The Forgotten Zodiac

Welk gave him a very flat 'are you serious' look. "If you're going, I'm going." he said. "If you're staying, I'm staying. It doesn't matter what I want. What matters is what you decide on." He rubbed his head under Werr's hand, purring softly. "You really should know that by now." he said, closing his eyes for a moment.

Luen frowned, then said "I'll go with you too. I want to look around and this is a good way for me to do that." He looked back at Forin and Diana and said "Will you both be okay? I'll be with Nate, so I'll be fine, but I know this world affects you, Forin." He sounded concerned, of course.

"I'm in the castle, and I have Galai's permission to be here." Forin shrugged. "I'll just go find our rooms and put Diana to bed for the evening. Don't worry about me."

"Come on, come on!" Spy jumped up and down in front of the exit of the castle.

"Alright, let's get a move on," Werr nodded and moved to follow. "There's not much point in hanging around here."

"I want to come too," Vidia grabbed at Luna's hand, not wanting to be left.

Luna smiled, then moved to follow Spy when Cynyr opened the door. Jag chose to stay behind with Lily and talk with her while they sat on one of the couches together, trusting that Spy would be okay with the majority of the people. Everyone else, excluding them and Forin and Diana, headed out, following Spy back to the wall he had found. As they neared, Luna started to slow down. "This is not right." she said. "We are not meant to come here. This is a sealed place. Guards visit three times a week to feed its recipents, but other than that, we are to leave them completely alone. If Airlia came here, there is a great chance she is already dead."

Cynyr's brow furrowed deeper and he growled darkly.

"What? Dead?" Werr gasped. "What could have killed her? We've got to at least try to find her..."

"But she's definitely in here, dead or not," Spy whimpered. "I don't want her to be dead. We have to help her if there's a chance of her being alive, don't we?"

"Wouldn't Forin have heard her death?" Nate pointed out. "I seem to remember him saying something about that before..."

((By the way, all Tartarans have the ability to 'hear' deaths, not just Forin.

Thought I should point that out. :T))

Luna shrugged, then said "Fine. Proceed, then, and hope that what is inside will not kill you too. I, however, refuse to go inside, nor will I let Lady Vidia enter either." And she stopped there.

Cynyr glared at her, then said "Fine then. Just open it so we can go in."

Luna returned his glare, then walked to the wall and tentatively placed a hand on it. One surge of magic later, and the wall slowly lowered to reveal the entrance to the cave Airlia had went in. "There." the snow leopard said. "Once you enter, I will raise the wall again. I will keep my mind loosly attached to yours so if you come back alive and need me to lower it again, you can call out to me and I will hear it and do as you wish."

Seria gulped, then moved forward first and entered the cave slowly. Cynyr sped after the female half-cat, keeping to cat form.

Spy sat down next to Lily, knowing that he was no good in battle. Werr followed, driven by his old curiosity that had returned to him with his healing. Nate was quick to chase after them.

By then, the candles had gone out, making it difficult to see in the gloom. What was easy to make out, however, was Airlia's limp form on the floor just a little inside the cell. She was just sleeping, of course, but that was hard to tell at first glance.

"Airlia!" Cynyr called the second he saw her. What answered, however, wasn't Airlia's voice. A huge yellow eye suddenly shot open further inside the cage, followed by a thunderous snarl. The pupil of the eye was long and slitted, and it darted from person to person before narrowing angrily. Welk's jaw dropped open in shock, though he didn't run. He wasn't about to abandon Werr and Cynyr here. The same was not said for Luen, however, who yelped and stumbled backwards into the wall in shock. The movement startled the huge creature who was the owner of the eye, causing it to rear back and roar loudly. A thin bust of fire tendriled from its mouth, revealing the frightening visage of an angry dragoness.

Nate was quick to react. "Calm yourselves, all of you!" He snapped, looking up at the dragon. He wouldn't be quite so confident if there weren't solid bars in front of him. He was fairly certain they would be enchanted, at that. "We only come for the girl, if she's alive. She--"

"Nate?" Airlia sat up, rubbing her eyes groggily. "What's going on...?"

The dragoness shifted, glaring down at Nate for a long moment before chosing to answer. "You..." she said, her nostrils flaring slightly as she breathed in he and the others' scents. "...are Nate, are you not?" She flicked her thin dragon tongue once, tasting the air, then said "Airlia told me many things about you and your companions."

Welk was utterly gaping at this point, stunned and amazed to have found another dragon, this time a female. None of them saw or knew of Tasia yet, as she had hidden herself behind the dragoness' body, scared of the amount of people that had invaded the cave.

Cynyr growled at the dragoness, then said "Airlia, are you okay?"

Nate relaxed at that. "I am indeed Nate. Then you should also know that we mean absolutely no harm by coming here, we were merely searching for our companion."

"I'm fine, master," Airlia stood at once, brushing herself off. "I was exploring, and someone kind of...sealed off the cave while I was in here. I was awfully upset, but Vaira invited me in here. She's been wrongfully imprisoned, master, it's absolutely horrible." She pouted, then moved over to the bars and slipped through the dent again. "We have to set things straight at once!"

Vaira's eyes showed that she didn't quite trust Nate, but she shook it off and relaxed a bit, which helped the look to fade.

Cynyr moved forward and carefully nosed Airlia, making sure she was okay, then took human form and wrapped one arm around her shoulders, keeping her close to him. "As long as you're okay, I suppose. Next time, be more careful." he said, though he didn't sound very stern. Just relieved to have found her safe and sound, though it was painfully obvous that he didn't like Vaira.

