The Forgotten Zodiac

Werr was quiet. It was quite true, of course. He stood and followed Cynyr into the living room, not sure if he should object to him leaving or not. He certainly couldn't go with them, he had to take care of mother...Werr looked more than upset, though. Just like his friends before Cynyr and Welk, they would be leaving. And they'd never come back.

He jumped about a foot when there was suddenly pounding on the door. Werr lifted the curtains of one of the windows slightly and immediately paled. "A bit late on the whole leaving thing, Cynyr..." He murmured.

Cynyr also jumped, all of his fur bristling, when the heavy knocking on the door sounded. His ears flattened in an instant, and his hackles rose as he turned to face the door. "Dang it..." he growled, digging his claws into the floor. "Soldiers."

Welk looked frightened, his gaze worriedly going from the door to Cynyr. "What do we do?" he asked quietly, his body quivering.

"I...I don't know." Cynyr said, wincing as he put weight down on his back left leg.

The knocking came again, much harder, and a gruff male voice called "Someone had better answer this door."

Cynyr shook his head back and forth, his mind fighting to think of a solution. "Even if I were to hide somewhere, they would still find me. This is bad."

"You've gotta try something," Werr said quietly, frowning. He opened the door a little bit, but only a little, making sure to block the view of the inside with his body. "What? What do you want?" He frowned unhappily at the soldier.

"There's been a report about a mage, kid," The soldier growled. "Your classmates saw you leaving with the suspect last. And here we are," He leaned on the door, trying to push his way in. "Move it."

"I don't think so. Where's your proof?" Werr snapped. He was just buying time, really, hoping Cynyr and Welk would have the sense to at least try to hide.

Welk suddenly remembered something and turned to Cynyr. "The collection room." he whispered. "Werr said there was a door in there. We can get out that way."

Cynyr nodded once, then both cats quickly left the room, moving silently. They made their way down to the aforementioned room and retook their human shapes, quickly moving to the said door and opening it.

"We still have to be quiet." Cynyr warned. "The soldiers are still out there. If they hear us moving around, they spot us and it'll be bad. Just promise me that if they see us, you'll get away and hide somewhere. Alright?"

"What? No!" Welk said fiercely. "I won't just run off and leave you behind! Do you know what those guys will do to you if-"

"Welk."

Welk cringed at the commanding tone in his friend's voice.

"You promise me, right now. Promise me." Cynyr ordered.

Welk hesitated, wanting to argue against what his friend was saying, but knowing that it would be pointless. "Okay..." he finally said, handing his head slightly.

"Good." Cynyr answered, then silently moved out the door.

"Proof? Why would I need proof? I heard it from pretty much all of your classmates, boy." The soldier barked, forcing the door open and pushing Werr back. "Now, where are they?"

"They're not here!" Werr snapped back. "There's just me and my mother here. I wouldn't lie to you, I've no reason to."

"Hmph! A likely story!" The soldier laughed gruffly, then motioned for several of the men behind him to enter to help with the search. "Leave nothing unturned!" He ordered. The soldiers proceeded to tear up the house, making short work of the living room and kitchen. "The rest of you, go around to the back of the house. I wouldn't put it past this kid to have hidden doors somewhere." The soldiers saluted and followed orders.

"No, get away from that door! That's my mother's room, you can't go in there!" Werr shouted, diving in the way of the soldiers who were about to open the door. They shoved Werr aside easily, hardly breaking a sweat in doing so.

The other few soldiers went around the side of the house, spotting Welk and Cynyr as the two came out of the door. "There he is!" one of them shouted, and they ran forward at them, shouting.

Cynyr and Welk barely had any time to be shocked. They both quickly transformed back into their cat forms and took off, sprinting away from the men.

Cynyr looked over his shoulder for what seemed like one second then looked back, only to suddenly find a soldier blocking his path. "Got you!" the man shouted, grabbing the half-cat.

Cynyr lost his hold on his cat form in shock, changing back into a human. "Let go of me!" he shouted, struggling against the man.

"Cynyr!" Welk shouted, screeching to a halt not far from him.

"Welk! Go!" Cynyr shouted, still struggling to get loose. He was still hurting from his previous injuries, which reopened and started to bleed again, blood soaking through the white bandages around his chest. "You promised, Welk! Now go!" Cynyr shouted, a snarl to his voice.

