The Forgotten Zodiac

Werr just smiled, knowing - at least to a small extent - how Cynyr felt right now. He didn't say anything, he just quietly acknowledged his friend's pain and tears, patting him on the back with his free hand. They sat like that for a very long time. "We should go back inside," Werr said quietly. "It's starting to snow again, and I think it's getting colder. I'd rather not freeze to death." He smiled a bit before finally pulling away from Cynyr, offering his hands to help him and Welk up.

Cynyr's carefully took his hand, allowing the boy to help him up, then reached up and pulled his mask off of his head completely, staring at it. "Hey, Welk?" he asked. "Do you know how to make fireballs?"

Welk nodded, saying "Yeah."

"Can you show me?" Cynyr asked, twisting his mask in his hands a few times.

"Sure!" Welk said, eager to show off. He created a fireball in each hand, smiling up at Cynyr. "Can you keep them going on the ground?" Cynyr asked.

Welk nodded, dropping the fireballs on the ground and keeping them both burning.

Cynyr watched the flames flicker, then, without pausing, dropped his mask into the flames.

"Cynyr!" Welk gasped. "What are you doing?" He reached out to pull the mask from the flames before it became too badly burned, but Cynyr stopped him. "No." he said, already turning to walk away. "Let it burn."

Welk watched him walk, then looked back down at the mask, watching it burn away into nothing. He beamed over at Werr, his eyes shinning brightly, then trotted over and took one of Cynyr's hands. The panther held it right back, glancing back at Werr with an unreadable emotion in his eyes. Slowly, the wind mage extended a hand towards the boy, wincing and frowning as if he had done something wrong. His hand twitched, wanting to return to his side, and for one horribly long second, he suddenly wished he hadn't burned his mask. Everyone was going to see him! All the guards, the people, everyone! He whimpered softly, closing his eyes and starting to withdraw his hand.

Werr didn't let Cynyr drop his hand. He grabbed it before it went out of his reach, smiling. "Let them stare if they want. This is who you are, Cynyr. Your past makes you stronger than I'll ever be. And I'm a king!" He shook his head, still hardly able to believe it. Everything was happening far too quickly, in his opinion. "We should get back to the others. I know Airlia is missing you, after all."

Cynyr let go of Welk's hand and wiped his eyes, then said "Yeah. I...I owe her some time as her...master." He carefully touched the holes in his face that worked as his nose, feeling the burns and scars around them, then gulped and said "Um...t-thank you for, um...everything, Werr. It...means a lot to me. You too, Welk."

Welk nuzzled him, then said "I don't care what you look like. You're still the same person to us."

Cynyr nodded once, then just followed them as they walked him along, back into the castle.

Werr just smiled at the both of them. Cici glowed in his other hand; she really wanted to say something, but she figured that now wasn't really the time. "Hey, can I show you two something?" He asked once they got back into the safety and warmth of the castle. He didn't wait for a response before pulling them towards the stairs near the door. He led them to the upper parts of the castle, through a long hallway and into a small room. It was simple and neat bedroom, with a single bed and dresser. It had obviously belonged to a child; toys were overflowing from a large box in the corner, and the dresser had only a couple drawers full of clothes. The rest had board games and books stuffed into them.

"This was my old room, before I was returned to my parents." Werr smiled as he looked at the room, remembering the late queen's kindness. If it weren't for her, he would have died long before. "It wasn't much, but this used to be my favorite place to be. It was great. I remember dinners; we would all sit around the dining room table...which is huge, by the way, I'll have to show you that later. Everyone acted like a family. The queen couldn't bear children of her own, that's why a council was made in the first place, but she and the king treated us all like we were their children. Even though Orion was the same age as the king," His smile turned wistful and he let his hand slip out of Cynyr's. "I don't remember much of my first couple years here, but I know that I loved it more than anything..." But then he was torn away and returned to people he was told were his parents. And now they were all dead. Werr couldn't help but think it, though he didn't say it out loud.

Welk trotted forward into the room, glancing around in awe. "This is so neat." he said, sitting down on the bed. Cynyr took panther form, instead choosing to just sit by Werr. Even in panther form, his face was a scarred-up mess and his cat nose was burned off just like in human form. He glanced up at Werr and gently rubbed his head against the boy's hand, looking a bit embarrassed, but for the most part, genuinely wanting to comfort the boy. "I'm sure it was wonderful." he said softly. "But I know, better than anyone, that there are things you can never reclaim. You have Welk and, from what he's told me, Briana offered you a home with her. It's better than nothing. You still have Welk, after all." It hadn't fully sunk in with him yet that he could be included in their friendship.

