The Forgotten Zodiac

((Yes, Watson is good. :3))

Isslia just pouted at him still. Werr sighed, scratching the back of his neck. "Welk, believe it or not, the academy she went to school at can still punish her. She's an informant, a worker of the country. To give away secrets to anyone is a crime punishable by death. I don't know how it's legal, but...I think she actually can be punished by them. These people are trained to carry secrets to their grave, no matter what tortures they endure. Welk, she's be taught to kill herself if she's in danger of giving anything away."

Isslia said nothing, rubbing her bare feet against the wooden floor as she looked down at them and fiddled with her leash.

Welk blinked, then looked down with a frown, slowly saying "I...didn't know..." He closed his eyes, then wordlessly walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. He shuffled off down the hallway, looking downcast. Until he came to an open door fairly far away from Werr's room, where a scantily-clad maid was leaning in the door frame.

"You look upset, sir," she said, folding her arms. "Perhaps I could offer you some...comfort."

Welk was immedaitely on-edge. He frowned heavily, then said "What are you talking about?"

"I think you know well enough," she said, trailing a hand up to tug lightly at the top of her shirt.

He still continued to frown, saying "Um..."

"Shall I continue, sir?" she asked, slowly starting on the buttons to her shirt.

As soon as he spotted her hands, his eyes widened and he jerked his gaze up to her face. "What's wrong with you?!" he shouted at her, and her eyes widened immediately. "Wh-what?" she said, scared.

"Why...you..." he said, then backed up as quickly as he could. "This place is a disastor! Slavery...what YOU were about to do...this whole place is insane!"

"I...I can't help it, sir..." she whimpered, grabbing a silk blanket from her room and wrapping it tightly around herself. "This is the job that I'm forced to do as a slave..."

"They force you to do this?!" he said, nearly snarling at her.

"All of us..." she said slowly, tears starting to slid down her cheeks. "We have no choice, sir..."

He shook his head, then took lion form and dragged his claws across the ground, leaving deep marks in the floor. Then he said something that made the poor maid shiver with a strange sense of...hope.

"I'm going to change this land."

Then he raced away, unable to stand being in the castle anymore.

Werr waited. And waited. He stared down at his hands, then stood and paced. Eventually, Lexi went to her own room to turn in for the evening. Isslia fell asleep as well, and Werr curled up on the other bed, cold without his younger brother laid out next to him.

"I'm waiting, Zephyr." The whisper that spoke into the dragon king's mind obviously came from Du'uru. The Drakeling was waiting outside the Sacred Plains, the very tip of his tail flicking around excitedly as he waited.

Shut up, Zephyr hissed back. I will not be bullied by you, Great Sand King. We are both kings in our own; you are not above me. He snorted, then held Boko a little closer to his chest, sighing heavily as he gave his only child a soft lick. With the other hand, he gently picked up little Lutrez, holding both close. He turned his head, giving Vaira a small goodbye lick-kiss before lifting his wings and flying upwards, out of the Sacred Plains, where Du'uru was waiting.

Du'uru lifted up into the sky, flying beside Zephyr. He wasn't as fast as the other, but he was able to eye the children in Zephyr's paws. "Follow me. We've already made preperations in a cave nearby," He swooped low to the ground, sliding to a stop near the base of a mountain. A tunnel had been dug out, leading to a huge cavern; someone was waiting inside, at that.

He was...unusual. Zephyr couldn't even look at his soul or sense anything about him. He was clearly a boy, an older male. His lean figure was muscled and fit, though he didn't look very well fed. It didn't look like he had gotten sleep, either. From the bruise-colored circles under his eyes, it looked like he hadn't slept in a very long while. He wore a white shirt and a red vest that had golden trim on it. His long pants were black and hung loosely around his ankles, and leather sandals were strapped to his feet. He didn't look very interesting at all; his grey-streaked black hair hung limply around his face, in need of a good washing. His face was handsome, but dirty. His dull eyes were...white? Yes, white. but...tinted. Green, then red, then blue, the hue of the tint seemed to shift and change as his eyes flicked around the room.

He was sitting in the center of the cavern, while what appeared to be runes glowed around him. There was a large circle of plain floor beneath him, but the walls and ceiling burned with bright blue marks that formed what seemed to be letters of a different language.

