‘I know a few of them.’ Neil pointed at the tall dark boy, who was leaning against the wall by then. He was wearing brown, leather trousers, boots and a black, leather vest over a white, sleeveless shirt that revealed his muscled arms. ‘His name is Terri Russell,’ Neil continued. ‘He lives in my neighbourhood, but he was never very friendly, at least not to me. And over there, next to the window’—Neil pointed at a boy with black, oily hair, whom Leo just remembered seeing the night before, and who had changed his striped pyjamas and wore a strange, wide costume with wide trousers that resembled a skirt—‘is Patrick Adams; he is the brother of one of my friends from school, but we never really spoke.’

    ‘How come we never met at school?’ asked Leo.

    ‘Neil is probably older,’ said Virginia.

    ‘I’m nineteen,’ said Leo.

    ‘I’ll be twenty-one this February,’ said Neil.

    ‘Me too, next September,’ added Virginia.

    ‘Do you see anyone you know?’ Neil asked Leo.

    ‘No, but my sister is supposed to be here. We came together last night,’ said Leo, then he instantly cheered a little. ‘Let’s make some new acquaintances.’

    ‘Virginia tried but there was no friendly response,’ said Neil.

    ‘Let me try, this should be funny,’ said Leo then with a louder voice he spoke to all the others. ‘Well then, everyone, can I have your attention for one minute?’ everyone looked at him in astonishment including Neil and Virginia. ‘We’re all warriors, aren’t we? Or at least that’s what they call us here, and apparently, we have a long trip ahead of us, and we’re going to be in it together. I think, since we’re going to be together for some time, we should, at least, get introduced.’ No one commented. ‘I’ll start. My name is Leonardo Donner but I prefer Leo. It is not only a short name, I was born on the eighteenth of August which makes me a Leo by birth, and, according to what they say here, I have fire powers.’ Leo dramatically said the last two words. Virginia almost laughed.

    ‘You don’t actually believe in this gift nonsense, do you?’ someone finally said, it was the warrior named Terri.

    ‘Actually, I do,’ said Leo. ‘Something must have intrigued us all to come here. In my case, I had some weird incidents with fire and I guess I shouldn’t be the only one in this room who experienced something like that.’

    ‘I had a weird incident too with my element,’ a girl with a dark complexion, short curly hair and obvious, green eyes who wore a neat-looking black, leather dress decided to share.

    ‘What’s your element?’ asked Leo.

    ‘Water, I’m a Scorpio,’ the girl said proudly. Leo was not truly impressed, but he pretended to be anyway. ‘I’m Mellissa.’

    ‘Nice to meet you, Mellissa,’ Leo smiled. The girl smiles back.

    ‘How is your nose?’ she asked.

    ‘It’s fine now, thank you. Erick has strange medicines,’ said Leo casually, but then, the awkward silence was threatening to return to the room, so Virginia spoke to keep the introductions going.

    ‘My name is Virginia Green. I’m a Virgo, and I’m glad to meet you all.’ Virginia smiled friendly.

    ‘Nice to meet you too,’ said the girl with the short, brown hair who was sitting next to Mellissa and smiled timidly. She wore a fluffy, short, white dress and sandals. She was probably the youngest person in the room.

    ‘What’s your name?’ asked Virginia.

    ‘Oh I’m sorry, I’m Linda Arlie. I’m a Libra.’

    ‘My name is Patrick Adams. I’m a Pisces,’ Patrick introduced himself eagerly.

    ‘Nice to meet you, Patrick,’ said Virginia.

    ‘I think we met before,’ said Neil.

    ‘Yes, we did, you’re Neil Wood, you were one of my brother’s friends at school. I don’t know what your sign is though.’ Patrick laughed. ‘It never occurred to me to ask you.’

    ‘Of course.’ Neil smiled. ‘I’m an Aquarius.’

    Just then, the door of the room was opened and the girl that had left minutes earlier came back with Melvin, who was carrying three chairs on top of each other. Apparently, the girl had gone out to ask for more chairs. It was thoughtful of her since, by then, those who were standing were shifting their weights impatiently from one leg to the other.

    ‘I will check the rooms for more chairs,’ said Melvin who looked rather annoyed by the task as he put down the chairs, then he went frowning out of the room. Terri, who was standing beside the three chairs grabbed one at once. Surprisingly, another boy was leaning on the wall next to the window but was completely blocked from Leo’s view by Terri’s huge body and appeared after the latter had sat down. The shorter warrior smiled at the girl, bowed his head gratefully and sat on the second chair. One chair remained for the girl who brought them—the girl with the little, dark-blue dress, whom Leo was still struggling to remember. As she was going for the chair, a boy who was leaning against the desk the whole time, immersed in a book, beat her to it. The girl didn’t say a word but stared him down.

