Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tea arrived back on her homeworld and she was in luck, the chibi senshi had landed into the same thicket she’d left. It was still dried out and very much abandoned but she wasn’t surprised by that. Looking around softly she was curious; Tea knew she needed to continue on her journey which seemed to be taking her towards the mountain that she’d seen once she climbed onto the frog statue.

It took a bit though as she just made sure she didn’t miss anything in the thicket but it was soon apparent she had, there was a statue there of the elder she’d seen in her vision. Standing there with a stick in their hand looking towards the direction of the mountain. She wondered if it was part of the story of the senshi she was seeing in the vision and poked around the statue to make sure nothing was hidden.

Sure enough, she’d found a vial. It was small enough to fit in the palm of her hand but it looked as if it would hold a decent amount of liquid. She looked curiously at the statue and the vial, there was a string made of some sort of animal hide. Tea realized these folk did not waste anything as it seemed almost everything had a rhyme or reason. She took the string and wrapped it around the vial so she could carry it much easier.

With that still with the feeling she was being watched from the sky when nothing was there, she took off again this time running through the plains hoping she could find the next rest spot and get away from what felt like danger as she moved. As she ran the world seemed to shift, into yet another vision she realized; this time as if she was seeing from the eyes of the senshi herself the grass was greener and looking up she could see what use to be in the sky; great large birds. She couldn’t tell what they were but she knew she needed to get into a thicket or something.

The vision reveled what looked like a stand of cherries and she slowed down. When the vision faded it looked nothing like what she’d seen just a few moments ago. Everything was dead, the branches of the berries that looked very much like cherries gone and brittle. There was a small house but there were also large tunnels and it looked as if they were all a network. The house looked very much like those back at the village, as if someone made a resting place. Tea moved as she looked around and entered into the little hut to find there was a small bed, a table and some chairs. She settled down into one of the chairs in order to rest and catch her breath.

Tea wasn’t use to that amount of running and felt as if she’d run several miles but the ominous feeling of the sky had encouraged her to move on. Really, she was looking out now and she saw that purple clouds were starting to bubble up. The chibi senshi of mice sighed heavily. She’d heard something about these clouds. There were rumors that there was a ton of static electricity in them. She hoped it wouldn’t hinder her investigation but she was concerned as she watched them bubble into the sky.,

“Please hold off.” She whispered.

For her the storms seemed to be hovering over the village she’d left behind the last time she was here and creeping her way. Tea yawned softly before deciding she needed a quick snack break and something to drink after having moved such a long way. She settled back onto the stone chair and was sitting there snacking on a protein bar she’d brought and sipped on her water. When another vision bubbled up.

“So, you say there’s a large creature that’s dying and you want me to help it?” She looked towards a different elder. They were dressed differently and though they still looked similar to the rest of the folks here, their clothing showed the difference.

“Yes, yes, you are the senshi after all!” The elderly woman said quickly nodding her head, “We cannot survive if the creature were to die, we were told you had the powers to heal with!”

Sailor Tea frowned softly standing there, “I’ll see what I can do but if it’s dying, I don’t know what I could do. My power isn’t that strong.”

“You came here from the medicine river! You said so! You should be able to heal him!”

The vision faded as Chibi tea watched past her frown and walk away. She shifted softly and after she finished her protein bar she got up. “I wonder . . . where that was.” She said softly thinking about the large animal that needed help. She moved to explore the area where cherries were supposed to grow. The chibi senshi walked through the area exploring some of the tunnels carefully popping her head out looking towards where the storm was brewing and frowned heavily. It wasn’t long before she came across a statue. This one reminded her of a buffalo, it was larger than the other statues she’d seen and looking around the statue Tea was curious as if this was the animal that the elder was talking about. As she investigated, she found placed to put the previous tokens she’d found and pulling them out of her subspace pocket Tea carefully placed the tokens and the Buffalo’s mouth opened to reveal a polly pocket-sized Buffalo statue.

She took the token and paused as she looked on when she saw the senshi moving towards a great mass of hair, “I heard you were sick, I came to try and help.”

There was something in the vial and Tea wasn’t sure what it was but the senshi poured it into the buffalo’s mouth, which after a time the buffalo moved and jumped up; causing the world to shake. Tea squeaked she wasn’t expecting the vision to feel so real but when the short vision faded, she felt the electrical charge in the air.

