The Forgotten Zodiac

"You know how he gets distracted," L'arc said, although he appeared worried, too. It wasn't like the siren to tarry when he was doing a task for someone. "Maybe he met a Viera or something. Who knows?"

"I hope not. Rhre and her people didn't seem to keen on being around us, last we saw." Verolen shook his head with a heavy sigh. "I don't blame 'em. We attract trouble. Nothing we can do about it, either."

"Well...I hope he gets back soon..." Sylas looked down, still worried.

L'arc nodded to Sylas and sighed. "I'm sure it won't be long," he said. He then looked around. "Where's Verdi?"

"I'm here!" Verdi lifted his hand up. He was curled up on his bed, snoozing. "I've been here for awhile. Not that it matters," He frowned, clearly very grumpy.

"It does too matter, you silly moot," Sylas snorted, shaking his head.

((Fixed. Verolen went outside, I remembered.))

Eve smiled slightly and picked Verdi up, then tickled his ears. "Hello there, darling," she said, grinning. "I've missed you. It has been a while, hasn't it?"

"I've been right here," Verdi bristled under her touch.

"What's gotten into you?" Sylas frowned. "You're normally so cheery...oh, I know what it is. You don't have your flute! Don't worry, Verolen can make you ano--"

"I don't care about that stupid stick! I care about people, not things, and Verolen and those witches took me and Israel away from someone who needed us more than you guys did!" Verdi yelled. "Ela took good care of us, and we had fun in those plays, and it made Ela and Lillith happy! When we were there helping, Ela didn't have to sell herself out for disgusting things in order to put food on the table and keep Lillith fed and happy! Ela said it herself, she needed us, and I was happy staying there and helping her. But you selfish freaks wouldn't even listen when we tried to protest, and I was put in a bag and brought here against my will. And what do you even need me for? I try to help...but I can't do anything! I'm weak and small and I can never be big and strong, I can never be helpful to you all, so all you do is tell me to play music and use me as some kind of pet that you can play with when you get sad or lonely. So don't tell me I'm important, and don't tell me that what you did was right, because I never asked to come back here!" He screeched at the top of his lungs. He finally stopped, panting hard. "But Ela needed me...and you took me away from her..." Tears dripped down his furry face, which he turned and pressed into Eve's shirt to cry against her, his ears flat against his head.

Sylas just stared, his mouth slightly open.

((Thiiiis has been coming for awhile.

Just couldn't get around to finding a prompt until now. xD))

((Do you want me to share my 'I'm bored now, let's write out the death/dying words of a major character' evening jaunt? It's not too long. Just wondering if you wanted to see it.))

((Pobre Verdi.))

Eve held the little moot close, looking appalled. "What... what happened, that I missed?" she asked, stroking Verdi's ears gently. "There, there, little one... I'll hold you..."

"Are you kidding me?"

L'arc appeared about ready to burst. "If this isn't the most rediculous thing I've EVER heard... you and Israel seriously wanted to run off with the circus?" he shook his head angrily, then whisked the moot from Eve's arms, holding him at arm length. "You think we don't need you here? Who else can lift our spirits like you do? Verdi, I'm pretty sure that one of us would have killed someone in our group if you weren't around to soothe the frayed nerves. And well, Israel's not going to leave Verolen, is he? You can't be serious!"

"Stop it!" Israel had just landed on the balcony, and now darted foreward, dropping the fruit he'd collected for Sylas outside. "Gimmie Verdi! Give him now!"

"And you're not even listening now!" Verdi wailed. "There's a little girl and a lady in Foamalought who needed us, and we weren't even able to say goodbye! I don't care that it was a circus, and you can find other ways to calm yourselves down without me! Y-you're so selfish! I hate you, L'arc!"

"Put him down, L'arc." Sylas said, his eye cast downward. "Just let him go. We can't keep him here...we'd be no better than slavers."

((I'll take that as a no.))

L'arc didn't look like he was about to let go, but Israel came to the moot's rescue, taking him from the druid's arms and holding him gently. "Shh, shh... it's okay, we're going back after the war..." he said. "We won't be gone long, just like one more week, and then we'll go back..."

((Ah, Israel. XD))

Verdi sniffled. "You're stupid, Israel...wars don't end in a day or a week or anything like that. Even if they manage to fight back hard enough, they'll still have to run around and collect the pieces of the Ether shard so the demons can't come back...a-and by then, it'll be too late...it's too late now. Ela said she didn't have enough money to replace us. We were her last chance, Israel, you know that..."

((Church tiem.))

Israel looked offended, anf frowned deeply. "I'm... not stupid," he said softly, growing stiff as he stood there. He appealed to Verolen. "I'm not stupid, am I?" he asked.

"No. You're not stupid, Israel. You just...don't quite get it. Verdi is right...it's going to take a long while before everything is righted again, even after it seems like the fighting is over. You're not stupid, though," Sylas said again, looking up at the Siren boy. "Anything but. Verdi is just...not in a good mood right now." He looked down again. "Do you want to leave too, Israel? To go back to that Ela person?"

