The Zodiac Chronicles : Aquarius

Chapter 4

Aqua picks up her favorite wood staff off the weapons rack and begins twirling it in her fingers, "does it really have to be hand to hand combat Mom?" Her mom flicks her hand at Aqua to put the staff down. Aqua sighs and drops it at her feet which made a guttural wood sound. "Fine then." Her mom flicks her hands again, "begin!" Aqua wasn't used to several officers coming at her at one time. She ducks as a punch was thrown at her, she spins kicking the officer's feet out from underneath him then locks the officer to the ground with some vines. Please give me something good.
She waves her hand at the oncoming officer which sprouts some ivy but the officer dodges swiftly. Suddenly hands wrap around her from the backside. She forgot about the third one. Aqua screams with her eyes closed remembering her close-quarters fighting moves, kicking her feet with all her might. She suddenly feels something solid behind her and the clearing has a slightly different atmosphere by the way she saw her eyelids change from red to grey. She opens her eyes to see herself standing at the foot of a huge oak tree, the officer that came at her front side trapped in vines and venus fly traps nipping at her legs. "A little help." She looks up to see the officer that grabbed her trapped in a tangle of branches.
Astounded at what she did but she didn't know how she did it. Her mom stands silently in her place, "Aquarius, do you know what you just did?" Aqua looks at both at her hands as if she was a monster, "no..." Certainly growing a tree at this young of an age wasn't a good thing.
"It usually takes our family years to master a hardwood and I'm even surprised you grew fly traps. I cannot even grow a hardwood yet let alone one this size." Aqua takes a step back bumping her head by accident on her plant. "Aquarius, I'll take care of this, you're dismissed from practice today." Aqua noticed those last words her mom seemed to choke out like she was mortified. She takes her staff with her and shuffles over to the gate, "oh Aqua,"
"Yes, Mom?"
"Don't forget to study your book, and, I'm very proud of you today."
She walks to the beach where she and her friends usually meet.
Pisces is the first to show up along with Crowlere. "Got your message!" Pisces hands back the bracelet to Aquarius, "Pisces, I'm surprised that you got my message." Pisces shrugs her shoulders, "yeah I was learning how to make a wave when Crowlere showed up-why uh, why do you look mortified?" Aqua lays down on the grey beach. "I grew an oak tree which only the eldest in my family has ever been able to grow barely. I had a weird dream last night." Pisces looks at Aqua with a worried look, "what kind of weird dreams?" Aqua shudders a little thinking on the moments of when things were on fire. Would the Archives even have the answer she was looking for? "Like I need to go the archives to find answers weird."
Pisces lays down in the sand as well, "hmmm, the oceanic archives or the land archives?" Taurus appears out of nowhere, "I thought I'd find you two here, now what is all this business about the archives?" Taurus sits down next to Pisces.
Aqua cringes thinking of her creepy dream so she stands up uncomfortably. "well Aqua, I know that the queen usually keeps hers heavily guarded so nobody can take any of the scrolls." Pisces stands up as well as settling on a decision, "you'll need to put on a diving suit so you can breathe underwater." Aqua crosses her arms, "fine I'll go put on a diving suit." Taurus slides up next to the girls, "can I come to?" Aqua was already walking away when she heard her friend yell after her, "meet me in here ten minutes!" As if the clouds decided to cry, the ringed island quickly became caught in a rainstorm. Aqua slowly made her way to the dive center where her suit was stored when she noticed some of the Zodiac pupils. Cancer and Libra were dancing in the rain together they were laughing and spinning around giving no care for the world. Aqua smirked thinking how perfect they were for each other; although Cancer seemed a little shy when talking to her. She looked around hoping to see Aries around seeming to never catch him in a conversation, he was never exactly one to talk yet he seemed to be around all the time. His motives were, questionable.
Living on an island with barely anywhere to go, Aqua figured him being the only other air elemental, he obviously keeps his head in the clouds way too often. But hard work does pay off, in the long run, knowing that he is the only one to completely master his skills at the age of seventeen.
She makes it to the diving shop to find Cancer's dad. A very friendly man with coral pink-colored hair similar to his son's; ran in the family. Aqua studied his sharp jawline noticing a scar on his chin. Being a retired warrior must be hard especially when working alongside her own mother.
"Hi Cancer, I'm going to the Undersea and I need my suit." Cancer smiles, "you going to try out your new diving suit?" He taps his fingers on the desk as if a tune was stuck in his head.

"Yep." Cancer reaches behind him on a hook to retrieve her shell-made key, "here you go." Then tosses the key to her. Aqua walks over to her locker realizing that she still had her armor on.

"Well, that's just peachy, I forgot to take my armor off today..." she mutters to herself as she hangs it up in her locker in place of her new dive suit.