The Forgotten Zodiac

Cynyr looked down for a moment, thinking hard, then lifted his head and said "The latter. I know, for a fact, that a few of my...friends...would fight to the death for him. So be it. Forin's one of us, much as I dislike admitting it. We'll fight for him. Especially Luen. If you really want someone who would perform a trial to save Forin's life, he's the best out of our entire group. He actually likes Forin a lot." He drew back his lips into a slight cat-snarl, showing off his pointed fangs, then said "Bottom line; deal," He flicked his long black tail, using a burst of wind to push back a thin wisp of shadow that tried to creep up on him from behind. He kept his yellow gaze locked on Titus, not daring to look away.

"Very well then." Titus smiled slightly. He stood again and held out his hand to Cynyr. "I do believe you shake hands to signify a successful deal, do you not?" He dropped it a moment later, turning away. "No matter. Despite my children's habits, I'm a diety of my word. Forin Dulce - or rather, this clot of emotions - shall not perish unless his dear friends allow it." He spread his hands out just above Forin's limp body, murmuring something softly. Shadows reached down from his hands, sinking into the Tartaran's chest. Forin coughed and spluttered, then rolled onto his side and spat up what appeared to be an orb of light. He groaned and scrambled to his feet, though he picked up the orb and shoved it in his pocket. He would hold onto it; one couldn't know when such a thing would come in handy.

"Your majesty," Forin mumbled, bowing low.

"I'm assuming you heard what's going on. If you haven't, well, ask your not-so-friendly-friend about it." Titus waved his hand at Cynyr. He noted Forin's glancing around the room and thought to add, "Michaelis met his fate a year ago, child. Do not concern yourself with him any longer."

"Yes, my king..."

"Good. Get out of my sight."

Cynyr glared at Titus, then moved forward and touched Forin's shoulder, motioning with his head towards the exit. With the Tartaran following, Cynyr headed out, only to pause in the doorway. He didn't turn his head, but he spoke one last time. "By the way..." he said, his ears tilted far back against his head. "...Galai misses you." It had been obvious to the panther, who had spent many years away from the one who had captured his heart. He knew of the lonely look that he had seen discreetly pass over the queen's elegant face. He had made that same expression countless times.

He flicked his tail and led Forin out without another word.

Forin still didn't seem very well, but he was getting better as they walked along. By the time they reached the bat-boy, he was well enough to kick at it as they passed. "You're lucky he didn't try to bite you last time you passed him. His venom would have killed you." Forin mumbled as they stepped onto the bridge to the place between worlds once more.

Cynyr smirked and said "He wouldn't dare try if he wanted to keep his head attached to the rest of his body." He shook his head and said "Tartarus was a nice place. Remind me to vacation there sometime. It'll be a blast." And he shot a plume of wind out into the black space around them, flicking his tail from side to side. As they made it back to the fork in the road, they spotted the Divine lounging on the bridge that led back to the sacred place in the normal world. It barely spared them a glance, practically falling off of the bridge with how big it was. It just snorted and chose to say absolutely nothing to the two of them.

Cynyr ignored it about as much as it did them, not having the same amount of respect for it that Luna and Forin did. He personally just wanted to get back to Amnairus as soon as possible and go to sleep. He was strangely tired after his expedition into the shadow realm.

Forin stared as they passed, but remembered Diana. He also remembered to do something else, before he ran ahead to help his mistress. He turned to Cynyr and pulled out the small light orb. "It hurts to hold this. You should hold onto it though, you don't know when something like that could come in handy." He said quietly before running ahead, putting on his unusual speed.

He reached the guest home in perhaps thirty seconds, charging up the stairs to where he could sense Diana crying. Seria was trying to get her to sleep, but the poor girl was sick with worry. Forin opened the door quietly, smiling a little as Diana bolted out of the bed and ran into his open arms. "I thank you for tending to her, Seria. But I'll take it from here." He said quietly.

The panther took the orb and shoved it into his pocket, content to walk instead of run. Though technically, he just flat out refused to run.

Seria smiled slightly and nodded at Forin, saying "Of course." She stood up and walked out, quietly shutting the door behind her. She headed out and made her way down, deciding to go find Cynyr before he got swept up by Welk and Werr. She found him right when he came back through the gate. "Cynyr." she called lightly, and he glanced up at her. He didn't slow in his pace as he approached her, though she didn't notice. "I wanted to ask you something about Tartarus-" Seria started but all of her words died instantly when Cynyr wrapped his arms around her and kissed her abruptly. Her eyes widened considerably, then she just seemed to relax against him. When he pulled back, he smiled slightly at her and said "I think that was a long time in coming."

And he left her standing there, smiling from ear to ear, and turned and headed off to find Werr and Welk.

Werr had fallen asleep at last. His weariness had become more and more obvious to Welk, who had made him go to bed. There had been barely five minutes between the time Werr's head hit the soft pillow to the time he fell asleep. Nate had found a chair, but it had been too heavy to move upstairs, so he was sleeping in the hallway, oblivious to all around him. Someone had bothered to drop a blanket over him with a pillow behind his head.

It was finally time to retire after a very, very long day.

The next morning found Welk curled up in cat form at the foot of Werr's bed, snoozing away. Werr was unbothered by nightmares, thanks to Galai's healing. Welk suddenly shifted around on the bed and rolled over onto his back, sliding closer to the edge of the bed, where he promptly fell off a moment later. He yelped softly when he hit the ground, blinking awake and shaking his still-growing mane, then jumped back up onto the bed and curled up against Werr. He sighed and wrapped his front paws around the boy, resting his head in the space between his neck and shoulder.

Werr opened his eyes the second Welk fell off, but he did little other than smile and start scratching Welk behind the ears. It was a bit odd, to not have nightmares after having them constantly for so long, but it was definitely a good feeling. One that Werr wouldn't give up for the world.

