Young Writers Society

Ian Dornic

They kept walking and he shook his head silently. She'd tripped. He should have caught her. A real man would have caught her before she got impaled with a quite vicious looking thorn. She was a klutz, that was definitely cute.

"I always wished I'd had a brother or something. I'm an only child and usually that was cool cause I had my dad." He shrugged. "But sometimes it got lonely you know? What am I saying? Of course you don't know. You probably would have killed for some alone time? Oh God hat was offensive wasn't it? Moving on before I dig myself a deeper hole here."

He flashed a smile and glanced over at her to see if his babbling was bothering her in anyway. Sometimes his talking habits got away from him and he usually didn't feel the least bit embarrassed or inclined to shut up, but something about her made him trip over his tongue, more that usual that is. He'd always thought he was awkward. He hoped she didn't notice.

"Anyway, I'm from a medium sized city in Wisconsin. Medium sized enough for no one to know where it is." He said it seriously but he meant it as a joke. He had a bad habit of doing that and then no one knew whether it was okay for them to laugh or not. He definitely didn't want her to think he was weird, he would attempt to rein in the quirkiness starting now. "Too bad we were just across the lake from each other this whole time."

Vance: The Beach: ??PM

Vance woke when some small critter tried to make a home of his skull and plucked it out of his ear. It was small, crustacean, and gross. So who's menu would it end up on? He hadn't eaten in restaurants posh enough to name what fish is in their food, nor had he been to enough of the coast to know anything about where this thing belonged. Whatever it was, it didn't give him any clue to where he was now.

He wish it luck, then flicked it across the sand.

He could probably get another half hour of sleep before the tide finally rolled in, but his stomach was starting to growl and right now he had no money to eat. Maybe he should have kept that thing- you never know what you can roast to make a half decent meal.

Somewhere nearby, over the sound of tumbling waves, two voices drifted.

At least he hadn't ended up on a desert island. That stuff only happens in the movies, right?

He listened hard to figure out what was being said, until a couple- a girl with blond hair and a boy who looked as dovied as a lovebird- came into view.

What kind of accent was that? Marseille? Bordeaux?

"...across the lake from each other the whole time..."

He laughed at himself. English! Or rather, American. Tourists where better than nobody, right? Though they were both looking a little worse for ware, even by his standards.

Jennifer and Gabriella

Another person came into view, his name, well at first I didn't know. He seemed to be kind of rude but yet, he was the sweetest thing towards my daughter. I smiled, if she liked him so did I. "My name is Breydon." he finally said. It was such a cute name for such a rough guy.

Gabby camed up to me and jumped into my arms. I held her close. It was time to find us some food, I couldnt let my beauty starve.

I searched around the woods in search of things that i knew wouldnt hurt her. I found quite a bit of berries. My eyes brightened. I was happy to not let my baby go hungry, I would do anything to keep her safe and satisfied. "Mommy? What is that?" she asked me. I smiled. "It is berries sweety, you know like strawberries?" I told her.

Her mind was apparently relieved because she ate them contently. I sat down next to her and just watched. Her smile was beautiful. She was the only thing I ever did right.

Stephanie Watson

Ugh...

My head felt like it was splitting, I rubbed my forehead, stumbling over to a puddle of water. I splashed my face and rubbed my eyes, yawning.

Wait..where the hell was I?? I spun around looking at the 10 metre tall trees. 'Oh my ..' I gasped.

I was in bed..I ..

My thoughts were cut off by a loud buzzing, getting louder with every second. I turned around, seeing a mosquito .... A metre long.

'Oh damn' I sighed picking up a stick with a sharp end. I waited for the mosquito to come closer when I threw the stick at it, connecting to its belly.

It flew down, loudly banging off the tree. I slowly walked over to it, carefully pulling out the stick. I shivered at the sound.

'Thats disgusting..' I thought sticking my tongue out, 'I really need to find other people'

Jennifer and Gabriella

Gabriella finally fell asleep after she ate the berries I got for her. Watching her sleep was an amazing feeling. It made me feel accomplished as her mother. I got up and laid her on a big leaf we found, everything just seemed so giant compared to everything I thought I knew. "Does anyone know where we are yet?" I asked. Breydon didn't respond he just rolled his eyes.

It was about 20 minutes later, two people came out of the woods. It was a guy and a girl. I really liked Avalon. She seemed very sweet and by the looks of it Breydon did too. The guys name was Ian, he looked like a love struck puppy when he looked at Avalon. That was actually pretty funny.

"What's that noise?" Avalon asked. Everyone hushed for what seemed like forever, I heard the buzzing then out of the water popped some bees. "What the hell?! How can bees come from water?" I asked. It was crazy scary and I feared for my child's life. My protection senses kicked in so I grabbed a stick and started hitting at them, I killed most of them. Avalon came in with a stick too and helped.

