The Forgotten Zodiac

((.D. Nuuu.

Mewmew~ -w- ~ ♥

Also, I dreamed about Forin and Luen. For some reason, they were all alone and Forin was super ultra sick and crazy-delirious. Luen took care of him and it was so freaking adorable to watch that I think I squee'd in my sleep. And Forin would ramble about something that made absolutely no sense and Luen would just keep tending to him and saying stuff like "Oh yes, I agree with that. Mmhmm, yeah. No, really? That's amazing." xD It was so cute.))

Cynyr mewled weakly, not liking being shaken, then wheezed out a quiet moan as Werr hugged him. "I...I would n-never..." he stammered, tears dripping down his cheeks and becoming lost in his thick fur. He bent his head backwards and pressed his muzzle to Werr's cheek, murmuring "I...w-would never...leave either of y-you..."

Welk peeped softly, still hanging onto Werr's shirt. Like a tiny, newborn kitten, he weakly pushed his head back and managed to feel a lock of Cynyr's fur, which helped to reassure him. He curled up in Werr's hand, still panting softly.

"Then don't talk like it," Werr murmured, hugging Cynyr with all the strength that he had. "Don't ever talk like it. Because I'm not leaving anytime soon, either. All we have is each other...so we have to stay with each other. Always."

There was silence for a long moment, and Werr didn't release his grip until someone tried to open the door. "Go away, Sylas!" Werr hissed, but the hand that showed through the crack was Obelisk's. Werr frowned, but he scooted forward a bit so that Obelisk could enter the room. "What do you want?"

"The Thing hiding under your bed." Obelisk said quietly, walking towards said bed. Without warning, the Thing sprang up on the other side and went for the window, screeching in terror when Obelisk's bandages grabbed it by the waist and pulled it back. It struggled in a panic, but Obelisk was quick to crush the life out of it. Its skin didn't even break.

"That is all." Obelisk murmured, leaving the room again, the Thing in tow.

Cynyr watched dully for a moment, then dropped his head into Werr's lap with a heavy sigh, thinking Why didn't I sense that? Have I lost it...? He closed his eyes, pressing closer to his friend and quivering.

Welk made a weak upwards clawing movement, gurgling. He squeaked and mewled, and generally protested until Werr lifted the Spectral to his neck. Welk curled up there, shaking with exhaustion. He pressed his face against Werr's skin, curling as close as possible to the boy's warmth.

Werr held Welk close. He felt that it was probably a bad idea to let Welk warm up, but he thoughtlessly pushed away the idea as he closed the door behind Obelisk. Werr sat there in silence after that, perfectly fine with having both of his friends lean on him at once.

"I can't!" Forin spat for perhaps the hundreth time, dropping his head into his hands. Luna had told him to relax and concentrate, but he honestly couldn't do either of those things. This 'spiritual' training wasn't working much at all for him.

"You can do it, Forin!" Luna said, touching his shoulder. The two had been sitting together, trying to work together on this for a while now. Luna glanced up as Luen ran out of the guest house, carrying Diana in his arms. "Sorry I'm late!" he said. "I overslept and nobody woke me." He set Diana down and walked over, sitting down in front of Forin and crossing his legs. "How's it going?"

"Um..." Luna said, holding Forin's hand and giving him a sideways look. "Not as well as we had hoped."

Luen nodded, then looked over at Forin with his bright, innocent green eyes and his long, soft ears. "I'll help you," he said gently. "It's what I'm here for. To help my friends."

"I don't know if you can help me, friend..." Forin said quietly, closing his eyes again. There was silence for a long moment, then Forin dropped his head back into his hands. "Gah, I feel so stupid and useless...how am I supposed to do anything if I don't have my powers? I don't have anything!" He punched the ground with annoyance but quickly regretted it. The marble tile was thick and...well, hard. Forin rubbed his knuckles with his other hand, groaning with annoyance.

Luen took Forin's hand into his own, gently rubbing the faint scars on his skin. "Forin," he soothed, his soft voice kindly and full of his quiet, shy tenderness. "You'll find your powers again. Trust me. I believe in you. If I didn't...well, I would never have made it this far." He smiled slightly. "I would've died long ago," he said, quietly wrapping his arms around Forin in a hug. "Let me try and help you. I'm good with inner magic working."

"Okay," Forin said quietly, leaning against his friend. Diana took Forin's other hand.

"Why did you keep the scars?" She asked quietly.

"Because each one has a story, mistress. And one day, I will tell you what each one of them mean to me." Forin squeezed her hand gently, then sighed and closed his eyes, trying desperately to concentrate again.

Luen put his forehead against Forin's, closing his eyes. "Since you've never done this before, try and hone in on my magic," the kirin said. "If you can tune into that, I can take us both to a place inside my mind where we can train. It'll be hard for you to move around, because of spiritual pressure pushing down on you. Once you can move around easily enough there, we'll go to yours, where it will be much, much harder for you to concentrate."

"O-oh. Right. Okay." Forin nodded twice, then pushed his forehead against Luen's. He broke away after a moment, clearly finding it difficult to concentrate for more than a minute at a time. He was a bit scatterbrained at the moment, and he kept telling himself that everything was fine, but he honestly knew it wasn't at all. So it took Forin a total of three times before he managed to let himself be pulled into Luen's powerful magics.

