The Forgotten Zodiac

Werr turned red for a short moment, then quickly wiped his mouth, looking absolutely bewildered. "Wha...who is that, exactly?"

"A freak," Forin snorted, picking up Luen's hand gently in a feeble attempt to comfort the fallen wolfling. "How did she know your name?"

Werr shrugged, shaking his head. "I've never seen her before, if that's what you're asking. Weird..."

"She's from a different planet. Greetings are probably different there. It took me several mistaken greetings before I realized that biting people wasn't really socially acceptable as a way of saying 'hi'." Forin tutted.

Werr chuckled a bit, not knowing if Forin was serious or not. He probably was. "Er...anyways, is Luen going to be okay? I had hoped to leave again before evening had a chance to set in..."

A shriek suddenly tore out of the inn and Welk shot out, slamming into Werr and nearly knocking them both over. "What the heck-?!" he said, clinging to Werr for a moment before he came to his senses and backed away, glancing around fearfully. "There's a weird girl in there and...and she kissed me!" He spat a few times, wiping his mouth off frantically, as if someone had made him kiss a poisonous snake. "She told me I tasted weird, too!" he said, glaring in the inn's direction. "Freak!" he shouted, crossing his arms indignantly.

Luen's breathing steadied a bit when Forin took his hand. It didn't look like much, but in his current, half-drowned state, it was a lot.

Seria healed his arm as best as she could and set about ringing him up a sling, knowing as well as Werr did that they needed to keep moving. "With any luck, he'll be movable by the time we're ready to go." she said. She chuckled slightly over Welk's reaction to the kiss, smiling.

"She kissed me too," Werr puffed, leaning against the doorway of the inn, smiling a bit. "No need to worry about it, I guess. I just hope she doesn't try to kiss Jag. I think she'd either get clawed up a bit, or Lily might cry..." He frowned, peeking back into the inn curiously. "Spy might bite her nose."

He shook his head and returned his attention to Seria and the other two. "Er, yeah. Good. Thanks for all your hard work, Seria. Do you need any lunch or anything?"

"Yes." Seria said, sitting back and crossing her legs lightly. "I'm pretty hungry. Lunch would do me fine."

An angry squawk rang out from inside the inn, followed by some nasty insults and a sharp cat yelp. Luna trotted past, looking startled as she held her stinging cheek where Jag had smacked her. The gryphon was furiously wiping his mouth off, looking insulted and very ruffled.

It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened.

Seria sighed, then moved to pick up Luen to take him away, into the inn.

Lily was sniffling and clinging tightly to Jag's shirt as Werr headed inside to pick up two of the sandwiches they had eaten for lunch while Forin and Luen had been away. He stepped back outside, handing one to Seria and the other to Forin. He finished it in a few bites, obviously still angry and grumpy about Luna hanging around. She was freakishly weird.

Jag was doing his best to comfort her, saying "I didn't even know her, love. You're the only girl I'll ever willingly let kiss me. Don't worry." He planted a soft kiss on her lips, gently touching a hand to the back of her head. "Don't cry." he soothed, stroking her hair.

Seria left Luen by Forin while she ate the sandwich, then scooped the wolfling up into her arms and walked inside, not waiting for Forin, though Luen made a weak whimpering sound as his hand slipped from Forin's. He was silent again after that, sinking deeply into unconsciousness.

Lily calmed down quickly after that, though she refused to let go of him, watching Luna as though she were some monster who came to steal the one thing she cared about.

Forin didn't hesitate to go inside, sitting silently next to Diana. She had curled up on the couch for a nap. Forin pulled off his cloak, draping it over her like he would a blanket.

Later that day, before evening, Luen woke up, though he was very dizzy and had a hard time sitting up. He seemed disoriented, but that was understandable. He had came dangerously close to drowning, after all. While Seria and the others prepared to leave, he laid on one of the couches, drifting in and out of sleep. When they were ready to leave, he could barely walk and couldn't see straight. He had to rely heavily on help from someone else.

Luna took to her snow leopard form and spread her wings, waiting and watching as Luen struggled. "Sorry." she murmured as he passed her. He flinched at her voice, unable to see her well.

They left the town and Zephyr took his largest form, ready to carry them all wherever Werr said to go next.

Seria made Luen sit behind Forin, since the wolfling had no hope of holding on by himself. He already looked a bit nauseous, but it wasn't very bad. It was mostly from how dizzy he felt. He wrapped his arms around the Tartaran, resting head against his shoulder. Forin could feel him panting. He was very sick.

Luna shook her head. She had made Luen sick and she knew it. It was a precaution incase he had escaped the river on his own. He would've gotten so sick he wouldn't have been able to defend himself or care for his wounds. He would've died within hours. Luckily, Seria had kept the worst of it away, but that didn't mean he wasn't feeling it.