Welk starting crying, his ears back unhappily, but when some of the soldiers came after him, he was forced to turn and race away.

A few moments later, the roof of Werr's house was partially blown off and away from the rest of the house with a terrifying and very, very loud crashing noise. Black, almost transparent tendrils of some kind reached up through the hole and gripped the house, pushing whatever else it was upwards. It was none other than Werr's own mother, surrounded by a thick black aura that was also creating the tendrils. She was too far away to see from her current height, but her eyes were entirely black, she was limp and practically lifeless.

Werr took two paces backwards before falling on his rear, staring up at Heather in shock. Something clicked in the back of his mind; dark powers, dangerous creatures, the darkness, it was starting to make sense now. The stuff was clearly somehow magic, though Werr could swear on his father's grave that she was no witch. But it was made from darkness itself, it seemed, materialized and formed into...this.

Dark Magic.

The tendrils went after the soldiers in the kitchen first, throwing them away with the roof with ease. The tendrils lifted Heather higher and she was turned towards Cynyr. Several of the tendrils slammed down towards him and the soldiers outside.

Might as well make that five life-threatening situations in one day.

Cynyr's eyes widened in horror at what he was seeing, and it only took him a split second to react. When one of the tendrils arched out at him, he ducked at the last second, so the soldier holding him was impaled on the line. The second the man's grip loosened, Cynyr leapt away, transforming into his cat form and twisting and dodging around the tendrils. He was extremely agile, but several of the cords managed to nick his body, due to the fact that he was still hurt.

Welk, who hadn't gotten very far away, froze when he heard the screams and strange sounds coming from the direction he had left behind. He looked back, blinking his eyes in shock, then made up his mind. He raced back the way he had come, determined to help somehow.

Cynyr, however, was already trying to do that. He flipped backwards several times as the tendrils slammed into the ground, trying to hit him, and growled. His blood was boiling with anger and fear. The second his paws touched the ground again, he transformed back into his human form and threw his arms upwards at the tendrils. Wind poured from his hands, but this time, it was different.

This time, he was in control.

A tornado of wind shot from his palms, blasting the black tendrils away from him, then he went back to his cat form and raced forward to Werr. "Come on, get up!" he shouted. "We need to get away from here!" He turned back into a human and began using his powers to keep the tendrils at bay, blasting them back with powerful bursts of wind from his hands.

The soldiers were grabbed up one by one and thrown away from the house, other tendrils tearing up the rest of the roof while the last of them were going after Cynyr.

Werr had been frozen in shock and fear, but Cynyr's shouting snapped him out of it. He climbed to his feet and backed up a bit, completely and utterly at a loss of what to do. This was his mother, he couldn't just get up and leave...

"Mother, stop it!" Werr shouted over the din of the roof breaking and soldiers screaming. "Stop, you don't have to do this! Please, mother!" One of the tendrils came from behind, grabbing Werr by the ankle and hoisting him upwards, upside-down. Werr let out his own scream, expecting to be thrown. To his surprise, he was merely dropped onto the bed in his now roofless room. At least mother still knew who he was...

"Werr!" Cynyr shouted, moving to go forward, but quickly having to back up. The tendrils weren't letting him anywhere near the other teenager. "Darn it...!" Then, to his horror, his mage powers started to grow weaker. He didn't have good control over his abilities yet, nor did he have enough endurance with them to keep going for long. He shook his hands, trying to get a little more magic out of them, but nothing happened. "DARN IT...!!" He turned back into a panther and continued dodging and weaving through the tendrils as they tried to kill him. He figured that Werr would be safe, since this...thing hadn't killed him right away, but the half-cat couldn't be sure. He couldn't even get close enough to do anything now. Before he could make a decision, however, one of the tendrils slammed into him, sending him flying into the side of a building. Pain laced through his body, and he slumped down, barely conscious.

Before the tendrils could kill the black half-cat, a different figure raced forward and slammed the tendrils away. Welk turned to Cynyr and yowled "Get away from here! You're too hurt to do anything else!"

Werr was not as safe as both he and Cynyr thought. He tried to sit up, but found himself pinned to the bed by the tendrils. They started snaking around and up his chest, trying to gain entry into his mouth. Werr pressed his face into his blankets, having no idea what would happen if this stuff got into his system by any means.

