Written By: Stephen Sutherland

Episode 1

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As the moon lights up the night the people of Panji gather outside of their homes. Tonight is the night of Anbi. A very important night for children of age eight. The streets are filled with blue and green fire flies. Little girls and boys can be seen by the sides their parents. Some looked happy while others looked nervous. A young girl sits on her rooftop watching the meteor shower taking place in the sky. She is dressed in the traditional white rags for the occasion. The rags looked old and normally she would be embarrassed to wear something so odd. The eight year old girl had black hair that ran down to her shoulders. Her eyes are blue and have a small tint of grey to them. She is kind of short for her age but that doesn’t bother her. Nervousness crept over her. Tonight most eight year olds felt that way. A little girl that seemed younger than her emerged from the house that she sat on.

“Sister,” she yells to her. “Come down from the roof. Moms says its time for the ceremony.”

She takes her gaze away from the sky and looks at her sister Mai. It’s that time.

About an hour later the little eight year old girl is in line at the town square. The food in her stomach from the stands made her very content. Her mother and sister are watching from the crowd of people surrounding the square.

“Why did I have to get stuck in the very back of the line,” she says to herself.

A girl who’s next in line steps into the alter shaking. The girl was taller than her only by a bit but she’d hope that the same nervousness wouldn’t come upon her when it was her turn. A boy in front of her turns around to speak.

“It sucks being last in line doesn’t it,” he says.

She looks up toward him. The boy with white hair and blue eyes was talking to her. What should she do? She never had much experience with boys and always got nervous around the cute ones. But his friendly smile makes her speak.

“Y ..yea but I don’t really mind it too much. I’m really nervous.”

“Hey, its ok,” he says softly. “It’s going to be fine. It doesn’t hurt at all and the worst case scenario is your palms get sweaty.”

She giggles at his kind words then turns away and blushes slightly.

“Well, it looks like it’s my turn. Wish me luck ok. Oh yea! I forgot to mention. My names Tsubasa.” She looks up at the boy and smiles, then says.

“M …my names Yuki.”

The boy smiles and walks up to the alter. A priest repeats his name and a light from the sky beams down upon him. The bright light makes his eyes go white but only for about five seconds. His back seems to stiffen up a little. Yuki watches the transformation admiring the boys bravery. The priest picks up a green stone and moves it towards the changing Tsubasa.

“Oh, I hate this part,” Yuki says.

She looks down toward the ground to avoid the next phase in the step. A green light shines all around the square. The crowd claps after his ritual is over. Tsubasa steps off the alter smiling. His white rags looked brand new but other than that nothing seemed to different about him as he walks towards the nervous Yuki.

“Its your turn,” he says while lifting her head up.

Yuki walks up to the alter. The fire flies were everywhere lighting up the square in a barrage of green and blue. Many thoughts were going through Yuki’s head right now. The usual what if or how questions that were normal for this type of ceremony. Yuki stares at the lonely rock sitting in the basket behind the priest.

“Your name?” the priest asked.

“Yuki,” she replied with a soft voice.

The priest then laid two fingers on her forehead to begin the ritual. All he had to do now was repeat her name. Once he did that she would begin to change. it’s a shame that he never got the chance to say it.

The building adjacent tot hem exploded in a fierce ball of flames and smoke. Another building was annihilated, then another. The villagers of Panji scatter in all directions. Screams of pain and fear can be heard in the square. The lights from the fire flies were extinguished due to the heavy amount of smoke in the air. What in the world was happening?

Yuki looks around to the chaos and destruction taking place around her. She doesn’t know what to do or how to react. All she can do is stand their paralyzed with fear. Her body is numb, her feet are not responding even though her mind tells her to run. But from what exactly would she be running from? Just then somebody grabbed her. It was her mothers hand pulling hard, now leading her through the streets.

“Mommy what’s happening?” Mai asked while being pulled by the other arm.

“The Zodiac,” she yells. “It’s the Zodiac they’ve broken free, just hurry and stay low. Listen to your mother!”

Yuki looks back at the square, now barely visible. It is a horrible scene as it spreads quickly to the rest of the town like a plague.

“Mother,” Yuki says. “What’s going to happen to us?”

“Not now just keep ….” Her mothers words are cut short as a figure stands in front of the three’s path. The being was nothing like Yuki had ever seen. Its posture was like theirs, but it was an animal. The dog like creature stood on its hind legs and grinned an evil grin. It took its hands out of its pockets and with a mere wave of his arm a gust of wind sent Yuki, Mai, and their mother flying in opposite directions. Villagers around them were being tossed into the air by the colossal wind. Yuki slammed into the side of a building. She screams in pain as her arm brakes from the impact. As she holds her limp arm, she realizes that her mother and sister are no longer in sight. She in now alone.

“Mother!” she yells. “Mai ..where are you?”

She receives no reply back but that’s to be expected. There is so much yelling and chaos, nobody could have possibly heard her. Just then someone lifts her off her feet. Yuki strains her eyes and can make out the face of Tsubasa looking at her. She tries to say his name but grunts at the pain in her leg.