Of course, Forin had been at the wolfling's side before they had climbed onto the dragon. And when they were on and tied into place, he put his hands over Luen's so that the wolfling would have no chance of slipping without his knowledge.

"Geruseph," Werr said, scrambling up onto Zephyr's back unsteadily. He looked more rested than before, but he still looked somewhat tired and pale. He still refused to make any complaint, though. "We'll rest there. If Orion is dead...we'll head straight for Storaph Palace as soon as we can. No more waiting around needlessly."

Luen sighed softly when Forin closed his hands over the wolfling's. He fell asleep a few moments later, his cheek resting against Forin's shoulder blade.

Zephyr nodded once when he heard the name of the town, then opened his wings and lunged up into the air, flapping them rhythmically and rising into the cloud.

Luna and Jag both flew close by in the air, making sure they kept up with the dragon. Jag had Lily and Spy on his back, as usual. Luna was analyzing the way the three boys she had kissed tasted. She had kissed them to discern certain things about them, things she found interesting. Welk was a fire mage, as distinguished by faint traces of smoke. Jag was annoying, but his powers were definitely interesting. He could create any kind of weapon he wanted out of thin air. Werr, however, held the most interest for her, though he had tasted terrible to her heightened senses. He had tasted like many things. The most prominent had been friendship and fear. A close friendship with the fire mage. Luna had sensed this. Then there was the fear, the fear that they wouldn't get to the town in time to save this Orion person, the fear that he would lose Welk to something and that the half-cat would die, the fear of pain, the fear of being a king, the fear of a being named Obelisk. All of these things and many, many more were revealed to Luna. She smiled slightly, then pushed him from her mind, already wondering what Nate's mouth would taste like and what he would reveal to her through a simple kiss. Amnarians, it seemed, used kissing as a form of information exchange. Since the people she had kissed were not Amnarians, however, they had learned nothing of her.

The trip was long. The moon had risen well before they arrived near Geruseph. It was a peaceful looking little town, set on a hill overlooking a sluggish river. A chill had settled in the air, though Zephyr's natural warmth shooed a good deal of that away. The walk to the town after Zephyr set down was uneventful. Werr led the way to Orion's house; they had left Luen, Diana and Forin with Zephyr, in case anything happened.

Werr was indeed afraid of what might have happened already, but he lifted a hand on knocked on the door anyways. The town was dark and a fog was starting to settle, making things even more uneasy. Werr raised his hand to knock again, his usual doubts welling up within him again.

No sound whatsoever. Finally, they heard a clicking sound as a being trotted across the room behind the door and peek through the window curtains. It wasn't a human eye, that was certain. It was a large light yellow eye with thin black slits. "Hey!" the being said, moving its head from the window and called out into the house. "Nelu, your friends are here!"

"Shut up, you idiot!" Nelu's familiar voice snapped, and Relic, for it was obviously him, snarled back "I like rabbits!"

Welk reared back and slammed a hand into the wood door, burning it down in an instant. That revealed Nelu, who was standing over the body of an older man with a brown beard, twisting the sword in his chest. Orion was already dead, but she was just making sure that there was no hope of reviving him.

"O-Orion!" Werr yelped, stumbling back in shock. "Y...you two again..."

"Oh boy, more trouble," Cici squeaked as Werr pulled her around to his front. She generated a sheild for him at once. He threw it against the door, blocking the easier way out.

"Crap...we can't fight them! We need to get back to Zephyr!"

"I can protect you," Cici chirped. "I can encase you in a light orb that wil never break. I could keep it up for years!"

"That's not what I'm worried about!" Werr snapped at her.

Relic busted out the window, landing easily on his feet and shaking the glass off of himself. "Woo!" he said happily. "Nice ride, but it could've been better." He turned his head and spotted them, then said "Hello!" pleasantly. Nelu followed him, jumping out the window in wolf form. "Relic, I hate you." she growled, shaking herself off and taking human form. "I know, I know." he said, sighing softly and looking a little upset. He shook it off quietly, then jumped out of the way when Welk hurled fireballs at them both. "I hate both of you!" he shouted, then yelped when Relic tackled him, knocking him back from the others. He tilted his reptilian head at the half-cat, then purred "Should I break your legs again, little kitten? Maybe rip open your chest? Don't worry; this time, I'll dig down to your heart so you won't suffer for very long. It'll be very painful, though."

Welk immediately struggled, snarling at the raptor, but they could tell he was very scared at the notion of having his chest torn open. Again.

