Laxus's POV

Even though we had been docked all day, the sea was rough and continued rocking the ship nauseatingly. Gajeel, Natsu, Wendy, and I were all laying on the floor trying to stop our bodies from completely rejecting our stomachs. After five days on the ship and only keeping enough food down to survive, I had lost all sense of dignity and didn't even have the energy to feel ashamed by my embarrassing state.

Captain Beck had herded us into one of his secret rooms where he kept Prekt refugees while they unloaded all of their goods and traded with the Prektians. He had told us to be silent as the grave until he came back for us. During our five day trip across the Graveyard Sea I had gone over in my mind everything that the Captain had told us as well as what Phaedra had mentioned about her home country. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had no idea what I was in store for when we finally got to land.

After what felt like an eternity, the door to our very cramped room opened and Captain Beck gave us all a hard look. I couldn't imagine living a life where every day you feared that your kindness would be discovered and you would be killed for it, but I nodded respectfully to the older man as I forced myself to stand on wobbly legs.

"Follow me," Captain Beck said curtly before turning on his heels and walking down the dark hallway.

Glancing behind me, I saw Natsu leaning heavily against Lucy. Erza was helping Shararu get Wendy on her feet, and Levy and Lily were stabilizing the woozy Gajeel. Just as I was about to take my first step out of this horrid vessel, two arms slipped around my waist. Looking down, I was surprised to see Freed and Mirajane sliding into position to help support me as well.

"Let's go," Mirajane said with a happy smile. I had known that she wouldn't make fun of me for getting motion sick, but it felt nice to have a friend on either side to support my shaky body. Freed patted my back encouragingly and I laid my arms across their shoulders before following after Captain Beck's rapidly receding footsteps.

Our group followed him up to the deck and over to the side of the boat where it was just open ocean. My eyes drifted past the rocking waves towards the moon bathed land. For as far as I could see, small houses that looked to be made out of some kind of stone were built in ridiculously close proximity to one another. Where there was space between the huts, colorful tent canopies were strung up to create a strange tunnel-like effect.

At the very edge of all of the rustic homes though was the biggest palace I had ever seen. The architecture was very rounded, much different from the castles in Amaranth and Crocus. In the pale moonlight, I couldn't tell exactly, but it looked like the stone that formed the palace was white. A huge wall surrounded the palace and disappeared behind it past my line of sight.

"Climb down here. You'll have to swim for the shore. And try not to speak to any of the locals; your accents will give you away too fast," Captain Beck whispered as he pointed to a slightly swaying rope ladder that went down the side of the ship and stopped inches away from the ocean below.

I nodded in understanding to the Captain and was surprised when he glanced around him and reached behind a barrel to pull out a large package. He handed the package to Mirajane, who took it with a curious expression.

"Those are some clothes and scarves for you to try and blend in a little. People in Prekt don't have light colored hair, so try to keep it out of sight."

Fighting nausea that felt like it was going to cripple me at any moment, I removed my arm from Mirajane's shoulder and held out a hand to the Captain. He regarded it only for a second before reaching out and clasping my hand in a firm shake.

"Thank you for your help, Captain. I'm sorry if we put you in danger," I said sincerely, wishing that there had been another way to get here. Captain Beck released my hand and gave a sad shake of his head.

"Not many people know that the King uses enslavement magic on the guardian princesses. If there is a chance you can save the lost princess from that fate then I wish you luck. Just try not to get killed."

I nodded silently, feeling grateful that I had met Captain Beck and seen the courage and honor someone like him exuded. With that, the Captain left us and I began moving towards the rope ladder. A firm hand landed on my shoulder, though, and I looked back to see Mest smiling faintly.

"Hold on," he whispered.

Suddenly I felt a tugging sensation go across my body. The next thing I knew, I was standing on sand with the sound of gentle waves washing up onto the shore. My nausea instantly vanished and I heaved a sigh of relief at the strength that flooded back into my body. Straightening, I surveyed the stretch of sandy beach we were on and my eyes fell on a small opening several yards down the beach.

