Oracle of Dreams Glacial doom By Iruka Updated: 8:23 PM 7/21/2001 Website: www.angelfire.com/anime2/iruka/fanfiction.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Disclaimer: Let all know that this chapter has been heavily modified this time around and some new characters added to the fold. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prince Hermeleus of Mercury stepped onto the soft soil of the moon, his sad blue eyes searching for a familiar face in the crowd welcoming the ambassador from the water planet. As usual, his secrete love was far from the trivial crowds on the moon, but that didn’t stop his melancholy to grow, either. Logic might be his greatest friend, but it did nothing for his foolish crush on the wise Princess of Gold... "Hermeleus, welcome to the Moon. I hope that your stay here will be quiet and soothing, a balm to your frazzled nerves. Congratulations on your high honors at the Academia." A tall woman with silvery-blonde hair and a bright smile announced, bowing before the slightly confused Hermeleus. "Forgive me, mi’lady, but I dare say that I have never seen you're fair face before." The lady laughed, her eyes sparkling bright azure. "I am the eldest daughter of consort Adonis of Venus’ brother. Her majesty the Queen sent me here to see if I could work my magic on the Moon Court. Her majesty ordered me to welcome you to the Moon, with regrets that she couldn’t complete this happy errant herself. Pressing news has come from the far borders, and she is in intense communication with her aunts, Daenara and Aurora de Taiyou." Heremelus smiled to the graceful woman. "Mi’lady, I am sure the Queen would have more to do then welcome a lowly servant to her court." The crowd that had gathered began to roar and cheer, obviously delighted by the newest addition’s witty, not realizing that Heremelus truly regarded himself as on of Serenity Solene’s lowly sservants. The silver-golden haired woman, however, caught his meaning and smiled. "All true members of her court feel such as you do, Prince Heremelus. Or would you prefer to be known as Ambassador Mercury?" The tall prince looked thoughtfully at the woman for a second, seeing his dearest’s features within her own for a moment, then shook his head and smiled without the hesitation he felt in his heart. "What ever the other Ambassadors are opting to refer to themselves, as Ambassador or Prince, is well and good enough for me." A bright smile lit the woman’s face as she presented her slender hand for the Prince to kiss. "You are certainly humble, Heremelus. The female who wins you will certainly be a lucky girl. I am known as Kymethe, by the way, and if you need any assistance one of the Moon Maidens will be around to serve you." "Thank you, Lady Kymethe of Venus, but I doubt I’ll have any need for a servant." "Yes, well, my good Prince, you have three hours until the rest of the Ambassadors meet with the Queen. Would you like to be taken to your quarters?" The handsome prince looked terribly relieved, the sudden rise to celebrity taking a toll on him. "Yes, certainly. I do feel a little strange..." The Prince was shown to his luxurious quarters, and left alone with his few articles he brought with him from his home on Mercury. He laid across his dream, and experienced the strangest dream of his life up until that point... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The cold of the Nemeitte Moon permeated all layers of clothing no matter how thick one thought them ingeniously to be. It nipped, bite, ripped threw all clothing until only numbness was left. But still Daenara walked threw the deserted frozen valley, searching for survivors of the Cult of Nemesis' attack on the poor, defenseless world. She shivered, even though by common sense she should have been all out of shivers hours ago. The barren landscape tormented her, for she was a Senshi, guardian of life, and this all-encompassing death was torture for her pure soul. With each mile she grew even more discouraged, and her renowned faith faltering many a time. And this dire moment was one of those bleak, cold times. It was bleak, dark, dank, black, sick, dying, and yet dead. There was no life, no light, no sun to warm her aching bones. She felt old and tired, weary for rest and ready to give up the search. She felt every single one of her nearly millennia of life years, felt the Lady of Time grating down her bones, felt her age sagging her spirit down to her knees. She tripped once, then twice, until she landed facedown into a frozen pile of ice and mire. She felt all hope leave her bones until she heard a faint call. Was it just her imagination? She wondered, trying to call up the energy to listen with all of her senses, waiting for what seemed like eternity for another faint call. There it was! The weak, pitiful cry on the wind gave strength to her bones, and she suddenly lept to her feet and raced down the icy slope, falling on the thick ice that slipped like desert dunes beneath her thick boots. Flailing her arms about to catch her balance, she tumbled until she rested beside the near blue form of a frail child, weak and near dead but alive. "Shhh." Daenara whispered, cuddling the child to her chest as she knelt by it. The child weakly hiccupped and then sank into a stupor. Anger gripped Daenara then, anger at the injustice of it all. Nyte preyed on the weak, and the just, the Lyte, preyed on the evil. So the Lyte in fact preyed on the weak as well. In trying to destroy the cult of Nemesis, the good had only punished the weak of this moon. It was all indirectly of course, but still, those of the Lyte’s fault. