SOUL MATES
Chapter 7: "The Runaways"
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
It was a somber gathering by the two cabins on the shore of Lake Biwa. Princess Usagi and her friends, along with Ami Mizuno, had come to the realization that it might be too late to protect the dragon that innocently resided on a bank of the famous lake. Thankfully, the mournful sobbing of Palla-Palla had subsided. The girl just stood, morosely looking at the ground. From time to time, Ves or Cere or Jun would glance over at her.
"Um," Hotaru spoke up, still shy even among girls she considered friends, "could the Queen maybe designate the area this dragon lives in as a nature preserve? People could be restricted from entering and bothering it."
"That's not going to stop some folks," Ves scowled. "To them, rules are just a challenge not to get caught."
"Particularly if the dragon has something they want," Ami mused.
"Such as?" Usa asked.
"Well," Ami began, "the dragon in Chinese and Japanese mythology is an icon for strength and power. Up to now, that iconic representation has always itself been mythological, since the dragon was thought to be a mythological beast. But there are those who still subscribe to the absurd psychological notion that possessing some representation of a beast of great power or stature can transfer such traits to the possessor. There are also fertility myths attached to such things. It's why the rhinoceros is extinct today and why the African elephant had to be repopulated through mass cloning." She took in a breath. "If there are similar myths about dragons - - their teeth or talons or some such - - well, declaring them endangered and their habitat a sanctuary isn't going to stop someone desperate for such a fetish."
Ami noticed the dispirited look on the girls.
"But I can bring the question up to Serenity and Endymion," Ami offered. "I'm certain they'll look favorably on it."
"Princess?" Palla-Palla spoke up. She seemed very forlorn.
"Yeah, Palla-Palla?"
"Can Palla-Palla go visit with Mr. Dragon-Sir?" the teen squeaked, punctuating the question with a small sniff. "While she still can?"
"Sure, Palla-Palla," Usa replied. "Just be careful in the woods."
"Want me to tag along?" Ves asked.
"Palla-Palla can find the way," the girl said and off she went. Ves watched her walk away.
"Bet she blames me," Ves mumbled.
"No she doesn't," Cere told her. "This is just hard on her."
"Usa, I'll go back to the palace and brief your mother and father," Ami said. "Unless you think I should stay?"
"No, Aunt Ami, you go ahead," Usa shook her head. "Maybe you and they can come up with a solution for this. We'll keep working on things here."
Ami nodded and headed for her air car. It lifted off, swung around and shot off for Crystal Tokyo. The others glanced back at Usa. The Princess could feel the weight of their stares on her.
This was when it sucked to be a leader.
Guided by the thoughts of the dragon, which she could sense, Palla-Palla managed to navigate the wooded area between the clearing and the cabins safely. She entered the clearing and found several local teens already there.
"Where do you think it is?" asked one, a youth of seventeen with a gaunt body and thick black hair.
"I don't know. The news stream said it was here," replied another, a girl of sixteen with short cropped brown hair and modest figure.
"Suppose it left?" asked a third. He was more burly, his hair cut close to his scalp. Undaunted, Palla-Palla entered the clearing. "Hey, there's somebody! Hey, where's the dragon? Did they take it away already?"
"You need to leave, please," Palla-Palla stated, fighting her urge to flee. "You're all disturbing Mr. Dragon-Sir."
"What's wrong with her?" grumbled the girl.
"I didn't know they still had low achievers these days," grunted the burly one. "WHERE-IS-THE-DRAGON?" he said with exaggeration.
"Mr. Dragon-Sir doesn't want you here. He wants to be left alone," Palla-Palla persisted. The gaunt male walked up to her.
"So you know where it is?" he asked, almost as an accusation. His companions joined him, looming over the five foot teen. "We want to see it, too."
"You want to make fun of him!" Palla-Palla scowled. "Palla-Palla can hear it in your heads! You want to tease him because you think that'll impress everyone!"
"How's she doing that?" gasped the gaunt teen.
"Must be a PKE-kid," the burly teen surmised. He leaned in to Palla-Palla. "Nobody likes people peeking into their minds."
"How does a low achiever have PKE?" the girl asked. "You faking it?"
Palla-Palla's jaw set. "Pallas Star Power Make Up!" And before the amazed eyes of the three teens, she transformed into Sailor Pallas.
"A Sailor Senshi!" the girl gasped. "And it's the one from the news feed!"
The three teens turned and ran as if demons from Hell were chasing them. Pallas just watched them run, fighting back the urge to cry. She sensed the dragon drop its cloak of invisibility and turned to it.
"You need not have done that, Pallas," the dragon said. "The humans would not have found me."
"They've already found you," Pallas told it.
Hand in hand, Usa and Helios walked along the northern shore of the lake. Helios could tell that the problem at hand, and her perceived failure to instantly solve it, weighed on his love. He wanted to console her, but waited to speak to see if she wanted him to solve the problem for her or to just provide a secure haven for her.
"Sorry if I'm a drag, Helios," Usa sighed.
"You are frustrated," Helios observed, "because you cannot solve every dilemma you encounter."
