Young Writers Society

Quinn threaded her way through the tall grasses and strolled quietly through the loam, until she reached a small glade lit by soft green light that filtered through the trees.

Quinn could never forget the soft, magical look about this place. She often came here when she was feeling tempest-tossed by her emotions.

She heard a quiet snuffling sound to her right. Turning quickly, she saw Max, curled up by a small waterfall over which a small brook tumbled merrily.

"Oh," she couldn't help it. The soft sigh escaped her. She walked quietly over to where he sat, and taking his head into her lap, began to stroke his hair softly.

After a while, he turned to her and said, "Sorry, Valmorr said that I should just let all my emotions out once and for all, and I guess I let them get the better of me."

After washing his face in the sweet water, they walked back, talking cheerfully the whole time.

"Max. I need to talk to you."
Max looked up to see his sister, she looked concerned so he said goodbye to Quinn.
"What's wrong?"
"Im scared."
Max gave his sister a strange look, her of all people was scared of something.
"Of what."
"That sooner or later the battle is going to catch up to us and daddy will have to go and fight."
Since Terrall's death a battle with Terrall's follower's began when the new king took to the throne, it had been getting worse over the year's.
"I see what you mean but why are you telling me this?" he stared off into the distance.
"Im going to take his place in the battle, so he wont have to go."
Max nearly chocked on his spit when she said that, "How do you propose you do that, your a woman. Women in battle is forbiddion now, the price would be death."
"I'll disguse myself, I can bind my breasts and cut my hair a little shorter." She sighed, "I just cant let daddy go, he is still getting sick Max."
That got his attention, their father had been experianceing pain's for awhile. It was the price for killing Terall.
"If you go than Im going with you."
"Deal. Just dont tell mom or dad, we can leave at first light."
Little did they know, Kraven had been listening to them and was already planning on how to follow them. He sure as hell wasnt letting them go by themselves. Well he wasnt going to let Leslie go by herself.
.................................
At dinner Yeng noticed both of his children were unusally quiet and were barely eating, that was unusal for Leslie when they were eating her favorite dish.
"Leslie are you sick?" He asked and took a bite of the stewed meat.
"Huh, oh no im just not very hungry. I ate a lot of blackberries before we got back from the creek."
"And you?" he said to Max.
Oh no, Leslie thought to herself she quickly kicked Max under the table and he jumped.
"Oh yeah, berries lots of them."
Leslie rolled her eyes and let her head fall into her head, Yeng noticed and knew something was going on most definaltally between the two.
"Well than I guess you two should go to bed."
Leslie quickly jumped up and took her plate to the Ayda who was already washing the dishes, she told her goodnight and placed a kiss on her cheek. Max did the same and dissapered without a goodnight.
Yeng walked to Ayda, "I think our children our plotting something."
"Hmmm, oh you mean the quietness. I was wondering how long it would take before you noticed."
"You knew." He asked.
She nodded, "Honestly Yeng they are our children, what did you expect." He smiled and picked her up with a cocky grin on his face he kissed her.
"You can finish the dishes tomorrow. Right now lets expect good night and a goodnights sleep."
.........................................................
"Leslie."
Leslie almost fell of the makeshift sheet rope at the sound of Max's voice, "Max you dolt, are you trying to kill me."
"Sorry, I was just wondering if you were already down the rope.'' He soon followed with his knapsack on his back.
Leslie turned to come face to face with Kraven, "What do you want?"
"Me and Quinn are coming with you." It was than Leslie noticed Quinn standing behind Kraven.
"Fine just be quiet, if my dad wakes up i'll be six feet under."
Kraven nodded and adjusted the sword at his left leg, Beowulf's gift to Kraven when he had turned 16.

I am stopping here. Good work to all helping on this story(Karma, Dynamo and Doe) its really coming along.

"I was able to steal some money from my parent's secret stash." Leslie said. "We're going to have to go to town and buy some suplies."

As they were about to leave the premisis, Max remembered something. He turned and ran towards another part of their proporty.

"Max! Where are you going?!" Leslie yelled.

"I forgot something! Don't worry, I'll be right back!"


Max stopped running when he came to Yeng's shrine. It was a small shrine the his father had built for a place to meditate. Yeng always said that meditating was good for one's health.

Max openned the doors and walked in. Inside the shrine were a bunch of scrolls. On the wall at the far end of the room was a rack that held the Hokuten Blade, the sword Yeng used in his adventuring days.

Max walked up to the sword and took a few moments to look at it. He remembered his father telling him that one day he would be entrusted with this sword.

"Sorry, dad." Max said. "I really wish I could wait for you to give me this yourself."

He grabbed the sword by its handle and lifted it off of the rack. It was much longer than the sword he usually trained with, but with a little practice he figured he could get used to its length.

With that, he ran out of the shrine, closed the dorr behind him and headed back to the others.


When Max made it back to the others, they proceeded through the forest and headed to town.As they were walking, Max found it difficult to carry his father's sword without dragging it on the ground.