    ‘That wasn’t nice,’ said Leo feeling annoyed for the girl, who gave him her seat and went out to find more for the others. Leo jumped off his seat and left it for her. ‘Please,’ Leo motioned towards his seat.

    ‘How chivalrous,’ said the boy with the book.

    ‘What—is your problem?’ asked Leo.

    ‘Ignore him,’ said the girl in the dark blue dress to Leo privately. ‘His name is Andy Field. He’s not the nicest person you’ll ever meet. He’s in our class. You don’t remember me, do you? I’m Claudia Sailor, your sister’s friend.’

    ‘Oh yes, of course,’ said Leo feeling stupid. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t recognise you.’

    ‘It’s alright we only met like twice or something,’ Claudia smiled nervously.

    ‘Did you happen to see my sister?’ asked Leo. ‘Not sure why she isn’t here yet. Probably struggling to wear her outfit.’

    ‘No way! Ursula is here too?’ Claudia was ecstatic. Leo nodded. ‘This is the happiest thing I heard since yesterday.’

    ‘Claudia!?’ shouted Ursula who was standing shocked at the door. Claudia, as well as everyone else in the room, looked at the girl who just came in. Ursula wore a wide-sleeved blouse with embroidered cuffs, a knee-length, brown dungarees dress and boots, her thick, red hair released on her shoulders.

    ‘Ursula!’ Claudia screamed then she ran and hugged her friend as if she had not seen her in years. ‘I never expected to see you here. Oh, I was so afraid to do this alone.’

    ‘I’m so happy you’re here too,’ said Ursula. The girls squealed with joy and embraced one more time, then Ursula opened her eyes and the first person she saw over Claudia’s shoulder was Andy.

    ‘Tell me I am not seeing this,’ whispered Ursula. Claudia turned around to see what Ursula was looking at.     

     ‘I’m afraid you are,’ said Claudia.

    ‘Hey girls, come and join us,’ said Leo. ‘Ursula,’ Leo looked at his sister’s outfit and could barely hold his laugh. ‘Is this what you’re wearing?’

    ‘Shut up,’ said Ursula. ‘Look at what you’re wearing?’

     Leo introduced his sister and her friend to Neil and Virginia good-humouredly.

    ‘Hello, Ursula. I’m Virginia, we met yesterday. This is my friend Neil.’ Ursula nodded with a smile. She seemed glad of the company. With her friend at her side, she no longer seemed fearful of the impossible trip. 

    ‘You were the ones that got attacked last night, right?’ Claudia asked Neil.

    ‘You too?’ Ursula was shocked to learn that there was another attack and Leo was impressed by her ability to sleep despite the noise.

    ‘You didn’t hear anything last night?’ asked Leo, but their conversation was shortly interrupted.

    ‘Hey,’ Andy shouted, pointing a finger at Ursula, his head out of his book for the first time since Leo had entered the room. All eyes in the room went back and forth between them. ‘I was right,’ he said. ‘I knew you were the one that put my grandmother’s hair on fire yesterday at school*.’ Everyone laughed on hearing that. Leo assumed this was why Ursula looked upset when he went to pick her up from school. ‘What are you laughing at?’ Andy scowled at everyone. ‘My grandmother is the oldest and most respected teacher at Curtlane High School.’

    ‘Wait, your grandmother is Mrs Fields?’ Leo repressed a laugh as he remembered. ‘Oh, how she hated me.’

    ‘It’s Field,’ Andy corrected. ‘And she was right to hate you.’

    ‘Yes, she was,’ Leo admitted with his eyes fixed upwards still recalling his school memories. ‘I pranked her so many times, she has all the right to hate me, but I never put her hair on fire. I must admit, that was bold, Ursula,’ said Leo sounding almost impressed.

    ‘That was unintended,’ said Ursula defensively. ‘I never meant to hurt anyone.’

    ‘It’s Leonardo, isn’t it?’ Andy closed his book and shifted on his seat. ‘Erick told us this morning before he left; you’re the hero that saved lives yesterday, aren’t you?’ asked Andy. Leo didn’t answer. ‘So you like to intrude in what’s obviously none of your business. That’s what makes people heroes.’ Andy inhaled deeply, which made his chest swell, giving himself the air of self-importance. ‘You must be very proud of yourself now, more than you can show. I’ve read about each and every Zodiac sign, you’re a typical match with your sign. Too bad you’re going to find it hard to deal with me because I’m, simply, special. You can’t read about me in books.’ Andy smiled triumphantly and threw the book in his hand carelessly on Erick’s desk, but then, Leo decided to speak.

