The Forgotten Zodiac

((o3o))

"Let...let's just go, Welk..." Isslia murmured, staring at Welk. She had never seen him like this, of course. Angry and fierce...only once or twice before. And definitely not directed at everyone.

"Listen to Isslia, Welk. We've got a job to do. Werr will be fine; no right-minded person would make off with a corpse. It's not only bad luck, but it's a crime. Now let's go," Nate said, waiting until Welk was out of the carriage before shutting the door. "Alright, Isslia. Trapdoor." He nodded. She turned and pushed aside one bush; there was indeed a trapdoor there, and a bit of a puzzle; one had to slide a few pieces of wood the right way in order to get the lock open. But she did it with ease. She could not, however, open the heavy metal trapdoor; Nate had to help her with that much. And he did, of course.

The tunnel below was damp and smelled faintly of wine. Nate was the only one who didn't seem to mind. Someone had obviously spilled something further down the tunnel, though.

Welk seemed to calm further at Isslia's words. She held nearly as much sway over him as Werr did, and, though they were at odd-ends most ot the time, Cynyr as well. Welk picked his girlfriend up and settled her on Ophile's back, staring into her light-blue eyes for a moment before carefully leaning in and stroking her hair back, giving her a gentle kiss before pulling away. He still didn't say anything, but that small movement spoke volumes to Isslia.

Isslia smiled and looked down, realizing that she was invisible. It was a bit odd, and she was quick to grab onto Ophile's fur as they dropped down into the tunnel and padded deeper into the darkness. He walked at the back, as he knew no one would follow them.

The tunnel led to a dead-end. Above them was a grate that Nate was quick to find; he pushed it up and started helping people out of the tunnel, going to check the hallway for guards before they moved on. "Isslia, what are the guards like?" He questioned.

"Normally, it's just Lennon. Or...Obelisk. But he's away...so Izan will have lots of guards. All of them armed to the teeth, primed to kill...they're Nethinis who have been promised freedom after a certain amount of time in service. Traitors are slain, so there's not much chance of us bribing one..."

"And a lower chance of us sneaking past. Lerloch have higher senses than humans..."

"So what?" Cynyr said, grinding one fist into the other. "If we can't sneak past, let's just kill them."

Welk glared at him, then slowly said "Just cloak our presences with magic. It's not a big deal. You can nullify our scents and stuff."

Cynyr glanced over at him, then said "That might work..."

"There's no need to go about killing people recklessly." Nate sighed. "How many guards do you think there are, Isslia?"

"When Lennon isn't here, Izan gets nervous. Maybe 50 around the entire castle. None in town. And alerting one - or even killing one - will alert the whole bunch. They have little chips in them that monitor their heartbeats. When one shuts down, everyone knows." Isslia whispered, looking more scared than ever. Not that anyone could see that much.

"Then we'll just sneak past using magic," Cynyr insisted. "I can help guide people along. I'm an expert at this sort of thing. My air wings move nearly at the speed of sound. I can transport someone if I have to."

"It's still dangerous," Welk said quietly.

"Not as dangerous as just sneaking about with nothing," Cynyr answered. "Isslia, do you know of a good spot that I could take people too?"

"Um...the kitchen is usually empty by this time. Guards don't pay much attention to it because it only has two entrances, no windows, and the only vents are on the ceiling. Too small for even a rat to fit through." Isslia explained quietly.

"Don't wear yourself out too much, Cynyr," Nate said quietly. "We may still need you."

"Oh hush," Cynyr said. "Quit treating me like an old man. I'll take Isslia and Ophile first, okay? Isslia can show me where to go and when I come back, they can hide. Come on, haven't got all day." He bent and picked up Ophile, which was quite the task, seeings as the wolf wasn't exactly small. He told Isslia to climb onto his back and hold on tight, and it took some reassurance from Welk to convince her to do it.

"Just go with it," he murmured into her ear. "Cynyr would never hurt you. I'll be with you again in just a bit. Okay? I love you, Isslia. I love you so much. I love you." He kissed her forehead, which he had discovered he loved almost as much as kissing her lips. As love wasn't merely about being sexy about everything. Welk's love shone out in other ways. There were times when he almost couldn't even bring himself to touch her. Surely something as perfect and precious as her, rarer than the most beautiful of diamonds, couldn't be touched by his hands? He wasn't worthy. So even a mere kiss on her forehead held all of the joy and ecstasy of kissing her lips.

Isslia calmed down quickly after the slight kiss. She smiled a little, even, but had to quickly get a grip on Cynyr as he started off. She easily directed him to the kitchens, mostly by pointing and nudges. It wasn't too far from the cellar, and it was directly connected to the throne room. But it was clear that they wouldn't get far into it; there were at least ten guards in the throne room itself, while Izan slept away on his throne.

Once they were settled, Cynyr went back for the others. Within only a few minutes, he had safely transported all of them, whom were cloaked in Welk's magic, preventing outside senses from picking them up. Once they were all safely in the kitchens, Cynyr took a moment to recover. His air wings required a lot of power, and Nate wasn't exactly the lightest of people. But he had managed well enough.

Welk patted his brother's shoulder gently, knowing he would be fine, then glanced around. "We'll have to be careful," he said, looking directly at the spot where Isslia and Ophile were hidden.

Nate looked around carefully for a minute, then sighed. "Isslia, is there another place to go, on the other side of the castle?"

"Wha...why?" She questioned at once.

