The Forgotten Zodiac

((You, surely. But I make characters up on the spot. We've gone over this already. xP

It's alright. I won't be introducing any new characters for some time yet, dun choo worry.))

Werr let his hand drop, then buried his face in both of his hands for a long moment. After awhile, he stood, mumbling something about getting ready, and practically ran up the stairs.

"I suppose I do feel a little bad for them, but Werr needs to remember why he's doing all this. It's not like Welk has died or anything. Provided he survives the battlefield, Werr will be perfectly capable of coming back here," Nate shrugged, downing another glass of his rum. He finally put the bottle away, leaving coins on the counter and stopping to wash out the cup. "Right, then. I'm ready," He announced, smiling a bit. "Though, what are we to do with Forin? He seems much too injured to walk on his own or anything...we should try to find a carriage, or a horse. Something of the like, perhaps. It will certainly cut down on our travel time, though it would make us more noticeable..."

((Pleeeeeh.

Okay. -3-))

"Yes..." Seria said. She sighed, then said "A horse would be fine enough. It's less noticeable less a carriage, and Forin does need the help." She flicked her tail a few times, then said "Come on, then. We'll see to the business of a horse while the others finish getting their stuff ready." She turned into a human and stood, already moving to the door.

((Time skip to the time right before they're going to leave now. LIke, right about to go out of the inn and to the exit of town.))

((Dun.))

Seria and Nate returned not long after. Much haggling and shopping had been involved, but they had purchased a small donkey. It would be big enough for Forin, and when he could walk on his own, they could use it to carry their heavier packs. Nate was double-checking how much money they had left as they returned to the inn and collected the others.

"Well, we only have one more town between us and the Ruins of Hierves. We might be able to pull off finding an inn that'll take all of us for this much, but food might be a small issue...I suppose I can sleep outside, though." Nate was saying as they left the inn.

Seria was carrying Luen, who was still unconscious. The female half-cat was extremely worried about him, but so far, he was still alive, and that was what was important. She found that he was very easy to carry, due to the fact that he was so skinny.

Welk hadn't yet returned.

Seria could tell that Werr was worried over this, and it was making her sad to see him looking so upset.

Forin took one look at the donkey and seemed to speak to it for a moment before climbing up onto its back. Diana (who was wide awake now) took the donkey by the reins, leading it in a circle and giggling. She started off towards the exit to the town, the donkey right behind her.

Werr was indeed upset. He watched Forin and Diana for a moment before looking around for Welk. He eventually had to follow everyone else as they moved off, and he did so with his arms crossed and his eyes on the ground. Nate lagged back to keep an eye on him, though he was pretty sure Werr wouldn't try to run off or anything.

Werr was a little more than upset. He was distraught, though he knew that he shouldn't be. Welk had his own choices to make, and he...well, he had to go stop whatever it was that had killed his parents, before it started killing more and more people. Werr knew that he should have more thoughts about the task at hand, but he couldn't clear his mind of his own troubles. Again, there was that blasted fog of emotion that was clouding his better judgement. Werr struggled emptily to get it under control, but it was all he could do to not cry as they left the town's borders.

They walked for a few minutes in total silence, leaving the town behind. They were all quiet, each keeping their thoughts to themselves.

"Hey!" a voice suddenly shouted from a ways behind them. "Wait up!"

Welk raced after them in cat form, galloping down the road at top speed, his bag hanging around his neck.

He skidded to a stop right next to Werr, almost knocking the boy over. "Sorry!" he said, backing up a few paces. He stared up at Werr, a sad look in his eyes. "Why did you guys leave without me?" he said quietly. "I said I would come back. I had to go say goodbye to Briana, and I wanted to spend some time with her before we left. I told her I was going to stay with all of you, and even though she was really sad, she said she knew she had no right to stop me if that's what I wanted to do." He tilted his ears back and said "Why did you guys leave me?"

Werr stared down at Welk for a long moment, then hit Welk over the head. It wasn't anything hard, and Welk could see that Werr was dangerously close to crying. "You cou-could have told me that!" He said, though he was smiling with obvious joy. "I...I thought you were going to stay with Briana!"