"I feel bad for Palla-Palla," Usa said. "And I feel bad for the dragon. It wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for humans needing to quench their needs at the expense of others. Why can't we evolve? Mom has worked so hard!"
"And she had accomplished much," Helios countered. "This world is nothing like it was a thousand years ago. You know that from your visits."
"And yet we can still create situations like this," Usa shook her head. "I don't know what to do, Helios. Do you have any ideas?"
"I do," Helios replied. Usa turned to him curiously. "If he wishes, the dragon is welcome to relocate to Elysian."
"Really?" Usa gasped, daring to hope.
"Elysian has in the past become a refuge for creatures of myth who no longer have a place in the conscious world," Helios explained. "No one will judge him in Elysian. No one will fear him, should he maintain good behavior. No one will disturb him, should he wish it. He can find the peace he so desires there."
"That sound's perfect!" squealed Usa. She wrapped her arms around Helios and kissed him. Then she pulled back. "Why didn't you say something sooner?"
"You seemed intent upon working the problem out for yourself," Helios told her. Usa gave him an impatient look. "And there is another consideration, Maiden."
"What?"
"He may not wish to leave."
"Well it's not going to be much fun for him if he stays," Usa argued. "All of the tourists and gawkers looking for a piece of him when all he wants is to be left alone." She clouded up. "I kind of know how that feels sometimes."
"Would you give up being Princess and Sailor Moon for peace and anonymity?" Helios asked her.
"Of course not," sighed Usa. "It's just sometimes I wish I could turn it off."
"He may feel the same way," Helios said. "We do not know what attachment he has to this particular section of lake. Of course I will offer. It may be the perfect solution for him, and Mother will gladly welcome him to the realm of the Dreaming." His hand brushed her bangs and then caressed the side of her face. "But you must prepare yourself for the possibility that he refuses."
"There's always a catch to EVERYTHING," moaned the Princess, pressing her forehead down on the dream guardian's shoulder. "Still, it's more than I've managed to come up with. Let's go find this dragon and ask him what he wants to do."
The couple turned and headed south along the lake shore.
"You knew he was here the whole time, didn't you?" Usa asked suddenly.
"I did," Helios admitted.
"And you didn't tell me?" she howled.
"I respected the dragon's wish for privacy," Helios explained. Then he grew a mischievous smile. "Did you wish me to violate that wish in order to quench the needs of your curiosity?"
Usa looked at him peevishly. "Not - - funny," she grumbled.
"And now everybody knows you're here," Pallas finished her explanation of what had happened. "Pallas is sorry. Maybe if she'd never have come in the first place, this wouldn't have happened."
"I also would not have met you, Pallas," the dragon responded. Pallas looked up to him, surprised and amazed. "You are one of the most innocent, most guile-less humans I have ever encountered. I find your honesty and your child-like simplicity quite enchanting."
"Are you saying that you like Pallas?" she asked, not totally comprehending the words the dragon used.
"I am," the dragon nodded. "I found myself missing you after you had gone. And I am happy that you are back."
"But Pallas thought that you wanted to be left alone."
"Most humans are at best irrelevant to my existence and at worst an irritant," the dragon tried to explain. "I choose to remain apart from them because I am better off without them, and due to my size and my fearsome appearance, they are usually better off without me. I do not mind being alone. Often it is preferable.
"But it is different with you, Pallas," he continued. "You bring something to me that I do not experience with other humans."
"What's that?" Pallas asked.
"You bring me joy," the dragon answered, surprising himself as much as he surprised Pallas. "I cannot explain this feeling, but being in your presence brings me great joy. The attention of the outside world is an annoyance, but it is worth enduring because it gave me the opportunity to meet you."
"Aww! You're so nice!" grinned Pallas. "Pallas likes you, too! She can sense what a nice person you are, even if you're not really a person. And when she peeks into your head, she can see some of the things you've seen and some of the things you've done. You're very smart, Mr. Dragon-Sir. And you've seen so much, but you're not bossy or stuck up. Pallas is very glad she met you, too!"
The moment between them was suddenly interrupted. Pallas stopped talking and turned toward the far end of the clearing. She had a suspicious frown on her face. The dragon picked up on it instantly.
"Is someone coming?" the dragon asked.
"Four men," Pallas reported, her eyes locked ahead. "They're scared of you. They want to do something mean."
"They shall have to find me first," the dragon surmised and began to slip behind his cloak of invisibility.
Moments later a hover car pulled into the clearing. Several men got out. Two were in their forties, while the other two were in their twenties. All were Japanese and all were armed with pipes, gardening tools and other makeshift weapons, since guns were banned in Japan by decree of the Queen. They looked around warily until one spotted Sailor Pallas. They approached her as a group.
"Where's the dragon?" the lead actor asked. He was forty-five, dressed casually and would have seemed to be a local resident to Pallas if her thought process went along those lines.
"You need to leave," Pallas said defiantly.
"Bet she's the one who attacked the kids," said the other older man. "Why are you protecting this thing?"
