The Forgotten Zodiac

Cynyr didn't so much as look at Werr as he entered the room. His pupil-less eyes were focused only on Obelisk. He attempted to say something, but couldn't make the words sound right. He shook his reptilian head, then lumbered up and carefully nuzzled Obelisk's hand. It was the only way he seemed to have of asking the dark lord to heal him. He didn't like Cern, but if Obelisk told Cern to heal him, then Cynyr would be quiet for it. For now, he just tried getting Obelisk to understand that he was hurting and needed healed. He lifted his head and, like a submissive animal, nuzzled lightly under Obelisk's chin, letting out a small whimper.

Obelisk snorted, putting his hand on Cynyr's head and pushing him back down. At the touch, however, the dark magic within him set to work at healing the wounds. It wasn't painless until the wounds closed up, which took several moments. It wasn't like Seria's healing, not in the slightest.

Werr just closed his eyes, shivering in disgust at what had just happened.

Cynyr held his breath until the healing was done, then released the breath with a rumbled sigh. He lowered his head to Obelisk, showing his thanks, then backed up and looked over at Werr. His gaze and stance gave away nothing in the slightest, though he flicked his tail once. Then he snorted and looked away, moving to stand by Obelisk's chair. Like a good minion.

Nelu, standing on the other side, smiled at him.

He growled at her, then chose to ignore her.

"What can I do?" Cern purred, pulling his hood down. His eyes trailed to Werr, and his tongue flicked over his lips for a moment before he looked back up at Obelisk. "Can I hurt him?"

"We're training him, not attacking him senselessly, Cern." Obelisk snorted.

"He still wants to escape. Look, he's trying to get away. The chain is all taut and stuff." Cern pointed. Obelisk sighed and flicked his finger towards himself. When Werr didn't move, he snapped his fingers. The simple movement obviously caused pain for Werr; he groaned with agony, clutched his bandaged arm, and desperately scooted backwards towards the throne. He was able to relax again and he fell limp behind Cynyr, staring blankly at the wall after that.

Cynyr didn't so much as glance in his direction, barely seeming to even notice that the boy exsisted. He even curled up near the throne and dozed off, letting out a lazily deep breath.

Nelu shook her head, then winced when a painfully familiar squawk entered her ears.

Relic trotted in, completely and utterly soaked. "Hellooooooooo~!" he said, waltzing up to the throne. "Captain Bandage, it's been a pleasure serving you, but I'm afraid we have no PANCAKES," he shouted, messing with the blue feather in the array of colors in his hair. "I'm just kidding," he said, his large eyes wide. "I know how much you love pancakes." He glanced up at Cynyr, noting the lurker for the first time. "HEY, THAT'S...I don't know," he said, moving over and starting to pet the shadow monster on the head. "Good boy~!" he said, smiling away.

Cynyr woke up and snapped at his fingers, hissing.

"Naughty dinosaur," Relic said, moving away.

((I've decided that Relic will die sometime during what I have planned. As in dead forever.))

((Poor thing.))

Werr breathed a heavy sigh of relief after Relic moved away again. Cern suddenly stuck his hand in the air, waving it about madly. Obelisk held back a groan of annoyance. "What is it, Cern?"

"What are we doing?" The madman asked, smiling as he dropped his hand.

"We are waiting for Dark and Light to finish preparing that carriage." Obelisk answered.

Cern stuck his hand in the air again, just short of jumping up and down this time. "What?" Obelisk grumbled in obvious irritation.

"Where are we going?"

"Alastor. I already explained this to you, so don't you dare ask 'why'!"

"Oh." Cern blinked. Then, "I forgot."

"Well, that's just a shame," Obelisk sneered at him. "Because I don't feel like repeating myself!"

Werr flinched as Obelisk raised his voice. Yes, Obelisk had explained himself very thoroughly. Werr would take up his position as king, but he would be nothing more than a puppet. Storaphian soldiers would descend upon and massacre town after town, before finally coming to the capital city. If Werr's friends hadn't arrived by that time, the entire city would burn and Werr would go with it. Obelisk hadn't explained what exactly would happen if Werr's friends did reach them in time; apparently he doubted they even would, though it was evident that he did actually have a plan. He just didn't want to share.

