The Forgotten Zodiac

Werr smiled, not really having much to add to all that. He ate more of his food, too lost in thought to think about what the stuff tasted like. He finally broke the silence with, "So, I take it you still haven't told your friend about my father's collection room?" He asked, still smiling a bit. "Or did you not talk to him at all last night? Oh, and are we going to the woods today? I feel much better now."

"I...didn't talk to him. We still aren't really speaking to each other a lot." Welk said, putting his fork down and scraping a claw lightly over the table. "I just...I want to talk to him, and I want to tell him how grateful I am that he helped us yesterday, but when I try and talk to him, the words just go away. And I'm really sorry now that I told him he wasn't my real brother, but I can't seem to apologize. I've tried, but...phooey." He pushed his empty plate away and folded his left arm on the table, then rested his head on his arm. He continued to scratch lightly at the table with his other hand. "We're still going to the woods." he said. "I'll show you this awesome cave I know of. It's super dark and super deep, but it only goes one way. You can only go in and you can only come right back out. No split-offs."

"All it takes is two words. At least to start off with." Werr said, mentally notting Welk's gloom. Better not mention that again anytime soon. "I wouldn't worry so much if I were you. You'll get there." He listenened to Welk's description of the cave. "What, is it just one big u-turn?" Werr asked. "I look forward to it either way. We have only two more classes before this ends, too." He smiled, surprised at the fact that he felt eager to go see it. Perhaps he was just trying to make Welk feel better.

"Hmm." Welk murmured, lifting his head. He shook it off. "Yeah, the cave is super neat. We'll definitely go there after school!" He turned his head and grinned at Werr, then blinked and looked past him. His smiled slowly disappeared, and his jaw fell open.

Elo and Dru had just entered the lunchroom with several other older teenagers in tow. Elo's broken arm was in a sling, and Dru had a cast around his leg. They scanned the room, then one of them pointed. Welk's gaze instantly jerked around to the thing they had spotted.

Cynyr, who was still sitting by himself across the room.

Welk's eyes widened as the group of teenagers made their way over to the black-haired Half-cat.

Werr blinked as Welk looked past him, turning to see what was the matter. "Oh. Oh dear..." Werr murmured, not sure what to do. Elo and Dru would probably try to kill Cynyr or something. This was a matter of revenge, after all. Werr, however, didn't move. Cynyr could fight, couldn't he? Werr thought back to what he had said yesterday. Heroes got hurt. They let themselves get hurt, for no reason whatsoever. Werr stayed put, mulling over his thoughts. Was that really all that correct? It sounded very selfish, now that he thought about it...

"Well well well, if it isn't mister tough-guy." Elo said as he and his group approached Cynyr. Cynyr glanced up at him, frowning. Welk and Werr saw his ears go down. The other teenagers with Elo surrounded Cynyr, preventing him from getting away. "You remember yesterday, when you interrupted my fun with that guy?" Elo said, leaning threateningly over the Half-cat.

"You mean your torture of someone who was weaker than you?" Cynyr answered, refusing to be cowed. "Ah, yes, I remember."

Elo growled, then pulled back. "Call it what you want, but you're just digging your grave deeper." he said. He then gestured at his broken arm. "You see this?" he asked. "This is what you did to me. You know what we're going to do now?" Several of the other brutes chuckled menacingly. "We're gonna give it back to you. With interest." Elo said.

Cynyr's eyes widened a fraction of an inch.

"Get 'im." Elo said, and they grabbed for the Half-cat. Cynyr, however, would not be caught so easily. He suddenly leaped upwards, neatly avoiding all of their attacks, and flipped over their heads. He landed on an empty table nearby, never making a sound. Elo and the others whipped around and grabbed at him again. Cynyr flipped backwards, off of the table, and darted around their hands. "Get back here!" one of them shouted, only to have Cynyr roll his eyes.

