Where is the Zodiac, what happened to the Lion, why is the scale crooked, what killed the scorpion, where has beauty fled toob, what happened to the bowman's honour and what devoured the Lady.

Those were the words of a recently published poem from some poet Ulfhild didn't know or care to learn about, what she hated and cared for was the damn poem itself.

She hated it with a burning passion, the thought of how everyone spat upon Zodiac now as if they hadn't supported it for years. It had been her life, her ancestors life and here she was the last Leo, a failure to the books of history and she had the mark to prove it.

She wished to hate the people even more than she already did, but deep in her heart she knew that lady Nimue's actions in the Nexus of Narratives were wrong. She knew that the twisted thing that taken their lady's place would have killed them all.

She grunted in frustration as she split the wood before her with her axe.

This was her one hundredth piece of wood in the last hour and her left arm was sore from the constant woodcutting.

The sun had not yet risen even though she had started working at three in the morning. The cold winds from the snow covered silver mountains that were not too far from her home sent a shiver down her spine.

She found the winds frosty embrace to be rather soothing for her muscles that had started to ache. She sighed as she put the axe down and used her left arm to pick up another plunk of wood that she placed upon the chopping block. She picked up her axe again and she raised it overhead to once again split another piece of wood.

"Ulfhild!" a sharp female voice yelled out ringing across the rather quite Freya manor and its many surrounding housing complexes. The shout had no doubt awoken everyone from the manor to the servant lodgings around them.

She paused when she recognized the voice as belonging to her mother and Ulfhild knew her mother's voice well enough to know when the woman was displeased. She turned to face her mother and the Freya matriarch face's was graced with a scowl and Ulfhild knew that this morning might be longer than she wished it to be.

" What in Dias name are you doing out here young lady!?" her mother demanded from her as she stomped closer tightly holding onto a oversized coat that no doubt belonged to her father to protect her from the stinging cold winds.

As both female Fae stood face to face, it became extremely noticeable that Ulfhild was abnormally tall for a Fae, who all averaged at 5 feet and seven inches. It was almost comical that the older Freya had to look up to her 6 foot 2 inches giant of a daughter. But she was Ulfhild's mother and those golden eyes were enough to put out any fires of defiance in the young lioness.

"Cutting wood, that's what I do every morning to exercise mother. You should know this." Ulfhild answered before she bit her lip as she took a sudden interest in the state of the ground, she hated to admit it but she couldn't just casually stare down her mother.

"You just left the hospital this week Ulfhild, you should be resting. I mean for the Ancient Ones sake, at least try to rest, you just lost... " as her mother ranted Ulfhild felt a spark of anger, but it was not for her mother.

"I lost my right arm mother not my strength so please stop trying to butter me up for heavens sake, I am not a damn child anymore!" Ulfhild couldn't remember ever arguing with her mother like this in her life, in fact her anger was so great that her magic seeped from her control and multiple thorny vines snaked out of the ground.

After their ill fated betrayal of Nimue, Ulfhild had awoken missing her right arm from the elbow down, she had lost the calm that she built up over the years. There wasn't any open wound where the stump was but she could swear that she felt a hot pain there as she yelled at her mother.

Her mother looked shocked, like she couldn't believe that her the perfect daughter would lash out like this. Her deep blue fae flesh turned a light shade on shock and Ulfhild could only watch in shock as silent tears flowed out of her mothers eyes.

I am sorry... I just don't want you... " her mother began whispering in tears and Ulfhild couldn't bare to see this anymore.

She dropped the axe and she walked off away from her mother as she felt the pain of a heart being crushed. Not since she was a child had Ulfhild ran into her room in tears. She thanked Dia that none of the servants were walking through the manor's halls to see the once mighty Leo fleeing in tears like a defeated child.

Inside her room was a giant mirror that she had avoided looking at it since her return but now she could not help herself. A part of her mind pulled her towards the mirror with her dread building up as she began to take in her true reflection.

