The Forgotten Zodiac

"But he still..." Manny sighed. "There shouldn't be. Doesn't mean that there aren't." He shrugged, then stood. "Come on, mommy, let's get you some dinner. You need to eat, too, y'know." He offered a smile, taking her hand.

"I know, dearest," Eve said fondly, standing up beside Manny and letting him lead her from the room. She had created the mannequinn long ago, after her parents had died, to keep her company when she was alone. He had been needy back then, but it made her feel happy, knowing that there was something that needed her to live. But now, perhaps her wishes for her parents' care had taken some manifestation in the dark matter she had molded, for now, with Manny by her side, she felt that she would always be taken care of, and had nothing to worry about.

Smiling at these thoughts, she gripped his hand, walking alongside him.

Almost everyone was already in the dining hall. Most of the inhabitants of Treefort had long since heard of their presence here, and a lot of them were already crowded around Verolen, listening to him tell the story of one of their many battles. It was their attempt at getting Sylas back, during the fall of the previous year.

"Dysonius wouldn't have that. Humans are greedy fools, even when it comes to those of their own kind. It's sickening, almost!" Verolen was quite the colorful storyteller, too. "L'arc tried to get Sylas away, but before our friend could so much as move, Dysonius drew his blade," He made the motions as he talked. "And ran Sylas through."

There was a collective gasp, and Verolen nodded. "Yeah, we weren't too happy about that, either."

"Is he still alive? After all that?" A man wrinkled his nose.

"You bet he is. We weren't about to just let him die, after all! Bermuda's healing magic stitched him up, but not before something unusual happened. Dysonius gave Sylas an order. An order to attack us. Silly, right? Sylas was half-dead, he couldn't do anything to hurt us, even if he wanted to follow those orders. Well, by the time we got back to the Manakete Palace, we discovered the truth. Hypnotism! Dysonius had found a way..." Verolen continued on, but Manny stopped listening by this point. He knew the rest of the story, after all. Their troubles just went on and on, anyway.

"My, he makes it sound dramatic," Eve murmured to Manny, listening on as Verolen spoke. "It was me that saved Sylas at first, not L'arc." She wasn't speaking loud enough for any of the others to hear over the collective 'ooh'ing and 'aah'ing over Verolen's tales, as she didn't really think it mattered, but she did remember the event he spoke of. She shook her head slightly and went over to a seat with another empty one beside it, patting it to indicate Mnny should sit there as she listened to the stories and waited for the food.

"He wants to make it sound like L'arc is more heroic. He's going to be the king, after all...he keeps saying 'we', too, even though he was only there for the last bit. He's probably just trying to make it sound more exciting." Manny said thoughtfully. "I'll go get us some dinner." He wandered off to find the food, and returned with what smelled like rabbit. "Here we are." He smiled.

"Thank you, Manny," Eve said, smiling at him brightly. She looked at Verolen some more, then nodded. "You're right, I suppose. He's making L'arc out to be the hero. I wonder how many more he'll tell. Think he could get L'arc to tell one?" she asked.

"L'arc would just belittle himself." Manny smiled a bit, then realized Verolen had moved on to the story of their encounter with the Kraken. L'arc was carrying Bermuda for this part, and Verolen made it seem like L'arc had dodged quite a few tentacles or something of the sort. They all had, really, but Verolen was definitely focusing on L'arc's heroics.

It made the treefolk happy.

Manny wasn't listening to the stories. He was listening to the excited gasps of listening young, the quiet exchanges of words between the older ones, and the general buzz of joy and entertainment of the entire group. They...well, they needed to think of their to-be king as a hero.

It was certainly better than thinking of him as a coward that hid up in the palace with the Manaketes as his forest burned and people perished.

Eve smiled slightly at the retelling of their, as Verolen made them sound, adventures. She ate her food for the most part, picking over a few things, then glancing to the door as L'arc entered, yawning.

The forest prince paused at the doorway for a moment, seeing pretty much all eyes in the room move to stare at him, and listen for the few more sentences Verolen got out before realizing that L'arc was standing behind him. From what he'd heard coming from Verolen, he was able to piece together what was going on, and offered the audience a small wave.

"Hey, there he is, man of the hour," Verolen grinned. "I was just telling them about a few of our endeavors. You came just in time. A toast!" He raised his glass of juice, grinning. "Long live L'arc, soon-to be king of the forest!"

The surrounding crowd raised their various cups in agreement, and they all drank before returning to their dinners. Verolen patted L'arc roughly on the back, grinning widely. "I love telling stories. Oh hey, if anyone asks about the kraken, we cut off one of its tentacles and had sushi, okay? I may have gotten a bit carried away..."

