Diaclaimer: Fushigiboshi no Futago and all related titles are the property of BIRTHDAY, BANDAI, Hal Filmmaker, TV Tokyo, NAS, NEC, Ciao Comics, et al.
Chapter 1: BLINDSIDED!
"…and they lived happily ever after," Milro read the last line of the story. The teenaged princess of the Drop Kingdom closed the large book of fairytales and rested it gently in her lap. She turned to her younger brother in his bed beside her. "Wasn't that a good story, Nalro?"
"I guess," Nalro replied unenthusiastically.
"What's wrong?" Milro asked. The beige, beaver-like ears nestled in her sandy-colored hair twitched in tic of curiosity.
"Nothing," Nalro replied. "I just think I'm getting too big for fairytales."
Milro teased, "Perhaps you're getting too big for me to read bedtime stories to you."
"No!" Nalro exclaimed. "It's not that. I just want to hear other kinds of stories."
"Other kinds of stories, eh?" Milro thought out loud. She paused for a second to ponder. "I know," she said when an idea came to her. "How about I tell you the story of the Weather-Makers?"
"The Weather-Makers?" Nalro repeated.
"Yes," Milro replied.
The petite half-Beaver stood up and set the book down on a nearby stand. She walked around his bed and picked up two bookends. They were decorated with figures of Beavers dressed in the uniforms of their country's workers. The male was dressed in a blue jacket and wide-brimmed, cone-shaped hat and the female was wearing a blue dress with a darker blue shawl and a bandana on her head.
"They're a very special group of workers from the Windmill Kingdom and our Drop Kingdom I know," Milro explained. "They once saved the Wonder Planet."
"Yeah right," Nalro scoffed.
"Well, do you want to hear their story?" Milro asked.
"Sure," Nalro replied with shrug.
"Well, it will have to wait until tomorrow evening," Milro said, putting the bookends back on the shelf. "It's time for growing princes to go to sleep."
"Arlight," Nalro said, clutching his gray stingray stuff animal and settled into his bed. "Good night, Sis."
Milro picked up the book and said "Good night" before turning off the lights as she left the room.
* * *
Nalro waited anxiously through the next day for evening to come. He thought Milro was pulling his leg about these "Weather-Makers" but it sounded like a good story. As promised, Milro came in the evening with a packet of pictures she had drawn of the story. Nalro was already in bed and waiting for her.
"I see we're ready," Milro said as she sat down in the chair next to his bed.
Nalro nodded eagerly in response.
"Alight," Milro said. She straightened the packet and cleared her throat. "Once upon a time…" she started.
Nalro immediately shot her a nasty glare. Milro placed her hand over her mouth and tried to keep from giggling. "Actually, this happened early this spring before the trees started to get their leaves again after the long winter," she really started this time. She pulled back to the first card to reveal a very well drawn picture of a large Beaver woman sitting behind a large desk. "Mother was attending to her duties that morning…"
Nalro sat back in bed as Milro's words and the pictures took on life in his imagination.
* * * * *
Mother was attending to her duties that morning, reading through various affairs of state and giving them her approval or disapproval. It was a bright morning with copious amounts of light pouring in through the large bay windows behind her. She hardly noticed, however, as she was engrossed in her work. As she finished one binder and was about to start another, a chime came from her desk.
She jabbed a flashing button in her desk with the butt of her pen and answered, "Yes?"
"Queen Yamul," a male voice reported over the speaker, "you're daughter wishes to see you."
Mother took the reading glasses off the bridge of her muzzle and set them down gently on her desk. "Send her in," she replied before pressing the button again to close the line.
The blue, double doors at the opposite end of her large, sparsely furnished office separated with the gentle hiss of hydraulics. I stepped in and greeted her with a curtsy. "Good morning, Mother," I said cheerfully.
"Good morning, Milro," Mother replied warmly.
"We missed you at breakfast," I said.
"I had a lot of work to get to today, so I thought I'd start early." Mother surveyed the piles of papers and binders stacked on her desk and sighed. "The more they say we're becoming a paperless society, the more paperwork seems to make its way on my desk." She pulled her blouse straight and returned her glasses to their place on her muzzle. "You just have to push your way through sometimes," she grumbled. "It's something you'll understand when you become queen."
"Oh," I replied in a very small voice. "Well, I'm sorry for disturbing you." I curtsied again.
I was about to leave when another chime came from the desk. Mother pressed the button and answered "Yes?" again.
"I'm sorry to disturb you again," the voice apologized, "but Prince Auler and Princess Sophie of the Windmill Kingdom are here."
Mother furrowed her brow at this news. "Why are they here?" she thought out loud. She then looked to me. "Did you invite them?"
"No." I shook my head, equally confused.
"I told them you were busy," the voice explained, "but they say it's urgent."
