All things considered, Megrez was feeling pretty good these days. Perhaps it was because she had been getting more sleep (her parents had asked where she had gotten her songstone, but they didn’t seem to mind it, since she slept better when it was playing), or because nothing too terrible had happened in at least a week, or her enjoying getting to mentor younger senshi like Sadachbia, but somehow she just felt good. Everything seemed to have settled into a decent rhythm, one that she could live with. She hoped that this rhythm would last for a while and give her time to enjoy it before the next great scheme entered the picture.

Over the past few days, she had been feeling a bit antsy, though she was initially unsure of the reason. She wanted Spring Break to hurry up and arrive, but blaming it on that alone made her feel like she was missing something obvious. She examined her routine carefully, and the answer finally came to her. It had been a while since she had visited her planet. She could do so twice a week and was not taking advantage of that boon. From the memories of that twisted future, she could remember very vague whispers of something called “transcendence sickness,” and while she wasn’t quite sure what it was, she became concerned that the unsettled feeling was one of its first symptoms.

In any case, it was a problem with an easy remedy, so out she went to Henshin Alley. When she tapped the world transfer app, the “song” of her world seemed clearer than ever. She got the sense that it was a gentle, harplike sound, like that of her songstone. When the world settled around her after the lurch of worldhopping, she was in front of her old palace, in the courtyard. Something about it seemed different from the last time she had been there, a subtle healthiness to the plants there that she hadn’t seen before. The grass and the shrubs looked a bit greener, if still in need of a trim (perhaps she could try smuggling some garden shears up there). She was about to walk into the palace when a loud, clear voice called to her from behind.

“Lady Megrez!”

An auburn-haired woman with an updo wearing a layered orange and blue dress was standing at the other end of the courtyard when Megrez turned around. Her eyes were a similar deep blue to her own. “Or, since I’m addressing you in official capacity right now, it would be Sailor Megrez, wouldn’t it?”

Melantha’s voice came from Megrez’s current position. “That’s right, High Priestess Audriana,” Melantha said, playfully over-enunciating the priestess’s full title. “It’s nice to see you’ve finally made it here. It’s warm in the south this time of year, isn’t it?”

“Not too warm yet, thankfully; everything is still adequately watered and will most likely stay that way,” Audriana replied. “Let’s go inside for all that official business, shall we? After that, we can go in back and drink all the tea we want. I’ve brought a special blend that tastes amazing even when cold.”

Audriana disappeared as quickly as she appeared, and Megrez was left with a choice: go into the palace for official business or head to the backyard for the after-business chat. She went with going straight to the backyard; matters of state and diplomacy didn’t particularly appeal to her at this point. She had a feeling that she would have plenty more opportunities to learn about those. When she got there, she walked in on Melantha and Audriana sitting at a table, drinking what appeared to be iced tea. “You’re right, Audrey, this is good!” Melantha said, and Megrez tasted something sweet and refreshing. I didn’t know you could taste things in these visions. That’s neat.

“Isn’t it? It took a while to get it just right, but it was worth all of the trial and error! Isn’t that right, Buulinda?” It took Megrez a moment to figure out who Audriana was addressing, but when she saw “her,” she felt silly for not having noticed sooner. There was a puffy round creature on the table in a frilly orange dress, lapping at a dish of tea. “I didn’t know that the puura leaf could be used to make tea, but I guess it really is more than just puffski food.”

Well, that answers that question, Megrez thought as she watched the newly-named puffski drink the tea. Now she could put a name to the weird creatures that kept popping up in the visions. Melantha reached over and gave the drinking puff a pat, and she gave a cheery “puu buu, Mepuu!” in thanks. She then said, “I don’t think it’s too surprising. Humans can eat puura, too. Here we use it to sweeten medicine all the time.”

“Ah, really? I never thought about that,” Audriana said before taking another sip of her tea. “Anyway, now that we’re out of that stuffy room, I’d like to congratulate you again on completing the Linker ritual and officially becoming the head priestess of Megrez! Congratulations on the new outfit, too.”

That was right; Melantha was indeed sporting an Eternal senshi’s buttwings. “Thank you! It means my work has only just begun. My word on spiritual matters is effectively law now. I commune with the planet through my link to it as a senshi. Having that much power is going to take some getting used to.”

