The Forgotten Zodiac

Nate turned his gaze down at her. He lowered his head onto her shoulder, blinking slowly. He breathed in and out slowly, eventually closing his eyes. It became obvious that he was slowly falling asleep, and before long, he pulled away from Seria and curled up there. There he slept, snoring ever so slightly.

"Right. I need blood samples. Has he bitten anyone?" She asked, then frowned down at her own hand. "That would be a yes..." She got into her bag, pulling out two syringes. She was quick to take her own blood, then hand Luen an empty syringe. "It's sterile. You just have to get his blood without him trying to eat you."

Luen nodded, saying "He would never hurt me. The only time he ever has was before we knew each other well. That's how I got these." He flexed his burned fingers at her, then said "They're as healed as they'll ever be now, of course. They're a part of me." He smiled, then turned and walked over to Nate, bending down by the dragonian's side. Seria met his eyes for a moment, then she gently reached out and stroked Nate's cheek as Luen paused for a moment to press his cheek to Nate's shoulder. He felt sad for only a moment; then he got to work. "It's okay, Nate," he said quietly. "Just let me work. Once I do this, you'll be back in your regular form in no time. Just let me work." He very gently froze a small circle of Nate's arm, so he wouldn't have any pain from the needle, then inserted the needle and quietly drew his blood.

He then felt an odd urge to lick the tip of the syringe, where there was some blood gathered.

Revulsed at once, he quickly shook his head, trying to work without thinking much.

Nate stirred, opening his eyes again. A growl slid out from his lips, but it didn't last long before he was falling asleep again.

Allie had slid out of her chair and had set up her equipment on the floor. There was a small pot for boiling things, a few tubes that led to different glass orbs, plenty of candles, and several jars of an assorted mix of colors and appearances. One of them even had what appeared to be a baby dragon claw, and a scale or two.

Luen brought her the full syringe, sitting down quietly nearby and watching her work. He shivered when he felt the familiar icy breath of Naybrin being billowed down the back of his neck. The First King studyed what Allie was doing, then said "If it would benefit the dragonian, I could be convinced to give up one of my scales to you."

A scale of the First King. It was a legendary offer. Naybrin had very rarely given up any of his scales. Werr had one, of course. It was made into a trinket that fit around the same chain that held the charm he shared with Welk. Other than that, nobody could really remember any other occasions where Naybrin had given scales. His were full of life-magic of the purest kind.

"That'll help," Allie said once Luen translated Naybrin's words, busily setting Nate's blood to boil, putting her own blood in a different pot and leaving it there. She busily added a few things to one of the glass cylinders, looking around. She handed Luen a vial with a powder in it, then said, "I need fresh, pure water in there. Make some ice and I'll melt it, I guess."

He nodded, then slowly began using his ice powers. Allie melted it down into the cleanest, purest water there was. The thing with ice made from magic powers was that it resonated from the mage's inner magic. It couldn't be touched by any outside forces, like water from a river or lake, so it was clean and sweet.

Naybrin nodded, then ripped one of his smaller scales loose and suddenly bent his head to Allie. "Luen, tell her to drink a bit of my blood," he said. "It'll help her understand me."

He blinked, then translated for her, picking up the new scale and pushing it into the girl's hand.

Allie wiped a bit of Naybrin's steaming blood onto a finger, licking it up quickly. "Understanding dragons would be beneficial, I suppose. Thank you, Naybrin," She smiled a little up at him, then took the scale and dropped it into the water they had made. Another sprinkle of some powder or other, and the scale dissolved. The potion began to glow gently after that.

Allie turned back to the boiling blood. It reeked and was smoking slightly. Allie thought for a moment, then scraped aside the viscus, nearly solid blood, revealing a nasty green liquid that hissed and bubbled. She dumped that into another vial, and then added a drop of the healing potion. Slowly, it became apparent that the potion was...well, eating the green liquid. Allie did not seem pleased with the resulting green mush that was left behind in the vial.

"Yech...if we use this as-is, it'll destroy him from the inside out." Allie set to work after muttering such words, looking around. "I need a dampener. Something to alleviate the effects so it's not lethal..." She held out another syringe to Luen. "I need more of his blood. Just a bit. It would be better if there was actual, healthy dragonian blood here, but..." She took a drop or two of the potion and mixed it with a little amount of her own blood, examining it carefully as the potion literally enveloped the blood. "This is almost too potent," She chuckled a bit.

Luen looked worried, but he nodded and did as she wanted. Of course, Nate didn't react much to Luen's presence, or the faint prick of the needle. Luen returned to Allie's side and handed the syringe to her, saying "Here you go." He watched her closely, ignoring when Cynyr stalked off to go hunting. They needed food, obviously, and he was the most used to settings such as these. He knew his hunt would go smoothly.

Welk curled up around Werr, sighing and resting his head on the boy's lap.

Aliie worked quickly, still. But a job like this could have taken days for an average person. Allie was only able to move so quickly. It was a solid hour before anything interesting happened.

And 'interesting' was not a good word for it. Nate woke up again. He didn't move or make any noise; he just laid there, staring off into space. "Nate...?" Spy darted up to the Dragonian, patting his head. Nate flinched, then swung his hand out, catching Spy by the tail. The Chimera shrieked as Nate pulled him closer, baring his teeth and snarling.

"Nate! Stop, stop!" Seria cried, grabbing his arm. "Don't hurt Spy! Stop!"

