Shooting Star - Aries
#2 of Shooting Star
Shooting Star - Aries
Aries (the ram) loves freedom, and will accept any challenge. Aries will get impatient if your ideas do not work out immediately and as expected. You are unwilling to follow someone else's suggestions, especially if they do not make sense to you. You often have excess energy which can make you aggressive. Arians are brave leaders who express care and concern for all they lead. However, an Arian as a follower is rare, and can be troublesome. Some Arians will act self-centered because they believe their views are right, and anyone who conflicts with them is wrong. Because you are open and honest, you will make energetic and generous friends. Arians have trouble compromising which can lead to problems in otherwise smooth friendships.
I'm going to introduce the new characters of this chapter:
Ryan - Age 18, Blonde hair, Blue Eyes, Freshman majoring in astronomy
Sarah- Age 18, Blonde hair, Blue Eyes, Ryan's twin and also majoring in astronomy
Chris- Age 19, Black hair, Brown Eyes, Ryan's best friend and a major flirt
Ariel- Age 18, Red Hair, Green Eyes, Sarah's best friend
Prof. Harkin- Age 29, Black Hair, Blue Eyes, Astronomy teacher of Ryan and Sarah
Aries- Age ??? (Appears 21), Brown Fur/Hair, Hazel Eyes, Special power to be revealed
The annoying buzz of the alarm clock filled the bedroom. Its inhabitant, Sarah, tossed in her bed as she proceeded to hit the damn snooze button. When the insistent buzzing was finally silenced she shifted back into a comfortable position in hopes for a few more minutes of rest.
"Sorry to do this, Sarah" Sarah's eyes burned when her bedroom lights were suddenly turned on by her twin brother.
"What the hell, Ryan!?" Sarah said irritably as she rubbed her eyes, trying to adjust to the sudden light. "Can't I sleep for a few more minutes?"
"You have... That's the fourth time you hit the snooze button." Ryan crossed his arms and smirked. "Or haven't you noticed the time?"
Sarah looked at her clock as her vision was starting to clear up. Her eyes went wide when she saw it was quarter to eight. "Crap! We're going to be late for class!"
"We?" Ryan asked sarcastically. "I'm all ready to go. You're the one who only has thirty minutes to get ready... not that I would have trouble getting ready in that amount of time.
"Oh shut up!" Sarah said as she quickly got out of bed and opened her closet. "Guys have less to worry about in the morning than girls." Sarah picked out her clothes for the day.
"True... I guess, but it wouldn't be a problem if you got up in time." Ryan watched with amusement as his sister rushed around her room frantically getting things ready. "You shouldn't stay up so late."
"The midterm is in four weeks and I'm trying to cram everything I can to pass it." Sarah rushed past Ryan to the bathroom and closed the door behind her."
Ryan walked up to the door. "You don't need to work so hard, you know." Ryan heard the water start and he walked downstairs. The dorm house they lived in them was very lonely. Their combined scholarships made it possible for the two of them to live in a dorm house. The problem was that they lived in a dorm house meant for five people. Their parents paid a little extra to make sure no one else could move in with them. Ryan sighed as he flopped down on the couch as he waited for Sarah. He would have left if it weren't for the fact that both of them were in all of the same classes. "We just both had to pursue the same major" Ryan chuckled, his eyes starting to close. He hadn't gotten as much sleep as he wanted to last night either, but he wasn't as extreme as Sarah.
"Wake up, you hypocrite!" Ryan felt a sudden slap on his head. He opened his eyes and stood up. "You get upset for me sleeping to late and here you are sleeping."
Ryan smiled. "I fell asleep because I got bored waiting for you." He looked at the clock on the wall. "And we're already ten minutes late now." Ryan picked up his stuff as the two made their way out the door.
"That's not my fault." Sarah said. "You could have left while I was in the shower." Sarah hugged herself as they continued to proceed through the campus. "It's freezing!"
"It's not that bad. You're skin is probably still a bit wet."
"Not bad!?" Sarah pointed over to the small campus lake. "The lake's surface has already frozen over!" Ryan looked over at the lake and laughed. He then started to hug himself just like Sarah. She punched him in the shoulder. "Stop trying to act cool; it doesn't work."
"Whatever. Besides I couldn't leave without you."
"Aw, that's sweet. You didn't want me to get in trouble by myself did you?"
"Actually I didn't want to have to explain to Prof. Harkin why you were late when we live in the same house. I would have gotten chewed out by him during class. At least now I can share the pain." Ryan smiled. Sarah punched him the shoulder again.
"How do you like that pain?" Sarah smirked as Ryan started to rub his shoulder. A minute of silence went by before Sarah started up a new conversation. "You excited about tonight's class trip?"
Ryan shrugged his shoulders. "I guess. I just don't like the idea of driving all the way outside the city just to watch something that the professor says will supposedly happen. What did he say again?"
"He said that when he was younger he witnessed a star being made instantaneously."
Ryan chuckled. "He's an astronomer and he actually believes that's possible? Stars take millions of years to form."
"I know, and he's stated that too, but he does believe that there are stars that form instantaneously. We're getting credit for just attending it."
"Easy A then." Ryan said as they finally approached the astronomy building.
"So great for the two of you to finally join us" Prof Harkin said as they took their seats within the class of twenty-four. "Do I have to get the two of you a watch?"
