Soldiers of Lore
Believing is Truly Knowing
I had stared in shock. Something I'd never expect to hear. How could I have still stood there, not running like my legs had wanted to? What world was it that I existed for this one, selfish purpose?
And yet, I couldn't turn my back against my friends. Yes, my friends. It had taken me a long time to feel like this, to be whole when I was broken. I never knew before that I was, a shallow pool of coldness, where the light only reflected, never truly reaching. I was terrified but I couldn't run. It wasn't in me anymore.
I would face against the enemy, against the evil. If only for time, just a little more time...
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Lillian stared at the retreating back of Wendy. She wanted to say something but for the life of her, she couldn't figure it out. The words were trapped in the back of her throat, she wanted to swallow but she was afraid of choking.
"Lilly?" Henry asked. He had returned from his previous return to inside. He came out only when his sister had seemed so frozen on the spot. Her face was blank, nothing to give away what she was thinking of.
Though he knew she was thinking very hard. She always had to think everything through consecutively. "Lillian? Let's go inside and I'll cook us something to eat."
"Oh..." Lillian found it hard to move away from the spot. "I...huh..." She turned and marched in carefully, her steps delicately placed in an even pace.
Henry shrugged.
She quietly moved around the table, setting methodically and without thought. Henry watched silently before coughing gently.
"What?" She looked up, stunned out of her thinking.
"It's just us," Henry offered gently. She looked down and flushed. She'd set the table as if their parents were home at that moment.
"Force of habit," She lied and he knew it but did nothing more than raise an eyebrow.
They sat across from each other. "So, Henry. Did you think what she said was true?" She asked casually.
"Who is she?" Henry asked.
"That girl.." She wave her hand dimissively. "Wendy Whoever."
"Ah, you don't like her?" Henry asked curiously. "I know you like to judge people at their first step but you're so... cold about it. You're never really going to see a person if you see through your colored eyes," he pointed out.
"I beg to differ! And I'm insulted as well," she stated coldly. "I am more than capable to seeing a person and who they really are."
"Really?" He leaned against the tabletop, against his elbows as he lifted a fork to dance in the air carelessly. "Then what is it about her that bothers you?"
"She said her cat had a tattoo!" She exclaimed, indignantly.
"It was probably a purebred. When they're like competing or something like that, they can be tattooed to..."
She butted in before he finished. "She certainly didn't look like she could afford a purebred," she retorted.
His eyes narrowed. "I see."
"What?" She saw disproval in the tightening of his frown, his eyes narrowing ever so carefully. "What, I said?"
"You don't like her because she looks poor?" He asked in a clipped tone. "I'll have you know, I've seen her all over town. She volunteers for the old man Porter at the garage! She cleans up the Rose Lake! My God, Lillian, you'd make a great lawyer but you're an awful person."
He stood up, picking up his plate. "Why do you always assume the worst in people? That nothing good comes out of them?"
"I.."
"No, I don't want to hear it. I'm tired of trying to show you that there is good in life! Someone ought to find you out and bring the truth to your eyes!"
She watched him stomp out of the dining room. She looked around, at the porcelain china, the elegant pure wooden table and seats with silken covers. Everything, of beauty and riches, to show power.
But she never felt like this before. One look at a single person and suddenly, she felt exposed. As if something inside of her was yearning for her to reach out, to take that dangling thread.
And she was terrified of it. She felt something at the far reaches of her mind that this summer would change her.
And she was never about change in the first place.
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Lillian awoke in her spacious room, the curtains flung open as she allowed the rays of the morning sun to fill the room, chasing the rest of the shadows away for the day. She took her time to pretty herself up and dressed as casually as possible.
It was a hard decision for her. She couldn't go without a dress so she tried to find something pretty, simple, and yet elegant. Sadly, all of her clothes were either serious or well, serious. She never dressed in frills unless her parents took her to places and it'd been a long, long time since they did anything together.
She wondered idly when they'd come home. They were both high powered attorneys, who sometimes worked together but usually just traveled together. They were quite lovey-dovey with each other, embarrassing their children easily.
