The Forgotten Zodiac

Isslia sighed, holding still and letting her master cuddle with her.

"We can't have a fire too big, the light will attract the archers, and they'll send scouts...and gods know we don't want to mess with Vipra. She's brutal..." Carlyle shivered, shaking his head.

"But if we don't have the fire hot enough, we could all freeze to death." Isslia countered.

"Sounds like a terrible lose-lose situation, to me. I can weave coats out of grass," Cyprus suggested.

"Nobody understands you, sir. Sorry..." Isslia said, sighing a bit.

"Oh, for goodness sake. I need a hug."

Welk glanced Cyprus' way, then said "Sheesh, how do we understand this guy? What if he's, like, dying and needs help?"

"I think we could understand that," Cynyr said, rolling his eyes.

Welk frowned at him, stroking Isslia's head gently. "Can we move on?" he said, shivering a bit. "It's getting cold, and that's my weakness." He shivered a bit, saying "Doesn't help that my magic is still weakened..."

"SERIA CAN UNDERSTAND ME," Cyprus snapped at them, but it really wasn't any good. All they heard was a buzzing sound, and then a 'memememe'.

"Ha, that's cute...mememe..." Isslia murmured, almost falling asleep. Her leg was still hurt, and she was exhausted.

"Let's just keep moving," Carlyle sighed.

"I FOUND HIM! I found him, I found him, I found him!" Spy suddenly burst out of the bushes, running in circles around Ophile. "Seria, over here! I found him." He said proudly.

"Seria? Oh, what a relief..." Ophile sighed. He and Naybrin had found the plains edge, but the wolf had been too on-edge about walking out of the forest yet. And now, the little Chimera had found them. The healer too, apparently.

The said half-cat stumbled through the bushes, panting. "Spy, don't run so fast!" she called, then froze at the sight of the two. "Ophile! Naybrin!" she exclaimed, running forward and throwing her arms around them. "Oh, it's so good to see you!" She nuzzled into Ophile's fur, then stood and hugged Naybrin tightly, to which he looked pleased with.

"Hello to you too, dear Soft-Touch," the dragon said, bobbing his head in pleasure. "And not a moment too soon, either. My wings are as broken as a rock dropped from high." He winced just thinking about it, saying "I also find myself unable to eat without vomiting."

Seria nodded in concern, saying "Let's find a safe place and I'll see what I can do. Okay?"

He nodded, then bent and picked up Spy, saying "Hello there, fluffy one. How are you?"

"Aw, man, it's been cold," Spy shivered, curling into Naybrin's grasp. "You're all warm~!"

"You can understand Cyprus?" Ophile tilted his head to the side. "I didn't notice. That's definitely odd...why can you understand him where others can't? Is it random or something?" He looked to Naybrin for his answer. He supposed the First King would know the most about something birthed from the Goddess herself.

The dragon exhaled a steamy breath, then said "Who can tell? Perhaps it is a gift recieved from her Majesty the Goddess herself. Perhaps it has something to do with the person themselves. Something in their heart, in their soul. In the very core of their being." The cryptic dragon then grinned and said "I'll think on this for a time and see what I can emerge with. For now, we must move onwards." He blew steam over Spy, making him giggle, then said "Onwards!"

"Yes, let's get out of this forest. I have a terrible feeling about this place..." Ophile muttered, shaking his head. "Any idea where the others are, Seria? We should find Nate, at least...he was weakened coming in, and I fear for his safety. Part dragon he may be, and he probably wouldn't like hearing me say it, but...he still has his weaknesses."

"I haven't seen anyone," Seria said, beginning to walk alongside the Tartaran wolf. "And I fear we might be too late for some. I'm hoping and praying not, but Spy smelled sickened wolves on the wind today. There's a rouge pack that roams the hills, plains and forest, and they're infested with a disease I couldn't place. Not unless I saw them up close. With Spy here, we can smell if they're getting near or not, or if we're nearing any of the others. I just hope the wolves stay away until we can get everyone back together..."

"Naaaasty wolves." Spy shook his head.

"Yes, well...should we stop for the evening and set up for the night?" Ophile suggested. "Seria, you need sleep. I can see it on your face, clear as day. And Spy has gotten hyper, which mean he's about to crash...we might as well curl up here and sleep some."

It was only getting worse. Werr's skin felt like sandpaper, his bones feeling like glass. Every bump of Luen's footsteps bore what felt like should be bruise after bruise into his legs. Of course, there would be nothing there in the end, but it felt bad. "We have to stop soon, Luen...you can't keep walking like this. You're just as tired as I am...right?" Werr sighed, loosening his grip on the Kirin's antlers.

