"I still don't understand why we have to come all this way for duck," Lotus grumbled, following the silent Capricorn through the market street of another village. "It's not like we live across the continent in an environment unsuitable for them; it's only a thirty-minute walk."
Chione sighed, stopping at the familiar butcher shop to examine the different sizes of animal present within. "May I see your ducks?" She asked the man sitting at the entrance, smoking a long cigar that blew a grossly discolored smoke into the air above them. He nodded, not bothering to show her the way with more than a casual wave toward the back door.
Lotus dropped her head back to lazily groan, walking after the girl who paid her complaints no attention. "Can we at least stop for sugarcane juice? Or tamr hindi?" Just the image of both widely known juices triggered a strong enthusiasm in the base of her stomach. "I'm thirsty, Chione! And hungry."
"Are you unable to sit in silence for more than thirty seconds?" The older girl asked, looking over the small animals running in the enclosure in front of them. A wire fence circled all around the tall ducks, covering the top to keep them from jumping out.
"That's rude," Lotus frowned.
That was when Chione finally turned to her with a deep breath. "I apologize," she said. "If you wish to speak, you can, but do not complain because one more grumble from you and I'm quite sure my mind might just implode on itself and slither through the openings of my nose and ears."
Lotus blinked at the girl, not even relatively offended at what she'd just said. Instead, her expression mirrored more shock than anything else. "How do you manage to make say something so horrible, yet sound so flawlessly elegant. You're not a queen or something, are you?"
"Do I look like royalty?" Chione raised a nonchalant eyebrow.
"No."
"There's your answer," she turned back to the ducks, lowering herself to the ground to get a better view at all the creatures scurrying around each other inside the cage. "Here," Chione pulled two coins from her pocket and extended them toward the evidently bored Lotus. "Go get yourself some sugarcane juice while I finish here, and then I'll meet you at the village's western entrance. Satisfied?"
The younger girl immediately beamed, grabbing the two coins from Chione's hand and nodding furiously. "Yup!" She jumped, not wasting any time before racing out of the cool slaughterhouse and happily walking back up the street.
On their way here, they had passed a moderately busy juice bar positioned beneath the shade of two green umbrella-like fabrics. Her mouth already began salivating from the throat-drying parchment that would soon be washed away with the sweet freshness of her favorite drink. How long had it been since she'd had sugarcane juice? Years....
That's right, her step-mother rarely gave her the money needed to buy the drink and made Lotus's life a living hell by taking her own daughters to the bar, while leaving her at home. She'd always come up with excuses; Lotus had to study, Lotus had to clean her bed first, Lotus already cost them too much money that week, Lotus should've gotten a job instead of constantly stealing from the library. Lotus never seemed to satisfy the older lady... no matter what she did.
"One sugarcane please!" She beamed, dropping both coins onto the silver surface in front of her. The area was a little more crowded than before, but only one other girl and three men stood alongside her, meaning it wouldn't be long before Lotus got her own drink.
A skinnier boy looked back at her from across the tall counter, blinking down at the two coins she'd just placed down. His dark colored skin only drew more attention to the way he rolled her brown eyes at her. "That's not enough, one cup is three coins," he mumbled, pouring a drink for the man standing next to her.
Lotus frowned, pushing the money toward him with a polite smile. "Then just give me two-thirds of a cup," she shrugged, dropping her elbows on the counter and pressing either of her palms into her cheeks. Her suggestion only made sense, so there was no reason for him to rej-.
"No, that's not how we work. Either get another coin, or go find someone else to get you your juice," the boy mumbled, sliding the large glass toward the taller man on her right. "Here's your drink and your change, man."
Immediately, Lotus's attention caught on the three coins placed on the counter in front of him. She watched the man pull both into his hand, slipping them into the left pocket of his pants --right beside her.
The girl sighed, slowly letting her eyes slide over to examine the individual beside her as he grabbed the tall glass, taking a large drink. He was dark skinned with unblemished skin and dreadlocks that were pushed toward the back side of his head. His bold eyebrows seemed naturally set low in a way that made him only more intimidating. And he wore a shirt without sleeves, unintentionally displaying the precise sculpture of his bicep muscles.
Lotus sighed again, turning her attention to the girl on her opposite side and slyly moving a few inches closer to the man as all of his attention diverted to chugging the drink in his hand. She carefully slid her fingers lightly into his pocket, slowly lowering them until their tips grazed the cool silver coins.
It wasn't difficult to grasp one of them while she kept her attention forward, watching for a reaction from the man through her peripheral vision --but he didn't seem to notice. Inwardly grinning to herself, Lotus began to pull the coin from his pocket, careful not to let the tops of her fingers slide along the inner material of his pocket and make her position known at the last second.
Then she got it out.
Just as Lotus turned to drop the coin into her palm, pretending to pull it out of her own pants, a strong hand clamped around her wrist.
