Young Writers Society

Dae seemed to sense that it was his turn to introduce himself.

“I’m Dae,” he said, smiling brightly. Once more he seemed like he didn’t have a care in the world. “I’m a Chimera Drake.”

Did that explain much about him? Probably not, but he certainly seemed to think that was self explanatory. He didn’t seem to understand that those around him could have come from different worlds than he had.

Rayden very vaguely remembered bed time lores about fae-folk and half-bloods and gods- but he'd quickly learned that fairy tales didn't exist in the streets of Zhakia.

But in the middle of Nowhere, with chosen ones, electric people, dragons and whatnot, Rayden decided it was a good idea to rethink that rule.

All in all, he thought he was handling things pretty well. No major freak outs or liquid leaks. Ugh, he couldn't believe he just thought that. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Introductions first.

"I'm Rayden," he said. "And I've got no godly powers - at least, none that I'm aware off. But... um..." he paused, not sure how 'thieving,' or 'trickery' would sound in converstaion. he settled for half the truth. "I can climb nearly any thing; I have excellent reflexes, and I'm good in the streets. I'm great at plotting." And deceiving. And detecting lies.

For once, Aegeas wasn't nearly the strongest or most powerful person in a group. He wasn't quite sure how to take that.

"I'm Aegeas," he said. He was tempted to introduce Kendrik, but the hound probably wouldn't take kindly to that. Maybe once Kendrik got out from behind the arch and started trusting people. "I have a couple swords, I can't see things that well if they're more than a few feet away from me, and I'm a pretty good swimmer. That's about it."

A golden sword wielder, an ultrafast girl, an electric lady, a dragon shapeshifter, a nimble schemer, and a bloody otter with swords. This was one hell of a day. Dara wondered if any other wildly powered individuals would stumble into the present group of seven, since that seemed to be a reoccurring experience, and it's not like the situation could hold back now.

Dara asked to no one in particular, her expression dull, "What now? From what I gather we all materialised into woop woop* from our usual locations, and I doubt remaining here will get us answers."

Then a thought struck her: was this the Harmonisers' doing? Had they discovered her rebel involvement? Suddenly all she wanted was to return to her brother's side. Inadvertently, Dara touched the Herkimer diamond ring on her smallest left finger – one of the many crystal rings she wore.

In any case, she would stay wary of the new acquaintances around her.

Kiran nodded, "Yeah, you're right, staying here isn't going to be all that helpful." She looked around. The feeling of absolute fragility, such that only someone absolutely lost in a place that felt ever too large could feel, overtook her. Just for a moment. Two moments. It passed.

She shivered.

"I'm not very adept at traveling in the woods," she admitted, "Does anyone here know how to, uh, find other people? Like, people who live here, in this world?"

Finding civilization. Easy.

"We just follow the river. Settlements crop up near water bodies, right?" He said.

Thing is, Rayden could never be sure. He couldn't even say if regular rules applied in this place. If his stories had taught him anything, it was that magic could not be trusted. Actually, nothing and no one could be trusted, but magic obviously topped the list.

"It's the best bet we have," he said, more to convince himself than the others.

"If we're following the river," Lex said, "I think we should head towards those."

He pointed at the floating objects on the horizon. They were still too far away to make out any defining details, but they seemed mostly stationary. He didn't think it was a group of giant, unfamiliar creatures waiting to attack them, but it had to be something.

"I'm not sure what those are, but they have to be important."

Kiran looked skyward, her skin absently shifting to match the shade above them.

"Yeah, you could be right about that. I know they're not clouds. Not any that I would know about anyway."

She looked at the water. Getting a drink would be difficult in a little while. She couldn't put her hands in the water, not if everything living in it were to survive. She shook that out of her head. She'd figure that out later.

Aegeas winced. It made perfect sense - towns and villages popped up near rivers, the objects in the distance had to be important, and they probably wouldn't be able to go back home if they stayed or walked anywhere else. He just, didn't want to have to deal with those objects. It wasn't like he had the best luck on other worlds.

"Then we'd better get going, because it looks like they're a long ways off," Aegeas said, squinting and trying to judge how far away they were. Curse his nearsighted eyes.

Helenah sighed. Walking so far would hurt her leg and she would want to rest once in a while for the sake of keeping her leg. She'd probably slow everyone down. But she didn't want to stay here in the wilderness!

"Yeah, sure." she said, smiling again. Ruby perched on Helenah's shoulder and rubbed her little head against her cheek as comfort for the girl. Helenah looked up at the sun. "But how long will it take, exactly?"

"Hard to say, but the most orderly decision would be to get moving sooner than later," Dara stated, copying the girl named Helenah by squinting into the sun. "Before nightfall would be swell, but it could take longer than that for all I know. Plus we don't know what we might run into." She felt weary just thinking about the possibilities.

"So at the most: three days." Helenah muttered. Now she had to wait ages to go home and relax. Helenah's face turned red with pure anger

"This all happened because I was washing this face!" she screamed, pointing at her freckled face. "Why why why?" The tree that she was leaning against earned a nice strong punch from her. Helenah yelped. She smacked her head against the tree softly and started humming her favorite song. Ruby shook her head and flew away.

"I agree," he started to say to Dara - only to pause when he saw how Helenah was reacting to the news of how long it was going to take.

"It probably won't take that long," he reassured her. He glanced back at the floating objects, trying - and failing - to once again make out what they were. "I'm not sure, but I think it would take a day at most. We'll figure out how to get you home."

Straightening out his hoodie, Lex started to head down the river. Someone had to take the lead, and there was no one else who seemed to want to do it.

"Hopefully we won't run into anything dangerous," he added, an optimistic tone to his voice.

And hopefully I find someone I know.

Kiran fished a coin out of her pocket and tossed it between her hands, watching it spark and flick from hand to hand with little input from her.

"Are any of you familiar with the game 'Suspicion'?" she asked absently. If they were going to be on the road for a while, a game felt like it may relieve some stress. Being in a strange world, with strange people, and no idea what was going to happen next was something that she thought warranted a good distraction.