The Forgotten Zodiac

Jag hadn't noticed the girl as he kept playing his music, started to go faster as his music hit a new point. The music that followed was so quick and haunted that the listeners struggled to pick out individual parts. It was like several different violins were playing all at the same time, when really, only the one was there. Finally, Jag slowed the song down into a wavering last note that tendriled out into the air and echoed for a moment after he stopped playing. He lowered the violin, his blue hair falling lightly in front of his eyes. He wordlessly started cleaning the instrument, moving his long, tufted tail around to curl around his leg.

Zephyr returned a few moments later, his belly full, licking his mouth to clean the blood from his snout. He had heard the music from his place in the forest and he had listened while he had finished his meal. He curled up nearby in the grass, his emerald green scales blending in nicely with the green of the plants. The light over their heads began to grow less and less bright as the minutes passed, slowly fading to simulate evening.

Luna, her wings glowing in the darkness, said "You will have no need for a fire on this night. Look." She tilted her head towards a huge waterfall that had water pouring softly over its mouth. It made a soft rushing sound that was strangely comforting. And all up and down its length behind the water, they could see a weird glowing turquoise light that was growing brighter and brighter as the darkness grew blacker. Soon, the turquoise lights in and among the waterfall were giving off a soothing light that was easy to see by but, obviously, grew dimmer the further away you were from it.

"Let's just...sleep, I guess." Werr sighed. "Is that alright, Luna? We'll continue on in the morning..." He said, already feeling like he should be sleeping.

"Worry not. I'll keep watch, as usual. Not that anything will happen." Forin shrugged. His ability to stay awake forever was a comfort to the others. At least he had that to help them, though he was well aware that in the coming morning, he could offer little assistance. If any. Diana was already sleeping peacefully, murmuring something incomprehensible.

Luna nodded at Werr, noting that Welk was already asleep.

So they thought.

Everyone settled down quickly; Seria against Nate, Luen with Diana and Forin, Jag in gryphon form with Lily and Spy, Cynyr curled up around Airlia and, showing a rare moment of affection, licking the girl's hair and shoulder as they both dozed off. When everyone was asleep, save for Forin, Welk carefully got up and moved away from Werr, walking soundlessly over to the waterfall where the glowing lights where. He got down on his knees by the edge of the small pond that had formed there at the bottom of the falls, staring down into the water. He reached down and picked up one of the glowing turquoise rocks there, holding the stone and looking at it in wonder. He gently set it back down, then flinched when something suddenly came up out of the water.

A tiny, glowing, turquoise fairy suddenly unfurled itself from the rock it had been nestled inside of and came up out of the water, shaking itself off. She had no discernable features except for the shape of her tiny body and her iridescent wings. She fluttered around Welk, making little squeaking sounds, then turned and waved at the water.

Slowly, many, many fairies unfurled themselves from the rocks they lived in and floated up out of the water, leaving the stones as dull as any other rock.

Welk was awed by the little creatures, watching as they floated and hovered in the air, dancing on the surface of the water or flying through the air. They all stayed by the waterfall and river itself, not straying too far from either. A few of the fairies fluttered around Welk, landing on his ears or shoulders. A few clustered around his mangled tail, uttering little sounds of shock and lament before darting away.

Welk just watched them, his mouth open slightly, then quickly closed it into a smile.

Forin watched. It was interesting, how they had taken such an interest in Welk. There wasn't much he could do, nor did he intend to stop the pixie. Despite popular belief, they weren't all too mischevious at all. Just curious. "Don't step on them," He warned quietly, silencing himself as Diana stirred.