Luen gave a weak nod, shivering and shaking under Werr. He stumbled and immediately yelped, panting for a moment before getting back to his hooves. They had just reached the very edge of the forest, where the trees were sparse and thin, before Luen fell again and couldn't bring himself to stand again. He panted heavily, blowing sharp breaths through his velvety nose. He moaned and shivered, the impact with the ground making him feel like someone had beat him with a bat.

"Alright then," Werr groaned, forcing himself to slide off of Luen. "We'll stop...here..." He curled up on the ground next to Luen, pressing close to the kirin to preserve body heat. His breath hitched and trembled; the grass felt like a million tiny blades pressing into his skin, just waiting to cut him open. "Just...relax, Luen. We'll find the others...in the morning."

Luen's shaking continued as he pushed his muzzle up under Werr's neck, even his breath seeming to shiver as it came out of his lungs. "I...I'm sorry," the kirin murmured, pressing his eyes shut. "I still regret that time where I was cold to you. I still don't understand it. When we first met, it was you I turned to for help. That old tracker that had been killing me off... All of that was before I had become friends with Forin and Diana, before we had even met Luna. I'm so sorry..."

"Forget it," Werr smiled a bit. "I've already forgiven you for that. You're not cold to me now...you would have left me to die if you were. But you didn't. So...forget about it, okay?" He wrapped his arms around Luen's neck, closing his eyes.

Of course, he opened them again when there was a howl dangerously close by.

Luen lifted his head sharply, glancing around and sniffing the air before a wave of fear raced through him. He stood, grabbing the back of Werr's shirt and pulling him up as well. "You have to get up into the tree," he said, pushing the boy towards the closest tree. It was a decent size, and it had a branch low enough for Werr to reach once he stood on Luen's back. "I have my ice powers; I can hold them off until they get tired of fighting. You had more of that stuff injected into you than I did. You can't fight well enough and I can't worry about you if we're going to survive. Trust me, okay?" He bent onto his forelegs so Werr could climb onto his back, saying "Get up into the tree and stay there."

Werr did as he was told, knowing that arguing would only waste time. He clung to the tree for dear life, scrambling up into the branches as far as he could manage. It hurt, the bark cut into his skin and left scratches on his arms, which felt like razor blades scraping against his flesh. It was all Werr could do not to cry out in pain as he settled down in one of the forks in the tree. "L-Luen, be careful!" He said, trembling.

The kirin nodded up at him, fear prominant in his emerald eyes. They both waited in silent fear as the howls grew closer and louder.

One by one, shadows arched over the hills, heading right towards the two.

The wolves were twisted, ugly creatures, seemingly spawned from nightmares. They were thin, painfully so, and sick yellow froth dripped from their hunger-starved mouths. There were so many that they could kill an animal, eat it, and still be starving afterwards.

And they usually hunted deer.

They set their sights on Luen and bellowed their starvation, racing towards him and slavering at the mouth.

He threw up an ice shield, then gaped in shock when they didn't even slow down. They slammed into the shield at full speed, then stalked around and around it, continuing to batter themselves against it until it started to crack.

With a harsh smash, one of the wolves broke through the ice barrier and lunged, jaws agape, for the white kirin.

Luen spun on his forelegs and lashed out with his sharp hooves, catching the wolf in the jaw. The force of the hit caused the crazed animal to flip over, slamming into the unbroken ice wall. Luen turned to try and put more ice up, but a gurgling snarling sound made him turn back.

Like some sort of twisted zombie, the wolf was standing back up, jaw hanging broken from its muzzle.

Luen's eyes widened sharply in fear, and he backed away quickly. He suddenly turned and looked up at Werr, concentrating.

Werr found himself with a handful of throwing knifes, all shaped perfectly out of ice. "Help me!" Luen said quickly, his voice laced with fear, then he whirled as two more wolves slipped through the broken gap in the wall and lunged for him.

Luen lunged back and forth, narrowly dodge another wolf. He had heard rumors of this pack before; he clearly remembered feeling relieved that they didn't life in this land. People had attempted to demolish this pack before, but they hadn't made it out alive. Or they had and something had happened to them. There was a reason these were called the Eluding Death ghost pack. No matter what happened, they always seemed to come back, as no one had gotten through to their lair before. It was well hidden.

And these wolves were ruthless. They had been known to stalk down lost beings for days. Being in the tree or not didn't matter to them; once they had Luen, they would turn all efforts to Werr, even if they had to throw themselves at the tree to knock him down.