Chapter 4: Peppermint and Gingery Train Ride

The next morning, the Fairy Tail team met at the train station. The train had just unloaded all it's passengers and was preparing to leave.

"I hate trains," Natsu mumbled to himself as they boarded.

"Agreed," Beth mumbled back, surprising Natsu.

"Have you been on one before?"

"Yes, with my parents. I guess I've always had a touch of motion sickness, as I didn't like my parents picking me up and swinging me, and it only got worse as I learned Dragon Slayer magic."

Their conversation ended when the group took seats, Erza, Lucy, and Gray taking one seat and Beth, Natsu, and Happy taking the other.

After about five minutes of chatting and sitting, the train started moving. As soon as it started, Natsu and Beth started to get motion sick.

"Why'd we have to take a train?" Natsu asked, feeling, sounding, and looking terrible. He was squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to endure the ride.

Beth on the other hand, had laid down on her back, and was staring at the light on the ceiling. She was also nibbling leaves of some sort, and was trying to not look as sick as she felt. "Because it's either this or walk, and this is way faster unfortunately," she replied shakily.

"Beth, what are you doing?" Happy asked.

"It helps with the motion sickness," Beth said, not taking her eyes off the ceiling.

"What are you doing?" Natsu asked, his eyes still shut.

"One open your eyes, I learned the hard way that it worsens it. Two," she said producing two leaves like the ones in her mouth from her right hand, "eat these, but not fast. The aroma helps and so does chewing something."

Natsu opened his eyes, accepted the leaves, and copied Beth's position. When he was settled, he started nibbling the leaves as well. "Is this mint? And ginger?" he asked.

"Peppermint and ginger."

"Where'd you learn that?" Happy asked.

"Naymmi taught it to me. I got really motion sick one time during training and she taught me different ways to get over it quickly. This way works best for me," Beth said.

"Sounds like Naymmi knew a lot about motion sickness," Erza said.

"Yep. A lot more than you would think," Beth replied.

"I guess it works for Natsu," Gray said. Natsu had managed to relax enough and fell asleep.

"Peppermint and ginger. I guess we'll need some then," Lucy said, thinking that this could help Natsu, or other Dragon Slayers that they met, a lot.

"I'm not surprised he fell asleep. I often do too when I'm in this position," Beth said, starting to feel herself drifting off as well. After a few minutes, she too was napping.

The rest of the train ride was Erza, Gray, Lucy, and Happy chatting quietly about this and that and the two Dragon Slayers dozing through the ride.

The team arrived at their stop in the late afternoon. When they stopped, Lucy, Happy, and Erza woke Beth and Natsu while Gray went to find the client of their job. When the five stepped off the train, they could see Gray talking to a middle aged man with slightly tan skin and mahogany hair wearing a black v-neck shirt and black pants. He had on black tennis shoes as well and looked relieved to see a wizard who took up the job. They walked up to the duo, and when the man saw them he looked even more relieved.

"Thank goodness you're all here," he said. His voice was young but also strong. "My name is Simon. And you all are?"

"I'm Erza, these here are Natsu, Lucy, Happy and Beth," each one waving or nodding when they were introduced.

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you," Simon said. "Come into my house, we can discuss the details of the job there." Simon started to walk off and the team of Mages followed. A few minutes later they arrived at a ranch style house with two windows out front, one on either side of the door. The house and door were both a light brown color with blooming pink rosemary bushes under each window.

Simon opened the door and led the mages inside. "I'm sorry, but I only have two spare rooms in my house. They're both next to each other, down the hall," he said pointing down the white hall in front of them. "The doorway on your right is the kitchen. I'll be waiting there to discuss the job details." Simon then went into the kitchen while the Fairy Tail wizards went down the hall. They decided on the girls getting the first bedroom while the boys got the second.

"This is cozy," Lucy complimented on the room as they walked in. It was white like the hall and had two twin sized beds, one in the top right corner and one in the bottom left. There were also a closet on across from the first bed and a window opposite the door.

The boys had a similar room, the only difference was that the window was on the right wall.

After they checked out the rooms and worked out sleeping arrangements, the mages walked into the kitchen and found Simon sitting at a small, hexagonal, wood table placed under a central window. Upon seeing them enter, he gestured to the seats around the table. After everyone was seated, they started talking about the job in more detail.

"So who are the people who run this mine?" Erza asked putting her folding her hands together and resting them on the table.

"I'm not sure what their name is exactly, they never mentioned it around is as we worked. But I do know that their leader is a man named is a man named Mako," Simon said.

"How big a mine are we talking?" Natsu asked.

"They work the people with little to no food, rest, and water. I'd say as big a mine can get under those conditions and started around nine years ago." At this, Beth straightened even more from her already good posture and sucked in a sharp breath.

"What do these people look like?" she asked, hardly daring to hope.

"I can't help you if you're talking about facial features," Simon started, "but they all wear long black coats and hats."

Well, seems like Beth's getting a blast from the past in this job. Review Replies!

Warmachine375: The reason for the solar energy is probably that plants gain energy do to it, so, like trees, she excels in it. And she only gets stronger with plants, and she can't eat soil or ice. And I recently found out about the time skip, so it's pre. And I have a list of spells for Beth, but some of your's aren't on it, so thank you again for the ideas.

Hope you're all doing well. Go get 'em tigers!

-ThinMintE