The Forgotten Zodiac

The gryphon 'tsked' and shook his head, turning back into a gryphon in the air. "That's a shame." he said, rubbing a paw over his face. He screeched and flew forward, his sharp beak open and ready to rip Forin to shreds.

Whump!

The gryphon collided head-on into Luen.

The injured wolfling was in wolf form, arrows still sticking out of his arm and leg. He had lunged forward and slammed into the gryphon right before the creature could hit Forin. The ice mage was unsteady and barely able to stand, but he had thrown the creature off-balance. That was all he needed to create long thick bridges of ice across the wing-cat's body, pinning it to the ground.

The gryphon screeched and struggled frantically, but Luen's magic would not be moved.

Luen whole body was shaking by this time, but he managed to turn into a human and stand up, keeping one hand wrapped around the arrow in his left arm.

"L-Luen?" Forin blinked in surprise, staggering as pain shot up his leg, his body unable to hold it back any of it for any longer. He moved one hand to his leg, and used his other to grab Luen by the back of the collar, pulling the wolfling back. "We've got to get out of here," He said, struggling to keep from breathing heavily. He would have used the opporotunity to rip out the Gryphon's heart, but his magic levels had still been low from yesterday evening's fight. He had depended on Diana's to keep himself on his feet, but now he was on his own. He didn't have enough magic left to extract so much as a talon.

Luen was breathing hard, shaking and staring absently at the ground, his moment of remembering gone. He blinked dully when Forin pulled him back, then turned to stare at him. He moved to go forward, then screamed when the gryphon lashed out at him. The creature had managed to turn back into a human and use his powers to create a heavy rock, which he had thrown and hit Luen in the head with. He snorted as the ice mage fell unconscious, then used the room he gained by turning into a human to slide out of the ice restraints and fly into the air. "This isn't over!" he shouted. "I will take that mage, and when I do, I'll kill you too, creature of Tartarus! I, Jag, swear it!" He turned and rocketed off, becoming nothing more than a dot in the sky after a few moments.

Forin turned when Luen fell out of his grasp. He watched Jag fly off, then grabbed Luen by the collar again, starting to drag the unconscious wind-mage. Diana saw this and ran out of the trees to help.

It was a good twenty minutes before they arrived back at the campsite. Forin released Luen near where Werr and Welk were sleeping before taking two steps and promptly collapsing, his injured leg giving way underneath him. He swallowed dryly, struggling to sit up. "Seria..." He rasped, reaching towards but unable to touch the healer.

"Seria!" Diana said for him, moving forward and shaking the half-cat. "Wake up!"

Seria woke instantly, fully awake in seconds. She sat up, spotted Forin and Luen and all of the blood soaking the ice mage's clothes from the arrows, then said "What happened to you?!" She scrambled up and shook Nate awake, saying "Get up, Forin and Luen are hurt!" She went over to Forin and began giving him energy so he could heal himself, since she hadn't had any time to study the way his body was built so she could modify her heal spells to work for him.

Welk woke up and saw what was happening, then nudged Werr awake and stood up, quickly moving over to Luen to see if there was anything he could do for the poor ice mage.

Diana scrambled back to Forin, helping him sit up all the way. "Thank you," Forin said quietly to Seria. "Now go help Luen, save him!" He groaned, doing his best not to move as Seria's lent magic worked its way through him, forcing back the pain again.

"Wha...?" Nate jerked awake at the sound of voices, sitting up quickly. "Ah...jeez, what happened?"

"I'll explain later," Forin mumbled, not wanting to talk at the moment. "Luen has suffered another head injury, though..."

Seria nodded, then moved over to Luen and put her hands against his head, feeling for the injury she knew was there. She winced when she felt the bleeding wound that had been left in the back of the wolfling's head from the heavy rock that he slammed into him, then turned and threw Forin a pointed look. "What. Happened." she said, turning back to Luen and starting a heal spell as quickly as she could.

Forin frowned at her, then explained. "Luen got up and walked off while the rest of you were sleeping. I thought he might hurt himself, and I wasn't about to let that happen, so I followed him. I was right in doing so, becuase he got hit with an arrow and nearly drowned. I pulled him out and fought against this Gryphon thing who was trying to kill him. Luen froze him in place and I was pulling him away, and the Gryphon did something and threw a boulder at his head. That's it, now shut it and leave me in peace." He turned away as best he could, which consisted of turning his face away from Seria, focusing instead on Diana. "Are you alright, mistress?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah...just tired, now..." Diana nodded, curling up close to Forin.

"I apologize. I had little choice..."

"It's okay."

Seria glared at him, but left him alone. She finished with Luen's head and moved on to the arrows stuck in his body. He whimpered in pain as she placed a hand over the one on his leg. "Shhh." Seria soothed. "It'll be okay... The pain will go away in a moment. Just hold on."  She tensed, then ripped the arrow out of the wolfing's flesh.

