Here we go, folks, the prologue for Soul Song! It won the poll, so as a present I prepared this short piece for you.

I wrote all the poetry myself, so please be gentle. And yes, I am aware of a couple of misspellings and one verse that doesn't rhyme. The verses are exactly as I want them to be for reasons.

Soul Song is going to be a lot darker than I initially anticipated. Also, it's a sister fic to Beyond The Gate. A lot of the world building that occurs here will impact events there, and vice versa. Just to forewarn you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

For the songs souls sing are perilous
Let not the sound of others lead thou astray
Follow only thine own
Lest the sweet tone
Pull thee beyond the gate

Small hands clutched the front of an elegant blouse, crinkling and ruining the fabric with sweaty palms. "Momma?" the blonde child asked, wriggling as close as she could to her mother's warmth. "Why do you tell me these stories?"

"Do you not like them, sweetie?"

Her daughter buried her face into her chest. "This one scares me," she murmured, while her mother stroke her hair comfortingly.

"Even though there's a gate?"

She nodded.

"Would you like me to sing you something else tonight, Lucy?"

"Yes."

Smiling, the older woman held her precious daughter close to her. "Alright then. We'll save the scary ones for daylight, okay?"

Stars and Skies and Souls
Exalt in thine choice
But fear those
Who would quiet thine voice

Pausing in its recitation, the shadowy dragon peered down at the tiny child huddled against its side. "Is there something the matter, Ryos?"

Frowning, the silent boy regarded his foster parent intently.

Knowing not to push, Skiadrum remained just as still as he awaited a response.

Finally, Ryos asked worry etched into his voice, "Skiadrum? What if… what if you're quiet to begin with?"

Spire of tortured souls
Rising to the tempest skies
Usher in the end of lies
For whom the bell tolls.

"Shitty lizard!"

Scales of metal scraped against the ground. "Vulgar brat," a booming, grating voice hissed at the boy at its claws. "Don't interrupt me!"

Crimson eyes stared back up at the dragon, unafraid of the creature's bulk and fangs. "Why the hell do I have to learn this shit? And whose fault do you think that is you shitty fu-"

The boy yelped and scrambled away as the dragon attempted to squash him with its tail.

Out of the broken, starless dark
Comes a faltering, shattered heart
Serpent's gaze aglow
Watch out below.

Flipping a page, the blond youth found no further information to shed light upon the passage he'd encountered. Confused, he turned back to the words.

The text revealed nothing further.

With a sigh, the book was once again shelved. So much for finding out more about this dragon lacrima thing his father had been curious about. Pulling another tome towards him, he flipped through it to find the information his father sought.

Out of souls came the sound
Now forgotten, then won
Relics come unbound
To swallow the sun.

"Whaaaat? That's weird. You're weird."

A harsh laugh erupted from lungs many times the size of a human's. Scorching air washed over the pink haired child, who pouted over being laughed at. "My boy, you're the strange one. I mean, look at that hair," the dragon snorted.

"My hair is cool!" the child declared, jumping to his feet. "You wanna fight me, Dad?!"

Rolling his eyes, the dragon knocked him over with a casual bat of his claw. "There. Fight one."

"I demand a rematch!"

Stars will come
With fire's storm
And soul's strum
Upon a new world born

Foliage tickled the man's face, and he relished the slight contact with something living. It was a rare gift, to be able to feel the frond's touch without it crumbling away.

However, his goal lay beyond so he allowed the leaves to fall away from him as he pushed forward. In the hollow space he came upon, nestled beneath the roots of a great tree, a stone monument stood testament to events long ago.

Kneeling before it, he ran a hand down stone worn smooth after a century of tropical rains and wind. Yet in the shade, for the day was still young, it was cool beneath his touch.

He remembered carving this long ago, for a friend sorely missed.

A soft glow emanated from the center of the grave, in a tiny hollow all its own. It flickered, as if aware and alive.

But it wasn't.

And neither was she.

Detestable friend
Won't thou lend
To me thine frailest fate
For in return I shall grant thee a Gate

Uncoiling its bulk, the blue and black dragon stretched within its lair.

The time was almost upon it. The time it could fulfill its side of the bargain.

Tick Tock Dragon's Drums
The tears of Sky
Bring Stars to a fall
And Metal folds
As the Storm rolls
Fire is snuffed
Dawn lies broken
Upon Dusk's dischord
And liberty is lost
For poisoned souls

"If they're poisoned, I'll heal them," came the firm declaration from the little girl. "You can teach me how to do that, right Grandeeny?"

