Young Writers Society

Kiran offered her thanks to Lex and would have offered her help to the girl in the tree, but the whirlwind she could create would be quite jarring to anyone who wasn’t used to being whipped through the air by the air at high speeds, so she kept that offer to herself.

She could also bring down the arch. Her hands held the power of a lightning strike, more, even, at the moment due to her distress. All she’d have to do it hit it with any strength at all and let the lightning do the rest. The arch would split and the grip would be able to get down. The hard way.

Kiran didn’t suggest that either.

"Thanks - ouch." Helena huffed when she was pulled up by Lex. She looked up at the girl on the arch and waved, jumping up. Then winced, when pain shot up her left leg. She looked down at it and gasped when she saw blood.

"Does anyone have - uh - extra cloth?" Helena asked, "I'm kinda bleeding... And my jeans ripped." Helena screamed. "These are my favorite jeans and they ripped! Mother, my jeans-"

When Helenah realized that her mother wasn't here, she satrted crying. Ruby perched on her companion's head and chirped, "It's fine. We'll be home soon." Helenah didn't care. Her favorite jeans had ripped and Ruby was saying it's fine! She grumbled and wiped away her tears.

Dae looked around. He hadn't quite reached a state of panic yet, probably because he hadn't quite processed what kind of situation they were in. As it were, he did seem to understand that everyone around him were in varying degrees of stress.

He wasn't quite adept at dealing with stress of any sort.

His solution to this was simple; try to be helpful. His body shimmered once more as he shifted into a dragon, one smaller than the drake he had previously been. He flew up into the air, hoping to get above the trees and learn about the surrounding area.

The gust of the small dragon's wings—A small dragon?! Well that was hardly sensible—scaling the air almost knocked Dara off balance, which would have amounted to a thorough soaking in the tinkling river sounds below. Luckily she had braced herself for anything the moment she determined the regrettable chaos around her. She felt she was getting too old for this, and that included climbing questionable woven structures.

Dara took in the upright, clothed otter and the hoodie wearing young man who had respectively offered to help her down from whatever it was that kept her up, although she now assumed it was an arch of some kind like the row of arches beside it. Dara noticed the hand wave of the (bleeding) blonde haired girl, which proceeded to Dara glancing at the hummingbird perched on the girl's head. At this point she was numb to odd discoveries.

Dara assessed the twisted, root-like path she would need to navigate in order to arrive on the ground, before replying to the two misfits who had offered a hand. "Yeah, nah, I can probably manage," she replied, not wanting to cause any more fuss than she already had.

Before climbing down from the height, Dara extended herself upwards to carefully gather her surroundings: serene emerald forest and a fresh breeze rustled together in a chorus that seemed to travel far. Sunlight dappled the mossy bank and glinted silver flecks on the water below. The forest had a sense of being old and untouched, as if no sound from elsewhere could penetrate its tree enclosure. Part of her didn't like it.

She managed to get down with little struggle, meeting the out-of-place jumble of a group with a steady frown.

Aegeas stepped out of the way as the person who'd been stuck on the arch climbed her way down. "I saw you looking around up there," he said, once she reached the ground. "Did you notice anything weird? Like things floating in the sky? Other than the dragon, I mean."

Grateful that he didn't need to help her get down, Lex went over to the girl with the hummingbird. Something told him there was more to the hummingbird than their appeared to be, but he was more focused on calming the girl down.

"I don't have any extra cloth," Lex said after he had reached her side again, "but I could give you some of my shirt to tie around your cut."

He unzipped his hoodie and made a golden dagger appear in his hand. He wasn't as used to it as other weapons - namely a sword, thanks to Aleks insisting that they always use it instead of something else - but he cut the cloth from the shirt with ease.

Then he zipped his hoodie back up, made the dagger disappear, and got to work tying the cloth around her leg.

"It's alright," he reassured her. "We're figure out a way to get back to our homes soon - I promise."

