Young Writers Society

There's magic on earth?

Rayden whistled, wondering at the other things he'd missed about his planet.Technically, he was from a future Earth. So... Maybe the magical population had died out during the crises cum war?

Doesn't matter. Rayden was most definitely NOT magic. He couldn't be. But he bet those on the throne had some inkling if it. He wondered how fair his government actually was.

He shook his head. Rayden never had anything to do with politics, ever. He wasn't going to think about this.

Dae the part dragon had wrapped himself as a bracelet around Dara's wrist, and he tried very hard not to laugh at her bewildered expression.

"It looks very pretty," he told her, managing to keep a straight face for a second before breaking out into a full grin. He could feel himself dimpling. Christ, how long had it been before he'd smiled like that?

This was not good. He did NOT want to get too attached.

Dara resisted snorting after Rayden's comment, keeping her straight face mostly intact when Rayden couldn't. Pretty was not a word she usually associated herself with, and it seemed silly to hear it said. She didn't glance at Dae to see how he reacted to the compliment.

The redirection to the present shifted her out of her memory, and she was grateful that Rayden had prompted it.

And seeing Rayden smile like that with the compliment, however unserious, caused her heart to skip a beat against her will.

As the group discussed their magic, his gaze drifted down to the golden armor he was still wearing. He knew that he probably looked magical - with his pulsing hair, oddly colored skin, and ability to summon gold out of thin air - but his magic wasn't anything like the others. It wasn't nearly as helpful, either; that was why Aleks and him had spent so much time training together over the years. Swords were more powerful and trustworthy than their magic.

He tried to shake away the feeling of not belonging - everyone seemed like they were ready to leave. The sooner that they arrived in the village, the sooner he would be able to get back home and avert whatever crisis was surely happening without him there. They probably thought he had been kidnapped (again), even if there wasn't any clear culprit this time around.

The walk to the village was a surprisingly short one. It wasn't long before Lex could make out the occasional word or phrase coming from the village. And, not long after that, he could actually make out its people. He was almost reminded of the villagers of Minecraftia - their facial structure was a little different, but their clothing was nearly identical. He felt like he was standing inside of a renaissance fair.

The villagers on the edge of town stopped what they were doing and watched their unusual group approach - eyes traveling from one member to another until they finally landed on his golden armor. Lex immediately felt a blush appear on his cheeks - why hadn't he taken it off before they got here?

"Hi-" he started to say, only to be cut off by murmurs from the village. They went from having the entire town seemingly filling the streets to no one - a few villagers peeked out from windows and gave them wary looks, but no one approached them.

Kiran temporarily forgot the conversation to look over the village. This place was...wrong. So, so very wrong. She didn't know what she was expecting, maybe something more akin to what she was used to? She realized now that was stupid. In a place where gravity didn't function properly and the trees didn't look like trees, who was she to assume a village would be anything like the steaming, bustling streets of her homeworld.

She blinked and ducked her head, willing herself in vain to go unnoticed.

So far, the Weirdotopians had done quite a lot to welcome Rayden to Weirdotopia.

For one, none of them had given him the stink eye (which happened every few feet back home), no one had pushed him to the ground and beat him because they remembered his 'thieving face' (a weekly occurence at least), and no one had hurled insults at him or his clothes or the state of his hair (always messy, always curly, always very annoying).

He decided the least he could do was smile, and since he'd become abnormally happy in this abnormally abnormal place, he figured it might as well be real. He was losing his 'dark' aura. The Happy-Rayden couldn't be bothered.

He stepped out into the abandoned streets and said a big, cheerful, "Hello!"

Dae was terrified, but he didn't know why. He just felt as though this place was dangerous, and yet he didn't know why it was, nor why nobody else looked as terrified as he was.

He his grip on Dara's wrist was getting progressively tighter, and though the little amphithere had no chance of cutting off circulation, it was getting increasingly obvious that this was not at all a good place for him to be.

Still, he managed to keep from moving too much as he watched the villagers carefully.

Hng. Not exactly the welcome wagon.

"I guess we look a little weird, don't we?" Aegeas said, looking at the rest of the group.

"You do," a voice agreed from behind them. Lex nearly jumped at the sound, but managed to rein it back into suddenly going stiff. He turned around to see a girl standing a short distance away. Something about her felt off. If he stared at her for too long - tried to make out too many features - he couldn't clearly make her out. He thought he saw a messy blond pixie cut, and bright blue eyes, but everything else - her outfit, if she was holding anything, and even her age - was all obscured by his inability to stare at her for too long.

