Enter Star Navigators 
Claire de Lune <pwinram@coastnet.com>

Chapter Eight
A Drawing Class Discovery

        It was Tuesday morning, and Elwing was over at Treyor's apartment.  He had
insisted, after her last math quiz mark, that she needed to study.  She
reluctantly agreed; she had no love of studying, but neither did she greatly
enjoy failing classes, so she braided her hair back to keep it out of her
eyes, and got to work struggling on her math problems.  Fine strands of hair
kept escaping from the braid and tickling her face and neck, and she kept
sweeping them back, so that it became a kind of pattern: Write two lines,
sweep hair back, write two more lines, and so on.  After half an hour of
this Treyor, who had been busily working out the correct answers to the
questions, called for break time.
        "Finally!" exclaimed Elwing, "I thought my brain was going to turn to mush!"
        "No more time fer workin' on questions, now it's time te go over them."
        "Not MORE math!" Elwing wined in her best imitation of Serena, "Oh, all
right.  I know it's best to go over them when they're still fresh in my
mind, but then we really have to have a break, or I'll be a babbling idiot
for the rest of the day, I swear!"
        They sat side by side and went over the questions, Treyor often pointing
out some little thing which didn't seem important, but had radically changed
the outcome of the question.

        Up at UVIC, Triese was bored between classes, and was reading the bulletin
board.  "Hmm, let's see...'drop-in art classes.  Learn how to release your
artistic potential.'  Sounds interesting, and I don't have a class this
afternoon, maybe I'll check it out."  She looked at her watch, and headed
off to her next class.

        In the Negaverse, Drokvart was walking down a hallway which looked like it
came straight out of a morgue.  "This obviously isn't working." he said to
himself, "Something in Tokyo keeps killing all my precious drones.  No
matter what Commander Colg says about the Sailor Scouts being in Victoria
now, SOMETHING is killing the drones before they can return."  He turned and
opened one of the metal drawers, and carefully lifted another of the wasp
drones, presently the size of a normal wasp, out of a container.  "This
little one should do well in Spain." he said, then exited through a warphole.

        After her class, Triese headed off to the art class, which was on the other
side of the campus.  When she got there, the room was about half full.  The
instructor was a young woman about her age, named Catrina Banri-Oyer.
        "Okay everyone," said Catrina, looking at her watch, "If that's all who are
coming, let's get the class started.  Now, since this is a beginner's
class..."  The door creaked open and a young man with Curly black hair snuck
quietly in and found a seat at the back.  Catrina impatiently tapped her
foot until he was settled, then started again.  "As I was saying, since this
is a beginner's class, we won't be going in depth into the history of art.
The point of this class is to expose you to the ideas behind some of the
more common styles of drawing, in order for you to explore your own artistic
skills, and lean how to better express yourself in the medium of drawing."
        'Well, this class sounds like it's going to be interesting.' thought Triese
to herself, 'I've always wanted to be better at art.'

        Tair was in his business management class, but his mind was elsewhere.  He
was remembering the weekend, when he had finally been reunited with his
cousin.  Elwing had taken him to Tokyo, where she had been reborn, and
introduced him to her and the other Sailor Scouts.  It was rather a strange
feeling seeing her again since, for the part of his awareness which knew
her, the last time he had seen her had been early in the evening of the
night of the battle with the Negaverse.  Logically, he was aware that she
would have changed some, but it was a shock of sorts to see her.  What had
been even more of a shock, however, had been hearing about her life in this
time.  He was horrified at the way she had been shuffled from relative to
relative after the tragic death of her parents.  Still, despite all this,
she was the same girl he remembered trying futilely to teach emotional
control to.  There was only one major difference.  Back on the moon, she
hadn't entirely known her own strength, here she did.  He kindof missed the
rib-cracking bearhugs, but then again, ribs took awhile to heal.  'Strange,'
he thought, 'I don't remember worrying about that back on the moon.  I guess
they must have had some way to speed up the process.'
        "Arthur!" the instructor interrupted his daydream.
        "It's Ardu, not Arthur!" he snapped, "A-R-D-U."
        "Well, whatever your name is, I just asked you a question.  Do you think
the word-of-mouth advertising is still effective in our society today?"
        Tair sighed and explained to the instructor what he knew on the subject.

