Dream of Reality

by Makura Koneko

Dreams are a funny thing, maybe because they are so hard to understand... Maybe that is because what we preceive as reality, is actually just a dream... At least, that's what happened to me. -Usagi

4. Chapter Four: Senshi Pluto

Dream of Reality

Chapter Four

by Makura Koneko

Ciph, 334 BC

"The Priest will see you now," a novice priestess said, bowing to a woman with coiled black hair, a little girl beside her. The young priestess did not look at the child- marked by either a god or a demon, she was, to have eyes and hair like that. And that…that…presence…that aroma that reeked of something beyond mortal comprehension. An aura that said 'I know something you don't.' It made the priestess shiver.

 She led woman and child into the innermost sanctum, where the priest and his apoclates were murmuring incantations and offering tributes of wine and fruit. They stood and waited while they finished, the woman and priestess going down on their knees, foreheads pressed to the ground in the presence of the great statue of the god of time, the god's physical embodiment on earth. It was said that when his wrath was great, he would fill the mere stone with his power and come alive in it. No one wished to cur that anger.

But the little girl, the priestess saw with wide-eyed surprise, did not bow or kneel, nor even incline her head. She stared at the great, handsome stone face with utter fascination.

"Mama, that's him." She said simply, her voice breaking through the soft murmurs of prayers and incantation reciting. Many eyes turned towards her, many lips faltered with surprise at the unexpected noise in the usually silent sanctum.

The woman trembled, and tugged at the hem of her daughter's clothing.
            "Get down, 'Rotosa, least you be struck by wrath of our patron god! Do you wish to encur his disfavor over us?" The mother's voice was pleading. "Do you want him to bring his stone body to life and smite you down for your disrespect?"

The priests and apoclates watched, wanting to know if the foolish young girl would realize the error of her mistake and repent.

"Silly mama," the girl said, speaking almost as if one would to an overimaginitve child. "He's the one who talks to me." She paused as if considering something, then burst out laughing. "And besides," she giggled, ruby eyes dancing. "He says he hates the feel of stone. If he were to come down her, he'd much rather just form a body of his own."

The silence was eminent. The Ciph Priest of Chronos came forward, looking the child in the eye. Even though he was looking down at her, he shivered slightly under his robes as he realized it felt like as if he should be bowing to her…this child…this child that apparently shared a real link with something above mortal concept. It was then that he felt the first spark of jealousy that would eventually flare into full-fledged hatred.

"Does she speak the truth, my lord Priest?" The novice priestess blurted out. The Priest gave her a scathing look.

"She is but a child," he said, forcing aside the scornful tone in favor of a mildly amused one. He ruffled her hair as if showing affection for a silly girl. "She has been playing in the sun too often. You would do well, mistress, to keep your daughter indoors more often. Engage her in more earthly matters, so that she may come to be wise in leaving things of the holy to those whom are trained to interpret the gods' will."

"He doesn't like you, you know," Ambrotosa, the little girl, said with an innocent sort of curiosity in his voice. "He told me to tell you that if you don't 'shut that chabbering trap of a useless, lying mouth,' and start to repair all the lies you've ever spread in his name to further yourself, he'll shut it for you."

"You little brat," the old priest hissed. "How dare you play at things you have no compreh--" The Priest's voice was abruptly cut off and fell into a chocking gurgle. All looked on as again and again he tried to speak, but all he managed was an increasingly raspy and dry choke and gurgle. Rage filled his expression, and he motioned wildly. It would take a minute before his apoclates got the message and moved towards Ambrotosa and her mother, ceremonial daggers draw. But by then the mother had snatched her child and ran for her life and the life of her child.

Ciph, 341 BC

The woman smiled mirthfully as she briefly remembered that day, so long ago. Twelve years, to the day, in fact. She was known for her uncanny ability of keeping impeccable track of time in her mind.

Ambrotosa of Ciph, the only unmarried daughter of Thyestese the hourglass maker, had just sold the last sand-turner –an ebony and silver creation of her own- and was closing up shop when she felt the oddest sensation. It was a sensation she'd felt all her life, but with increasing frequency in the last year of her life.

She listened to it for a moment, but when it faded away without telling her anything, she knew all was well. For sometimes, the sensation brought to her instructions, whispers of what was to come, what had to come, and what shouldn't come in the near future. It told her what events to stop, what to encourage. She never understood it, only knew from experience that whenever she ignored it, bad things happened and suddenly everything felt so, so wrong until she fixed it.

