Young Writers Society

"I don't think scholars like to run around and pull on people's ears," Zech said. A wry smile grew on his face. Maahes was being dishonest, but it wouldn't be hard to find out the truth. At least he was friendly enough.

Siren briefly wondered why her question was not properly answered, but forgot about it as soon as she started talking to Rose.

"I am Siren. The Merfrog! From the Seeeas of Rhye. Your hair is so pink." Siren said cheerfully.

"It's for science," Maahes said. Sensing what he assumed was an attack on his character, he pulled his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms. "You don't understand because you're not a scholar."

"How would you know?" Zech said. "Maybe I just don't look like one."

Maahes firmly shook his head.

"You can't be a scholar," he argued, taking another step towards Zech. The furry man just didn't look like one, and all scholars looked alike. It just probably wasn't in the way that he was thinking; Odris had said similar comments before when he claimed he knew what a scholar looked like, and he had swiftly told him exactly what the similarities between them all were.

"You don't have bags under your eyes," he said, pointing at his own. (He was starting to get a good enough idea about Alteran biology to know that the bags were a result of a lack of sleep, which he didn't need to do in the first place, but he wanted to look just like he was supposed to - so he gave himself the bags.)

Then he pointed up to his hair. "Your hair isn't a mess." That was from them running their fingers through their hair when reading from long periods of time. All scholars did it, eventually. Some just did it sooner than others.

"And you don't look hungry," he finally concluded, gesturing at his stomach. Every scholar forgot to eat once or twice when they were reading something really good. He, uh, didn't have to eat in the first place, but he could make himself look hungry. And when Odris was asking him if he wanted to have lunch, he could eat then, too - he just didn't tell him about how horrible his essence felt afterwards.

Merfrog...? Huh. Must be from another world, like Maahes. Rose thought, putting her hand down as she was not given a handshake.
"Thanks, I guess?" she answered, in reply to the comment about her hair. As Maahes listed the things he thought a scholar should look like, she turned to him.
"What are you, five? Not all scholars have to look that way, silly. Zech could be a scholar that looks after himself," Rose said with a warm smile.



"Oh. Then you're not from this world either. Weird, there's a lot of people who aren't from this world that are in this world."
He turned around, hand on his chin, walking over to Lorcan and Juniper.
"Are you two sure you're from around here?" he asked. "Not like I'm gonna do anything if you are. It's just...your story doesn't make all that much sense, and with the number of other people from other worlds, I'm a bit skeptical."

Maahes bristled at the comment. "I'm not five, Princess," he said, though he didn't disclose his actual age. He just wasn't five, and that was all that mattered. "Every scholar I know looks like that, and I know a lot of them." There was so many that he couldn't count them on his fingers and his tentacles, which meant there was definitely more than a few.


"We're not from this-"

"I have no idea what you're talking about-"

Lorcan and Juniper looked at each other, then at Ryder, then back at each other. Lorcan was giving her an absolutely murderous glare; clearly, he had been intent on keeping up the story he had concocted. Juniper, on the other hand, knew that it just made a heck of a lot more sense to go with what everyone else had done. They were from another world, and the fastest way they were going to get back was by admitting that.

"You let Charlotte know," Juniper hissed.

"It wasn't our decision!" Lorcan shot back. "She saw Hero, and she knew where we were from."

Zech drooped his eyelids, ruffled the fur on his head, and pulled his stomach in. "How about now?" he said to Maahes.

Maahes shook his head.

"It doesn't count," he said. "I saw you do it!"

"What if I look like this all the time, and you caught me at a bad moment?" Zech said. He smiled; he hadn't had a conversation as silly as this in a while.

He thought for a moment. It was a scenario that he hadn't considered yet. "I don't think that counts either," he finally decided. "The bags need awhile to go away, which means you weren't doing scholarly things recently-"

Wait.

Why were they asking him all these different scenarios? They weren't doing it with anyone else, and they both seemed almost...amused. Like they were getting a kick out of it, even though he was just telling them the truth-

He narrowed his eyes.

"You're making fun of me," Maahes realized. His look of contemplation turned into a frown. "You think what I said was funny, and now you're making fun of me!"

Listening to the mans Childish annoyance I scoff and bend down to the water, grab two small balls, about the size of a golf ball and splash it gently onto the top of both Maahes and the gentleman's he's arguing with.
"There, now you both look the same with your wet hair and irritated faces."

Maahes stared at her for a moment, eyes wide in surprise and hurt. He took a deep breath. Then he was storming off into the woods without so much as a word. There might have been some nice people here, but he couldn't stay when those who weren't were so mean.

He'd find his own way back to Odris and that meeting, and then he could forget about the people here. That sounded like a really, really good plan.

Tamika sighed deeply and rubbed her eyes, completely done with this place and these people- not that any of them were taxing by themselves, but she had no energy to figure things out. Plus, her scar was burning. Without a backwards glance, she walked a ways a way and attempted to fly up. It was quickly apparent that the pain wouldn't even let her do that. She stumbled and steadied herself back on the ground.

So, if she would have to leave on foot, that was exactly what she would do.

Siren followed after Maahes, running on all fours.

When she caught up to him, she got up and slowed to a jog beside him. ''Maaa-hes, wait, you could get lost. There may be a lot of nice bugs here but there's not nearly enough fish.''