Zodiac Heroes - Cast Down to Earth

Chapter 21 - Scrolls

Sagittarius

Pisces, Scorpio and Cancer explained everything they saw as soon as they got back.

"There were lots of tunnels-" started Cancer.

"We almost got lost-" Pisces interrupted.

"I found a shiny blue thing-" Scorpio added.

I could tell that Virgo was starting to get a headache. "One at a time, please."

"Okay," Cancer cleared his throat. "So it all started when Pisces and Scorpio woke me up in the middle of the night and told me that they had something to show me. So I got out of bed and followed them to the tunnel, then Pisces pried the vent panel open with her crowbar-"

"Crowbar?" I asked.

Pisces took a large duffel bag out of nowhere and took a crowbar out of it. "Crowbar." She confirmed.

"Anyways," Scorpio continued, rolling her eyes at us. "We were in the tunnel for one or two days, and there were a lot of branches there. Then, like magic, the small tunnels started getting larger, until there was enough space for us to stand in there. We made it all the way to the Statue of Liberty until we got stuck in that small room-"

"And then the rescue team came over and we got free!" Pisces concluded.

I guess you could say that the entire room was lost for words.

"And you cracked the code with a riddle thing?" Taurus asked.

"Pretty much." Capricorn replied. "It's basically a simple math equation plus a bunch of other random stuff."

"It doesn't seem so random." Virgo added. "It's like someone is using random examples to try and get us to realise something."

Gemini, however, didn't really seem interested in this topic. "We had a brother?!"

Virgo paused. "Yes, but-"

At that moment, half of the people in the room started talking at the same time.

Aries was about to lose his cool. "Guys, why don't we stop talking about this for the time being, and go and enjoy the sun on a Sunday afternoon?"

Everybody agreed. For some strange reason, I didn't want to be out in the sun, which was weird, because I loved the outdoors. I waited for everyone to leave the room, making sure that nobody noticed that I was still inside.

"What to do, what to do-" I mumbled to myself.

Suddenly, a faint golden glow caught my eye. I got up and went to the balcony, where the glow was coming from. The glow came from the bag of scrolls that Leo and I had stolen from Ms Medea's secret hideout thing the other day. I was about to go and pick it up when something else caught my eye.

It was a paper airplane. I remembered it from the game of chaotic truth or dare the twelve of us played that one time. This was Aquarius' piece of paper with Ms Medea's autography on it. I unfolded the paper to reveal Ms Medea's signature.

"Ms Medea has a pretty cool signature." I said to myself.

I flipped the paper over for no good reason and was shocked by what I found.

On the back of the paper were the words "Whoever touches this piece of paper is cursed" in Ms Medea's neat handwriting.

"A curse?" I asked out loud.

As if instantly, a heavy sort-of feeling came over me. It was like all the happiness and hope in me had been removed. This was probably the effects of the curse.

I was internally panicking. If whoever touches the piece of paper gets cursed, how do we get rid of it without getting even more cursed? If Aquarius touched the piece of paper, is he cursed too? How come Ms Medea didn't get cursed?

My first instinct was to burn the piece of paper. Using a lighter, I burned the piece of paper to ashes, then used a broom to sweep the ashes off the balcony.

Okay, don't worry about the curse for now. I told myself. What were you going to do about those scrolls?

I directed my attention back to the scrolls. All twelve of the scrolls were glowing. I picked up the scroll closest to me and unrolled it. It was the first scroll I picked up, the one with the word "ΤOΞÓTHΣ" on it. Then, I remembered that we had gotten these from Ms Medea. Had she put a curse on these scrolls too?

I dropped the scroll, and a second piece of paper appeared out of nowhere. I picked up the second piece of paper. It looked like a piece of paper ripped out of a page of a notebook. How it got here, I didn't know, but it looked like it could help my situation. On the top of the paper, in small, neat handwriting, were the words "Getting rid of a curse" and a list of instructions below it.

At least I know that this curse isn't a curse for bad luck. I thought.

The slip of paper was telling me to make some simple anti-curse draught, however, the ingredient list was quite questionable.

"'Boil some water in a pot and put a handful of dirt in it.'?" I re-read the piece of paper over and over again to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating.

I was about to throw the paper away when a new sentence appeared at the top of the paper. It said, "Don't worry, Zodiac Sign. This anti-curse draught it completely trustworthy." I looked at it again, shrugged, and went to collect some dirt from a potted plant on the balcony.

The ingredient list was starting to get weirder and weirder. "'Add some lemon zest and a strand of your hair.'? What kind of recipe is this?" I asked myself.

After around ten minutes of running around the dorm finding ingredients to satisfy the recipe, I was left with a pot of pearl white liquid. I was pretty thankful that it didn't turn out brown or anything. I wasn't completely sure if I should drink it, but in comparison from other potions in books I used to read, this was pretty normal.

"Well," I said to no one in particular, spooning the anti-curse draught into a cup. "Bottoms up!"

I drank the potion. Surprisingly, it tasted like some sort of soda, and thankfully not like dirt water. Instantly, the heavy-sort of feeling I had after touching Ms Medea's cursed piece of paper went away. I felt normal again.

"Awesome." I said to myself.

I was just pouring the rest of the potion into an empty 1L milk jug when Virgo walked into the room.

"Oh hi Sagittarius, there you are!" She greeted me cheerfully, then stopped when she saw what I was doing. "Are you pouring milk from a pot into a milk jug?"

Not wanting anyone to know that I was drinking a dirt potion, a quickly made up a lie. "I was boiling milk. The milk is hot now."

Virgo studied me again, then shocked me by saying, "It does sound like something you would do, but that's not the colour of milk."

Oops.

Just then, the rest of the squad made their way into the room.

"Sagittarius, what are you doing?" Aquarius asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

There was no way that a different lie was going to convince all eleven of them now.

"Fine." I said, giving up. "I'll explain. You're not going to like it."

~~~

...

Oh hi, you're still here? Um, okay.

So I heard that the virus is getting more serious now. Stay safe.

Have a good day/night!

Peace out,

The author owo