The Forgotten Zodiac

"A natural wolf, I am not," Ophile shook his head, flicking his tail in response to the snarl. He sat back on his haunches and curled his tail over his front paws; not a sign of submission, but one of peace. He meant no harm here. But at the same time, he wasn't going to put himself under the wolf he was only slightly smaller than. "I was created by the great King Titus, master of Tartarus. My business with these humans is to assist them when required and watch over them in their times of need. They know me and I know them. You have your pack, this is mine. However messy and mingled they are."

Malu'urim snorted, then said "As you wish. But in this land, you are then considered half. A 'wofl', so to speak, that aligns with humans...is despised. I will hold back my feelings in respect for your 'pack', but this also means you are responsable for them. If anything should go wrong, caused by their hand, you are completely involved with them. Wolf blood or not." He turned away to walk off and found his gaze caught by Luen, who was merely sitting quietly and talking to Welk. The half-cat was thanking him for protecting Werr so valliantly. Malu'urim stared at the kirin for a long moment, then his lips curled back into a snarl. "That one..." he muttered. "That one will be a danger to us all. He has been tainted by the Ghost pack. I will not keep my family anywhere near him. Once this fire dies down, we will walk the shadows again." Then he turned, stalking to the entrance and settling down outside to watch the distant flames creep ever closer.

"Understood." Ophile said simply, ruffling his fur out a bit indignantly. It wasn't his fault that his friends were trouble magnets. It was all he could do to stick close and not get lost in their sea of troubles.

The night's hot, stiff air seemed to be leaking in from the outside. And as the flames got closer, it only seemed to get hotter. One of the rabbits was struggling to get her kits further into the cave. They kept bouncing towards the entrance, wanting to see the fires for themselves. Ophile approached, which sent them scurrying back to their mother. She led them away, but they only bumped into Nate after that. There was a bit of a squeal from the smallest kit, but the bunnies quickly calmed down. Nate was warm, and soft...

So of course, when Seria glanced back down at the sleeping Dragonian, she saw the little clumps of white and grey fur snuggling up against Nate's sides, and one tiny one that had been daring enough to hop up onto his chest.

The healer smiled at once, thinking it cute, then shifted to cat form and nestled down around them, closing her eyes with a weary sigh.

Luen watched quietly, tilting his head. He stared down at the bunnies for a long moment, feeling a weird instinct well up inside himself, then quickly stood up and moved away from them. It wasn't good for him to be around them...he could feel it. He shifted to deer form, sighing and pacing quietly, then glanced down at himself and noticed something.

His fur was longer.

It was growing shaggy and incredibly fluffy, when normally his fur at this time of year should've stayed neat and short. He frowned, but shook it off.

Werr approached him. He looked tired, to say the least. But he kept on his feet, walking steadily towards the Kirin. "I wanted to say thank you," He said, standing in front of Luen with a small smile on his face. "For...protecting me before. For everything. I would've been eaten if you hadn't been there." He moved forward and hugged Luen, then turned away again. "You should sleep soon. I know I'm definitely going to rest, now that we're not in immediate danger..."

Luen blinked softly at that, then smiled and said "I would do it again, Werr. Of course I would." He tilted his head, saying "I'll sleep when I can. I don't know what it is, but...I just feel...so alive. I feel stronger! It's weird, I know, but...I feel...powerful." A strange gleam entered his eyes, but just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished. He flicked his ears, saying "I just hope we find Forin and Diana soon..." A pained note entered his voice, which showed how much he was holding back. Tears, sorrow, a horrible emptyness.

"Yes...I hope so too. I wouldn't worry too much, though...I'm sure that wherever they are, they're together and desperately trying to find us. Namely...you." He smiled, then laid down with Welk again. To sleep he drifted away, quickly calming and dropping into his comfortable state of unconsciousness.

"What on earth...are we going to do...?" Forin said quietly. He had weakened quickly since they left the pond, and he was dangerously feverish. He needed to soak again, but the fires could be heard behind them. Way too close.

((Also, if they fly over the fire, they'll be able to find the burned Morrow grasses that have already burnt out, by now. They'll be much safer on that side of the fire, though we have soldiers to be concerned about...))

(('Kay~))

Zelana glanced over her shoulder at him, then back towards the huge mountain they had approached. She shook her head, then said "If I can fly high enough, I can arch over the fire and land on the other side. At least we'll be safe from the flames, then, and can keep looking for your friends." She leapt high, beating her large wings furiously to gain air. Within a few minutes of flight, they were high up in the sky, gliding back towards the distant fire.

Vorpal gave a visible shiver and said "Don't drop me now, Master Forin. I would come out of a fall like this severely dented, if not broken in half."

