Young Writers Society

"You're welcome," she replied, though her voice was distracted. She wasn't sure if there was some higher power out there, but something was telling her that her frequent meetings with Tiberius weren't just a coincidence. She took a deep breath, thought through what her decision could mean for her future self, and then said, "Tiberius, I want to come with you."

James blinked. She what?

"I'm not going anywhere," he retorted. "I have no home to return to. There's nowhere to come with me."

She gave him a look.

"I know you don't have a place to return to," she said, trying to pick her words carefully. "You're not the only one. You're going to leave this clearing in probably a minute, and head off to who-knows-where. I want to be with you when you do."

She paused. That probably didn't do much to convince him; she needed to think of a new approach. Something that sounded vaguely convincing. "You need me, and I need you. I'm not going to lie and say that neither of us know what we're doing out here, Tiberius. But it's not good to me alone, and you're-you're one of the first people who haven't been scared of me or hated me for having magic. And I'm one of the few people who know some of the truth about you, right?"

If James were not trying to keep quiet in the forest, he would've laughed. Instead, he just gave her a wince - his best attempt at a bitter smile.

"You know next to nothing about me, apart from what little I've told you," he said quietly. "Which still makes me a stranger." He stopped and pursed his lips shut as he thought carefully about what to say next. He wasn't going to take back what he said about mages, but he didn't want her thinking that just because he wasn't afraid of magic he wanted to be friends with every mage he ran into. The few connections he made were out of necessity and were brief for the same reason. Even if she did choose to travel with him, it would be temporary.

And the only reason he was finding himself considering it - much to his displeasure - was because of what she'd said about him not being afraid because he knew how important that was to a mage.

Dammit.

"You..." he started, forming fists at his sides. He looked away and let out air through his nose. "How long have you been traveling alone?"

He didn't want her to travel with him. That much was clear from his reaction. But he was considering it, and, even though she knew her chances weren't all that high, she eagerly jumped at the opportunity to have someone to travel with. "For as long as I can remember, pretty much," she answered, tucking a stray strand of dark violet hair behind one ear. "There was some parts of my childhood were I lived with different foster families and stuff, but nothing ever really stuck."

She took a deep breath.

"I didn't really get across what I meant to say, earlier," she admitted. "I know that you're used to being alone, and I'm used to being alone, too. But it's not healthy to always be alone, and I'm sure you could use the company just as much as I could."

James looked down at the ground with a straight face. He tried to imagine the various scenarios that could play out if he said no, and told her to leave him alone. But his main defense was always that it was dangerous to be associated with him, and, with her being a mage, the same could be said of her. The only difference was that, from what he knew, she didn't have posters out for her capture and didn't have people as actively hunting her down as he did.

She could still walk away from it and continue to hide under different identities. All she had to do was not use magic. How else would she have been able to pull of being a bounty hunter?

He didn't know her. He didn't know if he wanted to know her. He was so often resigned to his loneliness that the prospect of traveling with someone who knew anything remotely true about him was intimidating, and he didn't know if he wanted to volunteer for more prying questions.

But he did have to admit. He was lonely.

There was a long pause before he responded, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Fine," he said. "For now."

She started to give him an absolutely enormous grin, but decided to tone it back when she realized how reluctant he was about the whole thing. "Great!" she cheerfully replied. Oh, man - she couldn't help it! Her grin quickly spread from ear to ear. It had been so long since she had some decent company. Now she had someone who knew the truth about her, and wouldn't judge her if she did something foolish and accidentally turned into her other form.

What a wonderful day!

"So where are you thinking of going now?" she asked.

James stared at her. If he were in a better mood, he might've laughed.

"Still figuring that out," he said honestly. "But anywhere far from here, so I can eventually get some sleep that doesn't involve me being tied up or captured. Typically, if I'm caught by a bounty hunter with a big name like Butch, I lay low and stay out of cities for a week or two at least. So I don't plan on going near any towns," he said, before he bent down and dug into the ground, burying the cuffs in the dirt and covering them in fallen leaves. "Unless you desperately need anything in town," he added.

