The Forgotten Zodiac

Luen smiled very slightly when Forin spoke to him, then jumped as well when Nate snored. Luen blinked, then, surprisingly, laughed. It was a quiet laugh, but still one nevertheless. His laugh was unique, a soft little sound that usually ended in an almost-hiccup. He chuckled once he was finished, then said "Thank you, Forin. That means more than you know to me."

Forin shrugged. "If my mistress is happy, then I'm content," Forin said, his eyes showing obvious happiness despite his words. He pulled his sleeve back over his wound, then stood. "Now, you should rest. We have a bit of Werr-saving to do soon, so you all need to hurry up and get better."

Luen nodded, able to forget his terrible memories for a while now that Forin and Diana were with him again. He let go of Diana and stood up, moving to the bathroom and finally washing the dried blood from his body. He didn't have a clean shirt or any other extra articule of clothing that he could swap for his blood-stained white attire, so he carefully reached into Nate's bag and pulled out one of his shirt, hoping the dragonian wouldn't mine if he borrowed one. He changed his shirt to Nate's, not caring that Forin and Diana were both still in the room. He trusted them both, after all, and it wasn't like he was changing his pants. Just the shirt. Nate's shirt was baggy on Luen's frail body, but it would suffice for the time being. It fitted much like the wolfling's over-shirt had. He tossed his old tank-top in the trash, not wanting to look at it anymore, then gave Diana another hug, smiling at her. He pulled back and touched a hand to her head softly, then moved to the bed and collapsed on it, sighing deeply. He was asleep within seconds.

Forin and Diana left the room after that. They moved into one of the rooms, Diana tired out from the trip and Forin unwilling to leave her alone, as usual.

Nelu and Relic reached Storaph Palace with Werr in tow. They hadn't stopped at all during the long trip back, proving that they both had good endurance. Relic was still carrying Werr and Nelu was still in wolf form. She looked up at Werr, tilting her canine head slightly to the side. "Master will be pleased." she said, smiling. She lived to serve Obelisk and was one of his most loyal servants. She trotted up the steps and headed for the throne room, Relic behind her. Surprisingly, the raptorix was very quiet for once. He followed Nelu to the throne room and up to the dark curtain that concealed Obelisk, watching as Nelu bowed low. "We have returned, master." she said, not making a move to rise yet. She tucked her furry tail between her legs in respect. "We have Werr Grehi, as you requested." she said.

"Right here." Relic said, hefting Werr slightly.

"Very good. I see that you were a little less than gentle, but I cannot blame you for that." Obelisk sighed, though he sounded happy. "Might as well stop pretending, Werr Grehi. Do you know why you're here?"

Werr was silent for a long moment, then he opened his eyes, looking defeated. "Mostly," He mumbled. He had been awake since they had crossed the borders. "You're going to kill me, aren't you?"

"Hm...not quite. You have information I need."

"I'm not really the giving type," Werr spat.

"Of course not." Obelisk sighed again, this time unhappily. The curtains parted as Obelisk drew out of his curtains, stretching up to his full height. There was a good deal of popping from his joints, as though he hadn't stood up straight in a long time. He was easily the height of two men. Werr stared, slackjawed, as Obelisk leaned in towards him. "As such, You will suffer like no human has suffered before, Werr Grehi. You will beg to tell me everything. And when you do, I will enter your mind myself and tear you apart." He said dangerously, his voice causing a shiver to run down Werr's spine. Werr couldn't say anything, locked up in fear.

Obelisk chuckled at his reaction, then continued. "Oh, that's right. You don't know me. I am Obelisk, Lord of Darkness."

Nelu smiled darkly, enjoying watching Werr's reaction. Nelu was a rare case. She had come to Obelisk of her own free will. She had always hated her family, as shown by her murder of Jewel, her and Luen's younger sister. She had tolerated Luen for so long only because he had, at first, been willing to work with her as one of Obelisk's minions. Now that he had left, however, she hated him with a passion. She grinned when Obelisk announced his name, feeling a thrill run through her. She wouldn't say she loved Obelisk, but she definitely found him unique. Her own inner evil was attracted to his. She was special in that regard; she loved the darkness inside of her.

