The Forgotten Zodiac

"I thought so, too. We have your brother to thank for saving me," Werr nodded, patting his back gently.

"Why would Kolo do such a thing, anyways? Who were all those people?" Airlia asked, curling her knees up to her chest. "They were scary and mean, and I stlll have food stuck in my feathers for sure...do you know who they were, Master?" She asked, looking towards Cynyr.

"Well, they said they were taking us to Storaph, which is ruled over by King Asmodius." Cynyr said. "So it’s a safe bet to say that they were Asmodius' men."

"Asmodius?" Seria said. "He used to be such a kind ruler. Why would he do such a thing?"

"What, and you expect me to know?" Cynyr growled. "I have no idea!"

Seria snorted, then said "What's wrong with you, Cynyr?" She lowered her voice a bit and said "You never used to be this angry all of the time."

"My business is my own!" the panther half-cat snarled. "I don't need you or anyone else being concerned over me, especially when nothing is wrong! I'm not what we should be discussing right now! We can only stay here for so long before they find us again. Which reminds me…" He stood up and went outside, then returned with the letter Nightlash had given him. "Here, Werr. This is for you. Don't ask." he said, then went back to his spot on the ground and curled up in panther form. Jeez, he was exhausted…

"Sharp deduction. We all used to be part of Asmodius' army, in one form or another." Nate replied, ignoring their argument. He was mostly replying to Airlia, anyways. "Then I was lumped in with that lot, put under the command of Kolo."

"Did you know King Asmodius?" Airlia asked.

"I did. I was one of honor guard. We defended the king with our very lives, but he was a very kind and fair king. There was little need for us until..." He trailed off, realizing that he didn't quite remember what happened leading up to the turn in King Asmodius' attitude. "I don't remember what happened, exactly, but it wasn't good." He murmured, troubled that he was failing to recall such events. He shook it off, looking up at Werr muttered something, opening the letter, breaking away from Welk to show his friend the envelope.

"Nightlash. That duke..." Werr had muttered to Welk, unfolding the letter. He read it aloud at first, "'Dear Werr, Welk, Cynyr and whomever else is reading this,

From a journal I picked up from your basement, Werr, (though I believe the term you use is 'data book') I've found very valuable information regarding the occurances of the other day, and of the death of your father. Thank you for your cooperation, I now know the best way to proceed. I spent several long hours toiling over the possibilities, and I believe I've found the best fit. The best fit in regards to those letters, anyways; enclosed is a translated copy of your father's last letter to you. Quite the intriguing read, but it certainly wasn't easy to translate. Your father was writing in a different language entirely, and backwards, at that. Unfortunate that you couldn't decipher it yourself, he must be disappointed.

But no matter. I wish you the best of luck wherever your path may take you next, and though I'm not a religeous man myself, I'll send a prayer to a priest I know in your regards.

Until the next time we meet, Duke Nightlash.'" Werr finished, frowning in annoyance. "Where did you get this letter from, Cynyr? Was Nightlash there or something?"

"Duke Nightlash was the one I called upon for help." Nate answered.

Welk listened to Nate speak, then frowned when he heard Nightlash's name. "I hate that guy." he said flatly, then was quiet when Werr read the letter.

Cynyr flicked his ears and said "Oh, Nightlash was there, all right..." He growled slightly, rubbing his face with one of his paws, then said "What does the translated letter say?" From the look on his face, he was obviously going to find out what the letter said, whether Werr read it to them himself or not. One way or another, Cynyr would find out.

Seria glared at him, then looked over at Werr and said "If it's very important, which I'm guessing it is, you don't have to read it out loud."

"What?!" Cynyr snarled. "Yes he does!"

Seria growled at him, then said "And what do you think you are, the leader of this little group? You are many things, Cynyr, but a leader isn't one of them. Stop trying to order them all around."

Cynyr roared at her, silencing her instantly, then stood up and said "FINE! I'm leaving." He stalked to the door, then paused when Welk called after him.

"You're not leaving permanently, right?" he asked, sounding scared.

"No." Cynyr snarled. "Just to clear my head...though the thought of leaving is tempting. Don't follow me." He left the room, leaving the others in relative silence.