Everyone else just stood there in shock. When nothing was left I sat down by Gabriella who was still thankfully asleep. I felt sweat dripping from my face, killing those "things" was a lot harder then it might seem.

"Why the hell didn't the rest of yall help us?!" I yell to what felt like the top of my lungs. I was so frustrated that I couldn't think. I passed out.

Avalon

"What the hell was that?" Ian whispered into my ear.

I threw the stick I was holding down. "I have no idea." I panted and looked back at the stick. "I can't believe I just did that."

"You did great." He smiled and lightly squeezed my hand before letting it drop back to my side.

I instantly grabbed a piece of my hair which had now fallen almost completely out of it's braid and began to twist it nervously.

I just killed a huge bee

We all just stood there for a moment, all of us too shocked to move.

I need to leave. I need to get out of here.

"You don't think there are more of those, do you?" Jennifer asked, clutching her daughter.

"Of course there are." Breydon snapped.

My surroundings slowly began to crumble around me and my breathing began to increase. I frantically looked around and before I could object I did what I normally do at home when I get anxious; I run.

I took off down back towards the beach, my feet dug into the ground and somehow running kept the black spots out of my vision. My heart sped up and I pushed off the sand faster. I took out my rubber band and my hair flew behind me.

I sprinted further and further down the beach until I stopped to catch my breath. I bent over and spit onto the sand.

It's going to be okay. I'm going to be okay.

What I wouldn't give for my books right now. Just one page in and I would be transported somewhere far from here.

The beating of horses' hooves on the ground. Men running, running into the forest. Darkness descending as the sun sleeps. He was one of them, the Samurai in charged of the men. Screams erupted far behind, stragglers who couldn't keep up, consisting of either the oldest peasants levied for the war or the weakest. The Samurai turned around to regard the lost. He knew every single one of them. He had no choice but to levy the men of his village he administered. He had no choice but to leave their broken bodies behind, trampled by hooves and sliced up by swords.

Many more were falling behind. One fell in front of him, and he picked him up to run again - he knew the face. The man was the son of a merchant he knew. Another tripped, and he picked that one up too. The patriarch of a farming peasant family - The Samurai remembered donating Koku to his family when his crops failed. He was a strong man, as evidenced by him staying ahead of even the soldiers in their prime.

It was then that the Samurai himself fell. A small cliff was ahead. It was a death he did not envision. He saw himself old in bed, but not broken upon Mother Earth's arms. He fell, and fear entered him, as did the wind, the darkness... Darkness...

...

Mori Yuudai's eyes opened once again, not to darkness, but to the glare of the sun's beams. He was confused, as the last thing he remembered was death trapping him between his enemy's horsemen and a cliff, and he took the cliff. He tried sitting up, and did so with no difficulty. He expected a few broken bones, enough for either the enemy to capture and force Seppuku upon him, or for the wolves to feed on him, but when he felt his body and examined himself, there was no hurt but a few bruises. Even the fingers of the low trees in the forest could not cut him, as his lacquered armour had done its job admirably.

Looking around, Yuudai realised something else. There was no cliff behind him. He was on flat ground, and the forest was not like the one on the outskirts of Kyoto. It was hot, and summer had not yet baked the ground, as he remembered.

With a sore grunt, the Samurai stood up, and picked up the banner of his clan, the Mori. The banner was a rectangular flag mounted on a ceremonial spear - it was used to rally his men, a symbol that they could follow.



A smaller sized banner, called the Sashimono, distinguished him as a Samurai of the Mori clan. He straightened it, as it was a little off-centre after taking his fall.

Looking around, he could not see his men, dead or alive. He tried calling for them, but no one returned his call. Marching forward, he thought that they had perhaps gathered a distance before him, but the lack of even corpses around the cliff discouraged him. It was then that he had a new idea. Pulling out his conch shell, he blew a rallying tune, the deep bellows of the instrument sounding far and wide in the forest, and could even be heard faintly at a certain beach he had no knowledge of...

stephanie Watson

I walked slowly through the dense forests looking for anything edible. All I could find was a few coconuts and luckily enough one mango.

I lay down to rest when I heard something.Was that a human speaking? I carefully and quietly walked over to the source of the noise, there was a bunch of people!! One of them looked frustrated looking worryingly at a young child. She siad something to the others but I couldn't hear.

The next second her knees gave way, and I instintevly ran forward and caught her before she hit the ground.

'Stand back, give her some air!' I ordered and they each took a step back.

I ripped the bottom of my t shirt and poured some of my precious water I had stored in one of my coconuts on it, putting the cloth on her forehead, as my foster father had taught me.

I felt her pulse and it was normal.

'She passed out by stress, worry or the heat' I said, to no one in particular. 'She needs more rest'

'Not to be rude or anything....but who the hell are you?' Someone behind me asked.