The man turned his eyes towards the entrance as the dragon and Drakeling entered. He said something, but it sounded...warbled. Fearful.

"Shut up. I have the lexicon, and the new host. Just get this over with." Du'uru snorted. "Put the kids down, Zephyr." The man looked at the dragon king, looking...afraid. Worried. Deathly terrified of something.

Zephyr curled his lip slightly, clearly not liking being here, then said "If anything happens to either of them..." He slowly set the two down, suddenly feeling like they needed to leave. Something...wasn't right. Something was very, very wrong.

He bent his head and licked both Boko and Lutrez's heads, saying "Be careful." Then he lifted his head back and settled down in a corner of the cave, sitting quietly and only watching.

The man stood and ushered for Boko and Lutrez to approach, which they did. Lutrez shifted his weight around uncomfortably, but Boko put his nose close to the man and smelled him. The man patted his head before pushing him away, forcing him to one side of the cave and motioning for him to stay. It seemed like he couldn't...speak properly. He pulled Lutrez into place after that was done, then he retook his spot in the middle of the room.

There was silence for a long while, then...quiet voices came. Just a soft whisper of words that no one spoke. It rose into chanting, of some odd language that neither king understood, but it caused the glowing of the runes to increase tenfold. The lights made the room grow cold as the runes sucked the energy out of the surroundings. Outside, the grass and trees started to die in the surrounding area, but it didn't spread too far.

Finally, it started with a crackle of electricity. It shot through Boko, who wailed and cried, but was apparently unable to move. Next it hit Lutrez, who screamed as though his heart was being ripped out. Du'uru snorted through his nose. Cyprus had told him that it wouldn't hurt them...but it seemed to be. It wouldn't be permanant though, Du'uru knew that much.

The energy in the room hit a peak, but suddenly...everything shut off. Everything went pitch black. The glowing stopped, the screaming stopped, the voices were silenced but one. The man was whimpering, uttering something that sounded like he was saying 'me' repeatedly, and very quickly. Du'uru instantly rounded on Zephyr. "What did you do?!"

Zephyr lunged upright, curling himself around the two little ones. "ME?!" he shouted, snarling. "I did nothing! You saw me sitting there; I never moved! You can't blame me for something you know I didn't do! What even happened to them?" He quickly licked the two younglings, crooning in his throat to reassure them, then he jerked his head up at Du'uru again. "What happened?" he asked again, his eyes narrowed to slits.

Boko curled up tightly around himself and Lutrez, crawling (and dragging the other child) into Zephyr's paws. He didn't make a sound, though from his shaking it was easy to tell that he was scared.

"You did something, I know you did! Cyprus, what happened?!" Du'uru snarled dangerously. The warbled voice that followed from the darkness sounded downright terrified. Du'uru roared into the cave, satisfied when the man with the speech problem fell over and started crying. Du'uru glared at Zephyr. "Something stopped the process. The Lexicon was removed from Boko, but it's not inside that dragon child. You planned this, didn't you?! I have no use for either of them, and now I have no Lexicon. You foul, useless excuse for a king...Cyprus! Kill him!"

Silence. The man even stopped crying. He stood and walked over to Zephyr, crossing the short distance in what felt like hours. He put his hands on Zephyr's neck. Then he promptly started crying again, shaking his head and sitting down as he went into hysterics.

"Fine then...I'll kill you both!" Du'uru roared, claws flashing as he struck at them.

"ENOUGH!" Zephyr thundered, backhanding Du'uru as powerfully as he possibly could. And it was powerful indeed. Naybrin hadn't made him the second dragon king in all of history for nothing. "You are insane, Sandwyrm!" he shouted. "I know your mind! This entire ordeal was more than just a simple transfer! Something foul is at work here, something that we both know was NOT my doing! You said you value honesty above all else; I know now you are wrong. But I care no longer. I am taking these young ones home; to THEIR home! And if you want to wage war against the dragons over this thing which I have not a part in..." His voice then dropped into the most hate-filled, powerful tone anyone had ever heard come from him.

"...so be it."

Then he snaked the dragon and drakeling younglings up into his claws and lunged upwards, but not before nabbing the man with his tail. He didn't want him to be killed by Du'uru, after all.