"Actually, a better alarm clock would be helpful." Sarah said. Ryan and rest of the class chuckled. Harkin gave a brief chuckle before resuming his lesson."
"Not bad, Sarah." Ryan whispered. "A comment worthy of myself."
"I guess you're rubbing off on me..." Sarah sighed at her comment as proceeded to take notes with the rest of the class.
Near the end of class Harkin wiped the board and turned to his students. "Just a reminder to everyone to not forget about tonight's trip. You will receive no credit if you do not show up in front of this building at six tonight. Bring your notes and a telescope if you have one. I will take the front and lead all of you to the site. You can discuss carpooling with each other after class." The bells chimed. "Class dismissed."
When the two got back home they went straight ahead to getting their things ready. They loaded their electronic telescope in the back of the Acura MDX that they had to share. When they were done they had four hours to kill. "What do you want to do to pass the time?" Ryan asked Sarah.
"Sleep..." Sarah said as she collapsed on the couch. Ryan smiled and followed her lead by lying down on the couch opposite of the one Sarah was lying on. He set the alarm on his cell phone just in case.
They managed to arrive ten minutes before the scheduled time. All of the other students were standing outside talking amongst each other, waiting for the Professor. The two of them decided to get out of the car and join the others.
"Ryan, my man!" Ryan smiled when his best friend, Chris, strolled towards them. "I see you and your fine sister are doing well." Chris looked to Sarah. "I was worried when you didn't show up for class this morning. I was so relieved that you were just running late." Sarah rolled her eyes and decided to go chat with her friends. "She digs me."
"Sure she does, Chris. Sure she does." Ryan shook his head slowly. "You know I don't like it when you hit on my sister right in front of me, right?"
"Right. Right. But when I see her you're always with her. How am I supposed to hit on her when I never see her alone?"
Ryan thought to himself. "Hopefully you'll never get the chance... Something Sarah and I can both hope for." Ryan shrugged in response to Chris.
Meanwhile Sarah was talking with her friend, Ariel. "I'm getting tired of him saying all those things to me."
"At least your brother is around to keep him tame." Ariel said. "Nothing stops him from going all out around me and the rest of the girls." Sarah's body shook at the thought of what Ariel had to go through around Chris. "He seems to be very focused on you for some reason."
"He probably sees me as a challenge. He's just waiting for a time when I'm alone and then he'll make his move." Her body shook again. "You know who I would rather be alone with, right?" Sarah looked past Ariel at another guy.
Ariel turned around. "Hector? He sure is cute, but isn't he another of your brother's friends?"
"Yeah. They hang out from time to time, but it's nothing like Chris."
The two of them started to check out Hector for a while until a car honked its horns, getting the attention of every student. "Alright students, let's get moving!" Sarah made her way back to Ryan as all the students got into their cars. One-by-one they followed each other out of the campus, and onto the nearby freeway.
After an hour drive they found themselves at a large campsite at the edge of the forest. Ryan and Sarah got out and stretched their legs along with the other students. Harkin got out in front of the students. "Now I know the odds of seeing a star form instantaneously is astronomical so as a side project I want you all to get into groups of two and study any constellation of your choice. Identify the individual stars that make up the constellation and try to draw a diagram as best you can of the constellation. I want you all to spread out so as to not engage in petty conversations amongst each other. Now go!"
"So much for an easy A..." Ryan sighed. He took the telescope out from the car. "So where do you want to go?"
Sarah looked around. "Everyone's seems to be setting up in this area... so let's set up over there." Sarah pointed towards a patch a couple hundred feet away from where they parked.
Ryan looked at the distance and felt the weight of the telescope. "Great..." He carried it the entire way. He sighed with relief when he was finally able to set the thing down on the ground.
"So which constellation do you want to do?" Sarah asked as she sat on the ground.
"I don't know. Which ones are out right now?" The two looked up into the sky, looking for familiar constellations.
"Well there's Cancer, Leo, and Gemini, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Pegasus, Pisces, and Aries..." Sarah paused.
"What's wrong?" Ryan asked noticing his sister's silence.
"Look." She pointed to the sky. "A shooting star." They both gazed at the object flying through the sky surrounded by blue flames.
"Wow..." They watched as the shooting star started to glow brighter and brighter. "Oh crap!" Ryan said as they both realized it was heading in their direction. They held each other and watched as the object flew over them and emitted a bright flash as it crashed about three hundred from where they stood.
"Is it over?" Sarah asked as she opened her eyes.
"Yeah." Ryan said as the two of them let go of each other. "So did you make a wish?" Ryan laughed a little trying to lighten the mood of what almost happened. It didn't work. Sarah just stood there, trying to collect herself.
"I never want to encounter anything from space that close again." She gave let out a long sigh when she finally calmed down. "Where are you going!?" she said with panic as she saw Ryan walking off.
"I'm going to go check it out. It's not every day you get to experience something like this."
"That thing almost killed us!"
"Then it should make it up to us by making us famous. Anything from space is valuable."
"I don't know, Ryan..." Sarah was still a little shaken up from what happened less than a minute earlier.
"The others must have seen it too. They'll be here within minutes. If we don't act fast they'll get there first. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Sarah!"
"I still don't know..."
"Fine. I'll go alone. Just remember that I won't be around once the rest of the class arrives..." Ryan started to run off towards the crash site.
Sarah's eyes went wide as images of Chris' flirting with her suddenly filled her mind. She shook the images out of her head and quickly ran off to catch off with Ryan.