((I'm callin' them pixies, as my mental image of a fairy is not tiny. Cici's real body = not tiny. Actual person size, wif wingz and teh magickz. o3o))

((Okay, I'll change all of mine to pixies to match. I like it better anyways. :3))

A small group of the pixies decided to be brave and headed over to the others, fluttering around them while they slept. They occasionally landed on a few people, but made no move to hurt or wake anyone. A little female one drifted in Forin's direction, squeaking incoherently in her tiny voice at him. She flew over and landed on his head, reaching a hand down to touch the mark on his forehead. Satisfied after only a moment, she took hold of a single strand of his hair and delicately pulled it out, squeaking happily as she flew back to the others with the strand of hair clutched tightly in her hands. The others clustered around her, squealing and making their tiny noises at her, then they all raced back towards the others.

The first pixie that had come up out of the water took a strand of Welk's hair from his head as well, giggling in a high-pitched tone that made Welk smiled wider.

Forin watched, wondering what all they would do with two strands of hair. He was a bit more wary now; these pixies, unless they were complete idiots, knew what he was. It was obvious, if only just from the marks. Forin was well prepared to bat them away if they came for Diana's hair.

The pixies carrying the hair flew back towards the waterfall and disappeared inside, where there was a hole just big enough for them to fit through. The two pixies vanished into the hole and came back out without the strands of hair, flitting back through the air as if nothing had happened. One of them flew over and landed on Werr's chest, trotting up to his head so as to pull a strand of his hair loose. The other flew over to Cynyr and took one of his, though as soon as she pulled the hair loose, she had to dart away as Cynyr moved slightly and flicked his tail. Once the two pixies had the new hair strands, they flew back to the hole and put them in. After that, they seemed done with hair-taking. The little female from earlier flew back over and hovered in front of Forin, placing a hand on his nose as she squeaked incoherently at him.

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Forin said quietly, but had to quiet himself again as Diana mumbled something in her sleep again. Werr started to stir as well at this point, in the middle of yet another bad dream.

Unknown to all of them, the woman that Werr had seen (and it was apparently Werr alone who had seen her) was watching from the entrance, her eyes open now. It was a little strange; she had one black eye with a white iris, and the other was a white eye with a black iris. Most unusual, indeed. Her piercing eyes watched over the group with mild curiosity. An Amnarian, without a summoner. A Tartaran, his summoner weak and feeble. A couple other humans, both of them inadept in fighting. She turned her gaze towards the fighters. Those whom she would concern herself with first. A wolfling ice-mage, two half-cats; one a wind mage and the other, the awake one, a fire mage. A divine healer...she made a mental note to have a word with her before she moved on to the others.

With another soft breeze, the woman was gone again.

Welk saw Werr starting to have a nightmare and shook the pixies off of himself, then carefully made his way back over to Werr and laid down in cat form next to him. He curled himself around the boy and started licking the side of his head, over his skin and up into his hair, purring softly to reassure the boy with the sound. He wrapped his paws around Werr's body, nuzzling his shoulder gently.

The pixie in front of Forin squeaked at him again, then flew up and touched the mark on his forehead again. He could feel her tiny little hands, each barely as big as the nail on Diana's pinky finger, tracing the lines of the mark over his skin. She squeaked at him again, then dipped back down to hover in front of him. She suddenly moved forward and kissed the tip of his nose lightly, then abruptly vanished into thin air, reappearing back near the waterfall, where she paid zero attention to Forin again.

Werr relaxed a bit after that, drifting back into a deeper sleep.

Forin watched her flitter off, relaxing a bit again. Might as well. He looked up suddenly as a breeze brushed past him, carrying a small green leaf past him. He relaxed again after he realized that it was only a leaf. It landed on Seria's face, settling there. Forin went about trying to remember if there were any holes in the walls or something. How else would there be breezes like that?

Inside Seria's head, it was a bit more than a leaf. The strange woman had entered into Seria's mind. Everything else seemingly stopped, leaving her and Seria standing in the middle of nothing but white. "Pardon the interruption," The woman said, her voice echoing around Seria melodiously. "I wish to discuss something with you."

