Young Writers Society

"It is wrong. Everything started going wrong since I stepped into this place. I shouldn't have risked it. But then..." her gaze drifted to Darian, with his magic wand thingy. "Ok you know what, never mind. Whatever. Everything's crazy different out here and I wish I knew what I was doing but I'm just winging it 24/7." She gives herself a quick face-palm and shakes her head. "So you're from a small town, you do magic stuff, and you're a knight or something, right? From the looks of it? Well, Leon -" she pointed to him, "He's got some freakin' rad magic skills and has like, saved a bunch of people or whatever. And Tasha's straight up a badass who fights for what's right and is a stand up person who does her best. Me? I'm a homeless teenager who still picks her nose when no one's looking. That, and I blow little spitballs at bullies through the gap in my front teeth," she smiles, displaying her teeth, then spits out into the forest. "Like that."

"And I also like to fill up empty space with my words because I like how my voice sounds."

He chuckled at her last comment. "My siblings are like that. Worse even because they treat it like a competition."

He glanced around their little group. Amy, Tasha, Leon, Darian. He wasn't sure if he completely trusted all of them, but they trusted each other and that was good enough for him.

"And I'm a spellsword. And Adventurer. I did the correspondence course and everything."

Darian groaned as he grabbed his pack from the fireside. The weight on his good shoulder still hurt on his opposing end, and that was disconcerting. "Everyone, we will have plenty of time to reflect upon ourselves once we're safe. I can feel dark magic encroaching. Stalking us."

He poked a dry stick into the fire and gained a torch to help him along the wilderness to the cliff sides. "I'm heading for the possible caves. We can drive out the animals."

Leon crouched down, grabbing the gun from the spot that he had left it. He stood back up. After he walked over to Darian to show that he would be coming along, he said, "Do you need help carrying anything? I'm only holding this gun right now." Then he realized something that had slipped his mind prior to this moment. "Oh! I forgot that you don't know. I'm Loki. I'm a shapeshifter, and my real name is Leon."

Amy stuck her gun in her shorts, the grip sticking out. She packed and grabbed her big backpack and buckled the extra straps across her chest. She mumbled a few things to herself as she patted herself down and made sure she had everything - the first aid kit, check, her sleeping bag, check.

"Good idea Darian. Yes. Wanna get away from icky bad magic, good good," she held out a hand to Darian. "I'll carry your bag though. You're all jacked up. C'mon," she says, waving her fingers towards her. "Gimme."

Tasha just shoulders the small bag she already had, taking the now-well-cooked rabbit off the spit and kicking out the fire. "It's just necessities," she says, still eyeing the newcomer.

"So's your mom." Amy says with a smack of her lips as she shrugs her shoulders and adjusts her pack on her back. "I'm bringing all my stuff. This bag is all I own. I ain't about to just ditch it."

Marius hadn't even had the chance to put his bag down. While the others were packing up he mentally reached for that spot deep inside of him where his magic coiled, focused on it, and gently nudged it outwards.

Concentrate, he told himself, his eyebrows scrunching.

Finally he felt the warm tingling sensation on his skin that told him his shield was up. He relaxed again, knowing that it would remain up until he ran out of mana or he dismissed it himself. Normally he viewed keeping it up like this as a bit of a waste of mana, but it would be easier to extend it to the rest of the group if necessary than to summon it up later.

"Lead the way, I'm ready to move on."

Darian removed his pack from his good shoulder and handed it to Amy, taking a branch from a nearby tree to form into a new staff over time. He led the way with his torch, but cast his voice back. "Loki, I see now why you would change your form and identity around comrades." He slightly laughed. "Leon the human is simply boring!"

"Actually," he said with a little laugh of his own at Darian's comment, "I'm part Fae! So I'm not as boring as it sounds." He couldn't wait for them to find shelter. Then he could ask Darian - whose magical abilities hadn't even been something that he had known about - if he would be able to help Kane. That was all that mattered. Kane was his mistake and he was going to fix it if it was the last thing he did.

Amy had Darian's bag slung over her shoulder and held the straps of her backpack by her shoulders as she followed Darian's lead. She could already feel the pool of sweat beginning to form on her back, making her shirt stick to her skin.

"So you're not the one who's cursed to become an animal, then, are ya?" Amy asked, walking up beside Leon.

"I'm not," he replied. His thoughts drifted back to his best friend; he hoped that he was as alright as someone who was stuck as a snake could be. "It's kind of a long story, actually. Back when I was a member of Perseus, Sh-" His voice caught in his throat. "my old partner and I went to capture a witch. She had set a magical trap that would turn us into snakes, but a boy named Kane got there before us. The curse affected him just before we entered the place. I thought that the witch had left behind her pet, so I decided that I would keep him instead."

He kicked away a little rock that was in front of his sneakers.

"I called him Thor for the longest time, and I was shocked when I realized he could understand what I was saying. That was when we became the best of friends. Then there was a thing involving an artifact, and the five of us became something that we weren't actually. Kane finally could tell me the truth at that point, and I was going to find a way to get him back to normal. But someone took him from me when we turned back, thinking that I was going to hurt him because I was a member of Perseus."

He looked over at her and gave her a halfhearted smile. "It's actually why I left Perseus."

Marius openly gaped at the story he was overhearing. Curses, shapeshifters, artifacts; it was all a bit more than he had expected.

"When we get out of here, if you want that is, I'm not trying to force this on you or anything, but if you want I'd be happy to help you rescue your friend. As much as I can at least." He ran his hand through his hair again. "Which might not be a lot, but... I should probably stop talking now."

Amy returned the smile, her mouth still closed but her lips pulled up into a little grin. She patted Leon on the back two times, and then elbowed him in the side lightly. She looked up at Marius, a brow raising. "Don't worry, man. I don't mind any of ya'll yappin' your gabber 's long as ya'll keep it decent. And... uh," she looked back to Leon. "Well I'm glad you're lookin' out for your friend. Ain't a lot of people who'll go through all that trouble for somebody."