Dirt covered Ida from fingertips to elbows, darkening her leggings over her knees and smudged across the bridge of her nose. There were smudgy hand prints on her white bodice too, but none of it bothered her. Her fuku cleaned itself and even if it didn't... this was Idan soil. Good, rich soil that brought life. There was a mental comfort in honest dirt.
Settling back on her heels, the orchid senshi glanced over the neat beds of planted seeds and small sprouts that she had worked to put to rights. It had taken days, but the amount of work one could get done in an entire day with senshi strength and nothing else to do was astounding. This was a real accomplishment and it made her warm inside. Pride was not something she felt often, but Ida felt proud of this little conservatory she was building.
Most of the seeds were Earth plants, a mix of flowers and vegetables. All were growing far faster than they should have been, but that was also a credit to the amazing properties of this place. Idly, the senshi wondered if she could find other senshi or knights to take her to other worlds for plant samples. This place had held a wide variety of plants from other places and it would be nice to see it sporting them again. If she had her way, she'd even try to put them in the same beds as before, but that was probably too much to hope for. It relied too heavily on memories of the past that only came to her in fitful bursts... the place itself was too overgrown to even hint at what had gone where after a thousand years of being untended.
After a moment of quiet thought listening to the chimes she'd strung up in the tree, Ida reached back for the bottle of water she'd brought with her and took a long pull from it. That was really the only downside of an extended stay on Ida... at least from the Idan side of things. Water was so hard to reach here and even with the well she had dug... she was a little afraid to trust herself to it. Without testing it to make sure it was safe to drink, there was no knowing how she'd end up. That's why it wasn't safe to drink water in other countries, right? Untouched other worlds could potentially be a thousand times worse, even if she hated to think of anything on her planet being dangerous. Could you even test it, though? Would tests made to detect Earth pathogens even work on otherworldly bacteria? Probably not. It was safer, all around, to trust the bottled water she had brought with her than risk something that could potentially turn her insides to goo.
It felt good here, though. Better than most places on Earth these days. She felt safe... at ease. Home. The bottle came to settle in her lap as she breathed the clean air deeply into her lungs, feeling relaxed to a deep level. Most spent hours at a spa for this sort of feeling... grubbing around in Ida's dirt was enough for it's senshi. She had mixed feelings about returning at the end of the month. She was happy here and she knew she could be happy for a long time, maybe even her whole life... but there was something of an empty, aching spot inside of her here. A hole where people used to be, people she loved. Her planet loved her, she could feel it in the warmth seeping up her legs, but it wasn't the same. She missed the sound of another voice, holding someone's hand, sharing the things that made her happy. She missed people, even with all the pain that came with them.
The pain was why she had come here to begin with... but when she weighed a life without people against that pain, the answer was not hard to find. Pain was part of life and if she wanted all the wonderful parts, she was going to have to accept the pain as well. Was she strong enough? Maybe... but she was going to give her best try, she decided. Ida would always be here, unchanging and perfect. Life on Earth never stopped moving forward.
Suddenly, a ping cut the silent and Ida jumped, startled by the first sound to break the silence that wasn't chimes, wind or herself in nearly three weeks. Wait, was that... her phone? The senshi blinked in confusion, pulling the phone from subspace and pulling up the message that arrived.
The bottle's plastic crinkled as her fingers tightened on it and her eyes swept down the message. An ambush at the New Year's Eve ball? Their people taken captive? The message didn't list who had been taken, but no matter who it was, duty was calling. If their people were in trouble, there was no way she could sit here on Ida in safety. It seemed like her brief vacation was over...
Setting aside her bottle, Ida rose and held her phone to her chest. Closing her eyes, she willed herself home and she disappeared, the grass waving gently in a stray breeze.
Word Count: 876
