Young Writers Society

"California? Earth Kingdom?" Jay asked, incredulous. He squinted at the others, kicking up a little water with his foot.

"Look. I already told you earlier. I don't know where those places are, but they do not sound like they're on any map of Nye. Wherever you guys are from, it's definitely not real."

Jun crossed her arms.

"How can a place we're from not be real?" she asked. "Just because you don't know where something is doesn't mean it can't exist. I've never heard of Nye before, but I'm not saying you're a liar."

"She's right," Claire said, eying Jun. "We could be from parallel universes. And somehow we ended up here..."

She'd always thought the universe was too big of a place for there to be only life on earth. "Come on," she told this Jay. "Did you really think your world was the only one?"

Rose raised an eyebrow in Jay's direction, there was a lot more 'not real' about this then just dates and locations.

"As strange at all this is, don't think I didn't notice you point to Nye and not Ruddlan, either you're just uneducated or even we're disjointed in Nye." She already sounded exhausted of the conversation as she spoke to Jay, for a moment even wishing the water had no effect on them at all.

"Wherever we are," Claire said, starting to grow impatient. "I would like to get home. My daughter needs me."

Jay frowned, eyebrows pinched together as his skepticism was met with argument after argument. He let out a growl of a sigh.

"Okay, okay, whatever! I don't know what's going on either! But none of your homes are my home. That's all I know for sure." He looked at Claire. "You have a daughter to get back to. I have a job to get back to. We all have people or things we need to get back to, but none of us even know where we are. Maybe we should just start by walking the shoreline. See how far the edge of the shore takes us. Maybe we'll run into another city or more people. By gods if I know."

Jun was starting to come to the horrible realization that she was probably going to be the mediator in this group - and that she didn't have a single idea on how to. She tried to think of the one person that she knew who would fill that role, but she couldn't give life advice and didn't have tea.

"Walking along the shoreline sounds like a good idea," Jun agreed.

She walked a little bit away from the rest of the group, almost like she was subtly trying to assert herself as the leader. She didn't think she was, but she knew she didn't want to be lingering the back.

Even as she followed the shoreline, she kept her feet in the water. She wondered if it was weird for a firebender to like the feeling of water blanketing her feet; she'd have to ask about it when she got back from wherever she was right now.

"Hopefully it won't be too hard to find people," Jun said, hands clasped behind her back as she walked along. "Or some kind of explanation, at least."

She glanced up at the moonless sky again.

Then she faltered, looking over her shoulders at the others.

"...Do you think we're in the Spirit World?" she nervously asked.

"I agree with walking along the shore," Claire added. "But there has to be an explanation for this, so let's try to stay hopeful."

She considered Jun's suggestion that they were in the spirit world. "I don't think so. At least, I hope not. I'm only twenty-one..."

She trailed off. This was a beautiful place. But beneath that was something more sinister. She hoped she could find the answer soon.

Jay followed, skipping out of the water and up into the sand. Though the water was nice, and it did mend his voice, he wasn't sure it was 100% trustworthy.

"What's a spirit world? Do you mean like the afterlife? Like we're dead?"

Jun gave both Claire and Jay a confused look.

"No," she said. "It's...It's where the spirits go."

She looked forward for a second, her brow furrowed as she thought over what they had said.

Then she glanced back at them again. "...I guess it was silly of me to think that the Spirit World exists everywhere," she admitted. "But there's a place called the Spirit World where I'm from. All of the spirits live there. I don't know a lot about it, but I've heard that it can defy the rules of the world - like how we couldn't speak until we drank the water."

"Of course we're not in the spirit world." Rose said plainly, opting to follow the group as they started walking the shore line. Her mind drifting back to the tents they had woken in as she spoke. Whatever was going on, there was intent behind it. What that intent was she just didn't know yet.

"I haven't become a spirit of unbridled rage and vengeance, so safe to say we're somewhere else."

Jay looked back at Rose, eyebrows drawn together over narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, sure," he drawled. "What's your name, again, purple hair? You never said."

"Rose." She answered curtly. "And if anyone makes a joke about thorns they're getting thrown into the water."

"Nobody was going to?" Claire replied, an edge to her voice. She didn't usually get snippy with others, but was starting to grow impatient. It was clear her companions didn't have the slightest clue how they gotten there. Anything they tried to do would be the blind leading the blind.

And Rose was a normal name for a person to have, but she supposed bullies could make a joke out of anything. Like how in school in England she used to be called Clarabelle. Like, Clarabelle the cow. The Disney character.

Still, Claire said nothing, hoping someone would have a bright idea about what to do next.

Jun wanted to say something about people not normally becoming spirits - at least, that was what she had been taught - but the conversation moved on before she could. Rose reminded her a lot of the boy she was traveling with. She didn't think anyone could ever get as irritated as he did, but it looked like Rose was a close contender.

"I wasn't going to," Jun quickly said.

She hesitated for a moment, not wanting to risk incurring Rose's wrath - but also being fully convinced that they could be in the Spirit World.

"I still think we might be in the Spirit World," she added, then immediately fell silent again.