After a long delay by a month long depression
fit, this is back. I hope you enjoy!
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Disclaimer:
Sailormoon is owned by Naoko Takeuchi. All
licenses belong to the proper people. This is
used without permission.
This disclaimer also applies to several
intellectual properties referred to in the text.
Please be guided accordingly.
This file can be freely distributed so long as
it appears in its complete form and proper credit
given. No part may be reproduced for monetary gain
without permission from the author.
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A Princess of Mars
A Dances Set to the Music of Time Vignette
by Elsa Bibat
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There Is No Time Here:
I remember very few things, most of them only in
dreams.
One of the things I remember is the fact that I do
not belong here. I am not of this place of sweeping desert
landscapes and alien vistas. But still there is a part of
me that tells me that I _do_ belong here. In a way.
I have been here a very long time. Time. That is a
strange concept. It seemed as if it were only yesterday I
found myself trudging the red sands and rescuing Kar
Tharkas, my old green friend and companion.
Now, my banner flies over the city of Helium, and
they call me Warmistress, inheritor of a title from the
legendary John Carter, a hero that had ruled here, once,
long ago.
My red and white banner flies across the cities of
Barsoom, even to the twin moons high above.
The red men honor me as their Queen. The green men
respect my courage and prowess. The black and the white
call me a Goddess. They all say that I brought with me a
second Golden Age.
Yet, for all that, I am still unsatisfied.
For I have memories that trouble me.
I have dreams of learning the arts of war from a
woman in white and her one-armed husband. They taught
me how to fly with acrobatic leaps and gravity-defying
gymnastics. My hands could shatter stone with a touch
and I can rearrange the flows of vital energy with but
a few choice strikes. They teach me the arts of the
sword, death-dealing strikes that combine poetry and
death.
I feel joy in those memories, of feeling the
pleasure of achievement and of the happiness in the
practice of it.
I have other dreams, of friends and enemies. Of a
laughing madwoman in black facing off a hundred foemen
with just a pair of what seem to be guns, though they are
obviously not of Barsoomian make. Of stiff-looking men
in black, invaders, withering under fire summoned by a
woman. Of women dressed as I am, though in different
colors, facing a horde of monsters. I dream of fire. I
dream of wind and lightning. I dream of earth shattered
and a deluge of waters. I dream of ice.
But one dream comes back again and again.
I am on a field of ice and a princess in white and
a prince in black are before me. All the others have gone
to their duties and I am the only one left. I had no duty
to go to, so I would stay with those whom my love and
loyalty rests the most.
The princess begs me to leave, for she and her love
were to face the mother of all this pain and sadness.
I refuse. There is nowhere else to go. I have no
ancestral duty, no holy charge to keep, like all the others.
I only have them and I would stay by their side. The others
have gone to the depths beneath the Ice or to the skies
filled with stars. There is no place for me among them, but
by the side of these two, my Princess and my Prince.
They are off to face the architect of despair, the
queen of sorrows and the bringer of pain. The Mother of All
Tears is waiting for them in some place across that frozen
plain. I shout at her that I will not leave them, calling
the Princess a fool and an idiot. There is a tinge of
sadness and nostalgia in that voice, as if it were an oft
repeated ritual.
I am greeted with silence and the Prince shakes his
head with a slight smile, looks at his wife and walks away,
leaving the two of us in private.
The Princess bows her head and her face is in shadow,
a crescent moon on the wane. For a moment, I could swear
that in place of eyes, she had galaxies swirling in those
blue orbs. But the moment is gone, and she looks at me
again, and in a voice that held echoes of eternity within
it.
"You are wrong. There are places where you are needed
much more. Where the Spirit of Defiance stands to shake its
fist against the uncaring heavens. All they need is a
champion. There are many to choose from but since time is
pressing, I will choose for you."
With that she opens her hand and I see a light that
could blind the Sun and rival the stars.
That is when I usually wake up.
These dreams are all I have for memories before I came
to this land of dreaming red sands. I cherish them in my
heart and take courage from them.
For I know that one day, a trumpet will sound and this
dream will be ended, as all dreams end. And I will lead the
tribes of red, green, black and white for a great battle of
liberation, to wake my friend and her beloved from her sleep.
But as I wait for this day I can be only what I have
always been, always am and always will be. The title whispered
to me in my sleep.
A Princess of Mars.
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Author's Note:
Oh, c'mon, don't tell me you don't hear the title
'Princess of Mars' and don't automatically think two
things: ERB's classic Mars series and Rei Hino?
Anyway, the idea has been around for a long time,
I just haven't gotten a reasonable reason for an ERB/SM
crossover... until now, of course.
I can suspend my disbelief at the Mars series better
than in the Tarzan series, which is probably why I favor
in keeping the Mars Mythos intact, while I cannibalize
Tarzan's history (well, I had to, since my outline had
Michiru be a Greystoke ^_^). Anyway, as can be guessed this
is were Rei ended up during the Great Ice. All the other
Senshi have stuff to do during the Great Ice, either in
some pocket dimension, outer space or roaming the Lands
of Ice a la La Compagnie de Glacies. The only ones having
a rest are Serenity and Endymion mostly because of the
cataclysmic final battle.
Expect three fics/pieces next week as I come back with
a vengeance! ^_^
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* *
* DANCES SET TO THE MUSIC OF TIME *
* An Epic History of Humanity *
* From The Age of Silver *
* To The Age of Crystal *
* And Beyond *
* *
* http://rakhal.com/florestica/elsa-bibat/index.html *
* *
* Other fanfiction by the same author: *
* http://rakhal.com/florestica/elsa-bibat/index.html *
* *
* Kindly archived by Larry F and *
* The Lost Library of Florestica: *
* http://rakhal.com/florestica/ *
* *
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