The Forgotten Zodiac

Luen walked along calmly, his hooves making little-to-no sound against the ground. He mostly ignored Ophile and the others, looking distant and withdrawn. A few snowflakes trailed off of his curled antlers and his fluffy tail, which was still missing a patch of fur. Once they made it out of the Eternal Garden and back out to the real world, he took human form and carried himself and Diana up onto Zephyr's back, settling her in front of him so he could hold onto her better. Zephyr stepped to the edge of the platform and looked over, seeing the sheer drop below them, then smiled and said "Finally. The real world again. Let's go!" As soon as Ophile was settled in his paws, the huge emerald dragon lunged off of the edge, plunging into the whistling wind and rushing air.

They flew high above the clouds, not willing to risk being seen. Although the dragons had made peace with Alastor, there was still more than a handful of citizens who would be more than upset to see a dragon so soon after what had happened. Werr knew this. They needed time to mourn. They all did.

But for this group, the time to mourn would have to come much later. They flew onwards until they found the ideal place to land, just ouside Iraleth; right in a clearing, tucked nicely on a hill. Iraleth...it was hardly able to be called a town. With a single farm and perhaps ten people living there, it was one of the smallest Alastor had. It was supported by the Silver Tornado, who's main base loomed above atop the mountain no more than a rock's throw from the tiny town. Toro had warned Werr that this was where his mother lived. But here he was anyways. He wasn't about to back down.

"Luen, Nate...can I trust you to take care of the kidnapping business?" Werr said quietly. "It's late enough. You should be able to find one or two Silver Tornado members lurking about. Two would be best."

"Kidnapping...I don't like it, but I'll do it." Nate sighed through his nose, the faintest trickle of smoke leaking out of the side of his mouth, signaling his inner frustration. Kidnapping and interrogation...it just didn't seem right. There had to be other ways...but, Werr was the king...

Luen nodded tersely, not sparing Werr a look, then carefully took Diana over to where Luna was chattering with Seria.

"-and I can't stop thinking about him," Luna was saying, her ears perked slightly and her tail flicking around behind her. Seria shushed her, however, and said "Just watch who you tell this too. If this got out, you'd be in huge trouble. HUGE. You and-...hello, Luen, Diana." She broke off her talk with Luna in favor of addressing the two as they came near.

"Hello," Luen said dryly. "I need you to watch Diana while I'm gone, okay? Protect her. With your lives, if needed." The tone he spoke with made Seria wince and Luna blink a few times. Both were, needless to say, a little startled by him. He bent down to Diana and his tone changed completely. He sounded pleasant and kind, with a slightly timid air to his voice. How he had always used to sound, right up until his time with Cern. He had seemed to slowly deteriorate after that...and then with Forin...

"Diana, you need to stay here with them, okay?" he said, kissing the top of her forehead gently. Even his appearance seemed to change when talking to the young girl. He seemed to grow softer in every way; his eyes, his hair, his voice and touch. Everything. Once Diana agreed, he gave her a tender hug and ushered her over to Seria, then turned without another word and moved over to Nate. Nate; the only one left besides Diana who saw that softer side of the kirin.

Diana sat down next to Seria, looking down at the grass she was sitting on. She looked up when Ophile padded over; "They don't need me at the moment. Might I help keep you company, miss Diana?"

"Yes, please," Diana said, nodding once or twice. "Hey, Seria?" She asked, looking up at the red-furred half-cat. "Luen will be okay, right? He won't get hurt?"

*

"Right. Werr just explained what we're doing. It's simple enough; we target one or two people. I'll start a fire in the pub, people will leave in a hurry. You pin the targets down and wait for me to get out, then we cart them both back here for the interrogation part." Nate explained to Luen.

"Of course not, sweetie," the half-cat said, sitting down next to her on the ground. "If they're both careful, then he should be just fine. Try not to worry about him. Here, let's go find some butterflies!" She took Diana's hand and the two, along with Luna, started their new mission of finding as many butterflies as possible.

*

Luen nodded, rubbing his eyes carefully for a moment before shaking himself and looking up. "Yes. Yes, of course," he said, nodding softly. "This will be simple. Simple, simple..." He trailed off, heaving a deep sigh, then looked back at Nate and said "If anything goes wrong, anything at all...you have to promise me...that if the odds aren't in your favor, you'll get out. I'll follow, I promise, but...I can't risk you being hurt. You just got your wings back. I don't want you to lose them again." He tapped a finger to one of Nate's wings, then started off at a slow pace, trying to look inconspicious. Despite being a kirin, one of the rarest of the lerloch. Right up there with rabbitzens.

Nate tucked his wings back behind his cloak, smiling a little. "I'll get out. I promise." He nodded as they headed into the town. The bar was smack-dab in the middle, and the one with the most lights inside at the moment. As well as the most people. The pub was actually very popular indeed; it looked like twice the town's population was in there. Every table was full.

