Taurus woke up. How could he have fallen asleep? Tomorrow was the first day of middle school and he had to be on the top of the class! He knew that in middle school there would be a lot more competition there so he started studying as soon as summer break started. His study work started to intensify as the first day of school drew nearer. He couldn't believe he actually fell asleep. He woke up immediately and instinctively got out his study books.
During the day he got out his school preparations list and checked it over for the sixth time to make sure he had everything he needed. At the bottom of the list, it said, 'Bring in Favorite Book'. Taurus definitely knew what book he was bringing. It was a book titled "The Revenge of The Serpent and other short stories" On the main cover was a large green snake with its jaws expanded, its sharp teeth showing and in the snake's mouth was a sword. The Sword of Aries.
The Revenge of The Serpent was a fictional story about a serpent, known to kill for sport, who was finally defeated and killed by a great elf named Aries. Aries crafted a sword using the serpent's venom and he made the most powerful sword. He named the sword after himself, and the Sword of Aries would be able to penetrate every known surface, no matter what the substance was. Aries grew extremely powerful with this sword and the hero had become imprisoned by his own power. Aries soon started to terrorize others but when he grew old, a man killed Aries while he was sleeping, to steal the sword. The man, whose name was Leo, thought that he now would be the most powerful man since he had control of the sword.  However Aries was cunning. When Aries made the sword, the venom he impregnated the sword with was 'alive'. It contained the soul of the serpent, and therefore the sword could act on its own. The sword would try to kill whoever tried to use it if it didn't belong to them. The only way to obtain full control of this sword was to feed part of your soul into the sword so that the sword could be controlled. Doing this would change you. Every time you hold the sword, you would become increasingly evil until it eventually kills you. Just like how it killed Aries. Once Leo found the curse and dangers of the sword, he immediately disposed of it and went into hiding. The sword was never to be seen again.
But of course, it was all fictional.

Pisces had barely slept. She had tossed and turned all night in her bed. Her parents had died only the day before. It all happened so fast. One moment Pisces's parents who were sitting in the front of the car looked back to talk to Pisces who was sitting in the back. Then an out of control truck slammed into the car and the car skidded to a halt. Pisces was okay. No injuries at all. But her parents... dead. Pisces has been sent to live with her loving grandmother. Pisces's grandmother had jet black eyes and always had a mysterious look to her face.
When Pisces first when to her grandmother's house, Pisces was traumatized about the incident. She would never see her parents again. Pisces's grandmother tried to stick optimistic and embraced Pisces when she first came.
"Oh there is my sweet little Pisces!" Her grandmother said as they hugged. Pisces had tears in her eyes as she squeezed her grandmother. "Don't worry Pisces, I will always be with you," her grandmother said. Pisces let go and she gave a slight nod. "Let me show you to your room," her grandmother said. When she looked at her room, something made her feel uncomfortable. It was very dark and spooky, and decorations were creepy. On a shelf was an item. It was a model of a serpent, with its jaws open. It was encased in a foggy translucent coat, and something told her it wasn't regular glass. It was very late so she decided to go directly to sleep.
"Grandma! I'm really tired, so is it okay if I sleep right now?"
"Of course! Suit yourself"
"Sorry I didn't spend more time with you today, I really did mean to"
"Ah, it's alright, it's nothing, I don't mind"
"Okay have a good night, grandma!"
And Pisces went to her bed. And wept to sleep. The first day of school awaited her.

Capricorn, Taurus and Pisces all went to school with great nervousness. What would await them, none of them knew. However, once they all arrived outside of Greenville Middle School, they were all attracted to each other, as if there was an invisible magnet, pushing them together. Pisces who saw Capricorn nervously looking around, and Taurus with his nose buried in his book, was the first to say hi. None of them had seen each other before, but something told them that they had met once before. It was something about them that no other kids had in common.
"Hello guys," Pisces said to them, "Ready for the first day of school?"
"Mmph?" Taurus made a noise as he looked up from his book.
Pisces laughed and said, "What period do you have math?"
"Period 1," Taurus replied almost instantaneously.
"And you?" Pisces said looking at Capricorn.
"Uh, period 6, I think," Capricorn said cautiously.
"Sweet, I do too!" Pisces replied as the bell rang. Pisces and Capricorn went off to their first period class, and Taurus quickly called out to Pisces, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch your name!"
"My name is Pisces," she said smiling at Taurus.
"My name is Taurus! Glad to meet you!" And once everyone was gone, Taurus smiled. And he thought about how he had developed a crush for someone just after meeting her.

