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 Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 9:52 pm
[Part 1: The Market]
Well over three weeks had passed since Megrez took her first trip to her home planet. Since she had a little time to kill on this fine summer day, Luca thought it would be a good idea to come back and look through the remnants again. She had wanted to go back for quite some time, but she simply… didn’t. Whether it was due to being busy with personal projects or forgetting, she simply hadn’t gone. Well, there was no better time than now. She hoped that this time, she would end up in a more relevant place than that little village.
Saying that she was going to go visit her friends, Luca hastily stepped out the door and made a beeline for the little alleyway she called Henshin Alley. Once there, Luca pulled her henshin pen out of her pocket (so lovely and newly-upgraded!) and transformed into Super Sailor Megrez. The same egg-shaped light formed around her, but this time, when the egg cracked and broke to reveal the super senshi, some feathers of light burst out and fell to the ground, where they disappeared. Giggling, she fiddled with her new, significantly larger butt bow and summoned up her phone. The new phone that Ash gave her appeared, and she touched the symbol for the Planet Teleport app. Like before, she focused on searching, finding, listening for the “song” of her planet. Soon, the world blurred around her, and she felt the sensation of movement.
After a moment, her feet touched ground, and her vision stabilized. She found herself on a cobblestone road that went on in front of and behind her. To her sides were large houses, all in various states of ruin. They were distinctly different from the cottages she had seen in the village; perhaps they were more opulent in their heyday. Deciding that there probably wasn’t much to explore inside the houses, she walked forward. The houses stopped after about two minutes of walking, and she arrived at a large open area. To be more accurate, it would be an open area if it weren’t crowded with what appeared to be counters or benches. Most were lined up in neat rows in the middle of the area, but some were along the sides as well. A moment after she took it in, the scene blossomed to life. The counters became filled with various goods, the people selling them, and people buying them.
As if guided by her vision, Megrez looked to the right and saw a man beside her carrying multiple bags of groceries on each arm. He had a mop of dirty blonde hair and bright green eyes, and he was wearing a plain brown shirt and brown pants with suspenders. On his right arm was a yellow armband. He said, “Isn’t the market great? I mean, it’s always great, but on a sale day like this, it’s even better.” He paused and shifted some of the bags on his arms. “What are you going to make with all these ingredients, anyway?”
In a flicker, he was gone, and so was the hustle and bustle of the market square. Megrez was left all alone with one pressing question: “Who was that guy?” she asked aloud to no one. It was easy to conclude that he was just some sort of aide, but he seemed awfully informal and friendly for a simple aide. Perhaps more information would be found further in, if her planet would actually reveal it to her.
Megrez walked up the center of the market square and continued along the road. She cast one look back, wondering if she would get any answers. Since she got nothing, she simply continued forward, and soon a very large building came into view. Surrounding the building was overgrown grass and hedges. When she stepped through an opening in the hedges along the road, a vision confirmed her suspicions for her. The garden restored itself to perfect order, revealing numerous flowers and works of topiary. Some bushes were shaped like birds, some like eggs, and one had a peculiar roundish shape with a lump on top that she couldn’t identify. The building itself was painted a glorious cream color, with brown and gold trim.
She had found it. She had found her palace.
[Word count: 717]
[Megrez traveled to her home planet on July 31st. She will not be able to return till August 14th.]
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 3:06 pm
Part 2: The Palace
Megrez took her senshi phone out and immediately started snapping pictures of the courtyard and the outside of the palace. After she took a picture that encompassed all she could see, she walked further in. She discovered a fountain similar to the one she had seen in that village: a giant egg with holes for water spouts. This one, however, was sitting in an egg cup base. She recognized the egg in its cup as the symbol on her henshin pen, and it made sense to her: of course the symbol of her planet would be in front of her palace. Of course, she took a picture of the fountain.
Another vision came to her, and the courtyard sprang to life once more. This time, she was greeted by a strange sight: small, round creatures with nubby heads and big eyes were scooting around the courtyard. Some appeared to be having friendly conversations with each other, while some others bobbed around in the fountain water like ducks. Two hands with gloves similar to hers picked up a creature by her feet, and she could feel its soft, smooth tan fur. The creature looked up at her and made some noises. “Puu! Puu buu, Mepuu!” A bunch of the little puffballs were scooting towards her now, all saying “Mepuu! Mepuu!” As soon as a group had clustered at her feet, they were gone, and the courtyard was empty and barren once again.
Megrez blinked, somewhat perplexed. Those creatures were presumably some sort of fauna native to her planet. Perhaps they were pets. Was “Mepuu” their name for her? It shouldn’t have struck her as odd that animals could recognize her, but the fact that they seemed to have a name for her in their own weird language left an impression. Just what were those things, anyway?
Confusion aside, Megrez walked forward to the palace doors and pulled on one of the door handles. It must have been locked long ago, for it didn’t budge at first. However, after continued pulling with all her strength, the door completely came off its hinges and fell over on top of her. With some grumbling, she crawled out from under the door, dusted herself off, and walked in. The foyer was a large, open room that seemed to simply serve as a connection to other rooms. She stood around for a moment, looking for a vision that might clarify its purpose. When none came, she simply headed left.
