A Date With Danger

Space Mermaids and Challenges

October 18, 2008 9:00 am
Akko Academy, Malison
---------------------------------------------------

▫️Stella:

I am a Zodiac Ranger representing The Zodiac Family. Why? Because I failed my Malison 12 exam, totally bombed it! But it's alright, so did my brother. Yes, I have a twin brother, but you would never guess that we are twins. He has blond hair, I have brown, he has fire brown eyes, I have electric purple. Even our personalities are different. He is kind and compassionate, I am not.

"Okay, just hear me out," Aron begs me as I walk into our bedroom.

"About our story books again?" I roll my eyes. "Aron that time is over, we failed the test, we are nothing! That test determined our social standing, and I am sorry we both suck at test taking, but you need to be a scholar in order to freely write. Right now, you need to focus or else something bad is going to happen in the future to you and I won't be able to prevent that."

"Space mermaids," Aron smiles at that thought.

"Space mermaids?" I snort.

"Extraterrestrial mermaids that swim through the stars." Aron laid out the scene for me. "They can be decorated with stardust in their hair and wear meteorites on--"

"Are you joking?" I laugh.

"We know as much about deep space as we do about the open ocean. Space mermaids could be a thing," Aron argued with me.

"Yeah, sure." I snicker. I start to change my shoes and rub my feet from the exhaustion of training.

"I am being serious." Aron shows me a sketch he made on a scrap paper. "Lurking astronauts into the black holes with a song that carries you across the void where no one can hear you scream. Does that not sound like a wonderful book?"

"It does," I sigh. "But, like I said earlier, we both failed the test, and with this war, we have no time for fairy tales."

Aron frowned and shoved the piece of paper into his pocket. I hated to put him down, he had so many good ideas, but he just never can focus on anything else, and he doesn't understand that this is serious. He pulls our group down with each practice run through, he never shoots the target directly in the heart... I honestly do not think he can kill someone if he came face to face and had to. But everyone can and will kill him. See the problem?

"Aron I'm sorry." I apologized. "But-"

I was interrupted by my watch buzzing. I stopped to answer the call from my commander. He wanted to speak to me in his office. I sigh and look over to my brother, who was drawing some sketch for another novel he invented in his head.

"Aron I will be right back," I told him.

"Of course," Aron grumbles to himself. "You are always off."

That sentence sent pain into my heart, I hated to leave him alone, since my brother didn't really have any friends here in the military academy. Aron was special, different from everyone else. He is a child at heart in a world full of adults. Honestly, my brother is too good for this world, and I will do everything I can to keep him from having to see the war from the front line. But I am the leader of our unit. He is the second in command. I have duties and I have to go sometimes, leaving him alone in his room. I sigh as I leave him alone to sketch another story.

My commander is the one who brought this war into a fighting chance. I hear he had to fight his way to the top. Now the only ones above him are Mike and Luke, his older brothers. They are all even in power. I was about to meet this general who wants nothing more than to take control of our whole side.