"We had... of course we did," L'arc said, grinning at Verolen. His cheeks had flushed slightly from the unexpected attention, but were quickly returning to their normal color. "You think I should stay in here to eat? I was just going to grab something and then go hang out with Sylas some more, but he's already eaten. Also, he's asleep," the forest prince said, still looking torn despite his words.

"You should eat here." Verolen nodded. "It'll be better for your appearance. You might get asked to sign some stuff though," He said jokingly, moving away to grab some food. "Don't worry about dinner, I'll get it for you!"

"Well I... okay, Verolen," L'arc said, his smile growing a bit as he looked around for an empty chair. This wasn't hard, for it seemed like every chair he glanced at emptied of its own accord. He sat down in the nearest one, feeling slightly awkward as he looked around at the residents of Treefort.

"Verolen's not been talking bad about me, has he?" he asked, an attempt at conversation.

"I don't think so," The younger girl L'arc was sitting across from said, albeit quietly. "He was telling us stories about you and Sylas and the others." She stared at him for a few minutes, then said, "Is Sylas really a human? Verolen said he was raised by trees. I don't think the trees would raise a human."

"Of course he's a human," L'arc said. "And he's my closest friend, too. The trees know a good heart when they see one, and Sylas is just about the nicest guy you could hope for. Not all humans are evil, you know. Niether are all demons. I mean, you've seen Verolen, yeah?" he explained gently. "The trees are wise, so they know a good human from a cruel one." He nodded at his reasoning, then smiled at the girl.

"Oh. I guess." She looked down at her food again, taking a few bites before asking another question. "Do the trees know a good heart from a bad one even when the person is a baby?"

"Ella, darling, don't bother L'arc," Her mother, next to her, chided gently.

"Oh. Sorry." She looked back down at her food, going back to eating.

"Maybe. I don't know. Sylas was very young when Jemina took him in. You could ask Versha, if you wanted to know for sure," L'arc suggested, before turning to Ella's mother. "It's no trouble at all, really. In fact, it's something I've wondered about myself, sometimes," he said.

"Mommy, can we ask Versha after dinner?" Ella asked, taking L'arc's suggestion gratefully.

"After is not needed," The Tree Spirit in question approached with a smile on her face. "Ask me what, little one?"

"Oh hey, tree lady," Verolen greeted as he plopped down next to L'arc, setting a plate down in front of the prince as well.

"Hello, Darklands-Treader," She didn't stop smiling.

"Hey, what's your tree-name again? The Tree of smiling? I haven't seen you upset over anything just yet." Verolen grinned.

"It's the Tree of Shelter, oh narrow minded one. I remain cheerful because my duty is being fufilled in more ways than one." The way they spoke implied that their banter was nothing but playful, thankfully. "Now then. There was a question for me?"

"Yeah," L'arc said. "Ella here wanted to know something about the infinite wisdom of the trees," he said, smiling at the girl. She'd obviously become suddenly shy, so L'arc spoke up for her. "She wanted to know, and so did I, if you had the ability to sense the good and evil in a person's heart. I don't remember much about my mother, but I believe that she said something about--"

L'arc broke off suddenly, a sudden thought striking him. He blinked up at Versha, his eyes going wide and his eyebrows raising as he processed what he'd just realized. "My mother. Gods. Has she been... gods." He stood and paced the room a few times as he tried to work out his words. "She must have... Versha, can you tell me something?" he asked, looking very near desperate as he turned back to the dryad. "Are all dryads reborn, or just the ones with a... a purpose to the longevity of the forest? Is... is it possible that... my mother will be..." again, he trailed off, his gaze hopeful as he waited for Versha's reply.

Versha blinked at him. "I can indeed sense the difference between good and evil. But it is not a lack of evil that makes a good heart; all bear a level of darkness within them, L'arc. It is an eternal battle between good and evil, and it is the choices for all men to make that determine which will emerge the victor. Good and bad are two things not a single person is born without. How someone is raised has an effect on this. How they are treated has an effect on this. It all begins at the youngest of ages. To say that one is without evil is not but a lie. Even heroic Sylas has done things in full awareness that could be considered 'evil' or 'wrong'."

She moved on to his next question. "Your mother...it is possible that she would be reborn. The Tree of Rebirth returns a Tree Spirit wholly and completely. But for her to return to life, this war must meet a conclusion...and the Tree of Ribirth must be standing still at the end of it."

L'arc nodded at Versha's explainations, his pacing slowing to a stop as he thought about what she had just said. "...though I didn't need any further proof that this war should end as quickly as possible, I now have more," he responded quietly, but loud enough for everyone in the room to here, due to the respective silence following his outburst.