Young Writers Society

When you open your eyes, you are standing before an enormous castle.

It looks like something out of a fairy tale--the long, perfectly trimmed maze, the roses blossoming nearby, and the mist gently rolling across the grounds as the the sun casts its rays on the magnificent castle. Outside of this castle are rolling hills covered by a sprawling forest; this place is the only sign of general civilization. You know that you must head towards the castle if you want answers, but you have no idea what lurks within its walls. The only clue are the ominous claw marks in the mostly pristine bushes. You don't like what that implies, but you gather your courage and head towards the mysterious castle.

But the castle is home to many dangers, and you feel as if you're being watched...

Nendros woke up with a strange feeling that morning.

He wasn't entirely certain if this feeling could be traced back to anything in particular. For all that he remembered, nothing notable had happened the night before. He had said "good night" to Aska, gotten into bed with Az and cuddled for a bit, and managed to take over more than half of the bed in his sleep. But despite everything suggesting that this morning was going to be a normal one, he couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't. Something just felt off.

He had felt like this before, once. It had been the morning right before Ruma arrived. Nendros wasn't sure what he thought about the possibility about others arriving. The three had come up with a system, and it worked. Add another person into the equation, and he wasn't sure it would be able to hold up. He also worried about what would happen to them if a new person arrived: he was a dragon, Aska was a seemingly haunted suit of armor, and Az was an assassin wanted for the murder of multiple members of his uncle's government.

So to say that he was worried was a bit of an understatement.

He rolled over in his bed and went to tell Az what he was thinking, but frowned when he saw she had already gotten out of bed. Out of all the mornings for her to get up earlier and do a prowl of the castle! He hurriedly pushed back the covers and got dressed, trying to figure out where she would have been by now.

He also needed to track down Aska so his best friend could be thoroughly prepared for the worst, but that also wasn't an easy task. Aska could easily be traced to the library on most occasions, but this wasn't most occasions: he had told Nen that he was going to be spending the night in the library, and chances were that he had gotten bored by the time morning rolled around.

He nervously ran his clawed fingers through his hair. Why now of all times? Why, why, why!? If that wizard that brought Az here was at fault, he was going to scream. They might have now been in a happy relationship, but those first few weeks she had been there had been absolutely terrifying.

He groaned.

Just my luck, he thought.

Cornyx Blackthorne groaned as he began to reach consciousness. He was stiff from having slept on top of his textbook that night, and his glasses were askance and covered in the morning dew. He slowly sat up and brushed the dew from his sleeve.

The dew.

When he'd slept inside.

Whatever remnants of sleep that had remained disappeared instantly and he stumbled to his feet, tearing of his glasses as his eyes widened. The castle loomed above him and rose bushes lined the cobbled road that he stood on, the crimson complementing the many hues of green of the garden. Long claw marks marred the bushes - claw marks that smelled of something achingly familiar and yet so...different.

Something in him stirred at that scent. Something visceral. Something he'd felt before, but only once let out.

Never again.

He tucked his glasses into his pocket as everything came into keen focus. Slowly, he started towards the doors of the stone building. He didn't like such trespassing but he didn't have anywhere else to go. If he wanted answers - and if he wanted to go home - then he'd have to find whoever brought him here in the first place.

He put his shoulder against the massive door and shoved it open with a painful creak. It opened into a large entryway and he slowly stepped inside. It was silent, vacant, and altogether sent chills down his spine. This was bizarre.

The same scent that was somewhere between a human and that...thing covered the place. Whoever or whatever it was definitely lived there. He made his way down the hall and into a corridor, the hairs on the back of his neck rising.

Perhaps, if he hadn't been trying to beat back his instincts and handle the confusion and fear that was rising in him he would've heard the footsteps before he turned a corner and ran straight into a fiery-haired man.

Who smelled very strongly of whatever thing it was that put him off.

He wasn't quite sure the order of things that happened next. He tripped, his glasses fell on the ground, and as he began stammering apologies the scent hit him. A moment later and he found himself looking down at the figure and his voice changed from it's usual tenor to a deep, booming baritone and he struggled to form the words he tried to make. He stumbled back in surprise and tripped over his own feet, looking down at himself to see long talons where his hands should've been. He yelped, which came out as a shriek, and leapt back, his sides rubbing against the walls and some new appendages on his shoulders being pinched between his arms and stone.

Just because Nendros had known someone was about to show up in the castle, he hadn't expected to actually run into them. He had been startled--and terrified--beyond belief when he saw the man for the briefest of seconds, but now had somehow managed to become even more terrified than before. The man hadn't been a man. Not really, anyways. It was just like with Tieth; he was a dragon that had assumed human form. And while Nendros may have been covered from head-to-toe in scales, it didn't mean he suddenly wouldn't be afraid of such a terrifying being.

