Young Writers Society

Nen watched Thytes and Denebola walk away, Mal's words ringing through his mind as he tried to think of the two of them as fellow royalty. It had been a long time since he had encountered other members of it - save for Knight, but he didn't count, since they were best friends - but neither one of them seemed like the royalty he knew. They hadn't flaunted their status, and though Denebola wasn't exactly the most friendly, she also wasn't incredibly stuck up.

He could appreciate that.

"Thanks," he said, giving Mal another closed-lip smile.


The moment the absolutely enormous dire wolf came into view, Adrian froze. If he had still be in a human form, it might have seemed less terrifying. But he was a very, very small wolf compared to the massive one before him, and Adrian couldn't even muster the courage or strength to dart off when it suddenly patted him on the head with a paw.

He let out a low whine he didn't even know he could make, crouching down to the ground as he watched the dire wolf interact with a man who could have easily been one of the bandits.

And then the dire wolf turned its attention to him again.

Adrian let out another whine, finally finding the strength to move. But his attempt to escape was in vain - when he tried backing up, he bumped right into the tree the dire wolf had knocked down.

He had to focus on his words to make them come out in barks and other canine speech instead of regular old English; it was hard.

"I'm fine," he replied. The way his tail had suddenly tucked between his legs suggested otherwise, but Adrian hoped the dire wolf wouldn't notice. "My mom and dad are at the restaurant-"

Adrian gave a startled yelp, horrified that he had revealed something like that. He was usually great about that, but apparently he couldn't focus on both the conversation and speaking the right way.

"I'm not lost," he whispered. "I-I'm just...walking. What about you-"

He caught movement out of the corner of his eye. When he turned, he saw the tied up man trying to scoot away again. Adrian carefully started to slide over in his direction, catching the familiar scent of the camp with his now strangely good nose.

But why would they have taken a survivor if they had killed everyone else? Was this man someone important? He tilted his head ever so slightly to the side and put his snout towards the man. Now the man was doing the yelping, trying to get away from the person he thought was a wolf.

Adrian pulled back and stared up at him, then slowly looked over at the dire wolf.

"...What are you going to do with him?" he asked, blue eyes both wary and curious.


He glanced down at himself.

"...I don't know," he admitted. He looked back up at the scaly man. Something about him seemed familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on what. "I just woke up like this..."

The silence that followed was punctuated by another bit of slime splattering onto the smooth cave floor underneath his feet. He glanced down to see that two pools of slime were steadily forming. He hesitantly raised a foot and watched a little bit of slime drop off of his toes, the slime hitting the pool with a quiet splash.

He put his foot back down.

It made a squelching sound when it hit the pool; it was a familiar sound, but he wasn't used to hearing it like this.

He turned his attention back to the scaly man, and awkwardly extended a dripping hand.

"I'm Second," he said.

He gave him a small, unsteady smile.

Mal tilted his head. "You don't have to be afraid to smile, you know," he said. He opened his mouth, showing off his own teeth. "I'm not going to care. Oh, and for what it's worth, don't bring it up with Denebola - she hates being called royalty. It kinda messed up her life, so that's fair."

He paused. "Oh yeah," he said, "And I guess I'm royalty too - my uncle's the new Regulus. I keep forgetting about that. Great man; always showed up to the monastery on my birthday and gave me candy. The priests all hated him." He laughed quietly, looking away. "Glad to be out of there."



Oh, the poor wolf. He had trouble talking, had whined, had tried to move away, and still had his tail in between his legs. And Taber was pretty sure at least some of that was his fault, big and intimidating as he probably was. Eugh, why he had patted the wolf? That had been disrespectful, but he'd been caught up in the moment. Maybe he'd be able to make amends.

Laying the tied-up man on the ground and setting a paw on him, Taber said, "Hopefully bring him to somewhere safe! I think the other wolves were trying to play with him or something, and he was going to get hurt. I don't want that to happen, so I'd like to see where I can take him. This restaurant sounds like a good place. Could you lead me to it?"



Lasan took the hand, trying to ignore the squishing noise or the slime that now covered his palm. Time to put all that leadership training to use.

"Lasan Cinis," he said. "It's good to meet you, Second. Uh, is there anything you need help with? Someone to talk to?"

