The Forgotten Zodiac

Forin waited a long time before even looking at Luen's hand. It was terrible; he had found two things to be afraid of in that one day, not too long ago. Firstly was that ridiculously bad aura that he had felt in the castle. The second was light magic. He had never felt light magic before. Never. Light mages were so few and far between, for all his years of living on this world, he had never encountered any light magic. So this one spell, that had taken his body and placed it somewhere else entirely, had been damaging to his body, his magic, and his mind. Damaging...more like mortally wounding.

"I...I know..." He mumbled, looking down. "I'm being ridiculous..." He told himself firmly to calm down, that it wouldn't happen again, that Luen would keep his word, but...it was hard. He reminded himself of how he was before all this; quiet, calm, a little on the angry side, but still able to fight. And that one spell had knocked it all out of him.

"No." Luen said softly, his hand ever waiting. "You're not being ridiculous. I can never understand what it felt like for you, but I understand that it was bad." He hesitated, then said "You remember what I was like after I had...rescued Nate? I thought I would never go back to normal. The memory of...k-killing...those guards still haunts me, but...I don't let it take over again. That fear. You are a proud being, Forin, and to me, you always will be. Even now, I see it. Trust me." His scarred fingers waited patiently for a hand to hold.

"Let me be your rock. To build you back up and give you something to stand firmly upon."

He was ready to wait for an eternity if that was what it took to convince Forin that he truly meant it.

"Trust me."

It was a long moment before Forin looked at Luen's hand, considering things. He could spend the rest of his life hiding under a couch (that smelled faintly of mold), or he could let Luen help him go back to normal. He reached out his hand, but he hesitated before putting it into Luen's.

In the back of his head, his true form laughed at him. The seal that Forin had placed on it was ever weakened by Obelisk's tampering of it. With all technicality, it was talking to himself, but Forin couldn't help but ask why it was laughing. 'You're a fool,' It responded. Of course, his true form was locked up with all of his hate. That side of him was naturally even more despised and despiteful than he was now. 'You think he likes you? You think that any of them like you? They're just like everyone else. They only want you for your power. My power.'

Shut it. Forin dropped his hand into Luen's, crawling out from underneath the couch. I'm tired of things manipulating me inside my head.

'Tell him then, by all means. Tell him what you really think. I am you, after all. The real you.'

...

'Ha! That's what makes you weak, see? You're blind!' His true self laughed away. Forin ignored it, putting his other hand in Diana's.

"We can make things better," She said, smiling happily. Forin allowed a small smile to hint at his taut lips, but it spread no further.

Luen's rough fingers held gently to Forin's, sliding between all of his fingers and holding his hand gently as he helped him out from under the couch. He didn't say anything. He just smiled softly, nodding once to the ancient creature of Tartarus. He led him towards the door, pausing when he felt Forin tense. "It's okay." the wolfling soothed. "It won't hurt you." He gently pulled Forin's hand out into the light, holding their twinned hands there together. "It's okay." he said, running his thumb over one of Forin's paled scars on his hand. "You're safe." He tugged, very softly, on the boy's arm, inching him closer to the door, carefully and cautiously, always reassuring him that it was okay.

Forin didn't struggle much until the sunlight hit him full-on as they stepped out of the door way. He stopped, flinching in mingled fear and expectation of pain, but he relaxed once his subconscious was assured that there was nothing to be afraid of. He looked around, and then at Luen. "Thanks..." He mumbled. "It was...agony..." His grip on Luen's hand tightened for a moment, but he forced himself to relax again. He looked down at the scars that Luen had been rubbing. "Almost as agonizing as that, but I guess this was more damaging to my powers...I...never told you how I got those. I think I mentioned it before, but..." He looked up. The others had walked ahead, of course.

Luen nodded slightly, then gave Forin's hand a gently squeeze. "It's okay." he said softly. He looked down at Forin's hand and the scars it held, then said "You mentioned them, yes, but you never told how you got them. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, though. I've never been the prying type." He let go of Diana's hand, replacing it with his tail, then held up his free hand and sent a gentle cascade of snowflakes into the air. They fell slowly, drifting down to dust over his shoulders and into his white hair. He brushed his hand over the small piles of snow that had fallen on his shoulders, pushing them to the sides and letting them fall behind him. "I'll listen if you want to talk, but I won't make you speak." the frail wolfling said, rubbing his thumb over Forin's scars again.