Israel hesitated. "I liked Ela," he said softly. "But I missed Arachne. But now Arachne's gone. So I... have to stay and finish the war, to get Arachne back. And I have to protect Verolen... it's all... very hard to think about..." the Siren replied.

"You don't have to make a decision now. You should still decide for yourself, though...Verdi clearly has made his choice." Sylas sighed, still not looking up at them. "We'll take you back to Ela as soon as we get the chance, Verdi."

"Thank you." The moot huffed a bit, huffing Israel's shirt and hiding his tear-covered face from the world.

"I'll hold you," Israel said, stroking the Moot's ears. "That makes you feel better, right?" he asked.

"Yes..." Came the grumbled reply. Everything was quiet again.

Not so much as an hour later found Verolen outside, digging holes. He had chosen a nice tree to dig his grave. He had only made one casket; he figured Aries and Gabe would have liked being put together. He only hoped Jerod got here soon...

Speak of the dragon. The trip home took much less time; there were no interruptions of the fighting sort, and no wounds to slow him down, so Jerod found himself landing near Verolen a few minutes later. By that time, Verolen had finished, and was sitting on the edge of the grave, his legs dangling over the side as he stared at the hole he had made.

"Verolen?" Jerod lowered his scaly head down next to the demon. "You look like you've been working all day. Are you really so bored that you have to dig holes?"

"You're not burning the corpse of a Forester, Jerod," Verolen snapped hotly. "Don't be stupid."

"Oh? What corpse are we speaking of?" Jerod blinked.

"The ones you brought!"

"I didn't bring any corpses."

"You left them there? In Rasalhouge?!" Verolen stared at him.

"Left who?" Aries slid off the dragon's back, frowning slightly.

Verolen stared for several long seconds, then passed out, falling in his own hole.

Gabe jumped off of Jerod's back and ran over to the hole Verolen dug. "I'll get him!" he declared loudly. He reached out and waved his hand over the hole in the ground, murmuring something under his breath. It quickly became evident that this was a levitation spell, as Verolen floated out onto the ground level the rest were standing on. "There, all better!" he declared.

Aries watched, then stooped and pulled Verolen into her arms. "I hope the others don't react as badly as this." She eyed the coffin and hole, frowning a bit. She moved to head inside, then stopped as something fell out of Verolen's back pocket.

Her ear, stiff and decaying, but still held onto. "Oh...where did he get..." She stared for a moment, then the penny dropped. "Oh, by the great mother tree, they all think I'm dead, don't they?!" Aries huffed. "Of all the low-blown, stupid, horrible things for them to do..." She stormed inside, still carrying Verolen.

She slammed the door to their room open, fuming. "HOW MANY OF YOU THINK I DIED?!" She yelled, although it probably wasn't a good idea. Sylas wound up on the floor again, hugging his chest. Manny let out a very high-pitched squeal and wound up under the bed, and Verdi just continued crying.

L'arc nearly fainted as Verolen had. As it was, his knees buckled and he fell to the ground, pale in the face. Bermuda let out a shout of "ghost" and tried to use his Spirit Mark to ward off the 'angry spirit'.

It only got worse when Gabe entered the room behind her.

"Guh... gods," L'arc said, shaking his head in disbelief. "How?"

Israel had flown out the window and escaped to the roof, Verdi in tow.

"Oh for the love of...I'm NOT a ghost!" Aries yelled at them. "You lot are stupid for believing I had died! Sylas gave me the pearl to breathe underwater, and so help me, I used it! I got attacked by a shark, but the Selkies saved me. Y'hear? They saved me, and took my ear to the Phantom and told him I had been eaten alive. I'm not dead!"

"Yeah ri-right! Wh-why is your ear there?" Sylas gasped, holding his chest tightly, tears leaking from his eyes. Red stains were blossoming over the bandages on his chest. Aries' gaze softened immediately.

"Sylas...here. Let me show you." She moved over towards him, in spite of his attempts to get away. She ripped the bandages off and pulled the cork out of the vial, dripping exactly two drops over the line on Sylas' chest from surgery. It had split open again due to his sudden movements, but under the hissing of the potion, it slowly closed up. Sylas winced several times, but watched as his flesh seemed to regrow over the spot, good as new.

"Holy...my ankle, do my ankle too!" Sylas ripped off his sock. Aries smiled and added a drop of the liquid to the wound on Sylas' foot. Immediately one it was healed, he stood and stretched himself all about, just to make sure. "I can move around again! This is awesome! A-and you...you're alive. We thought you were dead, Aries..."

"I hadn't noticed," Aries rolled her eyes, but realized that Sylas had started crying.

"We really thought you were gone..." He sniffed. Aries smiled gently and pulled him into a hug.

"I know. It's okay, see? I'm here. In the flesh. No ghost, no ghoul, no trickery. It's just me."