Puck pressed his back against the lemon tree in his -- well, Rob's back yard and checked the scanner app on his senshi phone for Negaverse signatures. The last thing he wanted to do was draw the enemy to his house with a burst of energy. Things seemed to be all clear for the moment, though, but still he looked around cautiously. He didn't know how much of an energy signature what he was about to do would cause -- probably miniscule, but better safe than attracting unwanted attention, which was why he was in the back yard. If someone did show up, it would be feasible to be here rather than inside the house. He knew Sid -- Eros -- could (mostly) take care of herself now that she was an Eternal, but still, his natural protective feelings for his best friend were too strong, and he couldn't let go of his concern for her.

Sighing heavily, he hovered a finger over the app with the star symbol on it, the one that would take him to his homeworld for the first time in several years. He'd only been there the one time, shortly after he'd awakened as Puck, and the trip ended up leaving him full of questions. Why was the place seemingly deserted? For how long? How had he known his way around it -- was there some sort of primal knowledge in his head about the place? Who had built it, and what happened to them? What were those strange carvings in the bedroom of that big tree dwelling he'd been drawn to? So many questions. He had to find the answers to all of them.

His stomach clenched and he tapped the app….

Instantly the world dropped out from beneath him and he felt that weird alarming whoosh sensation like he did before. Almost instantaneously he found himself in the clearing he'd made his way to before when he'd come here, the one that looked like a village of immensely huge tree dwellings. The silence and stillness of the place was almost deafening -- not a single indication there was any life there besides the trees and himself. Puck looked up at the sky; it was night, yet the giant orb of whatever planet that was, rings and all, illuminated everything with a soft blue light. With the mist rising from the mosses and other vegetation, it was eerily beautiful. He could only imagine at this point what the people -- or whatever -- who lived here had thought of this amazing landscape. Did they take it for granted, or admire it in the same way he had? Another question for the pile, he thought, shaking his head with a wry smile. He may as well start answering them now.

Crossing the clearing, he headed for the tree house he'd been drawn to on his first visit, the one in the largest tree on the edge of the forest. Instinctively he checked the lower level for signs of disturbance since his last visit. But the moss-covered furnishings in the living area and the small office seemed to be intact. Satisfied, he exited through the ornately carved doorway and made his way up the stairs to the second floor bedroom. This was the room he really wanted to explore -- he remembered that he'd felt carvings on the wall beneath the moss, and he wanted to see what was there.

The bedroom was the same as before, as moss-encrusted as the lower level, with shreds of what looked like fabric over the round window and on the bed. There was a small wardrobe against one wall, with one of the doors shattered and hanging from the lower hinge; Puck hesitantly leaned over to look in; it seemed empty save for the husk of a very large dragonfly on the wardrobe floor. He started a bit as he noticed it, staring at the iridescent shell. What was such a creature doing here? Maybe it had flown in from the outside; this looked like the sort of place dragonflies would favor. Still, if a dragonfly that large once lived here, how large were other insects? He didn't want to think about it...

Stepping back from the wardrobe, he turned his attention to what he was primarily interested in: the carvings on the walls of this room. He crossed the room slowly and studied the moss-covered wall; it was easy for him to see where the carvings were once he knew what to look for. With one hand he cautiously pulled away some of the moss to reveal the wood of the tree beneath, and he gasped in wonder. There was an ornate, incredibly detailed carving of what looked like a giant pillbug, with the figure of a human sitting astride it. Well, that answer the question of how big the other insects once got here. Reaching out, he almost reverently touched the carving --

Suddenly it was as if he was seeing through someone else's eyes. The walls were no longer covered with moss, the carvings -- on every surface -- polished to a rich shine. His fingers were brushing the same carving; a rush of magical energy ran through him, and he heard the rustling of something huge coming through the forest. A laugh echoed distantly, and a dragonfly -- the same as in the wardrobe, but alive and glowing with colors -- flew into view and lighted on his arm. Another laugh, followed by words in a language he almost knew, and the dragonfly flew off. Then, again from the point of view of the speaker, he ran outside, past a mirror in the room, and he caught a glimpse of a young man with long blond hair wearing a belted green tunic dashing past. The young man laughed again and called out to what was outside in the clearing: a creature that looked like a pillbug the size of a pony, its carapace glistening under the light of Uranus --

With a yelp, Puck jerked his hand back from the wall, his heart pounding and his breath panting hard and fast. Was that a vision of what was here before? It felt more like a memory…

He quickly left the room and hurtled down the stairs and ran until he was n the middle of the clearing -- what he realized now was the town square. Whipping his senshi phone out, he tapped the star app again, muttering "Home home home" --

-- and just that rapidly he was back under the lemon tree in his back yard. Powering down, he slowly slid down the trunk of the tree and sat hard on the ground, brown eyes huge. What had he just experienced? He knew that the app took him to his homeworld, which was what he expected, but the rest… Rob pushed his dreads off his face and shook his head. That had been completely unexpected. Yet now that he was back home, the entire thing had felt strangely familiar. One thing was for sure: he had gaps in his knowledge of what being a senshi entailed that were going to have to be filled one way or another, either with more visits to Puck or by finally reading the Primer.

Standing slowly, he wiped the dirt off his butt and headed back to the house. He had a whole lot of processing to do.

(wc: 1235)