The Forgotten Zodiac

"I see...I never had a chance to familiarize myself with dragon culture, so forgive my ignorance. There has to be one out there somewhere," Nate said quietly. "I wish it were that simple...and I almost wish that more dragons trusted me now. Humans could learn a lot from your kind. Such age gives incredible wisdom. I feel ashamed of humankind, as well. You must already know that dragon hunting is a prestigious sport that 'brave and daring' heroes pursue. There are many legends of knights slaying what they call beasts. I wonder now what such things are like on your side."

"Yes, I know of the sport that my kind calls 'daneth-myrda'. Dragon-murder." the dragon said. "A dragon such as myself is sought out by foolish young men and women that think they are doing the land a great favor when really they are doing your world a great harm. A single dragon scale, used by the right hands and made in the correct potion, can give life to a single dying person, no matter the injury. And the human race has killed nearly all of us off. In doing so, they kill themselves. There are many people out there who could've used a dragon scale to heal their dying loved ones. But they'll never have it, for the scales only work under two conditions. The first is that the dragon must, obviously, be alive. The second is that the dragon itself must take the scale off. If you were to take one from me, it would not heal whomever you meant it for. Daneth-myrda is a sport for fools." He blinked, moving his ears a bit, then stilled.

Nate blinked in surprise. "That...that's incredible. Humans are fools!" He nearly snarled again, looking dismayed somewhat. He calmed down quickly, letting out a heavy sigh. "There isn't much we can do about that, though. If humans knew of such a thing, dragon hunting would increase tenfold. Dragon hides are already worth hundreds in city markets, they would just as quickly be priced to the millions. Humans wouldn't care if it worked or not, at least for a short while. And before they realized what they had done wrong, it would be far too late. Even I would be hunted, though my scales possess no such powers." He paused for a moment, then shook his head. "I won't allow that to happen. I'll take this knowledge with me to the grave. Hated I may be, but I don't care." Another short pause, his mind rolling over this new information. "What's your name? I'm Nate Furhblast, and this is Seria."

The dragon sighed a steamy, smoky breath, then said "To your ears, my natural name would be long and ridiculous. I will translate it as best as I can." He was silent for a long moment, then said "I would be known to you as Zephyr Shinning-Scales." He lifted his head from the ground and shook it, then said "That is the best I can do for translating. It has five more parts and I doubt you'd like to hear them all. Dragons have very long nam-" He suddenly cut off and threw back his head, thundering out a horribly loud roar.

Seria fell backwards onto her rear, her arm wrapped firmly around the spearhead, which was now out of the dragon's flesh and safely pressed to her chest.

Nate covered his ears, as the dragon was literally right next to him, and that loud of a roar would be damaging to anyone's ears. When he calmed down, Nate slowly lowered his hands, his ears ringing a bit. "Well...I can't imagine how much that must have hurt...300 years, you said?" He sighed. "Good job, Seria. Do you think you can heal him?" He asked, though it might have been a silly question. He wasn't too sure, though; she couldn't heal Forin, after all.

Seria wiped sweat from her brow and threw the bloody spearhead to the side, saying "Of course. The real trouble was getting that sucker out of the way. Now that it's gone, I have more space to work with." She moved forward again, sticking her hands into the wound and using her spells to repair his bleeding flesh.

Zephyr let out a deep breath of pain and said "300 years, give or take a few individual years. What else was I to do? I couldn't get the blasted thing out and no one would stick around long enough to help me."

Seria starting to carefully fold the dragon's skin and scales back over the wounded area, healing it piece by tiny piece.

"I know." Nate nodded sadly. "Well, we're here now. It's better than nothing." He shrugged a bit, looking out at the cave entrance. Light had started filtering in, signaling dawn. "Oh, crap...the others will be tracking us down soon. That's not good. We should probably leave soon...I would much rather stay here and talk more, but..." He sighed unhappily. "Unfortunately, this land is in a time of great war. Our mission is to stop it before it destroys much else, though I often have doubts on whether or not such a thing can be accomplished."

