The Forgotten Zodiac

"No! I-I can't just leave you!" the kirin cried, glancing up in horror at the boy. Instantly, a wolf raced through his defenses and sank sharp teeth into his left foreleg, shaking its head back and forth and tearing the kirin's leg to pieces.

Luen's scream ripped through the air as blood splattered across the ground. Immediately, ice spikes shot up from the ground, impaling several wolves and killing them instantly. He put out as much magic as he could, bending his head low in pain as his leg gushed blood. The wolf's sharp teeth had ripped through his muscles, making every movement painful.

The good news was that he had tore the wolves' hunting party in half. He stared up at Werr, tears dripping down his cheeks from the pain, then pushed another load of ice knives at him and lunged through the gap in the ice wall.

Immediately, five of the sickly creatures raced after him, snapping at his heels. There was so much blood left behind; Werr knew the wound on Luen's leg was bad, if that much blood had already burst forth. But he had his own problems.

The remaining five stayed behind, circling Werr's tree and busting through the remaining ice walls. They even got into a fight over Luen's blood; they licked it all up, down to the last drop. Even any dirt that the blood had soaked into disappeared down into their stomachs.

Luen ran on as fast as he could, knowing the wolves were behind him. He glanced over his shoulder, spotting the bony, lethal shapes darting over the plains after him. He turned his head forward again, concentrating on running. Every time his hoof made contact with the ground, pain shot up his leg, as if someone had stabbed him. Blood continued to drip freely with each step as well. But Luen had no choice.

Onwards he ran, forcing his lanky body to move. He was faster than the wolves, yes, but they had the endurance and drive to hunt him down. They had nothing to lose, after all.

All he could do was run.

Spy, who was obviously close to drifting off, perked his ears up. "Hey..." He murmured.

"Yes, little one?" Ophile said quietly, sniffing a bit.

"Just thought you should know that Luen is nearby. And so are some of the wolves. Approaching fast from that-a-way," He flicked one ear in the direction of the chase, then rolled over. "But I'm sure it's okay. He's an ice mage, after all...he'll be fine." He yawned, then sat bolt upright. "On second thought, we should go. Naybrin, wake up," Spy nudged the human, squeaking. "Waaake up!"

Naybrin groggily opened his eyes, sitting up wearily and rubbing his face. Seria had healed his wings, so he no longer felt sick. He stood, tilting his head back to scent the wind. "Oh dear..." he said quietly, then said "We must go quickly or we will be too late!" He took dragon form, staying relitively small, and lunged into a gallop, racing off in Luen's direction.

Seria glanced at Ophile, then grabbed Spy and followed.

When they found Luen, it wasn't a good sight.

He had fallen in the center of the plains, where he had been unable to get back up. He had immediately thrown up walls of ice in a protective sphere around himself, holding them with all the power he had left in him. Blood dripped everywhere, and the wolves battered themselves against the walls, over and over again. He couldn't hold out much longer.

Ophile threw himself on one of the wolves, easily overpowering it. He only endured a few scratches from claws, not much else. He was able to put one of them down by tearing its throat open. "It's okay, Luen, we're here!" He snarled, lunging after another one with teeth bared.

Spy stayed back a bit, knowing that he couldn't help at all. If anything, he'd just be devoured by the wolves...

Luen lifted his head slightly, as if unable to believe that they were there, then his eyes rolled back and he fell limp, unconscious.

Naybrin charged in, ripping the other wolves apart as Seria ran forward. Luen's ice shield crumbled easily as she pushed it over, and she quickly bent to the kirin and pulled his head into her lap. With a final, fluttering breath, he gurgled "F-follow...b-blood..." Then he was unconscious and unable to be roused.

"What...? Follow the blood?" Ophile blinked, turning his nose down to the trail of blood that Luen had left behind. "I think...we should listen to him," He said with a small frown. "Seria, you stay here and heal him, Naybrin and I will go see what's wrong. If anything happens, scream. We'll come running." He said with a short nod, nosing his way under the first king and taking off, following the line.

When they reached Werr, it was a horrid sight; Werr was hanging from the tree, which was tilting dangerously on its side. His legs were covered in claw marks and blood soaked the ground below him; the wolves were so very close to knocking the tree over entirely. They were still going at it while one or two remained behind to claw at the human king's legs.

Naybrin immediately roared so loudly at the tree tilted a bit more from this alone. Before Ophile could stop him, the First King threw his head foreward and lit the ground on fire, burning the wolves down to ashes. The blue flames crackled along the ground as Naybrin growled savagely. He moved forward and caught Werr gently in his claws, holding him close. He immediately set to licking the boy's legs, crooning a tender note in his throat.

Werr pushed close to Naybrin, crying freely now that he knew he was safe. "N-Naybrin, thank the gods...a-ah, it feels like knives..." He shook, whimpering as he held his legs. Naybrin's scales were warm and comforting, even though they made it feel like he was being stoned from behind. "S-some crazy woman injected me with something...everything hurts, Naybrin, everything. Even your licking, i-it..." He resisted the urge to move away, knowing that the dragon was helping.

"Let's get back to Seria. I don't want to leave her alone for too long, she's vulerable." Ophile raced off.

Naybrin gave Werr a soft, concerned look, then took a deep breath and followed after Ophile, arching overhead in the air.