"You too, dummy." Welk said, rolling around on the bed.

Cynyr frowned at him, but sighed and just rubbed his head under Werr's hand comfortingly.

Werr scratched Cynyr behind the ears like he usually would for Welk. "Cynyr...did you not hear me before?" Werr said sadly. "I can't live with Briana. The coronation is two days from now. If none of the other council members show up before then, it'll be official. I'll be king. I won't be able to live with Briana. I was only able to go outside without those guards because I made Welk my personal knight. I...I have duties to attend to. Armies to rally, so we can continue to fight back against Storaph. There might even be times when I'm on the actual battlefield, for the sake of my soldiers. I can't do all that and lead a commoner's life. It would never work..."

Welk looked sad, then shook his head and said "No matter! I'll still be here with you, and Cynyr will too! He'd make a good knight, just like I would! We'll both stay here and be your friends for as long as you ever need us."

Cynyr looked down, then said "Yes. No matter where you go, Werr, I'll follow. I'll protect you, whether it's in the castle or on the battlefield. I have nothing else in my life besides you and Welk. I would...really like to stay with you." He looked away sheepishly, his ears flicking back against his head.

Welk charged over and hugged Werr tightly, moving one hand down to rub Cynyr's thick black fur.

Werr smiled a little, nodding as he was hugged by Welk. "Thank you, both of you. I don't recall any laws that prohibit a king from choosing two knights, though there was that old one that said something about three. So, Cynyr, I hereby make you my second knight and guard." He said, smiling. "Now then, what do you want to say, Cici?" He said, sensing his staff's restlessness.

"I want to tell you lot about what that thing was, like I tried to last night, but no one seems to want to pay attention to me." Cici grumbled unhappily. "I know I'm annoying, but this is kind of a matter of life and death, you know. Mostly death."

Welk grinned and immediately turned and hugged the panther so hard they both fell over. "Welk!" Cynyr yelped, flailing one front leg in the air as he struggled to get out from under the other half-cat. "Stop!"

Welk purred and hugged him tightly, then got off and stood up, watching as his scarred brother stood up shook himself. "Never. Again." he said, and Welk smiled. He looked over at Cici when the staff spoke and asked "What do you mean, life or death? What's wrong?"

Cynyr shook himself again, keeping his gaze focused securely on the ground, but his ears were perked up to catch their voices and words.

"Augh! This is what I was talking about!" Cici growled at them. "Obelisk! Haven't you been paying attention at all? Werr, take us back to the others, everyone needs to hear this, and I don't feel like repeating myself. It's a long story."

"O-okay," Werr blinked. "I guess we should go back to the others, then..."

"Please!"

Cynyr covered his face with one paw, not too surprised that Welk hadn't known, as usual, what anyone had been talking about. "Welk...I sometimes wonder how you manage to live through each day with your silly little mind."

"Easy." the blonde-haired boy answered, grinning.

Cynyr muttered something, but they didn't hear it.

Welk smiled, then took Werr's hand and said "Come on, then. Let's get your little light fairy thingy out where she can talk to everyone."

Cynyr wordlessly got up and followed, taking human form and keeping back a ways, mostly sticking to the more shadowy areas they passed. As they headed back to the others, they passed several servants and guards that all gasped at the sight of Cynyr's face. He took it for the first few times, but when it continued a few more times, he lifted a hand sadly and cupped it against the side of his face in embarrassment, flicking his ears back as he tried meekly to hide himself a bit.

Werr cast a pointed glare at those who gasped, though it didn't keep them from doing such. Regardless, they made it back to the others without further incident. The castle was large and seemed like it could be confusing, but Werr navigated through it with ease and confidence.

Cici didn't pause after they got into the infirmary. "Everyone! Listen up and listen good, because I'm only saying this once! You're all going to die, pretty much. Obelisk, that thing you saw, he's no laughing matter. At all.

