The Forgotten Zodiac

((...: D I LOVE THE RAPTOR GUY.

DID YOU KNOW THAT I LOVE DINOSAURS? THIS GUY REMINDS ME OF A DINOSAUR. 8D))

"There you are, Werr." Nate blinked as Werr, Forin and Diana all approached. "What happened?"

"Forin already got to Luen..." Werr scratched the back of his neck. "I don't even know what he did, Luen didn't tell me."

"I removed the tracking device. Nothing more." Forin stated simply. "Well, there were also the stitches that held it in place, but that was hardly something to fuss over."

"Forin doesn't lie," Diana smiled. "Unless it'll keep me safe, of course."

((I've played only one minor bad-guy so far, but I'm still having so much fun with this. xD))

((Thanks! Yep, he's a dinosaur creature. Velociraptor. And he's completely insane. He has moments where he can think long enough to be 'normal' but those are rare.))

Seria gave Forin one of her flat looks, then turned when she heard something scurry towards them. A smiled stretched over her face and she made no move to stop what happened next.

Whump!

Another person slammed into Werr, but it wasn't as hard as the first had been. This one was friendly and...furry. "Hey Werr!" Welk said, hugging his best friend hard from behind. "I've barely seen you at all yet! Where've you been hiding?"

((Awesome! ))

((DDDIIINNNNOOOSSSAAAAUUURRRRRR!

-ahem- Insane is fun. : D))

 Werr gasped as the breath was knocked out of him once more, and nearly turned and tried to punch his 'attacker' in the face this time. He relaxed once he realized it was Welk. Welk...Werr was tempted to say something along the lines of, 'I've been around, you just haven't noticed because you were with that woman.' But Werr figured that would be a horrible thing to say. Instead, he just told the truth. "Well...Luen confessed that he had a tracking device in his stomach, so he and I were talking about that. Then I had to try and stop Forin from pulling the device out using his powers, but I was a little late..."

((I KNOW, I LOVE DINOSAURS TOO.

Yes, it is.))

Welk nearly hung off of his friend for a moment, but he quickly bounced up and let go of him, smiling. "Luen had a tracker?" he said, letting his smile fade for a moment. "That's actually kind of neat. Maybe he'll let me see it before...we do something to it. Because I'm assuming we're destroying it at some point. Right now, though, I'm hungry!" He pulled a handful of coins that he hadn't gotten from any of them out of his pocket and trotted over to a food stand, where he purchased something to eat, which turned out to be something fried, sugary, and on a stick. "No idea what this is, but it's good!" he said, biting into it. "Want one, Werr? Briana gave me some money to spend." His eyes were bright behind his mask. He was so happy and excited, and Werr knew it wasn't just because there was a festival and there was food to eat.

Welk had found his long-lost mother, which was enough to make the young half-cat the happiest that Werr had seen him since Cynyr had left.

((Ha ha, Werr sounds attention-jealous.))

((I'M GLAD YOU DO.

And yeah, he is. xD))

"Er, yeah," Werr nodded. He blinked when Welk offered to buy him something. He nodded, blinking sadly at his friend when he turned back to buy another. Nate rested a hand on his shoulder. Werr looked up at him, and Nate shook his head; a silent message that reminded Werr that he promised to let Welk choose.

"I want one!" Airlia said, smiling happily.

((Don't forget about the crowds, when you attack. It is a festival. xP))

((Poor Werr.))

"Cool!" Welk said, smiling at Airlia, then bought two more and handed them to the appropriate people. "Man, these are good!" he said, biting into his, which was still warm. His food was gone within seconds and he quickly went back for another one. When he came back this time, he was beaming. "Wow, that man running that stand is so nice!" he exclaimed. "He said since I had already bought three, he'd give me this one for free!" He laughed, then curled his tail into Werr's hand and said "I'll walk with you all for a while, but I promised mom- I mean, Briana, that I would come back to her in little while. Boy, she really got attached to me fast, huh? She get sad whenever I leave for more than a few seconds, but she always lets me go when I want to. Isn't that great?" He grinned up at Werr, then frowned and said "Werr? Is something wrong? You look sad..."

