The Forgotten Zodiac

((I know that, I was just letting you know. Relic is using stolen magic to keep himself alive for this long. He could go for at least a thousand years. That's also why he can pull himself together after an attack.))

Luen, still holding Diana's hand, turned to look at her in concern. He bent down and brought himself at eye-level with her, gently saying "Hey, hey. Don't cry." He flicked his frosty white ears up over his head, then lowered them and carefully pulled the little girl close to him. He scooped her up into his arms so gently and tenderly, in a manner that befit a loving older brother. "Here, let me carry you. You're tired, aren't you?" he said, standing up with her tucked against his hip. The wolfling was beyond exhausted himself, but he pushed all of that aside just to make her feel better. He held a hand in front of her, a soft smile on his face, then made a tiny plume of snowflakes just for her, even though he knew he shouldn't be using his powers while he was so drained already. He couldn't help it.

She reminded him of Jewel, the baby sister he had once had.

((Nice. o3o

It's also kind of overpowered. I suppose his balance is the fact that he's insane. xD))

Diana sniffed, smiling a little at the snowflakes. She rested her head on Luen's shoulder, her arms wrapped around his neck. She was still so young, barely eight, though her frame could have easily passed for a five-year-old's. She was usually so quiet and sad-looking, but something about Luen was calming for the girl. She was asleep in minutes, sleeping peacefully against Luen.

((Right. And because someone broke into his mind when he was a child, then murdered the entire clan of the raptorix's in front of him, making him the last in existance. That helps with the insanity. XD))

Luen stopped the flow of snowflakes, sighing wearily. He was physically and mentally drained from the day's hectic events, and the most he wanted to do was fall asleep somewhere. But he forced himself to keep walking, finding Diana easy to carry. He never even considered putting her down or waking her. He wouldn't do that to her. He seemed to sense that she was a skittish person, much like himself, so for him to be able to be this close to her was a comforting thought. Especially with Forin probably staring at him from behind. Luen knew how protective the summoned was of his summoner. He just felt like it was the right thing for him to do, holding Diana in this way. She needed the comfort and, frankly, the ice mage did too.

((Ohh, nice. o3o

Enter cut-scene, 'cuz I can't think of anything else with our heroes. xDD))

Storaph Palace. Set on the side of a small mountain, with the capital city of Ruan sitting peacefully in the valley below. Clouds obscured the sun today, dark rolling waves that promised rain later. The castle stood tall, the higher towers engulfed in the clouds. It was a dark-looking place, and even those without magical senses would be able to feel the ominous darkness that hung around the castle walls, down to the last stone.

Inside was perhaps a darker scene. King Asmodius' throne room; the throne was blocked from sight by a curtain, as well as who was behind it. Next to the throne, however, not hiding at all, was King Asmodius' daughter, seated in her own chair. She was 25 this year, or so she looked. As Asmodius had grown more cruel in his reign, so had she. And currently, Princess Holly was bored. Several of her servants were gathered nearby, murmuring amongst themselves and mainly looking terrified.

"I don't care who goes next, just entertain me!" Holly snapped, her dark eyes filled with annoyance and boredom. She swept her dark hair behind her ear with a swift motion, crossing her right leg over her left underneath her lace-covered, dark red gown. Her red velvet shoe tapped against the floor, allowing no silence to fall amongst the throne room. Next to Holly was her personal guard; a dark-clad, silent and tall man, with a certain bloodlust in his eyes.

One of the servants walked forward and stood in front of Holly on trembling legs, and opened his mouth to speak. "U-um...what kind of bread can you n-not eat?" He stammered, wringing his hands behind his back. It was a riddle, and a pretty stupid one.

"A breadbox," Holly answered at once, snapping her fingers. A castle guard grabbed the servant by the arm, dragging him off to be whipped for his failure. His pleading echoed through the large throne room until a door slammed shut behind wherever the guard was taking him. Things were quiet again, aside from Princess Holly's foot-tapping. "Next," She ordered, her bored tone not changing.

((This is actually teh real princess, under control. Teh major badguy is hiding behind ze curtain. If you want Jag to open said curtain, that's okay with me. I dun mind so much. o3o))

((Nice.))

"I've got one." a voice suddenly called as the doors banged open. Jag stalked in without pause, his sharp blue eyes bright and his blue-jay wings folded behind him. "Three people are in a dark room. One holds a knife, one a barbed whip, the other an axe. Which survives?" When no one spoke, he answered himself. "None of them. The one with a knife inflicts bleeding wounds that none of them can heal, thus enabling them to bleed to death, the one with the axe hacks the others apart, while the whip bearer whips his opponents within an inch of their lives. True story." He swept forward and gave a mock-bow to the princess, saying "I would say it was a pleasure to return to the castle, but...that would be a lie." He obviously had no fear of her or any sort of punishment, so his powers and abilities must have been desired still. He smirked at the silent guard next to her, saying "What's up, man? Nothing? Good, good. I thought you'd say that. What's that? You didn't say anything at all? I thought you'd do that too."

