The Forgotten Zodiac

"We'll tie him up and drag him down here, if he must." Werr said, quite serious despite the fact that it sounded like a joke. "But you clearly know that he'll enjoy it, so why not? Perhaps you can say that I told you about this place, and lead him in through the back door?" Werr suggested, thinking. "Oh, the books? They're journals about my father's adventures, mainly. Things he's seen, places he went, so on. It's not like there are anything like spells in here," Werr said lightly, noting the look on Welk's face. "I'm as normal as they come, believe me."

"Cynyr would hate it if we did that. I like it." Welk said, grinning. "I'll find some way of convincing him to come in here." He looked at Werr when he explained about the contents of the books and sighed in partial relief. "That's good." he said, closing his eyes for a moment, then reopening them. He yawned, his sharp white fangs glistening in the dim light of the room, then closed his mouth and rubbed lightly at his eyes.

"I'm tired." he said, blinking over at Werr. "Is it okay if I hit the sack?"

"I'll leave you to the logistics, then." Werr chuckled, nodding. "It's alright with me, but I thought you wanted soup. It should be ready by now, actually, so we should eat. Mother must be waiting for us anyways." He turned towards the door, pulling it open and holding it there so Welk could head out. "Of course, you can go to bed without dinner. I don't mind."

"Sweet, thanks!" Welk said, transforming into his cat form and trotting out under Werr's arm as the other boy held the door open. "I wasn't hungry anyways. I ate a rabbit not long ago while I was in the woods, so I'll be good 'till tomorrow." He took the stairs four at a time, bounding up the steps like they were nothing.

He galloped down the hall and into his room, leaping onto the bed and once again rolling around on the covers, meowing happily.

"No worries." Werr closed the door, heading up the stairs after Welk. "Remember, just come to me if you need anything." He shut the door to Welk's room, moving on to feed himself and mother some dinner before turning in for the night.

((Time skip detected.

Initiating fast forward.))

Werr slowly opened his eyes, staring up at the ceiling for a few long moments before swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, trying to be rid of his grogginess. He had to get up and make breakfast, then get ready for classes. Check on mother, set aside breakfast for her...Werr woke up quickly after he remembered that he had a guest. Werr hurried to get dressed, knowing that his morning schedule would be slightly off today.

He quickly re-drew everything in his mind's eye; he'd make breakfast for himself and Welk, and set aside some of that for mother. He'd check on her before getting ready, then get ready with Welk and head out the door directly after. Werr sighed, wondering how all that would work. Having friends over was harder than he remembered.

To his surprise, however, when he went to Welk's room, it was completely empty. The bed was made (very sloppily), and the Half-cat was nowhere to be found. A further inspection of the house revealed absolutely no sign of him.

Right when Werr had decide that the other teenager had to have vanished out of thin air, the front door opened and Welk walked in, his school bag slung over his shoulder. "Hey Werr." he said, closing the door gently behind him. "What's up?"

"Oh, I was just looking for you." Werr blinked in surprise. "Ready for school already? I suppose you had a rabbit for breakfast or something?" He smiled a bit. He had checked on mother while looking for Welk, so there was no need to worry. She was still fast asleep. "If you don't mind me asking, where did you go?"

"Yep. I caught like, twenty mice." the Half-cat said, grinning, then answered Werr's other question. "I went back to my house to get my school bag and my books." Welk said, sitting down in a chair. "Cynyr wasn't there. I guess he already headed off to school or something. His book bag was gone."

His eyes suddenly lit up, and he dug through his book bag. "Oh! That talk about breakfast reminds me..." he said, grabbing something out of the bag. "I brought you a mouse." He held up a small dead mouse by its tail, grinning mischievously.

Werr nodded at the mention of Welk's school things. It did make sense, the half-cat definitely needed those. Werr set a small bowl of leftover stew to heat up, deciding to eat that for breakfast. Might as well.