"So, going to see this Wendy?" Her brother asked almost instantly upon seeing her.
She blinked. "I suppose I am."
"Need a ride?"
"I'm sure I can just walk there," she answered flippantly. "How do I look?"
"Fluffy."
She had picked a elegant but simple golden flowered summer dress, with a ruffled edge that fluttered around her knees. She wore high heeled canary yellow sandals which strapped across her toes and ankles. She has pulled her hair back into a low riding half pigtail, the rest of the hair flowing wildly. She would've looked casual if it weren't that her clothes just looked expensive.
"I'm not fluffy," she retorted.
"Whatever," he stretched his legs, resting them on the bench across the other end of the table.
"How many growth spurts are you going to have?" She asked him, studying the long, lanky limbs and seemingly inhuman height. He was average, in reality, but his limbs really gave him a peculiar look.
"What? Ashamed of how I look?" He looked over his shoulder, grinning. A set of perfectly aligned teeth, it was a perfect smile not just in looks but also something that made him shine and look utterly normal.
"No, not really. Dad said he looked like you when he was younger. Look at how good looking he is now. I was just wondering if ever that would happen to you."
Henry's smile became a smirk. "Lilly Pad, are you insulting me?"
"I don't know, does it seem like it?" She kept her face passive though her eyebrow twitched at his nickname.
He turned away to go back to his food and sang softly. "Lilly Pad, Lilly Pad, Lilly.."
Whap! She hit his shoulder and he turned slightly, pulling her into his lap and they wrestling, the bench finally falling over as both shrieked.
"Much better," Lillian panted, pulling away. "Don't call me that!"
"Oh, shut up. I'll call you whatever I like," he smirked again. "Now, are you going or trying to delay?"
"I am not!" To prove it, she stomped off down the hallway and out of the door.
She looked around for a moment, trying to remember what direction they had driven off. She took off at a general direction, soon finding the warm summer air becoming hotter and hotter. It wasn't even close to ten in the morning and she was roasting.
She came to the farm, watching it peek out, a flatten little area where the plains tapered off into wheat and a large pen where numerous horses and cows lived together in harmony. The sound of pig's squeals echoed in the distance, as well as farther away, a dog howled a lonely song.
The beaten up truck was placed awkwardly near the front of the home. She climbed the porch, noting the swinging, cushioned loveseat, the table at the opposite end where old metal chairs pressed inward. A few still buzzing fly catchers hung limply in the now dead air. There was no wind at all and the warmth was pressing into her depressively.
Or was it the nervousness that clamored over her? She sighed and rapped three times on the door, wincing as the wooden door hurt her knuckles. But she didn't see a doorbell or a door ringer.
"Coming!" Came Wendy's voice. "I'll be there in just a...HEY! HELIUS! Get back here!"
There was a thud at the door and a howl of pain. "You idiot! What did you expect, to go through the door?"
The said door was flung open as Wendy peered out through the screen door. "You?" She asked, bewildered.
"Uh.. yes."
They stood in silence. "What.. what can I help you with?" Wendy stated finally.
"I.. I don't know. I wanted to come by but for the life of me, I cannot figure out.." During this, she had inched toward the screen door and finally opened it. Helius stepped out gingerly, looking up at her. The golden yellow crescent moon shimmered in the deep rays of the sunlight.
"It... really does have a crescent on its brow," she leaned down. "Helius?"
He sat back on his limbs, tilting his head parallel to her. Then his mouth opened and Wendy shrieked as he said clearly. "I didn't expect to find the second so quickly."
A moment of silence and then. "OH MY GOD!" She jumped to her feet, pushing back to nearly fall backwards on the stairs. If Wendy hadn't pulled her in time, her poor head would've had a massive headache for the rest of the day. "How did he do that?"
"I don't know!" Wendy looked upset. "But it's real! You saw it!"
"And seeing is believing.." Lillian said faintly.
"Or in your casing, seeing is knowing," Helius jumped off down to the dirt walkway and then flipped again. A swirl of black going into blue slate and a new pen dropped rather blandly to the ground. "Your transformation pen."
"My what?"