Even her voice sounded wrong. Some of what she said sounded normal, but other parts of it sounded like static he used to hear on the radio when he was starting to get out of range of the signal.

"The people of Mageía Kósmos don't like outsiders," the girl (woman?) said. She lingered a few feet away from them. It might have been by choice, but Lex couldn't help but think that she couldn't get any closer with affecting them with whatever was affecting her. "The Floaters don't, at least. They don't often get visitors from other worlds, but they still are wary of them."

"How did you-" he started to say.

"Know that you're from another world?" she asked. "Your group sticks out like a sore thumb, and I know a thing or two about otherworldly visitors. It's best for all of us if you get through this village quickly, so let me give you a few important pieces of information - and advice."

She turned and pointed behind her at the forest they had just emerged from; the trees were once again floating off of the ground. "Those are the Trees of Flight. Before them is the Sprawling Forest. I'm sure you're beginning to notice a pattern."

She turned back to the group and gestured at the village they were standing in. "This is the Floating Village. It doesn't float, but it is next door to the Trees of Flight, so I've always assumed it was named after that."

She pointed a finger at the horizon.

"The cloud cover makes it hard to see, but there's a mountain that way. It's known as Celestial Peak. It's a place for some of the more interesting worshipers of this world, but it should give you the help that you need. If I've been keeping track of the days right, they should be trying to summon this world's god any day now. If they're successful, and you can talk to that god, you'll be able to get back to your homes."

"I'm guessing a bowl of rice or what ever it is you guys eat would be too much to ask for?" Rayden asked.

Mean Lady gave him a look. Long look.

Rayden sighed. "Never mind."

Kiran felt a burst of excitement. Home. She gave the girl a grateful look, but was too distracted by her thoughts to say anything. How would she apologize for her disappearance? Nina would be worried. Really, really worried. Kiran would have to do something special. A gift? Perhaps one from here?

She shook her head. Nina was a lot of things, willing to drop this over a gift? No. Not by a long shot.

Kiran would just have to explain herself more thoroughly than she'd ever explained anything before.

"A god?" said Dara incredulously, after listening to the static girl with dull scepticism. "We're expected to reason with a god to have any chance of returning to our worlds, ay?" She was about to remark on how comical that was, but the rest of her experiences in this world lowered the bar of its ridiculousness in comparison.

And besides, she wasn't in the mood to dismay over extending their journey here, even if it was proving to be increasingly terrible; Dara had a lot to think about before that parting came.

She assumed food would be off the table after Rayden's ill-received attempt at asking, and that became the most practical concern on Dara's mind for the next long moment. That and realising she was beginning to pay more attention to him than before.

She wished Dae would ease up on his grip on her wrist, although her own accomodation to rejection was being challenged in such an overtly unwelcoming place like this. It hit a little too close to home.

The girl looked between Rayden and Dara. Lex tried to see the look on her face, but he struggled to make most of it out - no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't clearly see more than her hair and her eyes.

"It shouldn't be as hard as you think," she reassured them. "Legends say that this world's creator was understanding. The only reason you would be here is because they wanted you to be - if you find out why, they should let you go back home."

She raised a hand and presumably pointed off in the distance.

"If you walk through this village, there's a berry patch a short distance away. The villagers never touch it - they grow all of their own food - but the berries are safe to eat. I can't offer you a bowl of rice, but I can offer you that."

And, with that, the girl was gone.

Staying silent wasn't one of Helenah's favorite things to do.

"This place is crazy, I swear! And I think I'm going crazy! Everything is crazy!" Helenah started shouting. Ruby fell off her shoulder at the sudden noise and forcing her broken wing to flap, she landed clumsily on a branch.

She whirled around to look at the villagers, her face red. Steam might as well have been coming out of her ears. "That wasn't a nice way to welcome people! I know you don't like people who've landed in some crazy place and walked for ages to find their way back home, but at least one of you could've smiled!"

Her voice suddenly went hoarse. "Horrible people, I tell you." she said quietly and stomped to the back of the group, near a normal tree that didn't float, and flopped onto the ground, scowling.

Kiran jumped back in surprise. Sparks arced up her sleeves and her skin shifted through three days in pace with her mind. She blinked rapidly to calm the shifting once she realized what was going on.

She opened her mouth to say something. Maybe to protest or something. She couldn't find the words. She looked helplessly at the others.

Rayden knew where he was going the minute he heard "berry patch".

Same couldn't be said for the rest of the group. Major freak-outing, they were. Well, ix-nay on weird gods up celestial peaks, Rayden was focused on his one true love: food.

"I'll be... uh, at said berry patch, " He said, hands in pockets, already turning away. "Anyone coming?"