It wasn’t the buffalo jumping up but the thunder and lightning from the purple clouds following her, they looked ominous. Tea started moving again; to try and run from the storm at this point and hoped she could maybe out run it. As she ran there was the occasional vision of the large buffalo running over her, and it would’ve been appreciated now; tea didn’t have the luxury of such cover. She wasn’t sure if the storm was going to down pour on her or what was about to happen with that, she could feel the charge in the air and occasionally it felt as if the world shook from the lightning. Even though the echo of hooves was in her mind from the occasional flickering of the vision.

She knew she was on the right path even though she wasn’t sure where she was going. Perhaps it was the visions occasionally keeping her on the correct course. But soon she came to a place where there was cover and she scurried under it watching the storm brew ever closer. “Oh, I do hope this blows over, I don’t think that’s suppose to be here.” She said to herself looking out over the plains.”

“Running under that creature was scary.” Chibi Tea turned to another vision, “I’m glad it knew where it was stepping the whole time, I didn’t have to worry about being stepped on as it seemed sure footed.”

There was a pause as the senshi sat down and soon there was another person. This person wandered aimlessly and looked absent minded, “Hello elder.” Past Tea said softly as she greeted the other, “Huh? Elder? Me?”

The elder seemed confused looking towards Tea. “Yes, you are my elder, I am Sailor Tea.” The senshi was looking for some sort of indication who this was.

“I am an Elder!” The other exclaimed as if their memory had come back, “Yes, yes. An Elder that sounds familiar.”

They fell silent and both Tea and the past Tea looked curiously at the Elder, “Where are you from dear elder? Are you lost?”

Again, the elder seemed excited to learn that they were an elder and there was a frown from the past tea. “I see, I guess Elder’s memory is gone, I should try to help.” The senshi seemed to sit thinking looking at the vial with the liquid in it she’d concocted. It’d helped the large Buffalo, perhaps it would help the Elder.

“Elder!” There was chatter again and Tea held her hand up quieting the Elder whose mind had left, “Let me help you, I think I know how to get your memory back! Please drink this!” She offered the Elder the other half of the vial.

Tea waited with her breath baited. As soon the life seemed to come back into Elder’s eyes. And tears started to fall. “Oh, my word! I remember who I am.” The elder looked over towards the young senshi, “Thank you dear; thank you I feel like my old self again.”

There was a pause as the vision faded and Tea looked around, this area had lots of places to explore but seemed lonelier as if it was just the elder that had stayed here, perhaps it was a stopping point just to rest.
Tea was sitting there watching the storm and looking towards the mountain she wasn’t sure how she was going to climb the top but she also started looking around wondering if there was another statue here.

Tea began to search the area and soon found a statue of a large wolf like dog sitting at the bottom of the mountain with a path leading upward. She could see in the base a faint outline as if there was a trap door there. The wolf was holding a stick, which confused tea. There imprinted into the stick were places for the little pieces she’d found along the way. Placing them took some effort as this puzzle was about putting them into the correct order, and having to remember which she ran into first. When she finally got it the drawer opened to present a small wolf shaped token. Tea took it carefully and then she looked towards the top of the mountain; it was then felt the charge of the electricity coming again, which caused her to look over her shoulder. She’d been trying to out run the storm at this point. But it was closing in a lot faster than she anticipated.

She started to head up the path when the vision of the elder which was healed by the past Tea came back, “Dear, I’ll take you up to the top of the sacred mountain.” The elder said as she moved, “At the top is the great Medicine Lake. Perhaps you will learn more about your powers.”

Present day, Tea headed up the mountain as she did, she could feel the storm making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She was looking back towards the approaching storm she frowned. She didn’t like how it looked. She decided to pull out her senshi phone and started looking to see if there was any information on the database about weird storms.

As Tea was hiking up to the top, she was watching the videos and reading information posted about the storms and frowned. It didn’t seem to take too long to reach the top of the mountain but when she did a brilliant flash blinded her and Tea’s held her hand up trying to shield her eyes from the searing light. Feeling as if something was dancing across her skin but she couldn’t see it. She found a place to sit down.

“I’ve led you to the Medicine Lake, I must take my leave but spend as much time as you need here dear.” The vision she couldn’t see the elder anymore, and she’d found a log to settle on she couldn’t see the storm that swirled above her or the medicine lake at this point having been blinded by the lightning.