Nate pushed his way inside and looked around, his eyes quickly spotting the many necklaces that signaled who they were. Simple mission. He ordered a drink from the bar, locking eyes with Luen and glancing over at a rather drunk pair at a table furthest from the door. They were laughing loudly and telling jokes to each other; but as they were at the back, they would be the last ones out. Their targets.

Luen didn't let his eyes rest on the pair. He looked at everyone in the room with equal attention and dullness, perfectly masking his feelings. He tugged his white cloak further around himself as he made for a corner, quietly slipping into the shadows. He went unnoticed by everyone there, except for one particulary sharp-eyed man who was watching from an opposite corner. His eyes narrowed as he watched Luen, somehow able to see him perfectly in the darkness he had hidden himself into. The man shifted, trying not to joustle his feathers too badly; he hated getting them out of place.

Nate glanced around again as he was served his drink. How to make the fire look like an accident? He downed one drink and requested another, drinking a total of four before carrying his next drink over to the fireplace, adding a little stagger in his step for acting's sake. He could pull off a convincing drunk when he wanted to. He caught his foot against a chair, tripping and nearly falling into the fireplace; his drink fell out of his hands, splashing all over the floor. Being so close to the fire, it quickly combusted.

The closest people stood and scrambled back at once, and Nate took the chance to spill their drinks over in what appeared to be an attempt to move back with them. Within seconds, that entire side of the pub was in flames and there was a mass exodus through the too-small doors, panic obvious in the air.

Luen struck instantly, darting out of the shadows and lunging towards their intended target, ice already forming along his arms in preparation for-

Wham!

The kirin yelped as he was bowled over, tumbling to the ground and coughing as he laid there for a moment, stunned.

"I'm afraid I cannot let you do that, friend," the tall man said, crossing his arms over his half-bare chest. He was wearing a long green cloak that was partially open in the front, revealing most of his muscular torso. Tan pants fitted snugly to his legs and brown leather boots tapped the ground. Luen glanced up at the man, seeing a mane of black hair and feathers growing just over his ears. A bird tail consisting of brown and tan feathers stuck out from under his cloak, showing that he was a hawk avon. Avons were bird-halves, much like a half-cat was a cat-half.

Luen pushed off from the ground and threw a string of ice magic out at his targets, pinning them to the wall. "I'm no friend of yours!" he spat, kicking out at the avon, who merely caught the kirin's leg in one hand and held him upside-down. "Wha...let me go!" Luen cried, struggling against the avon's grip.

"And why would I do that?" the hawk said, tilting his head to watch Luen struggle. "My, you're a very scrawny little thing, aren't you?"

Luen shouted something incomprehensable and twisted out of the man's grip, trying to throw him off-balance long enough to grab the trussed-up targets and get out of there. No matter what move he made, however, the hawk was there, standing in his way or blocking his attacks, until the two were practically over-turning tables as they lunged around the room. The hawk didn't seem intentionally malicious, but he was definately preventing Luen from escaping or getting near the pinned hostages.

"Hey! Beak-face!" Nate had noticed Luen's distress, blowing a warning shot of fire up at him. "Get your dirty claws off of my friend!" He barreled towards the Avon, prepared to rip heads off if Luen got hurt. He wasn't about to lose his friend, nor was he about to sacrifice the mission. How were they suposed to do this, though? The inn was quickly catching fire as more and more drinks were engulfed by the flames. It was only a matter of time before the fire hit behind the counter. Then the entire building would go up.

"Woah now!" the hawk said, twisting to the side and neatly avoiding Nate's charge. He grabbed the dragonian by the back of his shirt and tripped up Luen with one leg, then picked him up by his ankle again. "Easy, friends. I don't want to hurt you, no-no, but I can't let you run willy-nilly, starting fires and kidnapping people and such. Shalt we exchange names, perhaps? Tygan Dread, at your services." They got the sense that he would've bowed had he not been holding onto them.

"Let go, you freak!" Luen shouted, struggling against the avon, though it was like a mouse with its tail trapped under an elephant's foot. "This whole place is going down!"

"Unfortunately, yes," Tygan said, staring down at Luen. "This was such a good place to get a drink, too. If you two hadn't lit the place on fire, I would've invited you both for a drink. Granted, the kirin doesn't look like he can stand one..."

"We have a job to do! Get off!" Nate snarled, twisting around. Finally, he gave up and pulled himself out of his shirt, aiming a sharp punch at the Avon's face; he didn't make it, though. He was thrown back by the explosion that came from the counter; the drinks had been set ablaze, of course, and all of them had been thrown back by the blast.

Luen gave a sharp cry of pain, throwing his right arm up instinctively, then blackness claimed him. When he woke, which was just a few short moments later, he had to blink a few times to clear his vision. He tried to move, but found that he couldn't. The pain...it was terrible. He glanced down at his right arm and gasped, finding his limb burned and maimed from the flames. His entire right side had been engulfed in the flames, though he had managed to save his eye by throwing his hand in the way. Some flames had licked their way past, however, and he now had three claw-shaped burns across his face. He pushed past his despair and slowly stood up, noting that he had been flung clear outside from the blast. He hoped Nate would be okay, but he was worried that their targets had gotten away. He glanced over and saw that both of them were laying unconscious nearby, so he quickly limped over and wrapped them up with his ice magic.

