The regal young woman enters the royal nursery, her attendants fluttering about her. The babe is fussing as always, concern twists Pholayj's beautiful face with worry. “Why won’t he stop crying?” she asks rhetorically. “What does he want?”
The finest doctors available from all over the planet have all assured her repeatedly, that the child was healthy and strong, lacking nothing. But in the year since his birth the boy has fussed almost constantly, he’s only calms a bit when he’s in her arms or while he nurses, and even then he‘s still restless.
The younger nurses, have tried vainly to reassure her with the standard answers, “He’s teething.” or “You spoil him too much always holding him.” And even, “Some babies are just fussy by nature.”
But the young mother is not comforted by these answers, she knows in her heart that her child wants something. She lifts him from his crib, he settles a little but remains fretful even feeling the familiar security of her arms about him. His strong little tail wraps about her upper arm tightly and he nuzzles impatiently at her breast till she opens her bodice. He latches onto her nipple, the sharp new little teeth nipping draws beads of blood and he starts to suckle the augmented mohter's milk. She winces at the pleasure pain and looks down at her first born son.
She strokes the black flames of his hair gently, “There, there love. Mother’s here.” His little black eyes glare angrily up at her. His brows are frowning down wrinkling above the bridge of his tiny nose. And she laughs a little, he looks so fierce, just like his father the crown prince, ready to conquer the universe.
She hums softly to her child, his eyes droop lulled by her gentle song, his frown softens and she cuddles him close, then she thinks of something.
The young princess commands quietly, “Send for Nana, maybe she’ll know what’s wrong.”
The baby has finished feeding by the time the princess’s old nurse totters in. She glares around at the younger attendants and then wobbles towards her erstwhile charge, the young mother and her child, saying bruskly, “Well, girl, was is it? Why did you disturb my napping, these old bones need their rest.”
Pholayj looks at her beloved nurse fondly then glances down at her infant with worry. “It’s the baby, he hasn’t stopped fussing since he was born and lately it’s gotten so much worse, now he’s cries whenever I leave him. Oh Nana, no one believes me when I try to explain. But I know he needs something. What is it that he wants?”
The old nurse looks down at the baby in the young woman’s arms. The child‘s face is twisted in a scowl and he moves restlessly even in sleep, though he’s cradled lovingly by his mother.
“Humph!! Silly child isn’t it obvious, just look at him. He’s still seeking.”
The princess looks down at her child’s face, even in sleep there’s a look of intense concentration on his face. The light of understanding dawns in the princess’ eyes.
One of the younger attendants scoffs, “That’s just an old wives tale!” The old woman whirls on the younger, “Do you deny the truebond exists?”
“N-no... but everyone knows....” Starts the younger maid.
“Knows what?” prompts the old nurse.
“Well...., that the birth seeking is just a myth!” Retorts the girl defensively.
“The seeking linkage,.. a myth? Then how do you explain our lord and lady’s bonding so early. They were drawn to each other so strongly that the princeling, who was barely a month old at the time, came to her side the very day of her birth.”
The old woman’s eyes cloud with the memory. “I was there! I saw it all! I had just delivered Pholayj and was settling her into her nest for the first time. When there was a sudden ruckus outside the villa window. The glass exploded inward, I shielded her from the flying shards with my body. Then a second infant floated through the opening. He flew straight to her hovered a moment and then settled next to her in the bedding.” The old woman smiles in remembrance, “They were so sweet looking, their tiny tails twined together as they both fell fast asleep.”
The old nurse scowls over at the other scolding, “The child was followed by the Royal Siblings and the king himself. And from that day forward my lady was the acknowledged crown princess just as her truemate is crown prince.”
The younger nurse backs down, the story of how the heir had claimed his future queen was already legendary.
The crown princess places her small son in his cradle and embraces her old nurse, with relief, “Thank you Nana, I knew you‘d be able to explain it.” The old woman wraps her arms around the girl, who is the daughter of her heart, if not her body.
Suddenly the infant princeling starts awake, his eyes lose their fierce scowl of concentration and a smile curves the babe’s lips for the first time. He stares intently into the sky, then waves his hands and kicks his little feet happily, as he floats upwards facing a specific direction.
The old nurse sees the child’s movement, “My lady look!”
The young queen gazes at her son as he levitates and orients towards a special section of sky then settles contentedly back into his circular nest. He smiles beatifically, grasping his tail with his little hands and sticks it into his mouth to suck at it contentedly. He settles easily back to sleep, in full satisfaction, fretful no longer.
The old nurse grins and pats Princess Pholayj's shoulder, “He’s finally found her!” Then she looks off in the skyward direction that the little prince is facing. “She’s just been born, somewhere out there in space that’s why it took so long, one day he will be drawn to find her. Just as his father was drawn to you.”
The young mother looks into the sky with a smile, wondering what her son Vegeta's truemate will look like. She has to be genetically compatible for the bond to be established but what alien strangeness will she hold if any?
Far, far away a newborn girl with a blue fuzzy halo is slipped into her mother’s arms for the first time. Two heads, lavender and blond, bend over their little daughter. The Babe's father asks his wife,"What shall we name her?" Her response is a single word, "Bulma." They gaze down at her in wonder. The babe smiles in her sleep, feeling the gentle comfort of their love, as well as the touch from another alien heart. Linking,binding and greeting her’s from across the galaxy, with a pregnant promise for their adventurous future.