"We need a distraction, that's why." Nate replied quietly. "If I can get to the other side of the castle and make enough of a ruckus to draw most of the guards my way, it'll free up the throne room, and you'll be set to finish off Izan."

"There's another spot, yes...Izan's personal study is attached to the throne room on the other side. No windows, only two ways in...and only one way out. You can enter from the throne room or the hallway, but the only way you can exit is through the secondary hallway door."

"Perfect. I'll make enough noise to attract the ten guards in the throne room. They come running in, and they'll have to drag me out through the one door..."

"They'll drag your corpse out. You can't do something like that, Nate, I told you...they're trained to kill anyone on sight..." Isslia murmured.

"We're scratching that plan," Welk said at once. "We're not losing you, Froggy. We just have to-"

Boom.

The low, resonating sound echoed throughout the castle. Something big and powerful had just slammed into something. At least, that's what it sounded like. A moment later, they heard footsteps running and the sound of distant roaring and shouting.

"...Well," Cynyr said flatly. "I suppose that's our cue. It could be the troops attacking. Doesn't seem likely, though. Oh well. We don't have time to mull it over. Let's move!" He got to his feet, taking one of Lexi's hands in order to guide her along.

Nate was through the door first, looking in just in time to see one guard leading Izan towards his study. "This way, your highness, it's not safe in here," The guard was saying, pulling a tired-looking Izan along. The other guards were headed towards the source of the crashing, fully focused on getting rid of whatever threat there was.

"Let's go, now!" Nate hissed, flying out at breakneck speeds, barreling the guard over. They turned over and over again before sliding to a halt, caught in a bloody wrestling match of claws and teeth. Nate was trying to catch the younger Lerloch in a sleeper hold, but he was putting up a fight to rival that of Nate's.

Cynyr slammed into the lerloch from the other side, helping Nate to subdue him as quickly as possible. Welk lunged for Izan, with one of his typical moves. He usually used this on Werr, except this time, it wasn't gentle and playful.

He slammed into Izan with enough force to flip them over. Usually when doing this to Werr, Welk was always gentle and took the force of it. But this time, he was harsh and landed right on Izan, snarling.

Izan let out a scream, but clearly knew enough to fight for himself; he wasn't Werr.

He twisted around and locked Welk's paws in his elbow, knocking him off his feet. Another twist, and Welk was on the floor. Izan scrambled away, screaming bloody murder to the guards that had yet to notice the commotion. "SAVE ME, OR YOU'RE ALL FIRED!" He roared at them, but that was lost over another roar. Had Naybrin come? Or Zephyr?

It didn't matter. Several of the guards heard the scream and came running. Being 'fired' here was basically being killed. They were fighting now for the freedom of themselves and their families. Of course they would fight.

Welk yelped and jumped away, hissing at Izan. He turned to the guards in order to fight and felt a burst of wind swept past him.

"We came here for Izan. I'm not letting him go," Cynyr growled, plunging after the king. Welk instantly knew that Izan was more or less doomed. An angry Cynyr wasn't something to toy with.

And Cynyr was angry.

He shifted forms in midair, taking the guise of a large, scarred black panther, arching after Izan with determination in his single gleaming eye.

A guard threw himself in the way, but he was only knocked aside and thrown into the wall. Izan was tackled to the ground; he let out another scream, but he didn't last more than a few seconds. His throat was torn out just as easily as any other, and he bled to death in mere seconds.

"Welk, watch your six," Ophile's voice came from nowhere as a guard behind him was knocked over by apparently nothing. Isslia let out a small squeak, but she trusted the wolf; she was hugging close to his fur, making it easier for the wolf to move about, and easier to avoid getting hit. An unseen enemy was one of the worst kind, after all...

"My what?" Welk said in confusion, then gaped when he saw Cynyr. The panther had just lifted his head from Izan's neck, blood streaming from his jaws, his fangs stained red. He was quick to leap into the action, but they all went still as a loud rumble sounded.

Dmitry charged down the hall in wyvern form, his powerful hind legs carrying him smoothly and quickly through the castle. His wings were folded and he glanced behind himself, taking note of the sheer amount of soldiers chasing after him. He glanced forward just in time to narrowly avoid the others, swerving around them and continuing to run.

A number of the soldiers followed, but several of them stopped and stared at Cynyr for a long moment. Then they charged at Welk, Nate (who had just finished off the fighting guard), and Cynyr.

Ophile had to twist sharply to avoid one. Isslia slipped; she fell with a squeak of alarm, which alerted a nearby soldier. Ophile was quick to barrel said soldier over, knocking him back. He returned to the visible spectrum long enough to let Isslia climb on again. "Hold on tighter! Don't worry about me, seriously," He huffed. "You hurting my fur a little is nothing compared to you getting hurt, Isslia. Please, hold on tighter." He insisted. She sighed, then did so. "And don't worry," He paused for a moment in the corner, panting a bit. "I'm not looking at your memories. I swear it."

"Better not be," Welk called from where he had just flipped crazily around in order to avoid several of the soldiers. Dmitry had doubled back, striding along powerfully on his long legs. He ploughed into several of the soldiers, throwing them about with his long black horns.

"Why are you here?" Cynyr shouted at him.

"I followed you!" he answered. "I was going to come with you, and when I got back from town, you had already left! So I followed and here I am."

Cynyr snorted and rolled his eyes, but he was rather grateful for the wyvern's help.