The Forgotten Zodiac

"I'm sure it won't be too much work for me to get it back," Byrne said. "I'll just have to think about it a bit." He glanced over to Sylas, then back to Tobias. "Anything else?"

"Well, aside from the wrinkling of the nose, you might be a bit surprised at...the smell. You foresters don't call humans stinky for nothing. Letting their horses drop their loads in the streets...absolutely filthy." Tobias sighed.

"It can't be that bad." Sylas frowned.

"Boy, you've been living with the trees all your life. Trees make fresh air that doesn't smell. Human buildings trap air and make it almost stifling in a lot of places. I'm more of a country man myself, that's partly why I'm here and not there. I just wanted to make sure you know to watch your step. And not just because of the gangs."

"Oh, yeah," Byrne said, snickering slighlty as he recalled the town he had grown up in. "Yeah, it's not as pretty as you might expect, Sylas," he said.

"But..." Sylas frowned at Tobias. "Whatever happened to 'human ingenuity'? You guys make better archetects than foresters, that's for sure. Not counting Nymphs." He glanced over his shoulder, only to find that Bird had already wandered off. "That temple was kind of nice. B-but anyway, I don't see how it can't be at least interesting...I mean, I wouldn't want to live in a house, but..."

"Well, most of the cities are getting overpopulated," Byrne said. "The towns are nice and clean, but as the cities get more crowded, things get messier."

"I guess that makes sense...let's try to avoid cities, then." Sylas nodded thoughtfully. "Um...thanks for your help. Both of you. I really appreciate it."

"Yeah, no problem," Byrne said, straightening up again and facing the target as it appeared the conversation was over. "As soon as we get the humans out of the forest, the war will be over. And I don't like war," he said.

"Our war," Sylas corrected, quite serious. "There's still the conflict in Oceanica, but...the forest has had enough conflict...and we can't exactly help all that much. So..." He rubbed the back of his neck, wondering why he had mentioned it in the first place. "I don't think the world will ever be truly at peace...someone will always fight with someone else. That's just how the world spins..."

"That's true," Byrne said, glancing over his shoulder to look at Sylas. He then pitched his lance at the target again. "Which means we should keep on our game, right?"

"There's never a reason to go off it!" Sylas insisted, smiling a bit. "We'll be facing this...oh, what's his name...I forget. We're facing this Dark Chaos guy, we might want to research up on him a little more...like what he's capable of..."

"Not a bad idea," Byrne said, nodding as he retrieved his lance. "Do you want me to come help with that?" he offered.

((-realizes Dark Chaos can control Byrne's arm- -evilsmile- ))

((RUSH SAID IT AWHILE AGO. xDD))

"Nah, I think I can get it. Rush is still pouring over that book, anyway." Sylas shrugged. "Come if you want, I don't mind either way."

"Nah, I think I'll keep practicing," he said, tapping his new arm. "Gotta get used to this after all."

((I JUST NOW MEREMBERED))

((WELL I'M GLAD YOU THINK OF IT AS FUN.))

"Right," Sylas grinned, then turned. "See you later, then!" He called over his shoulder, hurrying back towards the town. He paused, spying Bird lingering near the beginning of the dirt road. Suddenly, Sylas realized that he hadn't spent much time actually in the town. He had always lingered on the outskirts...

Sylas shook his head and continued on his way, humming a small tune.

((AYE))

Meanwhile, Eve and Manny were wandering about the middle of town, as it had been discovered that Manny's strength helped a great deal in the constructing of the town.

"What else should I lift? I can lift those bags of gravel. Should I lift the gravel bags?" Manny was quite excited. He had never thought he could be a help to more than just Eve. Eve was the priority, of course, but this was wonderful news. He loved helping people, he had discovered.

Eve merely nodded to Manny as the grateful humans directed him about. As Manny worked, she had been gradually filtering some of the residual Dark Matter floating around in the air, and had a small amount right now that she toyed with like putty in her hands.

Verolen approached not long after. He watched Eve with her Dark Matter, quite curious as to what all she could do with it. She had...essentially created life with Manny. That was no small matter. Sentient, talking Dark Matter that mimicked the appearance of a normal humanoid creature. Eve was powerful in her element, it seemed.

"Hey," Verolen said softly after a few minutes, clearing his throat. "Everything going good?"

Eve jumped slightly at his voice, not having realized that Verolen was there. She turned slightly to give him a smile. "Yes. Manny does so love helping these people, and if he's happy, so am I," she said. "What about you? Things going okay?"

"Yeah, things are fairly decent. We're delaying our trip to the human realm while we wait for Bermuda to recover. I thought I'd pass along the news." He smiled, glad to see her so happy. "Hey, you got more Dark Matter. I'd tell you to be more careful with it, but...you know what you're doing, I'm sure." He turned and watched Manny for a little while. Indeed, the mass of Dark Matter was quite happy with helping; he lifted what the humans couldn't, making their jobs a whole lot easier, and they were quite grateful. They were building a barn now, for the horse and oxen. They had dismantled two of the three carriages in favor of wheelbarrels that Verolen had helped construct earlier.

"He certainly looks happy. It's interesting, his internal structure...growing and amassing like it is. He could potentially change again...but I like how it looks right now. It reminds me of the nervous system, the way he branches out from a core...but the core isn't his spine, it's somewhere in his gut. Can he move it?"

((The answer is yes.))