Breaking Free: A Zodiac Story

Chapter 20: Reuniting

The sky was still dark with smoke. There was no indication for how much time had passed; they could've been walking for hours. Leo's feet ached and everything stung as another gust of wind blew past.

"Hey, look, there are the water elementals." Sagittarius mumbled. Leo stopped in his tracks and peered out over the smoky landscape. Sure enough, there were three figures huddled by a chunk of rubble - one with black hair, one with blond hair and the other with blue hair. However, it was hard to tell since their hair was coated in dust.

"Cancer? Scorpio? Pisces?" Leo called out, wincing. I could really do with a drink of water right now...

Leo stumbled over without even waiting for their responses. Aries and Sagittarius hurried after, sharing a look.

The water elementals' eyes lit up as Leo drew near.

"Leo! You're not dead!" Cancer exclaimed.

"I knew you were alive somewhere!" Pisces added, smiling at Leo.

"Good job for not dying. I guess." Scorpio finally muttered, after Pisces gave him a little nudge.

"I'm glad you're not dead, too." Aries announced, halting to a stop next to Leo. Sagittarius joined him and peered at the water elementals, frowning.

"Your skin's blue." She pointed out. "Is that... normal for you?"

"Congratulations for noticing," Scorpio said, sarcasm lacing his tone. Pisces gave him another nudge; it was then Leo realised that they seemed to be shivering as well.

"We don't know what happened, but we woke up and we were like this." Cancer added, after a moment of silence. "Being water elementals, we're supposed to be more resistant to the cold... but I think our magic backfired on us or something."

"Huh? So you say... this... isn't supposed to happen?" Aries pondered aloud. "Like how we were... burnt, even though we're supposed to be immune to fire. Do you think losing our powers had anything to do with that?"

Cancer bit her lip and turned away. "I don't know... but I don't think I can heal you. I'm sorry..."

Sagittarius shook her head. "Don't be." She said simply. "We're all in this mess together, anyways." She eyed the water elementals critically. "Can you walk?"

Scorpio was already hauling himself to his feet. Cancer and Pisces gave Sagittarius a small nod, then they, too, struggled to their feet. Leo reached to help them, but Cancer shook her head and gestured at his hands.

"I don't know much about fire burns, but back at our place, if we were burnt by boiling water, well, you wouldn't want to... infect your wound. You really should wrap your wound to keep it clean," Cancer mumbled, trailing off.

"Let's see what we can do about it after we... find everyone else." Leo replied, withdrawing his hand. "Do you know where the others are?"

Scorpio looked around. "I assume we were flung over here by the explosion. If you came from there -" he nodded towards where the fire elementals had came from, "- that means the others must be..."

"Let's head right first." Aries said, catching on to what he was saying. "The air elementals were to your right when we cast the spell, and the earth elementals were below them, so..."

"Let's find the others!" Pisces exclaimed. "They shouldn't be too far."

---

The six elementals stopped next to another jagged chunk of rubble, panting for breath.

"This smoke is making it really hard to breathe," Cancer muttered, inhaling deeply. "This isn't good for our lungs..."

Sagittarius sighed. "I never realised what sort of effect smoke would have on you guys, since... you know, Firea is pretty smoky most of the time. Volcanoes and other stuff..."