"Get off of him!" Werr screeched, swinging Cici at the raptorix as though it were a club. He hit Relic repeatedly, to no avail. "I won't let you, you freak!" Of course, the shield melted. Cici had set about spreading armor along Werr's body. It looked a bit like glowing chainmail, and would help him survive all but the most brutal attacks. To help a bit more, Cici was literally unbreakable when she was awake. She could be smashed over Relic's head all night.

Nate wasted no time, blasting a stream of white-hot flames at Nelu. He was quick to draw his sword in the process, as well as a dagger from his boot.

Relic stared at the boy, then shrugged and brought his raptor claw down to rest right at the top of Welk's chest. "Tsk, tsk." he said. "He really cares for you. I wonder how much he'll cry when you're dead. I wanna see it!" His insane state of mind snapped back in an instant. That wasn't enough to stop him from gasping as a large snow leopard suddenly bowled him over.

Luna growled threateningly as Relic got back up shaking his head and wondering what hit him. Welk scrambled up and took cover behind Werr for a moment, breathing hard and looking stunned.

Nelu bared her sharp white teeth at Nate in a savage grin, dodging the fire and saying "This again? The last time we dueled, you ended up harming someone I understand you like now. Let's see if I can make you do it again."

"Y-you okay?" Werr asked quickly, backing away from the fighting and taking Welk with him. "I won't let him hurt you again, don't worry," He smiled weakly at his friend, but Welk could see him shaking. Of course. Orion was quite obviously dead. And he had already made the decision to not attempt to assist the other council members. That meant their next destination, provided they made it away from Nelu and Relic alive, was back to Storaph Palace.

"Airlia! Fly back to Zephyr for help!" Werr snapped. Airlia, who had been hiding in an alley since the appearance of their opponents, immediately took off.

"Try me!" Nate snapped, baring his own teeth at her. He made a quick decision not to use flames again unless he really needed it. He didn't hesitate to attack, charging forward with a sideways slash, his sword going for her ankles.

Welk nodded, then steeled himself and took cat form to go help Nate. He galloped towards Nelu and was joined on his right by Seria, also in cat form. Nelu gasped at the sight of them. She grinned however, pleased by the challenge of fighting both cats and Nate at the same time. She blocked Nate's attack and kicked out, catching Welk with her thick black boot and sending him reeling, then whipped a sword out and drove it at Seria, who yelped and dodged as quickly as she could.

Luna took human form and spread her glistening white-gold wings, extending them out to their full length. She curled them around Relic, drawing him near. He, being insane, didn't know what was going on until her lips were pressed delicate to his mouth. He blinked, shocked into silence, then listened as Luna spoke. "I see many things about you." she said softly. "A tribe of friends and family, killed before the eyes of a youth. The child, who witnessed his entire clan's death, could not bear the memories of the murders. He lost his right mind and went about stealing the life-forces of all who lay dead, using their lost magics and spirits to extend his own life for over 200 years. He fears death above all else. Do you not, little raptorix?"

Relic listened to her sadly, then just crumpled to a sitting position on the ground, placing his clawed hands over his face and sobbing quietly. He hadn't thought of those memories in years and years and years...

Werr stared at Luna and Relic, wondering how she had known all that. Then it hit him; the kissing. There must be some way she was dragging information out of people! What had she learned from him? Or Welk? Or Jag, for that matter? Werr made a face, but ignored his insinct to grow angry about it. There was no time to think about it, anyways.

Wait...why wasn't there time? He was useless. Even if Relic weren't temporarily out of the fighting picture, he couldn't fight. He just had to stay out of everyone's way and try not to get hurt. And Cici was helping with the not-getting-hurt part. Which meant he just had to stand back...and watch.

Nate went after Nelu's gut with the dagger, enraged that she would even think about attacking Seria. In a pincer-like movement, he also swiped his sword towards the back of her legs.

Nelu took wolf form in a split second and flattened herself against the ground, then lunged up and rammed her head into Nate's stomach. Seria and Welk made another attack at her and Welk managed to rake his claws across her arm, tearing through silky black fur and skin. Nelu yipped sharply and took human form, panting softly and holding her arm as it bled through her fingers. She snarled, then flicked her ears up. "Ah." she said softly, smiling darkly. "So that's how it is, eh?" When Seria lunged in to attack, Nelu back-flipped away from the attack, landing behind the startled cat and throwing an arm around her neck, locking the cat into place next to her. Seria lost her hold on cat form in shock and Nelu cinched her grip around the girl's neck tighter. "So the dragonian cares about the half-cat, hmm?" she scorned, holding one of her swords against Seria's belly. "I'll save you some trouble later on and kill her here. Or I'll take her back to Lord Obelisk and let him have his way with her. I'm sure she would enjoy it." She smiled, showing off sharp fangs that she clicked a few inches away from Seria's ear, causing the girl to flinch.