The Forgotten Zodiac

Diana stopped, watching Lexi for several long minutes. She had never really talked to the girl, but she knew that Lexanna was good at drawing. Diana shifted her weight around for a minute, then walked forward and prodded her on the side of her head. "S'cuse me...where's...where's Forin?" She asked quietly, trembling.

Lexi flinched at Diana's voice, whipping around to stare at her. "D...Diana?" she said softly, trembling just as much, if not more, than the younger girl was. "Oh, Diana!" she said, relief filling her being. "I-I don't know where Forin is. I don't know where anyone is! B-but...at least we've each found someone, right?" She slowly extended a hand towards the little girl, saying "We can help each other, right? You can trust me."

Diana stepped back a pace, wringing her hands nervously and looking down. Slowly, she reached out one hand towards Lexi and took the older girl's, struggling not to flinch away. As a result of Forin's overprotectiveness, she didn't really touch other people. Nor did they touch her. Only Forin, Luen and Luna. Spy and Boko as well, but they were all people Diana knew well and liked...

Lexi gently stroked her other hand over Diana's, saying "That's okay, right? Come on, let's see if we can't find some water." She stood up, holding Diana's hand kindly, then started walking, staying away from the path. "Look here," she said, bending down to show Diana some tracks in the dirt. "See these hooves? They're deer prints. If we follow them, we might find some water or shelter. Okay?"

"Or Luen," Diana suggested quietly, but she was quick to follow Lexi. It didn't take long before she started dragging her feet, though; she had already been walking for quite awhile, while Lexi had just sat there..."I'm tired," She announced shortly after they started, "Can we stop?"

"We will after we find water, okay?" Lexi said, then bent down to Diana's level and held her arms out. "Would you let me carry you?" she asked. "I can do it. I'm still as fit as I could be, and I'm not tired. Let me carry you, at least until we find some water." She smiled softly, saying "It's not good to rest while you're too thirsty, so let me do the walking."

Diana looked tiredly up at her. "But...I'm starting to get too heavy for Forin to carry," She muttered, looking down. She was 10 now, and far too big to be carried around. "I'll be fine for a little while longer," She said, turning her eyes back to the trail. If they could find Luen, things would be okay, because then they could eat the ice that he made...but no. They were stuck out in the middle of gods know where, and without any of their friends.

"It's just until we find water," Lexi reassured, then looked up as they topped a small rise.

There was a shallow pond there, where a few deer were standing, drinking warily. None were Luen, as punctuated by the lack of a bright white coat and mechanical arm, but it was reassuring to see the living animals and the small bit of water. It looked dusty, sure, but drinkable.

"There we go," Lexi said, watching the deers as they raced away from them. "Come on, let's get a drink."

"Water," Diana said desperately, kneeling next to the watering hole and drinking deeply, bringing the water up to her mouth from cupped hands. It was cool and soothing to her dry throat. They spent a long while there, just drinking.

((I decided that Zelana would go with Seria and Spy. That makes a decent team, there.))

Finally, once they had taken their fill, Lexi guided Diana towards the nearby forest, where they could rest. She stripped several low branches of their leaves and made Diana a soft place to sleep, staying awake as the girl rested. Lexi was determined to find the others, yes, but she was also determined to protect this little girl. No matter what.

*

Naybrin slowly opened his eyes, which were blurry and unfocused. He shifted a bit and immediately let out a loud roar of pain. His wings...he knew from a split second of feeling pain that they were terribly broken...

((What about Isslia?))

"Calm yourself," Ophile said, ducking his head low. A large pile of food had been set aside; Ophile had feared Naybrin's reaction to the pain (having remembered Zephyr's reactions in the past), and had vouched to get a distraction for the great dragon. Now he was backing up quickly, his ears flat against his head and his body low to the ground as he tried his hardest not to make a target out of himself. "I know it must hurt, just remain calm, and...and try to switch to human form. You have one of those, remember? No wings, no broken bones."

((Okay, Isslia will go with Zelana.))

Naybrin grunted, then slowly shifted to human form, nearly looking about to cry at the following pain. It hurt to take his other form, and when he got there, he had such pain in his shoulders... He panted, then looked at the pile of food and picked up a fish, eating half-heartedly to try and relief himself of a bit of pain. He gingerly swallowed, was still for several seconds, then suddenly pitched to the side and vomited up the contents of his stomach, his body shaking badly.

((NONONO I GOTS AN IDEA. : D))

Ophile sighed heavily and padded towards Naybrin, pushing his way underneath the now-human to support him as he heaved. "There, there. You'll be okay. We need to find the others...you could use Seria's magic right about now." He looked around. They were in a forest, Ophile had already scouted around. And he had found one thing particularly frightening.

They were in a war zone.

The forest was particularly bad; there were archers in the trees and they were ready to shoot at anything that moved. Footsoldiers were moving in from the south, but Ophile and Naybrin would go unnoticed if they stayed put. Ophile had made sure of that. Whoever dropped them here knew what they were doing; there were no archers nearby, and it was relatively safe here, for the time being.

The main problem was the cliff to the east, and the plains to the west. This forest wasn't much of one; it followed a steep descent downwards into a valley, but Ophile didn't know where that led to. He only knew that from here, they were basically cornered...

((o3o Oh dear.))

Naybrin shivered and clung to Ophile's fur, panting softly. He moved a hand out and slowly rubbed one of the wolf's ears. This movement, of course, caused Ophile to begin receiving load after load of the great king's memories. Hundreds upon thousands, since the beginning of time. When Naybrin pulled his hand away and returned to the position Ophile had first initiated, the montage stopped. He threw up once more, though he had nothing left to expel, then muttered questioningly "What do we do?"

((Gotta go take a shower. Invisible on Skype usually means I'm there, also, so leave me a message.))

Ophile shook himself, rubbing his face against the ground to get the images out of his eyes. "Stay put until you're better," He said with a sigh. "And hope no archers approach this area. It doesn't seem likely, we're too close to the cliff..." He muttered, lowering his head and closing his eyes. He bumped his jaw against the ground, again and again, still trying to dislodge the memories.

"Sorry about that..." Naybrin said, looking to the side sheepishly. "I forgot all about your mind-powers. Sorry." He grunted, slowly standing up and glancing around. "Where shalt we go, Ophile? I...am afraid I don't know where we are. This land has changed much since the last time I've been here..."

Naybrin was silent for a moment, standing quietly with his eyes closed, then he said "It's no good. I cannot even sense Werr's bond with me from here. Something is blocking it. Normally, I could track down the beat of his heart, but now..." He shook his head, then said "Oh well. No use crying over curled scales. The only thing we can do is grow them back." Ophile was probably confused by the use of dragon logic, but Naybrin didn't think about it.

"I...don't think we'll be able to find people like Werr and Cynyr, Seria, Welk...all of them. I really doubt anyone is as good as them..." Ophile said doubtfully. "Should we get a move on, then? I can carry you, if you can't walk. Don't worry about my powers, you already overloaded the memory section of my mind. It'll take awhile to sort out, but I don't care at this point."

"No, I shall walk on my own," Naybrin said, nodding once. "But if I need your help, I will call on it. Especially now that I'm no longer dazed. I have a firm hold over my memories now. You couldn't take them even if you tried." He chuckled, then said "Let us be off, then!" and started walking, his stride as proud and robust as ever.