"This" denotes speaking in Fioran (English?)

"This" denotes speaking in Meshbaalan

This chapter is dedicated to Sprintjump, for being the first reviewer! I hope others can follow his/her example, because I know people have been visiting and not reviewing. Please do.

Prabha

Ksh—Kshhhhhhh—

"H…li!"

"This way!"

"…ey! Ha—"

Kshhhh—

"Hali! Come back here!"

"It's fine, it's fine! We'll be fine, so let's go!"

"Hali, no!"

"So."

Wendy grit her teeth, digging her feet into the swirling and dissolving sands. She raised her arms, forming an X across her face in a vain attempt to protect her eyes from the flying sands.

The figure, locked in shadow, smiled twistedly, hair flying in the wind. "You did come after all. I knew you would—you're one of that kind."

"And just what is that kind?" Wendy said back, anger (or was it fear?) mixed into her voice.

"You know the answer to that, stupid girl," the figure chuckled, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. "You're surrounded by them everyday—the spirited kind. The kind that goes around saying things like, 'I'll never give up!' Or maybe, 'If my friends are with me I can do anything!' Those kinds of people always fight the hardest against that which cannot be avoided."

As the figure sighed dramatically, putting one hand against its face as the winds seemed to pick up. "But they die too, you know, just like everyone else. Even for you, death is the only possible end. Everything lives—everything dies. And those kinds of people never accept it until it's staring them in the face, which makes their reactions all the more…beautiful."

"That's why, you see," the figure dragged her hand down her face to curl over her mouth, hiding her smile, "I like spirited people. After all,"

"They're the most fun to break."

.

.

.

"Wendy-neechan!"

Wendy froze, hands slowly dropping listlessly to her sides. Her mouth parted, trying to form words that woud not come out

"Asuka…chan…?"

"Wendy-neechan! Help me, please!"

Wendy turned slowly, hands shaking, suddenly ignorant of the howling winds. Asuka Connell knelt, clothes dirty and ripped, hair loose, grabbing uselessly at the sand as it fell away under her fingertips and swirled in the air. Human figures arose from the dust, featureless, —people of dirt and sand that reached out for Asuka, grabbing at her hair, her face, her throat, dragging her backwards as she screamed and cried.

"WENDY-NEECHAN! PLEASE!"

"Asuka!" Wendy screamed, once again unable to move. One sandy hand swirled in front of her face, as if to cover her mouth. Asuka choked, fine grit entering her nose and lungs.

"PLEASE!"

Wendy clamped her hands over her ears, screaming until her throat was raw as tinkling laughter echoed behind her, surrounding her, drowning her, until there was nothing left but—

Lucy scowled half-heartedly at the groaning head of pink currently nestled in her lap, before her face melted into a tiny smile. She smoothed his hair gently with one hand, looking around the train. Natsu lay sprawled across the seat he shared with Lucy, on leg hanging off the chair. Directly across from them sat Romeo (who seemed to be reading a book, as uncharacteristic as it was) and Wendy, who slept leaning against the window. To Lucy's right, across the aisle, Happy, Pantherlily, Charle, and Levy struggled to prop up a very green looking Gajeel, who did his best to hold in his moans and flopped about rather uselessly.

"You look like you're having a lot of fun over there, Levy," Lucy giggled.

Levy scowled in her direction, blowing a piece of hair out of her face, before smirking in the direction of Lucy's lap. "Yeah, well, so do you. Tell me, what's it like being a personal pillow, Lu-chan?"

Lucy sputtered, blushing down at the mop of pink and quickly removing her hand. "Probably better than being a personal arm rest!"

"I am not a personal arm rest!" Levy stuck her tongue out at the smirking blond, before the Iron Dragonslayer's body abruptly pushed her down. Lucy winced.

"My goodness!" Charle exclaimed as she and the other Exceeds pulled at the back of Gajeel's shirt, wings flapping vainly. "How much does he weigh?"

"It's all the metal," Pantherlily grunted, swooping down to push Gajeel up from underneath. "It probably accounts for at least a third, if not a half of his body weight."

"Okay guys, on three!" gasped a slowly suffocating Levy. "One, two, three!"

