The day was bright and the wind was nice, not too strong to cause them any problems as the big ship sailed through the waves. The air was cool and pure and Freed inhaled it deeply, trying to get rid of his nausea. He was doing a lot better than his husband who was leaning against the rail, looking green.
Usually the bond they shared could help Laxus to endure his motion sickness well, but ships sailing on the sea were different case. Laxus couldn't stand ships that were constantly moving because of big waves of the sea. Even without being a dragon slayer, Laxus would definitely get easily seasick.
They had left in the middle of the night and hopped in a train to Hargeon. Once they arrived, they had looked up for a ship and managed to find one right before it would leave when the sun rose. They should arrive at Elenbora somewhere around three or four at the evening if everything went well.
Freed leaned against the railing while looking ahead, seeing nothing but water and sky. He wondered if Felix had woken up already... The boy had not taken it well when he heard he couldn't come with them this time. There had been lots of crying and clinging and Freed could understand Felix's frustration. He wanted to adventure with them and it was really nice, but this was too dangerous for him. Also, this was the first time both Freed and Laxus would be away and they didn't even know how long this trip might take.
Leaving during the night was partly decided so Felix and Chester would be sleeping when they would leave. It made things easier. Of course they would be sad once they would wake up, but it couldn't be helped.
"I feel like I'm dying..." Laxus murmured, barely able to even speak.
"You always say that when we're on a ship", Freed just said. "And just like before, you won't die just because you're feeling nauseous."
"Flying would have been more comfortable."
"Elenbora is too far away and we can't arrive there with our magic. I can't fly anyway since I can't be sure if my magic would fade."
"You could have just stayed at home..."
"Too late for that, Laxus. Try to take deep breaths of fresh air", Freed chuckled and Laxus groaned.
They heard steps and turned around looking at Bickslow and Evergreen. Roscoe followed right after them and the guard was definitely not feeling any better than Laxus.
"Still feeling nauseous?" Evergreen asked from the blond dragon slayer who was sitting on a large coil of robe.
"How does it seem like?" Laxus grumbled annoyed.
"You poor guys", Evergreen chuckled and she looked at Roscoe.
"I'm from the mountains", the man muttered. "I'm not used to ships, we don't need them there", he said and he burped, almost throwing up.
"We'll be in Elenbora soon", Bickslow grinned. "Why did you follow us anyway? You were supposed to stay with others in Magnolia."
"It's our father that is causing all this chaos and destruction, we are responsible to stop his madness", Roscoe said with a frown.
"No, you're not responsible of what he does", Freed said crossing his arms. "He alone is responsible of his doings. But I do understand that you want to stop him from doing even more horrible things."
Roscoe said nothing looking ahead to the sea they were crossing. It would still take hours before they could see the big island where Elenbora was. Once they would arrive, they would have to do their best to blend in with the locals. That meant absolutely no magic or too outstanding clothes.
Apparently clothes in Elenbora were simple and always light colored, very rarely they used dark clothes. For them, they meant sorrow and misery. The fabric usually used was spider silk made by huge silk spiders that lived in the mountains of Elenbora. It was soft and thin fabric and it felt really cooling against skin, it was perfect for a tropical climate in Elenbora.
The fashion of clothes was very versatile, who preferred more or less clothes. They all were happy they had Evergreen to help them, the brunette knew exactly what clothes they should use so they would look like locals. She obviously preferred lesser clothes, wearing a beautiful white and blue coloured skirt and a scarf that was wrapped around her like a small top.
Freed was wearing a long silver tunic with white pants. It was simple and loose enough so no one would notice the little bump. His long hair was tied up and against his usual habit, his both eyes were now visible and his signature lightning bolt cowlicks were smoothed and hold down with pins. It was a lot more casual look and he did not feel really comfortable with it. What made him even more uncomfortable was the fact that he could not take his sword with him, as its hilt had been shaped as a Fairy Tail guild mark. But he refused to leave without any kind of sword so he was carrying a regular sword now, he just had to do his best and get used to it as soon as possible while on their journey.
Laxus' outfit was a lot like Freed's, but his shirt was shorter and he had a long cape over his shoulders. It was not the same as wearing his old dark coat but he had no choice but to leave it home. He had had that coat for so long everyone would recognize him easily if he walked around with it. The breeze from the sea was cold and it made him shiver, making him miss his fur-lined coat even more.
Bickslow and Roscoe had long robes and they had both left out their visors. With robes they could hide their black and blue hair since they would definitely draw attention towards them. What came to the tattoo Bickslow had, it was actually quite traditional to everyone have at least one tattoo in Elenbora. It helped to cover their guild marks with temporary tattoos.
Bickslow smirked pulling his arm around Freed's neck.
"You should have tried a skirt too, baby", he cackled and the rune mage rolled his eyes. "I bet no one would have guessed you're a guy!"
"Of course they would notice it", Freed huffed.
"I'm not so sure about it", Evergreen smirked getting on Freed's other side. "Sure, you have muscles but with just right clothes..."
"I'm fine with these", Freed frowned annoyed.
"Leave him alone", Laxus said.
"Aren't you even a little bit curious to see him dressed up like a woman?" Bickslow asked.
"I wouldn't have married him if I preferred a woman."
"You two are not fun at all", Evergreen huffed. "We're just curious if Freed could do it, that's all."
"If it's for the mission, of course I would do it", Freed said. "And I would nail it", he said with a confident tiny smirk.
"Of course you would, baby!" Bickslow laughed. "This will be fun! It has been years since we last time traveled together with just us adults!"
"That is true", Evergreen smiled. "Either Freed or Laxus would stay in Magnolia or Felix and Chester would be with us."
"We can do whatever we want!"
