Young Writers Society

Zech tried not to feel hurt at Maahes immediately letting go and running off to someone else. Sure, Maahes was a kid with an absurdly short attention span, and Zech did want to go to sleep. On the other hand, he didn't want Maahes out of his sight. Especially as it became obvious that the kid had a penchant for getting into dangerous situations.

He rolled onto his side to face Juniper and Lorcan. "What is a vampire? Zech said. "And why did someone try to kill someone else?"

"A vampire is a former human who sucks people's blood," Juniper cheerfully said, a mischievous look in her eyes as she glanced over at Lorcan. "They usually can't stand the sunlight, live in coffins, and sometimes can turn into bats. They wear dark clothing, usually have long, luxurious locks of black hair, and usually look on the alluring sexy side. They also always have fangs, just like Lorcan's. They bite into your neck and drink you dry."

"That's why Aurick tried killing Kratzer!" Maahes chimed in. "But then we convinced him not to, so it was okay."

Lorcan looked over at Juniper. "I'm not a vampire," he helplessly said.

"You look the part," she innocently replied.

"I don't burn in sunlight," he argued. "I don't sleep in a coffin, and I don't drink blood!"

"Yeah, but you turn into a bat," Juniper commented, stretching and then falling back against the grass.

"That's because I am a bat!"

She shrugged. "I'm just calling it as I see it."

The tiger gaped. "And you guys stand all of this?" he said. "The, the blood-sucking and the murders and the violence?" He shivered at the idea of vampires; Lorcan didn't appear to be one, and Zech could accept the idea of bat shapeshifter (even if he'd never seen or heard of one), but the night suddenly got a little bit darker.

"If we'd known we were going to meet you, Lorcan," Rose began, "We'd have asked my mom for a coffin so you can sleep in," she said with a mischievous smile.

Juniper could barely hold back her laughter when Zech's comment - and Rose's following dig - registered. "Vampires don't actually exist," she said, a giggle or two managing to escape her lips. "They're just something from stories. But when I first saw Lorcan, I had just seen a moving skeleton, so I was open to pretty much anything."

Lorcan's face turned bright red at Rose's comment.

"Oh," Zech said. He felt very fortunate that nobody could notice the blush on his cheeks. "That's, good. The no vampires thing, anyway. Moving skeletons aren't, but at least I've seen those before, and they don't try to suck all the blood out of me. Which is nice of them." He laughed nervously, eyes darting away.

"Skeletons usually aren't that bad," Lorcan said, glancing over in Juniper's direction. She looked like she was ready to protest his comment, so he beat her to it. "The one that attacked us wasn't even a skeleton - she was a god using magic to look like one. And skeletons attack you and other pla-humans because you've spent the past years destroying their homes and kind."

He turned to see Maahes staring at him with wide eyes.

"You've seen moving skeletons?" he whispered.

"Yes-"

"Can I see one!?" he excitedly exclaimed, hopping up to his feet. "I bet Odris would think that's really cool when I told him about it! Or he'd promise never to let me out of his sight again, like after that whole cabin thing, but they'd definitely be a scholarly thing to talk to."

Lorcan rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't think you'd be able to meet one, Maahes. And even if you did, you look human, so they'd want to attack you-"

"I don't have to look human," Maahes interrupted. "Or Alteran, or whatever looks like this! If it's a thing, I can change my guise to look just like it. 'Cause I don't look like this at all. I've got tentacles, and little wings, and a beak, and super sharp teeth! Odris says that I shouldn't let anyone know about what I look like because they might try to kill me, but I don't think you're going to kill me because you haven't tried killing Siren or Zech yet and they're not normal at all."

Juniper and Lorcan stared.

Maahes crossed his arms and thought for a moment. A second later, a skeleton stood in his place, little orbs glowing in its sockets as it looked around at the people around the fire. "See?" Maahes said, his voice suddenly raspy and echoing. "I can change my form into anything!"

"...I think this takes the cake for the weirdest thing I've been through since I met you," Juniper quietly said to Lorcan. Lorcan, who had seen his fair share of bizarre things, was inclined to agree.

Maahes returned to Zech's side and plopped down on the ground right beside him. His eyes suddenly grew brighter than before, and his jaw dropped in what Lorcan guessed was supposed to be a big grin. "We should play a game!" Maahes eagerly suggested. "I can change my form and I'm bored, so maybe you could give me requests! I just need to know what something looks like before I change it!"

Siren's eyes widened in shock and wonder at Maahes' macabre transformation. The lamps in his eye sockets were so pretty. She stared at them for some time before perking up and shouting "Do me, do me!"

The skeleton's jaw dropped even further. "Okay!" Maahes said, the orbs in his eyes growing small and narrow as he looked Siren over. After a moment passed, he seemed to have seen all he needed to - there was suddenly an exact copy of Siren sitting in his place.

"There!" Maahes said, his voice an eerily exact imitation of her voice. "Look, Siren! I'm you now!"

Siren slowly crept forth toward her double, and oustretched a hand. She poked him gently in the face.
Then she stepped back, hopped in a circle around him to observe the other angles, and settled back in front of him with a wide grin on her face.

She was particularly impressed by the voice. People had tried to imitate her voice before, but not many could pull off the hoarse, wheezy glee of it.

Siren flapped her back fins up and down, inviting Maahes to return the gesture.

He watched her flap her back fins up and down for a moment. When he realized she was trying to get him to imitate it, he eagerly did so, a big grin still stretching across his face as he did so.

Siren squealed with joy, and stretched out a hand for a high-five.

Suddenly Zech understood why Lunis didn't like kids.

The tiger stared up at the sky with wide eyes, placing his hands over his ears. He wasn't remotely capable enough to deal with Maahes, even if the kid really needed some better foster parents.

He eagerly high-fived her, then turned his attention to Zech when he saw how he was acting. A frown replaced the smile. "Zech, what's wrong?" he asked, poking him with a webbed hand.

Eugh; he'd thought his paws made good earmuffs, but he could still hear Maahes.

"Uh, nothing," Zech said, perhaps a little too loudly. He didn't look directly at Maahes either, as confusing and unnerving as his latest transformation was. "My, uh, ears aren't working right, yeah."