"Send them in then," Mother said, taking the glasses off her muzzle again and placing them on her desk.
The doors slid open and the half-Doggel prince and princess of the Windmill Kingdom stepped in. Auler removed his top hat-like crown and bowed stiffly and his mint haired sister curtsied.
"Greetings, You Majesty," they said. Auler then continued, "Thank you for seeing us on such short notice."
"We're always happy to see our friends from the Windmill Kingdom," Mother said. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Auler and Sophie looked to one another and then back to Mother. Their sapphire eyes sank slightly. "It's not us," Auler said solemnly, motioning with his eyes to the floor below them.
Mother stood up to look over her desk. Standing between them was a tiny Tane-Tane person. His coat and hat should have been Kelly green, but were tan from dried mud and he looked gaunt and exhausted.
"Could you give me one more lift-dane?" the ten centimeter tall man asked.
"Of course," Sophie replied. She placed her hand down next to the floor so he could climb into her slender, gloved palm. She lifted him gently to the desk and let him climb off.
"Your Highness," the man said as he started fishing through his satchel, "I'm afraid I bring distressing news from the Tane-Tane Kingdom-dane."
He pulled out a paper and handed it to Mother. She took the tiny document between her thumb and index finger and brought out her text magnifier. She placed the paper under the device and started reading. The message read:
Queen Yamul of the Drop Kingdom:
It has been more than two days since an almost constant rain has begun falling across the Tane-Tane Kingdom. The rivers and lakes across the country are beginning to swell and landslides have been reported in the more mountainous regions. I am afraid serious damage will be done to the Tane-Tane Kingdom if the rains do not stop soon.
I am writing you to request this be brought to end as soon as possible. Please respond as soon you get this message. I await your reply.
Your Fellow Monarch,
King King of the Tane-Tane Kingdom
"That was written five days ago-dane," the messenger added as Mother picked up her head from the magnifier. "I tried to come to the Drop Kingdom directly, but all routes were impassable. I eventually found my way to the Windmill Kingdom and Prince Auler and Princess Sophie agreed to bring me here."
"We were glad to help," Auler said. He then turned to Mother with a grave expression on his face. "Things are getting worse down there," he said in an equally grave tone. "It's still raining and the water is already threatening their lower lying villages. Something has to be done."
Mother bobbed her head in a slight nodded. "Something most certainly will be," she growled. She jabbed the button and barked, "Get me the Cloud Management Room."
* * *
The Cloud Management Room, at the top of the castle's central tower, is where our country's engineers oversee the operation of the machine of the Drop Kingdom. The massive structure of glass and metal that produces all the clouds for the Wonder Planet comes up from the center of the floor through the apex of the domed ceiling. Along the round wall are various work stations from where the engineering crew can monitor all its functions and other duties our country performs.
Chief Engineer Spigot was slouched in his chair at that moment. He was so sound asleep he didn't notice the chimes coming from his station until the fourth set. He opened one eye slightly and lazily kicked a button with his heel. "Spigot," he yawned.
"SPIGOT…" Mother's voice boomed over the speaker and resounded through the large room like a loud clang in a giant bell. The Beaver was so startled he jumped out of his chair to land on the floor with a thud. "…in my office, NOW!!!"
Spigot slowly brought up his shaky hand to grasp the edge of his station and pulled himself up. "I'll be right down," he said with a salute.
He looked to his engineers still staring in his direction with eyes widened in shock. "As you were," he ordered with regained composure and watched as they returned to what they were doing before. He then turned to a female Beaver with a large tuft of hair sticking out from under her bandana. "Emily," he said, "you have the machine."
"Will do, Chief," Emily replied.
Spigot stomped out of the room, grumbling something under his breath.
Emily heaved an exasperated sigh after the doors slid closed behind Spigot. "This can't be good."
"What makes you say that?" an Aquarian woman sitting at a station next to her asked.
"The only time anyone even acknowledges our existence is when something goes wrong," Emily explained despairingly, "and I haven't heard Queen Yamul is mad since the Crisis of the Sunny Kingdom."
"So, be afraid?" the aquatic human asked.
"Be very afraid," Emily replied.
* * *
Not long after Mother called the Cloud Management Room, the doors to the office slid open and Spigot slowly poked his head into the opening. "You bellowed?" he asked timidly.
"Yes," Mother said coolly. "Come in."
Spigot complied, walking into the office without a word. The smaller Beaver wrung his hands and kept his eyes shifting from side to side to prevent making eye contact with Mother. I could understand his anxiety. Although short by Human standards at a meter and a half, her powerful physique and booming voice make her naturally intimidating. I have experienced first hand how daunting facing her can be and did not envy him for being in the position he was.
"Can you explain this?" Mother asked as she handed him the message.
