I was up with a jolt and a twitch. Hyperventilating and wheezing, I frantically looked around. Quickly, I realized I was back in the cave. Everything was normal, relatively so. My back and chest ached, and my skin felt singed. But it was faded. Mild. Wobbling to my feet, I stepped off the slate. My torso felt heavier, making it hard to walk. But I continued to make my way towards the entrance. Ignoring the darkness, ignoring the echoes of other footsteps, and the smothering atmosphere. As soon as I reached the cave's opening, I reveled in the moon's light. Fake or not, it was nice to be out of the cave.
"Hey, you're out," Scorpio said, leaning against the rocky wall. A slight look of surprise flashed across his face when he saw how disheveled I was. "Oh... damn."
I let out a pained chuckle. "Heh, hi." Appearing from thin air, Aquarius bursted out with questions. I was too tired to answer, but it's not like I even heard what she said. "Uh, you might want to repeat that. Slowly."
She sighed. "Let's start with this," she snapped her fingers and a notebook and pen just popped into existence, "how do you feel?"
I stretched out my back. "Well, my body aches, I feel like I'm about to tumble and I feel... very heavy." She nodded as she wrote everything down, I continued to stretch my stiffening limbs.
Without pausing, she said, "That could be because of those massive crab arms dangling from your back."
Wait. "What?"
She sighed before saying satirically, "I said--"
"She heard you Aquarius, it's an expression. Aquarius is right though, you have some massive pinchers." He stood beside me and held up a hand. "Try to move them."
At first, I wasn't really sure how to do that. But then I thought that it couldn't be harder than moving any other limb. So I lifted my arm and rolled my shoulder, then recreated that movement for the crab arms. It was wonky. They were heavy and it threw me off guard.
"Come on, you were half-way there," Scorpio said, his hand still up.
I tried it again. This time, somewhat more used to the weight. When I lifted one, I finally got a look at the thing. It was spruce blue but faded into powder blue, soft dashes of honey orange, and golden yellow. It looked like the pinchers of some Samoan crabs my Grandmother and I saw when we'd visit my parents in Oahu. I lifted the pincher up and high-fived Scorpio so he could finally put his hand down. Aquarius had a face of surprise, then her eyes lit up.
She took a deep breath and opened her mouth, about to say something but Scorpio stepped in front of her. He grabbed my hand and started dragging me away, along the riverbank. What is it with people and dragging, here?
"Hey, where are you going?" Aquarius asked as we walked past her. I looked back at her and she knitted her brows, "Uh, hello?" I just pressed my lips together and shrugged.
"We're going, somewhere?" I said as Scorpio continued to take me away. "Uhm, I'll see you later. I guess?" I slightly shouted as we got further away I'm not sure of what she said, but I could see her huff and make her way back across the rocks. "Uh, so what's up?" I asked turning back to him.
"Eh, nothing much."
Well, that's not the answer I wanted. "What happened back there?"
"Hm? Oh, trust me, you wouldn't have wanted to stay. Aquarius would've asked you a million questions. She does it every time we get a new Zodiac." He chuckled. "Can't blame her for being interested though. But she should've just waited and asked later. It seemed like you were having a bad time in there." He glanced at me. We went across a brick bridge, that had a short stone wall lining the edges. I recalled the events prior.
"Yeah, it was... an interesting experience. Fucking terrifying actually." I shuddered.
"Could tell, we heard you scream." My eyes darted up to him.
I jerked my hand back. He didn't let go but he did stop. "Wait, you did? Why didn't you do anything."
Scorpio seemed to be slightly shocked by my outburst, but he responded completely calm. "It'd mess everything up; it'd be disastrous as a matter of fact. Trust me." The grim expression on his face and the glare hiding his eyes were intimidating enough for me to shut up.
"Oh." Was all I said and we were about to continue walking when I heard a loud clank. I looked up. Someone stood at the other end of the bridge. A young black man of average height, with long dreads tied into a ponytail.
He was dressed somewhat extravagantly. A diadem sat on his head, a blue crystal hung from it and peacock feathers stuck out from the back. He wore a beige-gray sleeveless tunic with a black, long-sleeved, high-collar underneath. His shirts were tucked into maroon pants, which were also tucked into knee-high, medieval leather boots. There was gold jewelry wherever it could fit. A golden chain around his neck; a large, diamond-embedded, belt hung around his hips; a rust-orange cloth hanging from it. Golden rectangle drop earrings hung from his curled, slightly pointy ears. And a lions tail laid still behind him. His gold, basket-hilted sword seemed to have been abandoned, lying on the floor. Quickly, I realized he was the lion or Leo.
"Uh, hello?" I waved with my free hand, then looked up at Scorpio. He seemed annoyed by the lion's presence. There was a long awkward silence, as Leo stared at us and Scorpio stared at him. So I tried to strike up a conversation. "So, you must be Leo! Uh, I'm Cancer. I just got here, uhh. Nice to--"
"Kailani," he said my name.
"Huh? How did you know--" I walked forwards a bit.
He slowly shook his head, an expression of panic making its way onto his face. Leo walked closer. His face looked familiar. "No, not you too."
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