SOUL MATES
Chapter 11: "Trading Rights"
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
As she rode on the dragon's neck, Sailor Pallas looked around anxiously. There was still no evidence that they were being followed by anyone or anything. Still Pallas continued to look. She was convinced that someone was following them and her telepathy couldn't detect an observation drone.
"Pallas, I'm coming in for a landing," the dragon said to her. "Be ready for it. I wouldn't want you to be thrown."
"Thank you very much," Pallas said. "Pallas will do that." The dragon noted the preoccupation and melancholy in his companion's voice.
Though Pallas didn't know this, they were on the north tip of Chikubu Island. A bluff of about thirty feet overlooked the waters of Lake Biwa and the shore was thick with trees. This part of the island was undeveloped, even in the thirtieth century, by edict of the King and Queen. Hovering near the bluff, the dragon allowed Pallas to dismount. He then dove down into the water, only to reappear moments later. Still dripping wet, the dragon curled up on the grassy bluff next to Pallas.
"Are you going to live here?" Pallas asks. "Pallas can't hear anybody else around, so nobody will bother you."
"It is not ideal, Pallas," the dragon admitted. "The bluff is larger than I would like. And the area faces north, so it will be exposed to the north winds. It will be colder during the winter than the southern side of the island." He exhaled. "But at the moment, I have little alternative save to continue searching. That does not appeal to me, for I fear I will not find anything better that is not already occupied."
"Pallas is sorry," the Senshi sniffed. The dragon turned to her.
"Pallas, why does this upset you so?"
"Mr. Dragon-Sir wouldn't have had to move if Pallas hadn't found him," Pallas said, tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks. "Please don't be mad! Pallas is very glad she met you! But," and the girl swallowed her growing emotion, "she thinks it might have been better for you if she hadn't."
"And I maintain that you are wrong, Pallas," the dragon told her. Pallas looked at him with surprise. "Do you think this is the first time in eleven hundred years that I have been discovered? We dragons are good at concealment, but we are not perfect. I have been discovered before. Then I would have to move and the human who discovered me would be dismissed as inebriated or untrustworthy. This is just a trial of life to be endured. It will pass."
His words didn't seem to do much to cheer her up.
"You do not believe me?" he asked.
"Pallas believes you," she said distantly. "Pallas doesn't think you'd fib, even because of the 'sitchitatial ethics' that the Princess used." The dragon smiled warmly.
"Then what else disturbs you? Are you cold? Does this place frighten you? We can continue to search if you wish."
"No," Pallas shook her head.
"Then what is it. I wish you to be happy, Pallas." He sobered. "Have you, perhaps, tired of my company?"
"Oh no!" Pallas gasped. "Pallas wishes she could stay with you forever!" Her excitement died back into melancholy. "But - - that would mean that Pallas can't be with Vesta and Juno and Ceres," and she paused, "and The Princess and Saturn," she paused again, "and her U-Usagi-Mama." A gloved hand wiped at the tears in her eyes. "Pallas wishes she could take you back to the Palace with her. But you don't want to go there, so Pallas won't ask."
"It isn't that I don't want to go, Pallas," the dragon told her. "I would not live long in the city. There is too little water and forest, too many buildings and - - too many humans. I would be found out or I would wither and die."
Pallas stared at him with a look of utter horror. Then she glanced down at her hands.
"Then there's no choice," Pallas sniffed. "Pallas has to stay here."
"[Dr. Rosenberg,]" Ami began cautiously, "[what you're contemplating is out of the question.]"
"[Out of the question? Nonsense! I can put together a team and be there . . .!]" he began, but Ami cut him off.
"[Dr. Rosenberg,]" she said insistently. "[You can't intrude upon the habitat of this already sorely put-upon creature. And you MOST certainly can't capture one as a test subject. Aside from the moral implications, the Japanese government would not allow it.]"
"[Why not? This data you've already compiled is revolutionary! And it's just the tip of the iceberg! Surely these monarchs of yours can be made to understand the importance and value of this information!]"
"[I can say with certainty that Queen Serenity will not budge from that position,]" Ami told him. "[And King Endymion usually sides with her when she's adamant. And you're forgetting another party in this.]"
"[Who?]"
"[The dragon,]" Ami stated. "[From what contact I've had with the subject, he wishes to be left alone. I very much doubt he would consent to any sort of study, and he certainly would not consent to being a caged test subject.]"
"[It's just a dragon, Dr. Mizuno,]" Rosenberg replied.
"[You speak of him as if he is a lower life form, Doctor,]" Ami surmised. "[That is the flaw in your current hypothesis. This dragon is sentient, intelligent, self-aware and articulate. Studying him as you would a house plant is very presumptuous of you. Unless the situation changes, you and the world will have to content yourselves with the data I've obtained. He will not agree to further testing and we will not permit him being forced or coerced. I'm sorry.]"
