The Forgotten Zodiac

((YOU READ MY MIND))

Before too long, Fredrick bounded over the river and slid to a stop in the clearing next to a lake. Lumpy sniffed around. "This...this isn't right. I left him here. I left him here! He was right here, where is he?" He whimpered. "V-Verolen, he's not here,"

"Track him! Find him!" Verolen snarled. Lumpy whined and sniffed about, then turned his head and bumped Gumpy.

"Hey, help me track down the human!" Lumpy demanded. Gumpy barked at him then sniffed about. They ran off, and Fredrick sighed and followed at a trot.

L'arc frowned deeply, worried terribly about Sylas. If he was wounded, which was likely...

"Oh gods, I hope he didn't go back into the fire," he murmured, his hands quaking slightly as he worried. "Sylas!" he yelled, hoping the human was in earshot. "Answer me!"

Lumpy and Gumpy were leading away from the fires, though. "Hey, look," Lumpy pointed out.

"Blood! He's bleeding. He stopped here for a long time..." Gumpy sniffed. "A few minutes, at least. Bleeding...hm."

"Well...he's definitely hurt," Verolen grunted. "Wait, WAIT, Fredrick!" He hissed. "Come on. Let's go on foot. He can't have gone far..."

"I smell others," Lumpy growled. "Close. Not humans...demons. Very close. Careful, master..." Verolen sighed heavily, sliding off the horse's back.

L'arc dismounted after Verolen, stroking Frederick's nose gently before following after Verolen. "Sylas!" he called again, one hand resting on the hilt of his blade, just in case. "Sylas, are you there? Come on, respond!"

"Over here!" A familiar voice called. Not Sylas'.

The Phantom's.

Verolen stormed forward, furious. "Father! What did you do to him now?!"

"I'm offended," The Phantom was merely...standing there. Calmly. Smiling. He spoke with sarcasm, but that faded by his next sentence. "He had broken ribs. Torn through the skin and everything. I patched him up, he's resting now. He couldn't call out or anything due to the breaks, they're restricting his breathing." He shrugged.

Sylas was lying nearby, Talos standing over him. The human was rather pale, and looked absolutely terrified.

L'arc's sword was halfway out of its sheath before he realized that the Phantom was probably using Sylas as a hostage, and held up his hands in a show of non-aggression. "Get away from him," he said, his voice quiet. "Please. Don't hurt him again. He can't take it."

"I thought he was stronger than that. After everything he's been through," The Phantom chuckled. "Why would I do anything to hurt him? He's such a good little human. Not. He's technically a traitor to his kind, but...why would I care about that?" He shrugged with another smile. "Talos suggested that we stick a knife in his throat, but that's a little rude, isn't it? You can take him if you want, but I don't suggest a horse ride. Broken ribs, remember?"

"...right. The Spell of Black." Verolen nearly laughed with relief. "L'arc...it's fine. He's not going to hurt a fly, now."

"Well, if it's buzzing in my face, I'll want it to go away, probably." He chuckled.

L'arc looked very freaked out. He reached over and pinched himself to make sure he hadn't passed out in the fire and was having a weird smoke-induced dream, before realizing that this was very real.

L'arc ran over to Sylas' side, making a sort of growl noise at Talos, before returning his gaze to his best friend, worried. "You're okay, you'll be all right."

Talos glared, but backed away. "My lord, these people have done something to you..."

"Like what? They don't look like someone who would do anything bad." The Phantom chortled. "Sit down, lad, you look like you're--" He stopped as Sylas let out a raspy, panicked sound.

"Get away," He wheezed, trying to push L'arc away. He dragged himself away desperately, pure bewilderment in his gaze. "Get away...from me..." He rolled himself over and pulled himself along on the ground. But without warning, the groud gave way beneath him, opening up a nice Sylas-sized hole. He fell with a cry of panic and pain.

The Phantom nonchalontly wandered over and peered down into the hole. "Hm. Looks like some underground building. Perhaps some catacombs. The winter must have weakened the stones. We should find a safe way down." He blinked as a wail of pain from Sylas wafted up from the darkness. "Oh yeah. Broken ribs. Those must have been jarred..."

