Young Writers Society

Lunis slowly walked around the new group, heading to the archer that was talking to Denebola. He knew the archer sounded familiar. And, sure enough, when the panther looked into the archer's face, he could see Lorcan behind those eyes and that long hair.

Getting up close, Lunis sniffed Lorcan. While Zech stayed off to the side, Lunis nodded and turned back to Denebola. "This has to be Lorcan," the panther said.

Denebola breathed a sigh of relief. "At least we can trust one of-" she began, cut off by a crashing noise to her right.

Thytes sped past her in a flash, pulling up what appeared to be a moving skeleton. "Are you alright?" the lion said, before pausing. "...How can you move?"



As far as he knew, the tiger was the only one to see the man in black clothes leave. And, now that Thytes wasn't paying any more attention to him, the tiger could just as easily slip away.

Evion wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but Dresden nudging a corpse, talking into the air, and planning to head to some kind of 'Slime King' wasn't it. Still, taking on the form of a box, he watched Dresden patiently. Maybe he'd be able to learn something else.

Mattathias rolled over, burying his face in his arm as light slanted into his eyes. Ugh. He must've forgotten to close his curtains. And on a weekend, too. He'd stayed up late playing D&D online with Neil, Keith, Neil, and the others the night before. He couldn't wait to get working on a digital piece he had going of Andetto and Nerezzar he was making for the blue-haired boy. He hoped he'd like it.

He sighed and flopped onto his back, still half-asleep before the jolt of pain in his shoulder snapped him to consciousness. Matt sat bolt upright and his eyes widened as sunlight momentarily blinded him. There were flashes of green, and black, and red, and there were people, and a breeze, and the scent of dirt-

Dirt?

He was sitting in the middle of a forest clearing. A horse grazed nearby, tethered to a stake in the ground, and he could smell the scents of several other people that were laying around him. He let out a yipe of surprise that came out more like a shriek-hiss and scrambled back. His talons dug into the earth. Talon?

His hands went up to his face and he felt his heart skip a beat. Oh god. Not this again. Please, please, please say he wasn't Nerezzar Cephalos...

He looked back to see batlike wings sprouting from his shoulders.

Oh no.

It was that moment when a seven-foot-tall giant stood up nearby, blinking the sleep from his eyes and yawning. He was muscular and covered in scars, brass knuckles hanging from his belt and a necklace made of shark teeth that he'd most certainly killed dangling from his neck. He stretched and Mattathias' eyes bugged out of his face as he realized the sheer size of this man.

The draconian leaped to his feet and stumbled backwards, promptly landing on his rump as he tripped over another man who was just beginning to rise - a blonde one, with a nasty scar across his face. The moment Matt's ankle hit him his eyes shot open and he flipped to his feet instantly, pivoting and raising his arms like he was getting ready for a fight.

"Whoa, this ain't no boat," a feminine voice chimed from the trees, and a brightly-clothed woman with a rapier sauntered out of the trees. Before anyone could answer her, there was a shriek from above and a tattooed girl with a bow fell out of a tree onto the ground. The shriek was followed up by a startled cry of "Thana?!" and the sound of a sword being drawn before a red-haired woman came charging into the clearing and turning on the rest of the group.

"What did you do?!" she demanded.

"Nothin'!" the barbarian and swashbuckler(?) chimed in unison as the blonde man turned to face the women who'd suddenly arrived. The man in question simply took a few steps back and put his hand on his knife.

The red-haired woman's eyes fell on Matt. "You. Put us back! What is it you want, daemon?!" she demanded, stalking forward with her sword in her hand.

He scrambled back and tripped over his tail as he tried to get back to his feet. "I-I-I-I-IT W-W-W-W-W-W-!"

"Whoa!" the barbarian interjected. "Let's not get 'head of ourselves, we ain't knowin' nothin' yet, I'm sure the lizard-man ain't done-"

She spun on him. "Oh, you want t-"

"Tasha, stop!" the one who'd fallen out of the tree interjected, standing. "Stop, just, stop! Everyone's just as confused as everyone else! I swear to the Kiin-tar! Everyone, put the weapons away!"

The red-haired woman glared at Matt before sheathing her sword and stalking over to the horse, untying it. The blonde man hesitated and put his knife back.