"I'm looking forward to this, really, I am. If the last person is like this, someone please just step on my head!"
"Why are you so cranky?" Wendy asked with a disapproving frown.
"For the life of me, I cannot remember why I'm here save for the three of you. I nearly had it while resting but it all flew out of my head once I became fully conscious. You... what is your name?"
"Lillian Helen," Lillian said automatically.
"Lillian, you are a soldier, a warrior. Use this phrase, Magellan Power, Make Up!"
"I don't see.."
"Of course you don't. Not yet. Just say the phrase," Helius said crossly.
Lillian tightened her grip on the pen. It was blue slate and glowed warmly in her fist. She sighed, taking a deep breath, and then spoke. "Magellan.."
Warmth blossomed from her heart, slipping into her veins like vines, shifting and blossoming. The earth around her feet warmed as sunlight beamed into her. "Power.." A vine clamored over her toes, climbing upward with rapid growth. "Make Up!" The leaves stretched, opening and blossoming as they blew away in the air, revealing her in a sailor fuku.
Her hand drifted to her forehead, feeling the chilled golden yellow metal tiara, going to feel the oval blue slate gem. Her earrings were blue slate rings, with dangling blue slate five-pointed rounded edge stars. Her choker was cool gray and her collar blue slate, with a single white stripe. Her brooch was a rounded blue slate, with fluffed cool gray bows. Her back bows were also cool gray. She wore a blue slate skirt that barely ruffled in the air. Her white gloves reached her elbows, with three bands of blue slate. Her bracelets had round blue trinkets attached to the small beaded chain. Her boots were also blue slate and reached her knees in a flat edge. She bore belts just off the top of the edge, around her ankles, and one across her toes. These were cool gray with white brackets that had a single perfectly round cool gray bead in the centers, placed on each belt in the perfect front center.
"Lillian, you are Sailor Magellan, the soldier of the planet of Lore, the moon of Venus!"
"And what am I supposed to do in this?" Lillian asked weakly.
"I haven't gotten that far yet. Give me a few days and I'm sure..."
There was a wind that picked up, the hot air stifling. Helius stiffened, his tail frisking the air worriedly.
"What is with you?" Wendy asked irritably. "You've been doing that all day!"
"But the air, there's something wrong!" Helius spun on his heels and then took off down the porch stairs.
"No! Helius!" Wendy fumbled in her pocket, a Tuscan red pen gleaming.
"Stop! Wait for me!" She fled after him, Lillian following. Wendy shouted as she ran. "Vulcan Power, Make Up!"
In a flaming second, she emerged transformed. The two ran, step for step, side by side.
It was a moment, etched in time and drawn out. A connection, already formed sloppily, suddenly gave a sudden rebirth and strengthened into a taut brimming thread.
They neared an area, a nice secluded place where a party had been. People had been picnicking and swimming, merely enjoying the summer in the old fashioned way.
Most of the people lay unconscious. A rather lean, blond haired male, with cold ice blue eyes, looked over the fallen. A orb of shimmering energy, fluctuating with pale hues of silver and white, edged momentarily in pale yellow, floated in his raised hand. He turned slowly, spying the two new faces with a mingled look of shock and surprise.
"What.. what have you done?" Lillian gasped out. "You killed them?"
"Not yet," Helius said darkly. "They.. they've been drained!"
"Of what?" Wendy had covered her mouth in shock, shivering convulsively.
"Energy. By that man, that... enemy.." He hissed the last word, his hair shooting up in spikes as his anger rippled over him, gleaming over his blue eyes.
"Enemy, how true that is. We did not expect to find.. this." The man wore strange garments, an army uniform of dull gray with dull buttons. His blond hair fell carelessly over his scalp, a slow, freezing smile growing. "Youma! I summon you!"
His shadow repulsed and retracted into a tight ball before it gleamed up, a female shaped being with soulless eyes. It's hair hung limply in shades of blue, a two piece outfit of scandalizing fabric. The fingers were clawed and sharply nailed, the toes at the dainty feet tapering into pointed daggers. The skin was a dull, lifeless gray, a living doll of which existed by unknown measures.