The two made their way through the lightly dense forest. "What'll you do with your millions?" Ryan asked Sarah.
"You don't even know if we'll get anything for it... my own house in the Caribbean..."
Ryan laughed as he thought of what he wanted to get. "I guess I would get a-" Ryan cut himself off and came to sudden stop.
"What's wrong?" Sarah stopped and walked back towards Ryan.
"Listen..." The two were silent. They heard a couple of voices coming from the direction of the crash site which was only about thirty feet away now.
"Is someone there?" Sarah shouted out.
"Oh great, Sarah, just let them know we're here." The two started to walk towards the site now. "Some of the other students must have gotten there before us... goodbye fortune and fame..."
Darrius, Castor, and Pollux heard the footsteps getting closer. "What do we do?" Darrius asked.
"We see if they're willing to help us" Pollux said. "Hopefully humans have become more accepting over the centuries..."
"All right, who got here before us?" Ryan said as they reached the crash site. "Chris if it's you I swear..."
"We do not know of any Chris" Pollux said.
Ryan raised an eyebrow. The voice was one he didn't recognize. The two of them saw three figures a few feet in front of them, but it was so dark they couldn't make them out.
"You don't sound like anyone from class..." Sarah. "Who are you?"
"I am Pollux and this is Castor. We are both guardians of prince Darrius."
Ryan and Sarah looked at each other with confusion as they finally got a good look at the three mysterious figures. Sarah let out an audible gasp while Ryan chuckled. "What is this? Halloween was weeks ago."
The three of them looked at each other. "What's Halloween?" Castor asked with curiosity.
"Right..." Ryan said. Could you guys just take off those disguises.
"I assure you, we are not wearing disguises." Pollux said.
Ryan sighed as he approached Castor. "Enough with the act" Ryan reached for Castor's head. "Just take off the costumes..." Ryan put his hands on either side of Castor's head and tried lifting it up. He felt the soft furry and muscles that no costume could mimic.
"That kind of hurts, you know." Castor said. Ryan's eyes slowly widened as his hands dropped to his side. He slowly backed up.
"What's wrong, Ryan?" Sarah asked with worry.
"They're not wearing costumes. They're real." Sarah's eyes started to go wide as well. "Run Sarah!" Sarah turned around and tried to run, but was immediately stopped when Pollux appeared in front of her and restrained her. Castor restrained Ryan. Sarah tried to scream, but was silenced when Pollux placed his hand over her mouth.
"Please don't scream" Pollux said. "We do not wish to hurt either one of you. The three of us are stranded on this planet and you two are our best link to your people's culture. Now I'm going to let you go. Just please don't panic." Pollux slowly let go of Sarah. She was silent.
Castor let go of Ryan. "This is going a lot better than last time, Pollux." Just then the five of them heard more people approaching. "Spoke too soon, I guess..."
"Damn. From the reaction you two gave us, we can't afford for anyone else to see us."
"What are we going to do?" Darrius asked. "We just can't keep hiding. We'll be noticed eventually."
"We're aware of that, young master. We'll have to resort to some illusion magic." Pollux and Castor stood on either side of Darrius. Pollux and Castor held up their left hand towards each other and snapped with their right hand at the same time. A shroud of light surrounded the three of them causing Ryan and Sarah to close their eyes.
When they opened their eyes they stood there in awe. No longer were three wolves standing in front of them but three humans, clothes and all. Darrius examined himself. "I don't get it; what was supposed to happen?"
"What's going on here!?" Harkin asked as he the rest of the students arrived. Darrius went stiff with fear of being discovered. He got confused when he saw Castor and Pollux just standing there all calm. Harkin's attention fell upon the three faces he didn't recognize. "Who are you three?"
The three of them were silent. Castor and Pollux looked over to Ryan and Sarah for help. "They're our... cousins, professor." Ryan said.
"And what are they doing here?"
"They came unexpectedly this afternoon." Sarah said. "We didn't want to leave them alone at the dorm so we brought them along with us."
"Why didn't you introduce me to your cousins, Ryan?" Chris asked.
"They were sleeping in the back of the car. They traveled a great distance to come see us so they were kind of tired. We didn't want to disturb them while they were sleeping."
"I hope it isn't a problem, professor..." Sarah said.
Harkin looked at the three suspiciously. "Make sure you tell me next time when you plan to bring anyone along with you."
"Yes sir." Ryan said as the two nodded their heads.
"What about the shooting star?" Ariel asked. "Didn't it land around here?" Ryan and Sarah looked at each other.
Pollux decided to step in. "We tried to find the crash site, but unfortunately we were unable to find anything." Many of the other students groaned from disappointment.
"Alright, everyone; let's get back to the clearing and back to your assignments." A few more groans were heard when Harkin brought them back to the reality of why they were there. The students turned around and started heading back. "Come on, kids." Harkin said with a little annoyance as the five of them just stood behind him.
"Who's he calling a kid?" Castor said under his breath, chuckling as he and the others began to walk in front of Harkin. The five of them were silent during the walk back. Ryan and Sarah were still trying to accept what they had just gotten themselves into while Darrius, Pollux, and Castor were trying to figure out what to do without Gemini.
After a while they had reached the clearing and were allowed to go back to their spot. Ryan and Sarah sighed as they sat down on the ground next to their telescope, disregarding their assignment entirely. "Thanks for helping us out back there" Castor said as he sat down along with Pollux and Darrius.