Seria blinked at the white light, then fixed her gaze on the woman in front of her. "What?" she said, frowning. She didn't know how she had gotten here. The last thing she remembered of her dreams was just the darkness of slumber. "Who are you?" she asked, taking a step back in suspicion. "What do you want with me?" She was well prepared, and able, to fight if the strange lady chose to attack her. Seria was willing to just talk to her as well, of course. Healers didn't like fighting and typically avoided it if they could, but Seria was a bit more fiery than most other healers.

"Nothing." She said, making no motion to follow. "That's just it. I want you to do nothing." She paused, then elaborated. "You all are currently tresspassing on sacred ground. For you and your friends to go any further, I must give you each tests. They will stress physical, mental and psychological limits of you and your friends, respectively. Your test is extremely simple, perhaps what I consider to be the easiest test I've given to this day." She vanished, and reappeared directly in front of Seria.

"When your test begins, until I say yours has been completed, you are to do nothing. You may say nothing, support no one, heal no one. You are to witness your friends suffering. That is your test." She curled her lips into a small smile, watching Seria for her response.

Seria promptly sat down and folded her legs, closing her eyes as if in meditation. "Alright then." she said simply enough. "Begin." Her manner was direct and straightforward; she knew what followed would be hard, but she also knew it would all basically just be an illusion. This was her own mind. Her friends were not really here. Not to say it wouldn't be hard for her, as a healer, to ignore the pain of other in distress, but she knew she could best this, and easily as well, if she concentrated.

The woman's eyes glimmered with amusement. "You think you will perform your task here? Don't be so foolish. If I were to perform your task here, it would be far too easy. None of their suffering will be real!" She laughed. "You'll know once your test begins, though."

She was suddenly behind Seria. She draped her arms around the half cat, smiling. "Steel your mind while you have a chance, dear healer. Because those who fail my tests...die."

Still, Seria said nothing. She flinched when the woman put her arms around her, but other than that, she refused to move. "This is a test." she told herself. "She has the right to test me in any way she wants. She is protecting a sacred place. But I won't let this test beat me. I can withstand it and I know it. I have to withstand it. There's no other option." She curled her tail close around one leg, her ears firmly plastered against her head.

"Well, see you in the morning." The woman stood and stretched, smiling. Then she was gone, leaving Seria to sink back into peaceful sleep.

Outside Seria's mind, the leaf fluttered away from her face as another warm breeze swept past the group. Forin watched as it wafted off into the forest again, almost as though it were alive.

Seria had no more dreams and her sleep was troubled. She had stiffened against Nate, growing tense and firm, her tail curling around her body as her subconscious waited for the test it knew was coming. She dug her claws into his arm slightly, then pulled back, then did it again. She didn't hurt herself much, just started to bruise her skin where she dug her claws in.

Dawn came slowly. Nate was the first to stir, feeling Seria still rigid against him. "Hey," He said gently, shaking her ever so slightly. "Are you having a nightmare or something?"

Werr jolted awake. As usual, he just finished having one. He sucked in a deep breath, as though he had thought himself to be drowning. His fingers were dug into the dirt below him ever so slightly. He didn't say anything, he just crawled to the water's edge and taking a deep drink.

Seria jolted awake, her heart pounding. Even when she realized that she way awake, she said absolutely nothing to Nate. She reached up and touched his cheek gently, smiling at him and mouthing the words 'I'm sorry. I'll explain later. Just trust me', then got up and walked away a short distance, where she sat down and said nothing.

Welk followed Werr closely, shadowing the boy like he usually did. After his encounter with the pixies, he had seemed to go back to normal somewhat. He rubbed his muzzle against Werr's back, purring.

Nate blinked at her, not quite understanding. Maybe she needed some time alone, though. No matter. Nate passed out the rest of the fruit as the others started waking up.

Werr smiled at his friend, scratching him behind the ears. "We should get moving. I think we're all pretty much ready, Luna." He said before standing and stretching. "Although I'm still not sure why we needed so much rest. The sooner we get this out of the way, the better."