Young Writers Society

Siren clapped at Mari's transformation. ''Ooh! Nice.'' she said.

Juniper looked up at Lorcan. He was the one who had been in situations like this before, and therefore was the one who would know what to do. If he agreed with it, she would. If he didn't, she wouldn't. It was as simple as that.

"We'll come with you," Lorcan said. He gave her shoulder another tight squeeze. He seemed to be doing that a lot. In retrospect, she could remember him doing the same thing with Hero and Second. Something about that realization made her feel good. If they were in a world where anything could potentially harm her, at least someone was keeping an eye out for her in lieu of her brother.


His eyes widened when Mari's legs suddenly became a tail - he had never seen a transformation like that before! He tried checking the planes to see if she was like him, but it looked like she wasn't. Which was sad, but it didn't mean she was any less cool.

Wait. Mari was a princess, too? That meant he was with two princesses, not just one! That was amazing! He would have been grinning from ear-to-ear at this realization, but Odris said that those type of grins could get kind of creepy when he did them, and he was supposed to be a professional. So he settled with a small smile instead. That was decidedly a diplomatic and scholarly thing to do.

Another scholarly thing to do - investigate! If Odris bugged him about it later, he'd write up a report on this. But if there was no need to write a report if Odris was there to pressure him into doing it. He crouched down on the ground and tentatively reached a hand out to touch the tail that was just at the surface at the water. He barely had to touch the actual water was good.

And wow, her tail was surprisingly smooth! He ran his hand up and down it. It felt really, really nice, and his smile grew a little more. "Princess," he began in the most serious voice he could possibly muster, "your tail is very smooth."

I gasp in horror as this man strokes my tail. I gather orbs of water, leaving them floating on the top of his head. I make them explode like a bucket full of water and it all dumps over his head.
"Pervert!" I yell out offend. "Has no one taught you any manners! How dare you violate me like this!" I push myself completely under the water, completely enraged at the manners of him.

Tamika opened her eyes, hearing voices from below. Disoriented, she thought that she had somehow ended up in the sacred chamber of the temple again. Perhaps the Citages had recaptured her when she had fallen asleep and brought her back.

A quick inventory of her surrounding revealed that she was in some sort of cocoon of tree limbs. She attempted to squirm her way free, her wings aching in confinement. Eventually, she was able to snap a branch loose. Unfortunately, she underestimated the balance of her weight on the tree and she found herself tumbling out of its clutches.

With a splash and a cold shock, she landed in the water below. Right in the middle of the owners of the voices she had heard.

"Um, hello there" she wiped water out of her eyes and quickly folded her wings tight across her back, "pardon my intrusion but- where the heck are we?"

Maahes hissed and recoiled back as the water hit his clothing and skin. Soaked to the metaphorical bone - because even though he didn't have bones, he got the metaphor - he glared at the princess.

"I'm not a per-vert," he protested. He had seen that word in some of his books before. Even though he didn't know what it meant, he did know that it described people who weren't like him. "I just wanted to touch your tail, Princess!"

Giving a frustrated noise, he turned around and looked at the newcomer who had suddenly fallen into the water. His face immediately lightened up when he saw her beautiful pair of wings. He raised a hand out to touch the feathers, but hesitated before actually doing so. What if she did what the mean princess had?

The white feathers taunted him.

If he got wet, then he would get wet! He just had to touch wings like that. They had to be her actual wings. He would have seen something different on the planes if they weren't.

He eagerly ran his fingers across her wet wings - even though they were currently folded tightly across her back. They were soft, too, almost as soft as the cat ears he had touched earlier. He bet they would have been just as soft and neat if they weren't soaking wet, but it'd be rude to point that out right now.

"I don't know where we are," he said, "but your feathers are really nice."

Tamika jumped as the man who had climbed into the river touched her wings. A gutteral noise of surprise left her throat.

"Nng!" She turned around quickly, catching her foot on a stone on the river bed. This earned her another spastic tumble onto the water.

"Ah- uhm- thank you." She spluttered after she caught her breath, trying to act at least a little like a normal person.

Siren chuckled at the winged girl's fall, then hopped over to the riverbed, and extended an arm to help her up. ''Hello, Bird. I am Siren.''

Finally feeling comfortable enough to unsubmerge myself, making sure my tail stays away from the wandering hands of this awful mannered idiot. "Bird? I believe I read about those before. Although, i didn't know they were so... Humanlike." I hum quietly as I try to think back to what book I read it from.

Tamika smiled hesitantly at the blue amphibian girl and took her webbed hand, using it to hoist herself up.

"Hi Siren. My name is Tamika, but- you can call me whatever you want, I guess." She looked down at her soaked robes as she said this, preoccupied.

With a glance over at the girl with the tail, "Oh, I'm not a bird. I have these wings because um- I'm an angel." Cue an awkward grin, "in the magical term, not the biblical."

Siren's back fins twitched in curiosity.
"Is an angel like a bird?" she asked, not being well versed in human people mythology.

I give Tamika a reserved smile, "Ah, I'm unfamiliar of the term. I'm only well versed in the mythology of the sea. The sky is definitely not my forte." I pull myself out of the water, the wetness instantly off my skin as the tail unravels from me, my human legs returning, and the tail returning back to my dress. I stand back up on the dirt, and shake the last bit of water from my hair, and checking my pearls.

Maahes patiently waited to be included in the conversation again, but it looked like he had already been forgotten. He frowned, then turned his attention to the lady that had just talked - Siren, right? She was really cool. He had already thought that about her, but her name made her even cooler than before.

She was close enough to touch now, so he reached a hand out to touch her fins - which had just twitched! That was so so so cool. Even though he had seen a lot of neat stuff, he really wanted to copy that someday. Definitely when Odris was far away. But, no matter what, he was going to try out a guise like that.

Siren did not twitch at Maahes' touch.
She simply turned her head, very slowly, and stared at him with her large, black eyes.
She grinned, and made a wheezy sort of laughing noise that sounded like 'Hee.' Then she reached for Maahes' head, and ruffled his hair thoroughly.

"I like you." she said.

As Zech pulled himself up, watching the others all the while he had a few regrets. But it'd be rude to leave now, and there was something he could do.

He walked over and crouched next to Maahes. Based on Maahes's words and expressions, he seemed more oblivious than a pervert. And Zech was familiar with both. In all honesty, Maahes acted much younger than he looked, but Zech thought it would be rude to point it out. This was just Jaron with a stupid amount of curiosity and even less social graces.

"Hey there," Zech said to Maahes, who was focused on a strange lady with gills and huge eyes. Zech's tail swished behind him as he said, "How're you doing?"

Rose's grin grew bigger.
"Great! We'll leave as soon Ryder gets back from...wherever he went," she said, glancing around. These two seemed close, by the way they were holding each other.



The angel fell from above them. His eyes immediately widened, and he averted his eyes.
"Apologies for disturbing you, O Flugel. Please forgive us," he said, bowing slightly