Chapter Seven
"Look out!" Sting cried as he pushed Yukino out of the way as one of the dragons' claws came down on them. Rogue rolled away from them holding Lector and Frosch. The dragon in the middle snarled as it lurched toward Sting and Yukino, preparing to attack as it looked down on them with its piercing, glowing yellow eyes.
"Stay here," Sting told Yukino and then ran forward, drawing his sword. He jumped up and raised the blade over his head.
"Holy Light's Blade Slash!" He shouted and then brought the blade down on the dragon's shoulder, and then landing beside it. The beast howled and cringed in pain as the blade left a large white glowing gash. It snarled in anger and ,with its good arm, swatted the ground where Sting dragon hunter leapt away just in time and landed right in the dragon's blind spot. With one swift move, Sting's sword left another large gash on the dragon's other shoulder, causing the beast to cringe again in agony. As its body began to lower, Sting sprang forward again and leapt into the air.
"Holy Light's Blade Strike!" He cried as he came down on the dragon. With several swift movements, his sword covered the dragon with several long glowing white slash marks, causing to collapse in pain. Sting smirked as it tumbled to the ground, yet had little time to celebrate as another dragon attacked, forcing the young dragon hunter back
"Dark Shadow Blade Slash!" Rogue suddenly leapt up from behind and brought his sword down on the dragon's back, causing it to howl in pain as black shadowy flames oozed from its wound and then collapse.
Rogue then landed beside Sting, who looked over at the two fallen dragons.
"That's two down," he said. "One more to go,". He looked up at the last dragon, which now that he noticed, was a lot bigger and looked stronger than the other two. It would take more that a few jabs to take him down.
The dragon snarled ferociously at the sight of its fallen brethren and turned its angry gaze on the duo that struck them down. It lurched forward, ready to attack, and moved itself into a sort of crouching position, which alerted the two dragon hunters as to what it was to about to do.
"Crap, get down!" Sting cried out.
The dragon hunters barely managed to dodge as bright hot flames came shooting out of the dragon's mouth. Sting and Rogue rolled away from the flames and the dragon ceased its fiery breath as they hid in its blind spots. The beast snorted, smoke coming out of its nose, as its yellow scanned the area and spotted Yukino, pressed again the wall of the canyon, with Lector and Frosch at her feet. The dragon lurched toward them, eyes locked, as flames began to spark inside its mouth.
"Yukino, Lector, Frosch! Move!" Sting yelled as he and Rogue ran toward the dragon.
Yukino ducked down behind a large boulder as flames came flying toward her. Beads of sweat rolled down her brow as a wave of intense heat drifted upon her. She backed away slowly, moving sideways with her hands against the rock wall, and suddenly her hand felt something that didn't seem like jagged rock. In the dim light of the dragon's flames, Yukino saw it was some sort of foundation, carved in in the canyon wall in the shape of a arched doorway. And in the middle was some sort of symbol, one that sort of looked like the number six but with a line at the end that curved downward and then went up then down to form a small peak.
It was the sign of the Goat of the Zodiac, Capricorn. This had to be where the Key of the Goat was but how was she supposed to get inside? There no was no handle. Yukino racked her brain for answers. Surely something Master Houka told her during her lessons would give her a clue on how to open the door. Then suddenly, as if by some miracle, the answer came to her in the sound of her teacher's voice saying "Look deep inside yourself, for inside you shall find the key that will open any door, even the ones that seem impossible to open."
But what did that mean? What key? Yukino looked at the door again and at Capricorn's symbol. The key was inside, all she needed to do was open the door. She could figure this out, she just needed to think.
"Calm your mind...reach deep down...find the key" her teacher's voice echoed inside her head. Yukino took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and placed her hand on the door. The sound of the battle between dragons and dragon hunters began to die down as she concentrated. Her mind became blank and she find herself surrounded in darkness. And then out of the darkness a bright gold star in appeared, shimmering and gleaming like the ones in the night sky Yukino had seen so many times. And then the star began to take shape, growing larger and sprouting legs, arms, and a head, and then it was the shape of a woman. And not just any woman. Yukino held her breath as she saw her own self standing before her, her bare skin covered in a golden glow that illuminated around her. Her other self smiled and held out her gold hand. Yukino hesitated, then held out her own hand and as their fingers grazed each other, her other self's hand began to dissolve into a glowing, sparkling golden dust. With one last smile, the rest of her other self's body dissolved into a sparkling dust cloud that flew forward and into Yukino's body. As it disappeared inside her, she felt a warm sensation inside her chest which ran up her arm and when she open her eyes, the door was open.
"How did you do that?" Sting's voice came up from behind her.
Yukino turned and saw Sting and Rogue, along with Lector and Frosch, looking at her in astonishment.
"What happened to the dragon?" She asked.
"We took it down," Rogue said. "He was tough but we've faced worse."
"More importantly, what did you just do?" Sting asked, looking at her in astonishment.
"I opened the door?" Yukino said.
"Yeah, but how?" Lector asked. "It doesn't have a handle."
"I guess I must have found the key," Yukino said. "All I had to do was look inside myself."
Yukino looked down; she hadn't moved an inch but it felt like she had just gone a long journey. A journey inside her own self, to find the key to open all doors. And now she understood why she found herself when she went looking: she was the key.
Lector peered inside the now open door and his eyes became as big as saucers. "Uh, guys, I think you bette have a look inside."
The others looked through the door and their eyes widened. Inside was a large cavern covered which was filled with jewels of all shapes, sizes, and color. And In the middle of the room was a pedestal with Capricorn's symbol. Yukino stepped in first, followed by the others, and walked up to the pedestal, which under Capricorn's symbol had an inscription that read:
"To reveal that of which you seek
Find the jewel that is unique.
