The Forgotten Zodiac

Airlia pouted until he apologized, but she still seemed upset a bit. "Well...I can understand that, but..."

"But during the short time that she knew him, Cynyr was a jerk and refused to acknowledge how powerful Airlia could make him." Nate finished for her. "And then he ditched her. You can't blame the girl, Welk." Nate thought for a moment. "Didn't you say you were the servant of a king once?" Nate asked, looking towards Airlia. She stiffened, looking even more upset at the question. "Er, my apologies. Nevermind." He said quickly, not wanting to see her start crying. She just looked back down at her pancakes, though she had lost her appetite.

Welk nodded, understanding what Nate meant. "Yeah, yeah..." he muttered, then flinched slightly when someone spoke to him. "Excuse me," Luen said, standing nearby with his hands clasped in front of himself. "but I was wondering something that I'm afraid only you and your friends can answer. This Cynyr. What was he like? Was he a powerful mage with fair skill? I was led to believe that he was...well, extremely adept, by King Asmodius. What does Cynyr look like?" His emerald green eyes went from Welk, Seria and Werr, wondering if any of them could answer his questions.

"Cynyr...adept?" Werr blinked, then shook his head. "He just figured out that he was a mage...a couple days ago, in fact. I mean, we found him training a bit, but I wouldn't call him adept..." He said carefully, not wanting to upset Welk. "He's not weak, though. He just prefers to use old-fashioned fighting instead of magic, I think."

"He's very good at abandoning people, too." Airlia said bitterly, apparently even more grumpy after Nate had mentioned the king.

"Ah." Luen said, nodding slightly. "I didn't know. My apologies for intruding. I simply wished to know a little more about the person I was originally supposed to capture. See, we are typically told only what we need to know in order to make the capture go smoothly. Nothing more. All I originally was told was that his name was Cynyr and he was a panther half-cat that had acquired wind mage powers. I know little to nothing about his personality or looks."

Welk almost laughed. "Well, we can't help you on the looks part, buddy. He wears a mask. All I know is that he's got yellow eyes and black hair." he said.

Luen blinked and said "A mask? Really? I wonder why... There could be many reasons for something like that."

Seria suddenly looked uncomfortable when the conversation turned to what could be behind Cynyr's mask.

"We don't know," Werr said, glancing at Seria. "He never said. You might have already guessed that he was somewhat stubborn and rude...I'm not sure what else you might want to know..."

"Can we go now?" Airlia pouted, pushing her plate away from herself. "I'm tired of sitting around. Don't we have to go to this Kash place?"

"I concur," Nate tutted. "Kash is far away...we'll be lucky if we arrive before nightfall, if we leave now."

Seria met Werr's glance, then stared in a different direction.

Luen listened as Werr spoke, then nodded, saying "Thank you for telling about him. I was curious."

Welk got up out of his chair and bounded up to his room to get his bag, singing "We're off to see the wizard~! The wonderful wizard of Kash~!"

Seria laughed, then followed him to get her own things.

"Curiosity has a knack for getting the curious in trouble." Nate pointed out, watching as Werr followed Welk to collect his own bag as well. Nate, on the other hand, was already fully prepared. He took the remaining bacon, offering a piece to Luen. "It's important to eat up. We have a long journey ahead of us."

Luen nodded, saying "That's what Nelu said too..." He watched the others go upstairs, wondering for a moment if Welk was dropped on his head as a kitten, then turned when Nate offered the bacon. "No, thank you." he said, shaking his head slightly and holding up one hand politely. "I'm fine, really." He smiled a bit, then pulled up the edge of his shirt, which had fallen off of his shoulder again.

Nate shrugged and ate the bacon eagerly. There were only three pieces remaining anyways. "Well, at any rate, I can say that I'm glad to have you with us. If you don't mind me saying, your sister was a fool for leaving you with us." He said, wondering how Luen would react to the statement.

Luen looked down for a moment, then said "Though she treated me badly and threatened to kill me...I still miss her somewhat. I've been with her for nearly my entire life." He sighed, then looked up at Nate and said "Thank you for saying those nice things, though I really don't deserve it. And you're right. Nelu doesn't know what she gave up." He smiled a bit, then turned when a familiar voice shouted "Incoming!" from the top of the stairs.

Welk barreled down the stairs with his bag slung around his body, nearly falling down several times. "I'm ready!" he called, almost running into Nate with how fast he was going.

Seria came down moments later, moving much slower than Welk. "Goodness, Welk, don't run so fast. You could hurt someone or yourself."

Welk stuck his tongue out at her, then danced impatiently from foot to foot, his energy starting to get the best of him.

