The Forgotten Zodiac

The dragon watched her through large yellow eyes, flicking a pair of ears that wasn't quite as long as Zephyr's. She shook her dark magenta horns and said "I will not burn you. Not yet, at least. You didn't hurt Tasia and I can sense what you're saying is the truth." She blew out a thick cloud of smoke, then tilted her head around and nuzzled the dragonian behind her. Tasia closed one eye and growled at Airlia, but calmed down considerably when the dragon touched her. "My name is Vaira." the dragon said. "Tasia is my friend." She moved her head back around and stared at Airlia again, then flicked her tongue out and caught Airlia's cheek with it. She pulled back immediately, running her tongue through her mouth to taste the girl's scent. "...You have consumed the blood of a dragon." she said, sounding a bit shocked. "I should've known, since you can understand me and answer back."

Tasia ducked behind the dragon, disappearing from sight.

Airlia touched her cheek where she had been licked, though she stayed where she was. She looked down, then nodded. "One of my friends is a dragon. His name is Zephyr Shining-Scales, he gave all of us this gift. This too," She rummaged through her bag and withdrew the scale, holding it out to Vaira through the bars. She was still obviously trembling, knowing how powerful a single dragon could be. She was curious about the Dragonian, but now wasn't really the time to ask questions. "He saved me earlier today, even. He's really very nice...an-and one of my friends is a Dragonian, too! His name is Nate, he's really brave and smart..."

The magenta dragon frowned down at the shimmering green scale, a snarl playing at the edge of her lips at the mention of another dragonian. She held it back, however, and instead chose to lean forward and carefully sniff the scale. She narrowed her eyes slightly in thought, then said "Shining-Scales...I'm afraid I do not know of him. My name..." She was quiet for a moment, then said "...is Vaira Quick-Talons." She craned her head back and stared at Airlia for a long moment, then sighed and said "You are not worth killing. Perhaps you can help get us both out of this place. We've been here for a while now, but because my companion is so...volatile, the Amnairians will not let her loose. You see..." Vaira closed her eyes for a moment, then finished, "...I practically raised the poor girl. Her parents were killed in a raid and the child was left behind. I am only eight-hundred years old and had never found a mate, though I wanted little ones of my own. I took the baby and did my best to care for it, which was hard. As you can see, it had a...different outcome than being raised by normal people. She still knows some of the human language, but...it's deeply buried. I believe she knows she is a dragonian and not a full dragon, but...I'm not sure." She nuzzled the girl again and Tasia finally purred slightly, though she was still wary of Airlia.

"Oh..." Airlia blinked and nodded. "I see...yes, I'd love to help, but...I have to ask first, um...why are you in here at all?" She asked quietly. "I don't mean to sound rude or pry, but...I don't want to help you get loose if...if you just plan to turn around and destroy things..." She wrung her hands together, knowing full-well how rude it sounded. Honestly, she was still terrified, despite the dragon's words. She wanted desperately to run back to Zephyr and the others. They were usually all kind and protective...

The dragon was silent for a long moment, then said "We came through to Amnairus by accident. I still don't remember exactly how it happened, just that I was flying with Tasia and felt an odd surge of magic, and then I was falling. When I woke up, we were on the outskirts of this place. My only wish was to return home, so I took Tasia and moved into the city to find help, but then Tasia attacked out of fear and...we've been in here ever since. You see, before I could calm Tasia down, the Amnairians here were forced to defend themselves. When they came at my dearest friend with their weapons drawn, I tried to defend her, which caused them to think I was attacking them. We were knocked unconscious by a blast of magic and woke to find ourselves here. None here can understand us, sadly, so every time I tried to speak and explain myself and Tasia's doings, they grew scared and ran away." She sighed deeply, clenching one large paw into the ground. "Tasia is smart. I've taught her not to hurt anyone, and what she did to you earlier, with jumping at the bars, was to try and fighten you away. If the bars weren't there, she wouldn't have so much as scraped you."

Tasia moved forward carefully, more curious at Airlia than afraid, now that she saw and heard Vaira speaking to the girl. She moved forward and pressed against the bars, staring at the winged girl in front of her. She uttered a curious dragon sound and reached a thin hand through the bars, holding it out to Airlia. All of her fingers and her hand itself were twisted slightly, as if her fingers had once been ripped off and reattached oddly.