((I know. :3 ))

((It's okay. xD))

Werr blinked, shaking his head. "No, I'm fine." He forced a smile, taking a bite of the sugary food. Airlia was digging into hers happily, quite pleased with the sweetness of it. Werr had a hard time tasting it. "That's, uh, great. My mom was the same way, before..." Before she went insane and died, he was about to say, but he let himself trail off, not wanting to upset Welk.

Welk stared up at him for several seconds, then pulled his tail away from Werr's hand and put his snack on a stick in his tail, holding it like that, then put his arms around Werr and hugged him. "Don't be sad, Werr." he said. "Everything will work out. You'll see." He closed his crimson eyes for a moment and nuzzled against Werr, then pulled back and grabbed his snack back out of his tail, saying "Yipes! Almost dropped it. Cynyr was always so good at holding stuff like that... Phooey." He crunched into the crispy thing, already sliding his tail back into Werr's hand.

Werr smiled for real this time, nodding a bit. "Yeah...things will be alright."

"Come on!" Airlia whined, already finished with her snack. "Let's go check out the games or something, I'm bored!"

((Short post, sorry. ono))

Welk's eyes widened a bit when Airlia spoke. "Games?! I forgot all about those! I think I'll be good at most of them. I might even beat Natey at a few!" He laughed, finishing off his snack in a few more bites, then brushed off his hands and said "Let's hit it!"

A long, loud, high-pitched call suddenly echoed out, almost sounding like an animalistic scream.

Several people in the crowd turned from what they were doing to try and locate the source of the strange noise. "Hey! What's that up there?" someone said, pointed up towards the roof of the tallest building there. Instantly, all eyes shot in the direction he pointed.

The figure that had bumped into Werr stood up at the top most part of the building, black cape billowing in the breeze. The hood was drawn over its face again, so it looked like some sort of reaper of death, waiting for a victim. Then the eyes opened, evil and yellow, each one inches bigger than an orange. The slitted yellow eyes instantly went down to the group of Werr, Welk, Nate, Seria, Airlia, Forin and Diana, singling out each one slowly. Thick black claws protruded from its toes, which hung over the edge of the building.

Raptor claws.

((That's okay.))

"Agent," Nate said the single word, and Werr took several steps back immediately.

"H-hey, I..." Werr frowned, recognizing the hooded figure. "I saw that guy! He...ran into me, and said that people were after us or something like that..."

"And you said nothing of the matter?" Forin growled, Diana whimpering behind him.

"I...I wasn't sure if I was seeing things or not, he had a scaled tail!" Werr shook his head.

"As did I once," Nate frowned. "But he's not Dragonian, I can tell you that much. Prepare yourselves, things might get hot..."

The figure let out another screamed call, then leapt forward, flinging himself off of the building. There was a surge from the crowd and several screams of terror, but they were silenced when the figure landed without injury, which seemed impossible from the height he had jumped from. The strange creature had landed in a crouch, and now slowly stood up, turning his neck from side to side to crack it. He shrugged the hood off and pulled it off completely, tossing it to the side with a flourish, then looked over at the group of people in front of him.

He looked more raptor than human, with darkish auburn-red hair and huge yellow eyes that held black slits in their centers. The skin on his chest was a normal color, but every other inch of his body except for parts of his face was red in color. Thick black stripes decorated the skin on his arms, legs, face, body and the long dinosaur tail that protruded from his tailbone. His outfit was very strange, almost tribal. Colorful feathers were tied into his hair and a single stud earring was affixed to his left ear. A simple pair of leather shorts covered the lower part of his body, while a leather tank-top with odd blue symbols rested on his upper half. It had a large diamond shape cut into the center so the stripes on his chest could be seen.

He smiled creepily at those in front of him, then said "Hi!" He even wagged his tail.

Diana blinked at him, thinking that he looked friendly. She pulled away from Forin and pushed past a few people to get to the front of the crowd. Keeping herself partially hidden behind someone, she peeked at the figure and squeaked, "Hi," in return to his greeting.

"Mistress Diana, come back!" Forin called, but found it much harder to push his way through the increasing crowd. There were times when Diana was an idiot, certainly.