"Great! No more fightin'!" the fancy lady clapped her hands together. "Time fer introductions! I'm Jay, 'n that there's Ari. We just woke up here! We came from a big boat called t' Hippocampus. We're both from a planet called Ethnu, and Ari's from the Glass Isles and I'm from Akaron! What 'bout you, scarface?" she turned to the man on Ari's left, the blonde one.

He glanced around the group warily before answering. "Name's Kratzer. Voke up here, same as you. No idea how I got here. From Germany, on Earth."

"I'm Thana," the girl with the bow introduced herself. "I'm also from Akaron and I'm a Hunter. This is the Guard Dog, Tasha Hunter," she gestured to the red-haired woman. "I apologize for her behaviour. We're soldiers."

It was that moment when all eyes fell on Mattathias. "I-I-I-I-" he stammered, tail flicking with anxiety. "M-my n-name is Ma- er, Nerezzar C-Cephalos," he decided, trying to steady himself and impersonate the draconian assassin.

"Right. So, you woke up here too?" Thana asked. He nodded.

"So...vhat? Ve're just...stuck here?" Kratzer frowned. "Vhere even are ve?"

"Generic medieval-era world!" Jay supplied unhelpfully with a grin.

"Thanks," Tasha growled. "Someone gag the smiling one, she's bothering me."

"Tasha!" Thana snapped, then turned back to the group. "Okay. Does anyone have any idea beyond that?"

"Nope!" the barbarian said, shaking his head.

"Uhm..." Matt raised a hand tentatively. This was all quite familiar - almost exactly the same thing that happened with Keith. "I-I think we're in...D&D," he managed softly.

"Vhat?" the German asked.

"Uh, D&D. D-Dungeons and Dragons," he mumbled. "It's a roleplay game...You know, where you...fight m-m-monsters and th-things. Um, Ari's our...barbarian, if I had to guess. Jay's a...swashbuckler? A rogue, maybe. Thana's...a ranger, or archer...Do y-you have an animal familiar?"

Thana nodded and Tasha stopped what she was doing to face Matt, listening intently.

"Okay, ranger, then. Uh, I'm an assassin, and..." his gaze fell on the German, then on the accordion on the ground near where he'd woken up. "You just be a bard. W-with the accordion there. Tasha's...A fighter? Uh, except...getting some holy vibes...maybe a paladin?"

"I'm a Hunter," she snapped. "Not a Paladin."

"Uh, if those are f-f-factions, it's...d-d-d-different," he stuttered, looking at the ground. "It refers to our...ab-ability sets. So, y-you might h-have some fighting abilities or magics th-that you channel through your deity or whatever. Thana's a sk-skilled tracker and archer, and knows w-wildlands really really well. Ari can do a t-t-t-ton of damage and take it, too, and Jay's f-f-fast and stabby. Uh, Kratzer's sp-spells will go through his music, and th-they're buffing stuff that'll support us as a party. Healing and st-stuff."

"Whoa! That's so cool!" Ari clapped. "Aryessa's going to be worried, but I'm sure we can get through whatever happens together! You know lots."

"...Right. So, if we've got nothing else to be doing, we should get moving," Tasha said. "Thana, fly above us with Quetz and scout. Kratzer, you hang in the back, and Ari and I will take point. Jay and Nerezzar, you two take the middle. That way, if we get in a fight, Ari and I will be on the front lines and give you two time to get dancing. Kratzer can stay out of it to...do his magic thing, and Thana can shoot from above." She swung up on the horse. "Don't just stand there. Let's go."

Lorcan wasn't alarmed by the sudden appearance of the skeleton. He might have looked far different than his true form, but there was still no reason to think that the skeleton was going to harm him. It was almost a comfort to see the skeleton - they were a reminder of home.

"I think they can move because of magic-" Lorcan started to suggest, only to be cut off by screams from two members of his party.

He turned to see Nendros stumbling back into a nearby tree, clawed hands covering his face as his wings protectively wrapped around him. It didn't take long for him to discover that the second scream had come from Adrian; the druid had grabbed the closest thing near him, and that thing happened to be none other than Lorcan.

"It has to be possessed by a gh-ghost!" Nendros exclaimed.

"Skeletons can move without being possessed," Lorcan slowly said, stiffening when Adrian's grip on him tightened. Adrian frantically shook his head in staunch denial.

Shadow, thankfully, didn't seem half as terrified. "I've seen stranger," she replied. "And I agree with Lorcan - they can probably move due to magic. Dresden probably knows more-"

She paused and glanced around.

