Young Writers Society

James stared out into the forest with a dead-eyed expression.

"I honestly wasn't expecting much, but no. It wasn't this," he said, his voice dry and weary, sounding probably more dramatic than the statement merited. "There won't be any caves around here. Not in this woodland. But wherever it is we make camp, be it temporary or for a longer span of time, we'll want to keep our eyes open. You can never be too careful."

"Yeah," she said. That made sense. She could probably rely on her instincts and reflexes to get them through camping in the wilderness, but something told her they'd end up doing shifts instead.

James nodded and left it at that. He had nothing else to say, and he was focused on where they were going as they rode through the night.

After a while, they slowed the horses to a walking pace, and James decided it would be best to let them all rest. He came to a stop and hopped off the horse, giving the beast a pat on the side as he tied its lead tightly to a tree. There was a blanket on the horse's pack from either Dagger or Butch that had been left, but he didn't bother grabbing it.

James plopped himself by the tree and leaned against it, letting out a long, drawn out sigh.

From what he could tell by the softening of the soil and the down-slope of the land, they had to be getting closer to the river. Soon they could get water... and maybe get clean... and hurry out of this dreadful wood.

Runi joined James beside a tree, though the tree she picked wasn't the same as his. It was one a short distance away; she was facing him as she leaned up against the trunk.

"Do you think we're almost out of the woods?" she asked.

It should have been an exciting thought, but she couldn't help but feel nervous. It was hard to tell if bounty hunters were better in the woods or other terrain, and if going into any sort of civilization would be a death wish. She was so new to this - this kind of running. She run before, but she had never had angry bounty hunters on her trail.

James slowly turned his head over to Runi, his face absent of all amusement. If that was some kind of pun, it wasn't funny, but he decided to take it literally.

"It's mostly just woods around here. If we go east we might run into plains, which would leave us without cover."

"That's what I was thinking," she quietly said. She didn't elaborate that she had absolutely no knowledge on the geography; she didn't think James would find that comforting.

She hesitated, then adding just as softly, "Night, Erimor."

It wasn't long before both of them fell asleep.


The sky that Runi awoke to was still dark. It might have been nearing dawn, but it was hard for her to tell. Her mind was elsewhere - namely, on what had happened in the minute leading to her fully waking up. She had heard something in the brush at the start of it, but was still too asleep to start considering the reasoning for it.

So her reflexes had taken over where her mind had failed. The moment the source of the sound - a person, going off of the footsteps - left the brush and appeared within touching distance, her legs gave their legs a hard kick.

...But nothing happened.

She opened her eyes to see a giant of a man towering over her. With the dim lighting that the moon provided, it looked like he had a scar over one eye, and was very buff. He wasn't one of the two bounty hunters that had been following them, but she still felt a jolt of fear when she glanced over at James.

Not sure if he was up or not, she grabbed a small pebble from beside her and chucked it at him, hoping the pain would wake him up. If not, she hissed, "Erimor, you need to get up like right now."

Hopefully, that got the message across.

She looked back up at the man and tried to resist the urge to literally hiss at him.

James was awake a second before the pebble almost pelted him in the eye. He awoke with a jolt and was immediately on guard when he saw the man towering over Runi and looking down at the two of them. He was dressed in all black, blending in with the night.

He noted the man's stance didn't look like he was ready to fight, and he didn't have any weapons drawn, but James still felt his heartbeat quicken and his head rush as he slowly got to his feet.

He didn't have a chance to say anything before the other man spoke and flipped down his hood.

"Hey so uh, I know this comes off as really creepy, ya know, since I'm like, kinda sneakin' in while you sleep. But I just want you to know I don't mean any trouble. I just heard something about a were in the area."

Runi, who had been in the middle of getting to her feet, froze.

...The man was looking for her? Not James? She thought she had been more careful - sure, she had transformed to escape the bounty hunters, but there was no way they could have realized that. And they certainly wouldn't have been able to inform someone else of it in the short time since they had been gone.