What happened next was definitely the turning point of the entire fiasco. An arrow came out of nowhere; the one soldier who had managed to avoid getting thrown had fired it, of course. The arrow landed squarely in Heather's chest, an excellent shot. The tendrils grabbed the man and threw him aside, but it was too late. The tendrils holding Heather up staggered, quickly dropping Heather to the floor of the dismantled house. The tendrils faded and slowly disappeared, leaving Heather lying on the floor to bleed.

Welk left Cynyr and ran forward, carefully avoiding the bodies of the soldiers that littered the ground. “Werr! Werr, are you okay?!” he shouted, then spotted Heather. “Oh…oh no…” he whispered, shaking. His ears fell back, and he quickly padded through the damaged house to where Werr was. “Werr…” he said, transforming into a human and standing nearby. “You…your mother…she…what happened?” he asked worriedly. He didn’t know what had went wrong, and he wished so badly that he could help. But he couldn’t. There was nothing he could do.

Cynyr remained leaned against the building he had slammed into, his ears tilted back. He had seen the whole thing. He knew what was going to happening. He knew. A slow boom of thunder rang out over the sky, and rain started to fall. Cynyr closed his eyes and hung his head, respecting the life that was fading away inside the destroyed house.

Werr rolled off of the bed as soon as the tendrils released him and faded. "I-I don't know, what made it...stop..." He trailed off, spotting Heather through the broken wall where his door had once stood. Werr walked forward slowly, ignoring the rain that was suddenly pouring from the sky. He looked down at his fallen mother and sank to his knees, shaking terribly.

"M-mother? Mother, pl-please..." Werr whispered, pulling her into a sitting position. "Mother, speak to me..."

Heather shuddered, eyelids fluttering. "Werr..." She murmured softly. Then, in a voice that was very much unlike her, furious and filled with rage, "I-I hate yo...you...why di-did you do...this to...me..." She spluttered, blood dripping from her mouth. She closed her eyes again and breathed her last.

Werr's insides felt like they were being torn from his body and shattered into hundreds of pieces, particularly his heart. "Mo-mother...mother?" He shook her lightly, then hugged her tightly, only dimly feeling the tears sliding steadily down his cheeks. He let out a sob, the first of an uncontrollable amount. He didn't care that the shaft of the arrow was digging uncomfortably into his side, or that her blood was getting on his clothes, or that it was pouring rain, or that Welk and Cynyr were still there and probably watching. He didn't care.

Mother was dead. The thought itself crossing his mind was enough to make him gently lower her body then stumble to his feet. He staggered over to her rocking chair, sitting down in it and dropping his face into his bloodied hands, sobbing all the while.

Welk didn't know what to do. He had never had a mother or father to cry over, so he didn't know how to respond to Werr's sadness. The sky continued to pour down water, soaking everything around it for miles. Welk carefully stepped forward, tears starting to drip down his own face when he saw how badly Werr was crying. Finally, he walked forward and wrapped his arms around Werr from behind, bending over to hug him tightly. He didn't know what else to do, and being the young 15-year-old that he was, hugging was the only thing he could think of to show some kind of comfort. "I'm sorry." he said, pressing his face between Werr's shoulder blades. "This is all our fault. If we hadn't come here, none of this would've happened. This is our fault!" He wrapped his tail around Werr's leg tightly, dreading the boy's reaction to his words. "I'm so sorry…" he sobbed.

Werr mulled over the boys words, and nearly allowed his emotions to take over. He was angry, of course; he knew it was Welk and Cynyr's fault, at least to some extent. And here Welk was, 'apologizing'! He trembled with rage, only barely holding himself back. He kept his face in his hands, but mumbled, "Bring her back, Welk..." He gritted his teeth, feeling as though he would gladly rip Welk's head off if it meant his mother would return. "If you're truly sorry...bring her back..." He said, knowing full well that it was impossible.

