Ami looked around when she and Nandus entered the big antechamber of Makoto's domain. Curiously enough, it looked like a normal secretary's office. Only that the wall to the next room was transparent like a glass wall, only that it was transparent stone.
At the desk, a teenaged, grey-haired girl was sitting. "Hello? May I help you?"
Nandus nodded. "Hello, Diana! Yes, we'd like to meet with Makoto."
"Diana? Is that you?" Ami blurted out.
"Of course I am, Ami, why do you...?"
Nandus pointed at the sign that once again had appeared over Ami's head, and Diana chuckled. "Oh, I see! Yes, it's me, I've taken a part-time job here at Makoto's domain."
"And... what do you do?" Ami asked the former feline.
"Oh, I make sure that not the wrong people bother her," Diana smiled.
"Well, you know we aren't like that, do you?" Nandus chuckled.
"Sure you aren't... do you have an appointment?"
Nandus was surprised. "Um, no, I thought..."
"Being the Goddess of Forests, Agriculture and Healing is a time-consuming task," Diana explained. "You don't think I'd let just anyone in here who wants to see her, do you?"
"Well... no..." Nandus certainly was a bit perplexed. "Look, we just want to say hi. Is she there or not?"
"Well, even if you have a good reason, she's not here right now. She's down on Aurius for some important business."
"She... she's down on the surface?" Nandus wondered. "That doesn't happen too often... can we go and see her?"
"I told you, you need an appointment," Diana insisted. "But since you are the son of the Goddess of Magic and Science, maybe I can make an exception... shall I call your mother?"
"Please do," Nandus said.
And while Diana dialed a number on her phone, he shook his head. "Makoto never had such a strict secretary before..." he grumbled. "Diana's really getting a bit overboard here..."
Ami giggled. "Good to see she's taking her job seriously."
Meanwhile, Diana was speaking into the phone: "Mmhmmm... ah, yes... yes, I see... thanks have a nice day!" She put the phone away. "Well, I checked out your story and could determine that your claim is valid."
"That's what I said, right?" Nandus sighed. "Well then, can we see Makoto?"
"I will prepare a transit line... but remember to disguise yourself when on the mortal plane. Please, step on the pedestal..." She gestured at a small, circular pedestal standing next to her desk.
Nandus and Ami obeyed and stepped on. While she was doing that, Ami was able to catch a glimpse of the next room... it looked like a greenhouse, but the plants growing inside made it almost seem like a jungle.
"Where will this thing take us?" Nandus asked.
"Your destination is the rural village of Cropville. Makoto is there to inspect the farmers' handling of her newest creation, a vegetable that can be harvested the whole year long."
Ami sweatdropped. "That's what she's doing nowadays?"
"Don't let yourself get fooled," Nandus smirked. "Nothing is more interesting than a goddesses field work."
"I have to inform you that all kinds of food and beverages are forbidden while using the Alveranian Transit System," Diana said. "Also make sure not to lean forward when traveling down to the mortal plane."
"Yes, yes, we know all that," Nandus sighed. "Can't you just get on with it?"
"Very well then... have a nice day... and don't forget to choose your form of disguise while being transferred."
"Don't worry, I'll choose a fitting disguise for you as well," Nandus told Ami, who felt a bit uneasy.
"Ready?" Diana asked and pressed a few buttons on her desk. Next, she grabbed a huge lever next to her telephone. "Alveranian Transit System... ACTIVATE!" And when she pulled the lever, a strange feeling ran through Ami's body. It was as if she was falling down a very long shaft, but part of her upper body hadn't begun to fall.
The whole room around her faded away... and another scenery faded in.
Ami shook herself. "That... felt weird..." she said.
Then she blinked. She was wrong, she wanted to say those words, but instead, she had heard something else... like the chirp of a little bird. And when she looked down, she saw that she was indeed a small bird with blue feathers, who was sitting on the branches of a big tree.
She heard a soft chirping next to her and turned around her head. She saw another bird sitting there, this one with white feathers. In her mind, the chirping turned into words.
"I told you I would take care of your disguise when we're on the mortal plane," Nandus said, and even though he had a beak, Ami was sure to see a smirk on his face.
Ami experimentally moved her wings. "This... is certainly something else," she said. "I've never transformed into an animal before..."
"Oh, you'll learn to love it," Nandus said.
"Are the two of you done with chirping?" another voice next to them spoke up. "Because I'd really like to say hello to Ami... it doesn't happen every day that we get a visitor from the past."
"I recognize that voice," Ami said and looked around. "Makoto?"