'Oh sorry' I said standing up, putting my hand out in turn to shake everyone's hand.' I'm Steph'

jennifer and gabriella

Ever since we arrived here on this strange island Gabriella has been a little on edge. She wakes up all during the night in tears and mumbling a guys name I had never heard of. She looked towards an opening in the woods and says "there!" I look over my shoulder and then try to soothe her. "Okay darlin. When it gets daylight we will go look for him." I tell her.

Her eyes widen with joy and she falls back to sleep. I smile but on the inside I am frowning because I dont ever lie to my child.

Soon the day is bright and Gabriella is up and ready to go on a hunt. For a two year old she is very bright and talented. As we walk through the woods I come to an opening. Sure enough there was a guy laying by a fire. Gabriella runs to him before I can catch her. "Jake?" She mumbles. My eyes widen and I run to my daughter.

it is short because i am on my phone.

Jake Michael

"Jake?" a voice whispers into my ear. I'm being shook and I slowly open my eyes to see a little girl leaning above me. I blinked a couple of times thinking I was hallucinating. "Jake!" she repeated.

"Who...who are you?" I mutter sitting up. My head was aching and I saw black when I sat up. When my vision cleared, I saw a woman about twenty standing behind the little girl. I looked around before remembering I was stuck on an island.

"Sorry about her. She seems to know you," the woman apologized. She knelt down beside the girl and whispered something in her ear.

"He one be in my dream," she says. [I don't know how she would talk]

There was a buzzing, my eyes opened. It was pitch black night and the buzzing wasn't my alarm but the noise of the forest that lined the beach. The sand I laid on was still warm from the sun of that day, I sat up and looked at the others that lay asleep.

We had all been trapped here in our own different way and I felt the weakest because of how I had fainted the first day here. Jake was the only one who could make a fire and little Gabriella was stuck to his side as if he could protect her from the hidden dangers of the forest.

The noise of the island wasn't the natural noise of any type of nature. This place was different, I had been surprised by the aura and had fainted. Jake sat up and looked at me.

"Hey Adia, you alright?" He was one of the only one that hadn't treated me like I was a weak link.

I nodded as I said, "Yeah, it's just that this island gives me the willies. I feel like something is watching and waiting for us to make a mistake and travel further inland than we have." He nodded in understanding.

"I take this watch then okay, since you've secretly doing all of it this time." He gave me a lopsided smirk.

A fierce cry could be heard as it resounded through the cool evening air, and soon after the sound of deep bellows followed it. I knew what it meant, it could only be one thing. Why did the gods allow this horror? I ran over to the watch tower where one of my men, a fellow guard and knight as well, was sitting.

"Saddle up, we are needed at the city!" I yell to him as I jump upon my own horse.

"What was that sound?" he asked, climbing onto his own stead.

"What do you think?" I said. Of course he didn't know, he hadn't served as a knight as long as I had. "It's a dragon! A dragon is assaulting our city!"

"A dragon? I thought they were only in the Northern Regions, up near the mountains."

"Yeah, well this one isn't." I replied. "And have you forgotten that these winged devils can fly? That they can move about of their own accord? One cannot merely tell those foul beasts to sleep and it is so, or tell them to leave our villages in peace and it be so. Come we must make haste, or our city may be gone before we be there"

We galloped through the night, the sound of hooves beating the dirt a constant sound unto our ears. We soon reached the outskirts of the city.

"What horror!" I mumble. "Hurry, increase your speed, my friend, before we are too late!"

Just as we reached the outer walls, the dragon flew past, spewing flames from its maw over the walls of the city. The stones cracked, the horses neighed and reared back, the walls shattered, stones fell. "Ahhhh!" I cry out as the stones crumbled about me. And then, my vision was reduced to darkness. A darkness from which I may never wake, and yet, I did.

...

My eyes opened, but they didn't reveal what I expected. I blinked a few times and swept my gaze about my surroundings. Not only was it no longer night, but I was also alone in some sort of forest, a strange forest at that. It wasn't like any forest I had ever seen.The tree's were tall, taller than they should have been. In fact, everything appeared larger than normal.

"What kind of forest is this?" I wondered aloud. "Certainly not any forest I have ever known." Then another thought entered my mind. "And what form of witchcraft hath brought me here?"

My thoughts were quickly interrupted by a loud bellowing sound that penetrated my ears. The dragon! That winged serpent! It must still be close by! I began to move forward, quickly breaking into a run. I unsheathed my sword as I ran, holding it at the ready. I ran and I ran, through the midst of the trees I hastened my feet to quicken.

Suddenly, I stumbled upon a man in some strange looking armor. He was most certainly not a man of my kingdom. "Sir!" I call out to him, "What kingdom be you from? Have you heard the call? Have you heard the bellowing of the horn?" Do you know from whence direction it came; do you know the place where the dragon lies?"