"...Where did Dresden go?" she slowly asked. When none of the party could provide an answer, she let out a groan and slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Of course he left us. Of course."


His original plan had been to return to the two parties and report his findings - leaving out the bit about him having been touched by death - but then his attention was caught by a rather inconspicuous box.

Or one that should have been inconspicuous, if it wasn’t for the blood trail on the ground that it interrupted. By all accounts, there should have been some sort of blood on the box. But it looked relatively clean, in comparison to the surroundings.

He casually leaned down and grabbed a knife from the corpse's body. Casually swapping it from one hand to the other in a methodic pattern, he approached the purported box.

Ru followed him over.

"Hello," he said. He crouched down before it. Frustratingly enough, he couldn't check like he normally did, but instincts made up for where his magic was lacking. He held the bloody knife close to the box's wooden side. "Something tells me that you really won't like if I jabbed this into you, so I think it's in your best interests to show me what you really are."

Ru moaned in agreement and looked as threatening as an undead bandit could look.

Denebola rolled her eyes. Why did she ever think these people were a threat in the first place?

"Fine," she said. "Magic is a better explanation than anything else. And we have seen skeleton-like things before. Not in a long time, but it can happen." She walked over to the dragon kid covering against the wall and peered down between his wings. "So stop screaming!"

She looked back and turned her head back, scanning her group. Denebola groaned. "Dresden and our tiger," she said. "We'd better go search the camp."



A tiger's arm reached out and grabbed Dresden by the wrist, twisting Dresden's hand. "Don't do that," the box grumbled.

Rottoro was in a daze. One moment, he was on the ground, and in the next moment, he was in something's arms and being taken away somewhere with his new friends chasing after him. After a few seconds, however, their cries of "give Rottoro back!" began to fade.

While the people were puzzling over him, he suddenly snapped: "I WOKE UP HERE, OKAY? I DON'T KNOW WHAT MAGIC DOOHICKEY HAS BEEN PUT ON ME, SO LEAVE ME THE HECK ALONE!"

It was enough for Flo to hear him and burst through the trees, beholding the sight of Rottoro being held in someone's arms like a sack.

Blinking, Thytes set the skeleton on his feet. "My goodness," he said. "I had completely forgotten to pay attention to where I was walking, or that I was walking - I had not expected to come across a skeleton." He tilted his head to peer towards the trees where a second person had come from. "I, uh, presume that you are not alone?"

"It looks like there's a pattern - we're ending up here in parties," Shadow concluded. Her hand absentmindedly rested on the hilt of her sword; she needed the comfort of something when stuck like this, and her magic hadn't been coming to her like it used to. It wasn't all that surprising - she didn't think tieflings were remotely like what she was, save for being not human.

"We have five people, not counting Dresden's zombie," Adrian piped up. Shadow turned to look at the druid. "There were six people already in the camp when we arrived. Those are the regular numbers for a party, right?"

Shadow nodded. "The ones I've done have been around that size, anyways."

"So if we find someone," Lorcan assumed as Adrian finally let go of him, "then there's going to be more people."

Nendros hesitantly folded his wings on his back, looking sheepish as he glanced between the skeleton and the angry lion. "I don't remember there being so many large groups the last times I've ended up in situations like this. At least, not at the start of them."

Shadow spun around and stared at him. "You've been in a situation like this before?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I have. The first time, there were five of us. We had to relieve our memories. The next time, the people from the first incident - and another person - ended up in my world. The last time, I was brought to a place where I had to reenact different fairy tales. The last one had a lot of people involved with it, but it wasn't right away - it took time for them all to show up."

Shadow massaged her forehead, feeling the beginnings of a headache. "So this is apparently a regular thing that happens?"

"It is," Lorcan agreed. "It's happened to me several times, too."

She glanced over at Adrian.

The druid quickly shook his head. "It's my first time," he said. "And, uh, it's one of the weirder things that's happened to me since..." Adrian didn't finish the sentence, instead finding the ground to be incredibly interesting.


He tucked the bloody knife into his belt with his free hand, prying the tiger's hand off of his wrist when the deed had been done. "I won't," he said. He hopped back up to his feet. "I thought you might have been one of the bandits - from my experience, Dungeons and Dragons bandits can be quite tricky things."