She'd told her mother, once, and she had insisted on taking Ambrotosa to the nearby temple of Chronos, the family patron god. Ambrotosa smiled at the memory. Thing's hadn't gone nearly as neither her mother nor anyone else had thought or anticipated. That Priest was still the head Priest, of course, he had too much power to be unseated merely because of the loss of his voice.

The story had gone out that one of his students had displeased Chronos greatly, and rather than let one of his precious students go crippled for life, he'd pleaded for Chronos to grant him the punishment instead, since his life was near an end, anyways. Supposedly, seeing that his Priest could speak for him just as well without his voice as with, so talented was he, that he agreed.

The public had eaten it up, and Ambrotosa nor he family had done nothing to counter it. Of course, that hadn't done anything to curb the voiceless Priests' hatred for Ambrotosa. It was because of him that she remained unmarried, no one wanting to earn the wrath of a major god and his priest by courting the beautiful woman. No one knew why the man hated the exotic female so passionately, but the rumor was that he was sore and spiteful at her for perhaps turning him down. While discouraged, it wasn't rare for priests to take wives or mistresses, the latter being more common.

Ambrotosa didn't particularly care. She had a calling, one that would scarcely allow her to tend to the duties of being a wife and mother. For a calling it was, she was sure of it. Chronos, her family's patron god, had chosen her to help him keep the flow of time flawless and straight. What other explanation was there for it?

Ambrotosa smiled, suddenly, walking down the darkening street. There it was again, that sensation. It had never come more than once in a single day, before. What was it? She stood still and listened, waiting for instructions…but they didn't come. Instead…just a feeling of something…something big about to happen, soon. Something to do with…her?

Yes, she knew with surprise. Whatever was going to happen tonight, she would be at the center of it. But what was it? She closed her eyes and delved further into the sensation that was her personal link to time and space. What was going to happen?

A flash of an image, a smooth round crystal, deep burgundy in color, containing a symbol in deep, deep purple. A symbol that was familiar to her, like an old friend, forgotten…

At the words 'forgotten' and 'friend' Ambrotosa gasped as another image came to mind- a smiling goddess. For what else could this female in her mind's eye be? The image was gone, but she could clearly remember long hair of milky, liquid silver, completely weightless, like a dream. Eyes filled with every good thing in existence, all of it shadowed by a sheen of darkness. Skin as pale as the silver-golden moon, lips as red as blood. And over it all, two markings on her forehead, fighting for domination.

There was a connection, she knew as she moved on. She just had to figure it out. She had to find out how that crystal and that woman and herself and tonight all fit together. The sense of urgency was growing, but she wasn't sure if it stemmed from the sensation, or from her need to get home before dark. The latter, she decided, for not only was it nearing sunset (a dangerous time to be out in any city) but also because her mother, she knew, had been laboring over the stove and loom and housework all day, for tonight was Ambrotosa's birthday, at midnight exactly she would be eighteen summers of age.

Excited despite herself, Ambrotosa walked faster.

"Ooohlwher come untinead…"

She danced.

"Callminai, maidniblood rohn…"

She sang.

Serenity's voice blended, one word into the other until it was an indecipherable strong of melodies and soul-rendering siren songs. Legolas had hardly heard such a lovely language. He'd once asked her about it, and she'd said it was the language of time. She said, to be spoken, it was harsh and hard. But when sung…

Well, he was hearing the evidence for himself as he leaned against a pillar, watching her sway and skip and sweep her arms up above her, her hands slipping down over her own arms and face and neck, swirling around her amidst her gold and ebony clouds of hair as if she were made of boneless mist, a dreamlike spirit. The beauty of her dances and voice never ceased to amaze him.

The next minute the song and dance began to change. Legolas frowned as he sensed and saw and heard an urgency she'd never danced or sang with before. It was almost painful to watch as her spinning became faster and faster, her singing an almost bloodcurdling sob of moans and calls, raw emotion pouring from her throat to wrap around anything nearby that had any life in it at all.

As the Elven prince watched with growing alarm, black smoke began to stream out from her dancing, silver mist swirling upwards around her, a golden glow pulsing through the thin veil of her topmost layers of flesh.

Still she sang and danced. Her feet were bloody, her hair suddenly tangled.