Airlia's fear gradually melted away as she listened to the story. "So....this is all some misunderstanding! Of course, I'll help. I'm...kind of stuck in here for now, though..." She bit her lip and looked back at the entrance before Vaira held out her hand. Airlia blinked at it in the gloom, then slowly touched her hand to it, not really understanding what the Dragonian wanted. "My name is Airlia," She said, realizing that she hadn't introduced herself yet. "At least, that's what my master named me."

Tasia took the girl's hand into both of hers and touched all over it for a long moment, examining every detail of the girl's fingers. Finally, she seemed satisfied that Airlia wouldn't hurt her and gestured at her to move closer. She obviously wanted to interact with her now, having had limited contact with humans and halves her whole life. Vaira snorted and shook her head, then pointed towards a piece of the bars. "There." she said. "These bars are magically enhanced to keep me inside, but I've been working on that part for a long time. I've managed to dent them and spread them apart slightly, but it isn't enough for Tasia to slip through. Maybe you can come in, however. You are smaller than her, after all."

Tasia over to the dent in the bars, chirping gently at Airlia.

Airlia blinked at the bars, then stuck one feathered wing through the gap, then her arm. It was little trouble for her to squeeze past the bars, though she was taking care not to get her wings dirty or anything. Cleaning them had been such a chore for poor Seria...

Airlia looked up at Tasia and smiled. "Well...I guess I'm here until they open the tunnel again. Might as well enjoy myself. It's very nice to meet you both, although I wish we could have met under better conditions." She dipped her head at the both of them.

Tasia smiled at her, revealing that she had a fair and delicate smile, then turned and curled up in the straw around Vaira. The dragon draped one of her huge wings down, cloaking the girl in darkness. She moved her head around and placed it near Airlia, watching her through one of her large eyes. "Tell me, little one," she asked. "the dragon and dragonian of your group...what are they like?" She couldn't stop the hint of longing from rising in her voice for a second, though she stifled it quickly and resumed a normal voice.

Airlia sat down, smiling. "The dragon, Zephyr, is very strong and wise. He can be a bit snappish sometimes, but he's a kind and gentle spirit at heart. Like I said, he's saved me before. See, earlier today, we all had to go through these trials before Cynyr could repair the gate to here. It was kind of...horrifying. I got attacked by a giant spider. It could have killed me, but Zephyr managed to skewer it before it did. Even in his biggest form, he got it without hurting me at all. Which is saying something, because he's big.

"Nate is the Dragonian. He's not as intelligent as Zephyr, but he's really observant and noble. Noble...well, I think a couple of the others just see him as stubborn, but I think he's very brave and sweet. I can tell he's hiding something, though. He likes Seria a lot, but I'm pretty sure they're just close friends. He doesn't seem to want to get too close to anyone. Gosh, I wonder if any of them will realize that I've gone missing again..."

Vaira's eyes lit up slightly as Airlia spoke about Zephyr, listening intently. She nodded when the girl was finished, thinking over what she had been told. "They sound...wonderful." she said, and a little smile curled up the tips of her mouth.

Tasia tugged the edge of her shift down a bit, watching Airlia sleepily. She fanned her wings, which were a ruddy-pink color, curling her long dragon tail further around her legs. She watched Airlia through her blue-green eyes, then said something in dragon that Airlia could just barely make out, since it was spoken softly and was twisted slightly with their normal language.

"Dose are your fwends?"

Vaira nuzzled her gently and said "Yes, child. Those are her friends."

((That's going to get annoying.

Very, vewy qwickwy. 8I))

Airlia nodded again, smiling away. She then went on to describe Seria and Cynyr, and that led to her telling about Welk and Werr, and then Forin and Diana. Lastly, she went over what little she knew about Jag and Lily, and was very tired by the time she got to Spy.

"He runs around a lot, like Welk, and he's very hyper all the time. He's very sweet and cute, though, you'd like him a lot." Airlia finished, then yawned widely. "O-oh, excuse me..."

((xD))

Vaira nodded at Airlia, then said "Sleep. You're tired."

Tasia tilted her head slightly, listening with a deep intensity to Airlia as she had spoken. There was a serious frown on her face and she was occasionally mouthing a word after Airlia had spoke it, as if she faintly remembered that she had once spoken like that a long time ago. When Airlia finished, the dragonian spoke again, actually in their language, seemingly to cement what she had heard. "Seria is half-cat healer, Cynyr is panther wind mage, Welk is happy excited fire mage half-cat, best friends with Werr-who-is-human and Cynyr-who-is-panther, Forin is creature-of-darkness-to-summon with mistress little girl Diana and is friend to Luen wolfling ice mage, Jag-who-is-gryphon and Lily-who-is-human are mates and little Spy is happy chimera, and Airlia-who-is-winged-human is nice." She smiled when she was finished and Vaira looked stunned. The pink dragon blinked sharply and said "That...was the most I've ever heard her speak in your language. I knew she was smart and learned fast, but..." She shook her head in wonder, flicking her ears.

