The Forgotten Zodiac

((Okey.

Oh Cynyr, why you so darkness. You need a special place in my upcoming planned OC Appreciation Week.
Like, a wall spot. XD))

Riordan watched him closely, feeling his frown lighten somewhat as he watched his sibling. Ink was different, he knew, and he supposed he should be nicer to his older brother. It was just hard when the things Riordan knew weighed so heavily on his mind...

But he sighed and brushed those thoughts away. Now was Ink's time to be happy, and Riordan wouldn't ruin it for him. Instead, he watched his brother swing, his expression falling into something that told of a content feeling.

((I DID NOT THINK THAT CORRECTLY.

I THOUGHT ABOUT HIS HEAD ON A PLAQUE. LIKE HUNTERS DO WITH DEER AND STUFF.

AW MAN. THAT SCARED ME FOR A SECOND. XDD))

Morning dawned in Kaislun a few hours later. It met a certain golden dragon, whos scales reflected the light every which way, like a shining crystal. But he didn't like the bright lights so much; he wound up moving behind the castle to snooze more. Vuker was incredibly interested in the dragon; how he had survived so long underground, who had trapped him there, and why. Vuker was very interested in knowing, but Sooth was very far from telling. He regarded the Drakeling as a pest among pests, and pushed him away every time he tried to talk to him.

Isslia, however, he would talk to. As soon as she woke up, she went downstairs with Welk to speak with him. He was quite happy to see her again. "Good morning, Isslia! How are you today?"

"I'm fine, thank you, Sooth. How are you?" She beamed.

"Oh, doing well, doing well. I say, Welk, you are one lucky half-cat to have a fiance so pretty. She shines almost as much as myself," Sooth chortled. "I hope you two are very, very happy together."

"We are, of course." Isslia smiled happily. "I was wondering if you wanted some flying training. Welk has wings, he can lead you around while I ride on his back. Would you?" She smiled at the lion.

((XDD))

"Of couuuuuuuuuuurse," Welk said, shifting to lion form and waving a paw offhandedly. "When his beautiful, kind, sweet little lady asks, how can the noble, handsome, heroic knight say no? Easy; he can't!" He spread his wings, cradling Isslia close and nuzzling her, purring away.

((Dear Trin,

I'm very, very, veryveryvery sorry about not checking my phone lask night after dinner. I should have. D: I sowwwyyyyyyy please don't hate me myeh myeh myeh -hugs- -hugs- -hugs- ;~; ))

Isslia giggled and hugged Welk tightly, smiling happily. She climbed onto his back, getting comfortable there before nodding up at Sooth. "Come on then, try to take off."

"Shouldn't we go somewhere with less people first? If I crash, I don't want to hurt anyone..." Sooth blinked.

"Oh. I suppose not...alright, we'll go someplace quiet. I think those white plains are empty, right, Welk?" Isslia beamed. "We can walk there."

((Oh Bunny, it's fine. You didn't see your phone and was eatin'. Why would I ever hate you, just because you didn't notice your phone? Silly. -hugs~-))

Welk kept his wings out, bouncing along beside the dragon as they headed out to the beautiful, snow-like plains. Once there, Welk took a bounding leap into the air, feeling Isslia clutch tightly to his fur, her legs pressed to his sides. His long golden wings stretched wide as he gained height, rising up into the air with a wild, gleeful shout.

((You just seemed sooooo upset, I felt super bad about not checking my phone. D: -hugshugshugs-))

Isslia tilted her head back to look at Sooth, who was struggling to take off. "Come on, you can do it!" She called to him, smiling. "Follow us!"

"I'm tryiiinnnggg," Sooth whined, flapping his wings heavily to try and liftoff. He wound up jumping up and down to try to help, but it didn't seem to be working.

((It's okay. Really, it is.))

"Here," Welk said, angling back down and landing lightly. "You have to give a strong jump, then a stronger flap with your wings. Like this." He crouched and wiggled, them leapt high and flared his wings down sharply, arching up into the air.

Sooth watched, frowning. He then tried it, and succeeded with a very shaky takeoff. But a takeoff nevertheless, and he was able to take it from there. "I took off! I jumped from a cliff last time," He said, pounding his wings to get a little more altitude. He swung around in a wide circle and arced up into the sky, letting out a happy roar.

"Forin," Diana said softly as he brought their lunch to the table. "When are we going to save Luna?"

Forin frowned at this. "As soon as we can...but the others aren't quite ready to go yet..."

"You'd be mad at them by now if I had been taken," Diana commented quietly.

Luen looked over, blinking his round eyes gently at them, then went back to calmly munching away on one of the kitchen plants. He needed to thank Werr for them later; the boy always made sure they were the most tender ones, knowing Luen liked to nibble.

