Revenge
Adamine glanced behind her to see Bickslow, Freed, and Laxus appearing from thick, green foliage. They were in a thickly forested region of Fiore, and it was midsummer. Wildflowers were in full bloom. Everything held a vibrant green like pure life. It was in places like this where she was the most powerful as an Adamantine Dragon Slayer.
She was in her element, the element of untamed wilderness.
It brought back fond memories of living with Firmalione and being attacked over and over again to toughen up. The adamantine scaled dragon's claws would glisten with their diamond points. Her mighty tail would swing to knock Adamine's body backwards against trees. Adamine would summon the rocks to rise from the earth or call upon the tectonic plates to create mighty caverns in the earth.
The rocks were her element. She was a part of the stone that made up the center of Earthland. Her body could mold with the grey, the diamond, and the adamantine.
She drank deeply of the water in her palm, losing herself in memories of the past. When she scooped up minerals in her palms, she didn't even pause in her consumption. She just chewed the stones up with her powerful fangs. Who knew that eating rocks could be so romantic?
"So here we have a dragon and a fairy drinking from the river. Should I start playing the harp, or can we get going?" Bickslow commented, getting Adamine to stick her tongue out in his direction. He just snorted.
Evergreen cast him a haughty look then pointed towards a waterfall. Bickslow had said that the mages Laxus and Freed had tied up in a tree had a hide out behind a waterfall. Adamine just hoped that Gajeel and Levy were there.
The weird thing was that there didn't appear to be any guards around. She cast a scowl then reached for one of her earrings. Before anyone could ask, Adamine commanded, "Lacrima of Lione, find the ones I seek. Script mage and Iron Dragon Slayer, lost fairies of Fiore."
Her emerald lacrima gave out a pulse as if it was obeying then Adam watched it hover like one of Bickslow's dolls before the light completely faded out of it. The lacrima fell down as if a soul had departed from it, and everyone raised their gazes towards a small stone that shot behind the waterfall. Adamine clipped the circular lacrima back onto its silver chain.
"What was that? Seith magic?" Freed questioned.
"Mmm? Oh. Na. It is just a little something Firmalione taught me. Since I'm a master over rocks, I can use certain ones to do some spying for me. Diamonds are the best for spying since they have a high luster. If we wait a little bit, I'll be able to show you the reflections it catches." Adamine glanced to the Raijinshuu and Laxus. They were eyeing her with some kind of new regard. Apparently, Adam had just proved once again that she was useful to them.
The sound of a falling rock echoed behind the roar of the waterfall, and Adamine unclipped the lacrima at her throat. It was the largest one that she wore.
She gently tossed it upwards to where everyone could see what was going on.
The sound of a rock bounding down the stone steps caught Gajeel's attention, and he lifted his head. He was tired, weary. Bruises dotted his face from being beaten down every time he tried to get to Levy. That damned Exceed looking dog kept him back. When he would try to kick her ass, she would just withdraw the strange staff that shrunk and grew according to her size.
Gajeel had no idea what the real purpose for that staff was, but he assumed that it must have been pretty important. It was well decorated and looked to be carved out of stone. There was a long cut at the upper part of the staff. Gajeel wondered what was supposed to come out from or lock into there.
The sound of the bouncing rock came even closer, and Gajeel glanced down to where Levy was lying unconscious. Her head was on his thigh. It didn't look like she was going to be moving much this morning. The diamond had landed right in front of her, and she hadn't moved.
She had come back later than usual. Gajeel had guessed that it was around three or four in the morning before she'd finally been drug half asleep into their stone cell.
He had to get them out of here. That Kalin bastard would be back in here at any time to wake Levy up and take her back to wherever it was he took her. She never came back hurt, just tired. Only Gajeel was the one getting beaten, and that was just because he always fought to escape whenever the cell door opened up.
Light poured in from the robed man opening the door to the underground cells. At his entrance, torches began to light themselves. The flames danced across Levy's unconscious body, and Gajeel wrapped himself protectively around the short mage.
Kalin didn't have Black Pearl with him. This time he came down with another mage that Gajeel had been forced to get used to and a brand new one. The man was named Acteon. Gajeel didn't know what the robed woman was named. She had a tattoo on the side of her face of a tribal dragon.
Gajeel had seen several of those. He could count about five, six now that he'd seen this new woman. There was something odd about the marking. It was only on women. There weren't any men who bore the marking.
Hell, what did it even matter? This was a dark guild. They were probably concubines or something. Gajeel remembered hearing somewhere that in certain societies women of pleasure were marked with brands as a way of belittling them and keeping them in that low cast of society. Maybe, this guild was into that kind of thing.
Kalin stepped closer to the cell and grinned at the diamond by Levy's face. Was it important in some way?
The male mage mentioned, "She is here. I can feel her."
"Perfect. Is she alone?" Kalin asked.
The Acteon mage lifted his head and sniffed the air. "No. I smell one, two, no, four others. One of them smells like a dragon slayer."
"Hmm. Three dragon slayers. I want all of them on the altars. Since the girl has translated the spell, I believe we should be able to catch at least one dragon's attention." Kalin leaned towards the bars, looking towards the diamond instead of Gajeel or Levy. He chimed, "Gather your team, Acteon. I want to give our beloved Adamine a welcome home party she will never forget."
