The Forgotten Zodiac

Kazue snickered softly, listening to Darius's song. He started up the steps first. Rin was right behind him, shifting her hold from Aquarius's arm to his hand. Kazue grumbled something under his breath, but didn't pull away. Igneous followed them.

Ophile dropped his ears, trying not to listen to Darius' song. He knew full well that if he didn't try to block it out, he would start laughing. As it was, it sounded like he had a hairball or something, as he was trying to stifle himself. "You alright?" Quinn asked quietly, blinking at the wolf. Quint seemed to be having a hard time not laughing, too.

"F-fine," Ophile nodded, shaking it off and managing to continue up the stairs after the others.

((Now I suggest we move it to 'The Surface' thing. Or at least make a new thread. 9 pages is getting to be ridiculous. :T))

((No. This makes me happy. I like this thing large. I feel all accomplished.))

"Ophile, why can't you breathe properly?" Cancer turned around and walked up the stairs backward, trying to discern what was wrong with the Spectral Wolf. "And why are all of you spasming? This is rather worrying, you know. There should be nothing wrong with my fellow Zodiacs."

((Well, I'm just not too sure how long it'll go before saying that the topic is too full of posts. :l))

Quinn looked from Quint to the Spectral Wolf, then sighed. "They're trying not to laugh, Darius." He shrugged a bit, watching as Ophile calmed himself down as Darius stopped singing. Quint managed to stifle it too, though he was grinning broadly at this point.

"We were laughing?" Igneous asked, seemingly just coming out of daydream-land. Kazue burst out laughing. "Dear me, the human's not gonna last five minutes!"

The Zodiac glowered at Quinn, annoyed by their laughing. "Anyone care to tell me what you find so amusing?" He asked. At Kazue's comment to Igneous, Cancer shrugged. "Then we wouldn't have to kill him, so I guess it would save us some time. On the other hand, Rin would probably get very upset, so we should try to avoid that as best we can."

"Your singing," Quinn said. It was very difficult for him to lie. Quint was very good at lying, but Quinn found it difficult to even say nothing when a question was asked.

"All I'm going to say is that I'm not risking my life for you, Igneous." Ophile put in. "If you're the only one in trouble, I'll help, but if it comes between you and the Zodiacs, well...no contest. Sorry, it's just the way I was made..."

Igneous patted Ophile on the head. "Oh, I know that," he said. "I just want to see what's up there. And I figure, I could be at least of some use to you all, couldn't I? Even if I were a decoy or a distraction or something that ended up killing me, I just want to help," he said. Rin looked over her shoulder. "I'm not... that sensitive," she said. Kazue rolled his eyes, but RIn didn't see.

Cancer snorted, mildly offended. "Is there something /wrong/ with my singing? I don't hear anyone else singing better, so I don't see how any of /you/ have the right to laugh about it." He glared back at them, then turned around and headed back up the stairs, faster than he had been moving before.

"Yes, you have a good point," Ophile nodded, looking up at Cancer. "I can sing better, but it wouldn't sound like much to you guys...but to animals, it would sound amazing. I would know, I use my voice to lure out the rats out of the palace and other places in the city."

"I wasn't laughing." Quinn shook his head.

"Oh, come on, Darius, there's no need to be embarrassed," Quint grinned, hurrying after the other Zodiac as they neared the top of the long, winding staircase.

Kazue snickered. "Rin can sing. She sings a lot. I don't know how to get her to shut up," he said. Rin smacked him in the back of the head. "Oh, you!" she said, but smiled a moment later.

"Who said I was embarrassed? You were too laughing at me, Quinn, and I hardly think it's fair. If you aren't singing better, you don't deserve to make fun of my singing. Besides, I was just muttering under my breath. Really, no one but Kazue should have heard that."

"I wasn't laughing," Quinn mumbled, looking down.

"Oh, come on. Lighten up, Darius, just take a joke, will you?" Quint rolled his eyes. "Aren't we at the surface yet? This is a lot of stairs..."

"We were a long way underground," Ophile pointed out. "I'm honestly surprised they still have electricity down there, really."

"Yeah, I don't know how they got it down here," Igneous piped up in reply. Kazue laughed. "Yeah, I heard you."

Cancer turned around and began walking backwards. "Maybe they aren't bringing it down, but are actually creating the electricity down there. That would make much more sense."

"Hm. I wouldn't know, I've never bothered to find out." Ophile shook his head. "The whole electronics thing is beyond me, anyways. Did you know that before Borealis returned, most of the humans spent about sixty percent of their lives in front of electronic devices? At least, I'm assuming it's sixty percent. I'm just using inductive reasoning, so it's probably wrong, but still..."

"That's deductive reasoning," Rin corrected Ophile. "And It would make sense. Humans..." she murmured.

"Oh no, there's quite the difference. Inductive reasoning is basically observing specific things and moving to the general areas from there. Deductive reasoning is looking at the general, and pinpointing the specifics." Ophile explained. "For example, I've only seen so many humans carry out their lives. It's inductive reasoning to say that most humans carry out their lives the same way, because I've merely observed specific humans, and I'm guessing on the rest. For deductive reasoning, I'd have to look at several humans from all different areas, which I haven't done, then draw my conclusion.

"But I'm sure you already knew all that, you must have just forgotten for a moment or something." Ophile said, realizing that he was pretty much lecturing a Zodiac. "I do have a question, though. Why don't you all make more of an effort to help them? Before Borealis rose again, there were wars, world hunger, tragedy, all these things, yet...from what I saw, not much was happening to help them. Were you not all the creator of humans? Sylas seldom spoke of those times, so I wouldn't know how it happened, but...at least he sounded like he actually cared.

"Not that it matters, you don't have to answer me," Ophile shut himself up again, silently cursing his chronic curiosity. He was always searching for answers, and always giving them out.

Cancer finally reached the top of the stairs and opened the trapdoor. "Hey everybody? We're there." He climbed out and then bent down to help out the person behind him, secretly hoping that Ophile's question would get lost in the clamor of reaching the top. Around him were cliffs, dusty and brown, with one passage out of the circle they were in. "Oh-kaaaay... Did someone bring a map?"

"I've got one!" Igneous grabbed Daruis's offered hand. He reached for his pack, but stopped, stepping away from the door and looking around. his eyes were half lidded as he looked about, not used to all this light. He, after all, hadn't been up here in three years. A smile appeared on his face. It felt so good to once again stand in the sun...

"...hey, kid. Map?" Kazue tapped Igneous on the shoulder. The human gave a sudden jolt. "Oh, right, right," he said. Igneous pulled the tightly folded piece of parchement out and held it out. Kazue took in and carefully flipped it open. He glared at the piece of paper. It was a topography map; a little more difficult to decipher than a standard map, but it was a map nonetheless. Rin leaned over Kazue's shoulder, looking at it.