The Forgotten Zodiac

Werr was once again in the turmoil of nightmares. It was becoming a fairly regular thing, apparently, and he had mostly gotten used to them. How they started, anyways. Flashing images of recent events, horrible things that hadn't happened; Welk dying, Forin tearing him apart, and again, the world burning into nothingness. He silently watched this time, unsure of whether this was the future or he was just subconsciously afraid of fire and the destruction it could cause.

That wasn't the bad part this time. He found that he wasn't alone on the platform this time. Welk was there, too. He was saying something that Werr couldn't quite hear, though he was smiling. Werr moved forward to try and hear better, but the ground trembled as it started to give way to the void below. Welk was falling with it; Werr ran forward and grabbed onto his friend's hand before he could fall, clinging to the grass of the floating hill. He strained to help his friend, who looked terrified and was shouting something that Werr couldn't make out.

Before Werr could pull Welk up, though, he felt something cold touching him from behind. He could only watch in horror as black tendrils of something crept around his legs in long loops, working their way up his chest in a matter of seconds. Werr gripped Welk's hand tighter, but whatever this black stuff was, he wanted none of it on his friend. It was already pulling against him, trying to control him; Werr fought it, watching as one tendril started creeping down his arm toward's Welk's hand.

Werr shuddered, then let go. Welk dropped into the void, vanishing in an instant. The darkness took Werr completely, and he could only watch as his body moved against his will, off to destroy what was left of the world. "I'm sorry, Welk..." He murmured, ashamed of what he had done, struggling uselessly against the shadows that held him fast.

---

"I'm sorry!" Werr screamed before he realized that he was no longer in a dream. He had opened his eyes, returned to reality. He tried to sit up, and felt his head swim with loss of blood. He shuddered a bit, looking around at the others and wondering if he had disturbed anyone.

((O_o))

Welk, having still been resting with his head on Werr's shoulder, was jolted awake by Werr's shout. He shook his head and blinked rapidly, then focused on the human and said "Werr? What happened? Are you okay?" He couldn't move any closer to the boy, having already been as close as possible. He wormed his head in between the boy's arm and side, into his lap, then gently licked his hand with his rough tongue. "What happened?" he asked, pressing his head against Werr's abdomen.

Cynyr seemed to also be awake. He was watching them in panther form from his place way out on the plains. He wasn't glaring, for once, just simply watching. He flicked his patchy tail, tilting his ears back.

((This'll almost happen to him, essentially. He'll go near-mad in the castle, then find the staff. It'll fix him automatically, so no need to worry. But we won't even roleplay that part, I'll write it myself. ouo))

"Yes, what's going on?" Nate questioned. Forin was also awake now, watching Werr with those sharp blue eyes of his. Lily peered out from behind the tree, curious.

Werr relaxed and put his hand on Welk's head, closing his eyes for a moment. "Nothing, just...another nightmare. I was...apologizing to my father," Werr lied, not wanting to worry Welk. He sighed and tried to clear his head, rubbing his arm where the bone had been protruding from his arm. It wasn't entirely untruthful, Werr thought as he glanced over to his father's gravestone. He wanted very much to apologize for his failures to decipher the code in the letters, but he hadn't thought of them as any more than chicken-scratch of a delusional man.

Werr could have cried thinking of it again, but he couldn't. He had cried too much in the past few days. He was tired of it; was crying over simple things a sign of weakness? He would normally argue that it merely showed compassion, but compassion itself could be seen as weak. Werr sighed and shook off the thoughts. Compassion was not weakness.

"Luen," He remembered, looking up at the wolfling. "How is he?" He asked quietly, not wanting to wake any of the sleeping others. Though really, pretty much everyone had been woken up by his screaming.

((:C Okay. Trust me, I should NOT be allowed in during that little span of Werr-madness. Welk would go crazy just trying to help him. You know Welk by now. He platonic wuvs his Werr.))

Welk closed his eyes for a moment as Werr rested his hand on the half-cat's head, then opened his eyes again and said "Are you sure? You don't sound sure..." He flicked his half tail, sending a few sparks flying.

Seria moved away from Nate and went over to the unconscious wolfling, who had regained a bit of color in the night. She knelt down next to him and put the back of her hand against his forehead, feeling for heat, then moved her hands down against his stomach. She pulled his ripped up, bloodied shirt to the side and studied his wound, which was starting to scar. Seria sighed, then reached down and gave the limp wolfling a gentle hug, then pulled back and said "He's doing fairly well. His heart rate is still a bit low, but that's due to the unconsciousness. He's definitely breathing easier. If not for Nate giving him as much blood as he did, I guarantee you that he would've died. He lost enough blood to equal another wolfling his size." She shook her head, then sat down near Nate again.

((Good to know. But yeah, I'll just write it on meh own, and go until contact is made with the others again. :T

I already have a good idea of what I want to do, but we have to start that part first, so I know exactly how he got there. xD))

"I'm fine," Werr nodded. "At least, I will be. I didn't lose as much blood as Luen, but still..." He rubbed the back of his neck and laid back down again, waiting for his wooziness to pass.

