The Forgotten Zodiac

Werr smiled a bit and sat down as well so he could help. Airlia watched them for a few moments, then said, "I'll go find some firewood!" She got up and flew off again, eager to be of some help. Even if her master didn't want her, that didn't mean she couldn't do anything. She had to be a help, so they wouldn't just abandon her, by her thinking.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Werr sighed. "That girl...I don't quite get her..." He shrugged and went back to pulling feathers, after double-checking that he still had his flint.

"She's definitely different." Welk said, ripping out a handful of feathers and tossing them away, which only caused several of them to float up and get caught in his hair and fur. "But I like her. She's interesting, and anyone that can annoy Cynyr as well as me is good in my book." He laughed, then pulled out another handful of feathers, getting even more caught on his body. "Hey, let go!" he said to them, brushing them off. "I know I'm awesome, but I can't have all of you guys holding onto me."

Werr smiled a bit at Welk's words to the feathers, but he stayed on subject. "I don't think she's trying to annoy Cynyr, though. And what's with the whole 'master' thing? That's just kind of creepy. She looks younger than you, Welk, how could she be a servant or anything like that at such a young age? It's not right." He said, pulling off a handful of feathers and putting them in a pile in front of him. They would make good kindling, at any rate.

"True." Welk said, frowning for a moment. "That is strange. Do you think we should make her take back making Cynyr her master? Wait, that won't work, Cynyr's got that weird star burn on his hand. Hmm. Maybe she can tell us who her previous 'master' was." He made air quotes around the word master, then pulled another handful of feathers out of his bird and blew them at Werr, laughing as they stuck in the boy's hair.

Werr smiled a bit and started picking the feathers out of his hair. "We could. I dunno if she would tell us, though. As for taking it back, I dunno...she seemed really intent on Cynyr being her master because of that mark. And I dunno if it can be taken off. Oh, she's coming back," Werr looked up as the young girl flitted out of the treeline again, carrying a sizeable log that would be perfect to break in half and use for the fire.

"Yeah." Welk said, thinking hard for a moment. "If only we could get that mark off of Cynyr..." He glanced up as Airlia flew back into sight, smiling at her. "Hey!" he called, wagging his tail slightly. "That's the best hunk of wood I've ever seen!" He grinned, flicking his ears a few times. "I have succesfully de-feathered my birds." he said, then shook his head as a few more feathers landed on him. "Hey, get off! Gack, ew, yuk! Man, you guys taste terrible."

Airlia looked at the feathers, then up at Welk curiously. "How can you tell that they're guys?" She tilted her head a bit one one way, curious. "They look like just feathers to me...are feathers alive in this time? That's really, REALLY weird."

"N-no, Welk is just acting silly," Werr shook his head.

Welk stared at Airlia, trying to figure out if she was joking or not. Upon deciding that she wasn't joking, he shook his head and went about starting a fire. "Well, they did taste terrible." he commented, setting up the sticks and logs like he had seen Werr do before. "Werr, hand me your flint." he said, holding a hand out absently for the said object.

"Oh. Well," Airlia sighed, somewhat confused.

"Yeah, here," Werr said, digging through his bag for the flint. He handed it to Welk, then glanced at Airlia. "Hey, uh...we were wondering, what was your old master like?" He asked tentavely.

"Which one?" Airlia asked, picking at some dirt between her feathers. She sat down and started to preen herself absentmindedly.

Werr did a double-take. "You mean you've had more than one?"

"Yes. Three, that I remember. The first one was killed by an assassin, then I was enslaved by a king. That wasn't very fun, not at all. That was pretty terrible, actually. Then the king died because he was old, and an old, funny man with glasses let me out of my cage and became my third master. I was only with him for a week before he put me in that coffin for whatever reason." Airlia shrugged, brushing some loose down off her wings.

Welk glanced over at her as she spoke, then frowned. "I wonder why the last one did that to you? Put you in the coffin, I mean." He took the flint from Werr, then held it close to the kindling for the fire and scraped a claw sharply down it, creating a shower of sparks. He did this until the kindling caught on fire, then tossed Werr the flint. He carefully fed the growing embers feathers from the birds until the flames were big enough, then set the logs on them, watching in satisfaction as they burned. He had always loved fire, even when he was younger. The flames were so inviting...

"He said something about seeing the future when he became my master. He was a fortune-teller, so it made sense that he'd be able to see that far into the future. He said that something bad was going to happen, and I'd be killed if I didn't get sealed away." Airlia answered, backing away from the fire a little bit. She didn't like fire very much, to be honest. "So, he sealed me up and set the seal to open the next time it was touched by a mage after about...oh, I don't know. I think around a hundred years or something. Now that I think about it, it does make sense that a lot's changed since then..." She leaned back and looked up at the clouds in the sky, letting out a sigh. "Oh well."