She gasped with the firmness of the solid hold around her arm, rooting her in her spot and not allowing the girl to pull the coin any further. It was the man who she'd just stolen it from --clearly. He kept his fingers tightly wrapped around her, finishing the last bit of his juice with a flowing casualness that didn't make it clear to anybody he'd just caught the thief beside him.
"That's mine," he breathed, using his other hand to swipe the droplets of juice from the corners of his mouth before turning to meet her gaze with cold, narrowed eyes. His burning green eyes shot nonchalant daggers through her head, not bothering to put in the effort to glare.
Lotus blinked, swallowing the rising lump in her throat under his intensifying gaze. "Is it?" She chuckled, lightly pulling her arm back to test the strength of his hold. But the man's grasp didn't falter or weaken.
"It is," the corners of his eyes crinkled in a sarcastic leer as he yanked the girl forward, making Lotus stumble a step closer to him. She panicked for a moment before realizing that the shrinking space's only purpose was to allow him to grab the coin from between her fingers before releasing her. "You could have tried asking before stealing."
Her eyebrows shot up hopefully. "Can I-."
"No."
Lotus's expression fell. "But you just said...." She fell silent, at a loss for words at the man's blatant unkindness. To be fair, she had just tried to steal his money, but there was no need to be so cruel by giving her hope only to tear it away. "Jerk."
"Thief." He simply spoke, not even bothering to look toward the girl with the word.
She rolled her eyes in building aggravation as Lotus grabbed Chione's money and turned around to walk away. If she couldn't get the cup of juice she'd so impatiently wanted, then there was no reason to linger behind and converse with such an unpleasant boy. "Spoken like a true spoiled brat," she mumbled, stepping into the street.
Lotus groaned, walking past only a few people with her annoyed thoughts already building in her mind. Boy would Chione hear an earful of complaints once she got back.
But her inner-conversation of disappointment and self-pity came to an abrupt halt when another hand landed on her arm, spinning the girl around with enough strength to make her trip over her own feet and slightly blowing her headwrap to the side. "What did you just say to me?" The boy sneered down at her, evidently much more angry than before.
"What...," she blinked in surprise, having already been too involved in formulating everything she would tell Chione as soon as she got back to remember what she'd said. Oh, that's right. "I called you a spoiled brat," she tried pulling herself from his grip.
Another tug made her tumble toward him, unable to stop until the arm he clenched tightly between his hand pressed against his chest. Lotus looked up at the fury building in the man's expression. "Say it again," he dared her, the threat dripping evident poison between them. It was then that the girl realized it wouldn't be smart to get entangled with the man in front of her any further.
"Get off of me," she shoved him back, pulling her hand from his grip and taking a step back to balance herself. It stirred the scarf she used to cover her birthmark, exposing a little more than the short line near the corner of her lip. Lotus quickly readjusted it before the man in front of her could notice.
But he'd already seen it, and stepped forward with new determination. The girl gasped when his fingers firmly wrapped around her chin, forcing her to look toward the man's eyes as his gaze landed on the beginning of the birthmark on the side of her head.
"Lotus of Libra," his gaze darkened dangerously, making her heart drop. He knew who she was, but how? It wasn't like there were pictures of her posted around the village. For the most part, her identity could easily be kept a secret as long as nobody saw her birthmark, but he knew her Zodiac sign and her name. "I've been looking for you."
"Stop, I said get off," the girl tried to pull away again, but the momentum of her shove only seemed to give him more power as he latched onto her arm, spinning around and dragging her with him.
If she hadn't turned around in a desperate attempt to get away from him and search for Chione, Lotus may have noticed the V-like birthmark just beneath the bottom of his hair, above the nape of his neck --the mark of the Aries fire sign: Aharon. But she didn't.
No matter how hard she tried to pull herself out of his grasp, Aharon's hold didn't falter. He dragged the fighting girl through the market street, turning down an alley near the end of the street.
"Chione!" She shouted helplessly, knowing there was no way she would be able to get herself free without the help of somebody else. Then the idea exploded into her mind; if she airoported, she could easily get away from the man. But it would only confirm her Zodiac identity to him. Well, he already knew so what could she lose.
Closing her eyes, Lotus willed herself to escape into the first place that appeared in her mind.
Wait!
Suddenly, she opened her eyes in time to see the boy in front of her step off the roof of one of the house's they'd passed on the way to the slaughterhouse. Before Lotus could try to free herself from his grasp, he dragged her over the edge with her.
Both of them fell down the two story home, landing a few feet apart after he'd released her to catch himself. Aharon fell into the sand onto his chest, knocking all the breath he'd collected in his lungs and slamming all his weight into his sternum. He gasped, burying his hands into the desert around him in his distracted attempts to quickly recover.
Lotus fell onto her ankle before completing the fall onto her left side, catching herself onto her arm with a blast of painful discomfort. She cried out, dropping herself onto her back and holding her arm to her side in an attempt to minimize the building pain.
"You-," Aharon lifted himself up before she could, stomping toward the girl with quick-developing dislike. He already hated her for what she'd caused all of the other Zodiacs, especially his brother and the torture he'd underwent, but the ill-feelings continued to grow with every moment that passed since he'd met her.