A smell caught his nose and he looked up, spotting the tray that had been placed on his nightstand. It was filled to overflowing with breakfast; toast and juices, eggs and ham, even steaming pancakes.

Welk started purring as Werr scratched him, nuzzling closer to him. Ever since the very first time he had curled up against Werr to sleep, he had never dreamed of sleeping anywhere else. Especially now that he was the boy's knight.

Cynyr, who was curled up in panther form on the floor, slowly lifted his head and yawned. He had come in after he had kissed Seria the previous night, knowing that he had as much of a duty as Welk did to protect Werr. He slowly stood up, feeling oddly tired and...creaky. What was normally a fluid motion in standing was now halting and shaky. He glanced up at his younger brother and his friend, then sighed. He took human form and turned to head out, pausing when he reached for the doorknob with his left hand. His hand was quivering terribly, like he had no control over the muscles there. He quickly grabbed it with his right hand, holding it tightly until it stopped shaking. He heaved a deep breath and opened the door, only to suddenly stumble on his left leg and smack himself in the face with it. He yelped and let go, quickly holding his face in his hands.

Werr looked up at Cynyr, a piece of toast in hand. "Are you alright?" He asked, frowning a bit. "You definitely don't seem okay...so don't tell me you're okay." He continued to frown, though he bit into his toast, feeling the warmth of the food seep into him. It was delicious indeed, and it was just a piece of cooked bread...

Cynyr shook his head to fluff out his black hair, then glared over at Werr. He couldn't bring himself to glare for more than a few seconds, however, and sighed deeply. "No," he said. "I'm not alright. But I can handle it well enough."

Welk, who had started rolling around on the bed after Werr had sat up, paused with part of the blanket drooping over one ear. "What happened?" he asked, concerned. "Are you sick? What's wrong?"

Cynyr bit back on a growl and said "I...don't know. But I can deal with it just fine."

"Yeah, and we saw how well that worked out with the dark magic." Welk said sarcastically.

Cynyr snarled and said "Forget this. I'm going for a walk." And he stalked out the door and slammed it shut behind him.

"Wha--Cynyr!" Werr called after him, then sighed and swung his legs over the side of the bed, standing quickly. "Come on, Welk, we've seen way too many bad situations out of these stormy walk-outs to just let him go. We need to at least stay close. Breakfast will have to wait," He looked sadly at the still-warm pancakes before giving Welk a quick scratch behind the ears and moving for the door.

Welk nodded and took human form, grabbing three of the pancakes before following his friend, making sure to hand one to Werr before moving out. He trotted just to the side of Werr, munching on the pancakes he was holding and hurrying off to find his brother. They found Cynyr walking through the streets of Amnairus, just wandering without a destination in mind. He paused in the street and glanced up at the sky, sighing quietly.

Welk charged over and unceremoniously tackled him.

"Waugh!" Cynyr cried out as he was knocked sideways to the ground. "Stop doing that! It hurts!"

"Bah." Welk said, hugging him. "You're a big tough panther. A little tackle won't hurt you-"

"No!" Cynyr said. "Not the tackle! S-stop hugging me! Please!"

Instantly horrified, Welk scrambled back and said "What's wrong?"

Cynyr sat up and scratched himself slowly behind one ear, then said "I...don't know. I feel better now."

Werr caught up to them quickly. "Cynyr, you can't wander off by yourself, you should know better by now. Too many people want us dead, and after that one incident, I don't trust anyone but our group. Just...stay with us, please. I understand if you don't feel well, but at least stay around the rest of us. Just in case."

Cynyr rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from them and feeling sort of embarressed, then mumbled "Okay. Fine. I can do that,"

Welk smiled and held his hand out to his brother, who allowed the lion to pull him up. "Come on," Welk said. "I'm hungry and I bet Werr is too, along with you. Let's go! If we go now I can re-heat everything. Come on, come oooooooooooooooooooon." He started to lean on Cynyr's arm and suddenly frowned. "Cynyr?" he said. "Your arm's shaking."

"What?" the panther said.

"Look," Welk said, holding his brother's arm up where they could all see it. The wind mage's hand was starting to quiver uncontrollably. Cynyr snatched his limb away from Welk and held it with his other hand, saying "Can we just walk, please? I said I would come with you, didn't I? Sheesh..."

Welk frowned and glanced at Werr, knowing that something more was wrong here than Cynyr was letting on.

Werr gave Welk the same look, but let out a sigh. There was no getting around it, really...

Still, they had things to get to today. Cici had to be back in her natural form by now, and Werr wanted to start training with Cynyr as soon as possible. It would be kind of hard to train if his trainer was incapacitated or injured. Werr tried to think about what could be causing this, but he couldn't come to any better conclusions than Dark Magic. Perhaps there were still traces in Cynyr that were hurting him now...

Cynyr was giving him a look that clearly said 'drop it'. He moved over to walk on Werr's left side as Welk moved to the right, with both knights protecting him. "Come along, your majesty," Welk said with a grin, clearly joking. He took cat form and trotted forward happily, eager to get back and eat.

Cynyr stalked along, looking unconfortable, with all of the fur on his tail bristled up and his ears flat. As if he had read Werr's mind, he said "We're starting your training today. As soon as possible, in fact. Why bother waiting? If you want to do it, you'll do it."

"I do want to do it," Werr nodded quickly. "But we should see if Cici is in her natural form yet, first. I don't want her to think that we've forgotten about her," He smiled a bit as he started to walk towards the castle. They had to ask about three things, as well; about Cici, if they could borrow swords to train with, and whether or not Galai and Titus would hide the gate.

Werr was surprised something horrible hadn't happened since the gate had been opened. Was it already hidden from Obelisk's gaze, then?