Werr sat in silence, turning to watch Cynyr leave. He turned back to the envelope and pulled the translated letter out, leaving the envelope empty. He dropped the envelope on the bed and read silently for a long moment. He then stood, shoved the letter silently into Welk's hands and followed Cynyr out the door, though he sat down against the wall next to the door rather than wander around and get lost. He curled his knees up and buried his face in his arms, having no idea what else to do.

The letter was longer than Nightlash's. "'Dear son,

I'm afraid I don't have much time left. I love you very much, and tell your mother the same. I don't wish to sicken you, but someone needs to know. Maybe you can figure out what happened to me. I was on a patrol one night when I felt something choking me; the feeling passed after a few moments, but I believe that's when this whole mess started. For a week after that, I could feel a pain growing in my chest and in the back of my skull. It's been a month since then, and I could feel the pain constricting me like a snake. It was driving me mad, I had such little control over my actions. I could see and hear, but it was like someone else entirely was driving my actions and speech.

Not twenty minutes before I write this to you, the pain got worse to the point where I started hearing this excruciating screeching noise that drove me to attack my own bunkmates with a knife. I was detained and locked away, but I - or rather, the entity that controlled me - was determined. The last thing I remember was black tentacles; the rest is a blur. When I awoke, I was myself again, more or less, though I could still feel the pain in my chest. I feel it now, even as I write this. Growing, writhing, waiting for the next chance to strike.

The entire batallion I've been working with, the one I described to you in one of my first letters...I believe I killed them all.

I hope I can find a way to get this sent out to you before the rest of the army comes here. With any luck, they'll think to send out the mail when they're cleaning up the mess I caused. I'm turning myself in; I'll be executed. Beheaded, I hope. The thought of torture makes my stomach churn.

I'm running out of paper. Goodbye, son, I love you dearly and I hope you'll be able to figure out what happened. Who knows, perhaps you'll solve it five minutes after you get this letter. Whenever you do solve it, I ask that you put forth an effort to stop it from ever happening again. Since I clearly can't do it myself.

I love you, Werr. Take care of your mother for me.

Darius Grehi.'"

Outside the room, a muffled sob from Werr could be heard.

Welk held the letter in his hands, watching as Werr walked out of the room. He was afraid to read it, but his curiosity got the better of him, and he scanned through the letter. After the first paragraph, he found that he couldn't bear to read anymore. He put the letter down and curled up on the bed, wishing he could do something, anything, to let Werr know it would all be okay. But there was nothing he could do or say.

As it turned out, Cynyr hadn't left the fortress yet. He had merely gone to a nearby room and was banging his head against the wall, still in panther form, trying to clear his mind but only finding that he was giving himself a headache. He snorted, shaking his furry black head, then perked up his ears when he heard a sound. It only took him a few seconds to figure out what it was, and he lowered his head a bit when he did. He could hear Werr crying all too well from here, but he didn't feel anything over it. Not anger, not sympathy, not anything. Why should he? Werr was just a human, after all. Cynyr shook his head quickly, scattering those thoughts. No. Werr had proven to be a rare, trustworthy human. Cynyr had no idea where those mean thoughts had come from, but he pushed them away and walked outside of the room. He glanced down the hall and spotted Werr, then sighed. He debated for a moment whether this was worth it or not, then decided it was...nothing. It didn't matter if it had worth or not. He should be willing to do it, simply because Werr was his... He hesitated at these thoughts, but made himself think them. His friend. Werr was his friend. The panther half-cat walked down the hall, his paws making barely any noise against the stones. He walked over to Werr and stood there for a moment, listening to him cry, then sighed deeply. He slowly sat down a few inches away from the boy, not really knowing what else to do. He curled his tail around and cautiously brushed it against Werr's arm.

Werr jerked his head up, glancing at Cynyr through tear-filled eyes. He choked back more tears, insisting upon himself that crying like this really wasn't okay. He couldn't baby himself at a time like this. Then Werr remembered that he hadn't cried like this in months, which only made him want to cry more to get it all out. He shoved down his feelings, forcing himself to calm down. He wiped his eyes a bit, looking away from Cynyr and down at his own feet. "Y-you can read the letter if you want to..." He said, his voice barely more than a whisper. He feared his voice would crack even worse if he spoke any louder. "I...left it in there, with Welk..."

