The Forgotten Zodiac

"We'll follow his magic," Zephyr said, flicking his ears once. "His emotional turmoil is so great that we can sense it even from here. We'll follow it." They flew for a while, following the feeling of the great ice dragon's magic and spirit, and they at last found him.

What had used to be a beautiful, lush forest was now barren wasteland. It was far from any homes or cities, and they quickly saw Naybrin, sitting in the center, blue flames licking up and down his body. Nearby, but not close enough to where they were hurt by the fire, were the familiar forms of Leo, Sylas and Cynyr. Werr's corpse (for they obviously didn't know it was a clone) was resting between Naybrin's great paws, curled close to his haunches. He had completely destroyed all life in the once-expansive forest.

And he hadn't even moved.

Sylas tugged on Leo's sleeve and pointed at the approaching Zephyr. Finally, the others had arrived. Ophile, for one, looked horrified at the burned remains of the forest. A bit afraid as well, perhaps, although fear wasn't a prominent feeling in Tartarans very often. Nate looked more...angry. To think that Naybrin would go this far...to kill an entire forest simply because of the loss of one human king. Nate understood what it felt like to lose a loved one. But when that had happened, he had wanted revenge, not disgustingly unneeded death.

Forin was quick to slide off of Zephyr once they landed, quick to turn to help Luen and Diana. Sylas watched, realizing that he couldn't even approach Seria. His legs were still just as broken as they were before. He leaned heavily on Leo, apparently rather depressed about everything that had happened. About everything that had been taken away from him.

Leo watched as Zephyr landed, allowing Seria to jump off and race over to her fiance, quickly bending down and wrapping her arms around him, pressing her face against his shoulder. He didn't move, tears still dripping down his face. Seria's own tears redoubled at this, and she pulled him around to face her, holding him close against her body. He slowly brought trembling arms up and wrapped them around her, and they saw his shoulders start to shake with sobs.

Zephyr stayed a short distance away from Naybrin, not risking getting too close. He carefully sniffed the burned, ash-strewn ground, taking in a faint scent of...darkness. Below the ash, below the fire...something evil had been here, before Naybrin had burned it.

"What do you smell?" Nate questioned, knowing that his friend had picked up something unusual.

In the meantime, Sylas observed the sad reunion between Seria and Cynyr. He turned his gaze to those getting off of Zephyr still; Ophile slid down once Diana was off. The large wolf padded over to him, pushing his nose up to Sylas' hurt shoulder. "You have an infection, friend," Ophile said. "I could smell it. Does it hurt much?" Sylas shook his head, then rested his hand on Ophile's head. "Oh...oh dear. I'm sorry to see you in such a state, Sylas." Ophile said sadly. "It seems like we're all suffering today..."

Zephyr sniffed quietly at the ground, trying to discern the whereabouts of the dark scent. "It smells like a building stood here," he said. "In the middle of the forest, where it was hard to find. It smells like lots of blood, that's for sure."

"It w-was..." Cynyr's creaky, shaking voice came. "...the place...wh-where I got..." He shook his head against Seria, clutching tighter to her.

Seria put her mouth against his head, in his soft black hair. "This was used to be the society that tortured young children and then killed them," she said quietly. "Cynyr was the only one that survived."

"But...why would Naybrin destroy this place...and bring Werr here?" Nate blinked, looking over at the first king. "Naybrin...he's not trying to bring back the dead, is he?" He spoke quietly. The dead had only returned to life when the gods and goddesses deemed it fit. Nate didn't know what happened with Luen, but he was alive because of something, that was for certain. Nate seriously doubted that Naybrin had that kind of power. For most people...death was absolute. Werr was no exception.

Naybrin suddenly snapped his jaws sharply, leaving a ringing sound through the air that made Zephyr and Vaira both crouch on the ground in submission. The huge ice dragon's tail was solid stone already, but it seemed to have halted there for the time being. They could hear the great dragon muttering things in the old tongue, the one not even Nate could understand.

"He's been talking in that language for hours now," Leo said. "The last thing he said was...something about making the people that lived here pay for their...sin? He had said something between that, but I didn't catch it."

"Well, at any rate..." Nate sighed, sticking close to Zephyr. "None of us should go near until he's done. I hope...that stone effect doesn't get too much farther, either."

"I sense death here," Forin said dully.

"We've already covered that," Nate tutted.