((By the way, you can totally have Asmodius act however you want and it'll pass for 'control'. xDD

Is he behind the curtain today, or no?))

"Then the question would be 'who survives the longest', I suppose." Holly sat up at once. Seeing Jag sent the servants scurrying. "I would suggest you not irritate Gurushi, as I have suggested before. Then again, all considering, you would likely want to fight him. But I still have use for you. I'll let him tear you apart later." She waved her hand at Jag, then asked, "So, how did it go? You must be finished, if you came back here..." Her foot tapping finally ceased as she prepared herself to listen to Jag's report.

((He's back there. Being all silent.))

"Well," Jag started. "I failed. I was not informed that that Luen had made friends with a creature of Tartarus. If not for that blasted brat getting in the way, I would've had Luen easily! I had all of my plans laid out, but he screwed them up. Stupid idiot...." He snarled loudly, sending any servants that had bothered to stay and try to listen running for cover. "So that's the report." he said, shrugging. "Other than the fact that our good friend Relic stayed with those cursed people for a while, I have nothing more to say." A faint smile tugged at the edge of his mouth, but he didn't let it spread.

((Otay. So, if Jag pulls back the curtain, he'd see 'something' next to Asmodius, and that's where I'll describe baddy bad guy. Which has changed gender to male. xD I was initially going to have Holly herself be teh badguy, but that's just silly.))

"Tartarus..." Holly frowned. "I thought I saw someone new in their pathetic group. That Tristan boy was useful, even though I got no information from using him. At any rate, creatures of Tartarus do not come to this world on their own. He must have a summoner with him. When you deal with that creature next, threaten harm upon his summoner. He'll be following your orders before you know it." She smiled a bit, then tapped the armrest of her chair for a moment. "The girl must be untainted, too. So you musn't kill her. Bring her here alive, if you can. And, of course, bring me Luen, but dead. Stay here for now. I still wish to observe their movements."

((Okey-dokey.))

"Bah!" he said, turning into a gryphon and stretching a wing around to preen his blue-jay colored feathered. "That's all I ever do. Sit around here and wait for orders! I'm so sick of sitting around." He bathed his primary feathers with his pink tongue, then pulled back and lunged up to the curtain behind Holly. "Maybe your father will have something more interesting for me to do." he said, then grabbed the curtain in his beak and pulled it back.

King Asmodius sat in his throne chair, scowling deeply as the wing-cat pulled the curtain away.

"Why must you always be so arrogant, Jagat?" the king complained.

"Why must you always be so broody?" the gryphon shot back. He smirked at the king, then noticed something standing next to the king's throne in the dark.

No...not standing, sitting. But it was so tall, and the dark gloom that was behind the curtain added to the visual difficulties. It had been crouched behind the throne, moving pieces around on a small chess board. Once Jag moved the curtain, it stood slowly, still holding the white queen. As mentioned before, he (as it did indeed seem to be male) was tall. Freakishly so. Perhaps the height of two men, but extremely slender and...pale? No...white bandages were wrapped around his entire body, several long rolls of it trailing around his feet and off of his back.

Opening the curtains had done nothing to change the light in the area around the throne. If anything, it had lowered the lighting of the entire throne room. Darkness itself was, impossibly, radiating off of his entire being. His blackened lips, the only thing visible amongst the mass of bandages, parted; the simple action revealed broken and gnarled, yet carefully sharpened teeth, as well as a tongue that could hang from his mouth and easily reach his stomach. He, of course, hadn't opened his mouth to show off such things. He spoke a second later, leaning dangerously close to Jag.

"Pestering, pathetic child," His voice itself was akin to the grinding of nails on chalkboard; a low rasp, but something that made you want to cover your ears and beg for it to stop. "Like an infant, fussing over nothing." As he spoke, bandages slid out around him and wrapped around one of Jagat's wings, holding tight onto the gryphon. Another went for the wing-cat's legs. "If you wish for something to do, you may go mop the blood out of the whipping room. It's starting to peel, and it's horribly unsightly...but you wouldn't want to do that, would you? No? Of course not...then you have no choice. You will learn to be patient, Jagat. There are times when the best move is to do nothing at all. You must learn that."