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Aurora stood motionless before the flickering flames of the fire, her back to the open wasteland behind her. She sensed the return of her twin before she heard her, clattering about in the ice and snow, heavier then she usually was. Another body had been found. She surmised, but was surprised to turn and see that the bundle that Daenara carried was in fact a living child. "She's cold." Daenara said delicately, in a soft voice full of gentle compassion, her long golden hair floating about her, giving her a look of an angel for goddess. "No. I thought she was too hot." Aurora muttered, her face turning into one of marble. Cold, much like the wasteland around them. Her own hair, the deep blue of the Earth’s Oceans, was held up from her face in a thick pony-tail, and it settled about her like a cloak, suffocating her with it’s weight. "Stop that Aur. This child is an innocent. She needs our help." "We didn't destroy this world. Why should we help?" Aurora coldly asked, dispassionately gazing at the shivering bundle in her sister's arms. "Because we can." The warmth in Daenara's voice, as well as the noble finality to it, ceased the conversation. For then at least. "So, think that's the last of the survivors?" Aurora finally asked as Daenara fed the child one spoonful of hot soup at a time. The bowl that the soup had come from was half empty. "If I found this one, so late after the tragedy, there may still be another. Can you watch this one as I go out and look?" Daenara pleaded with her twin. Noncommittally, Aurora shrugged. "It's your rear that will get frost bitten Dae." Flashing a brilliant smile at her twin, Daenara relinquished the child into Aurora's reluctant grasp. As she turned to go out again into the wasteland, her sister stopped her. "Dae, why do you try so hard? Humans are worth this devotion. None of us are." Daenara turned back and smiled. "They don't call me Deianira the Golden back on the Moon for nothing Aur. It is said that my heart is pure gold." "Gold is cold. Your heart is burning with compassion. I envy you, sister, and yet there is no way in this universe that I would trade places with you. You have a task before you that no other human could ever attempt. I feel pain in your future." "And in yours?" "Daenara, you know that I can not sense my own future." Aurora said with a faint smile. "One never knows, sister." Daenara said as she pulled the hood of her jacket over her head. "Once they said that Oracles couldn't change the future, and look at Pythia." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "NOOOOO!" The cry of utter despairs echoed like phantoms down the corridors of the Moon Palace. Guardians raced from their posts towards the struggling white robed woman. "Stop!" Queen Serenity's silver-charged voice commanded, appearing like a ghost from her bedroom. "Leave us!" "But your majesty-" one of the guardians began in a prissy voice. "I told you to leave us! This woman is the Oracle of the Moon!" Thunder loomed in Serenity's voice and all the guardians raced from the corridor. "Serenity Solene, daughter of Cyrene Soleste. Granddaughter of Solana the Golden. Your future I doth see. Darkness reign from heavens that have seen natural light not. Death to two of those you love dear. Death to you, death to me. Death to the Silver reign of Moon. Chaos reign for an era of darkness years, time of death to all you hold dear. Know peace in that you shall live again, in a future world far away from this time. Know that soon the Goddess shall lay, in your arms like Serenity Selena lay as a babe. Know that soon the Renegades shall fall, know that soon you shall be alone. The cult shall die, but with a terrible price. All shall fall-all shall call." Serenity caught the woman just as she collapsed on the cold as a corpse floor, her mind whirling with thoughts of prophesized doom. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Hehehe, added a new character! Hermelus came about when I wrote the final three parts to Oracle and I decided I wanted to add an introspective and intelligent, humble and madly in love with someone character. I decided that since Mercury had yet to have a character, I might as well honor that worthy planet! The woman, if you are wondering, will appear in a few more chapters to come, and is in fact not who she appears to be! HAHAHA~ Anyway, Solana the Golden pertains to a story I started to write about the Golden Millennium (fictional, of course, but founder for fanfiction anyway), about the first Queen of the Golden Millennium, Solana the Golden. My friend Kassandra took what I had written and started to create a beginning (I had only written the middle J ) but soon both of us forgot about the project, due to school, boyfriends, and other stuff. Then, I started Tranquil Moon, and based it on some research that had led to the creation of this series. Kassandra, who plays Eris in that RPG, wondered if she could do a spin off, so we chose to revive our Solana the Golden fan-fic and turn it into an RPG, which is still looking for players ;) But, for this story, all you must know is that Solana had a heart shaped crystal, which broke into three different pieces during a battle. It’s actually of great importance to my RPG, Tranquil Moon, but for Oracle it’s just a Legend. chibi_iruka@yahoo.com More to come!