The Forgotten Zodiac

Jag listened to Lily speak, then smiled at her, one hand inadvertently going to the necklace she had given him. He had never taken it off and kept it hidden under the edge of his shirt. He gently curled one arm and wing around her, giving her a soft kiss, then looked back up at Spy. "Yes, I'm from Storaph, but I never wanted to work for the...capital." he said. He knew of Obelisk and Nelu and Relic, but he wasn't about to talk about his time with them. He was still missing a few primary feathers from making Obelisk mad once in a while. His primary feathers didn't grow back easily. "I may be from Storaph, but I was not willingly a soldier." he said. "Nate was. I'm not. That's the difference." He reached out and picked Spy up by his scruff, saying "Why would I eat you? It's true that most gryphons sometimes prey on chimeras, but I'm not most gryphons. I joke about it, but I'm not about to eat something that can talk back to me while I kill it. So you're safe, snack. Besides, I've taken a liking to you. You're fluffy and...cute."

When Lily giggled at that, his cheeks flushed in embarrassment. "D-don't laugh!" he said, putting Spy back down. "You know I only think you're cute, I just-...wait, hold on, I didn't mean that! Well, I did mean it, because you're cute, Lily, and...doh!" He stopped talking, looking much more embarrassed than when he started.

Lily was laughing fully now. "You're being silly again!" She beamed at him, happy nevertheless. Spy relaxed visibly and smiled himself, turning back into his unusual human-like form. That was the strange part about little Spy; he wasn't a normal chimera. Other chimeras didn't really have human forms, and he didn't seem to be capable of staying in that form for long. Indeed, he only managed to run to the door and pull it open before reverting back to his other form. "Can I go tell the sleepy people who Werr is? Everyone should know now, it seems important!"

"S-sure." Jag said, folding his arms over his chest grumpily. "I don't care what you do." He ruffled his wings, carefully reaching into the edge of his shirt to hold Lily's necklace for a moment, then let it go and flopped down on the bed, bored.

Most of the others were still awake, of course. Luen had woken up by this time and had snuck out of his room to go find something to eat. He never really cared much about what he ate, as he was a more reserved person about it, and he almost never gained any weight. He carefully tugged the corner of Nate's shirt back up over his shoulder, then turned around, only to spot Nightlash and freeze. It had taken him a long time to get used to the others, so a new person, of course, scared him.

Spy quickly went about telling Forin and Diana. He tried to tell Nate, but the Dragonian literally slept through the little chimera shouting in his ear. Spy gave up and bolted down the stairs, crawled up onto the table in front of Luen, and whispered, "Hey! Guess what! Werr is a member of the Alastorian Council, that's why we have to go and save him fast so he doesn't get interrogateded or anything, because that would be bad, I think!"

"It would be bad," Nightlash nodded thoughtfully, hardly noticing Luen's staring. He was too busy thinking. Werr, a council member? How did that even happen?

Luen nodded slightly and skirted around Nightlash, giving the duke a wide berth, then sat down on the couch and held one hand in his lap. He concentrated and made a tiny snowman, then sent it a soft plume of snowflakes up into the air. He raised his hand at them and focused. The snowflakes began to whip around in circles, working up into a mini-cyclone around the snowman.  Luen carefully spread his fingers apart and the snowflakes turned into sharp spikes. He then closed his hand sharply into a fist and the spikes all dove forward into the tiny snowman, impaling it in multiple vital areas.

To a real enemy, the attack would've happened much faster and would've been fatal.

Cynyr, still sitting in the corner, watched with interest.

Spy watched in curiosity, eyes wide. He scurried off a moment later, nuzzling up to Nightlash, who absentmindedly started petting the Chimera. Spy purred happily, mouth hanging open slightly, showing itty-bitty teeth and his small pink tongue.

As time crawled by, the group gradually recovered. It was another full day before Nate woke up again, and when he did, he ate enough for three people and fell asleep again. A few more hours of sleep, and he seemed to be in full fighting condition again. Everyone got plenty of rest and plenty of food, as seen to by Thelma. Nightlash disappeared every now and then, supposedly to finish up a little work in his office before taking their little trip with them.

Jag seemed to be one of the only ones in the group besides Forin that was already at fighting strength. He had been for a while, actually. He had never had to do any real fighting while he was in this little group, so his levels were still high.

Luen recovered as well, fairly fast too. He slept about as much as Nate did, though he ate less than the dragonian. He had the most magic-power of anyone in the group to begin with, so his powers were soon at their maximum limit.