"Does he need more?" Airlia asked, blinking. "I can give some. I haven't been injured hardly at all, so..." She held out her wrist. "I want to."

((Also, it is not morning. They fell asleep at early afternoon. If anything, it's late evening or reaaaalllyyy early morning. Unless they're like me and can sleep for literally days at a time.))

((Awesomesauce.))

Cynyr was inching closer and closer to them, seemingly fighting himself over getting any nearer to the group but managing to move forward nonetheless.

Seria looked up at Airlia and nodded, then moved over to her bag and got out her blood transferring tool. She had cleaned it off last night before putting it away. Part of her duties as a healer were to make sure that her equipment was well taken care of, after all. She moved over to Luen again and put the correct spell over the needle that would go into Airlia's arm, the spell that would turn the girl's blood into the right type for Luen's body. Then she carefully inserted the other needle into Luen's arm, being as gentle as she could. Once his end was settled, she turned to Airlia and inserted the girl's needle, then helped to hold it in place as blood immediately began pulsing through the clear tube between the needles.

((Welk is like that. He can sleep like a rock.))

((Well, we'll make it late evening anyways. Also, dancing?))

"A-anyways, did anything happen while I was out?" Werr asked.

"Oh yeah," Nate said, pulling the letter out of his pocket and handing it to Werr. He got to work on starting the fire up again so they would have some light as the darkness started setting in. They had slept through the afternoon; it was growing late now, the sun starting to settle already.

Werr sat up again and read through the letter once or twice, before looking up quizically. Forin explained, but didn't remove the dark magic vial from his pocket. Werr then threw the letter in the fire. "We're going to find that Nightlash, and so help me, I'll wring his neck for this..."

"What?" Nate blinked in surprise. That hadn't been what he expected. He had thought that Werr would either throw in the towel, or plow onwards to find a different batallion and question them.

"Yes. I need those books, I can't do anything more without them. And I have to do more." Werr insisted. "That means we're going all the way to Liadaph...we should head back and get the carriage. It'll be a..."

"Day long trip, if we take the right paths." Nate sighed. "Alright. Whatever you say, I guess."

((Yep yep. :3))

Cynyr gave up on his efforts at coming closer to the group and was pouting over his failure by himself.

A few minutes passed as Airlia gave Luen blood. Seria monitored the process carefully, then set about removing the needles once it was done. She healed the spots leftover and was cleaning her tools when Luen came back to consciousness.

The wolfling had regained most of his naturally pale color by this time, thanks to Airlia's blood-giving. Seria hadn't expected him to wake up so quickly, but yet his eyes had opened. He moaned softly and weakly managed to sit up, one hand going to his stomach. "Oog..." he murmured, blinking. He glanced over and saw the concerned faces staring at him and asked "Why...are you all looking at me like that?"

"You were hurt," Diana answered again. "Are you feeling okay?" She asked quietly, putting her hand on Luen's.

"I hope so. We probably need to head out soon," Werr sighed, then quickly added, "Take your time, though. I definitely don't want to be rushing anyone. We're fine, so long as we stick together."

Forin was silent again, looking away from Luen.

"Yes, I'm better." he answered, rubbing his head. "Just a bit tired, I suppose. And...augh...sore." He lifted the edge of his shirt and got a good look at the scar that now was affixed to his skin. He sighed softly, then let the reddened fabric fall down again. He looked over at Forin, seeing how he was avoiding him, then carefully reached out and touched his shoulder lightly with the tips of his clawed fingers. "Forin?" he questioned. "Please...don't do this. I don't blame you, really I don't. I'm the one that jumped in the way. It was my fault." He sounded so sad and quiet as he spoke. He was definitely one of the more soft and reserved members of the group, for sure. He hardly ever raised his voice unless the situation called for it, and even then, it wasn't very loud. It had taken a while for him to warm up to them, as they remembered.

Forin shifted away, not looking at Luen. "He's mad," Diana said quietly. "But I'm mad at him! What do you mean, you jumped in the way, he said he hurt you...and that's very, very bad. Forin is not allowed to hurt my friends, but he did it anyways..."

"He blames himself," Nate frowned. "Forin, don't mope around so much."

Forin said nothing still.

((He still has the anger that Gurushi fed him. 'Cept now, it's directed at himself. So he's not saying anything, otherwise he'll seem very mean and he doesn't want to hurt Diana's feelings anymore.))

((K.))

Luen sighed, then moved away from Forin again, settling down near Diana. "I know it's bad, Diana," he said. "but please don't be mad at him for long. It seems that he didn't tell you the full truth. Yes, I jumped in the way. I was just trying to stop him. Don't blame him for any of this. It was my fault, like I said." He sighed softly, closing his eyes, then opened them when music entered his ears.

Jag was playing his violin again, his own sky blue eyes closed as he ran the bow over the strings of his instrument. He began playing a swaying tune that was light and airy, yet had a roundedness to it.

Seria, sitting by herself, smiled softly and started tapping her foot to the waltzing song.

Luen smiled as well, refreshed by the music, then carefully stood up and held his hand down to Diana, ignoring the small wave of dizziness that came over him from blood loss. "Shall we dance?" he asked kindly.

