The Forgotten Zodiac

"Oh. Werr is a good boy, of course he helps." Heather nodded. "And it's not your voice, but you're making noise either way. It's annoying."

"I'll take him to the guest room as soon as I'm done," Werr said quietly. "Sorry for the racket, mother." He worked quickly, putting the guaze over the two long cuts, then getting to work on wrapping them with bandages. It would suffice. "How are you feeling, Cynyr? Anything besides the pain?" Werr asked.

"Something's brushing against one of my lungs." Cynyr said, keeping his voice low to avoid making Heather upset. "I think...I think it's a broken rib. Elo snapped a couple of them..." He winced in pain, and Welk's ears perked up in worry.

"Oooh, this is bad..." the blonde half-cat said quietly. "I know ribs eventually heal on their own, but it takes awhile. Darn it..." He scooted closer to Cynyr and put his forehead on his friend's shoulder. "Just...just promise me you won't die, okay?" he asked. "And I don't mean just from this. You can't ever die. Ever. You're my family, and family never leaves each other. Okay?"

Cynyr smiled softly, the edges of his mask turning up lightly. "Sure." he said, turning his head weakly on its side to look at Welk. "I won't ever die." he said, closing his eyes as he smiled.

Werr frowned, finishing up his work. "Hm. Well, you shouldn't move much until your ribs heal. You need plenty of rest. Do you need help getting to the guest room?" He asked. "There are two beds. You both are welcome to stay. And Welk, feel free to bring something up from the collection room to cheer your brother up, if you'd like." He smiled a bit.

"Noisy, noisy." Heather sighed, going back to looking at the window, despite the curtains that were drawn over it.

"Collection room?" Cynyr said softly, confused. "What's that?"

Welk's eyes lit up. "It's really neat! You'll love it!" he said, standing up. He bent down and carefully slid his arms behind Cynyr's shoulders, helping him stand up. "It's got lots of stuff from all over the world." he chattered excitedly, letting Cynyr lean on him as they walked. "I'll bring you up one of the books so you can have something to read while you recover."

Cynyr smiled slightly. "Sounds good to me." he said, chuckling softly, only to wince a few seconds later, as laughing hurt his body.

Werr watched them go, smiling a bit. He looked over at Heather. She was crying. "M-mother? What's wrong?" He moved over, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"It hurts, darling..." Heather whispered. "And it's so dark..."

"What hurts?"

"Everything. It all hurts, and that boy makes so much noise...he makes it worse. And I think the dog bit me again." Heather sniffed a bit. "Help me, Werr."

"I...I'm sorry, mother. I don't know how to help you..."

"You can't. It's okay, I know. Go take care of your friends," Heather gave Werr a watery smile, wiping her eyes on her dress sleeve. "I'll be okay." Werr nodded, moving away again. Heather started to hum an unusual tune. Werr let out a sigh, looking down sadly as he followed Welk into the guest room. At least mother wasn't freaking out about the guests that he had brought.

The last time he had let the next door neighbor in, mother had screamed like a banshee for twenty minutes, then tried to stab the poor man with a kitchen knife.

Welk and Cynyr were oblivious to the goings-on in the other room. Welk led Cynyr over to one of the beds and let him lay down on it. "Better?" he asked, fidgeting nervously.

"Yes." Cynyr said softly, closing his eyes.

"Good!" Welk said, his nervousness vanishing. "I'll go get you one of those books!" He turned and trotted out of the guest room and down into the collection room, where he carefully picked out a book he thought Cynyr would like. He came back upstairs and walked into the room, the book held delicately in his hands. "This one's really neat looking. I think-" He stopped when he saw Cynyr.

The masked teenager was already asleep, one arm folded lightly across his chest.

Welk smiled, then set the book down on a desk nearby and sat down on the other bed. He transformed into his cat form and curled up, staying away.

Werr entered at this point, and smiled a bit. "Don't forget, if you need anything, come straight to me, okay?" He said, shutting the door quietly. Might as well go prepare lunch or something. He rubbed his still-sore chest, wondering what he could make to go with leftover potato soup.

