Folklore Forest | A Zodiac Story

A Fool's Errand

Libra finished cutting everyone's palms to release the blood into the cauldron. She looks up at everyone and thanks them. She started mixing it together with different ingredients pulled from the shelf, most of which Capricorn didn't comprehend.

"Is there anything else you may need?" Bobby asked, lowering his head so that it wouldn't hit a pot hanging from the ceiling.

"Yes, actually," Libra said, as the mixture turned purple. "I'm short a few ingredients."

"What can we do?" Capricorn volunteered.

"I need the blood of a siren, a fairy, a witch, and a dryad. They all have to be under 17. Also, there's a list of ingredients at my house I need," Libra told them.

"I thought this was your house?" Sarah asked, looking around.

"This is my bomb shelter," Libra explained. "Whenever trouble stirs with Virgo, I hide here. Bobby should know where my house is, I'm sure Sagittarius has brought him there."

"I will go to the house and grab your list, but may I have someone accompany me?" Bobby asked. "I may have a bit of, uh, trouble reading it."

Cassie raised her hand to volunteer. "I'll go. Pixies can't get very far on their own anyways. Why do you think we steal ponies?"

Bobby cracked a smile and thanked her. Capricorn allowed her to climb onto Bobby's shoulder. He looked at the rest of us while he opened the door. "Until we meet again."

Capricorn watched them leave. He wasn't sure what to do. They needed a witch. And all the witches in the forest were 17 or older.

"How are we supposed to get dryad blood?" Sarah asked. "They're such a rare species."

Capricorn snapped back to reality. "What's a dryad?"

"Creatures of the trees," Libra explained. "They often appeared in Greek mythology as the women Zeus lusted over. They're few and in between because once our worlds split, do did the dryads. It's incredibly to move trees into a new dimension, but some witches allowed them to move between the worlds. Something went wrong with the spell, and now many dryads are in hibernation because their mind is split between worlds."

"How do you find one?" Capricorn asked in confusion.

"There's a lot of ways," Libra said, as the mixture started to bubble. "Usually you can just hug the trees until one pushes you away. But I already know of a dryad who may be willing to help."

Libra slid the remaining children a picture of a girl with medium brown skin, black hair, and freckles. She almost looked human, but her eyes were a green so startling that you could see the forest in it. Her arm had marks all up it, which at first looked like stretch marks, but Capricorn soon realized that they were mirroring tree bark. In the picture, she wore a pink toga, like the ones the Greeks and Roman's wore.

"They call her Angel," Libra said. "And she owes me a favor."

"What do you mean a favor?" Devan said, almost amused. A witch who makes deals, this was new.

"I helped her out a bit. She owes me," Libra said. "You've gotta keep the balance in life somehow."

"The balance?" Capricorn asked. There was so much about this forest he had yet to comprehend. It was somewhat annoying him.

"Every creature in the forest has a purpose. On earth, we were made to make it a bountiful and beautiful sanctuary, but that went downhill fast," Libra explained. "Witches were made to keep the balance of nature. Pixies are used to create more creatures. Fae are used to steal more people for the pixies. Fairies are made to determine a person's worth. Centaurs are the warriors and adventurers of our people, and so on."