Young Writers Society

Luke stopped outright, sand flying as he stilled. He could feel his shoulders tense. He stalked back to the strangers. He would have looked threatening if stomping through sand hadn't made his exaggerated movements look utterly ridiculous.

"Oh, heck to the no!" Luke shouted as he drew nearer. He felt irrationally angry, and this stranger calling him stupid? That was the last straw. "First, I want to have a normal summer with my dad, parasailing, right? Wrong! I get thrown onto this hunk of sand! Then, surprise surprise, Luke, magic is real! Well I'm dying of fright, so I lie! It was stupid, but then you went all 'Hunger Games' on me, so naturally I get my little booty out of there! Then you, call me stupid? Well excuse you, sir, I think I'm the only sane one here!"

It was then, when Luke was right in front of the stranger, when Luke realized just how tall and muscular the guy looked. He let out a nervous laugh and stuck out his hand. His fake confidence was fooling no one.

"But, all is forgiven, right?" He chuckled, though it sounded more like an over exaggerated sigh.

Soul Error Arwitch:

"Yeah," Soul agreed, shaking the boy's hand before returning to Aska and Joe.

Joe was the first to speak. "You never told us your name," he pointed out, "and something tells me it isn't Xorthron."

"My name is Luke," the boy finally said after a moment of hesitation.

"N-Nice to meet you, L-Luke," Aska quietly told him. His hand was shaking when he extended it out for Luke to shake. He quickly did so.

Soul crossed his arms. "We need to find shelter," he decided. But where were they supposed to go? They all fell silent. None of them wanted to stay outside after the sun finished setting.

"I saw a cave a little while back," Joe piped up. "We could spent the night there."

It seemed like their best shot, so they headed back into the forest and followed Joe towards the cave.

"So er..." Luke began after an awkward silence. "Who are all of you?"

Luke wasn't exactly sure what was going on, and he was still in denial about what was going on. These people obviously weren't what you called "normal", but Luke felt like he needed to get to know them anyhow if he were going to be stuck with them for who knew how long.

He heard something step inside the jungle. He froze on the spot, and picked up a thin stick on the beach. Luke knew it wouldn't help, but it made him feel more secure to be holding something that vaguely felt like a weapon. It snapped a twig. Judging by how loud the footfalls were, the creature was something big. Through the leaves, a pair of large, ugly, yellow eyes shone out at them.

Ann Fletcher
"Wow," Ann exclaimed, "Then that means he can heal Faustus too. I think your friend is pretty amazing! From where I come from we have healers too. But fixing up that many people's almost impossible using the limited amount of magic they have in store. The healers don't possess a lot of magic."

"But I think you have a lot of 'magic' in you too, I can see the fiery ripples around you..." She paused, she wasn't sure whether it was a wise decision to let the others know the Mythopals special ability. But since everyone was giving away their true powers and strengths Ann thought to tell her on was well, "Well, you see, Mythopals have this special ability to see the amount of magic hidden in a person's aura. It comes in handy when we need to pinpoint people from Mythopals."

Celina smiled and nodded, "Yep! I can see the magical auras around most of you, it makes me feel kind of dizzy, all those bright colors!"
Schadel and Nendros exchanged glances, "Why didn't you tell us this before?" Nendros asked.
Ann shrugged, "Let's just say, I didn't trust you guys." She heaved a sigh and kneeled down beside Faustus, "That's not important now. Mage, do you at least know simple first aid? His wounds do look like they need medical treatment right away."

Celina's ears twitched at the sound of footsteps coming from close by. "Hey, someone's coming!" She said aloud.

Who could that be? Maybe it could be one of our comrades, but it could also be an uninvited guest, most probably an evil creature of the night.
Ann thought as she shared glances with the others inside the cave.

"I think it's a group of people...They seemed to be heading this way!" Celina said as she flew towards the opening of the cave. "They are a group of people! I can hear their footsteps pretty well, they must be close by, I'm going to check,"

"No!" Ann cut in, "Celina wait..." Before Ann or the others could do anything, Celina zoomed out of the cave in disappeared into the forest.
"Should we go after her?" Schadel asked in a panicked tone .
Ann shook her head, "I'll go after her, you need to help Mage heal this man, don't worry I can look after myself."
Without waiting for her approval Ann gave them a quick nod and ran into the woods, following the trail left by Celina. Her speedy flying broke a few twigs and left a magical aura trail behind.
Celina, I'm really going to put you in a cage after I catch you!