"Royalty can be a little...crazy," he agreed, his lips parting to reveal a sharp, toothy grin. He straightened a little. "I definitely don't miss court life and etiquette."


As Dresden watched friendships blossom and chaos unfold all around him, he absentmindedly slung an arm around Ru's shoulder. The zombie obviously didn't mind. But as he waited for something important to happen, he noticed that the tiger - Evion - had come over to where he was standing. He turned to face his apparent companion.

"So, Evion," he said, "what do you do for fun?"


Adrian let out a relieved sigh when he realized that the dire wolf wasn’t so bad after all; he just seemed to want to help people, which was a sentiment Adrian could agree with. He glanced down at the bandit - the man was still trying to escape from underneath the dire wolf's paw.

But then the questions registered.

"I, uh..." He faltered. "I can't bring you to the restaurant. It's awhile away. But, um, I know where to bring your..."

He hesitated, looking back down at the struggling bandit.

"...friend," Adrian awkwardly finished. "He's actually a kind of bad person? I wasn't the one attacked by his people, but he's the leader of a group of bandits. I think you just took him from the people who were going to interrogate him-"

He was cut off by the man whimpering.

He turned back to look at him; the bandit immediately froze, then hesitantly reached a shaking hand out to touch his fur. Adrian froze when the man's fingers brushed up against it.

"N-Nice doggy," the bandit's leader stammered. "C-Can you...Can you keep the big scary wolf from eating me? You're a friendly w-wolf."

"...He's not going to hurt you," Adrian said.

The bandit leader stared at him. "Y-You talked." He reached out a little further and grabbed onto Adrian's fur, causing the druid to give a startled yelp in response. "Are you a spirit?"

"I'm a druid," Adrian replied.

The man furrowed his brow. "...I've never heard of that before." The bandit tried to wiggle out of the dire wolf's grip once more. When he wasn't getting anywhere, he stopped and gave Adrian a pleading look. "Can you get him to let me go...?"

"You're dangerous," he said. "I thought it's better if he keeps his paw on you."


"Someone to talk to would be nice," Second said. He raised an arm up to wipe his still wet eyes, but thought better of it when he felt more slime roll off of his face.

He glanced down at himself again; he still couldn't get over the clothing or the changes that happened to his body. "Could you help me hide what I look like?" Second asked. "I-I need to find my friends and boyfriend, but I think people would be scared if they saw me like this..."

"I'm glad I never got into it," said Mal. "All this talking in the right way and standing up straight and using your manners and knowing how to murder people isn't my thing. I'd rather let my boyfriend do that. Well, not the murdering people part, but."

Mal sighed. "I miss him. I hope he's okay."



Evion stiffened. It wasn't a question he knew how to answer. Normally people just told him to go away, asked what his name was, asked what he was, or just left him alone. But he had to come up with something.

"I have a...friend," Evion said. Better not to talk about his relationship right away - it'd make him a bit too vulnerable. "And we..." - eugh, what was a normal thing people did that they also did? - "make paper flowers. For decoration."

Not great, but it'd have to do.



Ohhhh, the bandit was talking now, instead of swearing and struggling. That was a good sign, right? In any case, the bandit had asked, so Taber lifted his paw.

"I don't think he can speak wolf," Taber said to the smaller wolf. "But it looks like you can talk to him, so can you tell him everything's okay, and that I'm not trying to eat him, and can you also tell me what a druid is?"



"Absolutely!" Lasan said. "I mean, I'm not afraid of you, but it's okay that you're scared other people will be." He looked around the room. "Do you think there's anything that could help cover you up? I'm a healer, so I can work with bandages and gauze pretty easily. And then we can just say you got hurt by something."

Nen hesitated before giving him a comforting pat on the back. "I'm sure he's fine," Nen reassured him, his smile now gentler and more reassuring than before. "The last time I ended up in a situation like this, my girlfriend did too. She ended up being alright, and she's definitely not a people person."

He paused.

"So you're boyfriend is already doing great, if he ended up here with us in some way," Nen concluded. "And, if not, I'm sure he's doing fine back in your home."