As the first day of school winded down, and the final dismissal bell rang, Taurus looked around to see if he could find Pisces. He wanted to talk to her. As he kept looking, he saw Capricorn and Pisces walking out together, chatting as if they were best friends. Taurus, eyeing them ran over to them and interrupted their conversation.
"So how was your day?" Taurus asked looking at Pisces.
"It was great," Pisces replied. "Capricorn and I are lab partners in science, and we had a lot of fun!"
"So your name is Capricorn, is it?" Taurus asked, this time looking at Capricorn. Capricorn swore he saw a sneer.
"Yea, and you're Taurus, right?" Capricorn said to Taurus.
"Mhm," Taurus said, with the same smug look.
"Well, Capricorn and I were going to go to my grandma's place to do homework," Pisces said evenly spacing out her words. "Would you like to join us?"
"Love to," Taurus said emphasizing on the word love, staring directly into Capricorn.
At Pisces's grandmother's house, Pisces's grandmother openly shows her love for company. She hugged the two boys and kissed them both on the cheek. After that Pisces brought her friends to her room. Pisces could automatically see the surprised look on the boys' faces and she immediately said, "My grandmother likes to collect these things," she said, mainly looking at the model of the serpent.
"I think your room looks fantastic," Taurus exclaimed.
"Really? " Pisces said surprised, "I don't really like it myself"
"Yeaaa, I agree, I thought it looked cool at first, but now it looks so creepy!" Taurus said, blushing. Capricorn scoffed and Pisces just stood there smiling.
After about an hour, they heard a giant explosion noise, and a crackling sound soon after. They could have sworn they also heard an inhumane hissing. The three kids stood up to go downstairs to see if there was anything wrong, when the bedroom door went flying open. There stood a snake-like woman grasping Pisces's grandmother by the neck, with a giant python crawling around her arms.
"I am the mighty queen Serpra!" The woman hissed. "Bring me eight Nocturns and your grandmother will be free. Fail, and her soul with lie with me." And the woman disappeared with Pisces's grandmother.

Everyone was in a state of shock and fear. Pisces broke down. "How could I let this happen!" She sobbed. "It's okay, it wasn't your fault," Capricorn said reassuringly. "The best we could do is to try to save her. Does anyone even know what the Noc- Noc- Noctangs are?"
"She wanted Nocturns," Taurus said as he opened his book titled 'The Revenge of The Serpent and other short stories'. He flipped to the middle of the book and read off a chapter named "Secrets of Nocturns" He started to read out loud.
"Nocturns, they are objects that can look like anything the creator wants them to be. The Nocturns emit a bright orange glow and are covered by a protective casing that can only be destroyed by a powerful burst of magic. Nocturns are the only cure for curses." Taurus looked up, and Pisces immediately said, "Everyone search this house upside down to see if you could find any Nocturns!" Taurus and Capricorn both nodded and went downstairs to look for Nocturns. Pisces stayed back in her room and searched there. She looked in her closet and in her drawers but she couldn't find anything that was glowing orange. Then she looked over at her shelf and she looked at the model of the serpent. For the first time she noticed it was emitting a bright orange glow.
"Guys!" Pisces yelled excitedly. "I think I found one! I think I found a Nocturn!"

"Awesome!" Capricorn said in amazement. "How do we destroy it, though?"
"With a powerful burst of magic," Taurus replied in a sarcastic tone.
"I know that, but it's not like any of us know any magic," Capricorn said. He had a brief flashback of the dream with fire but it was soon interrupted by Pisces.
"C'mon let's worry about destroying it later, and let's look for more. I'll look in grandma's room, and-"
"Pisces, I doubt there is going to be more than one Nocturn in a single place. We should look in a different place," Taurus said. "Any ideas?"
"I want to go to my parents house. I-it just seems logical," Pisces stammered.
"Great idea," Taurus said to Pisces.
And so Pisces took the model and the three walked to Pisces's house and searched the house for any signs of Nocturns. They looked all over the place. Pisces went to her parent's room. She found a picture of Pisces's parents together with a very young Pisces. She looked at the picture. Her mother had jet black eyes just like her grandmother. And her father... he had mysterious green eyes... just like Capricorn. But then a sight had distracted her. Pisces's mother's necklace. It had an emerald shaped like a serpent and it was glowing bright orange.
"I think I found another one!" Pisces yelled at the top of her lungs as she picked up the necklace. As the two boys came rushing in, Capricorn said, "Wow you really are good at finding these," but the only thing Pisces could think of was Capricorn's eyes.