It was almost nightfall, and she sensed the presence of evil lingering all around her, but she didn't want to put the others in danger because of her silly friend. Her battle skills allowed her to move faster than a normal human but she knew that 'speed' wasn't the only thing she needed to fight off whatever was hiding in the woods.

Joe Collins
"Uh," Joe gulped as the two yellow eyes fixed its gaze on them, "I think we're a tad too late to hide from the evil...creatures."
Joe and the two knights stood in front of Luke, the creature would most likely attack the defenseless one among the group, so defending him felt important.
"Please don't run away this time, okay?" Joe muttered under his breath, "Whatever's hiding behind the bushes is, it might chase after you if you do so."
Luke nodded, his face pale and limbs trembling, Joe really felt sorry for the human boy. He never must've faced any beasts in his life!

"Hey!" A girl's shout came from the opposite direction. Forgetting about the beastly eyes, Joe spun around quickly because he recognized that energetic, friendly voice.
"Celina..." He only managed to say that before something heavy pounced right at him and crashed him to the cold hard ground.
Joe's head felt a bolt of pain and black dots danced in his vision. Before he could get a proper view of his attacker, the immense pain rising in his body made him pass out.

The creature lying on Joe's chest was nearly as long as two tigers. It looked like a dragon in the front, but as you looked towards its back, its shining red scales dissolved into the yellow fur of a horse, but the horse's legs appeared to be that of a human. Luke wasn't exactly sure what he was looking at, but it reminded him of those weird monsters from Greek mythology.

"Guy!" Luke heard himself shout. He would have shouted Joe's name, but he didn't know it. He threw his thin stick at the beast, but it just bounced off the armor feebly. "Get off him!"

If dragons could grin, it certainly was doing that now. It got off of Joe, and Luke could faintly see Joe's chest rising, and falling. But, this introduced a whole other set of problems. The first being, the beast was crouching low, facing Luke, with that evil smirk set on its face as it leapt towards him.

Aska:

A bolt of something blue struck the beast in its side, sending it flying away from the trembling human boy. Aska turned to see Soul standing with his hands out before him, the strange blue light arcing from finger to finger.

"I think they must be hunting in a pack," Soul whispered. He turned to the girl who had appeared - Celina, if Aska had heard Joe right before he had been knocked unconscious - and said, "You're Joe's friend, right? Celina?"

"Yup!" the girl confirmed with a grin.

"Celina, please fight those things off and protect that human boy," he said.

"What are you going to do?" she questioned. Aska could hear the curious tone to her voice.

Soul knelt down next to Joe's limp body. "I'm going to heal him." The automaton lifted the boy and held him in his arms. He looked so small in comparison to Soul; so tiny and fragile and weak. Aska didn't doubt that Soul could easily crush him if he wanted to. Yet Soul gently handled Joe, holding him tight but not tightly against his chest. The color slowly began to return to the Mythopal's cheeks.

Aska's attention returned back to the creatures. He wished Soul had told Celina to protect him as well, but there was no point in talking. He couldn't die; Aska had learned that long ago. But Luke was a human with no means of protection. He would face his fears if it meant protecting someone who didn't deserve to die.

That was what he tried to tell himself as he stared at the creatures creeping into the clearing.

Suddenly, something wrapped around him and pulled him into the darkness of the forest. He ran his hands against it in an attempt to find out what; it was scaly and felt suspiciously like a tail. He screamed out in terror, in fear. One of the creatures had caught him, but Soul was too busy healing Joe and Celina was too busy protecting Luke to save him.

He slapped his hands over where his eyes would be if he was human. He didn't want to see it chew him up, wanted to try ignoring the dread and despair beginning to set in. Only Soul, out of the group, knew the truth about him. If they stumbled upon his broken, chewed armor, the others would think he had been killed by the beast.

It was an end he didn't want to see.

Then the grip of the tail loosened, and two powerful arms pulled him into an embrace. He slowly removed his hands.

"Nen!" he cried out. He eagerly returned the hug. Nendros grinned and finally let him go. "You're alright and you're really here and I was so worried when I couldn't find you!"

"I'm sorry for scaring you like that," Nendros said. "But I think we can continue this reunion a little later, right? There's a cave back there. If you head there, you should have some shelter from those monsters. I'll go fight them."