He couldn't help but smile at the memories that followed the thought. There had been so many times he and Pres had run-ins with bandits during the old D&D sessions - and then there was that one time where he had managed to convince him to join them. To this day, he still didn't know how he had done it.

The smile faltered, and he started walking in the direction of the two groups.

...That had been before Anne had gotten distant. He could remember the last time the club had a group session; Pres had been doing them online these days, but nothing was ever quite the same. He had tried it to, but technology and him weren't all that compatible.

"Come on," he said to both Ru and the tiger. "I have some important things I need to share with the parties."

He arrived back at the group just in time to see a skeleton that moved on its own, and to hear Shadow say that they needed to go find Dresden and the tiger. His hand immediately went for his knife - God, he was so useless when stuck like this - but he faltered when he saw the skeleton was unarmed. Ru relaxed behind him.

"Well, I arrived just in time, then," he said. He eyed the other newcomer, and came to the same conclusion as everyone else - there were more people nearby. "I'll assume you've already told our new guys what's going on?"

"We haven't gotten there yet," Nendros replied.

Dresden turned to the two newcomers and clapped his hands together rather loudly. "To put it simply, we're stuck in Dungeons and Dragons. If you've somehow never heard of that, it's a roleplaying game where characters go on epic quests and fight different enemies. I'm Dresden, and I'm my party's necromancer."

He turned back to his own party. "Now, speaking of necromancy, I just had a little chat with a bandit's ghost. Apparently, there's someone called a Slime King nearby. If we're supposed to get out of this by playing our parts, I think he's where we're supposed to go next. There's also apparently a lot of dire wolves on the way, so we'll have to be careful about that."

He gestured behind him. "But before we embark, let's get inside the dead bandit camp and do some introductions. It looks like we're all going to be getting to know each other better, and names are probably a useful thing to know - though, as fair warning, I'd advise not using your true name. You're free to do it, but you'd be surprised what people could do with that."


He awoke to darkness and the steady dripping of water.

When he came to, he was sitting in a throne carved out of rock. It connected with the cave floor below him; he couldn't see any break between the two when he groggily glanced down. It was too dark - and he was too tired - to notice any discrepancies as he got to his feet. It was only when he heard a squelching sound coming from nearby when he started walking that he froze.

"H-Hello?" he asked, then gave a startled yelp when his voice was far deeper than he had anticipated. His hand shot up to cover his mouth - a confirmation that he was in his human form - but something about the sensation that followed felt really, really wrong. Something was sliding down his face and off of the strange gloves he didn't remember putting on.

He glanced down.

His outfit was unfamiliar - and a little embarrassing, given how he could see his chest through the see-through material - but that wasn't what he focused on.

Instead of skin, he had slime.

That would have been a little confusing, but now he was downright terrified. It wasn't staying in place like it was supposed to. It was dripping and falling to the floor, and he realized with horror that it was dripping off of his face. Even his hair wasn't there - it was replaced by slightly less dripping slime. He rushed around what was apparently a throne room in a desperate attempt to find a mirror. What he did end up finding was a stack of gold near the entrance, and he peered down at.

A drop of slime splashed onto his reflection as he bit back a sob.

He couldn't recognize himself in his reflection.

His face was dripping too much, and his eyes weren't brown - they were a startling shade of green. Even his hair was a different style, long instead of short. And his height - he was far taller than he ever should have been! It wasn't him in the gold, even though it should have been.

He stumbled back, tripping over his own feet and tumbling to the ground. Now the sob finally broke free. He pulled his legs close to his chest and rested his head on his knees, crying into his strange clothing as he realized none of his friends - or even Lorcan! - would be able to recognize him when he looked like this.

And when he came to the horrible realization that even his own sobs sounded unfamiliar.

The group quickly stepped out of the shadows. "Fargrim, put that hammer away," Flo hissed. She turned to them. "Did you guys wake up here, too?" she asked them.

Rottoro scrambled towards the group and hugged Mellie with all his might. Mellie sighed. "Rottoro, please get off me." Rottoro refused. He didn't like the furry thing.

Flo sighed. "I am Flo. The skeleton is Rottoro. The Scarlett Johansson look-alike is Mellie." Mellie jumped. She had always been shy about her new name - she had only given it to them since she assumed that she would be with them for a long time. "The guy who looks like Kakashi from Naruto is Ellil, the dwarf is Fargrim, and the elf is Valanthe. Pleased to meet you."

