Young Writers Society

Tasha Hunter had seen some strange things, but inadvertently winding up in a library where the windows looked out on stars and spontaneously being turned into a dog was definitely the most bizarre experience she'd yet to have.

Her ears pricked up at the sound of voices across the room and she picked her way through the shelves, crouching low to the ground as she stalked towards them in silence.

The first thing that struck her was the fact that James of all people was standing there. She felt her heart skip a beat and her tail start to wag involuntarily, quietly thumping against the shelves.

What?! No! She instantly stilled herself. What was that about? Did she...no. Nonsense. He was a friend. That was why. Definitely. Had to be.

That was when she saw the cat. There was a puppy too, but that was irrelevant. The feline made her ears perk up and her lone eye narrow, belly scraping the ground. Oh, this was going to be fun.

Had she not been a dog, she might've had better judgement. As it turned out, however, being canine did naught but increase the instinct that ran so strongly in her blood.

While Tasha stared at the cat, Ari cocked his head at James. "WHOA! THIS IS SO COOL! CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS! I CAN SMELL EVERYTHING! I CAN SMELL YOU AND MAAHES AND DOG! WHOA! DOG!"

It was that precise moment that the massive, scarred, one-eyed wolfdog that was Tasha came barreling out from her hiding place, barking and charging straight at the cat, lunging for it despite the fact it was in James' arms.

Dante wrapped her arms around herself, her eyes widening as the robot seemed to catch on to her farce. She whimpered slightly, frantically thinking of how she should change her approach. The robot didn't seem malicious, but with corroded software, one could never know.

And this robot's sanity and logic buffers seemed very far gone- Dante's fear only increased as it rambled on about playgrounds and space malls.

Removing its weapon would be the best course of action, she decided. Once again keeping herself from running, she clenched her teeth and visibly mustered her courage.

"S- say..." she stepped a little closer. "I really like your gun. May I hold it for a second?"

Maahes screamed - far louder than any previous time since he had become stuck as James - when the dog suddenly burst from the shelves and lunged at James. He normally would have been terrified for his friend, but he was even more terrified than that thanks to him being caught in the crossfire. After all, he was the one holding James, and dogs that size with that much energy were absolutely terrifying.

He shot down the nearest aisle. In retrospect, the doors probably would have been the best direction to head towards, but he was too busy trying to escape from the dog that was trying to get both him and James. At some point the cowboy hat ended up on the ground, but by that point Maahes didn't really care about something so minor.

And, of course, he kept screaming.


Runi immediately perked up. Perfect! Not only did it temporarily solve the problem of where to put her blaster, but it also seemed like it would make Dante feel better. "Sure!" she eagerly said, taking the blaster off of her shoulder and holding it out to her. "But can you, uh, hold it? I'm not sure you've got the muscles to anymore."

I think she can, Magic hesitantly said.

"Yeah, but you haven't held a Galra blaster before," Runi argued. "Those things are surprisingly heavy. I sprained my back at least twenty times trying to carry too many at once, and I don't even have a back to sprain."

Waiiiit, Magic said. There was something about their voice that made Runi imagine them frowning, though she couldn't put her finger on what.

"What's wrong?"

She's still scared of you.

"What?" Runi asked, staring down at Dante. "No, she can't be. I'm being super friendly and everything. Why would she be scared?"

I don't know, Magic said. It sounded like they were biting their lip and sucking in some air. But she's acting nervous, and I'm pretty sure she just whimpered earlier. I can rewind the footage I got from the camera around the corner, but I don't think I'd be wrong about something like that.

Runi, leaving the gun at Dante's feet, crossed her arms. "I guess you have a point. But she can't really be scared of me, right? Not like super scared. I've been doing a good job at coming off as not scary."

Tasha bolted after Maahes, the movement only triggering her predatory instinct with more ferocity. Ari began barking in his high-pitched puppy 'bork,' chasing after her and biting at her ankles as she pursued Maahes and the cat. As she pivoted around the tight corner her hind paws slid, slamming her hindquarters along with Ari into a shelf and sending the entire thing cascading to the floor, and, in turn, hitting the next shelf and the next in a domino effect. Ari went flying into the wall and landed on the ground on his butt, paws splayed to the side as he got his bearings. Tasha scrambled to recover her footing and leapt over the fallen shelves after Maahes and the cat.