Nendros let out a scream that reverberated throughout the hallway of the castle, and tried to get as far back as he could. But whenever he was overcome by such a strong emotion, he forgot that his body wasn't the same as it had always been, and he went tripping over his own tail as he tried to escape the threat.

Cornyx let out a long string of klee noises, his maw opening to reveal the brilliant teal hue of his mouth and tongue. His spikes rose and his tail bristled as he raised it above his head on impulse. His head ducked down against his body and his feathered crest popped up to make himself look as big as possible. After he did it, he wasn't quite sure why, but it was such an involuntary reflex that he did it anyways.

Fawn opened her eyes and scrambled to her feet. This is not where she had gone to sleep! She quickly checked herself. Still had three knifes, her cloak, her sword. Her silver circlet was also still on her head. She frowned, trying to figure it out. Hearing a scream, she ran and stumbled upon two other...beings.

Nendros scrambled even farther back, wings open and tail straight as he stared up at the gigantic dragon before him. Part of him briefly wondered if the dragon was actually all that big or if he had just assumed that he was because he hadn't seen that many dragons, but then the part of him more focused on saving his life decided that it was more important to be focusing on what the dragon could do to him than his size.

He meant to ask why the dragon was in the castle, but all that he could get out was a very terrified squeak of "Dragon!" as he continued to stare up at the enormous creature in front of him.


After spending all of his night in the library, Aska had decided the next best place to go to was the gardens. He was able to watch the sun rise with a book in hand and the animals scurrying all around him; for a moment, he had almost been able to forget how empty he had been feeling lately. He absentmindedly squeezed his metallic arm with his other hand at the thought. It didn't help that he had been feeling so off lately, either-

His nonexistent breath caught in his nonexistent throat when he heard someone moving nearby. It didn't sound like Nen or Azerena. It didn't sound like Tieth's human form, either. So if it wasn't them, then who could it be? Armor shaking and clanking together, Aska put his book down and peered around the nearest bushes.

There was a man standing in the garden. And he was human, with a knife and with an absolutely terrifying scar running across his face. Aska went to go hurry back away from the man, but tripped over his own two feet and went flying through the bush. His helmet got caught on one of the branches, and off it went--revealing the hollow interior of his armor to the man who was likely going to look in his direction any moment now.

Aska trembled even more than before.

He quickly started trying to back up to disengage from this mess, but found that he was too big to fit through the hallway that only a few moments ago he'd been strolling through.

On two legs.

Then the word registered. Dragon. Dragon? Dragon? Him?! No, that couldn't be right...the other guy was the dragon. How could he be a dragon? Dragon's weren't even real!

And yet...it did make sense. The talons. The unknown appendages, the ungodly shrieks he kept on accidentally making, and the tail.

He blinked. Did this guy think...he was going to hurt him? As he began to recognize that the stranger didn't pose a threat and was, in fact, just as afraid of Cornyx as Cornyx was of him, he felt his pounding heart begin to slow. He blinked slowly, the nictitating membrane sweeping across his metallic gaze as he lowered his head to the stranger.

"A-a-a-am...I...a...dr-dragon?" he managed to get out, his voice low and rumbling, somewhere between a raven's croak and a cat's purr.



Kratzer had been admiring the rosebushes, albeit in his pajamas, when the suit of armor came stumbling out and promptly tripped itself. Had he not been through such strange occurrences before, he might've been more offput, but he'd found it was rare the beings in these strange alternate realities were malevolent.

"You alright?" he asked as he heard the clatter, craning his neck over the bushes. "Sounded like you fell awfully hard."

Nendros straightened as the dragon's low voice rumbled through the hallway. No longer sensing a threat, he folded his legs and rested his slightly clawed hands on his knees. "You're a dragon," he confirmed. He looked him over. His reaction reminded him of when Tieth had first made him look like this; the same panic, the same not knowing the extent of his new body's strength, and the same terror when he met something he couldn't explain. In his case, that had been Aska. In this man's case, it was him.

"You're not normally a dragon, are you?" he asked, trying to make himself sound as friendly as possible. He knew he looked terrifying, and wished that he didn't--but he couldn't change that fact, so he had to resign himself to not acting like the monster he appeared to be. "Did Tieth do something to you?"

He paused. He hadn't known who Tieth was until Aska told him that she was the dragon who had kidnapped him and then turned him into this, so a little bit more of an explanation was probably needed.