"Enough of this…" Legolas murmured, moving forward to stop her, to do what he could against whatever demon had ensnared her footsteps.

Abruptly and completely without warning, a flare of light burst forth from the ends of her fingertips, toes, her eyes, nose, mouth, ears, as if a light inside her and been trying to find an outlet for the longest time and finally just burst forth from her wherever it could…like her heart was shining like a sun…

Legolas flung up an arm to shield his face even as he braced himself against the wind. He prepared himself to move forward against the light, wondering all the while what was happening this time- the girl was as unpredictable as the ocean, and could be just as gentle or violent. It seemed almost as thought such things as this had become commonplace, for they no longer surprised him.

Just as suddenly as it had come, it was gone. Serenity stood there, hair loose, a gentle –natural- wind blowing around her as she hummed a soft little melody, sweetly murmuring the words under her breath. She smiled softly, her eyes closed as she raised her hand. Hovering just above it was the spike-star rainbow crystal she was never without. Legolas stood there, just watching, hands on a small dagger he kept on his person at all times.

Serenity opened her eyes, and he drew in a sharp breath- here was something he would never become accustomed to. The way, when she worked her magic, or was entranced, or in the throw of another illusion, her eyes would turn so transparent they were silver, filled with ghosts and spirits of memories long past, glittering with the stars of the entire universe held within those silver depths. It was the eyes that had first entranced him so long ago in the bowels of Barad-dur.

"Legolas," her voice echoed all around him, as if they were underneath an invisible glass dome. He found, suddenly, that beyond the balcony railing, the world seemed to dim in color. Only she stood out, brilliant as a polished gem among soot. She turned those galaxy-orb eyes to him, smiling radiantly, so beyond anything he'd ever seen in her fearsome beauty. What was it, he wondered, that could make her so?

He came to her, unafraid.

"Look," she told him, her voice that of a thousand in one. It practically glittered, just like the rest of her. Legolas looked to where she nodded, and gazed into the many faceted depths of the crystal, spinning ever so slowly. In it he saw an exotically beautiful woman he'd never seen- wait, yes he had!

Nearly a year ago, had walked into Serenity's room and stepped right into one of her illusions, an illusion of the life she had left behind in her self inflicted dream-world while under Sauron's control. Everything had gone normally- he had tried to coax her out, she had refused to acknowledge that the illusion wasn't real. But then things had changed…

She'd spoken cryptically of a woman, the woman in the crystal. Something about how she was both the first and the last of 'them.' Legolas looked at Serenity and wondered, not for the first time, if she had meant that there were more like her. The thought was both daunting and awe-inspiring.

Legolas moved around in front of Serenity. Her right arm, held out in front of her, was between them as he placed his hands on her shoulders and forced himself to look into those eyes.

"Renity, who is she? Is she like you?"

"'We are all alike in one way or another,' said the dragon to the unicorn. 'For do we not all of us beasts have horns and eyes and blood that can poison?'"

"Does that mean that everyone can do what you can do if they learn?" He asked.

"The difference between stars and planets is not size or chemical composition," Serenity, said. For all she was looking at him, he couldn't tell if she was talking to him. "It is in how brightly they shine on the darkest of nights."

"I don't understand, Serenity," Legolas told her softly. "I know you're trying to tell me something, but what?"

"Knowledge is the greatest weapon," she said, sounding like she was quoting something. Her lips quirked wryly as her gaze turned once again down to the crystal hovering above her palm, the face of the emerald green haired, ruby eyed, bronze-skinned woman still reflecting off every facet.

"But it is a double sided weapon," Serenity added, her voice barely above a whisper. Her hand began to tilt. She began to sing again, softly, just her voice, none of the usual nonexistent music that seemed to always accompany her singing and dancing. Just her voice.
            "Twinkle, twinkle, little star…" her hand titled further. The crystal slid. "How I wonder where you are…" The crystal slipped off her hand. Legolas watched, unmoving, simply watching.

The crystal hit the stone pavement, and shattered.

The party had been going on for an hour when it happened. The get together, consisting of family, friends, and a few of Ambrotosa's father's successful friends (all of whom had eligible, unmarried sons) had been a delightful success. The few gifts had been thoughtful and valuable to Ambrotosa, the food succulent and delicious. Ambrotosa had been having a marvelous time.

Until it happened.

