Power Of Twelve - A Zodiac Story

Chapter 46: Capricorn

Unfortunately, dear Virgo's calculation was wrong and we were 5 hours away from Evira. This had made it so we would arrive at Evira at about 5:00pm, leaving us exactly one and a half hours to find a place to sleep before the others arrived. They would be resting Leroy so he could use the last of his energy to fly them in to the spot we would have to find when we got there.

Evira Forest was nice enough. Apart from the mosquitoes, deadly spiders, even deadlier animals such as jaguars and leopards and the odd few hundred termites, cockroaches and ants.

The trees were so large and so close together that you could barely see the skyline and so I had little idea of the time. Their tree trunks were thick enough that I could fit inside of them if they were hollow. I wouldn't dare of course, who knew what horrors lay in there!

It was also very humid and I didn't like the heat. It was literally burning away my soul and I found it difficult to breathe, never mind fight any Sorcerers or other enemies coming our way.

The only one of us who actually enjoyed the heat was Sagittarius, mainly because she was a Fire Sign. Libra also was adapting quite easily, she created a small breeze around her using her air powers and Cancer simply manipulated cooled the air around him by cooling down the small amount of water particles in the air.

So, it was not the best to be an Earth Sign in this situation.

I know I should enjoy the jungle (it was only called Evira Forest because Evira Jungle didn't have the same ring to it), it's part of my element - the Earth - but forest, nature and plants were more Virgo's style than mine. I preferred mountain areas and rocky places. The jungle was so crappy in my unhumble opinion.

But, there was one thing that kept me going. Sagittarius, or more precisely, her way of thinking. She was so happy, carefree and didn't complain no matter how bad it got. If she, out of all us, didn't complain, then I had to prove that I didn't bitch. I thought it was my male testosterone at the time, but I later realised I wanted to impress her. That was definitely wierd for me. We weren't exactly close friends and I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have met if it hadn't been for Virgo and the other Zodiacs.

It was also strange looking at her now and comparing her to a year ago. Back then she actually complained about everything, was obsessed with fashion (she still was) and seemed like a little diva.

Looking at her now, she had obviously improved appearance-wise, but there was more of a sense of maturity about her. She was able to stand her own in a fight and was powerful in her own right. A year ago, I couldn't imagine her in a fight or anything to do with death-defying, completely suicidal mission. A simple stroll in the woods complete with a few close encounters were adventurous enough. But, as aforementioned, she had grown up is all I can say.

Thinking about her made me commit a stupid mistake. Tripping over a log.

"Ow," I said, rubbing my right knee. It had taken most of the impact when I had fallen. As expected, the others gave a small laugh.

Libra helped me up and I saw a look of jealousy from Sagittarius. I was starting to notice things about her that I normally didn't before. The feeling was quite awkward for me. After all, I never really noticed her before the doomsday countdown had begun.

I shook my head and saw Libra's face of concern. To make sure the feeling to Sagittarius wasn't abnormal, I took closer notice to Libra and saw that her normally twinkling, light green eyes were more dull in colour than normal. She didn't have bags as of yet, but they were beginning to form.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I asked if you were okay and you shook your head. Where's the pain? I'll do my best to heal it. It's not as good as Virgo's Nature magic, but it'll do," she said, beginning to clutch my leg.