Werr spent a long time just staring at Obelisk. He finally managed to tear his eyes away, which led them to land on Gurushi, who was standing off to one side. Great. Every enemy he knew he had, all bunched into one place. Werr didn't have to ask about what Obelisk wanted. It was obvious enough to him.

Gurushi moved forward, pulling gloves over his hands. He took Welk from Relic, moving away, obviously towards the dungeons. "Good job, both of you. Go rest if you wish. I will have more work for you soon. How does assassination sound to you two?"

"Assassination is perfect, my lord." Nelu said. "I am willing to do anything you ask of me."

"I have a question!" Relic suddenly said. "Why do you need Werr? What does he know that you already don't? That's rare, don't you think? When somebody knows something you don't?" He tilted his head slightly to the side, curious.

Nelu also looked curious.

"It is rare," Obelisk shrugged, smiling a little bit. "I'm glad you realize this. But what even I failed to realize at first was something very important. When Werr was young, a fire separated him from his parents. They didn't see him again until two years later, when he was returned by three Alastorian soldiers, one of which was a commander. I discovered this when I decided to learn more about Werr using his parents' memories. Werr's parents were then informed that their son had been found by the Queen, who had cared for him. She had found him to be quite the young child; intelligent and cunning to boot. With much urging from her, the king appointed Werr Grehi as the youngest of the council members of Alastor.

"Werr Grehi is an heir to the throne." Obelisk said, the bandages at his feet writhing with excitement. "And he knows who the others are. As for the assassination, as soon as I discover who and where the other members are, you two will head out and kill them all. Leave the king for last. With that, Werr Grehi will be the last person eligible to take the throne. And by then, his mind will be mine."

Nelu grinned as Obelisk spoke. "A brilliant plan, my lord." she crooned. "As usual. Rest assured that I am completely willing to kill anyone you need me too. It will be glorious." She wagged her tail, which was not a happy sigh like it would've been if Luen had wagged his tail. She bowed low to Obelisk again, then said "By your leave, master, I will retire and rest for my next mission." She turned and walked out.

Relic watched her go, then said "I'ma go too, Captain Bandage with the Bandage Plan. I need to clean the blood from my claws. That fire mage kitty cat bleeds a lot when you cut him right." He grinned, then turned and headed out after Nelu.

"Go and rest, then," Obelisk waved them off, returning to his curled up position and retreating back into the curtains. Glorious, indeed.

Although really, he had only told Nelu and Relic a little more than half of his plans so far.

"You're doing what?" Thelma sounded very unhappy.

"Resting?" Airlia said again, looking a little afraid. She had decided to ask if it was okay for them to stay the night, even though they hadn't paid for anything. "Nate and Luen are still recovering, and Welk was badly injured..."

"And Werr was captured!" Thelma huffed at her, frowning deeply.

"Y-yes, we know, but..."

"But what? You all have to go save him!"

"Madam." Seria interrupted, sounding a bit stern. "If we do not recover, then we will not only not get Werr back, but we will most likely die or be gravely injured in the process. I'm sorry, but we can't risk the lives of the entire group. I promise that as soon as everyone is at fighting strength, we'll move out. Until then, however, you cannot rush us. Welk is very sick from being in that room for so long and Luen and Nate are both weak. If we went out now, it would be a death sentence for them." And she turned and walked back to the room where Welk was.

Cynyr watched her from his new spot he had taken up; the corner of the room. Seria didn't understand why he had chose to sit there instead of on the couch, but she hadn't been able to get him to move...or say much. It was like he had just chose to stop talking and only answered when there was no way for him to avoid it.

