The Forgotten Zodiac

Welk, in human form for a moment, punched one of the creatures in the face, breaking through the armor of its snout and killing it instantly, watching as it fell backwards with black goop seeping from its broken face. Luckily for Werr, it took a few seconds for the next round of creatures to spawn. Welk panted, already starting to wear down, then turned when he felt Werr pull on his sleeve. He nearly hit the boy, as he was expecting enemies, but he held back at the last second. The knuckles of both of his hands were bleeding, making it painful to bend his fingers. He knew what Werr wanted and wrapped his arms around him, moving his hand up to stroke the back of the boy's head as he held him close. "S'okay." he murmured, picking Werr up like he would a small child. "You have...have to stay back here." he said, moving the boy back and settling him against the base of a protecting tree. He panted for a moment, then flinched when he heard the spawning sound of enemies once again. He set his jaw firmly and bend down to Werr, pressing his forehead against the boy's again, then turned away and had to keep fighting, alternating between human form and cat.

"Why?" Werr asked, but Welk was gone again. He watched for a few minutes, his eyes wide and curious. "Hey...can you teach me how to fight like that?" He asked, climbing to his feet again, forgetting what Welk had said about staying. "That would be great. If I knew how to fight, it wouldn't matter about people hating me. I could just fight for myself, and--" He had walked forward a few paces, but had to stop as teeth sank into his shoulder.

Werr lost any semblance of sanity then. Even though it was just a small wound, he kicked and wailed at the top of his lungs, grabbing at the face of the goop-thing as it chomped down repeatedly on his arm and shoulder.

Welk jerked his head around in shock when he heard Werr, then snarled and lunged at the creature biting his friend. He grabbed the creature by its face, sinking his claws into it, then yanked it off of Werr and repeatedly slammed its head into the tree behind them, killing it by completely destroying its entire head. When he pulled back, he was splattered with black blood and his knuckles were dripping with blood, his skin torn and split. He moved over to Werr and placed both of his hands on either side of the boy's face, ignoring the blood that started leaking from the backs of his hands and down Werr's cheeks. "Werr." he said, his gaze boring into the boy's eyes. "I'm sorry, but...but I have to do i-important things for a moment. When I'm finished, I can t-talk to you again. But right now, you have to sit still and put yourself together. I get to talk to you and hug you a lot when you do that. Get it?" He took on a more talking-to-a-small-child tone and said "If you put yourself back together, I get to hug you! Doesn't that sound good? Yes, it does! Okay, now you sit down under that tree and work on that." One of the creatures came up behind him and clawed deep marks in his back. He nearly screamed but bit back from it, instead pushing Werr back against the tree and making him sit down. "Remember," he said, cracking open a creature's skull. "I get to hug you, but ONLY when you finish!" Then he ran forward, blood dripping from his back and proceeded to tear through the enemies as if they were made of paper.

"Oh. Okay." Werr sat still again, watching. He felt the bite marks on his arm and shoulder, wincing a bit when he pulled his hand away and saw the blood. He nearly started crying, but he didn't want to. If the things that hated him saw him crying, it would give them satisfaction. And Werr, even in this state, refused to do that. Blood...Welk was bleeding. Why was Welk bleeding? Things were hurting him. Werr started crying when he made that connection. Things hated Welk, too. It was awfully upsetting.

But, the thought of more hugs brought him back to his problem. What did Welk mean, put himself back together? Something in the back of his mind was screaming at him to pay attention to it, but Werr had to strain to hear it, which was horrible and it made his head hurt. What to do...he wanted those hugs. There was some other reason why he was doing this, but right now, he really wanted hugs.

Welk screamed as one of the creature's managed to skip around his defenses and crunch down into his tail, breaking the bones as easily as someone snapping a stick. Welk kicked the monster off, only to get suddenly pinned to the ground by a particularly large lurker. Welk threw his arms up and managed to grab the creature's head before it could bite down into his neck, twisting the monster's head so far to the right that its neck snapped. Welk scrambled up, taking cat form and lunging forward to tear apart several creatures. He even got one to swing at him and miss, hitting another creature and ripping its jaw off. Welk panted, his breath coming in greater gasps than before, then had to keep fighting until there was another small break in the spawning. He leaned over his knees, panting hard, blood dripping from the claw marks in his back and several wounds he had acquired, his broken tail bent at a horribly crooked angle.

Then more creatures spawned and Welk had to force himself back into battle.

In the meantime, Nate was pacing near the edge of a lake, his eyes locked on the water. He waded in, keeping his eyes on something under the water. Rather suddenly, he dove in. There were a few long seconds before he splashed back to the surface, gasping for breath. He waded where he could breathe for a few long moments, before diving again. He came up empty handed a total of three times, though what he was diving for was obvious; under the water, there was a slightly glowing orb that could be easily seen through. Inside it was none other than little Spy, sleeping peacefully. The orb was keeping oxygen flowing through it, so the little chimera was alright. Nate, however, had a hard time swimming. Of course; he was half dragon, who hated water. How was he supposed to be able to dive? He was barely managing to tread water, as it was.