"Let's stay in there for the night," I suggested, pointing to the cave opening. No one offered an argument so we all walked through the shifting sand and made ourselves comfortable in the slightly cramped cave.

"Well... we made it," Mest commented as he stretched out next to Wendy and Shararu, leaning his back against the dark brown walls of the cave we had claimed. "Now how do we find Phaedra?"

Silence stretched between us and I saw several nervous glances being exchanged between my friends. To my surprise, it was Wendy who spoke up first.

"I think we should split up and try to track her through smell," she said with a determined expression. I glanced at Natsu and Gajeel before returning my attention to Wendy.

"You and I may remember Phaedra's scent, but Gajeel and Natsu probably don't," I countered gently. They both shrugged in agreement and to my surprise Wendy smiled.

"You won't have to search by memory," she announced before slipping her hand into her dress pocket and pulling out a sealed bag. I watched her curiously as she opened the bag and instantly the scent of leather, a tangy citrus fruit that I couldn't place, and a slight hint of metal flooded my senses. Phaedra.

"I was going to give her her gloves back when she woke up," Wendy explained with a sad sigh. She then reached into the bag and pulled out one of the fingerless gloves that Phaedra had worn every day since I met her, except for the night of the ball.

"So, we'll split into four groups and search for her," Erza said with a nod of agreement as Wendy tucked the gloves back in their sealed bag and stowed it carefully in her pocket. "Where should we search?"

"This city is huge. She could be anywhere," Levy pointed out with a small frown.

"I want to search the palace," Wendy said immediately with a serious expression making her small face look much more mature than I was used to seeing it. I didn't miss Mest's flinch at this declaration and I watched him out of the corner of my eye when he turned away and bit his lip as if to keep himself from saying something.

"I'm not sure that would be the wisest decision, Wendy," Erza said gently as she met the young Dragon Slayer's determined expression with a gentle one of her own.

"Phaedra said that she was going to... kill... the King. And the King should be in the palace, so I want to start there."

"Yes, but..."

"I'll go with her," Mest said quietly, causing everyone to turn to look at him. He lifted his head and looked first at Wendy's startled expression and then up at the rest of us. "If I sense any trouble I'll teleport us out before anything happens."

"I'll go with you too," Gray said firmly, leaning forward from where he had been resting against the cave wall. I glanced over at him and then shook my head.

"You should come with me, Gray," I said quietly. Gray's eyes flashed with annoyance and I shook my head, silently telling him to hear me out. "The palace is huge and I agree with Wendy. If Phaedra did beat us here I think she'll head to the palace. It'll be better if we have two dragon slayers on either end of the palace and work our way to the middle, rather than have one small team try to search the whole place without getting caught." Gray relaxed and nodded his agreement to my plan, but I saw Lucy and Erza frown.

"Smaller teams would be more discreet, but I would prefer that you have more back up in case you are caught," Erza said with a small frown, crossing her arms as she puzzled through things in her mind.

"Phaedra may not be in the palace," Wendy said with a small frown. "She could be waiting for the opportunity to slip in. So I think it would still be a good idea to have the rest of us searching the city for her."

"Lucy, Happy, and I can search the markets tomorrow!" Natsu volunteered with an excited gleam in his eyes and I really hoped that he wasn't just thinking of all the new food he would find there.

"Gajeel and I can look around the city too. We'll probably be able to blend best with the Prektian people anyways because of our hair colors," Levy said, glancing over at Gajeel's thick black hair. I didn't bother telling her that Gajeel stood out no matter where he went with a face like his.

"To be honest, I think it would be helpful if we had some more information about this place," Mirajane said with a small frown. "I know Captain Beck warned us not to speak to the people, but I might try to just copy their accent and ask around for information about the King and his Princesses."

"I'll accompany you then, Mirajane," Freed said formally, resting his rapier across his knees as he stretched out his legs. "If we can't get any information from the people perhaps we can find a library that could give us more information about the history of the Prekt people. It could be helpful if our stay here is extended."