Vaira suddenly flicked one ear up, as if listening to something, then twisted her head around and ducked it behind her body. They could hear her whispering with someone, though with her large body in the way, they couldn't see who.

Nate relaxed as well. "I'm sorry," Airlia pouted. "But please, master, they got here on accident somehow. The Amnarians thought they were enemies because Vaira was protected her friend, and that landed them here. It was all a big mistake, we have to help them..."

Cynyr blinked down at her, then looked up at Vaira and said "Friend? What friend?"

Vaira raised her head and glanced at him, then gently ducked it again and nudged Tasia out from behind her. The dragonian stood delicately next to the dragon, her wings tucked against her back and her tail low. Her entire demeanour had changed now that there were so many people around. She was fearful and shy, just standing there nervously. Seria blinked when she saw the girl, sensing her fear and the various things that were wrong with her, like her twisted hands. The healer moved forward slowly, instantly drawn to the girl's pain. She placed her hands on the bars of the cage, half-cat and dragonian watching each other closely. "Hello." Seria breathed, watching as the girl tilted her head slightly to catch the sound. Tasia nodded slightly in reply, her blue-green eyes darting around fearfully.

Nate blinked in surprise, then in curiosity. He got a little closer to the cage, tilting his head a little bit one way. Another Dragonian. And female...Nate looked somehow suspicious, and...sad. He shook it off and looked back up at the dragon. "Is what Airlia said the truth?" He asked quietly.

She nodded her head once, her ears tilted back against her head. "Yes." she said, sounding grave. "It is."

Tasia blinked at Nate, flaring her wings slightly as she caught his scent. She knew in an instant that he was a male dragonian, which only seemed to scare her more. She spoke then, fluently in dragon, which was the language with the words Zephyr had used before. Only Nate understood this, along with Vaira and Zephyr, if the emerald dragon would've been there. "Who are you?" she asked, staring at Nate. "Have you come to hurt me? You are a male. Are they not suppose to be cruel to the females? That is what I was told. That male dragonians are brutes." She sounded fearful and tried to shy away from him, but Vaira pushed her forward again, making her face the others.

Nate blinked again, then shook his head. "I don't hurt people without purpose. You have nothing to fear from me, miss. Werr," He turned to the human boy, frowning a bit. "Take Airlia back to the castle and explain all this to Galai and Luna. This is a fairly serious matter."

"I understand," Werr nodded quickly. "Will you be okay here?"

"I doubt they have intentions of harming us." Nate shrugged.

"Let her see your hand," Airlia said with a smile, before Werr turned away to leave.

Nate frowned after them, looking down at his hand. He quietly understood what she meant by that after a few moments of thinking; he reached his hand out to Tasia through the bars, holding still.

Tasia flinched back from his hand for a long moment, then slowly came forward, her head tilted slightly in curiosity. She carefully slid her fingers into Nate's hand, examining every detail and touching all over his hand. She paused for a moment, staring at Nate's face, then looked back down to his hand and slowly stretched her crooked fingers so she could put her hand against his. Seria, still standing nearby, smiled softly at the look on Tasia's face. She looked amazed, slowly folding her quivering fingers over Nate's. Her pleased expression quickly turned to dismay when she realized that her fingers wouldn't bend the right way to let her hold Nate's hand properly, which was something easy for Seria to do. The female dragonian used her other hand to study Nate's fingers, noting how his could do what hers never could. She glanced up at Seria, keeping one hand with Nate, and gestured for her hand. When Seria gave it, Tasia bent her fingers this way and that, quickly growing more and more upset. She suddenly broke away, ripping her hand away from Nate and fleeing behind Vaira, feeling, for the first time, that there must be something wrong with her.

Nate dropped his hand, not expecting such a reaction at all. "Her hands are disfigured...what could have caused such a thing?" He questioned, looking from Seria to Vaira. He looked troubled; Seria would be able to tell that there was something else upsetting him, too. Not just the crooked fingers of poor Tasia.

Vaira ducked her head and nuzzled Tasia gently, prompting the girl to turn her head away and close her eyes, then the dragoness lifted her head and said "There came a point in our lives where I was sought out by a group of knights for my scales. They took us by surprise and caught Tasia before I could defend her. They threatened to hurt her if I wouldn't relinquish the scales, which, in order to save my little friend, I did. They only wanted more and more, however. If I would've let them, they would've stripped me completely!" She sounded enraged by then, but she quickly calmed. "When I finally refused to give more, then ran a blade through Tasia's fingers and severed them. All of them." She closed her eyes, a shiver of sadness running through her body. "I killed the men, of course, but no healer would help us due to me being such a foreboding sight, so I was forced to reattach her fingers myself using the power in my saliva, which has powerful healing capabilites. Obviously...I was unable to heal her enough."

Tasia reached a gentle hand up and stroked Vaira's neck, murmuring sweet things to her, then said "Don't be sad, Vaira-lahnir. I understand." She delicately pressed her forehead to the dragon's snout, sighing when Vaira thrummed deeply.

Seria sighed, feeling sad for the plight of the dragonian girl, then looked over at Nate and asked "Are you okay?" She reached out with one hand and touched his shoulder, then moved closer, looking at him in concern.

"I..." Nate shook his head, looking even more troubled as he glanced at Seria. "No. I'm not okay, but...I will be. I just...need to talk to Forin about getting rid of something. It can wait, though, it's not too urgent." He brushed her hand away with one of his own, his other hand moving down to feel the base of his spine. He clenched his hands into fists after that, turning away from all of them. "I...I'll just wait outside." He said flatly, clearly struggling to keep his voice level.

He left in a hurry after that.