THE LEGEND OF THE MOON
 By: Aphrael
  aphrael@edsamail.com.ph
   Rating: G

Hi, guys! Hope you're aren't bored by the prologue. Hope you'll 
still read the succeeding chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailormoon or any of its characters... not 
in this life, time or space. This story is inspired by David 
Eddings. He's the best! You might notice some similarities between 
my fic and his work. This storyline is not so original. Sorry about 
that. There are some differences, of course. I know I couldn't and 
wouldn't ever compare with the master's work. 

Hope you'll stick around 'til the end.

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	It was in the Age of the Silver Millenium when the hordes of
Beryl of the Dark Kingdom attacked the kingdom of the moon and 
spread in their wake darkness and destruction. The moon people fled 
in fear. They have always lived in peace, and war is unknown to 
them. 
	The Wise Men of the Light have always been advisers to the 
Queen. There are seven of them, namely Xenon the Seer, Karef the 
Chief of the Royal Knights, Amiel the Healer, Veran the Chief of 
Internal Government, Sorex the Chief of External Affairs, Lexia the 
Mystic, and Cyrix the Leader of the Wise Men of the Light. The Wise 
Men were at loss of words. The attack of the Dark Kingdom is so 
unexpected and the kingdom's military is unequipped and untrained 
for war. It was then that they remembered Xenon's prediction upon 
Princess Serena's birth. Xenon saw that Princess Serena is the 
Chosen and will liberate the Moon Kingdom from Darkness.
	It was then that the Wise Men of the Light decided that it 
is best for the Queen to give her newborn child to Luna, the nurse. 
Princess Serena's birth is still yet unannounced, thus the Dark 
Kingdom does not know of her identity. That night, Luna and the 
child sneaked away from the palace for the Dark Kingdom's army is 
drawing near. She took the child and fled to the farthest edge of 
the kingdom with the mission to protect and care for the child until 
it's time for her to fulfill her destiny.
	Meanwhile, the Wise Men of the Light along with the Queen 
fled to the Cave of the Stars. Not one moonite other than the Wise 
Men may look upon the Cave of the Stars and retain his eyesight, 
thus they put the Queen in deep slumber so she wouldn't be blinded 
by the Stars' Light. It's the only place that the Dark Kingdom could 
not and would not ever enter. They could not bring Princess Serena 
in here for she was still too young and did not possess enough 
strength to wield the power of the Imperium Crystal, and without the 
crystal she would not survive the intensity of the Stars' light. The 
Wise Men cannot put Princess Serena to sleep because a person will 
not age in the Wise Men's sleep; he would retain his youth he 
possessed the day he went to sleep until the day that he wakes up.  
Princess Serena must grow up if she is to save them from the Dark 
Kingdom. She cannot save them if she remains an infant.
	Darkness cannot prevail in the Cave of the Stars. It is also 
where the Light Portal is situated. When Xenon looked into Princess 
Serenity's future, he saw that the Terran Prince would come through 
the Light Portal. He would arm himself with the Holy Armor and will 
bear the strength of the Ages, a strength that is greater than any 
man has ever seen before, a strength stronger than a hundred men put 
together... a strength that will destroy the Dark Kingdom. When he 
comes, the Wise Men will be there to guide him in his task to save 
the Moonites, and to be united with the Moon Princess. And so the 
Wise Men waited beside the portal for the coming of the Terran 
Prince. They waited and waited...

			- From the Chronicles of Moonite History

------------
	"I'm here!"
	"Oh, it's you Rena," a dark haired lady said. "So, did you 
bring the flowers to Sir Voltrex's place? Child, we need money..."
	"Oh yes, Luna! For the first time, I didn't ruin the flowers 
on the way there. Can you believe it?"
	"Um, Rena? What did Sir Voltrex told you when you delivered 
the flowers?"
	"Nothing in particular. He just took the flowers and gave me 
the money. Why do you ask?" Serena asked.
	Luna breathed out a sigh of relief. "Oh, nothing." She spent 
the last eighteen years raising Serena and the girl is no easy 
child. She's clumsy and always got into trouble. She always ruined 
the flowers whenever she delivers them. Luna needed a way to bring 
money to feed them and growing roses is the only job that she knew, 
aside from taking care of children. But if Luna took a nursing job 
for one of the rich families in Craters Hill, a village at the edge 
of the kingdom, it would be a dead give away for Queen Beryl's 
minions. In the end, Luna and Serena had to live on what they make 
in selling roses. Sir Voltrex is a former knight who was a regular 
customer of Serena and Luna. Also, lately, he's taken a fancy to 
Serena, and Luna thinks that any moment now he's going to propose to 
her. And Luna doesn't know what to do to prevent that from 
happening. 'If only that Prince would come soon, my problems would 
be over...'
	"Rena, would you please take care of watering the roses? 
I'll have to go to the market," Luna asked Serena.
	Rena gave Luna a smile. "Sure, Luna."
	After Luna left, Rena went out to the backyard to water the 
plants. Rena had always loved roses. Every night she dreamt of a man 
with raven black hair, eyes the color of the deep end of the 
ocean... eyes you could drown into... eyes that changes according to 
the man's mood... from blue gray of a stormy night... to the light 
blue of a summer day... and he smelled of roses... he always smelled 
of roses. She always dreamed of the same thing, he'd come and take 
her in his magnificent horse.
	Rena always knew that she's not meant for a life of growing 
roses. But for what kind of life, she doesn't know. All she knew was 
that the man in her dreams will come... and when he comes, he'll 
change her life completely. Serena remembered her dream. 'Oh, when 
will you come and get me... when will you come... when...'

