Zodiac War

Chapter 36 Ends, but not quite goodbye

                                                                                          Aries

"I think we're ready to leave the house now" Aries said cheerfully as they all sat down to eat. All the zodiacs looked up excited as they thought of leaving the awful castle, they had all been waiting for Aquarius and Sagittarius to process a bit before they left. "Really? We can finally leave!" Libra yelled excited and all the Chinese zodiacs smiled enthusiastically. Aries grinned as the zodiacs all rejoiced, he was happy he could finally leave the huge castle and the memories it brought him. "We shall throw a goodbye party for you!" Rabbit said excitedly and everyone nodded, a goodbye party sounded quite nice. "Let's have it tonight, we should leave tomorrow if possible" Libra urged and Aries looked confused. "We don't need to hurry, I don't think there's anywhere for us to go after" he said and Libra looked down. "I just want to see if the shop and maybe Papa are alright" she admitted and Aries took her hand. He rubbed his thumb on her hand gently and she smiled at him. "I'm sure they're fine" he whispered and she kissed his cheek and lay her head on his shoulder. "How long have we been in this awful castle for?" she asked and Aries shrugged. "Around three months" he answered and she frowned. "How have we survived three months here?" she asked more to herself than Aries. He just smiled softly and kissed her forehead. The three months they spent in the castle were the worst months any of them had to experience. The Chinese zodiacs were lovely and cared for them and they had all become friends, Ruben had also become quite attached to Aries and training with him. Aries looked around the room at all his zodiacs, there was a mixture of emotions all throughout the room and it was quite overwhelming. All the zodiacs were happy they we're leaving but at the same time wanted to stay with their new friends, Stevie and Delphinus seemed to understand that something was happening and we're both sitting on Ruben's lap while drawing pictures. Libra was the most anxious to go back to the kingdom, unlike most of the others she had something she didn't want to lose. The last time they had seen the kingdom it was on fire and people had been screaming, this hadn't help Libra feel confident that her bookshop and grandfather were alright. Aries was most worried that there wouldn't be anything to go back too, it was most likely that everyone who survived had fled to the nearest kingdom or to family and the old kingdom would most likely be abandoned. "We shall start preparing for the party now!" Monkey yelled excitedly and Aries stood up to start helping. 

Setting up for the party was easier than expected, the boys and a few girls who could fly hung up all the decorations while everyone else slaved away in the kitchen. Ruben had been put on babysitting duty and was running around the castle trying to catch the two screaming and laughing children who loved tripping over everyone and eventually Aquarius joined him in chasing down the children. A few hours flew past and the party started, the children were screaming and laughing as Rooster chased them around the room and everyone else were drinking and laughing as they said goodbye to their friends. "You can all come back whenever you want" Rat said with a smile and Aries shook his hand. "We owe a lot to you mate, thank you for everything" Aries replied and Rat just laughed and shrugged. "Babe come dance with me" Libra laughed and pulled Aries over to where Leo and Taurus were dancing. "I don't know how to dance" Aries insisted but Libra took his hands and showed him some moves. Before long Aries was sweeping Libra off her feet and dancing for hours, he couldn't remember the last time he had so much fun. Everything felt perfect for the first time in months, Aquarius and Ophiuchus were smiling and laughing together and Sagittarius was preforming some drunken dance while Cancer chased him around trying to stop him from doing something stupid. He almost didn't want to leave the castle behind, but the thoughts of everything he did to the soldiers he fought nagged at his mind. The amount of soldiers he killed was more than he had ever wanted but if he stopped someone else could have died, he wouldn't risk Libra or any of the other zodiacs lives like that. His efforts were mostly successful in the end but it still nagged at him that he had killed and hurt so many people, taking someone's life wasn't something to laugh at. "Babe what's wrong?" Libra asked concerned as she cupped his cheek and stared into his eyes. "Just thinking, nothing to worry about" he insisted and began dancing with her again. Libra laughed loudly as she fell into his arms and danced around with him.