Laxus watched the image on the lacrima with interest. Humph. If that creep thought he could take out Laxus, then he had another thing coming to him. If the rest of those mages were as pathetic as the two Bickslow and his babies had captured, then this would be a walk in the park. He doubted he'd even need the Raijinshuu's assistance.
When Adamine gave a short gasp from her lips, Laxus decided to look towards the Adamantine Dragon Slayer. Her hands were shaking though she tried to hide it, and her lacrima were flashing with her emotion. The picture on the floating one shut off, and she quickly latched it onto the silver chain hanging from her leather choker.
Adamine stared quietly at the spot her lacrima had been floating. That was it. That was the place. That was the place where those horrible things had happened to her and the other girls.
They had been stripped of their clothes, put in white dresses, and locked away. They had gone without normal food. The hooded men and women had given the girls strange plants to eat. Plants that made them hallucinate. Each girl had been pressed down on a stone altar where they were tattooed on their faces. It had all been so frightening to five year old Adamine.
She nervously ran her fingernails against each other and looked towards the waterfall. Gajeel and Levy were in there. Levy had interpreted the spell on the tablet. Gajeel was battered despite his power as an Iron Dragon Slayer. A team would soon be out to greet Adamine, the Raijinshuu, and Laxus.
Adamine was frozen to the ground until a comforting hand squeezed her shoulder. It was Laxus. "How about we go kick some ass and get revenge on those creeps for screwing with you, Adam?"
She cast him a nervous glance and looked to her comrades. Bickslow stood eager to fight. His tongue hung out and his babies cheered, "Revenge!" Evergreen looked determined as never before. Freed had a darkness in his eyes that was ready to be unlocked for anyone who decided to go against his comrades. Laxus was ready to go. Electricity sparked around him.
Adamine had no right to be nervous with such powerful allies. Slapping a grin on her face, Adamine remembered something that Natsu had given her before she'd left Clover Town. She had been dying to try this out.
Snickering like her allies, Adamine responded, "I'm ready to kick some ass."
With Laxus leading the way, Freed right beside him, the group began to walk across the river. The enemy now knew they were here. An attack was soon to begin. Adamine just had no idea when such a thing would happen.
Currently, all she could hear was the crashing of the waterfall. Birds were chirping in the distance. A few fish splashed against the surface of the water when she leaped from one slippery rock to the next.
She could smell flowers, water, and her teammates' various scents. If anything was going to happen, she or Laxus would know before anyone else. They were both dragon slayers, and although she was raised by Firmalione and had adamantine lacrima to mediate her power, Laxus was different. He didn't have lightning lacrima to mediate him. His lacrima was implanted into him, something that Adamine had only recently learned was done to people.
There were other people like him, Adamine remembered. During the Grand Magic Games, Adamine had seen two dragon slayers, Sting and Rogue, who had been implanted with dragon lacrima. She had yet to discover anyone who needed their powers mitigated by the effects of jewelry-like lacrima.
Firmalione had explained to her once before that she had one of the most powerful dragon slayer type magic. Her power to move the stones of the earth according to her will and be able to coat her body in such stone was something that was both advantageous and disastrous. Knowing she had such a power had made Adamine immediately disappointed in herself that she hadn't joined Fairy Tail in the battle against the seven dragons. She had been in Lancet at the time, making sure that no one would assassinate her cousin for his potential position as king.
Adamine glanced down to the many emerald lacrima she wore because Firmalione demanded for her to mediate her strength. She felt like she had a crutch.
Before she could get too distracted by her wandering thoughts, Adamine snapped, "Stop!" Her head whipped up to where the waterfall was, and inches in front of Laxus the falls expanded, covering the entrance with water so fast it could cut skin.
Apparently, the fighting was about to begin.
"You did good to sense my trap, Adamine," a voice called out, and everyone looked to the top of the falls. Five hooded strangers stood in a line. One man reached to the hood that shadowed his face then revealed his calm visage. "I am Acteon of the Lancet Quintet, second in command to Master Kalin, leader of the Lancet Dragon Priests."
Adamine glared up at the five standing over them. There were five of them on the waterfall and five standing at the edge of the river. They were equally matched.
Acteon shoved his hand out from his cloak to point towards Adamine. "You are the child of Firmalione, dragon goddess of the earth. It is because she spared you that our country is in turmoil, that our lands bear no crops to sustain our livelihoods. Tonight, on the night of the waxing crescent moon, you and the other dragon slayers shall be sacrificed to return life to our deadened lands."
He looked like he was about to say more before Laxus snarled, "Listen, man, as much as I get that every bad guy loves to have a big long speech, I'm too busy for this shit, so get down here and fight me!"
Acteon let a strange grin run up his face. "So be it then." His arm went up, and four cloaked mages leaped down from the top of the falls. "To enter the Dragon Chamber you must defeat all five of us. If you succeed, my spell will release from this waterfall and give you access to your comrades, but when you fail, you will be sacrificed to the dragon Firmalione."