"Mr. Dragon-Sir is nice and he just wants to be left alone," Pallas told him.
"It's a dragon!" barked one of the younger members. "What are we supposed to do, just sit back until it eats us all?"
"Mr. Dragon-Sir wouldn't eat you!" Pallas shot back angrily. "That's just dumb! You're dumb!"
"How do you know it won't eat anyone?" the youth argued. "That thing could be dangerous!"
"Pallas can hear other people's thoughts with her head!" Pallas fumed. "She heard that Mr. Dragon-Sir eats sunshine! He doesn't eat people! She heard it with her head! Just like she can hear that you want to kill Mr. Dragon-Sir! Well Pallas won't let you!"
"You going to attack us the way you attacked Sumire and the others?" snarled the leader of the group. And the thought flashed into the Senshi's mind that Sumire was the girl with the two other teens from earlier and the leader's daughter.
"Pallas didn't hurt anyone! She's fibbing!" Pallas spat.
"Yeah, like you didn't hurt that news truck," scoffed the younger member of the group.
"This is a peaceful community and we're going to keep it that way! We don't want that dragon around here! And we don't want you around here, either! Now where is it?" the leader demanded. He reached out with his free hand and seized Pallas by the shoulder.
"Beautiful Incantation!" Pallas screamed.
A telekinetic force exploded from the Senshi and struck the leader, knocking him to the ground. The man lay in the grass, stunned. Spurred by this, the rest of the pack surged at Pallas. Out of self-defense, she telekinetically grabbed the pipe in the hands of one of the younger men. When he refused to surrender it, she lifted it into the air, the man still clinging to it. While the two lead assailants had been dealt with momentarily, the other older man slashed at Pallas with a pronged rake on a long pole. Pallas was barely able to deflect the swing.
She wasn't able to deflect the other young man swinging a wooden limb broken down into a small club. The wood clipped her a glancing blow on the side of her head. Pallas twisted to the ground and lay crumpled in a heap.
"Takeshi!" one of the group shouted to the young man with the club. He looked to the sound of the voice, away from the fallen Sailor Pallas, to the looming form behind him. Towering over the club-wielding youth was the dragon, now fully revealed to everyone. Takeshi stared up at him, the wooden limb in his hand suddenly and dramatically inadequate for the desired task. The dragon stared down at them as Pallas struggled to get to her feet.
"Gods!" gasped the leader of the group, now back on his feet.
"Begone," rumbled the dragon, drawing even more shock and surprise from the locals confronting it. "I vow I will do you no harm if you leave now. But you must leave NOW!"
Turning away from them, the dragon reached out for Sailor Pallas.
"Pallas, are you injured badly?" the dragon asked.
"LEAVE HER ALONE, MONSTER!" raged the leader. He swung his pipe at the arm, then dodged away from the anticipated counterattack.
"Fiery Incantation!" Pallas cried out, still holding her head with one hand.
Her pyrokinesis went awry, though, and ignited the tree limb being brandished as a club. Takeshi jumped with surprise at the torch he suddenly held, then regained his wits and lobbed the torch at the dragon. The torch bounced off of his side, eliciting a roar of pain from the creature, then fell to the bank and began to catch the grass on fire.
The dragon turned away, seemingly about to flee. But the creature's long, scaly tail suddenly emerged from the water and slammed down on the grass clearing. As water overflowed from the lake and put out the fire, the group of men scattered to avoid being crushed by the dragon's massive tail.
"Come on! We've got to find something stronger to fight this thing with!" the leader yelled to the others. Quickly the four men retreated back to their hover car and sped off.
By now Pallas was up. Still holding her head, she hurried over to the bank to be with her friend.
"Pallas, how badly are you injured?" the dragon asked, his hissing voice dripping with concern.
"Pallas just has a boo-boo. She'll be OK," the Senshi told him. "But Mr. Dragon-Sir got burned! Does it hurt bad?"
"My scales protect me from harm. I reacted more from the shock of the pain than from any lasting damage," the dragon assured her. Then he sighed. "But I fear my time in this spot has come to an end. How sad that nothing can last forever - - except, it sometimes seems, myself."
"You're leaving?" Pallas groaned.
"I must, Pallas," he told her. "Otherwise more incidents like this one will come. I have no wish to fight with humans over so trivial a thing as a spot on a bank."
"Take Pallas with you!" the Senshi exclaimed.
"What?"
"Take Pallas with you! Pallas needs to protect you! Pallas doesn't want to see you hurt anymore!"
"Pallas, you . . ."
"PLEASE!"
The dragon looked at her indecisively. Then he bent down to the shore.
"Can you climb upon my back?" he asked. Pallas scampered up onto the dragon and sat astride the creature's neck between two bony ridges. "Hold on. I will fly slowly to accommodate you."
Walking along the shore of the lake, Usa and Helios approached what they thought was the clearing where Pallas's dragon resided. Her hope was that the dragon would accept the offer Helios would make and everything could be resolved peacefully.
The last thing she expected to see was the dragon flying off toward the west with Sailor Pallas riding on his back.
Continued in Chapter 8