Zodiac Chapter 1: Down The Rabbit Hole...

El tried his best to ignore Tzita's inebriated advances. He was a man of honor, and this lady was in trouble. If he gave in to her suggestive actions, in her current state, then he would be no better than a rapist or pervert. El was neither. He was a knight and would save this damsel in distress with the utmost swiftness.

"I'll follow your call." He said to Taurus, ignoring the path that the shadow man created as he went on his way. El was never one to follow the path of the shadows, and was a denizen of the light. He turned to go the path that Tzita's Ankh led them towards, paying attention to its glow instead of the shifting footprints of the rabbits and the bulls.

Despite her squirming, El tried to hold Tzita as close to his chest as possible as he run at full speed to get her away from this forest that was messing with her. He didn't know, specifically, what was wrong with her, but figured it had something to do with her being a witch. "Don't worry, Lady L'sia. I promise to get you out of here and to safety. I won't fail you." He swore this on his honor.

When El decided to run through the forest, no longer having any of the ambiguity that casually drifted about him in what might be feigned serenity, he would find that his feet, though swift enough to streak through the trees, were brought to the speed of a normal jog. Powerful waves of distortion flowed from within the trees; powerful enough to resist him like the rushing waters of a stream. To him, it would be as if he were swimming upstream, yet his strength kept him moving forward, despite how slow. His feet would barely touch the ground, and the trees would continue to shift and shake subtly with every move he made. His image of the forest, due to his perceived speed, seemed to be choppy, but with it, too, would his movements be just as stop-motion.

"... Can You... Hear...?" The voice of the trees was starting to become more clear to him the deeper he went, and with it, more of the questions. "... Do You... See...?" What first sounded like incoherent whispers all mumbling over each other was now starting to come into focus, like all of the sounds of numerous whispers were actually just a single voice broken up into numerous different speeds and tones, something like a Grand Staff. It was a sort of Transcendent Sound; one that was a very difficult frequency to tune into for most, which made it sound garbled initially. "... Focus..." it said, echoes of its faint whispers still fluttering about ambiguously, even in the clarity of the voice like a river.

El sighed quietly to himself as he moves through the forest. In her current state, Tzita reminded him of an overgrown child trying to get the attention of a busy parent. While he didn't mind it, much, her seductive advances were distracting. He did his best to ignore them as he hit a slog.

"I'm sorry, Lady L'sia, I'm a little busy right now. It'll feel much better if you hold on, can you do that for me?" He says to her, calmly with a nod of his head to get her to do the same, before he returned to a more serious demeanor. It was time to assess the situation again.

"I can hear a voice, Taurus," El said. Whispers on the wind had transitioned to whispers deep in his ear. Focus was what they asked for. "It seems like it's trying to tell me something, to show me something I haven't seen." What it could be, El hadn't the foggiest idea. He didn't want to stop moving, they were a behind schedule as it was, but the forest itself was doing everything in its power to prevent his, normally speedy, advance. If taking a moment to hone in on the voices, focus on them, was what was needed to understand then he would do so.

El's thoughts could be seen in his body language and feelings. The trees, after he stopped fighting the current, swiftly began to change colors lucidly, beginning to synchronize with the state of his movement. The trees around him started to shift into a bold Yellow, symbolizing the element of electricity. "... So. You can hear me now, I presume...?" the voice was a little more clear after it was matched up to the speed of his own sound's movements, as well as his mind's frequency of light and sound reception. "... It took a moment to synchronize, but if you're listening... It isn't wise to just run straight into the forest." To whom or what El was speaking to was a mystery, but it seemed to have some sort of knowledge of his environment. The disembodied voice continued, "... This place is dangerous if you are not in the correct state of mind and feeling. The 'Forest of Feelings' can swallow you up whole in an instant..." It seemed that the ambiguous voice knew it all too well. El was already heading in a direction he didn't want to be simply by feeling incorrectly at the present time. "... Only one of the many reasons why I'd advise you to listen to me..." The voice carried what seemed to be both great age and wisdom from the way it spoke, yet its actual presence could not be determined.

El was glad that the Taurus was on their side, and able to prepare something that could protect them from the effects of this strange forest, at least somewhat. For now, he placed Tzita back down on the ground, after her state of mind had been restored to normal, and stayed focused on the voice that was speaking to him. Since it seemed like he was the only one that could hear it, then he decided to relay its words.

"There's a voice," He says to Tzita and Taurus, "it advises us to listen to it because this 'Forest of Feelings', as it called it, can 'swallow us up whole', as it said, if we 'aren't in the correct state of mind and feeling', as it warns. Says this place is dangerous." He shrugs his shoulders afterwards, wondering what Tzita and Taurus had to say about this. As it stood, none of them seemed to actually understand what was going on, as since El was an alien to this world, in general, he really didn't understand what was going on. Perhaps they could shed some light on the situation.

The erection of the spiritual barrier over the two bodies in the forest by the Taurus was very clear, for the natural waves shifted the moment a new power flared up in them, which caused all of the trees to shift and bend. They contorted only slightly around the outpouring spiritual energy, giving them the appearance of what one would see when in a hall of distorted mirrors, yet not to such an extremity. Unfortunately, it would also prevent them from getting as clear a reception as they could, due to the pollution of energy in the air.