They were in a solid white cavern, one that seemed to have no exits, entrances, a ceiling or walls. Just the floor beneath them, which was covered in a light dusting of snow. Luen was standing in front of Forin, his arms crossing behind himself as he stared at his friend. Forin was immediately forced to his knees, finding it hard to breathe and move. Luen moved forward to help him up, saying "Are you okay? Just take a moment to used to the feeling."

Forin waved Luen off with the shake of his head, coughing and wheezing as he forced air in and out of his lungs. Slowly, he managed to stagger to his feet, though he still felt as though everything was trying to crush him. It was like swimming through lead. He stared down at the ground, then up at the endless sky, then down at Luen. It took him several seconds just to blink. "I...am okay," He managed to say at last, though he was clearly struggling. But then, this was Forin; stubborn and persistent, to the last.

Luen exhaled quietly, again putting his arms behind his back, then said "Well, I suppose we can just move on with the training. This might even help you, too. Forin, be ready, or...I'll hurt you." He pulled an arm out from behind himself, and a huge sword came with it, slicing through the air with breakneck speed. Forin barely had enough time to force himself to leap out of the way as Luen swung the weapon forward, slamming it into the spot of ground Forin had been standing on. "I'm sorry, Forin," he said, lifting the weapon and resting it on his shoulder. "But I have to attack as if to kill. Your training is to avoid all of my attacks. You can't get out of my mind until I let you out, so let's make the most of this. You'll find that you're already breathing easier." It was as he said. Concentrating on avoiding the attacks, Forin didn't have time to think about the pressure around him, and he found that he was able to breathe better.

Forin dodged this way and that. He had been a bit startled when Leun had first attacked, but he forced himself to calm down. Training, that's all this was. Luen was doing the right thing; he was only trying to help, after all...after awhile, Forin found himself moving faster, not just breathing easier. He started seeing the movements coming; Luen was being predictable. His friend moved in a pattern; left swipe, upwards and to the right, then straight down. One swipe to the right, another one down, and repeat. So of course, Forin soon found an opening. He tackled Luen to the ground, grinning as he struck.

Luen squealed in a deer cry of shock, his sword clattering to the ground off to the side. He simply laid there for a moment, staring up at Forin in shock, then smiled and said "That was good, Forin! Really good!" Once his friend allowed him up, Luen put a hand on his shoulder, smiling away. "Alright, we'll move on," he said. He backed up a few paces, then closed his eyes. Immediately, all of the snow in the room turned to fine, soft sand. "Our next area of training is defense," the kirin said, holding his arm out to the side and concentrating. A medium-sized stick appeared in his hand, wrapped all up in tight bandaging to make it sturdy, and Luen tossed it to Forin. "Using that for defense..." he said, slowly rising off of the ground, held up by his ice powers. "...you have to find a real weapon while fighting off my powers." He flung his other arm out, and immediately, small boxes of different colors filled the endless room. "In one of these boxes is a true weapon," Luen said. "It's calling to you, trying to help you find it. But I again will be attacking with all of my power." Forin noticed that here, in his own mind, Luen was brimming with confidance, and his powers were massive. Ice formed all over him, giving him wings, a long tail, thick arm and legs, turning him into a huge ice beast. "Go!" Luen shouted, and then reared back for only a moment before charging forward at his friend.

Forin yelped and - surprisingly - ran towards Luen. He dodged around the ice beast's feet, getting behind Luen quickly. Without hesitation, he started knocking over boxes. There was no time to open them neatly, so he swung his stick at them. They fell over, their contents spilling out onto the soft sand. The boxes would then explode with soft pops, spraying confetti everywhere. But, no weapon. Forin scrambled around, running in the other direction as Luen turned to attack.

The ice creature whipped its head around, bellowing at Forin and spraying snowflakes everywhere. Luen could just barely be seen inside the ice covering him, but he was there for sure, controling every movement. The giant colossus lashed its tail, kicking up mounds of the white sand, then charged at Forin, roaring like a dragon. It sprayed a plume of ice at Forin, intending on trapping him inside.

Forin dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding being hit. His stick, however, got caught up in the blast; it was stuck inside the ice before Forin could pull it out. He pulled on it, managing to break off the half that was still available and drag it with him. His defense tool was significantly shorter now, but it was still decent at busting the boxes open. Which, he did, with renewed fervor. One of the boxes looked strange, though...bigger. Forin made a beeline for it, putting on a burst of speed as he did.

The ice colossus turned as he did, roaring at him and charging at full speed. As Forin neared the box, he heard something whispering to him. "Here...here...! Come, Tartaran! Take me up and wield me! We will fight together!" When the box was busted, a long, gleaming black sword fell out, pulsing with a dark red light, as if alive. "Take me up!" it cried at him. "Hurry, hurry!"

Forin grabbed the sword by the blade and threw the stick aside, moving too quickly to think about it. He held it up, promptly realizing that he was holding it upside down. He looked from the long sword to the massive, hulking beast he faced--then he promptly threw the blade with all of his might, throwing high so the sword might hit something important. He honestly was moving without thinking; this was supposed to be defense, not evade and attack, wasn't it?