It wasn't the answer he had been expecting, but Dresden certainly liked it. It was a good conversation starter, and showed that Evion didn't really mind talking to him. It had been awhile since he had just had a conversation with someone - talking to Raptor (and occasionally Bartimaeus) just wasn't the same.

"I'm not good with crafts like that," Dresden said. "I can't sit down for long enough. Pres always used to-always tells me I need to be more patient, but I can't. There's just so many other things I could be doing, and the things I make never turn out as well as his."

He gave a little stretch; he still couldn't feel his fingers, and it had spread a little farther down them. Now it went all the way to where the rest of his hand started.

"I do a lot of singing and dancing," he said. "Not professionally, but it's fun hamming it up with the radio and messing around with my friends."


As the dire wolf spoke, Adrian instinctively froze. He hadn't thought that the wolf would be able to understand what he was saying, but he must have understood English to some extent - he had known that the bandit leader was asking for help, and had heard him call himself a druid. The bandit leader scooted out from underneath his paw, blue eyes - so light that they were almost white - darting nervously between Adrian and the dire wolf.

"He's not going to hurt you," Adrian told the bandit leader. "I think he just wanted to protect you."

"...Oh," the bandit leader said. Adrian say him doing something odd with his arms out of the corner of his eye, and instinctively went a little closer to investigate. (He was glad for an excuse not to explain what a druid was.) When he got closer, the bandit tried turning away, but Adrian had already seen enough to know exactly what had happened.

The bandit leader had found a sharp rock and was trying to cut the ropes binding his wrists.

"You're trying to escape," Adrian accused him. The bandit immediately froze and stared at him. "You were trying to cut the ropes around your wrists."

"I wasn't," the bandit lied.

"There's a sharp rock right there-" He gestured at it with a nudge of his paw. "-and the rope tying your hands behind you is frayed. I know what you're doing...I've done it before."

The bandit leader stared. "But how can a wolf do something like this...?"

Adrian glanced between the bandit and the dire wolf, heart racing in his chest as he decided to just come out with the truth. His form shifted from wolf to human. But though the man had been frightened by the dire wolf, he seemed fine with the transformation. If anything, he was watching him like he was studying him, and Adrian really didn't know how he felt about that.

"This is what a druid is - a shapeshifter, and someone who can communicate with nature."

The bandit leader straightened. "Th-That's incredible," he said. "Do you...Do you know why you can do that? Is that a thing your people do, or is it something that you can just do?"

Adrian faltered. "...I'm human like you..."

"There's different versions of 'human' from different worlds," the bandit replied. "We might look the same, but our biology likely isn't. There would be minute differences between us, and I'm guessing one of those differences-"

He paused when he saw Adrian staring at him.

"...What?" he nervously asked. "Are you...Are you not good with hearing about other worlds? I'm sorry. It's been a long time since I interacted with people from other places...I'm a little out of practice..."

"It's not that," Adrian said. "You're not from here, are you? Did you...Did you just wake up like that?"

He glanced over at the dire wolf, suddenly recalling some of what the gigantic wolf had said. How could a wolf not know what a druid was, when one would have surely come through here before?

"I did," the man said. "Did you?"

Adrian crouched down behind him, already getting to work on untying his bonds. The man relaxed as the rope fell to the forest floor, leaning forward to take care of the ones around his ankles.

"There's a whole group of us that ended up here," Adrian said. "When I left, there was nearly twenty."

"I've heard of things like this before," the man said. "Have you figured out the cause yet?"

He shook his head. "No."

The man got to his feet and dusted himself off. "My...brother gets brought into situations like this all the time," he said. He held his hand out. "Introductions are a good start, right?"

Adrian looked down at the hand, then nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed, taking the hand and shaking it, "they are. I'm Adrian Black."

"I'm Oliver Cartwright," the man replied.


He gave a small smile.

"That would be perfect," he said. He scanned the room for anything like that, finally finding what looked to be a medical kit tucked behind the throne. He unsteadily made his way over, nearly slipping in the puddle of slime in the process. But he still completed his task, and returned triumphantly with the medical kit.

He popped the little chest open.

"There's bandages in here," he said, peering down at its contents. He quickly drew his head back when a little bit of slime fell onto a vial of what he guessed was a healing potion.

