Young Writers Society

Dean was starting to get the growing suspicion that Cornyx was terrified of him. He had assumed that Cornyx was just a shy person who was terrified by interactions in general, but the increase in stammering when he addressed him made it seem like he was the source of Cornyx's fear. Which admittedly hurt a bit, because he hadn't done anything except threaten him when they first met. And he would have thought they had passed that point by now.

But, apparently, they weren't.

"There's not really a good time to establish rank," Dean said. "Trust me. If I'm right about this - which I probably am - we're going to be dealing with some bad stuff soon. If we don't figure out who is the leader right now, we're going to be trying to figure that out in the middle of a battle, and the last thing I want is for you guys to end up dead on my watch."

A shaky breath. "If you're going to chase people with knives," he said, "Then it's no wonder why people would be terrified of you." He laughed at his own comment, though it quickly turned into a cough. "You know what? I can relate. I was born with these muscles" - he pulled his blanket back to show off his large arms - "And they're not going away anytime soon. When I'm running over to injured people in battle, I look like a wall of flesh and scales and muscles. And you can imagine they try to pull themselves away from me until I pull out my gauze and get my magic ready. We're not in the same boat, but we're close enough. Wish it didn't have to be this way, though; I don't care about how I look, and I don't want others to either."



He was overreacting. It was wet, he was embarrassed by the climb down, and now he was snapping at someone when he had no right to. Aegeas uncrossed his arms and sighed. "I don't," he said, focusing on those glasses. "I'm as lost as you are. Maybe more so. I can barely see anything more than a couple feet in front of me, so I'm not even sure if this is a town."

Cornyx just dipped his head and stepped back, his body language plainly showing submission. He's said his piece, and it was heard - no need to press the matter.

Zalio wanted to continue talking - to explain that they were even more similar than he thought they were, and the real reason why so many people feared him - but he knew there were more important things to deal with.

Namely, Dean's repeated attempts to assert himself as the leader of their group. He did have to admit that he had a point. It would be difficult to determine a leader in the middle of a battle, and they all knew so little about each other that they would be unable to easily come to a consensus prior to one.

But that didn't mean he had to agree with what he was saying.

"We all have our fair share of experience, too," Zalio argued. "I've saved a world twice. Lasan is a skilled medic. Charlotte and Levi managed to set a trap that would have been successful if I didn't have my magic at my disposal. And Cornyx is smart enough to question your decision. We all have our different skill sets, and I don't think you can fairly compare them without seeing them in action."


He looked around, then back at the bipedal animal before him.

"It's a town," he confirmed. He kept his arms crossed; it was a comfortable position, and he wasn't quite sure what else to do with them. "If we're both stuck here, I guess we should introduce ourselves. I'm...Brian."

Lasan laughed uneasily, raising a finger. "Sort-of skilled," he said, looking to either side of him before tipping his hat further over his snout. "I, uh, haven't had too much practice." He didn't know what to say about the leadership crisis. He trusted Dean enough, and Dean had the personality of a leader. At least, as far as the shouting and the ordering people around part went. But he couldn't help agreeing with Cornyx that they barely knew each other, and picking a leader now wouldn't be the brightest idea. Lasan also wanted to be the leader himself, but he wasn't about to admit that, so he stared at the floor.



Aegeas wasn't sure if the pause in Brian's introduction was to make his name sound dramatic, or if it was some kind of fake name. Not like Aegeas was curious enough to find out the truth.

"Aegeas," he said. "A more normal name than yours, but I'm not here to judge."

Levi pushed himself off the ground and walked over to Dean. He took a moment to size him up, then pointed at the door that the four had entered through earlier.

"There's six of us here right now. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that they'll probably be more of us." He looked him in the eye. There was a brief flicker in his eyes - green going to a glowing purple - but it was gone as soon as it had appeared. "Charlotte and I are going to go look for them. Come if you want to. Or don't. I don't really care. I just don't take all that kindly to people bossing me around."

