Young Writers Society

Dante nodded to the woman with fluffy ears, unreasonably annoyed at being addressed.

"Hello. Wonderful weath-" she bit her tongue mid-sentence before she could finish her sarcastic statement. It really wouldn't help anything, she knew that. She also knew that she needed these people to figure out what was going on. And if that meant playing nice, she would just have to comply.

"I didn't catch your name earlier. I'm Dante- Dante Foresblud." She attempted a smile for good measure, before catching herself and feeling idiotic- of course, no one was able to see her mouth under her mask.

Maahes nodded in agreement. It did seem like the best way to deal with situations like this, though it was never easy talking to the strange group of people that always ended up in places like this. Some of them would be pleasant - from the way that the bipedal wolf was talking, he seemed like he would be one of the more friendly ones - while others would be just plain rude. It was hard to tell.

Sune, meanwhile, had never been in a situation like this, and had only heard stories from Maahes - stories that were rarely more than a few sentences long, mainly because he always seemed to want to tell them in moments where they didn't have much time to talk. Despite his early decision to stop hiding, he didn't stray far from where Maahes was. Even when Maahes started walking, he still clung to him.

"Maahes," Sune hissed. "What are they?"

Maahes looked back at him, hesitated, then replied, "I don't know?"

Sune came to a stop. "Are you sure we should be talking to them, then? What if they're like the wraith?" He looked the group they were heading towards over. "They all look dangerous, especially that woman with the armor and the scar on her face."

"We have to talk to them," Maahes said. "It's the only way we'll get information. I know it might be a little disconcerting, but this tends to turn out well."


"I'm Darunia Vain," she replied, not missing the attempted sarcasm. "No one really calls me it anymore, but you can called me Runi."

James approached with his friends and Sune in tow, and once again gave an apologetic wave to Dante, and gave a polite grin to the purple woman with the fluffy ears whom he just overheard was Runi.

"Sorry to interrupt you three. Runi. And Dante. I just figured since we all woke up here for whatever reason we should get introductions out of the way, all together, so we don't have to repeat ourselves. I'm James."

Runi grinned, her sharp teeth glinting in the dim lighting of the spaceship's hallway.

"Nice to meet you, then!" she said. She ran her fingers through her dark hair, and Sune was more than a little alarmed to notice how much her long nails resembled claws. After messing around with her for a few seconds, Runi turned to the other people present. "So, what about the rest of you guys? Me, James and Dante over here all did our introductions, so it's only polite that you'd do yours too."

"I'm Maahes, and this is Sune-"

"Wait just a second," Runi cut his teacher off, bending down so she was at Maahes' height. Maahes gave her an almost concerned look, but either she didn't notice or didn't care. "You look like the paladins. Same thing with James. Are you guys friends with them or something?"

Maahes and Sune stared blankly at her.

She sighed, her armor clanking together as her posture changed while doing so. "Never mind. That was stupid of me to ask. You're probably all from the same planet or something. Something with that tall friend of yours, and that ghost that I saw earlier."

Sune stiffened. "Gh-ghost?"

Runi gave a confident. "Yeah. I saw her when I first got up. She was there one minute, and gone the next. She was actually standing where you're standing right now."

Sune gave a startled cry and instinctively clung to Maahes.

James raised a brow and looked over to Sune briefly, before turning to Runi. "A ghost? Did it... say or do anything?"

Runi shook her head. "She tried to say something, but couldn't get the words out. She looked pretty frustrated about it. I'd probably be, too, if I was a ghost. But I'm not - at least, not in the traditional sense of the word - so I have no idea what was up with her."

Maahes folded his arms as he listened to what she said, trying to grapple with the idea of more ghosts - upon thinking of the word, his mind immediately flashed back to the cave incident. Beside him, Sune's initial fear began to fade, and he found that the younger spirit had stepped away when he looked over at him a few moments later.

"Maybe she's a member of this ship's original crew?" Maahes guessed.

"We're on a ship?" James asked, before regretting how dumb his question probably sounded. Of course they were one a ship. Just... not the kind he was familiar with. They must've been on a spaceship. "I mean, uh, that would make sense. Maybe something happened to her crew, since it seems there's no one else here."

Dante's gaze suddenly darted to the group, and she spoke up.

"Hold on- are the engines functional? Has anyone checked yet?" She uncrossed her arms and took a step to look back at the large window, "life support is functional, obviously, but it seems like we're just in free-float."

"Wait, if we're on a ship, why's it so steady? No rockin' 'r nothin'?" Ari asked, suddenly very excited. He loved the ocean! Maybe there were dolphins! Oh, and what if there were some basking sharks, or even sunfish?

"Yeah!" Taber said, nodding in the giant man's direction. "This guy gets it! What's with this ship?"

Despite himself, a small smile began to spread across Sune's face. "We're not on a ship like that," he said. "This is a different type of ship. It's one that goes through space instead of water."

"It does seem like the ship's engines aren't working-"

"I bet you're right, Dante-"

Maahes and Runi both turned to look at each other, each falling silent when they realized that the other was trying to speak. "You go first," Maahes said. He gave her a small, awkward smile and waited for her to speak.

"No, no," Runi argued. "You go first. I think you started before me, anyways."

"But-"

"Don't worry-"

"We should check the engines," Sune wisely interrupted, knowing that Maahes would continue for as long as Runi would - and he doubted that Runi had been intent on stopping in the near future.

"Space? In't everythin' space?" Ari seems very, very confused, and he turned to James for some kind of explanation. James was smart. He knew things.

Taber tilted his head. "What's space?" he said.

"Yeah, good plan. While we're at it we should check for any AI program- if there isn't any crew, it may the program keeping 'er running. And if that's the case, it may be able to tell us what the h*** is going on here."

Dante patted a sleek wall as she referred to the ship, a certain tension leaving her face as she conversed in a way she was used to.

Noticing that the questions had gone unanswered, Maahes gestured at the large window that opened out into outer space. It really was a beautiful thing to observe, especially when the ship was going at such a slow pace. It almost always reminded him of the Other Place, though its chaos could never compare to that of his true home.

"That's space," Maahes said. "It's what you see what you look up at the night sky. People have made all sorts of ships that let you travel through the stars, and we're on one of them right now."