Rosenberg stared at her with mounting frustration.
"[It's fortunate such attitudes didn't prevail in historical times,]" Dr. Rosenberg grumbled. "[If it did, we'd still be believing that the common cold is the result of demonic possession.]" And he cut the transmission.
"I'm thinking that didn't go well?" Makoto asked.
"Dr. Rosenberg is a good man," Ami sighed. "He's just frustrated at the moment. And he hasn't experienced all of the things you and I have experienced. Hopefully he'll realize the error of his position."
"Saharu-San?" one of the local men of Lake Biwa ventured. He was walking out onto a small dock. His friend, Ataru Saharu, was loading sacks into a small induction-powered water craft. "What's going on?"
"Didn't you hear the news streams?" Saharu asked as he anchored the sacks into the water craft with nylon filament cord. "That dragon is on Chikubu Island, near the resort."
"Yeah?" the friend nodded, not making the connection. "What, are you going over there?"
"I am," Saharu replied.
"Hey!" the friend exclaimed, noticing the bags more closely. "That's ammonium nitrate, isn't it? The stuff you use in the landscaped gardens for fertilizer?" A sick thought dawned on the man. "You're not planning . . ."
"On blowing that monster back to its ancestors?" Saharu finished the thought with a glare. "Yes, I am."
"Are you nuts?" gasped his friend. The man tried to climb into the water craft, hoping to pull Saharu out or at least stop him and get him to listen to reason. But Saharu stopped him while he was still on the dock and shoved. The man sprawled onto his back. "Saharu, don't do it!"
"Somebody has to protect the people around here!" growled Saharu. "The government isn't going to do it, so I will!"
"Didn't you see the Princess on the vid-streams? She says the thing is harmless! That it just wants to be left alone!"
"That thing attacked my daughter," Saharu rumbled. "And it attacked us later on! It's dangerous, no matter what the Princess says! And I am not waiting around for it to attack us again!"
Engaging the thruster on the craft, Saharu eased away from the dock and was soon speeding across Lake Biwa for Chikubu Island. His friend stared in shock for a few moments, then turned and ran for where he last remembered the CDP force was stationed.
"Cere-Cere is the oldest," Pallas related. She and the dragon sat in a clearing near a clump of trees as the sun set. "She's also the smartest. Jun-Jun didn't go to school until she got to the orphanage. And Ves-Ves never liked school. She still doesn't." Pallas grimaced. "And Pallas isn't very smart. But Cere-Cere went to very good schools where they teach you a lot and teach you how to be a lady and stuff. And her parents were very smart, too, and very fancy!"
"Fascinating," the dragon replied. "But why do you say you are not smart?"
"Because Pallas isn't," she said softly. "Pallas's daddy did something to her so she could hear things with her head, but so she couldn't learn. Except for numbers! Pallas is very good with numbers! Do you want to see?"
"Pallas," the dragon began, "education is not the only means of measuring wisdom. How much formal education do you think I have had?"
Pallas grew puzzled. "Pallas guesses none. Pallas can't see Mr. Dragon-Sir sitting in a classroom."
"And you'd be right. Now, do you think me ignorant?"
"Oh, no!" gasped Pallas. "Mr. Dragon-Sir is very smart!"
"Thank you," he smiled. "I have over my life acquired knowledge, knowledge on life and death, on who is worthy of my time and who is not, and on what to value and what not to value. This I learned through living, through seeing and through observing. Wisdom is not reciting facts from a book. Wisdom is knowing what is right and what to do when confronted by wrong. And you, Pallas, have great wisdom."
"She does?" Pallas asked.
"I think so," the dragon said. "And you did say I was very smart, so I must know what I'm talking about."
"You tricked Pallas," Pallas replied peevishly. The dragon smirked at her. "But it was a nice trick. Thank you very much."
"I only spoke truth," he nodded. "Your family seems quite unusual. I am surprised that you all managed to find each other." He glanced at her. "You love them greatly, don't you?"
"Yes," Pallas nodded. "Cere-Cere can be bossy. And Ves-Ves gets mad really easy. And Jun-Jun gets mad at herself a lot for things that aren't her fault. But they're the sisters that Pallas never had. And Ves-Ves swore she'd protect Pallas forever."
Pallas stopped. Her face fell a little and she looked down. The dragon noticed.
"You miss them," he observed.
Pallas didn't answer.
"It grows dark," the dragon said. "Have you thought about where you will sleep, Pallas?"
"No," Pallas replied. Clearly the thought just entered her mind. "Where does Mr. Dragon-Sir sleep?"
