The Adventures of the SOL

 The town of Lizerton was flashing red and green.  Thanksgiving had passed and now Christmas was on its way.  The town was decorated and the snow began to fall.  Some enchanters of the town put up spells to make the air and snow warmer.  Winter had fallen, December had nearly begun and the air was full of Christmas in the waiting.

 But there was something else in the air too.  Something Rei the psychic couldn’t quite put her finger on.

 "Have you done everything you were suppose to for the ball?" Mina asked, checking a few things on her clipboard.

 "Yes, I got the dress, I made the invitations and I prepped the ballroom," Rei said, leaning on a chair and frowning.

 "Well, what about gifts?" Mina asked.

 "I didn’t forget," Rei grinned, "You just didn’t know about it."

 Mina knew what that meant and didn’t give Rei the satisfaction of knowing that she was curious.  Mina went over Rei’s clipboard full of her daily duties.

 "You’ve done everything on the list," Mina told her, then muttered, "For once.  Normally I'd have to chase you down to get anything done."

 "I feel like I’m forgetting something though," Rei said with a scowl, "Like there’s something I should remember or know about."

 Mina was quiet for a moment.  "When did you buy the presents?  I thought you were here the whole time."

 Rei grinned.  "See for yourself.  Have you been in the lounge for a while?"

 "No..." Mina said, giving Rei a suspicious glance.  They made their way to the spacious lounge where there was a huge tree in the corner.

 "Oh wow," Mina said and saw the presents under it.  She began checking labels.  "Yep.  Here’s Lita’s and Amy’s and Hotaru’s and mine and... Rei, there’s one for Charlie."

 Rei turned away, not wanting Mina to see the emotion on her face.  "Well, you know, in case he comes back."

 Mina nodded and began shaking the present that was labeled to her.  Rei snatched it away with a frown.  "What?!" Mina asked.

 "That’s not healthy for presents.  You never know when they’re breakable," Rei told her and Mina shrugged again.

 Serena walked into the room.  "Oh wow, a Christmas Tree!  Wow, how pretty!  When did this get here Rei?  I don’t remember this being here!"

 "Calm down French-fry," Rei smiled, "Hey Serena, it feels like I’m forgetting something.  I’ve gotten all the presents and everything like that, but something is still missing..."

 "I dunno," Serena shrugged, "Did you get mistletoe?  Did you clean the chimney?  Have you done your winter shopping?"

 "Yes, yes, and yes," Rei said distractedly, "I’d eat my shirt if I forgot something like that but there's something on the edge of my mind..."

 "I dunno, but I’m sure it’ll come to you," Serena said, and walked away.  Before she was too far, Rei heard her thinking.  What if she was talking about my birthday?  But she wouldn’t forget!  Hmm, I’m hungry...

 "Her--" Rei frowned, "Mina, when is Serena’s birthday?"

 "December 4th," Mina was writing something down on her clipboard casually, "Why--?"

 They both looked at each other.  "December 4th?!!"

 "But that’s," Rei counted the days on her fingers, "Two days from now.  And I haven’t even gotten her a present or anything like that."

 "Well, she never told you, and I only knew about it because she mentioned it to me a long time ago," Mina said, "What a mess.  We have to get rid of all the Christmas stuff and go birthday."

 "But, she’d know we were, and aren’t birthdays suppose to be a surprise?" Rei asked Mina.

 "Uh, in Atchoo, we don’t exactly--"

 "Wha--?" Rei put her hands on her hips, "You mean to tell me that you guys have different kinds of parties down there?"

 Mina paused, then blurted, "Why would you have a birthday party at all??"

 Rei blinked.  "Well, because.  That was the day you were born.  That was the day you were... Well just the day you were!  It’s a way of celebrating that she’s alive."

 "But-- we-- I mean--"

 "Atchoo is a weird place," Rei shook her head.

 "Bless you," Rais said, poking his head around the doorway, "Now what are you two talking about?"

 "Serena’s birthday," Rei said absently, "Anyway--"

 "Oh cool, what are we going to do as a ceremony?" Rais interrupted.

 "Ceremony?!" Rei sighed, "Does everyone have a different tradition?  How many different ways can you celebrate a birthday??!!"

 "You don’t," Mina said.

 "You test them," Rais said.