Mellie protested Rottoro, trying to push him off of her. However, it was to no avail, as he was too scared of the lions and tigers to do anything. "Rottoro, you're already dead. There's nothing to be afraid of," Mellie insisted. This was enough to unattach Rottoro from her, but it still took some difficulty. "Sorry about him. He's a bit skitterish."

"Oh, that's quite alright," Thytes said, taking a step back and smiling insincerely. He hadn't meant to scare the poor skeleton. It was extremely unlike him to personally cause fear and stress, so it took a few seconds for him to straighten himself out and regain his composure. "I am beginning to receive the impression that my companions and I are not particularly ordinary in whatever lands you come from." He pointed to himself. "I am Thytes Aurelius."

The lion pointed to Denebola. "Denebola Argentus," she said with a scowl.

"Lunis," the panther piped up from next to Lorcan, before wrapping an arm around Zech and pulling him close. "And this is Zech."

Mal stared at the ground. "Mal Cinis," he grumbled.

"And-" Thytes wrapped up, pointing to the tiger who'd just arrived. Thytes waved his hand.

"Erasmus," the tiger said. Now dressed up in brown robes, he crossed his arms and sat across from Mal.

Oh, now that's why the tiger looked so familiar. However, Mal beat Thytes to the punch.

"Evion?" Mal said, staring up at the tiger.

Evion looked away.

Trying to ignore the awkward silence that fell over most of the group, Thytes nodded in Shadow's direction. "It does appear to be a frequent occurrence, I am afraid," he said. "I am aware that most of us have had experiences like this one before, though the number of people we have come across already is rather peculiar."

Denebola nodded and turned to Dresden. "So explain," she said. "What are these 'dire wolves,' what is the 'Slime King,' and how worried should we be?"



Last he checked, the bog didn't have any caves. Or things made of slime. Which strangely wasn't even the weirdest part of Lasan's day.

Lasan had been wandering the corridors of what appeared to be a maze inside a cave for the last half-hour. He'd woken up next to a group of lizards, but they hadn't been particularly willing to talk. Their grunts and hisses had flown over his head - a dialect he wasn't familiar with, maybe? At least they hadn't been bothered by his attempts at conversation, though they could've just been ignoring him. Which still hurt a bit.

The lizard shivered. It was odd, since he was dressed up just like they'd been - in a loincloth, holding a spear with an iron tip - but the cave affected him far more than it had them. The humidity wasn't a problem; it was just too cold. And he hadn't been able to find anything that would fit him. Curse his size.

But at least he wasn't in any real danger. Even the creatures made out of slime, strange as they were, were too small and disinterested in him. As long as he got out of the cave quickly enough, he'd be -

Lasan paused, raising a scaly hand to his nonexistent ear. Was that...crying?

He found himself at one end of a long hallway. The noise appeared to be coming from the only door, set to the right and at the middle of the hallway. Creeping forward, Lasan pointed his spear in front of him. The voice was strangely deep, and he wasn't sure he could trust it, even though it did sound like crying.

When he reached the door, Lasan peeked into the room beyond. He immediately yanked his spear away from view.

On the ground, in front of a mirror was some kind of large creature made out of slime. It had curled up into a ball and did, in fact, appear to be crying. Its clothes were colorful and ornate, matching the green slime that dripped off of it. And, above all else, it appeared to be harmless - Lasan couldn't find a single weapon on its person or in the rest of the room, which appeared to just be a throne and the back of the cave.

"Are, are you alright?" Lasan said, taking a couple tentative steps into the room.

After a moment passed, Adrian stepped away from the party and into the camp with Dresden. He averted his gaze from the blatant amounts of death and destruction. Even though he wasn't as squeamish as Nen apparently was, it still made his stomach feel queasy when he stared at it for too long. Even looking at Dresden's zombie for more than a minute or two was hard.

"I've already said my name," Dresden said. "It's Dresden - short and easy to remember. I'm a necromancer and a human." He gestured behind him. "The zombie's Ru."

"Was that his name before?" Nen asked. Adrian waited for an answer as well; he didn't remember hearing Dresden talk with any spirits when bringing the bandit back to life, but there was nothing to say that they hadn't talked about that when he had slipped off earlier.

