The Forgotten Zodiac

"I didn't bring the staff," Airlia shook her head. It didn't matter; she was a decent healer herself. She knew enough to heal a simple wound such as this. She hurried over as soon as Zephyr landed, running her hands over the wound. "Oh dear. You've already lost a lot of blood..." She murmured, sealing the wound as quickly and as carefully as possible. Which was pretty quick. "How are you feeling, Isslia? How did you get a cut like that?"

"They were going to execute me." Isslia said flatly, pressing her forehead against Cynyr's shoulder. Normally she would hate being held like this by anyone, but Cynyr...well, he was a good friend.

"What on earth for? Where?" Airlia was taken aback.

"Gossain. I attacked a city guard. He was stealing from the citizens and assaulted a shopkeeper that refused to give him free stuff. So I attacked him back, and I was dragged in front of the king. I gave my testimony and they were going to kill me." She looked over at the dragon, who was shifting about uncomfortably, attempting to avoid Zephyr's gaze. "Sooth saved me. Luna gave him something to follow my scent, and he saved me."

"Luna? Luna's in Gossain?" Airlia gasped. "We've got to get her out, don't we?"

"No," Spy shook his head. "Werr said that getting Isslia home was the priority."

"Werr? Why?" Isslia sat up, pulling away from Cynyr slightly. "What does he want?"

Cynyr slide his gaze sideways at her, then his voice pressed on her mind: You wouldn't believe me if I told you. He helped her sit up more, bending one knee up so she could sit on his leg, keeping one hand on her shoulder just to be safe. His other hand brushed her hair back, extremely tender and careful of each touch.

"Should we show her?" Ophile offered, wagging his tail a bit. "Or...should we just take her?"

Isslia stared at him, then stood up and moved away from Cynyr. "No, I'm not going with you. I'm not." She walked back to Sooth, who was still looking uncomfortable. "I said that I'd make my own path through this life, and that's what I'm doing. I know now that I shouldn't be in Gossain, at least. It seemed nice at first, but..." She shrugged. "C'mon, Sooth, let's go."

"I do not want to." He replied glumly. "They'll just catch up to us. I can't move fast."

"Why not?" Isslia frowned.

"I'm starving." He blinked at her as though she should have known that. He was practically only scales and bones, and he looked like it, too.

"Oh...right..." She frowned, not sure what else she could do.

Isslia, if you leave, you're making the worst mistake ever, Cynyr said, taking her by the wrist. His grip was firm, but not like the other touches she had felt in her life. Those who knew him - and she knew him better than many would think, they had bonded so well -  understood that his grip was always firm, even when he tried to be gentle. Trust me on this, okay? It's...really, really important that you come back with us. You'll...love it, to put it bluntly.

Isslia blinked at Cynyr, then sighed heavily. "Okay." She said quietly. "Fine. But Sooth is coming with us. He saved me, I...I owe him. I won't just leave him."

"That's very kind of you, but I'm a bit grounded at the moment." Sooth shook his wings. "I need food if we're going far. Fooo-ood. Er, not to be rude or anything," He quickly added, glancing sideways at Zephyr.

((C'mooonn, say something, you big dragon. xD))

Zephyr was still staring at the starving golden dragon, but he finally blinked out of his shock and moved forward. One of the things the emerald dragon had gained through Naybrin's magic gift was size; he had doubled his natural size, making him much more foreboding. He bent his head forward and carefully sniffed the new dragon, his gaze innocent and curious.

"Eep," Sooth squeaked slightly, shying away from Zephyr's touch. "Who're you, exactly?"

"You don't know your own king?" Ophile questioned, snorting a bit.

"King? We dragons have a king?" Sooth blinked.

"Were you born under a rock?"

"A castle. I was born under a castle. And I lived there for oh...a hundred and seventy years now. This is my third time being out in the sun. I'm surprised my scales haven't fallen off yet." He turned his head about and sniffed himself, checking for patches where his golden scales may have actually fallen apart. He was fine, for the most part. Aside from the fact that he was miserably undergrown. A dragon his age should be at least Vaira's size, but he was no bigger than Selana, who was already small for a hundred years. But due to the small size of the room he was in, and the fact that he seldom saw a meal, his growth had stunted. "So, King. King what?" He flicked his ears, looking Zephyr up and down.