 Lita and Hotaru walked in chatting.  "Hey, how do you two celebrate birthdays?" Rei asked them and they stopped and thought.

 "Of course, you leave them alone in the forest for the day," Lita cried, glad to be on a soap box for even the smallest amount of time.

 "No, no," Hotaru shoved her away, "You give them presents that will come in handy for the next year and plan it."

 "Why can’t we just give her a party?" Rei asked.

 "A party?!" everyone gave each other a strange look, "Why?  How weird.  A party, who would go to the trouble of having a party every year?"

 "Now, for the ceremony, we can have her spar and maybe get her a new scepter," Rais began, but Hotaru jumped in.

 "How will that help her in the future?" Hotaru growled, "She’ll be fifteen so she’ll need fifteen presents, and--"

 "No, what she needs is time alone in the forest to consider life," Lita folded her arms as though it was final.

 "No, we need to decorate the castle and give her presents," Mina said, looking confused.

 They all started to argue back and forth.  Rei looked from each of them and shouted, "NOW HANG ON ONE DARN MINUTE!"

 Everyone stopped and looked at her.

 "You seriously don’t do parties?"

 The fighting started all over again.  Amy walked in and blinked.  "Hey-- Um, excuse me-- COULD EVERYONE BE QUIET FOR A MINUTE?!"

 Everyone looked at her.

 "What is all this about?" she asked.

 "Serena’s birthday is about to come up, and we were trying to decide how we should celebrate it," Mina told her, frowning at her companions.

 "You celebrate birthdays here?" Amy asked.

 After a long debate, and Rei having to issue her Princessly powers, they decided to give her a surprise party.  The only problem with that was that they only had two days to plan.  Rei set up the private party room for a surprise party. She had to put a protection spell around it so Serena couldn’t get in.

 Then there were gifts.  Serena was surprisingly hard to shop for.  Lita settle for a pink teddy bear.  Hotaru figured that a pink mirror would work.  Mina, who had known Serena longer than anyone, got her a pretty pink dress.  Rais had to have help from the girls, but eventually he settled on a dagger with a pink handle.  Amy took an empty Dragon stone, which was pink, and had it cup and wrapped into a necklace.  Lita made Serena a pink animal print skirt.

 It was Rei who wanted to get the perfect gift.  She searched high and low for something that would seem more than just a present.

 She looked through every store in Lizerton, through dresses, toys, mirrors, food.  Still she couldn't find the perfect gift.  Rei made her way, looking through each booth.  She would find something Serena would like, but that just wasn’t special enough.  But what could really mean something to Serena?

 She analyzed Serena.  Serena wasn’t hard to please.  On the contrary, she was content with a pink doughnut.  Serena kept things simple and liked simple things.  It was hard for the more complicated Princess Rei to understand.  She racked her brains to figure out something that would seem important to Serena.

 It was the trip to the weapons shop that gave her the idea.  She was looking and spotted a leather bound book with a weird sun with a fingernail moon on the inside, when she saw it.  It was pink, which is always a good thing with Serena.

 It was a scepter.  It was golden and pink, with a little bit of red inside of a clear case.  It was tall and had a small red gem in the middle.  Serena’s previous wand was pink, but it was too simple.  It was a crystal star with a round handle.  It was like some sort of gaudy Halloween prop.

 Rei stared at it and checked the price.  Nothing she couldn’t afford, but it was expensive, meaning it was powerful.  She read a tag.

 "Star Scepter.  Uses its power from the most pure source, the moon."

 "Hmm," Rei muttered thoughtfully.  Would Serena be able to handle  a weapon of such power?  It was pretty evident this was no child's toy.

 Of course, with Serena, that was hard to tell.  She avoided fighting because she partially a pacifist but that didn't mean she couldn't fight and fight well.  Rei called over the clerk.

 "Morning Miss Rei," the man said, "How can I help you?"

 "Can I examine this scepter?" Rei asked politely.  The man opened the casing and handed the scepter to Rei.

 "You know, Miss Rei," he said, as she studied it, "You should consider getting a weapon yourself."

 "I will when I see what suits me," Rei replied.

 "This is a very powerful specimen," the man said, "It’s power comes from the moon. It takes some practice to handle but it’s surprisingly easy to learn to use."

 "Really?" Rei asked, and turned it over in her hands.

 "It sometimes does strange things around darker energy," the man warned her, "It's been known to attack on it's own accord."

