The Forgotten Zodiac

"Hm? Oh, just a small creature I found outside before it started to rain. A baby cat." Obelisk said quietly. "I'm allergic. My skin would break out in a rash, before. But now, it's okay, because my skin is dead and doesn't react," He spoke simply, stroking the kitten's tail. It adored the affection and attention. "You fear the thunder and lightning? Curious. If it all sounds the same, I would imagine you would be used to the sounds...but no matter." He wrapped one arm around Lexi, gently placing the kitten into her hands. "Here. Allow his warmth to comfort you," He was unable to feel the softness of its fur, only the warmth. Which was a small comfort, indeed.

She held the kitten close, letting it purr and nuzzle up to her, smiling at the soft white fur and the mewling. She was comforted by the feel of the little animal in her hands, and Obelisk's arm around her shoulders wasn't nearly as creepy as many other people might think it would be. She even leaned against him, less afraid of the thunder with he and the kitten so close.

Obelisk smiled faintly at this, then sighed through his burned nose and forced himself to relax a bit. "I'm glad," He said after a bit. "You really do remind me of my daughter. So talented, so brilliant, but so very meek at the same time. It makes me happy. I was so overjoyed and confused when you forgave me..." He reached over and scratched the kitten behind the ears with one finger. "Remor is caught in turmoil. I've silenced him for now, but he'll have another tantrum eventually. Hopefully, by then, we can snuff out the darkness that is Malice and I can put an end to this cursed eternity of existence..."

Lexi tilted her head back to look up at him, then snuggled the kitten in her lap and put her arms around Obelisk, closing her eyes. "I'll be sad when you go," she murmured. "But I understand. When someone has lived for as long as you have, I imagine life would just be so...dull. All of your friends die...places change..." She released a heavy breath, then moved one hand back and stroked the kitten again.

"Yes...something like that." Obelisk nodded once, then looked up sharply as the candle in the hallway went out with a hiss. He stood, walking silently to the top of the stairs and searching the darkness for a long moment before returning to Lexi's side. "A draft," He said quietly, his arm settling back around her. "Nothing more than a breeze." He hummed out a low note. "I shouldn't be so jumpy. I thought I sensed something coming, but it's gone now." Another blast of thunder. "It's a shame, the storm won't be letting up anytime soon...we have a long night ahead of us."

Lexi shivered, not liking the darkness, but feeling safe with Obelisk there. She had seen part of his powers, after all, and she knew he could protect her. But still the darkness felt like it was trying to suffocate her, like dark fingers were trying to creep close and wrap around her neck, slowly chokeing out her life... She shook herself, pressing the kitten to her neck in fear and leaning against Obelisk. "Something's out there," she said suddenly, fear rampant in her voice. "I can feel it. It's clawing at me..."

Unknown to her, the cause of these feelings and the cause of why she had so acurately felt the gauntlet's distress was because she had a true, honest heart. A rare thing, to be sure, but it was a dangerous thing indeed, as evil always did its best to smother and corrupt the innocent kindness these hearts held.

"It's quite alright, child," Obelisk murmured, allowing her to lean close against him. "Just close your eyes and think of the happiest place you could be right now. Forget all this trouble and strife; it will all be taken care of in the end. If it makes you feel better, for however much longer I have on this world, I will do everything within my power to ensure you are kept safe. Nothing will touch you, nothing--" He stopped, looking up sharply again as there was a yelp and a crash from downstairs. Obelisk stood again, moving towards the stairs; only to regret the movement moments later as a Thing literally pounced on Lexi, wrapping its arms and legs around her and apparently attempting to smother her against its skinless chest.

Lexi screamed, her dark brown eyes wide as fear knifed through her body. The kitten leapt from her arms and wiggled under the nearby door, mewling in fear. The screaming woke those inside the room, and it was flung open to emit Cynyr, his yellow eye glowing in the darkness. "What the-?!" he sputtered, motioning for Seria, who was also awake, to stay inside as he ran forward, stabbing his claws into the Thing's head to try and pull it off of Lexi.

The Thing retaliated by twisting around, digging his teeth into Cynyr's arm and clawing at Lexi's back. Or at least, trying to. It found that it couldn't puncture Lexi's skin, no matter how hard it tried. Obelisk moved forward, his bandages stuck firmly between the claws and Lexi's back, reinforced by shadows. He was quick to pull Lexi out, holding her tightly in his arms as the Thing hissed and proceeded to fight against Cynyr.

