All standard disclaimers that I have already used so far with any of the various stories that I now have on will apply. For your information, all of the characters that you may not actually recognize well enough in this story are original characters of mine, unless otherwise stated, in fact. So please don't steal my original characters from this story or any others, for that matter.

Now without any further ado, let's get on with this story again, if that's all right with you here, readers. And I really hope that if you've read this series up to this point here, you've enjoyed what you've read of its story series so far. And this part of the story is actually going to be the fifth chapter of this second story here, in fact, readers. That's so that all of you people on who've followed the story and its related story series well enough, and often enough, will be able to eventually read the whole related series of stories here, of course. Please do read, review, and enjoy, if at all possible, quite naturally enough, for all the obvious reasons, readers!

Meeting the Menace

A The Chrysanthemum Chronicles Series Story

Crystal Chalice Garden In The Crystal Palace

Moon City, Moon Kingdom, Moon

September 11, 986 - September 12, 986

While Beryl and several others were meeting with each other elsewhere, Darien had eventually left his chambers, so that he could do other things in his life. He arose from his bed in them a few hours after dawn in the Moon City local area on the Moon. After doing so, he soon found himself something to eat. Darien ate for at least the next twenty or so minutes after leaving his chambers. He then took all his dirty dishes wherever necessary in the main dining hall, just before he began doing other things that he'd planned on doing later on.

After eating for a while there, he then returned to his chambers long enough for him to retrieve all the things from them that he thought he might need to have to find and/or rescue all the other sentients who were apparently missing now. He tried not to take too many things with him. But he did try to take whatever things from them that he thought would possibly be the most use to him when he tried to find and/or rescue as many of those sentients as possible from wherever they'd all disappeared to, if it was necessary for him to do so, of course.

Darien eventually found himself in the Crystal Chalice Garden. It was one of eight different gardens on the Crystal Palace's grounds, with it being in the northwestern corner. The nearest garden to it was the North Garden about 800 feet away from its easternmost edge. And the next nearest one was the Double Eagle Garden, which was about 1,500 feet away from the Crystal Chalice Garden's southernmost edge. There were five other gardens that were elsewhere on the grounds besides the North Garden, the Crystal Chalice Garden, and the Double Eagle Garden. And they were all there in a counter-clockwise direction around the grounds. Those five other gardens were the Crossed Swords Garden, the South Garden, the Chrysalis Garden, the Moonbeam Garden, and the Sailor Scout Garden. The Crossed Swords Garden was in the southwestern corner. The South Garden was directly opposite the North Garden. The Chrysalis Garden was in the southeastern corner. The Moonbeam Garden was directly opposite the Double Eagle Garden. And the Sailor Scout Garden was in the northwestern corner.

The garden where he'd first knowingly brought four other Princesses and Serena together more than nine years before had been the Moonbeam Garden. While the garden where at least seven of the Junior Sailor Scouts had been initiated as Sailor Scouts of that kind had been the Sailor Scout Garden. But now, he was in neither. He was now in the Crystal Chalice Garden.

Darien began checking out several of the plants in that garden. But especially the plants that were of any known kind of rose from anywhere in the Milky Way Galaxy's own Sol system. He gardened for a while in that garden after doing so. While he was doing so, he began hearing strange noises. And these noises got progressively louder, for they began to approach him as he worked in that garden. Darien soon realized that he might not be able to keep himself from departing from the Crystal Palace's grounds very easily, if at all. So he then double-checked all his things that he currently had with him as quickly as he possibly could do so, before those noises that he was now hearing forced him to try to cover his ears enough to hopefully protect them from those increasingly loud noises. And he was fortunately able to do that just before he suddenly vanished from the grounds of Moon City's Crystal Palace in much the same way or ways that all the missing sentients had most likely been taken from them some time before. He vanished just as Prince Daniel was about to get close enough to him to talk to him in that garden. As soon as he saw Daniel elsewhere in the garden, he waved him away. For he was already in the middle of being taken from it by a whirlpool of some yet-unknown sort, at least as far as he already knew about whirlpools in his life. But this whirlpool appeared just over his head and just in back of him, at least at first. He saw it as soon as it made him spin suddenly around. Before he could try to keep from being sucked into the whirlpool by it, it grabbed him. It began sucking him all the way into it. As it did so, he then waved Daniel away. Just before he disappeared from Daniel's sight, several roses then fell out of a sack tied to a belt on his waist.

Then, after he realized that he'd left Daniel's sight on the Crystal Palace's grounds, he soon prayed that the whirlpool of sorts that he was now in wouldn't drop him in a very inhospitable place anywhere else in the known Universe. And that it'd not drop him wherever it'd obviously drop him eventually so that he hurt himself while being expelled from it elsewhere in the known Universe. And he hoped that if and when it ever did so, that it'd drop him somewhere close enough to at least a few of the people missing from the Moon City local area on the Moon, at the very least, if not from elsewhere on the Moon.

He eventually found himself whisked out of the Milky Way Galaxy into the Cassini Galaxy. And he soon found himself on the planet of Ozotov IV in the Ozotovian solar system of that galaxy. Specifically on the landmass of Marzotek there, and in the nation of Yonishiki. He'd then have to find a way for himself to get out of Yonishiki, of course, if he ever wanted to be able to return either to Earth or to the Moon.

He found himself near Yonishiki's eastern coast. Specifically within about fifty to one hundred Terran statute miles of the Yonishikian capital of Talteshuku, but not less than about forty such miles away from either Yonishiki's eastern coast or the nearest border between it and Kuzaruno, in any case. He found himself in the town of Culomiron when the whirlpool of sorts dumped him there.