He gave him a smile that lacked any warmth, then was out through the door. Charlotte hurried on after him. After a moment, Dean looked away from said doorway at the three remaining people. He had to admit that Levi had a point. Making sure his bat was squarely resting on his shoulder, he went out to join the two.

They both looked surprised, but neither one objected to him being there.

Back inside the house, Zalio looked at Lasan and Cornyx. "I'm going to go with them," he said. "I have no idea what's going on now, but what they said makes sense."


He raised an eyebrow at the comment - the whole point of the name was for it to sound normal - but didn't say anything else. He simply looked down the street for other people, and, upon noticing a small group heading their direction, he nodded in their direction. "We're not alone."

Lasan pointed to one side of the room, where a fireplace loomed up from the ground, cracked bricks rising up to the ceiling. It looked mostly intact, though the grating was rusted and bent. "It's too cold out there," he said to Zalio, then sneezed, as if to prove the point. Lasan nervously looked back to the the building's front door, where several of the others had just stepped outside. The competent guy with the bat and the kids who'd trapped them had walked away, leaving him with the the shy kid and the guy who was too strong for his own good. But his shivering body wasn't interested in dragging itself out into the freezing rain. He waved the others off, rising up and walking over to a wall. Ripping out the driest sections he could find, Lasan tossed the pieces of plaster and wood into the fireplace. "Let me know if anything interesting happens. Oh, and do either of you have a match, or maybe something similar?"



Following Brian's gaze, Aegeas saw the approaching group. One of them had a bat over his shoulder, it looked like. Then again, he couldn't quite tell the fuzzy blobs apart from one another. The otter reached for one of his swords, but hesitated. There wasn't any guarantee that the group was going to attack him, as much as he wanted to believe otherwise. Besides, if he did have to fight, he'd likely be much faster than any of his attackers.

Zalio smiled. "Actually, I just remembered that I have my flint and steel with me." He started to dig through his bag, only to pause when he realized that he would have to come up with some way to hand it over to Lasan. After carefully removing it from the depths of his bag, he gently placed it on the ground in front of his feet. Then he took several large steps back, just to make sure he didn't accidentally cause any more harm than he already had.


Charlotte's face immediately lit up when she got close enough to make who the two strangers were - while one of them was oddly a bipedal otter, the other was quite familiar. It was Herobrine, though his glowing eyes were currently hidden behind his sunglasses. When he saw who was approaching, a small smile began to dance across his lips. The sight made her heart flutter.

"Hi, Charlotte," he said, shyly tucking one of his longer strands of hair behind his ear. He looked happy, but awkward too - he seemed to be looking that way a lot these days.

He turned to see who else was there. Though the smile momentarily flickered at the sight of one of her two companions, Herobrine kept his tone cordial. "Hello, Kartiel."

Uh oh.

Herobrine had, unsurprisingly, forgotten that Kartiel currently appeared to be Levi Quinn - and that there was supposed to be no overlap between the two. He had made the mistake in the past, but it was never in a situation like this. And Charlotte could already see it written all over his face: Kartiel was upset that his real name had been used.

"Hello, Herobrine," he replied, walking over to Herobrine and looking him in the eyes. This, in turn, made Herobrine cross his arms. Charlotte could sense a fight brewing, and a fight between the two was never a good thing.

Since his arms were a bit busy holding parts of the building, Lasan used his tail. It wrapped around the flint and steel, picking them up and stretching them over to Lasan's hands. After throwing the pieces into the fireplace, Lasan snatched the flint and steel and crouched, banging them together. His blanket nearly slid off in the process, but he didn't much mind. He'd be warm enough soon. "Thanks," he said to Zalio, who hopefully was still in the room. "You sure you want to go? It's probably boring out there, and the fire should be ready soon."



Aegeas froze. He tuned out the argument, that Brian's name wasn't Brian, and the general affection between Herobrine and Charlotte. All he thought about was one name - Kartiel.

A second later, he pulled both his swords out. "Kartiel!" he shouted, pointing one sword at him. "Trying to trick another group of innocent people, are you? I might not be able to kill you, but I don't need you to drag me around this time either. I'll just make you hurt." And then he charged.



