The Forgotten Zodiac

Cynyr nodded distantly, distracted. When they got back to the room they had slept in, he sat down in a chair and rested his elbows on his knees. Welk sat down on the bed and heated back up the food, then started chowing down. He kept glancing over worriedly at Cynyr, however, wondering what was wrong with the being he shared blood with. Welk suddenly paused in his eating and got off of the bed, taking cat form and moving over to Cynyr, who was rubbing his temples and didn't notice the lion's approach. Welk stood up on his back legs and hugged the panther with his front paws, nearly knocking him over. Before Cynyr could complain, Welk licked him gently on the side of his head with his rough tongue. Cynyr's voice died in his throat and he just sat there, letting Welk lick him over and over until the lion moved back. Cynyr looked over at him and Welk smiled, then promptly said "Hey, let's trade shirts!"

"What?" Cynyr said, flicking his tail.

"Come on!" Welk said. "Mine is blue and yours is red! I have to have red! It's my favorite color! Please? Please please please please please please-"

"Okay, fine!" the panther said, quickly shedding his shirt and handing it over. Welk took human form and did likewise, then pulled the red shirt on and took cat form again. He ran over and rubbed up against Werr, purring, then jumped up on the bed and started rooting around under the covers.

Werr chuckled at this, ruffling Welk's hair before standing. With their breakfast eaten, it was time to get started on their day.

There was a knock on the door just as Werr moved to open it. "Hey, I know you're awake in there," Came a sweet voice, which sounded irritated the next time it spoke. "You didn't pick me up yesterday, Werr, that was awfully rude of you." It was obviously Cici.

Cici, in her natural form. Werr blinked, hesitant on opening the door. He wasn't too sure what he expected...

Cici, as it turned out, looked fairly normal. She appeared to be a bit older than Nate, and just as tall. Not at all like fairies in children's books; she definitely wasn't palm-sized. Her white wings looked to be made of lace, though they were actually rather thick and solid, just transparent. She wore a white dress that caught the light and glittered as she moved, hiding her legs and feet. The ends of the dress trailed on the ground while she hovered in the air by the use of her wings.

She wore her blond hair up in a thick bun, tiny white flowers dotting her hair here and there. Her blue eyes inspected the look on Werr's face with amusement. "Close your mouth, Werr, you're going to swallow a bug or something." She giggled at him. Werr nodded, smiling a bit.

"Wow, Cici...you look..."

"Not like a staff anymore, that's for sure! Ahh, it feels so good to be able to stretch and move around again..." She spun in a circle, smiling widely. "Hey, hey, Welk! Look at me, I'm not a lame staff anymore!" She giggled.

Welk was utterly gaping at her, shocked. "You..." he started. "...you're beautiful! I didn't think you would be that pretty!" He slapped a hand over his mouth when he realized how rude that sounded and said "No, wait, I didn't mean it like that!"

"Smooth move, little brother," Cynyr said, smacking Welk on the head as he moved past him.

Welk glared at him, then said "You know what I mean, Cici. You're much prettier here than like a staff." He smiled at her, then a thought crossed his mind. "Are you still going to burn me if I touch you?" he asked. "Because I thought you might like a hug after being in there for so long but if you just end up burning me to pieces that would be sort of...painful. And I would be dead and I don't want to die." He flicked his stumped tail, peering up at the pretty fairy that had once been trapped in a staff.

"No, now that I'm no longer a staff, I have control over when that happens. So sure, I'd like a hug~!" Cici beamed, holding out her arms.

Werr moved in first, smiling up at her after a moment of tight hugging. "Thank you," He said, looking slightly red. "For everything. You saved my life once or twice, I know it..." He let go, backing up a couple paces.

"Don't mention it," She smiled warmly at him. "Oh yeah, Werr, Nate wanted to ask you what your plans were for today. Because he wanted to go over some strategic stuff over dinner, and I have some surprises for you all after that."

"Oh, well..." Werr scratched the back of his neck. "That sounds fine. I kind of planned on staying here for awhile, once we got Galai and Titus to hide the gate from Obelisk. It just kind of seems safer...and I think you know how much some of us need rest."

"I concur." Cici said shortly, then looked at Welk. "Well, little knight, are you going to hug me, or what?" She asked, grinning.

"Of course!" Welk said, moving forward and hugging her tightly. He sighed, nuzzling into her, then pulled back, grinning from ear to ear. He glanced over slyly at Cynyr, who was leaning against the wall and waiting for them to be done. "Cynyr's turn!" Welk said, moving over and pushing the wind mage towards the fairy.

