Nathaniel:

I flew across the town, around the buildings and through the parks. The buildings on my home planet were of all sorts of colors. Most structures on Malison have gold, copper and silver, the most common elements on our planet. Occasionally, one could chance to see rubies and diamonds decorating the exterior of the skyscrapers. After the mountains, these buildings were the tallest things on our planet.

The people below me looked like tiny ants. I could see for miles, my vision was as sharp as an eagle's. I saw an old woman feeding the pigeons, a woman eating a hot dog. Across the town, my sister Larkin was feeding a wild bird. I spotted a small child running out on to the road, with a car coming from the opposite way. My wings spun me into action, twisting me to the child. My first real mission as a leader! I could finally be a Zodiac like all my brothers before me! It was so intense!

"Link!" I heard his mother yell. She would never reach him in time. The car was gaining speed and couldn't see the child running into the road.

I flew lower and lower, and held my arms out and grabbed the child, right before the car would have hit him. I wrapped my wings around him, keeping him safe. He was panting, his eyes still closed.

"My baby!" The mother ran over to me. I unwrapped my wings from around the boy, handing him to his mother.

"Thank you for saving my little boy!" She cried.

"Anything to help." I smiled. "That's what a Zodiac does."

My first rescue. This was what I always dreamed about, now I could finally do it for real! I grew up watching my brothers on TV saving people or helping the needy. I wanted so much to be like them, now I finally was.

"What is your name?" Another woman ran up to me.

"I haven't decided that yet." I replied. "Sagittarius is my title."

"You're my hero." The mother told me.

"No, there is not need for you to call me a hero." I tried to say. "Just doing my job."

"You are a hero to all of us." Another woman said in amazement.

I felt very overwhelmed. I had never received positive feedback from anything. I didn't know what to do or say, I kind of just froze. Azun never prepared me for this kind of attention, I was an introvert and I didn't feel comfortable in this situation.

"Ok." I smiled, backing away from the crowd all dashing to get a look. "I gotta go now."

"Wait come back!" Another women cried.

I leapt into the air and flew away as fast as I could. I don't know if I can ever stand to have that much attention in the future. I might faint! I flew on and on all the way back to my home.

I thought of my brothers, Vestry and Dustan. They were also part of the rebel alliance in our family. Dustan left on his stupid adventure to find his inner self, leaving us three all alone. I only get letters from him now. He last wrote me about how my powers might affect how people treat me, they could take advantage of me. Dustan told me I had to be careful. I don't know what to be careful for, but I keep my eyes peeled for anything.

My house looked like a business hotel. Each floor had two rooms, one for each one of the twelve children and dad. The building itself was a masterpiece of the designing world, which considered to be the best work of art in the galaxy. Diamonds, rubies, topaz and emeralds were placed around the house, shining in the moonlight. There was one balcony per floor, carved out of fine marble. The house itself was made of redwood, thousands of trees' worth of redwood. It was the very best, for the best.

My room was on floor seven across the hall from Azun's room. I'm thankful he was across from me, and Ames wasn't. Ames was above me, always making a racket with whatever he could find.

Azun's room had the French balcony doors open, must have expected me.

"Azun I had the most marvelous time!" I exclaimed. "Except for everyone overselling me as a hero."

"You're gonna have to get used to that now that you're a celebrity." Azun jumped into his bed, crossing his legs. "What did you do?"

Azun's room was the smallest in the house. He had a private bathroom, silver shelves along two of the four walls covered in books all about any topic imaginable. His bed had velvet sheets, a black pearly color. Azun's desk was filled with priceless artifacts, I didn't want to touch them, fearing they would break. I could see he had added a crystal ball and a potion to his collection.

"This place is so beautiful from the sky." I exclaimed and fell on the bed right next to him, my wings smacked against his leg.

"I bought you something." Azun smiled. He pulled out a plastic bag from his book bag.

I opened the bag to find a pair of sunglasses, not the cheap plastic kind but real adult sunglasses that could protect your eyes. I opened the package and put them on my nose.

"I love them!" I squealed and gave my brother a hug, and his arms wrapped around me.

"I love you." Azun told me.

"I know." I said. "I love you too."

Azun is the best person ever to live in the galaxy. He put off his whole career just to spend time with me, to help me be who I wanted to be. We plan on attending the same college together, where he can finish studying law and I can start my doctorate. Together we would be roommates and go do everything together. My brother put his whole life on hold just to help me. That's why I love him.

"Speaking of love," Azun laughed, "Dad wanted to see you."

"Really?" I gasped, dad never wants to talk to me. This must be super important.

"He's in his office." Azun said.

"I will be back." I promised, handing Azun my new glasses and rushing out the balcony door. "Wait here!"

I jumped off the ground and into the air, which was cold now that the sun had gone down. The cool wind-swept through my hair. I flew past building after building, over parks and train stations.

I arrived at my father's office, the tallest building in Malison's city besides our own house. He worked on the top floor. I flew through an open window and landed firmly on the ground. I was really getting the hang of this flying stuff.

The room was dark except for a dim lamp lit behind my father. Malison wasn't all that bad of a place; I remember the good days before the war started between my father and Oberon, my uncle.

My father always tells us to listen to our heart, be what we want to be, but he doesn't care for our opinion. I knew I'd get some sort of promotion or job, and he would move me around like a game of chess and have me challenge whoever he wanted, just to make him the winner. We all knew what was really happening here in this room and between our planets.

"Dad?" I called out.

"My favorite son." My dad stepped out of another room. "So glad you could make it."

"You asked to see me," I said, "I had to come."

"You are so funny." My dad laughed.

I didn't see the irony. I had to come here, if I didn't, I would get punished or grounded. That was only if he would have pity on me. That's one of the things that my father does when he calls people into his office, he disciplines them.

