Unknown Bond

Chapter Two: The very Least of it

Tohru, a gentle being with the strength and power of an army in her one finger; her village's one and only guardian. Their one and only source of prosperity and security since the day she was born.

It wasn't a very happy beginning though. The village folk explained that they were having a particularly tough year, What with the summer drought and the intense heat drying out their crops. Desperate, they all came together at their local shrine and pleaded with the gods to end their suffering and forgive them for the lack of offerings due to the bad conditions. Then, as if to answer their prayers, one of the stars in the night sky fell from the heavens and crashed on the side of the mountain, stirring the townspeople to question if this was a blessing or a warning. The priestess and a handful of the town elders went to investigate the sudden disturbance on the mountain.

That's where they found it; a strange vessel, metallic in form, battered from the impact lay before the group. The elders kept their ground as they watched the vessel crack open from the front like a caterpillar coming from its cocoon, they couldn't believe their own eyes as a large marine mammal stood on its hind legs, in tow was another being bent over in the others firm hold.

Both seemed badly wounded from the crash and were covered in gashes and familiar crimson liquid. One, however, was obviously female, judging from her large, prominent abdomen.

"Please! Help, my wife, she's about to have our child!" The male being pled in his foreign tongue. None of the townspeople knew what he was saying but the priestess understood the female being was with child, and close to birth due to her familiar maternal screams mixed with her cries of pain from her wounds. With the priestess in charge, the group frantically did everything in their power to deliver the baby.

This went on through the night till the sun was just skimming the horizon when finally the distinctive noise of a baby cry could finally be heard.

A girl.

An elder at the time had brought an old flash camera with him and wasted no time in quickly taking a picture of the happy couple with their new child. Unfortunately soon after, the new father died shortly after from wounds sustained in the crash, mother shortly after, her body finally giving out from all the strain of giving birth to her child. Before she left to the next world though, she gave a name to her baby before leaving her to the care of the strange beings she came upon: Tohru.

Since then, life in the village both simplified and complicated.

"But that doesn't explain why you're that color!" Hanna, the new current Priestess-in-training living at the shrine, said in an exasperated voice. Tohru had found her shifting around her room late one night and had pulled out her old photo taken all those years ago; it showed that both she and her parents were a dark blue color with a lighter undertone. At this moment though, Tohru was pure white with speckles covering her cheeks and ears.

"I got sick very easily as a baby; so your grandmother, the old priestess, took me somewhere deep in the mountain, restricted only for the sick or those close to death. They couldn't take my parents because of their size, but they were able to take me and when we returned, my skin had turned white."

"And what about your size?" Hanna asked, referring to Tohru's current height of seven feet where her parents were estimated at around twenty feet.

"You see this" Tohru pointed to the necklace she always wore that held a golden talisman with gems and symbols edged into the face and corners."This talisman they found in the mountain helps maintain my height so I don't hit the ceiling, but I'm still fairly tall even at human height." Tohru technically had two talismans, a black one made of obsidian and holly blue quartz, but she wore the gold one because it maintained more of the "aniu" heritage.

"So your parents just fell from the sky and a mountain bleached your skin, and grandma just happened to find some talismans that makes you grow and shrink at will?! Seems a little skeptical to me."

"You were the one who asked, and it's a touchy topic for me. It's been almost twenty-seven years since my parents death, and I still miss them."

Hanna stopped her ranting at this point; she knew every so often Tohru got like this, and all she could so was hug her till she felt better.

"Hey, if I was your mother, I'd be proud of all that you've done for our village right now."

This was true; when Tohru was only five, she brought water back into the towns river by rerouting it from a dam made by the city folk (later, they made another one away from the village so as to not unintentionally cause another drought). At age twelve, she began helping out with the villagers crops, digging deep trenches so the roots would grow deeper into the earth for nutrients. And at age eighteen, she was deemed a guardian and provider of the village, a very high status to bestow on one not from their land.

Tohru smile despite herself, she worked so hard everyday to meet the many expectations as the guardian of the river; however, lately, she had been having strange dreams of something impending, something...new.

