Young Writers Society

If he hadn't been so focused on Mage's growing distress over the possibility of interacting with humans from Earth, Knight might have been able to notice Queenie before she commented on the situation. He tried not to feel disheartened about not picking up on her; it had been a long time since he had been like this, and his body - even a little more than two years later - still didn't have the same reflexes and instincts it once had.

"I...I'm sorry for offending you," Mage managed to get out. Knight could imagine him blushing underneath his hood.

Knight looked between his boyfriend and the girl, his gaze ultimately landing on Mage instead of her. "We do need to talk to them," he quietly pointed out, not wanting to draw more attention to him and Mage.

"We are probably scaring them," Mage admitted, rubbing the back of his neck underneath his cloak. He took a deep breath, then grabbed onto Knight's wrist again and led him over to Raymind and Donel - even though there wasn't much space left between them.

"Hi," Mage said.

Worlds? Ooh... So there were other people used to Jumps aside from Colbajians. How interesting... About as interesting as these wings, really — really reminded Jin of a project someone had pitched before her about individual flight travel. It would be nice if she could find a notepad somewhere to keep notes of her findings; these people were bound to become quite inspiring. But first...

"Inoltra! Time to run, girl. Balnavan!"

Following the order, Inoltra slowly inhaled through her entire body: then, she exhaled, and through hidden pores of each segment of her sides came out greenish-white steam. Jin turned back to gaze at Apophis. "Dunno how much you understand, but uh..." she pointed at her waist. "You can either grab my waist," then the sides of Inoltra's body. "Or hold on to whatever you can. She's not going full speed, but still." As she said that, Inoltra began to gain speed until she was, a few seconds later, fast enough to easily outrace a trotting horse. Unlike the equines, however, her size and newly protected constitution allowed her to run past trees, rocks, bushes and anything else, literally tearing her path through the forest.

Oh, crawlies... Jin thought to herself, smiling joyfully. I really did miss riding this beauty.

Inoltra. A Tolshana, the basis of the Colbajian's highly advanced summoning system, and more recently, the core of their transportation system. They had gone through decades upon decades of evolution. They had been tamed, befriended, weaponized, worshipped, betrayed, feared, forgiven, understood and perfected. Inoltra had been Jin's first companion, and she felt like she hadn't used her in years. Inadvertently, Jin's antennae picked up signs of Inoltra's movements.
She was itching to go faster.

"Okay, girl," Jin whispered for no one to hear. "Just a bit, then, 'kay? Just a bit." she tapped twice on her ride's side, and it accelerated. If preys were hidden somewhere for them to hunt, they would be in for terrifying encounter.

Queenie lost interest in the pair almost immediately and wander over to Megara.

Megara winced at the tap on her shoulder and reached for her sword before realizing who it was. She didn't exactly relax, but she did go from actively defensive to generally annoyed. "What do you want?"

Queenie looked her up and down, "I want to test a theory. Clearly, we're from different worlds, but we've also got quite a lot in common. I want to know exactly how much."

Megara glared, "If you want me to spill my life story to satisfy your curiosity-"

"Naw," Queenie said, shaking her head, "Just a few select details. For instance, what do you do for a living?"

Megara crossed her arms, "What would possess you to assume I have to do anything 'for a living', as you put it."

Queenie smirked, "Alright, that answers my question just fine. How about family? Got any siblings?"

Megara turned away from her, unwilling to entertain this potentially dangerous game.

Queenie, however, didn't take well to being ignored. She moved so she was once again standing in front of Megara and asked another question, "How's your love life faring then?"

Megara snapped. In a flash, there was a knife at Queenie's throat. Megara gave her a murderous look, "One more question out of you and we'll have to continue this conversation in hell," she said almost pleasantly.

Queenie looked largely unconcerned with the blade now digging into her neck, nearly but not quite breaking the skin. "If you're going to kill me, do it now," she said, sounding far more bored than anyone with a knife at their throat had any right to be, "Otherwise, do us all a favor and stop this whole boring charade. I'm kinda sick of listening to death threats from people who don't intend to deliver."

Steam billowed up from the Tolshana below, buffeting Cornyx higher as he circled above Jin and Apophis and the occasional gust of frozen breeze tugged at their attire when he swept directly above the duo. Moments later and it lurched into forward motion, carried by its many legs and ripping through the woodlands without regard for any earthly obstacle. An impressive creature indeed, if a bizarre one in Cornyx's admittedly limited experience. His wings tilted upwards and he quickly began to climb in height again in order to keep pace with the creature.

