This is not to be taken seriously and will most likely stay a one-shot story.
Nowhere in Particular
Contrary to popular belief, most epics, and many fireside tales; Lina Inverse was not always a money-grubbing, bandit-stomping, world-saving heroine. At one time, she was a young, sweet and innocent little girl. During that time she played with dolls; read stories about beautiful princesses, handsome princes, and evil sorcerers. A completely normal little girl; except, she practiced magic as taught by her sister.
Ah yes. Magic taught by Luna, human host of Ceipheed. Ceipheed, being the god of light and eternal nemesis of Shabranigdo, was very used to the magical abilities of Dragons and Mazoku. He had never in his seemingly eternal existence tried teaching a human magic. This was where things stopped being mundane and became... interesting.
Lina, who at the time was called Celina, was talented with human magic. She had a terrific knack for shamanism, was fair to passable with white and frankly terrifyingly deadly with black. However, Ceipheed was not human, not human at all. And being inhuman, he expected far more from poor little Celina than any other human magic instructor ever would have. Thus, when Celina failed to match his expectations, he, or rather Luna, would punish her.
The punishments were not life-threatening, nor were they permanently debilitating. There would be no physical long-term damage to Celina. She would be fine; however, since Celina was an Inverse, she possessed an amazing amount of stubbornness. So much in fact that if a sorcerer threatened to fireball her if she didn't get out of his way, she'd not only remain in place and take the fireball she would even dare him to up the ante. Such is the way of all the Inverse Clan.
This innate stubbornness combined with severe dislike of teasing over physical failings forced Celina to improve immensely. Not only did she gain several times the magical capacity of a normal wizard, she also also started casting spells beyond the ability of the head of the local Sorcerer's Guild. It was just after she dragon-slaved aforementioned Guild Director that she was awarded the title of Celina the Pink. Not wanting to have that embarrassing color associated with her name she promptly had them append the new title to include her hastily created stage name of Lina. So, from then on it was not Celina Inverse who was the up-and-coming Sorcery Genius, but Lina Inverse. She was quite content to practice her skills and become stronger until after Luna/Ceipheed decided to teach Lina god-magic.
God-magic is the opposite of the black magic that draws its power from either a Mazoku lord or Shabranigdo himself. As would be expected, god-magic comes from one of the four dragon lords or Ceipheed himself. Since Lina was sealed in the god-sealing barrier, she could not draw on the dragon lords' power due to the fact they were outside. However, inside her sister was the god of the four dragon lords; she had no problem finding a power source. Although, being the only one who had the ability to draw on Ceipheed's power did make her stand out. Not that that was a problem, unless Lina did something to make Luna mad at her.
What a day that had been. It was quite a long time ago and I'm sure Lina would prefer not to relive it. She had been drawing on Ceipheed's power to create a realistic, three-dimensional, meter-sized illusion of Luna taking a bath. It was purely fictitious and in retrospect, it is very possible that Luna would have been pleased that Lina was showing so much talent at creating such an original spell. If only Lina hadn't decided to make the bath a cold one, and if only Lina had not decided to charge 5 gold coins for a two minute showing to the local boys.
While Lina had not actually seen enough of Luna unclothed to make it truly accurate, for some strange reason, Luna took offense. Not to say that Luna was perturbed; actually, she nearly leveled the town trying to punish Lina. It was at this point Lina decided to selectively forget god-magic and stick to the time honored spells of her ancestors. Most likely because as long as she used god-magic, Luna could track her anywhere; Lina promptly ran further then her legs could carry her and as she collapsed, she was struck by the idea of becoming a bandit hunter to fill her coin purse and her empty stomach.
To be quite honest, it wasn't an idea that truly struck her then. It was an arrow. To be even more honest that arrow struck just slightly to the left of her. However, her flare arrow was right on the mark as it impacted on the bandit that had shot the badly aimed arrow. Suffice it to say, there had been more then one bandit, and suffice it to say, she made short work of the other bandits. She also made short work of all the bandits' coin purses and increased the weight of her's a great deal.
On that day, when Lina's hometown was basically burning to the ground and Luna was hunting for her missing little sister, Lina was having a gigantic dinner. On the next day; however, she walked into a clothing store, bought a sorceress' outfit and embarked upon a myriad of adventures and harrowing journeys. Not because she felt the need to continuously risk her neck, but because she feared her sister would catch up with her. To that end, she is still adventuring, first with a women in a black bikini and more recently with a blond swordsman, a princess, a grumpy chimera, and a dashing trickster priest, as well as a few others.
As for the reason I have told you this intimate tale of Lina Inverse's childhood... That is a secret... Bye Bye!
Explanations:
This story was based on only a few points from canon. Everything else was pretty much created by me. However, I am not sure whether I created the "magically create picture of Luna and sell viewing time to local boys" from canon or spliced it together from a fellow author's fanfic. If it is the latter instead of the former, then my sincerest apologies. Gomen Nasai If said author emails me with proof it is their original creation then I will either change the story or include credit to the author.
Mazoku are basically demons under Shabranigdo, the Demon king who is himself under L-Sama, The Lord of Nightmares and creator of the whole world. The Mazoku feed on negative emotions like anger, fear, and hatred, that is the source of their power. As mentioned above, most black magic comes from high level Mazoku; the white magic used within the barrier is actually something entirely different from what it was supposed to be. As far as I know, true white magic should come from Ceipheed and other high Ryuzoku. I may, however, be wrong about this, but it helps make the story better, so who cares?
Dragons or "Ryuzoku" are the enemies of the Mazoku. Their God is Ceipheed who at the beginning of time fought Shabranigdo in a supposedly eternal struggle. It, of course, did not last forever. He used most of his power to divide Shabranigdo into several pieces, seal him away, then went into a deep sleep. Later on, when Lei Magnus reawakened a piece of Shabranigdo, Ceipheed, along with the Water Dragon King, sealed him away in the North Pole. This thoroughly taxed Ceipheed to his limits and he reposited his spirit into the body of his Knight, Luna Inverse.
I have lousy grammar, but I do try. If you like my work and would like me to write more fiction, please email me and encourage.