The Forgotten Zodiac

"Recovered, in Forin's case. He's currently meditating with Luna to try and work out his corruption. As for Luen...we can do nothing for his sight." Titus said quietly, though only Galai could hear him. "Cyprus...I understand. He may be up for teleportation. I'll ask him. If not, I'll send him and Zephyr your way at once. By the way, the next time you see Obelisk, tell him I have a few choice words for him. Our champions of justice are not to be treated in this manner. I'll be surprised if they don't find a way to kill him themselves, while they're in there!" He snorted incredulously.

((Haha, I like the idea of the group becoming Kaislunian champions. xD))

((xD After all they've been through and done, why not?))

"Obelisk is...busy," Galai said. "He's trying to help them, dear. Please, let him be." She spent a moment sending another wave of life energy into all of the bodies, which basically made their bodies live on their own, soulless, for ten minutes at a time. She straightened once she was finished, then said "Thank you, Titus, darling. Please, contact me once a choice has been made. We need Cyprus as soon as possible, but we won't rush him."

"Of course." Titus said, then fell silent. The orb of darkness didn't emerge from her head, sticking around a little while longer. All was quiet for awhile; Diana curled up on Nate's lifeless lap, starting to doze against him. She wished he would reach his arms around her and hug her, but...it wouldn't happen.

"Alright. We have to find Remor and put an end to this before he can do...whatever it is he was trying to do." Werr stood, brushing himself off. "He has Lexanna, too..."

"Werr?" Nate frowned at him.

"I don't think he'd hurt her...he's attached to her. Oddly enough. Both him and Obelisk..." Werr said thoughtfully.

"That's new." Fawn blinked. "Remor is a hateful old geezer, to say the least. He despises me...and Malice here. Hates us. I suppose it's because we've...basically replaced the family he once had and loved. And we've replaced them without his consent. We're more in danger here than any of you," She murmured, taking Malice into her arms and standing. "I don't wish to intrude upon your kindness, but if you could perhaps..."

"Of course we'll protect you. Obelisk would be mad if we didn't." Werr smiled a bit. "We, uh...don't like seeing him mad."

((By the way, both Spy and Ophile are not here. Their souls were thrown back to Kaislun. Remor didn't practice working with the souls of sentient beasts. It was too different, so he threw them away. Cyprus will bring them back, not to worry~))

((Ah, okay.))

Naybrin, who had recovered from his shaking, stood and touched Fawn's shoulder. Malice peered up at him, then cuddled down against his mother and was content not to look again. Welk stood, having managed to take his normal form again, and held Isslia's hand tightly, not wanting to let her go. He also spread one of his wings around Werr's shoulders, and Werr knew this was special. Welk hardly let anyone else, even Isslia, touch his wings. They were very sensitive.

For Werr only.

Werr smiled a bit and started walking, pulling Welk with him. "We have to be ready for anything." He said quietly. "I would be surprised if we didn't run into..." He paused and stared off into the distance for a moment, then shook his head. "Things. Striders, I think they were called." He kept staring off into the horizon, frowning in irritation.

Finally, he turned. "Welk, look at this," He pointed towards the moonrise.

The moon was changing colors, swapping between green and red and blues. And it was close, closer than it was supposed to be. "What the heck...what kind of mental disease does Remor have? He can't even keep the moon natural..."

Fawn giggled. "That's what it looked like before the downfall of the faeries, Werr. It was always that close before." She explained. "During a full moon, the faeries of color would bicker and argue over what color it should be for the next month. They'd show the others the beauties of their own color, and object to all others. They'd eventually vote, but they had fun like this."

"How do you know?" Werr frowned at her.

"Obelisk often tells me tales of what the world used to be...for a time, he wanted to turn it back into this; a world of magic and peace and prosperity. But that would require destroying the world as it is...and everyone on it. I showed him that I didn't want all that. I just wanted him, really." She beamed.

"Huh...you really love him, then..."

"Of course I do."

"Dunno what you see in him."

"I don't know why we're talking about this, honestly. Do we not have a job to do?" Fawn tilted her head to the side. She didn't need a reason to love, did she?

Welk listened to Fawn talk, noting silently that Malice had slid from his mother's arms and had taken refuge behind her, clinging to her waist. Welk's wing around Werr gave a soft twitch, but he said nothing. A hand rubbed subconsciously at his X-shaped scar on his chest, then he stopped himself. "Come on, let's find ol' Remy and get the heck out of here," Welk said, glancing around.

"Bah, I'm not a thinker!" Welk said, then proceeded to ransack his own hair by raking his claws through it. His blonde hair looked painfully fried when he was finished, but he didn't care. He shook his head and his hair fell neatly back into place. He flicked his tail, glancing back at Isslia, then said "How do we make ourselves more appealing to him? I, for one, can't possibly get anymore good-looking, so we're set on my end."

For some reason, all eyes went to Cynyr. It slowly dawned on him that he had become the focal point for their eyes. "What?" he said, lifting his hands a bit in confusion.

"You always seem to have extra stress," Welk said, grinning. "Therefore, I choose you."

"Me?! Why am I always picked as the stressful, angry one?!"

"Probably because you're yelling at me even now."

Cynyr blinked, his cheeks reddening a bit, then said "F-fine, whatever. At least I get to break stuff."

Welk grinned.

Zelana suddenly stalked over to Carlyle and slapped him. It was a hard, stinging slap, fairly decent in the world of slapping. "You're an idiot," she snapped, putting her hands on her hips. "Life just hands you a beautiful second chance and you try to throw it away the first minute in. You're rediculous. Are all men as thick-headed as you? I'm beginning to believe so!" She turned away huffily and walked outside, slamming the door hard behind her.