"No, more deaths than just recent. I feel...as though many great souls were laid to rest here once. I can't tell much more than that, though." He sighed, shaking his head and turning back to Diana and Luen. Diana was standing next to Sylas, watching the older man curiously. She leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead before slipping back into Luen's reach, sticking close to her guardians.

Sylas watched her go, then pulled something from his pocket; a small notebook, and a pen. He was quick to open it up to a blank page, writing down a question that had been nagging him for a long while now. He wrote it down and passed it to Leo, looking at him expectantly. 'Does the pain ever go away?'

Leo sighed, closing his eyes and keeping quiet for a moment before gathering himself enough to answer. "It dulls. It never goes away, but...it dulls," he said softly. "After living through the death of my wife and two little girls, I know more about loss than I would ever care to. The pain dulls...but it never fades away completely." He reached up and patted Sylas' shoulder in a soft stroking movement, then watched as Seria moved to pull away from Cynyr and go to heal Sylas, only to have Cynyr cling even tighter to her. "Don't go..." he rasped, his single eye wide and pleading. "Don't leave me!"

"I'll be back," she said, bending down and kissing his torn forehead. "I'll be where you can see me. Okay?" She slowly worked his hands loose and he allowed her, crumpling into a limp sitting position as she headed over to Sylas and started to work on his legs. She had to pause and brush tears from her eyes, still saddened by Werr's death and now Cynyr's pain.

Sylas blinked at him, then took the notebook back. He scrawled out something else, but didn't pass it to Leo. He watched Seria for a moment, then held out the notebook to her. A simple 'thank you', and a scrawled image of a smiling face. He didn't quite seem capable of actually smiling at the moment, but this was close enough.

She gave him a very weak, stretched smile and resumed her work. Once she finished with that, Leo tapped her on the shoulder and stuck his hand into his pocket, saying "Don't ask questions. Just reattach it." He pulled out something wrapped in a blood-soaked bit of his cloak and handed it to her, and he ignored her questioning glance. She unwrapped the bit of cloth and gasped at once, jerking her gaze up to Sylas and putting several things together at once. "I kept it cold by taking the warmth out of it," Leo said flatly, sitting back-to-back with his lifelong friend. "Put it back where it belongs."

Seria shuddered, sighing heavily, then said "Okay, Sylas, just-"

"SYLAS!"

Wham!

The older man was bowled over by Dark, who practically tackled him at full-speed. He had been too frightened of Naybrin to get off of Zephyr at first, but he had quickly gotten over his fear. Leo hissed and moved to jerk the little artifical being off of his friend, immediately seeing him as a threat.

Sylas had curled up in a panic, but quickly realized who it was. He batted Leo's claws away, pushing himself upright and wrapping his arms around Dark. With his left arm he hugged Dark, and wrote out another note with his right. He pushed it between himself and Dark; 'Hi, friend. Can't talk.' Was all it said. Simple enough to understand. Sylas then looked over at Leo with a puzzled look, attempting to question why Leo had kept such a thing.

"You want your tongue back in your mouth or not?" Leo snapped at the look, perfectly interpretting his friend's glance. He sat back against Sylas again, ignoring Dark, who put his arms around Sylas and hugged him tightly. Seria got right to work, instructing Sylas to open his mouth so she could get to work reattaching his tongue. She had learned a lot from the Divine healers on Amnairus, and she knew that while she couldn't do it as fast as they could, she could do it just as well and give Sylas his full talking ability back.

Naybrin shifted in his spot nearby, still muttering words they had no chance of understanding. Zephyr craned his head forward and listened intently, then quietly said "This was a dragon burial ground. He wanted to bless Werr's soul with the lives of all of the other dragons, but the sacred place had been razed...by the people that had lived in that evil building. So Naybrin burned the forest down, cleansing the evil from it so it could grow anew."

Sylas held his mouth open wide for Seria, pondering why the ability to speak hinged on such a small muscle. He held as still as possible, but the wound was sore and already healed over a good bit. But it wasn't too hard to reattach it. It would have been harder if Leo hadn't kept the bit that had been cut out. When Seria was finished, Sylas cleaned his saliva off of her hand with a clean rag from his bag. "Thank you..." He said quietly, his great sadness more obvious in his voice than his eyes.

"So...why are we waiting around here?" Forin frowned. "I understand that Naybrin is in mourning, but now is hardly the time to be wasting daylight by sitting in a burned forest and muttering ancient hullabaloo. Perhaps we should leave them here and continue on..."