"Nope," Dresden replied, popping the "p". "I have no idea what it was, but I'm calling him Ru now."

Adrian stared at him and his zombie.

A moment later, Shadow spoke from by the tree she was now leaning up against. "My name's Shadow."

"I'm Prince Nendros Exel Xenon," Nen said. He gave a warm smile, though it showed none of his very sharp teeth. Adrian felt guilty for how he had reacted to the prince back when they first met; Nen seemed incredibly nice, and seemed to be very aware of how terrifying he appeared to be. "But you can called me Nendros or Nen - I don't have a preference."

"I'm Lorcan Fuery II," Lorcan said. Adrian turned to stare at him instead of Dresden, the feeling of recognition he had felt upon first hearing him say his name returning. Lorcan wasn't a real name, was it? It was the name of a fictional character from Vampirates. He had loved reading that as a kid, and still remembered his favorite character.

...But Lorcan did have fangs...

Adrian abruptly tore his gaze away. No, that was stupid! Lorcan definitely wasn't his son, or anything like that. That wouldn't make any sense, because Vampirates was just a fictional series and the first Lorcan was just a fictional character.

And then there was Dresden, now that he thought about it. Dresden was the name of another fictional character, this one Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files. And while Lorcan didn't share a striking resemblance with his namesake, Dresden really did. Adrian couldn't remember if the personalities really lined up, but hadn't Dresden said that he was a magician-

No, no, no. He wasn't going to think about how he might be interacting with fictional characters. None of the other people here sounded familiar, so it was definitely just a weird coincidence, or they were both lying about their names.

Yeah, Adrian told himself, that has to be it.

...But if it wasn't, was he making a good first impression-

Dresden suddenly cleared his throat.

Adrian froze at the noise.

"The quiet guy is Adrian," Dresden said, pointing right at him. "Adrian's our human druid. Nen's our dragon cleric, Shadow's our tiefling fighter-"

"Archer," she corrected. "Lorcan and I switched roles."

He rolled his eyes. "Archer, then. Lorcan's our elf fighter, and Ru's just a random zombie bandit."

Dresden then spun around to face Denebola, clapping his hands together as he did so.

"Dire wolves are large, terrifying wolves," he said.

"...Isn't that all wolves?" Nendros asked.

Lorcan shook his head. "I know some nice ones."

"You know some...?" Dresden shook his head and fell silent. Adrian wisely also avoided thinking of what that sentence implied; it hurt his head too much to think about the meaning behind it. "Dire wolves are different than regular wolves. Trust me, you'll know when you see one."

Adrian thought for a second, then hesitantly voiced his own opinion. "Dire wolves are a little more violent," he explained. "They stick in packs, most of the time, but can really aggressive. And the larger a dire wolf is, the more likely they are to hurt you."

"That about sums them up," Dresden agreed. "Now, onto the Slime King. The Slime King is a boss. Dungeons and Dragons has a lot of possibilities, so I've admittedly never heard of him before. But, from what the ghost of one of the bandits here told me, he's a ruthless guy who won't hesitate to kill us the moment we run into him - if his slimes and other assorted baddies don't get us first."

Shadow crossed her arms. "That's bad."

Dresden shrugged. "I was actually thinking it would be a piece of cake." When Adrian and Shadow both stared at him, he quickly clarified. "We're in Dungeons and Dragons right now, but we're not bound by the rules of the game. We don't have to do this based on turns, and we can tackle this like an actual threat. Given a name like the Slime King and the fact that my ghostly bandit friend was calling the king a "him", he must have a relatively humanoid form."

Adrian perked up. "That's...That's not really that bad," he realized.

"Especially when there's so many of us," Lorcan added. He gave a hesitant smile, fangs glinting in the sunlight. "Are we going to do it, then?"

"I am," Dresden decided. "Though we probably should get some intel on the layout of the land. I can-" He faltered, paused and then corrected himself for reasons Adrian didn't understand. "-stay here and help plan what we do next."

Adrian looked around at the group.

Though absolutely terrified at the prospect, he hesitantly raised his hand. "I can go," he said. "I'll change my form again, and I know how Dungeons and Dragons works. I can avoid any major threats and let you know what will be a challenge." He tried to sound confident as he said this, but he was sure that his worry was written all across his face.

So he wisely switched forms.

