Introduction

"If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic bean buyer, if you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for i have some flax golden tales to spin. Come in, Come in." -Shel Sylverstien, Where the Sidewalk Ends

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Story Time!

Eli looked around, trying to process her surroundings but failing. "......Where......where am I?" A male voice answered her with a chuckle. "Why, you're no where my dear. And everywhere." Eli looked at him blankly and responded with an eloquent: "Huh?" The man chuckled and stepped out of the darkness that seemed to surround them. He was tall, with bright blue hair and red rimmed glasses. "Oh don't worry my dear Aires, you'll grow accustomed to it soon enough." This just confused the poor girl even more and she just sat, hopelessly trying to process what he meant through her clouded mind. The man patiently waited for her to respond but she just sat there mutely. "Are you quite alright?" he asked. "Would you like a glass of water?" Eli shook her head, both as an answer and to try and clear it. The man crouched down next to her and examined her face. "Hmm......you have no idea what's going on do you? Do you know your name? Anything about your past? Anything about who you are?" Eli was frightened to find she only knew the answer to one of these questions. "M-my name is Eli," she said, "Who are you?" The man smiled and stood up, offering his hand to her as he did so. "My name is Aquarius, the water bearer, but you may call me Rei. Come, and I'll show you to the others." She accepted his hand and shakily got to her feet, deciding not to ask about who the "others" were as she would find out soon enough. Rei steadied her and led her to a light brown door, the only thing standing out in the darkness, and into a room with four other doors and exotic decorations on the walls: some bright, full, green leaves, others bare, withered branches and the rest in between. "It's like the four seasons," she commented, surprising herself by her sudden knowledge. "Very good!" Rei exclaimed. "It appears you are getting some of your memory back!" One of the doors opened and two identical heads poked out- at least, Eli thought it was two, her head was still foggy and swimming. The two heads asked in unison: "Is this the new Aries?"  "Yes, Gemini," Rei responded, "come say hello." It was in fact a set of twins, and as they bounded up to her Eli couldn't help but smile at their eagerness. Nevertheless something they said stood out in the young girl's mind. "Wait," she interjected. "you're the second, er, third, person-people- uhm-.....why did you guys call me 'Aires'?" The two girls turned their attention to Rei, suddenly more serious. "She doesn't know?" They said, once again in unison. Rei sighed. "I figured I would explain it when everyone else arrived. Incidentally, where is everyone?" Just then, a large, muscular man with cropped red hair and a strange nose ring entered the room from the same door the twins had just come from. Eli regarded him with interest then looked at Rei for an introduction. "All introductions will come in due time my dear, spoilers just take the fun of surprise away." She was disappointed by this but nevertheless decided to wait as other people entered the room from the other three doors until there was a total of eleven people in the room. A man with medium length black hair took a head count. "Eight, nine, ten, eleven...where is Leo?" Rei spoke up with a tone of apathy. "Does it really matter? Can't we just continue without him?" Everyone gave a collective sigh and the muscular man gave a response to Eli's confused look. "Leo and Rei don't exactly get along." Just then, a tall man with shoulder length golden hair enters the room and gives a loud yawn. Rei's annoyed look at that moment confirmed what the muscular man had said. The dark haired man spoke in slightly impatient manner. "Now that we have all finally showed up, I believe introductions are in order." He gestured first to a girl with hair that was a lighter shade of blue than Rei's. "This is Pisces, the fish." The girl smiled at Eli kindly and waved. "Next are you, Aires, and then Taurus, the bull-" He gestures to the muscular man who also waves. "-Gemini, the twins-" The two girls wave in unison. "-Cancer, the crab-" Another man gives her a brief nod. "- Leo, the lion-" The man with golden hair became more attentive and seemed o notice Eli for the first time. He smiled and walked over to here, bowed, and kissed her hand. "My dear Aires," he said with a slight purr, "I am delighted to be in your presence." She drew her hand back slightly, though she couldn't hide the amused smile that was growing on her face. " Th-thank you?" she said. The black haired man rolled his eyes, as did several others in the room, and continued with the introductions. "And these are Virgo, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, and you know Aquarius." He gestures to a woman in a green dress, a devilish looking young man, a tall man with a bow and quiver slung across his back, a young woman with blonde hair, and Rei respectively. "And I am Libra, the balancer. We all welcome you into the Zodiac my dear." Eli took all this in and decided to believe them. "Whoa," she murmured. "That's amazing. Wait how am I a part of the zodiac?" She still wasn't sure why she was in this place or how she got there, but something was compelling her to want to jump into what these strangers were saying. Rei took her hand. "Come, let's take a walk. I will explain on the way." She accepted, glad she was finally getting answers, and followed as he led her through the spring-adorned door and into bright sunlight. "To start off, how much can you remember from your old life?" This startled and confused Eli even further, but she shook her head. "Not much of anything," she replied, "Just my name and something about the seasons and the zodiac." "That was how it was for the rest of us," he said, "when we first arrived here. You see each of us was another person before coming here. The trouble is, we cant remember anything about the persons we used to be, only the persons we are and will become. We do know parts of why we were brought here, however." "Why?" Eli asked eagerly. "Because one of the  old zodiac signs had died, and a new one was needed as a replacement." Her face fell a little at this morbid detail, but he continued on. "Each replacement is chosen from the souls of the dead that exemplified the traits of that zodiac symbol and given a new life." She allowed this to sink in. "So," she started, "I'm...dead?" Rei looked at her with a thoughtful look, "In a sense, yes. But don't worry, you will make friends here, as well as enemies." He began walking through the flowers again. "The world is bright and young with spring Aires," he turned to her while speaking. "Are you ready for it?" She followed him and somehow felt confident in her answer. "Yes," she replied wholeheartedly, and the two continued walking through the flowers in the bright spring sunlight.

                                                                                    END

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