Zephyr looked sad at the thought of losing his only good company in about a thousand years. He tilted his head down to watch Seria, who was busy repairing the last bits of his scales. When she was done, there was no hint of the wound that had plagued the dragon for so long. "There." she said, pulling back. "That should be better now."

The dragon stood up, testing his limb on that side of his body, since the spear had gone in right near his forelimb. He walked to the entrance and plunged out, taking to the air and flying around a few times before coming to a booming landing back at the cave. "Tell her that she did very well." the dragon said. "I am greatly pleased by her efforts. It has been a long time since I was free of pain. But if I cannot do a certain thing, this will have been for naught." He closed his eyes, concentrating. His entire body seemed to shrink, and it only took them a few seconds to realize that he was shrinking.

Within a few seconds, he was perfect at eye-level with Nate.

There he stopped, blinking open his eyes and smiling. "Much better." he said, smiling toothily at them.

Nate grinned. "He says you did a good job, Seria." He nodded towards her before looking back at Zephyr. His smile saddened again. "When this is all over, I'll find you again. I swear it." He smiled a little more. "In the meantime, you should try and find yourself a female. Who knows, maybe you'll find someone prettier than Seria here. Which would be a good catch, indeed." He chuckled.

Zephyr lowered his head, tilting his long ears back, then said "I know it would be dangerous for me, but...do you think I could go with you? Please, there's nothing else I would want. Love holds no interest for me at the moment. I don't want to be lonely again, and if you leave, what's to say that I won't be killed by some rogue knight in the meantime? Here, look." He shrunk further, until he was small enough to sit in the palm of Nate's hand. "See?" he squeaked up at the dragonian. "I can be as small as you need or as big as you need. I'm faster than any horse alive and I can fly. Don't leave me here, I can't take the solitude anymore!" He sounded desperate. Nate could hear the sheer longing in his voice.

Seria bent down and scooped the tiny dragon into her hands, shocked that something that had started out SO big had turned into something that small. She looked over at Nate, ultimately waiting for his reaction.

Nate blinked, then smiled. "You're right, it will be dangerous...for all of us. But I'm not going to deny another ally." He ran his finger gently along the tiny dragon's body, grinning. "This'll be fun. Goodness, I have so many questions...and hey, maybe we could figure out a way to teach you how to speak Gregorian. Or maybe just write." He looked up at Seria and nodded. "He's coming with us. Welk will be excited," He laughed, remembering the hyperactive half-cat's reaction to the discovery that Nate was a Dragonian. He then reminded himself that Seria was very possibly traumatized by what all had happened. He put a hand on her shoulder, smiling gently.

Seria just nodded, not understanding anything that had come out of the dragon's mouth and having only heard Nate's half of the conversations. She held the little dragon carefully in her hands, then let him go when he struggled. He jumped out of her hands and flew circles around them, endlessly thanking Nate for letting him come with them. He returned to a bigger size, the one where he was a little taller than Nate. "Thank you so much!" he said again, sounding joyful. "I can't believe you're actually letting me come with you! This is much different than what I'm used to hearing from people. Oh, please help yourselves to any of the treasure in my cave. I'll never use it, so you might as well take what you like. I imagine that the gold coins will help with buying shelter and food for yourselves at any towns we encounter."

Seria slowly walked over to a wall and sat down against it. She was not afraid of the dragon, but she wasn't feeling good. She hadn't eaten anything for a while now and it was tolling on her. Her hunger combined with the healings spells she had needed to use had drained her completely.

"Yes, they would, actually." Nate blinked, nodding quickly. He pulled out his near-empty money bag and filled it with gold coins, then stuck a few down his boots. After all, it was no good to keep all of the money in such an obvious place. Pick-pockets were hard to avoid sometimes. He then walked back and nodded at the other two. "Let's go, then. Back to town." He walked to the entrance of the cave, dimly realizing how far they would have to walk, and how tired he was. He didn't get much sleep last night, and his sprained leg was starting to ache again. He couldn't bring himself to bother Seria about it, though. She looked exhausted as it was.