"Okay, we already found two Nocturns, and they have all been somehow related to Pisces," Capricorn said. "Can you think of any other places that might relate to you?"
"Well there is this one beach that my parents and I always used to go to..." Pisces began to say. She couldn't bear to think about the fact that she'll never visit there with her family ever again. "It's not far, it's walking distance"
"Great, then let's go there right now," Taurus said. So the three got up and ready to go to the beach. As they began to step out the door, Taurus had to say something that was on his mind.
"As much as I want to go to the beach, I was thinking of something," he said. "The woman who captured Pisces's grandmother waited until the two of us were at your house. I think the Nocturns might relate to each of us as well at Pisces." All three thought about Taurus's theory, and it just seemed to make more and more sense. 
"Okay, we can go to my house and look for it there," Capricorn offered. The three walked to Capricorn's house, and when rang the doorbell to his own house he thought he heard chanting. It was very quiet at first... then it grew increasingly bigger. Until eventually it grew so loud that they could all clearly make out what the chanting was hissing in a familiar voice. "Find Nocturns... I have put your mother to eternal sleep... find Nocturns... awake her..." And then the door burst open. Capricorn ran inside with tears in his eyes, there he saw his mother still and pale as if she were dead. Eternal sleep. He had to find the Nocturn. Pisces patted Capricorn on the back, but he put it aside, and he said in a quiet but powerful voice, "Everyone search this house for a Nocturn!"
All three of them looked all over the place for a Nocturn. Pisces looked in the kitchen, Taurus in the family room, and Capricorn in his room. Capricorn opened drawers after drawers and looked for an orange glow. He started to crack under pressure and he couldn't handle it anymore. He was about give up, when he saw something from the corner of his eyes on his desk. He walked over to a Swiss Army Knife that his mother had bought for him on his 11th birthday. Sure enough it was glowing orange. He quickly pulled it out, and called out. "I found another!" He didn't have to clarify, his two friends knew exactly what he meant. They saw his knife, and Capricorn found a safe place to keep the Nocturn in his backpack. "I think we should go to Taurus's house now," Pisces said.
Taurus gave a slight nod, and lead the way out of Capricorns house.

They walked all the way to Taurus's house, which was on the other side of town. Taurus and his friend cautiously walked up to the door, expecting what would happen next. Taurus grasped the door, and quickly swung it open. He heard a very loud and disturbing scream which caused the three to cover their ears. Through the screams they heard a whisper... Find me the Nocturns... OR THEY WILL DIE! and silence. Taurus walked in, and saw his parents all pale and stiff, like Capricorn's. Without saying a word, they all knew what to do. Everyone picked a spot in the house and searched.
Taurus slowly walked over to his room. It was filled with Academic awards. He looked through them in case any of his trophies or his certificates were Nocturns. He looked through his desk, and found a bunch of graded papers, and nothing else. He observed his bookshelf, nothing abnormal... Until he saw a book glowing.
It was one of the thickest books he owned, 'The Encyclopedia' and it seemed even more thicker with the coating around it. "A book! It's a book! The book is a Nocturn!" Pisces and Capricorn both rushed to see what Taurus had found. Pisces looked very excited.
"Four down! Only four to go! And we got the whole weekend to search them," Pisces yelled out.
"Hate to break it to ya, but we still need to find out how to destroy these coatings around it," Taurus said.
Pisces's smile was quick to die out.
"Also now, we should get going. We found a Nocturn from each of our houses," Capricorn said. "Does anyone have a clue on where the next Nocturn might be?" He looked at each of their faces. The bright amber eyes of Taurus and the midnight black eyes of Pisces told Capricorn what they were thinking. It's going to take a long time to find these objects and save Pisces's grandmother. But it will be worth it. Like a quest. Yes, a quest.