"What?! No!" Cynyr protested, quickly coming to a stop and watching as Welk tried his hardest to keep pushing him. "I don't do hugs." the panther said, using a small burst of wind to push Welk out of the way and walk off. "I'm heading to the throne room to ask Galai about the gate," he said. "Catch up when- YOW!" He yelped as Welk ran over and grabbed his tail, yanking on it to pull the panther backwards a few inches. "LET GO OF MY TAIL!" Cynyr screeched, whirling around and swiping at the fire mage, who ran off laughing.

"Hey, hey, there's no need to force or fight," Cici laughed despite her words. "You don't have to hug me, Cynyr, it's alright." She smiled widely, then hovered down the hall after Welk. "Oh, and Werr...you might want to avoid Forin for awhile. Something feels a little off, and it's not the fact that Diana's traumatized. To be honest, it's hard to imagine the poor girl free of troubles at this point, but still...it's not that. Forin. Stay away from him." Cici cut off her ramble.

At least she still acted the same.

Welk frowned at her at that, but said "I'm perfectly fine with leaving him alone." He took cat form and rubbed up against Werr, looping all around the boy's legs and really loving on him, then bounded off singing "I am a lion, hear me ROAR~!"

A loud dragon roar suddenly sounded from outside, though it wasn't a full-blown war cry. Welk flinched and tripped himself up, slamming his chin into the ground. He got back up and winced, gingerly touching a paw to his split lip, then said "That sounded like Zephyr."

Cynyr shook his head, saying "No. It was Vaira. Come on, we might as well see what the trouble's about."

Cici jumped a bit at the roar, watching as Werr let out a sigh. "What now?" He groaned. Too much had been happening lately. They had things that they really needed to get to, like talking to Galai and Titus about the portal, but things kept getting in the way. Werr was honestly surprised that Obelisk hadn't tried anything yet. And if he had tried something, they were lucky he didn't get this far in.

They had little choice but to go after the source of the roar, though. Cici hummed a little song as she followed, having little better to do. She spun around in circles as she floated along, ultimately making herself dizzy. She was a bit like Welk in that she did silly things, but she was far from the boundless energy of the half-lion. Either she was always this way (and the sorcerer had a good reason to lock her in a staff form) or being a staff had messed with her head a bit.

When they reached the dragons outside, they found Zephyr and Vaira nose-to-nose and growling at each other. Ultimately, Vaira wasn't going to attack him, as he had already established that he was the stronger of the two. "No!" Vaira said. "I won't have it!"

"How else will she learn?" Zephyr snarled. "You are hindering her ability to learn normal behavior."

"I don't care!" the pink dragon spat. "Not with him! I don't trust him!"

"I do!" Zephyr bellowed, shutting her up instantly. "If you care about Tasia, you'll let her do what she wants. It's not like she's leaving you, either. She'll still be around, just learning better than what a dragon could teach her."

Vaira snarled, but after a moment longer of staring at Zephyr, she relented and tilted her head down. "...Fine." she said, sounding upset.

Zephyr watched her, then moved his head out and touched her nose, saying "Trust me. She'll be fine."

Vaira didn't do anything, then slowly let a slightly pleased hum work up into her throat. She then pulled back and moved her head around to where Tasia was hiding behind one leg. "Tasia," the pink dragon said. "You have to go with Zephyr for a little while. He's going to take you to someone that'll help you learn about everything. Okay?"

Tasia looked up at her, then nodded once and slowly walked over to the male dragon, looking up at him fearfully. He bent his head and nuzzled her gently, then said "Come along, dragonling."

"Where are you taking her?" Werr thought to ask, but he pieced it together after a moment of thought. "Cici, where's Nate?" He asked.

"Hm, sharpening his sword out back, last I saw." Cici answered simply, continuing to fly off towards the castle. "If he's not there still, ask Spy." She shrugged.

Zephyr let Tasia climb up on his back, then glanced back at Vaira and said "You should go back to the springs. There's one further out that's large enough for two dragons, so you could fit fairly well."

She shook her head and said "No. I'm coming with you first."

He tilted his head up slightly, but said nothing against it. Both dragons lifted off from the ground and went circling through the air, gliding around until Zephyr spotted Nate. The dragonian was where Cici has said he was, outside the back of the guest house sharpening his sword. Both dragons flew down and landed carefully, where Zephyr said "Ho, Nate. Good morning, lahnir." He bent his head and touched his huge snout down against the dragonian, thrumming deeply in his throat. They said that dragons usually developed strong bonds towards certain people, and Nate was no exception.