There was another scream from downstairs, and one from the room at the end of the hall. Obelisk realized at once that they were all under attack. A quick sweep with his powers revealed that all the doors and windows were locked and blocked tightly. It would be difficult to get it open, even with Cynyr's power. The lockdown had changed the house; the doors were now thick steel, the walls even thicker. The windows were covered with a protective spell, too. Everything appeared to be the same, but they were reinforced to protect those within.

But here, who knows how many Things were flooding into the sealed house. Their safe haven had been quickly changed to a battlefield. And it wouldn't take long for it to degrade into a full out mess.

((Malice wouldn't be here, but I thought we might as well have some fun with my new nightmare creature. ;D))

Fire thundered down a different hallway, and Zephyr rounded the corner, roaring and flinging his head back and forth to try and dislodge several of the Things, which were clawing at his eyes. He slammed into a door, knocking it completely off of its hinges and allowing a startled Luen to race from the room in deer form, his hooves clattering on the floor. He squealed loudly as one of the monsters leapt onto his back, chomping down into the back of his neck. He bucked instinctivly, but only having one front leg threw him off-balance, letting another Thing jump at him.

Cynyr was a raging mass of magic, attacking with an insane level of fury and hatred. From the other end, Leo was a living bulldozer, ramming into Things left and right and ripping them through with his huge claws.

Lexi screamed in fear, calling Werr's name frantically. "Obelisk!" she wailed, burying her face in his side. "Do something!" She shivered at a sickening splattering sound, which was one of Cynyr's bones breaking from the force of the creatures attacking him. He screeched, falling backwards on his broken limb, and the monsters fell like hawks.

Then a shadow fell over a window, and a sword was stuck through one it.

The sword cut neatly and perfectly through it, like a hot knife through butter, and it fell open a moment later to reveal Keir. The thief glanced around, smiling and saying "It appears I've stepped into a party." He slid through and pulled something out of his pocket, throwing it down on the ground. "Better cover ya'll's eyes!" he shouted, then threw it down. It was a tiny little nut, in appearance, but it exploded with a large boom and filled the halls with light so bright it made ever single monster go temporarily blind. Keir then strutted through like he had all the time in the world and calmly pulled people out of the way, nudging them towards others and saying "Get movin', get movin'."

Obelisk ducked into the room to his left, his bandages getting to work on ripping apart the Things surrounding Werr and Seria. He smashed one into the wall again and again and again, countless times, before it finally stopped making noise and moving. They started trying to fight back at this point, but Obelisk crushed one after another in boxes of darkness. Before long, the corpses started to pile up in the corner, and still, they were fighting their way into the room through what appeared to be a rift in the shadows. Obelisk quickly rounded up several of the corpses, shoving them back into the rift until they stopped coming and the rift shut off, unable to keep itself up due to the overload of dead things being thrown into it.

Obelisk slammed the door shut and locked it tight, finally setting Lexanna down, now that they were somewhere safe. There was no way the Things would be getting back in here. Werr was clutching his arm; it looked like the Things had been trying to eat him (and had actually gotten as far as the bone, but he was more concerned about keeping something held tight in his other hand. Welk. He had managed to keep his dear friend safe, at the sacrifice of most of his upper arm, both of his legs, and his back; all of which had bite marks and claw marks on them. Werr was barely sitting up at this point, but he kept his back against the bed, his knees curled up to support his forehead as he wept weakly. He'd need another blood transfusion, at the rate it was flowing from his arm.

Welk had his head pressed into Werr's shirt, sobbing, his little fingers clutching tightly to the boy's shirt. Seria was laying on her side near the bed, clutching her stomach with one hand and crying into the other. She was bleeding from several bite marks on her arms and legs as well, but she looked like she was hurt inside, too. And her cries were just inhuman.

Lexi ran over to Werr, trying not to look at his wounds. She put her arms around him, putting his head against her neck.

Obelisk watched them for several minutes, marveling at the damage that had done in that short amount of time. He turned back to the door, opening it a bit and pushing his way out. There were several long minutes to pass before he returned, dragging Forin, Diana and Luen into the room. All of them looked worse for wear, although Forin had taken the brunt of the injuries for Diana.

