Young Writers Society

Leone Powell

Leo's face became a mask of confused concern, and he leaned over to put a hand on Zephyrus' shoulder.

"Why aren't you supposed to know about him? That's- that's awful! I mean, it's good that you can still talk to him and play with him, but... It's sad that he doesn't think you're real." He frowned even more, a furrow growing between his brow.

"Yeah," he said, his gaze dropping down to the ground. "It is really, really sad..."

He didn't really know why he wasn't supposed to know. He just knew he shouldn't. Rius was a closely guarded secret, and you weren't supposed to know about secrets when no one told you about them.

He grinned behind his mask, though the smile didn't reach his eyes.

"It's okay, though," he reassured him. "I'm used to it."

Leo's eyes glazed over sadly. The kids at his school called him gullible, but even he could tell that Zephyrus was lying to make him feel better. It wasn't okay!

"I'm sorry." He said softly, not knowing what else to say. He delicately patted Zephyrus' head, like his mom and dad did when he was sad.

After thinking hard a moment, his eyes lit up a little. He wasn't sure if it would help, but he knew one way he could cheer Zephyrus up!

"Well, while you're here.. do you wanna play with me? I usually play at the park with Kit, and she'd get upset if I played with someone else, but she's not here today, so I can play with you! If- if you want."

He immediately perked up at the question.

"I'd love to," he said, a genuine smile dancing on his lips as he hopped up onto his feet. "What do you usually play?"

"Well, usually Kit and I take turns choosing games! She usually wants to play a kingdom game with princes and princesses, but I like playing exploring games." His eyes brightened at the end of this, and he hoped up a little, beaming.

"I know what we should do!!" Leo grabbed Zephyrus' hand and ran over to the edge of the playground, perching on the edge of the playground barrier in demonstration.

"Look out there- see those woods? They would be great for adventure games! Except, Kit never wants to go there because once we got lost and she cried. But, you seem brave and like you like exploring! Do you want to go with me??"

He turned his shining eyes toward the masked boy, all of his excitement practically written on his face.

He stared off into the woods, light blue eyes glinting with curiosity as he tried to imagine what lay within their depths. "Definitely," he agreed. "I've always wanted to explore."

Leo looked back across the street to his house once before he turned back to the forest. His parents would be okay with him exploring. ...Right?

With a determined nod, he stared the trees down for a moment before looking at his new friend.

"Okay, to start off, let's... Run. At the count of three." He took a breath and hopped off the barrier, bending over to speedily tie his shoe.

"One... Two... Three!!"

Running? He could do that easy.

It wasn't just because he had his mother's godly blood coursing through his veins - he liked playing around, and he always ran around with Rius when they were together.

The moment that Leo finished counting down, he was already running into the woods.

When Leo looked up from tying his shoes, he let out a help and quickly stood. Zephyrus was so fast! He was already way far in the trees.

"W- wait for me!" He cried out, though usually he was a good sport about losing.

He tripped and stumbled after the boy, easily looking sight of the playground in the trees.

He skid to a stop when he heard Leo's request, remembering that not everyone was as fast as he was. Usually, he would have kept running, but Leo was nice and he didn't want to annoy him.

Leo caught up to his new friend, panting, and beamed up at him. After a moment of catching his breath he nodded and shot a thumbs up.

"Thank you for waiting." He started, and then looked across at the trees, his eyes glimmering. "Alright, where do you want to start exploring? We should investigate and see if we can find anything inshtresting."

He nodded, his gaze already traveling through the area. Unsure of what was a good, interesting place, he just pointed forward - there had to be something interesting there, eventually!

"We should go there," he said with a surprising amount of confidence for someone who didn't know what they were doing.

"Oh, yes, great idea!" Leo chirped, easily swayed by Zephyrus' authoritative voice. "Let's go then."

He grabbed the other boy's wrist again, and started marching into the trees importantly. His blue rainboots squeaked with every step, which would have taken away from the attempted seriousness of the matter, if his happy smile hadn't already accomplished that.

After they had gone a few feet, he stopped cold.

"Wait!" He whispered loudly. "What's that?"

Slowly, he dropped his pointing arm and sunk to the forest floor, dropping on his belly to peer at something in the undergrowth.

"It's a saprotroph." He said with quiet awe, though he somehow came off as matter-of-fact. "They only grow in the deepest, darkest jungles. And they glow, too!"

He paused, squinted at the small mushroom he had spotted, and then looked up at Zephyrus.

"Or it's just an ordinary mushroom. These things are hard to tell."

He got down on the ground, too, and squinted at the mushroom in front of them. It looked like an ordinary mushroom, but he hadn't seen a lot of them before. They didn't really grow them, and he had never been in a swamp before. But he had been in a dark oak forest, and he decided to enlighten his new friend with some very important knowledge.

"That mushroom's tiny," he said, rolling over to look at Leo. "It's smaller than me!"

Leo looked over at Zephyrus, to make sure that he wasn't just joking. He nodded earnestly when he realized that he wasn't.

"Well, of course they are!" He laughed, and reached over to gently stroke the top of the mushroom with a finger. "All of them are. At least, I think so! They were about this size in the book I saw them in, even the jungle ones."

He held apart his fingers to demonstrate how big the pictures of the fungus were.