And the dragon raced up into the sky, heading home to prepare for a war he knew he didn't start.

Du'uru's scream of rage followed him into the sky and through the air. Those at the sacred plains heard it. And in Zephyr's mind, another voice was laughing. Female, cold, and filled with menace. Not Du'uru's, certainly not, but it wasn't from anyone nearby, at that. It faded quickly, swept away in the wind, but the crying from the man held by Zephyr's tail was still very much audible. He was squirming and wiggling, trying to break free but not wanting to at the same time.

Zephyr flipped his tail while in the air, flinging the poor man up and then caught him gently with his teeth. Other than being a bit more dizzy, the man was completely unharmed. Zephyr lowered him gently down into his paws, saying "Be still, please. I'll have a dragon take you somewhere safe, away from the where the fighting will be, once I return home." He sighed, but a fire was burning inside him. He hadn't wanted it to come to war, but if Du'uru refused to listen, then Zephyr would give him war. The drakelings were a powerful force, Zephyr knew, but the dragons weren't the ones that lived above ground for nothing.

Cyprus whimpered, but fell still. He struggled a bit more, putting his hands on Zephyr's massive teeth. Then he fell still and limp, shaking terribly as they flew through the air. Boko started crying then, feeling...terrible. Empty, ruined, he felt like there was a great big hole in his heart. He pressed closer to Zephyr, whimpering while Lutrez pondered the thought of war. His baby sister in the egg...what if she got crushed? What if his mother died, too? He had been willing to go through with all of this...what had gone wrong?

((By the way, he'll be able to communicate with Vaira, I've decided. Who he can talk with is completely random. xD But he won't stick around here long, he'll move himself to where his ancient garden once stood.

Bulliete. >:3

Also, do you think we're moving a little too quickly with this? .3.))

(( ;D

No. We'll go back to the others soon to give this war a brief moment.))

When they reached the Sacred Plains, they were met by many, many gathered dragons, all of whom looked concerned. "Zephyr!" Vaira called, racing forward. She spotted Lutrez and blinked, then turned her head and called "Salana! Come here!" She turned back to Zephyr, nuzzling close to him and taking Boko in her paws, holding him close. "What happened?" she asked, blinking her large yellow eyes.

Zephyr was quiet, then he softly gave his answer. An answer that struck fear into the hearts of the listening dragons.

"We are at war."

((The war will take a bit, obviously. xD I'm just wondering if we're doing things too quickly with the book in general.

Oh, and which of your other characters do you want to understand him? :3))

Salana was quick to run forward, nuzzling Lutrez over and over and over again. Boko pressed himself up to Vaira, crying still. But what reached Vaira's ears next was a new voice. It was Cyprus; though it sounded like warbled cries or nonsense to others, Vaira heard his true voice.

"Wars and wars...is there not a safe place left? Ohh, what to do..." He fidgeted and looked around at the creatures around him, then put his hand against Zephyr's arm in a firm push. Then another. "Hey, hey, can you understand me? Can anyone listen?" He whimpered slightly, looking at the rest of the dragons, and letting out a sharp chorus of 'mememe's when one of them stuck their nose close to him.

"What do we do with him?" The smaller male questioned, frowning. "Who is he? Even for a human, he smells terrible."

"Cyprus! I'm Cyprus! Not that you can hear me...I can say whatever I wish, can't I? You all make the air very, very hot. I kind of want to cook eggs on your scales." He said sarcastically, then plopped down and started to cry again. "Oh, I feel so useless! Some Demigod I am...I know the Goddess did this to me on purpose, but why, oh why can't I just talk to at least ONE of these people...?" In spite of his obvious age, he acted rather...child-like.

((I've still got a lot of ideas to go, but we can try and slow things down a lot too. We can have many softer, quiet moments between characters. Werr and Lexi, Werr and Welk, Werr and Cynyr... Werr everywhere. But yeah. Stuff like that. Forin and Luen, Forin Luen and Diana, Luna and Forin, all four of them. And lots of Isslia and Welk, now that we have them. I love those quieter, friendly moments anyways, so that always makes good filler. Plus we can do anything with Sylas, Leo and Dark. Especially now that the new Divine has been born and growing fast. They can pop by and let Sylas give the old memories to it, so he can have his friend back.