"Get rid of these pests while I take care of these.. humans," he glowered at the masses.
"NO!" Vulcan spoke without thought. "Vulcan Metallic Forge!" The earth in front of her jumped out, molding into a burning chain that lashed out. The strange man barely managed to evade but the youma was melted, unable to move quickly enough.
"I will not be stopped!" He howled. "I am a general of Queen Beryl's army, Jadeite! You will not stand!" He aimed and energy barreled out.
"Magellan Solar Panel!" The barrier formed, a hot yellow of fire that reflected blindly from the sun's rays. The attack forthcoming disintegrated and Jadeite cursed.
"How dare you.." Wendy shook with anger. "Do this to these.. these innocent people! I am of the planet of lore, Sailor Vulcan! In the heat of battles, I will smite you in your place!"
"I am of the planet of lore, Sailor Magellan! I will blind you by the rays of light and choke you with my vines!"
He smirked. "Oh, is that all?" He asked softly, too softly. "Of stars that float as nothing?"
Wendy didn't know why she snapped. She gave a shriek of rage and aimed a finger, a feeble attack that emerged without words. He just threw his head back, laughing wildly.
"If we don't find what we're looking for here, we'll just take care of you," his whisper echoed threateningly in the air as he disappeared in a swirling portal.
"That... that monster!" Wendy cried out. She looked around at the people. "Helius.. what do we do?"
"They're only drained. They'll wake up in a little while. Let's go before they start to." He turned away.
"We can't just.."
"We have to. People mustn't know about you. Not now, not ever. Don't place yourself here and keep yourself safe."
"I still feel awful," Wendy fretted. They emerged from the hidden seclusion as her hand drifted up to her face. "Who was that awful monster?"
"He called himself Jadeite, though that doesn't ring a bell. It's a name of a gem, though."
Wendy blinked. Her skirt skitted across her thighs as she moved in a slow pace. "How'd you know that?"
Lillian flushed. "My mom likes gems. I've read a few books on them."
"Why?"
"She seemed to like them, I wanted to see what was so great. All they are is sparkly."
"Shouldn't you two return to normal?"
Both hands reached into pockets, squeezing their transformation pens as they reverted back to normalcy.
Wendy's hands were shaking.
"Wendy?" Lillian asked, worry lines drawing her face in. "Wendy?"
Her hand fumbled in her pocket, her breath coming out in pants. "I.. I can't.. breathe.."
Her hand tugged at the trapped inhaler. "I.. I just..."
"Here," Lillian pushed the other hand away, and pulled the trapped hand. It shook all the way to the moving lips as Wendy pressed, the air filling her mouth to drift into her lungs. She breathed as deeply as possible, her eyes closing as the relief fell through.
Lillian couldn't help it. She giggled. "Your glasses are barely on your nose!"
Wendy blinked and her hands lunged as said glasses, already precariously on her nose, fell in slow motion. It wasn't much of a fall, being moderately warned by Lillian.
She removed the inhaler and slowly, a smile blossomed. "Yea, that's one of the things I have to look out for."
They started back toward the house. "Want to stay for lunch?" Wendy asked, a touch hopeful.
"I'd be honored."
As they entered the house, Helius settled on the porch, eyes looking outward in the summer.
'Of stars that float as nothing..' He settled down in a gentle curve, his head resting on the front of his paws, eyes shimmering with tears. "No... It couldn't be..."
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I had never felt so much better than I had that afternoon. I never talked that much, felt that free, and never realized how much I was missing out. I was trying so hard to grow up, to be a respectable person, that I forgot I was only a teenager. We were allowed to be young only then, we had to take that chance.
And time changes. The days would pass, the summer would become hotter. And a feeling, a spark in the bosom of my heart flourished. A test of courage and strength and fearlessness loomed over our heads and we were never aware of it.
Or at least, most of us. Helius never told us his worries, the things that flittered in his mind, thoughts he couldn't grasp because he was terrified. If we had known the truth, had we had still stood against the enemy?
In the end, it mattered little. But time was something that must be won, even at a loss.