Judging from the long table that sat in the middle of the room, this room was some sort of dining room. There was a fireplace with a pot hanging in it in the corner of the room. Though she did not get any answers regarding the foyer, Megrez was about to get answers about this dining room and more. She saw a girl with long, dark brown hair stirring the pot with her back to her; a delicious, meaty smell wafted to her nose. The girl’s hair was tied back in feathered, golden hairbands, and Megrez only needed to see that to know who she was looking at. Of course, she received more proof when she looked at the rest of the girl’s outfit. She had suspenders where Megrez’s brown fuku stripes were, her pants were brown and plaid-patterned instead of Faberge-like, and her boots looked to be more suited for work than Megrez’s heeled ones, but she was unmistakably looking at her past self. They even had identical butt bows.
There were a few other people sitting at the table, but her focus was on the man standing to her past self’s right. It was the man from the market, standing there and watching her cook. “Megrezian carmine pepper chili, huh? I should have figured that out. I know you like spicy things, but don’t you think the carmine pepper might be a bit too hot?”
The Megrez of the past turned to look at the man, and the Megrez of the present got quite a shock. There was a long, wide scar going down the right side of her past self’s face. It was just to the side of her eye, but it went down her cheek and stopped at her chin. The girl spoke, her voice a pleasant mezzo-soprano. “You know what they say. If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen, Elliot.” Her tone was light-hearted; she wasn’t actually telling this Elliot to get out of the kitchen by any means. Megrez noticed that their eyes were the same shade of blue.
“Fine. I hope you have a lot of water and milk to help cool people’s mouths down, Melantha,” said the man now known as Elliot, grinning slyly.
After he spoke, it was all gone, and Megrez was left by herself in the decrepit dining room. Melantha… what a pretty name, she thought, then added, I didn’t know these visions could be in third person. The chili she was making smelled divine, and Megrez lamented that Megrezian carmine peppers most likely no longer existed. Having received the answers to this room, she left and crossed the foyer to see what the room on the right was.
There was another long table here, but unlike the other room, there was no stove. Megrez concluded that this room must have been some sort of meeting area. Her conclusion was confirmed by yet another vision, this one of her past self sitting at the table surrounded by what appeared to be advisors and other important figures. Elliot was there as well. One man said, “So far, Megrez, everything is status quo. Trade routes are unblocked and the flow of goods in and out of the planet is steady. Your most recent negotiation to secure protection for this planet was a success. You’re becoming quite an able diplomat.”
Melantha smiled slightly. “I have to be good at what I do. I’m the representative of this planet. I can’t afford to be any less than good.”
“And good you are!” Elliot said. “I’m a good teacher, aren’t I?”
“This is not your stage for bragging, Elliot,” said the first man, and then the vision ended. Megrez couldn’t help but feel a little pride at hearing her past self praised. It was great to hear that she was good at her job. She wasn’t just respected by her people for her status, but for her actual talents too. The question of who Elliot was had also been answered; he was apparently some sort of advisor. He looked awfully young for the position, though… there must have been something else in play.
Having investigated the left and right wings, Megrez was left with another choice: she could go up or down. A basement might hold more secrets, she decided, and went downstairs. Unfortunately, the basement yielded no such secrets. There was a wine cellar, but aside from that, it appeared to be mostly storage. Lots and lots of storage. Boxes and barrels everywhere. It didn’t smell like anything had rotted down there, but it didn’t make sense for them all to be empty. That was a mystery in itself.
From the basement, Megrez went upstairs. This appeared to be the “residential” part of the palace where everyone’s rooms were. There were either a lot of guest rooms or servant quarters, because there were plenty of rooms for her to pop in and out of as she zigzagged through the halls looking for visions. Finally, she reached a large room at the other end of the hall. It was filled with numerous drawers and wardrobes; there was even a mirror and a vanity (both with the glass shattered). Towards the back of the room was a large bed, and after some time of having gotten absolutely nothing, she finally got another vision.
Her past self was sitting on the bed, and Elliot sat on the edge. On the bed by Melantha were more of the strange round creatures, two normal-sized ones and a tiny one. The tiny creature rolled off the bed with a “Puu!” and the larger ones scooted to the edge. Melantha said to Elliot, “Quick, go pick him up!” Elliot did so, plopping the little one between the bigger ones. The bigger ones appeared relieved, and then the vision went away.
More of those weird things, Megrez thought, then sat on the edge of what remained of the bed. Suddenly, she felt very tired. How long had she been up here, anyway? She checked the time on her phone and saw it had been a few hours. No wonder her stomach was growling; it was almost dinner time. Had she really explored all there was to explore in this area? She wanted to keep going, but she also wanted to go home… a three-week bar from exploring again and no guarantee of ending up in the capital city twice in a row seemed a bit prohibitive. But all things had to come to an end, and she knew her mom would be bombarding her cell phone with calls and texts soon.
She walked out of the palace so she could get one last look at it before she went home. After another rush of movement, she was back in Henshin Alley, and the timer on her phone read two weeks instead of three.
I’ll be back soon.
[Word count: 1563]
[Total word count: 2280]
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