The Forgotten Zodiac

One of the things stomped towards the Spectral, but with a cry of rage, Werr swung his arm around. The thing was thrown backwards by a huge rock hand. The ground underneath Welk stirred, shifting upwards and carrying him quickly towards Werr, who curled himself around the Spectral protectively. He fought off more and more of the things, but whenever one fell, it seemed as though three were prepared to replace it. Resu and Zelu were completely out of sight by this point. If not for adrenaline, Werr knew he'd be unconscious or dead. His hand was numb, he was lightheaded, and with another of desperation, he realized that the needles on the damaged gauntlet must have badly sliced a vein. Maybe even an artery.

Malice really was stronger. A lot stronger. It had hardly been ten minutes, and it was all Werr could do but to keep the things at bay, away from himself, Welk and Cynyr. He couldn't muster the strength to bring up any more than a stone guardian or two, watching as they sliced through the things one by one, then by the dozens. And they still came...Werr really hoped they had never been human. That no one was missing their loved ones, that none would have to weep over their missing mother, father, brother, child, neighbor...heck, Werr caught himself starting to pray to the goddess that this wasn't so. And that they would make it out of this alive.

With a thunderous roar, Naybrin plunged into the fray, teeth bared and claws outstretched. He was more than a match for the ghouls, and even Malice seemed to shiver ever so slightly. Then he moved his hand out, pointing the gauntlet straight at Naybrin, and-

Wham!

Leo bowled the dark lord over, only be flung backwards so hard that several bones cracked on impact. He snarled and wheezed, watching as Naybrin turned on Malice.

"One," he said softly.

"Naybrin," Malice spat. "You know that isn't my name."

"It was before," Naybrin said. "Why not again?"

"Because you and the Goddess and Titus and Galai and ALL of the others kept me from my true potential!" he hissed in answer. "I wanted, and WILL BE, a GOD!"

"You warped monster," Naybrin said with a snarl. "You used to be a god. A human god. But you threw away your status."

"Because I'm going to rule everything," Malice said silkily, grinning from ear to ear. He lifted his left hand, only to pause as Naybrin said "That won't kill me. You and I both know it."

"Not yet, it can't," Malice said darkly, his eyes flashing. "But soon...soon, even you, great lord Naybrin, will stand no chance. And you'll die by my hand."

He plunged the gauntlet to his own chest and vanished, knowing that with Naybrin there, he could do nothing. Yet.

Werr reached his gauntleted hand up in a half-hearted wave, only to shudder as blood spilled down his arm. The guantlet wasn't letting go, not a chance. Werr tried to use the guantlet's power to make it let go, but nothing happened. As the adrenaline rush drained from his body, he got so dizzy that he had to rest his head on the grass. He felt weak, so very weak...

"Werr! Werr, hold on," Sylas picked up his son, moving towards the gate hastily.

"Not so fast!" Zelu hissed, pushing Sylas back. "That guantlet can't go!"

"Well, what--" Sylas adjusted his grip so he could try to pull the artifact off of Werr's hand. He quickly discovered the needles when Werr moaned loudly. "Skies above, I can't get it off..."

"Well, you can either cut his hand off, or leave him here." Zelu frowned at him.

"Sylas, stand back. Let me see," Naybrin said, bending his great head forward. Once Sylas had stepped back, Naybrin extended his long pink tongue and gently licked Werr, pressing his tongue over him like an odd, living blanket. All of Werr's wounds sizzled under the sheer power in the dragon's saliva, then they healed and closed. Then he bent his head and whispered to the gauntlet. "Lamurta, ekta nuuriniin. Cas nublar ein mafakte'e. Esshin cafaben'ur." Slowly, the needles released from Werr's hand, and Naybrin immediately moved his paw out and held it close, murmuring "Slynis." He then licked Werr's hand gently with only the very tip of his tongue, healing the cuts and stab wounds there.

Werr laid still, his weakness and dizziness unchanging. His wounds may have been gone, but he had lost a great deal of blood. Once the guantlet dropped off of his hand, Sylas picked him up again and made a beeline for the gate, pushing Zelu out of the way.

"Hmph. Thank you, Naybrin," Zelu murmured. "You give humans too much mercy."

"Forget it. Let him deal with these people, we have to change the tunnels and reinforce the lockdown." Resu snapped, a little wounded, but she was going to ask for help.

Naybrin exhaled softly, then said "Perhaps I do. Either way, young ladies, I must join you here for a while. I promised the Gauntlet I wouldn't leave it alone if it released the boy's hand. So it appears I'm going to be in here for a while to come." He chuckled, then turned his head, watching as Leo dragged himself up painfully, falling close to Cynyr, who looked battered and weary himself. Leo was quiet for a moment, then he carefully touched the young man's shoulder, saying "...I saw you fight. You did...very good."

