Levy and Lily laughed as Gajeel frowned. "Let's go check out the Summer Garden before you forget we have work to do."

Levy dabbed her mouth daintily with her napkin and dropped it over her plate, pushing back in her chair and walking over to the framed art. "This is just stunning. What a delicate flower - it's so lacy looking and yet sturdy enough to be dried and pressed."

Gajeel stalked over to his petite mate and stared at the pressing over her shoulder. "Some of it is due to the artist's skill. I've seen amalgamations, impossible mixtures of flower types and stages of growth to create something entirely new and unfound in nature."

Her eyes lighting up, Levy turned and placed a soft hand on Gajeel's hard muscled upper arm. "Oh! Maybe we should re-examine the collection room for that sort of thing." She teased, "Having you around is starting to pay off."

"Oi! Let's just go check out the Summer Garden and see what we can find."

Flying above his two humans, Lily smirked to see Gajeel drag Levy out and down the path paved with flagstones. The path wound left and right, following the gentle contours of the landscape. A cairn made of river rocks was capped with a bronze plaque, bearing the inscription: 'Summer, a beginning, a start from the past'. Masses of blooming flowers were scattered in clumps, a border of ground cover filling in gaps, everything was a glorious riot of colour.

Lily landed lightly atop the monument and surveyed the peaceful scene. "Looks like a flower garden to me."

Pulling out her ever present notebook, Levy flipped it open and scrawled down the words from the cairn for posterity. "A puzzle piece isn't going to just jump out at first sight, we've got to put some thinking into this. Once we examine each garden, the discrepancies will jump out at us. Everything that is the same will become more apparent; the more we know, the more we'll know what we need to check." She giggled, "Does that make sense?"

"A bit, the more we know, the more we know we don't know." Gajeel rubbed his forehead and growled. "I like a foe I can punch."

Nodding in solidarity, Lily crossed his arms. "I must agree with Gajeel; an enemy you can punch gives immediate satisfaction."

Levy shrugged and explored the garden further. "Not everything can be so cut and dried." She hummed to herself as she wandered around the haphazardly laid out garden. Spying a tiny purple flower smack dab in the middle of an all green zone of plants, Levy lowered herself to peer at it closer. Lost in thought, she didn't notice Gajeel walk up behind her. His hand on her lower back startled her and yelping, she jerked upright.

"Easy Shrimp!" The slayer chuckled, "I was just curious what had you so enthralled."

"Ah, just a solitary flower blooming amongst a sea of green."

Gajeel steadied his mate as she stepped back and stumbled over his foot. "Careful! Don't go breaking yourself."

She arched her back and tilted her head, making eye contact. "I'm not made of porcelain you know. I'm sturdy despite my appearance."

"I know you're tough, but caution is good no matter how strong you are." Gajeel leaned down, making eye contact with his diminutive girlfriend. He flushed and awkwardly pressed a swift kiss to Levy's cheek. "I got an itch to explore the swamp, why don't you hand over that note, me'n'Lily will play letter carrier."

Sporting a matching blush, Levy slipped her hand into her skirt pocket and withdrew the important missive. "Erza was sure you'd be able to sniff out Jellal. I hope you find him easy, so you can concentrate on our mission after."

Puffing up his chest, Gajeel replied, "I'm sure it'll be as easy as Salamander is dumb. Gi hehe!"

Lily cackled, "He's not that dumb, he caught his mate before you even figured out Levy was yours." He stood still, eyes dancing with mirth as Gajeel sputtered invective. "How dumb can you say Natsu is when he's always been with Lucy ever since meeting her?"

His face red, Gajeel frowned. "There's a lot of bad history for me and Levy - ."

An elbow to the gut cut off the slayer's words. Looking at Lily and then Gajeel, Levy shook her head. "Let's not rehash this. The past is what brought us here, right now, today. We can't change yesterday, and frankly, I don't want to. I'm gonna run up to the collection room and take notes, then check each garden. I expect you and Lily to occupy yourselves." The bookworm crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "Go!"

Grinning sheepishly, the pierced male and his exceed started to back away from Levy. Gajeel snatched the letter out of Levy's hand and stuffed it into his pants pocket. "Later!" The boys turned tail and ran further onto the estate and away from the Summer Garden. Lily sprouted his wings and flew high, checking for a clear path. He swooped down low and pointed toward a stand of evergreen trees. Gajeel grunted and loped towards the target.

Levy watched her partners head towards the far tree line. Giggling softly, she shrugged to herself and walked all around the garden path, circling twice. She kept her eyes roving left and right, trying to ascertain anything potentially out of place or uncommon. Sighing, Levy pocketed her notebook and pen as she walked back towards the Tildenson Manor House.

Inside the Collection room, Levy re-examined each framed floral artwork. Flipping to a new page, she scribbled numbers one through six and jotted down the information they had so far acquired.

1) Summer Garden - 'Summer, a beginning, a start from the past' Bronze plaque affixed to rock cairn

2) Kitchen Garden

3) Spring Garden

4) Fall Garden

5) Himawari's Garden

6) Winter Garden

Excited to be making progress on the mission, Levy skipped down the stairs as fast as she could. Rounding the last corner, she almost ran into Mary laden with a stack of fresh sheets. "Sorry! I wasn't paying attention, I've got to check out the gardens for clues."