Peering down at the bluenette nestled into her fur, the dragon contemplated her daughter. "There are many things our magic might mend," she rumbled. "However, there are some things beyond even a dragon's abilities."

The knowledge soaked into the child's brain much as molasses during winter might. "I don't understand. We're healers. We heal."

Chuckling, Grandeeny nuzzled the one she loved most in the world. "That is true. Perhaps, if you practice very hard, you'll surpass me and be able to heal souls."

Nodding, the girl held on tightly to her mother. "And then I'll teach it to you."

Son of Shadows
Daughter of Light
Step into a future so bright
One overlooks its gallows

It was futile, she knew, to reach out to him, though she did so anyway. Placing a diminutive hand upon the man's shoulder, she watched as he shook with the force of his sobs. There were so many things she'd wanted to tell him. So many things she still needed to say.

"I know you're there," he whispered.

Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.

There was something cruelly ironic about ghosts being able to cry.

Find not the Serpent's Wheel
Left in the monster's wake
For while it heals
It plots its prison break

The pale, effervescent dragon stared at his adopted child as he cringed upon the forest floor. "What are you doing, Sting?"

Groaning, the very young blond child peering up at his parent from the ground. "Urgh. I feel sick. Weisslogia… talk about something else…"

Blinking, the dragon stared at its disciple for a long moment before shaking its great head in exasperation. "You're motion sick just from the mere mention of a vehicle part? I chose this pathetic person to become a Dragon Slayer and inherit my magic? Was I high?" Groaning, the white dragon placed its head upon the ground and covered its eyes with its forepaws. "Skiadrum is going to hold this over me forever, I just know it."

Trust in Hell Fire's Daughter
To bring forth the final call
Or be lost all
To the ocean's slaughter

"Tell me again, Daddy!" A child with rusty locks flying behind her leapt at the gargantuan creature reclining against the mountainside. Eagerly, she buried herself into the flames that forever encased his form.

Instead of burning, the fire flickered and caressed the young girl, accepting her as kin.

The dragon chuckled. "My little Flare, you do love that story. Very well, I shall speak it to you once more – but then you must rest for the night."

She closed her eyes, and leaned into his skeletal frame. "I promise."

"Four hundred years ago, there was a war between the dragons, over the fate of the humans who also inhabited the world. But this story is not about that long, and bloody war. During the final battle, I fought alongside my king and friend, the dragon Igneel. Then, I suddenly found myself absent from his side."

"Why did you do that?" the girl yawned widely, eyes still shut.

"I heard a voice, and it called to me beyond a shining space…"

Oceans of water
Reflect seas of stars
Betwixt conflicting matter
Tides of destiny to shatter the bars.

Pitter patter went the rain.

Drip, dropping all over the place.

Juvia stared up at the sky from beneath her umbrella. She wondered what it was that everyone else was able to see beyond the clouds that enthralled them so, and caused them to revile her existence.

Not even the garish, false brightness of her umbrella could raise her sprits as yet another child shot her a dark look for bringing back the cold and the damp.

If water slipped down her cheeks, then she would call it tears from the sky, and not her soul.

Sing forth creation and destruction
Call into being your own salvation
For when the Gate of Souls opens
The worlds shall lie broken.

A little girl, with luminescent hair glanced up in the dark to peer at the shadows dancing across the cramped cell. A thin stream of moonlight flowed into the space, rippling along the uneven floor. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she hugged them and then rested her head upon them. "Erik? Where did you hear that song?"

Her dark haired companion paused, his manacles clinking softly as he shifted in place. "I… don't remember. Sorry, Sorano."

He couldn't bring himself to tell her that he'd seen it scrawled across one of the rocks they'd broken apart that day – in what appeared to be human blood. Now the stone lay in pieces at the bottom of the ocean, dumped into a deep trench like everything else torn out of the Tower's foundation. The words, however, refused to sink into Erik's subconscious. They floated on the surface of his mind – corpses tossed upon the beach.

"It's okay. Don't worry about it."

Erik looked at his friend, hunched under the window and her hair glowing in the pool of darkness there. "Why do you ask?"

She shrugged, the movement almost missed in the dimness. "I feel like I've heard it before, is all."

"Can you sing it again?" came another young voice in the dark. "It makes it easier to sleep."

"No problem. Just rest, Macbeth."

The full chapters for this story will be much, much longer and only come out about once a month because I want them to be PERFECT.

Please let me know what you think thus far.