Nate looked surprised as well. He made a mental note not to assume things when it came to Welk anymore. Half-cats were not as predictable as humans, apparently.

"Hey!" Welk yelped, then stood up on his back legs and put his paws over Werr's shoulders. In cat form, on his back legs, he was easily a few inches taller than the boy. "I'm sorry. I was just so sad over having to leave Briana that I couldn't think very straight. I mean, she's my mother, after all. I haven't seen her in so many years and I really wanted to spend more time with her, but there's no way in the world I would let you go off into a war-zone without me! I would never just up and stay with someone else like that, you crazy person. I know she's my mom, but I did just meet her. Yeah, I'm real sad over leaving her, because it was always my dream to find my mother, but you're my best friend! If I had to pick between the two of you, I'd pick you every time." He purred, then leaned forward and licked Werr's forehead with his rough cat tongue. "Silly." he said softly, but there was obvious emotion in his voice.

Werr wrapped his arms around his friend, smiling happily now. "We can always come back here, you know. After I finish my research, and we find Cynyr. We can come back, and we'll all live here. You can live with Briana, and I'll get a job selling books or something." He pulled away, scratching Welk behind the ears quickly before letting go completely. "Now come on, I don't think Forin was planning on waiting for us. We're going to have to catch up," Indeed, Forin and Diana had gone on ahead, oblivious to Welk and Werr's happy reunion of sorts.

"That would be great!" Welk said. "We'll all be happy!" His purring increased for a moment when Werr scratched him, then he trotted beside the boy as they caught up to the others. Seria smiled at the other half-cat once he and Werr had caught back up. "I'm glad you're staying with us, Welk." she said.

Welk flicked his tail at her and said "What else did you think I would do? I did tell you guys to wait for me, after all." He bounced along, seemingly recovered from all of his energy loss from only hours earlier. "S'up Froggy?" he said when he spotted Nate. He giggled, then looped his tail into Werr's hand, which was as close to holding hands as Werr could get with Welk in cat form.

Nate narrowed his eyes at this, casting an unhappy look at Welk. "This better not be a regular thing, you know."

"Well, it does make sense," Werr pointed out. "You don't have a tail or wings, your scaley patches are green..."

"I breathe fire. Call me 'Froggy' again, and we'll see how that tail of yours likes being bald and burnt, Welk," Nate puffed, a bit of smoke leaking out of the corner of his mouth. He sounded perfectly serious, but Welk and Werr couldn't see the bemused glint in his eye.

Welk stilled and said "Okay, Nate. Sure." He was quiet for a few seconds, but he was obviously used to getting threats, probably from his days with Cynyr, so a few seconds later, he was testing Nate's threat. He glanced over at the dragonian, then said "Where are we going, Froggy? A new town?"

((I have a scene in mind for Cynyr coming back in. At the war-zone, at some point I have no idea when, they're about to get captured/hurt/something by the enemy and he shows up with these awesomely huge wind powers that they have no idea how he got because they don't know that the dark magic infecting him is amplifying his powers. : D ))

((Hm, fanceh. I suppose it's my turn for a bad guy, then. Another expendable, unless I decide otherwise. xD What if they actually do get captured? MOAR FUNZ.))

Nate whipped around and blew a small stream of fire at Welk's hindquarters. It missed by several hairs, singing said hairs on the way past. Nate sniffed and turned on heel to hide his smile as he spoke, "Yes. There's one more town along our way, we should reach there by dawn at this rate of travel. It's a pleasant place called Nahran."

"Nate," Werr realized something. "What happened to the tracker?"

Nate blinked at him. "Ah...we might have left it back in Kash..."

((If they get captured there, I'll probably kill off Luen. I was going to do it at the fight with Nelu, but I decided not to. o3o I'm still thinking about having him die any second now. Maybe. I probably won't. But they'll get captured again, just not at the war-zone. They'll do something and realize that they have to go confront Asmodius and then they'll get caught. Sound good or no?))

