Although Levy had feared she would be haunted by nightmares of Jellal modelling skimpy clothes, her rest was undisturbed. Rushing to the bathroom to begin the day, she examined her neck and was happy to see the love marks diminished in severity. Humming, the petite girl performed her morning ablutions. Being an organized person, Levy was able to pack swiftly and efficiently. She had a satchel full of research resources and a suitcase full of clothes ready in under twenty minutes. After breaking her fast, she made her way to the train station.

Both Gajeel and Lily were already there; lounging on a bench, each with a small duffle bag of necessities.

"Good morning!" Lily waved and smiled at Levy, "Sit down and wait with us, we've already taken the liberty of buying your train ticket."

Levy sat her luggage at her feet and sat between Lily and Gajeel. "Good morning guys! Isn't it beautiful out?"

Gajeel answered with a grunt. Lily peered around Levy and gave his partner a half-hearted glare. "He's not a morning person. Don't mind him, I'm much better company anyhow."

Shifting in his seat, Gajeel made a sour face and addressed his team. "I get motion sickness in case you have forgotten and I ain't lookin' forward to impressing my woman with how much I can vomit."

"Have you ever tried ginger tea? It helps soothe stomach upsets. It might be just the thing to cure your motion sickness." Levy said this brightly to the dour dragon slayer. She sat back and pulled the yellow skirt of her dress down over her knees as the breeze played up. "Tilden isn't that far away, we'll stop by the inheritor's family residence and retrieve the journal before you know it."

"Ungh... Even just waiting for a train makes me feel ill." Gajeel scowled and rubbed his stomach. "Lily, can you fly over to the nearest cafe and get me what Shrimp was talkin' about?"

"Sure thing buddy, I'll be back faster than you can lose your temper!" Lily launched himself into the air and laughed at his partner's response of a shaking fist.

Levy let out the cutest 'eep' as Gajeel suddenly slid over and slid his arm around her shoulders. "Did I tell how much I'm looking forward to spending time with you?" He squeezed gently and managed to smile. "I really wish the train ride was over already."

"You'll be fine, you're a big bad dragon slayer after all." Levy giggled, "Here comes Lily with a soothing cup of ginger tea. Drink it all and I'm sure you'll be amazed."

Gajeel began sipping the hot liquid and the trio waited for the train to arrive. Levy flipped through the pages of tourist publication detailing the marvels of sight-seeing the Tilden area. Both Lily and Gajeel read over her shoulders. Gently smiling, Levy opened the magazine wider and dropped it lower.

"You want I should read aloud?"

"Naw," Gajeel huffed, "I can read it just fine on your lap."

"Sure!" Lily contradicted, "Better now, rather than later when Gajeel is painting rainbows." He shrugged as his team glared at him, "What? We've got another twenty minutes or so to kill and once," he jabbed a finger at Gajeel, "Mr. Tough Guy gets on board, there will be no escape from his suffering." Lily crossed his arms and scowled. "I calls 'em like I see 'em."

"Ungh," Gajeel grumbled. "Lily's right, I will be miserable - Go ahead and read aloud while I can still enjoy it, Shorty." He drained the rest of the cup, crumpling the container into the garbage and slumping against the diminutive girl. Levy began reading and the dragon slayer sat, at ease, listening. Lily curled up beside her and enjoyed the soft cadences of the bluenette's voice.

The train ride to Tilden was less taxing for the team than Levy had expected. She suspected the ginger tea had done the trick, or the passage in the dragon lore book had been correct - the scent of the dragon's mate eased the motion sickness. Gajeel had whined and complained, but the violent spewing of vomit hadn't happened. The two hour trip had passed rather quietly with Levy stroking her dragon's head and hair on her lap. Gajeel grinned shakily as he carried their luggage out of the Tilden station.

"We need to head north to find the family mansion, it's on the outskirts of town. They have an interesting name - Tildenson. They must have been involved in the founding of the town." Levy quickly rummaged in her satchel. "I just need to look at my map once more, and we can head off to fetch the journal. I wonder what kind of code was used! Perhaps a simple substitution code, or polyalphabetic with multiple cipher alphabets!" Her voice rang with eagerness as she pulled out the map and showed her two team mates the area they were to traverse. "Of course, it may well be easy to decode if they didn't take into consideration the frequency of how often certain letters are used."

Levy broke off her explanations as she became aware of the glazed eyes and dumbfounded looks from the exceed and dragon slayer. She giggled, "Sorry, I find codes really interesting and I forget not everybody does!"

Gruffly, Gajeel spoke. "Don't worry about it, I ain't so stupid I can't follow what you're talkin' about. I've just never come up against that sort of stuff before."

"Well, I'm very impressed with your knowledge Levy!" Lily smirked widely, "I can admit, even if Gajeel can't - I haven't a clue what to do with ciphers. We'll be leaving the brain portion of this mission to you!"

Pleased with the praise, yet modest, Levy blushed. "We're a team, so we all bring strengths to the party. I know we can work together and solve the mystery!"

The walk through Tilden was pleasant. Having arrived shortly after eleven am, the sun wasn't as punishing as it could have been. The town itself was bustling with tourists and locals alike, all intent on their own pursuits. An hour brought the team to a large and imposing mansion with a solidly built stone fence.

"Oh! It's so pretty!" Levy gushed, "It must be three stories tall and it has a turret! I've always wanted a turret to house all my books!"

"Uh huh," Gajeel strode ahead and opened the wooden gate, striding confidently towards the front double doors. "C'mon you two, it's noon - let's get the journal and find a place to have lunch and a base of operations."

Levy followed and Lily brought up the rear, closing the gate behind them. The dark haired dragon slayer rapped his knuckles on the door at the same time Levy spoke out, "There's a door chime - they might hear that better."

"I think they'll hear me, gi hehe!" He knocked again, even louder.

Long minutes passed and they eventually heard soft and slow footsteps gliding to the door. A maid opened the door and smiled. "Hello? How may I help you?"

"Hello! We're from the wizard's guild, Fairy Tail and we have business with a Mr. Hibiki Tildenson." Levy answered with her own happy smile. "We're here to solve the journal puzzle."

"Please come in," she pulled the door open wider and waited for the team to enter. She shut the door and the trio of mages followed her as she swept through a maze of rooms to arrive at a sitting room equipped with several chairs and a couch. "Please wait here and I'll fetch the family."

"Oh wow, what a nice house!" Levy walked the perimeter of the room, examining the fine furnishings and the many oil paintings hanging on the walls. "These all look to be originals, and same with the chairs. Not a reproduction among them!"

Lily and Gajeel turned to each other in confusion. Clearing his throat, Gajeel spoke. "A chair is a chair, reproduced from what?"

The bluenette giggled, "Copied by a secondary company, with or without permission and mass produced on the cheap usually."

Lily jumped onto the couch and rubbed his stomach. "I'm getting hungry. Didn't we pass a market with kiwis?"

"We'll get the journal and be on our way soon enough." Gajeel dropped onto the other end of the couch. "Can't wait to get out of this fancy house and - ."

"I hope the lovely young lady isn't in as big a hurry to leave my humble abode." A mellifluous voice interrupted Gajeel. "I would be most pleased to have you join my luncheon. I confess I've never witnessed such beauty before." A man strode into the sitting room, bowed in front of Levy, grasped her hands in his and gave a brief kiss to her knuckles. "Forgive my impetuousness, but I would not want to regret not saluting your charm."

"Excuse me, Lord of the Manor, but that's my woman you're molesting with yer lips. I advise you to step away before I assist you with moving." Gajeel growled and his eyes snapped with fury.