Naybrin snarled and fixed a single green eye on Forin, his sharp teeth glinting as he said, in the dragon tongue, "I can see your secrets, Tartaran. And they can too." He suddenly jerked his head to the side, pointing.

Huge, hulking dragon ghosts wafting up out of the ground, trotting around and blinking large glowing red eyes. Naybrin stood up, though he didn't move from Werr. The ghost dragons came towards him, touching their muzzles to his despite the fact that they passed through him. The dragons swarmed around the others, peering at them and tilting their heads back and forth. Some of the dragons were bigger than Zephyr (though none were as big as Naybrin) and some were merely baby dragons. One looked like little more than a newborn hatchling.

"Wha...he actually did it?" Nate watched in complete awe. He knew Naybrin was capable of a lot, but actually summoning the spirits of the dead dragons...he had never seen such a thing. No one had. Forin retaliated to their appearance by moving as far away as he could without endangering himself and Diana. He wasn't scared for his own sake. They could see all of his secrets, for all he cared. Dead dragons wouldn't go out and tell the world anything. But Diana's physical safety was more of a concern for him. As usual.

((One post before I go. WhaddidI tell you? :T))

Luen kept close to Forin as well, frightened of the spirit creatures. The ghost dragons swarmed around, closely looking at everyone there and whispering things in haunted, fluttering voices that none of them could seem to catch. One dragon came forward out of the rest. It was female, and nearly as big as Naybrin. Nearly. Her aura was tinted with golden yellow, her eyes a soft red.

I am Fyaia. The Golden Goddess. Her voice was soft and willowy, yet kindly. She looked over at Naybrin, but her expression couldn't be seen due to the fact that all of the ghost dragons were cloudy wisps.

I am the First Queen, she murmured. Naybrin's beloved.

The great light blue dragon stared at his mate, humming a soft, sad trill.

((Hugglessssssssss))

Nate watched, pressing up against Zephyr's leg. Just in case. Boko's little head could be seen poking out of Vaira's pouch, but he didn't watch for long before one of the younger dragons flickered past. Just a simple movement, but Boko recoiled back into his mother's pouch fearfully. Diana had her face buried in Forin's shirt, having already realized that these things were ghosts.

Sylas, the one who had thought he had already seen most of what the world had to offer, could only look on in complete bewilderment. He couldn't understand dragon tongue, so he hardly understood what was going on. He seemed pretty good at hiding fear, however, and focused on keeping Dark tucked safely in his arms.

The ghost dragons whispered and looked all around, leaning in very close, their wavering, flicking cloud bodies occasionally brushing against the people. Dark shivered, having never known that such things like these could even exist.

Fyaia stepped forward, her steps soundless and delicate. The other dragons moved out of her way, eerily quiet. You have a difficult journey ahead of you all, she said quietly, looking down at them all in turn. I tell you now not to give up hope. No matter how dark or hopless it seems. Stick close and keep your friendships tight and strong, for that is the one thing Malice could never understand. Danger lurks around every corner. Beware... Her voice dwindled into nothing, her form slowly melting away. Naybrin tilted his head back, closing his eyes as her spirit curled around him, whispering quiet things to him before fading away.

The other ghost dragons seemed to whip into a passion at this, lunging around and darting into the sky, whispering things as they twisted from side to side. They slowly sank back into the ground, wailing in haunted, other-worldly voices as they were forced to go back to where they had come from.

Within only a few moments, the ghost dragons had vanished.

((Also, they'll have been unable to 'bless' Werr's soul, as it's not actually him, and it's artificial. Don't make that obvious, though. xD

Alsoalso, I've noticed that Naybrin seems to know that Malice did it, but I mentioned the one who had stuck the spear into 'Werr's' chest, who was a Silver Tornado member. .3.))

"She's right..." Forin sighed through his nose. "Now, more than ever, we need to stick together. We need to keep strong. Whether it's to save the world or to save Welk, we have to depend on each other for help."

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going, so to speak." Nate nodded thoughtfully. "But...we're not all tough. We have to cover each other's weaknesses and work together if we're going to get anywhere at all."

"Ah, wonderful teamwork." Sylas smiled. "That's something I know well enough. Well, Cynyr, you have my brain and my speech at your disposal. I'll do what I can." He set his hand on Cynyr's back for a moment, smiling slightly.