"But you don't like killing!" Aska protested; Nendros had told him after they first met that he had always found excuses to skip royal hunts for that very reason.

"But I also don't like seeing people get hurt," he simply explained before dashing off towards the battle.

Schadel Kueper:

The minute Ann and Celina had left the cave, Schadel made a quick but silent escape from the group. Though she had to hide the truth about herself, she wouldn't let innocent people get harmed or killed while she stood by. She would never be able to live with herself if that happened.

Once she was sure no one had followed her, her form began to change. Her limbs became longer. Her skin turned an inky black and became more like shadows than anything else. Her hair receded back into her head, and all of her clothing (except for Adam's silver cross and the black coat Blanx had given her) simply disappeared. Darkness licked the air around her.

And then, her form shifted once more. After several seconds, a boy with dark brown hair and blue eyes was in the place where Schadel Kueper had been seconds before. The coat was larger on him; he stood at five feet while Schadel had stood at a proud six (both forms were painful, but the boy's form was smaller than her natural one and caused her the most pain). Underneath the coat, which he promptly buttoned up, was a simple dark blue t-shirt, jeans, and scuffed sneakers.

Schadel grinned. She was feeling like some sort of superhero at the moment, secret identity included. She tucked the cross underneath her shirt and rushed towards the battle. A silver scythe appeared in her hands; the feeling of her weapon was a reassuring one as she took out a beast about to attack Celina. "Hello," she said, testing out a British accent. It came easily to her, having grown up with hearing Blanx's.

Luke could do nothing except stand behind the girl (Celine, was it?), and watch her take down the monsters. Luke hated feeling helpless, much less watching all these people risk their lives just to make sure that he didn't get hurt. For the first time in his life, he wished that he wasn't a human.

Around Luke, these people were knocking down monster, after monster, after monster. Then, he watched one of them being pulled into the jungle by a tail! Luke was torn between saving him (which he probably couldn't do in the first place), and staying here and hearing his screams as he was torn apart (something Luke knew he wouldn't be able to do). Just as these thoughts were running through his mind, someone else emerged from the jungle. Luke found it hard to focus on any details but the guy's tail.

Evion Fevalda

He was never the kind of person to enjoy being the center of attention. And he wanted to keep it that way.

So he was relatively pleased when those in the gathering in the cave, one by one, stopping fussing over his injury and ran towards whatever those sounds in the distance were. As he reckoned, it wasn't the first time he'd been struck by some weapon or another, though it was probably among the worst cuts he'd had. Nonetheless, this was not a favorable situation. He still found it hard to trust anyone; as he figured, that was pretty much common among everyone he knew in the world he came from. The bread and water still remained ignored, despite the insistence of the people he was stuck with - he couldn't shake that anxiety creeping at the back of his mind.

It was even worse, now that there was only one person still left in the cave. There had formerly been two, but the girl who had identified herself as Schadel had slipped quietly away. Almost totally unseen, if it were not for the fact that the cave contained somebody whose sole job was to identify the unseen. This was particularly sneaky and mysterious, which left him suspicious. Regardless, he was in no mood to move anywhere, and so was left with...Mage, wasn't it? Evion could tell quite clearly that he wasn't human in the slightest, and certainly didn't seem skilled in healing magic either. He still couldn't possibly guess what Mage was, and the impossibly tall, pale figure with red horns and a tail didn't provide many clues. That made him all the more uncomfortable, although Mage mostly guarded the entrance of the cave, while Evion was too shy to really start a conversation.

Why was nobody here gifted at healing? They either had no magical skill whatsoever, or their only expertise was offensive magics. On the other hand, Evion himself had no expertise in the subject (even if he did, he couldn't apply it on himself), choosing rather to rely on his broadsword. Which was, conveniently, not in his possession at the present moment, to his chagrin. Beyond that, the only man he knew who had a capacity to heal was on the other side of whatever it was that had brought him. There had been another, who had been a part of a group of visiting diplomats, but he'd had an ironic fear of blood. Then, of course, there was Mage's claim that a fellow by the name of Soul was capable of healing him. But, once again, Evion was not a very trusting fellow. All he could hope to do was hope that nobody was lying to him, and Mage's judgment was, in fact, correct. After all from where he was at the present moment, he certainly couldn't walk, and he was concerned about his blood loss. His only choice was to believe in somebody he didn't know, who himself might not be skilled at healing magic. Honestly, not the worst dilemma he'd ever faced.

