L i b r a

by Falling Wednesday

One, Two, Three. That's all it takes. But wait, there's more.

There's always more.

o o o

"Leo! No-let go of my arm!"

I tried twisting out of Leo's strong grip, but ended up falling onto the limestone floor, pulling him down with me. I screeched out in agony as a shock of pain jolted through my elbow. Hearing this, he finally released my arm and got up on his feet again. I shot him a glare while tenderly massaging my arm.

"C'mon, just one more time, please? As your brother, I'm begging you- get out of your clothes."

I furiously shook my head, my eyes boring holes into his head. I got up to my full height and placed my hands firmly on my hips. He was already out of his garments and standing in his underwear.

"I am not switching places with you again. It's your class, your test, your grade, not mine!"

I let myself slump back onto the floor and flipped open the book I was reading. Leo got on his hands and knees and stared at me with emerald eyes that seemed to be drowning in invisible tears.

"Stop trying to squeeze them out. Uour eyes are going to end up rolling across the floor."

He ignored me.

"Please, sis? I was too busy to study! And-and I stayed up all night making my wig curly."

He grabbed a mop of golden curly locks from his "disguise bag."

"Yeah, you were too busy to study because you were wasting your hours away fixing up that bloody wig.”

I buried my nose deeper into the pages of King Arthur's adventures.

"Ari!” Leo shouted. He tried using demanding force, then switched to his second method: bribery.

“Please? This is the last time--I swear! I'll give you my model of Libra if you do. You love that thing!"

"Stop trying to bribe me," I snapped.

Leo hung his head, his golden hair gleaming in the afternoon sun. Now he had moved on to number three: pity. I acted as though he was merely another bookcase in the vast library waiting to be dusted, and then finally heaved a sigh when he started to sniffle.

Number three worked. I scolded myself for being too soft-hearted and closed my book.

"Fine. We can switch places if you give me the model.”

Leo’s head snapped up to reveal a grin covering half his face.

“…and your dagger,” I finished.

As expected, his jaws dropped and his green eyes bulged out of his sockets.

"What? But that was my seventeenth birthday present!"

I gasped.

"You're already seventeen? Wait, oh right. We were born on the same day."

I rolled my eyes and flipped open my book again.

For a few seconds, only the soft turning of the pages filled up the library. Being the stubborn idiot he was, Leo hovered over me while I tried to concentrate.

I smiled behind my book when I heard a slow rush of air leave Leo.

"Fine. Have the stupid dagger."

Leo handed me the dagger nestling in its leather shield after rummaging through his clothes. I tried to conceal my happiness by tossing it (very lightly) on top of my book bag.

"I don't know if I should be thankful or not," Leo muttered.

I ignored him, gathered up his clothes and went behind the velvet curtains of the library. I stepped out of my dark emerald dress and threw it towards my brother. He looked like a little boy who got his first puppy as he carefully slipped into it.

As he fixed on the wig, I pulled the shirt over my head and got into Leo's pants. I stuffed my feet into his boots and finally fixed his hat over my tied hair.

"I'm so glad you're flat as a board, Ari. It would've been a pain to stuff my chest."

I glared at him.

"Sorry," he quickly mumbled.

Leo, now Ariel, cleared his throat and raised his voice an octave.

"Well, I shall be on my way to embroidery class now, Leonard."

He walked out of the room with his rear shaking side-to-side and eyelashes fluttering.

I let out an exasperated sigh as I headed for his history class. However, I quickly went back to the library, grabbed the dagger, and tucked it in Leo's boots. Heart swelling with victory and a grin stretching my mouth, I happily marched towards Leo’s class.

"Good afternoon, Leonard."

"Good afternoon, sir."

The withered old man peered at me over his spectacles. His eyes were like mossy ponds.

"Don't try playing any tricks today, Leonard."

He was the only teacher who didn’t end every sentence with the “Your Highness.”

I flashed a smile and nodded while slipping into the desk placed in the center of the room.

"I won't, sir."

He nodded, but didn't look convinced as he took out a pile of weathered books from under his desk and stacked them on the table before him.

"As I informed you, today's test is going to be based on the Libran and Scorpian War. We reviewed the facts more than enough yesterday, so I expect you to know the answer to every question on the exam I am going to give you."

I nodded. I opened the desk and shook my head as a jungle of ripped parchment, broken feathers, empty bottles of ink and balls of twine met my eyes. Disgusted, I carefully took out a sapphire feather and a bottle of fresh ink from the very bottom of the pile. I had hidden them here the last time I visited.

The rest of the hour went by fairly quickly. The test wasn't difficult at all. I already knew the war heroes, the Anti-Hetero group, and of course, the fact that there’s still no truce between Libra and Scorpio. The entire time I was scratching away, the teacher watched me like a hawk just in case I tried pulling out any sort of notes or cheating tools.

He seemed confused by the time I finished and handed him the paper.

"Well, that's it for today. You are excused."

I was in mid-curtsy before I quickly caught myself and made a small bow.

"Thank you, sir."

I walked out of the stuffy room and found Leo already waiting for me.

"How did it go?" he asked anxiously.

"Fine."

"Was it easy?"

"Yes."

"Do you think he suspected anything?"