"Ah... no problem" Ryan said with a bit of uneasiness.
"We're sorry if our presence makes you uncomfortable" Pollux said as he closed his eyes. "We had come here for master Darrius' amusement, but... with our current situation we'll try to leave as soon as possible."
"If we can leave..." Castor added in making Pollux glare at him.
"You know..." Darrius said thinking out loud. "We might be stuck here for a while so we might as well have some fun while we can." Darrius was trying to ease the situation even though he was worried as well.
"This is serious, young master" Pollux said sternly. "If we don't come up with a solution then we could be stranded here forever."
"No we won't! When we've been gone for too long my father will realize something's wrong and come for us. All of the guardians can track each other down, right?"
Pollux was amazed by Darrius' rather simple logic. He was almost embarrassed that neither he nor Castor had thought of that. "That's true... however we don't know how long the Emperor is expecting us to be gone."
"It could be days, weeks, or even months" Castor added in.
"Then I say we stick to the original plan and try to have some fun while we're here!" Darrius smiled.
"We don't want to impose anything on these two though. They've already helped us keeping our identity a secret. If they hadn't arrived before the group then I believe there would have been... complications. We don't want to burden them with our company."
"Oh no, it's alright." Sarah said. "You're welcome to stay with us until you're able to leave."
"Really?" Castor asked excitedly.
"Yeah. I mean you are our cousins thanks to me" said Ryan. "We won't mind you three staying with us... by the way what are your names?"
The five of them introduced themselves to each other. "Pollux and Castor..." Sarah grabbed her astronomy book and opened it up. "Those are two stars that make up Gemini."
Darrius, Pollux, and Castor's eyes went wide. "How do you know about Gemini?" Darrius asked. Ryan and Sarah looked at each other with confused faces.
"Gemini is one of the twelve zodiac constellations" Ryan said. This time it was the other three who had confused looks on their faces. Ryan and Sarah located Gemini in the sky and pointed it out. "There's Gemini right there." The three looked up at the constellation. "Gemini represents 'the twins'."
"What does this mean?" Darrius asked.
"I guess the humans named groups of stars after us..." Pollux said.
"But that would mean you would have to thousands of years old..." Sarah said.
"Oh, Pollux and I are much older than that" Castor put a lot of emphasis on 'much'. "But that's a different story. So if Gemini is one of twelve, who are the other eleven?" The three of them had an idea of what to expect, but wanted to confirm it.
Sarah named them off from the top of her head. "Aries, Taurus, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Capricorn, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Libra, Pisces and Aquarius." Pollux and Castor glanced at each other confirming their suspicions. "Is something wrong?" Sarah asked.
"It's nothing" Pollux said. He didn't want them to find out too much about them and their home world. "So why are all of you out here? Doesn't seem to be a civilization around here."
"We're out here on the off chance that a star will form instantaneously like our professor says." Their eyes went wide again, but they all kept silent. "I guess we'll have to do that project now, huh?" Ryan looked at Sarah.
"Yeah. We might as well do Gemini seeing how we already know two of the stars' names." Sarah looked over to the three of them. "Hope you don't mind, but we'll be busy for a while."
"Oh no, don't mind us. Take your time" Pollux said. Ryan and Sarah gathered their notes while the three of them gathered got closer together and whispered amongst each other. "First the twelve guardians and now the ancient Star Ceremony? How do they know so much?"
"Calm down, Pollux" Castor said. "Perhaps the humans we visited so long ago named the stars after us because they ran out names of their own."
"And the way they described the Star Ceremony seems like they themselves haven't seen it before." Darrius added in. "Sounds like their 'professor' actually witnessed it."
"We should ask him if we're given the chance, but I guess for now we'll just keep silent about anything from our planet." Castor and Darrius nodded. They just sat back while Ryan and Sarah were busy alternating between writing down notes, reading their book in the pale moon light and looking through their telescope.
Darrius' curiosity got the better of him. "What is that thing?"
"The telescope?" Ryan asked. Darrius nodded his head. It lets us see further into space. Want to take a look?" Darrius nodded his head again and got to his feet. "Just look though this eye piece." Darrius positioned his eye at the hole and looked through it.
"Wow... I didn't know something like this existed. Can I look in other places?"
"Go ahead" Ryan said. "We can manage without it for now." Darrius proceeded to move the telescope in a variety of directions as Ryan and Sarah continued their work.
Over an hour had passed and Darrius was still staring through the telescope. Ryan and Sarah watched in amusement. They had finished their projects a while ago without needing to use the telescope and were amazed at how long Darrius could keep himself entertained from it.
It was now close to ten and everyone had started to pack up their stuff. "Oh well" Ryan said as he picked up the telescope. "Would have been interesting if it really did happen."
"I guess." Sarah packed up their supplies and started walking off towards where they parked. The other three stayed behind looking at each other.
"Do you think the ceremony went off without any problems?" Darrius asked.
"I wouldn't worry about it, young master" Pollux said. "It was your father who suggested that you come here."
"Do you three want to be left behind?" Ryan asked jokingly as he continued to carry the telescope. The three didn't realize he was joking and quickly ran to catch up with them.
During the drive back the three of them asked Ryan and Sarah some questions. Most of them came from Pollux and Castor who asked how much has changed in so many centuries. Darrius kept asking questions about the car they were in.