"Wasn't planning on it," Forin muttered, closing his eyes and focusing both on keeping his grip on Zelana and ensuring that Vorpal remained tight in his sheath. He himself was a bit pale in the light of the fire; if he fell here, he would probably burn to death before the fall had a chance to kill him. So much fire...

Zelana arched higher, straining to fly over the foreboding flames, then cleared the last burst of fire and glided down to a landing on the other side. The ground was warm, but the fire was gone, and that was her main concern. She trekked back to the river, though it took awhile to reach it again, and sat down next to it, panting heavily. "We're safe from the fire on this side," she said, flicking her tail.

Forin pushed himself off of Zelana, hitting the ground with a soft thump. He crawled on his knees over to the charred remains of a tree, curling up against it after taking a deep, long drink. "Zelana..." He uttered softly, clearly extremely exhausted. "I need you...to do something for me. You probably won't mind it so much, s-so..."

"I need you to leave me here. You have to keep going. You have to find the others...you'll travel faster when I'm not wi-with you, and...I don't...have very much time left. This infection is ki-killing me...we pro-probably should have amputated, not bled...bu-but it doesn't...matter. What matters is whether or not...y-you find the others. Find them, and bring them back here...if I'm still alive, great. Ser-Seria can save me. If not...well, I'll have an escort I trust ba-back to Kaislun..." He closed his eyes, starting to drift off.

Vorpal's reaction was instant.

"Then you condemn yourself to die!" he shrieked. "So what if she finds Seria? What if she can't find you again, or you get caught by the enemy, or those filthsome wolves I've heard roam these parts? No, no, and no again!"

Zelana shook her head, saying "I'm not stupid. Leaving you here is a bad idea. Vorpal is right. What's the point of me finding the healer if I can't come back to you? No. I can keep going."

Forin immediately grew hostile. "You are stupid, then." He snapped, rousing himself from his doze. "You can...m-move much faster on your own. No animal is foolish enough to even dare return here after a fire like that. There has to be signs of life before they'll try to come back. Dunno if you noticed, but there isn't exactly much of a meal for them to have here. And the enemy...you saw the trap I got caught in. Why would they set them up back there, away from where all the fighting was? They flushed out the enemy, and..." He struggled to stay awake, catching his eyelids before they shut. "And caught them in those traps. None of them...are left alive. If a bulliete soldier finds me, I'll tell them I...I'm with the king of Alastor. I have this collar," He indicated the collar around his neck. He wasn't human, obviously. Werr hadn't wanted to risk anything. "They'll ha-have no reason to not believe me. I doubt they'll...know that...we were carted out here by the king. Here..." He pulled himself upright, clearly struggling. He stripped his shirt off, cringing and wincing with every movement. When he was done, he nudged it underneath him and laid back on it. "Now...they wo-won't think I'm an enemy on...on first glance. Will you go now?"

Zelana screeched in his face, shaking herself angrily, then flared her wings and said "Fine. Don't blame me in the afterlife." She leapt up from the ground, leaving Vorpal there with the Tartaran, and arched off, moving as quickly as she could.

Vorpal huffed, loudly and in a way that showed he was blatantly angry, then said "You are too stubborn, Master Forin. I suppose that's another quality we share, but in this case, I loath it." He snorted, humming loudly.

"What? What?! You basically lied?! What is wrong with you?!" Vorpal thundered, shock filling his being. "No! NO! I won't allow this! I...I... NO!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, so loud and so violent that it sounded inhuman. Because it was inhuman. It was potentially one of the most inhuman sounds on earth; like nails on a chalkboard mixed with the dying bugle of an elk, combined with glass shattering and the sound of a distant explosion.

The cry of a demonic sword.

The horsemen hesitated at that. Forin didn't react much, just staring blankly off into the sky. He was still breathing, thankfully, but completely limp and...well, weak. One of the horsemen slid off of his mount, walking forward curiously. He kicked Vorpal aside, not wanting to touch the screaming blade. Forin was slow to notice two things. Firstly, the man was wearing not Bulliete armor, but Herrace clothing. Expensive looking clothing. There were a number of ribbons and pins over his breast pocket. A decorated officer...judging from the stars on his lapel, probably a general. Forin couldn't move much as the general reached out and twisted the collar around to examine the emblem on it. Then he said something surprising.

"I'm sorry." The man sighed, peering at Forin's arm. "We never wanted Alastor wrapped up in this war...and now one of king Welk's men have fallen. Have you any passing wishes?"

