"I'm telling you, the First Master having a sweet tooth is something the old Master told me himself. He heard it straight from the Second Master, who founded the guild alongside her personally. The old Master even made a point of telling me to pass it down properly to the next generation, so no one forgets the First Master's deeds or what she liked."
"The old Master told you that specifically? Sounds like he really was grooming you to take over, Fourth Master."
"Ugh, don't call me that. That title makes me feel like I've got one foot in the grave already. I've got no interest in becoming Master anyway, cleaning up after idiots like Natsu and Gray every single day."
The sound of their easy banter felt strikingly out of place against the quiet stillness of Tenrou Island.
At that moment, a small blonde girl, sitting cross legged and barefoot atop a gravestone, looking utterly bored, twitched her little wing shaped ears.
"Visitors? Are they young ones from the guild? How exciting, it's been ages since anyone came to see me."
Mavis, starved for the company of living people after so long, couldn't help swinging her short little legs with excitement the moment she sensed someone had landed on the island. Once she managed to make out what the two of them were actually saying, her adorable little ears, along with the tuft of hair sticking straight up from her head, wiggled happily along with her mood.
"How nice, the guild's kids still remember me. Makarov really is a good boy~"
But her little cowlick had barely bounced twice before she tilted her head, brow furrowing in confusion.
"Is the Fourth Master short lived or something? Why doesn't this child want to take over the guild? And who are Natsu and Gray? I'm curious now, I kind of want to go see the guild as it is today."
After spending so many years alone on Tenrou Island, Mavis found herself missing guild life more than she'd realized.
"Well, for now, let's stay hidden and see what these young ones from the guild are up to."
Murmuring to herself, she drifted slowly up off the gravestone and settled into a spot within the shadow of a tree branch, somewhere unlikely to be noticed. Being in ghost form, she gave off no presence at all, so she wasn't worried about being spotted even at close range.
She waited quietly like that for about ten minutes before a man and a woman finally came into view.
'Here they are. Two faces I don't recognize. New recruits the guild's picked up over the years, maybe some real talents?'
Curious, she watched their movements closely, her small feet swinging again without her even noticing.
At that same moment, Kabe suddenly stopped in his tracks, tilting his head up and scanning the area left and right.
"What's wrong, is something off?"
Seeing his reaction, Ultear scanned their surroundings too, but couldn't spot anything unusual.
"No, nothing. Just got a sudden feeling like someone's watching us from somewhere."
As he said it, the corner of his mouth curled up slightly.
'The First Master probably never expected that ghosts give off a presence too. It's faint, so faint that I only picked up on it because I'm close by, but hide and seek isn't going to work on me.'
Sensing that faint trace of presence overhead, off to the upper right, he privately congratulated himself. Ultear, however, was thoroughly spooked by his words. She grabbed onto his arm and glanced around nervously, her voice tight.
"Y, you're not trying to scare me, are you? There's no one here."
Her eyes drifted instinctively toward the lone gravestone standing beneath the big tree, and she swallowed hard, her voice tense.
"C, could it be the First Master's ghost..."