The Forgotten Zodiac

"Alright. Sorry to bug you, then." Werr nodded, satisfied with the answer. He slid out of bed, still holding Welk close, then headed for the door. "Rest well, Cynyr." He murmured before closing said door, making haste to the dining room, where the others were waiting.

He was a bit surprised to see that Obelisk was not present. He didn't mind it; the old being surely wouldn't starve to death, and it just meant that the others were free to have a generally happier mood. Even Forin was smiling slightly as Diana described the ice butterflies to an intruiged Nate, who had questioned what they had done all day.

Werr sat down, sighing a bit in content. Cynyr was okay, Welk was alive, and they had made it through the day without being attacked or threatened. Malice was still a threat, as was the rising tension in magical imbalance, but it was good to find a little slice of peace here at a table full of food and happy chatter.

Seria was fretting away as she sat at her place, worrying about her marriage, which would take place only the following morning. Lexi entered the room and shyly took her place next to Werr, mostly sitting quietly and not saying anything. She watched as Luen sneezed and accidentally filled the room with snow, to which several people laughed good-naturedly. He blushed and smiled sheepishly, keeping his long ears low.

Diana squealed with delight, grabbing up a bowl and starting to make small snowmen. Within two minutes, a small circle of dry floor had formed around Nate, who just continued eating. After three knee-tall snowmen were made, Forin finally managed to get Diana back to eating the rest of her dinner. Forin switched places with her, so she could sit closer to Nate and be a little warmer. The rest of the evening passed far too quickly; after the food was cleared off the table (and a plate set aside for Cynyr), Nate found a deck of cards from his bag and started dealing them out for a game.

Welk grinned and jumped off of Werr's shoulder, spiraling down into the snow with a solid thump. He disappeared into it as soon as he hit it, making a neat little hole in the snow. He reappeared and, like a small, odd fish, he jumped in and out of the snow in arches, grinning. All too quickly, however, he started to shiver and had to fly back to Werr. The second he touched the boy's skin, it was like someone had put a bunch of ice cubes against his neck. Welk was freezing, much colder than he had ever been in his normal form.

Werr shivered, but quickly tucked Welk under his shirt, holding his freezing friend close to his bare chest in order to warm him up faster. "There, there. You'll be okay." He smiled slightly, unable to supress another shiver as his body warmth was absorbed by Welk. "Any better?"

Welk shivered many times before beginning to stop, throwing Werr and smile. "D-d-doing g-great," he said, his entire body quivering uncontrollably. He shivered again, pressing against Werr's skin as he soaked up the boy's warmth. "I-I-I'm n-not u-used t-to f-f-feeling s-so c-cold. I-I u-used t-to h-have th-thick f-f-fur." He frowned, but sighed and let the feeling disappear, smiling up at Werr.

"You'll have fur again soon, don't worry." He patted his friend gently, starting to finish his plate of food. After he was done, Welk was still shivering; Werr turned to Nate at this point, smiling a bit. "Can I borrow your hand?" He asked.

"Sure," Nate chortled, knowing what Werr wanted. He laid his hand over where Welk was hiding, letting his natural heat warm the half-cat Spectral up.

Welk made a soft trilling sound, as if attempting to purr, but it was so shaky from the cold that he just ended up making himself laugh at how horrible it sounded. He tucked his head down, murmuring "Thanks, Froggy," with a wink. Then he went quiet, his crimson eyes slowly lowering closed as he dozed off.

About at this time, Luna snuck up behind Forin with a load of snow folded into her wings, which she promptly turned over onto his head with a wide grin.

Forin yelped once before the snow filled his mouth. The load was thick and heavy, and he went limp under the weight; Diana squeaked in a panic and started digging Forin out, panicking. She shrieked in shock as he burst from the snow pile, and he grabbed Diana up and started tickling her. She screamed with giggles, then managed to wiggle away and hide behind Luna. "She started it!" Diana yelled, laughing still.

"Oh, did she?" Forin snorted, forming a snowball in his hands and lobbing it at Luna's face.

Luna squealed and ducked, and the snowball nailed Luen in the side of his head. He had made the mistake of walking behind them, and now he found himself thrown onto his back from a sudden snowball to the face. He blinked quickly, his mouth open slightly in shock, then he got back up and dusted himself off as the others apologized repeatedly.

Their apologies quickly turned to squeals and screeches of laughter as the ice mage flung snow at them with his hands, grinning. He went all out now, filling the entire room with snow and even creating beautiful ice stalagtites and stalamites that were scattered around everywhere. When Luna flung another wingful of snow at him, he countered with a quick shield of ice that he pulled from the ground itself, laughing.

Nate had the bright idea to push the table onto its side and drag it into a corner, making himself a base of sorts. He kept shoveling more snow towards him with his tail, in order to make the icy ammunition he needed. Werr fled the room, not wanting to get caught up in something he couldn't get out of, and Welk was starting to shiver again.