She glanced over at James, studying him for a moment before turning back to the tall, very intimidating stranger.

"That's a little hard to believe," she admitted, "but I guess I'll let it pass. I haven't heard anything about a 'were', though - like a werewolf, right? I mean, I don't think we'll see you again after this awkward encounter, but I could let you know if we run into one."

The man nodded. James took a few steps forward so that he was just behind Runi.

"Yeah! Like a werewolf. Not all of 'em are wolves though. But uh, I guess, I only really know there was a were in the area mostly cause I heard it from another werewolf, but he's shy and doesn't like doing the recruiting. He'll track a lot of people with his sniffer-" the man tapped his nose "-but he's not the most sociable. Still a very nice guy though! But uh, yeah. It'd be good to know if you see anything."

What the man was saying wasn't really making any sense, but she nodded along and pretended like she knew what he was talking about.

"That sounds ominous," she said, "but please continue."

"Well, I mean if I'm gonna continue, I kinda gotta know if one of you guys is the were because otherwise if I give ya'll lots of info that could like, put people in danger, ya get me?" the man continued, looking back and forth between James and Runi. James narrowed his eyes.

"I know though, that its an exchange of trust," the man said, taking two small steps back. He held out a hand in front of his chest.

"So let me demonstrate-"

Then, at that moment, a bright blue, sparking stream of electricity came out of his fingers and he drew a circle in the air with it. James felt his muscles freeze up as he stared.

He'd never seen magic like that before. Electricity pulled out of thin air.

Her eyes widened as understanding dawned on her.

James said he knew someone who had a group of mages. This man - this mage - mentioned recruiting mages. It could have been for something nefarious, but she was sure of it...

...The man just had to be from the group that James was talking about!

Runi's hand shot up. "I'm the were!" she said, grinning from ear to ear. She glanced over at James, trying to remember what the name of the guy was. "Do you know someone named Mickey? Are you part of his group?"

James's eyes shot over to Runi as she shot up her hand and admitted she was a werecat. He took a step forward, trying to get between her and them man, and shot her a warning gaze. But then she mentioned Mickey.

His eyes flicked back to the intruder, and he watched closely as recognition passed over his face and a smile grew. He was missing an eye, but his right eye glowed a little brighter blue.

"You know Mickey?" the large man said with excitement. "He's one of my favorite people. He really cares about mages and helping keep them safe."

"I don't know him personally, but I know someone who does!" she said. This was awesome - she couldn't believe their luck! She shot James a look, but he strangely didn't seem as thrilled by this turn of events. Huh. Maybe she should have been more suspicious like he apparently was, but her gut was telling her that this guy was a really good person. She could just feel it.

"We were actually looking for him," Runi added. "Since I'm a mage, and I don't really have anywhere to go. But it's a bit of a wild goose chase, so we hadn't gotten that far in the looking part."

After a moment passed, she stuck her hand out.

"I'm Runi," she said. "It's short for Darunia Vain, but I can't remember the last time someone called me that."

James was tense already, but he could feel the anxiety rising in his chest and stirring in his stomach as he watched the man closely for his reaction.

The tall man reached out a hand to meet Runi's and shook it. He beamed a warm smile, revealing very straight, very white teeth.

"My name's Bo! It's not short for nothing, but my given name is Andrei Petrov. Nobody really calls me that, 'cept maybe Mickey... or Mel, come to think of it," he replied, pulling his hand away after a firm handshake.

Bo turned to James.

"So you know Mickey, huh? That's crazy. And you ain't a mage?" Bo looked at James as if he could discern magic or something. James gave him a pointed stare.

"No," James replied curtly.

"Huh. That's interesting. Mickey never mentioned and Erimor, but then again, he's lived way longer than me and doesn't tell me everything so... I dunno." He rubbed his chin and then looked over at Runi.

"How'd you meet Erimor, then? You guys travel buddies?"