Mal bit his lip. "He gets...fidgety when I'm not around." The lion blushed, glad Nen couldn't see it through the fur. "He likes me by his side and, uh, he likes having someone to cuddle when he's scared on tired."



"Yeah," Evion said, staring at the ground. "They've been doing it for a very long time, so they're much better than me at it. But, it's nice. And, I can sing and dance too. Basically. What's a radio?"

Eugh, he wished he sounded any less stupid than he felt. He just had no idea how to talk to this stranger. The stranger didn't even appear to be from his world in the first place (somehow). Where was his enbyfriend when he needed them?



The dire wolf leaned down, trying to howl as quietly as possible to avoid scaring the others. "Taber Aurelius-Renatus," he said, extending a huge paw in front of him. Hopefully they'd know he meant to shake hands (or paws, as it were). "And I woke up like this too. Isn't this a cool dream? I'd kinda like to shapeshift, though! This body is really cool, but it'd be cooler to have a bunch."

He swiveled his head to Oliver. "Don't leave, okay?" he said. "It's not safe out there."



Lasan picked up the roll of bandages. Getting down on his knees, he reached down a hand to lift the front of Second's foot. "Sorry about that," Lasan said, starting to apply the first layer. "Lean against me or put a hand on me or whatever you need to do, if you need to."

"...My girlfriend is like that, too," Nen said. He thought back to Az and desperately hoped time wouldn't pass the same here as it did back home; the castle must have been so lonely if it was just her. Knight hadn't been in the castle for months - he had been too busy exploring the world with Mage.

He rubbed the back of the neck. "But if you ever meet her, don't tell I said that," he added. "She tries to act tough a lot of the time, but she's a major cuddler when she's with someone she likes."


He studied the tiger for a moment. Evion must have been from a world that was more like that place than the one he called him. It wasn't hard to fathom; they all knew about other realities and other worlds, ones where stories and technologies could play out vastly different.

...Ones where he might not have never met Pres.

"A radio's a little box that plays music," he said. It was the simplest explanation he could think of. "Different stations play different music, and you can change them by turning a little knob."


Adrian stared down at the paw, then back up at its owner. Taber was convinced this was a dream? Maybe he should have been, too, but this felt far too real to just be a figment of his imagination. Besides, he hadn't thought about Dungeons and Dragons in a long time - why would he have a dream about it now?

He shook the paw. "It's nice to meet you," he said.

He turned back to Oliver, who was watching Taber with interest. It was the same sort of curiosity from before, rather than the fear; he was studying him. Adrian didn't know how he felt about that look.

"His name is Taber Aurelius-Renatus," Adrian introduced him. Seeing that he was a druid, it looked like he would be doing the bulk of the communicating between the different parties in their little trio. "He doesn't want you to leave - he doesn't think it's safe-"

But Oliver wasn't listening to the second part of what he had said. The moment the name had been mentioned, he had strode over to him and eagerly shook his hand.

"You're Taber Lastname, aren't you?" he asked. "From the masquerade? My brother and his wife mentioned you. He's going to be so happy to hear that I ran into you."

Oliver spun around to face Adrian. "Are we going to where the rest of us are?"

He nodded, then glanced between Oliver and Taber. "Both of you should stay behind me," he suggested. "One of you is a gigantic wolf, and the other is the bandit leader that captured one party."


"It's okay," he reassured him. After a moment of hesitation, he did as requested. He didn't want to at first - he was afraid of getting slime all over Lasan's scales - but he knew that he needed to keep his balance somehow. He made sure not to put too much weight onto Lasan; that would likely cause more slime to come off of him.

As he watched Lasan wrap the bandages, recognition dawned on him. He looked up and studied Lasan's face. He had heard of someone who matched his description perfectly, though the clothes had certainly been different. The name was the same - it had just been awhile since that had come up, so it hadn't been at the forefront of his mind.

"You were in the ghost town," Second commented. "I'm friends with Hero, Charlotte and Kartiel - they mentioned you. I just needed a minute to put a name to a face."