"...Thanks," Cynyr said lowly, looking annoyed as he forced himself up and started limping after his friend, never giving Leo a single look back.

Leodhaius sighed heavily, then looked up as Naybrin brought his head around, gently pressing his tongue over the panther until his wounds were all healed. Leo stood up, flexing his muscles, then looked up at Naybrin and nodded once. "Thank you..." he said softly.

"Think nothing of it," Naybrin answered. "Now go on. These lovely young ladies wish to close this place up tightly."

Leo nodded, then took panther form and galloped after the others.

"'Lovely young ladies,' he says," Resu snorted.

"I suppose we don't exactly look our age, Resu," Zelu tutted, watching as the others left. Once everyone was gone, the large swords appeared again and sealed the gate off. Zelu and Resu sat down back-to-back, Zelu focusing on steadying the magic of the world as the Artifacts moved further and further apart, while Resu concentrated on fixing the tunnels. Something that should have been done awhile ago, perhaps.

"There, there. You'll be okay," Sylas reassured Werr as he carried his son into the guest house. "Seria? Are you in here? I need to borrow your blood transfusion kit!" He called up the stairs.

"What?" came the familiar voice, then Seria raced down the stairs, carrying her scuffed-up old black bag. She was wearing a long, pretty blue gown, and had obviously been enjoying a moment of peace in she and Cynyr's room. But she snapped right to work, a true healer to her last. "What happened?" she said, getting right to work. She emptied out her bag on the floor, right then and there, fishing through for her transfusion supplies. Once she had them, she set the correct spells and put Werr's end of the needle into his arm, injecting Sylas with the other without hesitating. She assumed he was willing to help. Her gaze caught Welk, limp in Werr's hand, and she let the transfusion take its course while gingerly pulling the bloody little Spectral from his friend's hand. She held him flat in her hand, poking and prodding ever so gently at him until the movement got a weak, faintly audible wheeze of breath out of him. That was enough for her, obviously, and she laid him gently in her lap as she started to work on healing him.

((You posted...4 SECONDS AGO. OOOOOHHHHHHH. o3o))

"The Artifact...h-hurt...then these...things...attacked us," Werr moaned.

"Skinless monsters. I heard Malice call them his 'children'. More like victims..." Sylas shook his head. Werr let out a pained cry that had nothing to do with his injuries. "Malice is gone now, but...Cynyr and Leo were both hurt pretty badly when I left...sleep, Werr, rest."

"No..." Werr protested. Every time he closed his eyes, thought about sleeping, the things were there. Hiding behind his eyelids like freakish ghosts that haunted him. Werr trembled and shook as the image of their body, contorted faces flashed across his mind, an image that wouldn't be leaving him for a long while.

Seria moved one hand out and gently rubbed his forehead with her cool, soft fingers. Her other hand continued to work on Welk, who started breathing easier as she healed his tiny body. Once she finished, she lifted the itty-bitty Spectral and curled him close to Werr's neck, taking the boy's hand into hers and moving it up, pressing it to Welk. "We're here, Werr," she soothed quietly, stroking his hair back with a healing hand. "We're here..." She continued to stroke his hair back tenderly, soothing him through touches.

Slowly, delicate feet touched down on the stairs nearby, edging closer and closer before stepping down the next few steps, always slow and cautious. Lexi peeked around the corner, tears leaping to her eyes when she saw Werr looking so beaten. Seria had found the girl unconscious in her room and had helped her, and for the past amount of time they had been talking in the half-cat healer's room.

Wearing a forest green dress with small red flowers on it, Lexi finally stepped down from the stairs in her bare feet, her long black hair floating after her. Seria had brushed it and woven small red flowers into it to match her dress, and though Lexi was too shy to admit it, the young girl was stunningly beautiful.

She slowly walked over to them, tilting her head slightly to the side and biting her lip out of nerves. She walked over, following some odd instinct inside her, then gently bent to her knees next to Werr and lifted his head delicately, sliding her knees under and letting him rest on her. Her fingers felt different than Seria's, but she seemed to have that same healing aura about her. She stroked down the side of his face gently, with just the tips of her fingers. Soft, slow, and with a hint of a loving air.

Sylas moved over to make room for Lexi, actually starting to look older as the seconds wore on and his blood was pulled from his body and given to his son. He definitely looked more tired than usual.

Werr didn't react at all at first. It was as though a part of his brain had just stopped for a few minutes. When Lexi touched him, he jerked and snapped out of it. He looked up at her, his fear still obviously prominent in his eyes. "Lexi," He sighed with great relief, relaxing visibly. "What...happened? Why were you...unconscious?" He slipped his hand into her free one, his other fingers occupied by keeping Welk tucked close to himself.