"Look, you don't understand, missy!" Thelma followed Seria up the stairs, sounding on the verge of hysteria. She paused, blinking in surprise. Then she laughed, shaking her head. "You don't know, do you? Great, just great. That little..." She turned and stormed away, grumbling something about Werr. She looked pointedly at Airlia. "How long has he been traveling with you people?"

"Um...a couple weeks or so," Airlia said quietly. "Wh-what's the big deal? I mean, I know that Werr is in a lot of danger...are you related to him or something?"

"No, child. We're not related." Thelma sighed, sitting down behind the counter again. "How could you all not know? If he trusted you all this much..."

Seria hissed slightly at Thelma as the woman spoke to her, then tilted her head slightly. She followed Thelma back down the stairs, wondering what was wrong with her. "What do you mean?" the half-cat asked. "What did Werr not tell us? I would understand if he didn't tell me or any of the others, but if he didn't tell Welk something, then there really was a problem. Welk deeply cares for Werr, and vice versa."

Thelma glared pointedly at Seria for a few long moments, as though she were debating on actually telling them anything. Finally, she came out with it. "Werr is a member of the Alastorian Council. As such, he's an heir to the throne, and he knows who the other seven are. So it's not a good thing for him to have been captured by anyone, if these people know..."

Seria's jaw dropped open in shock. "...What?" she said softly, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"He is?" Jag said, pausing in scratching Spy. He blinked, then sort of grew sheepish. "And to think that I insulted him..." he murmured, fluffing out his crest feathers.

Cynyr, still in the corner, grew a little more interested in the conversation.

Seria shook her head, then said "I...I can't believe it. But it has to be true. Fine. I'll try and speed up Welk's healing process so we can leave sooner. I can't guarantee that it will work, but I can try." She turned and scurried up the stairs and into Welk's room, setting to work on healing his legs.

His cries that followed were not just over his broken legs.

He missed Werr deeply.

"Did no one in your group know? Not even this Welk?" Thelma frowned in mild confusion. "I would think that he would have told his closest friends, at the very least..."

"No, he didn't tell any of us..." Airlia shook her head. "Maybe he tried to, but he didn't. And we haven't really known him all that long, anyways."

"Maybe that Nate guy kept him from talking!" Spy piped up, though still sitting next to Jag.

"And why would he stop him?" Thelma asked.

"Because Nate was from Storaph, wasn't he?"

Jag quickly clamped a hand over Spy's mouth, saying "What my friend means to say is that Nate probably was concerned over Werr's safety and didn't want him telling everyone that he was a heir to a possible throne. It would've been dangerous, you see. Well, I think it'll head off. Goodnight!" He quickly stood up, picking Spy up and still holding the chimera's mouth shut, then scurried off to his room with Lily following. Once he got there, he shut the door and tossed Spy onto the bed, saying "Are you insane?! You can't tell that crazy woman that Nate is from Storaph! Storaph is the enemy! Nate's just unique in the fact that he's on our side. You want to get him in trouble?" He fluffed out his crest feathers angrily.

Spy scrambled as far away from Jag as possible, pulling his large ears down over his face and trembling. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know..." He whimpered, starting to cry. "B-but aren't yo-you from Storaph, too?" He pouted, peeking out from under his paws and ears at Jag. "Both of you?"

"I'm not," Lily shook her head. "There used to be a country called Gallel...but the queen of Storaph came to visit one day. I don't know what she did, but the government decided to send an assassin after her. She was killed and her body sent back to Storaph. I...remember the night that followed. It was a very long time ago, and I was very little, but I remember that there was a lot of fire, and soldiers from Storaph. Only a handful of them, but they dragged me, my mother and my brother back to the castle where we were made slaves." She sighed. "Now they're both dead, and it's just me left. But I'm okay, because I have Jag." She looked up at her dearest friend, smiling happily.

"Oh. Not from Storaph, then." Spy shuffled his ears. "I didn't know it was bad to say that, I'm really sorry...please don't eat me!"