Chapter One : Hope

This story is dedicated to Rie and Shirley! Love you guys )

I have been confined most of my life. I may only speak to certain people, and only travel to certain villages. However, this is typical in Dinh, the country where I live. In a sense, Dinh is a slave to the chart, the chart of zodiac.

There are many villages that have rules that you may only commerce with people of certain signs. Some villages only commerce with other fire signed people, maybe some just air signed. How it became this way? Many reasons perhaps. Larida, my village, is no different…

The land of Larida is breathtakingly beautiful. We have waterfalls, rivers, hot springs, many crystal bodies of water with plentiful trees and soft grass in between. I love my land, but it is so hard sometimes, to stay sane…to know I will live and die in this cell.

“She has a gentle soul,” a voice whispered.

“Yes she does!” I said as I pet the soft fur of my wolf friend, Gia. She was a beautiful wolf, with cloud colored fur accented with hints of smoke-gray, and eyes of jade.

The stars were out and as luminous as ever in the Twilight Forest; I can fully understand why they named it ‘twilight’… because that is when it is the most beautiful.

“Your dad is going to kill you if he finds out you are not in meditation!” Astrid said pointing her convicting finger right in my face.

“I know! But I can’t leave Gia alone! She is due to have pups any day now.” I said gently petting the side of Gia’s snout with a worrisome look in my eye.

Astrid let out a small grunt, and started to give me that ‘you’re crazy’ look.

“Jael, you will never learn will you?” she said shaking her head with a small smile.

“You’ve always deeply respected animals …And yet you break into laughter every time your dad scolds you for disgracing our people by acting silly! Don’t you have any respect for him?”

“Well…I do but…it is funny how he cares so much about how people perceive me” I said, thinking of all the things I needed to finish before I went to sleep.

My Father is our Queen’s right hand man, which means that I am to be perfect all the time out of respect for his high position. I love my Father a great deal, but it is so hard to live up to his unrealistic expectations, especially with my personality type.

“….Please don’t tell your mom that we were out here tonight, sometimes this is the only freedom I get, time to myself you know?” I said with a long face, lying down in the soft grass.

Astrid’s mother is the Queen of Larida, the Queen of our land. We have been together ever since we were born, because of our parents. She is intelligible and charming! And I have always envied her surreal beauty. She had our people’s tanned skin along with our amethyst colored eyes. Her figure was lean and delicate opposed to voluptuous, and she stood at an average height. Her hair is short to her chin and the color midnight blue. Astrid always wares the finest royal garments of our land which usually meant fine gowns of silk. She was the apple of every man’s eye in our land and beyond!

“Okay, I promise not to tell..” she said nonchalantly as she started to throw a whole pile of flower petals on my face.

“Pfft!! You hag!!” I said while spitting out all the petals that made their way into my mouth.

I quickly picked a flower from the ground, barley being able to hold back my laughter.

“Prince Odion …Ohh please marry me…Astrid of Larida…I am so lonely and desperate…” I said looking into the stars, holding the flower close to my chest.

“SHHH!!!!!!!! SOMEONE MIGHT HEAR YOU!” Astrid said laughing hard, pressing her hand against my mouth.

“Yeah so what if I am lonely and desperate? Before you know it, all these meetings with Prince Odion’s family will win me his heart..”

“Oh …last time you said that you wanted to win his BODY!”

“Did not!!”

“Did toooooo”

“SHHH!” I said abruptly, poking her in the stomach, sitting up very quickly.

I could faintly hear footsteps in the distance.

“Someone could spot me! I better be going Astrid”

“Oh yeah I almost forgot!” I sat on my knees in the grass, closed my eyes. With my index finger, I began to trace sparkling green lines, the air in front of me acting as my canvas. I then drew the character for flower in our native written language.

The two flowers that we picked were replaced in their original places.

The people of my land deeply respect nature, and all its virtues. I have learned the magic of restoration, so that I may heal all wounded nature around me. This skill makes me feel whole in some sense, it is who I am.

“Glad you remembered” Astrid said with a quirky smile.

“Can you put Gia back in her home, in the hollowed tree for me?” I asked, upon my feet.

“Sure, now go on!” She commanded me.

“Bye..” I winked at my best friend.

Quickly and carefully, I began to hurry back to my living quarters.

“I seems like I have been running forever…” I grumbled to myself.

“Finally..” I was so relieved to see the side of my home, especially the big green vine that I was about to climb up!