 "Well, I don’t think that--" Rei started, but suddenly the wand went off in her hands.  It fried the back area of the shop.  Rei saw a melted sword among the new rubble.

 "Er, I’ll pay for the scepter and leave," Rei said with a smile.

 "And everything else I hope," the man said, taking the wand from her in irritation.

 "Um," Rei put her hands forward and restored all but two swords.  She paid for them and saved herself too much trouble.

 Rei had a heck of time getting the scepter home.  It reacted strangely around Rei and she had a pretty good idea why.  Incidentally, Rei had a bit of dark energy to her.  It came with being a psychic for some reason.  Lucky for her, Serena’s energy was pure and she wouldn’t have these problems.

 Rei got it home and managed to wrap it in a long box after blasting three other boxes into smithereens.

 "That takes care of that," Rei said happily.

 She was just leaving the room when the present exploded and the scepter landed on the ground with a clatter.

 Rei smacked her forehead.  "I hate being slightly evil."

 In the end, Rei had Mina wrap it and it didn’t react to Rei after that.  The days flew by and it was the day of the party.  The only problem now was keeping Serena out of the castle.

 It was decided that Mina should take her out and make sure she doesn’t come back.   The day would now be spent in the party room.  There was a small kitchen in the room and Rei took charge with baking a cake.  Rei had Lita put up some decorations.

 Everything was going well until Rei’s cake wouldn’t rise.

 "Did you put in all the ingredients?" Amy asked, looking in at the cake.  Rei was next to her and they were trying to figure out what had happened.

 "I think so," Rei said.

 "What about yeast?" Amy asked suspiciously.

  Rei blinked and realized that she had forgotten.  She turned to Amy and with a sheepish shrug said, "I wouldn’t want her to get an infection."

 Amy rolled her eyes and washed the dishes.

 Rei had Hotaru fix the cake after her first one while she swept up.  She was mopping when Lita came over with a box of decorations.

 "Careful," Rei said, "The floor’s..."  Lita tripped and slid across the floor, running into the far wall.  She ended up with a box on her head and happy birthdays all around her.  "...a little wet..." Rei finished and sighed.  Lita started to gather up the decorations, when Amy came around with a stack of dishes.  She didn’t see Lita and tripped right over her, crashing to the floor.  Rei barely had time to make sure she didn’t fall and mentally lifted the plates back into the air.

 "Be more careful guys," Rei scolded, "We only have the rest of the day to do this and that isn’t very long."

 She turned around continued mopping.  As soon as she turned her back she heard a huge crash.  She turned around and saw Amy laying on the ground sheepishly and Sady sitting innocently by her feet.

 "This will take awhile," Rei sighed.
 

 Hotaru’s cake looked perfect but it tasted awful.

 "What did you do?" Rei gagged as she smacked the taste out of her mouth.  She grabbed a glass of water and chugged it down.

 "Nothing!" Hotaru protested, "Well... except I kind of couldn't find vegetable oil so I used vinegar instead."

 They all looked at each other and spit out the cake.

 They then decided that Amy should give the cake a shot.  Lita took over dishes and the table for awhile while Rei worked on decorations.  Hotaru picked up with the cleaning.

 Amy eventually came out with the new cake.  But it looked terrible.  "Taste’s good though," Rei said, sampling it.

 It was lopsided and the icing seemed wrong.

 "Well, I guess we should do it again," Amy shrugged.  "I always was for taste not appearance."
 So Lita took over, Hotaru decorated, Rei did dishes and Amy cleaned.

 Rei was cleaning the last dish when she heard a squawk form the party room.  Then a crash.  She ran in to find Amy and Hotaru stacked on top of each other and most of the decorations were down, not to mention the table was a wreck.  Hotaru had tried to stand on a chair and put up a decoration, but fell on Amy, who then fell on the table.  The results were nerve racking.

 To make matters worse, they heard Mina’s voice say, "Are you sure you want to see them?  They might be busy Serena."

 "Why are you talking so loud?  I just wanna ask em something."

 "She’s coming!" Rei hissed and Amy ran for the door.

 "There you--" Serena started but Amy pushed her out of the room as she placed one foot through.

 "Hey I wanted to show you something Serena," Amy said, "Why don't you come with me?"  She got a death grip around Serena's arm and drug her away from the door.