Carlyle stared after her, touching his cheek. He wasn't sure whether to be mad or what. He stood and followed her (crutches aiding him), and against his better judgement, he actually allowed anger to seep into his bloodstream. Zelana hadn't gotten far; he grabbed her by the arm and jerked her around to face him, frowning down at her unhappily. "I'm not like you, you little gypsy," He growled. "You have reasons to keep on living. Reasons to be here. A family, a tribe, something you want to return to. I don't. All that was taken away from me, and I've been MIA for a week now. No one cares enough about me to keep looking. Forget the fact that I'm one of the best swordsmen Bulliete had, I was also one of the most hated officers there, and I can't even count the number of people who will be happy when two weeks pass and I'm declared dead.

"I don't just have nothing, I have less than nothing! So don't you dare judge me, don't you dare call me ridiculous or thick headed. I haven't been given a second chance, I've been given a metaphorical and now physical slap in the face by having my wishes denied." He slowly realized he was gripping her arm tight enough to break it if he moved the wrong way. He quickly let go, turning away and staring off to the rising sun. Boy, what a night that had been...

She jerked away from him, rubbing her arms weakly as tears budded in her eyes. "My family is gone," she finally said, her voice trembling. "Remember? I lived in the gryphon tribe, but my family's reign of it ended completely. I and Jagat are the only surviving members of our blood-line left. My mother, my father, all of my siblings perished in one night. So don't you dare tell me anything about having nothing left!" She turned and moved away, holding her bruised arms close as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"You still have Jagat! You still have a place to return to that won't look at you in disgust and push you away!" He spat at her.

"Enough!" Diana wailed from the doorway. "Stop it, both of you! It's not about who has it worse off, it's about the fact that you're still alive now, isn't it? If you're not dead after everything that's happened, the Goddess has to be...testing you, or something. Either way, you can't just give up...you just have to find reasons to live, don't you? But you're not even looking! Your life isn't over until it's over, so stop bickering and fighting over stupid things like this. When one door closes, another opens. That's what Forin says. I think...I understand him now. When I lost my parents, I gained him..."

"It's not always so easy..." Carlyle grumbled.

"But it still happens." Diana stomped her foot, then turned and marched back inside.

Zelana continued to ignore Carlyle, rubbing her brusing arms as she tried to stop crying. "Well, I had started to think my new door was opening," she finally said. "But as it turns out, I was just seeing things." She turned and walked off down the street, wiping her face as she went.

*

Luen jerked upright, panting softly. He had just had a terrible nightmare. There had been a witch, and his eyes had been burning so terribly, and Forin...Forin had been a monster, and there had been nothing Luen could do for him...

It took him a second to realize that it hadn't been a dream and that he could see nothing.

He slipped a hand up under the soft cloths around his eyes and felt the burned, twisted skin. In horror, he realized that his eyebrows were burned off, along with all of his eyelashes. Upon careful feeling of his skin, he came to the second realization that his skin was healing, just very slowly. His hair would grow back, but it would take awhile.

The third realization was that he was temporarily blind.

He found that tears wouldn't come to him. His eyes were that badly damaged.

((Awww.))

"Luen," Forin's soft voice said from nearby, and his firm - yet ever so gentle - hand found Luen's. "It's okay. We're in Kaislun. I'm normal again. Luna is helping me regain my powers...it's all okay." He said quietly. "You'll regain your sight soon enough. Just let it heal, and don't touch it." He brought Luen's hand up to his face, letting his friend feel. "Touch me, instead. I'm here for you, dear friend..."

"I'm leaving now," Cyprus said from the doorway. "Are you sure you don't want me to try healing him...?"

"You said there was a chance that he could regain his sight." Forin frowned. "But not if it's healed through your powers. Is that still true?"

"It is..." Cyprus said softly.

"Then leave it. You can heal the scarring after his sight returns." Forin replied. "We'll see you soon, Carlyle. Goddess smile upon your travels."

"I should say the same to you." The Demigod snorted a bit, then left. Forin turned back to Luen, smiling under his friend's fingers.

Luen hiccupped in a tiny, quiet tone, which Forin knew meant he was very upset. He squeezed Forin's fingers tightly, his slender digits shaking softly. He pressed his forehead to Forin's shoulder, making a small sound. "I can't even cry..." he said softly, sounding very much like he wanted to. "My eyes...it hurts so much..." He spread his metal claw wide and carefully pressed it over the cloth around his eyes, the best he could do for rubbing them without hurting them. He clutched Forin's hand, his long ears flicking back against his head.

"No," Luen said softly, lifting his head. He turned his head to Forin, and the Tartaran knew it was as close as he would get to Luen looking at him for a long time to come. "I want to help you now. Yes, I'm exhausted, but that doesn't matter. I can't let you even have a hint of that...that thing. I won't give it even a tiny bit of time. We're going to go now, and we're going to beat it. You have Vorpal?"

"DUH," the silver figure barked from a new pocket on Forin's shirt. "I never leave if I can't help it!" He peeked out from Forin's pocket, meaning to glare at Luen, but it was kind of lost on the blinded kirin. Vorpal scoffed and ducked back into Forin's pocket, where he stayed pretty much 24/7, never needing to leave. He had started taking long, hibernative naps, and Forin knew he was feeling a bit left out by his master. But he would be needed inside Luen's mind, and he knew it. Forin could feel the excited hum coming off of him.

"When you're ready, I'll initiate the mind-warp," Luen said. "And this time, we'll be in your mind."