If Aleks was there, he would have said that they had no way of knowing that for certain, but he wasn't - even if Lex's mind automatically kept imagining his reactions. It was something he doubted would ever change.

He turned back to the rest of the group.

"Since there's so many of us, it might be a good idea to introduce ourselves again," Lex said. "We probably should wait for the dragon to come back before we do, but I don't think they'll be gone long."

Helenah sniffled. "Thanks, Hoodie-guy."

She tested her leg by moving it in circles. Not much pain. At least the blood stopped pouring out in streams. To release the stress from her leg, Helenah sat down, leaning against an arch.

"Yeah, I agree. We should wait and then we'll do intros." Helenah nodded, flashing her two dimpled smile she inherited from her father. In a quieter voice, she said to Ruby, "Off my head, please, Rub."

Ruby flied off her head and perched herself on the arch that her companion was leaning against and watched everything that was going on.

Dae soon returned, changing back into a human. Perhaps it was ironic that his human size was below average as well? Either way, the only thing that had caught his attention on his little scouting mission were the floating things in the distance, but those were visible from the ground, so he figured they did not need to be pointed out.

There was one other thing he noticed, however. Something not quite physical.

"This place," he said, looking around them. For the first time, his expression was no longer that of curiosity or excitement; he seemed a bit uneasy. "It feels different from the forest I lived in. I don't know why..."

Krian shook her head to ensure that the braid would stay in place and joined the others.

"Um, are we going to do introductions? Or re-introductions? Because I'm kinda curious what sorts of things you guys are capable of, along with your names. I mean, unless your uncomfortable sharing that kind of thing which I totally get, I would never tell anyone what kindas of magic I could do when I was a kid, but it might be nice to know...you know, just in case?"

She shrugged one shoulder awkwardly, feeling like she might have overstepped some rule of politeness.

"That sounds like a good idea," he agreed.

He glanced at the other people in their group, giving them a warm smile as he tried to figure out how much he should say. It wasn't that he wanted to lie - he wasn't going to. It was just that his life was more than a little complicated now, and he was sure it would be easier for all of them if he stuck with the basics.

"My name is Lex," he said. That was a good start. "I'm a chosen of Télos, the god of gold. Being his chosen, uh, doesn't give me a lot of powers. I can create and manipulate gold like he can, and can telepathically speak to him and the other of his chosen."

He made a sword appear in his hands.

"I also know how to use this," he said, making the blade disappear after he finished speaking.

"That's cool." Helenah's face brightened. Helenah took that as a chance to introduce herself to the group.

"I'm Helenah with an h at the end. And-" she pointed at Ruby, "I can talk to her, my companion. She comes with me everywhere I go. And, I can run faster than lightning. But sadly, with this leg, it might slow me down to as fast as lightning. Not faster."

She pretend pouted. Then smiled, brushing a strand of her loose hair behind her ear.

Kiran raised her hands to shoulder height so everyone could see them, “Hi, I’m Kiran and I...well, it’s complicated. My hands here are charged with lightning, so about seventy-five-thousand bolts of electricity when I’m at a resting heart rate. I’m a little above that at the moment because, well,” she gestured vaguely, “this. I can also control the wind, clouds, all that stuff. Whenever I do, though, it’s always hurricane-level dangerous, so I try not to be reckless. Oh, and I’m a carpenter and a mechanic.”

This was a lot to take in. How had she gone from bickering with her older brother in the fast-paced city ambience to introducing herself to strangers in a forest? And a suspicious forest at that. For all Dara's magical knowledge, such teleportation was impossible, and there was no illusions magic that could willingly convince her of the unfurling situation.

"Right, then," Dara said, taking the moment to brush any dirt from her dress, "I'm Dara. I purify things, and access the magical properties of crystals through vibrations. Also," Dara turned to the otter, "now you mention it, there were some vague floaty things above the trees in the far distance, but it could've been nothing. Or something." She glanced at the dragon-turned-human.