The Forgotten Zodiac

"That's...sad," Aries blinked. "Well, now you have us. I mean, not that you should get rid of Manny, but you aren't lonely anymore, right?"

"Of course not. How can someone be lonely with three friends with them? Especially when those friends care about you very much and would hate it if something bad would happen. Right?" Arachne nodded at her own logic, smiling up at Eve again.

"Exactly," Eve said, smiling back at Arachne. She gave the girl a small squeeze, then continued to help her along. "Are we close to the next camp, Aries?" she asked after a short pause, clearly done with her story-telling.

"Yes, just about." Aries nodded. "In fact, you have good timing. We'll just stop here and I'll go fetch what we need." She helped Byrne sit and started off, her ears standing tall on her head.

"How does she know where all the camps are?" Arachne blinked. "Does she hear them over our talking?"

"She must be able to," Eve replied, sitting down and helping Arachne as well. "I guess we have to wait for her to come back, right?"

"Yeah." Arachne nodded. "That's curious, though...that would make her weakness pretty serious, though. She's never really shown an indication before...but high-pitched sounds at extreme volumes, she could go deaf within minutes. My weakness is obvious, too..." She rubbed the stump where her foot had once been., sighing a bit.

"That would be bad," Eve said, frowning. She then turned to Arachne when the girl mentioned her weakness, offering her a small smile. "It's all right - you have us to protect you," she said.

Byrne nodded. "That's right."

"Right," Arachne smiled happily, leaning against Byrne. "Hey...what do you think will happen to Bermuda and Verolen? I'm worried..." She bit her lip, not happy at all with what happened. "If Bermuda dies...not that I want him to, not at all...but if he does, what will happen to Sylas? Will he just...sleep forever?"

"I'm sure that there's someone else who can remove the spell. I mean, that spell's not entirely unknown... of course, only Naiads and Warlocks can use it. ...we'd have better luck with Gabe, wouldn't you think?" Eve asked, looking to Arachne.

"I guess...it would be better if Gabe actually knew the spell, though. I'm pretty sure he doesn't. If we had Rush to teach him, that might be a little easier, but still..." Arachne sighed a bit. "Poor Gabe. Separated from his mom like this...at least he's safe. Not like Verolen and Bermuda. And Rush."

"There's no sense in worrying about them. The Selkies will do their best..." Aries said from behind them. "We've got food, blankets and a tarp. I think we'll do pretty good, in spite of not having summer and fall to prepare..."

"And Israel," Eve added. "Though I hope he'll have better luck than the others..." she said. She stood and offered Arachne her hand, then looked at Aries. "Any of that you want me to carry?" she asked.

Byrne was able to stand on his own, using the lance that the selkies had given him as a support.

"No, if you can assist Arachne, we're good. We've only a little ways to go now, anyways." Aries shrugged, picking up the large sack she had collected so far and slinging it over her shoulder and back. "Let's go, shall we?"

"One more walk? We'll have to think of something to talk about, then..." Arachne blinked, then looked down. Nothing else really came to mind.

Byrne spoke up. "I could tell a story, if it's my turn," the human said. "But I don't really know what you would want to know about me. Uh... questions?" he asked, smiling a bit.

"What was it like?" Arachne asked. "Your father. What was he like when you were growing up? Er...you don't have to talk about that if you don't want to, but...I'd like to know."

"It wasn't really like anything," Byrne answered, "He was rarely there, always busy with his work and such," he said. "My mom was... well, I don't know her at all. My uncle raised me," he said. "My father's brother."

"Was he good to you, at least?" Arachne blinked. "My father was...well, when my mother was alive, he was fine. But she died giving birth to a second daughter. She was supposed to be my little sister, but she died. Never drew breath. And the stress was too much on my mother, so she died too. Verolen used to say that the good inside our father died with them. He wasn't abusive or anything, so I didn't know what Verolen was talking about. But...I found a lot of father's experiments. There are a lot more that you don't know about. It's terrible, and sad...but I acted oblivious to avoid making father angry with me. I sort of...well, I didn't want to face reality. Verolen thought I went insane, and he blamed father. That made him mad. That made everyone mad. Verolen broke out, and I followed, eventually. Just to escape father's anger. And then I tracked Verolen to the rest of you, and...well, here we are."

Byrne nodded and offered a sympathetic smile to the demon girl, then answered her question. "Yeah, he was civil, at the very least. But then... well, some stuff happened. I'd rather not say," he said, seeing the questioning glance Eve gave him. She nodded and turned away.

"It's alright, then." Arachne shrugged. "Aries, are we almost there?" She asked, looking up to where they were going.

"Just about. I'm sorry to hear about your mother, Arachne, but I don't want her in my body, either. That...was the most terrifying thing I had ever felt, being trapped in a crown like that." Aries shivered a bit, but pressed on.

"That wasn't mother. That was an artificial copy." Arachne blinked at her. "The fight, the magic..."

"How do you know? You weren't there."

"I see nightmares and dreams. Anything that goes on within the subconsciousness, including the Library's activity. I figured it out from that."

Eve listened to Arachne, then thought of something. "You see everyone's dreams?" she asked. "Are you an interpreter?"

Eve listened to Arachne, then thought of something. "You see everyone's dreams?" she asked. "Are you an interpreter?"

"Not all the time. Sometimes it's obvious. Sometimes it's not." Arachne shrugged. "You didn't know? I thought you all knew...I thought Verolen would tell you." She blinked, then looked up as they broke out of the trees to a large clearing. In the center stood a pine tree; it was small, about the size of what humans would use in their homes for what they called 'Christmas'.

"No, Verolen never told us anything." Aries shook her head. "This is the Evergreen. The Tree of Seasons."

"It looks small." Arachne blinked.

"Winter is coming. It's huge in the summer, believe me. Thousands of birds live among the branches, squirrels live in the trunk and rabbits burrow near the roots. You'll see come springtime, it'll get bigger. The roots, though. The roots never change. There are more roots underground in this clearing than there are in the entire forest surrounding. Huge."