The Forgotten Zodiac

It had gone eerily quiet behind the door, signaling that Relic had left. Eventually, though, Werr heard his scratchy voice return along with the clicking of his claws, followed by heavy footfalls. "He's in there!" Relic's voice said, chipper as usual. "Go in. GO IN! No, he's just- GO THAT WAY!" Something was slammed against the door and Werr heard a horrible hissing sound, then the door opened to emit the huge lizard creature that had been by Obelisk's throne. "He's somewhere in there," Relic said, shutting the door behind him. "Go be nice and eat chicken." A moment of silence, then "Oh yeah, WERR, THAT'S CYNYR." And the door was shut and locked from the outside.

The shadow monster turned his head and stared right at Werr, blinking orb-shaped yellow eyes at him. He made no move to go closer to him or did anything other than looking positively intimidating. Finally, Cynyr let out a questioning hiss, almost as if saying Well? Here I am. What did you want?

Werr hesitated, then he wiped his eyes and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He cautiously approached the shadow monster, reaching out a hand. He flinched back when his fingers touched the top of Cynyr's now-scaly head, but he slowly relaxed and rested his trembling fingers on Cynyr's head. "H-how...how did this happen?" He asked, his voice just short of a shaky whimper. "Who did this to you? Cynyr..."

For a moment, it seemed as if Cynyr would snap at the boy's fingers and leave the room, as if he didn't recognize him. Then the living shadow sighed deeply and took the single step forward that put him right in front of Werr, lowering his head to press it gently against the boy's chest. He struggled for a moment, then slowly spoke. "Werrrrrr..." he hissed softly, lifting his head to be eye-level with the boy. He carefully extended his pink tongue and licked Werr's cheek, then said "I wassss poiiissssssoned. Beccaaammme thissssss." Both of his eyes, even his empty one, held a thin sheen of tears. When he had transformed into the shadow, his dead eye had just seemed to vanish inside his head, leaving behind the empty, gaping black socket. He sighed, then bent his head forward and bit through Werr's chain like it was a twig. Once it was broken off, Cynyr hissed "Aaaare yooouuu huurrrrtt?"

"It's really you," Werr sobbed weakly, wrapping his arms around Cynyr, more for his own comfort than anything else. "No...but these needles will hurt me if I don't obey him..." 'Him' obviously being Obelisk. "I'm so scared, Cynyr...what should I do?"

Cynyr nuzzled the center of the boy's back, being careful to avoid the needles. He rubbed his muzzle up and down the teenager's spine in a comforting move, then backed up and bobbed his head at the door. "We gooooo. To SSSSSeeeriaaaa. Sssshe taaake neeeedlesssssss out. Thhheeen yoooouuu mussssst go baaaaaack to Alasssssstor. Yoooouuu haaave to beeee the kiiiiing. Ussssse forcccessss to ssssstop Obelissssssk. Ennnnd all of thissss paaaaain." He backed up and gestured at his back, hissing "I carrrry yooouuu theeeerrreeee. Faaasssst."

"Yes," Werr nodded, climbing onto Cynyr's back without a second thought. "Obelisk must be stopped, you're exactly right...If giving myself up as king is what it takes, th-then...let's go, and quickly." He swallowed hard, though he doubted these plans. What if the others thought he was the fake? What if they didn't even make it out of the castle, and Obelisk caught them? The needles would be activated and Cynyr might be killed for his actions...the thought almost made Werr slide off again.

Maybe the room had driven him insane after all, but he held onto Cynyr tightly as he started moving.

Cynyr twisted his head around to help nudge the boy up onto his sturdy back, then moved over and pushed the door down, ignoring Relic's squawk as it fell on him. "Hey!" he said as Cynyr moved past and started for the exit. "Where ya going? Hmm? Hmm? Hey! Hey! Where ya going?"

The living shadow ignored him, stalking down the halls.

Relic trotted after him, chattering away, then suddenly paused. "You're not supposed to take him," he said, pointing at Werr. "You're not supposed to do that. That's bad. You'll get in trouble! YOU WILL!"

Cynyr ignored him.

Relic frowned after him, still following, then spoke words that made Cynyr freeze. "I could tell on you. Then you'd be dead and the boy would be captured again. It's easy! I could just scream really loudly and they would hear me."

Werr looked over at Relic, tears obvious in his eyes. "P-please, Relic..." He begged quietly, though it seemed pretty much useless. "I know you probably hate me...I know that you don't like any of my friends, either...b-but...please don't tell on us." He was tempted to slide off of Cynyr's back and get down on his knees to beg, but he decided against it.

If Relic carried through with his plans though, indeed...Cynyr would be dead and things would just get worse for Werr. As if they weren't bad enough as it was.

Relic peered up at Werr for a moment, blinking his large yellow eyes at them, then the light of sanity came into his eyes. "Alright," he said softly. "Go. Now, while you still can. I'll warn you ahead of time, however, that once Obelisk realizes you're gone, he'll send Dark and Light out on you. And they have a heck of a grudge against you both right now. It's so bad that when I mentioned Werr's name, Dark practically broke an entire wall down. With just his fist. And don't get me started on Light. He's...worse than I am." He sighed, then reached up and cut all of the feathers from his hair, every last one of them. "Keep these safe for me, will you? They...were all I had left of my family. I won't need them anymore after this," he said. He smiled, saying "The blue one was my mother's. I miss her alot, but...nothing I can do about that, hm?" He bound all of the feathers together into one rainbow bundle, then tied it carefully into Werr's hair, saying "Will you do me a favor? Will you make sure the land doesn't forget about the raptorix clan? We were once plentiful, like the wofling and the half-cat. Now...I'm the last. And after today, I'll be gone too." He smiled at them, wholehearted and somber, then said "Go. I'll cover your escape."