"I've never told anyone..." Forin said thoughtfully, wondering if he should or not. His true self was saying something, but he ignored it. "I feel like I should..." He sighed distantly, letting Luen and Diana lead him along as he took a mental trip down into his memory.

"It wasn't too long ago, actually...maybe ten, twenty years. Some religious group of some kind...extremists, probably...they took it upon themselves to give their own punishment to a creature of Tartarus. As if we aren't punished enough. They had heard stories of me, somehow...a creature of Tartarus, summoned by the anguish of females. They kidnapped a woman and beat her within an inch of her life. When that didn't work, they took her newborn child and slayed it before her. I came then, only to be knocked unconscious. When I awoke again, I was chained to a table. The woman was in a different room, but I could hear her crying.

"Then they came...they sliced open my arms and poured holy water on my wounds...however ridiculous it sounds, it worked. It was like something was eating my arms from the inside out...three days. They did my legs, my chest, and they would have done my neck, but I was sent back to Tartarus before they could. I can only assume that the woman killed herself, which sent me back, but..." He looked over the mostly-healed scars on his arms. "Humans...I'm so hated by them, and I don't know why...but I hate them back. I...I don't hate Diana. But others...and...Werr. Werr, and that stupid staff. I hate him." He looked down, giving off the appearance of a normal, albeit depressed, young man.

"I'm sorry," Diana patted his hand. She hadn't really been listening, distracted by the snowflakes, but Forin looked really sad and upset.

Luen listened quietly, once in a while flicking his ears up to catch a certain tone or word, but other than that, just walking and listening intently. When Forin finished, the wolfling thought over what had been said to him, then spoke.

"I'm not going to tell you not to hate Werr. I'm not going to tell you that I understand what you told me. I understand it, yes, but only mentally. I can't physically understand it. I've never felt pain like that. I don't hate Werr. I won't let you hurt him, either. But I'm not going to tell you to not hate him." He paused, still holding Forin's hand, then gently pulled the creature of Tartarus over to him, wrapping his arms around him in a hug. He put a hand on the back of Forin's head, lowering the summoned creature's forehead down to his shoulder and putting his own head against Forin's neck.

"I'll never hate you." he murmured. So soft. So quiet. "Even if you were to kill every being in this world. Even if you were to kill everyone here and were to harm me in the process, I would never hate you. Friends are not supposed to hate each other.

"You are my friend."

Forin stood there stiffly for a few moments. He had been hugged before, but to be honest, the first time he had been hugged (by anyone other than his summoners) was by Luen in that forest, not so long ago. Forin relaxed gradually, then did something unexpected.

He cried. It was nothing too bad; just one or two dry sobs, but he did cry. It was the first time he had done such a thing in front of anyone, much less two people, or even on someone's shoulder. "Thank you..." He said quietly. "I've said it before, but...you're the first person to ever really say that. Excluding my summoners..."

Luen closed his eyes, knowing that this moment was tender and could easily be broken. "I've never made friends easily." he murmured. "At first, I only came with this group because I had no other way to survive. I had no friends. My only living family member hates me. I don't make friends easily and I have a hard time really trusting people. You saw how long it took me to trust Nate. Well, I trust you. When I say you are my friend, I'm not saying it to make you feel better. I'm saying it because I mean it. You, Forin, creature of Tartarus, are a friend to Luen Faolin. You, Nate Furhblast and Diana Harelt are my only real friends, the people I trust explicitly. Without question." He stroked the back of Forin's head once, then said "I wouldn't hesitate to lay down my life for any of you, either. Good friends do that, you know, though of course I would never ask you to do that for me." He hugged Forin a little tighter, using his free hand to gently touch Diana on her shoulder.

"I would do the same for you!" Diana said at once, almost fearfully, as though she were afraid that Luen would get hurt now. "I don't want you to get hurt, Luen, and if it means me and Forin get hurt too, we don't care!" She grabbed his hand, looking up at him and nodding furiously. She wrapped her arms around their legs, beaming. "You two are my favorite people."

Forin smiled a bit and nodded. "I promised I would never hurt you...I...already messed that up. So...I have to make that right. I'll protect you again." He then pulled away from Luen. "We should catch up with the others. We don't want to worry them..."