"Tieth's a big dragon," he said. "Bigger than you. Her scales are a darker shade of red than mine, and she has golden eyes. You might have seen her in her human form, too--her hair is just as red as her scales, and goes all the way down to her waist, and her eyes are the same shade of gold."


Aska let out a startled cry when he realized he had been noticed, and frantically reached for his helmet. Maybe the reason the man was being so friendly to him was because he hadn't noticed that he was empty yet. If that was the reason for the friendliness, he needed to get his helmet on as soon as possible. He reached a hand back for the helmet and the branch it had gotten stuck on.

But he had been more precariously balanced than he had thought he was, and he went tumbling forward in the man's direction. His helmet did finally dislodge from the branch it was on, but it went flying a good foot away instead of ending up in his hands.

Bo was pretty sure there were no castles nearby, and as he looked around, he could feel it in his gut: he wasn't in Nye.

The flower hedge maze was pretty, and the mist made things seem a little ominous, but the castle in and of itself seemed a familiar structure, even if he didn't know this one in particular. He tilted his head up a little, staring up at the big, towering building with a bit of awe before he drew himself to the door. If he wasn't near home, it could've been another memory thing, or just a very vivid dream. He had his share of those as well. In any case, he wasn't going to get anywhere waiting around, so he slipped through the already-cracked-open front door.

If it was already open, that meant someone else had gone in before him, or he was expected. Or a number of other things he couldn't really think of, but there were probably other reasons.

With a small smile, he poked around the castle, admiring all of the fine architecture. He could smell traces of people here and there, but decided to follow a less recent trail. There was a part of him that didn't want to run into anyone quite yet. He wanted to keep exploring while it peaceful and quiet, in the event that the people who brought him here were trouble.

But, alas, the scent grew fresh, and he heard the distant steps of someone down the hall. As he turned the corner, he caught sight of the woman: black hair, dressed in all black, and she had a knife. She could've been anything from a guard to an assassin, or just a regular person who happened to have a knife, but he knew she was likely already alerted to his presence the moment he stepped into the hallway.

He smiled an awkward smile. "Heyyyyy," he greeted.

The moment she heard the voice call out from behind her, she cursed herself for not paying more attention. She had once been one of the most feared assassins in the kingdoms--now she couldn't even tell that someone was coming until they made their presence known. This might have been because she was more focused on figuring out what was for breakfast (should she make it herself, find Aska and get his help, or struggle through trying to teach Nen how to make a meal without burning it?) but she knew her senses were becoming duller.

She spun around with her knife extended before her. Whoever this man was, he was tall and muscular. He was dressed in dark clothing like her own, and had a nasty scar running across his face. If it wasn't for the awkward smile and casual smile, she would have been fully convinced he had come here with the intent to kill. As it was, she was fairly convinced that he was a threat. No one was supposed to get inside the barrier around the castle without Tieth's explicit permission, and if someone did manage to, it couldn't possibly turn out well for the castle's three inhabitants. Nen was a mix of dragon and human, but would labeled a monster in a heartbeat. Aska was cursed; even though weapons couldn't ever truly break his armor, he'd be terrified.

And she was an assassin that had wreaked havoc on a corrupt monarchy.

Whoever this man was, his motives for being here couldn't possibly be good. She studied him for a moment, switching the knife between her two hands as a way to distract him. He had his size on his side; she had more knowledge on the layout of the castle. She decided to keep things nice and simple and cut to the chase.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" she demanded. She took an intimidating step closer to him, but made sure to remain out of his immediate reach.

Bo's eye widened for a second. "Oh, uh," he cleared his throat, not fully prepared with an answer. "Well, my name's Bo! Full name's Andrei Petrov though, and uh, I know there's no 'Bo' in there but the nickname's probably more of a story than you wanna hear. As for what I'm doing here? Well, uh, good question! I was wondering that myself, actually. I kind of happened to wake up out there in the maze?" He scratched the back of his head. "Cool maze, by the way. Dunno what it's for, but I imagine it's fun when you don't get super lost. But uh - ANYHOW, yeah, I'm not sure how I got here exactly? Magic can be pretty wild sometimes. Uh... you have magic here, right?"

Either he was great at putting on a false persona, or this man--Bo--was no real threat. She lowered her knife and regarded him with a wary look. "We have magic here," she confirmed; she couldn't possibly guess why he would assume otherwise, but that wasn't the issue at fault. "Did Drenar's wizard send you here?"

"Uhhhhhhhh..."

Bo scratched around the collar of his vest, looking up at the ceiling.

"I don't know a Drenar. I have a feeling I don't know anybody here. Speakin' of which, you got a name?"