The Forgotten Zodiac

Lily was immediately smiling again, despite the situation and all the blood. Jag's music was incredible, and she loved to hear it, even though he didn't play very often. Airlia landed while Jag played, and stopped to listen.

Forin, however, groaned and pulled together as much energy as he could, climbing up out of the riverbank and crawling away again. Although he didn't want to leave Diana, he didn't wan't to listen to the music. All instruments sounded like terrible screeching to his ears; and terrible screeching sounded like music. Another curse of his being. Eventually, not wanting to get any further from Diana, Forin sat there and covered his ears as best as he could, grumbling loudly to block out the rest of it.

Diana, in the meantime, stirred and was woken up by the music. She looked down at everyone, and looked a bit scared for a moment, but the music easily soothed her, despite the fact that Forin wasn't right next to her like he always was. She was worried, but with the violin playing, it was easy to forget and just want to relax.

Jag played effortlessly for a few minutes, then put the violin away. He leaned back against the tree with Lily at his side and put his arm around his girlfriend's shoulders, still feeling on-edge, but not as badly as before.

Seria took the water bucket from Airlia and moved over to Luen, where she started to gently clean the blood off of the wolfling's face and neck. He didn't stir or move as she gently wetted a rag and started rubbing it lightly over his skin. Not a single twitch or flicker of life. If not for the soft rise and fall of his chest, Seria would've been convinced that he was dead.

Lily leaned closer against Jag, closing her eyes and holding her smile. She had been wondering if this 'freedom' was all it had been cracked up to be, but perhaps this was just a rough patch or something. Not every free day could be good, right? Maybe it was just being around these people. They all seemed horribly violent and...well, scary. She had no idea what their plans were, though, and she kind of wanted to stick around Nate. Nate was strong and trained to protect people and fight, wasn't he?

Diana watched sadly, delicately reaching out and brushing a lock of Luen's hair away from his eyes. "What happened?" She asked quietly.

"I did," Forin said, returning now that the music was over. "I cannot lie to you, mistress. In spite of myself, I was convinced that our...your friends must be killed. I was convinced by the creature that was after you before. I went after Cynyr, but Luen got in the way, and...this happened." Diana looked horrified, but she said nothing for a long moment.

Then it became clear that she was fighting tears, as the first of them dripped down her cheeks. "Y-you...you did this? B-but, Forin..." She sniffed, looking up at her friend, who was looking down and away from her.

"Yes, mistress. It was I. I...I'm sorry. Though I know it fixes nothing..."

Once Seria was done cleaning off Luen as best as she could, she set the bucket of water down near him and backed away to curl up in cat form under a tree nearby. She didn't say anything as Forin spoke to Diana, simply closing her eyes. She was exhausted.

A few minutes passed, then Luen finally showed life. He shifted slightly and moaned ever so softly in pain, almost sounding like a whimper. His emerald eyes flickered open a few moments later, blankly staring forward. He rasped something quietly that nobody could hear, though it sounded like a question.

"O-oh..." Diana leaned forward so she was in Luen's sight without him having to move anything. "You were...badly injured..." She said quietly, not sure how else to word it. She was mad at Forin, but she didn't want to scare Luen in the case that he didn't remember what Forin had done. "You'll be okay...just don't move, okay?"

Luen relaxed slightly, able to hear her but not see her. He twitched slightly as a tiny convulsion shook him, but other than that, was still. As his sense of smell and hearing regained, he cautiously took in a deeper breath, though it hurt to do so. Finally, he caught the scent he was searching for.

He weakly moved his hand a few small inches in Forin's direction, but couldn't lift his head or move his hand any further.

Forin watched him in silence as Diana carefully took his hand, smiling sadly. "It's okay," She reassured him.

"You okay, Luen?" Nate asked, noticing that the wolfling was awake. "You took quite a bit of damage there...I'm honestly surprised that you're awake. Werr didn't lose half as much blood as you, and he's still out like a light."

"That's because Werr is a wimp." Cynyr muttered softly.

Welk snarled at him, then resumed gently licking Werr.

Luen couldn't answer anyone. He was barely conscious as it was. It was like he was floating in a half-unconscious state. His eyes were open, but they were unseeing. He was awake, but at the same time, he just wasn't there yet. He could hear their voices, but his brain wasn't letting him understand them. He could just understand the tones and know who the words had come from, but other than that, his senses were pretty much dead.

He weakly forced out another questioning sound, then fell silent.

