The Forgotten Zodiac

Werr smiled slightly at his friend, then sighed. He lapsed into silence as they walked onwards.

By evening, they had marched through a blazing hot valley, through a thicket of trees, and over a bridge that was stretched over a dried up river. Werr seemed confused, but just up ahead was a massive clump of trees that was obviously their target. It was hot, though, and Werr could feel himself wearing down in the heat. He wondered how Welk was doing, as he was carrying Isslia...that couldn't be easy by now.

To his relief, though, a river ran directly through the thick forest, and the trees provided a lot of much-needed shade.

Welk gently settled Isslia under one of the shady trees, then walked over to the river and shifted forms, bending down to quietly lap up some water. Once he felt better, he glanced over at Cynyr, who was taking his time in order to get a drink. He carefully lowered himself next to the water, bobbing on his joints, then carefully put his mouth to the water and lapped quietly.

Welk, ever mischeivious, started stalking over.

Werr had noticed Isslia's lips being chapped, and took a moment to drip a bit of water on her lips. She woke up with a flinch, licking the water up quickly. She darted to the riverbank, drinking for a good long while before returning to the tree, falling asleep again as quickly as she had woken up. "I...guess she was thirsty," Werr chortled, then moved to take a drink himself. The river was wide and apparently deep, and Werr could spy fish flitting about under the surface. Quite a bit of fish. They had all moved upriver since it had dried up further south. They could make a meal out of these, if they needed to...

A loud "Augh!" jolted the boy out of his thoughts, and a burst of laughter followed by an "Ack!" caught his attention.

Welk had pushed Cynyr into the river and had laughed, and was now screeching as Cynyr dragged him into the water as well.

"I'm going to drown you, you idiot!" Cynyr shouted, digging his claws into Welk's fur and half-way dragging him into the water.

Laughing and screeching in equal amounts, Welk was clinging to the bank, trying to get loose.

Werr watched, chortling a bit. He removed his boots and rolled up his pants, sticking his feet in the water. He looked up, eyeing the trees curiously; didn't the man say that the woman lived in trees? That was a bit odd. Werr was half-expecting to see the bottom of a treehouse, but there wasn't much but leaves.

When Welk came over and sat down next to him, the half-cat was soaked, his fur hanging in thick clumps and his mane completely covering his vision. "What're you looking at?" he asked, unable to see past this thick, wet mane. He shook himself, spraying water drops everywhere, and when he was finished his mane was so fluffed out that he looked like he was all fur and no lion.

"I...I'm not sure," Werr shook his head, peering upwards still. Some of the leaves looked...off. Like they didn't actually belong on the tree. They were still green, and obviously leaves, but...Werr stood and brushed himself off, grabbing onto some low branches to hoist himself up. He climbed and climbed, realizing as he got closer that he had been right; green leaves were clumped together below what appeared to be a treehouse of some kind. The leaves were on the walls and roof, so it was next to impossible to see the house part of it until one got close.

"Wait for me!" Welk said, then jumped up into the tree after his best friend. It was a bit comical to see the large lion clinging haphazardly to the branch, but he heaved himself up anyways. "Did you find the house?" he asked, struggling and flailing with his back legs to get a grip on the branch above him. "What are we doing?"

"Climbing up to it," Werr panted, the heat getting to his limbs and making him weary quickly. He was tired, but his arms didn't betray him now; months of training with sword and sheild had strengthened his arms to much greater than a few years ago, before he had met Cynyr and Welk.

The house itself was old looking and a bit...decrepid. But Werr plowed on into it upon reaching the door - which was ajar anyways. "Hello?" He called into it, opening another door to find a bedroom, with what appeared to be food littered about the room. He opened another door, finding himself staring at a cleverly disguised rope bridge; but rather than ropes, it was really just vines and tree bark. It looked like it wouldn't hold weight, but it did quite well, and hardly even wobbled as Werr stepped onto it. "Come on, guys," Werr waved a hand at them, realizing that this was the start of a web of houses. Did an entire village live here once? "We might as well try to find this lady..."

Welk bounded along one of the bridges, hardly even slowing in his bounciness. The bridge swayed and shook and trembled, but he ignored it for the sake of exploring. "This is so cool!" he called, then shrieked when one of the really old bridges snapped. He wasn't hurt, however, as he quickly spread his wings and flew up to safety. "That could be dangerous," he commented, hovering nearby. "So where is this magical vampire-curing lady anyways?"

"Could be?" Werr snorted, clinging to the still-swaying bridge for dear life. He made it to the next house, and plowed onwards. "I dunno. Hopefully she's nearby..." He trailed off as movement caught his eye. He stared at the tree he had spotted it in, frowning. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

"You reek of Bulliete. Go away!" A woman's voice, clearly older, screeched at them. Without warning, what appeared to be a throwing knife flashed out of the tree. It missed Werr and Welk entirely; instead, it hit a vine that had clearly been crutial in keeping the bridge up. Werr was standing on it one second, and the next, he was falling; with a flail, though, he managed to catch Welk's arm. He held on for dear life, though a little more literally, now. If he fell from this height...game over.

Welk screeched and fell a few feet, but he quickly remembered to fly and grabbed tightly onto Werr, heaving him up onto stable ground. "We're not here to hurt anyone!" he shouted, folding his wings up inside of himself. "We need your help! Our friend, he's really, really sick with lycanthropy! We need your help to put him back to normal. Please!" He flicked his tail, making sure to keep just in front of Werr. To be safe.