Simultaneously all four pushed and pulled, straining with all their might until inch by inch Gajeel was leaning against the window, covering his mouth and puffing out his cheeks. Levy flopped against the seat, taking heaving breaths of air as the Exceeds slumped together on the opposite seat.

Lucy looked out the window at the rushing countryside. They had been travelling already for four hours, and all the while she saw the scenery grow sparser and sparser, Fiore's familiar landscape giving way to arid desert. Trees (and houses, and people) had been appearing more and more rarely, as though the train was hurtling straight into oblivion. A small sound drew her attention to the young, quiet mages across from her—Wendy, it seemed, shuffling quietly in her sleep, her face contorting slightly before relaxing.

Levy stretched, then bent down the shuffle through her bag. "We should be getting there soon, Lu-chan," she said as she pulled out a small book labeled with the same symbols as the ones on the request.

Lucy sighed in relief, absentmindedly whacking a shifting Natsu on the head. "Thank goodness," she said, "I thought that we were gonna be stuck on this train forever!"

"That would be Natsu and Gajeel's worst nightmare!" laughed Levy. "Can you just imagine—"

"Nn…"

Lucy and Levy immediately quieted, glancing over at the Sky Sorceress. She was frowning heavily in her sleep, fingers clenching unconsciously.

"We didn't wake her right?" Lucy whispered nervously. "She looked so tired at the station."

"N—…"

"Do you think something's wrong?" Levy frowned. Romeo looked up from his book at her words, gazing worriedly at his grimacing partner. "It doesn't look like whatever she's dreaming about is very pleasant."

"Stop it…" Wendy mumbled, shifting uneasily. "Stop…"

Romeo closed his book and set it aside, putting a hand on Wendy's shoulder and shaking her gently. "Wendy. Wake up, Wendy."

Wendy twitched, mouth parting slightly. "Stop it…Don't!"

Romeo shook her harder as Lucy and Levy leaned forward in concern, drawing the attention of the Exceeds. Charle swooped over to land on Wendy's lap, putting a paw on her arm as Romeo continued to shake her. "Wendy, wake up!"

"No," Wendy said, her voice growing louder, oblivious to the concerned attempts to wake her.

"Stop it!"

Wendy jerked awake, sitting forward so suddenly she almost knocked Charle off her lap. Blinking rapidly, she looked around at the worried faces of her companions. From his resting place on Lucy's lap Natsu lifted his head blearily, still quite green in the face.

"Everybody shut up…S'too loud in here," he groaned.

"Like you're one to talk!" Lucy snapped on reflex, before growing quiet and looking over at a pale and shaken Wendy. "Are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?"

"Um, yes, I suppose," Wendy stumbled, "I had…a bad dream."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Levy encouraged, smiling cheerfully if uneasily at the young girl. "Talking about bad dreams always helps me."

"Oh no, t-that's fine," she stuttered, shaking her head. "I-I don't really remember much of it now, anyway, so it's really okay! Don't worry about me!" She tittered nervously, rubbing the back of her head.

"If you're sure…" Levy trailed off, before continuing on briskly. "By the looks of it, we'll be arriving soon, so I'd make sure that you have everything with you and get ready for your big mission!"

"Right!" Wendy nodded determinedly pulling her bag up onto her lap to organize and check its contents. With one last glance over her shoulder, Charle rejoined Lily and Happy, berating the later almost immediately. Slowly the atmosphere relaxed back into its former state, with Wendy smiling happily at her fellow mages.

Only Romeo's gaze remained firmly riveted on Wendy, face blank and serious. Wendy wasn't perfectly fine, no matter what she said, and Romeo knew that for sure—because out of all of them, he was the only one who noticed Wendy's still trembling hands.

Carefully, he reached over and laid one of his own warms hands over Wendy's small, cool ones. Wendy turned her head fast enough to get whiplash, eyes wide in confusion at Romeo's blushing but grave expression.

"You know," he began, "that you can always come to us for help, right? No matter what the problem is? And we'll always be here for you, because we're Fairy Tail." I'll always be here for you.