Forin was quick to establish his own corner where Diana, ducking behind him, made snowballs while he threw them at the others. At this time, Boko came in to investigate the noise; he yelped with shock as a snowball hit him hard in the muzzle. He dived under the snow at that, and started dragging people under, starting with Luen. When he was done, everyone was buried chest-deep in snow, aside from Nate. "I LIKE THIS GAME!" He yelled, flying in circles around the chandelier.

Luen was quick to pull himself loose, smiling away as he created a barriage of instant snowballs from his fingertips. The room was filled with snowballs rather quickly, both thrown in assult and defence. Everything came to a rather quick end, however, when one of the doors opened.

A stray snowball slammed right into Cynyr's face.

The entire room promptly fell completely and utterly silent, seeming to sense the impending horror that the single misplaced move had just set into motion. Cynyr stood there for a moment, seemingly frozen into place, his mouth open and his eye wide. A split second later and his expression had turned to sheer rage. Wind powers raced forth, throwing snow everywhere so hard that it looked like a terrible blizzard had kicked up in the middle of the dinning hall. When it cleared, everyone was so buried in snow that they looked like snowmen themselves. The winner of the snowball flight was clearly determined instantly, as even Boko had been buried under a mount of snow. Everything was so deep that the floors could be seen again.

Cynyr walked back out without a word.

Luen was quick to uncover everyone, smiling softly. "That...was fun," he said quietly, apologetically.

Boko shook himself off, starting to shiver a bit. Nate was getting a little too cold for comfort, too. "Y-yeah, but I think I need to go take a nap ag-against Zep-Zephyr now." He chattered, smiling to the best of his ability. "Thanks for that, L-Luen. I had fu-fun." He turned on heel and hurried out, a shaky Boko following him.

The Drakeling darted ahead, running up to Vaira and Zephyr. "Guess what? There was snow! Snowy snowy snow! Remember that white stuff?" He squeaked. "The others throwed it at each other, but then I buried them, but then half-cat came in and buried all of us! So I am cold now. Mama," He purred, rubbing up against her quickly.

Vaira hummed and nuzzled her son, but there was a tiredness in her movements. Zephyr as well seemed to have the same. And they both showered their son with love. Zephyr looked up and spotted Nate, smiling. "Greetings Noble-Wing," he said. "How are you on this fine day?" When Nate pressed against Zephyr's warm belly, the dragon yelped softly. "Ack! I know how you are; you're cold! Heavens, how did you come about this?"

Luen stepped out of the other room, saying "I drained all of the snow. The room is safe!"

Zephyr stared at him, then said "Frost-Fang, did you have anything to do with this?"

"What?" Luen said, turning to stare at the dragon. "Oh...maybe?"

Nate was out like a light in seconds. Boko was a bit better, but he was less of a Dragon than Nate was. He simply crawled into Vaira's pouch and warmed up from there, crawling back out a few moments later when he decided he was warm enough. Nate, on the other hand, remained unconscious, shivering slightly in spite of Zephyr's warmth.

Zephyr put his nose down and pressed it to Nate's side, exhaling a deep, warm breath over him that was like the dragonian had just stepped into a sauna. Zephyr smiled and tilted his head back, looking up as Lexi stepped out of the room. "Excuse me," she said, spotting Zephyr. "Have you seen Werr?"

Zephyr answered, but she couldn't understand him. She back up a step, thinking he had growled at her, then turned when Luna stepped out of the room. "Um...do you know where Werr went?" she asked. The Amnairian blinked at her, then said "I sense he's that way." She pointed off down a hallway, then turned and said "The dragons are over here, Forin. Let Diana come get warm."

Lexi wandered off down the hall Luna had pointed towards.

Nate looked a little better, he stopped shivering, but remained unconscious. "I did like that game. It was fun," Boko squeaked, shaking a bit of water out from between his scales.

Diana ran ahead and hugged Zephyr's leg, pressing into his hard scales, a happy smile on her face. Forin stood back a bit, smiling slightly still.

Werr was at Obelisk's door. He wasn't doing much; just staring at the handle, as if debating whether or not to go in. He looked up as Lexi approached. "Oh, Lexi. Good evening." He smiled slightly.

"Hello, Werr," she said, smiling at him. She looked down at Welk, who was occasionally shivering but doing much better. "Hello, Welk," she said, and he smiled at her. She turned her attention back up to Werr and said "What are you doing? I didn't see you come out with everyone else, so I assumed you fled. And a good thing, too. Cynyr demolished everyone in one go."

"Did he? He probably got hit with a snowball the second he walked in." Werr snorted, smiling a bit. "I'm...wondering what Obelisk is up to. I haven't seen him in awhile, and I heard a weird noise the last time I passed..." He scratched the back of his neck, frowning slightly. "I don't mean to be rude, but...well, if he's up to something..."

Lexi tilted her head to the side and said "I don't think he's doing anything that bad. He's really not a bad person, I promise, Werr. Why don't you come talk with me instead? Or maybe I could ask Obelisk what he's doing? I think he likes me." She moved a step closer and Werr could see the bright light in her dark chocolate eyes. She blinked once and her lashes fell, then opened again, revealing her soft eyes again.