"Lycanthropy? I can't do anything for Lycanthropy, are you insane?" The woman spat at them, dropping down onto a branch where they could see her. She was definitely an older woman, but her age didn't seem to affect her too much. In the dim light, Werr could see her grey hairs and wrinkled face.

"We heard you could cure vamprism--" Werr started, but she cut him off.

"You ARE insane. Yeah, sure, I 'cure' vamprism. I cure them and let them continue on--to the afterlife!" She snorted. "Lycanthropy, though...werewolves are more difficult. But I suppose, if you have the money--"

"No! No, no, no," Werr shook his head at once. "If you go after Luen, I can't promise that you'll make it out alive. And it's not the werewolf that'll kill you. Look, can you cure him, or not?"

"Cure and leave alive? No."

"Darn it..." Werr swore worse, under his breath. "Can you remove a Demigod's curse?" He asked suddenly. "Or return sanity to a broken-minded Dragonian?"

"If you did something to get a curse from a Demigod, it's not my fault, and meddling will only get me killed. The sanity, though..." She thought for a moment, then threw a vine over to the house across from where Werr and Welk were. She easily swung to it and climbed up, disappearing into the house. Werr sighed and watched her move about.

"I...I'm not sure I trust her at all," The king muttered. "What do you think, Welk?"

"I think it's our only shot," Welk said cautiously. "And if she messes up our friends, I'll tear her throat out. Simple as that." He blinked his dark eyes, then said "It's our only chance, Werr. Well...not ours. Nate's. We want him to return to normal, so he can go back to his family, and this is his shot. And we owe it to him to help him. So if this lady can help him...let's try it. Because if she messes him up worse, I'll maim her and make her beg for mercy." He sighed, then said "Do we have to tell Forin about Luen? How this lady can't heal him?"

"Maybe." Werr looked down, then sighed a bit. "And yes, we should...probably tell Forin. Our only chance of doing anything to help Luen now would be...well, using Spy to find him. But even then, poor Forin...we have to help Diana, too. Walking back is going to take the rest of the night, and...well..." Werr shook his head. "He's basically going to be torn between Diana and Luen..."

"Found it!" The woman stepped out again. She wrapped a basket in vines and swung it over to them; Werr caught it, opening the lid and finding himself looking at what appeared to be a root and a bottle. "Grind that up and shove your friend's nose in it. The root, I mean. Make him drink the bottle after he passes out. Should make him right in mere minutes, although he'll feel terribly sick for a little while. But you wanted me to fix mental problems, not illnesses. That'll cost you, though, I--" She stopped as Werr swung the basket back over to her, the jingling of coins obvious. She peeked inside to count for a moment, then nodded. "That'll do. Goodbye, and don't bother me again." She disappeared again, hopping back into the trees to hide.

Welk stuck his tongue out after her, then turned and said "Well...let's go..." He wasn't looking forward to talking to Forin about Luen. It looked like their dear kirin friend was doomed, one way or another, and he could only imagine the malestorm that would kick up once Forin was informed. He sighed, then nudged Werr onto his back and jumped out of the trees, saying "Hold on tightly to that stuff she gave you. It's Nate's only chance."

"I know." Werr said, clinging onto the root and the bottle with one arm, holding tightly onto Welk with the other. "I know..." He murmured, closing his eyes. When they landed next to Cynyr and Isslia again, Werr slid off of Welk's back. "We need to get back, and soon. We might as well start walking now."

"Has anyone seen Nate?" Ophile was asking around. He had turned to Seria to ask his question. "I think he was talking to Carlyle last...he went to bed, but I haven't seen Nate since..."

"I haven't seen him lately," Seria said, sighing and rubbing her eyes lightly. "I'll go look for him. Perhaps he needs some company. I have a connection with him. Hopefully he'll listen to me." She stroked down Ophile's ears and back, then turned to find their dragonian friend. She wandered around inside for a while, then slipped outside and started looking for him.

Outside, there was a bit of commotion; the rising moon hadn't put the villagers to rest, clearly. Ophile followed Seria outside, and poked closer to the crowd to see what was going on; Nate had been caught in a net, and had clearly been attacked brutally while down; he was bruised and bleeding, hardly conscious at all. The reason for all this was soon obvious; a woman was sobbing over a small child, a little girl who was gravely wounded. A man was standing nearby, Nate's blood on his hands and a little on his boots. Clearly he had done most of the fighting and attacking.

The girl, though...bite marks covered her arms and her chest had been sliced open nastily with claws. It was the same girl that Nate had nearly attacked earlier; a flower was held tight in one of her hands, the white petals stained with her blood.

"Seria, quickly," Ophile barked, quickly realizing what must have happened. Nate had emerged from the inn and was probably wandering around earlier in the evening. The girl had attempted to give him a flower to apologize for earlier; but Nate, unrestrained and with no one around, had been free to attack her. Naturally, her screams had alerted her mother and father, both of whom had come running to save her. The Peacekeeper had used their nets to subdue Nate, and here they were now. Too late, however. The girl's life was fading fast.

"Let me through!" the healer cried, shoving past people and racing to the small child. "Let me through, please! I can help her!" The crowd parted quickly, especially when Seria point-blank screamed out "LET ME THROUGH THIS INSTANT!" She called to Ophile over her shoulder and said "Make sure they aren't hurting Nate. Do whatever you can." She neared the injured girl and knelt quickly, already setting her healing powers to blaze. The wounds began to close quickly.