Cynyr spent much of his time either in a corner by himself or locked away in his room. He rarely spoke anymore, and at the few times when he did, his speech was halting and confused, like a person who hadn't spoken in years.

Welk was the one who recovered the slowest.

His broken legs gave Seria a lot of trouble to heal. She barely had any time to eat, much less rest, as she worked tirelessly to repair his shattered bones. It took her one full day to get them back to where he could walk on them, then another full day to get them to where he could fight again and not have to worry about them re-breaking if he had to dodge attacks or jump around.

Plus, he had needed time to get over his emotional turmoil.

That meant Seria hadn't slept and had barely eaten in two days.

She was okay, though, when Airlia gave her energy from Jag. The healer could go for a week without sleeping a wink and still be at healing strength if she only had energy to go on. She substituted Jag's energy and turned it into the aftereffects of having slept for several hours. Once she had done that, it was like she had gotten plenty of time to sleep.

So it was that two days after Werr had been taken to Storaph Palace that his friends were finally able to set out after him, determined to rescue their comrade from whatever harm might've befallen him.

Welk, of course, was furious and ready to kill anyone he had to in order to get his best friend back. Werr and Cynyr were the only two people he considered family that he had left, and he wasn't about to let one of those two be taken away from him permanently.

And at last, they were ready. After breakfast, Nightlash informed the group that the horses were ready. No carriages; there was only Forin, Diana, Luen, Nate, Airlia and Nightlash in need of horses, anyways. Nightlash offered to share a horse with Airlia, who accepted without any real thought about it. That left Forin and Diana to share a horse, with Nate and Luen having their own. The horses were lean and fit, well prepared for a long and hard run.

"You'd better get Werr back in once piece, you hear?" Thelma frowned unhappily at them. "You have to. The country depends on it."

"We've been over this," Nate sighed. Thelma wasn't happy about him knowing of Werr, but it had to be so. Nate had sworn to take the secret to his grave, but Thelma didn't seem all too happy regardless. "We'll save him. I'll make sure of it." He led his horse to the front of the group. Of course, he would have to lead. He was the only one who knew exactly where to go.

"Come on!" Welk shouted loudly, dancing from paw to paw in anticipation. "We have to go! Now! Come on!"

"Welk, settle down!" Seria said, flicking her tail around. Her, Welk and Cynyr were all in animal form and ready to run alongside the horses. "We'll get there." she said. "Don't worry so much."

"Don't worry? Don't worry?!" Welk snapped, turned around and putting his feline face inches away from hers. "You take your best friend and put him in a place you know nothing about with people that wish him harm and we'll see how you like it! Don't you ever tell me not to worry again or I'll claw your face to pieces! I'll stop worrying once Werr is safe and I've hugged him as hard as I can possibly manage without hurting him! Good day!" And he turned away.

Seria was so shocked by his reaction that she found that she couldn't even think about snapping back at him. She blinked herself out of her shock and just waited quietly until everyone was on their horses. Then she resigned herself to running as they headed out.

"Well, at least we're determined, right?" Spy chirped, riding on the back of Nate's horse.

Nate nodded, getting his horse moving. The other horses moved as well, trained to follow the lead horse, if present. Getting out of the town was less of a hassle than Nate thought it might be; Nightlash just pulled his horse up to the front, and the guards opened the gate for all of them without asking questions. After that, they were free to follow the road away from the city and onto the plains.

The horses were fast and had remarkable endurance, which led to an excellent start. The weather was good for riding; clear skies, cool breeze. But there was little time to stop and enjoy the scenery, they were moving far too quickly. The group traveled in silence until they reached somewhere familiar. They had left in the early morning; it was passing noon just as Nate pulled his horse to a stop in front of the dried riverbed. It had taken them half the time it would have, if they had brought a carriage. "We can stop here to rest," Nate said, dismounting. He looked a little tired; of course, you couldn't sit still on a horse. You had to move with it, following the rise and fall of its shoulder blades in order to prevent a bruised rear.

"Good," Forin sighed, climbing off and helping Diana down. "The horses were starting to complain."

The three lerloch running beside the horses all came to halts, but only two of them were panting from the run. Seria and Welk were a bit out of breath while Cynyr looked completely fine. His breathing and heart rate were exactly the same as when they had started out. Still, though, he said nothing more than what he absolutely had to.

Seria flopped down on her side, panting with her tongue out.