"Over here, silly!" her friend chuckled. Ami looked to where the voice came from, but saw only the tree. "Makoto, I can't see you! Are you hiding among the leaves?"
Both Nandus and Makoto chuckled. "Ami... Makoto IS the tree," the white bird finally said.
Ami was so surprised that she nearly fell of the branch she was perched upon. "Makoto... you're a tree?"
"Why not?" Makoto seemed amused. "I'm a goddess, you know? I can look how I want to. And a tree really is one of the best disguises... nobody expects that somebody might be listening if all they can see is a tree. And it's a great feeling, too! The wind in your branches... the rich soil around your roots... and the little animal scampering around your branches... it's fantastic!"
"Um, well, if you say so... Say... what are you doing here?"
"See those farmers?" Makoto asked. Only now did Ami notice that the tree Makoto had turned into was standing next to a huge field of vegetables. In the distance, she could see a few farmhouses. A couple of men in rural clothes were standing next to the field.
"Just a month ago, I came up with a new sort of vegetable," Makoto explained.
"Diana already told us, it's a vegetable that can be harvested the whole year, right?"
"Right," Makoto nodded. "But I can only be sure that it really works out as I have imagined by testing. That's why I allowed one of these farmers to find the seeds in his garden. And now that they are fully grown, I came here to see if it was a success or not."
Then they watched and listened as one of the farmers, a big man who already had a gray beard, but who seemed still pretty fit for his age, grabbed one of the green leaves that came out of the ground and pulled.
The vegetable that came out looked similar to a carrot, but it was striped red and white.
The farmer smiled as he showed the vegetable to his friends. "It's a success! Now we can eat these the whole year, even in winter."
The other men gave him their congratulations, patted his back and shook his hands. Everything seemed fine until another farmer spoke up: "Well... that still doesn't help when the Orcs invade. I don't think these new vegetables of yours will survive being trampled by their pillaging hordes..."
The others became very quiet after hearing that. "You're right..." the other farmer sighed. "If the Orcs attack, there's not much we can do but pray..."
"Yes, maybe Makoto will hear us and make sure that our crops are spared this time around..." a stable hand murmured.
"Makoto isn't the goddess we should pray to in such a case," a tall youngster grumbled. "Haruka is the Goddess of War! She will protect us."
"My boy, do you really think Haruka would bother with us poor country people?" the first farmer sighed. "If anything, the knights that are fighting in her name will protect the big cities. Remember the last time the Orcs decided to attack our kingdom? All of the country villages were evacuated, ours included. The king assured us that we'd be safe in the capital, and he was right... but after we returned back home, what did we find? Trampled fields, destroyed crops, slaughtered animals and burnt houses. I'm telling you, there's not much we can do..."
"I'm telling you, I will do something!" the young man shouted. "I won't watch how the Orcs ruin our hard work! I will go to Gareth and become a Warrior Monk, and then I will tell the knights to attack the Orcs before they reach our villages."
"Keep on dreaming, boy..." a few men around him muttered before they turned around and left.
"I'll drive them out of our kingdom! You'll see!" the youngster snarled.
The old farmer patted his head. "Steve, you are speaking nonsense! What do you know about being a warrior? Stay here and do your job, that's far more important than dreaming silly dreams of knights and temples..."
In the end, the boy called Steve was the only one left behind. "You'll see..." he murmured. "You'll all see..."
"I feel sorry for him," Ami chirped. "But is it true? Will the villages really be pillaged?"
"The Orcs have always been the biggest threat to the Middle Kingdom," Nandus frowned. "They are a race of brutal barbarians, but they are more intelligent than most of the humans want to believe, and there are so many of them..."
"Unfortunately, they were partly right," Makoto said. "As the Goddess of Forests and Crops, there's not much I can do. I have to believe in Haruka's abilities as the Goddess of Battle..."
"We have to depend on Haruka?" Ami blinked. "Okay, that's it... we're doomed!"
"Ami, that's not funny," Makoto chuckled. Ami had never heard a tree chuckle before, but this day was full of strange events.
"Oh well, at least my experiment was a success," Makoto finally said. "I guess we can head back... would you like a cup of tea in my arboretum before you go? I grow the tea plants myself."
"I'd like to have a cup," Ami smiled. "And I can't wait to find out how much your tea has improved over all those centuries... but then again, there wasn't much to improve, was there?"
"Oh, stop that..." Makoto chuckled. "Or I'll be the first blushing tree in Aurius."
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(Posted Thu, 22 May 2008 22:20)
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