"You know, when I pictured my first day in Sabertooth, this isn't exactly what I imagined." You muttered, looking down at Sting, who was sprawled across several seats of the train carriage trying to hold back the urge to vomit. Rogue was in a similar condition, but was moaning less. His pale skin was even more pale than normal and sweat clung to his brow as he fought the nausea.

"Urrghhhh..."

"Rogue..." Frosch said. He was sitting on top of Rogue's head and stroking the top of his head with his paws. Sting, on the other hand, had decided to solve the problem by taking up as much space as possible. He had decided ten minutes into the several hour journey back from Crocus that your lap was going to be his pillow. Luckily, neither of them had actually been sick yet, but every minute you feared one or both of them would be. You had been on the train less than 15 minutes and both dragon slayers were in a bad way.

"Kill...me..." Sting groaned.

"Stop being so melodramatic. You're worse than Natsu." You attempted to scold him, but couldn't bring yourself to be too harsh given his sorry condition.

"Sting-kun's ability on trains...is not the best." Lector sighed from next to you. He had curled up sleepily on Sting's back; it was rather comical and you wondered how many of these kinds of journeys the two of them had been on.

"Is there not anything that helps?" You asked.

"Well, there was the time they flailed around so much when the train began moving before they took their seats that they knocked each other out..."

You stifled back a laugh. "Really?"

"Yeah, we woke up at the end of the line, 3 days walk away from where we were supposed to be going."

"Wow." You smirked slightly. "Should we knock them out?"

"Nah, it's a pain waking them up." Lector murmured with a yawn.

"Fro thinks so too!"

"I have an idea." You said. "Cars used to make me kinda ill when I went on long journeys in my old world. There was only one thing that helped."

You got up out of your seat, resting a moaning Sting's head on the seat of the train carriage instead and reached up for your suitcase. Mira had offered to bring the rest of your belongings over to Sabertooth in a few days time or would send it with a team who happened to be doing a job in the area. You unzipped the outer zip of the suitcase and brought out your iPod and headphones. It was good to have the ability to listen to it again. Ever since you'd managed to find the required electrical lacrima to allow the charger to work again, you'd barely stopped listening to it. The ball and the Games had been the only break in your listening since you had it fixed on the Games' day off.

You sat back down, replacing Sting's head on your lap. He probably barely registered the fact that you'd not been there for a minute or so. You placed the headphones over his ears and selected a playlist of power ballads. Sting relaxed slightly as he listened to the music. Rogue threw you a slightly resentful look.

"Sorry..." You said with an apologetic expression.

It seemed that listening to Simple Minds was keeping Sting more stable for the moment. Lector's whiskers twitched slightly as he leant over Sting's head and listened to the music coming from the headphones. You dug into your pocket and pulled out a mint chocolate. You had yet to find out if Fiore had managed to invent chewing gum, so mint chocolate of the strong variety would have to do. You passed it to Rogue.

"Eat that." You said calmly. "Mint stops you from being sick physically."

Rogue didn't reply but put the chocolate in his mouth. He chewed on it slowly. You could tell from his expression that he wasn't fond of the taste, but hopefully it would help.

"Thank you." Frosch said with a small smile.

"It's okay. Oh, by the way, Frosch, did you want to hear that story?"

"Story!"

You beamed and stroked Sting's hair gently. He looked up at you briefly before groaning and replacing his head face down in your lap. You still had a long journey ahead. "Okay. So once upon a time, there were a couple called Mr and Mrs Dursley, and they were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much..."

After telling Frosch most of the entirety of the first Harry Potter book, the train finally pulled into the stop where Sabertooth's guild was located. You watched the other guild members that had attended the Games file out of separate carriages; no-one had wanted to share a compartment with Sting and Rogue for understandable reasons. You helped the two dragon slayers up and off the train with the help of their Exceeds.

"I am never going on a train again." Sting groaned, leaning on your shoulder for support.

"You'll have to, Sting-kun. Weaknesses make us stronger." Lector piped up.

"Lector's right." You added. "It's a necessary evil."

"We're still walking next time."

"No way, dragon breath. Not happening."

You hauled Sting up and looked at the now virtually empty platform. "Which way?"

"This way." Rogue pointed weakly and the five of you began walking towards the exit of the station, you handling the two dragon slayers and the luggage.

"This town is so different from Magnolia." You noted curiously. "Not much of the other places were detailed other than Magnolia and Crocus in the story."

"_," Sting said, looking up at you. The colour was beginning to return to his face, which was a good sign. "I'm going to have to deal with the guild as soon as we get in. Then I'll show you your room."

