The Forgotten Zodiac

((True. :3))

Leo padded around in circles for a moment before disappearing into the trees. The bushes rattled and a yip was heard, and Sylas could easily figure out what had happened. Leo didn't reappear immediately, however. When three wolves lunged out of the bushes at Sylas, Leo suddenly leapt out of a tree and slammed down on them in a perfect surprise attack that made them all forget about Sylas and turn to him instead. He dispatched them easily and went mostly unharmed, other than a bite on his tail.

Within mere minutes, the box opened with a hiss. Yellow gas of some kind leaked out, but Sylas reached his hand in and pulled out a small silver necklace. "Let's go!" He coughed a bit, wrinkling his nose at the smell of the gas. He started running again, but soon had to slow down. He was starting to feel numb. Each inhalation was slowly getting harder and harder to get in. He continued onward, knowing that the inhaling the smoke had done this to him. They had to move faster than ever, or he'd drop dead before even solving the fourth.

There. The fourth puzzle. A maze apparently stood before them, the hedges high. "The gate...should be through here," Sylas panted, breathing heavily. "Come on, we can do it..." He staggered forward. "Stick to the left wall...the left wall. We can do it."

Leo moved to follow him and suddenly screeched, pitching to the side. An arrow was embedded in his side, the feathered shaft sticking out just under his ribcage. He forced himself up and tore off after the shadow archer, tearing him to pieces before limping heavily back to Sylas. Blood dripped from the edge of his mouth, signaling internal damage. He followed without saying anything, bearing his pain silently.

Sylas watched his friend, then swallowed hard and continued. There didn't seem to be much; Sylas disabled trap after trap, though. Nothing seemed to be able to slip past him. At last, he found a piece of paper with a single word on it. 'Elo'. "We're done. I got the passphrase. Come on, we're so cl-close..." He stumbled along, continuing to follow the left wall. The exit of the maze showed itself to them before long.

Sylas gripped the necklace tightly in one hand, using his other to lean against the wall for support. "Kiuul resif elo...kiuul resif elo..." He repeated. He only one foot made it past the hedges before he collapsed. The gate was in sight; just atop the hill. Sylas started dragging himself, but the grass itself reached up and held him down. "kiuul resif elo..." Sylas murmured a final time, then cursed under his breath. "You know what that means, Leo?" He said quietly, weakly looking at his friend. He couldn't move hardly at all Each pull forward was worse than the last. In a matter of seconds, the gentle slope of the hill seemed like a cliff. "Doomed to die. I-I thought I could make it, b-but that gas...I'm so stupid..." He tensed as wolves started running towards them from within the maze, finally on their trail again.

Leo limped close to his friend, then looked up at the gate that was so close to them. He glanced behind them, eyeing the maze where the wolves were charging through. He lowered his head and sighed, then slowly took human form, trying not to wince from the pain in his side that increased as he took this smaller size. The arrow hurt like fire.

He bent down and took Sylas into his arms, breaking his trial to help Sylas reach his.

He started towards the gate, reaching it quickly enough, a distant look on his face.

The wolves vanished. Resu appeared before them. "Congratulations, Sylas. You have succeeded. Leo...you have failed. You forfeit your life the moment you laid hand on Sylas." She said quietly.

"No...no, he...he was only trying to help me! I would have failed, I'm supposed to die, not him!" Sylas said desperately, wheezing still. "Please...please, don't take him from me..." Sylas hugged Leo tightly, afraid for his friend's life. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...I wasn't strong enough..." He wept, ashamed of himself.

Leo closed his eyes, murmuring "Stop it, Sylas. I did it for you."

"And you did not do it in vain."

The haunted, disembodied voice echoed from the gate, where a cloaked figure was crouched on top of it. Death, more widely known as the Grim Reaper, looked nearly sad as he perched there on the gate, his skeletal form tiny and thin. If not for the swirling dark robes, it would've been a bit awkward to look at him. The dark robes, combined with the large soul scythe and spirit pendant around his neck, made him look completely foreboding and evil. Though actually, he was neither of these things.

"I have come, not to claim thine life, but to give it back to thee," Death said quietly, his soulless red eyes watching Leo closely. "You have yet a role to play in this mortal folly you call life. Resu." The ever-living titan turned his gaze on her. "I have looked into his future. He must remain. If he naught live, I foresee many things becoming a wrong. Thus I grant him pass. What say thee against me, Resu of the Eternal Garden?"

Resu looked up at him, then sighed. "You know as well as I do that I cannot speak against you, Death." She sighed. "But...as he has not completed a quest, the next time he requires passage into Amnairus, he will be given another test. I do not see him worthy yet, but he will be granted an exception. Pray tell you do not use it lightly, Leo." She looked sharply at him. "Now go. Enjoy the peace that Amnairus can offer you both."

Death turned his sad eyes on Leo and Sylas and said "Fare thine selves well, mortals." Then he disappeared.

Leo blinked, startled, then felt blood drip out of his mouth again and shook off his shock. He picked up Sylas and dipped his head respectfully to Resu, then headed to the gate.

As it turned out, their trial wasn't quite over yet.

As Leo trotted out into the wide, rainbow-glowing bridge, he thought he heard movement from out in the darkness. He shook it off, though, and kept going, not noticing a huge serpentine shape that twisted about in the abyss, following them and waiting to strike.

Sylas, however, did notice it. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve, watching the great beast twist behind them. "Te'eal, thuam amos drei." He said to it, wondering if it spoke the language that all the puzzles had contained. Basically, he had just asked the beast not to eat them alive. But for a human to speak in such a language, it was quite surprising. Sylas was actually speaking in one of the oldest, unchanged languages.

