Once upon a time there lived a man who was as handsome as a god. Tall and mighty, strong, with the hair as golden as the sunlight and with glacial eyes the colour of the frozen mountain lakes. He had been born under the star sign of the Scorpio, on a dark, gloomy and cold day in a year, before the harshest of winters settled in.

All the people who had been present at his birth were enchanted by his complexion. He was indeed a smart child with huge promises for a brilliant future ahead. But even so, since he was a child he had shown himself mean, evil and proud.

Time flew, as it should, on all the mortals of the earth and this much-adored child became a man. He had changed appearance, turning into a more handsome creature, yet his demeanour remained the same. He was prouder than ever and vindictive. And when the time came to leave his home and move out, he became lonely and shut down from all around him. Eventually he settled on the sea shore and found shelter between stones, where he built his refuge.

He would remain a mortal by day and turn into his star animal by night. He became a predator of the nights, reason for which people started calling him the Deathstalker and they would all avoid him, and for good reason, because he became a very dangerous, a lethal predator.

And he gloried himself in his reputation as a horrifying creature that intimidated everyone he came into contact with. However, like every other mortal, he could not escape his destiny and the misery that comes along with being all alone in the world. He suffered from loneliness, as much as any other creature, yet there was no one to approach and spend time with him.

The Deathstalker used to spend his nights looking at the bright starry sky, a habit he had been having since childhood. One thing, a star, that shone brighter than the others, like an incandescent blue flame, drew his attention. That was the constellation of the Firebird or the Phoenix and the Deathstalker liked it more than any other brilliant gems on the planet and more than fame and power put together. In fact, he liked it so much that he wanted to be in its place and shine as bright as the firebird in the sky. But that was impossible, for the ways of the stars cannot be altered by simple mortal means. Yet, although the Deathstalker knew all of this, he could not accept his faith and hungered to take down those shiny stars and pin his animal sign in its place in the cosmos. He thought of intricate plans and schemes to dethrone the brightest of all stars that lit the night sky and make himself a god, a star, a light.

However, while scheming such treacherous plans, his heart became of stone, just like the ones that sheltered him on the sea shore. His heart became hardened and darkness enveloped him. He was only after one thing: to kill the firebird, his only purpose and mission in life.

***

One day, while Astra, the guardian of all animal signs in the sky, descended onto earth to check on the mortals, if they were walking and behaving according to the paths already shown by the stars above, she landed on the sea shore. While walking on the stone, she trampled over one of the claws of the scorpion. The latter one, feeling threatened, immediately jumped to sting her. He managed to sting her in the heel and then retreated into his den, thinking he had brought the woman death.

He did not know that Astra, a goddess with human form, had the power to heal herself. Without hesitating, after she tended to her heel wound and could walk again, she bent down and took the scorpion out of his hiding place, cursing him:

“Forever let no one want you, for you bring evil and death. And should you ever know what love is, in the water of your death will you seek your beloved and never shall you find it again.”

Then she disappeared.

It is known that scorpions like to dive into deep waters, where they feel at ease, for without water they do not survive. Our scorpion, too, liked diving into the waters of the sea, losing himself to the darkness of those depths.

***

Several years went by and the scorpion became a fully grown man. He was tall and handsome, mysterious and very desired, yet also very feared. Still, he never had eyes for any girl. After he had been cursed by the goddess Astra he was eager to find love, so he set on a journey around the world to find her, yet without success. Clearly he loathed being all alone in the world, with no one to share his life with. Sometimes he would pray, sighing: “I wish to just recognize her, then I will love her. I will not hurt her. She will be mine and I will not hate her.”

One night, while he was reciting his prayer, behold, a shooting star was announcing the birth on earth of a creature, a girl, that knew nothing but to love. She came onto this world in the month of the pearl or the month of the hard frost, because when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they are like pearls of ice. But, although she was born in a frosty month, her heart was glowing, like an amber, with the fire of passion and tenderness.

When this girl bloomed and grew to the age when the hearts start beating with longing and desire, she met the scorpion. And, lo and behold, even the most handsome, the most wanted and the most arrogant man found his counterpart. The beauty of her heart mesmerized him to such an extent that he became obsessed with her. So he followed her everywhere, until they both were facing each other, looking into each other´s eyes. And the scorpion had the power of seduction and to hypnotize his victims. She fell in love with him the very first moment she saw him.

Although she knew of his reputation, she hoped to be able to heal him with her magnanimous love. And the scorpion knew he had her. But we all know that, when the scorpion feels threatened and vulnerable, he backs away, being ready to attack, if necessary. Her candour and her inner light disarmed him, which he did not like. And although his heart pounded like crazy for her, he backed away, becoming colder and more distant, iniquitous, abusive and crueller. Thus he became even more taciturn and saturnine than before, being always dissatisfied, bilious and sour. Neither could he live without her, the one that captured his heart, nor with her, because love, when it hits you, makes you melt and become tender-hearted, and this was the scorpion´s greatest weakness. He felt this love was a menace to his nature because, when he found love, it was like a hundred chariots ready for battle.

“I do not trust her”, he told himself, just like in the past. “Her love is vain and hurtful. She most certainly wants to hurt me.” And of the love, which was supposed to be his friend, the scorpion made his worst and most lethal enemy. And he swore to himself to take revenge on her, to punish her and ruin her. To kill her.

One night, while the scorpion was walking hand in hand with his beloved, he bowed to kiss her. And when he kissed her, he stung her to death. The girl screamed in so much pain, for the scorpion´s sting is poisonous and brings a slow death with much agony. She felt his poison penetrating her whole being. When the scorpion´s lethal poison started numbing her senses and, finally, her heart, she started crying. And she cried and cried and seemed to never stop, until the place where both of them were in was filled with so much water that our handsome and dark Prince-Charming immediately turned into a scorpion.

When he looked into her tears, he saw himself like in a mirror. And he liked what he saw. He became so infatuated with himself that he plunged into the waters of her tears and, while the girl was crying herself to death, the scorpion dove deeper and deeper into the dark depths, swimming agilely. He was swimming as if he was eagerly looking for something or someone. Indeed, he was looking for the one being he had fallen in love with: himself. He was looking to possess that one person he had seen face to face.

Seeing his reflection in the waters, the scorpion became frantic, trying to reach that image, to catch and hold it. But, alas, with every move of his claws and tail, he only muddled the reflection of his own image, making it impossible to reach and touch. The image was disappearing more and more, like the horizon line one never reaches.

Since then, the scorpion can be found only in dark and muddled waters, unseen and dangerous, occult, mysterious and untouchable, feverishly looking for the one who captured his heart. And that being was not the girl, mind you, but his own image.

And every time the scorpion tries to find and possess himself, he dives into the waters, his own element and habitat. Since then, the scorpion, like every other scorpion of his kind, has been living in the salty depths of the tears of infatuated virgins that had never been wanted and loved and who lived unhappily ever after to suffer immensely under the reign of the Prince of Darkness, the Deathstalker, the water scorpion.

If you look at the night sky, you can see the constellation of the Water Scorpion just opposite from the constellation of the Phoenix. They are facing each other like enemies of old. The water scorpion, who had been since then called infamously the Prince of Darkness because he had extinguished the light and the love in the hearts of so many girls, became known as the enemy of all stars in the sky, especially of the Phoenix, the fire-bearer that illuminates the stars above with her vivid colours and her warm light. The Prince of Darkness waged war against the Phoenix and swore to capture the hated bird and kill her for good.