Wendy looked down at Romeo's hand over hers, the warm pressure rooting her to her spot—grounding her. Looking back up, she smiled genuinely. "Yeah. I know."

Thank you.

"Finally off that train!" Natsu stretched, letting the heat soak into his muscles, rolling his head before turning to grin at his companions. "That wasn't so long, we should have just walked!"

"It was four and a half hours, moron," Lucy snipped half-heartedly, dragging her bag lethargically behind her. She stopped, panting. "Why is it so hot?!"

It was true, Wendy noted as she examined their new surroundings; the city of Hamil, indeed the country of Meshbaal itself was surrounded by miles of burning desert, and was overlooked by an unforgiving sun that beat down on the mages harshly. Hot wind swirled the sand; the afternoon light lit up the sand as if it glowed gold, uninterrupted by plants but for the occasional scraggly bush. The clear blue sky stretched for miles overhead—so big, it seemed it might swallow everything from horizon to horizon. Shielding her face from the glare, Wendy looked around at the bustling city. The train station was built in the direct center of town, surrounded by buildings of stone—most likely houses—and lively markets, selling anything and everything imaginable. Wendy's eyes widened at the displays—rich and beautiful bolts of cloth, bright vegetables and meats, shining jewelry. The people, tan from days in the sun walked in loose, billowy clothing from stall to stall, exchanging coins as they babbled and gossiped.

But something else permeated the air—some sense of tenseness, of foreboding, which did not belong in such a bright town. The people looked from side to side as though they were hunted; they did not touch anything—or anyone—more than they had to. They exuded distrust.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the niggling sensation Wendy turned to Romeo next to her.

"This looks like a nice place," said Wendy.

"Yeah, there's so much stuff—"

"Who are they?"

Wendy jumped at the harsh whisper from behind her, turning her head to identify the speaker. Two women wrapped in scarves covering their faces and hair started guiltily as she faced them, hiding behind their hands as they continued to speak in hushed tones.

"Something wrong, Wendy?" Romeo inquired, following her line of sight to the women.

"No, not particularly," she began, "It's just that for a second I could have sworn they were talking to us…or maybe about us…"

"Come to think of it, aren't there a lot of people looking at us?" Lucy interjected, voice lowered nervously.

Looking at their immediate surroundings, Wendy realized she was right. All over the square people were staring, some openly, some not. Whispers abounded, spoken in throaty tones with harsh intonations.

"Why are they here?"

"Look at their clothes; they must be foreigners."

"Bah! Foreigners coming here, at this time? They are worse than fools."

"Will they hurt us?"

"The women wear no scarves! Barbarians!"

"They're suspicious," Levy said quietly, entering the conversation quietly with Gajeel looming over her shoulder. "I told you before that this place doesn't take well to outside intrusion—and Fiorans are about as outside as you can get. There weren't any other people who got off here but us, so we probably stand out even more. We look completely different from them; we're wearing different clothes, we have different skin and hair—they don't trust us."

"What are they saying?" Natsu asked.

"Nothing too bad," she assured him. "They're mostly wondering who we are, and what we're doing here; some of them are commenting on our clothes and such—something about scarves?" Levy frowned. "I was so busy studying the language that I forgot to look up the culture; they must be significant in some way, but I'm not sure how—"

"That's not just it," rumbled Gajeel. "Something's weird about this place." He eyed the gathered crowd suspiciously. "They smell—scared, almost. Something's not right with them."

"He's right," said Natsu as he drew in a deep breath. "There's another funny scent too; like they spent too much time in the bath or something." He looked to Happy, perched on his shoulder. "They must really like their baths here, huh?"

"Forgetting about that," Gajeel interrupted, "just look at 'em. Being foreign is all well and good, but these guys are too suspicious. It's like they think we're out to get them."

Levy frowned, craning her head up to look at him. "Well, what do you mean by 'something'—"

"Fairy Tail! That's you, right?"

Wendy's ears caught the sound of running footsteps before she saw the slight figure that pushed its way through the dense crowd. The crowed parted around him, stumbling to get away from his insistent push, until finally a boy stood before them, slightly out of breath but grinning so hard that his eyes closed all the same.

"Sorry I'm late—I'm Merin!"