The woman looking back at her was the same as she had always been, but where her right arm had been complete from the elbow, was nothing.

A new scar to add to the many that littered her body, from the one across her eye, to the many stub wounds, gun shot wounds, shrapnel and broken bones caused by the hard forces she had faced over her military life.

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She looked older and more worn down, in her youth she had imagined that she would look relatively the same at twenty seven years of age, but now she looked like a recently retired three hundred year old.

She remembered what happened, she remembered Nimue grasping ahold of her and with the wet thud of tearing flesh, the once beloved lady maimed her Lion. The amount of magic used in creating the wound had left the use of a prostatic near impossible and while it hadn't bothered her at first, now it just left her seething with hate for not just her old organization and mentor, but also at the parody looking back at herself.

The boiling anger finally exploded like a volcano. She roared as she reached for a bookshelf close to her and while she was less familiar with the use of her left arm, she still threw the giant shelf so hard that the mirror instantly shattered.

The sun arose with a roaring lion, but this wasn't a proud loud lion, it was a broken lion, young in body but old and spent in spirit.

XXXXXXX

She couldn't hide in her room forever. Ulfhild knew that, she wasn't stupid. Her silent isolation ended as her door was opened and in walked a giant of a Fae. A man of great stature with a long flowing black beard that both made him seem jolly and frightening depending on how one saw him.

This man had once been an Aries of Zodiac before his retirement. He had been a proud figure who had already become a legend. The greatest Freya of any generation, the mountain top Ulfhild and her sister had been racing to.

"Father." she greeted him in a weak voice unable to look him in the eyes.

"You made your mother cry." her father stated in his deep voice.

"I am sorry, I should have better control of my emotions." she apologized.

"She's sorry too." her father said as he scratched his thick beard." How are you feeling?"

"I am fine." she looked up to him as she answered.

Her father sighed almost in a disappointed manner as he got closer and sat down besides her, his hulking frame matching her's as a clear sign of where her above average height came from.

"No you are not. Me and your mother, we served in the army for decades, Ulfhild. No one walks out okay, those scars aren't the only ones you have and I don't think that you could heal from them if you hide out in here."

She knew he was right but Ulfhild just couldn't admit it to herself and face it. She was the lion, but what did that matter in a world without Zodiac.

" How did you heal from it. How did you and mother leave the battlefield behind?" she pleaded for this potential panacea to her ills.

"You never can completely leave it behind, but in time, it gets better." as he spoke Ulfhild could see a almost haunted expression in her father's eyes.

"That's absolutely depressing." Ulfhild couldn't help but chuckle as she spoke.

"It is, Ulfhild." he father smiled for bit before his eyes fell upon her and he lost his jolly grin for a tearful scowl. " I am sorry my daughter. I pushed you to the military... I did this to you."

" No you didn't, I would have been in the field anyway." Ulfhild leaned upon her father who she hugged slightly and in there the lion began to heal.

They remained there for minutes before finally her father managed convince her to leave her room and go into the living room. Her mother was there watching a news report about the current battles with the kingdom of Avalon.

" ...the loss of life is truly staggering with over two thousand confirmed casualties and the loss of ten San battleships...online, million's are giving their well wishes to the families of the dead and his royal majesty, emperor Nuada will give press conference in an hour... " her mother quickly changed the channel with a scowl plastered upon her face as she cured under her breath.

The only words Ulfhild got from her mother's low cursing tirade were "..... Fools... End it...Dia have mercy..."

"Mother. " she said startling her mother who had been so drawn into her cursing that she hadn't noticed them entering the living room.

"Ulfhild." her mother reached forward and while smaller, she drew Ulfhild into a warm strong hug. " I am sorry dear."

"No, I am. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

Their hugging ended as another party entered the room. Standing at the doorway to the living room was Juno, her younger sister. Unlike her, Juno took her height from their mother, something that had Ulfhild suspected, always irked her.

