The Forgotten Zodiac

"No, he's not a pet," the younger brother answered, holding the scale quietly in his hands. He suddenly grew unnerved by it and was fast to tuck it away, giving a small shiver. "Well...let's go," he said, giving his head a small shake as he strode off, still holding Ink's hand to lead him along.

"Are we going back downstairs? Do I have to stay downstairs again? I don't want to. I like being up here with you, brother..." Ink said quietly. Valley waited for them near the throne room, leaning calmly against the wall. She was having a small conversation with Zex, but they both fell quiet as the brothers approached.

"Greetings, Riordan," The undead one said quietly, averting his gaze.

"There you are, darling. I was just speaking with Zex about what went wrong with the spell. Apparently...not even his slaves are the most loyal to him, you see..." Valley smiled curtly.

"Kage knew about one of the girls' impurity, but he said nothing of it. As such, he is being...punished. He was sent to attack Lord Werr's group. Undoubtedly, he will drag himself back with fatal injuries..."

Riordan blinked, but said nothing over it. He despised Kage deeply, so whether or not the insane dragonian made it back in one piece or not (or alive, for that matter) was no concern of his. "Valley, we're leaving," he said, moving closer to her and kissing her forehead lightly. "Hopefully we get far enough away with ours lives intact." He turned to Ink, saying "You'll never have to stay there again, Ink. I'll make sure of it."

"Oh, 'kay." Ink smiled, doing a little happy jump.

"Leaving? Veros won't like that," Zex frowned. "I'm not about to stop you, and I sure as heck won't tell him...but to be on the safe side, don't tell me where you're going. Just...be aware that he might come after you. He probably will, actually. Are you prepared to face that?"

"Ohh, if only that shiny dragon Veros told me about was still here. We could ride him into the sunset!" Ink giggled.

((Too bad Sooth is BURIED.))

((ACK

We'll say Zephyr got him out or something.))

"Yeah, if only," Riordan said quietly, then closed his eyes as an old song immediately rushed to the forefront of his mind.

If only, if only, the woodpecker cried...

*

Luen opened his eyes slowly, sighing quietly from where he was curled up on the ground.

The small group was nearly recovered from almost being crushed by the falling castle, but a few of them were still needing attention. Luen's leg hadn't been seen to completely yet, but he hadn't allowed anyone to tend to it. Instead, he had calmly sat down in deer form under a tree and hadn't really roused since.

Sooth was in an especially bad state. Weary of flying about and eager to get away from the sun, he had been hiding in the lower bowels of the castle. They had his head free so far, but he had a bad break in his back leg, and he was almost completely buried. Obelisk was attempting to mend it to still the pain before they tried to help him further, but Sooth was being...disagreeable. He wasn't an elder dragon with mounds of wisdom and self control. He was still a young dragon, and he clearly had a temper. If not for Zephyr being there, he could have burnt the group to a crisp as it was, out of sheer desperation and pain.

"Just hold still," Zephyr reassured him gently, passing his tongue lightly over the younger dragon's muzzle to calm him. "Don't worry. Just keep calm and try to hold it in until we get you out."

Sooth squirmed unhappily, trying to pull himself out again. He let out a roar of pain, and another blast of fire was directed at the sky.

Isslia had heard enough. "Sooth! Sooth, please calm down," She begged, getting a little closer. Sooth brought his teeth inches from her, his hot breath whipping past her hair and clothes. He growled furiously, nothing but fear and pain in his eyes.

"Isslia, stay back," Werr warned. "It's not safe. Dragons are dangerous when they're like this."

Welk was quick to take his love by her shoulders, kissing the side of her face and murmuring "Let Zephyr handle it. He knows what he's doing."

Indeed, now the older dragon sighed, flicking his ears slightly as he stared at the younger one. Finally, he growled and closed his jaws around Sooth's neck, saying from the side of his mouth, "You'll hold still now whether you want to or not. Obelisk, if you will."

Sooth froze, knowing that if he thrashed too much, Zephyr could easily tear his throat open. A slight growl rose in his throat, but he held still. Obelisk nodded and started, shifting rocks away from the dragon's body. He was loose in a matter of seconds, but he couldn't have done it with Sooth's thrashing. Before long at all, Sooth scrambled loose of the collapsed building, crawling up on top of it. He curled up tightly around one of the collapsed towers, licking his broken leg and tucking his wings close.

"Did he used to have treasure?" Obelisk raised a brow. "Dragons commonly curl up like that around treasure or something similar, so sitting like that is comfortable for them. He was in captivity for a long time, wasn't he?"

"Er...he had a pile of bones. Of people and things he ate. He told me." Isslia blinked. "He's really kind, though..."

"Ah. Hunger drove him to eat whatever he could." Obelisk muttered.

Welk blinked, slowly extending his golden wings out and wrapping them around Isslia, snuggling her close to himself. "He'll be fine," he assured her, stroking her soft gray hair lightly. "I promise." He looked up at Zephyr, who was watching Sooth quietly, studying the young dragon's habits and movements like a cat watching, not a mouse, but a smaller cat, with the same look of a predator watching prey.

