The Forgotten Zodiac

"Alright. What's your name, human, son of Jemina?" Lady Rhre questioned quietly, pulling a soft pallet out of the tent and indicating that Reetah should set him down there. She did so, then went to help L'arc get the arrow out of his leg.

"Sylas...my name is Sylas." He laid as still as possible as the Rabbitzen examined his wounds and bruises.

"Just Sylas? You should take on Forestum as your surname. It would let others know of your alliance here."

"I thought it was Floresa." Sylas frowned a bit.

"That's for flowers, lad." She chuckled, then turned serious as Sylas yelped when she prodded his arms. "Goodness, boy, this is broken in more places than I can count! If only I were a magical healer..." She sighed, then covered his eyes with one hand, straightening his arm with a solid tug with the other. She then got out a splint and was quick to set the bandages. Then she went on to the wounds that had been bleeding so badly.

By the time she was done, Sylas had more bandage showing than skin. But he was able to sit up on his own and scoot back to sit next to L'arc as Rhre stood and walked over to see to the arrow wound.

((I'm changing L'arc's middle and last names to something that fits this genre better. How does L'arc Cypressus Semperverde. Haha. Rainbow Cypress Forevergreen. That's his name in English.))

L'arc smiled slighty at Sylas, slinging an arm around the human's shoulders. "You could just take my last name," he said, "Semperverde, or forever green. Of course, it's the royal name, so... that could raise some questions. But it'd be like you were my brother," he said.

((Pfffffffft. Niiice. xDD

Whatever works for you.))

"Well...we are kinda like brothers," Sylas chuckled a bit. "You could adopt me. Problem solved. From now on, I'm Sylas Semperverde."

"That will be enough to lower weapons for a moment," Rhre nodded thoughtfully, easing the arrowhead out of L'arc's knee. She was covering her work with the long sleeve of her robe, so L'arc couldn't see it. He hardly noticed the pain of the removal, that way. Once that was done, all it took was two stitches, and Rhre was satisfied. "You were lucky it didn't nick any arteries. But if there's discoloration over the next few hours, I would get someone to look at it again for you. As for you," She leaned over Sylas. "You should not move much for a long while. There is...nothing we can do for that Dark Matter. We are too small. If there were other Rabbitzen, fifteen or so, we could make an attempt...but there is no chance of us finding that many of our kin."

"That doesn't make sense..."

"It does. Rabbitzen are a tribe of many ancient ways that you've never heard of, young one. Clearly beyond your natural understanding. The caravans we traveled in used to be bigger...but humans and demons alike broke us apart. I do not even know if there are any more than fifty of us alive today. And for most of our magics to work, there must be many of us. Fifteen is the bare minimum, I do not even know if that would work..."

Sylas sighed heavily, dropping his head back down. Next to a flower, which swayed slightly. He stared at it for a moment, then said, "The root of the problem...the source. Right..." He struggled to sit up again, looking at L'arc. "If we can get Eve and Manny...She could remove it. I know she can. Manny can, too, it's still a part of him..." Sylas shuddered. "I can feel his fingers moving every now and then...it's creepy...b-but it proves that we can remove it..."

"Eve's still in the Darklands," L'arc said. "There's no way we could get there on our own. Verolen's at the Manakete Palace, but you can't go there..." he said, thinking hard about what to do. "If you could stay with the Rabbitzen, then I could get Verolen to come here, maybe," he said.

Sylas thought about it, then slowly nodded. "Okay. I trust Rhre." He sighed a bit. "Viera have been nothing but helpful to us." He smiled slightly, then blinked. "Bermuda's Sending Stone...see he still has one. He should..." He sighed heavily, then patted L'arc on the shoulder a bit. "Be careful. I know it's not far, but I can't lay down any cover fire like this..." He looked around, realizing that the dog was gone now. It certainly explained why no one was freaking out.

"Right," L'arc nodded. "I'll be back sooner than you know it. Especially if... Reetah, would you mind flying me there?" he asked, turning to the Manakete.

"Sure." Reetah nodded. She effortlessly picked him up and lifted into the air. When she was there, she sighed. "I hope you realize that when we get there, you have many a thing to explain. Why can't Sylas go near Bermuda, for one? Why did he crawl away from the palace?"

"It's... a long story, and I'd prefer to only have to tell it once," L'arc said. "When we get there, I can explain everything to the best of my knowledge," he said.

"Makes sense." Reetah nodded. She landed easily on one of the balconies, tranforming again and leading L'arc in to where Verolen and Bermuda were. "We set up a room for you lot. We figured you'd be tired of staying in the infirmary." She chortled a bit.

"Right, thanks," L'arc said, "But we were fine with it, you know. Usually at least one of us was wounded whenever we came here," he said.

"I know that. And your room has all the infirmary-type things you could possibly need. But it's more...personal, I suppose." Reetah chuckled, opening the door to the room in question. Indeed, there were several beds, all of them tailored to the different groups' likes. For Rush, there was a bed made of literally just carved rock. It would be uncomfortable and painful for anyone else, but Rush had once mentioned how he liked sleeping on rocks instead.

