Split Land - A Zodiac Story

Chapter One

The year 723 AD

Scorpio Sante

Scorpio held her head down as she walked nervously in the crowded street. She loved the sweet aroma of the freshly baked bread, and the sounds of playing children and the church bells signalling the ninth hour of the morning. She had an hour to get to the magical guard's training ground before practice, like every morning. Scorpio smiled to herself. That was the one place she could let her emotions loose without being told that 'she was not acting like a lady of her class'. In some way, she envied her fellow trainees, Cancer Olsson and Pisces Fontana, for having the freedom she could never have. That was part of the reason why she wanted to join Latex Elite Squad.

Scorpio heard a murmur from behind her. "A noble..." A middle aged man said, taking a couple of steps back. The other villagers heard him and made a way for her to get through. She gritted her teeth and threw her hood up to cover her face. She hated being treated differently.

Quickening her pace, she jogged out of the crowd and up the paved road towards the training ground. It was a large, open air building with a dusty ground. The walls were high enough so that the public couldn't see exactly what the trainees were doing, in case of spies that were not uncommon. So far that year, they had caught two spies from Ignis, four from Telluris and one from Aer.

"Scorpio!" A voice called from behind her. A girl with strawberry blonde hair in a long ponytail ran up to her, waving. Her simple dress was stained and her hands were dirty. Pisces, the only peasant other than Cancer who would address her, a noble, so informally.

"Pisces." She greeted her friend with a smile.

"Where's Cancer?" Pisces asked, looking around. "He's usually the first one here."

Scorpio shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe he is already inside."

Scorpio felt Pisces grab her arm and drag her towards the entrance. The girl had too much energy, she thought. They pushed open the heavy wooden door and walked in, keeping an eye out for their white-haired friend. Amid a blob of a shining solid mass, they saw their fellow comrade sparring against straw dummies. Scorpio sighed. They were way past that level, but Cancer always made sure to train as many hours as possible, even though it was not improving his power skill in the slightest.

"Cancer!" Pisces shouted from next to her, making her wince. The boy turned and looked at them. His forehead was beaded with frozen sweat.

"Hi." He said as he took a drink from his flask.

"You need to stop working so hard." Pisces scolded him as if she was a mother.

Cancer's expression remained neutral, "I have to push myself if we want to win this war." He said simply.

He had a point, Scorpio thought. The war had started centuries ago, yet there seemed to be no end. "Yeah." Scorpio replied with a smirk, "We're going to win this!"

Aquarius Amato

"Who do you think the new recruit is going to be?" Aquarius asked her brother as they made their way to the training base. According to their squad captain, their former comrade had been gravely wounded during their latest mission, so they were one team member down. It had taken them months to find someone willing to replace them.

"As long as it's not a noble, I don't care." Libra replied. Technically, they didn't have to speak out loud, Aquarius could just use her telepathy to speak to him privately. But on the deserted road, there was no point in wasting her energy.