Tuning out the robot's ramblings, Dante kept her eyes on the blaster, watching anxiously until it was set at her feet. Wasting no time, she scrambled like a wild animal to snatch the heavy gun, hoisting it awkwardly.

She turned on her heel and took off down the hallway, moving surprisingly fast considering how much she was struggling to lift the thing. As she tripped and caught herself, she begged desperately that the robot had no built-in weapons.

This proved to be the least of her problems, however. She had only covered a handful of feet when the hall in front of her was closed off by a heavy metal hatch.

Her heart dropping to her stomach, she dropped the blaster and ran desperately to the block, pounding on it with her small fists.

"Interface!! Interface... somebody, help!!" She shrieked, letting out a frantic sob.

Tears were already streaming down her face, and she was too terrified to glance over her shoulder.

James was hissing.

Something he didn't think he could do, but he was. Hissing at Maahes, for screaming, and holding onto him with a vice-like grip. At the giant dog, for appearing out of nowhere and chasing them. At the chaos that ensued.

He tried in vain to wrangle himself out of Maahes's grasp, and had to resort to clawing at Maahes's arms. At the very least, Maahes could loosen up a little.

"Look!" he hissed at the giant dog. "If you're another person who got turned into a dog or whatever, just chill alright? I'm not actually a cat! Gods! Calm the f*** down!"

The beast skidded to a stop, sliding on the numerous book that had fallen across the floor. Her massive tongue lolled out of the side of her mouth and she cocked her head to the side. So, cats were people now.

She sat down, tail thumping against the ground involuntarily. "Sorry," she said, but it was evident from her tone she didn't really mean it. "Hi James, fancy seeing you here," she proceeded to greet Maahes, though it came out merely as a bark. Ari stumbled over to them, tripping over his gargantuan paws and the shelves.

Taber gave off a rumble, nudging Sune. That worked better than he'd expected; he'd been afraid Sune would scream and run off, and then Taber would have to catch him before he got hurt (and a kid certainly wouldn't be bothered by a humongous lion trying to hunt him down). Sune looking a little tangled up in his clothes and Taber's fur probably explained that, though. Poor kid. Or, adult in a kid's body? It was getting confusing.

Taber resisted the overwhelming urge to yawn, clamping his paws over his mouth and slumping forward. He wondered if lions were a sleepy bunch - he felt tired, and the lions he knew tended to sleep a lot (except for Denebola, but she always seemed a little rattled).

It turned out to be just the right posture, because Taber could hear shouting in the other room. He moved one of his paws to try and point it towards his back. Some of the muscles and bones in his body groaned and popped, however, and he had to set the paw back down. Hopefully Sune would get the message - they needed to go to the library, and Sune definitely wouldn't be fast enough. Taber could carry them both.

James stared at the dog with disapproval, but he was genuinely trying to figure out who they were.

They knew him. They recognized Maahes, who currently looked like how he should've, were he not a cat at the moment. He squinted his eyes and flicked his tail. The dog only had one eye. Could it be... Tasha?

"He can't understand you," he explained. "And he's not James. I am. He's Maahes."

"Wow. You really did change looks. Gotta say, liking you without the beard," the dog smirked up at the feline. "What's the name now? Mike? Mark? Or are we just rolling with 'James' for once?"

Runi watched Dante run off with the gun.

Not scary my butt, Magic said. If she and Magic hadn't just become friends thanks to their conversations, she might have been a little more upset about the dig. But they were friends now, and that time of comment was to be expected - at least, that was how things had once been with the old group. With Honerva. Zarkon. Alfor. Coran.

"I don't even know what she's scared of," Runi miserably said. "She's way scarier as her normal self."

Magic sighed. I don't know, either. But I did seal off the hallway she's running down, so you should be able to catch up with her. As Runi started rushing down the hallway after Dante, they gave a small laugh that was unsteady with worry. Hopefully she doesn't shoot you.

"Hopefully she doesn't do what?"

...shoot you...

"Oh no," Runi whispered, coming to the same conclusion that Magic had come to moments earlier. "She's got my blaster-"

Well, it looks like you won't have to worry about the gun, Magic abruptly interrupted. She just dropped it and is pounding at the door. And she's also screaming for help, so, uh I'd say the best thing to do is approach very, very slowly.

"Very, very slowly," Runi carefully repeated.

Yup, Magic confirmed.

Runi would have taken a deep breath if she was in her usual body, but she had to settle with squaring her shoulders and straightening instead. She almost comically began to creep down the remaining stretch of hallway, peeking around the corner to see what Dante was doing before approaching from behind.