((Did you turn Luen into a vegetable? D: ))

Nate sighed. "Well. I guess we're waiting here for awhile, then. Even though this is a bad place to set anything up, because...well..." Nate sighed, then froze. "Speak of the devil, there's a horse on the path," He hissed, holding stock-still.

"Nope, not on the path," Forin said, turning himself over as the horse slid to a stop at the edge of the riverbed. On it was what looked like a soldier; he bore the emblem of Alastor, which was a good sign. He took a sweeping glance at all of them, frowning. "Are any of you here named Werr Grehi? I was told that he would be somewhere around here..."

((No. -__- He's suffering from severe blood-loss. He'll be like this for a few hours and slowly get better as he regains more blood. If someone gave him another does of blood, he would recover faster.))

Welk pressed closer to Werr, stopping in his licking and glaring up at the man. "What about him?" he growled threateningly, putting a paw over Werr protectively. "What could you possibly want?" His distrust of the soldier was understandable. The only other soldiers he had ever seen had been the ones trying to take Cynyr away from him, back when both half-cats and Werr had still been at the boy's house, and the ones that had held them captive and tortured him and Werr with electrocution. He was not happy to see another soldier, for sure.

Cynyr was watching everything from the edges of the clearing, with only his yellow eyes shinning in the dark.

((xD Okay. Well, Werr's not an option. Nate already gave blood, and Forin's blood would kill Luen. Airlia would be a suitable person, and Lily. :T

And they're not in a clearing anymore, they're in plainslands.))

"I have a letter for him." The horse stomped a few times, snorting. The soldier looked unhappy. "I'm guessing that's him, then. Here," He reached into a bag and flicked the letter towards them. Nate caught it.

"Thank you. We'll make sure he gets it when he wakes up." Nate said quickly, nodding. "Thank you."

"Of course," The soldier turned the horse around and left again, his horse breaking into a quick gallop and disappearing into the distance rather quickly.

((I knew that about them all already, especially with Forin. I figured that out the first second I started thinking about blood. xD

Hmm. I don't remember them moving around a lot.))

Welk growled after him, then turned to Nate. "What do you think it is?" he asked, worried. In the past, the other letters Werr had received had caused a lot of trouble, so Welk had started to dislike paper in general.

"Who cares?" Cynyr said, lifting his head from his spot far away from them.

"I cares!" Welk said.

"Typical." the older half-cat replied.

"Why can't you just shut up?" Welk snapped. "You've been weird ever since you got back! You look a mess, you're ten times grumpier than usual, and you wouldn't let me hug you. There's something wrong with you." He turned back to Werr and wouldn't give Cynyr another word.

That didn't seem to effect Cynyr quite in the way that Welk had wanted, however. In other words, Cynyr didn't reply. At all. There was an eerie silence as Cynyr laid his head back down on the ground in front of him.

((Hahaha.

They walked for a long while since the ruins. The forest stopped near the ruins, breaking into plainslands, as I already said. They're currently at the place where Werr's father was stationed, and where the entire batallion was buried. A dried up riverbed, gravestones, the one tree next to the riverbed, and plains all around.

Also, it is no longer night-time (more like early afternoon), though it is heavily overcast.))

"I don't know," Nate flipped the letter over, looking at the name on the front. 'Werr Grehi', as the messenger had stated it was to. He tore it open, unfolding the letter and starting to read it aloud.

'Dear Werr,

Enclosed in this envelope is a sample of something you might find interesting. I implore you, don't break the vial, or there could be trouble. At any rate, I suggest that you find a quiet place to study this; it's something your father described in his journals, I'm sure of it, though he didn't give it a name. I would have sent your journals along with the messenger, but I'm still busy with them. Your father was an interesting man, indeed.

Though, maybe you should consider giving up this goose-chase of yours. The path you're following is very dangerous and will probably get you killed. I was informed by a reliable source that this sample has high amounts of a very dangerous sort of magical energy, though I'm not quite sure what he could mean by that.

Best wishes on your travels, Sir Nightlash.'

Nate finished and frowned, reaching into the envelope. He pulled out the vial, which had a small, wiggling sludge-like thing inside it. He inspected it for a brief moment before Forin tore it out of his hands. "Don't mess with this," He said, frowning. "Don't you know what it is?"

"No, I don't. Do elaborate," Nate furrowed his brow at the Tartarus-creature.

"I don't know how it was condensed into this liquid form, but..."

"But?"

"This is pure Dark Magic."