Nate set his sword aside and rubbed Zephyr's muzzle with both hands. "Good morning, my not-so-little friend." He chortled. "Did you need something for me, or were you looking for breakfast? I think they saved you a raw chicken; I had deer, it was surprisingly delicious." He said with a happy smile.

Zephyr hummed loudly and said "I could be little, if I wanted, but...it doesn't quite impress the ladies, if you know what I mean." He cut his gaze sideways to Vaira, watching her land and fold in her wings. He snorted and pulled back from Nate slightly, then said "I was wondering if you would be willing to do something for us. It's important, in more ways than one." He bent his head back and nudged Tasia off of his back, letting the dragonian girl open her wings and fly off to land next to him. "Tasia doesn't know a lot about being a dragonian," Zephyr said. "Just how to be a dragon, mostly. I was wondering if you would help her and keep her close. She needs someone caring and patient to teach her, and I thought of none better than you. You can refuse, of course, if you don't want to take on this challenge. I'm sure someone else would be willing to spend time with her."

Tasia was peeking out shyly at Nate from behind Zephyr's foreleg, holding her wings close to her body and curling her tail down low in a completely submissive way.

Nate blinked, thinking about it. His mind flicked back to Crissie; he had been unable to take care of her, would this time be any different? Nate looked down for a moment, sheathing his blade before looking up again. "I...sure, yeah. Why not?" He pushed another smile onto his face. He had been about to go through his morning exersizes, but those could wait, he supposed. Might as well.

Zephyr bent his head and put his nose against Nate, breathing a warm plume of breath out. "Thank you," he said. Then, in a much quieter voice that Nate barely heard, he said "You'll work out well together." Then he pulled his head back, lifting his foreleg and nudge Tasia out gently. He made her walk out in front of Nate, where she stood looking down, her slitted eyes worriedly flicking to and fro.

Vaira took this oppertunity to snake her head around and growl at Nate, saying "If you so much as lay a finger on her in any indecent way I won't hesitate to rip you limb from limb and then eat you while you're still alive." She snarled at him, then moved her head back and turned away, ignoring him.

Zephyr rolled his eyes and said "Nate is a very respectable dragonian, quite unlike any you seem to have encountered. Let he and Tasia be."

Vaira curled her lip, but said nothing more.

"Let such thoughts not even enter into your nightmares, Vaira." Nate raised a hand in protest. "I wouldn't dare even think of it." He held his hand out slowly to Tasia, not wanting to startle her. "I guess I have a lot to teach you then, don't I? You know my name already, right?"

Tasia stared at his hand for a moment, then looked up at him and said "You're...Nate? I...remember you." She carefully waved a twisted hand slightly around her, then said "You covered me with your cloak when the bright sun hurt my eyes. It still hurts a bit." She blinked a few times and he realized that she was having to squint hard to see him properly. "I wanted to stay with you and talk to you," she said. "But Vaira said I didn't need you."

The dragoness snorted.

Tasia glanced back at her, then looked back at Nate and said "She said male dragonians were violent and mean. Are you like that? Because Zephyr Shining-Scales said you were..." She paused and searched for the word, then said "...a gentleman?"

Nate chuckled. "I suppose you could call me a gentleman. I've never been one for violence, although it certainly has its place. For example, if someone were attacking you with the intent to harm you, I would most certainly become violent towards said person. But I would never purposefully hurt someone who means no harm towards me and my friends. You certainly don't fit that description, so I see no need to be violent. I don't know of any other male dragonians, so I can't say the same for them, but perhaps it's due to my adoptive parents that I act this way. Not that it's a bad thing at all.

"I digress...what would you like to do first, Tasia?" He asked with a much more genuine smile than his last.

Here the girl looked confused. She furrowed her brow and bit one of her nails, then said "I...don't know. I don't know what you can do here." She tightened her wings around her, whimpering softly. She carefully tugged at the pretty light pink dress that had been given to her. It covered her much better than the ragged shift had. Her dress came down around her shins and waifted after her, and one of the Amnairians had woven white flowers into her hair. She looked up at Nate with her soft blue-green eyes and said "I'll follow you. I don't know anything else," She sidled a bit closer, pressing her twisted hands against her chest.

"Well, alright then...oh, I know what we can start with. This way," Nate turned and opened the back door of the guest house, holding it open for her. He looked back at the dragons with a joking smile. "Play nice, you two."