    ‘Of course, I can’t read about you in any book. Books are written about people of importance, not those who pretend to be,’ said Leo. ‘I think that you are a typical match with your grandmother. In which case, it’s you who's going to find it hard to deal with me, as did your grandmother.’ Leo smiled wickedly as he watched Andy’s face turn red with anger. Shortly after the unpleasant conversation was over, the door of the room was opened and in came Erick.

    ‘I’m sorry that I’ve kept you waiting,’ he said as he closed the door behind him and hurried to his desk only to find his chair occupied by Mellissa. ‘I had to check on the arrangements for our trip. We can’t stay here for long, we’re already late. I’m quickly going to tell you about the nature of our trip and answer your questions, then we will go downstairs and have our breakfast. I prefer it to be a quick one, even though it looks like Brita has cooked you a feast. After that, we’ll be off. Have you been introduced?’

    ‘We were in the process,’ said Leo.

    ‘Good, I will make it quicker. That is Leonardo Donner, Neil Wood, Virginia Green, Ursula Donner—Leo’s sister—and, over there is Claudia Sailor,’ Erick said quickly then he motioned towards the warriors further from the door. ‘This is Patrick Adams, Oliver Caprus, Terri Russell, Andy Field, Linda Arlie and Mellissa Grey. You perhaps noticed that there are age differences, but in Zodia we do not speak of our age because your age is not important, what’s important is your gift and how well you’re able to use it.’

    ‘Erick.’ The boy named Oliver raised his hand politely. He had a handsome face, tidy hair and wore clothes similar to those of Leo and Neil.

    ‘You can call me Captain from now on,’ Erick said stiffly.

    ‘I’m sorry,’ said Oliver, ‘but I think we’re all curious to know exactly what happened last night. I mean what happened with Warriors Neil and Virginia.’

    ‘I knew this would be the first question,’ said Erick and didn’t seem bothered. He recounted to them what happened in detail and repeated to them what he had told Leo the night before about the attacks and, just as expected, what he said aroused many fears and more questions, but Erick was willing to answer everyone.

    ‘What happened to those warriors that have been taken? Were any of them found?’ asked Virginia.

    ‘Only some of them, I’m afraid,’ said Erick.

    ‘How is it that the identity of the kidnapper is not known?’ asked Neil.

    ‘All the kidnappings happened in different circumstances. There was never a clear pattern for us to follow. It seems that there are different culprits to these attacks,’ said Erick.

    ‘But I’ve seen him yesterday,’ said Leo.

    ‘The description you told me of the attacker, matches a few other descriptions given by warriors who had witnessed previous attacks,’ said Erick.

    ‘It’s solved then,’ said Leo.

    ‘It’s not that simple. In Hozafia, many match this exact description and certainly, we can’t arrest them all,’ said Erick. ‘I don’t mean to scare you before the trip. However, if what you heard today scared some of you, I won’t talk you out of it. It might not be bad to feel that way for now. It will make you cautious enough to reach Zodia unharmed. But remember, don’t let fear stop you from following your purpose, which you’re all here to fulfil. You are here because you’re special, and the only place for you to learn more about your gifts is at the academy.’ Erick smiled reassuringly but no one smiled back, they were all scared as they should be. ‘Now let me tell you about the nature of our trip.’ Erick continued casually. ‘We’re going to leave for Hozafia right after breakfast. It’s a five-hour trip. We will go through underground tunnels—’

    ‘Tunnels! Is that how you go to your secret world?’ Terri was not impressed.

    ‘Yes, that is exactly the way your parents used to get there, and it’s how you are going to get there too,’ said Erick.

    ‘How come the Celavians never found those underground tunnels? Who built them anyway?’ asked Andy.

    ‘You will learn all the details about the tunnels and the history of how they were created when you start your classes at the academy, for now, just know that these tunnels are only visible to Hozafians,*’ said Erick.

    ‘We’re not expected to walk for five hours through those tunnels, are we?’ asked Mellissa, legs crossed and arms folded.

    ‘Fortunately, we don’t have to walk. We use carriages to travel through the tunnels, but this is not to say that it’s going to be a comfortable trip. What I would expect from you, however, is to have no complaints, I hope I’m clear on that part,’ Erick said firmly but with a smile on his face. Mellissa rolled her eyes and didn’t say another word. ‘After we pass the tunnels, we will be in Hozafia but miles away from Zodia, we will then take the countryside road for another two hours, and after we cut the distance, you’ll finally be able to join your colleagues at Zodia.’