The Forgotten Zodiac

Tasia smiled slightly at Nate, then gently touched her fingers to his chin and leaned forward, giving him a soft kiss on his lips. She closed her eyes for a moment, then pulled back and nuzzled against his neck. She still quivered once in a while from fear, but she seemed to be getting better as time passed. She curled her tail around and rested it in Nate's lap, moving her unbroken wing up to wrap around him.

Welk sighed, flicking his ears intently as he listened for any sounds at all from the ground above.

Werr had started throwing a fit again. "Where are we going? Turn around, Zephyr, we have to go get Nate. And Welk! Welk, Welk, Welk!" He punched the spike in front of him, though he only wound up hurting himself more than anything else. "Come on, Zephyr!"

"Shut up or I'll steal your voice," Forin growled. Werr shut up after that, not wanting another ordeal like that. Having his voice locked up had been one of the worse things of that 'trip' to Obelisk's castle.

"I'm looking for them," Zephyr said, circling over the castle. "I have no idea where they went. Welk ran off and the dragonians followed. I was busy at the moment, if you hadn't noticed, and I didn't see where they had went." He angled lower and skimmed slowly over the fallen castle, trying to think of what Welk could possibly want to look for in this place. There was practically nothing here, anyways.

The emerald dragon and the magenta dragon both landed in the courtyard, carefully sniffing around for any traces of their missing companions.

Once they landed, the drakeling slid out of Vaira's pouch, sniffing at the ground as well. It suddenly scurried forward and started digging in the grass off to the side, tearing through huge chunks of dirt. He tired quickly, though, climbing out of his hole. He only found himself face-to-face with Werr. "What did you find?" The human king asked desperately.

The Drakeling sniffed him, then opened his mouth and squeaked. The thing was part Dragon, so Werr could more or less understand the creature, but a lot of what it was saying happened to be incoherent babble. "I find tears. I lick tears, but I no get to tears. Buried." He whined. He let out a shriek when Werr reached out to him; the Drakeling ran past the human, hiding under Vaira fearfully. At least it wasn't entirely unintelligent; it had already recognized Vaira as its new caretaker, in spite of the fact that she had assisted in killing his parents. Just the fact that she had put him into her pouch was a dead giveaway for the baby monster.

Werr frowned and looked down in the hole, wondering why the creature had stopped. It was just a baby, sure, but...wait a second, it wanted tears? Werr wasn't aware of it, but Drakelings had strange habits. They had particular tastes; one might want only sweet foods, another only spicy. The baby under Vaira now had chosen salty things to be its favorite, which explained why it wanted tears.

Well, one could obviously see that this thing would be hanging around Diana a lot.

Vaira bent her head and nuzzled the baby, making her chuffing sound to him. Her instincts had kicked in remarkably fast, considering how hostile she had been towards all of them at first. She had taken to this once-enemy drakeling lightening fast. She gently licked down his head with her tongue, running it up and over his back.

Zephyr flicked his ears and ignored her, instead going to the place where the drakeling had been digging at. He bent his head and sniffed the ground, then placed his huge paw down and started tearing up the ground below. It was easy for him, being so large and having such sharp claws. He dug at the ground for a few minutes, until he the dirt he was digging at suddenly gave way beneath his claws. He heard a scream below, then silence as the dirt slowly settled.

"What the heck?!" they heard a familiar voice say, then Welk walked into sight down in the hole, blinking at the bright sunlight above him. He was covered in dust and dirt alike from being trapped in the dungeons and from Zephyr tearing the hole open, but he seemed unhurt.

((Also, I would like to change his color from black/dark grey to white and silver. But I am leaving and cannot change that at this time. oxo))

The Drakeling closed his eyes halfway, shivering slightly as Vaira's heat soaked into him. He squeaked a bit, then purred, "Boko," He nuzzled under Vaira's chin, his wings folding up behind him. "Boko is name. My name." He said proudly, nodding once.

"Welk!" Werr said, peering down into the hole. "Welk, are you okay?" He questioned, rummaging around in his bag for some rope. He could have sworn he had some...

Vaira purred, a sound they hadn't heard from her before for anyone other than Tasia, then lifted her head away from Boko and called out for the female dragonian. "Tasia! Are you down there?" she said.