Wendy examined the client in front of her with interest. He couldn't have been much older than her or Romeo—just Romeo's height, in fact, if not a little shorter. Tan brown skin covered a lanky body—not much muscle, but still fit. Dark black hair fell in front of his face, artfully covering a wide forehead, at it's longest point almost touched the top of his slim, straight nose. Wendy blushed—altogether he was rather handsome, in a purely aesthetic sense. Romeo scowled.

"Get going, kids," Natsu pushed them and winked. "It's your mission."

Wendy stepped forward nervously, clearing her throat and wincing at Romeo's still present scowl. "Y-yes, we're from Fairy Tail. I'm Wendy Marvell, a h-healer…" she stuttered to a stop, glancing back for encouragement.

A healer—am I really just a healer?

"That's fantastic! Thank you so much for coming," Merin gushed in only slightly accented Fioran. "I'm here to take you to where you'll be staying right away!"

He stepped forward, opening his eyes—

Wendy sucked in a quick breath at the color—brilliant wine red, piercing but warm.

"So let's get go—" he stopped dead, eyes widening as he stared.

"What are you wearing?" he gasped. "No wonder there were so many people—come on, we have to get you properly dressed!"

Quickly moving behind them he herded the protesting group of mages forward in the direction of the crowd, which parted down the middle for them like the Red Sea.

"I'll get you to my grandfather's house right away; he'll explain everything when we get there, and he'll take care of explaining to the people too, since we didn't actually say anything about it to them—whoops, our mistake, heh heh," Merin shoved the mages along through the clear path in the muttering crowd—clear, that is, but for one person.

"Just a moment, Merin." An elderly looking lady veiled but for her sharp eyes stepped into their path. The mages came screeching to a halt; Merin stepped gracefully around them to speak.

"Who are these people?" she asked, a hush falling over the crowd. "What is their purpose here?"

"They are powerful mages from Fiore in the north," Merin projected his voice to the silent people. "Grandfather has asked them here to help solve our—" he hesitated. "Problem. I assure you, they mean no harm, efendim." He bowed.

Silence rang out, everyone looking to the woman as if she was a leader. She must be someone important to them, Wendy thought. Her authority was clear, in her bearing and in her words. After a moment, she nodded imperiously once before turning and deliberately walking away to resume her business. Taking it as a cue the rest of the crowd dispersed slowly, still whispering behind their hands.

"Anyways, let's get going so that doesn't happen again," Merin switched back to Fioran, grabbing a blushing Wendy's hand to pull her up. Rounding on his heel he walked briskly away, leaving the confused mages to follow quickly in his footsteps.

"What were they talking about?" Gajeel whispered to Levy.

"He was saying we were called here to solve a problem," Levy replied. She looked at him wryly, three of her steps matching one of his. "I guess that's your 'something'."

Gajeel grunted. "Guess we'll find out."

Desert outlying Meshbaal: date and time unknown

"C'mon, Erza, we've been searching for hours," Gray groaned, stripped down to only his boxers. "Let's take a break—it's too damn hot out here!"

"Not for another two hours at least," said Erza confidently, scarlet hair blowing in the breeze. "If there's still time left, then we'll keep searching. And put your clothes back on."

"Yeah, yeah," Gray grumbled, reaching for his spare shirt

"What was that?"

"Y-Yes, ma'am! On it, ma'am!"

"That's what I thought."

"I wonder how Flame Brain and Lucy are doing, though," he mused, pulling his pants back on. "Where did they say they were going?"

"They didn't, really," Erza replied, straining her eyes through the bright sand. "It seemed like they were in a hurry."

"Wherever they are, I hope it's better than this goddamned desert," Gray grumbled.

"Less talking, more searching!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

They're here.

I hope everyone enjoyed the new chapter! Please, please, please, drop a review, because so far I've only gotten one and it would be nice to get some encouragement, because writing something on a place for concrit and not getting any is really disheartening. I'm begging here.

I know it's going really slowly, but now that the exposition is done and the setting has been introduced we can really get started on the good stuff. Once again, please review!

-WD2645

Song: Sorairo Days-Shouko Nakagawa (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann)