Young Writers Society

"I still need something to draw with," Fyrsil said, taking another step back. "And aren't we from different worlds? Airships need my world's magic to work; I'm not sure if you could do the same thing."



Wow. Tristan was expecting some kind of disagreement, but now he felt a little stupid.

"Alright," he said, cheeks stinging as he turned towards the door. "So, uh, let's get going."

He started making his way down the stairs and back into the ship.

He could tell that Fyrsil was starting to get a little nervous from his enthusiasm, but he had no idea how cool it was to find out that ships that flew in the sky existed. All he needed was a no-hands-on alchemist like the Elrics and a proper diagram, and they'd be all set.

"I know a mechanic," he said. "She'll figure something out."

Technically, Winry did automail. But some of the same basic principles had to apply, and she could surely come up with something that powered it. With her, Ed and Al all together, they'd be able to come up with a way for it to fly in no time.

"We just need to find something for you to write on," he agreed. "We should look after everyone comes back."


The group followed him, Robin and Aegeas down the steps, some going more quickly than others.

"How long is that going to take?" Fyrsil said. He looked at the doors that lined the hallway. "We could always check these rooms to see if there's any paper and ink." The otter wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible; the longer he couldn't draw anything, the more likely Greed would ask more questions Fyrsil couldn't answer.



Tristan had just about convinced himself that everything was going to be nice and quiet. Aegeas was out for the count, Tristan had made friends with Robin and the wraith, and it had been easier carrying Aegeas down the stairs than Tristan had thought.

So Tristan was a little less than happy to almost run into a group of people at the bottom of the stairs.

The otter's heart skipped as he caught sight of a hound in front of him, but his hope drained away when he caught sight of the hound's white paw.

"The f*** is yer problem?" Kendrik said. Kellach, Soul, and Envy stood behind the hound, who now focused his eyes on Aegeas. "Of course," the hound spat. "What did he do this time?"

There was the chance that they would miss Janos, but Greed liked the idea of getting a diagram made sooner rather than later - it was reassurance that he could hand it off to a certain little alchemist.

"Sounds good to me," he said, slipping his hands into his pockets.


Mage immediately perked up when he saw Soul, and almost tripped over his makeshift cloak when he went running over to him. Zogin couldn't help but smile at the sight - the two of them were adorable together, especially with how well Soul was handling the demon's barely hidden excitement.

Soul looked up and met her eyes, a surprised glint to their unfamiliar gold.

"We talked about some things," Zogin said, giving him a smile.

Mage nodded.

"Oh," Soul said. He looked down at Mage. "That's good."

Mage looked around him. "Did Janos go off again?"

Now it was Soul who nodded before turning his attention back to the larger group - it looked like two of the groups had merged, and that another person had joined them. The person had his face hidden behind a mask and his hands hidden underneath a pair of gloves - Soul knew he was being hypocritical, but it gave him a bad feeling.

"He got mad," Robin said as she helped carry Aegeas down the stairs. "I think it's just a thing he does - I'm Robin, by the way. We haven't met before, have we?"

"Uh, you can lead the way," Fyrsil said, glancing to the nearest doors. This definitely wasn't about Greed being better equipped and ready for a fight than Fyrsil was. It was definitely because Greed was unfamiliar with the layout of the airship, and being able to see more rooms would make Fyrsil's drawing a little easier to understand. Of course.



"Gettin' mad is a thing he does," Kendrik said, pointing to Aegeas. The hound shook his head, instinctively reaching a paw up to his snout. "Not sure I want another him wanderin' 'round."

Kellach, in the meantime, walked up to Aegeas. "Is he alright?" Kellach said, poking Aegeas and looking over at Tristan.

"Probably?" Tristan said. "He punched a door a lot, so we'll see."

Greed nodded and did as requested, walking casually towards one of the nearby doors. The door opened with a creak that resounded through the hall; he didn't pay it much mind.

He stepped inside of the room.


"What happened to him?" Envy asked, joining Tristan, Kellach, Robin and Aegeas (though the otter was still unconscious). They didn't fully know what they meant by Aegeas getting angry, but it brought back memories of their brother - someone who had a relatively calm personality most of the time, but was absolutely terrifying when he let his temper run free.

Fyrsil walked into the room, stopping just behind Greed and blinking. The room was a lot less empty than he'd thought it'd be. Machine parts had been scattered across the floor and hung up on the walls. Gears, bolts, pieces of weapons, springs, rusted metal, all arranged in some pattern that would've probably made sense to someone who was qualified enough to work with them. Buckets of oil sat in the corners of the room, while pieces of paper littered the tables.

Heading over to one of the tables, Fyrsil picked up a sheet of paper. He frowned; he couldn't recognize the script. Not that he could really read in the first place, but it definitely wasn't like anything he'd seen on his own world. Sure, there was an image of some metal contraption on it, but it wasn't like he could understand that either.

"Can you read this?" Fyrsil said, looking back at Greed and waving the paper.



"He saw someone he didn't like," Tristan said, nodding at the wraith, "And he flipped out. He, should be fine? Aegeas'll just be tired and sore when he wakes up."