Zephyr watched Nate move around, then said "Please, allow me to carry you both back to your companions. It would be nothing for me to hold both of you." He grew in size until he was as big as a large horse, shaking his horns. "Come, come!" he said, rather excitedly. "This will be a new experience for me." He carefully laid down on his belly so that the two people would have an easier time getting on his scaly back.

Seria watched him, wondering what he was doing since she couldn't understand him. She wearily got up and moved to the treasure scattered around the room, proceeding to fill her own pockets with the coins. She figured that they would need as many as they could get. Then she moved over to Nate and slowly twinned her fingers into his hand, smiling at him.

Nate grinned widely at Seria as she took his hand. He promptly scooped her up and set her gently on the dragon's back, wasting no time in climbing on behind her. "Hold on tight!" He laughed, excited. The last time he had flown had been with Jag, and that one hadn't gone so well. But not even Gurushi would have the guts to mess with a dragon, no matter what size.

Zephyr got up and walked to the front of the cave, increasing his size a little bit more so he wouldn't have trouble flying. He unfolded his wings and readied himself, then leaped out of the cave, warning "Hang on!"

Then he flapped his wings and they rocketed up into the sky.

He coasted high over the trees, his foresty scales gleaming brightly in the sunlight. Seria had nearly screamed when he had first jumped out of the cave, but now she looked around with awe in her eyes. She had never flown before, so she had pressed back fully against Nate, trusting that he wouldn't let her fall. They could both feel the dragon below them shifting and adjusting as he flew onwards, constantly moving with the wind around him. He flapped his huge wings, letting out a softer roar as he moved through the clouds. "It would not be good for me to land right in the town." he called. "Your friends do not yet know that I am not an aggressive dragon. I will land near the town and take my smallest size so that you can carry me there and introduce me without them fearing me."

"That would be wise, my friend!" Nate called over the wind, holding tightly onto Seria, his legs locked around Zephyr tightly to support them both. He reached out a hand and trailed it through the clouds as they passed, a wide smile on his face. Dragons belonged in the air, and that part of him always longed to return here. Above the clouds, soaring without a second thought. Most dragons wouldn't think twice about it, but most dragons were still capable of flying.

Zephyr nodded once, then curved upwards, rising high up into the clouds, where not even those below could hope to see them. He moved into a side-to-side motion, swaying through the clouds as the wind whistled past his long ears. Soon enough, they had neared the town. The dark green dragon stalled for a moment, warning Nate of what was to come next, then tucked his wings in and dipped downwards sharply. He had to drop fast to lessen the risk of any of the others spotted them.

Seria did scream at this, scared beyond measure.

Zephyr neared the ground and threw out his wings, giving them three powerful flaps and bringing them to a graceful, hovering halt. He landed on the ground, bending down on one leg to let them off.

Nate climbed off, breathless and laughing. He helped Seria off, grinning at her expression. "Not used to flying, I take it." He chortled, looking over at Zephyr. "Many thanks. You saved us quite a bit of walking. I didn't realize how far I had walked last night..." He said thoughtfully, then shook his head. It didn't matter. Seria was safe, and they had a great new ally and friend. "Come, we should take you to the others before they go anywhere. You might not like a few of them...but they've done us great favors in the past. And we all work towards the same goal, mostly, so..."

The dragon shook his neck, folding his wings neatly against his back. "After my years upon years of solitude, I doubt there will be anyone I don't like in your group. Anyone would be a thrill for me to meet." He smiled, then turned into his smallest size, which meant he could fit perfectly in one of Nate's hands. He flapping his tiny wings and flew to Nate's front pocket, scrambling inside. Nate felt him wiggle around inside for a moment, then his little head popped out. "I must say, this is a very nice pocket." he squeaked, holding onto the rim of the pocket with his now-tiny front paws. "Shall we go and meet your comrades, then?"