The Forgotten Zodiac

"What?" Rush poked his head out of a tent. "Yeah, what is it?" He wandered over, blinking at Bird. "Hey, a Nymph. Your mask is broken. I'll get you some wood to make another one," He started to wander off, but he spied the writing on the ground. "The Dark Chaos Cometh? What's that supposed to mean?"

Bird bobbed his head excitedly and drew out another sentence. "An evil bent on increasing chaos wherever it lies." Rush translated. "Huh." He frowned, then spied what L'arc was holding. "Uh...L'arc, where did you get that? Isn't that..."

L'arc face had drained of all color when he realized what he had unleashed. "Oh, gods," he said, sitting down quickly. "At... at least I can plant the seed..." he muttered, knowing he sounded pretty pathetic.

"Did you have something to do with this, L'arc?" Rush frowned. "I wish there were some texts I could read on this or something...the name Dark Chaos is familiar, but..."

"L'arc!" Sylas hurried over from the tent. "We can't read this book, maybe Rush--hey, Rush! Read this for us, yeah?" He up the book in Rush's hands.

"Oh. The Dark Chaos Cometh," He read off the spine. "I guess Bird here was telling you to read the book," Rush chortled, opening it and sitting down to read. "I'll tell you what I find, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks." Sylas nodded. "Er...L'arc, maybe you'll be interested in this," He handed over a small scroll, smiling a bit. "It says it's from the Mother Tree."

L'arc took the scroll with one hand, then passed the seed he'd been carrying over to Sylas. "Thanks, Sy. Hold onto that for me, okay?" he asked, before sitting down where he was and looking over the scroll.

Sylas nodded, holding the seed close. The scroll read, 'To those who are concerned; locked within this temple is an incomparable evil. I, the Mother Tree of the forest, have given a number of important things to lock it away; the lives of many Wood Nymphs, and my own daughter. If you are reading this, Bird, Rosa, I am very sorry. I did what had to be done, at the cost of your family. I could only leave you with each other. Please take care of each other, at all costs. This is unacceptable on my part...even more unacceptable is the fact that I have to ask you now to guard this place.

The seals will require sacrifice every so often. What you give is up to you, but the more important it is, the longer the seal will stay strong. In the case that the seal breaks, you are to take the Seed from the pedastal and give it to the king of the forest at the time. Sealing the Dark Chaos away after that...will be a challenge. But I have faith that you'll keep it strong until the inevitable day that it breaks. When it does, seek the Tree of Truth. He bears what harms the Chaos the most. Again...I'm sorry. For everything. Live well.'

"It's...not the happiest of letters," Sylas muttered. "I mean...where's Rosa?"

"Let me get you that wood for another mask. How about some feathers, too? Your name is Bird, after all." Rush smiled a bit, and flew off to find the aforementioned items. His reasoning was pretty clear to anyone who knew about wood nymphs; they always wore masks. If their mask was broken or lost, they often became depressed or saddened to great extents. Some of them would go so far as to sow their masks onto their faces to keep it on. Painful sounding, but it was just their ritual. Making another wood mask would cheer Bird up immensely.

Bird settled down in the grass, starting to dig a hole with his hands. He placed the broken half of his mask in it, as well as the rest of it. He sighed heavily as he buried it. He was quite handsome, albiet dirty. His black hair was long and braided heavily, his brown eyes looking down with sadness at the spot he had just covered with dirt. He found a rock and started carving a symbol into it with his knife, placing it on top. Like a little burial site.

L'arc, not knowing if it was insulting or not, tried hard not to study the nymph's face. He watched the mask as it went into the ground, then watched Bird's hands as he made the tiny marker for his mask. He glanced down at the scroll again, then over to Bird.

"Where... and who... is Rosa?" L'arc asked. The beginnings of an idea were forming in his mind, but it was an idea that made him feel sour inside. And so he hoped it wasn't true.

Bird looked up sadly at L'arc, then made a motion; he drew a line over his neck. That was obvious enough. Rosa was dead. "Did...did you..." Sylas stammered, frowning. Bird looked very much like he wanted to hit Sylas then and there. He shook his head furiously, a slight hiss escaping from his lips at the mention of it.

"So...she...she gave herself up...?" Sylas blinked. Bird nodded. She gave herself up to keep the seal strong. To keep her little brother Bird from giving anything else for a long time. Their lives, in the long run, weren't extensively important. Even a young Mother Tree could make young Nymphs from wandering souls. That's what made the first Nymphs, and that's what would make the next. But Rosa had been important to Bird. The seal had held for years and years.

"...and I wasted that sacrifice," L'arc said quietly. He closed his eyes, looking pained. "I'm so sorry, Bird. Heh, my first act as King..." he shook himself slightly, gritting his teeth. "I'm going to make it up to you. I promise."

Bird blinked, then nodded once. A sign of acceptance of L'arc's offer, or an insistance that L'arc would. Rush returned by this time, with a whole bag full of black and brown bird feathers, and a good sized log. Even a small container of paint that he had made from various things in the forest. Red and green paints in a little wooden bowl. "Here," He set all the stuff down, smiling. "Here, you can use this for a carving knife," He held out his blade, which Bird took. The Nymph pulled the wood log into his lap, getting to work at once.

"Come on, you should come read the rest of the texts with me," Sylas tugged on L'arc's sleeve. "It...might be best to leave him alone while he's doing this."

"Right," L'arc said, getting to his feet and following after Sylas. "I'm coming, Sy," he said. He turned and looked at Bird, smiling. "I'll see you later, then."

Bird waved, but didn't look up, already distracted with making his new mask.