The girl lifted her head away from Nate when she heard the dragon's voice, calling "I'm here, Vaira-lahnir."

Welk flicked his tail and looked away for a moment, then seemed to steele himself and called up "Y-yeah, I'm fine! Nate and Tasia are both hurt, though. Tasia's wing and Nate's leg." He stared up at Werr and his eyes suddenly overflowed with tears, but he quickly turned away and wiped his claws under his eyes. "Yeah...I'm fine..." he muttered where nobody could hear him.

Boko's head bobbed up and down while Werr found the small bundle of rope in his bag. He tied it securely to a jutting rock (after making sure the edges weren't sharp enough to cut said rope), tying a loop in the other end. He dropped the rope into the hole. "Welk, hook your foot in the loop," He called. "Tasia, Nate, are you together?"

"Yes," Nate replied sullenly. "We're cut off from Welk's cell, though..."

"Okay. I need one of you to cry." Werr nodded.

"...What?"

"Cry! There's some...er...dragon-like thing that can sniff you out that way." Werr answered.

"Wha...can't you just use Spy?" Nate hissed, not wanting anything to do with crying in front of Tasia. Crisis or not.

"Spy won't be as accurate, his senses are clogged due to all the dust." Forin answered that one. "Just start crying, already."

Welk did as Werr asked and carefully stepped onto the loop, wrapping his hands around the rope and holding on tightly. "Okay," he said flatly, keeping his tail (as much of it as he had) tucked between his legs.

Tasia listened to Werr speak, then looked down and started going through memories. She didn't want to make herself sad, but she wanted to get out of the hole more. Her wing was hurting badly, the main bone snapped cleanly in two. She made herself think about the male dragonian that had hurt her, both in body and in heart. She started to quiver, wanting to turn away from the horribly memories she had, but forcing herself to remember.

She pulled away from Nate and sobbed quietly, wrapping her arms around herself as tears poured forth. She shook badly, unable to do anything but cry.

Werr started pulling (assisted by Forin) Welk up through the hole. It was a narrow fit and it seemed like Welk might get stuck for a moment, but the half-cat emerged from said hole just as Boko lifted his head, sniffing at the ground. He squawked suddenly, starting to heave rubble out of his way. He soon hit the normal floor, which he attempted to scratch his way past. He was extremely tired by this time, unable to do much but scratch at the surface of the stone flooring, but the spot was marked well enough. He crawled away, curling up on top of a larger chunk of rubble and going limp.

Vaira moved her head over and scooped the baby drakeling into her mouth, moving him over and tucking him back into her warm pouch. She slid her jaws inside and let him go, knowing he would be completely safe and comfortable against her belly.

Welk brushed himself off, unable to do much about the dust that poofed away from him when he shook himself. His lightly tanned skin was covered in the dust, along with fair amounts of dirt. He looked a mess, to be frank, what with his blonde hair fluffed out in all directions.

Zephyr moved over to the spot Boko had marked and started digging, tearing up the floor with his thick claws. He quickly dug a good-sized hole in the ground, revealing the cell that Nate and Tasia were stuck in. "Nate?" he questioned, moving his muzzle over the hole. "Are you both in there?"

"Yes," Nate said quietly, not liking the fact that Tasia had to have cried. That, and he was half-buried under dirt and dust now, and he wanted none of it in his mouth. "My leg is broken and Tasia's wing is severely fractured. Do you think you'll be able to get us out of here in spite of that?" He asked, not really doubting his friend's ability. But the verbal confirmation might be a comfort for poor Tasia.

Zephyr nodded his head once, then carefully bent his great skull forward and opened his mouth, carefully hooking Nate's shirt between two of his sharp teeth and tugging the dragonian free of the dirt, trying to be careful.

Tasia immediately sobbed louder and tried to catch Nate's hand, only to miss as Zephyr pulled him up and out of the hole. The emerald dragon gently set Nate down on the ground near the hole, then dipped his head back in for Tasia. The female dragonian latched onto his muzzle desperately, allowing him to pull her out. She curled up limply on the ground when Zephyr let go of her, still crying softly.

Nate crawled over to Tasia before Seria could reach him. He wrapped his arms around her, closing his eyes and shushing her ever so quietly. When Seria moved to heal him, he pushed Tasia towards her instead.

"Is everyone okay?" Werr asked, frowning unhappily as he stepped around the new hole. "Er...is everyone going to be okay?"

