Young Writers Society

You're alone when it arrives. There's a shift in the air, a sense of disorientation, like a puzzle piece dropped out of the universe and you're left to stare at the empty void behind it, and there's a letter in your hand. Swirling silver ink spells out your name on a lilac envelope. A wax seal bearing the image of a teacup holds the paper closed.

You break the seal, and the puzzle piece falls back into place. Only, you fall away instead.

The forest in which you find yourself, standing on the path, dressed in the nicest clothes you own and groomed as well as you are personally capable, is simply enchanting. You may not believe in fate, miricales, or magic, but the woods around you seem to be somehow woven of all three.

The path on which you stand winds around a bend, but you can hear the clinking of glass and the gentle scrape of silver on porclean, along with a sound like tinkling bells as though to imitate idle conversation.

Daisy starred with a furrowed brow down at her hands. She'd been holding an envelope only a moment before....hadn't she?

Her memory was unsure.

Looking around, the word held a dreamlike quality that nearly convinced her she was in quite the disorienting state of unconsciousness. But then, there were others here, too, and none looked quite as sure of themselves as maybe they should on a forest path.

"Excuse me," she said to the person nearest to her, "I received an invitation..." she didn't know if it was an invitation, but as soon as the word left her mouth, she was certain that's what it was. It couldn't have possibly been anything else.

She gave a little shake of her head, "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I'm a little out of sorts. My name is Daisy, it's nice to meet you. Do you happen to know where we are, per chance?"

All Alan remembered was feeling mesmerized by the wax seal of the envelope, and when he went to open it, he fell into a hazy dream of an enchanted forest.

Only... it wasn't a dream.

Alan blinked, no longer seeing the envelope in front of him and instead seeing a pair of gloves rather than his bare hands. He felt different somehow; he felt classy, elegant, and posh -- like he was going to a fancy gala.

And then he realized these were the exact clothes he wore to the gala months ago. What was going on here?

He knew he should be confused, but somehow this place seemed to relax him. For once, he didn't seem out of place. Somehow, this enchanted forest called out to him to stay for a while and enjoy himself.

Suddenly he heard a voice beside him, someone who introduced herself as Daisy. He turned and was dazzled by her glamorous dress; she looked like one of those fairy tale princesses he read about in a book.

"Nice to meet you, Daisy. I'm Alan," he said, unsure if he was supposed to bow, shake her hand, curtsy, or what. He was so used to being around his rowdy friends that suddenly he became nervous that he may be forgetting some of the manners he was taught. After all, Daisy could very well be royalty.

He looked around, examining his surroundings some more. "I'm not sure where we are either, but I think I also received an invitation. I never got to find out what it was for, though."

He trailed off, thinking about what he just said, and finally connecting the dots that this place was the invitation.

There had been an envelope in their hands just a moment ago. If they hadn't been mesmerized by the stupid thing, they might have had the common sense to check who the recipient was. Now they were stuck in who knows where wearing stupid, itchy clothes-

It's just a suit, came an irritating voice from right inside their head. The one from the announcement-

I know what it is, was the growled response. They tugged on the collar of the white dress shirt underneath the suit jacket, doing their best to loosen the monster of a tie. It made them feel like they were suffocating - a mutual thing, this time around.

They scanned the area around them. Even before their gray eyes landed on the other people with them, their hand was already reaching for their sword.

"Players," they growled - the first thing they had said out loud since they had found themselves here. They were too late to catch the end of the previous conversation, but the two players standing in front of them made their blood boil.

Your blood boil, was the swift correction. Don't get angry yet. We don't even know how we got here.

They must have had something to do with it, idiot!

Players don't- There was a mental sigh. Never mind. We just have to be careful. If we don't attack them, they don't have any reason to attack us.

The hand hovered over the sword's hilt.

Please.

The hand was returned to their side with another low, irritated growl. The idiot could take over for now - he didn't want anything to do with players.

Control shifted. A brooding expression was replaced with something a little more pleasant. The coat was straightened; hair was pushed out of their eyes. As a final touch, the tie was tightened just a little bit more - though noticeably less tighter than before.

"Hi," they said, in a friendly tone and with a gentle smile. Their eyes scanned the space above their head for the inevitable white text that would appear. "My name is Lex-"

"-al."

I thought you were giving me control.

Our name isn't Lex, idiot.

But it's a normal sounding name-

Since when has that mattered!?

There wasn't a response.

They glared a spot somewhere beyond the players. This was his body, and he wasn't going to let someone else lay claim to it with another person's name.

Daisy had been about to respond to Alan - what a lovely name! - when Lex approached them and introduced himself. "It's a pleasure to meet you both," she said pleasantly. "If I am not terribly mistaken, I do believe we may be meant to follow this path." She gestured down the path. It curved up ahead too dramatically for her to tell exactly what was waiting for them there.

She had to internally chuckle at herself for even briefly considering that it might be some sort of trap. The only things that might want to create a trap for her simply did not have the capacity for something of this scale!

Nibbin frowned as he blinked up at the trees. This certainly wasn't the colony anymore. Was he outside? He looked around, quickly determining that this most certainly was not the forest surrounding Madre Tove's hut. This place was much lighter, more friendly. In fact, he'd wager there wasn't a single troll to be found here.
Finding the setting to be fairly inviting, Nibbin next took stock of his own appearance. He was dismayed to find that his very best clothes had somehow appeared on him, freshly pressed and starched. How had they gotten there? These were for special occasions only!