Spigot pulled a magnifying glass from his coat pocket and skimmed it. "What the hell," he exclaimed, "two days?"
"And that was written five days ago," Mother said with a distinct sharpness in her voice.
Spigot looked up to meet Mother's dark eyes glaring at him as she drummed her fingers on her desk. He gulped dryly. "Well, it isn't because of us," he protested. "The machine has been functioning perfectly."
"What do you suggest is causing it then-dane?" the messenger asked.
Spigot turned to the tiny man standing the desk. He narrowed his eyes and scowled at him. "It's a meteorological fluke," he stated. "A tragic fluke, but a fluke nonetheless. There's nothing to do except wait for it to blow over."
"We can't wait for it to blow over!" the messenger roared. "We're slowly drowning down there!"
"That's not my problem," Spigot shot back. "As your people should know by now, yelling at me won't change the weather. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a perfectly functioning machine to attend to." He turned on his heels and stormed out of the room.
Mother heaved an exasperated sigh and massaged her temples. "As crudely as the chief engineer put it, he does have a point. Complaining won't solve anything. And, if the machine is working as it should, there's nothing we can do," she said despairingly.
I had stood there silently with Auler and Sophie, listening to the conversation. I kept looking to the messenger. He had clearly risked his life to bring this message to us. I did not want to believe there was nothing we could do for them. An idea suddenly came to me.
"Mother," I started to say.
"What, Milro?" Mother asked.
I paused before continuing. I have never felt comfortable demanding of Mother, no matter how inoffensive I was doing it. However, I found the courage to explain my idea. "Mother, perhaps we could do something for the people of the Tane-Tane Kingdom. If we can't stop the rain, perhaps we could help them protect their villages from the floodwater until it does blow over. We do have equipment we use to control flooding in our kingdom."
Mother bobbed her head in a gentle nod. "Excellent thinking."
I felt my heart leap in my chest.
"We'll need permission to take our equipment into their country," Mother said. She then looked at the paperwork covering her desk and sighed. "Unfortunately, I'm too buried with work." She glanced at me. "Why don't you go, Milro?"
"Me?" I exclaimed.
"I was about your age when I performed my first official duty for the country," she said. "This would be a perfect opportunity for you to get your feet wet in international relations if you forgive the pun. Think you're up to it?"
I was exuberant that Mother accepted my idea and wanted me to see it through. However, I hid my enthusiasm and replied with a simple nod and, "Yes."
"We can take you if you want," Auler suggested.
"It'd be our pleasure," Sophie added jubilantly.
"Thank you," I said gratefully.
* * *
On the other end of the enthusiasm spectrum, Spigot trudged back into the Cloud Management Room. The other engineers stopped what they were doing and turned to him. Spigot did not pay them any attention as he erased the "1,827" written on the white board labeled "Days Without Major Incident" near the door and drawing a large "0" in its place. The other engineers rose up in a din.
"Shut up!" Spigot shouted over the out burst.
"I told you this wouldn't be good," Emily announced.
"Chief, what's going on?" an engineer asked.
"There's flooding in the Tane-Tane Kingdom," Spigot grumbled.
"That's impossible," another engineer stated. "The machine has been working normally."
"Don't you think I know that?" Spigot said. "However, Queen Yamul is holding a letter that says the impossible has happened. It's been raining almost constantly down there for a week."
"WEEK!? the engineers exclaimed.
"Has anyone died?" an engineer added.
"They didn't say," Spigot answered.
"Why haven't we heard about this until now?" an engineer asked.
"Why, indeed?" Spigot growled, marching to his seat.
"And here we go." Emily rolled her eyes.
"Those morons in the Sunny Kingdom were supposed to keep us abreast of crap like this." Spigot jumped into his seat.
He punched a series of keys on his keyboard. The emblem of the Sunny Kingdom appeared on the main screen and quickly switched to the image of a Nyamal. Spigot was surprised to see the feline resident of the Sunny Kingdom and not the wrinkled, gray dwarf who headed their operations. "Where's Omendo?" he asked.
"Administrator Omendo is sick with the flu," the Siamese cat-like Nyamal replied nonchalantly. "My name is Kahn and I'm running things here in his stead."
"Alright," Spigot said. "You can answer my question."
"That would be?" Kahn asked.
Spigot shoved his face into his camera and bellowed. "WHAT IN HELL IS GOING ON IN THE TANE-TANE KINGDOM!?"
With a feline screech, Kahn jumped from his chair and grabbed onto its back, digging in with his claws. "There's no reason to yell," he shouted back. He fell back into his seat and straightened his coat and hat. "We're aware of the situation," he said more calmly.
"Why weren't we informed?" Spigot asked, sitting back in his seat. "I thought we had an agreement after the Crisis we'd be informed of any weather anomalies."