When they were only twenty minutes from the campus all three of them stared out the window in awe when they saw the bright lights of downtown Chicago. "Amazing..." Darrius said with wide eyes.
"The humans seemed to have chosen to excel in technology..." Pollux whispered. "Almost completely opposite of our planet..."
"That's not a bad thing, Pollux" Castor whispered. "It would have been boring if they chose the same path as us." Pollux chuckled softly in agreement.
Ryan and Sarah stretched their arms and legs when they finally arrived home. The other three just stood there taking in their surroundings. Sarah decided to show the three of them while Ryan would unload the telescope.
Inside Sarah showed them their bedrooms. She and Ryan occupied the only two bedrooms upstairs which left the three on the first floor filled with nothing but a bed and a dresser. "I'm sorry that there's not much here."
"Oh no, this is fine" Pollux said. "We don't need much."
Sarah smiled. "Well Ryan and I need to get ready for class tomorrow. We'll cook breakfast for you in the morning. Good night."
The three of them said goodnight to her as she walked away. "We should get some rest as well" Pollux said, slightly yawning. "We'll be in the next two rooms, young master."
"Alright." Pollux and Castor exited the room and closed the door behind them. Darrius remembered how Sarah had turned on the light inside the room and proceed to use the same switch. With the flip the entire room went dark. Darrius made his way to the bed and lied down. For a long time he just stared at the ceiling. He was having a hard time falling asleep due to his anxiety. It wasn't being stuck on the planet that made him worried; it was the fact that none of them knew what had become of Gemini. Thoughts of never seeing Gemini again continued to run through his mind until he fell asleep from exhaustion... at two in the morning.
Five and a half hours later a knocking was heard on his door. Darrius groaned from the lack of good night's sleep. "Breakfast will be ready in five minutes." It was Sarah. He heard her knock on the next two doors to wake up Castor and Pollux. Initially Darrius just stayed in bed, but then Castor and Pollux entered his room.
"Come on, young master" Castor said. "You wouldn't want to insult them by not showing up, huh?" Darrius sighed as he forced himself out of bed. He rubbed his eyes, trying to wake himself up. The three of them walked into kitchen, going by where the aroma was coming from. They saw Ryan and Sarah cooking something and both of them had their backs turned to them.
Ryan and Sarah heard the three of them behind them. Ryan was busy flipping the last of the pancakes while Sarah was busy finishing up the scrambled eggs. They both turned around almost at the same time and freaked out when they saw the three of them. They had gone back to their wolf forms. Castor and Pollux's eyes widened when they realized this and quickly activated the illusion again. "We're so sorry!" Castor said.
Ryan and Sarah caught their breaths. "It's alright..." Ryan said. "We're just not used to something like that.
"The illusion only stays active while one of us is awake." Pollux said. "We'll be sure to change back every morning."
"Oh no, it's fine. Really. Just try not to sneak up on us like that." The three of them nodded. "Please, take a seat." Sarah guided them to the glass dining table. They each took a seat and Sarah went back into the kitchen. A few seconds later Ryan and Sarah brought them each a plate of pancakes and eggs, then sat down with them. Not wanting to be rude the three of them watched how Ryan and Sarah ate their food. They watched them use two strange pieces of metal cut and pick up the food. They attempted to do the same thing, but with little success.
"If using a fork and knife is too difficult for you guys you could always eat the way you normally do." Ryan offered seeing difficulty the three of them had using the utensils. It was a tempting offer for them, but they had to do everything like them so as to not make anyone suspicious. They continued to use the utensils, managing to get in some pieces, but most fell off.
"This food is delicious!" Darrius said as he was finally able to get some food into his mouth. Castor and Pollux agreed with him and complimented their cooking.
"Well thank you" Sarah said. "It's nice to have someone compliment our food besides ourselves." The five of them continued eating. It was no surprise that Ryan and Sarah finished well before the others.
"Would the three of you rather stay here or come with us?" Ryan asked as he picked up his backpack.
"Do you think Harkin would allow that?" Sarah asked as she came into the room with her stuff.
"Sarah, he gets paid the same amount regardless of how many attend his class." He turned his attention back to the three of them. "So what's your answer?"
"I'll come with you" Pollux said. "Darrius still needs to rest so stay here with him, Castor." Castor nodded his head as they three of Ryan, Sarah, and Pollux walked out the door.
"By the way" Sarah said as she held the door. "Feel free to explore the area. Just don't get lost." Sarah smiled as she closed the door and joined her brother and Pollux. Thankfully, she and Ryan had dressed in warmer clothes because today the temperature had gone down to the point that they could see their own breath.
"This is odd..." Pollux said. "Every time I breathe smoke comes out of my mouth..."
"Doesn't it get cold where you come from?" Ryan asked as they continued to walk.
"Yes, but never has this occurred before." Pollux let out big breaths, intrigued by this new discovery. He was so intrigued by it that he neglected to watch where he was walking. He stepped on a large sheet of ice and tripped onto his back. Ryan looked away with a 'that's got to hurt' look on his face while Sarah covered her mouth letting out a smile gasp.
"Are you alright!?" Sarah asked.
"I'm fine..." Pollux said as he struggled to get to his feet. "What happened?"
"You tripped on some ice" Sarah said. "I guess there isn't any of that where you come from, either, huh?"