She quickly grabbed a handful of sand from beside her, chucking it at the boy in an attempt to give herself time to get up. He lifted his hands up in front of his face to keep the small particles from flying into his eyes like she'd aimed.
Lotus pushed herself off the ground in time to hear Aharon's frustrated shout, looking up to see a burning arrow fly in her direction. Her hand instinctively shot up to deflect the attack while her eyes widened in surprise; where'd that come from?
Another heated attack cut through the air, aimed directly for her heart, but Lotus easily deflected that one, too. Her hours of training with Chione were clearly coming in useful right now, but her heart was still pounding with the one-on-one combat that was no longer training. If she slipped up, she might just die.
Then she choked on the heat collecting around her, making the entire world swim in surrounding heat waves. Lotus spun around, looking for a way out, but stepping closer to the border that was seemingly set around her only burned the top layer of her skin. Every inhale began to burn the inside of her throat and heat the materials of her clothes until they began to burn.
If he was a Zodiac, then he should be on her side. They were all supposed to stand against the Pharaoh, but the atmosphere around her made it clear that the fire sign in front of her didn't see their case the same way.
He wanted to kill her.
"Stop!" She screamed, opening her mouth just enough to get the word out as Lotus put all her strength into deflecting the attack that came from all sides. Just like that, the heated waves expanded, passing over Aharon before erupting into the sand around them and raising it like a dusty enclosure of battle.
But Aharon wasn't done with her, holding his flattened palms to his side as one blazing arrow formed beside his head. Then another, and another, and another until dozens of red flames stood all around the boy, prepared to shoot towards her with one movement.
Lotus pulled in a deep breath, focusing her attention on the multiplying weapons in front of her. She'd never deflected such a large attack and this situation offered no room for error.
One arrow shot forward, but Lotus shot her arms out to shield her face as her eyes set on the approaching attack. She wouldn't deflect it because, if she did, she wouldn't have enough time to deflect the next one and all the ones after that.
The arrow came to a stop in the middle of the air, catching in the invisible net Lotus built in front of herself. Then the next one caught the same way. She would collect them all and direct them back at the boy.
If he wanted to kill her, then she would kill him first.
One flaming arrow after another, they all froze in the air a few feet in front of her, patiently waiting to be sent back.
But it didn't prove that simple when Lotus attempted to blow the arrows back only to meet strong resistance coming from the fire sign in front of her. He held her net in place, pouring massive amounts of heat into it until the unseeable barrier caught fire. The flames licked from the bottom corners until a thin wall of scorching embers stood between the two Zodiacs glaring hatefully at each other.
Were Lotus to release her hold on the net, searing arrows would fly right into her heart, killing the girl and burning her body.
Were Aharon to stop pouring heat into the net she held so tightly onto, all its glowing inferno would return to him with the sharp arrows he'd thrown first, killing the boy.
There was no forfeiting now, no satisfaction until one of them was dead and neither refused to become the one to lose as their eyes met through the licking flames, enough hatred blazing through their gazes to overwhelm the burning fire in front of them.
"Aharon!" A distant voice shouted, holding unusually familiar tones to Lotus. She would have turned to see who it was racing toward the attacking opponent on the other side of the net, but that would diverge her attention and risk her losing her hold. That's why neither of them dared to move, both putting more energy into pushing the net toward one another.
Then the wall between them abruptly sizzled as if it was being doused with unnoticeable gallons of water. Lotus and Aharon both held their ground, watching smoke collect in the air as the net shrunk foot by foot until it disappeared entirely, along with the arrows it had caught.
"Lotus?" Odion spoke from beside the glaring boy across from her, he tilted his head with wide eyes.
"Odion?" What was her lifelong neighbor doing so far from Luxor, and how did he know the aggressive fire sign she'd just faced?
"Lotus?" Chione raced up to her side after racing down the alley a few houses away. She blinked between the girl and the two boys in front of her in question. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"Lotus!" Odion shouted in excitement, racing toward Lotus with extended arms. After so long, he'd finally found the girl he'd tried but failed to protect the first time. He'd worried about where she'd been, if she was okay, and what had happened to her ever since he last saw her in their neighborhood. Now, here she was, looking healthier and evidently much stronger than before. "I was so worried about you!"
_________
Teaser Line: "It's too soon to kiss you, but I really want to."
Akil of Aquarius (23)- Invisibility & Hurricane Creation
Lotus of Libra (19)- Aeroportation & Deflection
Odion of Pisces (18)- State Modification
Keket of Cancer (18)- Motor-Skill Manipulation
Aharon of Aries (20) - Thermal Manipulation
Layla of Leo (19)- Heat & Light Diversion
Asarte of Virgo (17)- Quicksand
Chione of Capricorn (21)- Earth Fabrication
Tau of Taurus (24)- Raising Earth
Aaron of Gemini (20)- Pressure Manipulation & Flying
Suma of Scorpio (22) - Water Depletion
Seth of Sagittarius (21) - Electricity/Lightening
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