The Forgotten Zodiac

"L'ARC!" Sylas yelled down. "L'arc, can you hear me? L'aarrrcccc!"

When L'arc opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on a pile of...bedding. Blankets and pillows, sown from grass and feathers, all piled up into a soft cusioning. Straw and moss, as well. The torch was currently in the hands of someone very...odd. He was tall, clearly adult-sized in height and build. Underfed, clearly so. He wore animal skins as clothing, and he wore a cracked mask that was shaped like a feline of some kind. It had been painted at one point, but it was clearly worn and old.

As L'arc looked at him, he walked over and held out his hand. Not in a threatening manner, either. In a way that indicated he wanted to help L'arc up.

L'arc, who had temorarily blacked out upon landing, took the stranger's hand and shakily stood. Gazing up in the direction he had fallen, he heard Sylas' screams. "I'm... I'm fine, Sy! I... I found your masked hero!" he called up, his smile reaching into the tone of his voice. "Don't come down, I think... I think I'll be back up soon!" he shouted, then turned his gaze to the mysterious stranger. "...right?"

There was a long moment of silence, in which the stranger just nodded. And then the silence continued. Then he turned away, turning down into a short passage.

"Be careful!" Sylas yelled from above.

The stranger led the way in complete silence, no sound but the crunching of dust and pebbles underfoot. He passed by a set of stairs completely, and instead turned to a door, which he opened. There was a squeak from nearby, whiched caused the masked man to lurch in an odd fashion. The rat squealed for a moment more before falling still, its back broken under the man's foot. He scooped up the creature and stuffed it into what appeared to be a rabbit's hide bag of some sort.

The man continued on, until they reached a large circular room, with shelves (some toppled over here and there) stacked high. It was clearly meant to be a library of sorts; scrolls and books of all sizes were stacked high. It was a haven of knowledge, and most of the scrolls and books had the seal of the forest on them. Forestum literature was hard to come by, and this was why; at the start of the war, all of it had been hidden away. And here it was, hidden under the roots of a very normal-seeming part of the forest. It would have taken humans years to find such a place, if they had won. Which, they hadn't.

The man paused before entering through the next door. He dusted something off and showed it to L'arc; it was a banner with green cloth, a white bird emblazoned on the center. He pointed to it, then at himself. Again. He was attempting to communicate, though why he didn't speak was beyond the King.

((His name is Bird. Or White. You pick. o3o))

"Yes, it's a bird," L'arc said, looking at the symbol. He glanced up at the man again. "...bird?" he asked, tilting his head. As one man, once again, nodded almost imperceptively, L'arc nodded back. "You're Bird. I'm L'arc, the new king of the forest."

He stopped for a moment, then wandered away to the other side of the room. He dusted off another tapestry, which L'arc was able to recognize as his family tree. There were no pictures, just names. After a short moment of looking at it, then up at L'arc, then down at the tapestry again, he made a slight noise for once; a sigh. Whether it was a sigh of exasperation or relief was impossible to tell.

Bird motioned with his free hand that L'arc should follow. He headed down the dark passageway, which opened up to a set of stairs, and a door at the top. Sylas' voice wafted from behind the door, muffled and indiscernable. But still clearly Sylas'.

L'arc bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and reached the top quickly. He pushed the door open. "Sy?" he called at once, looking around for his best friend. "Kendra, are you close by?"

"L'arc?" Sylas stood. They were, from the sound of it, on the other side of a wall. There was a window into the other room, with metal bars in the way. Sylas stuck his arm through it. "Over here! Hold on, this wall looks pretty weak...maybe we could--"

Bird smacked Sylas' hand back. "Wha..." Sylas blinked. "Don't hit me!" He snapped, and attempted to stick his hand back through to reach out to L'arc. Bird drew a knife and very nearly stabbed Sylas' hand. The human withdrew, frowning.

"Hey, hey, Bird, it's okay, he's with me," L'arc said. He studied the bars, then looked back to the masked stranger. "Sylas, I think he's going to lead me around, just hang tight, okay?"

"A-alright...should we just...wait?" Sylas frowned. Bird nodded, then pulled on L'arc's sleeve. He turned, avoiding a door with an 'X' marked on it, and walked down the hall to another door. He waited for L'arc, letting out another small sigh.

((L'arc needs to make a mistake. Open a door with an X, or should it be something more serious? It'll release some terrible evil that will be bored with the dying conflict in the forest and go straight to Oceanica. It'll basically help negate the Naiads disadvantage on the ground, and since they caused it, the Forest Champions will be compelled to help. o3o))

((Okay, he'll open an x door.))