The sensation, stronger than ever, overwhelmed her to the point where she had to lean against the wall to keep from falling over. She excused herself from the person she was talking to, her cousin, complaining of perhaps too much wine, and stumbled from the room, through the hall, and out into the garden where she collapsed behind a line of shrubs. Her world was spinning, spinning, around and around. She felt sick, nauseous. But it wasn't the normal illness…

No, it was like the time she had been told her parents were dead, when it had been believed that their ship had been lost at sea, a time long ago when her father had decided to try his hand at trading at distant ports. It was the nauseous feeling that came with knowing something was missing…something horribly, horribly essential. A longing so intense it threatened to overwhelm the senses and make someone go mad.

Ambrotosa tried so, so hard to try and remember what it was she was missing. When she found it, it scared her beyond belief. It was her memories themselves that were missing- no, not missing, jumbled up, confused, mixed. All the memories featured her, just the same, yet different.

She had images of her surrounded by corpses, a long tall staff shaped like a key in her hand, her skin-tight clothing blood soaked as tears streaked down her face, blaming herself…

More images of herself in a radiant gown, laughing and dancing amid crystal pillars, a familiar symbol on her forehead…

More images, again in that skin-tight outfit, with the key, standing guard at a grand doorway, a gate. She was older…so old, and yet so young. So angry, and yet so alone…

More images, laying in the arms of a man in a violet suit, breathing her last, seeing a woman, a radiant woman, a goddess of gold and silver… Another woman, so alike to the first and yet so reeking of so many emotions, two crystals held in her hand…

More images, from her life here in Ciph…

More images, in a room with strange things of metal and stone and some substance she did not recognize, touching buttons on a slab in front of her as images appeared on a glass screen before her, dressed in a white rob.

More images, more images, more images… Gowns and parties and crystals, battles and blood and fighting, strange things, monsters, strange clothing…

And throughout it all, a goddess…an angel…a guardian…a princess…

Princess…

…Princess…

……Princess.……

"Princess," Ambrotosa breathed, eyes shut tight, curled up in a ball. "I remember you, princess… I remember you…but nothing else…" Tears streaked down her face as she fought to remember something that was a part of her, a part of her soul… "I want to remember…" she said through gritted teeth. "I want to remember who I am…"

The sensation wracked her body, even as more images flashed through her mind, out of order, jumbled up. Images of things that had happen, were going to happen, should have happened, weren't supposed to happen, couldn't happen, had to happen…

Ambrotosa screamed.

Serenity screamed, a golden string of song wrapping around her cry, spiraling up and around everything that could hear. She shut her eyes tight, palms shoved down towards the pile of shattered, glittering crystal. The shards began to pulse, glow, shine, flash…

Then a beam of flawless burgundy, garnet-colored light shot upwards. Serenity lashed out her hand, into the beam, cutting it off. The beam pushed up against her hand. Serenity fought it, forcing it down. The bottom end of the beam raised itself up away from the shards. Serenity fell to her knees, her top hand pressing the top of the beam down, down with all her might as her other hand slipped under the bottom of the beam, pushing up.

Legolas wanted to help, but he knew that to touch that raw power would mean death, himself, Serenity, and whoever owned that garnet light. For it was not Serenity's. Somehow, he knew this to the depths of his soul.

He couldn't help…

Or could he?

He went behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders, and just like he had at Barad-dur, shoved with all his might, all his strength and power into her. He felt her grab at it, almost greedily in her haste, channeling it down her arms to her hands. With that burst of strength, her hands slammed together with a sharp snap, like the sound of glass being snapped in half, cracked, splintered. The sound of falling shards of glass and crystal hitting a metal surface filled his ears.

"Bring her to me!" Serenity cried at the top of her lungs, leaping to her feet in and thrusting the little ball of light in her hand, glowing burgundy-garnet, upwards with all her might, all in one fluid motion before promptly collapsing. Legolas caught her.

The round, purple-garnet crystal flew away, shooting in an upwards arch, leaving a red streak behind it in the sky.

"Bring me my Pluto…my Guardian…" she took in a shuddering gasp of air, her entire body trembling with fatigue. "Bring me my Time Guardian…" She closed her eyes.

Legolas was worried for a moment, before realizing she wasn't asleep nor dead, just resting. He held her close, cradling the head of the girl he considered a little sister in the crook of his shoulder and arm, brushing her hair out of her face. He let his eyes wonder to where the shards of the crystal lay.