Relic crept up to the back of the throne and just sort of peeked around it, his huge eyes staring at the back of Obelisk's head. Slowly, he moved one hand up, his pointer finger out and the rest of his fingers curled into a fist, and poked the back of Obelisk's head. "YOU'RE IT," he said, though he didn't run away. Instead, he chose to poke the dark lord again.

Nelu facepalmed and hoped Obelisk understood that Relic was completely and utterly insane and probably didn't know what he was doing.

Obelisk didn't react much until he got poked for a third time. Then his hand snapped back, his fingers wrapping around Relic's and grasping them with a grip like steel. Without so much as standing up, he swung his arm around, taking Relic with it, and let go mid-swing. The action caused Relic to fly across the room and crash into the wall above the throne room doors. The force of this created a dent in the thick stone wall, right where the Alastorian signet was painted on.

Relic crashed back into the wall, sliding to the ground in a heap. He shook off the attack and sprang back up, singing "For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good FELLOW, AND BOY DOES HE HAVE AN ARRRRRMMM!" He ran around in circles, then suddenly flashed over to Werr and stared right at the boy. "I know you," he said, touching a claw to the boy's forehead. Then, in a surprisingly gentle and sane voice, "Hello, Werr." He got up moments later and moved off, not giving him another thought.

Cynyr lifted his head and stared at Werr for a moment, then lowered his head again and went to sleep.

Werr sat up a little further at this, blinking after Relic. He tensed again as pain suddenly shot up his unbandaged arm for a moment, then down his spine. He twisted around to see a thin, sick-looking woman wrapping bandages around his other arm, over a small black leather band. Werr knew what it was; the band had a black needle in it, which was now dug into the nerves on his wrist. And from what he had felt a moment ago, it was easy to guess that there was now a matching one in his neck, underneath the chains.

"Try not to turn your neck too much for the next day, until the needle sets," The woman hissed at him in her raspy voice. Werr said nothing, sitting still as she wrapped his neck up as well. Yet again, Werr knew what it was. They were infused with dark magic, which sent pure pain into his body at the command of Obelisk. The woman finished, then moved to where Werr could see her; she was about the same age as Cern, with short-cropped white hair and dark eyes. She wasn't a Tartaran or anything of the sort; she was entirely human, but somehow less than human at the same time. The way she moved was eerily familiar, and her voice...it had come from the floor around Werr, not her mouth or throat.

Werr ignored it for now, deciding not to press questions. It was better to just sit here silently, looking down at himself. He could be filled with agony on just a simple snap of fingers. So he was being trained like a dog with a shock collar. Don't speak unless spoken to. Follow orders from anyone and everyone here. Don't move unless told to. So on and so forth...

Relic bounced around in crazy, jagged circles until he slammed into a wall, falling into a sitting position and rubbing his nose with a frown.

Dark suddenly entered the room, stalking along with an evil air he never used to have. Thin lines of stitching ran around his wrists and over the skin across his eyes, showing the damage he had taken on Tartarus. Obelisk had freed them from that world and had repaired them, as they had begged for. Dark had begged for it, really. Light had just sat there and fumed.

"All preparations are nearly complete, my Lord," he said, his voice bitter and hateful. "We'll be ready to leave by tomorrow morning."

Ever since Light had basically betrayed him on Tartarus, Dark had become as his name said; dark.

"Very good," Obelisk nodded once. "All of you are dismissed. You may return to your rooms for the evening, but prepare to leave at a moment's notice. I feel...generous today. Werr, you may sleep in my private quarters. Escort him there, Relic." He ordered, leaning back in his chair and settling down to sleep, right where he was.

Relic's eyes widened and he said "Yessir, Captain Bandage!" He saluted, then moved over to Werr and took the boy's chain. "You get to sleep in the badger room! With the squirrles!" he said, tugging on Werr's chain a few times to get the boy to stand up. "Come on, come on!" he said, bouncing around excitedly on his long, strong hind legs. He clicked his sickle claws against the floor, smiling away.