"Stop him from wha--" Diana started to ask before the music started. She giggled and took Luen's hand, climbing to her feet. She spotted Forin sitting a small distance away, and though she was surprised that he had moved away that quickly, she just pouted for a moment and went back to focusing on the music. She smiled up at Luen, giggling a bit; she had never danced, really. Forin hated music, she knew, so she never really enjoyed that, either.

((Ohhh, Cynyr could remember what Forin did during the dancing. xDD))

Luen swept her up into his arms, holding her against him with one arm while holding her other hand out in a waltzing move. He moved off with her, turning graceful circles in time with the music.

Welk watched them happily, smiling, then looked over and saw that Seria was watching Cynyr. The female half-cat was staring at him with a wistful expression on her face while Cynyr was completely ignorant of the fact that she wanted him. He was staring at the ground, shaking himself once in a while like someone who was tried and starting to fall asleep.

Welk frowned, then suddenly looked sneaky. He moved away from Werr and turned into a human, then moved over to Nate and plopped down next to the dragonian. "Hey Natey." he said, poking him in the ribs lightly. "Seria looks lonely. Why don't you ask her to dance? C'mon, do it!"

((Nah, the dark magic destroyed that memory already.))

Nate blinked down at Welk in surprise, quirking an eyebrow quizzically. He glanced at Seria, seeing the look on her face, and understood. He looked around and stood, then started walking in the opposite direction of Seria. He returned only a few moments later, and crossed over to where Seria was.

He tucked a strand of Seria's hair behind her ear, holding it in place with a small daisy. He then kneeled, smiling happily and taking her hand. "Dear miss Seria, would you give me the pleasure...no, the honor of giving me this dance?"

Seria blinked in utter shock and bewilderment, looking greatly confused by his actions. She didn't understand the plot that Welk and the dragonian had seemed to have sprung up. She glanced around, as if looked for a way to escape, then smiled slightly and nodded. "Okay." she said, gently slipping her hand into his. She allowed him to pull her up and snug her close to him, unaware of a certain yellow-eyed gaze that had just narrowed in jealousy. Seria carefully put one arm around Nate's shoulders as Jag continued to play his violin, smiling a little wider up at the dragonian.

If looks could kill, Nate would've been on the ground, screaming in agony at the look Cynyr gave him.

Nate and Seria turned on the spot as Jag played his violin, Luen and Forin dancing as well. The sun was setting, casting a pleasant glow over the dancing figures. Werr couldn't help but smile as he watched them; he rarely got the chance to listen to music or anything of the sort; town festivals used to make mother awfully upset and in a...stabbing mood.

Forin watched them, turning shapes silhouetted by the setting sun at his point of view. He wasn't far away enough to not hear the music (which, as mentioned before, sounded like horrifying screeching to his ears), but it wasn't too bad from here. The dancing was a bit uncoordinated, but it brought him a little peace to see his mistress having so much fun.

Welk was watching with a grin on his face, flicking his maimed tail in time to the music. He glanced discreetly over at Cynyr and saw that the older half-cat had taken human form and was pacing back and forth, angry and upset. Welk smiled and looked away from him again for a moment, then mentally counted down. "3...2...1..."

"Mind if I cut in?" Cynyr said curtly, touching Nate on his shoulder with just the tips of his claws. He had marched over determinedly, his jaw set in a way that let Nate know that he wasn't going to have it any other way.

Seria flicked her tail in shock, startled that he would even think about dancing with her. Her eyes betrayed her longing, however.

Welk and scurried back to Werr and had sat down next to him, still in human form, putting his hands over his mouth to try and hide his grin.

Nate blinked at Cynyr, then smiled. "Certainly," He spun Seria into his arms, then proceeded to dance (with an invisible partner) towards Lily. He swept her up, ignoring her squeaks of protests and immediately reddened face. "Come now, its all in good fun," He laughed a bit, but let her go. She scurried back to Jag, cowering behind him in embarrassment and terror. Nate heaved a mock sigh and plopped down next to Welk. "Women these days," He smirked a bit. To be perfectly honest, he didn't much care for romance and the like; after all, if he found someone and poured his heart out to them, he'd run into problems. Mainly because he was from a different country, and he was part dragon. He didn't particularly care, though.

When Nate did that to Lily was the one moment were Jag's music faltered. He twitched and played an incredibly foul note that squealed into the air, then caught himself and continued playing, though he kept a much closer eye on Nate after that.

Welk laughed and bumped Nate's shoulder, saying "You sly dragon." He then turned his attention to Cynyr and Seria, his smile slowly fading as he watched them.

They were flawless.

Cynyr looped his arm around Seria's waist and took her left hand in his right as she put her arm around his shoulders. Then he swept her off, turning in elegant, graceful circles. Cynyr was clearly the leader in the dance, moving in sync with the music. His gaze was focused completely on her and vice versa. For a moment, Cynyr seemed like a completely different person. A slight spark to his eyes, his tail held at a higher than usual angle, his ears flicked up instead of down. Aside from his ragged clothing and overly skinniness, he looked the best that Welk and Werr had ever seen him.