And that's when Evion caught the glimpse of a small snake's head peeking through into the cave. A water snake, from the looks of it, but you could never be quite sure, as he'd learned time and time again. It easily slithered past Mage, who was obviously looking for taller individuals, and began to creep up towards Evion.

For the third time that day, the man screamed.

Magestorrow Rian:

Faustus' scream filled the cave. He spun around to see a snake approaching the injuried man. His legs began to shake, and his hands were sweaty as he withdrew his sword from its sheath.

He was frozen with fear.

Do something! he yelled at himself. Faustus was going to get bit by the snake if he didn't act! He barely knew him, and he was human, but he didn't want the man to die!

He took a deep breath and took a step forward. His hands were still shaking as he raised his sword, but he couldn't do anything about that.

He sliced the head off right before the snake reached Faustus' foot. He kicked the body and the head towards the back of the cave. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he sat down across from the man. He had done it. He had actually defeated something and saved someone's life. Mage grinned from ear to ear. I can't wait to tell Soul-

The thought of his companion put a damper on his mood. What if Soul really was gone? The thought was a heartbreaking one, but he was already starting to accept it.

"I'm sorry about that," he apologized. "I shouldn't have taken so long, but I'm new to using a sword. I didn't want to use my flames because that snake was too small of a target and I didn't want to burn you." In an attempt to start up a conversation with the man, he asked, "How did you end up here? I got pushed through a portal."

Evion Fevalda:

Of course, it had to be snakes. Why did it have to be snakes? That was how it worked, wasn't it?

Evion desperately wanted to go home. He was hurt, confused, angry, and panicked, and it showed clearly on his face. The last thing he needed was to be reminded of the fact that he, despite living in a country full of people who thoroughly despised snakes, he feared them. And now, thanks to that last fact, he'd circumvented his previous feelings, and was now munching away at the bread. It tasted alright, if a little bland. Whatever to calm down his raging heart, which was roasting his body under a metal suit.

"I...don't really know," Evion noted, almost absent-minded and to himself, staring across towards the strange man on the other side with unblinking eyes. "It was a battle...I think? An ambush, actually." Memories started pouring back into place a slow stream; yet, as much as he wanted to increase the flow, he worried that it would suffocate the thought, and desisted. "And I was...struck...by something. Passed out...maybe? Woke up...here."

He drank some water and gulped, soothing his agitated throat. "Thanks," he continued, a little embarrassed. "For, you know...saving me. At least it was a normal snake. I will admit that they do scare me...somewhat. Fire magic would've been a bad idea; anyone who knows it well enough has a hard time holding it back. I saw a girl set a forest on fire because she didn't like a weed. So...thanks for not doing that?"

"Oh, I don't know why you worried so much," said an unknown voice by the entrance of the cave, causing Evion to instantly tense. Still unable to move his body, thanks to his leg injury, which by now had stopped bleeding, his head whirled to face the silhouette shrouded in darkness peering at him. "He was perfectly harmless; I just wanted to see what was in here. I'd worried that the trail you left here was made by a bunch of cannibals. Wait...you aren't, right?"

Magestorrow Rian:

Upon hearing the sound of someone speaking, Mage rushed to his feet and withdrew his sword. "Who's there?" he asked. He didn't like when people tested others like that; it reminded him too much of something angels would do.

A human stepped out of the shadows. He was short, and he turned to look up at Mage with a pair of blue eyes. His hair was black-brown, and his outfit reminded Mage of a monk's.

His grip on his sword tightened. Another warning sign: monks worshipped angels. He didn't want to face a worshipper of angel; chances were he would end up facing the wrath of the angel they specifically worshipped too.

But then he looked closer at the human, and remembered how high-pitched his voice had been. Realization struck Mage. Echoing the words spoken by Soul soon after they first met, he managed to get out, "You're just a kid!"

Celina Rivers
"Hello! Thank you so much stranger!" Celina cried out happily as a boy took down the beast who was just about to attack her, "Whoever you are, I'm glad that you're willing to help us!"

The boy had dark brown hair and blue eyes and he held a silver scythe in his hand. He used it to take out the evil beasts heading towards the group.