She gave her backpack a confident pat.

"I'm all set," she said, her grin still remaining. "I've got everything I could possibly need in here. I've always been prepared like that."

James gave her a weary nod and sighed before he nodded his head in the direction he started walking, signifying for her to follow. "Wonderful," he replied dryly, before falling into silence.

She fell into step beside him. She didn't miss the tone of voice he used, but she opted to ignore it instead of fretting about it. This was the start to something good. She could just feel it! They walked in silence as she waited for the perfect moment to spring Tiberius with a question.

"Oh," she suddenly realized, turning to look over at him. "You were using an alias back in that town we were in earlier, weren't you? Do you want me to call you that instead of by Tiberius? I know Tiberius isn't your real name, but it's also the name on the wanted posters, so it's probably not the best thing to be calling you, right?"

James glanced back at her with slightly raised brows.

"Erimor works. I respond to many things."

She perked up at his reply.

"Ooh, I've got a game to pass the time, then!" she declared, grinning. "I can try coming up with different aliases you've used in the past, Erimor. Hmm..."

Not only would this game pass the time, but it would hopefully brighten Erimor's mood. The guy obviously had good reason for his current state of mind. She wasn't going to argue with that. But why not try to make him laugh, or at least crack a smile?

"Well," she said. "I know you've got Erimor and Tiberius. Hmmm." She rested her hand under her chin as she hurried to his side. "I'd say you've been a Lucas. And a Johnathon. Maybe you were an Alexander for bit, too? And then maybe another time, you went with something super formal. Like, uh, Edward. I don't know why, but that sounds noble and dignified. Michael is a good one, too, since you can do the full version and then have a nickname on top of it. I'd bet you'd be smart enough to do one that can have variety."

She dropped her hand to her side and darted on ahead of him - though she was currently walking backwards. "Then one time you were a Phillip. Phillip also sounds dignified, and I'm sure you want something fancy from time to time, if Erimor's anything to go off of. You were a Sam, once, and then a Max - short for Maximilian, of course. And then right after that, and right before you took up the very classy name of Erimor, you went by the very simple name of James, because it's always best to spice things up a bit."

James didn't look at her as she trailed around him listing names. Out of practice, he kept his emotionless expression. She wasn't the first to try and guess his 'real' name. There were a few before her who had their fun listing through names, not realizing how tiresome it was for him.

He'd grown to hate every name he ever used. So even when one was guessed, it never brought back happy memories.

When she said Philip she was one for six, and the name caused his heart to twist inside of him. As she went on, his mind began to replay memories in his mind: his return to the forest, honoring the death of a friend, and the making of a few others, of which he hadn't seen since. That was, until she said James.

The name clung to him like a layer of grime.

His knee locked for the briefest moment before he recovered. That was the only outward sign of hesitation at her mention of the name, but he knew with her watching him, and her obnoxious curiosity, she would quickly leap to conclusions. So he replied in the same mildly annoyed neutral tone he'd been using before.

"Lucky guess," he muttered. "Keep going. You might guess them all, eventually."

James was his real name, then.

She hadn't meant to stumble upon it, and she hadn't meant to further annoy him. She had just wanted him to crack a smile, and she had thought that listing through hopefully inaccurate names would make him at least feel a little bit happy.

But that wasn't what had happened.

James.

She could see when she looked at him - it just seemed to fit. She wondered how long it was since he had gotten a chance to use that name, and how long it had been since he had ended up as Tiberius on a wanted poster. She wondered what his last name was, and why he had gone by Tiberius in the first place. She had so many questions about his life, but it wasn't her place to ask them.

"Nah," she said, dismissing his comment with the wave of the hand. "I'll stop here. This game isn't as fun as I thought it would be." She rested her hands behind her head and marched on in front of him. She began to hum quietly under her breath; she wanted to seem as nonchalant as possible.