 "Oh okay," Serena said as her voice faded.

 Mina walked in and they all sighed in relief.

 Lita looked at the door, then sniffed the air.  Smoke was slowly filling the room.  "Eek!  The cake!" Lita cried and opened the oven to reveal a burnt cake.

 They all groaned.  "Can you bake Mina?"

 "I can try," she said, and manned the oven.  Lita took back her decorating job, Hotaru did the dishes and reset the table and Rei finished up the cleaning.

 It took a little while but Mina’s cake was done.  They sampled it and decided that it looked good and tasted good.  Mina proudly carried it to the table, but on her way she stepped on a wet cloth.  She began to stumble and the cake went up into the air.  Everyone cringed as it landed with a splat on the floor.

 "That’s the fourth cake!" Rei cried.

 "I’m not making another," Mina said stubbornly.  Lita nodded and sampled some of the icing on Mina's head.

 Just then, Rais walked in.  "Hey, how’s it going?  Need help?"

 The girls all looked at each other with wide evil grins.  Lita turned to Rais and said quite innocently, "How do you feel about baking?"

 "But--"

 "No buts Rais, you're the only one left."

 "But as a warrior--"

 "Just put on the apron and follow the directions."

 "It’s not dignified!"

 "Rais..."

 "Where are the eggs?"

 Rais sighed as he beat cake batter.  This was not the kind of thing he had been taught to do as a mercenary or as a swordsman.

 Meanwhile, Rei, Lita, Hotaru and Mina cleaned up the mess with the cake.  They threw the cake away and Mina watched it sadly.

 "It’s okay," Rei patted her shoulder comfortingly, "There will be other birthdays."

 "No there won’t!" Rais called form the kitchen, "Um, I can’t find the vegetable oil, can I just use vinegar?"

 "NO!"

 "Okay, okay, yeesh," he said and rummaged through the kitchen.  The girls rearranged the table and fixed up the decorations.

 They waited patiently for Rais to finish with the cake by sitting down and waiting.

 "Wait!" Mina looked closely at the table, which was sat with plates and forks and knives but nothing else. "Did you guys remember ice cream?"

 "No," Rei said.

 "Chips?"

 "Uh uh," Lita shook her head.

 "Drinks?"

 "Knew we forgot something," Hotaru said.

 "How can we have a party without refreshments??" Mina exclaimed, "Someone has to go buy some food."

 "Can I go?" Rais asked from the kitchen hopefully.

 "Keep baking, boy," Lita called back.  They heard him sigh and turn the beater back on.  Everyone else looked at each other.

 "I’ll go," Hotaru sighed, standing up, "Anything to escape for a minute."

 Hotaru walked through the market, picking up various items.  Some she had found in the castle’s kitchen, but there were a few things she still needed.

 She walked boredly through the isles.  She got ice-cream here and some chips there, and was almost ready to leave when she heard Serena’s voice.

 "Hey, let’s get some candy!"

 Hotaru peeked around the corner and saw Serena staring back at her.

 "Hey, was that Hotaru??  Hey, ‘Taru!" Serena called.  Hotaru panicked and ran down the isle.

 "I don’t think it was," Amy’s voice said, quickly, "Let’s go somewhere else if we want candy.  There's a shop for that."

 "Oh, okay," Serena said reluctantly.

 Hotaru sighed and waited till she was sure they were gone.  She checked out and charged it to the castle.  She finished up and headed towards the castle.

 She was on her way back when the bag with the ice cream in it broke, spilling ice cream everywhere.  Hotaru groaned and walked back to the market.  She bought more ice cream and headed back again.  After awhile her arms got tired of holding the bags and she stopped and sat them down to stretch.  She rubbed her hands.  She looked up and saw a surprised Amy peeking around the corner.  Amy waved Hotaru to the side and Hotaru jumped to one side hiding in the bushes.

 She heard them walk by.

 "Look, someone left their groceries," Serena paused, looking at the grocery bags.  Amy grabbed her arm and tried to pull her forward.

 "They’ll probably be back for them Serena," Amy said hastily.

 "Look ice cream!" Serena said, ignoring Amy and digging through the bags. "Strawberry, my favorite..."

 "Leave em alone," Amy snapped and her voice started to move away, "That’s not nice."

 "But they just left it there!" Serena exclaimed, "Just one carton?  It’s probably melted anyway."