Welk yelped and glared at Nate, then laughed, unable to stop himself. "Sorry Froggy, but I just can't help it." he said, closing his eyes and beaming up at Nate. "If you want someone to blame, blame the raptor dinosaur...guy thing. I never would've thought of calling you that without him around. And as for the tracker..." He turned into a human and dug around through his bag, then pulled out the round object. "I brought it with me. We have to destroy it, right? If we do the thing with the ice, we could be miles away by the time anyone even thinks of going to look for it."

"Ah," Nate frowned. "Well...I don't think we can do it now with Luen out of commision..."

"So what should we do with it?" Werr blinked at him.

"Well, I had a similar idea with a rope and a candle...it'll be shorter time than what we would have with ice, and it'll be a bit more obvious, but..."

((D: WHY? YOU HORRIBLE PERSON! AT LEAST GET CLOSER TO ONE OF MY CHARACTERS SO THEY FEEL BAD AND NEED TO AVENGE HIM.

Also, at this rate, if you eliminated a character, that would leave your characters and my characters at 1:2. Which is bad! You may only eliminate a character if you have another one to introduce not too long after. It doesn't have to be immediately after, but still. >:C

Also, yeah. Werr is going to realize that something very important was in the book that Nightlash took, they're gonna try to find him and something is going to happen. 83))

((I told my idea of killing Luen to one of my RL friends and she immediately shouted "YOU BETTER NOT DO THAT OR ELSE!! I LOVE HIM!!" O_o So I've decided not to kill him.

What is this that will happen? Did I already say it or is this a new idea? I get confused easily. XD ))

A groan from further up suddenly captured their attention. Seria quickly went down on one knee so she could lay Luen down, saying "Luen? Luen, are you okay? Can you hear me?"

Welk trotted forward in concern and asked "What's wrong?"

Before Seria could answer, Luen's emerald eyes blinked open, slowly focusing on the faces hovering over him. "What...what happened?" he rasped, his voice thin and weak.

((GOOD. xD

This is a new idea. This is MY idea. And I'm not going to spoil it for you. ouo))

Forin stopped the donkey at this, Diana stopping as well and watching curiously. "Luen? You were stabbed," Nate answered him. "You fought off Nelu. The attackers left, but we had to leave Kash due to the villagers knowing what you and Diana are."

((TELL MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. D: ))

Luen blinked a few times, trying to clear his head, then said "S-stabbed...? But I was...what?" His memory flooded back to him in an instant and his eyes widened fearfully. He quickly tried to sit up, but winced as a shudder trailed down his entire body.

"Don't move!" Seria said, putting a hand on his chest and pushing him back down. "You haven't recovered from the loss of blood yet. Don't worry. Nelu is gone. She's not around anymore. She can't hurt you." Her voice got softer as she spoke, into a more soothing tone. Luen sighed quietly, closing his eyes. "That's good..." he said softly.

((NO. IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD. I SPOIL NOT, SO OTHERS DON'T SPOIL THINGS FOR ME. >.<

I will tell you that it'll lead them to King Asmodius, though.))

Forin slid off of the donkey, leading it over to them. He still had a small limp, but he seemed to be recovering quickly. "Here," He said, putting the reins in Nate's hands. "Let him use it. He needs it more than I, at this point." He turned away, sitting down to wait for them to start moving again. Diana sat with her back against his, as content as ever.

((AWWWWWWWWWW, PHOOEY.

Okay. As long as nobody important dies, I guess.))

Seria nodded and helped Luen stand up, then led him over to the donkey. The ice mage wolfling looked pale and drawn, but something else was off about him. Once he was situated on the donkey, this was revealed. "What happened?" he suddenly said, blinking sharply.

Welk frowned and glanced up at him, then said "Um, you got stabbed. By Nelu. Remember?"

Luen frowned and said "Stabbed...? But I...what?" He stared at Welk for a moment, then said "Oh. Right." and looked forward.

Seria turned her head and met Nate's gaze, giving him a slightly fearful look, then said "Hey, Luen."

The ice mage looked over at her.

"Can you remember what happened earlier?" the female half-cat asked.

Luen slowly shook his head.

"You got stabbed by Nelu." Seria said evenly.

Luen frowned and said "Stabbed? But...how?" A few seconds later, he said "Oh, I remember." then looked normal again.