The Forgotten Zodiac

((Awww. x3 That's cute~))

"No, papa isn't mad," she said. "He's just worried. We both were so very worried." She began bathing his wound at once, growling at the thought of someone hurting her beloved son. "How dare they," she snarled. "If I get my claws on them..." She sighed and gave Boko's wound another lick, then bent her head to her pouch and pulled out a small (to a dragon) pile of food, holding it where Boko could reach it without having to move. "Here, eat some of this," she said, putting it down next to him. She continued to lick him, her tears dwindling.

((But yeah, the Drakeling attacks that Boko mentioned will happen in the third book, which prevents Werr and the others from taking a dragon to the other country, which is what Obelisk will want. They'll have to go on a boat instead. And guess who has a fear of drowning? -looks pointedly at Nate-))

Boko ate happily. Deer and fish, his absolute favorite. Though small for a dragon, this pile of food was actually a bit much for little Boko; but he ate as much as he wanted, licking his maw every few bites to catch pieces of food caught on his scaled lips. He sniffed his wound after eating; the scales would grow back on their own, but Vaira's licking had regrown the pink flesh to cover the injury. It would be a weak spot on him for a little while, but his scales would indeed grow back. For now, the drakeling crawled towards Vaira and slipped easily into her pouch, relaxing at last in the warm, leathery comfort of the spot usually reserved for dragon young. Reassured and definitely calming down, Boko started purring happily. Sweet, sweet relief. He wasn't worthless. He wasn't dead. Vaira loved him still, even after all that he said. He regretted every word, too. And yet, here he was, curled up in the comfortable safety of mommy's pouch. Sleep was tempting, but he refused to sleep yet. He still had to apologize to Zephyr, no matter how worried his adoptive father had been for him.

"Come, let's go find Zephyr," Vaira said, flaring her wings and jumping into the air after she made sure that Boko was tucked safely down, deep inside her warm pouch. She flew off towards where she had left Zephyr, then followed his scent for a while. He had searched for Boko from the ground, desperately trying to find his son for the longest time. Now he was sitting by a large pool, not moving. When they got close, they were shocked to see that the tip of his tail was solid stone. He barely moved his large skull as Vaira approached. His emerald scales seemed dull and lifeless.

"Zephyr..." Vaira said, touching down on all-fours. "I found him."

The forest green dragon slowly lifted his head, though it looked hard. When dragons became very emotionally upset over something, like the loss of a family member or close friend, they sometimes went into severe states of depression. For dragons, the depression was a rather serious thing. Starting at their tails, they slowly began to turn to stone. Naybrin had suffered once from this, that being the loss of his mate. His stone-crawl, as they called the crawling, creeping stone, had taken him over from the tail to his waist before Mithor had managed to rouse him out of it.

"You...found him?" Zephyr said quietly, his eyes regaining a bit of light.

Boko swallowed hard, then slipped from Vaira's pouch, walking out into the open. His small eyes were filled with great sorrow and guilt. He was still ashamed of himself, very much so. "Papa...? I'm sorry...what Boko said was very wrong and bad, bad, bad. Boko learned his lesson, Boko will not hurt small people who do not mean to hurt me. But this does no change what Boko said...B-Boko is sorry, so very, very sorry..." He whimpered, laying on the ground and tucking his claws under his chin, an obvious sign of submission and unhappiness.

Zephyr was quiet for a moment, then he slowly stood up, pulling his tail off of the ground, which caused the stone to break off of his tail. He shook himself, his scales regaining a bit of luster, then dipped his head forward and put his nose against Boko, sighing. "My little one..." he said softly, closing his eyes. "Oh, Boko..." He licked the drakeling gently, curling his paws around Boko.

"Daddy," Boko rubbed up against Zephyr's paws in the same way he had for Vaira's, starting to purr again. "I love yew," He murmured, licking Zephyr's nose. He coiled his tail around himself, remaining upright as his parents covered him with licks and love all at once. Without warning though, he lurched and leaned against Zephyr's muzzle, barely able to hold his eyes open. "We go home now, papa?" He purred, starting to fall asleep.