Lasan heard the shouting at the moment a spark leaped into the pieces of wood and plaster, starting a fire. He screamed and threw the flint and steel aside. That voice, normally reassuring, terrified him now. At least he couldn't see the face of its speaker. Still, he figured somebody was about to get hurt, and healing was his job.

He rose up to full height, ignoring the blanket falling away off of him. "We need to get out there," he said to Zalio, who was fortunately still there. "Now."

Zalio nodded in agreement, and hurried out to see what the commotion was.


Kartiel hopped to the side, leaving Herobrine in the direction of the charging bipedal otter - which was a sentence Dean never thought he would think. He recognized the name Herobrine. It was from one of those video games that was popular for a time, so it was more than a bit surprising to hear it being uttered as a serious name.

Darkness shot up from the ground and created a solid and tall shield to protect Herobrine from the otter's attack. Kartiel, meanwhile, was frantically trying to find different places to run to. Who knew that a bipedal otter could be so scary?

"Who is he?" Charlotte shouted.

"I don't know!" Kartiel shouted back. Dean didn't quite believe that; it seemed like the otter knew exactly who he was.

"He sounds like he knows you," Dean commented, his grip on his bat tightening. He would intervene if he had to, but it looked like Levi - or, rather, Kartiel - had things momentarily under control. Besides, if the otter was right, he shouldn't even be trying to help.

"Well, I don't know him!" was the angry retort. "I think I'd remember a giant talking otter!"

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Fair point. Second comment: he makes it sound like you can't die. Are you secretly a god, Kartiel?" It was best to cut to the chase here. Kartiel was a horrible alias if it was meant to be one, but he needed to know. Was he dealing with another one of his kind?

Kartiel paused his running for a moment. "Actually, I am. How did you-" Remembering why he was running in the first place, he went back to look for a good place to use as cover. "But I can die, and I don't want to do that again!"

Charlotte and Herobrine looked at each other.

Darkness appeared in both of their hands, forming swords. It reminded him of something Hades might have done, had he been here. The two rushed over to where Kartiel was to protect him. "We're not going to let you hurt our friend," Charlotte said.

Aegeas's eyes widened as Kartiel leaped out of his way and the otter found himself running right towards Herobrine. Only the barrier of darkness kept him from stabbing someone he was fairly sure was innocent. The otter's swords clanged against the barrier, throwing up sparks and almost causing him to fall down. He used the momentum to spin around and balance himself. He couldn't afford to do that again, so it was time to fight smarter, not harder.

And there was Kartiel, hiding behind two kids with swords made out of darkness. Aegeas took on a fighting stance. "You're friends with a monster?" he said, again pointing a sword at Kartiel. "He must've duped you too. So, stand down. I'm not here to hurt you, but I'll do it if I have to save you from him." Not waiting for a response, he charged again, making a wide arc to try and move around the kids and attack Kartiel.



Running out the building and onto the street, Lasan froze. Sure enough, there was Aegeas, picking fights and waving his swords around. He didn't look like he was angry - he'd be much faster and much less clever if he was - but that didn't make him any less dangerous. Lasan's brain frantically tried to think of a way to defuse the situation.

An idea popped into his head. "Disarm him!" Lasan called. "Keep him away from his swords!"

Herobrine hesitated, likely thrown off by Lasan's appearance and the fact that he didn't know him. But Charlotte eagerly followed through with his advice. She made sure to keep in front of the otter, holding her sword out as she tried to think of how she was going to overpower him. She had barely started learning how to use her sword; she doubted she would be able to get all that far into the plan without some help.

Luckily, Herobrine seemed to agree with the plan. He joined Charlotte at her side, providing the perfect shield between the raging otter and Kartiel. Who admittedly had just been running up to this point, but she knew how his brain worked. Just one more second and-

There. Darkness shot out from the ground, the strands waving about wildly as they wrapped around the swords in the otter's hands and tried to jerk them free. A stray strand brushed against Herobrine's sunglasses and knocked them to the ground. Herobrine looked deeply concerned by this turn of events, but Charlotte wasn't all that worried once she realized none of this was exactly normal.