"That sounds nice," Mal said. "Just, uh, as long as you're not like me and Lasan and sometimes you have to wake up and nudge your partner until he stops crushing you. He's getting better about it, but it still happens sometimes." He laughed a quiet and anxious laugh. Part of him wanted to get out of this conversation, but another part of him enjoyed the chance to be openly affectionate about his boyfriend. And at least Lasan wasn't around to hear; he'd be too embarrassed.



"Oh," Evion said. Eugh, of course it was a simple little device - how stupid of him. He stared at Dresden. "Do you have one on you? I think it would be something I would like."



Taber resisted the overwhelming urge to knock Oliver over, but instead opted to nudge Oliver and make the happiest bark he could think of.

"That's great!" Taber said, wagging his tail. The gust of wind caused the trees behind him to creak and groan, but he ignored it. "The masquerade was so much fun! There were so many nice people and weird puzzles and lots of dancing, and it's neat that you know other people who were there! Uh, who's the brother and his wife?"

Taber then turned and nodded in Adrian's general direction. He wouldn't be able to get Oliver's response until Oliver heard Adrian's translation, but it'd be rude to ignore Adrian. "Sure!" he said. "You guys can ride on me if you want - I'm pretty big - but you've been really nice, and you know the way, so that sounds like a great plan!"



Lifting up Second's foot, Lasan paused. "I'd, almost forgotten about it," he said. "I thought it'd been some kind of dream."

He frowned, applying another layer of bandages and trying (and failing) to ignore the slime that covered his hands.

"What's the deal with this slime?" he said. "How much of it can you make? What is it?"

Nen gave a sheepish smile. "I'm actually the one who tends to do more of the crushing," he admitted, heat rising to his cheeks. "She's already smaller than most adults, but I'm also taller and bigger now...and I've always given tight hugs..."


"I wish I did," Dresden wistfully said. It had been far too long since he had last been able to listen to the radio; jukeboxes could only do so much, and it wasn't like he had run into all that many during his travels.

He thought for a moment, then gave Evion a grin that he hadn't honestly given for awhile. "If we do somehow manage to find a radio in a place like this, I'll show you how to use one - not sure what stations it would pick up, but it's a start."


Adrian tried his best to translate what had been said, but Taber talked fast and he wasn't used to being a translator. Oliver did seem to get the general idea of what was being asked and suggested; he gave a small smile, only for it to falter when he glanced over at Adrian.

"My brother's name is Leonardo Cartwright, and his wife's name is Vala Mal Doran." He hesitated, glancing in Adrian's direction again. "He might have been going by a nickname, then. Maybe Maahes would be a name you're more familiar with?"

Something about this situation felt wrong, but Adrian couldn't put his finger on what. And he didn't like that feeling in the slightest. He might not have had spidey senses, but he did have good instincts - and those instincts were telling him that Oliver was hiding things.

He'd just have to be careful.

"It might be better if we don't ride you," Adrian said, tearing his gaze away from Oliver and focusing on Taber instead. "I think I overheard one of the people there imply that they wouldn't want me returning with surprise guests, but, uh, there's nothing I can really do about that...So it might just be best for me to go first and explain things to the group. Especially when you're a monster, and Oliver's the escaped bandit leader..."

Oliver nodded in agreement. "I think that's probably our best plan."


"I'm not sure," Second replied, awkwardly leaning slightly back as more slime dripped off of his face. It luckily had managed to avoid falling in his mouth so far, but something told him his luck wouldn't remain for much longer. "I'm..."

He hesitated. He really shouldn't be sharing the truth with other people, but Lasan was a giant scaly man and knew his friends. Besides, his appearance probably gave some hints to what he really was already. There wasn't any need to avoid telling the truth. Who knew? Maybe the truth would be key to understanding what was going on right now.

"I'm a slime," he admitted. "If you haven't heard of slimes before, we're basically like this, but just...smaller and more compact. I made a contract with Hero, and one of the abilities I gained from it is that I can switch from that form to one that looks more human."

He glanced down at himself.

"This...This is like a weird mix of the two," he said. "But things aren't right. My hair's too long, my eyes are the wrong color, I'm too tall, these clothes are too fancy, and my voice is too deep. And slime isn't supposed to drip. It's supposed to stay where it is."