Zephyr let his whole body come to rest on the ground and Vaira followed suit, both dragons curling around each other and their son alike. "Soon," Zephyr said. "But for now...I think we should just sleep." Vaira carefully picked up Boko in her mouth and tucked him down between herself and Zephyr, where he was warm and protected. She and Zephyr both crossed their necks and put their muzzles on either side of the drakeling, sinking into sleep assuring that all was right in their worlds.

The coronation was starting about this time. There had been a few delays; the seamstress hadn't been prepared, the chef was still cooking the feast, so on and so forth. But it happened just on the day Werr wanted it to. Even though he requested dawn, he seemed perfectly happy with it being in the afternoon. Werr was wearing one of Asmodius' old regal outfits; the seamstress had dyed it just last night with Alastorian colors rather than Storaphian, and she had done a good job with making sure it fit him right. So now he was waiting, sitting in a smaller seat off to the side of the throne, while Sam sat at the throne himself.

Sam looked very nervous, but he carried himself quite well during the proceeding speech. There was the anointing with oil and the vows to 'protect justice, peace and all of Storaph with sword and wit to the end of his reign', much like Werr's own coronation. All in all, it was a rather long ceremony, until Sam's crown was brought out and placed on his blonde head by a very old priest, who said "Then Samuel Finnigan, with great respect and honor, I hereby pronounce thee...king of Storaph."

Cheers went up as Sam dipped down onto his knees, looking thrilled and mortified.

The feast began. There was wine and food for everyone attending the ceremonies, a band to play a tune in the background and for those dancing, a wide area cut out of the crowd for the swirling couples. Werr stood when he was handed his drink; grape juice, as he requested. The taste of wine had never suited him, but it was customary to drink such things at these events. No one said he couldn't drink grape juice, though.

Werr walked onto the stage, clearing his throat. When silence fell, Werr smiled. "People of Storaph. Friends of Alastor. May we remember this week not as a week of mourning, but a week of joy as a new king ascends to the throne. And tomorrow, as we honor Asmodius' death, let us not be forced to remember the manner in which he died; let us remember all he did for Storaph and his people. Let us remember this day as the passing from a good king...to a great one. A toast!" He raised his glass, watching as the crowd did the same. "To King Samuel!" His words were repeated, and the wine (grape juice, in Werr's case), was drank in a hurry. Werr turned to Sam, smiling away as the chatter and partying continued. "I could have gone on longer, but I didn't want to bore them." He chuckled, sitting on the armrest of Sam's throne. "This...is good. I should leave," Werr stood at once, headed towards the door already.

Sam smiled up at Werr, grateful for his help, then said "Thank you...for everything. I hope to see you again." He waved Werr off, then had to turn sooner than he wanted to talk to a guard inquiring things of him.

Cynyr was in the infirmary, but he was dressed in his full outfit, just in the process of pulling his shirt and armor down over the bandages still wrapped around his chest. Welk was sitting on the bed, a blanket wrapped cuddlingly around him. As Werr walked in, Cynyr held a finger to his lips and pointed at Welk, which let Werr know the lion's soul was sleeping. "How'd it go?" Cynyr asked, struggling with a few straps on his armor.

"Perfect. No interruptions, no attacks. That's...why I left." Werr sighed a little, sure to be quiet as he stepped forward and helped Cynyr with the straps. When that was done, he started to change into his commoner clothing. "Trouble seems to follow us everywhere, you know? I didn't want to ruin Sam's special day, so I gave my short speech and left. Any word from Nate?" He questioned, though he knew there was none. At least the Dragonian hadn't come marching back, demanding Sam's head on a platter.