((CYNYR, YOU CAN'T TALK ANYMORE. NOW I HAVE TO GO FIX YOUR LINES. POOP.))

"Zephyr Shining-Scales," the dragon answered, flicking his long emerald tail. "You don't have to be afraid of me, you know. I'm quite nice, really." He flashed a small smile, looking down as Cynyr nudged Isslia questioningly, as if asking Are you okay? He flicked his long black tail, unaware that she didn't yet know he couldn't speak.

((xDD))

"Alright, alright...I'm going." Isslia climbed up into Zephyr's hands, hugging the great dragon's thumb. "Let's just go, I guess. But first thing's first, we find some food for Sooth. I think there's a bandit camp nearby, with a few desert goats to make it seem like a farm. We can take those, probably." She said, turning her gaze back down the road towards Gossain.

"Well...if little Isslia trusts you enough to have you hold her, I suppose I've no reason to distrust you." Sooth shrugged.

"Born in captivity, huh? I don't think that's ever happened for a dragon before..." Ophile frowned. "At least your scales look nice. You should be well liked."

"Why thank you," Sooth puffed out his chest a bit, grinning. "Most of my days were spend sleeping, but when I was awake, I was grooming myself and ensuring my scales weren't dying. I can make them shimmer when I lick them, which adds quite the charm to them."

"Hey, uh..." Spy stared into the distance. "You sure you can't move much?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I had a meal recently, but that only got me this far..."

"That's not good." Spy blinked up at Sooth.

"Why?" Sooth frowned.

"'Cuz there are bad men with swords coming this way," Spy jumped up onto Ophile's back, holding onto him tightly as the wolf climbed up onto Zephyr. "Oh no, wait. They've stopped." He said, watching the figures in the distance. What were they doing? They were too far away, Spy couldn't really see...

And then an arrow hit Sooth's eye. He let out a scream that stirred up the sand around them, rubbing his face against the ground in a desperate attempt to get the arrow out, but he only managed to lodge it in further. He fell still and wailed, blood gushing down his face.

Zephyr turned at once, snarling and flaring his wings open. Sand whipped around them all as he moved, his bulk stirring up what, from a distance, looked like a small storm brewing. "Get on, quickly!" he said sharply to those still on the ground, and Cynyr and Airlia leapt for his back. That left Sooth alone on in the sand, but Zephyr wasn't going to abandon him. He flapped his wings, hovering and kicking up sand, and grabbed the younger dragon's shoulders with his hind claws. Within mere moments, they were heading skywards.

Sooth continued to wail until he realized that they were in the sky. He half-expected Zephyr's claws to hurt, but they didn't. Zephyr was firm enough to hold onto him, but gentle enough to not break any scales.

"So where are we going? Alastor?" Isslia questioned.

"No. Kaislun. You'll see." Airlia smiled. "I'm going to fly next to Sooth and help him with his eye, okay?" She called up to Zephyr, and quickly flew alongside the golden dragon, trying to help him. He was surprisingly tame after she got the arrow out, understanding at once that she was only helping him. Unfortunately, Airlia's magics weren't advanced enough to save his eyesight. Sooth would have to live with only one eye. She decided not to break the news now, though.

"Wait, Kaislun? Sooth can't go in there. He'd have to go through a trial, and he's hardly fit enough for that." Isslia frowned.

"It's fine. We can pick up some food outside of the cave, he can hunt for himself once he's ready. And when he's fed enough, he can do the trial. Or he could just wait outside for us, you know." Ophile pointed out.

"I guess..." Isslia sighed.

Cynyr, who was sitting behind Isslia on Zephyr's back, closed his single eye and rubbed his repaired face against her shoulder, giving a light purr. He leaned forward a bit more, his throat resting against her shoulder now, and looked up as a few birds swept past in the sky. His eyes flashed a dark green color, and a wind wraith suddenly appeared, slicing through the birds and sinking sharp teeth into several of them. The wraith swept around in the air and delivered the birds to Cynyr before vanishing.