Cynyr sighed, then carefully said "No. It...it's okay. I don't...need to know what it says." He found that, strangely, he really didn't need to know what the letter said. Normally he would be all over it, but right now, he didn't care about the letter. Just the friend who was sitting next to him, who was heartbroken and upset. The panther slowly lowered his head slightly, then turned and gently pressed his masked nose to Werr's shoulder, closing his eyes as he did so. He didn't say anything, because he knew that if he told the boy that everything would be okay would be a lie. Plus, Cynyr wasn't the most emotional guy in the world, as they had seen. So he instead chose to say nothing. He lifted his right front leg and set his heavy paw carefully down on Werr's leg, letting it rest there for a few minutes.

((Werr could totally hug Cynyr right now and not get his head bitten off.))

((Next post. Haha.))

Werr leaned against Cynyr as he calmed himself down further. He closed his eyes, not noticing Airlia, who was peeking around the corner of the doorframe at them. She wanted to read the letter, but if it made Werr cry and Welk upset too, she was somewhat afraid of what it said. That, and she couldn't read Gregorian. Airlia crept over to Welk anyways, deciding to try and take the letter, thinking she could get master, or the meditating human to read it. Maybe the half-cat girl?

((Cool.))

Cynyr almost snarled at Werr, but he quickly held it back. Werr was his friend. Friends could get close to each other, right? Like himself and Welk. Werr was different than the people Cynyr had known, right? Or was Werr just using this to get Cynyr to drop his guard? To slide under Cynyr's defenses? Cynyr shook his head to clear it. He was pretty sure that Werr wouldn't intentionally hurt him...but... Cynyr shuddered slightly, firmly pushing away all of his thoughts and trepidation. No. Werr was different. Cynyr's sharp gaze softened slightly, and his yellow eyes became a bit more gentle. He curled his tail around and wrapped it around Werr's body, twitching the tip lightly.

Werr, tired and upset and such, wasn't even thinking when he wrapped his arms around Cynyr for comfort, keeping his eyes closed, trying not to start crying again. What else could he do? Nothing. Werr felt so very helpless right now, not to mention a failure.

Father had wanted him to take care of mother, and now she was dead. Werr hadn't even been able to figure out his letter, when his father had expected him to make short work of it. Nightlash, in the meantime, had solved it with apparent ease. All of the emotions Werr had bottled up before, they were all coming crashing down on him at once.

He felt angry; angry at himself about the letter and about Mother. He was frustrated with himself for not trying harder. He was miserable, heartbroken and exhausted. He just needed at least some measure of comfort.

Cynyr's jaw dropped open, and he blinked in shock. He tensed up completely, his mind going utterly blank. He didn't know what to do. All of his thoughts had flown out the window as soon as Werr had put his arms around him. The best thought Cynyr was able to summon was a bunch of white noise and some scattered words, words that were mostly a question; what did he do now? The only person he had ever freely hugged or accepted a hug from was Welk, and that was only because they had adopted each other as brothers. The only thing that was keeping Werr's arms attached to the rest of his body was the fact that his move had shocked Cynyr and the fact that Cynyr could sense the boy's sadness. Slowly, Cynyr relaxed and closed his eyes, lowering his head down to the back of Werr's shoulder. He transformed out of his panther form and back into a human, keeping his furry cat ears back against his head. He cautiously put his arms around Werr in return, heaving a deep, nervous breath. Luckily for Werr, Cynyr was still only getting white noise and static from his mind, and therefore, didn't have anything mean or rude to say.

Werr held on for only as long as it took him to gather his wits about him again. After a long moment of talking himself out of crying, he broke away from Cynyr and stood, wiping his eyes. "I...uh..." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Thanks, I guess..." He shuffled his foot, then went back into the room to see how Welk was doing. He found Airlia prodding at Nate's face, trying to get the human out of meditation; the letter was in her other hand.