Werr jumped when Welk pulled the mouse out of his back, though. "Oh, uh...thank you. But I don't...eat things like that." Werr said carefully, not wanting to offend Welk. "I appreciate the gesture, but please, you go ahead and enjoy, I guess."

Welk shrugged, then said "Suit yourself." and promptly shoved the mouse into his own mouth, not even bothering to change into his cat form. There was several seconds filled with the sound of tiny bones and tendons breaking and snapping as Welk chewed on the mouse. Finally, the Half-cat swallowed and licked his lips, a completely normal look on his face.

"Yum! That was a really good mouse." he commented, pulling his tail around to his lap to start brushing it with his fingers.

Werr shook it off, thinking that this was completely normal. Normal and disgusting, yes, but normal nevertheless. He took his breakfast off of the fire and set it on the counter. "Um...forget breakfast. Let's go to class, shall we?"

"Okay." Welk said, standing up and slinging his bag back over his shoulder. He headed out the door, Werr behind him. "Man, another day of school? I hate school." the blonde-haired teenager said, kicking a rock across the street. He pulled his book bag off of his shoulder and stuck it around his neck, then transformed into a cat and walked with his bag around his neck like a collar.

"I actually rather enjoy it. It's learning," Werr shrugged. "At least the teachers aren't too bad. If you know what you're doing, anyways, I suppose. If you make too many mistakes, Mr. Bert gets mad. But you know that, you go to classes with me." He smiled a bit.

"Bleh, I hate all of them." Welk said, walking close to Werr. His paws barely made any noise at all on the road. "Like I said before, I hate school. Period. It's boring and dumb and boring." His sharp gaze quickly turned to a bird that was flying around far up in the sky, and he watched it in fascination.

"I suppose everyone has their own opinions on it." Werr chuckled a bit, nodding. "It's a good  thing to have your own opinion, no matter what it is. I perhaps we can agree to disagree?" He grinned as they arrived at the school. "What classes do you have?"

"All of the basics, plus gym class." Welk answered, transforming into his human form before anyone could see him. "I only settled for gym class because it helps curb some of my energy. That, and the fact that I run laps around the school during lunch. Cynyr's always telling me that I have too much energy, and that if I put some of that energy towards my school work, I could be a better student. He's probably right, but there's no way I'm going to do that."

He laughed, his tail flicking around energetically behind him.

"Yes, you do seem to be the most energetic type I've ever seen," Werr nodded. "Well, what do you have first? I don't think I've seen you in any of my classes before, though...but that just might be my forgetfulness." He thought back. No, he definitely didn't remember seeing Welk in any of his classes...then again, he missed them half the time due to his chronic family issues.And yet, he still managed top marks in most of his classes. Funny how that worked.

"History." Welk said. "Then math. Gosh, I hate math. All of those dumb numbers..." The mention of a subject he didn't like didn't seem to dampen his spirits in anyway, and he trotted beside Werr joyously, his tail occasionally hitting the other boy.

"Really?" Werr blinked. Now that he thought about it, it wouldn't make sense for Welk not to be in any of his classes. This was a relatively small town, there were only so many who had to go to school here. "Oh. Right. I can't actually remember the last time I've been in class, now that I think about it. So of course, I don't remember you being there. I didn't write it down. We probably have the same schedules." He laughed at his own stupidity, heading inside. "That was silly of me. I'm supposed to write everything down, and I didn't write things down about this school. I must have thought it to be boring or something."

"Yep. This school is uber-boring." Welk agreed, then charged off down the hall, shouting "Daain! Hey, I see you there, you jerk!" He spent about a minute arguing with another boy around his age, then charged back over to Werr, screeching to a halt right when he was about to slam into him.

"Come on, let's get to class!" he said, grabbing Werr's arm and pulling him forcefully down the hall. "We have history together. I've seen you sitting in the corner by yourself a few times." He was already back to being energetic and happy, his confrontation with the other boy, Daain, forgotten.