The Forgotten Zodiac

"Perhaps it's not something he led them to. But rather, something that descended upon them." Bershee mused quietly, then shook her head. "Did you need something, L'arc?"

"Uhm, yeah," he said. "I came to uh... name the little girl," he said.

Bershee smiled, then dove back under the water. She emerged with the egg L'arc was supposed to name, holding it under the surface and making L'arc sit in the shallow end so he could hold the egg under the water. "Here. Feel," She ran his fingers along the smooth eggshell, guiding his hand with her own. "Name her when you're ready." She smiled happily.

L'arc spent a while running his fingers on the smooth surface of the egg, in thought. Finally, after what seemed like forever but was really only a few minutes, he answered. "Belle," he said. "Can we name her Belle?"

"Belle..." Bershee mulled it over for a moment, then smiled brightly. "I like that name. Belle Greywater. It's perfect." She left the egg in L'arc's hands for a moment more, then leaned up and kissed his forehead. "Thank you, L'arc. And Belle thanks you too. She, and all her siblings, will grow up knowing your bravery and kindness in all things. There are still more stories yet to be made, though...you have quite the trip ahead of you still."

"Yeah, yeah," L'arc said, gently handing the egg back to Bershee. "I know. We'll be careful and everything, all right?" he said.

Bershee smiled, then nodded. "Good. Very good. Now, I suppose you should go find your friends..." 

"...yeah," L'arc said, standing up and wringing what water he could out of his clothes. "I'll see you around, Bershee,' he said, before trudging back up the path toward town.

"Oh, and L'arc?" Bershee called after him. "I had an odd vision this morning. You should probably avoid green liquids!" She waved, then dove back underwater.

"Hey, L'arc," Sylas greeted, as he approached from town. "I was just looking for you. Glad to see you made it back okay." He smiled.

"Yeah, of course," L'arc said, grinning. "Same to you. Have you seen Byrne and Bird yet?" he asked, looking around as if expecting the two to materialize out of no where. "Oh, and how'd your search with Kendra go?" he added, his smile growing to look more like a teasing smirk.

"It was good. We found a lot of flowers, plenty. And I kissed her again." Sylas grinned, nodding. "She's amazing, L'arc. Beautiful, strong, smart...I'm in love, no denying that..." He cleared his throat, then took on a more serious tone, rather than the soft, gentle one from before. "Bird and Byrne. Uh...I haven't seen them. Should we give them a bit more time, or go after them?"

L'arc glanced up at the sky, trying to judge what time it was. "I dunno, how long has it been, again?" he asked.

"Only an hour, maybe..." Sylas glared at the sun, squinting. "The days are getting longer, it's difficult to tell from just the sun..."

"Yeah," L'arc said. "Well, it's just an hour. They'll probably turn up, but it couldn't hurt to look around for them," he said.

"Yeah. We could check the treeline." Sylas nodded. "If they're not back by high noon, we'll get together a proper search party. No worries."

"Nothing but moss and dirt. Waste of my time," The foul voice swam in Bird's mind, trudging sluggishly through his unfocused thoughts. And then, another voice. "What are you doing? Leave the poor kid's stuff alone, he's human. Probably wandered too far out from that settlement just south from here. We should take him back home. Why'd you knock him out, anyway? You didn't have to do that, Bruce."

"I didn't do this, I found 'em like this! And what about mask-man over here? What'll we do, lead him back to the settlement too? It's obvious he's a Forester. He'll eat them all!"

"Well..."

Bird opened his eyes a bit. His arms twitched, but refused to listen to his orders to push himself upright. Memories of the incident pushed their way into his mind. Gas. There had been particular rooms that had been flooded with an unusual gas; Bird had marked the doors with a circle while he had been living here. He had told Byrne not to open doors marked with X's, it was only logical that he would think the circle doors were safe. Thankfully, it hadn't been too much, and apparently they had only passed out for awhile.

But the voices. Judging from the accent and manner of speaking, human. One of them had been hurt, likely from traps in the temple, the scent of blood told him. Other than that, Bird didn't have much to go on. He opened his eyes and tried again to move his arms, this time managing a weak shift.

"Oi, he's waking up." Bruce snapped.

"Get the kid and let's get out of here," Hal hissed.

"Hold on--I said hold on! Look, there's something shiny in his pocket. Got it. Let's go!"

Bird realized what the human had done, and surged upward with renewed strength. But by the time he did, they were gone. Gone! Bird felt his pocket desperately. Gone. He made to run to the exit, but realized he needed a moment to rest. He focused on getting the scattered moss and mushrooms back into the bag. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, don't pass out, there's still gas around and it's close to the floor and I'm breathing it in again stand up you idiot! Bag in hand, Bird made for the exit. He didn't know how far ahead those humans had gotten. They were taking Byrne back to the settlement, right? He could make it there before they left. He could explain to L'arc what was wrong. Everything would be okay.

((Since I don't want to make TOO large of a wallpost, you can just have L'arc see the two men coming. .w.))

L'arc walked along the treeline with Sylas, peering into the woods as he looked for Bird and Byrne. While they walked along, they paused to talk to the trees, though the conersations grew shorter as noon approached and L'arc and Sylas began to worry.

Just as L'arc was about to suggest that they organize that search party, he heard footsteps tramping towards them from the woods. The king's sharp eyes followed the noise and quickly made out the outline of two men. No, three, they were carrying someone.

"Hello?" L'arc called, fighting the urge to rest his hand on the hilt of his blade. They weren't at war anymore, he had to remember that... "Who's there? Bird, Byrne, that you?"

"Er...no! My name is Hal, and this is my companion, Bruce!" The human called back, not stopping in his approach. "We're friendly, we found this human in the woods and decided to bring him back to the settlement here..."

"Stop, you idiot, didn't you hear that accent? He's a forester!"

"Yes, I'm a forester," L'arc said. "Haven't you heard? The war's over. We're at peace now," he attempted. "In fact, we're out looking for our friends, a human and a nymph." Here, L'arc elbowed Sylas, trying to get him to act as ambassador to the other humans.

Sylas glanced at L'arc, then remembered his own race. His own accent was that of a forester, but he cleared his throat and did the best attempt of a human accent that he could manage. "Bring him over here, he might be the boy we're looking for." He called. "We're as friendly as they come."

"Alright, alright. We are armed, so you'd better not be giving us trouble..." Bruce muttered. They tromped out of the forest, Byrne in tow. "Oh, he's waking up, too. Great."

"Don't be like that, Bruce," Hal frowned, shaking his head as he gently laid Byrne down on the ground. "Who are you two, then?"

"My name's L'arc," the druid replied, skipping his title for now. He didn't want to destroy what shaky trust these humans had placed in him.

Byrne stirred and muttered something under his breath, his eyes opening very slowly. He looked around at the group gathered over him before making an attempt to sit up. "Guh... L'arc, Sy? What happened?" he groaned.