The girl stood stiffly with an attempt to create a air of dominance. Ulfhild would be blind had she not seen the attempt to be lady Nimue in her sister.

"Mother, father... " Juno paused as she cast a slight glare at Ulfhild that confused the once lion before she finally acknowledged her. " ...sister."

"Daughter, bring it here," their father joyfully said as he approached Juno and engulfed her into a deep hug that Juno answered with a unhappy glare.

"Father, that's enough." Juno declared sharply and again she was doing it, trying to be like lady Nimue and failing terribly. Their father obeyed her wish as he placed Juno back onto the ground.

"Honey, back already from the east?" their mother asked in suprise.

Juno should not have been here, she should be fighting in the northern Frost Fang Islands, that great meat grinder would be the punishment of Zodiac. They had once been the primary elite forces of the Lunar Empire. For over a thousand years it had stood alone up the mountain of greatness, above all others like the legendary calvary of the Brigidians and the prolific sea fearing Silver Sails.

But their betrayal in the Nexus of Narratives and the fact that the Avalonians had joined the war because of them, did not do them any favours. The only reason that they had been allowed to return was because they had turned on Nimue and cynically the Empire needed more soldiers.

Of course there was rioting on the streets and an important person had to be executed to please the masses. It would have been half of the surviving Zodiacs, but Libra, that ancient warrior took it upon himself to be the sucrificial lamb.

But that was not the end of it, the rest of them had to suffer in some way and so they were all shipped to the front lines where the war was at its bloodiest until they were thinned down. The only reason why Ulfhild was spared such a fate was her serious injuries.

Juno had no such protection and as such she was sent to those blasted northern islands and Ulfhild could see it. Her sister had become slimmer from an obvious low supply of food, mixed with continuous fighting.

"It's good to see you safe, Juno" Ulfhild said to her sister.

"It is good to see you too sister. Unfortunately your vacation is over." Juno said before she dipped her hand into her armor before pulling out a silver coloured envelope with a moon sigil stumped upon it. " By direct order of emperor Nuada, you and I have been summoned to the capital to be returned to the field."

" No!" Their mother shouted in anger. " Can't any of them see that she just got out the hospital. Ulfhild can't just be thrown back into whatever sucide mission they dream up."

"Orders of the Emperor, mother."

"Then talk the emperor that he can take his damn order, roll it up into a roll and shove it so hard up his rear that it will come out his mouth!"

Everyone took a step back as they watched the woman continue her viscous and rather treasonous insults. Ulfhild could almost believe that her mother would have struck the Emperor himself if he was here.

"But... But mother, that's the direct order of the Emperor, it just cant be ignored, that would be... " Juno was cut off from her stuttering words by their mother who looked and sounded like some kind of mad woman.

"What, blasphemous, is that it?" Their mother demanded before continuing. "He isn't a god Juno, why must this cruel treatment of you all be continued, he already dismanteled Zodiac. He should not treated with unflinching reverence. The last person who we all stupidly treated as such put all of reality in danger."

Ulfhild and Juno both flinched, knowing exactly who their mother was talking about. Once the name of lady Nimue was spoken about with godlike awe across the whole of Avalon, but now it was lesser than mud, infact some people had turned it into an insult and their mother made sure to remind everyone that she despised the now dead Lady.

"Airmed," their father gently said as he tried calm down his wife.

"Don't you dare to try and make this seem okay Brea!" She shouted in anger at him.

" Fine!" Juno shouted taking their attention back to her. " You can all argue all you want, but what do think the Emperor will do if we ignore orders. I have seen many of fellow Zodiac warriors at the front executed for less, everyone is looking for an excuse to kill us all."

She flicked the envelop to Ulfhild who reached out her right hand to catch it, but it was then that she realized that she lacked it now. The envelop fell to the ground just as Juno had walked out of the room leaving Ulfhild looking down upon the piece of paper knowing her next choice of actions.