What was that a type of magi? I've never seen it before." he says getting a little excited at the end of his sentence..

A feeling of excitement washes over the raven as he looks at the boy, but he doesn't show it on the outside. "Yes, it was magic. Why weren't you affected?" he questions him and the boy looks off around them.

"the rukh!" he answers cheerfully and the black mage stares in confusion. "Rukh?" he questions aloud. The little boy nodded "They protected me. Didn't you see them? They're right around us." he whispers.

Now it was the elders turn to look confused.. Instead of questioning further he asks, "What is your name?" The boy looks at him, wide blue eyes staring into his soul.

"Aladdin. What is yours?"

"Zeref." he answers and he suddenly felt frightened if the boy would recognize the name. If he did he would run away and he was the only person not affected by his magic. Which meant he didn't have to be alone, he didn't have to suffer anymore and wait for his ending.

A smile comes across Zeref's face as Aladdin grins up at him. "Zeref-san can you teach me magic like that? Ugo-kun has never taught me that type before!" zeref tilts his head to the side before slowly closing his eyes and he lets out a sigh of relief. "Yes Aladdin, I'll teach you everything I know." he whispers softly while placing his hand on the boy's head.

I decided to do it a few years after Natsu joined fairy tail. It was originally during the Mavis and Zeref timeline. But I changed it.