Mal laughed. "I bet you have to apologize about it a lot too," he said. "Not that I mind as much anymore? I'm almost used to it. And, like I said, he's getting better about it. It's more annoying than anything else now."



Evion sighed and stared down at his paws. "That'd be nice," he said, nodding his head. "It'd be neat to hear what kind of music they play in a place like this."



Lowering himself on his belly, Taber restrained a bark. "Maahes and Vala?" he said. "They were so cool! They were smart about the puzzles and good at helping out their friends. I didn't know they're husband and wife! That's so neat!"

He looked over at Adrian. "I'm not a monster! I'm a big wolf! But yeah, if that's what you were told to do, that's okay! Just tell me when you're ready to go. I think I should be able to keep up?"



Lasan wrinkled his snout as a big drop of slime splashed onto it.

"Huh," he said, shaking off the slime and wrapping bandages up Second's leg. "I've never heard of being able to change form because of a pact. And, uh, no offense, but I would've been much happier with slime that didn't drip."

"I do all the time," he confirmed. "She tells me not to, since I do it so often, but I still feel guilty every time because of how small she is compared to me."


Dresden thought for a second.

"Well," he said, "we might not be able to find a radio, but I'm sure we could find a bard at some point. They're usually the ones who play music in a campaign."

The music wouldn't be the same music he used to listen to with Pres, but he wasn't going to let Evion know. Talking about it might make him think about times that seemed far too long ago, and he couldn't run the risk of the waterworks starting again when he got nostalgic.


Adrian translated for Oliver yet again, opting to ignore Taber's comment about not being a monster when he gestured for the group to go forward into the woods. Taber didn't know anything about D&D; a dire wolf was almost certainly a monster, and Taber had to be one of them.

He led them through the forest with little incident. Every creature they encountered scurried away the moment they heard Taber's rumbling footsteps. Even some of the more terrifying and dangerous ones fled. By the time they were on the edges of camp, Adrian was starting to see the benefit in having a dire wolf on their side.

He awkwardly cleared his throat, but there was no need to - everyone had already noticed their arrival. Before they had stepped through the surrounding line of trees, Lorcan had already withdrawn his sword, and Shadow had already taken out her bow. Even Ru looked just a little bit more eager to do zombie-esque things, likely courtesy of Dresden.

"It's okay!" he hurriedly exclaimed. "They're like us, just not in a party!"

Oliver gave a wave from behind him.

"I'm Oliver," he said.

Adrian turned back to Taber. "This is Taber. He can understand us, but only druids can understand him. I've been acting as a translator on our walk back."

Shadow still kept out her bow, but Lorcan slid his sword back into his sheath and walked over to where Adrian, Oliver and Taber were standing.

"...Taber?" he asked, looking up at the enormous dire wolf before him. He gave him an awkward smile. "I know I don't look the same, but I'm Lorcan."


"None taken," Second reassured him. He gave him a small smile, but it was obscured by some slime that finally dripped in front of his mouth. After he spat the slime out onto the cave floor, he tried to give the smile for a second time. "I like it better when it doesn't, too."

Staring down at the pile of supplies Thytes was neatly organizing in the center of camp, Denebola was debating the pros and cons of leaving the rest of the group and going out on her own.

For a group of people who spent their time robbing and murdering strangers, the bandits didn't have all that much. A few animal carcasses, a couple boxes of dried fruits and vegetables, a couple boxes of (once fresh) fruits and vegetables, and some burnt pieces of meat that probably used to be animal carcasses. They really should've taken out those fires sooner.

And that wasn't necessarily everything, but Denebola had only seen glimpses of Zech and Lunis since they'd gone off to find supplies elsewhere in the camp. Hopefully, that was what they were doing. Hopefully, she wasn't the only one cared about their survival.

So, naturally, her fur bristled a little bit when she heard the sounds of enormous steps coming from the woods, not to mention smelled and soon saw a gigantic wolf heading into camp.

Drawing her bow, she ran to the edge of camp just in time to see Adrian explaining the identities of the people he brought along. Because of course he had.