"It was a very, very long time ago, when kingdoms were ruled and divided by masters of magic; either they had mastery over more than one of the magical segregations, or they were infinitely powerful in their natural powers. Light and Dark mages didn't exist then, such powers were exclusive to fairys and other folk like us. I was a young light fairy at the time, guarding the Fountain of Youth from those with evil intent. This was way before I got turned into a staff, by the way. Things were fairly peaceful; the kingdoms rarely disagreed, and when they did, they simply sent champions to represent them on the battlefield. Whichever champion won, that kingdom won the arguement. It was a little silly sometimes, there was once a fight over which kingdom had the right to a tiny little piece of farmland on the coast. Or maybe it was in the mountains, I'm not--"

"Cici, get back to the story," Werr frowned at her.

"Oh, right. Anyways, as I was saying...things were great. But then there was a bit of a scuffle between some of my fairy sisters, and spells flew. An older couple of humans were walking along, minding their own business, when a couple of the spells backfired and hit them. It was kind of bad...well, really bad. The humans were accidentally given light and dark magics. There wasn't really any way to take it away, either. The woman went on to have children, so on and so forth. Light magic spreads throughout the world, things work out nice enough on that side.

"On the other hand, though, the man was given dark magic. He was quick to master it; a natural, really. He came to visit me every now and then, when his kids fell ill or when he just needed someone to chat with. He lived nearby, so it was no hassle for him, and I kind of liked him; I knew he had dark magic, but he was a nice enough guy. I didn't sense any evil in him. That was, until one day...pretty much everything went south. One of the kingdoms had been secretly training and raising armies upon armies. Human greed had gotten the better of that king, and he set out on a conquest to rule as much land as he could. There was war...well, more like a massacre. The other kingdoms hadn't expected such a thing. They fell far too easily.

"Now, the dark magic human had been living happily with his wife. His kids had grown older and he was a grandfather by this time. It was...very unfortunate, the day that massacre happened. The warriors who attacked killed everyone in sight; he hid. His wife, however, tried to save some children in town. She was beaten brutally and murdered. After the warriors passed, he came up to the fountain, sobbing.

"He asked me why I stood by and watched as his wife had been murdered. He had been blinded; he couldn't see that I was injured myself. Too injured to move. The warriors had tried to get to the fountain, and I had barely managed to fight them off. The old man, he...he reached into the fountain and tore out the Crystal of Youth, the thing that gave the fountain it's properties. I couldn't stop him. Before I knew it, he had swallowed the crystal and claimed immortality.

"Of course, the fairies were furious with me. The human grew in power and in darkness every day. It was getting to be too much; they sealed the man away within the very core of the earth. He stayed there for centuries upon centuries. He tried to break out once, too. He drew himself out of a fissure, his skin blackened and shriveled, his body twisted and deformed by the pressure and heat of the earth's core. He called himself Obelisk. That day, when he nearly broke free, a lot of fairies died. Good fairies. I can only imagine how much power he gained from being locked away; I wasn't at the fight, of course. But I heard it. The whole world did.

"Anyways, he was sealed away again, and this time, one of the fairies made it so that his powers would decay over time. I don't know how he broke out this time, but that was definitely him. That spell that we saved Cynyr from? That would have returned all of Obelisk's old power to him. That man that jumped into it was riddled with dark magic, but he must have been only a magician; it still returned some power, but not all.

"The moral of the story is that you all are going to die, because there's only one light fairy left. And she happens to be immortalized in the form of a wooden staff, her powers reduced to little more than a shield and armor!" Cici grew snappish again.

Silence reigned for a long time afterwards. It was broken in an usual way; Luna laughed, her voice tinkly and soft. "My little light fairy," she said. "you are thinking only in the terms of your world. Amnairus has the power to return you to your original form, easily. My world, however, is dying and all power is being used to stop the process until he..." She pointed at Cynyr. "...fixes it."

"Me?!" he said, furrowing his brow. "I've never even heard of Amnairus before now! How am I supposed to help something I don't know about?"

"I do not know." Luna said. "But you are the only one here with a star-shaped mark on your left hand, are you not?"

He shoved his said hand into his pocket.

"I saw that." Luna said, smiling coyly. "Well, you and that mark are going to repair my world and in return, I shall return Cici to her rightful body. Sound good to you?"

He glared.

"Then we are agreed." the anthro leopard said. She hadn't bothered to switch back to her regular form, since this was her natural one. She was more comfortable in this form, plus, she was beautiful. Two things she liked.