"I'll be back," he said, now the same wolf as before. He knew it was silly, but being someone he had played as in a video game made him feel a little more confident. If he channeled Link's attitude instead of his own, he didn't feel half as afraid.

Adrian slipped into the darkness of the forest.


He lifted his head when he heard the voice.

For a moment, his breath caught in his slimy throat. He was terrified of being found by someone who would lash out at what they perceived to be a monster, and was terrified that it was someone he knew who wouldn't believe him when he said who he was. But he didn't see someone who was afraid of him, and didn't see someone who he knew.

He found himself looking up at a giant, scaly man.

He unsteadily got to his feet, slime falling down to the ground as he straightened. The man was still easily the taller one of the two, but he was closer in height than he ever should have been.

"I-I'm okay," he whispered. "I-I think."

He looked the man over.

"...Are you different than you usually are, too?" he asked, his strange, deep voice hesitant.

"Fine," Denebola said, watching Adrian leave. "There's enough of us that we can handle a few wolves and some kind of king. Not nearly the first time I've ever helped take down a king or a queen. But if Adrian comes back harmed, comes back with company, or doesn't come back with all, we're not going anywhere."

She started pointing to the various cats. "Zech, Lunis, and Thytes, go over the camp and take whatever supplies you can carry. Food, water, weapons - if can you hold onto it, bring it. I'm going to check on our bandit leader. And I want the rest of you to stay here and keep an eye on the newcomers. I don't want to come back and find they've ran off or decided to pick a fight."

Mal wanted to point out that neither he nor Evion were suited to talking to people, but Denebola had always turned away and walked off. Thytes sped ahead of her, while Zech and Lunis began to walk along the edge of the camp. Eugh. She wasn't much for listening.

Evion got off the box and moved over to Dresden, keeping a safe distance from Ru. Of course he'd go for the single most obnoxious and strange person in that group. Mal rolled his eyes, but followed Evion.

He stopped in front of Nen. "Just so you know," Mal said, "Thytes used to be royalty. His dad was the Regulus before he got kicked out for some crimes. Denebola's dad was in the same position before he got murdered and replaced with Thytes's dad, which is a long story. Just thought you should know, since royals like to gather together."

That's when Mal heard a growl from the center of camp.

"Thytes, I thought you tied him up!"

Mal rolled his eyes. Of course.



Taber was having a wonderful dream.

Sure, it was a little strange to find himself in the middle of a forest in the body of a gigantic wolf, but he felt so strong. Every flick of his tail made the trees creak; every growl echoed through the air. It was a really cool experience, even though he was pretty sure he couldn't change into anything else. He even got to save someone! The poor man had been surrounded by smaller wolves, who'd all fled when Taber showed up. Taber couldn't fix the man's mask or the ropes that bound him, but at least could carry him in his mouth as he wandered through the forest.

Shifting his weight, Taber tried to avoid squeezing between two trees, but ended up knocking one over. It made a tremendous crash as it hit the ground, causing the tied-up man to swear and shake. Whoops. Taber arched his back in embarrassment, keeping a wide berth around the fallen tree.

And that's when Taber saw the smaller wolf sneaking through the sparse undergrowth of the forest floor.

Setting the man down, Taber bounded towards the smaller wolf, causing the ground to quake with every footstep. "Wow!" Taber said, stopping in front of the wolf and leaning down. He reached out an oversized paw to pat the wolf's head. "How are you? You look awfully small!"

Taber paused, frowning - it came across as a snarl.

"Are you a kid?" Taber said at last. He barked. "Oh no! Where are your parents? Are you alright?"

He heard the sound of someone hopping through the dirt behind him. Looking back, Taber raised a paw. "Just one second," he said, before running after the tied-up man.

"It's not safe out there!" Taber said, biting the edge of the tied-up man's outfit and pulling him towards the smaller wolf. The tied-up man swore and flailed once again.

The wolf shook his head. "It's for your own safety! These woods aren't safe!" he said through his teeth, before turning back to the smaller wolf. "And do you need any help too? Are you lost? I can help!"





Lasan had no idea if a "yes" or a "no" would be more comforting. On one hand, he had to guess that this person wasn't normally made out of slime, so a "yes" would probably give the person something to relate to. On the other hand, it wasn't really honest, and Lasan didn't want to have to admit it was a lie later (he'd noticed lies never lasted too long in dangerous situations).

"Sorry," he said, "This is about what I usually look like. What happened with you?"