Denebola scowled as she stared up at the giant wolf, who whimpered in response. Yep, that had to be Taber - this wolf was far too friendly and far too conscious of itself to be anyone else. It was especially obvious now that he was distracted with trying to give Lorcan some kind of awkward hug. Even if Adrian had heard the name Taber before, she doubted he'd have brought in a dire wolf and lied about its identity to keep it safe. And even if he did, it was still a dire wolf.

Shaking her head, Denebola walked up to Oliver. Grabbing him by the shirt, she dragged him over to Thytes, who happened to have followed her to the camp's edge. "You seduced him, you deal with him," Denebola said, shoving Oliver at Thytes.

Thytes looked at Oliver for a few seconds. "I am almost certain this is not him," he said, but Denebola had already turned around and walked over to Adrian.

"What did I tell you?" Denebola said. "You might've found the bandit leader, but I'd told you specifically not to bring anyone back with you."



"Hmm," Evion said, watching the rest of the people in their two groups gather around some kind of giant wolf. "We have bards where I come from. I don't like them too much. They try too hard to impress people."



Finished with one leg, Lasan lifted Second's other foot up and began to bandage it. "Yeah," he said. "It doesn't help that I'm being so slow. If it weren't so cold in here, I wouldn't have to worry about my hands shaking so much. My boyfriend would probably do a much better job of this."

There was so much going on, but Adrian kept his attention focused on the woman in front of him. He shifted uncomfortably at the comment; Denebola had said that. And Adrian really did hate getting in trouble - it always made him feel really, really guilty, even if he knew that he was in the right.

"I know you said that," Adrian said, curling his hands into fists. He could feel his nails digging into his palm as he tried not to get upset. "But I...I couldn't just leave them there. Oliver can't even understand what Taber's saying, and it's not right to leave other people out there."

He suddenly heard someone approach from the side. Turning, he saw that Nen had walked over. "Adrian's right," he agreed. He glanced over his shoulder at Mal for the briefest of seconds before continuing. "If there's other people out there that are going through what we are, it's not right for us to leave them."

"Wait," Adrian slowly said.

Nen sent him a questioning look.

"If Taber and Oliver were out there, doesn't that mean that there could be even more people like us?"

Nen's eyes widened, and he immediately spun around so his attention was solely on Adrian. "We need to find them."

He eagerly nodded in agreement. "It's our responsibility-"

He was cut off by the sound of Dresden groaning from nearby.

"Is this Super Smash Bros or something?" he asked. "We're going to have a full roster by the end of this."

Ru moaned; Adrian didn't really know if that was intentional or not, so he was going to ignore it.

"There are a lot of us," Shadow mused. Lorcan gave a nod of agreement, awkwardly trying to wiggle out of Taber's grip. "But I think Adrian and Nen's points still stand. We can't leave people alone when they don't know what's going on-"

Now Shadow was the one being interrupted - her comment was cut short by Lorcan giving a gasp that was hastily (and poorly) disguised as a cough. "If I'm understanding this right, people don't have to be here in parties, right?"

Adrian hesitantly nodded.

"And the Slime King would have slimes with him, wouldn't he?"

"Given the name, I'd say that's a yes," Dresden replied, slinging his arm back around Ru's shoulder again.

Lorcan turned back to the rest of the group. "I need to go to the Slime King now," he said from Taber's paws. "I think my boyfriend might be one of the slimes. He's...He's similar enough to be turned into one, like how Taber's normally a bipedal wolf and was turned into a giant, four-legged one-"

"Hold on a minute," Dresden cut in. "Taber's actually a wolf?"

Lorcan nodded.

Dresden massaged his forehead. "This day couldn't get any weirder."


It took Oliver - a name he was still struggling to get used to - a moment to recover at the declaration that the man in front of him had seduced him. He certainly didn't remember that, and the thought made heat and color blossom in his cheeks. He wished the mask he was wearing covered his entire face; he felt absolutely mortified right now.

"I, uh, don't think you seduced me either," he stammered. "I'm, er, um..."

He was glad that neither Arin or Vala was here right now. Arin would just make things more awkward by trying to help him out, and Vala would be teasing him mercilessly. He fidgeted with the bottom of his shirt, eyes focusing on the ground instead of on his face.

"I think I'm just filling the role of the bandit leader," he finally managed to get out. "I woke up when Taber was dragging me out of here. I don't know what happened before that, and, um..." He took a deep breath. "I'd really appreciate if we ignored that."