((Isslia was sitting in Zephyr's hands. xD))

Isslia stared for a long moment, but decided not to question it. "Well...if we're going to Kaislun, will you at least tell me why you're there? I would think that Werr would need to be in his castle...he is the king, after all."

"Werr does have things to attend to, but there are more important things he's dealing with right now." Ophile shook his head.

((This is not a good day for my memory. .-.))

Cynyr ignored them, content with digging into his newly-gained meal. His eye had returned to a normal yellow color, and when he was finished, he curled up against Isslia with a sigh.

Zephyr flew onwards for a long time, finally stopping sometime later to allow them a moment of rest. He went hunting and brought back an entire deer for Sooth, not even hesitating to hand the entire thing over.

((Das fien~))

Sooth took it gratefully, and it was gone within seconds. "So," He said while eating. "If you're the king, does that mean there are more like us? More dragons?" He questioned, licking his lips and picking a hoof from between his teeth using the antler. His eye still looked terrible, but it wasn't bleeding anymore, at least.

"Zephyr, Isslia is dehydrated," Airlia flew up to eye-level with the great dragon. "Do you see any water nearby? An oasis or something? I need to go collect some."

The dragon scanned around, searching for any sort of water source before shaking his head. "Nothing," he answered, then blinked and hit his forehead with his paw. "Wait, we don't need an oasis. Hold on..." He started to dig down into the sand, flinging it everywhere, until he had traveled downwards several yards. Once he was satisfied, he bent and touched his nose to the lowest point in the sand, closing his eyes. They felt a slow surge of magic, and he quickly pulled back, revealing a gentle gush of clear, cool water that was bubbling up from nothingness.

"Ah. That helps." Airlia smiled. Isslia was the first to make it to the water, cupping her hands and drinking deeply from the pool. She carefully splashed herself with water, trying to clean off as much of the blood as possible. Airlia helped her before getting a drink herself. Spy practically dove into it as soon as he could.

"Are they your friends?" Sooth questioned, smiling a bit. "They're so little. I'm surprised you don't step on them, Zephyr."

"It's a learned art," the older dragon said, giving a half-smirk. He looked down as Cynyr crouched by the water's edge, lapping delicately. Zephyr frowned, tilting his head and flicking his ears up, then bent and pressed his mind into Cynyr's.

Are you aware of how fragile your heart has become, Shadow-Step? All of these stolen powers have weakened you much more than I would've thought possible.

Cynyr paused, water dripping from his chin, then answered Mind your own business, dragon.

"Keeping secrets isn't good," Sooth scratched behind his ear with a hind leg, staring at nothing in particular. Just not quite looking at anything.

Airlia blinked at him. "No one was whispering anything."

"Sure they were. Zephyr and Cynyr were both whispering stuff. Back and forth. Kinda like the whispering that had been going on for a few months before I got out just now." He shrugged.

"They must have been soul-speaking. You can hear that, Sooth?" Ophile blinked.

"A-yep. Dunno anything about souls, but I can hear it alright."

"Sooth?" Airlia questioned, flying up near his good eye. "Can you...see?"

"I can see just fine. You lot are plenty noisy for me to see all of you in quite fine detail." Sooth smiled. "It's the quiet people I can't see too well. Like Zex. That boy was odd."

"You can't see if we don't make noise?" Airlia frowned.

"Nope." Sooth shrugged.

"You're blind."

"Am not! I can see just fine!"

"But you see through sound, it's the only thing that makes sense. Echolocation. Like a bat." Airlia nodded. "And because you can't see, your hearing is increased...so you can hear things other people can't. Movements, and...soul speaking. How very strange..."

"I can see just fine," Sooth grumbled, not really understanding.

Zephyr looked Sooth over now, an interested look in his eyes. He was intruged by the thought of a blind, golden dragon, especially one this young. The emerald dragon regarded the gold one for a while before looking up at the sky. "We should get moving," he said, standing up.