"Oh White Lion," Runi said, horror supposed to be seeping into her monotone, "she's crying."

All warnings forgotten, she immediately made a beeline for Dante. "Please don't cry," she said. "I don't know why you're scared of me, but I'm not going to hurt you-"

She was cut off by Magic giving a very loud, nervous laugh.

Uh, Runi? Magic hesitantly started. She can't hear me.

"Wait, she can't?"

You're the robotic one now, not her, Magic continued. Runi didn't get what Magic was implying by the "now" bit, but decided it was best not to question it. And you're the one who's connected to the ship. We're not talking like normal people are. You're hearing me speak through the circuits running through your body, and I'm hearing you reply by picking it up on the cameras around the ship.

"Oh," Runi softly said. "She thinks I'm crazy, doesn't she?"

Yeah...And I don't think you ever said who you were...

Runi sat down next to the wall that had come down, raising her hands high above her head to show that she wanted to cause no harm. "Dante, it's okay." She slowly lowered a hand and placed it on her chest. "It's me, Runi! I got turned into a Galra sentry, and I'm hooked up to the ship now so I've been talking with Magic. I'm not going to hurt you. I promise!"


Sune had heard the noises too - namely the screaming and the crashing, though the barks had been mixed in within it all. Even if he was stuck in such a small, young body, his instincts kicked in. He grew tense, and far more alert than before. When Taber gestured at his back with his paw, he understood what he was implying. Sune wanted to argue that he could walk perfectly fine, but his sore face and tangled clothing was telling him otherwise.

It took a little bit of maneuvering, but he finally managed to climb onto Taber's back. Then horror quickly appeared across his little face when he realized that the room the noises had been coming from was the library. "Oh no!" he whispered, pudgy fingers grabbing onto some of Taber's fur to keep himself from flying off once Taber inevitably started moving. "That's-That's coming from the library! Maahes could be in trouble!"

Even though that didn't quite sound like a Maahes scream, Sune knew that his teacher could change guises too and did so frequently when with people he liked. And from the way he just continued screaming, it was very likely him.


Maahes came to a stop the moment James started scratching at his arms, and in his former cat owner surprise, he instinctively dropped James to the ground once the pain really registered. He knew James would be alright; he was a cat, and cats always landed perfectly fine. But, Altera, that hurt! He hadn't expected being human to hurt so badly when injured.

And now James looked like he was talking with both of the dogs, and Maahes didn't even know how that was possible. He took a step back and eyed the scratch marks on his arms, wincing as he watched the blood rise to the surface of the cuts. They were minor, but they were also enough for him to make sure that he hid the scratch marks from James - his friend would undoubtedly feel guilty about hurting him as much as he had.

James landed on he feet with a composed grace, and his tail flicked back and forth as he took a few steps towards Tasha. Because it was definitely Tasha.

"James," he answered simply, before looking back and up at Maahes, wishing he could somehow include him in the conversation. His eyes briefly flicked to where Maahes was holding his arm but he didn't give it much thought.

He walked back over to Maahes to get his attention, pawing at his shoe. Then he walked over to Tasha and, at a loss for how to communicate she was a friend and not a foe, did the same thing he'd done to Maahes and rubbed his head into her leg as a sign of peaceful affection instead of aggression.

"I don't know how to tell him you're not going to attack him without him being able to understand me," he explained briefly.

"Oh goodness, you really are a cat. See, somehow I thought that it was just going to be you as a cat...which is, really catlike, actually, as I think of it, but daaaammmmnnnnn sir, you've even got the whole leg rubbing thing down," Tasha snickered, licking his head by way of greeting.

James looked up at her with a glare, a disgusted meow escaping his lips as he felt her slobbery tongue make contact with his head.

"Ew," he muttered, pulling away. "Was that really necessary?"

Wow, he didn't even need to tell Sune to hold on. Which was good - Taber had already forgotten to tell him. The idea of Maahes and the others being in danger led him to launch himself down the hallway. After a couple of near misses with the wall, thanks to the fact that lions weren't all that great at sharp turns, Taber dug his claws into the floor to stop right outside two large doors.

After another shout confirmed that the others were inside, Taber rose up, using his front limbs to shove the doors open. Then he strode in growling, looking around for any attackers. He hoped that Sune was still clinging on. It'd be a little awkward if he wasn't.