        The art class was almost over, and Triese was fascinated by the examples of
the various drawing styles Catrina had showed them.
        "Now," said Catrina, "as an exercise to show yourself what areas you need
to work on, I'd like you to all draw me a picture of this cat."  She turned
to a cat carrier behind her, and brought out a large bluepoint Siamese.
        Triese's fingers went suddenly nerveless, and she dropped her pencil.
"It's him!" she whispered, "No crescent, but it's him!"  She quickly ran out
of the room and found a pay phone.  Her hands were shaking so badly she
almost dropped the quarter.  At this point she told herself she was being
ridiculous, and took three deep breaths to get under control, then phoned
Treyor's apartment, where she knew she was most likely to find someone home.
        Treyor and Elwing were just on their way out to get a late lunch when the
phone rang.
        "Hello?" said Treyor.
        "Is Elwing there?  Can I speak to her?" asked Triese.
        "It's Triese, she wants te speak te ye." Treyor said, handing Elwing the phone.
        "Yes, what is it Triese?" Elwing asked.
        "I'm up at UVic, in the art building, and I think I just found Reyltain!"
        "Really?  Where?"
        Triese explained about the drop-in art class.
        "Well, go back in and keep an eye on him.  When everyone else is gone,
think at me and I'll come and see what I can do."  Elwing hung up the phone.
"Triese thinks she's found that cat Reyltain she told us about." she
explained to Treyor, "I want to check it out, this could be important.
Would you like to come along?  I'm sure that if this cat really is Reyltain,
and he is a guardian, he'll want to meet us all as soon as possible.
Besides, this is our day together, and 'work' doesn't necessarily have to
interrupt it."
        "I'd love te come along." said Treyor, "It'll be most interesting te see if
this cat really is a Guardian."
        "Well, I'll just whip up a few sandwiches while we wait for the 'all
clear'." said Elwing.

        Colg was watching his prisoners through the viewscreen, and Travis had just
begun dreaming.  Suddenly an alarm went off in the lab.  "Well, FINALLY!"
said Colg.  He turned off the alarm and sat back down to wait until the
dream ended.

        Triese hung around in the room helping Catrina clean up until everyone else
had gone.  The last to leave was the young man who had come in late.  He
stayed until he realized the Triese wasn't leaving anytime soon, then left
as unobtrusively as he had tried to arrive.  As soon as he was gone, Triese
"called" Elwing.  Half a minute later, there was a knock on the door, and
Catrina went to open it.
        "Hi, my name is Elwing, and this is Treyor.  We would like to join your
class, but just found out about it, and missed today's lesson."
        "Come in, then., and I'll sign you up." invited Catrina.
        "Oh, Hello Triese,"Said Treyor, feigning surprise, "I didn't know ye wanted
te take this class too."
        "Oh, Wow!  Is that your cat?" asked Elwing, "That's my cat's brother!"  And
she wasn't lying either, it was one of Caiona's three male littermates who
sat before her.
        "Really?" asked Catrina as she was busily filling in signup forms for them,
"He's my mom's cat, actually, but I bring him to class because he's so good
at posing."
        "Do you mind if I bring my cat in to see him, she's just outside."
        "Sure, just be careful, they might not remember each other."
        "Of course." said Elwing, and went to get Caiona.  "I'm pretty sure this is
the one" Elwing told Caiona through their mindlink as she carried her over
to where the bluepoint was, "he's your littermate, so it would make sense
for him to be a Guardian."
        Catrina had finished filling out the forms.  "What happened to her
forehead?" she asked Elwing, "did she have an accident with some bleach?"
        Elwing, Triese and Treyor exchanged a quick glance.  It seemed that
Catrina, like them, was from the Moon Kingdom.  "No, it's natural." said
Elwing.  By this time, she was almost positive that this cat was Reyltain.
Remembering what had happened the last time a Gaurdian was awakened, she put
Caiona down some distance from her brother, and let her approach him on her
own.  When they were close enough together, there was once again a flash of
light.  Elwing, Triese and Treyor all had their eyes averted, but Catrina
was momentarily blinded by the light.  When everyone looked at the cats
again, they were nuzzling and renewing old acquaintances, and the bluepoint
also had a crescent on his forehead.  "Everyone, this is my brother,
Reyltain." announced Caiona.
        "What kind of trick is this?" Catrina demanded of Elwing, "How are you
throwing your voice, and how did you know his name?"
        "Perhaps I could clear all this up." Reyltain spoke up, "My sister and I
really can talk, Catrina, and we have a mission."  He did a backflip and got
an ice-purple power stick with a crescent moon surrounding an ice-blue
snowflake.  "This can probably explain things better than I can.  Take it
and say 'Alphecca Navigator Power!', then we'll discuss this further."
        Catrina looked extremely sceptical, but she did what he suggested.
"Alphecca Navigator Power!" she said, not really expecting anything to
happen.  A sudden swirl of blueish snowflakes floated up from around her
feet and conformed to her body, where they melted together to form a sailor
suit with an ice-blue skirt, and ice-purple bows.  One last snowflake
floated to her forehead, where it melted to become a silver tiara adorned
with a snowflake of blue lace agate.  "What is this?!" she exclaimed when
the transformation was finished.
        "You're Sailor Alphecca, and you have control over ice and blizzards."
explained Reyltain.
        "Oh yes, now I remember, I was part of the royal family of Mercury.  My
title was Duchess Alphecca, and I was one of the Star Navigators."  She
turned to the others, "Ah, you are also awake.  I knew the name 'Elwing'
sounded familiar somehow.  It's good to see you all again.  Who else is awake?"
        As far as we know, Sailors Mars, Moon, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter, and
their Guardians Luna and Artemis, have been awake for awhile; and Sailor
Vega and Sailor Altair are also awake now." Elwing informed her.
        Sailor Alphecca detransformed and said, "I'd like to meet them."
        "As would I." said Reyltain.
        "Why don't we set up a meeting for later today, when the other navigators
are free." suggested Elwing.
        "That's fine." said Catrina.
        "Before we do anything else, I'd like to ask you something." Triese told
Reyltain.
        "Ask away."
        "When I was imprisoned in the Negaverse, how did you come to me if you were
still 'asleep' as a Guardian?  And how did you even get there?"
        "I was only sleeping lightly since my sister was awakened," Reyltain
explained, "and when I felt you stirring, I came close enough to the surface
to go to you.  As to how I got there; well, all us guardians have a special
talent, just like you Sailors, and mine is that I can warp timespace in
order to travel.  Caiona's specialty is illusions, Luna's is her mind-meld,
and Artemis is linked to something called 'Central Control' which supplies
reconnaissance information."
        "Oh, now I understand." said Triese.