"Right, like I'm going to do that." he said, then raced down the cafeteria, heading towards a wall. "Ha! You're trapped!" Elo said, moving in on him. Cynyr only smiled. He didn't pause when he reached the wall. Right when Elo was about to grab him, he ran completely up the wall and leaped off, flipping high over their heads.

He landed neatly behind them, watching in satisfaction as they slammed into the wall in shock. He shook his head. "Pitiful." he muttered, then turned to walk back to his seat.

Werr dismissed his thoughts to watch the fight. Not that it was much of a fight. Cynyr won by a landslide, exactly as Werr expected. Cynyr could fight for himself, and the half-cat would probably completely reject help anyways. Werr looked down again, pondering things. There isn't any room for heroes around here, he agreed with himself silently. If anyone else had bothered to save us yesterday, they wouldn't have been able to do what Cynyr just did, in all likelyhood. Werr sighed and went back to picking at his meal, now wondering why Cynyr bothered to call everyone the same thing. The whole 'pitiful' thing was starting to get a little old.

Cynyr barely took more than a few steps before he suddenly yelped. A hand closed over his tail and pulled hard, yanking him backwards. Cynyr stumbled backwards, right into the arms of one of Elo's thugs that hadn't ran into the wall. "I got you now, wimp." he snarled, quickly grabbing onto Cynyr's arms.

Cynyr growled and struggled against him, but the brute was stronger than him, so he eventually just stood there, glaring and hating them all.

Elo stalked over in front of him, panting and glaring. "That was a nice run, but now you're mine." he snarled. "You're gonna pay for what you did...with your life!" He hauled off and punched Cynyr in the stomach as hard as he could. Cynyr gasped, closing his eyes in pain. Elo punched him again, much harder, and everyone there heard the sharp sound of a rib breaking.

Welk's jaw dropped fully open, and he sat in his chair in complete and utter horror, watching the terrible scene unfolding before his very eyes.

Elo punched Cynyr over and over, until blood began to spider web through the Half-cat's black outfit. Cynyr's legs gave out, unable to hold him up any longer, and the brute holding him let him fall limply to the ground. Cynyr simply laid there, gasping and panting, blood leaking through his mask out of his mouth.

Elo panted, then ran a hand red with Cynyr's blood across his mouth. He kicked the Half-cat, hearing Cynyr cry out in pain, then glanced around. "Anyone want to help him?!" he shouted. "Anyone want to step in and be the hero?! Any of you morons try and help him and I'll kill you too!"

Nobody in the room moved, save for frightened glances at each other. They knew that if they tried to interfere, they would just share Cynyr's fate.

Werr cringed with every hit. He was completely ignoring any previous thought he had, his mind trailing back to what he remembered his father said once. What was it? 'The sufferer can sleep peacefully, despite all that happens; but those who stand by and watch him suffer, despite their ability to help, only the monsters among them get any sleep at all.' In layman's terms, if there's something he could do to help someone in need, he needed to do it.

Werr slammed his fork down on the table and stood up, ignoring the half of his brain that was screaming for him to sit down or run. He turned his glare on Elo, and quite the glare it was. He'd wait for them to come after him, naturally. Never be too eager to rush in first, rule 8. That applied to fighting, exploring, talking, pretty much anything. Of course, he didn't expect what happened next...

Welk started to cry, afraid for his friend but not knowing what to do.

Elo quickly noticed Werr glaring at him and snarled "What're you looking at, mouse boy?!" He kicking Cynyr again, frowning when the Half-cat barely made a sound. "You're worthless." he growled, glaring at Cynyr's limp form. The Half-cat let out a raspy, weak cough. Elo smirked. "Still alive, huh?" he said, bending down and grabbing Cynyr by the collar of his outfit. He held him up off the ground, glaring at him. Cynyr was completely limp, his eyes barely open. Elo frowned, then said "Why do you wear that ridiculous mask? Why don't we just take a little peek under there and see what exactly your hiding, hmm?"

