Young Writers Society

Loki nearly dropped the phone in shock. "911?" he quietly repeated, trying to decide if he had heard her right. When Tasha nodded in confirmation, he clicked the numbers on the keypad. As he waited for someone on the other side to pick up, his hands shook with excitement. He wasn't on another world at all - he wasn't even on a different continent!

His joy was slightly dashed when the call was unable to connect.

Handing the phone back to Amy, he said, "We're on our own."

"Someone get some water boiling," I told them.

Amy took her phone and pocketed it away, with a worried sigh. She looked to Tasha, who seemed to know the most about what to do in this situation. "Ok." Amy replied with a hasty nod, looking back over to the fire that had now died down. As she got up she set the first aid kit by Tasha.

"You're free to use any of this - as much as you need."

And with that she headed over to the fire and began grabbing dry sticks and stirring it up, breathing on it, eventually getting a small flame going. "Hey Loki, uh, can you empty this pot of beans?" She lifted up the pot, still feeling the rush of adrenaline that had yet to leave her. "I'm gonna grab my water bottle to fill it up so we can get it boiling."

After I stopped the bleeding, I cleaned the wound and patched it up as best I could. I'd boil the bandages I had and put them into the first aid kit; he was bleeding a lot, and later we might not have time to sanitize them.

"Alright," Loki said, trying his best to ignoring his racing pulse and the sweat forming on his hands. He was used to sweaty hands, but this wasn't because of the magic he always was casting. This was different and more sudden; he knew it was because of how nervous he was.

He grabbed the pot from her hands, carrying it over to the side of the clearing and unceremoniously dumping it into the woods. After he had gotten all of the beans out, he returned to their small group and handed it back to Amy.

He sat down beside Darian and watched Amy grab her water bottle. His gaze quickly shifted to the motionless body next to him, only for him to go back to looking at Amy instead. The sight of all of the blood brought back the memories that he always tried to forget. Now the anxiousness had been replaced by a monstrous fear, one that threatened to consume him if he didn't put it to rest now.

He stared down at the ground. "Tasha?" he hesitantly asked. He didn't look up to see if she had heard him. "Do you...do you think he's going to die? I...I don't want to see someone die again because I couldn't help them..."

"Hard to tell," I answered honestly. "But I wouldn't write him off yet. Unless it gets infected he should be alright, so long as he gets proper care."

The words the other two were saying felt like white noise compared to the pounding rush of blood in her head. She knew she could calm down - no, she knew she should calm down. But she wasn't a seasoned soldier like Tasha or a sharp shooter like whatever Crifide was with that outfit of his. She didn't know how to deal with this kind of stress, and she was by no means numbed to the shock of seeing that happen. A part of her wished it would've been her to get attacked by the bird, not because she wanted to die or endure pain but because she hated feeling this helpless to help other people. Of course, she knew she wasn't all helpless, just... she was just so unsure.

She began pouring water into the pot and set it above the now steady burning fire. She stood over it, watching the water, almost trying to will it to heat up faster.

Her eyes flickered to the injured Dorian... all I wanted to do was get away from the mess at home, and all I did was end up walking in to another one. No ill-will towards Dorian though. It was her own fault for getting lost in the forest, same as he and everyone else out here. And none of them knew about the crazy birds. But this sucks. Maybe I was never meant to have a peaceful life. Maybe life is just supposed to suck. Maybe this is it.

She returned her gaze to the fire, and grabbed a few more dry sticks and wood from the area. There was no harm in getting more, and keeping busy. For all she knew, they'd probably need it.

I wandered over to the fire next to Amy ((that's @soundofmind, right??)), glancing at the water. "How's it coming?" I inquired.

Amy jumped a little, brought out of her daze of staring into the water pot by Tasha's words. "Oh!" She let out an involuntary nervous laugh, letting out some tension. "Haha, just, you know, it's uh, going alright. Good. Water's heating up just fine, ya know. Fire does a good job of that."

"How are you doing?" I inquired. She wasn't anything more than a normal citizen - an innocent who'd accidentally stumbled upon mortal combat.

Amy gave Tasha a look of disbelief and gave another look over at Darian. "How am I doing?" She repeated, as if the question didn't make sense to her. "How am I doing? Hah! How am I doing. I think I'm just fine. I'm worried about Darian though."

"There's nothing more we can do for him right now, Amy. Now it's waiting." I kept my voice even, steady, calm, trying to hide the fear that I really felt.

Amy noted that Tasha had already patched Darian up, and gave out a small sigh of relief. Dang, Tasha worked fast. "You ever seen something like that? A bird just straight up attack somebody outta nowhere like that? I didn't know birds could be that violent."

Loki had been listening to their conversation in an attempt to distract himself from the current situation. It made him feel slightly better paying attention to their voices instead of Darian. Even though he knew the conversation wasn't directed towards him, it got him thinking. He had dealt with all sorts of things most people wouldn't classify as normal while he was working at Perseus. They had always had to do with magic. Did these birds too? That would explain their irregular behavior.

Should he say something? If it was magic, didn't it mean that it was alright to tell people who didn't seem to possess any of their own?

Loki wiped the sweat off of his forehead and got to his feet. Taking a deep breath, he walked over to Amy and Tasha. "I haven't seen birds like that before," he interrupted them. "But I've see other strange things like that. Witches. Shadows that can talk and walk. I even met a boy who was cursed to appear as a snake." The thought of Kane made his heart ache. "Maybe those birds were just as magical as what I've seen?"

Amy's emotions were written plainly on her face. She looked at Loki wide eyed, kind of freaked out by Loki's words. I mean, what she saw with the birds was one thing, but talking shadows and stuff? That just sounded... demonic. Or like witchcraft or something. Didn't Darian say he was a priest? Could this be some crazy attack from like, satanic birds? Who the heck knows.

"...Either way that stuff's freaky. I don't mess with that stuff."