"No, we're not." Cynyr snapped. "What all does this entail?"

"I do not know for certain." Luna said. "All I know is the place to go to for you to work. Nanilai Viha Mortala. Otherwise known to my people as 'The Place Where It Shall Be'. It is where my kind used to pass between this and our world, but it was sealed to us through something in this world. Ever since then, sunlight beings have been unable to come back and forth. Thus, the world dying. We have not died yet only because many, many sunlight beings like me live there and have given up their magic for the world to live. For years, we have been trapped. Then I broke through to find help."

Cynyr thought about it, then said "So basically, what your world needs is a new way to come to this world? A new path between them?"

Luna shrugged.

"That's a load of crap!" Cynyr shouted. "How do you expect me to do something like that?!"

"I do not know, but you must." the leopard said, flicking her long tail lightly.

"That mark?" Airlia blinked. "I gave him that mark when he became my master. Is it really that important?"

"Yes! If I can be returned to my usual self, maybe...just maybe, I can lock Obelisk away again..." Cici murmured quietly. "It's the only way. The decay on his powers is wearing off, the sacrifice was just a method of speeding it up. The snow outside? He hates the sun, and winter is the only season with that much less of it."

"That doesn't make sense, though," Werr frowned. "Seasons are made by the rotation of the earth around the sun, aren't they?"

"He's slowed that down, Werr. Sped it along through the other seasons, but he's slowed it in the winter. Why else would the world be dying? The growing seasons are all skewed because of that. It never had anything to do with mages. It was all Obelisk. If he gets any more powerful, he'll lock this world in a state of eternal winter. People will die of starvation and cold if we can't get rid of him. That is, they'll die if Obelisk doesn't kill them first." Cici tutted. "Getting me back into my natural form will definitely give us an edge. There's no certainty that we'll succeed, but we'll have better chances. We have to leave as soon as possible."

"Oh..." Werr sat down on a bed, letting out a sigh.

"Oh. Well, it's okay, Luna can carry me." Cici twittered.

"Well, sorry to ruin your plans, but I'm not leaving." Cynyr said. "My place is wherever Welk and Werr are, and if they're here, I refuse to leave."

"You have no choice!" Luna said.

"Oh, and you're making my decisions for me?" Cynyr snarled. "Sorry, but-...no, I'm not sorry. I know for a fact that Welk will stay with Werr, and there's no way I'm leaving both of them here just to tramp off and save some doomed world from demise." He snorted, frowning at Luna, who shook her head. "Then you would doom, not just my world, but this one and Tartarus as well to die?"

The black panther was silent.

Luna shook her head again, looking away.

"Temperamental toddlers." Forin stated bluntly, flopping onto his back again.

Time crawled past. There was a great deal of quiet from certain members of the group; Diana, even after she woke up, didn't speak once. Seria could check her vocal cords for a seal of any kind. Of course, she would find nothing. She was just perfectly still and quiet most of the time, hardly eating anything and clinging to Forin and Luen as if she would die if she weren't holding at least one of their hands at all times.

Vidia was mostly quiet too, still getting used to being around so many people after years and years of solitude. She mostly slept, though, regaining much-needed strength.

Werr tried his best not to make a show about his coronation coming up, but it was extremely difficult. Almost every minute of the preceding day, maids flocked around him like bees, taking measurements for his clothes and making sure he was clean and well-fed and so on. The coronation would be public, of course. He had to look perfect.

Werr was taking it pretty hard, too. If he didn't have Welk and Cynyr both around him constantly, he would probably have slipped into depression. Thoughts of the late council filled his mind. He missed them greatly. If any of them were here, none of this would be happening to him, either. If he had been able to get to them on time...

But there was nothing that could be done, and before Werr knew it, it was the day of the coronation. The town had been notified earlier in the morning; Werr was a little tense about the entire thing, but it would be nothing, he was assured. He would have his knights at his side the entire time.

"You don't have to say anything. Or do anything. Just stand there and try not to look too hyper," Werr explained as he finished dressing into his kingly garb. It was a red shirt trimmed with gold, along with matching pants. The coat was long and furred, a gold-colored velvet. The crown had been designed to fit his head; it was as regal as any other past crown, made from gold with red trimmings and amethyst jewels. Red and purple, Alastor's signet colors. Of course, Werr wouldn't wear the crown until he was officially made king.

