Young Writers Society

Blake

I strangled a giggle. It sounded like I was choking. Allon looked up, face still in that hilarious "tough" look. He dropped his arms.

"What?"

I snickered. Snickering was better than giggling- I was NOT Tiaan. "Your face."

"Gee, thanks."

"I mean, you're trying to look all tough, but..." I snickered again.

"Well, how d'you do it?"

I paused. I hadn't thought about it before. "I dunno, it's just... natural. Six brothers, pirate family," I shrugged. "It's sort of necessary. Don't s'pose you'd ever have to use your tough face."

Allon chuckled. "S'pose not."

The sun was just starting to come up. The sky was lightening, a few stars still shining. Tearing my eyes away from the sight, I turned back to Allon.

"Now, see how this tendon is sticking out? Yes, that one, there in your wrist- you're over-tensing. Try to loosen it without totally going limp- yes, like that!" I smiled and demonstrated the punch-kick for him. He repeated it. It wouldn't do quite the damage mine would, per se, but it would hurt.

We were making progress, definitely.

Sorry! IGNORE THIS POST!!!

Emmett

"I don't know!" Tiaan shouted. "Just...something!" I chuckled. This was going to be fun. I closed my mouth tight and didn't say another word. After a few seconds, she stormed off. I could barely make out a small smile on her face. At least she knew I was just messing with her, and didn't really hate her.

After that, I got really bored. I got up and started just walking around. I noticed Meave sitting by herself, and immediately ran over to talk to her. As I got closer, though, I noticed she was crying.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, sitting by her side. She got up and started walking away. "Hey, what'd I do?"

"Nothing. Just go away!" she said. I ran after her, and put my arm around her.

"Look, whatever's wrong, I'll help you with it." I said.

"NO! Just leave me alone!"

She left me standing there, alone. I didn't know what I'd done, but I intended to find out. I couldn't stand having her mad at me. I couldn't live knowing that. I knew I barely knew her, but it seemed like we'd known each other for years I had to find out what was wrong.

~Maeve~

After that, Emmett was going to ask me whats wrong?!! I thought furiously. I climbed the nearest tree.I felt the rough tree bark scrape my leg, but all I wanted to do was be away from Emmett. Grabbing the next limb, and pulling my body on top of it, I looked around, dang it's beautiful up here I thought, trying to put Emmett out of my mind. I looked down, and noticed how far up I had climbed. He can't climb this high. I thought in relief. I leaned back against the tree, and closed my eyes.

Yea, Hope, that did remind me of that day. UGH, what a bad day. And if I get this wrong, someone tell me. My stupid brother got me banned for a while, and I'm trying to keep up with everything.

~Kassie~

Why was there so much drama around here? I wanted to be alone, but I wanted to comfort Maeve. She was like that helpless girl from the memory. I went after her, ignoring the look Emmett gave me and climbed the tree. My wrist was hurting from my cut, but I kept the cloth wrapped around it so no one would see my damage. I didn't like what I had done, and I wouldn't do it again.

I sat down next to her on the limb, putting my arm around her shoulder and pulling her next to me. My poor poor sister. I rubbed her hair softly, trying to get her to stop crying. She didn't pull away from me, she didn't even look up at me like I was crazy, she just cried, and I let her. Sometimes, the best thing to do was just let it out. I hadn't cried sense that day with all the red, and the pain had been enough, the guilt.

But I found myself crying with her, my tears falling silently as I held her close, trying to be a sister to someone, if not my brother. I closed my eyes, starting to sway a little, rocking back and forth with my arms around her. It wasn't strange for me, because I'd done this many times with one of my friends. I missed being home, but I was happy to be gone. I shook the thoughts away and focused on Maeve, poor girl. I pulled back, looking at her.

"Are you going to be OK?" I asked, my voice breaking as I wiped my own tears away. Seeing her cry made me cry, and I realise how stupid that is.

Emmett

I sat down below the tree Kassie and Meave were in. I wanted to climb up there, and find out what was wrong, but I figured it would be best to leave them to talk. I would ask Kassie why Meave was mad at me later. She'd have to come down sometime.

I thought hard about what I had done wrong. I couldn't think of anything. I traced my steps, thinking of all that I had done today, but I hadn't done anything to hurt her. I could never hurt her! Well, apparently that wasn't true, because she was mad at me for some reason.

Eventually, I fell asleep under the tree. You couldn't really blame me, though. Sitting in the same position all day, doing nothing but waiting for someone who seemed like they would never come down. It gets to you. I shook myself awake a few times, and every time I would look up to see Kassie and Meave up in the tree. Then, I would only sigh, and close my eyes again. I waited all day for them to come down. They would have to eventually, but I didn't know how long that would be.