"Uh... right..." Pollux said. He actually did know about ice, but only because Pisces was able to create. He had no idea it could exist in nature. He was starting to realize how different his current location was different from the one from thousands of years ago. He brushed himself off and quickly resumed walking. "Ice sure is painful." He rubbed his backside.
"Yeah, you have to be careful around it" Ryan said. "It's even more dangerous if you run on it."
"I see..." Pollux said, grateful that they hadn't been running now.
"But a lot of fun can come from ice as well" Sarah said. She pointed towards the frozen lake. "Do you see those people?" She pointed at a few students who decided to ice skate on the lake.
Pollux eyes went wide in amazement. "They're gliding on the ice..."
"It's called ice skating" Sarah said. "It's very fun."
"Yeah, when you learn not to land on your ass all the time" Ryan added in.
"If you'd like, Ryan and I could take you, Darrius, and Castor ice skating sometime."
"That would be most enjoyable." The three of them continued to walk.
Meanwhile back at the dorm Darrius eyes lit up. "We're going to go ice skating!"
"Ice skating?" Darrius asked.
"Yeah! You get to glide over the ice! Ryan and Sarah say it's a lot of fun."
"Ice, fun?" Darrius tilted his head. "Didn't you say earlier that Pollux injured himself because of the ice?"
"Yeah. Thankfully we don't share each other's pain." Castor had a huge grin on his face."
Pollux furrowed his brow when those words were said. "Laugh it up, Castor. Laugh it up..." Ryan and Sarah couldn't hear him whispering the words. A while later they arrived at the astronomy building. Their class was just starting to fill up. They went up to their regular seats and had Pollux sit next to them.
"So what do we do know?" Pollux asked looking around.
"We wait for the professor to come and start the lesson. Then we sit here for a couple of hours taking notes and learning new things."
"It's always good to learn to learn new things" Pollux responded. "This should be interesting." Ryan and Sarah glanced at each other and smirked, amused that he was actually looking forward to it."
Eventually Chris and Ariel came in. Ryan and Sarah started chatting with their friends while Pollux looked through the astronomy book Ryan had taken out of his backpack. Chris talked to Ryan about what happened last night before getting side-tracked and started talking about girls. Ariel talked with Sarah about something more recent. "You're not going to believe this, Sarah. Do you remember the Shooting Star last night?"
"Yeah..." Sarah got a little nervous.
"Well on the news they said that one passed right over the University earlier this morning before it suddenly disappeared."
Sarah's anxiety left at that last comment. "It just suddenly disappeared? Sounds like a hoax or something. The least they could have said was that is crashed in Lake Michigan."
"Yeah. What also was unbelievable is that they said that it was surrounded by a bright red flame. I mean like that could actually happen." The two of them laughed at the idea. Eventually Harkin entered the room.
"Good morning, students" he glanced at Pollux "and visitor. "I'm sure all of you are still talking about what happened last night, but for now we need to focus on today's lesson. Last night you all had an assignment to study one of the constellations, and so today I'm going to go over each constellation all of you did."
All of the students, including Ryan and Sarah, got out their notes for the lesson. Pollux just sat there and listened to the lesson intently, finding it amazing how the humans perceived the stars in the sky.
Back at the dorm Darrius had fallen asleep on his bed to make up for the restless night prior. Castor was now bored now that there was no one to talk to and he didn't know what he could do or even what he was allowed to do around the house. He remembered that Sarah had given him permission to explore the area. Castor thought to himself. "But Pollux said to watch the young master... But if I don't do something I might fall asleep and risk Pollux being exposed... So I guess for his safety I'll go take a walk.
As he walked out the door he heard Pollux saying "Don't you dare!" Castor brushed it aside and decided to temporarily disable their link. Now neither one of them could see or hear what the other was experiencing. Castor made his way outside. He giggled when he experienced 'smoke breath' for himself. He decided to follow a single path to make it easier to backtrack later on.
It was pretty quiet everywhere he walked. Most of the students were either in class or still sleeping. Castor was hoping to interact with some of the other students to get a feel for how humans general acted now. For ten minutes he walked down the path that brought him to a large circular building. With a sign with 'Stadium' written on it. He decided to take a look inside. He was surprised that the inside of the building was hollow. At the very center he saw many humans running along a circular path. Curious, he got closer to the path where two humans were sitting. He took a seat behind them and listened to what they were saying.
"Did you hear about the new runner?"
"No, what?"
"Apparently he just showed up this morning and has already beaten the best runners on the team."
"No way."
"Yeah. They say how fast he runs should be physically impossible."
"I'm sure they're just exaggerating."
"Maybe. I haven't seen him run personally, but I think he's about to start his run."
Castor was curious to see how fast this human was. He could see a figure getting on the track on the opposite end, but couldn't make him out. He watched as the figure started running. "Doesn't matter how fast this human is" Castor thought to himself. "There's no way he could be faster than..." Castor eyes went wide as the runner with brown hair started to come closer towards him. Everything seemed to go in slow motion when the runner ran right in front of him. It wasn't human... The runner looked over at Castor and smirked as he dashed along the track.
Pollux's eyes went wide when Castor finally reconnected their link. "Aries..." he said softly. "I'm going to go back to the dorm" Pollux said quickly to Ryan and Sarah as he got out of his seat and exited the classroom, leaving Ryan and Sarah a bit confused and Harkin a little annoyed. Pollux used the directions that Castor was giving him and hurried to meet up with him.