Darien soon got his bearings as best as he could. After doing so, he made sure that he had all the things that he'd not dropped while he was being taken away from the Crystal Chalice Garden on the Crystal Palace's grounds in Moon City. He was somehow able to learn that he'd not lost any of those things as well. Which made him quite glad, once he found that all out.

He soon began trying to find a safe place to hide in the Culomiron area. Simply because it was currently in the middle of the morning in that area on the Marzotekan landmass. And he soon found a safe enough place where he could hide at least until it was too dark for anyone else to see him in the general area of Culomiron quite easily. Darien did this once he found a medium-sized house that'd obviously been quite deserted for a long time.

He soon secured the area around that house, as best as he possibly could, from unexpected visits of anyone or anything that could be in his current area of the planet. Then he covered all the windows in that house that he could with anything he could cover them with, so that he'd have as much privacy in it as he could possibly have in it while he was in it. It took him several hours, at most, to secure the area around the house, and to cover all the windows in it so that people wouldn't, most likely, otherwise be able to see him while he was in it. Eventually, he'd secured the house and its general area as much as he was able to do so during the current day. And then he found other things to do after doing those things.

Such as looking around the house for other things he might find useful as he tried to find and/or rescue any or all of the sentients who were also currently missing from at least the Moon City area, besides him, if not also from elsewhere on the Moon. After doing that, he soon found a place where he could sleep for a few hours, at least. And he was asleep again not long after doing that. For the unexpected trip between two galaxies in the known Universe had worn him out quite a bit. He was soon lost in reasonably pleasant dreams after he fell asleep in the long-deserted house somewhere in the Culomiron local area of Yonishiki.

He eventually woke up again. By the time that he did so, it was getting quite close to local dusk. So he gathered up all his things again. As soon as it was sufficiently dark outside, he was gone from that house, leaving virtually no traces to suggest that he'd ever been there. That was if he could somehow possibly avoid doing so at all, of course. As soon as it was sufficiently dark outside, then, he left that house again. He soon set off down the nearest path in the Yonishikian town of Culomiron, hoping that he'd not encounter anyone else who he didn't know on Ozotov IV, especially if they were at least a little hostile.

Darien soon found himself on the Princess Yushimata Highway between Culomiron and Talteshuku. And he traveled down it as quickly and as safely as he could, only hiding in the nearby woods whenever he thought he'd heard somebody near him who might prove to be hostile. He continued, off and on, down that path, until he came by a medium-sized cave within fifty yards or so of the road, about twenty miles away from Talteshuku in Yonishiki. He soon came to that cave. For it was getting near local dawn. As soon as he was sure that he could use it safely enough, he made camp for at least a few hours in it as quickly and as securely as possible.

He was somehow able to complete making his camp there just before local dawn started to make the nearby sky too bright for his own good. And he made it as secure as he possibly could make it while there. This he did as he also learned that he was near the Yonishikian town of Musunuyashi, about thirty to forty miles away from Talteshuku, and about fifty to sixty miles away from the Yonishikian border with Kuzaruno. This he learned when he found a few scrolls near the cave he'd just found to hide out in for quite a while. He put those scrolls with his things as well. After he'd secured the area of the cave to the best of his ability, he soon began looking them all over as much as possible. This he did, while he hoped that he'd be able to figure out what they also said on them besides what the pictures on them apparently would tell him.

He found at least one map, if not at least two maps, in the scroll or scrolls. And he soon looked at that map or those maps. It took him several hours, at least, to comprehend them easily enough, and to figure out what the text or texts on that scroll or those scrolls were basically saying to him. He soon decided, once that became the case for him, to change his route of travel on the Marzotekan landmass. Simply because he'd been able to learn, as well, that it'd most likely go better for him while he searched for his missing Moon Kingdom friends, at least, if he did so.

Darien spent the remainder of the daylight hours, at least, if not longer than that, in that cave, or near it, before he gathered up all, or almost all, of his things again. He buried all the things he could no longer use. Or he burned them, if he couldn't use all of the things that he'd brought with him to the cave in question. He abandoned and disposed of at least a few of his things, but not more than about five to ten of those things, before he left the area of the cave again to a sufficient enough degree.

Darien soon got back on the Princess Yushimata Highway for a little while. He continued down it for about another five Terran statute miles or so, before he found four forks on either side of the road at a five-way junction just a little while past Musunuyashi. He took the one that went the most toward the south. At least according to the map or maps that he'd just looked at for a while in the cave he'd found earlier that day.

This road soon brought him to the other side of the border that ran between Yonishiki and Kuzaruno. Darien crossed that border without incident, just before local midnight. Then he soon holed up in a mountain cabin not long after crossing that border. But still before local midnight in the general area of it.

By local midnight, then, he holed up in that cabin, so that he'd not be bothered at all while he was in the area. Granted, it was still dark. But at least one of the scrolls had warned him of the nearby area having many poisonous predators that moved around and hunted mainly during the local nights. So he didn't take any unnecessary chances by staying out any longer than he had to, once he was sufficiently far away from the nearby border. He holed up about five miles inside Kuzaruno, in that cabin.

I suppose that I'd better stop here now. For this will be where the next part of the story will take up from, in fact, readers. I hope that you have so far enjoyed the story, if you've gotten this far, and that you'll continue to read it, once I put more of it up here on I don't know how long it will take me to get each story in this series up fully on But it might take a while for each story in this series, just the same, readers. Until later, then, this is "The Universal Storyteller" signing off here. Happy reading, and God bless, and all that, of course, readers! Over and out!