Dawn of Adventure {Book One of The Paths We've Traveled}

Chapter Four: Arrival

The day the team made it to Benos was a rainy one. Lucy stared out the window of the train car, watching rain drops make patterns against the cool glass. The others were either sleeping or trying not to throw up or, in Gray's case, staring at the rain and thinking of a certain rain woman he had left far behind, leaving Lucy to be the only one to notice the approaching station.

"Hey! Guys, wake up! We're almost there!" Her voice roused her companions and caused Happy to fly into the window trying to get a look at this new country. "Happy!"

Natsu groaned from the floor, rolling onto his back with his hands wrapped around his stomach. "Good," he moaned, "cause I'm about to die." There was a flurry of motion in the compartment as everyone got all of their things together, excited for the actual start of their quest. Even Natsu managed to pull himself together slightly. Only Wendy still moaned, her skin pale and clammy.

Erza cast a worried look over the young girl, sitting next to the Dragon Slayer and placing a hand on her forehead. "Wendy you're burning up." The girl could only groan slightly, opening one eye to look up at the scarlet warrior. Erza frowned, but she lost the chance to say anything when the train rolled into the station, coming to a halt that caused everything in the compartment to fall forwards.

"Come on, come on!" Happy called, pulling on Lucy's shirt sleeve to try and get her to move faster. She batted at his paws, reaching down to help Natsu to his feet.

Erza slid away from the young Dragon Slayer, keeping an eye on her state. "Gray, can you help Wendy? I need to get my bags." He nodded, moving over to the young girl and positioning her arm over his shoulders.

"Come on, you can do it. Once we've gotten our mission, let's find you a nice room to sleep off this sickness, huh?" One look back showed that Lucy had grabbed his bag and was thrusting Wendy's suitcase in Natsu's arms, not giving him a choice in the matter.

Wendy made an affirmative noise, forcing her eyes open and leaning on Gray as the two left the train. "Yeah, that would be nice."

Natsu was already on the ground, praising gods he didn't even believe in that he was finally off of that abomination. Happy stood by Natsu's head, snickering as Natsu made a fool of himself. Carla hovered by Gray and Wendy, watching Wendy anxiously as the girl blinked furiously, trying to make herself focus.

Everyone gathered by the entry to the station, surrounding themselves with their (Erza's) mountain of luggage. "Alright, so we're supposed to meet up with this guy, um... Lennox. Yeah, I think that's what Gildarts called him." Lucy started talking to herself, rummaging around through her bag in search of the notebook containing everything Gildarts had been able to tell them about this quest.

"While you look through that, let's at least get out of this train station and into Benos. Then we can find an inn, let Wendy relax a little, and we can meet up with this guy." Everyone seemed to agree with Gray's suggestion, and at that, the group started towards the exit.

Each step they took brought another ten pounds on Natsu, and he felt like he was about to fall over from weariness. That's not right, he managed to think through the haze of exhaustion. Why the hell am I so tired right now? And my head, God it's pounding. Is this what it feels like to die? Maybe all that motion sickness caught up with me! Ugh, I knew trains were going to be the death of me!

Erza stumbled ever so subtly, but she stumbled nonetheless. She shook her head, clenching her fist even tighter around the handle of her wagon of luggage. Get a hold of yourself Erza! Why do I feel so weak all of a sudden? It's not like I ate anything weird, and I just slept on the train... I don't think I could even summon a dagger right now.