Young Writers Society

"Ugh," Paq looked at the ground, annoyed with herself for getting her own hopes up. She'd wanted answers. She was sick of this world, sick of having to hide. But as Taber had said, it was nice that there were people to talk to. "Alright, then. Whatever."

Hero let out a quiet little gasp when Taber let go - the wolf was stronger than expected, and he hadn't been hugged like that in a very, very long time. The only person who came close to that amount of strength was Kartiel, and he wasn't exactly fond of giving out hugs to anyone except his sister or Charlotte.

Lorcan, on the other hand, massaged his sides. That had hurt, though he didn't say anything in an attempt to avoid hurting Taber's feelings. He took his attention off from Taber and looked at the small green woman, only for his gaze to once again return to Taber seconds later. "So none of us are human?" he guessed. If they weren't normal people, there was no need to hide what he was. And if there was no need to hide that, he could do some aerial surveillance of the place they had been brought to.

Oh dear; he had used too much force this time. Whoops.

"Probably not!" Taber said, tail wagging. He looked down at the ground and restrained his voice a little bit. "But you guys look like your human, so I dunno? And hopefully that's not rude or anything, I'm not very good at telling humans apart from animals."

Hero kept his back to the alleyway's entrance and removed his sunglasses. His eyes glowed softly in the dim lighting of the alley, providing one of the only decent light source in it.

"I'm a god," he informed Taber before slipping his sunglasses back on - effectively hiding his glowing eyes once more.

"I'm not human either," Lorcan said, giving a small smile at the comment. "I don't think I'm an animal in the same sense that you're talking about, but I'm actually a bat. Hero's magic lets me take on this form."

Taber's smile grew much wider. "Wow!" he said. "You have glowing eyes" - pointing to Hero - "And you can turn into a bat?" - pointing to Lorcan. "Can I see that? Also, I don't think I've ever met a god before; that's so cool! Have you ever met a god, Aegeas?"

The wolf turned to see Aegeas burying his face in his hands and groaning. "Oop, did I say something wrong?" Taber said. He looked back to the others. "Sorry!"

Paq said nothing, instead choosing to watch and listen to these strange creatures. She had seen transformation magic before, had communicated with a God before. None of this was new to her, and but it certainly felt like it was.

"Which God are you, then?" Paq raised an eyebrow. She wasn't necessarily suspicious, but she certainly was wary. There'd been plenty of false Gods in her world, and she knew better than to believe this (man? creature?) at face value.

Lorcan's small smile grew larger. "I was actually planning on transforming so I could get a better view of where we are," he said. "Since Hero's here, I can change. I couldn't do that back at the masquerade. So I can certainly do that."

While the conversation between Taber and Lorcan was going pleasantly, Hero was dealing with the small green woman - who, apparently, didn't trust what he said from the look she was giving him. He folded his arms and looked down at her. "I'm Herobrine," he said. "I'm a god of darkness."

"That would be wonderful!" Taber said to Lorcan. "Bats are really cool and I haven't really gotten to see one, and it's always nice to see new things! Also, it's neat that you're working with the god of darkness! Are there other gods out there? Haha, maybe I should tell Eremia that Ceinen was right - her face would turn the prettiest shade of red. But that would be mean, so -"

"We've met two gods," Aegeas snapped. He crossed his arms and glared at Taber. "Does Kartiel, god of souls, ring a bell? Or maybe Rendra?"

Taber frowned. He'd completely forgotten about Rendra and the murder at the masquerade. But he didn't like her too much, so he wasn't too upset about that. He was upset that he'd accidentally set off Aegeas. Not that it was too hard, but he'd sworn that he would stop doing it.

The wolf reached down and hugged Aegeas. "Sorry about that!" he said. "My dreams have been getting really weird lately, and I've kinda been having a hard time keeping track of them. Someone tried to pull my arms off last night, or something like that? At least this is a more happy dream, right?"

"Sure," Aegeas said, his scowl weakening to a frown. "A dream."

Hero's face also turned into a frown, though he hadn't had a scowl to begin with. How could Taber possibly think that this was a dream? It felt nothing like a dream; it was far too real. Even more importantly, Taber had been to other realities and/or worlds before. Why would this be considered a dream when those weren't-

Oh.

Oh.

Taber was convinced that every single strange encounter he had had was a dream. Hero sent a look in Lorcan's direction, but it seemed like his best friend had already come to the same realization. Neither one was sure how to approach the topic - it seemed to be Taber's coping mechanism, and neither of them wanted to see what someone so massive and emotional would get like when upset.

Taber blinked. "What are you guys looking at me for?" he said. "Did I say something wrong? Was the dream thing out of line? Sorry! I keep forgetting people are sensitive to that kind of stuff, and I don't want to be rude."

"Uh, no," Lorcan hesitantly said. He exchanged another look with Hero. "It's just that, um, how to put this..." Growing more and more flustered, Lorcan opted to look down at the ground instead of at Taber. He didn't want to upset Taber, but how could he pretend that this was just a dream? It wasn't, and it never would be. "This isn't actually a dream. Everyone here's a real person."

Taber cocked his head. "Oh?" he said. "That's neat! It's not like it really makes a difference, because dreams and reality are pretty much the same." He laughed with a vaguely nervous tone.

"That's a no," Aegeas said to the others. "Believe me, I've tried to tell him. But he's still a good person either way, so don't pay much attention to it."

"Thanks!" Taber said.

Hero blinked behind his sunglasses. "But I'm not a figment of his imagination-"

"Hero," Lorcan hissed, "it might be best to let this one go."

Hero frowned at the comment, but didn't say anything else.

"Alright!" said Taber, tail wagging. "Now that we've got that out of the way, what do you guys want to do now?"

Hero glanced around at the small group assembled. Ending up on what was likely another world without Charlotte certainly wasn't a good thing, but there was nothing he could do about that. He would just have to figure this out on his own. He took a step out into the street, then promptly took several steps back into their alleyway.

"We should be investigating this place," Hero said, glancing around at the other people in the alleyway for a second time, "but Lorcan and I are the only ones who look remotely human."