He dove under the water again, but this time, something hit him from above. He jerked and thrashed around, trying to get back to the surface, but someone was keeping him submerged in the cold water. He elbowed his attacker in the gut, managing to flail his way back to the surface. He heaved in a huge gasp of breath, managing to twist around to avoid being grabbed again. He turned and punched his attacker in the face, promptly realizing that the face he just punched was...his own.

"Wh...what the..." Nate spluttered, before his copy prompty punched him in the face, giving him a bruise to match. Nate splashed around, looking around wildly for the shore, but he was promptly tackled and the both of them were submerged again. He felt the water pressing in on him, but he also felt his weapons being wrenched away from him as he tried to pull them out. It literally was fighting against himself; every move he could possibly make, his copy already knew what he was going to try. He struggled, managing to catch a few of the weapons from his copy before his lungs screamed at him for breath. Both Nates resurfaced once more, both of them relieved of the majority of their weapons. One Nate was quick to get back into the fight, grabbing the other and dragging him back underwater.

This Nate proceeded to knee the submerged one in the chest and gut, forcing air out of his lungs. Then it was just a matter of holding him down as his thrashing grew weaker...

Suddenly, something slammed into them both from the side so powerfully that they both saw stars. Luen, as it turned out, had a pretty thick head in wolf form. He fastened his teeth into the Nate that had been drowning the other's arm, wrenching him off of the other one and back onto the shore. He sank his teeth down into that one's leg, giving him something to worry about for a moment, then went back out after the other one, dragging him to relative safety as well. Once they were all out in the open, everyone dripping with water, Luen locked the two Nate's arms together behind their backs with ice spells. Luen panted for a moment, his white fur plastered against his body, then lifted his head and said "I have...have to f-figure out...which of you is r-real." His ears were flattened against his head in terror and worry. "...And I have to...k-kill...the double." he said, sounding like he had when he had killed the guards.

Hopeless.

Both Nates struggled against their bonds, then both of them looked at Luen with concern. They looked at each other, their expressions turning angry. One of them coughed up some water, frowning. "I-it's okay, Luen..." He nodded, shaking water out of his hair.

"I know you can find the right one. Ask questions, or something." The other said gently. "Don't do anything until you're absolutely certain."

"One of us is real, the other isn't...you just have to find out which one, right?"

Luen nodded wearily, shaking as he sat down and curled his tail around his legs. He shook his head, his ears flat against his skull. He lifted a paw and held it over his eyes, whimpering softly. He laid down on his belly for a moment, covering his muzzle with both paws, then stood up and said "This test is hard... You both look the same, you both act the same..." He walked forward and brushed against one of them, then the other. "...heck, you both feel the same!" he finished, his emerald eyes full of worry. How could he kill one, knowing that it could potentially be the real Nate? Tremors shook his body as he tried to figure it out, only coming to one dead end after another. Literally, because everything he thought of ended up with one of the Nates dead. He was a smart wolfling, obviously, but this trial was testing his mental and emotional limits. He was quiet for a long time, his distress growing and growing as he tried to figure out which Nate was real. "What did I say was troubling me after I had killed the guards?" he asked, knowing that that was a tender moment he shared with Nate. "Why was I scared?"

Both immediately looked saddened. Unfortunately...they both seemed to have the same knowledge. "You said that I shouldn't thank you for saving me," One Nate said, looking down.

"You were scared because you had never killed anyone else before. You were afraid that you might turn evil and hurt one of us," Nate shook his head, frowning at the other. If they shared the same knowledge, what about them was different? Was it possible that there really were two Nates now, perfectly the same in every way possible? No, there had to be something...

Luen questioned them on several different things, only to get the same results and sink deeper and deeper into despair. Finally, he took human form and just sat there, sobbing into his hands, on the verge of a complete mental breakdown. He lifted his head and glared at them both, his gaze softened seconds later into one of heartbreak. Then he questioned them again: "Let's say there's a situation where I've been captured by enemies." His voice was tight, like a string pulled so hard that it was near its breaking point. "In order to save everyone else in the group, you have to leave me behind, knowing that you condemn me to death. There's a slim chance, however, of getting me back before I die, but you would be forced to abandon the others in a dangerous place where many of them could potentially be killed." His voice broke and he shrieked "What do you do?!"

Both Nates looked a bit flabbergasted. One of them stood and cautiously approached Luen, kneeling and resting his forehead against Luen's. "I would go and save you. No matter what."

"Get away from him!" The other Nate barreled into the first one, kicking him aside. He stood over Luen dangerously. There was a long moment as he attempted to put together something to say. "Forget this! I'll just kill you both and be done with this!" He snarled, kicking Luen in the face.

Luen yipped sharply, one of his eyes throbbing and the skin around that eye broken and bleeding. A split second later, the fake Nate was impaled through his heart with a huge icicle spike that had rose up out of the ground, killing him instantly. The spike then flung his corpse away, leaving Luen and the real Nate behind. Luen had covered his head with his arms and was curled up into a tight ball, quivering and shaking. Slowly, the waters out in the lake froze and formed down into stairs that led to Spy's orb, so Nate could retrieve the chimera easily.