"Hero?" Zalio questioned, coming to an abrupt stop behind Dean. "You're here too-Wait. Hero uses light, and you're younger than him. Who are you?"

"I'm Herobrine," her best friend said.

And he looked very, very confused.

Cornyx raced outside after Zalio, eyes widening as he saw the fight in front of him. The man in sunglasses was standing next to Charlotte, between a bipedal otter and a man who seemed to be said otter's target. Shadows tore out of the ground as he came outside - similar to the ones that he'd seen Zalio use - and attempted to tear the weapons from the otter-man's grasp.

Altogether, it was chaos, and as he felt his adrenaline spike and his heart rate begin to pick up he could also feel it awakening inside him, clawing its way to the surface. Unbeknownst to Cornyx, his eyes flashed a metallic silver and his pupils elongated to become vertical and reptilian in appearance as he approached the combat.

If Aegeas had been expecting vines of darkness to wrap around his swords, he might've been prepared. Since he wasn't, one tug from Levi was all it took for the blades to go flying out of Aegeas's hands and fall into the mud. Lasan breathed a sigh of relief - it could've gone far worse if Levi had wrapped the ropes around Aegeas's wrists or arms.

On the other hand, Aegeas hesitated for just a second or two before trying to reach the swords on the ground. Levi's guards blocked his path with their own swords, so he tried to head around in another wide arc. Which, it so happened, put him close to Lasan.

Lasan took a few deep breaths. Time to do something stupid.

He sprinted, the claws on his feet giving him enough of a grip on the mud to aim him straight for Aegeas. Before the otter could react, Lasan jumped and tackled him to the ground.

Yep, diving right into freezing water and mud did wonders for his body temperature, but there wasn't anything to be done about it now. As soon as they stopped moving, Lasan pushed himself up enough to keep Aegeas pinned, but without the otter thinking he was trapped. Aegeas had always reacted strangely to being trapped. "It's me!" Lasan said, teeth chattering and voice shaky. "Remember? I owe you money!"

Aegeas looked up at Lasan and blinked. He wiped away the mud from his face to get a better view of Lasan. "That was a gift," Aegeas said, "And what are you doing out here?"

"Probably the same as the rest of us," Dean said, walking over to where Lasan had pinned the otter down. He made a note of Lasan shivering; if his previous actions indicated anything, it was that he needed to be in a warm environment. The cold mud was certainly not that.

He kept his bat firmly rested on his shoulders. No need to use it now that the threat had been subdued, but he also wasn't stupid enough to let it out of his grasp when things could still get violent. "We all woke up here, Levi - or Kartiel, or whatever his name is - included."

"It's Kartiel," the god replied, carefully stepping around Charlotte and Herobrine. He peered down at the otter on the ground. "King Kartiel of the End, if you want to get fancy."

"Kartiel, then," Dean corrected himself, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the boy in question. Interesting title for someone so young, especially when he was sure that the End was a place in Minecraft.

"That doesn't make any sense," Zalio suddenly said, making his way over to where the otter was still pinned to the ground. He stared intently at Kartiel, an almost suspicious look to his face. "Telós is the king of the end."

"Well, he might be the one who took over after my untimely demise," Kartiel argued back. His darkness faded back into the earth, but some curled around his arm - a reminder of the powers at his disposal. Dean had to admit that he liked his style.

"Telós has been in charge for thousands of years, and before that it was Robra."

"He what? And who?"

Charlotte cleared her throat. "Uh, guys? I think we should talk about something a little more pressing." She raised a finger and pointed at Cornyx.

His pupils had changed considerably, and he had grown a nice pair of fangs. All in all, it wasn't bad. But he had seen worse in the past, and wasn't particularly intimidated. "Oh, Cornyx? Yeah, he's not human-"

He was interrupted by the sound of Kartiel groaning. "Oh, fu-"

Herobrine wisely cut him off. "What?"

Kartiel groaned and gestured around them. "This is the cave all over again! I should have realized it when I saw Lasan."