((Past post reminder: Riddle given to the divine = "At the beginning of the end, present at the end of time, always hiding in yesterday, yet ne'er found in tomorrow."

Sylas/Divine's history: "Did he?" Sylas snorted. "He [Werr] takes after me, then." He chortled, thinking back to the first time he had met the Divine. The much larger creature had threatened to destroy his mind on the spot. Sylas had suffered grave injuries from his trial of passage given to him by Resu. He had gone on a long rampage about how he had completely expected to be killed and how it was cruel of them to get people's hopes up - make them believe the hard part was over - only to have a big monster with a god complex eat them the next second. The Divine had found him incredibly amusing, it seemed, and still did. "Do you remember that?" Sylas chortled, knowing his thoughts were known by the Divine. "Nevermind, I know you do. How simple things were back then..."))

"Et thu'um," a great, hissed voice answered, making Leodhaius jump. "Wh-what?!" he said. "What's that?"

"Silence take you, cat," the voice said again, in their own language, as the giant creature moved past slowly. It stayed just to the edge of their vision, occasionally flying just a bit closer so they saw a huge swath of black or white scales. Never its face. "What makes you both think you can pass through my home like this?" it asked, hissing. "This is my home and you are intruding."

"We're passing through. Going to Amnairus. That's all..." Sylas responded quietly, coughing a bit to clear his throat. The gas' effects were fading, but he was still unable to walk on his own. "Keep walking, Leo, you're too hurt to stop..." He murmured, keeping his arms around his friend.

Leo nodded and kept going, glaring out at the creature that was slowly and steadily following them. "I care not that you passed the trials," the beast said, and they heard the flap of huge wings. "I should let you know that I feel...hungry."

"Hey!" Leo shouted. "We passed the trials! We did what we were asked, so you can back off and let us pass by! All we want to do is get to Amnairus."

There was a sharp snort, then the giant creature lunged out of the darkness and landed on the bridge. It was long and serpentine in form, like a huge naga, which was an animal of poison and shadows. Half of its body was white and the other half was male, and it had a long snout and large silver-gray eyes. It wrapped its tail several times around the bridge, flaring its wings. One wing was white and the other was black, just like the rest of its body. It growled, saying "You have a lot of nerve, cat. I've decided to just go ahead and tear you to pieces. Maybe I'll let your friend go through alone and suffer the memory of your death."

"What?!" Sylas snapped out of the shock of seeing the great beast. "That's...that's not fair! You can't do that! Death just gave him back to me, you can't take him!" He snapped at the Divine, not knowing what he was talking to. "If you eat him, that's like saying that Resu left him alive just to let you have a meal. That's cruel, and disgusting to boot. Not to mention misleading! We just fought for our lives to get past that cursed garden, and now there's a giant monster blocking our path. At least put monster warning signs up or something!" He stopped, realizing that he had been shouting. Oops.

The creature blinked down at Sylas, then roared and brought its head down close to him. "I have the power to destory your mind right here, right now! Pitiful human being! Do you not know what I am?!" It threw its head back and said "I am the Divine! The god to Amnairus and Tartarus! I was created when the king and queen came together as one in a single night! I AM A GOD!" It turned its head back down to them, saying "I have the power to take your minds apart in a split second and leave you for dead! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you both for that?!"

((Go Sylas. xD))

"Because it's evil!" Sylas roared right back, however pitiful his voice seemed. He didn't really want to shout, but he was angry. "It's evil and downright rude! You say you're a god? Gods aren't supposed to be evil! Or rude, for that matter! I was dead, I would have died because of my own stupidity. But my friend gave up his own life in order for me to keep mine, and then creepy mister Grim Reaper comes walking along saying that he wouldn't let Leo die yet. I thought we were safe! I was relieved, happy, overjoyed to think that both me and my friend just might make it out alive. Do you treat all your guests like this? Make people think the hard part is over, and then BOOM! A giant monster with a god complex drops out of the black sky and gobbles them up whole just because they can't give good reasons why they shouldn't be eaten! If this is hospitality here, you might as well swallow me whole now, because I would hate to stay here for any longer than I absolutely have to. Go on then, eat me!"

((Also, I must go in half an hour. .3.))

The Divine stared down at the two little beings, more concentrated on the one that had just dared to yell at it. It brought its head down close to them, staring right into Sylas' eyes with its large gray ones. "You..." it said, its voice a lot less angry than before. "...are the first human that has ever dared to yell at me like that. All of the others I've encountered either took to begging incoherently or fled back the way they came." It blinked once, then smiled softly. "I like you," it said. "You're amusing. So I'll let you go." It's gaze soured. "Just don't bother me again," it said, then lunged off the side and into the darkness.

"Wasn't planning on it!" Sylas called after the beast, then relaxed and looked at Leo. "Oh...darn it, Leo, you're losing too much blood..." He murmured, surprised that his friend was still standing. And to think he had to be carried...Sylas wiggled his toes, trying to regain feeling in his legs. Leo wouldn't be walking for much longer, and someone had to get them to Amnairus...

"I'm fine..." Leo protested, but Sylas could feel him shaking. He couldn't stop. Blood was dripping heavily out of his mouth, but he ignored it and kept walking. He swayed badly at one point, but his resiliance was astonishing. He straightened out and kept going, finally staggering into Amnairus' gate. He didn't get very far before suddenly having to set Sylas down, saying weakly "Augh...oh my gosh...it hurts..." He fell to his hands and knees next to Sylas, coughing as blood splattered from his mouth. He clutched his side with one hand, putting his forehead to the ground and muttering curses and prayers alike in different languages.