The raptorix tilted his head down at her, letting his smiled widen. All of his teeth where sharp and pointed. "I'm Relic." he said, moving forward. Every step he took was slightly bobbed. He walked exactly like a real velociraptor. "I'm Relic and I'm a relic. I am both, you see. My name is Relic and I am a relic of a dead tribe." he said. The crowd surged back from him in fear, leaving Diana open. "And you are a tasty little girl." Relic continued, stopping only feet away from her. His whole demeanor suddenly changed. His eyes, which had been warm and friendly, grew cold like ice. He lunged forward and grabbed the girl, holding her tightly in his arms. He held his sharp claws close to her neck, still grinning. "A foolish, tasty, stupid little girl." he said.

Diana screamed in terror, twisting and jerking in fear. "L-let go! Forin won't let you eat me! Forin!" She wailed.

"Put her down!" Forin hissed in anger. "I'll tear your heart out of your chest if you lay so much as one claw on her, you little," He swore angrily, tearing off his mask and letting it fall to the ground. Diana trembled as Relic's claws moved closer to her neck, fear obvious in her eyes, mingled with tears.

"P-please," She cried, struggling feebly. "Don't..."

Welk and Seria were instantly in cat forms, but before they could do anything, Relic moved. "Okay." he said, letting Diana go. He made no move to take her back or hurt her, simply smiled away. "You aren't really a target anyways. You're too little! Like a bug! Bugs are really little! But I suppose you're bigger than a bug. Oh well!" He laughed crazily for a moment, then sighed and said "Okay! I need to know where the wind mage is!" Suddenly, in the span of a second, he was in front of Werr and holding a black-clawed finger inches from the boy's forehead. "Can yoooooooou tell me?" he chittered, touching his claw to the boy's head.

"What the-?!" Welk gasped, whipping around to stare at the raptorix. "You...how did you get there...?"

"Me?" Relic said, pointing at himself in confusion. "I ran! I'm fast! Very fast! Yes I am!"

They stared at him, then Seria said "He...he's insane."

"I am?" Relic said. "Joyous!"

Diana practically flew back to Forin's protective arms, crying into his shirt. Werr stumbled back, eyes wide. "I-I don't know," He stammered, rubbing his forehead to make sure he wasn't bleeding or anything.

"We don't know," Nate said, pushing his way between Werr and the Raptorix. "We said such to the last agent who came our way, and it's still true."

((Just say so when you want Diana to order Forin to make them go away. Then he gets scary. o3o))

"No, no, no, no, no, no, NO." Relic said, pushing Nate out of the way. "I didn't ask you, Froggy."

Welk almost giggled at the new nickname Nate had acquired, but he held back.

"I asked the BOY." the raptorix said, stalking closer to Werr. "This one has a LOT of thoughts going through his head right now. I know, FOR A FACT, that he and the yellow kitty remember the last place the wind mage was. If you tell me, I can go there and track him down, even if the scent is no longer there, which I know it isn't. So tell me now so I can go hunt him down and take him to Asi, okay? Okay. Okay. Asi REALLY wants this mage, yes he does! He's getting tired of waiting for him. He need this mage's special magic skill!"

Nate grabbed Relic by the back of the collar, jerking him back and away from Werr in one swift movement. "I said, we don't know where he went. Asmodius will have to wait until you track him down on your own." He snarled, looking very, very unhappy. Werr retreated further, knowing full well that he was vulnerable. And yes, his mind was racing once more. Trying to find a weakness of some kind.

Relic's eyes widened, then narrowed dangerously. In the next second, he had grabbed Nate's hand and flipped him over his head, pinning him to the ground with one sharp-clawed foot. "Bad Froggy." the raptorix said, frowning at him. "You should know better than that." His eyes suddenly took on a completely different light. "Enough of these stupid games." he snarled. "I will take what I want to know!" He pushed off of Nate and moved towards Werr, a feral, intelligent look in his eyes. A weight suddenly yanked on his tail. He sighed and turned around to see that Welk had chomped down into his tail, growling ferociously. Relic didn't even pause. He flicked his whole tail to the side, knocking Welk off like the cat was nothing more than a fly. "Don't try that again." the raptor creature said, then grabbed Werr by his collar. "Now just hold still while I sort through your memories." he said, putting a hand on the boy's head.