"The trees respond to..." the voice faded out over the Iron Will of the Taurus fighting back, for some reason, against the words of the trees. "... So it's difficult to move." With Taurus' suspicion, the trees would grow a deeper, more somber shade; something like a violet, tinged with the transitioning yellows. Yet again, the trees began to distort, though in a completely different way than they did the first time. This time, they arced around in a menacing way, as if bringing the Taurus' feelings of caution around like thorn bushes in the shadows of the yellow leaves. Where each leaf seemed harmless (save for minor distortions), each shadow seemed menacing and sharp, as if behind the peaceful exterior of the yellow there was something threatening.[/b][/i] "... No, don't...!!!" the voice was starting to fade, yet the last words of caution were hopefully heard clearly.

El tried his best to stay focused on the voice of the forest, but the more suspicious Taurus seemed to get of the forest then the more the connection seemed to want to drop. He could only understand bits and pieces of what the voice was trying to tell him, but it was enough for him to puzzle out the solution.

"I get it." He says to his companions, before looking at Tzita, instead of focusing on the encroaching trees that were growing defensive and menacing in response to their, well... prejudice. "We all need to calm down. The forest is responding to our emotions of fear and our sense of danger. It isn't inherently menacing, it's just responding to our prejudice. Earlier, it was leading us astray because me and Lady L'sia had wanted to relax and it was responding to that too."

He placed a his index and middle fingers to his left temple. "Can you still hear me voice? I'm calming down, this forest isn't an enemy. We just need to focus on where we want to go."

Very quickly, the environment shifted again, though this time relatively around El and not Tzita. The color of the trees were deepening around Tzita, yet becoming more stable around El. They would start to see each other fading away, even if they were still standing right next to each other. "Yes, I hear all... ... ... Forest," it responded to El, yet still sounded broken due to the flow of energy around them coming from the Taurus. "But... Taurus is... ... Distortions." Hopefully, it was to be understood. Each of the trees were receptive to the energies of those who came in contact with them, be they physical or incorporeal, and would shift to match. They were delicate and highly receptive, adaptive and reactive, meaning that they would react to others more than they would do anything on their own. "You must... Together or... Lost in the forest!" The last bit seemed urgent, but of course, the message still remained relatively garbled in certain parts, preventing complete and coherent understanding. "Calm... At ease! If no..." The forest's shifting became more drastic around Tzita, as if drawing her into something deeper than the green that was now beginning to form again near El. Their feelings were completely different, and it would reflect in the trees... Their positions were different in their hearts and in their minds, and so too would they be in the forest, even if they were right beside each other.

El hated to ask the Taurus not to be as protective as he was being, it was just in his nature, but it seemed like it was the only way they would be able to figure out and get out of this forest safely. If they just tried to rush to their destination without figuring this forest out, then how were they going to be able to leave? The forest was keen on not allow them to leave as it was. They almost had everything figured out, so they could see Taurus when they final got to the Earth Sanctuary.


As Tzita's image began to fade beside him, he remained as calm as he could, with nothing to hide. Even though her image was fading, he could still feel her beside him, and grabbed her hand with a reassuring squeeze. "Tzita," He said, not calling her Lady L'sia this time. "Are you hiding something?" He wondered if the forest was responding to something else when it came to Tzita besides her current mood. She was calm, sure, but it seemed like she wanted to leave in much the same hurry as the Taurus. He wasn't sure why the forest was responding differently to her.

"Voice, does the forest respond differently to magical beings. I don't want to be separated from my companion. Is there something wrong?"

"The forest only responds to the waves around it," the voice said now with more clarity, since the Taurus' vibrations from its spectral aura coating them dying down enough for the voice to speak to them on a normal, calmed level. "And since I don't have to yell anymore, I can keep the path completely stable for you. As long as you all remain in a state of contentment or at least no sort of severe shift in emotion too suddenly, you shouldn't get lost." Before, their emotions would have sent them spiraling off in some sort of infinitely looping direction based on simply their emotional state alone and the direction of their compass would not function properly.

"I, myself, can also adjust my mood to keep the forest as one single solid portion or broken environments in order to help travelers walk more easily or make the paths more hazardous. If I am not helping or hindering people actively, then it all depends on their wavelengths and energies alone. There is no difference between the beings; only the measure of energy of any kind is being released at one time." Whatever it was that was speaking to them, its voice was now as clear as a bell. The forest would completely shift to that of a normalized forested environment; trees green and completely solid, without bend nor sway. "There, now. Is that better for you all? Your device should lead you straight there with no problems, now."

So El had been correct in how he thought the forest worked. Thankfully the voice was able to stabilize everything before him and Tzita got separated, once Taurus left. It meant Taurus had been the one creating the distortions that prevented them from hearing the voice as crisp and clearly as they could right now. El was glad that his hearing was so keen, regardless, or that could have been a harder ordeal to overcome.

While he was prepared to hear with Tzita had to say, he was more keenly interested in finding the Sacred Beast that the Pisces spoke up and told them about. So interested, in fact, that he was was already looking around for the clue towards where it could be. As such, he missed Tzita's tender looks and her initially soft words. "Sure, I think find this beast and getting to the Sanctuary is more important. We've left Taurus waiting long enough." El nodded in assurance on this thought before rushing off towards where the Ankh was leading them.

"Quick! It went that way!" Even if El weren't paying attention to what was going on, Tzita's eyes, with or without their power, were already trained for these types of situation. It took her a lot more effort and concentration to keep up this time, but at the very least, she wouldn't lose sight of the Sacred Beast so easily. "Right!" she cried, slapping his right shoulder profusely, just in case he didn't know which direction.