“Your leg is sprained and your arm is broken,” he says. “Try not to move. Here get on my back ill carry you.”

Tsubasa lifts Yuki onto his back making sure he had a good grip on her before starting to run. Yuki doesn’t say anything, she barely could. The pain was horrible to her arm and leg. Tsubasa reaches his destination in no time at all.

“Where are we?” she asks while holding onto him.

“My dads observatory,” he replied. “My dad works in here everyday with magic. Nobody knows about it because magic is long forgotten, thought to not exist but dad found a way.”

Not fully comprehending what Tsubasa was saying, Yuki looks around the room seeing piles and piles of books stacked everywhere. There were so many of them you could hardly see the floor.

“But is it safe here?” she says.

“Yes, for now at least. Dad’s got a protection barrier on the place. This whole town, no this whole planet is in danger. Dad and I saw it coming, but nobody else did and nobody listened.”

“I’m still not sure of what’s going on,” she says. “All I know is the Zodiac are free and I’ve lost my family, your father knows magic, and all together you say that you knew this was coming?”

“I know its a lot to take in, but just sit there and ill go get dad.”

Tsubasa places Yuki on a red sofa in the middle of the room. He then went upstairs and disappeared. As Yuki sat there she began to think of what was happening. In ancient stories the releasing of the Zodiac was said to be a bad omen. The story says that by day break the planet shall crumble. Yuki liked the planet, she didn’t want it to crumble, she was born here and lived her. Sure it may be small, about the size of a small moon, but she’s been her for eight years of her life and she wanted that to continue. Yuki puts her hands to her face and quietly cries for her mother and sister. Were they ok, or are they dead? Tsubasa comes downstairs and looks at Yuki crying.

“I know you must feel upset about all this, but you have to be strong. I promise things will get better.”

“I’m only eight,” she says. “You’re the same age as me, aren’t you scared?”

“Of course I’m scared, but I have to be strong for my dad.”

Yuki struggles with Tsubasa in getting up the stairs. Her ankle was in so much pain that she is forced to grit her teeth with every step. As they reach the top, Yuki notices a bunch of candles lit around the room. A man stood in the center of the room waiting with a pipe in his mouth.

“So this is your friend huh,” he says. “Well then hurry on over here, we don’t have much time on us. The barrier wont last forever you know.”

“Much time for what?” Yuki asks with confusion.

“The Zodiac are attacking and I fear that this planet will be lost. I’ve been studying all kinds of magic for years and I have a spell that will get you two off this planet safely. Someone has to make it.

“Off the planet?” she says. “How? To where? Why me?”

“Ill tell you,” Tsubasa interrupts. “One, by magic. Two, we havnt a clue. And three, well …..I saw you by yourself and well ….I couldn’t just leave you there.”

“So the reason that I’m here is coincidental?”

He nods. “Well you could say I was kind of looking for you.”

“Enough talking children,” his dad says abruptly. “Hop into the circle that I have drawn.”

Yuki looks down toward the floor where a large circle full of shapes and tri-grams were drawn. Yuki figured that this had to be some form of magic so she and Tsubasa both stepped where he had directed.

As they step onto the circle, all was quiet. In order for this to work, Tsubasa’s dad would need to place a feather in the circle. Tsubasa knows this already so he reaches in his pocket revealing a small white feather.

“Where did you get that?” Yuki asks.

Tsubasa doesn’t respond. He just looks at Yuki and smiles. As Tsubasa’s dad takes the feather a loud cracking noise was heard from the roof of the house.

“The barriers broken,” Tsubasa yells. “Quick dad hurry up and___”

At that precise moment the wall across from them exploded from a tremendous force, sending Yuki flying to the ground. Was it one of the Zodiac again?

“Yuki!” Tsubasa yells. “Get away from there.”

As Yuki looks up from where she landed, her eyes meet the feet of someone. These weren’t feet though, they were paws with brown fur and claws capable of piercing steel. Yuki lifts her head up to stare directly into the face of a human like cat. Its yellow eyes gazed at Yuki’s. The cat lifted her up by the collar so that they were eye to eye now. The cats eyes went from yellow to red while Yuki’s went from blue to white.

“No!,” screams Tsubasa as he runs toward the cat.

The cat, with no effort, throws Yuki into Tsubasa causing them to topple onto the floor. Yuki’s eyes remained white as she lay there on the ground. She is not dead but from the state that she is in you might think that her mind is completely empty.

Tsubasa looks up and grits his teeth at the cat. Just then his dad stepped in front of him to protect the two. With his arms spread out in front of them he says his final words to his son.

“Be strong.”

As he says this he places the feather on the circle were the two eight year olds had landed. A light grew around them until they were incased in a blue crystal. As Tsubasa looks through the crystal, he see’s his father get stabbed through the chest by the cats claw. Tsubasa yells out to his father but the crystal shot straight up out of the roof and into the sky. Tsubasa sits in the crystal, now in space. As he holds Yuki, he cries. It was the last time he would see his home.

---------To Be Continued-----------