Celina used her powers and created a transparent glass-like forcefield around Luke and gave him a bright smile, "Don't you worry Luke, this will keep you safe, I'll be right back!" She turned her gaze towards the new person, "I'm going to take down these creatures in a much easier way! Please help the others!"

The boy nodded and said okay. He had a British accent and his outfit made Celina think that he's from a world similar to Earth.
"Oh, and tell me your name when I get back!" With that, Celina flew upwards and gazed at the battle taking place a few feet below her.
"It's time to have some fun!" She said rubbing her hands together and forming small transparent discs. She threw them towards two beasts and send them flying to the ground, completely knocked out. Celina giggled, she was enjoying this.

Down below, Soul was almost done healing Joe and Nendros and the new boy was battling off the remaining beasts. Luke was safe inside the Force-field, everything was going pretty well.

Celina felt her powers increase, her hands felt more steady and her transparent discs turned into dark green. "This is so fun!" She singsonged. "I'm going to stop all those nasty beasts and help my friends!"

The urge to stop the beasts created a strange force within Celina, she didn't even notice the dark green markings appearing on her face and hands. The dark green markings ran across her limbs in spiral lines. It somewhat like a tattoo, but the faint glow made it look more atrocious.
I must stop these creatures, I must kill them! I must destroy all of those filthy brings!
Her thoughts changed rapidly and her normal green eyes turned completely
black and her ears lost its normal pointy shape and became more curved.

She let out another laugh and threw another one of her glowing green discs towards a best, the creature narrowly missed it and the disc zoomed to the ground and created a small cavity oozing with a green color acid.


Celina new that she was going too far, but she couldn't stop it now, she was going 'savage' and that was going to be a much worse problem than the beasts.

"I can't..." She breathed, her voice coming out as a low growl, two black fans grew from her upper jaw, "I can't...control myself..."
She completely lost control of herself and let out a deep laugh that echoed
through the woods.

Another bad thing was happening down below. since Celina's powers were increasing, the force-field she created in order to protect Luke was turning dark green and becoming more thicker each second. And that wasn't good news, especially to Luke.

Evion Fevalda:

Evion hissed in a strange fashion when the child stepped into the cave, a small snake coiling around the boy's leg. But the way his face blanched and drained of color indicated that anger was hardly his greatest concern.

"Sure!" called out the young boy in what was a mildly scratchy voice, like he wasn't quite used to talking, looking directly at the intimidating Mage. "Who else were you expecting?" Touching the tip of Mage's sharp blade, before the man pulled it away from him swiftly, the child commented, "Wow, what a pointy sword. But I don't think you would have enough time to try to hurt me with it." The snake on his leg hissed in a threatening fashion, though he continued smiling, hands behind his back. He seemed happy to have found somebody, anyone at all. Or perhaps because he had the advantage, and was in no present danger. Evion wasn't quite sure, given that he barely knew this person, and he already didn't like them.

"Mage?" rumbled Evion, mustering what courage he did have. "Remember when I was talking about normal snakes?" He pointed the tip of his helmet at the child. "See how this one has control over that water snake? Here is one of the unnormal ones. Keep an eye on him."

"Oh, I'm Achernar," explained the boy, acting as though Evion had addressed him, and even turning to face him. "and I'm not here to harm anyone. You're correct, but it's silly superstition, mostly, to be afraid. Only two different countries..." he stopped, clearly in thought, and tried to count something. After a few seconds, he nodded, and proceeded, "...actually have any tension with us, and that's historical."

Achernar's eyes bulged when he spotted Evion's chainmail and leather outfit. "Wow," he whispered in admiration, "I've only heard of this in stories before. The design matches and everything. You must be one of Yasuko's soldiers..."

"Don't let him get any closer!" growled Evion to Mage.

Goosebumps exploded across his skin when the soldier heard the noise of a deep, almost mad, laugh echo throughout the forest and into the cave. Fear instantly crept into his heart, his teeth chattering. The pain of the wound faded away, if only because of the lack of attention it now received.

"I should probably head in here," calmly noted Achernar, almost to himself, in what seemed to be the closest Evion had actually seen him afraid. Although, if the boy was afraid, he certainly wasn't showing it. Achernar easily walked past Mage, thanks to his quick maneuvers and small stature, and subsequently sat behind Evion, all within a couple of seconds.

One of those days.