 "No."

 "Please?"

 "No."

 "Aw, Amy..."

 Then their voices were gone.  Hotaru stomped back into the path with more aggravation than she could muster.  She stomped back into the castle.  She was so mad she tripped on the stairs, but luckily didn’t spill.  She ran into the room and slammed the door behind her.  She sat the groceries down a bit harder than she should have.

 "What’s wrong with you?" Rei asked.

 "Well, I--" Hotaru stopped and sniffed the air.  "Hmmm.... Is that the cake?"  She sniffed again and smiled.

 "Hm?  Oh, I don’t know.  I’ve been here so long I haven’t been able to smell it," Rei shrugged, taking one of the bags and walking towards the table.

 "How could you not?" Hotaru felt her mouth water, "I’ll just go put the groceries up." She ran into the kitchen.

 "Oh, Hotaru?" Mina called her back.

 "What?" she said grumpily.

 "Won’t you need the groceries?" Mina asked her and Hotaru looked at the groceries, still sitting at the door.

 "Oh, yeah," Hotaru said and brought the bags into the kitchen.

 Inside, Rais was just icing the best looking cake Hotaru had ever seen.  She smelled deeply.  The cake looked perfect.

 "There, almost done," Rais said.

 "I’ll say," Hotaru said, and reached sneakily for a piece.  Rais frowned and swatted her hand with a wooden spoon.

 "Not till the party," Rais said, pulling the cake away, "I worked way to hard on this to have you eat it now."

 "Aw come on..."

 "No, you have to wait."  With that he carried the cake out to the table without incident.  They admired his handiwork.

 "I think we’re ready," Rei said.

 Just then they heard Amy yelling at Serena.

 "Wait, what if they don't want to see you yet?" Amy was asking.

 "Yes we do!" Rei called and ran to turn the lights off.  They all hid and waited until the door creaked open.

 "Guys?"

 "SURPRISE!!!  Happy Birthday, Serena!"

 Serena screamed.  She fell back into Amy and took a moment to catch her breath.  Finally she broke into a smile.  "I thought you guys forgot!  Wow, look at all the decorations.  But why would you have a party for a birthday?"

 "I know, isn’t that weird?" Mina said, but Rei elbowed her.

 "I am not going through that again," Rei growled.

 Serena opened all of her presents.  She loved every one of them.  Especially dagger and the Teddy.  Rei gave her  the present she had gotten last.

 "Here," Rei said, handing it to her, "I looked all over for it."

 Serena looked at Rei suspiciously.  She pulled the bow and the package exploded.  The decorations were fried and the cake was torched.  Everyone but Serena groaned and Rei just sat down.

 "Oh wow!  What a cool scepter Rei!!" Serena said, ignoring the fact that she was now covered in soot.

 "Glad you like it," Rei sighed.

 "You know what this means don't you?" Serena asked her.

 "No..."

 "A hug," Serena said and went after Rei with arms wide open.

 "What?  No!!"  Rei ran away shoving Serena back and the scout chased after her.  Everyone else laughed.

 "After all that work..." Lita sighed.

 "Serena seems happy," Amy shrugged, "So I guess it was worth it."  She watched the two girls run back and forth.

 "Really, did she have to explode my cake?" Rais sighed looking at the ground miserably.  "I worked very hard on that stupid, ugly pink cake, embarrassing myself."

"I thought it tasted great," Hotaru said distantly, watching Rei threaten to send an energy blast at Serena if she didn’t leave her alone.

 "Did you eat the cake?" they asked her and she quickly shook her head.

 "Well.... Maybe a piece.  But it was from the back, no one would have even noticed it was there."

 "Hotaru..."

 They all rubbed their temples or frowned.  Just then Serena stopped chasing Rei.  "Wow, these decorations really suck.  Why don’t we pep it up a bit?"

 They all turned on her.  Mina grabbed a long ribbon and they tackled her.  After tying her up, she said, "What did I say?"

 No one answered.  Rais just stuck a bow over her mouth.

 They left the room and Rei stayed.

 "Happy birthday French-fry."

 Serena tried to call out to her as Rei walked out of the room.

Dedicated to Nicole or "Serena Hall" for being born on December 4th, 1986.  Happy birthday Serena!
 

Yay! Happy birthday! w00t! :) Chapter 10