He wondered, what did that mean? What would happen now? He was sure the crystal being broken like that couldn't be a good thing, for all it had apparently freed whatever power would bring her one of her guardians. Now a little bit of the events of the past made sense.

The stars containing the souls of her guardians, mother, lover, daughter, daughter's guardians, and teachers had been too much for her body to contain, back in Imladris, he realized. He had always suspected as much, but somehow this seemed to confirm it. He had suspected that her words 'I will find you' had had everything to do with this trek across the world, and now it was confirmed.

But did that mean that the rest of them would never be found, now that the crystal was broken?

Legolas turned his gaze to stare out to see, unconsciously shivering at the sight of it. Somehow Serenity had blocked the madness Galadriel had once promised him would come with the nearness of it. He felt perfectly sane. A notion came to Legolas as he looked down at Serenity's sleeping face.

What if Serenity was the madness that was to come to him near the sea? It was a confusing notion that made no sense whatsoever, yet he knew it was an idea that would continue to plague him until he worked it out.

Before he could think on it further, though, his gaze was caught by a glitter just beyond the edge of his vision. He glanced up, and drew in a sharp breath, eyes widening of surprise.

The crystal was pulsing, the shards melting and running towards each other, like a puddle of liquid rainbows… He couldn't help but notice that out of all the colors that rainbow had once possessed, burgundy-garnet was not among them.

Ambrotosa- no, Pluto? Setsuna? Trista? What was her name? She clutched her head as bolts of electric pain shot through her mind as she tried so, so hard to remember…

She felt it before she saw it, and even then she didn't really register it, so caught up was she in her collage of memories, until it was right in front of her, it's brilliant glow shinning through her shut eyelids to burn into her eyes. Those same eyes snapped open, staring, entranced, into the depths of the perfectly round, polished stone of a deep red-purple color. In its center pulsed a symbol of the deepest of purples. It called to her, and, wide eyed, she felt something on her forehead form, emerging as if from a long, long sleep, pulsing in sync with the mark within the crystal orb, the size of an infant's fist.

Slowly, she realized the pain was gone, and steadily her memories were falling neatly into place as she reached for the orb, reaching, slowly, tentively…

Her fingertips brushed the glossy surface…

Everything snapped into place.

Setsuna smiled widely, laughing as she took her crystal in her hand, pulling herself to her feet and raising it to the sky.

"Pluto! Eternal! Crystal! Power!" She called with all her might in a language long forgotten. Those inside heard her call borne on the winds of time and space, and came pouring out of the house just in time to see her raised up on invisible wings, twirling and swaying in the air with the song of time. Light and ribbons of magic swirled around her as she laughed and danced upon time with joy.

In a brilliant flash of light laced with potent happiness and song and memories, the light display was over, and the Guardian of Time floated there on wings made of glittering gossamer red smoke, as insubstantial as the mist of the plane of the Gate of Time. Her suit was the deepest of blacks, the skirt the same color as her eyes- deep purple-red, and split in the front. Thigh-high black boots gave her shapely legs a seductive allure.

The ends of the ribbons of the bow on her chest were lengthened to loop back around behind her, up to the back of a black ribbon chocker at her throat. From there the ribbons became a length of cloth that formed an lustrous cape. Corners on each side of the cloak were long enough so that they were tied to rings around her middle fingers, forming a wrap around cloak.

"Mother, father," Senshi Pluto said softly, touching down to the ground, her tall Time Key Staff in her left hand. Her Garnet orb atop it shimmered in the moonlight, as did her Pluto Crystal, imbedded in the back of the black glove-gauntlet on her right hand.

No words were exchanged as Pluto looked into the eyes of the two people that had raised her. Somehow, they understood.

Pluto gripped her staff with both hands and raised them high.

"Take me to Serenity!" She cried.

With a whirlwind of black smoke and purple light, her bidding was done, and Ambrotosa's thread in the tapestry of life flickered, and died, as another one just beside it, once dark and dull, that of Setsuna, shimmered and glowed brightly once more.

As Legolas still yet only watched, the liquid rainbow before him molded itself, formed, raised itself, quivering in its liquid form. He was not surprised when a glow the same color as the crystal that had flown away only moments before formed on the other side of the floating globe of molten rainbow.