Max suddenly heard the small crack of a twig nearby. "Guys, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Kraven asked. "I think your mind is playing tricks on you from lack of sleep."

"SHH! There it is again!" Everyone looked around but saw nothing. "Something's following us." Max said.

Leslie walked up beside Max and sighed. "Max..."

Something jumped out of the trees above and landed behind Max and Leslie. Both of them yelped and tried to run away. Two arms grabbed them around their necks, keeping Max and his sister from going anywhere... Two furry arms.

"And where are you kids going this late at night?" Max and Leslie looked over their shoulders at the person who grabbed them.

It was Riona.

**

Matilda stirred her finger into the water and watched the line of ripples behind the boat. Her mother Geva had fallen asleep by the gentle rocking of the boat and could sometimes be heard mumbling. They had been rowing for a day and then had let the water current take them towards land, they were going to visit an old friend of her mother’s who had settled down with her family.

“Mum, wake up.” She shook her mother and pulled away the blanket. She leaned closer, “Mum, wake up.”

Geva woke with a start and felt the boat roll from side to side. “What is it?”

“We’re in a stream; you said I should wake you.”

She looked around and realised it was night already. Her daughter sat to one side and looked for a rock to tie their boat; her hair was standing on ends and was all over her face and around her neck. “They won’t be very happy to see us.”

“Ayda will. She knows me well enough to know what I’m like.”

“People change Mum.” Matilda a rope and lassoed it to the nearest rock, she pulled on it to tighten it and then together they dragged the boat towards the reeds and the bank. Matilda got out first and put all their possessions on dry land, her mother followed and hid the small boat amongst the rushes and tall grass.

“Which way is the village?” her mother asked.

She looked around and took a deep breath; she picked up smells of people, animals and plants and separated them. Her senses were like a dogs and she was able to tell in which direction the nearest village was. “This way, but I don’t know if Ayda is there.”

“We can always ask people, if she has lived here for a while people are bound to know who we are talking about.” Geva followed her daughter towards a south-east direction out of the marshland.

“Who are we going to ask? Everyone will be asleep; we’re likely to get a bucket of water thrown at us at this time.”

They walked for a good ten minutes before they came to a hillock overlooking a village. They could see one or two lights in a house and the howl of a wolf in the far distant. Geva shivered uncertainly and looked at her daughter.

“You don’t need to worry; I’ve dealt with wolves before.” Matilda assured her and set off down the hill. “We can ask at that house, it looks like someone is still awake.”

Leslie couldnt find the words to say so she panicked and everything came out at once.
"Please riona im doing it for my father, he's been so sick lately and he goes he'll wind up even more hurt."
"Whoa, calm down speedy. I wont tell your father, not intill your far enough off to. So I reckon you have about 5 hours before he awakes." She winked at them and Leslie breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thanks Riona your the best. We wont tell daddy you helped us escape."
Riona crossed her shoulders, "If you find a hot sugar daddy out there send him my way and you consider it no problem."
Leslie smiled and waved goodbye as she mounted Crystal her horse, the sun was barely breaking through the darkness as they rode out.
...........................................
Ayda suddenly sat up staright in her bed, a bad feeling was in her chest. She leaned over to Yeng, "Yeng, Yeng. Wake up."
Yeng mumbled something intellagable and rolled over to face her, "What is it?"
"I have a horrible feeling, could you go check on Leslie and Max."
Yeng groaned but got up, "I'll be right back."
He trudged across the hall to max's room, he opened the door and saw a buldge where his son was sleeping. He than walked to the end of the hallway where Leslie slept and she too was in bed.
He came back to the room, "Thier fine, their both sleeping." Ayda felt relief wash over her and she too went back to sleep.

By the time they made it to town the shops were starting to open. On the way, Max had figured out how to carry his father's sword. He temporarily strapped it onto his back, if he needed the sword he'd unstrap it from his back.

Leslie counted the money she stole and divided it up among the group. "If we all buy our supplies seporately then we can leave here a lot sooner. We'll meet back here in half an hour."

Max went by himself to buy his supplies. He stopped in the middle of the road when he saw a group of kids just older than he was. One of them had an arm in a cast. They all turned to see Max. It was Mark and Flash, and they weren't alone.

Flash pointed at Max with his unbroken arm. "There he is! Get him!"

Max turned around and ran into a nearby alley. Before he came out the other end of the alley, Max tripped and fell. When he got up to face his persuers they had all stopped running. They all stared at Max with a terrified expression. They all screamed and ran away.

"What was that all about?" Max asked himself.

He felt a hot breeze brush against him from behind. He turned around to see Valmorr.

