OW: AST 104, The Twilight Hunter

The young were-cat’s amber eyes looked through each current pattern she could make out from the sky. They were very diverse, but ever so interesting to watch. Every single imaginary line between the distant twinkling lights meant something, and they were as challenging as good riddles to make out. Since Rani had been stargazing for so many years already, her eyes could easily discern certain patterns from certain angles. In this kind of darkness, it was easy to do so. This was one of the reasons why she couldn’t make observations near the Academy grounds. The mundane light sources blocked out the distant ones in the sky, thus darkness was essential. Thanks to Rani’s feline nature, wandering in such circumstances wasn’t hard either. Rani then closed her eyes for a moment as she recalled each of the Western zodiacs... each in their unique pattern and angle.

The Ram, The Bull, The Twins, The Crab, The Lion, The Virgin, The Scales, The Scorpion, The Archer, The Sea Goat, The Water Bearer, The Fish.

Rani quickly read out the diverse Western zodiacs in her mind. She didn’t meet any difficulties here, for the Hindu astrology was almost the same as the Western one. They simply had different names in different languages, but they meant exactly the same. The only difference between the Hindu and the Western astrology, from what Rani had noticed by what her former mentor had told her before, was that The Scales meant balance in Hindu, The Sea Goat was „goat-horned“ (which probably meant that the zodiac had little to do with an actual goat), The Water Bearer was a water-pourer and The Fish corresponded to fishes. There were some details differing from one another in Hindu and Western astrology, but generally they meant the same.

A thing that Rani found odd was that the Western zodiacs used different names from their meanings. Like The Ram was Aries, and The Sea Goat was Capricorn. Rani didn’t realise why that was necessary, so she decided to stick to the original meanings if she was to present her knowledge before the class. Now that she thought about presentation, she recalled that Professor Kalpana had also asked their students to identify themselves in each given zodiac. While everyone who knew that she was a were-cat could guess that Rani would be a Leo (just because she is a were-cat), she was instead a Sagittarius. She was born November 24 and thus the sign of The Archer. This sign describes its people as free , honest, intellectual and philosophical. It definitely described Rani well. But it also said that people like her are careless and irresponsible... however, Rani did not share these traits. She was careful beyond expectations and very responsible, as her skills let her. Instead, she would list her negative traits as being doubtful and often nervous, which were the negative traits of the sign of The Twins instead. If anyone would compare Rani to The Lion, she would share truly none of the traits, regardless of her being a were-cat and feline in nature.

The Chinese zodiac was an entirely different story, but Rani was remotely familiar with it as well. She read out the signs as they went throughout the year, out in her mind.

Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.

The names were surely more relatable than in the previous zodiac, but there was more to it than that. Rani was aware that even though these signs were normally counted as throughout the years, each of these animals actually corresponded to months, days and hours as well. The months meant an inner animal, the days a true animal and the hours a secret animal. Based on this, Rani was born in the year of the Dog (she shuddered as she thought about that, because she disliked canines a lot), but she was a Pig internally and a Snake secretly. She wasn’t sure of the true animal for she was unknowing of the weekday she was born in, so she left that as it was.

Rani also pondered about her personality traits as a Dog. Honest, intelligent, generous and loyal were the traits she shared, but she still failed to see why she would be related to such an animal she didn’t like. She didn’t feel like a canine at all, regardless of the associated traits. But no matter how much she thought about it, the personality traits of the feline zodiacs like Leo and the Tiger didn’t fit either. It was as if she was a crossover between the canine traits and feline ones. The were-cat found that extremely baffling. Astrology was odd, but it was all tied to spirits. Perhaps there were some parallels drawn between her and canine traits that linked back to her spirits? Only time would give the answers, it would seem.

From a small horoscope writing she had accidentally found lying in one of the lounges, she discovered her horoscope for the Western zodiac. To her luck, it was written in Vedas and technically was about the Hindu zodiac, she still knew that it could be easily linked back to the Western one, so she understood everything. Based on what was written, she found out that she was to be experience new adventures. She was said to be „born wild“, and that it was now the time to „act wild“. Rani supposed this was linked to her having to hook on to good opportunities, and she even found herself agreeing with that. It was also said it was a good year to be involved with love and fame. Rani’s gaze wandered. She very much doubted that the last part would become true. She didn’t feel like those were necessary for the time being at all, now that she thought back to the torment that she received shortly before enrolling to the Academy. She sighed.

Soon enough, she stood up, eyes still pinned to the darkening sky. She wished to stay for a while longer, but now that she had thought of everything she needed to, she had more important things to attend to. It was time to prepare for a presentation to Professor Kalpana. She silently sprinted through the night, back towards the Academy grounds.