Second stared at him. Now that they had established he was in the ghost town, memories were beginning to come back to him. Hadn't Kartiel mentioned Lasan being bad in the cold because he was a reptile? Second wiggled out of Lasan's grip and darted over to the room's entrance.

"Let's get warm, then," he said. "I bet we could find a fire somewhere, and maybe a torch we can carry around if we're lucky."

He eagerly hopped from one foot to the other, testing out the bandages that were wrapped around the bare parts of his feet.

"You can finish doing the bandages later - this is a good start!"

Denebola's glare shot from one person to the next, words briefly failing to describe her anger. When they could, and when the conversation had stopped drifting elsewhere, she took a deep breath.

"True," she said, "It would be a bad idea to leave them alone. But it's just as possible that you could've found them a safer place, came back, and brought us over to them. And it's not like-"

She felt Taber's oversized snout on her head. Grumbling, she pushed the snout back, but Taber only moved closer. Yeah, that was Taber.

"It's not like we were even ready to take on more people," she went on, holding a paw over her head to keep Taber back. "We have meager supplies for a crowd of this size, I'm not even sure where Lunis and Zech are."

Sure enough, the panther and tiger took that moment to appear from behind a few of the tents. Lunis carried a stack of boxes on each of his shoulders, while Zech carried another in front of him.

"Question answered," Denebola said, turning to them. "What took you so long? Were you just finding supplies?"

Zech gave a muffled reply from behind his stack. Nodding in agreement, Lunis said, "Yep. We wanted to check their perches on the trees, just in case."

"Fine," Denebola said, turning back to the others. "We'd better get ready to go, then."



"Oh, that is perfectly acceptable," Thytes said, frowning. "I have to admit, I was not sure how I was going to address the bandit leader - it is certainly problematic to explain to a partner that he is to be kept under arrest until further notice. But, enough of that. Is there anything that you need?"



Lasan sighed as Second hopped back. The lizard was hoping to finish the bandages before searching for something warm, but it appeared Second had other plans. Which was admittedly nice of him.

Trying to wipe the slime from his hands onto the floor, Lasan pulled himself up and nodded. "Thanks!" he said. "I've been doing this for a while." He laughed a little awkwardly, then paused. "But, uh, do you think you can lead the way, or should I? I'm not sure if you've been around this place all that much."

"I'm, uh-" Oliver started to say, only to pause when he noticed the two who had just emerged from the depths of the camp. He felt a burst of relief - it was Zech and Lunis! He glanced between the man and the two people he knew, finally deciding that it was best to forget this incident ever happened and go see them. "I'm good."

He slipped off with an awkward wave and walked over to where Zech and Lunis were standing.

"Hi," he quietly said. He eyed the boxes. He wanted to offer to carry one, but he didn't think he had the strength needed to do that.



Dresden frowned as Denebola turned her back to him; he absolutely abhorred people like her. He could play whatever part he wanted to, but what ultimately mattered was that he did feel the same way as the others. They couldn't leave people out there. It didn't matter that this was just a D&D campaign. The wilderness was dangerous, especially when it was new and unfamiliar. The creeper he had narrowly escaped before wandering to Raptor's place was a reminder of that.

And maybe Denebola did have a point with the food, but that Slime King was going to be absolutely loaded. He was sure of it. They could loot the place and swing by the town that had to be nearby. It wouldn't take more than a day, tops, and less than that if they did things quickly.

"Well," he said, "now that our massive party's been assembled, I think it's time to do a little exploring! Given that one of us is a giant wolf, I'm currently using a zombie as an armrest and we're loud enough to probably hear a mile away, something tells me it won't be hard to get to the Slime King's place without getting attacked by horrible, vicious monsters."


Second hesitated near the exit to the room.

"I haven't left here yet," he hesitantly admitted. He peered out into the passageway that led straight into the room, trying to see if he could make out any notable threat. "But I...I..." He faltered. "I don't know how to explain it, but I don't think it'll be bad if I lead. I feel like it might almost be...safer?"

Though he couldn't describe the feeling, it was something he didn't think he could ignore.