Oh so they wernt running away from him, he opened his mouth to say something.
"Your father know's you and Leslie's ran away."
Fear swept through him as he looked around for Leslie and the others, Leslie had went to buy some binding so she could hide her womanhood from prying eyes in the war.
"Dont worry I'll keep him distracted, just get that wild sister of yours and get away from here."
Not needing to be told twice he turned to run back around the corner and came face to face with his sister who now had short hair and was flatchested, "Uh leslie, dad knows we're gone. We have to get to the next town."
She nodded and whistled for Crystal who came trumping over to them, "I'll get the other's."

Sorry its so short today but i have to work and this all i have time for.

They all got out of town safely, but only just; Yeng was only an hour behind them now, so they all walked in a stream to cover their tracks until nigtfall when the stream slowed to a trickle.

"I'm tired!" Quinn said, landinng on a patch of soft moss witha muffled Whump!

"So am I," said Leslie, "Let's get some food. By the way, where are the boys?"

"Here's food!" Max and Kraven reappeared with ssome mushrooms and vegetables.

"There's no point lighting a fire, as Dad'll track it to us, so it's vegetarian tonight, I'm afraid."

Geva knocked loudly on the door and heard someone rushing to the door. A woman in a nightgown opened it hurriedly and frowned when she saw them.

“Yes, what is it?” she asked and looked behind them. She was obviously expecting someone else.

“Sorry to bother you, love. But me and my daughter, like, we’re looking for my friend who might live around here. Her names Ayda, so do you know her?”

The woman’s frown disappeared only to be replaced by a look of curiosity. “I am she. I’m Ayda, I mean. Who are you?”

Geva’s face lit up and she smiled. “It’s me Geva. Do you remember, from Norden, we used to be mates?” She pulled her daughter inside the house, even though they hadn’t been invited in, and continued. “This is Matilda, she’s my daughter.”

“Hello.” Matilda said.

Ayda closed the door after checking the road leading out of the village. “Well Geva. I don’t know what to say.” She remembered her childhood friend but had never expected to see her again. She looked from Geva to her daughter and then set two chairs by the table. “Please sit.”

“Thanks. You’ve changed, Ayda. It must be because of this new life of yours. You’ve forgotten all about me.”

Ayda scratched her head thoughtfully. “I haven’t forgotten it’s just a surprise really. Would you like something to eat?”

“Oh yes please. We haven’t had a bite for a while, innit Mat?”

The girl nodded in reply.

Soon the clatter of knife and fork against the plates could be heard and Geva did most of the talking. She told Ayda about the adventures she had after leaving home and asked her a lot of questions about her new life.

“Two kids, eh? What are their names?”

“Leslie and Max. Leslie is the eldest.”

“Leslie, isn’t that a boys name? You look a little worried. What’s happened?”

“Nothing.” Ayda fiddled with her fingers and wished Yeng and the kids were alright. Of course they will be.

Geva wasn’t convinced but did not say anything afterwards.

“You’ll want to stay then? I’ll get the spare room ready.”

“No, no. That’s Matilda’s job, just show her the way and it’ll be ready in no time.”

Ayda looked at her friend’s daughter who wasn’t very pleased with her mum. “It’s this way.” They climbed the stairs to the first floor and walked along the passage to the first door. “It’s quite comfortable; I hope you have a good night.”

Matilda thanked her and set about arranging the beds. It took her a while and from downstairs she could hear their hushed voices. I wish Mum would keep her mouth shut.

(OOC: Shold they go to the king's palace and asassinate him, or what?))

Dunno, what with YWS shutting down should we send this our emails???)

After eating the very unapetizing food, Leslie strolled away from the campsite. Kraven watching her got up and headed in her direction, not wanting her to know he was following he kept quiet. She walked a little ways up the stream and sat down on a large boulder near the small waterfall. He stopped a few feet away and hid himself as she started to talk to herself.
"I wonder if im doing the right thing." she said and sighed. "I mean daddy hasnt got the energy to go to war but nor does he have the engery to chase after me and Max, its all my fault if he is. At least he wont have to go to war that doesnt need him." Even with her hair shoulder length and her breast bond she was still a beauty, she would never give him the time of day though. Deciding to go and comfort her he stepped out of the clearing, "Um Leslie, are you okay?" she looked startled and than relaxed as she noticed who it was, "Im fine Kraven."

Sorry guys im late for work and have to go...sorry its so short.

Max decided to act as a lookout. He climbed to the top of a nearby tree and watched his surroundings. After a while, he got bored and tried to think of something else to do. He unstrapped his father's sword from his back and unsheathed it a bit to look at its blade.

He felt bad for stealing it from his father's shrine, but know he realized that it wasn't such a bad thing. Without his sword, Yeng couldn't fight in a war.

"That's not the reason why you took it."

Max was startled. He lost his balance and fell out of the tree.

Quinn ran over to Max. "Max! Are you ok?"

(Does anyone have some space that we could put it on? We could do it by e-mail.....)

I'm sure we can continue this in the site Dusky created, we'll probably have to copy all this though. I'm doing it and saving it on floopy.

Thanks can someone send it to my email and the address from the dusty person my email is furygirl88@hotmail.com