Zodiac Hunter: The Spirit Equine

His face was hard and set, not as casual as it had been during our first meeting. He was much taller now that I was not on horseback as he carefully took a couple of steps towards me, weary of my travelling companion. He regarded both Pisces and me, his silver-tinted armor glinting under the dim-lit canopy. "I thought I told you to stay out of trouble."

"Let her go!" Pisces snapped, though not showing any possible signs of hostility, except for her clothes and eyes glowing with a little more intensity.

"They can talk?" gasped one of the soldiers who was standing closest to the General. I also recognized him from the first day of the Harvest, this time without his helm on. He was almost as tall as the General but with thick dark hair that was pulled back into equally thick cornrows.

"Never seen one so up close!" he added, squinting his dark sunken eyes. He had a huge scar across his nose bridge that seemed to run across the left side of his face before disappearing into his bushy beard. "Let's take it down, already!"

"Calm down, Neldor," the General held him back with a hand after the latter brandished a sword.

Neldor continued to wave his sword and I could tell from the look on his face, he was silently battling with his superior, eagerly awaiting the command to take action.

"That is enough!" came yet another new voice, one that I hadn't heard at all before.

Soldiers stepped aside, saluting in respect by hoisting poles fitted with red flags and on them I could make out a certain symbol: two swords crossing each other over what appeared to be the shape of an animal's head—a wolf's head.

Riding atop a chestnut stallion that was decorated with all kinds of fancy jewelry was a man. He had on a golden crown over his thick flowing mane of hair that had streaks of white, eyes hard as steel and full of power and authority like the long purple robe he wore. He called his horse to come to a halt.

His attention was directed towards Pisces. He did not seem at all unfazed to see me standing there that close to the beings that they all appeared to fear so much.

"Is that him?" the crowned man spoke, shifting his eyes towards me and a response followed immediately after. "Yes," another new voice, but one I thought I recognized as another horse appeared right next to the crowned man with a female rider and as if my day could not have gotten any worse, it was the same woman I had ran into at the market and had started blabbing about some kind of weird crush she had been having on me but I'd turned her down and she had ended up setting loose some soldiers after me. Such a small world. . .

"Yes," she repeated, glaring down at me, "That's him, father."

Wait, what. . .?

The crowned man dismounted his horse and turned to look at Ethel who was still being held back. He walked over to her, his expression still hard and unrelenting.

"What have you done this time, witch?" the man spoke, his voice just as commanding as the General's.

"Oh, you know me," Ethel shrugged, talking ever so casually, even adding a toothy grin, "always cleaning up your mess, O Mighty Chieftain."

The two soldiers holding back Ethel tightened their blades around her neck, threatening to slit her throat.

The crowned man finally let up, letting a chuckle escape him as he wheeled around, returning his attention to Pisces and me. "You're not entirely wrong there. You did manage to capture one of them."

"Leave her alone!" Pisces snapped again, with more heat this time.

Neldor almost lost it and drew out his sword again, after which I didn't even realize when I had stepped in front of Pisces and held out Despyon's shield.

Neldor did not wait to be dismissed by the Chieftain, not after what he saw next, and so did the General, Ethel, the other soldiers and the Chieftain himself.

"The rumors are true," said the Chieftain, looking at me with interest, "they have corrupted you."

I caught the reflection of my glowing arm from the shield but I remained unfazed, with Pisces still behind me.

"Back off!" I muttered under my breath, getting that incredible feeling just like back when I had been surrounded by the villagers.

"First you break my daughter's heart and now you side with this. . ." the Chieftain cast a disgusted look at Pisces. "You shall pay for that, boy."

I could feel Pisces try to move past me but I held her back, brandishing the shield and drawing the Chieftain's attention back to me. His daughter chuckled silently while still on her horse.

"Take them!" the Chieftain ordered, turning back to the soldiers.

There was a brief moment of silence as if everyone was pondering on what to do, everyone except Ethel. From the corner of my eye, I had spotted her do something with her hands which had been pinned to her sides by the two men who held her.