Jag held still as the bandages slid around him, glaring at the thing in front of him. He tensed, but made no move against the wraps sliding around his body. "Bah." he said, barely blinking an eye at the being before him. "Patience is not my specialty, nor will it ever be. I'll go clean out your disgusting room, but I won't learn anything from it. You should know that about me by now. I've cleaned that room out over fifty times. It's not my fault that you and your pretty little princess Holly continue to dirty it with the blood of the servants." He clicked his beak once, then lifted a paw and batted the bandages away from his furry legs. "Keep your nasty wraps away from me. Unlike you, I take pride in my appearance." He turned and padded away from the being, not even giving him a backwards glance.

The bandage that was still around Jag's wing gave a sharp tug and pull, dragging the gryphon back to in front of the throne. "I grow tired of your impudence," He hissed, the bandages grabbing onto Jag easily. They held the gryphon still for a moment, then lifted him into the air.

The next moment, there were spikes surrounding Jag. They were black, humming a low tone quietly, poised to attack at any given heartbeat. "You should apologize. I need you...but there are others. I could always send Gurushi. He is a man who knows how to complete a job the first time he is asked. At least he would not so foolisly return without doing what I command of him!" The creature snarled, and one of the spikes shifted closer, hovering near Jag's eye.

The wing-cat let out a squawk as he was lifted, then simply hung there when the spikes appeared. He turned into a human, hanging limply by the bandages and staring down at the spikes below him. He tilted his head back, away from the spike nearing his head, then stared over at the being holding him. "I'm so very sorry." he said sarcastically, grinning at the creature. "Oh, nobody in this whole ridiculous world could be as sorry as I am right now! I think I might even cry!" He twisted his weight forward just enough to hang upside-down, the smile never leaving his face as his black hair fell downwards around his head. "Boo hoo, sob sob, weep." he said, raising the crest of feathers that grew on his head.

"You do not know pain yet..." The creature murmured. "You will learn."

The spikes pressed in closer, starting to dig into Jag's body and wings. The first one to break skin was at the base of Jag's neck. The tiny little wound burned like fire. If such a scratch hurt like that, Jag was in trouble once the spikes broke through his clothing.

Jag yelped, kicking one of his legs forward to try and make the bandages let go of him. No such luck. "Augh!" he cried out as the spike in his neck sank a bit deeper. "Gah! Ow, ow! Stop it! Let go of me!" A small bead of sweat slid down the side of his head as the spike pressed further. "Okay, okay!" he shouted. "I'm sorry! At this point, I really am sorry!" He glared at the being in front of him, seething with hatred.

The spikes dug into Jag for a moment more, but vanished in an instant a moment later. The bandages dropped the Gryphon onto the floor, shrinking back behind the creature. "Good. Now go relax. Allow the servants to attend to you. And be grateful that I did not continue with your lesson." One of the bandages reached up, pulling the curtain back across the frame that held it up. The light increased again as the darkness was contained once more.

"You upset him," Holly sighed. "He gets very mad at you sometimes, even when you aren't here."

"Lousy, no-good, stinking..." Jag muttered, adding a few choice words into the mix, then stood up, brushing himself off. He glared over at Holly and snapped "Like I care what he thinks." He stalked towards the door, then brightened up. "Hey, at least I don't have to clean out the whipping room now." He laughed, then ran out before someone could tell him otherwise. He took his gryphon form and cantered down the halls, heading to his room. In this form, he was at least as tall as Cynyr was as a panther. He galloped down the halls, snapping at servants with his sharp yellow beak as he passed them. He laughed at their startled expressions, loving that they were so scared of him. 'Tame' gryphons were a rare thing, so it didn't surprise him that almost all of the servants in the palace feared him.

((I'm not ready to go back to the others yet, unless you wanted to. If you want to, I want to. Playing as Jag is a lot of fun. :D))

((I don't think I have anyone else of importance...hm, would Jag have anyone he likes here? A sickly sister/brother, a servant friend, someone of that sort? -can't really post until decisions are made-))

((Maybe a servant friend. One of the only ones that isn't afraid of him. Maybe a girl. He might listen to a girl, but he could listen to a guy too. But we have so many guys already. XD He has no brothers or sisters. You making a friend character for him?))

((Well, I've gotta do something. xDD))

One of the servants looked up from her sweeping as the Gryphon barreled towards her. She was a young girl, aging around sixteen or so, and quite pretty. Her ginger hair fell to her waist, a small black headband keeping it away from her thin face and shining blue eyes. She wore simple clothes; a tattered, off-white shirt and brown burlap pants, and leather shoes that looked too big for her.

Her name was Lily, and she was actually smiling as Jag was snapping at the other servants. As he moved to snap at her, she flicked her broom around and lodged the handle in his mouth. "You're silly," She giggled at him.