Werr just gaped at her. A hundred years? Fortune-tellers? And she was acting like all this was no big deal! "Wha...how can you take this so easily?" He asked, completely dumbfounded.

"Hm? Oh. If there's nothing I can do about it, I just have to make the most of it, right? Cynyr is my new master, this is the new time that I'm living in, and there's no way to change any of that. It's like my first master would always say, there's no point in worrying about what can't be changed or fixed."

Welk grimaced at all of the talking. It was quite boring to him, really, but he soon grew interested in the conversation. He listened to Airlia and Werr speak as he stuck the birds on sticks and set them near the fire to roast. Once they were done, he glanced up and said "Cynyr says something like that too. He says 'You can't change the past, no matter how much you may want to.' I don't know why he says it, but I highly suspect it might have something to do with his mask and what's behind it."

"You don't know what's behind his mask?" Airlia blinked. "Darn. I was going to ask about that." She finished preening herself and curled her knees up to her chest. "Begging your pardon, but may I please have one of those?" She asked politely, licking her lips as she looked at the cooked birds.

"I don't see why not. We have enough to spare." Werr shrugged.

"I have no idea what's behind his mask." Welk answered. "And I don't know anyone who does. Only Cynyr himself knows, and we'll never get that information out of him. Now let's chow!" He picked up his bird out of the fire and handed a different one to Airlia, then tore into his, his sharp teeth making quick work of the meal. He glanced around, then asked "Where's Cynyr? He should be back by now. Unless he's moping. That could take hours."

Airlia smiled gratefully, eating like she hadn't in days. Technically, she hadn't eaten in years. "This is delicious, thank you. I didn't see Cynyr when I was getting firewood," She said thoughtfully. "What should we do if he's moping?"

"Well, I don't think it would be smart, going back to the waterfall..." Werr frowned a bit, taking a bite of his bird. "Maybe we should find somewhere else to make camp?"

"We definitely need to make camp somewhere else." Welk agreed. He glanced over at Airlia when the girl spoke, then said "If he's moping around and being all depressed, I usually bug him. It doesn't always work, but it sometimes brings him out of his depression and into anger. He deals with anger better." He chuckled, then was quiet. "To be honest…he's never done that before. Freaked out like that when having to deal with a tail injury. He's hurt his tail a few times before, but he's never been that hysterical over it. But then again, he's never broken it before either." He shrugged, not really knowing how to explain his brother's feelings and moods.

"We shouldn't make him angry, though," Airlia shook her head quickly. "He doesn't seem like my second master at all, but when King Howard got mad, he would take it out on his servants...so we can't make Cynyr mad, I don't know what he would do, and...and better safe than sorry, right?" Airlia struggled to say, shifting uncomfortably before taking a few more bites of her bird to cover it up.

Welk shrugged again, then finished his bird and stood up. "I'll go scout out a spot for a new campsite. I'm fast in cat form, so I'll probably be back soon." He waved at Airlia and Werr, then transformed and ran off, his tail flipping around wildly behind him.

Several minutes passed, and it began to start getting dark. Cynyr still hadn't come back yet.

Werr looked at Airlia after Welk had gone. "He would punish you for no reason?" He asked, frowning a bit.

Airlia nodded, but quickly changed the subject. "Umm...how long should we wait for Cynyr? Maybe he's lost?"

"I highly doubt that," Werr shook his head. "But there is a possibility that those soldiers extended their search to the woods...in which case, Cynyr might have been captured..."

"Oh no!" Airlia bit her lip in fear. "What should we do?"

"Nothing, I suppose. We should wait for Welk to return before we decide on anything, really. It's more likely that he's just moping, anyways. Not that I know why."

"Oh..." Airlia blinked, setting down the stick her meal had been on. She sat still for awhile, but was awfully fidgety after that while, clearly concerned for her 'master'.

More time passed, and Cynyr still didn't show. It was like he had vanished completely.

Welk came back after a while, panting and out of breath. "Jeez, I didn't know there were so many wolves in this forest." he said, striding into the camp. "But, I found a good campsite. It's a ways away from here, but it's safe and secluded. No one will find us there." He spotted the untouched bird near the fire and frowned deeply. "Cynyr didn't come back yet?" he asked, a hint of fear sinking into his voice. "He's never moped for this long before..."