"Are you quite satisfied with the story?"

"Hey Tohru?"

"Yes?"

"If your parents came here from the stars, does that mean there's more of you up there somewhere?"

Tohru sat up and thought for a moment. That was a very good question. Were there more like her, hiding on mountaintops and other forests in Japan?

"I don't know. That is a nice thought though." Tohru tucked in the little Priestess and retreated to her own room. She put the photo back in her usual spot under her pillow and looked out her window; she could see the dirt path that led to the cavern where the townspeople carried her parents remains and their vessel deep in the mountain. She herelf only went there once a year to maintain her parents grave markers, but never set foot in the vessel itself once. She figured it was to damaged and wouldn't be useful to helping her find out more about herself. Tohru took one last look at the night sky and went to bed.

Someday I'll find out. Then I can live up here in the mountain in peace.

Tohru awoke in a very large dome shaped room;along the walls were scads of different types of creatures Tohru had never seen before, all mumbling to themselves in concerning voices.

'What's going on?'

To her left, a very thin creature with a long face appeared before the room, her face very stern and serious.

"Read the charges!" She said in an an authoritative voice.

"Dr. Jumba Jukeba, lead scientist of alien defense headquarters. You stand before this court, accused of illegal genetic experimentation!"

Tohru couldn't see who was speaking behind her, she couldn't move her head, but she did see the tiny scientist with four eyes and a giant object come from the back of the room.

The thin creature spoke next. "How do you pled?!"

"Not guilty!" The scientist said in a rather prideful manner. "My experiments are only theoretical, and completely within legal boundaries." He continued, looking more and more apprehensive as the object grew near, what was in that thing?

"We believe you've actually created something." The creature didn't ask, she was stating it.

"Created something?" He replied, obviously nervous. "Ha! That would be irresponsible and unethical!" The object continued to unravel and open up to expose whatever it was he made that was so bad he had to go to court to be tried.

"I would never, ever-"

Pop! There, before this room of creatures, was a tiny blue... puppy?

"-make more than one." The scientist finished.

Tohru narrowed her eyes at the blue puppy, aside from its snarling, it actually looked kinda, cute.

"What is that monstrosity?" The voice behind her asked, his voice laced with vain.

"Monstrosity?! What you see before you, is the birth of a new species. I'm calling it: experiment 626." He continued with the logistics of the creature, concluding that he could only destroy and demolish anything and everything he came into contact with.

"So it is a monster." The thin creature decreed.

"Hey, just a little one." The scientist argued.

"It is an affront to nature, it must be destroyed!" The voice behind her bellowed.

"Calm yourself, Captain Gantu, perhaps it can be reasoned with." The thin creature attempted to reach the blue puppy, to find some sense of compassion or any trace that it was good, but all it gave her was some phrase Tohru didn't understand that made the whole room gag in disgust. Must've been some dirty joke.

"I didn't teach it that!" The scientist said, a little surprised himself.

"Place that idiot scientist under arrest!"

"I preferred to be called 'evil genius'!" The scientist yelled as he disappeared into the endless abyss.

"And as for that abomination, it is a flaw of a deranged mind. It has no place among us. Captain Gantu, take him away." The thin creature said, a slight disappointment in her tone.

"With pleasure." The voice finally walked up to Tohru's field of vision as he walked up to get the blue puppy.

She nearly gasped. This creature, it, it looked just like her.

Tohru woke up in a cold sweat, it was just past four and she felt like she had just done a marathon. What was all that? What did it mean? And who was that she saw next to her? She needed answers, and she knew what she was about to do the priestess would never condone, but she had no choice. She grabbed a few changes of clothes, her picture, her spare talisman, and headed off down the river. When she reached the end, she pulled out a boat she handcrafted just for her size; she didnt know if it was good for long distance, but she had to try. With one good push, she boarded the boat and headed off to sea, no map, no compass, noting but her gut feeling telling her where to go.

Oh boy! Ahem, like I said last chapter, no flames...please? Lol ;P