        On the viewer, Travis had stopped dreaming, so Colg made a warphole and
went to their cell.  When he appeared, Erina shook Travis awake.
        "What were you dreaming?" Colg demanded of him, "I sincerely hope we won't
have to go through the whole process of threats again." he said when Travis
didn't look about to answer.
        Travis yawned.  "Alright.  I was a page serving drinks at a big banquet.
It was a really festive occasion, and everyone was being extra nice to all
the servers.  I had to serve some special ambrosia to one group for toasting
someone's engagement, or upcoming wedding, or something, and they actually
let me have a whole glass of it to toast with them.  They said one of their
number was away on business, and they needed a full compliment for the
toast.  It made me really drowsy, though, so I lay down in the shadow of a
pillar and went to sleep.
        "That's it?"
        "Yes, that's it.  Now go away!" said Travis.  But Colg had already gone,
and didn't hear the last.
        "That's odd," said Colg, "I don't think Ambrosia should have made him
sleepy.  From what I remember, Moon Ambrosia was an invigorating drink.
This could be useful.  I'll have to record it., and maybe later it will make
more sense."
        Everyone was over at Raye's Temple being introduced to Catrina.
        "It's so wonderful to see you again.  Especially you, Amy." said Catrina,
grinning, "You all seem just the same as you were on the night before
everything stopped."  She turned to Mina, confused, "Why do I feel that
something is still missing?  It has something to do with you, do you remember?"
        Mina thought for a minute, "I'm sure there's something, but I don't
remember it either.  It must have something to do with someone who isn't
awake yet.  When she sent us to be reborn in the future, Queen Serenity
blocked our memories of each other, in order to give us a chance to lead a
normal life." she explained to Catrina.
        "That must be it." said Catrina, still trying to remember, "I have the
feeling it was something important to me.  These blocks in my memory are
very annoying."
        "Don't we all know!"  Sympathized Triese.  Everyone nodded.
        "Well, I'm glad to see you two together at last." Catrina told Serena and
Darien, "I always did think the measures put up by the council against Earth
were a bit harsh.  They seemed a little strange.  We were getting along just
fine with Earth one day, and the next, they were dangerous and needed to be
watched carefully.  It was almost like someone in the council had their own
agenda."
        Triese looked at Elwing, "I discovered the same thing on reconnaissance to
Earth, but I never got back in time for it to do any good." she told
Catrina, surprised, "It seems I wasn't the only one with suspicions!"

FIN

