Young Writers Society

"Queenie's kinda right 'bout the eyes," Kendrik mumbled, shuffling over to the storefront to lean against it with her. "They are pretty odd."

"Do you know where that person is?" Taber said, a little more concerned about the idea of someone like them wandering the street than eye colors. He wondered if he should've signed instead, but Kirux looked comfortable enough with the conversation (though Taber would have to ask him later).

Lunis looked over at the street, scowling at the wagons as they passed by. "Yeah, we'd better go find them. At least there aren't so many wagons now."

Kirux tilted his head in what was apparently confusion, pointing at the panther before gesturing at the strange vehicles on the street. But when he seemed to realize that wasn't going to get him anywhere, he turned back to Taber instead.

He nodded, then frantically shook his head.

"You know where they are but don't want to tell us," Ryder guessed.

Kirux nodded.

"But why wouldn't you?"

The boy held up a finger to where his lips presumably were, though it was hard to tell with the mask covering his face. He mimed zipping his lips for extra effect.

Queenie tried not to guess how much longer she would be able to stay conscious. She figured she'd underestimated the blood loss from the Trancy assignment, but that didn't matter now.

She focused on the conversation. She translated her words to sign language as she asked, "Were you asked to keep a secret, or is there another reason?" If he'd been asked, the other person must have been someone he knew, and if there was one thing Queenie had learned in her years maintaining the family business, it was that familiarity is the most dangerous threat to any mission.

Lunis growled, glaring at Kirux. "Can you even tell us if they're nearby? I'm not going to throw myself at these wagons for a person I can't even find."

"I mean, a promise is a promise," Taber said, standing in front of Lunis so Kirux wouldn't be as scared of the panther. The wolf tilted his head. "But why would they ask for a promise like that? We're not trying to hurt anybody, and I don't think anybody else knows who they are. Wouldn't it better if this person just joined us? We're all pretty nice people."

The hound, meanwhile, sniffed. Somewhere beneath the overpowering smell of the road, the metal wagons, the crowds of humans, and the trash rotting in the alleyways, he swore he could pick up a hint of blood. It had to be reasonably close for him to be able to pick up on it at all, so he found himself looking at Queenie and saying, "Are ya okay?"

She glared, "I'm fine," she snapped, "I would just prefer not to be out in the open under the current circumstances." Even as she spoke, she was calculating. It was a three-minute walk to the hotel at a casual pace, and then there was the five to ten minutes to check in and pay for the room, one minute to get upstairs using the elevator, and...she resisted the urge to press into the wound on her side. There had to be a med kit somewhere in the hotel. Would they allow her to patch herself up? She didn't know. Medical situations had always been Briar's forte.

"Excuse me, princess," Kendrik said. He crossed his arms and stared at the ground. "I just smelled some blood and wanted ta know if somethin' was up."

Kirux - more frantically than before - mimed zipping his lips. Ryder guessed that meant he had been asked to keep it a secret, but he didn't translate the gesture to Queenie - she and one of Taber's unnamed friends seemed to be in the middle of a conversation.

Then Kirux looked over at Taber, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side.

His head popped up.

A single word was signed. Ryder still was just as clueless as before when it came to what the word was, but something about the serious, earnest look to Kirux's face made a chill run up his spine.

What was that sign again? Taber had seen it once or twice, mostly when Madeleine was describing a badly injured patient to the staff, but - oh. Oh.

Getting up close to Kirux, Taber quickly signed out, "How is he? Why is he hiding?" He didn't think anybody would be able to read it, but he didn't quite trust Queenie or Lunis to pick up on the gist of it.

Meryl watched Taber and Kirux's conversation with confusion but from the expression on their faces, it was easy to tell that this was nothing good. The turn the situation was taking plunged her into deeper and deeper worry. She stepped beside Ryder and murmured, "I wonder what they're talking about. Do you have any idea?"

"He's scared," Kirux signed. Taking the hint, he moved closer to Taber - so close that the very tip of one of his boots was touching Taber's foot. "He's not human."

He paused, then gave a pleading look as he stared up in Taber's eyes.

"I can't bring them there," he frantically signed, "or else he'd get hurt!"


Ryder looked over at Meryl and shook his head.

"I never learned sign language," he admitted. "I think Taber and Kirux do know each other well, and that the person Kirux is hiding is someone they both know. But I have no idea what they're saying to each other right now."

Queenie caught the word 'grim' being signed out of the corner of her eye. Grim indeed, she thought, trying not to wince as she straightened out, "Don't call me princess," she growled, tuning in to the other conversation.

"Why would he get hurt?" She asked, diverting the topic away from her, or rather, the injury she wasn't supposed to have. Dad's going to kill me, she thought through the pain as she remembered why it was there, pulling at her consciousness, He's going to find out and he's going to kill me.

She shook the thoughts from her head and watched for an answer.

Whoop, he definitely wasn't the only other person in the conversation. Taber jumped back when Queenie spoke, throwing his paws up. "Who could get hurt?" he said, a little too quickly. He laughed, glancing around at the people around him. "Who's he? Can't any of us get hurt?"

Lunis growled. "That's it," the panther said. "I'm going to find him and drag him back here, wherever he is."

Taber tried to turn around and reach out a paw to grab Lunis, but the panther had already disappeared into the sea of metal wagons. Oh no.



While Kendrik saw Taber start to shake - the wolf was an awful liar, and even worse at hiding his fear - he glared at Queenie. "It ain't my fault ya act like a princess I know. An' now I'm smellin' a bit more blood 'round ya, too, so ya obviously got some kinda injury. Would it kill ya to be honest?"

Yes it absolutely would. "My health is not your concern," she said with her default false-friendly tone, "And the panther went that way," she gestured in the general direction Lunis had gone. In any other situation, she'd have been the first one to start running, but the world was tilting far too drastically beneath her unmoving feet for her to risk a sprint like she'd have to in order to catch up.

"I don't want my teammates fallin' to the ground dead," Kendrik said, focusing on the direction Queenie had pointed to. He almost swore he could see a dark blur dashing under the lights. "But if you won't tell me what's up, I guess I ain't goin' ta bother ya. But I ain't goin' after him either. I don't want to deal with those wagons."

She sighed, "They're called cars, you know." She leaned back against the wall, blinking spots from her eyes, "And no one's dying," she said, probably dying.