"Oh wow..." one of the students said, both with their mouths hanging open. Aries soared past them like a car going forty miles an hour. Everyone else stopped dead in their tracks as Aries completed three laps in less than a minute. When Aries finally stopped he just walked over towards Castor, showing no signs of exhaustion or fatigue.
"We need to talk" was all that Aries said to Castor. Castor just nodded his head as the two of them exited the silent stadium. It was then that Pollux came running up, his breathing slightly heavy. Aries looked at the two of them. "Change back to Gemini, if you don't mind."
"We can't" Pollux said bluntly.
"Then where is Master Darrius?"
"He's sleeping" Castor replied.
Aries let out a small chuckle as a small smile appeared on his face. "Well what do you say you bring me to him and we'll talk along the way?" Castor and Pollux nodded in approval and started the walk back towards the dorm.
"I have to say I'm surprised you learned of our situation so quickly" said Pollux. Aries raised a curious eyebrow. "We thought it would take weeks or even months to realize what had happened."
"What can I say?" Aries said with his eyes closed. "We're very good at figuring things out..."
"Did the Star Ceremony go off without a hitch?" Castor asked.
"It did..." Aries didn't say anything else.
"Oh... well that's great!" Castor smiled.
"So what do you think about Earth this time, Aries?" Pollux asked.
Aries sighed. "It's too cramped. There are buildings everywhere preventing me from running great distances. I miss when everything was a wide open plane." Aries closed his eyes for a few seconds remembering what it was like the last time. "Regardless, I really can't enjoy anything about this visit. I'm here on orders"
"Orders?" Pollux asked. "Is the Emperor here somewhere? He should be resting to regain his energy after the Star Ceremony."
"The Emperor isn't here." Castor and Pollux stopped dead in their tracks.
"Then...how? How could you possibly have gotten here without the energy? Is Master Damien here?"
Aries shook his head to the side and took off a glass necklace around his neck. The necklace had an orb hanging from the center of it. "The Emperor has infused this necklace with his own energy, allowing me to travel here without being near him."
"But we've never seen that before..." Castor said.
"The Emperor showed us just after the Star Ceremony. He says it's still a work-in-progress, but it's still very useful." Aries put the necklace back on. "But enough about that. Let's continue towards Master Darrius." The three of them continued.
For the rest of the walk Castor and Pollux told Aries about Ryan and Sarah and how they have been helping them out. "There it is" Pollux pointed at the dorm they were telling Aries about when they were about a minute away. "I'm sure the young master will be happy to see you."
Aries suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and snapped his fingers. Castor and Pollux turned around and saw Aries completely disable his illusion. "What are you doing?" Pollux asked with urgency. "If anyone sees you then-" he was cut off by an unbelievable fast punch to the face.
Pollux flew a few feet backwards, landing on his back. Castor quickly snapped his fingers, disabling the illusion and drawing his sword. Pollux got back up and followed suit. "It's not honorable to attack without warning."
"You have no right to talk about honor!" Aries shouted as he charged at them. Castor and Pollux were both bombarded with many punches and kicks that they were barely able to block or dodge. They had their backs against each other to prevent being surprised from behind.
"Why are you doing this, Aries!?" Castor shouted before he was punched in the gut.
"Why?" Aries came to a full stop. "Don't act like the two of you don't know. You kidnapped Master Darrius!" His words sent their eyes flying wide open. "And by the Emperor's orders; I am too drag you back to our planet so you can be dealt with."
"You can't be serious!" Pollux shouted. "What possible reason could we have for kidnapping him!? Do you even have any proof!?"
"It matters not to me. I have orders and as a guardian I will fulfill them!" Aries continued his onslaught.
"What do we do now?" Castor thought inside his head as he continued to ward off Aries attacks. "Should we attack?"
"No." Pollux said in his mind. "If we make an opening for him he'll attack before we have a chance to do anything. I have a plan though..."
Seconds went by before Aries stopped again. "This is boring. The least you two could do is put up a little effort."
Castor smiled after hearing what Pollux had planned for Aries. "You're right" Castor said. "So to make it a little more fun, why don't you give us a head start and run away. Then you can try to catch us."
Aries started to laugh. "Like I would do that!" Aries closed his eyes and smirked. "I'd catch you in no time. There's really no point in you asking for me to-"
"We weren't asking!" Pollux shouted. Aries eyes flew open only to receive a payback punch from Pollux. "Let's go!" Pollux shouted at Castor as the two of them ran off leaving Aries lying on his back, laughing.
"So it's a chase you want, huh?" Aries wiped his hand against his mouth, wiping away a bit of blood. He slowly got to his feet and watched the two of them slowly start to fade in the distance. "Fine... I'll give you awhile before I start the chase. You won't be able to even see me coming..." Aries ran at a pace in which he could keep the two of them in his sights, counting down in his head when he would give full chase.
Meanwhile Castor and Pollux were running along the same path that Pollux was on earlier that morning. "You sure this will work?" Castor thought to himself.
"It'll work..." Pollux thought with a bit of agitation. "I'm sure you remember earlier..." Pollux could hear laughter being held in by Castor as they detoured from the normal route to road leading downhill.
Aries started to pick up the pace. It had been five minutes and he was starting to get impatient. Another five and he would end the game.
"Stop!" Pollux shouted in his mind causing both of them to stop short of the reflective ice-covered lake. The two of them turned around and saw Aries in the distance. They could see that Aries had stopped as well and they both knew he was happy.