Forin opened his mouth, but he was cut off by another of the horse riders. Obviously a higher rank than the one before Forin now. "What in the name of Asmos are you doing? He's an enemy warrior. Haven't you heard about Welk's pack of freaks? He's not dead yet, he can still run you through, General Shun. Slit his throat while you have the chance."

"He's still a person, sir, he deserves as much respect as you demand," Shun snapped at him.

The edges of Forin's lips curled up in a small smile suddenly. The second rider's words had...stirred something inside him. Something in the pit where his true self had once been. He could feel it...power. Something powerful. Red crept into the edges of his vision; at first he thought it was blood, but it was too...dark. The men argued over what to do with him while Forin looked down at his wound; it was sparking and hissing. Tearing aside the cloth revealed the ugly white pus spilling from his arm, being forced out in flows. But...the color changed a moment later. The same black-red color that had settled around in the corners of his vision. Forin moved his other hand, feeling strength coursing through said arm once more. He rubbed at the edges of his infected wound, wincing as his skin practically crumbled in his hand.

Wait...he'd seen this before. It was almost the same. When Dulce had attacked Diana and Luna, the Amnairian reacted badly. She fell apart, quite literally. Only to reveal a bright form, full of white and blues, that shimmered brightly...this was basically the same. It shimmered and shone brightly. but with a deep, dark red...and power, such power. Forin felt it flowing through his veins, coursing through his entire body...strength and energy all at once. He slowly sat up a little straighter, as General Shun turned his gaze back towards him.

"Get back, General," The second horseman snapped, looking angry.

"I'm not going to hurt anyone," Forin said softly, flexing his fingers.

"As if!" The man screeched, drawing his blade. "I'll dispose of you myself, monster!"

Vorpal shrieked, sensing Forin's powerful energy quite clearly. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, owwww!" he wailed, shaking visibly. He was innately connected to Forin, after all; he felt the power, but to him, it hurt badly. "Forin! What is this?!" he shouted. "What's happening?!" He could sense that Forin was easily in control of this strange power. Just like Luna had been in complete control of herself when this had happened, so to was Forin.

In fact, far away, Luna was feeling this weird transformation of her boyfriend's.

"I don't actually know..." Forin said softly, blinking hard and looking down at his hands. He was crumbling, falling apart...but he quickly remembered the advancing human. "No!" He yelped, ducking to the side and watching as the sword cut into the burnt tree, leaving a deep groove.

"Don't let him get away, General Shun! Kill him!" The man screeched, but Shun didn't move. He just glared at the other rider, until Forin grabbed up Vorpal. The Tartaran let out a scream of pain, watching in awe and horror as Vorpal practically melded with his arm. Well...at least he wouldn't drop the sword. It didn't hurt for more than a few seconds, and more of the black-red stuff showed itself. Forin had no earthly idea what it was, but some part of him knew...this stuff was trying to help him. It had saved his life. It was good.

"I can...still run you through," He said without thinking, smirking a bit. "Would you like that?"

"Feh...try it, boy!" The man said, though his eyes told the truth. He was scared.

He didn't last very long. Neither did any of the others, who charged forward to assist their higher-ranking officer. The horses ran off, with their dead riders still on their backs; one or two of them stabbed, others missing limbs. One had lost his head--literally. General Shun was the only one left standing by the time Forin staggered back, his chest and arms entirely made of the dark red crystalline substance now.

"Wha-what the...what on earth are you?!" General Shun screeched, scrambling onto his horse again.

"It was legal...self defense, right?" Forin chortled. He'd get away with it on Tartarus. He felt...wonderful. So utterly, horribly wonderful, so full of strength and power and energy...he watched as General Shun climbed onto his horse and rode off, terrified. Forin only laughed a bit more at that--then he found the power leaving him. Vorpal dropped away from his hand, and he fell onto the ground roughly. He yelped as there was a flash; the power left him entirely in that short space of time. He was left sitting there, panting heavily. His arm didn't hurt quite so much anymore, and he had feeling and life back in his other one. Both excellent things.

He wasn't dead. Another wonderful thing. Less excellent was the blood strewn about all over the ashes, but there was nothing he could do for that now. Forin sighed and picked Vorpal up again, relieved when the blade didn't merge with his arm again. "What...on earth WAS that?" He questioned quietly.

Vorpal was utterly still and silent. He didn't hum with energy, he didn't rant and rage. Nothing. He was unconsious. He woke after a moment, groaning weakly. In a very feeble voice, he croaked "M-Mas...ter...F-Forin...? A-ah..." He panted heavily, finally able to give off a weak energy hum. "Wh-what...h...happened...?" he asked, sounding almost like he was going to cry. "Are y-you...okay?"