"Square deal." You smiled back. "You know, this is rather exciting for me. A whole new bit of this universe I've never seen. But still..." You said, voice fading wistfully.

"What's wrong, _?" Frosch said.

"Nothing. Just...I'm gonna miss them."

"Isn't that Mira girl coming round like, tomorrow or something?" Sting said.

"Probably a few days time, actually. You know how Fairy Tail are with their parties. The one when they came back from Tenrou Island lasted...three days? Verging on four?"

"Wait, NON-STOP?" Rogue gaped.

"Obviously!" You beamed. "They know how to party. I must have sung eight songs over those days for the guild. Gajeel-san helped."

"Gajeel-kun...helped you sing?" Rogue said doubtfully.

"His singing leaves much to be desired." You said with a smile. "However, he's an excellent guitar playe-" You gasped. "Where's my guitar?"

"Wasn't it in your suitcase?"

"No, it was..." Your heart sank. "In the corridor." You looked back at the train platform. The train was still there but the final whistle was blowing. "Lector, look after Sting a moment."

You dashed rapidly back to the platform as the train began to move out of the station slowly. You jumped over the security guard and headed into the platform, running along side the train as it accelerated.

"_, are you crazy?!" Rogue shrieked.

"PROBABLY!" You shouted back and dived left, leaping onto a door of the train and clinging on for dear life.

The window was open and you heaved yourself up and through the tiny opening, wind rushing in your ears. You tumbled headfirst into the train, much to the surprise of some shocked onlookers. You dashed past people, dodging and squeezing past them until you finally saw your white guitar case. You rushed forward and picked it up, sighing in relief and putting it on your back. You then headed for the nearest train door. The train was moving fast now, at least 50 miles per hour.

"Are you okay there, dear?" An old woman asked. "You look a little red. Would you like a drink?"

"I'm okay, ma'am, but thank you." You smiled gratefully at her. She hadn't needed to offer you anything. "If it's okay, could you stand back?"

The old lady looked confused but backed up as you asked. You opened the train door and the wind came rushing in, noisily blowing about.

"Angel soul!" You yelled and transformed. It hurt slightly as it had been many months since you had had your guitar case on your back fitted around your wings and you hit them against the case. You'd tried to break the habit for the Games. Hopefully it would work like riding a bicycle.

You spread your wings and jumped out of the train, flapping desperately but you quickly descended to the ground. Your scales were strong enough to stop you from gaining too much damage to you, but you still hurt your butt and you were pretty sure it hadn't done your only recently healed arm any favours. You stood up and brushed yourself down. The train was speeding away and you saw the old woman in the window. You waved with a grin before taking off and flying back towards the train station, where Sting and Rogue, now mostly recovered, were waiting for you. You descended gently and you had barely shut down your transformation before Sting grabbed your shoulders.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"Um...I forgot my guitar?" You retorted meekly.

"What did I say about being reckless?!"

You cringed and shut your eyes, waiting for the inevitable yelling that would be expected of any sane person having witnessed that. Instead you were met with warm arms wrapped around you and a hand caressing your hair.

"Don't do that." Sting said grumpily as he hugged you. You figured that was as close as you were getting to being forgiven.

"Sting, we need to get to the guild." Rogue said, looking at the town clock tower. "It's nearly sundown."

"You're right." He said. "I have big plans for Sabertooth now. I have to be there on time."

"So do I have to call you Master?" Rogue remarked.

"Good question." You seconded.

"I guess so." Sting said. There was absolutely no way he could have prevented either you nor Rogue from detecting the rather intolerable air of smugness that seemed to underlay in that sentence.

You rolled your eyes. "Not into that kinky stuff, you know."

"It'd be the other way around." Rogue snickered and you arched an eyebrow in surprise. It was rather uncharacteristic for the shadow dragon slayer. You were so glad that Sting hadn't heard him.

"Fro thinks so too!"

"Fine." Sting sighed. "You don't have to. Not when we're alone."

"Lector will try." You muttered.

"Hm?"

"Oh, nothing."

"How far forward does your knowledge of this universe stretch?" Sting asked curiously.

"To be honest, it's coming to an end."
You remembered the last chapter, the one that had come out the day you'd left for Earthland. "And I pray that you two will be safe when it happens."

"We'll get through it, whatever it is. We're the strongest guild in Fiore!" Lector said with a confident grin.

"Second-strongest." You corrected.

"Eh, they got lucky."

"Lector, so help me..." You started but were cut off by Sting vomiting in the middle of the street. You noticed the 'walking path closed - alternate bus service running to the town centre'.

Oh geez. You sighed. Your journey at Sabertooth was getting off to a fantastic start.