Seria nodded at Nate, then carefully touched her hands to either side of the break in the girl's wing. Tasia pressed her head into Nate's chest, sobbing and keeping her legs pressed tightly against herself, as if protecting her body from any sort of attack. She wanted to both press closer to Nate and pull away at the same time, needing and fearing him equally.

Seria healed the bones in the dragonian's wing, then moved on to Nate's leg. Her touch was gentle and soothing, healing the damage quickly. "They should be fine," Seria murmured, flicking her tail. "It's Luen I'm worried about."

"Right..." Werr looked down. "I...I don't think we can go after Cern, though...there's only one place Obelisk could be going to, at this point. Alastor. If he's not already there, maybe we can get there before him, and have him cornered..."

Nate nodded sullenly, looking away. He felt as though it was his fault, somewhat. He had allowed himself to be manipulated, and Luen had paid the price for that. Nate looked up, remembering the King and Princess. Cici had untied them, and was now clearly in the process of purging Obelisk from their systems. She had sat them down nearby, and was pressing her thumbs to their foreheads. Light surrounded them, burning away the darkness from their hearts.

Nate turned back to Tasia, looking at the way she was sitting. He let out a small sigh, holding her all the tighter. "I swore I would never hurt you," He said quietly. "Do you not believe me?"

Tasia swallowed and slowly looked up at him, blinking the long lashes of her blue-green eyes. She hesitated for a moment, then nodded and leaned against him, sighing as her fears and memories melted away, sinking deep into the back of her mind. She nuzzled close to him, resting one of her twisted hands on his thigh.

Seria sighed, standing up and moving away towards Welk. The blonde half-cat was leaning against Zephyr's foreleg, rubbing the diamond-hard emerald scales as the dragon thrummed in pleasure. He looked troubled and very, very weary. It occured to Seria that Welk was actually quite young to have experianced all of the tragedies and horrors that he had. The healer smiled at Welk as she passed him, moving up to heal Zephyr's wounds.

Nate remembered something else, at that time, as he watched Werr walk past him to try and comfort Welk. Could it be possible, for Werr not to be Werr? Why didn't Welk say something earlier, for that matter? Nate sighed heavily, wondering if he should say anything.

But...why not? This imposter could do nothing more than foul things up for them. They had to get rid of him, and Nate wasn't going to tolerate this slipping by him. He had to act now, before it was too late. However, he didn't have much proof...Werr scratching Welk's ears the wrong way wasn't exactly something he could go off of. For all they know, Werr could just be ill and hiding it, or something...

Welk tensed as Werr neared, but didn't say or do anything. The most he did was tilt  his ears back and press his cheek against Zephyr's warm scales. He looked up as Seria walked around on the dragon's body, healing his bite wounds, then straightened and called "Okay, we should get moving. I'm sorry about Luen..." She looked over at Forin and Diana for a moment, then at Nate. "...but there's nothing we can do. We have to leave for Alastor Palace," she finished. "If we go fast, we might be able to get there before Obelisk. We've got dragons, after all." She slung her bag around her waist, her long ponytail bobbing with the movement, then said "Everyone on."

Welk seemed reluctant to go, glancing around and staring at broken doors as if expecting someone to come out of them. He flicked his ears up for a moment, listening hard, then sighed and mounted Zephyr.

Werr climbed up behind Welk, obviously aware of his friend's distress. Nate sighed heavily and climbed up on Zephyr's back. Forin looked grumpy and mad; and the red color of the stone in Diana's ring helped support that. They both got onto Zephyr with no delay, though. "Hold on a second, Cici..." Werr turned, looking over at the fairy.

"Go on ahead. I'll wipe their memory after cleansing them, they should be safe enough if they go to a nearby town." Cici said over her shoulder. "Don't you worry, I'll catch up." She smiled at them, nodding a little bit.

"Right." Nate frowned, though he was fairly confident that nothing too serious would happen to those two. There was a peaceful village nearby, and last Nate had seen, it was still perfectly fine. He still had to do something, though... "Seria," He said, tapping the half cat on the shoulder. He spoke quietly; Werr didn't have super-hearing, and he definitely wasn't paying attention now. "Welk has informed me of something rather serious," He said, then ever so quietly told her what Welk had told him.