I frowned at that comment but didn't object. The thought that it would take more than a few days to find Phaedra was not a pleasant one. Every day that she was on her own was another day she could be captured and Shararu's vision could come true.

"Looks like you're the only one without a team Erza," I commented as I looked over at her pensive expression. "Who are you going to go with?"

Erza raised her dark eyes to look at me silently and I was surprised at the hesitancy in her expression. Normally Erza exuded confidence in everything that she did and it was strange to see her seem uncertain.

"I'll go with Natsu and Lucy. But please be careful when you go into the castle. Something feels off about this place," Erza mumbled before turning her eyes away from mine and looking out the cave opening to the softly crashing waves against the shoreline.

Lucy's POV

The next morning I woke up feeling stiff and a strange uneasiness greeted me as I slowly regained consciousness. The cave had been cramped and I was surprised to find that during the night I had apparently cuddled up next to Natsu, using his arm as a kind of pillow. Even more surprising though, was that his forehead was resting against mine and his other arm was draped across my waist. Happy was curled up comfortably between our bodies and snoring quietly.

I blinked slowly as I looked at Natsu's peaceful sleeping expression. We had been a team for several years now and there were days that Natsu drove me completely crazy. Thinking back to when we had met, I smiled as I remembered that he was the first person to help me when I had run away from home. He was immature, hotheaded, and dense as all get out, but he was also the best friend that I ever had. He never let me down and I felt completely safe whenever he was around.

I couldn't remember a time when I hadn't had some sort of feelings for Natsu. Way back to the first time we had met and I had realized HE was the legendary Salamander of Fairy Tail, my heart had fluttered a little bit at seeing my secret hero. And even though I had seen him at his worst and I knew almost everything about him... my feelings had only gotten stronger.

Letting out a small sigh I pushed myself up slowly. Gently, I took Natsu's arm that was around me and laid it on the ground as I stood and stretched, letting the morning sun warm my chilled toes. Even though I knew my feelings for Natsu went beyond friendship, I didn't have time to feel sorry for myself and Natsu's incapacity for romantic feelings. Phaedra was on her way to a fate worse than death and I was going to do everything in my power to find her and convince her to come back to Fairy Tail where we could keep her safe.

I wasn't surprised to see that Erza was already awake and practicing her swordplay out on the beach. Briefly, I considered pulling out my keys and practicing some more with my Star Dress power, but I could hear rustling around the room as my friends began to slowly wake up, so I decided against it. After a quick breakfast of travel bread packed with nuts and dried fruits, everyone divvied up the clothing in the large package Captain Beck had gifted us.

There wasn't anything in my size so I just kept my outfit of a blue and white halter top shirt and white knee-length shorts, but I did wrap my blonde hair in a blue scarf that matched my shirt. Natsu insisted that he would use his own dragon scale scarf to cover his hair, but his first attempt made it look more like he was a wanna-be ninja, covering his entire face except for his eyes and leaving his spiky pink hair poking up on top.

With a sigh, I pulled on one end of his scarf firmly, causing him to twist around with a surprised yell. Once I had confiscated his scarf I reached up and confidently wrapped it so that, when I was done, his hair was completely covered and the ends of his scarf draped down his back. He grumbled briefly that he liked his way better, but he left it the way I had arranged it.

Once everyone was as disguised as we could be with our limited resources, Wendy opened her bag with Phaedra's gloves tucked in it. All of the dragon slayers took a long whiff of the gloves, which would have been quite comical if I wasn't so worried that we were going to find out that we were too late.

We split up from the beach, deciding that traveling in smaller groups from the beginning would be less eye-catching. I walked with Natsu and Erza on either side of me as Happy padded in front of us. After we had climbed up the incline of the beach to the city above us I felt my eyes widen in shock at the hustle and bustle in front of us. People were dressed in a myriad of fashions, from elegantly draped and layered dresses to Ishgarian shirts and pants. But even though the styles varied drastically, everything was extremely colorful. It was as if they were attempting to liven up their beige homes and the endless rolling hills of sand that stretched out past the palace.

