Zodiac Hunter: The Spirit Equine

I could feel a strange connection to those words. The words that the Seer had recited ever so clearly.

"What was that again?" I asked, my mind processing every single word, wondering where the connection could possibly be coming from.

"I am afraid we are but out of time," Ethel had walked past me, her staff in hand. I watched her peer over the hollow opening in the room.

"You have to get out of here, now," Ethel said, her back to us, "both of you."

"What is it?" Pisces asked, startling me a little and out of my thoughts. The Seer's words had had me in such a stupor I had nearly forgotten that I had just saved a woman who was actually not exactly a woman but a personified version of the Zodiac entity, Pisces, and that she was from another world—at least that's how I had understood it.

***

"You still don't see it, do you?" Pisces said, plunging my mind into confusion that would only be furthered by the Seer.

Ethel paced the room, her dark cloak sweeping the earthen floor while caressing her staff. "At the dawn of every twentieth summer, the land of Abinor falls under attack from an enemy. An enemy that comes to claim the poor souls of the village folk for a period of twelve nights before returning to their world from whence they came."

Now, I had no idea what the Seer had been saying but given the solemn look Pisces kept throwing at me, I knew I had to pay attention.

"They come, they feed, they leave," Ethel went on, still pacing, "in the middle of every twentieth summer, over and over again. But lately, and by lately I mean the last twenty summers , something seems to have changed. Something that I was told would happen and had only found it to be nothing short of whimsical until, well. . ." she stopped pacing and turned to look directly at me, "until you came along."

He had told me someone would come. Someone who would end this reign of terror and return Abinor to its days of glory. He had even showed me a glimpse of how it would all start. How liberty would be restored."

"Wait," I had to cut in, shaking my head, "who is this he you keep referring to? Is it someone I should know. . .?"

Ethel had a strange mysterious expression on her face as she shifted her gaze to Pisces. "Not yet, but the Zodiac certainly does."

I turned to catch the worried look on the Zodiac's face. She looked away, shifting her gaze over to one side of the room, looking at nothing in particular. Her skin was still radiating with that surreal blue glow.

"He told me I would know where to look when the time was right," she said, her voice distant. "and I did what he told me. I looked until, well. . ." she turned to look at me.

"Until what?" I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Oh dear," sighed the Seer, "not particularly the sharpest tool in the shed, are you?"

"Hey. . .!"

"You are the one that he foretold would come. You are the one the Zodiac was sent to find," Ethel approached me, regarding me with her dark grey eyes, tracing them all the way down to my feet then resting them on my emblazoned right arm.

"Honestly," Ethel grabbed at my arm, studying it like some kind of sophisticated piece of technology, "I had nearly given up on it ever happening."

"On what ever happening?" I asked, trying to gently withdraw my arm but Ethel's frail-looking fingers had a surprisingly firm grip.

"The prophecy, of course," Ethel looked back up at me, "he had said to look out for the one who would bear his mark."

I looked down at my arm. "You mean this? This arrow tattoo thingy?"

"That is no tattoo," Pisces offered, having been eerily quiet for a while, "that is his insignia. An extension and revelation of his existence and power—our existence. We all bear a unique insignia." She gently felt for her head, placing a finger over the symbol that rested there. The strange, yet familiar symbol that I had seen on her from when I had first met her—two vertical lines curving outwards, with another line cutting across them horizontally in the middle.

It was then by looking at the symbol this time that I began to understand what was happening, even if it was just a tiny fraction. She bore the symbol of Pisces. She was Pisces. Man, this was so trippy!

"If you are Pisces," I returned my attention to my arm, "then that means this tat—this mark on me belongs to. . ."

"Sage," Pisces finished, cutting me off before I could say Sagittarius.

"What?"

"Sage—he is. . ." Pisces paused before quickly adding, "was the leader of the Zodiac and my. . ." she trailed off again, "and that mark on your arm was his insignia. He told me I would find you but I didn't think it was possible for any of us to be able to transfer their own insignia over to another, let alone a human."

Pisces regarded me with an expression that was somewhere between confused and a little intrigued, "You must have been really special to have become the bearer of such an insignia."

"Umm. . ." I frowned, getting even more perplexed, "I'm only above average, though I hope my yearbook will say differently at Stonewall High."

"What is this high wall of stone?" asked Pisces, her dazed expression breaking.

"It's—never mind," I shook my head, returning to the subject at hand, "so, ya'll are saying what. . .? That I am some kind of 'chosen one' who's gonna save this place or something?"

"See, now you're getting it," Ethel chimed, "you seem to have a knowledge on the Zodiac too! I am starting to really see it all now, just as the prophecy foretold."