"Sylas, no!" L'arc said, staring frantically down into the hole. He turned and glared at the Phantom over his shoulder - he knew he was a good guy now, but old habits die hard - and said "We can find our own way, thank you."

Even as he spoke, L'arc knew how he was going to get down. Muttering under his breath, he caused a vine to grow around his own arm and slid into the hole, lowering himself slowly. 

"Sy, can you see me coming down?" he called. "Tell me when I'm close to the bottom, okay? I'm coming for you!"

The Phantom watched quietly for a moment, then looked around. He noticed a sunken-in patch of earth, and walked over to it. As he expected, the ground gave way the second he put weight on it. He paused, then kicked a bit of rubble in. It was barely a second before he heard a clunk, so he dropped down without much hesitation. He turned, and was able to see Sylas, lying on some stairs. The ceiling remained at the same height while the stairs descended; it went from the Phantom barely capable of standing to almost fifteen meters from the ceiling to the floor.

"This place is quite impressive!" He exclaimed, smiling. "I wonder what it's for. You wouldn't have an underground temple for no reason, would you? Perhaps it's some catacombs, or a hidden vessel for a mysterious treasure...oh, Sylas, I would quit squirming if I were you. I don't want poor L'arc to have to deal with a punctured lung. L'arc is probably right, you just can't take much more. I've been simply awful to you in the past..."

Without warning, L'arc's vine snapped. On the surface, Talos put away his knife and muttered something about the Phantom's true bidding.

L'arc yelped and fell, but luckily he hadn't been too far from the bottom at that point. He landed on his feet and felt the jolt of hitting the ground weaken his ankles, but he was fine. Glaring up at the hole, he shouted. "Verolen, shout a warning for me next time!"

He didn't look around the place they had fallen in to, but rushed at once to Sylas's side. "I'll get you out, yeah?" he said, slinging one of Sylas's arms over his shoulder. He headed up the stairs, but stopped as he reached the Phantom.

"Move over, I need to get me," he said.

"Sorry!" Verolen called back. "Little preoccupied at the moment!" Talos had turned on him, unfortunately.

"Are you certain you should be dragging him about like that? Broken ribs are nothing to laugh about, the slightest movement could hurt him more..." Verolen Sr. murmured, but moved out of the way regardless.

"Call Talos off of your son!" L'arc snapped, wanting to help Verolen but a little preoccupied with Sylas at the moment. He held Sylas gently and found a safe place to sit the human down, then sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"This... is bad," he murmured, reaching to take Sylas' hand.

Sylas pulled his hand away, still looking up at L'arc with a gaze of fear and worry. The Phantom yelled something up at Talos in another language, then turned back to L'arc and Sylas. "Are you sure you don't want any help...?"

L'arc grit his teeth, looking to the Phantom. "What can you do?" he asked, grabbing for Sylas' hand again.

"I can do a lot of things." The Phantom watched quietly as Sylas pulled back again, whimpering. "I did this to him. I can take it back."

"Well, would you?" L'arc said, appearing more distressed as Sylas pulled away a second time. He thought for a moment, digging around in his pocket until he drew out the blue bottle.

It was cracked, and about half of the potion was gone. "Verolen!" L'arc called. "Am I supposed to give him what's left of this?" he asked, not really remembering what Rush had said to do.

"I guess! Little bu--Augh!" Verolen yelled as the ceiling gave way again. Verolen and Talos both fell, Talos weilding Verolen's sword against him. The Phantom snarled something at Talos and dragged him away, clearly frustrated with his 'loyal servant'. "As I was saying, L'arc, I could take his wounds upon myself. It's the least I can do after...well. Everything."

"Yes, it would be," L'arc said. He pulled off the top of the bottle and tipped the contents into Sylas' mouth, making sure the human swallowed before looking back up at the Phantom. "Do what you can. I'm not losing him now," he said.