Hello, readers! Thank you all for taking the time to read my fanfiction. I hope that you love it as much as I do. This is my first fanfiction, so I'm sure there will be flaws. A special thanks goes to grayXlucyFE for commenting on this chapter. Please leave me reviews and opinions. Happy reading!

Tablet and a Tome

It was raining when a body passed out onto the streets of Magnolia Town. She was littered with bruises from head to toe and gained another when her face hit a puddle in the street. She was weak. So weak.

There was no way she could make it there in this state, and in the midst of unconsciousness she whispered, "Have… to… away…" But, her body wouldn't move. Days of travel and then the most recent assault on her had been her utter downfall.

She was so close. She knew that what she sought was so close. She knew, oh, she just knew, that she could have made it had she not fallen out. With a snarl on her lips, her face sat in a puddle on the dirty streets. So, this was the end for her. An end with no real beginning… How pathetic.

The darkness overtook her mind even as she clutched the precious bag tighter in her hands.

"Ah, it's still raining," a blue haired mage observed as she and her team departed from the train station. Her slender hands reached out, collecting raindrops into her palm. "Lucy and I were going to go shopping today, but I guess all this rain won't work out for us."

"I could always run you there faster if the rain is bothering you, Levy," one of her teammates suggested, walking closer to her as if to prove the point.

"Ha. No, Jet. It's fine. Besides, I don't really mind the rain," she explained and looked forward to the soaked streets.

Up ahead, not too far from where they were, the Fairy Tail guild hall would soon be in sight. Levy was about ready to pass out in her room in Fairy Hills with a good book and warm, dry bed sheets.

The latest mission that they had been on had been rather difficult with Jet and Levy's other partner, Droy, having to protect her as she worked on a seal that prevented them from escaping a crumbling tomb.

Luckily, no one had gotten hurt, and Levy had been able to interpret the seal on the barrier, but the rest of the mission had consisted of digging out the archeologists who hadn't been able to escape with them. She still felt like she had tiny bits of rubble in her hair and clothing.

Also, there was something bothering her about that whole mission so much that she didn't even hear Droy talking about something laying in the road before she was already toppling forward to the ground.

Quick as ever, Jet steadied her on her feet, and her hazel eyes gaped at just what she'd tripped on. It was a girl!

Her body was fallen over in the most uncomfortable way possible with half her face in a puddle and the other half covered in bruises. Dark, earthy brown haired covered up half her face, and a camo bandana was slowly slipping out of her hair. She looked as if she'd passed out here and hadn't gotten up in a while.

Immediately, Levy dropped to her knees. "Oh, my gosh," she breathed when a particularly nasty looking cut appeared underneath the girl's thick mane. "Jet, Droy, we have to get this girl to the guild immediately!" she proclaimed, lifting the girl up.

Something began to slip unnoticed off of the young woman's shoulder, and as the trio dashed off to the Fairy Tail headquarters, the rain continued to pelt down on a hunter green backpack.

When the darkness began to ebb away from her skull, it wasn't the thunder and lightning that had Adamine Terra cracking her eyes open. It was the sound of urgent voices.

"How is she doing?" a female voice questioned.

"Has she woke up?" two males asked in unison.

"N-no. My magic can only do so much for these kinds of injuries. She's better. A lot less bruises, but…" another feminine voice trailed off, and it got Adamine wondering. Just how bad are my injuries?

She remembered how she'd gotten them, but they hadn't seemed that bad at the time. She'd ran far to escape the ones who hunted her down. After she'd had the tablet forced upon her, she'd ran as fast as she could. Yes, she'd been attacked multiple times during her escape, but she'd at least made it to Magnolia. She shouldn't have any broken bones. Besides, the worst thing she'd felt on the train had been motion sickness.

Adamine opened up one eye to survey her surroundings. She appeared to be in some sort of infirmary. There was one other cot beside hers before a white sheet served as a divider between patient beds.

