The Zodiac Lullaby

r a i n y d a y

Capricorn pulled her gray hoodie over her head and looked down at her black sneakers. The forest  was flooding. It was only her luck that she decided to venture outdoors.

'I never go outside anyway, why did I have to go today?'

Capricorn stumbled and her foot slipped into a puddle.

"Lovely," she said. "Now I'll have to change my socks before I get sick. Yay." She shook a couple of leaves off her shoe and kept on going. The fog clouded her vision, and she could barely make out anything outside ten feet of her range. Her phone was dying in her pocket as she trudged through the dirt road.

'Why did I have to go this far out?' Capricorn had gotten in trouble over the week. She wasn't attending the recent Zodiac meetings and wasn't talking to anyone. She had taken this Thursday and gone out on a walk so she wouldn't have to talk to anyone. The other signs were upset at how distant she had become recently. She didn't know why herself. She felt distracted lately.

'It's all those boring meetings, I bet.' Capricorn kicked a pebble. The rain poured down harder.

"Okay, nature. Just a stone."

Aquarius stretched her left leg in front of her and bent over. Slowly, she painted her toenail silver. Her hand shook and she froze. Slowly and deliberately, she added a second coat and set the brush back into the container and cleaned off the edges. At that moment, someone knocked on the door.

"Coming!" Aquarius blew on her toe and went to open the door. No one was outside. She turned to see Libra sitting on her white couch with a coffee in his hand.

"Dude! Get out of my white couch! You have an entire coffee in your hand and all! What are you even doing here anyway?" Aquarius said.

"A hello would have been nice," Libra mumbled.

"You didn't answer my question." Aquarius said, hands on her hips.

"I thought you said come in. I suppose you said coming. Those sound too alike. Another flaw in the English language." Aquarius rolled her eyes. Libra moved his head in a circle since he didn't know how to.

"You dork," Aquarius said. She went to her kitchen and put the kettle on the stove. She cut off a branch from her mint tree sitting in a pot on the counter. "Always cut off the brown branch. If you cut off the green, you'll kill the plant. Why are you here, anywhere?" Aquarius turned to face him, the mint tea boiling on the stove.

"You're the dork with all your silly tea things," Libra said. Aquarius rolled her eyes. Libra moved his head in a circle, again. "I'm here because I've just gotten a letter from Olympus."

"I have got to teach you how to roll your eyes properly." Aquarius laughed. The kettle came to a boil. Aquarius poured the tea in a china cup with blue flowers on the side [ironically, she had gotten it from New York and not China]. She set the cup, teaspoon, sugar and kettle on the coffee table. She noticed Libra had gone to sit in her special reading chair.

'Win some, lose some.' Aquarius thought.

Aquarius emptied three teaspoons of sugar into her tea and put her lips to the cup. Libra sighed. "You're not fooling anyone. That's too hot to drink." Aquarius purposely rubbed her eyes. "Anyway, the letter states that Apollo had just gotten something stolen from him. Pan had stolen a song script of his that grants the singer of the song special abilities with healing. He saw Pan try to play it on the flute but fail and throw it towards the direction of a floating island. Not the one we live on, but a distant and strange one. He'll let us keep the script if we find it. The one who gets it first is the one who'll have it."

Aquarius was at the edge of her seat. "I think it's time for you and I to go on an adventure."

Capricorn had finally found some shade. It was a large tree with thick foliage. There was only a minimal amount of rain there. She opened her bag and rummaged through what she had gotten. There wasn't much to eat. She climbed the tree, hoping there was something to eat. She found a piece of paper. Capricorn sat on a branch as she unfolded it and pressed it out.

"What's this?" On the paper there was a script for a music piece. There was no specified instrument to play it with and it was very short. Capricorn jumped down from the tree, accidentally cutting her knee in the process. She rolled up her jeans as she looked at a nasty gash that was bleeding around the edges. She held her knee as she went to her backpack and took out her flute.

'I wonder if I could sing it,' Capricorn thought. 'Nevermind. I can't sing at all.'

Capricorn picked up her flute and began translating the piece into letters at the back. She began to play the piece. She sat down, elbow testing on her hurt knee.

Capricorn played the piece. It sounded like a lullaby. She ended the piece with a flourish and put the paper and flute back in her bag. She decided to set off for home with no stops now.

'But my knee,' she thought. She glanced down at it.

Her knee was unscathed.

Scorpio heard a knock on the back door. She opened it to find a soaked Capricorn. Capricorn brushed past her and sat on the carpet by the fireplace. Scorpio shook her head, shut the door and handed Capricorn a cup of hot cocoa and a blanket.

"Do you have any books on magic, Scorpio? Specifically, healing." Capricorn asked, still staring into the fire.

"I don't know, I've had this library for so long. I'll have to search through my lists." Scorpio shuffled behind a counter and booted up an old-school computer. Capricorn finished her cocoa and set her wet shoes on the carpet.

Scorpio had already found a guide, two literature pieces, three pamphlets and a novel on the subject. She went around the back of the library to get the books. Capricorn stared at the wall until Scorpio came back.

"Capricorn, what's the big deal? You didn't even say 'hi' to me," Scorpio said. "What's going on?"

"I found this music sheet and whenever I play it on my flute something happens." Capricorn said.

"That was specific," Scoprio mumbled.

"I had a cut on my knee before I played it, and then I did and all of a sudden the cut's gone! How do you even explain that?" Capricorn asked. Scorpio thought for a moment.

"These books might have the answer," Scorpio said, setting the books in Capricorn's lap. "You should shower and eat something then do some research. Tomorrow I'll have more books and if I have time I'll help you. But I have to close up the library now."

Capricorn got up to go, then sat back down. "Sorry for brushing past you, it's just I've been shook from the whole thing." Scorpio smiled.

"It's fine," she said. "I'll turn off the computer and see you out." Scorpio went behind the counter again. Capricorn packed her bag and put on her wet shoes. She went around to the front door of the city library. Scorpio came from the dark back of the library, bag in hand. Knowing her, it was full of pencils, books and samples of leaves and flower petals. Scorpio shook her sleeve and caught the falling key in her hand. Capricorn always found the secret key compartment in her sleeve cool. Scorpio unlocked the door and held it open for Capricorn who walked through.

Scorpio looked up. "Don't you like the night sky?" she asked. "Sunset and sunrise is overrated. There's nothing nicer than a cloudy night."

Capricorn nodded in agreement as they walked towards the tall tower in the middle of the city Olympus.

Word count (including these) : 1357