Young Writers Society

A smile slowly grew on James's face, and he beamed up at Maahes.

"Leo. Ramses. Aen. Whichever one you go by now," he shook his head, still smiling. "Gods, am I glad to see you," he said before spreading his arms and going in for a hug.

He eagerly returned the hug, glad that he knew it was him and glad that James seemed to have improved significantly from the last time he had seen him. "I guess I'd be going by Maahes now, but Vala's told me to keep quiet about our names-" He paused, then looked around. A sigh escaped his lips. "Good thing no one was listening to that."

He pulled away from the hug. "So what name should I use now? And how long has it been for you?"

"Okay!" Taber said, turning around and taking the lead. He watched with curiosity as the people ahead of him scattered. Did he really look that big and intimidating? At least they weren't shouting or throwing their arms up like usual; they just walked a little faster away from him. He couldn't help but feel like he was boiling in his suit - stupid embarrassment. On the bright side, they left a path leading right up a man with a red ponytail. About what he remembered of the other guy. The man with the ponytail stood next to a shorter girl with a yellow and white outfit and blonde hair. Taber's heart leaped up, especially because she smelled familiar. He waved and headed on over.

"Two years," James replied, smile fading just a little as he took a step back and looked Maahes up and down. "Last thing I went by was Aaron, but I have a feeling that won't mean much here," he paused, briefly tugging at his mask again.

"You woke up like that, right? And you can't remove your mask either?"

Someone was approaching them - two someones, actually. One of them was a man who had started waving at them. For reasons he couldn't quite explain, he felt vaguely intimidated by him. Not too much. It was hard to get that upset about someone in a wolf mask when Artemis let him play with wolf puppies every time she stopped by. But he was certainly at least a little bit unnerving, especially when he didn't know him.

The second person was a woman. Just like the man was unfamiliar, she was as well. She was giving him a scrutinizing look that he didn't like in the slightest. She did so for a good minute before turning to the man she was with. "That's not him," she said. "He has the same hair color, but that's not my partner."


He nodded. "I can't really explain it, but something tells me that if I try to change my form, I'll still be wearing this." He paused, then said, "And for once it's been longer for you than it's been for me."

"Aww," said Taber. "He couldn't have gone far, right? I -"

Eremia recognized him the moment she laid eyes on him and his mask, but the voice, even if distorted by the said mask, helped. "Taber!" she said, running up and giving him a hug. He could feel the cold scepter along his back, but he didn't pay any heed to it. Why would he when Eremia was here?

Taber immediately swept her up in his arms and returned the hug, pulling her off the floor in the process. "Eremia!" he shouted. "I didn't think I'd find you here!"

After struggling for a few seconds, Eremia managed to spit out, "I. need. air."

"Oops," Taber said, letting go of Eremia. She landed upright on the ground, wheezing and coughing, the scepter in her hand shaking. He leaned over to one ear and whispered, "It's good to see you again! We should probably find a way out of here."

Eremia smiled. "You read my mind," she whispered back, standing up straight again and staring at the woman next to Taber. "Now, who might you be?" Eremia said.

Her immediate reaction was to tense up at the question, but she quickly came to the realization that it likely wouldn't hurt to share her name. At least two of the people here had names she didn't recognize and voices she had never heard, so she doubted they would have heard of.

The man, on the other hand, was a different story.

Though he wasn't necessarily intimidating, his clothing looked just a tad bit evil. The dark colors combined with his interesting mask was enough to raise suspicion, and the way he was looking at her with those unnerving red eyes made her thoroughly wary.

"You can call me Vala," she said, keeping her eyes on the mysterious man. "It's short for Vala Mal Doran."

"That's a mouthful," the man commented.

She stared at him.

She took back her earlier guess on him - he wasn't a man at all. He was in his late teens at most based on the sound of his voice, which either suggested that he was, in fact, evil or just was going through his edgy phase. Which was something she could relate to.

"I'm Aaron," the boy said. He seemed vaguely uncomfortable about this whole situation, which made her like him even more. "Short for, well, Aaron. No offense to you guys, but I'm not exactly all that trusting of a bunch of masked strangers."

"Eremia Renatus," she said to Vala. Then Eremia nudged Taber. "And this man here is my boyfriend. A pleasure to meet you." That wasn't to say she trusted Vala. On the other hand, Taber appeared unharmed and happy, which was always good news.

Taber waved again. "I'm Taber!" he said. "Taber, uh, Lastname!" He looked to Vala. "That's a nice name, by the way! I know somebody named Mal, but, uh, he isn't very nice."

Eremia groaned quietly. He was sweet as ever, but this wasn't the time. She decided to divert the conversation by turning to Aaron.

"I doubt we have much other choice," she said. "It is not as though we can take off these masks. I also suspect leaving this ballroom could be a challenge."

The real reason for hiding his last name was because he didn't want to give any clues that would reveal his actual identity - all he could think of was Kentaro's last name, and that was too much. Anyone who knew who he was knew who Kentaro Hinamori was.

But a little purported distrust was a good enough lie.

"I'll stick with just Aaron," he wisely said, slipping his hands into his pockets.

"Oddly enough, I can tell," James commented, before letting his gaze fall back on the crowd. "So... something brought us here. But this doesn't feel like the other times when we've previously met. At least, then, I was still in my own clothes."

"There is that," Maahes admitted, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked around the room for Vala. She was no longer standing by the punch bowl; she must have entered the crowd with Taber.

He turned back to James. "So, um, besides me, have you found anyone else you know here?"

James briefly searched the crowd with a few glances. "No. I haven't."

"Oh," he said. He went back to scanning the room and the people within for the outfit Vala was wearing. It would be too difficult to find her based on her face, especially when it was partially covered by a mask. "I found someone. Actually, she found me - she came up to me a minute after I came to."

He grabbed onto his braid and held it up for a second. "I guess the hair's pretty recognizable."

"Wait, you know someone else here?" he asked.

He nodded. Just the thought of her made him smile, even though he had just seen her minutes before. "I do. It was just the two of us before we ended up here, so I'm not surprised that we both ended up in this masquerade." He momentarily paused his search for her. "I'm not sure if I mentioned her the last time we met, but her name is Vala. She has to be one of the people I'm closest to."