The glow grew and lengthened, formed and solidified into that of the woman he had seen, wearing a most odd sort of uniform. She smiled at him.
            "You kept your promise," she said, her voice wise beyond her years- appearance wise. Legolas saw something her eyes that he'd only seen in one other person. Galadriel. A sort of ageless understanding, the look of someone that has seen everything yet nothing.

He only nodded. "I've done my best," he told her, recognizing that she had been among them that had bade him protect their princess til they could return to take up that task themselves once more.

The woman knelt, and placed a hand under the crystal. It quivered one last time, then solidified into a glittering, brilliant heart, glowing a soft golden color. She reached out her hand, held it over Serenity, just above where her heart would be, and released it. The heart-shaped crystal sank down, and disappeared within the depths of Serenity's flesh and soul.

Following that, the woman lifted her right hand, and Legolas spotted the round crystal Serenity had drawn forth from the shattered spike-star crystal. The woman laid her staff down between them, and hovered her free hand over the small round crystal on the back of her right hand. Out from it rose a sprinkling of golden light, almost pixie-ish in it's twinkling prettiness.

"Go home, little one." The woman murmured to it. "You have done your job." Almost laughing, the little light danced to Serenity, where it swirled around her head, swirling, swirling, swirling… Slowly, it began to dissipate, being absorbed by the golden moon mark on Serenity's forehead. The mark glowed softly, for a moment, when the last of the light was gone.

As they waited a moment, the woman looked up and met Legolas's eyes.

"You are Pluto," he said. She nodded.

"You remember."

"I remember all of it," he told her honestly. Pluto smiled slightly.

"You have fulfilled your promise, you know," she told him. "I am with her, now. You are no longer obligated to stay."

Legolas's lips quirked. "Even if I wanted to go anywhere, lady, where would I go to?"

"You know the answer to that," Pluto said. "Serenity once told you that when you wanted to, she could send you to the land of your people across the sea. You know very good and well that you can go to them whenever you like, that she would not deny you. You have fulfilled your promise, Prince of Mirkwood. Will you leave now?"

No more words were said on that subject on account of Serenity opening her eyes, eyes that were back to normal. Eyes, Legolas saw, that were a little lighter, a little saner, eyes that had lost just a little bit of the shadow glazed over all the joy hidden within her soul. She smiled a smile that was a little more aware, just ever so slightly not as childishly dreamlike as she turned her head to look at the emerald haired woman clad in black, red, and purple.

"Setsuna…" Serenity whispered, holding out her hand. The woman took the hand, clasping it in both her hands as she knelt there. She bent her head over the pale, slender white one in her own, and kissed it lovingly, sisterly before clasping it to her heart.

"I renew my vow to you, princess," the garnet-eyed warrior said reverently. "To never leave your side, to guard you whenever possible, to whenever it is allowed put you before my duty as Guardian of Time, to aid you in whatever quest you may venture on. Is my vow accepted, highness?"

"Accepted with the highest possible love and gratitude," Serenity said softly, tears in her eyes. She launched herself with what little strength she had left into the woman that was like an aunt to her, sobbing.
            "Oh, Sets, I can't believe your back!" Serenity cried, sobbing. Pluto rocked the small woman, rubbing her back.

"I'm here, Usa-chan, I'm here…ssh, I'm here…" Her eyes met those of Legolas, and she knew the answer to her earlier offer. She smiled. "We're both here, child, and soon, we'll all be here, just like before…and once we are, we'll never leave again."

            "Promise?" Serenity sniffed. Pluto and Legolas's eyes met over the head of the moon princess, and both smiled. Legolas laid a hand on Serenity's shoulder.

            "Promise," he told her, and she began to cry anew.

To Be Continued…

Ta-da!

*collapses onto couch, breathing heavily* Phew!!!! So sorry this took forever to get out, guys! I seem to have the most rotten luck with chapters…they're always getting lost or deleted… blarg, but I found it! Here ya go! Critique welcome, provided it has a basis and its pointless accusation, assumptions, etc.

And, WAHOO I'm back from Mexico!!!! Yay! Go me! I should have some pics posted on my website, reeeeeeally soon. I'm still looking for a pic that can be used to make a layout for a page on my site to host this story. If anyone is interested in trying their hand at drawing me one (a sketch, full pic, actual layout, anything will do) please e-mail me. My e-mail addy is on my author's page.

And now, my darling public, my astronomy homework awaits me…

Hope Makes the Universe Shine,

Makura Koneko