The Zodiac Spirit Guardians

My Home Planet

My eyes flicker open to Kappie's carmine and dark violet eyes directed down at me. "I'm so glad you're back for good this time. It pains me to have broken the promise I made with you." He whispers delicately, "But I'm glad you'll finally be back to normal soon enough." Even though I believe him, I still feel a tinge of betrayal from when he ignored my requests for answers.

I sit up and look around the same room as before, "Why am I still in here?" I stand up and brush the feathers off of the school uniform I still have on my petite figure. "Where is everyone?" I walk over to the door and jiggle the handle, locked. I immediately think of Dessy and how worried she must be. There's a faint pressure headache thrumming through my head.

"They--the people we're avoiding right now--sent for Ezra to atone for his actions of killing Miyazu now that They know he has returned. The others went in search for him after sensing something was off." Kappie stands up and meets me at the door. He continues informing me with information that's useless to me since I don't understand anything he's talking about. And I surely do not know who Miyazu is, but I'm not going to waste time asking questions. "I love Ezra because he is my brother, and even though he constantly troubles others, we must save him. I'm sorry to have dropped this on you so soon after your waking, Lady Akira." His eyes are dark and pained as he reaches into his pocket for a key. I notice his body is in human form and I initially think his Zodiac features were only my imagination.

Kappie unlocks the door and opens it slowly, and the world spread out before me is unlike anything I've ever seen before. My eyes rest upon an impossible beauty.

Japanese Cherry Blossom petals fall from the sky like snow. The room I stand in feels awkwardly out of place as I gaze in awe at the wondrous landscape in front of me. The sky is a sort of purple tinted black color, painted with glowing stars and galaxies unknown to human eyes. A rainbow of colors litters the sky everywhere my eyes can see, a wondrous array of visible stars and planets. Light illuminates off of moving spheres that remind me of tiny stars. The glowing lights float around like fireflies.

I step out of the room with Kappie closely following me. My feet brisk warm water and I glance down to a pond no deeper than my ankles; it surrounds us. Pretty blue ripples of water glide away from me. Beyond the pond, thin and dark green blades of grass poke out of the water's surface, rising to the sky. They dance in the soft wind.

Further out in the distance, beyond the grass, stand mountains that seem to touch the sky with snow whiter than I could possibly imagine. Tall trees dot the land, scattered in every inch of green. Clouds, visible to my naked eyes, rest on the horizon. It's like a magic wonderland, lush and rich with flora.

To my right in the near distance is a delicate waterfall that never ceases. It gracefully cascades off the side of a nearby mountain, splashing gently as it hits the rocks below. The lake it flows into forms a river that thins out over miles to filter into the pool of water around my ankles and around the room behind me.

"Beautiful." The word escapes my lips softly. I reach up to catch a falling petal, and it dissolves in my palm like snow. I close my hand tightly and look up at Kappie. "What is this place?" Our hair blows with the breeze. I see his silver Taurus symbol on his chest for just a moment as his waistcoat flaps in the wind. My skirt follows suit, dancing with the air's current.

"I forgot that it would take a few months for you to truly remember everything," He looks down at me with his hands in his pockets, "This is home." He gazes at me without a trace of a smile, then he closes his eyes and tilts his head up to feel the wind. I look around us again and realize this land isn't anywhere on Earth.

"Home." I repeat the word just to hear my own voice speak it, to create a new memory attached to that definition.

"This is the south side of the planet Linkai, our home planet. It's called, Xatrai." Kappie reaches down and grabs my right hand as if I've allowed him to do so numerous times.