"Tell me again why I have to wear this stupid armor?" Cynyr growled, lifting a paw to scratch at the lightweight black armor that had been made for him. Welk was outfitted in similar attire, except his was rusty gold colored with red tints. The armor was made to change as they did, whether they were in human form or cat. Currently, both were in cat form. The armor consisted of armor plates that rested on their shoulders and were buckled to metal pieces over their chests and backs. The metal moved with the flow of their steps when they walked. Since they were half-cats, the outfits had to be able to move with their extreme agility.

"Because we're knights." Welk said, tossing his brother a glare. "We have to look the part as much as anyone else."

Cynyr grumbled darkly, fidgeting around nervously. He was badly on-edge due to the fact that he was about to be seen without his mask by hundreds of people. He wanted to crawl into under something and hide, but he wasn't going to leave Welk and Werr here, alone. He was a guardian as much as Welk was, after all.

A visor suddenly tipped down over his face, neatly covering his nose and cheeks in a sheet of black metal.

Welk smiled at the confused look on his brother's face, then said "Me and Werr thought you'd like that. It rests around your head and fits snugly, plus it covers your nose. Er, where your nose would be. It still shows your mouth and chin and your neck and stuff, but at least it covers your forehead, nose and some of your cheeks. And it looks good." He grinned, then scurried back to his place on Werr's right, leaving Cynyr to repeatedly touch the visor covering his face. Finally, he just shook himself and waited for Werr to be finished. When the boy was, the two half-cats on either side of him stood up in unison and started walking when he did.

Werr led them to a side door of the throne room. He waited until there was the blast of several trumpets signaling his arrival before heading in. The throne room was, of course, filled with commoners come to see the young king-to-be. While some of them were surprised to see that he already had knights, others questioned why he was already holding a scepter if he wasn't even king yet. Though really, Cici was hardly a scepter.

Werr took his place in spite of the murmurings, sitting neatly on the throne. He forced a happy, calm smile onto his face, though it was obvious that he was upset about something. Of course, the king had died. Everyone was upset about that much.

"Presenting Werr Grehi, the eighth and final council member of Alastor, son of Heather and Darius Grehi, and rightful heir to the throne." The coordinator announced over the crowd, which quickly hushed itself. The ceremony was long and somewhat boring, as Werr figured it would be. Then, at long last, there was the anointing with oil and the vows to 'protect justice, peace and all of Alastor with sword and wit to the end of his reign'. Werr agreed to the vows, watching as the crown was brought forth.

"Then Werr Grehi, with great respect and honor, I hereby pronounce thee--"

Boom.

A huge explosion rocked the castle and one of the walls blew in on itself.

Immediately, Welk and Cynyr had leapt to their paws, both of them darting in front of the throne. Most of their friends were scattered throughout the crowd, though some were not present. Luen and Diana were both sleeping in a room further inside the castle, unaware of the goings on. Luen had asked Forin go to the ceremony so the Tartaran could describe it for the wolfling later, since he was going to stay with Diana.

"Look, brother!" a singsong voice called from the smoke of the explosion. "New play toys! I'm so excited! Our last toys died much too easily, don't you agree?"

"I do, brother." another voice that was identical agreed. "I get to pick which people we take this time, though. You got to pick the last time."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Fine! See if I care! But I want one of the cats. The black one. He matches me better."

"Okay. But I get the king guy."

"Agreed."

Two twin figures stepped into the room, looking around eagerly. They were mirror replicas of each other and were both male, looking to be around Jag's age. One was wearing a white outfit and had white hair while the other was wearing a black outfit and had black hair. The one with the white clothes had black eyes and the one with the black clothes had white eyes. Other than that, their colors were opposites. The white-dressed one giggled and said "Oh yes! I want that black cat! He'll be my new friend, yes he will. Isn't that right, Light?"

The black-dressed one nodded and said "Ever true, Dark. I want to experiment on the king guy. His insides will look good strung out over the walls. I can even keep him alive while I pull out his organs! Isn't that amazing, brother?"

Dark chuckled, saying "You always did love the color red, especially when it was splattered over the walls and ceiling."

Light laughed and said "You understand me so well."

Light's black hair covered his left eye while Dark's white hair covered his right eye.