~Maeve~

The moments Kassie had been with me, were some of my favorite. Kassie, holding me, like we had known each other for years. I could tell she had been through a lot, so she could relate to me easily, which made her all the more special. As we sat in the tree, just her presence made me more comforted. I looked up after a while, to find her crying as well.

"I think." my voice barely above a whisper. I slightly smiled and hugged her back.

"Thanks for caring, a-and being a sister to me." I said, hoping I didn't sound to strange.

Kassie didn't reply, she just smiled, and the happiness she felt, shone through her beautiful eyes. I didn't know how I was going to handle talking to Emmett, but some how i'd manage. Looking down, I saw him sleeping under the shade of the tree, we we're sitting in. Maybe he does care. I thought.

I reached and put my hand over my two necklaces, feeling the metal in the palm of my hand. I thought for a while, and removed one of my necklaces. The leather string that held the elegant black cross, hung over my hand. I closed my eyes, remembering all the hard times I had been through, and my sister, who was the only one who had believed, and cared about me, and the day she died protecting me from my dad.

I reached around Kassie's neck, and latched the hook attached to the necklace. I took my hands away, and smiled, as a tear of joy ran down my face. The day was long and hard, but this moment, when I realized, how much Kassie resembled my sister, had made it amazing.

~Kassie~

I touched the necklace, struck by her kindness. The only thing I'd be able to give her was my trust that I would take care of it, because I was sure it meant a lot to her. Once again, I put both of my arms around her shoulders, clasping them together on her other shoulder.

"Thank you," I whispered, tears forming in my eyes. "Now." I let go of her, looking her in the face. "Can we get out of here? I have sap all over me." I smiled and she laughed, hesitant of what she wanted to do. Then, both of us glanced down at Emmett. He seemed to care about her, and the fact that he was here meant that he cared about her, and he clearly didn't have a clue what he did. But I'd seen what had upset her. I wasn't going to say anything, and definitely not to Emmett unless she wanted me to.

As I was climbing down the tree, the cloth around my wrist caught on a tiny limb protruding from the tree, and it ripped off and my wrist rubbed against the tree, hurting. I held my wrist when I got down, trying to keep the pain away and hide the cut. But Maeve noticed. She wouldn't say anything...would she?

~Maeve~

I noticed the large cut on Kassie's arm, but I knew she trusted me, and I wasn't going to break it. I followed her down partially, until i reached the branch that had caught the cloth. I grabbed it, tossed it down to her,and jumped down from the limb. I landed directly in front of the sleeping Emmett, and the urge to slap him came over me instantly. Before I could stop myself, my hand swung, slapping him across the face.His eyes flicked open.

I couldn't help but smile slightly,as I started running down the rows of trees, in case he was running after me. I stopped to catch my breath, just as I did Kassie met me. I couldn't help but laugh at her shocked expression, she was speechless. I heard quick steps, and glanced down the narrow path we had taken, Emmett was catching up. I will never live this down. I thought.

~Kassie~

This seemed like a game to both of us as we ran down the path, smiling at ourselves. I was proud of her. Surprisingly, I was glad she slapped him. I wouldn't have been strong enough to do that, I wasn't even strong enough to deal with my own pains. I continued to grin before I tripped, grabbing her hand and pulling her down in front of me. We were laughing like idiots by now, tears coming to my eyes, but she helped me up and I dusted off my clothes then looked back as Emmett was getting closer. I couldn't help but burst out laughing, louder than before, but I turned and we were running again.

"Where are we going?" I asked between laughing. She shrugged, laughing too, and I could see she was crying too, though those might have been sad tears, I wouldn't know. We stopped a few yards ahead to catch our breaths again, chests heaving. I leaned over, putting my hands on my knees while she had her arm lifted on a tree, her head resting on that.

~Maeve~

We were running, and laughing, now that takes some energy! Emmett was still catching up, but we were both breathing extremely hard, so we had to rest. Kassie and I were crying, mostly from laughter, but for me, It was slightly because of the fact Emmett would do something like that to me. Today was the day that rest of us would get their dragons, so we had to find our way back to the others before Emmett caught up and wanted to "Talk".

At that moment, I realized we were going the wrong way. I Looked over to Kassie, still breathing rapidly, and said "We need to get to the others, but," I stopped in the middle of my sentence, as I saw Emmett not to far away. "Follow me." I said. She nodded, and glanced behind her to see what I was staring at.