Obelisk was doing a good job of keeping the monsters out of the room, and he was prepared to let others in should they try to get in or become too injured to fight.

They could hear Keir laughing away as he pranced back and forth, undaunted by the sheer numbers he was up against. "Come on, ya lillies!" he shouted, swinging a strange weapon that resembled a spiked ball on a long chain around in circles. "Face me, why don'tcha?!" He seemed almost insane in his rantings, but when one of the creatures nearly took his hand off, he stopped everything and shoved his hand into his trusty pocket, digging around until he found something. He pulled out what looked like a tiny black skull with a key in the back, and he turned the key several times before dropping it on the ground without another care. He turned as it ticked, slowly counting down to zero.

"Goodbye," he said, glaring at the creatures as they all lunged towards him.

There was a split second of an ear-piercing noise, then all of the Things, rifts included, were sucked into the little skull. It closed with a burp, the key falling out and sealing it shut.

Just like that, the attack was over.

Obelisk opened the door a bit, peeking out. "Oh. They're gone." He turned his face towards Keir, but looked down the hall in the other direction, towards the stairs. "We need a divine healer. Seria is too hurt to help." He murmured, vanishing into the shadows a moment later. He reappeared again in front of the door, which he got to work on opening.

"I-is it over?" Werr struggled to lift his head, looking paler than a ghost. He looked at Seria, then had to lower his head again as the room swam in front of his eyes. Skies above, he was tired. So very, very tired...

Forin was obviously very, very hurt, as well. Diana...wasn't crying. Or screaming. She was just lying in Forin's arms, trembling. She looked mostly intact, although her back had suffered a few wounds.

Keir frowned, then again dug into his pocket and fished around, finally locating what looked like a tiny gold beetle with a large ruby in its center. He rubbed a finger down its back, watching as it shook itself and stood up, peering up at him. "Get to work," the thief said, and the tiny bug hopped off of his hand and scurried over to Forin, who was closet. It jumped up onto his forehead, digging tiny claws into his skin. "Don't touch it," Keir warned, incase Forin might've wanted to make it get off. "Let it do it's job."

The little bug started to hum, making a loud noise, and Forin's wounds started to heal. Slowly, but they were healing, starting with the worst.

"When one lives alone, it's a good idea to have something that can heal you," Keir said, watching his little bug work. "Witty is a good little friend to have around."

The bug chirped, then got back to work, finally finishing with Forin and floating over to Werr, where it settled on his forehead and got to work.

Werr sat still, allowing the process to take place. The little bug couldn't pump blood into him, though; he watched as it scurried away to deal with Seria's wounds once it was done. Then he passed out, and would have fallen into the thick pool of his own blood, if Lexi hadn't been hugging him.

Downstairs, Obelisk finally managed to get the door open. His senses fell upon the crowd of people standing there; Amnairians, mostly. They backed away at the sight of Obelisk. "The threat has been dealt with," He said quietly. "We require a healer or two...or three."

Nothing happened for a moment, then a Divine healer stepped forward. Namanai, of course, who never seemed fazed by anything. She moved right for the stairs, pausing to touch Obelisk's shoulder before heading up. Another Divine healer worked up the nerve to step past the foreboding sight Obelisk made, then one more. That was all, it seemed. Either the others weren't there or they didn't have the nerve.

Upstairs, the threesome set to work immediately. One raced over to Cynyr, who had been mentally cursing everything as he laid in a growing pool of his own blood, the bones of one leg sticking out of his skin. The other two darted into the room. Namanai analysed the situation rapidly, then called out her orders and the other healer snapped to it. She ran over to Seria and started touching her wounds, sealing them closed, then she put a hand over the half-cat's stomach and her eyes shot open. "Namanai!" she shouted, turning her head.

The other healer stepped over, and she only had to take one look at the blood still pooling on the ground around Seria to know what had happened. "Get her to the infirmary and the other healers. NOW!" the older healed shouted, and the younger one nodded fearfully and scooped Seria into her arms, turning and racing out of the room, already calling teleportation spells.

Seria continued to wail, even after they had disappeared.

Namanai stood for a moment, her head bowed softly, then she wordlessly turned to Werr and set him up a blood transfusion with Lexi.