Werr spluttered as the chain tightened around his neck with every tug. He finally climbed to his feet, stepping around Cynyr while keeping his eyes locked on the floor. Cern, in the meantime, was giggling away to himself; Obelisk had called himself 'generous'. But trapping Werr in Obelisk's room was actually the dark lord's final attempt to drive the boy insane. Insanity made people easy to control.

Werr did not like Obelisk's room.

Cynyr didn't so much as wake when Werr walked past him, barely even flicking his tail.

Relic trotted along, chattering happily to Werr as he led the boy along the halls and walkways. "-and it was all dark in the moat, but Nelu told me there was something magical at the bottom, so I kept diving and diving, but there was nothing there. And that's why I came in all wet today," he said, his stiff tail moving from side to side with each step. "But you, you're lucky. You have your friend here and you get to be a king! A magic king of kingy kingliness." He bobbed his head a few times, then said "Cynyr's a good dinosaur. But that moat had lotsa fishies in it, and they had sharp teeth. REALLY sharp teeth! I got bite marks all over my tail!"

"Wait, what? What did you say?" Werr jerked his head up at Cynyr's name. He had stopped paying attention after the fifth word, deciding that his thoughts were more substantial than this information. "Not about the fish, about Cynyr. He's a...'good dinosaur', you said. What does that mean?" He asked quietly, hurriedly.

"Oh? You didn't know?" the raptorix said, tilting his head back at the boy. "That big hulking creature by Obelisk's throne; that was Cynyr. Dark and Light, back when they attacked you and your group in the cave, injected Cynyr with black poison. It's been spreading and living inside him this whole time and today he turned into that creature you saw! He's a living shadow now and he always will be. Forever!" He giggled uncontrollably, then tugged on Werr's chain and forced him to follow. "So Cynyr's here with you, but now he's Obelisk's pet," he said matter-of-factly.

"W...what?" Werr gaped at him, stopping before being forced to follow again. He hoped desperately that Relic was lying. He had no clue, however, and had absolutely no way of finding out, really.

Obelisk's pet...like him. Good grief...Werr looked up again as Relic opened the door to Obelisk's room. As Werr thought, it was exactly the same as last time. Bandages, absolutely everywhere. Controlled by Dark Magic, seemingly alive. Werr looked around, searching desperately for a corner free of bandages or something. Only the bed seemed to be empty, though bandages were wrapped around the drapes.

Relic let go of the chain and pushed Werr inside, bobbing his head and saying "Yep yep yep. He's the dinosaur now. And he's SUPER strong! You should see what he did to your clone and Welk! They're complete wreaks." He shut the door and sat down on the other side, content to stay around and keep chattering whilst guarding the boy. "I can see if Cynyr wants to visit you later, if you like. I think I can get him to come sometime tonight. Maybe. If you stay up that long."

"I...I think I can stay up," Werr almost nodded before he remembered what the woman had said. He shouldn't move his neck around so much. Regardless, he was absolutely certain that he would be getting no sleep at all tonight. Werr climbed onto the bed, but he didn't lay down before checking under the covers, under the pillows, absolutely every corner of the bed for...well, he didn't know what he was looking for, but he didn't want any surprises. Werr laid down and carefully pulled the covers over himself, pulling on the chain so he could get it to where he was a bit more comfortable.

The night was long and, as Werr thought it would be, sleepless. He kept seeing movement among the bandages, like someone had come in with him and was stalking him now. Werr nearly screamed when some of the bandages reached down and peeled off his old, normal bandages and wrapped themselves around his arms and neck instead. He could feel them moving, as though feeling him for weak points. He could do nothing but lay there and cry quietly as his mind lingered on what Relic had said. Welk was a wreck because of Cynyr? Of course, he could care less about the clone, but...

By midnight, Werr was sitting up in the bed, already having thrown up once. The bandages had been quick to clean it up. He rocked back and forth as his eyes flicked around the room, his arms wrapped around his chest while tears dripped from his cheeks.

Terrified.