Apophis, on the other hand, didn't take sufficient heed of Jin's warning. He nearly fell off the beast as it began to move, slipping to the side and scrambling for a foothold. The sole reason that the man didn't hit the ground was due to lightning reflexes akin to that of a striking serpent's, and he shot his hand out to grab Inoltra's side and haul himself fully onto her back before tightening his grip with his legs and taking hold with both hands.

How long had it been since Cornyx had done such a thing? Flown, and hunted, soaring in pursuit of unknown quarry that would, ultimately, fall to the wild flurry of talons and venom and ice? It was a simple pleasure but one that he took great joy in. He'd almost forgotten what it was like to feel such air beneath his wings and against his face. It wasn't to say that he hadn't taken to the wing, only that it was always on business, with the sole intention of going from point A to point B and without time to stop to satisfy his more predatory instincts.

A spot of white.

Cornyx's gaze jerked to the side as he detected the movement and he tilted, veering off to one sight as he searched to recover the creature in his sights. Moments later, it came again, a swift and near-invisible flash of color in the depths of the green leaves: prey.

He dropped like a rock, wings nearly disappearing against his body as he stooped towards the earth. Forearms thickened and feather-scales began to emerge over his hands as fingers elongated into draconian talons. He didn't want to use his venom for such game when the true need was absent. Branches tore at his flesh as he fell through the canopy--and there it was. His quarry.

The only way to describe it succinctly was rodent-like. A long, scaly tail whipped across the earth, and a long-snouted face was tipped with large incisors. Its legs were more akin to a hare's with sinew stretching beneath rippling hide as it half-ran, half-leapt through the trees. The hindquarters were powerful: muscles were large and distinct in proportion to the rest of its body and the hind legs were extraordinarily long. One kick from such a force could easily down him. In its entirety, the creature was no larger than a deer, despite its intimidating form.

The most present problem, however, wasn't the danger from its legs. Rather, it was the simple fact that the branches above had slowed his descent considerably and that, as he lost speed, his prey gained it. Cornyx's kind wasn't built for such long-distance pursuit. His kind ambushed prey, and it was dead before it knew what hit it. Engaging in a chase was a certain way to come back empty-handed.

Ice thickened across the duff, coating the ground as though in a display case, sealing every stick and speck of dirt that his prey could obtain traction on. Its muscles bunched and it leapt once more--but this time, the force exerted on the ground only deserved to make it fall as its legs slipped out from under it. The ice cracked under the force of its descent and it scrambled to return to its feet as it looked at him with eyes wide in horror.

This creature, at least, understood its fate.

Hidden under the cover of the branches, the man's form shifted from that of a man to that of a beast, great talons digging into the tender flesh of his quarry. The dragon bowed his head to sink ivory incisors covered by a silver-scaled beak into its throat and it opened its mouth in an cry of terror. And what a scream it was. It was blood-curdling, grating on one's very bones as its shriek resounded across the forest, only to be cut silent by the indiscriminate fangs of the Winter King.

The leaves over him rustled and, in moments, a monster-turned-man ascended above the canopy once more, the creature hanging in his arms by its hind legs. Talons, wings, and a reptilian gaze were the only elements of the dragon that still remained as he banked and, with labored strokes of his wings, returned to Jin and Apophis.

Raymind blinked at the appearance of Mage and Knight but figured that he and Donel probably painted an interesting picture compared to most of the non-modern clothing the people around them wore.

He wondered what they thought about him and his boss, if them two seemed so much stranger than the rest, much like how he felt weird being near so many different kinds of lifestyles.

Raymind shrugged either way at his thoughts before turning back to the mysterious couple. "Uh, hey, I'm Ray." And now he was apparently rhyming his sentences. Great. "I know we probably look a little out of place cause we're from Earth and all, but we actually had a crazy thing happen to us."

Donel reached a hand around his back, grasping on his shoulder, and decided to finish the story. "There was this magician person who charmed everyone to turn into a creature of sorts. I was a snake, while Raymind here was a crab. So, although we're not as cool as some of y'all, we have seen some stuff."

The worry that Mage had felt began to melt away.

"I've never heard of something like that before," he said - tail beginning to swish underneath his cloak. "I've heard of transformations before, but never on a large scale and never with a theme - I didn't realize Earth had things like that happen."