Welk nodded at Werr, then put his head down on the bed, thinking about what had just happened today. Cynyr had used magic. There was no denying that. That meant he was a mage. And mages were always killed. Welk shuddered, squeezing his eyes shut. Cynyr's very existence was now in danger, just because he had accidentally become a mage. Welk still wasn't even sure how it had happened. Cynyr had never had magic powers before this. Welk shook his head, then sat up and jumped off of the bed.

He padded over to Cynyr's bed and carefully hopped up on it, curling up next to Cynyr's side. Cynyr didn't seem to notice that a cat the size of a lion had decided to lay next to him. He was still asleep, after all. Welk sighed, wondering what they were going to do. It wouldn't take long for people to find them. If that happened, Welk knew that Cynyr would get taken away from him. Welk shuddered again, his ears flattening against his head, then slowly dozed off.

Werr retreated to the kitchen to prepare some lunch. After he and Heather ate, Werr retired to his room to be alone for a little while, to collect his thoughts and organize them as needed. So on.

Heather sat in her chair until Werr closed the door to his room. As soon as he did that, she got out of her rocking chair and moved into the kitchen, apparently looking for something. Werr hid things in odd places sometimes. "I wonder why he does this to me," She thought aloud, before finding what she was looking for. She then quietly snuck past Werr's room, not wanting to alert her child to anything.

That boy was making far, far too much noise. Heather was going to stop it. She pushed open the door to the guest room, kitchen knife in hand. She hardly glanced at the lion-sized cat, only focusing on the unconscious Cynyr. Her hands trembled at the thought of stopping the noise and having peace again. She drew closer, knife raised, careful not to make too much noise.

Welk shifted slightly in his sleep, then suddenly felt a weird pang go through his body. He suddenly felt like he needed to wake up. It was like the strange feeling he had was trying to warn him about something. He blinked his eyes open and lifted his head, only to spot Heather and scream. He lunged up from the bed and knocked the knife out of her hand, being careful to not hurt her. His fur was sticking up on end, and his tail was held straight out behind him. He yowled and hissed at Heather. "What are you doing?!" he shouted, growling.

Cynyr woke up in shock at the horrible noises that entered his sleep, and he quickly sat up, his ears and tail bristling. "W-what's going on?!" he asked, wincing as his wounds hurt him.

"She was trying to kill you!" Welk shouted, still standing protectively in front of Cynyr.

Heather just screamed at this. "I'm stopping the noise!" She screamed in response to Welk's shouting. She dove for the knife again and climbed to her feet with it, eyes narrowed with anger and annoyance. She was about to lunge forward with it when Werr grabbed her from behind (for of course, he had come in like a bullet at the first sound).

"Mother, no!" He shouted. She screamed more and tried to cut into Werr's arm. He twisted the knife out of her hand, letting it clatter to the floor, pinning her arms to her side from behind. Werr slid the knife away with his foot while she sank to her knees, crying.

"The noise, I can't take it, it hurts, make it stop," She blubbered. Werr still held on tightly, shaking slightly. That had been too close.

"Shh, it's okay, Mother," Werr murmured. He didn't look up at the other two, afraid of what they would think. His own mother had tried to hurt them. He wouldn't blame them if they got up, left, and never spoke to him again.

Welk slowly went back to normal, his fur lowering back down against his body. He shook his head, then said "What's wrong with her? Why would she want to kill Cynyr? He wasn't even making any noise!"

Cynyr had pressed back against the wall that was next to the bed, looking paranoid and slightly scared. He was holding one hand carefully over his chest, making sure the wounds didn't reopen during his movements. He lowered his head, refusing to make eye-contact with anyone there.

"I don't know," Werr said quietly as Heather stopped struggling and reduced her screams to silent sobs. "I told you she had problems. I don't know what causes it, I don't know why she would want to kill Cynyr, I just don't know. I'm sorry, Cynyr, I'll get her to take a nap so she'll leave you alone..." He mumbled, helping Heather to her feet and leading her through the door and into her own room. Werr returned a few moments later, picking up the knife and sitting down in the chair in the corner of the guest room. "Sorry..." He said, still not looking up at them.

Cynyr remained silent from his spot against the wall. He had wrapped his arms around himself, almost like he was trying to give himself a hug, and had his head turned down where they couldn't see his face.