Behind her was Werr. He was laughing a little, though, and smiling. Nate looked at him thoughtfully; when he had first spoke to Werr, the boy seemed guarded, forcing himself to be tough and emotionless. Had he completely dropped that ruse? For what reason?

Werr caught the look and stared at Nate back, but quickly broke off when Airlia spoke up. "Can we go now? Pleeeaaassseee?" She whined, very much bored.

Welk smiled when the others came down, then was immediately fidgeting again. "Darn it, I've gotta get out of here!" he said, running out the door with his bag flopping around his body. He ran past the window outside and disappeared.

Luen and Seria followed him out, only to discover that he was gone. "Welk?" Seria called, glancing around for him. "Not again! Welk, where are you?"

"Again? Does he do this often?" Luen asked, turning to Werr as the boy followed them out.

((He's on the roof, waiting for Werr to come out.))

"Yeah, kind of," Werr nodded, following Seria outside. Airlia had put her hand in Nate's, dragging him towards the door as well. Nate had to chuckle at this; the girl was certainly rambunctious at times. She certainly was a child, which made her actions difficult to predict. She didn't seem to be human, though. At least, she didn't appear to be. Perhaps she was part human?

When Werr came outside, Welk struck. The half-cat had been lying in wait on the roof of the inn, waiting for his best friend to come out. Once Werr was outside, Welk (in cat form) leapt off of the roof and nearly landed on the boy. "HEY!" he shouted, flinging his arms around Werr so fast that he almost knocked them both over. "I found a neat way to get on the ROOF! You should try it! Wait, you can't. You're not as agile as me. OH WELL!" It was clear that the half-cat's energy was starting to get the best of him. It didn't help that he had had a good breakfast. That only added to his hyper levels. "Come on, come on, let's go!" he shouted, letting go of Werr and racing away. "I'm ready to GO!" He bounced around crazily, his crimson eyes bright and extremely happy.

Luen blinked at him, wondering how someone could have that much energy and not explode.

"Calm down, Welk," Werr said, concerned for his friend. He brushed himself off lightly, glad he hadn't been knocked into the dirt. But still...this was more excitement in Welk than he was used to, he was worried that something might actually be wrong with the half-cat. "Or...uh...go scout ahead? Run back and forth a lot?" He said, not sure if getting Welk to expend his energy would help or not.

Welk instantly froze, his jaw dropping open in shock. "You're RIGHT Werr! I can scout around! Yep! I can!" He raced off, ducking around buildings and looping around structures as fast as he possible could. When he came back, he was panting, his tongue hanging out of his mouth in a truly animal way. "That...was...AWESOME!" he said, breathing hard. "Ulles is a neat place!" His eyes widened and he bounced over to Nate, saying "Hey! Nate! Nate! You know what? You're pretty cool! You've got a bunch of weapons and you're part dragon and stuff! Yep, you are." He bounced ahead of the group, unable to contain himself.

Seria stared at him and said "I cannot believe that someone quiet and withdrawn like Cynyr was able to live with that crazy cat."

"Er...thanks. We should get moving," Nate said, checking his compass. He turned in the direction they needed to be heading in. "On to Kash," He stated, starting off in his chosen direction.

Werr followed, unable to do much but shake his head at Seria. He had no idea, personally.

Seria smiled at Werr, then turned into a cat and trotted forward, only to fall over as Welk slammed into her. "W-Welk!" she screeched, flipping over and running away from him. She stopped a short distance away, only to turn and see that Welk was staring at her oddly. "Phooey. I was hoping that you would fight back." he said. "Cynyr ALWAYS fought back. Always. He won a lot, too." He then turned and bounded around, his attack on the female half-cat forgotten.

Seria rolled her eyes, then stomped after Nate.

Nate blinked at Welk, scratching the back of his neck. "I would set him on fire, but I don't think he'd like that much...I don't want to hurt him, either. I'd rather not have two people here being terrified of me, anyways."

"Come now, Welk, don't you think we should be a bit more gentle with Seria? She's not as big as Cynyr is," Werr said, looking at his friend with a small frown.

Welk paused, considering, then said "I guess so. Man, all of you guys are a little on the weak side. At least Cynyr could hold his own against me. Easily. Without even trying." He finally stood still and looked down, his ears back a bit. He sighed, then said "I...miss him. A lot."

Seria softened a bit, then came back around and rubbed up against him, saying "Shush. We'll find him again someday. He's somewhere in the land. It shouldn't be too hard to find him again, right?" She was lying, actually. It would really be extremely hard to find him, considering how large the land was and how many places Cynyr could be at.

"Really?" Welk said, looking at her.

"Yes." she answered. "Now walk near Werr and be good. Werr's a friend too."

Welk nodded, then walked over to Werr and rubbed up against him.