***********

	"Ouch! Stop doing that!" Darien yelled as the weird looking 
old man,  with a very long white beard and looked very much like 
Merlin of the Knights of the Round Table poked him in the face.
	"You're the Terran Prince with the strength of the Ages?! 
Boy, are we in deep trouble! You don't look that strong to me," the 
old man said incredulously.
	"Xenon, you fool! His eyes don't look like the deep end of 
the ocean to me. It looks more like the color of cheap imitation 
sapphires they sell in the village to me," said a woman wearing a 
costume that would put Madame Lorelei to shame.
	"Lexia, don't argue about colors with me. If the stars said 
that he will have eyes the color of the deep end of the ocean, his 
eye color is definitely the color of the deep end of the ocean," 
retorted an old man with a short beard and is wearing a robe with 
stars all over it.
	"Well, I still say that his eyes are the color of fake 
sapphires," Lexia shot back.
	"Stop fighting, you two!" shouted the old man who looks like 
Merlin.
	"Oh, Cyrix. You're no fun," complained Lexia.
	"Young man, if you are going to fight the Dark Kingdom, we 
have to muscle up that body of yours," said a man who looked very 
much like King Arthur.
	"Karef, we could start his training tomorrow. We should 
sharpen his sword skill," suggested a small and stout old man.
	"Good idea, Veran. Starting tomorrow, we'll..."
	Darien suddenly shouted, "Will somebody tell me where am 
I?!"
	Then suddenly all the talking stopped. Everybody is looking 
at Darien as if he said something weird and ridiculous.
	"Stop looking at me like that. Is this what my business 
competitors are doing now to sabotage me, huh? They bring me to 
Disneyland, for heaven's sake! Who's that lady sleeping over there?!
Snow White? You obviously got the wrong actress. Snow White is 
supposed to have ebony hair and not blond. And who are you supposed 
to be? The Seven Dwarves?!!!"
	"Xenon, why didn't you tell me that he'd be so weird, 
talkative, rude, insolent and worst of all, ignorant?!" Amiel 
demanded.
	"Hey, what do you mean 'ignorant'?! Ignorant! Nobody calls 
Darien Chiba ignorant! I graduated a summa cum laude and at the top 
10 of my class in Harvard!" Darien said indignantly.
	"Young man, treat the Queen with some respect and don't you 
dare insult me by saying that I'm a dwarf. Everybody know that 
dwarves are filthy miners," Lexia retorted angrily.
	"SILENCE!" Cyrix's voice boomed through the walls of the 
cave, "Young man, I realize that you are a bit confused here but we 
are running out of time. The moon people need your help. Dark 
Kingdom..."
	"Hold it. What do you mean, 'Moon people'? There is no life 
in the moon. If I learned anything from Science in school, I'm sure 
that there is no life in the moon."
	"That's what you idiotic terrans think," Lexia said smugly.
	"Lexia, behave," Cyrix interrupted Lexia's diatribe. "Let me 
explain, young man. Um, do you have a name that I can call you? I'm 
getting tired of calling you 'young man'."
	"Darien."
	"Okay, Darien. At the dawn of time, long before you terrans 
discovered fire, the moonites and terrans are friends and that they 
have the same technological level. But terrans' progress is much 
faster than the Moonite, people of the moon. Your technology has 
become much more advanced than ours. An ancestor of Queen Serenity 
saw that this will happen. She feared that terrans, with their 
technology will forget their friendship with the moonites, and will 
try to conquer the moon and the moonites will be defenseless when 
this happens. So, with the power of the Imperium Crystal, she 
shielded the moon and made you terrans believe that there exists no 
life in the moon. The moonites have lived in peace since then."
	"So, if that's the case, what's this talk about moon people 
being in danger?" Darien asked.
	"I'm getting there, Darien. Will you refrain from 
interrupting me and let me get this story finished?" Cyrix huffed 
angrily.
	"Okay, okay. I'm just asking a question. I'll shut up from 
now on," Darien said defensively.
	Cyrix continued, "You better. Where was I? Oh, yeah. The 
moonites lived in peace. At the birth of each heir to the throne, it 
is customary for the Seer of the Wise Men of the Light to look at 
the child's future. Normally, what the seer sees is just ordinary 
royal life. You know, few disputes among moonite nobility, a blond 
daughter, internal disorder, dispute between us Old Men of the 
Light, and so forth. But when the eighteenth heir to the Lunar 
Throne was born, Xenon, the Seer of the Wise Men of the Light saw 
that the child along with a terran prince will save the moonites 
from darkness. Obviously, since the moon is in peace, nobody 
believed Xenon. Six months later, Dark Kingdom attacked. The moonite 
army is ill-equipped for battle, so the Lunar Kingdom fell and now 
Dark Kingdom reigns over the land. We hid the Queen here in the Cave 
of the Stars, but we had to put her in deep sleep or else she would 
be blinded by the light of the Stars."
 	"If that is so, why am I not yet blind? And don't tell me 
you're blind because I won't believe you. You saw the color of my 
eyes."
	"Don't be stupid. We are not blind. No moonite other than 
the Wise Men of the Light may enter this cave and retain his 
eyesight. You are not affected because you are a terran," Amiel 
explained, pronouncing the word 'terran' with such disdain.
	Cyrix again continued. "Now, moonites live in terror. Our 
only hope is Xenon's prediction, the coming of the Terran Prince and 
the return of Princess Serenity. Xenon saw that the Terran Prince 
will come through that port. He will arm himself in the Holy Armor, 
find the princess, the four warriors and the four generals, and save 
the moon from the Dark Kingdom. We have waited for eighteen years 