Voices overhead alerted him to the presence of others, and he took a couple steps back, disappearing under a bush. There were three humans standing about a hundred feet away (brownie feet, not human feet), discussing how they themselves had gotten here. Nibbin's mustache twitched nervously; what sort of bizarre magic was this, and why was he wrapped up in it?

He stepped out from under the bush, placated by the bewilderment of the humans. No sense in hiding from potential allies.
"Excuse me!" he called, cupping his hands over his mouth. "I beg your pardon, friends, but that path..." He gestured at the path that the girl had just spoken of. "Do we have any idea where it leads or if it is safe to follow it?" The scent of sweet cakes and sugar wafting into his nose certainly suggested that it was safe, but Nibbin had been wrong before.

Daisy jumped, quite startled at the small voice, and looked around for the source. It took her a moment, but finally, she traced it to a very small individual at the edge of the path.

"Oh, hello," she greeted them, "I'm afraid I don't know exactly how safe it is," she said as she moved a bit closer and stooped so he wouldn't have to shout, "What might your name be?"

They stared at her as she gestured down the past, and kept staring even when a tiny little voice piped up from nearby and she answered it.

She-She talked.

And she has an ax.

I think the talking is more important! was the frantic hiss in response. The glare disappeared, but it was replaced by an irritated, frustrated expression instead.

You're stupider than I thought you were - she can stab us with that ax.

But she can talk. Players aren't supposed to talk! There wasn't any white text above her head.

They crossed their arms and let out a quick breath of air that could have either been a regular exhale, a sigh or a short, angry humph.

There aren't new chosen, idiot. The gods would have said something if there were.

Well maybe there's another god- There was a pause. They looked down, suddenly registering the second voice that they had heard earlier. At their feet was a tiny man wearing surprisingly nice clothes. When they squinted, they noticed he had unusually long fingers.

What-What is he?

You think I know?

You're the one from here!

We don't even know if we're on the same world, idiot. We could have somehow ended up on Earth.

They let out a nervous little laugh - quick, high and clearly on the verge of a breakdown. Earth doesn't have people the size of dolls!

Nibbin drew himself up to his full height and adjusted his spectacles, then dipped into a neat bow at the waist. "I am Nibbin, Secretary of the Colony of Fellville. And who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

"I'm Daisy," she said, dipping her head politely, she then gestured at Alan, "This is Alan, and that's Lex. I'm afraid we're all quite confused as it currently stands, but perhaps if we travel down the path we'll find some answers. Care to join me?" She directed her last question at all of them, though she remained kneeling to better hear Nibbin.

Nibbin tilted his head, considering his options. Teleportation was out of the question; he'd left his compass at home, fool that he was. The path certainly smelled exquisite, but so did the homes of some very deplorable witches. The humans seemed alright, though Miss Daisy's tone was borderline condescending. His instincts told him it would be best to step out of the frying pan for the moment and hope there wasn't a fire lit beneath him.
"Yes, I think I would." Nibbin tipped his hat to the two human men. "No sense in getting lost if we don't know where we are, eh, missy?"

Daisy nodded, "Quite exactly." She considered offering Nibbin a ride. Surely, with his much smaller stride, he'd be left behind. But then, she didn't want to seem rude by offering.

It was only a matter of what was more disrespectful. In the end, Daisy decided she, were she in the same situation as Nibbin, would like to have help at least offered.

"I don't mean you any offense," she said to Nibbin, "but will you be able to keep pace with those of us with a longer stride?" An apology was already in her throat for even thinking of asking, let alone actually doing it. Of course he would take offense to that.

Nibbin frowned up at her, twitching his mustache again. This girl obviously didn't know what the brúnaidh were capable of. Oh, well. At least she was polite about it. "Thank you for the offer, Miss Daisy, but I'm quite capable of keeping pace with you." He swore he could smell his mother's best biscuits around the corner; the humans would only slow him down if they allowed him to perch on one of their shoulders.

She nodded. He must be able to move much quicker than a human of proportional size, then. Otherwise they would just wait for him when they reached whatever was around the bend. "Alright then," she said, straightening and brushing off her dress, "let's not waste any more time."

With that, she turned on her heel, and started down the trail

Alan let out a small bow when Daisy introduced him to the others. It was rather refreshing to be around others with manners, for a change.

... Although, Lex looked quite frazzled. And Nibblin was... er... tiny? It took all of Alan's willpower to not make a funny face or rub his eyes and glasses to make sure he was seeing okay.

Then Daisy turned to talk to Nibblin some more and Alan saw an axe strapped on her back. An axe. What on earth would she need an axe for? Does she chop wood on a regular basis?

This all felt more and more weird, like he was in some party he didn't belong to. Although, he had to admit that he was curious. No one seemed to be aggressive. In fact, they were all rather... nice. Strange, but nice.

Ignoring his instinct that something felt off, he followed Daisy and the others down the path. The smell of savory foods became stronger and stronger and Alan's stomach let out a low growl. "Seems like a party in there," he said as small talk, trying to talk over his embarrassing stomach noises.