WOOP. Got a character for Cyprus. : D ))

"Eh? What are you on about, human thing?" a voice said, and a large head was lowered down to Cyprus' level.

Firestorm blinked at him, frowning heavily. He obviously didn't like humans still, as punctuated by the growl that snaked loose from his mouth in the next second. "You come near my handsome red scales with any eggs and I'll crunch you into pieces," he said. But Cyprus' crying obviously struck a choir in him, because he stopped growling and seemed to soften a bit. "...Are you even okay?" he said, tilting his head slightly and flicking his ears back.

((DISTRACTIONS. YAAAAY.

Eh? Oh, okay. xD))

"No, I'm not okay...no one understands a thing I'm saying, and I really need to talk with--" Cyprus hiccuped, then jerked his head up and stared at Firestorm. "Wait, wait, wait, you can understand me?!" He stood at once, wiping his eyes. "Really? This is amazing, perfect, I...oh. Right." He cleared his throat. "I am no mortal human, great Dragon. I am Cyprus, the third Demigod of the Goddess' making." He tried to make his voice firm and serious, but it faltered and he sighed. "Who am I kidding...? A-anyways, I don't intend to cause any harm. I just want a word with you. Maybe you can explain to Zephyr what my side of the story is..."

((Firestorm. 8D ))

Firestorm tilted his head, then snorted and said "What, he can't hear you like I can? I must be the only one, then."

"No. I can hear him too," Vaira said at last, snaking her head forward to blink at Cyprus. "It must be a rare thing, as nobody else has spoken to you yet. We'll see." She looked up, then moved her head up and spoke to Zephyr. "Dear, can you hear this human speaking?" she asked, tilting her head at Cyprus.

Zephyr blinked at him, then said "No, I can't. Give me a moment though, Vaira, I must speak with Mithor about getting the nesting females, infants and eggs to the Hallowed Hills." He turned away, speaking rapidly to the older brown dragon nearby.

Vaira blinked, then murmured "The Hallowed Hills...so we're really at war, then."

The Hallowed Hills were the most sacred place to the dragon kind. Not a single human, drakeling, lerloch, or even many of the other dragons knew of its location. Only the king, his trusted General, and a few others knew of it. It was said during the great dragon war against the humans, Naybrin had carved out a massive underground safe-place that was impervious to any magical or physical breech. Only a dragon could pass through the barrier, whether it was going in or out. It was the perfect place to hide all of the dragons who couldn't fight.

"I'm not a human," Cyprus said again, frowning a bit. Could she really hear him? "Goodness, two people I can talk to at once...that's rare. Really, REALLY rare. When people are birthed into this world, there's a one-in-ten-thousand chance that they'll develop the genes neccisary to understand what I say. It's completely random. I've had rabbits and rats that understand me, which is really hard because I can't understand them, which turns it all around and makes things really confusing..." He sighed, then shook his head. "Oh, I'm getting off the topic! I'm not good at talking to people, I'm sure you understand...it's hard when you talk to yourself most of the time, you see, and all other people here is messed up nonsense that doesn't even count as words...bah, there goes the topic again. Look," He sighed, deciding to get straight to the point. "Something terrible is going on and I need you both to listen carefully. Someone is messing with things. Upsetting the balance. I wouldn't normally care, but they...brought me back. I was a free spirit, wandering here and there, and then...I woke up in this body. They dropped me off right in the Drakeling caves, and Du'uru saw at once who and what I was. He could understand me too, but...he wasn't right. In the head. He'd been messed with too, I could see that...it's bad. Things are going way wrong, way fast..." He started pacing, muttering to himself and forgetting about Vaira and Firestorm.

The two dragons exchanged a worried look, then Firestorm said "So someone wanted to start a war between the dragons and the drakelings? Why?!"

"Don't yell at him, Firestorm," Vaira scolded, watching as several dragons started rounding up the nesting females, children and eggs, preparing to take them to the Hallowed Hills. "It appears he's been through enough," the queen finished, watching as Zephyr gave orders like a professional.

Firestorm snorted, then said "Well, we'll see how he fares through several hundred drakelings bashing their way through here."