I stopped walking and whipped my head around.

"Oh Libra, Leo! I did fine, okay? Don't worry so much. You sound like a worried mother."

Leo rolled his eyes as I continued walking towards the dining hall.

"How did embroidery go?" I asked, humoring him.

"Oh, you know...the usual 'Wow, you're so talented, Your Highness' and 'You will be married to a fine young man someday, Madame Ariel.' Seriously, she loves me."

"I'm so glad you'll make a fine wife someday with your embroidery skills." I smirked.

We took a left and stepped into the dining hall. Our family didn't have reserved seats like other royal families. We simply ate where we wanted to, even the servants. As our father used to say, the fact that every one of us, rich or poor, get hungry made us all equal. Therefore, we all considered ourselves equal when it came to eating.

Mother walked in a few intervals afterwards and sat across from us. Her golden hair was up in a messy bun and she still had her water garden apron on. Bags of colorful fish dangled from her large belt, their lidless emerald eyes staring at their surroundings.

"Sorry, children. I was out fixing up the pond," she said as she grabbed a loaf of bread and took a bite out of it.

We didn't say anything and silently began to dine as well.

"Right, how did your test go, Leonard?"

She looked up from her food when we didn't answer. I saw Leo grow tense from the corner of my eyes.

Mother sighed and frowned at him.

"Leo. How many times did I tell you to stop dressing up in your sister's clothes? Aren't you ashamed? You are a man."

Leo shrugged and popped a grape into his mouth.

"You're going to take over the empty throne once you become of age, and that's only a few months away. What would people think if they found out their future ruler plays dress-up games in his sister's gowns? What would your dead father think?"

"It's not like I want to be king..." he mumbled. “Why can't Ari be? She's smarter and has more responsibility."

He said the last word as if he heard it a thousand times each day.

"Because you are a man and you are older."

It didn’t sound like their mother believed that these two attributes made him the better one of the two, but they all knew that it was the law.

I took a sip of water thoughtfully and said aloud: "Only if females were allowed to rule a country."

Leo snorted and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Technically, Mother is ruling the country right now,” Leo said.

“Technically,” Mother answered, “we have no ruler at the moment.”

“And technically, Ariel should be—”

“Oh stop it, Leonard,” Mother interrupted. "Go change this instant. I don't want the servants to see," Mother demanded.

"Technically,” Leo started again, “You're the only one who can distinguish us from each other, Mommy," Leo said in his "Ari" voice.

I shoved Leo, forcing him to stand up, and left the dining hall. We exchanged smiles when we heard Mother starting to chuckle behind us.

We walked down the vast hall towards the bed chambers. The maids were polishing the glass walls. I giggled as Leo blushed upon seeing one of the younger maids.

"Hey, Mari!" I called out in Leo's voice.

The called-on servant glanced up, her face flushed from the cleaning and washing. I gave her a wink and a smile. She blushed, causing her face to become an even deeper shade of red.

Leo jabbed my ribs as I stifled a laugh.

"You are so full of- hey! Look!"

He ran towards the east wall and pressed his face against it. I followed after him.

"Airships," he gasped.

I followed his gaze and saw two of our golden airships looming over the clouds.

"What about them?"

"Don't you want to ride in them?"

"We do. We have our own aircutters."

Leo shook his head.

"Airships are bigger, faster, more powerful..." he said in a dreamy voice. “And only the privileged can ride them."

He let out a depressed sigh and stepped away from the glass wall.

"Let's go change."

I nodded and continued towards Leo’s bedroom. Once inside, I started unbuttoning his shirt as I walked over to his wardrobe.

But before I got the chance to reach out and pull the handle, the door burst open and two arms grabbed me by the neck as another pair started to coil a thick rope around my body.

"Help me! Help mm-"

"Shut up," a deep voice growled as he slapped his mammoth hand on my mouth.

"Okay, let's take him."

My eyes dilated and my heart was beating so fast that I swear it was strong enough to burst through the ropes. I thrashed my body and kicked my legs.

But they were too strong. The two men carried me over to the open window where a crimson airship waited.

The Scorpian color, I thought.

"Hey, I need my shirt," Leo said as he walked into the room. He was still in my dress and wearing his wig.

He gasped when he saw me getting ready to be put into an airship hovering outside his window.

"Get help! Get help!" I wanted to say.

But being the usual idiot, he ran over waving his arms, yelling, "Take me! Take me instead! Let me ride your airship!"

I rolled my eyes and scowled in disbelief. How could anyone be so stupid?

"Take the princess too?" asked the man who tied me.

The one holding me shook his head.

"Kill her."

The other took out a pistol, cocked it...

...and pulled the trigger.

The bullet whizzed across the room and pierced Leo through the chest. He crumbled onto the floor in a big emerald heap, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for air.

The man shot again. Leo stopped moving.

Screaming, I kicked my legs even harder, trying to get free.

They killed him. Leo was dead.

My tears blurred the image of his broken, bloody body as the horrible men got into the airship and slammed the windows shut.

Once inside the airship, they threw me into a dark room and closed the door.

And I cried. I cried for Leo, my only brother. Leo, my other half. Leo...he was my only friend.

The ground below me hummed as each second took me farther and farther away from home.

o o o