"Did you not hear what I just said?" the Chieftain boomed.

I looked at the rest of the soldiers. They were hesitant. They were afraid—afraid of Pisces—not knowing what she could do. I didn't know what she could do but I knew both of us had to be ready for what was coming.

Turning to Pisces, our eyes met and I knew we were both thinking the same thing. If we were going down, then we would do so with a fight.

"You heard the Chieftain," the General spoke, fishing out his two axes from his back. They both had double blades that were curved and looked so sharp, you'd think that they had been designed to cut you just from looking at them.

"Let's get them!" Neldor joined him, menacingly swinging his sword. He had an unsettling look on his face. A look of hunger—the killing kind. He moved ahead of the General, coming at me first.

He swung his blade, growling with delight as he did so. I brought Despyon's shield forward, ready to receive the impact.

With my eyes closed, I waited for the sound of metal clanging against metal but it never came. Instead, there was a gasp, followed by several other cries of shock. I opened my eyes.

Calling it the most spectacular sight would have been an understatement. I watched in utter amazement as the sword that had been meant for me slowly turn into water, dripping to the ground where Neldor stood, totally bewildered until his hands held nothing but drops of water.

There was some kind of shimmering coming from my side and I turned to find Pisces with her arms extended forward. Her hands were aglow with what appeared to be energy, spiraling and circling her wrists down to her fingers in bright neon blue radiance.

"Like he said," she spoke firmly, "back off!"

The Chieftain was in as much shock as the rest of his subjects but that did not at all deter him from ordering them to apprehend us with whatever means necessary.

"Take action, General," he barked, "now!"

The General regarded Pisces and me, taking his time to assess the situation and I could have sworn I had caught him lower his ax blades just an inch lower.

"General!" the Chieftain was growing impatient. His daughter remained silent but I could still catch that undying resentment on her face towards me.

By the time the General was making his move, Neldor had already made his. He yanked at one of the General's axes and rushed towards us.

I steadied the shield, not sure what good it would do me this time but Pisces on the other hand, looked more than ready to take on the raging soldier. She even stepped in front of me this time and I watched as radiant blue energy rose up her arms and into her hands.

She had been about to do the unthinkable to Neldor before something interrupted the entire assault.

"FATHER!" the Chieftain's daughter screamed out sharply, getting everyone's attention.

I turned to look at him and the sight had me wondering whether to laugh or be even more terrified than I was at the moment. He appeared to be struggling to breath, with his hands frantically pulling at his purple robe whose long loose ends had somehow found themselves wrapped around his neck. He was being strangled! But how?

The answer to that presented itself after it turned out to be that Ethel was the one pulling the strings. She had managed to get one arm free with which she had summoned her staff.

"Let them go!" she commanded, pointing the staff at the struggling Chieftain.

Neldor snarled and had almost charged at the Seer before the General stopped him, pulling him back by the shoulder.

The Chieftain started letting out choking noises. I could spot his eyeballs rolling upwards into his head. His daughter was so petrified that it was hard to believe she was the same person who had ordered a whole troop of soldiers after me.

Ethel unflinchingly held her staff in place, unleashing all kinds of hell onto the chieftain. "Call off your men! Call them off!"

The Chieftain squealed. His movements were growing weaker with every second. He tried to open his mouth but the words wouldn't come out.

"I said, call them—" Ethel shook his head, "oh, sorry about that. Now, call them off!"

She withdrew her staff by an inch and the robe's ends seemed to loosen around the Chieftain's neck, just enough for him to speak. "Stand. . .stand down. Let them go!"

All the soldiers drew back, including the General and Neldor.

Pisces and me turned to Ethel, waiting for her to join us but she surprised us by tossing her staff towards us.

The magic or whatever effect it had had on the Chieftain seemed to have waned out at once the moment the Seer had relinquished it from her possession. The Chieftain went down on his knees, gasping and coughing while feeling his throat.

His daughter jumped from her horse and rushed to his side but he angrily dismissed her with one hand. "Leave me alone!"