"What prophecy?" I watched as the Seer quickly dug into her large cloak and began rummaging in there, apparently looking for something.

"Ah, here it is," she fished out some kind of folded parchment that had been tied by a tiny piece of thread.

She handed it over to me.

"What is this?"

"Open it."

I did so, unfolding the parchment which was no bigger than the length of my palm and on it were certain inscriptions done in very crude cursive font. I was about to read aloud but the Seer beat me to it, reciting out word for word without even looking at the parchment:

"In twenty summers shall Abinor rise,

by the descent of a hunter's enemy from high.

Forged from the spirit equine,

enlightened by the ways of water and life.

To undo blood with blood alike,

and to eternal peace shall Abinor thrive."

I went through it again, silently, then looked from Pisces to Ethel, awaiting an explanation. "This doesn't—what is this supposed to mean?"

"Urgh!" spat the Seer, frustrated, "and here I thought we were making progress but alas, my boy. . ." she paused, "one doesn't see it all at once altogether. That is why I believe you have her."

I turned to Pisces for an answer but her face was calm and not at all in any rush to give me some pointers. This got me feeling like I was back in middle school when I used to flunk at math so badly and the teacher never made it easy for me by making me solve problems on the board in front of the whole class.

There was one other thing bugging me, something that nobody else seemed to want to address. "You say your people have been under attack by her people for all these years, right?"

Ethel nodded. Pisces lowered her head, averting her blue eyes.

I turned to Pisces, "Why then help the humans? Why help me?"

It looked like she was about to say something, her eyes still not meeting mine. I would have waited for her answer but a lot was going through my mind at the moment.

I turned to the parchment and skimmed through the words again, and there it was, that strange feeling. Why did I feel somewhat connected to those words and what they were saying?

***

"What was that again?" I asked, my mind processing every single word, wondering where the connection could possibly be coming from but that would have to wait for there was another problem.

Ethel was warning us of something as she returned from looking through the opening. I could even catch Jon whinnying outside. He sounded nervous.

She responded to Pisces's question, telling us we had to leave immediately.

"They've found us," Ethel said, shuffling around the room, picking up strange objects and thrusting them down her cloak where they disappeared magically. "They're here sooner than I expected."

"Who's here?" I asked while Pisces headed over to look through the opening in the wall.

"The Order," was Ethel's response.

I remembered Freya telling me about the Order. They were the Chieftain's army—Abinor's National Guard if you may.

I watched Ethel crack open a hatch that, just like everything else at her place, seemed to magically pop up out of nowhere.

"This is a back exit. Get through it, now."

Pisces rushed over and both of us squeezed our way out.

"Follow the path ahead, there's a grove that will lead you into the forest," Ethel said, standing by the hatch.

"You're not coming?" I asked.

"Well, someone has to draw them away, plus, now that you have her, I think my work here is more than—"

There was a banging sound coming from the other end of the room, followed by the sound of horse hooves and people shouting angrily.

"You need to—oh, before I forget," Ethel directed her staff at me and a sudden beam of light had shot off from it and into my hands where I was then holding a steely piece of broken metal.

"Despyon's shield," I remarked. I must have forgotten it at the shore while trying to revive Pisces. "How did you—"

"Sometimes you'll find it is the little things that matter the most. Now, go!" Ethel ordered. I could hear someone from the other end demanding that she come out but that was it after Ethel slammed the hatch shut.

It was then just Pisces and me. Her form cast a neon blue glow, spreading light to reveal a darkened canopy that was lined with undergrowth, bushes and climbing plants.

"Let's go," I said, leading the way, having no idea where we would end up.

We had started rushing off when there was another sudden loud sound, sharper this time. It sounded like Ethel.

Pisces stopped moving, standing rooted to the ground.

"Umm. . .it's this way," I offered, turning around.

Pisces looked back to the large oak tree that was Ethel's house. "We have to help her."

"But she told us to go," I responded.

There was yet another wail and some kind of blast. Several horses could be heard neighing.

Pisces looked at me and there they were again, those eyes that looked like two orbs of burning sapphire.

"Okay, alright!" I gave in. "what do we—"

She was already running off around the tree to the other side. "Wait!" How was this even happening?

By the time I had made it around the oak tree, I was met by a not-so-pleasant sight, just to put it lightly. I had caught up to Pisces and we were both standing a few feet away from a group of soldiers, about two dozen of them, with their horses surrounding the whole area.

My eyes found Ethel whose staff had been taken from her. She was being held back by two men who had both their swords at her throat. She was still alive.

"You again?" called a deep voice, one that I recognized all too well as I watched a man step forth from the rest of the soldiers, his signature ax blades crisscrossed over his back. The soldier that had stopped me the first day of the Harvest. The General, so they had called him.