Luen smiled and let the creature of Tartarus go, touching his shoulder gently. He didn't say anything against Forin's words, okay with letting him say what he wanted. He bent down and scooped Diana up, lifting her up onto his shoulders, with her legs coming down on either side of his neck and down near his chest. He held onto her knees, keeping her safely on his shoulders. He adjusted his balance with the little girl on his shoulders, then trotted to catch up to the others. He smiled over at Forin, then looked forward, his ears perked up lightly.

Forin's smile grew as Diana squealed with delight, wrapping her arms around Luen's head to keep herself from falling. Forin followed. The others had stopped and waited around the middle of town, but it wasn't really their intention to. Werr was looking around. He had been a bit suspicious before, but now it was confirmed; his little town was now a ghost town. There was literally no one here. Either they all had fled after the fiasco with his mother, or something else had driven them out. It was unusual, and highly suspicious, and Werr was investigating now; he was moving from house to house, poking around and trying to find any clues.

Welk was in cat form, shadowing Werr as the boy moved around. He sniffed carefully at buildings or objects, his sensitive nose picking up different sorts of smells and scents. "Some of these scents aren't too old." he said. "Probably about...a week old. Not very long." He lifted his head, glancing around. "I wonder why they all left?" he said. "I knew some of these people. I wasn't friends with them, but I knew them. Elo and Dru? Daain? They're all...gone." He shivered, his blonde-fur fluffing out, then slowly laying flat. "The whole town. Gone." he said, digging his claws into the ground.

"It doesn't look like they were taken by force," Werr frowned thoughtfully, poking around another house. "Things have been packed, there's only non-perishable foods left...like they plan to come back. It's strange..." He went out and told the others. "It's like they all planned a massive, town-wide trip and...just left."

"I don't think anyone would logically do that," Nate frowned.

Then they heard the roar.

It was loud and long, ringing out powerfully over the land. A heavy, throated call that sounded like it could only have come from an enormous animal.

Welk and Seria both flinched, crouching low to the ground in terror. They glanced around rapidly, trying to figure out what had made that sound.

Luen nearly fell down in shock, but Forin caught him at the last second, helping him right himself without dropping Diana.

"What was that?!" Welk said, shaking himself once the roaring had died down.

Nate was apparently frozen. His eyes were wider than Werr had ever seen them, and he had gone stark white. He slowly turned towards the direction of the roaring. "Dragon," He breathed.

Then Nate took off down the road, running faster than anyone had ever seen him run. If the dragon realized they were here, that he was here, there would definitely be trouble. Nate wasn't running because he was afraid, though; he was running to distance himself from the others, in the cast that the dragon had noticed them after all.

A dragon going after someone else was a lot easier to get away from, rather than said dragon chasing you directly.

"Nate? Nate!" Seria and Luen cried out, not knowing what to do. Seria pulled her bag from her shoulder, saying "Everyone find cover. He said that roaring was a dragon. Whatever you do, don't come out."

Then she was in cat form and racing after the dragonian.

When she caught up to him, she didn't bother with trying to call out to him. She just tackled him, knocking them both off-balance and into the bushes. They came to a stop under a stout tree whose thick branches formed a sort of den under the leaves. When she stopped coughing, Seria found herself sitting right on top of Nate, who was on his back under her. She took human form, putting a hand over her mouth and coughing again, then said "Nate, what's wrong with you?! Don't run off like that!"

"Wh-what are you thinking?! Seria!" Nate shouted, trying to push her off. "I'm half-dragon, they hate my kind! If it's going after anyone, it's going to be me, and so help me, I'm not about to let it kill you all too!" He struggled to throw her off. Despite the fact that Seria was pretty light in her human form, he didn't want to hurt her, and she had kind of knocked the wind out of him with that tackle.

Seria wasn't about to be moved from the awkward position she had landed Nate in. She locked her legs firmly against his sides, straddling him, and dug her claws into his shirt, determined that he would not get up. "No, Nate!" she said firmly, hissing at him. "I know what it means for you if that dragon were to find you, but I'm not about to let you go off by yourself! If that dragon were to find you and kill you, we would never know what became of you. And I don't want to lose you like that." Her voice grew quieter as she spoke. She slowly loosened her hold on his shirt, just resting her hands on his chest. "You mean a lot to me, Nate Furhblast." she said. "I...I can't just let you go."