"Are you ready for your next trial?" Aries asked as they left the house.

Gemini didn't answer him, her gaze fixed on the sidewalk. Her mind kept replaying the events from a few days ago. She had been so close to losing Virgo, but something else had been bugging her. She had put in a bullet, so Pisces should be dead or injured at the very least, but there was no bullet hole. What happened to the bullet?

Aries looked at Gemini after a moment of silence. Her face was blank but her eyes were troubled and unfocused. What was going through her mind?

"Gemini? You alright?" he asked, gently grabbing her arm to get her attention.

"Hm?"

"What's on your mind?"

"That bullet...it should've hit Pisces, yet it just disappeared," she said slowly, gauging his reaction.

Of course, she was wondering about that. Aries sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "We're gods, Gem. I was hiding in the shadows the whole time, overseeing the trial. And partly also to make sure Cancer, Pisces and Scorpio stayed in character and didn't go overboard. You won't believe how enthusiastic Cancer and Pisces were as they planned that trial. For such nice and gentle people, their interest in death and skeletons are quite disturbing. I pity Scorpio, but I don't think he minds Pisces' love for dark stuff. She did manage to rope him to help after all and I think they had some fun together. Anyways, back to the bullet, Scorpio dissolved it when you aimed at Pisces. He couldn't let his fiancée get hurt, now could he?"

Gemini stared at him for a moment before smiling widely. Her cheeks were also a little pink and her eyes a little brighter. "Gem?"

"Is that all you picked up from that?" he cried in exasperation, but inside, he felt weird. His heart was beating abnormally fast and his thoughts were going a billion kilometres per hour. He hasn't felt this way since...since his younger years when he was just a young shy boy in school, struggling to ask girls out. It had been so long and he had nearly forgotten the feeling of fancying someone. But he couldn't be crushing on Gemini, could he?

"No, I heard what you said, just surprised that you called me that," Gemini quickly explained.

Aries nodded, unwilling to show how her words affected him. "Good, now hurry up or we'll be late for your next trial."

・‥...━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━...‥・

A few hours later, Gemini and Aries were standing along Black Sapphire Beach, the sun beating down relentlessly on the pair. Deep blue waters lapped up against the black sand, thus the name of the beach.

"Of course, Leo and Aquarius would choose this," Aries muttered as he stepped into the cool water. Then he said a little louder, "For your trial, you will have to swim to the edge of the Great Waterfall and fill this bag with whichever pearls you like." He tossed her a small cloth pouch the size of her hand.

That was it? She just had to swim to the very edge of Eden and collect pearls? There must be some sort of trick. No trial could ever be this easy.

As if he had read her mind, Aries continued, "But swimming to the Great Waterfall, will be no easy feat. With the help of the Water Signs, sea monsters and aquatic animals have decided to gather here at this beach for a little...sea party."

Gemini barely bit back her groan of frustration. Of course, they did.

Aries shot her an amused look before chilling in the shallow area. "Your trial starts now and will end when you return. Oh, and don't be too late, will you? Sagittarius is making his famous steak and roast squirrel tonight at Scorpy's bachelor party and I don't want to miss it."

On cue, the sun rose even higher in the sky and she could've sworn that it got hotter as well. Sighing, she stepped into the water, the water immediately cooling her down. She walked deeper into the water until the water was up to her chest before she started swimming towards the Great Waterfall.

The Great Waterfall was one of the edges of Eden. Its pristine waters flowed over the ancient stone walls surrounding Eden and down onto the Earth which is commonly known as rain. She had to be very careful because the current at the waterfall is very strong and many have been known to get swept down the waterfall by the rushing waters.

"You can do this," she said to herself, her body cutting through the water effortlessly.

The swim had been smooth so far, but just as she thought perhaps the creatures lurking beneath the waters were asleep, something wrapped around her ankle and pulled her down.

・‥...━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━...‥・

Back at the beach, Leo was sitting beside Aries, both of them happily licking their ice creams. The two boys looked up towards the sea when they heard a terrified scream coming from the waters.

Leo shook his head, chuckling, as Aries laughed, "Looks like our little Gem has met old Ilias. If only she knew that I was just joking about the sea creatures having a party. Hopefully, she won't harm him too much."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "Him?"

Aries stared at his friend in disbelief. "Surely you know that Ilias is a male octopus."

"Wait, what? He is? I thought he was a female."

Aries stared at him in disbelief. Did that idiot not know? Wait a minute...Leo called Ilias a he. If he didn't know that Ilias was a male octopus, then he would've said 'it' and not 'he'. But why would he pretend not to know Ilias was a male? Oh...

He facepalmed and fell back onto the sand, rolling his eyes, as Leo burst out laughing. "I was kidding! I was kidding! You should've seen your face!" Leo choked out, tears running down his face. "You literally fell for it!"

"Jackass," Aries muttered, kicking the Sun god who just fell back onto the deliciously hot sand, laughing like a maniac.

・‥...━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━...‥・

What do you think happened to Gemini?

Would you have fallen for Leo's trick?