Luen screamed and jerked upright, glancing around frantically. He spotted Seria and the gushing wound in his leg, then said "What are you doing?! What's going on here?!" He winced and clutched his arm, which still had the arrow, and put his other hand over the bleeding wound on his leg. "I thought..." he panted. "...I though we were fighting Nelu and the raptor. Where...did they go...?"

"Whoa! Calm down, Luen, they're long gone," Nate said, shaking his head and trying to push Luen back down so Seria could finish healing him. "You kind of...left. Mentally. You weren't right in the head, but we took you with us anyways, and then you got into another fight here, and..." He frowned a bit, looking up as Werr spoke.

"Forin saved you. Can you really remember stuff now?" He asked, quirking a brow questioningly.

Luen panted raggedly and blinked, saying "When could I not remember stuff? I don't even...how did I...I'm hurt..." He whimpered, not understand what had happened to him.

Seria came forward and put a hand against his jaw, tilting his head up to look at her. "Luen." she said. "Can you remember what happened to the track that was in your body?"

He stared at her, then said "Forin removed it back in Kash, during the mask festival, before Nelu and the raptor attacked us."

Seria sighed in relief and said "He remembers. That second blow to your head must've jogged your memory."

"It hurts." the wolfling said.

"I know." Seria said. "Hold still." She healed the wound in his leg, then moved to his arm. "Hold very still, Luen." she said, reaching for the arrow.

Luen quickly pulled back, fearful of being harmed further.

"Luen." Seria said gently. "Just hold still." She again reached for the arrow, but the ice mage retreated further, only to back up into Nate. The wolfling immediately froze, quivering, as Nate still scared him to some extent.

Nate sighed and grabbed Luen by the shoulders, holding him still so Seria could get the arrow out. "It's alright. We're here to help you. Forin saved you, after all. I'm still a bit surprised at that part, myself..."

"Hmph!" Was the only response Forin gave, clearly still unhappy.

Luen's whole body stiffened at Nate's touch. He didn't dare move, much too frightened by how close the dragonian was to him.

Seria moved forward and was able to place her hand around the arrow, then take hold of the arrow with her other hand. She braced herself, then ripped the weapon out.

Pain and fear mixed together in an instant, and Luen started crying softly. He covered his face with his free hand, hiding his face, then bent his knees up to press them against his chest.

Once Seria finished healing his wounds, she wrapped her arms around him in a hug, murmuring quiet comfort to him. "It's okay." she said. "You can cry. Everyone needs to cry at some point in their life. You can never hold everything in too long before it overwhelms you. You can cry, sweetheart..."

Nate moved away when the job was done, knowing how frightened Luen was of him. Werr watched Seria and Luen for a moment, then sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "So...is he okay?"

"As far as we know, yes," Nate nodded. "Forin, on the other hand, gets the donkey again."

Seria glanced up at them and nodded, saying "Yes, he needs it more than Luen." Once Luen had finished crying and was simply staring at the ground, Seria urged him to his feet and said "We should get moving." She kept Luen's hand held tightly in hers, mostly to make sure he walked with them.

Welk passed Luen and rubbed up against the wolf, then padded over to be near Werr, as usual.

Forin stood and limped over to the Donkey, making it without falling over, with Diana's help. She took the reigns again, pulling on it to get the mule to stop grazing and start moving. Werr smiled and scratched Welk behind the ears before starting to walk. "Well...at least we're all well rested, right?" He said, trying to look on the bright side of things. Diana glanced at him over her shoulder, though she said nothing. To be honest, she felt like she hadn't slept at all last night, but she didn't complain about it.

"We should reach the next town by this afternoon, at this rate," Nate said. "Then we can all get some food and real rest, hopefully."

"Some of us." Welk said, shifting his gaze around to glance at their surroundings. "I hope we don't run into any more problems. I want to get to the town already!"

As it turned out, however, they were once again interrupted.

"Hey! It's the fun-boring people!" an all too familiar voice shouted. Relic charged out of the forest and came to a screeching halt about two yards away from them, beaming. "I remember you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and YOU!" he said, pointing a claw at each of them.

Forin swore very loudly. "Can you not just leave us alone? Go away! Get bored and go somewhere else! I don't want to deal with you right now, so just leave!" He screeched at Relic, obviously furious. He started rambling off in a different language that was probably his own, covering his eyes with a hand in frustration and exasperation.

Welk's eyes widened, then he tucked the swear word Forin had said away into his mind for later use.

Relic cackled and said "Nopes. I'm not leaving this time. Because because becaaaaauuuuse...I said so. So there. So so! Hee hee hee!" He wagged his tail behind him like an over-sized dinosaur-puppy. He trotted a short distance away from them down the road, then glanced back over his shoulder at them. "Well?" he said. "You're going this way, right? Come on!" He ran ahead, laughing wildly.

"...I don't want to follow him..." Diana whimpered a bit.

"We don't have much choice," Nate sighed, starting forward again. "I'll stay up front, don't worry. He doesn't seem like he wants to hurt us much..."

"I don't trust him," Werr shook his head. "Not at all, but...we have to go that way..." He followed Nate, reaching out to take Diana's hand. He drew back sharply when Forin swiped at him, obviously still angry.