"Very nice," an annoyingly familar voice said from a roof nearby.

Luen snarled up at Tygan, wondering how he had escaped the blast. Tygan shook his head slightly and said "You poor thing. You didn't get out of the fire unscathed, did you?"

"It was your fault!" Luen shouted, cradling his burned arm close to himself. It looked bad, but he was trying not to think about it. Or be sick...

Nate staggered to his feet nearby. He wasn't fireproof; his scaled wings and tail were fine, but he looked worse for wear. His bare chest had taken the worst of the blast; it was blackened and red and swollen. Somehow, he managed to stand again, blood dripping to the ground. He was used to burns here and there, but this was serious. Part of his face had been caught in the blaze, too. That much was obvious. He looked over at Luen and the Avon, obviously in pain. He turned his face upwards and blew a pillar of fire into the sky, for as long as he could manage. He sank to his knees halfway through, then fell onto his side again.

Tygan watched in amuzement, then lifted his head and tilted pointed ears up slightly, listening. "Guards are on their way," he said, standing up. "That means I'll be going." He threw his cloak off, revealing a huge pair of brown, tan-flecked hawk wings. He turned a quick backflip, taking bird form in midair, then landed neatly in the guise of an absolutely humongous hawk. He was big enough to carry Ophile on his back with no trouble, and that was saying something. "I'll give you a warning, little lerloches," he said. "I am neither friend nor foe. This time, I have granted you mercy. Next time we meet, for indeed we will meet again, I may not be so kind. Or I may help you. That is my decision." He waved with one wing, then flew off as Luen glared. The kirin slowly took deer form, though it was terribly painful for him. His entire right side looked burnt to a crisp, but he did his best to bear the intense pain. He used his powers to lift the captive Silver Tornado members onto his back, then limped heavily over to Nate, already panting. He used his powers again, settling Nate onto his back as well, then turned and halting made his way out of the town and into the forest, limping hard and pausing every few steps to just stand there and pant.

The others were already ready for them. Nate's pillar of fire had seen to that; he hadn't been attacking the sky out of anger or anything. He had been hoping that the others would come and collect them, but they were...busy, apparently. Something had happened, obviously. "Luen, Nate!" Ophile ran over the moment he saw them. "Seria, over here! Quickly!" He called, then looked up at Luen, shifting his paws uncomfortably.

Diana had chased after a butterfly. One second there, the next a huge blue crystal had risen up from the ground and engulfed the child. Jag had tried to attack it, but only wound up trapped as well. Then they had vanished, nothing left behind but a silver necklace in the shape of a tornado.

It was at this time that Luen's eyes rolled back into his head and he went limp, losing control over his deer form and ending up in an unconscious pile on the ground. Seria and Luna fled over, both setting to work. Seria had been closest to Nate, so she started healing him, throwing her most powerful spells into the process without thinking. Luna only knew a few minor healing spells, so she wasn't doing good with Luen. It took all of her energy to heal even a single small burn. She was a fighter, not a healer. Her magic was built for attacks. Luckily for Seria, the burns were still fresh, so mending the torn skin wasn't too hard for her.

"What are we supposed to do now? Luen will be furious..." Ophile murmured, looking up at Werr.

"We continue on..." Werr said after a moment of thought. "We keep going. We have to interrogate these two..." He nudged the Silver Tornado members. "With any luck, we'll find Diana again when going after the Artifacts..."

"Luen won't accept that as an answer," Ophile sighed through his nose. "And Jag is missing too...Lily will be crushed if we return without him. Werr..."

"We can't...we can't stop now." Werr shook his head, looking away, ashamed of himself. They would interrogate these men while they had them. If they had the time, they could make an effort to save Diana, but...it would be hard.

Cynyr paced around behind Werr, watching everything through his single yellow eye. He watched as Seria started to tire, carefully healing Nate's face to where it was fully healed before turning to the rest of him. A mark on the chest would be easy to cover; one on the face wouldn't. She got Nate stableized, then moved to help Luen for a bit right when he started to regain a bit of consciousness. He struggled when she touched him, muttering "Nate...Nate..."

"He's fine," Seria said. "It's your turn. Just hold still."

Luen suddenly moved his good arm up and sank his nails so hard into her hand that she yelped and withdrew at once, prompting Cynyr to leap forward and crouch in front of her, snarling at the kirin. Seria leaned against him at once, whimpering and rubbing her hand.

"Help...Nate..." the kirin spat, mired in a distant fog, then, as he started to lose consciousness again, whimpered "I...can't lose...anyone...else..." He passed out, tears sliding down his face as he clutched his ruined arm close.

Seria wiped her tears away, then moved over to finish with Nate as the kirin had wanted. He was so unstable lately that she didn't want to risk anything. Cynyr stayed close by her, occasionally leaning forward to whisper in her ear and make her blush. What he whispered, they didn't know, but to Seria, it was obviously something great. Maybe even great just to her.

((Mien dearest bunny~))