((.___.))

"Yes, that's right." Airlia nodded happily, before she curled up on the floor. "I'm going to sleep now. In the morning, I'll go talk to my friends and see if we can't do something about all this. I like you two, you don't deserve to be treated like this." She wrapped her wings around herself, already drifting off into sleep.

Back in the castle, they had indeed noticed Airlia's disappearance. They had searched the castle quite thoroughly, and searches were being done around it. Forin was confronting Werr about something quite serious. "She could have wandered back to the place between worlds," He was saying, a frown on his face. "And if she slipped into Tartaran hands, there's no telling what could happen."

"But...she's not that foolish, is she?" Werr bit his lip in concern. "What should we do about it?"

"Simple. I will go to Tartarus with Spy. We can search for traces of her there while the searches go on here. I can leave Diana here with Luen, I'll be able to move much faster like that. I don't particularly want to, but I'm aware that I have a much better chance of surviving alone." Forin finished calmly, though he didn't look happy at all.

((Dundunduuuun. There's a perfect setup, unless you wanted to torment Forin as well as Diana when we did that thing. In which case, he'll just come back empty handed with a stressed-out Spy (who gets stressed when he can't find something anywhere).))

((She gets better as time goes on.

...And hold on, I got confused. -people talking in the background doesn't help with thinking- What's the setup and how does this affect what? I feel stupid due to not-understanding. -.-" Sorry.))

((Forin away from Diana, searching for Airlia in the wrong place.

Amnarians who don't like Tartarans...

An injured summoner being the worse insult possible to a Tartaran...

That thing? xD I'm asking if you wanted to have Forin caught by them too or not, basically. I don't mind either which way. :T))

((Oh.

-.-" <- Is stupid

Orignally I had thought we were going to have Bala injure Forin (and him not see the attack so she could hide in plain view) then have her hurt Diana and get found out soon after.))

Luen was standing nearby, holding Diana. He looked concerned, obviously, but if they had a chance to find Airlia, he was willing to let Forin go to help. True, Luen was fearful of Tartarus, but he knew Forin was from that place. If he couldn't come back okay from there, then they had no chance of going and talking to the king at some point. "Be careful, okay?" he said worriedly, his emerald green eyes wide.

Jag was holding Spy and talking to him while he tightened the feather in the chimera's fur, making sure he knew to stay safe.

((Oh, okay. You're not stupid, I just slipped you up. :T

We'll do that, then.))

"Of course," Forin shrugged.

"I got it, I got it. Don't run too far ahead of Forin, don't approach anyone but Airlia and Forin..." Spy nodded, flicking his tail around. Forin didn't prepare to leave; in fact, he left his entire bag with Diana and Luen. After that, he managed to find a feather of Airlia's and headed out.

He returned no more than ten minutes later.

"Spy led me to a wall," Forin snorted upon his return.

"You tried Tartarus?" Werr frowned in confusion.

"Yes. He ran around in circles and said that Airlia was nowhere. So I brought him back here to try, and he led me to some wall!" Forin flopped down in one of the chairs, letting out a sigh and putting Spy on the floor.

"She was there, I'm telling you!" Spy whined.

Cynyr, pacing nervously nearby (he hadn't gone out to look on his own because he and Welk refused to leave Werr's side), lifted his head and said "A wall? Where?" He flicked his tail a few times and said "Show me. Just to see. Spy's good at tracking things. There has to be some reason why he led you to the wall. Luna?"

The snow leopard looked up lazily from her place on a couch, where she hadn't really taken an interest in the goings-on. "Yes?" she asked.

"You'll come with us." the wind mage said. "You know this world better than any of us. Airlia might be stuck somewhere that...I don't know, that only an Amnairian can get her out of? Something like that."

Luna snorted, then said "Fine with me. I'll come."

"I'll show you!" Spy nodded vigorously, moving towards the door again. He jumped up and down.

"I'll stay here. It's best if I not show my face around this place again, people will start to suspect things." Forin shrugged.

"Should I come?" Werr asked. He was also curious about all this, and though he suspected danger might be afoot, he was eager to get to the bottom of things. Airlia wouldn't wander too far, would she? He looked down at Welk. "Do you want to go?"