Nate quickly moved down the stairs, collecting Spy. He was quick to return as a voice sounded. Resu's voice. "Luen the Wolfling and Nate the Dragonian, you have completed your tasks. Congratulations." There was a flash of light, and they were back in the clearing with the gate. Nate set Spy's orb down, watching it melt into nothing, though the chimera slumbered still. The dragonian immediately moved to Luen's side, scooping him up into his arms. "Shh...it wasn't me. I'm here." He said gently, though he was shivering due to remaining wet for so long, and he could feel a little water sloshing around in his gut from being nearly drowned. It wasn't too much, but it still hurt...not that he cared right now.

Forin glanced at Spy, then up at Resu. "The chimera did not need to be tried?"

"Don't be silly. He's barely a year old." Resu scoffed at him. "I can read his very thoughts, not that such a young creature has many."

Forin shrugged and looked up at Zephyr, wondering how the dragon was faring with his task.

Luen just pressed his bruised eye against Nate's body and quivered.

*

Zephyr was hovering in the air, one huge clawed paw resting on his chin as he struggled to think of a way to get the huge spider away from Airlia without hurting her.

He had been this way for a while now, glaring at the spider and trying to ignore Airlia's crying. His wings weren't very tired having to hover for so long, but he could feel them losing strength. Finally, he just sighed and decided to move. He stretched one huge paw forward, curling his fingers in slightly so he wouldn't hit Airlia, then delicately started working his claws around the spider, ignoring the fact that it started biting him. His scales were tough and wouldn't let the spider penetrate down to his skin. He had to use a lot of patience and move carefully, even though this was a fighting situation. His first step was to simply get the spider away from Airlia, which was taking all of his concentration. His claws were dangerously close to the girl, but the dragon was controlling himself well, despite constant movement from the spider.

Airlia sobbed, but she couldn't move. Of course, that was her trial; but while Zephyr had been thinking about it, the spider had wrapped its webs around her. It was a thin layer of webbing, but the webs themselves were thick and far too sticky to even think about trying to struggle free. Not that she would; she had to face this trial to the best of her ability, for Cynyr's sake.

The spider hissed audibly, before turning and sinking its teeth into Airlia. She wailed, which cut off into a dismayed gurgle as foam rose up in her throat and spilled out of her mouth. She collapsed, struggling to keep her eyes open.

Zephyr thundered a loud note that shook and echoed the entire cavern, then let his instinct takeover. He deftly slid one claw up and skewered the spider right through its abdomen, his claws neatly avoiding Airlia. He didn't know how he had made the movement, and so gently and swiftly, but it had felt natural to him. He pulled the injured spider away from the webs and crushed its head between two of his talons, then sliced Airlia free from the webs as delicately as he could, making sure of what he was cutting before he actually cut it. When Airlia fell, Zephyr was ready with one paw under her. He caught her neatly in his huge paw, curling his claws only slightly around her, not daring risking crushing her. Then he folded his wings and plummeted to the ground, flared them back open at the last second and landed neatly with a ground-shaking thud.

"Zephyr the Dragon and Airlia the Fallen, you both have completed your tasks. Congratulations to you both." Resu's voice said around them. Another flash of light, and they were back with the others. Nate looked up, frowning at Airlia's condition; She was still foaming at the mouth, pale and spasming erratically.

"Four trials remain," Resu said quietly, focusing her attention on the four orbs that remained in front of her.

Zephyr looked down at Airlia, then suddenly extended his tongue and licked the girl once, bathing her from head to toe in saliva. Almost immediately, from the sheer quantity of it, her condition improved a lot, slowing the spider poison in her veins. It did not, however, heal it all the way. Only Seria could do that, with her divine powers.

She couldn't do anything, however, until all of the trial's were finished. And it was torturing her.

*

Meanwhile, way out in the forest, Jag was cantering along, trying to figure out where Lily was. He had had no luck in finding her so far, but he had a feeling that he wasn't too far off. He couldn't be. Finally, he just stopped completely, his gaze on the ground. He hated standing still when he knew Lily was hurting somewhere, but at this point, he knew that running aimlessly in circles would just end up getting Lily killed. He lifted his gaze and glanced around, then sprang up to into the branches of a tall tree, working his way all the way to the top, where it was hard for the branches to hold his weight. There, he put his sharp bird eyes to good use, sweeping his gaze across the land. He couldn't see Lily from here, but he spotted and even bigger tree further away. It was nothing for him to climb back down and raced to the new tree, climbing even higher into the branches. He scanned the land below him from this dangerous vantage point, not caring one bit about the potential of him falling.

Finally, he saw her.

She was crawling desperately in the opposite direction. Her wound had stopped bleeding, but it was horribly swollen and mangled-looking. The skin around the wound was a vicious purple, while the wound itself was black. She seemed to be disoriented, her hands fumbling in front of her before she pulled herself forward. She was sweaty and shaky, also symptoms of the venom that was seeping further into her veins with every second. As Jag spotted her, she collapsed, unable to keep herself up anymore. She hadn't seen Jag, of course; in her mind, death was certain to come soon.

It was all she could do to hold back a wail of agony, knowing that it would come all the quicker if she did. She didn't want to lose hope in Jag.