for the prince to come out of that portal. And since you're the only 
who came out of the portal, we assume that you are the Terran 
Prince."
	"Don't be ridiculous. Me? A prince?" Darien said 
incredulously.
	"Since you are in doubt, and my brothers, Wise Men of the 
Light, obviously think that you are not strong enough to be the 
Terran Prince, we'll have to test your identity," said Cyrix.
	But apparently, Darien doesn't want the idea of a test. 
"Well, I'm sorry if your brothers or whatever you call them don't 
think that I'm strong enough to be this prince of yours, but I'm not 
going to submit myself to your test. I had enough of this 
ridiculousness. I have to go home. I have meetings to attend in the 
morning, papers to sign and a company to run. If you'll tell me how 
to go home, I'll leave right now."
	Veran interrupted. "Young man, the only way for you to get 
home is for somebody with genuine Lunar royal blood to use the 
Imperium Crystal and send you home. Otherwise, you're stuck in 
here," Veran smiled sweetly at Darien.
	Darien looked dumbfounded at the old man. "And to think that 
I thought you're a very sweet, jolly old man. You're like the rest 
of them. Now, since I can't go home, what is this test you're 
talking about, Cyrix?"
	Cyrix suddenly looked like a boy who got his favorite toy 
for Christmas. "Okay, then. See that sword on the wall, with a rose 
engraved on it? I want you to pick up that sword."
	"That big sword? Yes, I see it. But it looks too big for me 
to carry."
	"Boy, enough complaints. Just pick up the sword and bring it 
to me."
	"Okay, okay. Don't get so huffy. I'll get the sword."
	When Darien picked the sword, a strange feeling came over 
him. 'Must be my imagination.' Wordlessly, he went to Cyrix and 
tried to give him the sword. But Cyrix wouldn't want to even come 
close to the sword.
	"Hey Cyrix, I thought you want me to get you the sword. For 
all its size, it's actually light. I wonder what kind of metal this 
is made of. Here it is."
	"Darien, as much as I want to take the sword, only the 
Terran Prince may carry that sword. That's the Holy Sword. It's a 
part of the Holy Armor. Anybody else beside the Prince who tries to 
take the sword will turn to dust upon touching the sword. But if 
you'll excuse me, I'd rather not die today."
	Darien looked at his hand with horror. "What do you mean 
'turn to dust'?! You knew that if I am not this Prince, I'll die 
upon touching the sword and you didn't even warn me about it?!"
	"Darien, don't get all huffed up. Nothing happened."
	"B-but... but... How could you!?"
	"Now that we have taken care of your identity, we may 
proceed to business. Veran, Karef, Sorex, you stay here with the 
queen. The rest of you, you'll go with me and the prince to find the 
Holy Armor, the Generals, the warriors, and Princess Serena. Xenon, 
prepare some supplies for us to take on the journey. Amiel, get the 
horses ready. Hurry up, people! We have so much to do. We have to 
find the Generals, the warriors, the Holy Armor, and the Princess."
	"And how are we going to do that?" Darien asked Cyrix, 
interrupting him.
	"Darien, could you ask your questions on the road and not 
interrupt me?" Cyrix asked irritably.
	"No. I'm not going in a journey with people who look like 
they come out of a poorly made fantasy film without knowing what 
this journey entails."
	Cyrix gave up. "Okay, okay. I'll explain. Your Generals are 
descendants of the Royal Guards of the Terran Throne. There are four 
of them, Zoicite, Malachite, Jadeite and Nephrite. The first 
Generals were given a crystal necklace by the Queen Selena, an 
ancestor of the Queen Serenity. Once the crystal necklace is put on, 
it cannot be unlocked while the wearer is still living. And nobody 
aside the Generals may wear the necklace. Anybody else will die upon 
wearing the necklace. This necklace is passed on from generation to 
generation."
	"Cool."
	Cyrix continued, "A part of the four original crystals used 
to make the necklace is kept by the head of the Wise Men of the 
Moon, meaning me. The crystals in my possession will glow whenever 
we meet a descendant of the First Generals. It serves like a tracker 
for the Generals. The light on the crystal will get brighter if we 
get closer to each General and gets dimmer as we get farther away 
from them. On the other hand, the warriors or the Senshi as we call 
them has the sign of a particular planet they represent on their 
forehead. According to Xenon's prediction, we need to find the 
Senshis with the power of water, fire, love and beauty, and 
lightning and thunder. That would be Mercury, Venus, Mars, and 
Jupiter. I know exactly where the princess is, so there's no need to 
worry about finding her. The Holy Armor is in that wall where you 
found the Sword. Since Beryl's minions cannot enter the cave and 
nobody can touch the armor besides you, the Armor is safely hidden 
in this cave waiting for you to get it."
	"That's so unbelievable. Are you sure we're not in some Star 
Wars movie or something?"
	Cyrix was now very annoyed. "Now that I have explained how 
we'll find the Senshis and the Generals, let me get back to work and 
you go get that armor. Lexia, get Darien something more suitable to 
wear. He can't be seen around in that outfit. It will be a dead 
give-away that he's not a moonite and announce to Beryl that the 
prince have come. If she learns about you, Darien, she'll have you 
slain immediately. And we don't want that, do we?"
	Darien gulped. "No, we definitely don't want that."
	"Okay, so everything's been taken care of. Did I forget 
something?" Cyrix turned to Darien and told him so sweetly. "Uh, 
Darien, did I tell that you are to wed Princess Serena when we 
finally found her?" 
	"What?!" Darien's screams echoed throughout the cave.