A girl that Adamine assumed to be around seventeen years old sat in a chair beside her bed, and there was one more who was focusing healing magic on Adamine's body. These people didn't look like the ones who'd been after her, or more accurately, what she was supposed to be delivering.

She gulped when images of what had happened in the ruins of Holden flashed through her mind. The crumbling tomb. The screaming archeologists who'd gotten trapped behind a barrier. One of the men foisting the most important artifact they'd dug up at her, demanding for her to run. The one young man who'd sacrificed himself in order to get her out with the tablet. Adamine would never forget the smile on his face before he'd been attacked.

Whoever these people were, they definitely weren't the ones who'd been after her. If they had been, they would have left her in the streets after taking her bag. Deciding she was safe, Adam opened up both of her eyes to see two more people standing at the foot of the bed.

They were two men. One was large and the other skinny. Yes, definitely not the men that had attacked the ruins.

"Hey!" the larger one exclaimed, "She's awake!"

The girl sitting beside the bed, the one with lighter blue hair, reached over to clasp Adam's hand. She asked, "Hey, how are you feeling?"

Taken aback by their concern, Adamine had to pause a moment before being able to respond. "U-um. Better. I guess. Sore. Maybe?" she answered. Her eyes darted around, suddenly nervous amongst all these people.

A new voice spoke but not to Adam. Adamine turned to a white feline and felt her jaw go slack when the creature said, "She's good, Wendy. Stop before you hurt yourself." A talking… cat. Was that normal?

Adamine shook her head when the dark blue haired girl gave her a shy smile. "My name's Wendy. It's nice to meet you."

"Adamine," Adam replied simply and looked at the faces of the four people and one cat in the room before catching a glimpse of something. On Wendy's arm was the mark she'd been looking for. Fairy Tail!

A new surge of relief ran through Adamine's body, and she could have howled in delight. She'd made it! She'd made it! Yahoo! She could finally get someone to help her out.

Immediately, she reached to her side where the kept her bag then froze when she only felt air. Her bag! Oh, no! Where was her bag?

"My bag! Oh, no. No. No. No. No. No! Not my bag!" she cried and leaped from the bed to everyone's surprise. Two hands came up and clasped the sides of her skull. "Do you remember seeing a bag? It's a dark green one with books inside of it! I had it with me before I passed out?"

The looks that she got answered her before Adamine even heard an answer. They hadn't seen it. Ack! She could scream! She'd promised to get that tablet to Fairy Tail! She had been supposed to deliver it so someone could translate it for her!

"Are you sure? Maybe, maybe, you saw something that might have fallen out of it? Like, like, a tablet? Ya know, old, stone, weird writing?" No positive response. Adamine felt her heart drop as she flopped down onto the bed with her head in her hands.

She'd promised those archeologists she would get it here for them, but no, she'd gone and lost it. What if those men found it? What if someone else stole it?

Suddenly, a hand touched her back, and Adamine nearly jumped from the surprise contact. "Hey," the lighter blue haired girl comforted, "how about we all go look for it? It's obvious that it's important to you. You haven't been here long, so if someone has it, I bet that we can track it down."

"Yeah," one of the men spoke. "We can tell everyone in the guild about it, and people that are able to can help us search for it."

Adamine smiled, not wanting to reveal her serious doubt that they would find it. So, the strongest guild in Fiore was also one of the kindest. Shocking. Deciding that she would be looking for it herself anyway, Adam explained, "There are very important items in that bag. If someone stole it, they may have only taken what they thought was important. I had an ancient text, a tablet, and all of my money. I doubt that anyone would want the book, and some may look over the tablet. But, both of them are more important than the money. Those two are the only things that I really need back."

"Then, we'll all go look for them with you. I'm Droy, by the way. Nice to meet you."

Adamine gave a nod. So, all of Fairy Tail was going to look for a stranger's backpack. Adam didn't know that people like this even existed.