"These scrolls are basically documentation of a lot of Nymph culture." Sylas explained. "And a couple mentions of Dark Chaos. From what Kendra found, all Nymphs have a natural resonance with the world. If we got Bird a flute, he could play a song to calm the storms, or help along regrowth after a fire. Wood Nymphs especially are tuned into the weather, calling down rain or winds to direct pollenation, or water the forest. There's more about other kinds of Nymphs, but we don't really need to know too much about them. 

"But basically, Dark Chaos was something that went horribly wrong. It doesn't say much about him, just that he was once a Nymph himself, but he changed when he stole the Scyre. Dunno what that is. But the rest of this stuff is really interesting. Water Nymphs make masks out of stones from the bottom of a river, Wood Nymphs like to carve theirs out of logs, and earth Nymphs just rub their face in the dirt." He chuckled at the thought of it. "But, uh...I know why Bird was tying that noose. They get really upset when their mask breaks. A lot of Nymphs kill themselves over it. Some sort of spiritual tie with the things, I guess...is Bird making a new mask?"

"This looks like a journal," Verolen said. "Look, there are pictures. This must be his old mask," He showed L'arc, frowning a bit. "But it's a stupid phonetic language that I can't quite understand. Some of them are obvious, but...the rest are just...lines. It's completely impossible to read this."

"Impossible?" L'arc asked. "Can't the Library read it at all, or is there not cipher to it?" he asked, looking over at the archaic symbols. "I wish I'd learned how to read it, it's common practice, usually, but... you know how things went down," he said.

"Impossible for me, anyway. Maybe Rush can figure it out, but I have no idea how Bird intended for anyone else to read this..." Verolen shrugged.

"Maybe he didn't." Sylas blinked. "It looks really close to the writings on the wall. The Nymph language, right? But...different. Right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Verolen frowned.

"Maybe he wrote it differently because he thought he could improve on the language, or...there were just things he forgot." Sylas suggested.

"I guess that makes sense..." Verolen sighed. "We should get Rush on this. But he's busy reading that 'Dark Chaos Cometh' book. Man, L'arc, what did you get yourself into?"

"Hey, it's not his fault." Sylas interjected.

"I'm not blaming him, I'm just wondering how we went from everything calming down to the sudden release of some creep in a suit talking about humans and the Mother Tree. It's all a bit fishy, if you ask me. Preplanned, almost."

"That guy did say he's been watching us. I wonder how..."

"That's a question," Verolen nodded thoughtfully. "Dark Chaos..."

"Yeah..." Sylas nodded, then went back to reading about the Nymph cultures. "We need to make this guy a flute. Maybe we could get him a lute, too. They really like music. I'm surprised he survived down there alone for so long..."

"We'll have to ask... someone," L'arc said, realizing he had been planning on finishing the sentence with Bermuda's name. He'd been able to see in the future before, but now, without Adahre...

"...could you make him an instrument, Verolen?" L'arc asked. "I'd hate for him to entertain thought about killling himself... he being the last nymph and everything."

"Sure." Verolen shrugged. "I'll go do that now."

"The Mother Tree can always make more. According to this, they were basically her gift to all of the forest. If she made them all once, she can make them again." Sylas pointed out. "He must be lonely though, poor guy...and we could use his help. No one talks to the Tree of Truth, he doesn't even speak unless someone trustworthy is nearby. Someone who's never told a lie. I dunno if Bird is entirely truthful or not, but I do know that the Mother Tree intended for him to go to sir Truthiness the moment Dark Chaos was free. If it's an errand for her, all trees will be practially jumping out of his way," Sylas chortled. "Oh, this is interesting. It says that close relatives of the fallen will often take their masks and wear them instead. Maybe the mask that broke was Rosa's...I'd be pretty darn upset, that's for sure. This whole mask this is awfully creepy, though..."

"They're nymphs," L'arc said, shrugging a bit and acting as if those two words explained everything. Realizing they didn't he added, "The druid line is descended from them, you know. It's where we get our magic from. Though, it has gotten fairly diluted over time... likely because the nymphs vanished. ...all the more reason to get them back," he said.

"Yeah. I guess. Hey, you know what would really cheer Bird up? Introducing him to Versha. She's been better, you know." Sylas grinned. "They like trees, right? A Tree Spirit like Versha would be awesome for that guy. She's really nice." He kept reading for a moment, then frowned. "Uh...we should wait until he gets his mask done, though. The more people see his real face, the more upset he's gonna get."

"He's already done with the carving. He just needs to finish decorating." Rush was hanging near the entrance of the tent.

"Really? That was fast."

"If you spent a good piece of your life making masks to honor fallen family and friends, I'm pretty sure you'd get really good at it, too." The chimera chortled. "Hey L'arc, this book is great and all, but I can't read it. It's Nymph, yeah, but a lot of it is...weird. Scrambled, almost. It's going to take me awhile to discipher it..."

"If anyone can decipher it, it'd be you, Rush," L'arc said. His earlier hope of getting Rush to read what was on the other scroll faded - it was likely that the same kind of writing was tripping him up in the book he'd just finished perusing. "Were you able to read any of it?" he asked.

"Only the first couple of chapters. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a novel or a historical document. It's written like a fairy tale." Rush tutted.

"They're Nymphs. Basically fairytales already." Sylas pointed out.

"I dunno. It seems a bit...ridiculous." Rush sighed. "Can't we just bunker down and wait for this one to blow over?"

"...as King, I don't think I should do that anymore," L'arc said with a sigh. He wanted nothing more than to do what Rush suggested, but that wasn't really an option for him. "It can at least wait until we have reconstruction underway... but I'll need to look in to it soon," he said.