For only one is what you need
or you will pay the price for greed."
So they were for one gem, only one, and Yukino didn't want to think about what happened if she choose wrong. She began to look around when she saw that her friends had scattered around the room, eying the bounty before them.
"A handful of these things and we'll be set for the rest of our lives!" Lector said practically drooling. "No more hunting dragons for us!"
"Frosch thinks so, too!" Frosch said not taking his eyes off the jewels. "I like the shiny green ones!"
"Those are emeralds, Frosch," Lector said. "And there are rubies, too! Golly, if we empty out this whole cavern, we'll richer than a king!" He stretched out a paw toward a large emerald.
"Guys, no!" Yukino stopped them.
Her friends stopped and looked at her as if she had gone crazy
"This is a test," she said. "If any of us pick up the wrong jewels or try to take the jewels, we'll fail and, from the what I read on this inscription", she gestured toward the pillar. "I don't think we'll ever be leaving this cavern if we do. We have to choose one, only one".
"One!?" Lector cried out. "You can't be serious."
"Listen to me," Yukino said. "In my clan, the symbol of the goat Capricorn represents and inspires wisdom, prudence, and more importantly, self-control. I know it's easy to give in to temptation but you can't let your desires get the best of you. If you do, than sooner or later you're going to have to suffer for it."
Sting gazed at her in silence. He had always thought that the people of the Zodiac Clan were just fortune-tellers and astrologists who based their ways of life off their own made-up religion about spirits who lived amongst the stars and now this girl was schooling him on an important life lesson which she and her people picked from...a goat? She was definitely a strange girl but she did seem to have a point.
Sting sighed. "Alright, one jewel it is then. But which one?"
"We looking for one that's different from the rest," said Yukino. "The inscription says to reach that which you seek, find that is unique, so-"
"That rhymes!" Frosch pointed out.
"Yes it does, Frosch," Yukino smiled at him. "So if the one we need is unique, that it's probably one that stands out among the others."
"You mean like, if it's shaped like a shriveled head or something?" Lector asked.
"Or something," Yukino said. "Or maybe something like it doesn't belong among the jewels here."
"Well, we're not just going to find it just by standing here," Rogue said.
"He's right, let's fan out," Sting said.
Yukino and the others spread out around the cavern, carefully examining the jewels for one that stood out. In her corner of the room, Yukino's eye caught sight of one that was an odd shade of pink and was shaped like a shell, no, more like a horn. The horn of goat. This had to be it, its shape and color was different from rest but Yukino was hesitant to pick it up. What if it was the wrong one? What if it had just been place in the pile of jewels to trick people? She had been taught to keep an open mind and assuming the first unusual jewel she saw was the one she was looking for didn't seem like the wisest thing to do. She could risk putting her comrades lives at risk just because she presumed too much.
"Ah, these jewels all look the same to me," Lector said from his side of the room.
"Fro thinks so, too," Frosch said.
"With the number of jewels in here, it could take days to find what we're looking for," Rogue said.
"And time is short for us," Sting said as he stood from where he had knelt over a pile of jewels.
"I think I might have found it," Yukino said. "It's shaped like a goat's horn and well, since Capricorn is the sign of the Goat, I figured maybe, but I don't know…."
"What don't you know?" Lector asked impatiently. "Geez, if that's not it, then what the heck are we supposed to be looking for!?
"He has a point," Sting said. "Might as well give that one a go; if it's the wrong one, we'll worry about it then. But we can't just waste time because you felt like being skeptic. Sometimes you've got to take risks."
Yukino looked at him, then looked down at the horn-shaped jewel and nodded. "You're right;ok then, here it goes."
She reached out and plucked the jewel from the pile. Turning back towards the pedestal, she took a deep breath and placed on the jewel on the stand. At once, the jewel began to glow as it lifted itself into the air and began to spin. It spun faster and faster until suddenly it burst into little sparkling pieces and in its place was a golden with Capricorn's sign on it. Yukino reached out and took the key out of the air, and turned it over inher hand. She smiled; she had found it,the key of the goat, Capricorn.
"So that's it, is it?" Sting asked.
Yukino nodded. "Yes, Capricorn's key; now I just need to find the other ten keys and then I can summon the Celestial Spirit King."
"Seems like you're one step closer to achieving your goal," Rogue said.
"Any idea where to find the next key?" Sting asked.
Yukino shook her head. "Like I said before, only the Zodiac Compass can lead me to it; I can only put my faith in it".
"Well, you're not going to find it by staying here," Lector said. "So can we please get out of here?"
Sting grinned. "Funny you should say that, buddy; I would've thought that being the little greedy rascal you are, you would've made yourself at home here."
"Well, I guess what Yukino said sort of got to me," Lector said. "Besides, I'm starving and I highly doubt there's anything here worth munching on.
"I hear ya," Sting said. He hadn't meant the part about his feline being hungry, but the part about what Yukino said. She seemed pretty wise for someone her age and she wasn't first to give in to greed. It seemed like she got more interesting the more he spent time around her. Placing Capricorn's key inside her satchel, Yukino followed Sting and Rogue as they walked out of the cavern. Just as she stepped out into the sunlight, she involuntarily bumped into Sting's back as he and Rogue halted in their tracks.
"What's wrong?" Yukino asked as she side-stepped past them and followed their gaze.
Her eyes widened at what she saw. Standing several feet in front of them was a woman with a dark hair down to her waist in a tight-fitting outfit with a sinister grin on her face.
"Well, I do believe thanks are in order, Celestial Priestess," she said in a mocking tone of voice. "You have been a big help. And now that you have saved us the trouble of finding the key, taking it from you should be easy.