Astrogia

Chapter 1

Picture is Blaze

One. Two. Three.
One. Two. Three.
One. Two. Three.

The surroundings seemed to ripple with the noise passing through it but the counting remained constant. Was it him counting or did the voices in his head finally win their internal battle? He would never know. He slowly emerged from the water and shook his head to get the excess water out of his hair.

It had been two years since he made a deal with Ophiuchus. He found out his true name was Scorpio and he was from a planet destroyed long ago. Ophiuchus felt the need for other Astrogians to know the history of their world so he brought ten other people here. He trained them in the magic their ancestors used and he gave them a new found hope that things might get better now.

Scorpio sighed and dove under the water again taking another lap in the pool. His thoughts plagued him to no end. Things seemed good now but his head kept screaming at him. He kept hearing a voice telling him to wake up. He had many sleepless nights because of this voice but he kept going nonetheless. Sometimes when he'd close his eyes he could see a face. It looked a lot like Ophiuchus only this face was older and had scars. After the face would disappear a green fire would ignite almost as if it was trying to burn him.

Scorpio stopped moving and sunk to the bottom of the pool. He always found peace sitting down here where the silence was the strongest. He closed his eyes and thought back to when he first got here.

***
"Welcome to my home. Make yourself as comfortable as you need to be. Others will be joining us soon." Scorpio nodded and sat down on the couch in the middle of the room.

Ophiuchus disappeared and returned a few minutes later with a boy with brown hair and red eyes. The boy looked over at Scorpio and blinked confused. "Who is that?"

"This is one of your new team members Samuel." Ophiuchus said.

The two boys nodded at each other and Vance sat down in a chair opposite Samuel. Things got slightly awkward from there with Ophiuchus watching the two trying not to interact with each other. A hearty laugh escaped his lips and slowly tears fell down his face as he laughed. He imagined things would be difficult for him to figure out but the whole idea just seemed ridiculous now.

How was he meant to gather twelve different people who happened to be citizens of his world? A better question would be how would he train them to use magic? If Ophiuchus was lucky maybe could forget the whole thing and get lucky tonight. As thoughts of settling on Earth fluttered through his mind a searing pain ran through his head. He let out a pained yell and fell to his knees. Samuel and Vance watched him cautiously and backed away when they saw a green aura surrounding him. Ophiuchus scream as his magic overloaded and caused a small explosion. The two boys were flung back from the force of the blast but came out unscathed. Ophiuchus swung his head in both of their directions as he felt tremendous amounts of mana coming from both of them. He stared in awe as they floated to the ground safely. Maybe things wouldn't be so difficult after all.

***
Scorpio swam to the surface of the pool and slowly emerged from the water again. He blinked when he saw a towel outstretched to him and followed the arm it was hanging onto. He got out of the pool and took the towel from the person, proceeding to dry his hair.

"You ok? You were under there for a long time."

Scorpio thought about the question. Was he really ok? Could they life they're all living now really be called normal?