"I sleep with my tail submerged in the water and my upper body above the surface," he responded. "My cloak of invisibility is up and the tree line shields me from most of the elements." The dragon looked at her sympathetically. "I do not think that would be adequate for your needs, though."
"Pallas hadn't thought of that," Pallas admitted. "She wishes she'd brought a sleeping bag - - and a pink tent with bunny ears."
Suddenly she looked up at the dragon with a stunned expression. The dragon returned her stare, surprised by the reaction and fearing something had been betrayed.
"You think Pallas should go back to her sisters," Pallas vocalized what she'd read in his mind. "Are you tired of Pallas?"
"I could never grow tired of you, Pallas," the dragon replied. "You have touched me in a way that no other being ever has - - though I admit I have been alone for most of my time."
"Then why?"
"Pallas, you wished to see me resettled. I have done so, and you were a great comfort in that. You thought only of me and I am grateful for that. But now I think of you and your needs. You will need food and shelter and this place I have chosen will not provide you with those. You cannot digest the sunlight as I do, and you do not have hard scales to shield you from the weather. Staying here would be a hardship upon you and that would grieve me terribly." The dragon bent in and nuzzled the Senshi's arm with his ridged nose. "You wish to stay by my side. I would wish for nothing else. But reality will not allow it without you suffering. And I will not allow you to suffer."
"But Pallas will have to go back to Crystal Tokyo if she goes back with her family!" Pallas exclaimed. "And she'll never see you again!"
"Never is far too absolute, Pallas," the dragon told her. "You came to Lake Biwa once. You can do so again. I will look forward to your visits." He sighed. "But your place is with your family and your Princess, just as my place is here in Lake Biwa."
Pallas sank to the ground, sitting in the grass, tears dribbling down her cheeks.
"It's not fair!" Pallas sobbed. The dragon nuzzled her again.
"Some things must be, Pallas, despite our wishes otherwise," he consoled her. "We can rail against them, or we can accept what must be and find the good in it to cherish."
Pallas reached out and wrapped her arms around the dragon's neck. The dragon held his position while she cried herself out.
"Mr. Dragon-Sir is smart," Pallas said finally. "Pallas said so. So she should - - listen to what he says. Would Mr. Dragon-Sir fly Pallas back to where her sisters are? Because Pallas can't fly on her own."
"Of course," he said.
"Would Mr. Dragon-Sir mind if Pallas visited him tomorrow?"
"I look forward to it."
Pegasus landed in the small clearing where the other Senshi waited. Sailor Moon dismounted and the Dream Guardian returned to his human form. The others, led by Saturn, ran up to meet her.
"How did it go with the news people?" Saturn asked.
"Hopefully I gave them enough that they'll leave this area alone," Sailor Moon sighed. "No more incidents would be a big step toward that goal. Everything quiet here?"
"We had some of the tourists and the locals come down looking to gawk at the dragon," Ceres informed her. "The other dragon stayed behind her invisibility cloak and we convinced the folks to leave." She noticed Sailor Moon tense. "Non-violently," Ceres assured her, then glanced contemptuously at Vesta. Vesta just scowled and looked away.
"Yeah, if things stay quiet, this will probably all blow over," Juno added. "It would probably help things to blow over if we went back to the cabins."
"A good idea," Sailor Moon nodded. "I just can't help wondering about Pallas. I mean, physically I'm sure she's all right. That dragon will look out for her. I just wonder how she's going to react when she realizes just how big a step she's taken."
"You talk like you don't think she's coming back," Saturn noted. Vesta turned and stared anxiously at them.
"Well, I don't KNOW," Sailor Moon sighed. "Pallas could decide to do just about anything. She might get bored and be back tomorrow for breakfast." The Princess stopped for a moment. "But she may just decide to stay with the dragon. She really seems to like him. This could be the start of a whole new life for her." She grinned. "I would kind of miss her."
Suddenly realizing who was standing there, Sailor Moon glanced apprehensively at the Asteroids.
"We've thought the same thing," Ceres admitted. "It's not easy to admit, but it could go down that way. And if it's what she wants, then we just have to be happy for her."
Juno heard it first. She turned and looked out over the ocean. That drew the others to look as well. They could all see a small water craft speeding along the surface of the water.
"That craft is coming in pretty fast," Juno judged. "Hey, I'm not sure that craft is headed for the resort! That's headed for the cove!"
On the opposite side of the island, Pallas and the dragon heard what sounded like an explosion in the distance. Over the tree tops, on the south side of the island, orange and black filled the sky.
"VESTA!" Pallas shrieked suddenly. The dragon turned to her. "MR. DRAGON-SIR, VESTA IS IN TROUBLE!"
"Climb upon me, Pallas!" the dragon exclaimed.
Pallas mounted the dragon and together they headed for the south side of Chikubu Island.
Concluded in Chapter 12