Young Writers Society

Elias was a little uneasy at first thinking he got into trouble again... doing what, he didn't know. But it seemed like some adult was always trying to scold him for something. Beh!

The second that this man -- Odris -- mentioned Maahes, though... Elias's eyes gleamed and he immediately grinned, bouncing up and down in excitement.

Maahes! His friend! Yes! He had no idea where that boy went, but maybe Odris knew. Adults always seemed to know everything.

"Yeah!" he said excitedly. "I know Maahes! Where is he? I miss him. We were going to pull off some pranks, but then he disappeared. Do you know where he went?"

The idea of Maahes pulling pranks was terrifying, but Odris pushed that thought to the corner of his mind. Where was Maahes? He could have gotten distracted by something else and gone wandering off, but he also latched onto people he met on other worlds. Wouldn't he have stayed with someone that was so similar to him?

"I don't," Odris said, shaking his head. "But it's really important that I find him. Do you know where he disappeared?"

If there was something that caught Maahes's eye, Odris would probably notice it, too. Then he would just have to follow Maahes's metaphorical (and hopefully physical) footsteps to track him down.

Elias's excitement waned as he frowned, realizing he truly didn't know where Maahes went off to. "No..." he admitted. "I lost him. He just up and disappeared. I don't know how he ran away so fast. Maybe if we run around, we'd find him together?"

...That didn't seem like much of a plan.

But, save for dismissing and summoning Maahes again, Odris didn't have any other ideas on how he would find Maahes. The most he could do was follow the boy's suggestion and look for Maahes without any sort of direction-

There was a whir and a flash of warmth.

Suddenly, there was a very confused looking woman standing just feet away from them. Her confusion quickly shifted into what looked almost like terror, but that didn't make any sense. Maybe she wasn't used to traveling like that? Odris certainly wasn't.

Odris resisted the urge to sigh. He had just gone from being the oldest to being just another kid. Despite the council and head researchers thinking he was old enough for a lead researching position, Odris was just seventeen. He had been mistaken for younger than that, too.

"Hello," Odris said.

The woman just stared.

Elias stared at Alina standing in front of them. He had lots of questions running through his mind right now, like how she was able to appear out of thin air in front of them and why she was here in the first place, but for a second or two, the only thing he could do was stop and stare at her, mouth agape.

Despite being friends with Evaline, he always forgot that she was Alina's daughter since he hardly ever saw her. But now, here, he was wondering what the heck was going on since it was just him and Odris.

Elias finally shook his head, shaking out of his shock before speaking.

"Oh, uh, hi! Alina!" he said with a little bow, then glanced between her and Odris. "Uh. Evaline is -- well, actually, I thought she was with you. So. Uh. Yeah. I'm her friend, by the way, in case you forgot. And this guy is, uh -- yeah, he's my friend too. Yeah. We were, um, just leaving."

"Evaline and I got separated," the woman, Alina, said in a matter-of-fact way that seemed suspiciously familiar to Odris. He glanced between Elias and Alina. She had appeared out of seemingly nowhere. It might have been a coincidence, but Odris couldn't shake the feeling that Maahes had something to do with this.

If he was wrong, he felt bad for making Maahes's friend stay. It was clear he wasn't comfortable with this situation. But Odris couldn't risk leaving if this really was related to Maahes, so he stood exactly where he was and looked her right in the face. Alina didn't physically squirm, but she looked close to doing it.

"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Alina," Odris said, following the boy's lead and giving a little bow of his own. He straightened and looked at her again. "I'm looking for someone named Maahes. He would have probably been holding a device like this one when you saw him."

He presented the lab tech that had brought him here.

Now Alina was actually squirming. She nervously looked around the forest, gaze finally lingering on Maahes's friend in what seemed like a desperate plea for help. She bit her lip, tapped her foot, and nervously ran her hand through her hair.

"I haven't seen any little boys besides Elias today," Alina replied in a childish way that didn't really fit her appearance. It did, however, fit someone else. Someone who had a tendency to lie very, very badly anytime Odris caught him when he tried running away.

"Mhm," Odris commented. He folded his arms. "It's interesting that you say that."

"It...It is?"

"I never said that Maahes was little," Odris said, giving a smile. Alina, who really wasn't Alina, froze. "You might have guessed it because Elias is younger, but I was the one who was asking about him. I'm not a little boy. Even Elias is older than that—he's almost a teenager. The only person who would call Maahes a little boy is Maahes."

After a moment of staring at Odris with a horrified expression on his face, Maahes frantically shook his head. "I'm not Maahes! You're making a mistake, Odris."

Odris's expression softened.

"Maahes, I know it's you," he said. "I can put on my lenses to check, but we're past the point where you can pretend to be someone else. It's time to go home."

Maahes, seemingly taking that as a challenge, darted behind Elias. It was strange a grown adult cowering behind a preteen, but Maahes never really cared about things like that. "I don't want to go home!"

Elias gawked, staring at Alina squirm and talk like a kid. He was staring with wide eyes and had to rub his eyes multiple times to make sure he wasn't imagining it.

Alina? Evaline's mom? Leader of Sector 2? Talking and acting like this? Was this a dream? This was all so very weird... and he had no idea how to react when she tried to hide behind him despite being much taller and bigger than he was.

"Yeah... hah... wait," he said with squinted eyes as he was slowly putting the puzzle pieces together in his head.

Alina... Maahes... Maahes being able to look like anyone...

Elias suddenly whirled around, meeting Alina's eyes with shock -- but also, excitement.

"Maahes! You're Maahes?" he said in disbelief. "Why do you look like that? Can you get out of that? This is creepy."

Maahes stumbled back when Elias turned around. He hadn't expected to lose his hiding spot so quickly!

"I was with Evaline!" he explained, straightening. "She was going to help me find you, but we needed her mom to get here. So we were going to pretend I was her mom. Then I ended up here before we could."

He nervously looked over at Odris. He wanted to change his form, too, but he didn't want to look like a little kid around Odris. He pursed his lips and puffed out his cheeks, trying to figure out what guise he needed to change into.

His guise changed.

Standing in Alina's place was a young Alteran man. If Elias had asked Maahes how old he was supposed to be, he would have just said he was an adult like Odris. If Elias had asked Odris, Odris would have said that Maahes had picked a guise of a man in his early twenties. He made his hair a shade darker than Odris's hair, and made his eyes a pretty amber. He also made sure to make himself a few inches taller than Odris.