Cynyr looked gratefully at Werr when the boy helped with the armor, then said "No, I haven't heard from Nate yet, but I think he's okay. He hasn't assassinated Sam or come barging into the infirmary, demanding to know where the boy is, so I think we're good." He flicked his tail, then said "Sam dropped by earlier and I explained what to do if Zephyr or any of the others came back, looking for us. He knows where to send them and he was happy to be of any help, so we don't have to worry about that." He turned to the teddy bear holding the sleeping lion soul inside it and carefully picked it up, handling it like he would a baby. He would've denied it, but Werr saw how well he would've been able to hold and care for a real baby. Maybe someday his own.

"Alright." Werr nodded thoughtfully, smiling slightly at the sight of Cynyr and Welk. "We should get out of here before anything happens. Come on," He stood, opening the door.

"I hope you weren't planning on leaving without us," Sylas stood there, smiling a bit.

"Not at all. We were leaving right now. Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." Sylas nodded, following as Werr started walking towards the courtyard. There were quite a few guests gathered there, admiring the great dragon from a distance. Especially after the attack on Alasor, dragons were quite shocking creatures for them. Werr blinked at the spectators, then smiled and walked straight up to Naybrin. There was a short gasp as Werr raised a hand and tapped on Naybrin's great scales.

"We're ready to go, Naybrin," Werr said, grinning.

The gigantic ice dragon smiled, then stood up and shook himself, making several people flinch. He grinned at their fear, thinking it quite funny, then looked to Werr and his friends and said "As you wish." He bent down gracefully onto one front leg, letting them climb up that way.

Leo looked a bit nervous, to Cynyr's well-hidden bit of delight. The older panther slowly stepped up to the dragon, looking increasingly on-edge as Sylas mounted the elegant light blue creature. "I hate dragons," Leo growled, slowly heading up after his friend.

Naybrin flicked an ear at that, but did nothing but smile slyly.

"I, for one, am honestly jealous of our children. Being able to understand and talk to them...it's quite the honor." Sylas smiled a bit. "In all my years, I never encountered a dragon willing to let me partake of his blood. Most of the dragons I saw either wanted to kill me for entering their caves, or just wanted to be left alone. I think, anyways."

"That's because you're a snoop and a wanderer, father." Werr sighed through his nose. "You know too much for your own good."

"Funny, someone else told me that just yesterday." Sylas smirked a bit, then nodded thoughtfully. "Perhaps I do. I've already been broken for information once..."

Leo flicked Sylas sharply with his claws, on the back of his head. "And he's got the habit of buttering people up and being in just the right place and just the right time," he said. "If you aren't careful, you'll make somebody mad at you and they'll get you while you sleep." The panther was clinging hard to the spike in front of him, clearly not wanting to fly anywhere on the huge dragon.

Cynyr smirked and jumped up onto the icy dragon's back in one move, not even waking Welk in the process.

Naybrin glanced back at Sylas, staring at him for a long moment, then said "Your father is a strange one, Werr. But at least you have one."

"I think I had a few enemies when I was younger, but you saved me from them, remember?" Sylas smiled, looking back at Leo. "I hope you do, because I don't feel like reminding you of that long story. Not right now."

Werr could only shrug. Yes, he knew that his father was strange. But he also knew that Sylas had a method to his madness, and Werr had a mild amount of respect for the way everything seemed to work out for him. What Werr didn't know was that Sylas was completely deaf in one ear and had a lot more scars than Werr ever would. Sylas didn't travel with a healer like Seria.

Leo opened his mouth to reiterate, but Naybrin leapt up into the sky at that moment and anything Leo might've said was lost to the wind. They rose higher and higher, heading up into the clouds with two humans, two half-cats and one half-cat soul seated firmly on the dragon's back. Leo looked mortified, doubled-over and holding onto his spike like there was no tomorrow.

Cynyr merely flicked his tail and kept a close eye on Werr and Welk.

Sylas looked about the same as Leo did. Werr couldn't help but laugh, even though Sylas straightened up once Naybrin's flying leveled out. "Okay...it's only the...third time we've ridden a dragon?" Sylas blinked, tempted to cover his eyes from the wind. "Never one this big before, though..."

"Just stop talking and enjoy the flight!" Werr grinned, tempted to stand up again. But he remained seated, for Cynyr's sake.