The girl held his fingers tightly, continuing to caress the side of his face with her other hand. "I felt...pain," she murmured. "From that Gauntlet. I don't know why, but...it just hurt me so badly." She watched as Seria took the transfusion needle from Sylas' arm, rubbing his shoulder gently. Then Leo dragged in a nearly unconscious Cynyr and the healer leapt up to work on her husband. Leo walked over to Sylas, putting his head against his friend's shoulder and just standing there, looking equally tired.

Lexi watched them quietly, then turned back to Werr, giving him her full attention. She held his hand tightly, still stroking the side of his face gently.

Sylas leaned against Leo, sighing heavily as he watched Lexi and Werr, and Seria helping Cynyr. Werr wasn't moving, and Cynyr looked half dead. Both of them had seen something not easily forgotten. Sylas had seen them too, but not up close; he had hung back, closer to the gate than anything else. He had seen enough to know what the creatures had been, but he was spared from the full realization of the horror.

"It's okay..." Werr murmured. "I don't think it'll...happen again." He fought to keep his eyes open, but Lexi's gentle touch and voice dragged him to unconsciousness. It only took a count of three minutes before he was shifting around and murmuring something under his breath. A count of five, and he was sweating and shaking.

Lexi hesitated, but then she gently leaned down over him and kissed his forehead, her gently voice rising into a tender, soft song.

"Hush now, dear one,

don't cry, don't cry,

I'm here, we'll fly,

in the sky, the sky.

Nightmares, go now,

don't come, don't come,

back to bother,

and to haunt,

those I hold so close.

Hush now, dear one,

don't cry, don't cry."

She rested her cheek against his forehead, holding his hand tightly in hers and wrapping her other around his shoulder to rest on his chest. She traced small circles there, lifting his hand to her mouth and pressing his fingers to her lips.

Werr shuddered a final time, but he seemed to relax in Lexi's arms. "Impressive," Ophile said from the corner, his ears perked. "It's very hard to calm Werr down from a nightmare without waking him up. He's like a child that way." He used his back leg to scratch behind his ear, turning away again and disappearing into shadows once more, his input given.

"He used to have nightmares as a young boy, too. Lots of them. Poor kid..." Sylas tutted. "Nothing for it, though..."

((Ophile. xD Giving his serious statements and then making me laugh by having me picture him scratching his ear like an over-sized doggy.))

Lexi didn't seem to hear them. Her every sense was intuned to Werr. She glanced over as Cynyr slowly got up, looking quite ragged. He had to lean heavily on Seria, who did her best to support him. She tried to get him to go up the stairs, but he wouldn't let her. Not without Werr and Welk. So again, by forcing himself, he mananged to carefully pick Werr up, making sure Welk was still held tightly in his hand. Then he slowly started up the stairs, not noticing how Lexi scurried after him.

((Heehee~ He is still just a doggy. o3o))

"Toro," Ophile focused his eyes on the table in the corner, under which a small white rabbit had been hiding since Sylas had burst in here. "Do you know what happened?"

"More or less..." Toro said quietly, slipping out of his hiding place.

"Good. Tell Galai what happened. She may already know bits and pieces from Naybrin, but tell her what you know. She'll be able to figure things out if you fill in the holes, I should think."

"Okay," Toro nodded and darted out, Sylas watching him go.

"Cute kid," The older human murmured.

Upstairs, Cynyr carried his friend to their room, which was the biggest in the house, considering the amount of people that slept there. Cynyr and Welk refused to leave Werr, and Seria had the right to sleep next to her husband, so they all just shared the two-bed room. Cynyr set Werr down onto his bed, then the panther staggered and fell unconscious, caught only by quick-movement on behalf of the two girls that had followed him into the room. They gently lowered him onto his own bed, where Seria sat down on the edge and started stroking his hair lovingly.

Lexi unwittingly repeated the movement, sitting quietly on the edge of Werr's bed and taking his hand again, moving her other hand up to nudge Welk a bit closer to the boy's neck. The little Spectral seemed to be having a hard time breathing, and Lexi called Seria's attention to this.

"He's sick," the healer said, touching Welk's forehead gently with a single finger. "It'll only get worse, but I should be able to keep him alive and well."

"That's good," Werr murmured. Though his eyes were still closed, he had woken since Cynyr picked him up. He opened his eyes to look at Lexi briefly. "Hey," He said, ever so quietly. He tugged on her hand, urging her to come closer. He knew that they would soon have to go after Malice. He knew that Malice could very well kill him. So he really didn't have that much longer to live, perhaps. So he pulled Lexi as close as he could manage before breathing, "I think I love you." He said quietly.

Her eyes shot open wide, blinking a few times in shock. She didn't seem to know what to say. Seria was quick to slip off of the bed, scurrying over to her own place at Cynyr's side and leaving them their privacy. Lexi was still just staring, not sure what to make of the words that had just come out of Werr's mouth, then she slowly found her voice and answered him.

"Actually...I think I love you too."

Very, very slowly, she leaned forward, as if in a trance, and kissed him softly, closing her eyes and holding his hand tightly.