"No we can't", Laxus huffed. "We're going there just to find out why Yuidose wants us to go there and we will go home right after that."
"That's no fun..."
"You should take this a little bit more seriously", Roscoe scolded his brother. "Anything might happen so we absolutely should not fool around."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it", Bickslow said. "But whatever, this is gonna be fun!" he laughed.
Rest of the trip to Elenbora was peaceful and they had a good speed. Yet still it was long past noon when the ship finally anchored itself at the big docs.
"Is this the whole town?" Bickslow asked and he was disappointed.
There were shops and houses, but it wasn't anything impressive. This town was more like a village!
"We have to walk for a while", Freed said after taking out his little notebook where he had wrote down advises how to move around in Elenbora and what they should know about the city. "So we can arrive at the actual town. We should walk up those stairs", he said pointing at the direction.
The mountains were rising up right behind the village and there was a huge stairway up. People were coming and going all the time and there was even a lift for big cargoes and for those who couldn't – or didn't want – to walk themselves.
"Where ever we go, there's always mountains", Evergreen muttered as they headed towards the big stairs. The closer they got, bigger they seemed.
"Are we gonna walk or use a lift?" Laxus asked, mostly from Freed if he was comfortable to walk up all those stairs.
The rune mage looked at the stairs. There sure was many of them... After spending half of the night in a train and then most of the day in a ship, if he was honest he sure wasn't feeling like walking up stairs. But his pride wouldn't allow him to just give up and sit comfortably on a lift.
"We'll be walking", he decided.
"Oh dear!" Evergreen suddenly yelped.
They managed to catch her just in time before she fell dramatically on the street her hand over her forehead.
"What's with you?" Roscoe asked lifting his eyebrow.
"I think I twisted my ankle, I can't walk up the stairs", Evergreen sighed with a suffering voice.
"You just tripped, you didn't hurt yourself..."
"Well, guess we have to use the lift now", Bickslow grinned lifting Evergreen up in his arms and the brunette smiled. "Can't help it so let's just go."
"You guys -" Freed started, but Laxus just put his hand on his shoulder, pulling him along towards the lift.
"We're all tired", the dragon slayer said. "And those stairs look damn long to walk up, so let's just use the lift."
They all knew Evergreen wasn't actually hurt, but it was true they were tired so none of them even actually tried to disagree. They just sat in the small cart that was just big enough to them all and it started moving on tracks.
The car moved slowly, leaving them enough time to look around. Surprisingly many were using the stairs or one of the five lifts like them, even though the village wasn't big. That's what told them the town behind these stairs must be huge.
Once the lift got up, they heard waterfalls roaming and the air was wet and full of steam.
"It's really warm suddenly", Evergreen said surprised as they were again walking on heir own, following a pavement that was leading them towards the town.
"Apparently there are lots of waterfalls around Elenbora", Freed said. "Most of them seem to come from hot springs up on mountains, it keeps the air warm all the time."
"And wet", Roscoe muttered.
"It's just the entrance, I'm sure it won't be this humid once we're in the town."
"Guess so. So how's your ankle?" Roscoe asked.
"A lot better, thank you for asking", Evergreen just smiled happily.
The path got wider again and it was heading down. More plants appeared and the roaming of waterfalls was left behind. The air got clear and they all stopped when they could see the city of Elenbora.
It was huge and beautiful. The mountains stood tall around it and the city itself was build down between them. There was water everywhere. Big pavements were built on top of it as well as all the buildings. People were using boats and similar where ever the roads couldn't take them and big rope bridges were connecting higher places.
There were plants everywhere. Growing down the walls of buildings, growing up from the water, crossing the roads, hanging from the rope bridges... It was everywhere and there was lots of it. Flowers, fruits, berries, trees, bushes, vines, moss... They couldn't even say what all they were seeing at the same time.
"Let's go", Laxus grunted when he realized they had been standing and staring at the big – yet not so crowded looking – city for a while already.
They started walking again and almost jumped when suddenly strong humming was approaching and many creatures of... Something flew just above them.
"They have riders", Bickslow gasped amazed.
They were huge chameleons with wings and each one of them had a rider on their back. Once they flew for a while, they landed on top of one of the big buildings and immediately they changed colours, camouflaging to their surroundings. Once they stood still, it was almost impossible to notice there were guards nearby.
"Awesome", Bickslow grinned. "I wanna try riding those."
"Don't do anything stupid", Roscoe warned. "We're trying to keep low profile."
"Aww, that's so cruel... Oh wow! Look at those birds!" Bickslow immediately shouted when seeing a cart that was pulled by two really weird looking birds covered by bright feathers.
"They are actually reptiles with feathers", Freed explained. "Very interesting species, they mostly eat only fish."
"So why do they look like birds?"
"Who knows? Maybe they are related to birds?"
"You said they're reptiles... I think you're trying to fool me, baby", Bickslow said looking at Freed who laughed.
"I'm not, but I don't either know a lot about those animals", the rune mage said.
"Can they fly?"
"No."
"Useless birds..."
"Anyway, before anything else we have to go to this address", Freed said lifting up the paper Porlyusica had given him. "We should be able to have a place where to stay there."
"So who's that guy Porlyusica was talking about?" Laxus asked as they got down the street and on one of the roads that was built on top of the water.
The water was so clear they could see all kinds of fish swimming in there, but the bottom was dark. Apparently these waters were deep, possibly connected to the sea. The road they were walking on was actually a stone bridge but most of it was underwater so it only looked like the road was built right on top of the water.
"She didn't mention even his name", Freed said. "So I guess, knowing her, there might be anything waiting for us."
"How encouraging", Evergreen muttered dryly.
After asking around for a while, they were heading towards the area of the town which was almost completely covered with plants. It was like a jungle, swallowing them all inside its shadows.