Jag flew down out of the air, taking human form and landing on his feet. His lanky legs held him easily as he touched down. Flying was no problem for him.

Welk wouldn't sit still. He paced in endless circles, first one way, then the other. He wouldn't stop. He started to wear a thin circle in the ground after a few minutes, constantly tilting his head up to look in the direction they were heading in. The hole in his heart from Werr's absence was tearing at him, preventing him from even thinking about resting.

Airlia flew off, though only for a few minutes. She came back with her little bucket brimming with fresh water. "Welk, you should sit down or something," Airlia said, offering Welk a drink. "If you don't rest, it'll be hard to keep running..."

"If we keep our pace up, we should arrive at the palace by dawn, with a few hours' sleep." Nate said, thinking. "We'll stop at sunset. We should still be far away enough from the palace to rest safely by then...

"No." Welk said sadly. "I don't want to. I can't. I just...I can't! No!" He moved away from her and resumed his pacing, unable to rest. His worrying thoughts wouldn't let him. "I'll be able to run when we move out." he said, panting a bit. "I will. I will." He kept pacing, gradually wearing a circle in the ground.

Cynyr watched him the entire time, then looked down at the circle he was wearing into the ground and smiled in a way that wasn't friendly.

The ground under the circle was starting to turn a faint shade of pink as Welk wore his paw pads raw.

Airlia pouted at him, but she moved on to offer water to Seria. Forin stepped in next, looking up from his horse (who he had apparently been talking to). "Don't be a fool, Welk. How are you going to save Werr if you're too exhausted to fight when we get there? Sit down." He said in an annoyed tone.

Seria accepted the water gratefully, lapping delicately from the bucket. She sighed as she watched Welk, knowing that he was upset.

When Forin spoke, Welk groaned, knowing the summoned creature was right but not wanting to listen to him. Slowly, he came to a stop, finally noticing the rut he had been wearing into the ground. He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, then got out of it and, instinctively, looking for Werr. Tears budded in his eyes when he remembered that Werr wasn't here for Welk to lay by and talk to.

He lowered his head, then padded to the edge of the clearing and laid down.

Alone.

((No clearing. Dry riverbed, remember? Plains. Trees in le distance. :T))

Forin watched him carefully. "It's almost like when Welk was imprisoned," He noted quietly, talking to Nate. "Werr was desperate to help, but could not due to his weakness. Here, Welk is desperate to help, but cannot due to the distance we have yet to close between them."

"Indeed," Nate sighed a bit. "But I'm not quite as concerned for Welk as I am for Werr. Especially with this new news about him...torture is not underneath Storaph, though I doubt it's as serious as the skinning here."

"If he was taken anywhere near Gurushi, you can bet that it's going to be worse."

Welk stayed by himself during the entire course of their resting period. He kept to cat form, ready to get up and move out whenever they were ready. About an hour later, when they were ready to move out, Welk was the first one up and was back to pacing as he waited for the others to get ready. He was antsy and fidgety, his ragged tail constantly flicking around and twitching.

Again, the horses started moving in a line. The sun was starting to sink in the sky when they crossed over a steep hill.

The sight that awaited them was dismal, at best. Injured soldiers leaned against one another, huddled around cooking fires. A few of them weren't wounded, obviously protecting the injured ones. The group decided to skirt around.

"We're drawing close to the battlefield," Forin said quietly. "So many deaths...I can hear each one..."

Seria was sad over having to leave the injured soldiers behind, but she knew it was for the better of the group that they avoided them. She also started to feel the aura of death that permeated the ground up ahead of them and it started to give her a headache.

Luen and Welk were also affected by the deaths they felt, being magic users. The magic in the world around them flickered and clawed at them, like wraiths trapped in the ground below them.

Cynyr, however, wasn't affected by this.

He seemed to grow more lively as they got close to the battlefield, his eyes lighting up with…joy. He held his tail low, but the tip of it was twitching in anticipation. He even unsheathed his claws and walked with them out, a low purr rumbling in his throat.

As Forin had predicted, the next hill passed revealed the worst. Skeletons, some with flesh still hanging limply off the bones. Most of them had their armor taken from them; stolen for use by others. The stench of death hung low in the air, causing even Nate to cover his nose in disgust. Forin, on the other hand, covered his ears. While the others merely sensed it, Forin literally heard it. Each scream, every groan of agony. Whatever the dead said or did with their last breaths, Forin heard it all now. It was irritating, to say the least.