I was a little surprised to see that there seemed to be as many different skin tones as their colorful clothes. Some people looked as fair as Phaedra, without even a hint of tan to their alabaster skin, while others had a deep caramel tone to their skin, and others were as black as night.

The diversity was amazing, but I instantly realized that Captain Beck had been right to warn us to cover our hair. In Ishgar it was common to see hair color in any color you could imagine. But as I looked out among the densely packed streets nearly flooded with people, I could only pick out three or four variations of hair color. Mostly it was the glossy black color that Phaedra herself had, but there were some deep blues and even some that had a purple-ish tint to their hair

I saw Erza fiddle with her headscarf at the same time as I did and I briefly wished that I had thought to color my eyebrows with charcoal before coming out here. Licking my lips nervously I reached out and took hold of Natsu's vest with my fingertips. He looked down at me with a question in his eyes and I nodded my head towards the sea of people.

"Do you smell her?" I asked quietly. Natsu blinked, apparently I had just dragged him out of his own analysis of the foreign sight in front of us before he tilted his head back and breathed in deeply through his nose. I waited, hoping desperately that this would be easier than I had thought, but Natsu's frown quickly squashed that hope.

"They all smell the same!" he complained so loudly that I actually slapped my hand over his mouth. I glared at him, shoving him through the crowds as a few people turned around, looking confused.

"Natsu, these people speak a different language!" I hissed under my breath as we pushed our way through the crowded streets. "You can't be so loud!"

"Fine," he mumbled from under my hand. I let him go and he straightened, frowning slightly as he looked around him. "But seriously, all of these people smell like a weird fruit I've never smelled before. I can hardly tell the difference between them."

"Muevenze! Muevenze, ya!" I jumped at the loud, commanding voice coming from farther down the street.

A squeak of fright wormed its way out of my throat as the street full of people began to stampede towards the angry voices. My fingers lost their grip on Natsu's vest and it took all of my concentration to simply stay on my feet as I was swept away with the crowd.

When I finally came to a stop, I was in the middle of a huge group of people who I realized were all carrying some kind of earthenware pot. Everyone was looking towards the huge wagon that was being pulled by the strangest creatures I had ever seen. They looked like an oddly deformed camel with two heads and much thicker legs. They did have humps on their backs, but the humps looked strangely wrinkled and lump. And they didn't have any fur. Instead, they were covered in reptilian-like scales. Most disturbing of all was their eyes, which were on the sides of their head and poked out crazily, moving different directions at the same time.

I felt slightly nauseous looking at the hideous creatures and quickly turned my attention to the two men wearing what appeared to be a uniform of some kind. They both had thin swords strapped to their belts and were wearing uniforms made out of thin fabric with blue hats that had matching fabric falling down to cover their ears and neck completely.

"Forma fila o no pueden conzeguirlo!" one of the angry men shouted. I felt dozens of people jostle me as a line began to form going up to the back of the huge wagon. Not sure what I should do, I looked around to see if I could spot Natsu or Erza in the crowd. A strange sloshing sound caught my attention and I turned back to look at what was happening at the wagon.

My eyes widened as I watched each person come forward with their pot and hold it out so that one of the angry men could ladle a few scoops of water into them. As I watched the strange scene my eyes lowered as a movement caught my eyes. My hands flew to my mouth as I saw several children, who looked to be nothing but skin and bones, crawl their way through the legs of the beasts harnessed to the wagon.

I watched as the children made their way underneath where the men were ladling water into the people's pots and then held their tiny fingers out. Whenever a stray drop would fall from a pot, or a ladle it would splash onto one of the filthy hands and the child would immediately lick it before putting their hands underneath the current exchange of water. My eyes filled with tears as I watched the horrible scene in front of me.

What kind of place is this? I thought to myself as I watched the sickly children lap up the stray drops of water as the adults and soldiers acted as if they were invisible.

A/N Kind of a depressing place to end it, sorry about that :S Thank you for reading though! I am really curious to see the reactions to the next chapter...