"Don't worry about it, it reminds me of happier days when the two young masters would play in the house." Mary set down her linens on a nearby table and grinned, reminiscing. "Actually, Hitomi was their favourite babysitter when the boys were almost six and eight years old. She was sixteen and you wouldn't know to look at her now, but loved to play games with the boys."

Levy hesitated, "And how old are the 'boys' now?"

The maid giggled. "So you can figure out how old Hitomi is? Hibiki is twenty-eight, Ambrose is twenty-six and herself is thirty-six."

The solid script mage flushed, "Well, she does dress a bit fussy and today's make-up looked like it was applied with a trowel. I thought she was trying to hide the ravages of time, but she's not even middle aged."

"And already a widow, tch." Mary patted Levy's arm. "Ah, keep your young man happy and you'll keep feeling young together. I must finish changing the sheets. Find the kitchen and the cook will direct you to the garden there; the path leads to each succeeding garden."

"Thank you very much!" Levy marched off down the hallway, her strides gaining speed until she was almost jogging towards the kitchen. Mary picked up the neglected linens and returned to her duties humming.

Not even five minutes later, the cook ushered Levy towards the Kitchen Garden. Stepping outside, the mage was struck by the sheer amount of herbs, fruits and vegetables growing in the well ordered plots. She walked a full circuit of the perimeter and then ventured in deeper. This path was covered in gravel and only wide enough for one person, but was laid out in a grid so that each plot of soil was two feet wide and five feet long. There were twenty individual areas, each crowded full of growing plants.

Levy followed round pavers to the next site. The Spring Garden was an ovoid shape, dotted with small ponds and contained only flowers and ornamental grasses. The Fall Garden included several benches grouped to take advantage of the scenery. Himawari's Garden was the smallest. It contained a solitary table and chair set, with a sundial and birdbath on a cobblestone patio that had all of it's plants in terra cotta pots. The Winter Garden was a bit of a misnomer, as it was a cluster of trees planted in a loose circle with an old hay manger struggling to stay upright in the middle of the grass. Several of the trees were festooned with bird houses and feeders.

Levy could see the front door of the manor house from where she stood. Sighing, she turned and gazed blankly at the bucolic scene before her. Each garden had in fact, not yielded any of the supposed samples from the floral pressings. I really hope Gajeel and Lily are having better luck than me.

At that moment, Gajeel took another step on spongy ground and broke through the swamp mud crust. The fetid stench made the slayer's stomach threaten to erupt. He cursed as the oozing mud coated his boots past his ankles. The reek was bad enough, but dealing with the snickering exceed was causing Gajeel's blood pressure to increase exponentially.

"Gi he! I told you the ground looked softer over there!" Lily flew out of his partner's reach and tumbled lazily in the air. "Also, in my aerial reconnaissance, I spotted traces of old campfires in the opposite direction."

"You coulda told me that earlier." Gajeel grimaced sourly as he pulled his feet out of the sucking mud. "All this stink is confusing my nose. Jellal could be behind me and I wouldn't be able to distinguish his scent right now."

Lily snorted, "Your ears still work; and now that you've claimed Levy, perhaps your brain can free up some time to think about where Crime Sorciere would pitch camp."

"Pfft. Let's go check out the old campfires. I'd like to get rid of this letter and concentrate on our mission." Gajeel followed Lily heading north, hiking quietly a good twenty minutes before stopping at a broken tree stump to scrape the swamp muck off his boots.

"We're getting close a likely campsite. Can you smell anything?" Without waiting for an answer, Lily flew higher in an effort to spy a glimpse of any of the Crime Sorciere members before they could take cover.

Drawing air in through his nose and out his mouth, Gajeel stood still. He made small steps and turned in a circle, tasting the air as best he could. His ears could identify several woodland creatures about their business; scores of birds singing, and a pair of rabbits enthusiastically mating. Tuning out the fauna, Gajeel froze in place, sorting the olfactory and auditory clues. Five long minutes he stood immobile, all noises and the breeze brought nothing out of the ordinary. The slayer continued walking and found a long dead fire pit. The undergrowth of the clearing showed no signs of recent habitation; no broken branches, flattened bushes or threads caught on thorns.

Lily fluttered down and landed on the largest rock ringing the old fire bed. "If we keep heading north, there's a ravine that would be suitable as a hide-out."

Grunting in affirmation, Gajeel strode towards the next likely target. A half hour later, both mages were encouraged by signs of habitation. Whether created by humans or animals, there was a faint trail snaking between trees that Lily and Gajeel were able to use. Even more telling, was the scarcity of fallen tree branches. The path the two wizards tread upon began to widen and slope downward.

"Lily, fly reconnaissance. I smell ashes from a fire and several people."

"Can you recognize any scent signatures?"

"Nope, there's too much lingering stench from that mud on my boots and fresh stink mingling with these unknown personages." Gajeel frowned, and consulted his map. "There's gotta be another patch of swamp further north. Don't make contact, observe and report."

Grinning at the prospect of potential battle, Lily launched himself skyward. Quietly, he flew from tree to tree, keeping hidden in the high branches. Lily found a sturdy branch to sit on and observe the eight people milling around the center of the ravine. Off to one side was the fire pit, circled with greasy stones. Three large, muscled men wearing dirty cloaks were tossing dice and arguing over bets.

A sharp strident voice raised itself with displeasure. The group gambling stopped to watch as a glaring woman crossed her arms and stood toe-to-toe with a man over a head taller. "You don't get a say in the decision now."

Her opponent smiled without humour. "This is still my gang. It's my decision. I'm back now and relieve you of command."