And he stepped back, letting them pass freely.

Werr reached up and touched the feathers now in his hair, sparing a small nod for Relic. Before the Raptorix dropped his hands, Werr reached up and squeezed it gently. "Alastor will never forget you and your people. Thank you," He said ever so quietly before letting go, and Cynyr started moving again. Werr held on tightly again, a tear or two slipping from his eyes. He wasn't sure why Relic had decided to help, but...it was pretty obvious that the raptorix would indeed be dead before dawn.

Relic watched them go with a sad smile, then turned and went back to Obelisk's room. He put the door back on and took his seat next to it, as if he had been there the whole time. "Well," he said softly, running a hand through his dark red hair. "It was fun while it lasted." He smiled again, then started counting down the time he had left to live. He looked up at the ceiling and said "I'll be joining you soon." Tears, real tears, slid down his cheeks from the sheer joy he felt at saying those words.

Cynyr, meanwhile, made his way safely out to the gates and started running, his gait much like that of a horse cantering. Rolling and smooth. He moved at a fast pace for his new form, though it was still fairly slow, seeings as he was much bigger in this form. He glanced over his shoulder at Werr, then kept his gaze forward.

Werr closed his eyes as Cynyr ran, not having to pay attention to where they were going. He knew where; back to Amnarius, where Seria was. Where the clone was. He still doubted if the others would believe anything he said, but...they had to try something, right?

Eventually, Werr found a way to lay against Cynyr without risk of falling off, and he dropped into sleep.

Cynyr eventually dropped down into a trot, panting softly. He was still tired from the run to Storaph, so he was unable to run fast. He paused, shaking his reptilian head a few times, then glanced up at the sky. Morning was rising in the far distance by this time. They had travelled for a while now and had just come into sight of the mountain that housed the Eternal Garden. Cynyr tilted his head back to stare up towards the distant cave that housed the entrance to the Garden, but he felt no fear or trepidation. Those feelings had been wiped away with this shadowy form.

He walked calmly towards the mountain, only to suddenly jerk his head up and leap backwards when an explosion boomed out in front of him.

Werr awoke the second he hit the ground, which happened a second after Cynyr jumped back. He climbed shakily to his knees, looking up after shaking his head. An explosion? It was too easy to guess who that was. Werr started scooting back and away the second he saw them.

Dark and Light.

The twins had approached without any of their normal flair or noise, silent lothing in their eyes. Light broke first and giggled uncontrollably, while Dark held extreme hatred in his eyes. "You both are going to pay so hard for what you did to us," he snarled. "You nearly got us killed. You both and my idiot of a brother." He glared at Light with an equal amount of hatred, while Light just laughed and laughed.

The twins didn't quite seem to be in sync with each other anymore.

Cynyr snarled and crouched defensively over Werr, nudging the boy with his snout in effort to help him up.

Another explosion sent the living shadow reeling backwards and allowed Dark to come forward and drag Werr up by the end of his broken chain, pulling him back as Light walked forward to deal with a very angry Cynyr. "Remember!" Dark said, frowning at his twin. "Obelisk wants that one dead."

"N-no!" Werr shouted desperately, kicking at Dark. "S-stop it! Do-don't hurt him! Take me, but please, please don't hurt him!" He grabbed Dark's hand with both of his, shaking obviously. "He's suffered so much...too much for one person, j-just take my life instead, I-I'll do anything..."

Dark just smiled and said "Sorry, but the answer is no. A thousand times no. FOREVER no! You're going to suffer and Cynyr is going to die! That's how it has to be!" His hands were shaking with rage as he held Werr up by his shirt and chain. "You have...to be in pain!" he shouted, his whole body practically seething anger. "You have to feel...what I felt!" A dark wave of magic gathered in his hand and he placed it on Werr's forehead, saying "I don't image you like those needles in your spine and wrist, do you? Unfortunately for you, those make perfect focus points for my magic."

Werr's entire body tensed up, a violent shaking overcoming his arms. He started to scream, but it turned into little more than a dry gurgle as all three needles crackled with black electricity. Dark was feeding way too much power into them at once, they were overloading. They were just barely able to cope, though, pumping the energy into causing incredible agony. Werr couldn't even scream.

Dark finally pulled back slightly, realizing that Werr wasn't screaming near enough for his liking. "Pathetic," he growled, frowning deeply. "I need a good, long, scream. That stupid sound wasn't nearly enough." He stopped the magic for a moment, lowering his hand. He rolled his eyes, then looked over when Cynyr roared.

Light had ripped the living shadow practically to pieces with his light attacks. The twins had swapped powers in order to hurt the beings they hated more, and Light hated Cynyr the most. Now Cynyr was a bleeding, smoking mess from the sunlight attacks, black ooze dripping out of his wounds. He hissed, but it was weak and fragile, a sound quite unlike him.

Light was laughing his head off and kept blasting Cynyr with the sunlight attacks, enjoying himself far too much.

When the magic slowed enough and the pain ebbed ever so slightly, Werr did indeed start screaming. He dragged in a deep, shuddering breath and then let it out. It was a blood curling sound, and the boy jerked and twisted as much as he could while he did scream. He wheezed and gasped for breath for a moment, then screamed all the more. Eventually, he went entirely limp as all of his energy went to screaming. As though screaming would take the pain away, which (of course) it didn't.