Still on the ground, the Chieftain looked up at Pisces and me, his reddened face a mask of absolute loathing. He looked like he was about to explode any second, unleashing all the fury that was boiling inside of him.

"Get them," he muttered, "get them now!"

Ethel tried to break free from her captors but ended up getting jabbed hard in her torso by the hilt of a sword.

"Hands on the staff!" she managed to yell.

I turned to the staff and instantly knew what to do. I held on to it like I had done before. Neldor was charging at us, followed by the rest of the soldiers, all except for the General, who, for some reason remained rooted to the ground. He had a mysterious expression on his face.

They were almost upon us. I grabbed Pisces by the arm, pulling her out of her fighting stance and just like that, the link had been established. It was now all up to the staff to take care of the rest.

Just like before, I felt my insides get pulled and twisted. The soldiers started getting stretched out just as everything else around me and then. . .

I heard a tiny booming sound before hitting something hard. Something else had then hit me from the back. I discovered I had fallen to the ground and Pisces had fallen on top of me, knocking the wind out of me.

"Ouch. . ."

"Sorry," she muttered, getting up. "What happened? Where are the soldiers?"

She held out her hand, helping me get up as I noticed the blue energy on her start to wane, similar to my insignia.

"I have no idea. I don't even know where we are." I swept my eyes. There were tress everywhere. Trees that stretched high up into the sky that was growing darker by the minute.

Ethel was nowhere in sight. I still had her staff, right before it vanished in my hands, turning into a puff of dark smoke that dissipated into the air. Great, now we're totally alone.

"We shouldn't have left her," Pisces spoke and I could detect a riff of anger in her tone.

"Yeah, well, we can't go back either."

"No," Pisces looked into the vastness of the trees, "it's my time now."

"Time for what?"

She turned to look at me. Her eyes had started glowing in contrast to the darkening environment. "To do what Sage had sent me here to do."

"And what's that?"

"To—aaah!" Pisces let out a soft cry, feeling her forehead where her insignia had started to glow. She stumbled backwards.

"Hey, you okay?" I carefully approached her but nearly fell down myself after her whole body lit up like Christmas, washing the trees and undergrowth in bright blue light.

She remained transfixed to the ground, her eyes glowing so brightly they were almost white. She looked to be in some kind of trance, totally immobile.

I dared to touch her and I instantly regretted it for the moment I did, I felt something shoot up my arm like a bolt of lightning, short-circuiting all of my senses. I was then no longer myself, or at least it didn't feel like it.

Images started to flash in front of me like a montage video being fast-forwarded in my mind. It all happened so fast that I did not catch anything, almost. The images then disappeared and I was snapped out of that crazy mind warping trance.

I found myself on the ground. Pisces was still standing but no longer shining like a human. . .Zodiac. . .torch, whatever—you know what I mean.

"We have to move," she said shortly, not bothering to check if I was okay or anything; not that it mattered.

"And go-" I asked, dusting myself off in frustration as I got back up for the umpteenth time, "where?"

"They know you're here."

"What? Who?"

Pisces started walking as if I wasn't literally standing just a foot away from her.

A wolf howled from somewhere. I looked over my shoulder, trying to figure out the way we'd come from but that was impossible. We had freaking teleported ourselves out of Abinor. I could not go back. There was nothing for me there. I was now a fugitive.

The path ahead surely can't be that bad. The soldiers and the mean chief were long gone. The worst had come to pass, right? Right. . .?

Pisces was already disappearing into the woods, save for her glow that had then reduced to a dimming light. I hurried after her, stumbling over what I had thought was a rock but turned out to be Despyon's shield.

Picking it up, I stared at the reflection on the broken steely surface and I saw Despyon's face. The face that I myself had been wearing for the past. . .how many days had I even been there so far? I tried to extract an expression from his face. Nothing. It was a dirtied look with eyes that had seen more than they could handle. The Despyon that had been talking to me seemed to have long vanished since I'd left the shore.

I was now stuck with Pisces. A literal Zodiac in the flesh—my only hope of ever finding my way back home and out of this terrifying place. Seriously, what more could the universe throw at me. . .?