Cynyr's eyes shot open at that, and he weakly kicked out one of his legs. "N-no!" he stammered, true fear showing clearly in his eyes. "You...y-you c-can't!" He coughed hard, fighting to breathe.

Elo grinned, then leaned in close and whispered "Just watch me." He reached his other hand up and grabbed the edge of the Half-cat's mask, only to jump when Cynyr suddenly screamed "No!" Cynyr slammed a hand up and broke Elo's hold on his body, making the bully let go.

The second Cynyr's feet touched the ground, he sprang backwards four feet, his hands balling into fists at his sides. His head snapped up, and he threw his hands forward at Elo, screaming in pain. Wind shot from his hands, arching out and slamming into Elo, sending the boy flying backwards. He broke through the cafeteria wall with the force of the wind that was pushing him, and went clear out into the hallway. He slammed into the lockers and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Cynyr panted, his breath rushing in and out of his lungs. Slowly, he seemed to realize what he had done. He lifted his hands and stared at them in horror, his mind quickly putting the pieces of what had just happened together.

He had just used magic.

He was a mage.

Werr watched in shock. The entire cafeteria seemed to be holding their breath, all of them wide-eyed, still and silent. Cynyr was a mage? Impossible! But no, it had to be possible, how else would Cynyr do something like that? Werr thought back to the fate of his old friends who had gone off to mage school. They had been killed, of course. Werr looked at Welk and then back to Cynyr. He pushed his chair away from the table, walking over to Cynyr. "We have to get you away from here," He said quietly, gently putting a hand on the half-cat's arm.

Cynyr jumped slightly at Werr's touch, and he quickly looked over at him. He was still breathing hard, and his yellow eyes were full of fear. He was truly scared. Blood was dripping down to the floor from his chest and stomach, where Elo had hit him so many times. He weakly nodded to Werr, then coughed violently. Blood splattered out of his mask, and he quickly held a hand over his mouth to try and keep some of the liquid in. He looked like he was about to pass out.

Welk ran over to them, tears still in his eyes. "C-Cynyr..." he stammered. "You...you're hurt..." He hiccupped softly, his tail curled down around his leg.

"N-no…I'm…I'm f-fine…" Cynyr muttered. His eyes couldn't seem to focus properly. He moved to take a step and nearly fell down. He quickly grabbed onto Werr's arm to keep from falling down, leaning heavily on the other boy.

Werr held tightly onto Cynyr, looking around. The students were starting to recover from the shock, they had to leave now...Werr helped Cynyr towards the door. "Come on. We'll go to my house, I can take care of your injuries there, and I can hide you until this whole thing blows over. But we have to go," He said, forcing himself to remain calm. This was incredibly dangerous; Cynyr was now a very liable canidate for execution, and Werr would be harboring a fugitive if he got caught. Werr didn't care, though. He had to help somehow. "Quickly."

Cynyr wasn't able to refuse or agree with the notion of going to Werr's house. He was doing all he could just to remain conscious.

Welk quickly scurried up on Cynyr's other side and looped the black-haired half-cat's arm around his shoulders like Werr had done. The smaller teenager wiped a hand across his face, drying his tears. He glanced over his shoulder nervously at the hole that had been made in the cafeteria wall from Cynyr slamming Elo through it. He shook his head in disbelief. His best friend, his adopted brother, was a mage. How? He had been a normal person only a few minutes earlier. How did those powers suddenly appear? Welk shook his thoughts off and concentrated on helping Werr move Cynyr, who was bordering on unconsciousness.

Eventually, they managed to get out of the school and back to the town, where they headed for Werr's house.

Werr pulled away from Cynyr for a brief moment to open the door, then turned to help the now-mage half-cat inside. Mother was sitting in her rocking chair, which was now turned to the open window instead of facing the door. Werr shook away his confusion about this and helped Cynyr over to the couch. "Help him sit," He told Welk, then hurried off to go get some supplies to patch Cynyr up with.