"She has a point, Forin," he said through a small mouthful, flicking his ears calmly. "I mean, you are concerned about Luna, aren't you?"

((They're in Kaislun. .3.))

"Yes, but it's too dangerous to forge on ahead of the others. Gossain is...we don't know what's waiting ahead of us, and you can't forget...we're dealing with an entire Titan here. Don't you remember the last one?" Forin sighed. "It's...not something we want to get into without careful planning. I guess I can talk to Werr about speeding this up, but he doesn't listen to me as much as I'd like..."

((Oh. Lerpderp. I'll chance it by taking out that line, other than him eating the plants.))

Luen nodded once, stripping another leaf from the plant and eating it with a thoughtful air about him. "I can talk to him too," he said. "Maybe I'll talk to Welk too. He's friendly enough and has pull over Werr. Lexi too." He swallowed, then pulled another leaf from the plant. "I'm sure we can..." He suddenly trailed off, blinking and frowning. The leaf hanging from his mouth fell out, fluttering to the ground.

((Haha. 936

Also, the why for this poisoning, as I see it so far (which you can change if you have a bettar idea); Zex needs them out of the way. He doesn't want his work interrupted by them, so to keep them out of the way for awhile, he poisons the most predictable one. The one who always eats potted plants.))

"Lexi would understand, surely." Forin murmured. "But it's true that the longer we wait around, the more difficult it may be to save her. And the more danger we put ourselves in...Luna is essentially a lure. They want us there, and if that kidnapping doesn't work fast enough..." He cast Luen a sideways glance, but blinked and frowned at his friend. "It's not like you to throw your food on the ground. Does it taste bad?"

((Alright then.))

Luen was utterly still, apparently unable to move. Even as his friends watched him, they saw, in horror, the thin trickles of dark red blood start dripping from his mouth, falling with tiny, sickening splatters on the floor. His long legs buckled and he stumbled, collapsing right there in the kitchen floor.

Forin stared in shock for several long seconds. Diana was the first to snap out of it, letting out a terrified scream. Forin grabbed the potted plant Luen had been eating from, shoving it into Diana's hands. "Here, hold this," He said, frowning as he knelt and heaved up Luen's front, starting to drag him away. Luen managed a transformation before he passed out entirely, which enabled Forin to carry him easier. "This way, Diana. We need to get to the Infirmary..."

Blood continued to bubble up from the kirin's throat, dripping from the corners of his mouth and leaving crimson trails down his pale skin. He was limp and solidly unconscious, one hand clutching Forin's arm tightly, apparently in a great deal of pain.

"Airlia!" Forin barged into the healing room, lowering his dear friend onto a bed. "I need his condition stabilized," He snapped at the startled healers. "Airlia, where's Allie?" He demanded.

"I dunno, but I can find out," Airlia bit her lip. "Poison?"

"Yeah. It must have come from this plant, I didn't see any darts or anything..." He handed over the potted plant, scooping Diana up into his arms.

"Right. I'll take it to Allie and get her working on an antidote right away." Airlia nodded furiously, then flew off as quick as she could.

Still the blood dripped from Luen's mouth, and his skin grew paler by the second. His eyes, despite him being unconscious, were open, completely unseeing and foggy. Whatever was in his system was powerful, and within mere moments, his breathing started to falter, his body sinking into tremors.

The healers did what they could. They managed to keep Luen breathing, but it was obvious that there was still a lot of damage being done. By the time Allie and Airlia hurried in, carrying a small vat of some blue liquid, he had stopped breathing twice. Allie pushed off the healers and pulled Luen into the liquid quickly. She held his head so that his mouth and nose was out of the water, but kept the rest of him submerged. "Phew...this...this should work. It'll detox him...a little on the painful side, but that doesn't matter," She shook her head, starting to take off his shirt to let the liquid make more direct contact. Already, he seemed to be settling.

His breathing was becoming a tad easier, albeit still shaky and small. When his girlfriend pulled his shirt off, however, they saw long, dark trails under the surface of his skin, weaving tattoo-like marks under his skin as the poison visibly spread. They were even up on his face, forming intricate symbols in a dark blue-black color.

Airlia whimpered a bit, putting her hands into the liquid to try and heal him, but Allie smacked her hand away. "You can't use magic in this. It'll backfire." She instead pulled out a small box from her bag and withdrew a syringe with white liquid in it. The box seemed full of them. She jabbed it into his neck, injecting the liquid and moving onto the next one. One in his chest, one in his arm.

"And what are you doing?" Airlia whimpered. "Sticking him full of holes..."

"It'll help stabilize his vitals and keep him breathing. It'll protect his immune system so it's not weakened by the end of this, and it keeps him hydrated. Better than your healing magic can do right now." Allie murmured, discarding the needles and focusing on holding Luen's face up so he could breathe.