For Bermuda, there was a waterbed, with a little goldfish bowl sitting on the nightstand next to it. L'arc and Sylas' beds were soft and comfortable, and L'arc had a little bonzai tree on his nightstand, while Sylas had a whole bouquet of flowers. Byrne's bed was more plain, but it had books next to it; Verdi had a warm, plush, round bed, right underneath the window. Eve and Manny's beds were right next to each other, a black curtain ready to be pulled across to provide dimmer light whenever wanted. Aries had a bed similar to Verdi's in shape and style, but it was much larger, perfect for her to share with her son.

Indeed, there were cupboards and drawers filled with everything they could need to treat wounds. "We just wanted your stay, whenever you do stay, to be more comfortable than all those times before. Minori was kind of tired of seeing you lot in the infirmary, so...we made this room over the winter."

((You forgot Verolen. XD))

L'arc's smile widened as he looked around the room. "This is really nice," he said, turning and grinning at Reetah. "You'll have to tell Minori that we appreciate it. A lot," he said. He limped over to his bed and looked at the bonsai tree for a while, smiling at the little plant. Then, he seemed to realize why he was here in the first place.

"Reetah, do you know where Verolen and Arachne are? And Bermuda? I need to speak with them," he said, straightening up to look at the Manakete again.

((I KNEW I HAD FORGOTTEN SOMEONE. It's the same as Manny and Eve's. Only his sheets are black. THERE WE GO.))

"Of course." Reetah chuckled, then thought for a moment. "Yes. They should be playing in the courtyard, if they didn't go anywhere. Maybe they went to lunch, though. Let's check the courtyard first." She turned on heel, leading the way there.

L'arc followed after her, ignoring the pain in his knee. It wasn't really that bad of a wound, but he was tiring of walking on it. However, these thoughts were pushed away with the longing to see his friends and tell them what had happened.

The courtyard did indeed hold Bermuda, Verolen, and Arachne. Although 'playing' wasn't quite the word for it. Arachne was playing, sure, but Bermuda and Verolen were sparring. Just hand-to-hand combat, although the wooden swords nearby told that they had been practicing swordfighting before.

"L'arc! Hi!" Arachne beamed up at the forest prince.

"L'arc?" Verolen dropped his guard, catching Bermuda's fist in his hand before turning to look.

Bernuda's arm shook for a moment as he tried to push past Verolen's block, but he quickly gave up as L'arc appeared. "L'arc? What are you doing here?"

"Ah, the question of the hour," the forest prince said, a small smile on his face as he looked over Bermuda and Verolen. Niether had been in the best shape last time he'd seen them, but, though Bermuda still looked a little pale, they were looking much better now. "I'll explain everything, soon. Will you come with me to the throne room? I'd like Minori to be in on this as well. Has Jerod left?" he asked.

"Yes," Bermuda replied, retrieving his cloak from the ground. He wasn't sure why, really - it was tattered enough that being called a rag would be more fitting - but he'd yet to get any new clothes, so he may as well hold onto what he had for now. "He left a while ago. Right?" he asked, turning to the two demons to seek confirmation.

Verolen and Arachne both nodded. "He's gone back to the others. He'll probably meet up with them in Oceanica. Right?" Verolen frowned. "Why are you here, though?" He questioned, helping Arachne stand and move towards the throne room. "I hope you'll explain in full..."

"I'll try to," L'arc said, entering the throne room. Minori sat up, looking surprised to see the Druid.

"L'arc? You're back sooner than I expected."

"Erm... yes. Well, about that... we kind of... Eltanin betrayed us. We barely set foot in Rasalhauge before being captured by the demons. The Phantom himself was there. We were knocked senseless with a stunning spell, and taken to the Phantom's castle. Rush, Eve, and Manny are still trapped there. I have no idea what happened to Gabe, but I don't think he was taken. Sylas and I escaped... kind of. We got lucky, I suppose," he paused, then decided to mention Aries later. "But Sylas got implanted with some kind of Dark Matter bomb, and apparently the trigger was implanted in Bermuda while he was... out of commission in Oceanica. So they can't be near each other, or they'll both explode!" he said. He glanced over at Bermuda, who had paled considerably. He cleared his throat, trying to wrap up. "If we can get back to the Darklands and to Eve, we could remove the device in Sylas. It's dangerous, but it's the only thing I can--"

"Maybe I can help," Minori said. L'arc stopped abruptly, allowing the king to continue. "My father had the ability to purge darkness from people - maybe, as king, and using his dragonstone, I could get rid of the Dark Matter inside Sylas."

"That would probably work," Reetah nodded thoughtfully. "But we can't risk Sylas coming here, not without Bermuda leaving and going away a short distance. We don't know how far away they have to be, how close they can get before...detonation." Reetah sighed heavily. "And you're not leaving this palace, Minori. If they got to the forest's champions...I dunno. You could be in danger, too..."

"I'll go with Bermuda. We'll go for a walk." Verolen shrugged. "I'll make sure nothing happens to him. Didn't you say, though...that it's Manny's hand? Won't...won't it hurt him if w you destroy it?"

"It's not attached to him anymore," L'arc said, "So I wouldn't think so. But... I know very little on the subject of Dark Matter. Bermuda, do you know anything?" he asked, looking to the nereid. He paused for a moment, then shook his head, "Only that if a pure being touches it, it warps their very existance. Careful, Minori," he added quickly, looking to the Manakete King.

He smiled slightly. "There's a reason the white dragons started breeding with the black dragons soon after this war started. I'll be fine," he assured.