As soon as he was gone, Heather moved. She stood up and placed her hand on the window, apparently looking outside. "It's so dark outside..." She said quietly. Quite the contrary; it was a pleasant day outside, the sun was shining, there were no clouds in the sky, yet...what was Heather talking about? "So very dark..."

Welk sniffled and carefully helped Cynyr lower himself down to the couch. "Ahh!" Cynyr yelped, wincing and gritting his teeth tightly. Once he was settled, he leaned his head back exhaustedly, breathing hard. Blood started to leak from his body to the couch, and Welk bit his bottom lip worriedly. "Cynyr?" he said, scooting close to his friend.

"What...?" Cynyr asked quietly.

"I...I'm sorry." Welk said, his ears flat back against his head. "I'm sorry that I was so mean to you. You were just trying to be careful, and I was a jerk to you. I'm sorry I said you weren't my real brother. I'm sorry." Tears started to pour down his face again, and he quickly reached up and wiped them away.

Cynyr weakly opened his eyes and looked at Welk, then slowly reached a trembling hand up and patted him on the head. "It's okay..." he said softly. "I forgive you..."

Welk sniffled, then scooted up close to Cynyr and curled up against his side, carefully holding onto a part of the half-cat's outfit that didn't have any blood on it.

Heather turned to watch them quietly, pulling the blinds back over the window quietly. She turned her chair to face them and sat down, watching the two half-cats intently, silently.

"Okay, here," Werr returned at this point, carrying a roll of bandages and some guaze. "Um...I'm not too sure what to do about your broken ribs...but I can help with the cuts. Can you take your shirt off, or should I?" He asked quietly, glancing at his mother from the corner of his eye. She was still watching. Werr shook it off; today had to be a nuetral day for her, then. She'd probably throw fits tomorrow, then...

Cynyr winced and carefully set up a little more, reaching for the buttons of his overcoat. He carefully undid the buttons, then peeled the blood-soaked coat off. Welk took it from him and put it on the ground, then watched impatiently as Cynyr carefully tugged up the edge of his black undershirt.

"This is taking too long!" Welk finally said. "Werr needs to help you now!" He reached forward and grabbed the edge of Cynyr's bloody shirt before the other half-cat could protest and ran a claw up the fabric, cutting it neatly in half.

"That was my best shirt..." Cynyr complained quietly, frowning weakly.

"I don't care!" Welk said, cutting the shirt the rest of the way off of his brother. "You're hurt really bad, and I..." He trailed off when he saw the damaged Cynyr had taken to his body.

Two wounds had formed on his body from the force of Elo's attacks. One was over his chest and the other was over his stomach. Neither was deep, but they were both bleeding profusely and heavily.

Werr smiled a little bit at Welk's actions, but that faded when he saw all the blood. His stomach twisted up in knots, but Werr ignored that and took the rag he had gotten and pressed it gently against the larger wound, soaking up some of the blood. He didn't favor the sight of blood, but Cynyr would probably bleed out if he didn't help. Reflecting on his actions, Werr realized that he was being awfully kind despite all of his earlier thought trains. Oh well, Werr thought silently. Thoughts are just thoughts. Actions are what matter the most, I guess.

"Werr, why did you bring him here?" Heather asked. "I like Welk, but who is that next to him? Why is he hurt? And why does he make so much noise? He needs to stop it." She pouted at Cynyr. "Stop making noise."

"This is my brother." Welk explained, putting a hand gently on Cynyr's shoulder. "He got hurt today at school, and Werr was kind enough to offer us some help. I'm glad he did, too, because we don't have anything at our house that I could've used to help Cynyr..." He frowned slightly, but didn't say anything else.

Cynyr's winced, gritting his teeth together as the rag was pressed to his wounds. "S-sorry for -ow!- making s-so much noise, ma'am..." he said, keeping his eyes closed as he spoke. "It just -ahh!- hurts really bad..." He panted, resisting the urge to look down at see what Werr was doing. He didn't want to see the blood that he knew was all over himself. He covered his eyes with his hand, shaking his head a few times to try and clear it.