We both ran, twisting through the trees,trying to find a way to turn around. We decided to take the route we had already followed. we turned, and began running back. When we saw Emmett, we hid behind a bush, and he kept running. I didn't want him to get lost, so when we were a good distance away, I whistled. As he looked back, his eyes were full of confusion.

The laughing began again,and we knew we had to take a break soon, or we would collapse. "Dang! how long can he run without a break?" I asked Kassie.

"A while." She replied with a smile.

"Apparently." I said, Returning the smile.

~Kassie~

Following Maeve, we ran through the forest, looking for the way out. We were laughing again, amazed by how long Emmett could run without stopping. Suddenly, we broke into the clearing, pausing for a moment to look around at the others who had looked up to see us. We were still laughing, faces flushed, chests heaving, tears in our eyes. I looked around at all the familiar faces before collapsing to my knees, holding my chest and gasping for air. But I found myself laughing harder at this for some reason, and my laughter made Maeve laugh harder, and soon enough, we were both on the ground laughing again. They were looking at us like we were stupid, but it wasn't long before some of them were laughing with us.

Emmett

I normally wouldn't have kept running, but they seemed to be having fun, so I kept on going. Meave whistled behind me, and I turned around, completely confused. That made them laugh harder. I shook my head, a smile on my face. What was with them?

Slowing into a walk, I started heading for the clearing. I knew they had probably already reached it by now, so I didn't really care to run. That had been fun, but I still wanted to know why Meave was mad at me, and why she had slapped me. I rubbed my cheek where she's hit me.

"Ow." I said softly to myself. It had hurt more than you could expect from Meave. She didn't really seem like the type to slap, much less slap really hard! Eventually, I came to the clearing. Meave and Kassie were rolling on the ground, laughing. Everyone's eyes were on them. I ignored the stares as I walked up to them. They both stopped laughing when they noticed me.

"Look, can you just tell me what I did wrong?" I asker Meave, putting out my hand. She pushed it away, and the two helped each other up. Meave opened her mouth to speak, when the weapons instructor yelled, "ALRIGHT EVERYBODY GATHER 'ROUND! IT'S TIME TO FINISH UP WITH DRAGONS!" I sighed and we all walked over to him. I could feel Meave and Kassie smiling behind me.

Jocasta:

"I'll go first," I blurted, surprising myself. No one had noticed me even though I'd gotten there first. Not that I cared.

Everyone turned towards me. Feeling awkward, I shifted from one foot to the other. Allon was frowning. I shot the stupid boy a glare and then turned to the instructor. They had forgotten about me. Huh, typical.

"I'll go first," I repeated in a sterner tone. The weapon's instructor grinned.

"ALRIGHT," he said. "YOU'RE FIRST, GIRLIE."

I stepped forwards, taking a deep breath. Passing through the cave and stepping out onto the rock had to be the hardest thing I'd ever done. I bowed and waited. I could hear the dragons flying around. They circled and circled until finally one was left.

Wind roared in my ears and suddenly a shadow fell over me. I looked up through my eyelashes to see a dragon in front of me. She was bronze, and rather big. Big? She was huge. I swallowed, watching her.

I almost blinked, but I stopped myself from doing so. It was windy up here on the rock and the wind made my eyes water. I watched the dragon as she moved closer, bringing her snout close to my face. I found myself looking into her eyes. Eyes so pale a gold that they almost looked like milk. She had a darker band of gold ringing her pupils.

And then she rose and backed away, launching herself into the air. I reached out for her, limping forwards a step before realising what I'd done. She was gone by the time my actions fully registered.

Blinking slowly, like I had just woken up, I looked around and noticed that I wasn't alone, on the top of a mountain. Bofus was there and he was grinning. "YOU'VE BEEN CHOSEN, LASS," was all he said before walking back towards the cave.

Slowly, very slowly, I followed the man back through the cave and then back down the mountain to join the others. Allon was watching me, as well as a few of the others. I looked away and stared at the ground, feeling embarrassed. He'd seen me limp. They'd seen me limp. That wasn't good. I didn't like it, not at all. I turned my back on the others and watched the sky.

Eventually, I glanced back over my shoulder and sighed. Great, he was curious now. I bet all of them were. Resigned, I looked down at my leg and glared at it. Why couldn't I just be normal? Why couldn't I not have a limp?

((Tell me if anything needs changing or deleting, Ray.))

Your turn!

untameabletiger wrote:I woke up, the wind howling, this time, I had a flashlight,so hopefully I wouldn't scream again.

No flashlights. flashlights require batteries(1800), and lightbulbs(1878[last approx.13.5 hours])