((Oh. Ha, thanks for the explanation, I'm not good with keeping track of position. xD

Oh yeah. I went back and reread some stoof after you told me that. o3o))

There was silence for a moment. Welk was staring fearfully at the thing in the vial, while Seria had wearily lifted her head and was watching cautiously. Luen had slipped back into solid unconsciousness and couldn't be woken again. Welk watched the thing in the vial for a moment longer, then flinched when Cynyr screamed.

"Put it away!" he screeched, staggering a few more feet away from them. "Cover that blasted thing up! Put it away, put it away, put the darned thing away!" He snarled hard in Forin's direction, his eyes flashing between fogged over and clear.

Seria blinked in shock at him, then quickly turned into a human and ran over to Forin, grabbing the vial and shoving it into her pocket.

Immediately, Cynyr calmed down, glancing over at them accusingly.

((I'm always good at that. Enviornments and settings are my specialties.

Do ask if you're evuh confused. ouo))

"No, give it back!" Forin rudely reached into Seria's pocket and snatched the vial out, tucking it into his bag. "Don't be an idiot. We can't go losing you to this stuff, that would be bad if someone was injured and you weren't around to help, because you broke the dark magic in your pocket and it killed you."

"And you?" Nate frowned at him.

"It'll affect me much less than it would any of you. If you want my honest opinion, we should destroy it, but none of you are light mages. I don't know who this Nightlash is, but for him to be able to get his hands on something like this...well, I have some questions for him, that's what."

((Kk.))

Seria backed up when he took the vial back, snorting. "I was just trying to stop Cynyr from screaming." she said, moving away from him. She paused. "Which I'm still not sure why he did." She looked over and Welk, who just stared back at her in confusion. He shrugged. Seria shook her head, then said "It doesn't matter. As long as it's put up, I suppose." She stood up and hesitated, then moved over to Nate and sat down next to him, leaning her head against his shoulder. She closed her eyes as a faint blush crept along her cheeks. She remembered what had happened the last time she had tried to be nice to him.

((Sorry if I made a mistake with Nate. I couldn't remember if he was standing up or sitting down. I hope it's sitting down. He should be, anyways. He did give Luen quite a bit of blood.))

"I don't know either, but I'm just trying to save your life." Forin frowned.

Nate sat still, though he seemed a bit distracted. He was reading the letter over again. "It's like this guy knows what we're doing...when was the last time we saw him?" He looked at the others quizzically. More specifically, he looked at Welk. "Did Werr tell him what he was after?"

((He's sitting, don't worry. xD

What hapened the last time she had tried to be nice to him? -forgetful-))

((She got attacked by a crazy changling lady. -3- ))

Welk cocked his head to the side and thought hard, then said "I'm not sure. I know Nightlash took a bunch of Werr's father's books and he was reading a few of them when he first met him. Other than that, I don't remember Werr specifically telling him about much. Did I mention I hate Nightlash? I think I did." He licked Werr again, then rested his head on the boy's shoulder.

Cynyr was glaring daggers at Nate.

((Oh yeah. That wasn't his fault, though! xDD))

"Hmm..." Nate thought quietly for a long moment, then sighed. "Well, whatever Werr plans to do now...I guess we'll figure it out when he wakes up." He relaxed and put the letter back into the envelope, smiling slightly at Seria. He then noticed Cynyr's glare and felt infinitely uncomfortable. He wanted to stand up and move around, but he wasn't sure if his legs would obey him, what with the blood drainage and the like. He sat still regardless, trying not to pay attention to the fact that Cynyr's glare was still pinning him like needles.

((I do a nightmare for Werr next. o3o))

((I know. -rofl-))

Seria herself didn't notice Cynyr's anger. She was dozing off against Nate, being too exhausted to make herself move. Nate was a nice person and was warm, two things which called the half-cat to sleep.

When he saw her fall asleep, the fur along Cynyr's spine rose up and bristled out. He didn't know why these feelings were surfacing. As far as he was concerned, he had ended his relationship with Seria a few years ago. They couldn't get back together...right? So it was fine for her to be there...with Nate...

Cynyr snarled and got up, stalking even further away from them all, then laid down and buried his head in his paws. No matter how much he tried to convince himself otherwise, he just couldn't stand seeing her over there with the dragonian. True, they weren't romantically involved, but still. Cynyr bit back a growl and covered his eyes with his paws, falling asleep moments later.

Welk, watching with his head still on Werr's shoulder, muttered "Weird." then fell asleep.