Luen jumped up as well, rushing to make sure Nate was okay. "Nate!" he called, wrapping his arms around the dragonian's torso. "Stop, please! Don't hurt someone! You know what happens when you don't control yourself..." He covered one of Nate's hands with his own, feeling his burned skin rub against Nate's. "Don't hurt someone else," he said softly, feeling like he was going to cry.

Nate stopped moving, but he held fast onto Spy for a few moments longer. When he let go, the Chimera thing bolted, running over to Cyprus. Which was a terrible idea, as Nate watched him run; his eyes fell on Cyprus and he immediately roared, pulling away from Seria and Luen and stalking towards the demigod.

Cyprus wailed in a panic, backing up and promptly tripping over Spy. Nate advanced quickly, digging one hand's claws into Cyprus' chest and raking his other set across the Demigod's face. He smashed Cyprus against the ground, then aimed his claws for the Demigod's vulnerable throat.

Luen reacted completely on a sudden instinct. He dropped into a crouch, feeling power surge through his body, and lunged for Nate. Normally, he wouldn't have been able to do much at all, but now he bowled Nate completely over, slamming the dragonian to the ground. "Stop it," he ordered with a sharp growl. "Enough of this nonsense. Go to the back of the cave and stay there until Allie is done, or else you'll never be able to go home to Tasia and Ariana. Remember them? Your family?" He snorted, looking angry, then got off of Nate and nudged him, saying "Come on, move. Luna will give you some more of that meat to chew on. Go."

((How long have we been in a cave? .3.))

Nate didn't take kindly to such words, but he froze on the spot at the mention of Tasia and Ariana. He swallowed hard, glaring pointedly at Luen, but he turned and stalked to the back of the cave. He huddled up alone there, growling quietly under his breath.

Cyprus, in the meantime, was crying pathetically, trying to keep his precious blood from leaking out of his body. It wasn't working all too well. 

((I forgot to explain that earlier, I guess. xD Naybrin smelled out an empty cave nearby and they set up there.))

Seria gave Luen a fearful glance, then turn and ran to Cyprus, gently healing his wounds. "Cyrpus, it's okay," she said softly to him. "It's okay." She looked up sadly at Nate, watching him for a moment before turning her head away.

Luna also looked strangely at Luen, not quite understanding what was going on with him. Where had such a display of power come from? She shook it off, however, instead tending to Nate. She pulled another strip of meat from her bag and went over to him, bending to his level and holding it out towards him. "Nate..." she said softly, her eyes wet with tears.

((Nice. xD))

Cyprus sniffed, shaking horribly. "H-he's scary...I don't like him, he's terrifying..." He wrapped his arms around Seria once he was healed, but he was quick to move away, knowing that she was married. "How..." He sniffed after a moment. "I never asked how things went, after we talked...do you remember?"

Nate took the meat, closing his claws around Luna's arm. He scraped his claws along her arm, pulling her closer to himself. He pushed his face close to Luna's neck and hesitated, as though not knowing whether he wanted to sink his teeth in or say something to her. He settled on pushing his nose into her hair, breathing in her scent deeply. He released her arm after that, recoiling further into the corner and staring dully at the meat.

Luna had held completely still while Nate touched her, almost in fear of moving, lest he do something to her. But when he let go, she merely rubbed her arm and sat down next to him, gently patting his shoulder with her slender fingers.

Seria looked over at Cyprus, then said "Things have been...better. Definitely better. We haven't...done anything yet. But I've been able to let him touch me again. To let him kiss me and kiss him back. Nothing more, but...I think I'm hopeful." She closed her eyes, then said "Cyprus, I don't mind if you hug me. Cynyr's not here to think bad of you for it, either."

"Oh...okay." Cyprus moved forward again, hugging her gently. "You know I don't mean anything by it, I just like hugs." He hugged her tightly for a few moments, then pulled away again, grimacing a bit. "Oh...I got some of my blood on you. Sorry," He smiled slightly.

"Lu...na..." Nate tried to speak again, his voice coarse and weak. He turned to her, putting a hand on her cheek. "E-ea...t..." He spoke slowly, twitching oddly with every sound from his mouth. He dug his claws into her skin, putting his other hand over her mouth so she couldn't make noise.

Luna's eyes widened, then she frantically tried to make Nate let go, making muffled sounds of shock. She pushed against him, trying desperately to make him let go of her mouth, but fear was stiffling her abilites. Tears budded in her eyes as she struggled, wondering what the heck was going on. Was Nate really getting this bad? Would he kill her?

Nate bit down on Luna's shoulder, locking his jaw around the bone. With Nate's head out of the way, Luna could see two small mice, lying stiffly in a small puddle of their own blood. Nate had already killed. Twice, now. Taking just the small animals' lives had sent him forward in his transformation, and now he was attacking his friends.

"I'm done," Allie said, leaning back on her hands and letting out a sigh. "Finally done. Just inject this right into his neck and he'll be out like a light in second. It'll return his mind to normal and start regrowing his skin. When he's right in the head again, have him drink what's left of the healing potion. It should regrow his skin entirely, although it'll take a little while."

Luna's sluggish resistance finally broke, and she withered and kicked out, trying desperately to make him let go. She pushed him frantically, tears dripping down her cheeks.

Welk parted from Werr at this moment and stepped into the cave to check on them.

He screeched and darted forward in a panic, taking human form and trying to pull Nate off of her. "Nate! What the heck?! Let go!" he shouted, his short tail held stiffly behind him. "Luen! Get that needle over here, now! He's eating Luna!"

Luen jerked his head up, then grabbed the syringe from Allie and ran forward, holding the needle tightly.