“It’s serious business now. You’re going to have to pay attention to every little thing because it might be an omen, but you knew that already, didn’t you?” Audriana said.

“Of course, but if anyone will be able to make the most accurate divinations, it will be me,” Melantha said.

“Ordinarily, I’d chastise you for being a bit too sure about that, but you are the senshi, so you’re probably right,” Audriana said, gesturing with her glass.

After that, the two women and their tea table vanished, leaving Megrez in the empty courtyard to tabulate all the new information. The Linker ritual was apparently the key to ascending to the rank of the head of all the high priests and priestesses, and as the senshi, Melantha was considered an authority on omens and divination. Audriana seemed to be an important high priestess as well, and Megrez came to the conclusion that she might have been a representative from her region. Megrez began to wonder why there was such a focus on omens, but then she considered how largely rural the planet seemed to be. Any sign that might dictate feast or famine was going to be considered important.

As Megrez thought, she became aware of a sound of some sort nearby, along with the feeling of something bumping into her right leg. At first, she passed it off as a breeze and an illusion, but it soon became clear that something was there. Alarmed at the prospect of a mysterious someone somehow tagging along to her planet, she looked around frantically, then turned around. There was nothing at eye level, but the bumping at her ankle was as insistent as ever. Now that she had been jarred out of her reverie, she realized that the sound sounded a lot like a small child saying “Puu? Buu?” over and over again, which prompted her to look down.

At her feet was a puffski just like the ones in her visions; same round body, same nubby head, same tan fur, same big black eyes. At first, she did nothing, waiting for a first-person view of Melantha to guide her. The vision never came, and the puffski seemed to grow more impatient, now bouncing up and down on the toe of her boot. That was what finally got her to realize: “You’re real!”

“Puu-uu!” the puffski said, as if to say, “It’s about time you figured it out!”

Megrez put her left hand under the puffski’s bottom and picked it up carefully. “Hey, little guy,” she said, using a little dexterity to pinch her right glove off so she could feel the fuzz for herself. “How did you get here?”

“Puu buu, Mepuu!” The puffski did a happy little hop in her hand. “Mepuu! Mepuu!”

“Yes, that’s right! I’m Mepuu,” Megrez said, stroking the puffski’s soft fur and watching it lean into her hand. “I guess you can’t tell me how you got here, huh? That’s okay. Do you want to come home with me? I can’t just leave you here where there’s no food.”

“Puu… puu-uu,” the puffski said, as though considering the offer.

At this point, Megrez remembered something she had not done in a while. She called her phone to her free hand. “I hope you’re not camera shy. People aren’t going to believe me when I say I found a living creature on my planet unless I show them proof.”

“Puu!” The puffski tilted over on its side and bobbed its head a bit to its left, as if posing. Megrez put the puffski up close by her face and held the camera steady for a grade-A space selfie with the puffski. The puffski tilted back upright after the click of the phone’s camera.

“Yes, you took a very good picture! Now you’ve gotta come home with me. I’ve gotta show everyone!” Megrez tapped the world transfer app on her phone, and the puffski let out a confused “Puu?” that elongated in surprise when the world around them began to shift.

Back in Henshin Alley, Megrez began tapping out a text to certain people, puffski still in tow. “My friends will love you! They’re going to want to know everything about you. I guess you can’t really tell them, though, can you?”

It was at that point that the puffski said “Buu buu, Mepuu,” in a cadence mimicking a “bye bye.”

“Buu buu?” Megrez said back, but she was unable to do anything further before the puffski vanished in a flash of green light. “Huh? Hey, hey! Where are you? You can’t just… warp away on me… like… that.”

There was no sign of the puffski anywhere in Henshin Alley, but at least Megrez had a possible answer as to how it got on her planet. When a continued search proved fruitless, Megrez concluded that the creature went back to her home world. She did have one more visit left in her, so she could have gone back up to retrieve it, but she decided not to. It was getting late, and there was still one day left before she could consider her “other” (school) obligations done.

[Megrez went to her home planet on March 19th and can visit one more time in the 7-day period. Her counter resets on March 26th.]