“Please Vine, be gracious and support my weight!” I asked, while touching the vine with my index finger.

The vine began to glow, just like I intended.

“Here it goes…” I began to climb the vine of our rectangular home, trying to reach my window. Our home was built of soft white stone, stone that is native to our land.

“Yes!!!” I silently squealed, congratulating myself for making it this far! I am quite good at this (because I have had a lot of practice!!!).

“Damn!” I cursed. My father was coming up the steps, on his way to see me. Hastily I sat on my floor, and jumped into meditation form, legs Indian style, and a white rose clasped in my hands.

“Jael!” He walked into the room, dressed sophisticatedly as usual. He was a tall man, tanned, and looked handsome as ever, despite his age. His long black hair was always in a loose braid, and various aqua colored strands mixed into the blackness. His face is decorated with a small goatee and finely chiseled facial features. One of the things that make our people stand out is our tribal tattoos we all have of two hieroglyphs on our cheek. The first glyph on his left cheek is of two flowing lines of water, and the second on his right cheek is two opposing vertical semi circles with a horizontal line connecting them. All of our people have these markings.

My eyes opened slowly, as if I was stress free, but inside I was a wreck!

“Father” I bowed my head, attempting to look convincing.

“How was your day?” I inquired. He sat right across from me, smiling.

“It went fairly well, we held a meeting with the land of Dalit’s Prince, Odion, and his family.”

“Is this about Astrid’s possible engagement perhaps?”

“You know I have no place to tell you this kind of information” He said sternly to me, cupping his chin with his hand.

“Well usually that doesn’t stop you…” I looked at him, yearning to know the information.

“Stop it! Stop it! You can’t fool me today…” he fussed at me shaking his head.

His eyes stopped, and focus right on me. It was like he could smell that I had done something bad, like a stinky skunk.

“Jael…” He began.

My heart started pounding like mad, and my eyes grew wide. If he found out that I skipped meditation, I would be in big trouble.

“Oh dear!” My father sniffed around.

HERE IT GOES…

“Jael! Bathe yourself at once! You smell like a barn!” Father sneered at me. How embarrassing!

In my head I was screaming ‘THANK GOODNESS!!’, yet angry at the same time.

“Okay Okay…You don’t have to be so mean about it you know…”

“Jael, You are like your mother, a true Piscean.” He brought me in close for a hug.

I smiled, because it was true.

“Goodnight” I gave my father a quick kiss on the cheek, and walked out of the room.

My Father is an Aquarian. Foreigners call our people pagans, I couldn’t disagree more. Pagans are without a god, and we are certainly not without. We worship Uranus and Neptune in Larida, because they govern the constellations of Aquarius and Pisces. In Larida, All of our people are either Aquarians or Pisceans. A long time ago, our village was a pure Piscean place. Then, the village ended up merging with a neighboring Aquarius village, and therefore made an agreement to only marry within each other’s signs. It has been like this for hundreds of years…Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one who is ready for a change.

I was almost out the door of my house when I heard my father’s voice.

“Jael…”

“Yes Father?” I turned to look at him.

“Be careful on your way to the hot springs, here lately, wanderers from our rival villages have been caught in our forests.”

“Are they dangerous?” I really shouldn’t have asked that!

“Just be careful okay?” His voice was gentle as he closed the door.

My Father was never a fan of conflict; this is why he could never tell me hurtful things directly. A harsh reality of our village is that women aren’t allowed to socialize with worshippers of other planets. This is so to keep the Pi-Quarius blood line steady within our village, and the pact sealed between planets for good. I have always been interested in the forbidden fruit of talking to these people one day. I wonder if my chance ever comes, what emotion I would feel.

The hot spring I ventured to was in the Twilight forest. This forest happened to be the forest my Father disliked for me to visit the most. This was probably because it is a forest known by many people outside of our village for its exquisite beauty. I think that is what made me like it the most, for the possible chance of a foreign encounter.

I kneeled on my knees in a spot of grass right on the edge of the spring and bowed my head to the ground.

“Uranus, Father of Time and Son of Earth, Bless this water and may it cleanse my body as well as my soul,” I whispered in prayer.

It was our tradition to pray to Uranus, ruler of Aquarius every time we bathed in the springs. Aquarius is the water bearer, and we give thanks for the gift of clean water in our village. Also, Pisces and Aquarius happen to be signs of water.

“I guess I do smell bad…but still he didn’t have to put it so bluntly!” I noticed while sniffing my arm. I quietly shed my clothing and stepped into the hot water.