Sooth eventually lowered his head, having thoroughly licked his scrapes and bruises. He realized that Zephyr was looking at him, made eye contact for a moment, then hurriedly looked away. He was a little ashasmed of himself; little Isslia could have been hurt if she had been any closer...he licked his lips, internally kicking himself for such feral acts. Sooth buried his nose in the rubble, trying to ignore the staggering pain in his leg.

Zephyr sighed, turning his gaze elsewhere as he studied those around them. "We need to get moving," he said, turning and padding off to check on everyone else. He paused to bump his nose gently against Tasia, who had curled up away from the others, much how Luen had done, save for the baby in the female dragonian's arms. She seemed downright depressed, and as Zephyr gently licked her cheek and walked away, fresh tears spilled down her face.

Fawn sat down next to her, making a slight trilling sound. She stroked baby Ariana's hair, and with Tasia's permission, scooped her up into her arms and smiled. Obelisk sat down on Tasia's other side, resting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Everything will be okay. If you'd like, we can escort you to Kaislun." He decided not to tell her that Veros could potentially steal her child and use it for his blood-infused spells, no matter where she was. Probably best not to scare her more at this point.

Tasia started to cry again nevertheless, placing her hands over her face and sobbing quietly. When she did manage to speak, it was in a soft, heartbroken little voice.

"I...I just...w-want...Nate...h-home again..."

She curled her wings around herself, tucking her legs close to her body in her old habit. Luen, who was laying nearby, glanced over at them, but did nothing other than close his eyes again.

"We all do, darling," Obelisk said quietly, rubbing her shoulders gently. "But for now, you've gotta be strong and do what's best for your daughter. Oh, look...Fawn got her to sleep," He smiled as the mute woman pulled Tasia's wings away, carefully placing Ariana in Tasia's arms. Indeed, the baby was sleeping peacefully again, and it cuddled up to her mother's chest easily. Fawn was smiling with a wistful look in her eyes.

Tasia slowly stopped crying, merely looking utterly depressed now. She wiped her eyes and gently stroked Ariana's soft, dark-pink hair, then looked slowly up at Fawn. "...Where's your son? Malice?" she asked softly, knowing the look in the woman's eye. She clearly missed her own child, and it was hard to be reminded of them when you were so far away.

"He's in Amnairus." Obelisk said quietly. "Fawn is mute, dear. And...believe it or not, she's quite jealous of you. She's barren, she can't birth a child of her own...which is why she agreed to adopt Malice." Fawn scowled at him and lightly brushed his arm. Obelisk chuckled. "Partly why, then. So, if you ever need any sort of help, Tasia, I want you to come straight to us. Okay?"

She sniffled, then slowly gave her head a small nod, cuddling Ariana close. She just seemed to sink into a weary state of exhaustion after that, remaining quiet and still as she held her daughter, her mind obviously elsewhere. The little girl in her arms was the product of she and Nate coming together as one, back when everything had seemed so much simpler, when they had been able to be together and not worry about anything.

Fawn stayed nearby, although she did move away somewhat to give her some air.

Obelisk, in the meantime, opted to speak with a pacing Werr. "So," He said casually. He could have been inquiring upon the weather. "What's our next course of action?"

"I'm considering our options," Werr muttered. "I'm coming up short in a lot of places. We don't exactly have a weapon to combat Veros with...so attacking him at all would only lead to a lot of pain and probably death."

"A very good point."

"The Artifacts won't do, Veros is expecting us to return to Kaislun...we have Luna, who I guess is the Goddess now, but we don't exactly have a way to contact her...right, Obelisk?"

"Don't you dare ask me to go there. It'll kill me in seconds." Obelisk frowned.

"I wasn't planning on it. Is there...something else we can use? The Book of the Goddess' Writ, maybe?"

"That also is likely in the Realm of Light. After we defeated Neathor, we returned the book to Cyprus, if you recall."

"Great...we need...we need a plan..." He went back to pacing.

Pacing. The act of crossing the room, one end to another, usually at a slow pace and repetitively. Null Wheatherby observed the act for a long while. Riordan was thinking, most likely. But the Captain of the Starbows, Gossain's finest soldiers, found himself growing impatient. It was hardly becoming; the king was...well, the king. If he wanted to pace, Null had no reason to object.

More strange was the words and sentences the king was uttering. He was talking about seeing butterflies, although they were in the throne room. Then he was muttering something about the shadows watching him. He didn't seem to acknowledge the captain's presence until the larger man cleared his throat.

"Oh!" Ink jumped, looking up at Null. "Hello. Who are you?"

"Captain Null of the Starbows, sire."

"Oh. You must be here to see Riordan."

"...Er...yes. I am." Null raised a brow. "Am I not...speaking to him?"

"No. Don't be silly."

"Then who am I speaking with, and what have you done with the king?" Null grabbed Ink's arm before the smaller male could get away. His metal greaves dug into the pale flesh in his grip.

Ink let out a yelp of shock, immediately trying to pull away. "Hey, that hurts! Let go, let go of me! LET GO!"