Cynyr also stood up, though much faster than Werr had. "Um...g-good." he said, not looking at the boy. "I'm gonna...I should...there's stuff I need to do, um, over there. S-stuff." He quickly scurried away, but he wasn't watching where he was going and ran into a lamp, knocking it over with a crash. "Ow!" he yelped, then quickly set it upright, saying "No harm done, it...I'm not hurt...!" He then took off with his head low, vanishing around the corner.

Welk looked up as Werr entered the room, a few stray tears still in his crimson eyes, then asked softly "Werr? Are you okay?"

Airlia jumped, realizing that Werr was in the room again. She was quick to back away from Nate, dropping the letter on his lap. Nate didn't even stir, still deep in his meditation. Werr blinked back at the door, hearing the noise, but Welk's voice attracted his attention. "Oh...yeah, I'm alright." Werr nodded, moving to sit next to Welk on the bed, picking up the letter off of Nate's lap as he went. He placed the letter face down on the bed next to him, smiling a little bit at Welk. "Sorry about that...I'm better now."

Welk returned the small smile with a little one of his own, then sat up and reached out with his left arm, touching Werr's shoulder gently. "I'm glad you're better." he said, curling his tail around to wrap it around the boy's arm. "So...what was in the letter?" he asked. "Well, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but if you do, that's good, because we need to figure out what to do next. We can't stay here forever." He decided to wake up Nate and transformed into his cat form, then crouched down on the bed, his tail twitching. He had a lot of energy stored up, and he had to let some out before he could be serious again. He leapt off of the bed with a powerful jump that almost made the rickety bed fall down and tackled Nate, knocking him backwards onto the bed the young man had been meditating on. "NATE!" he shouted, as if the pounce hadn't woken him up already.

Nate's eyes shot open and he looked ready to slit Welk's throat open; he had a knife in his hand (goodness knows where he was hiding it) and everything. He quickly relaxed once he realized he hadn't been focusing on his surroundings at all. Foolish moves. At least it was just the half-cat, this time. Nate made a mental note not to do that again.

"Sorry. Instinctive actions." Nate said, indicating the knife that he was still holding now. "Did you need something?"

"Er, we were going to discuss where to go next...shouldn't we wait for Cynyr? I'll explain, but...I don't want to do it more than once." Werr said.

"Eep!" Welk yelped, quickly scrambling away from Nate. "Jeez man, I didn't know you were armed!" He took cover under the bed, his crimson eyes glowing slightly in the darkness. His voice floated out from under the bed. "We don't have to wait for Cynyr. I can explain things to him when I see him again, Werr, so you don't have to."

"My apologies," Nate said again, sitting up and concealing his knife in his sleeve.

"Oh...okay then." Werr nodded, then cleared his throat, wondering how to word it. "Welk...the same thing that happened to my mother...it happened to my father, first." He said, then noted Nate's blank look. "Er...they were both infected with something that made them act differently, and they attacked people, and...well, my mother was surrounded by something that made black tentacles and attacked soldiers...."

Nate thought for a moment, then asked, "And you're assuming the same happened to your father?"

"Yeah. I know it'll be dangerous, but...I want to find out what's going on. What happened to them. And that'll mean..." Werr trailed off, not sure how to put it.

"Heading straight for the war-zone. Where your father died, to search for clues." Nate interjected. "Did you think upon the fact that whatever this is, it's spreading? You're likely to become infected yourself."

"I know. I thought about it, and...I don't care. I have to find out what this is, so it...so it doesn't happen to anyone else. Like my father wanted me to. I've already failed him once, I...couldn't decipher his letter. So I have to do at least this much."

"You don't actually have to do anything, but I'll come along if you want me to." Nate shrugged. "I want to find out what's going on as well, for the sake of my king."

"Right...anyways, Welk..." Werr bit his lip, wondering how to ask such a thing.

Welk jumped out from under the bed and stood near Werr, slapping a hand down on his shoulder. "Of course I'll come! What, did you think I would say no? Heck yes I'll come with you! I'm not letting you walk into a war-zone with knife-happy over there. No offense Nate, you're a great guy." He turned and threw Nate a short grin, then went back to Werr. "You couldn't keep me away, buddy." he said genuinely.