Welk pulled back when he heard Werr's words. His ears were flat against his head in sadness. He tucked his hands into his pockets, looking down at the ground. "I wish I could." he said softly. "If...if there was a way for me to bring her back, I would. Because you're...I mean...you were my friend." A crackle of thunder burst overhead. "I..." He abruptly cut off, sniffling. Rain mixed with the tears still pouring down his face. He ran his arm over his face, not that it helped. "I guess...we a-aren't friends anymore." he said, his heart breaking. He sobbed once, then stopped. "We'll go. We'll go far away and you'll never have to see us ever again. You shouldn't have helped us. Y-you should've just left m-me alone and...and not been my friend. It'll p-probably be b-better if we pretend that we...we...n-never...m-met..." He turned and walked off slowly, his tail dragging the ground. He paused in the broken doorway, but didn't look back. He had never made any friends in his life other than Cynyr, so for him to lose the only other one he had ever made was hurting him badly. He didn't stop, however. He slowly kept going, not knowing what else to do. He stumbled out to Cynyr, who looked weakly up at him.

"Welk..." he said softly, already knowing what had happened inside.

Welk collapsed forward onto his knees and threw his arms around Cynyr's injured body, sobbing before he hit the ground. He pressed his face into Cynyr's chest, bawling.

Cynyr's ears stayed sadly back against his head, and he carefully wrapped one arm around Welk's shoulders. He put his chin gently on top of his adopted little brother's wet blonde head and closed his eyes, letting Welk cry against him.

Werr sat there for a long time, pondering what he had just said. Somewhere in the depths of his rattled thoughts, Werr realized that he had just pushed away his first friend since his childhood friends had left. He had demanded something completely ridiculous, and out of anger. Werr listened to Welk's crying. He listened to the rain splattering against the shambled floor of his home, which was mixed with his own tears hitting the soaked floor. He leaned back in the rocking chair and turned his face to the rainy skies, allowing it to wash away his tears.

Werr gripped the armrest of the rocking chair and stood, walking over to Heather's body again. What to do with it...Werr didn't like the prospect of just leaving it...he knelt down and gently removed the arrow before standing up again.

He followed Welk outstairs, and cleared his throat. "Um...I-I'm sorry for saying that, Welk...I don't blame you at all for any of this...I helped you of my own accord, that...that was my own decision. I don't want you to leave, especially since..." He trailed off. Especially since that would mean he'd be left entirely alone. Werr didn't want that. He cleared his throat again, looking down and asking quietly, "Will you help me bury her?"

Cynyr pressed Welk a little closer to his body, resisting the urge to look up and glare at Werr. Cynyr knew Werr had been the one that had made Welk cry this badly, and it was all Cynyr could do to not attack him. Werr hadn't spoke to the black half-cat, however. He had spoken to Welk, and Cynyr wouldn't answer for his friend.

Welk's cries slowly dwindled into rough whimpers, and he remained pressed against his older brother. Finally, he slowly pulled his head back and looked up at Werr through one glistening red eye. He stared at Werr for several long seconds, thinking about what he had just said, then softly spoke. "Okay..." he said, slowly pulling away from Cynyr and standing up. "I'll...I'll help you..." He stood there, looking exhausted and hurt, keeping his gaze on the ground.

"Thank you." Werr said softly. "There are shovels in the shed out back...she would have liked to be buried underneath our cherry tree, so...that's the best place, I think..." He turned and walked around the house, not looking up at Welk in fear that the half-cat would start crying again. If Welk started crying again, he'd start crying again too. A thought crossed his mind, reminding him of the danger still lurking. "We should hurry, though...those soldiers might call for backup." If any of them happened to survive, that was.

Welk nodded, then bent down next to Cynyr and asked "Will you be okay for a little while longer?"

Cynyr nodded once, tensely, saying "Yeah." The masked teenager looked down, not making eye contact with either of the two.

Welk stood up again, his ears still down. He followed Werr around and got the shovels, then proceeded to help the other teenager dig a grave under the said cherry tree. Once that was done, they carefully buried Heather in it, then stood there for several long seconds, not saying anything. "I...I really was sorry..." Welk finally said, refusing to look at Werr. "She was nice to me, even though she had just met me. I really was sorry. I mean...I never knew either of my parents, and I know I'll never be able to fully understand how you feel over this, but...I always thought that it was okay that I didn't know my mother and father. Because I had Cynyr. He is my family. I don't need a whole family to be happy. I...just needed someone, even if he wasn't related to me. And for a while there...I thought...that you...could've been..." He cut off, quickly running a hand over his face to stop himself from crying again.