---------------

	"Darien, would you please cut the moping around and talk to 
me?" Cyrix asked. They have reached the forest of the Nymphs near 
Craters Hill. Darien is still not speaking to him after he told him 
about his impending marriage to Princess Serena.
	Darien turned to Cyrix angrily, "Cyrix, I did not intend to 
get married in my world. I did not dodge hundreds, no... millions of 
marriage proposals, coming from every eligible female alive on earth 
just to get married on the moon! God, could you understand what 
you've just told me in the cave?! You want me to get married here... 
on the moon! And to a moonite princess! Can you hear that? The MOON! 
Can you understand how crazy that sounds to me?! No, you don't. 
Because if you do, you wouldn't even suggest a thing like that to 
ME! What kind of children we'll have?! A moonite, a terran, a dwarf, 
an ogre?! That old monster of a fortune teller back on earth?!" 
Darien cringed and shivered. "Worst of all, we might have a child 
like another Lexia or Amiel like them! Now, that really gives me the 
creeps."
	Lexia and Amiel turned their dagger eyes on Darien. Darien 
shivered.
	Cyrix let out a sigh. "Come on, Darien. How bad could it be? 
If Princess Serena looks anything like her mother, the Queen, she'd 
be very beautiful."
	Darien looked shocked. "You mean, you haven't seen her yet?"
	Cyrix answered, "No. I spent the last eighteen years of my 
life watching the Light Portal and waiting for your coming. And when 
Princess Serena is born, she's bald so I don't even know the color 
of her hair."
	"So, you really don't know what she looks like at this age. 
Now, I'm really, really scared."
	"How bad can it be? You'd marry her, rule the Kingdom, bear 
a few black haired, blue eyed brats... and if you want you could... 
Darien look out!" Cyrix screamed.

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What do you think? That bad? Send me emails, guys. Send me 
anything... flames (no matter how unflattering), comments (no matter 
how crude and how rude) and stuff (whatever that may be).
aphrael@edsamail.com.ph