Aries was grinning widely as he looked around them. The area was completely wide open. He began to think of how fast he could run without running into anything; he became excited. He began to run in place.
"When I say three we both do it" Pollux said in his mind as they both watched Aries getting ready to go at his fastest speed possible. He began run in place faster and faster until he suddenly sprinted forward, the air around him seemed to part in front of him. His speed was faster than Pollux remembered. "Three!" Pollux shouted and both of them jumped to the side as Aries passed between them.
"What the!?" Aries shouted immediately as his feet made contact with the ice. The greet speed he was going at caused him to flip into the air at about fifty feet above the ground before he came crashing back down onto the ice, causing it to crack all around him. Aries lied there without moving and coughed up some blood. Castor and Pollux sheathed their swords, knowing Aries wasn't going to be able to fight.
They slowly approached Aries, who had fallen about a hundred feet from them. Both of them were having a hard time keeping their balance so they walked slowly and carefully. The closer they got, though, the sound of cracking started to fill the air. The ice around Aries was starting to break apart. Aries slowly turned his head towards them and smiled "I guess I lose, huh?" A second later his body fell into the lake.
Castor quickly took action and jumped into the lake after him while Pollux gave him directions from above. A few seconds had passed since Castor jumped into the lake before he emerged with a gasp. He quickly got Aries out of the water and was hoisted out with the help of Pollux. They carried Aries off of the ice and lied him down.
Aries was breathing heavily and gave a smug smile. "So why did you save me, huh?"
"You're one of us" Pollux answered bluntly.
Aries gave a small chuckle. "You two... you two really didn't kidnap him did you?"
"Of course not!" Castor said. "Why are we suspected of that?"
"The Emperor said that you were never given permission to take Darrius to here."
"What!?" Castor said in his mind as he looked at Pollux. "What does this mean?"
"I don't know..." Pollux replied.
"It seems the two of you think otherwise..." Aries looked at the two of them. "I will talk with the Emperor and try to explain what's going on." Aries tried to get to his feet, but had to get Pollux and Castor to help him. "I don't know when you'll hear from me or the others, but given the situation, you might be coming home very soon.
"Master Darrius will be very disappointed" Pollux said grinning.
"I bet" Aries chuckled. "Well I plan to get some rest when I get back." Aries grabbed onto the orb of the necklace he wore and started to rise into the air. "When you get back we'll have a rematch!" Aries smiled before he was surrounded by a red flame and speed of into the sky.
"Looking forward to it..." Pollux said.
"Well I'm looking forward to ice skating." Castor said.
Pollux raised his eyebrow. "After what happened just now?"
"Yeah!" Pollux sighed and started to walk back to where Darrius was. "By the way... what do you think he meant by the Emperor not giving us permission? Didn't Pisces tell us it was the Emperor's idea to take Darrius here?"
Pollux stopped in his tracks. His eyes looked like they had just seen a ghost. "Pisces told us to go..." he whispered. "...not the Emperor." The two of the them stayed silent.
Later on Aries had arrived back on his planet. He landed in the courtyard and proceeded to make his way to the main hall. When he got there it was completely empty except for one figure sitting on the thrown. "I see you have returned, Aries... where is Gemini?"
"If I may, my lord, I believe there has been some kind of mistake with regarding Gemini and Master Darrius."
"Mistake? There is no mistake. The only mistake I see is the one in front of me. You have failed to carry out your orders..." The Emperor stood up and slowly approached Aries.
"But sir, I don't believe that Gemini kidnapped Darrius. Perhaps..." before Aries could go on he found himself gasping for air as the Emperor clutched his throat. "My Lord! What are you doing!?" Aries started to cough.
"A knight who can't gain victory from his powers doesn't deserve to have them..." The Emperor brought his other hand and faced his palm towards Aries' face. Aries started to scream in pain as a white aura started to radiate from his body and was sucked into the Emperor's hand. Eventually the struggle he had been putting up ceased. When the Emperor was finished he dropped Aries, who landed on his hands and knees.
Aries could barely find the strength to get back to his feet. "You bastard... what have you done to me!?"
The Emperor started to laugh. "I have stripped you of your power..."
"What!? You mean you..." Aries' body started to tremble. He turned around and tried to run and warn the others, but before he could even take five steps the Emperor appeared in front of him out of nowhere.
"I didn't just strip you of it; I took it for myself!" The Emperor smiled wickedly. Aries started to back up before he found himself confined by two hands. In his weakened state he was unable to put up any resistance. "Very good, my loyal guardian" the Emperor said. He approached Aries and yanked the necklace off him. "Now go throw him in a cell."
"Bastard!" was all Aries could shout before his holder knocked him unconscious.
The Emperor stood gazing into the glass orb. He could see everything that Aries had seen, including how Gemini was now permanently split into two. "Interesting..." A wicked grin appeared on his face. "This could work out well to my advantage..."
After much procrastinating, chapter two is finally finished.
This chapter is much longer than the first, but I admit that there may have been some problems since I interested so many new characters this time (Thankfully I won't ever have in this series).
You don't have to answer, but which Zodiac do you want/believe will be the next to appear?
I plan to write the next chapter within a month (Don't hold me to that though).
And sorry if there were any grammatical errors in the story. The writing spans over three months and I've never been one to back and check. (Sorry, but usually there's not too many).