Greed stared at the writing for a moment, then shook his head.

"It's all Drachman to me," he said.


Envy raised an eyebrow as the stranger froze, and watched as he soon after darted down the steps after Mage. There was almost certainly more of a story there, but Envy wasn't going to press it. "Does Aegeas do that a lot?" they asked.

Fyrsil had no idea what Greed was talking about, but it didn't sound like Greed knew either.

"Someone has to have to written this," Fyrsil said, setting the paper down. He turned around, eyes darting around the rest of the room. "Is it someone we haven't found yet? Is it someone we have? Is it the ship's owner?"

He reached back and snatched another piece of paper. Something tugged at the back of his mind as he peered over the thin letters, the drawings of canvases and tarps, what might've been a name scrawled at the bottom of the page.

"I swear I've seen this before," he said, shaking his head.



"Not really?" Tristan said. "He used to back in the war, but he kinda calmed down when that ended?"

The otter paused. A faint rumble echoed down the hallway in front of him, followed by the feeling that he was floating.

"What is that?" Tristan said, staring back up the stairs.

"I think the ship's going down?" said Kellach, using the opportunity to grab onto Aegeas and rest the back of Aegeas's head against his chest. "But not crashing?"

Tristan blinked. "Who's piloting this thing?" he said, a chill starting to fall down his back.

"That's ominous-" Greed started to say, only to be cut off by a rumbling noise. He looked as nonchalant as someone in his situation could - which was more of a casual panic, because he had absolutely no idea where Envy was and what that noise had been caused by.

"What was that?" he asked, looking over at Fyrsil.


"Maybe it's a ghost," Robin suggested, a cheerful tone to her voice as she peered down the hallway.

The wraith gulped. "Maybe it's a wraith."

"Maybe it's Janos?" Soul suggested. "He might know how to pilot one of these."

"I'm still sticking with my ghost theory," Robin replied.

"That's assuming ghosts are real," Zogin pointed out, crossing her arms. She looked over at Soul before turning back to Robin. "What makes you think that it is?"

Robin shrugged. "This place seems creepily abandoned. Ghosts like creepily abandoned, especially when they don't want to deal with people or died horrible deaths. I'm leaning towards the 'don't want to deal with people' but it could be a horrible death."

Mage paled. "I-I don't think it's a good idea to talk about horrible deaths right now," he whispered, scooting a little closer to Soul. Being closer to his friend made a wave of comfort wash over him, and it took all of his concentration not to throw his arm around Soul's.

Robin shrugged. "I'm just keeping our options open," she said. Despite the topic, she seemed happy - it gave him a bad feeling.

"Let's not talk about death right now," Envy butt in. They looked over at Tristan. "Is there any way to wake Aegeas up right now? I think it might be better if we don't have to carry him around."

Fyrsil had felt that feeling far too many times before; his ears popped, while his body seemed like it was about to float off the ground. "The airship should be landing," he said, searching around the room for anything remotely resembling a window. No luck. "It, shouldn't be this quiet? Not that airships ever are, but they especially shouldn't be when they're taking off or landing - everything rattles and creaks."



"No?" Tristan said, trying not to think about dead people. "And Aegeas might be awake? He just, doesn't really want to move after he flips out."

He didn't know a thing about airships, so Greed didn't have the slightest explanation for what Fyrsil had picked up on. He could have understood if everything started making noise when it was usually silent, but the other way around didn't make much sense.

"We should go find the others," he said. He knew they had to wait for Janos, but hopefully Janos had the same idea.


Robin glanced down at Aegeas.

"If you're awake, you really need to get up now," she said to the awake and/or sleeping otter - she didn't have the slightest clue which one it was. If he was awake, he was definitely a good faker. "We could be on a haunted ship."

Fyrsil stared back at the door. "Yeah," he said. "Janos should be able to take care of himself, right? I mean, he did wander off in the first place - there has to be a reason for it."



"We're not sure it's haunted?" Tristan said. He nudged Aegeas; nothing happened. "And it just, doesn't work like that. He gets up when he wants to get up."

"He should be," Greed said, even though he didn't know much about this Janos guy. What he did know was that there might not have been a specific reason for him wandering off - or, alternatively, not a very "good" one. Someone else he knew had a habit of doing that, and it was usually because they needed to get away from their thoughts for a bit.

He just hoped that someone was doing alright.


Envy resisted the urge to groan. Now wasn't the time for Aegeas to be sleeping - something told them that the sudden descent of the ship had something to do with why they were here, and it wouldn't be good to carry him around the entire time.

"Yeah," Fyrsil said, walking over to the entrance of the room and peering out into the hallway. He didn't really believe it, but it wasn't like he knew how to find Janos. Or anyone else, honestly. "Can we even get to the others in time?"



Tristan gently started lowering Aegeas to the ground. "Can someone go back up the stairs? We need to see where we're landing, if we're landing anywhere," Tristan said, voice starting to crack. Aegeas wasn't cooperating, they had no idea who was piloting the ship, and they had zero idea where the ship was going. It was hard not to feel like they were doomed.