L'arc seemed distracted as he followed Bird, staring back over his shoulder at Sylas. He opened his mouth to say something to Sylas, but he walked into the wall first.

No, this was a door. It gave way as he walked into it, and L'arc fell into the room.

Bird grabbed L'arc by the ankles and dragged him back. There was a dark, whispy substance just inside, and it flowed out like smoke through the open door. Bird pulled L'arc back and pressed him against the wall, pinning the king between the wall and himself.

"Of all people to release me from this place...it's going to be the king of the forest. I can sense it, you foolish slave...you can't hide him from me." A raspy voice laughed. "Come here, king, and release me from these bonds. I've been here for so very long..." Bird was ripped away from L'arc, apparently by the smoke. It twisted and wafted in front of L'arc, pulling at his clothes. "You don't want your precious human getting hurt, do you? I can reach him...and kill him. I've been watching you for the longest of times...and I'm very eager to get out of here."

L'arc made a strangled sort of noise, flattening himself against the wall in horror. He had just finished a war with demons, he didn't want to unleash another threat on the surface... he drew out Lisben, hoping the dragonic blade would be, somehow, effective against the dark air. "Get back!" he shouted. "Get back where you came from!" He swung the sword at the haze, looking around for Bird desprately.

"Absolutely not." It hissed. "I've been locked up here for years! I missed an entire war! Not again. My chaos will reign, whether here or elsewhere. There's nothing that stupid Wood Nymph can do, either. His time is done. Now...release me, or I'll suffocate your dear Sylas."

Already, L'arc could hear coughing from the other side of the hall. Coughing and gasping from his dear friend.

"Stop! Stop hurting him!" L'arc demanded. "I don't know how to release you! Leave Sylas alone!" he shouted.

On the other side of the wall, Kendra had grabbed Sylas and pulled him close, trying to steady him. "You're all right, you're all right," she said, trying to provide him some level of comfort even though she knew she could do nothing.

Smoke had poured from the bars on the wall, and was clouding around Sylas' face. He was desperately trying to get it away, but nothing he did seemed to help. It was starving him of oxygen, and in a bad way.

"It's easy. Open the door. Inside the door you opened, there's another door. Scratch out the runes on the door and open it. Very simple. Once you do that, Sylas will be free to go...and so will I. And I'll go. I'll leave you lot alone. What do I have to gain by killing anyone here? Nothing at all. It's boring. Boring! So...come on. Take your precious sword and scratch off the marks. Come on, Sylas is dying...and when he's done, I'll move on to Kendra...then maybe Bird. Silly Bird. Should've killed him when I had the chance..."

L'arc, not knowing what else to do, quickly obeyed. He didn't know what he was getting himself into, but he knew that, after surviving the war, he wasn't going to lose Sylas over his own stupid clumsiness... in a second, he was scratching out the runes, trying to not think about what he was doing.

By the time L'arc had his hand on the door handle, Bird was behind him and trying to pull him away. He was weakened, likely by damaged sustained when he was thrown. The cracked mask was broken now, showing a pale face and a taut grimace. And in his gaze was a desperate plea to not open the door.

But it happened anyway. L'arc had no choice in the matter. The smoke dissapated, and a gentle light came from inside the room. "Very good. Next, take that glowing thing. Pick it up. It's the best thing you could possibly hold; a seed of life, the child of the Mother Tree. She gave it up to lock me away, but...it's high time the forest get their wonderful patron back, no? After all...she's dead, and her daughter is occupied keeping me locked up. That's no good for the forest, no good at all. So take it. Take the seed from the pedastal and plant it wherever you so desire. Doesn't matter to me. I'm out of here; I've learned my lesson. Messing with the forest isn't the greatest of ideas, never was. So I'll leave. Maybe I'll cause some trouble for those nasty humans that have been messing with you, eh? Not a bad deal! I get my freedom, you get your patron saint of trees back, AND humans are forced to withdraw due to chaos being caused in their land. C'mon, you can't say no to that."

"Stay away from this land," L'arc said, entering the room carefully. "That is my condition. Go far away from here," he insisted as he kneeled to pick up the seed.

"As far as I can possibly reach," The voice hissed. "Go on, take it. Hurry up. Such a pain, such a pain...but you're going to fix it. You can see sense. Such a good king..." It practically purred, the smoke pulling at L'arc's hands, urging him to go on. Move it. Hurry.

L'arc picked up the seed and braced himself against whatever force this was, only hoping he had moved quickly enough, and that Sylas was still all right...