01 - Welcome to Addol-as
Cobra's Listening Magic/mindreading will be denoted by italicized and bold text.
Unseen in the crevice behind the wall, hardly breathing and not moving a muscle, Erik, Cobra to you, was listening hard, though it was hardly necessary. The members of Fairy Tail were investigating a message on the altar that must've appeared-no, had just recently appeared, so he wouldn't have seen it.
"Can you hurry up?"
"Just give me a minute, it's not easy."
"It can't be that hard or you wouldn't be able to do it at all."
"Unless you wanna do it, Gajeel, shut up."
His ear twitched at the sounds of more magic being used. The script mage, Levy, was deciphering text that wasn't native Fiorean. Different style, different phonics, the only things that were the same were most of the letters.
"Ah...ash...no, ants. No, answer. It says 'answer'."
"Write back! Quickly! Put it in their script and ours, ask what's going on. We might be dealing with spirits. Are we sure there's nothing invisible in this room?"
"Pretty sure, old man." came the voice of the Scorpion, and Cobra heard in his head that it was true. "No spirits in here 'xcept me."
More sounds, lights, from a magic seal. "I've written it out, if all that needs to be done is to write it on the altar, then whoever wrote on it before should get our message. Mind you, there's no guarantee this is even inter-world stuff, even if the text isn't any Fiorean we haven't seen."
Maybe around a minute passed. Cobra heard the answer in her head before she spoke it.
"Look! There's something there!"
"Well don't just stand there, translate it!"
We...are...
"Acc...I mean, Add, it says Add. Addle, Addolo, I think. Rito? Rato? Rahto? Wait, it's one word-Addolorato, I see now.
"Keep reading, anything else?"
"Yes!"
Cobra's ear twitched more persistently as he listened in.
Addolorato...our...our country...
"I think..."
where...
"Okay okay, the message is coming from a place called Addolorato, they want to know where this message is coming from."
"Tell them 'Earthland' but not Fairy Tail-"
Because we don't want them knowing too much in case they're hostile.
"Okay, here goes."
Within ten long minutes, in which time Cobra had started to get serious aches, it had been determined, with help from the Scorpion and Levy, that the message came from a place called Addolorato (pronounced AH-doh-loh-RAH-toh), and that that place did not have any idea what Fiore was, although they did recognize the term Earthland. Who "they" were was not entirely clear. Addolorato, quickly nicknamed by Natsu "Adol-as", definitely was capable of using magic as well, as if the ouija-bourd-like altar wasn't a big enough hint.
Had Cobra not been able to listen in the way he did, he'd never have believed contacting another world, or at least another country, could be this...easy. As it was, it still seemed too good to be true that a dimension had been crossed. Then again, Celestial Wizards did that all the time. He'd have to get a hold of Sorano and ask her about that some time. Plus, they were in the middle of a desert.
"Who's putting in the messages? Ask them if they know anyone from a place called Edolas. Maybe Addolorato is a part of it?"
Seconds passed...
There was a disappointed groan from Natsu when Levy revealed that no, the people they were communicating with had never heard of Edolas either. Who was writing the messages, however, was 'President G of the Capital' if Levy was reading it right, along with 'several comms wizards' and 'two representatives of state'. When the question came through of who was being communicated with on their side, the answer of a lightning wizard, an iron wizard, a fire wizard, a script wizard, a knight wizard, three transformation wizards, a water wizard, a sky wizard, an ice wizard, and a celestial wizard, along with a celestial spirit, and their master. And, (as an afterthought) three cat wizards as well. They didn't mention the guild, as they hadn't been given the organization to which there was a president or a capital.
This took a painful amount of time to put on the altar, which Lucy noted resentfully. It also took a noticeably longer time to get an answer back, but when they did, there was an absolute flood of text, so much so that most of the altar was covered. The script mage went on to decipher it, and it looked like the Addoloratians...Addolorans...Addolites? Whatever they were, they had gone nuts at the mention of a celestial wizard.
From what was being said, it seemed that they had wondered at length how Lucy had managed to "capture" a celestial spirit. At this, Scorpio (sounding rather offended) announced that he'd be back if Lucy needed him. This made no change that Cobra could tell in the quality of the messages which, from that point on, came back almost instantly.
Celestial spirits seemed to be a problem for the other end, and at this point the messages were clamoring for help with some sort of problem. By this time everyone was certain that it was another world being communicated with, for Celestial Spirits could almost certainly be no large-scale problem for an entire state in Earthland. There was a long gap between the replies while the guild members debated on what to do.
"We don't want something like another Faust..."
"How do these people expect us to help? How're we supposed to get there?"
"And what if we can't get back? What if we're turned into a lacrima again?"
"We can't know any of this." came Makarov's voice. "And I refuse to take simple word for it. On the one hand, if we were to help, we could get compensation, and therefore it would be much like taking a job, but..."
"We'll not be forgetting who they asked for help from, really, will we?" Interrupted Lucy's timid voice.
"We should ask for a way to jump to wherever they are, and proof that they are not hostile. Unless they can provide it, we will not be going anywhere. Are we agreed?"
There was a murmur of assent broken only by disappointed groans from Natsu and Gajeel.
"Very well. Levy, if you will?"
Silence...
"They say it'll take time to make but that an attempt will be made."
"Will tomorrow be enough time?"
More silence...
Yes.
"Yes!"
"In that case, let's leave for now."
Does this story sound okay? It's hard to write it without being self-conscious, really. Leave a review, even though it's somewhat early, if you want.