The first time Mori Yuudai blew his conch shell, none of the Ashigarus of his unit came to him. He came a distance before blowing his rallying cry again, which was when he heard the shuffling of feet. The closer it got, the heavier it sounded, until it became a pair of feet pounding the Earth like war drums. It reminded him of the hooves of his enemies. The moment Yuudai heard it, he knew it wasn't his men, but when he turned towards the sound of heavy feet drumming the Earth, he would have preferred meeting his enemies instead.

What came out of the forest into the tiny patch of free land the forest had deigned to give him was something even stories of terror he had heard all too often could not cover. A man... thing who towers over him, whose body was made of metal, whose skin was white as snow, and the eyes! The eyes, those that reminded him of dead eyes! The giant held a blade unlike anything he had ever seen, huge and straight, as if designed to skewer several warriors at once.

"Sir! What kingdom be you from? Have you heard the call? Have you heard the bellowing of the horn? Do you know from whence direction it came; do you know the place where the dragon lies?" It spewed gibberish that the Samurai could not understand. The metal giant sounded aggressive, angry, eager to kill. He held onto his banner tightly, closely. Mori Yuudai froze, tried to be stoic, tried to be strong and not a shame to his clan, tried to be fearless, but to meet a monster such as this was too much even for a Samurai, and Yuudai knew his limits - he was no paragon of the samurai class, he knew very well. Although his mask covers most of his face, his eyes said it all, as they became wide, transfixed on the metal hulk even if he wanted to look elsewhere.

The Samurai's mind turned against himself. Within a moment, a thousand images jabbed at him, telling him horrifying stories. His mind wondered how the monster grew a body of metal, and decided that the steel had come from the blades of dozens of slain warriors, no, hundreds! Thousands! He imagined the monster shedding layers of steel, only to slay even more samurai, taking their swords and melting them into its own body. His mind told him stories of how the metal hulk would take him - perhaps it would skewer him like all the others! Or perhaps it would ram into him like an indomitable boulder cast from a mountain! Or perhaps it would open its jaws and gouge on his flesh!

The giant beast took another step forward, and it was all it took to push the Samurai over the edge. The eyes! The giant straight sword! Its hulking metal body! "Yokai!!! Yokai!!!" The Samurai screamed in crazed near-lunacy at witnessing such an abomination that he sprinted in the opposite direction from whence the metal hulk came, faster than he had ever done in his life, as he knew that eternal pain would be his should he run any slower. He dropped his conch shell, having entirely forgotten it in his utter terror. Retaining his clan's banner was a miracle, for any other warrior would have likely dropped it for a little more speed. "Yokai!!!"

Jennifer and Gabriella

Gabriella was so astonished from seeing Jake up close that she didn't have any words to say. Her hand touched his face and she pulled back. "Mommy!" she screamed. She hopped into my arms and I held her close. We hurriedly walked away and I seen a girl who looked quiet lonely. I smiled and headed towards her. "Hi I am Jennifer." I tell her. She smiles and shakes my hand. "I am Stephanie, who might this little one be?" she replied. "My beautiful baby girl Gabriella." I tell her. Gabriella smiled but held onto my neck tightly.

We talked for a while and I instantly felt a bond with her, it was as if she was my long lost sister. Jake on the other hand, well definitely was a mystery to me that I actually wanted to get to know! He kept looking our way, I guess to look at my daughter because she probably made him feel uncomfortable.

"Hi." I say walking up to Jake. I left Gabriella to be with Stephanie so I could talk alone with him. He looked at me and sort of smiled. I immediately felt awkward. "I'm sorry about earlier with my daughter, she has strange dreams." I told him. "Ah, it is okay." he said with a sly grin. I felt my cheeks flush but I don't know why. "I see your face is just a little pink." he said laughing.

I smiled but walked away. I am to old to be blushing in front of someone I don't even know.

Gabriella had a smile on her face I had never seen before. More like she was happy with what she saw. I sighed and sat back down with Stephanie.

Breydon Jones

I felt like I was a dick to people, especially people I know I could possibly become friends with. It was the only way I felt secure and ever since my girlfriend died, well I couldn't even really look at girls without getting furious at myself. Til this day I still feel as though her death was all my fault. No one really came up to me since I been stuck there, I guess it was because I had been a bitch earlier that day.

Avalon had fainted shortly after appearing from the woods. The guy who was with her acted like a sick love struck puppy dog, it somewhat sickened me. My heart felt broken when I looked at people in a relationship. "Hey." someone said to me. I looked up and it was Avalon. " :Yes?" I ask. She just stood there without saying a word.

"Do you need something?" I ask her, she shook her head and just sat down beside me. "You look a little lonely. Do you need a friend?" she asked. I huffed and just sat there.


**Sorry it is short, I don't have much time to post!