Khan took out a cloth and removed his glasses to clean the small, rough lenses. "We do," he said. "However, we believe what is happening in the Tane-Tane Kingdom is a natural phenomenon."
"It's been raining there for a week," Spigot exclaimed. "How can you call that natural?"
Khan replaced his glasses in front of his eyes. "That's our call to make, not yours," he replied flatly.
"I don't believe this," Spigot snarled. "You're splitting hairs just to keep us out of the loop. You…"
Khan put an end to the conversation by closing the channel. The screen went back to the emblem of the Sunny Kingdom with message "End Transmission" over it.
"KHAAAAN!!!" Spigot screamed at the screamed.
"You know, Chief," Emily spoke up, "there's a saying that you can gather more flies with honey than with vinegar."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Spigot snarled through his clenched teeth.
Emily scowled at her superior. "Frank, hold him."
"Okay, Emily." Another Beaver grabbed Spigot from his chair and held him by his arms.
Emily jumped into Spigot's chair and hailed the Sunny Kingdom. As she waited for the transmission to make it through, she licked her hand and ran it through her hair.
"This aught to good," an engineer joked.
Khan's face appeared on the screen again. "Now what?" the Nyamal barked.
"Hi, Sugar," Emily said tenderly, exaggerating her drawl. "I just wanted to apologize for our chief's behavior."
"Let go of me, Franklin," Spigot growled as he struggled to get free.
"I said hold him," Emily barked at the two.
"I'm trying," Franklin whined, "but he's slipperier than a greased eel."
She turned back Khan. "He doesn't like nasty surprises so early in the morning. After a cup or two of Joe, and about a half dozen tranquilizers," she said the last part more to herself, "he should be fine. In the meantime, could you be a dear and give us all information related to what's happening in the Tane-Tane Kingdom for li'l old me." She finished by batting her eyes.
"No," Khan stated flatly.
"What?" Emily exclaimed.
"You suck," an engineer shouted.
"Shut up," Emily shot back.
"Quit wasting my time." Khan closed the channel again.
Spigot finally wrenched himself out of Franklin's hold. "I saw that coming."
"You know," Franklin thought out loud in a low, plodding voice, "for a country that lights the world, the Sunny Kingdom sure likes to keep people in the dark."
"They've always been that way," Spigot grumbled. "Five years ago they knew the Blessing of the Sun was dying, but kept it to themselves. They let us take the political fallout because it resulted in a general drought. Now it's happening all over again only with flooding."
A suffocating silence fell over the room. Finally, an engineer asked, "what should we do?"
"Uh…" Spigot exhaled as he pondered. "We can do a full system check to see if there isn't some obscure glitch we've missed. I doubt it, but you never know. Beyond that, there's nothing we can do but monitor the situation."
A set of chimes came from Spigot's station. Emily hit the flashing key and answered, "Cloud Management Room."
"Is Spigot there?" Mother asked through the speaker.
"I'm here," Spigot replied as he walked up to the station.
"I want you back down in my office immediately," Mother ordered.
Spigot raised a confused eyebrow to Emily who only shrugged in response. "I'll be right down," he said.
"I wonder what it could be now," he thought out loud.
"Knowing our luck," Franklin said, "it's a hailstorm in the Jewelry Kingdom."
"Thank you for the brilliant ray of sunshine, Franklin," Spigot growled. "The next I feel like being depressed, I'll call you."
He stormed back to the door. "I'm up here and they call me down there. Then I'm back up here and they want me down there again," he growled. "I'm starting to feel like a freaking yo-yo."
"And here I had such high hopes for the day," Emily said to herself.
* * *
"So good of you to join us again," Mother greeted Spigot as he walked back into her office.
"What is it now?" Spigot asked, trying to hide the frustration in his voice.
"Milro has come up with a proposal to assist the Tane-Tane Kingdom," Yamul explained. "We can use our flood control equipment to protect their villages. She will be heading down with Prince Auler and Princess Sophie to ask for permission from King King."
"Biba," Spigot cheered unenthusiastically and weakly pumped his fist in the air, "knock yourselves out. What does this have to do with me?"
"You'll be going with them," Mother stated.
"With all due respect, Queen Yamul, I'm an engineer, not a steward," Spigot said in response.
"As Chief Engineer of our operations, you're best suited to explain our intentions," Mother said.
"I'm not a diplomat either!" Spigot exclaimed. "I'm obnoxious and disliked. I have more enemies in the Tane-Tane Kingdom than I care to count."
"Then you should see this as an opportunity," Mother said coolly. "It'll give you a chance to mend some of the bridges you've burned over the years and work on their confrontational attitude of yours. You're going, Spigot, and that's final."
Spigot opened his mouth to object. However, he could find nothing to say. He instead saluted. "Yes, Queen Yamul," he complied.