Perhaps she’d gotten too close? Maybe she should’ve waited and checked the senshi data base before coming here?? Tea sat there scared of what might happen since she couldn’t see, to make matters worse, she felt something and suddenly she powered down without having willed it to happen, “Oh, oh no!” Tea was trying not to panic at the newest development. She was now in the wide open, couldn’t see and had some sort of magical crazy storm over here causing a ruckus she was trying to feel around to find some sort of shelter when her hands landed on a statue, there was a pause. Another statue?? She still couldn’t see but it felt like the same puzzle statue as she’d run into through out the trip. The pieces were in her subspace…. She needed to power up.

“Tea power! Make up!” The chibi senshi called trying to power up. Though it seemed as if the storm was blocking it frustrated the senshi’s eyesight was slowly returning, but only with just blurry shapes. She could only see blobs.

“Hello Sister.” Came a voice, another vision. This one wasn’t a village elder but even as a vision she couldn’t see it beyond the colorful blobs that had come back to her vision. Had something mysterious happened in the past to Tea as well?? “Do you want some Medicine?”

Past Tea’s voice came out, “Yes, please. Can you help me? Something has stolen my vision, I know not what it was.”

“I will help you, what you must do is crouch down and then jump as high as you can.”

Tea was standing there, she still couldn’t see but she tried to power up again, “Tea power! Make up!” She called if she was going to jump as high as she could she needed to be powered up. And something was still blocking her, her hands touched the statue that was there in front of her trying not to panic. It felt like a large great bird.

She closed her eyes and whispered softly, “Oh please let me have this medicine, I need to power up in order to receive it. I know not what is going on but I promise to heal this world if you help grant me the power, Tea.”

Once again, she tried to power up, “TEA POWER! MAKE-UP!” She shouted as loud as she could holding up her henshin pen and hoping she wasn’t about to be struck yet again with the strange lightning. This time, it seemed to work she was back in her fuku standing there still unable to see much beyond blobs of color, the most prominent being the purple filled sky. Had she not known what colors had been chasing her she wouldn’t’ve known where the sky was.

The vision’s words came back, “Crouch down as low as you can, dear sister. Do not be afraid.”

Tea followed the visions advice and crouched down as low as she could manage.

“Now, Jump. Jump as high as you can, reach for the sky, sister.”

Tea jumped, as high as she could and she felt as if she’d jumped higher than she ever had. She closed her eyes and stretched out her arms. The lightning she could see flashing with her eyelids closed.

“Do not be afraid. Trust the wind it will guide you!”

The vision’s voice faded as she landed softly on the ground looking around, “I . . . I can see again!” Tea sounded excited and looked standing in front of the great bird statue. She tried to pull from her subspace pocket the little tokens but before she could, she realized the claw on the bird held something. She stopped and investigated, finding what she assumed to be the last token piece.

She looked around and there sitting was a frog, just like the statue she’d seen earlier. Tea looked curiously. Was it part of the vision that she thought had gone? “You are no longer a chibi my dear sister. You are now Sailor Tea. You know what you must do.”

And just as she’d seen it, the frog faded, but it felt more real than a vision and Tea looked very confused. She looked in her hand with the eagle token from the statue and dismissed it to her subspace pocket. She needed to place the tokens back in the map at the village but, it was much too far to travel and with this storm. She paused looking at her arms, finally realizing she’d been struck when she’d went blind. A weird scar where she’d been struck had blossomed. She took a picture of it.

“I . . . want to finish this quest, but I think I need to go for now.” She said softly after having dealt with the trouble of the storm. She searched for some shelter where she could gather her thoughts and found a small cave, making a break for it she ran over and closed her eyes trying to will herself back to earth. There seemed to be some sort of static not wanting her to go home, and it took some time before she managed to whisk herself away back to earth that she knew.

She sighed, looking at her arm. She needed to go tell Byakko about the storms and how crazy it was on her homeworld where she thought she was going to be stuck. “Ugh what in the world is going on?” Tea took off back towards home, after snapping a few pictures of her arm with the weird scar from the lightning she figured it best to turn in for the night. She looked up at the sky as she headed home, and frowned when it looked as if there was a purple hue here on earth too.




Word Count: 3020