"So I heard about your heroic act today." Dad told me, he stirred his cocoa drink.

"Oh, that." I ran my fingers through my brown hair. "What about it?"

"You saved a child's life!" Dad exclaimed. "That's serious."

"Sure." I said, I was still a bit unsteady about this new attention, and the fact that I didn't know why I was here if he didn't want to punish me.

Dad could have just texted me the lie that he was proud. Why would I have to be here in person? I only get to see dad like maybe five times every year. He is a busy guy and doesn't waste his time with his family, even if we are the emperor family of Malison. He won't spend a minute with his kids but he sure spends a lot of time having kids. That's another reason he calls people in his office.

"I would like to give you an award." My dad stated. That's why I was here.

"For bravery." He said, putting a medal around my neck. "And a special award for the favorite child of the week." He placed another around my neck.

I thanked him. "I didn't even know I won awards."

"I made them myself, and there are more on the way." Dad assured me. "The public is voting on what to give you."

"That's great." I avoided his eyes, looking anywhere else but him, trying to hide my sarcasm.

Azun, Vestry and I had a meeting a few weeks ago about how we would plan to overthrow dad.

"I don't want to kill anyone." Azun stated in that meeting a few days ago. "It's smart and doable, but it can't be our only option."

Dustan wasn't with us at the moment. He found access to a STAR device and video called us. His face was static on the screen.

"I don't see any other way." Dustan's voice sounded like a robot through the speaker. "Azun, you don't have to be the murderer."

"I don't want to put that burden on any of you guys." Azun sighed. "The girls both abandoned us and it's only a matter of time before they rat us out to Luke."

"Then we'll be hanged in the park." Vestry grumbled, fidgeting with tools in his hands.

"Luke would pay to see you hanged if he could find you," Dustan laughed, "and Jasper will probably rat the rest of us out in a week or two anyways. So we need to act now, murder is our only option."

"Jasper is too lazy to do that." Azun commented. "Unless she is offered some chips or something stupid."

"What if we ask politely?" I suggested. "Maybe that might work."

"It won't Thaniel. You don't know everything, your too young. I love your ambition to fight for what's right, but sometimes you need to leave this to the grown ups." Azun knelt beside me. "It's getting late, you should probably head home."

Now, I was less than three feet away from my father's beating heart. I always carry a short sword in my boot in case of danger. This was the first time I felt that blade dragging down my leg.

But I couldn't kill him now. One, I couldn't bring myself to do it, and two, Luke would figure it out and come after us, he would sniff out the rebels before they even had a chance to burn in glory.

"Also I would like to promote you." Dad told me. "I want you to be in the army."

The third and last reason my dad brings people to his office, is to ship them off to their death beds. The military doesn't sound that bad from a distance, like a crappy dining place, you don't know what you have gotten yourself into until they bring out the food.

The war is bad now, there is galactic fog everywhere, nobody can see three inches in front of his face and the bodies come back home by the hundreds. Those are just the bodies they can find.

"The army?" I gasped, I had to get out of this. "I don't think military is my style."

"Now it is your style." Dad commanded me. "You are leaving in three days, pack your stuff and say goodbye. You are going on a six-year war journey to fight against the neighboring planets."

No, no, no. I couldn't leave. I was going to be a doctor. Azun had worked so hard and given up everything for me. We made a plan. I have a purpose here, I am not just a pawn in his game of chess against his brother. I had a whole future planned out on paper on my bedroom wall.

"But dad!" I argued.

"No buts." Dad yelled back.

I huffed, I felt like crying now. One good deed and now this? I never wanted to do any fighting. I hated fighting in fact, there is nothing I dislike more. I just wanted to be a protector for just a little while, like my brothers before me, then I will be a universally famous doctor. Also, I did not have the body for a military officer. Hello! I have freaking wings! How will that help in outer space?

This is just like the time they tried to put Azun on the front attack line on a space ship and unless that ship was made of a planet with dirt, my brother was basically useless.

"I don't want to be military." I argued. "I want to be a doctor. I want to make an impact on people's lives and help them. Why don't you make someone else go? I hear Ames is dying to go!"

"You can help people." Dad argued. "Our people. Win this war and you will save our whole planet. Don't be like your coward brothers you look up to."

"Azun and Vestry are not cowards!" I screamed, defending my brothers.

"Azun can't throw a punch to save his life, and he can't shoot straight. In every duel he has been in, he has almost come out dead." Dad pointed out. "And Vestry? We all know disobeyed me and didn't go to military academy. He is an outlaw and I demanded Azun and you stopped seeing him! Next time I catch him, and I will, he is going to suffer a fate worse than death."

"Worst than death? You're sending me to my death!" I screamed, my voice cracked, on the edge of crying. "No one has ever come back alive from that war zone."

"Then you make sure that you are the first." My dad's voice was filled with anger. "You will be a solider, or I will kill you myself."

That threat was the end of any debate I could make to defend myself. Tears spilled down my face. Their coldness and saltness burned in my mouth. I had the breathing thing going on that happened when you cry, your mouth goes dry and all you can do is breath fast and let more tears fall and no matter how many tears go into your mouth there is nothing that will satisfy your thirst.

"Or you can have a fate worst than death." My father cooed. "I do have the ability to send you to the galactic prison, and you don't want to go there."

I swooped my wings as I turned, knocking over a chair as I ran to the window and flew right out it. I didn't stop flying, I didn't go back home to Azun. In fact I flew right passed our house.

Azun could help me with math problems, college plans, or learning how to ride a bike for the first time. Yet this was not something he could solve.

My brother hadn't spoken to my father in over eight years. Nothing he could do or say would possibly help me. Luckily for me, I have six brothers and five sisters.

I knew exactly who I had to go to for this type of problem.