“Ahh…” I let out a sigh of relief. The water felt soothing and a wave of calmness came about me as I soaked.

I slowly opened my eyes in the midst of my relaxing bath.

“The stars are so bright tonight…” My eyes began to dance with them, taking in their brightness.

“Wow…what is that?” I said with astonishment.

Before my eyes I saw what it appeared to be a person in the sky. The stars made up a stick figure of some sort, a figure of a human.

I have seen many constellations before…Pisces, Aquarius, even Aries…Yet I have never seen this one before.

“Magnificent” I said while I traced the figure with my fingers.

“Should I…” I thought out loud. I wanted to make a wish on this group of stars so badly.

“Uranus, Neptune…Forgive me!” I began to close my eyes my hands reaching for the stars.

I wish to meet a special someone outside of my village…

While I was in the midst of thought, a sound broke it fairly quickly. I heard a stick snap in half, which meant someone was near.

“Ahh…” I crossed my hands over my chest, and jumped out of the spring.

Just as I finished putting my clothes on, I heard a voice.

“Malachi, over here! I found a nice spring” a harsh manly voice sounded.

“Indra, wait up!! You know we shouldn’t be resting, we have a ways back to the village!”

“Come on! Relax will you? It isn’t often that we see places this exotic.”

I can’t believe what I am hearing!! Outsiders!!

“Crap!! Outsiders…” I declared with a nervous/excited tone.

Why am I feeling more afraid than excited…

“And it had to be males…Thanks you!” I cursed the pretty constellation that I had wished upon.

“I better get lost…or stay far enough away to still hear what is going on!” I ran behind the spring into the woods and shielded myself behind a big tree.

“Oh god…this is the best spring that I have ever been in! It is so clear and warm!” The man said as he slipped into the blessed spring.

“Oh really?” the young man replied.

“Hurry your hairy ass up and get in here! We don’t have very long. I’ve heard the people of this village treat outsiders horribly!”

“I have a hairy ass? Look at yourself, you look like a fucking donkey!” he fired back, throwing a stick at the other man in the spring.

“HAR HAR HAR” he gloated drunkenly.

I started bursting out laughing, bad mistake!

What a strange laugh!

“Did you hear that?” the young man asked, looking into the woods.

“What are you talking about?” the man replied, on the verge of falling asleep from the warmth of the water.

“Ill be right back…”

“Yeah…Yeah…” he said drifting into a slumber.

“Ahhh….I can’t believe this is happening….But this is what I wanted….Just not a dirty man…with a hairy ass on top of that!!”

I was freaking out! I could hear his footsteps come closer and closer to my location.

I looked upon the unknown constellation that I had wished upon, Please help me, give me courage!

“One…Two…” I counted and then I finally did it! I peeked from behind the tree.

My face felt warm as I saw the outsider. He looked so different from our people…

His skin was as pale as the moon, and his hair a chocolate color. The delicate waves of his hair flowed to about chin length but his bangs went down to the middle of his cheeks and were the color of the night, navy blue. His body was toned and his clothes strange. He was wearing a dark gray vest of fur, and white silk pants that hung loosely on his body. A long necklace was hanging from his neck, made of smooth dark blue pearls that rested on his smooth chest. His eyes were gray and mysterious and accented his soft face. He was what you could call ‘man pretty’.

I made the mistake of letting out a huge sigh, it must have pounded throughout the quiet night.

Please don’t notice…Please don’t notice..

The young man stopped in his tracks, and stared at the colossal tree in front of him.

“Who’s there, Show yourself!” he shouted, walking closer and closer.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and went into a numb state due to the extreme stress.

“This is the last time I will ask, Show yourself!” he shouted again pulling out his sword, making a shrill noise.

Shit…he is armed…I should’ve listened to Father…

The young man pressed his back against the tree.

“One…Two…” He whispered under his breath.

“THREE!”

And before I knew it, a hand grabbed me.

Author’s notes

Hi readers, this is talimkun. This is my new story, and I hope you guys enjoy it. I know I didn’t finish my last one, but I have a good feeling that I will indeed finish this one. I am appreciative of any reviews i may get, so in advance, thank you so much for taking the time to read my story. It means a lot. Rie, my awesome lil sis, gave me the the inspiration to write again. And I must give some credit to Silvah, I think one of my biggest fans. Bye you guys, until next chapter!!!

Talim KUN