Welk was nervously messing with his tail, his ears back. "It's okay, Werr." he said. "At least you stopped her before she could...well, you know." He looked over at Cynyr, then walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. He reached a hand out to touch Cynyr's shoulder, only to have the other half-cat jerk away from the touch. Welk frowned unhappily and returned his hand to his lap. He sighed, then said "Don't worry about it so much, Werr. We're not mad at you or your mother."

"I wouldn't blame you if you were, but...I'll stay in here until I know she's asleep." Werr said quietly, somewhat distracted by his thoughts. What on earth had gotten into mother this time? He hardly knew his own mother anymore. He knew she was somewhere in there, buried amongst the madness, but...he didn't know of any way to free her from the insanity that plauged her so. He just...didn't know what to do, especially during times like these.

Welk frowned as he watched Werr, then stood up from his spot on the bed. He transformed into a cat and padded over next to the boy, sitting down near his chair. He pushed his head forward, nuzzling his way between Werr's arm and side. He rested his chin on Werr's leg and started purring, which was a soothing sound. He closed his eyes and wrapped his tail around Werr's right leg, gently twitching the tip several times.

Cynyr, still turned away from them, slowly transformed into his black panther form. He laid down on the bed on his belly, eyes closed and ears back, his tail slowly sweeping in arches behind him. He was unsheathing and sheathing his claws, digging them into the blankets and then pulling them back into his paws. His thick black fur was slightly on-end, and it was obvious that he was trying to calm himself down.

Werr closed his eyes, accepting his friend's comfort. He scratched Welk behind the ears, deeming that an appropriate thing to do at this point. He glanced at Cynyr, but turned his attention back to Welk. Might as well leave the mage half-cat alone, since he was so obviously distressed. "Thank you, Welk. For understanding." He said quietly, smiling a little bit. "It won't happen again, I won't allow it."

Welk's purring increased when Werr began scratching behind his ears. He lifted his right leg and put a thick paw over Werr's knee, leaning his head more to the left to allow the boy better access to the area behind his fluffy ears. "Oooo...a little more to the right...yeeaaaahh...right there..." he said, starting to lightly knead his paw on the boy's leg, clenching and unclenching his claws. He would dig his claws slightly into Werr's leg, then pull back before it could start to hurt his friend.

Cynyr remained stoically silent the whole time, trying to come to terms with everything that had happen to him that day. He had been beaten almost within an inch of his life in an unfair fight, had suddenly become a mage and developed magical powers (which put his life even more in danger), and had almost gotten stabbed by an insane lady. Three life threatening situations in one day. That had to be a new record.

Werr couldn't help but laugh at this, though he was a little bit concerned about the claws. He kept scratching, smiling still. He would be perfectly happy to just sit here for the rest of the day, scratching his friend behind the ears. I'll pull through this somehow, Werr thought in light of this. These are my friends. I'll do whatever I can to help them. It's the right thing to do...right? He still wasn't very sure of himself. Having Cynyr here broke his first rule; never bring anything into the house that could potentially cause harm to mother, whether direct or indirect. Though Werr was fairly certain Cynyr wouldn't hurt mother directly, indirect harm would be soldiers marching into the house and trying to drag the half-cat away. Mother would be terrified and probably hurt herself if that were to happen.

Which, Werr was half-expecting it to happen at any given moment.

Cynyr glanced briefly over at them in disgust, but didn't say anything. He sat there for several minutes, until his fur had all gone back down against his body, then slowly stood up and carefully stepped off of the bed. "Welk." he said, limping heavily towards the door. "We're leaving."

Welk jerked his head up at that, breaking contact with Werr's hand. "What?" he said, starting at Cynyr's retreating form like he was insane.

"You heard me." Cynyr said. "Get up. We're leaving before any soldiers show up. You know the school will contact them, and they'll be here soon. We have to leave before they get here."

Welk looked horrified, and he quickly stood up and ran over in front of his friend. "We can't leave!" he said, blocking the way with his furry body. "You're still hurt! You look like you're going to fall over and die or something!"

Cynyr snorted. "Dying would be better than getting taken away by the king's foul men." he said lowly. "Now you either stay here where it's safe or come with me. I can't stay here, Welk. You know that, I know that, and I'll bet anything that Werr's already thought of it at least once." The black panther then pushed past his friend and stalked out into the living room to gather up his bloodied clothes.