Seria was still waiting with Luen and Spy, now carefully poking and prodding at the bodies of the dead wolves. She looked dreadfully confused, and she kept walking between the bodies and Luen. She bent and stroked the kirin's head, then lifted his wounded leg and studied it closely. She had yet to close the wound completely, and had mostly just stopped the bleeding. She touched gently along the tender flesh, wincing as Luen whimpered and nearly cried as her fingers prodded the wound.

"Be careful," Werr said when they arrived. "L-Luen was hit with the same thing I was. It ma-makes us overly sensitive to...things..." He was limp in Naybrin's grasp, knowing full well that the great dragon would protect and care for him no matter what.

Ophile reached them next, panting a bit. "Why have you not closed the wound?" He questioned, sniffing Luen carefully. "W-wait, that's...that's not...is it?" He looked fearfully up at Seria.

She looked sadly up at him and that was all he needed. She gave a slow nod, then said "This pack of wolves has been infested with an incurable disease for a long, long time. It's a sickness even I can't heal.

"Lycanthropy. More commonly known as a 'werewolf bite'."

She looked down, her soft red hair covering her face. "It's the one disease that has baffled healers for hundreds of years. A sicknesses that is untreatable." Tears started to drip down her cheeks. "That bite was all it took," she said quietly. "It's too heavy into his system now. I can't even close the bite wound."

"This...cannot be..." Ophile whimpered, then rubbed his face in the dirt, starting to cry. He walked a short distance away and howled a miserable note. It took several minutes before he returned, and when he did, he climbed up into Naybrin's paws and started nosing Werr's legs. After a moment, he said, "Thank the Divine, you weren't bitten..."

"Ev-every time they tried, I kicked them. I couldn't stop th-them from clawing...though...their paws were too small of t-targets..." Werr stammered.

"I see..." Ophile sighed heavily, then licked Werr on the face once before jumping down again, setting his head on Luen's chest. "What are we to do..."

"Maybe that Demigod-man can fix it?" Spy suggested. Of course, he didn't know that Cyprus would be of no help to them. In fact, the aura that hung around the Demigod would cause the growth of the lycanthropy to speed up. Which was somewhat counterproductive, really.

Naybrin was quick to tell them that. "Surely we'll think of something," he said. "But for now, we must locate the others."

"Luen shouldn't be moved," Seria said. "Movement will only speed up the lycanthropy. It'll make it go faster through his bloodstream." She had pulled a strip of bandages out of her bag, beginning to bind it around the kirin's thin leg. She paused and washed the wound out with something from a bottle she had, then finished bandaging the wound.

Naybrin shrugged, saying "We will either stay here or keep moving. Either way, we are at risk."

Seria sighed, then stood and walked over to him, meaning to work on Werr for a few minutes.

Werr held still, though he whimpered with pain at the slightest touch. It was too dark to work on fixing that, though, and too risky to start a fire.

"Spy and I can move on and find some of the others," Ophile suggested. "Spy to find them and myself to protect him. You lot will be fine, you have Naybrin." He smiled, but he didn't even wait for an answer. "Spy, find Welk. He'll be of the most comfort to Werr right now, and goodness knows that half-cat can't survive alone for too long. You remember what Welk smells like, right?"

"Duh," Spy giggled, then stuck his nose high in the air. He was quick to dart away, Ophile following easily.

"Thanks..." Werr murmured, closing his eyes as they left.

"No."

"I have to!"

"No."

I need to!"

"No."

"Stop saying 'no'!"

"No."

Welk hissed angrily and kicked a rock across the ground, glaring at Cynyr. "I have to find Werr!" he said, snarling at his oldest sibling. "I can't do this anymore! I tried to be calm and not freak out, but now I'm freaking out over NOT freaking out! Let me go!"

"Welk, I said no!" Cynyr shouted. "We still need you. We'll look for them in the morning, okay?!"

"What if he's not THERE in the morning?!" Welk cried, then took lion form and stalked a short distance away, flopping down angrily and crying into his paws.

Isslia and Carlyle were both asleep; the Dogling was curled up next to the human, who was apparently asleep sitting up. Cyprus, on the other hand, was rolling around in the grass and singing quietly to himself.

All in all, it was mostly quiet and uneventful.

Diana whimpered, not liking the dark and cold one bit. It had been a long evening of walking, and little did they know that they were very far from the rest of their group. The moon was nearing its peak at this point; Diana and Lexi weren't walking anymore, but curled up with each other in the grass, trying to keep warm.

That was only half of why she was whimpering, though. The other half was the fact that someone was standing over them. Or rather, something. I was very odd; it seemed to be a scarecrow, crafted out of wood and cloth and straw. The face was crafted out of a torn potato sack, the tear clearly meant to be the mouth, and large black holes glowering with a red light the eyes. Its legs were entirely wooden, the knee hinges rusted over long ago. The arms were the same, but still bendable.

The thing that scared Diana the most was the mark on its chest. The Mark of Tartarus. Surely it couldn't be a summons...it just...it didn't look right. At all. Diana was petrified; the thing had been standing there for five minutes, just watching them. As though it was waiting for...something.

The two girls had traveled along with the deer herd, guided by the noble stag. The girls were bedded down with the does and fawns; the stag had just seemed to accept them into his herd, as if he had come across a lone doe and her fawn. Which was how he viewed the two girls, though he still seemed to know they were human. A strange whisper on the wind had even gifted Diana with the knowing of his name; Ronan.

He was currently shaking his proud, dangerous antlers at the strange thing, warning it to leave his herd alone.