Young Writers Society

Feigning sleep that night hadn't been as easy as he had hoped it would be. He had to hold back the urge to leave into the rest of wherever Mickey had taken them; being underground made him already feel unsafe, and the addition of being in a completely unfamiliar place only made that feeling grow in intensity. But he had managed to remain underneath the covers that night, and "woke up" in what should have appeared to be a natural way.

At least, he should have.

The arrival of the giant man - who was apparently named Bo - had startled him so much that he had mirrored what Tasha did a short distance away: he went darting up, slamming his head on the thing right above him. That things happened to be the top bunk, and his essence immediately started to ache in response.

He slipped out of the bed, pulling his hood up again despite being indoors. After a moment passed, he decided it was best to mutter a similar greeting to what Tasha had said. "Good morning," he said. He went to stand near Bo, and was admittedly more than a little horrified to realize just how much he towered over him. To make matters worse, Bo didn't feel right on the planes. He looked human all the way up to the seventh, but the feeling suggested that there was something else lurking beneath of the cheery man's smile.

If he hadn't been already standing near the intimidating man, he would have gone right towards James.

Tavis snapped wide awake with a jolt, the loud voice just about scaring him out of sleep. He briefly scrabbled for his sword, but realized where he was and that the large man had said “breakfast.”

Seung, on the other hand, was so badly shaken by the noise that he fell out of his lower bunk, his long limbs tangled in the blanket. “Ow.”

“Hey man, you all right?” asked Tavis as he climbed down from where he’d slept.

“Mmhm, just fine,” replied Seung, even though he felt like he was hurting all over now.

James rubbed his eyes and slowly trudged his way over to the door where Maahes stood. But Bo looked visibly surprised and a little embarrassed at everyone's startled responses, and his shoulders cringed up to his ears in sympathetic pain as he watched several of them bump their heads.

"Oh! Gosh, sorry, uh," he said as he hurried over to the guy who'd fallen onto the ground, passing Maahes. He extended a hand to help him up. "My bad."

Tasha slid nimbly from her bunk and her dog instantly came to her heel. She watched Bo in silence.

"No problem," said Seung, mustering up a smile and getting himself out of the folds of cloth. "I'm afraid I have a bit of a cold, though. Mel treated me last night but still, I don't know if you want to touch me."

The guy was tall. Standing at about six feet himself, Seung was always surprised to find someone who was noticeably taller than him. More than a little unexpected in appearance as well, but Seung had seen injuries like that from some of the Rangers who scouted outside the fortress.

Bo smiled and laughed. "Ah, it's alright. I've got a strong immune system. People with my kind of magic don't get sick as easily." He gave Seung a gentle pat on the back, before looking around at the others. "So, ya'll ready to go?"

James twisted his head to the side, causing his neck to crack. He looked over to Bo with half-lidded eyes. "Yes," he replied gruffly.

"Okay! Cool, cool," Bo said with a nod, before offering a hand to Seung to lead him by. "I'll lead the way."

Maahes lingered as the group began to filter out of the room, waiting for James to get closer to the door so they could leave together. He could barely stop his hand from shaking as he hid it underneath his cloak, and desperately wanted the comfort of his old friend. Bo was absolutely terrifying. He couldn't explain the feeling he got from him, and that was enough of a concern; Odris had once told him that he would feel that way around those that were more powerful than him. But there hadn't even been an indication that Bo was also a spirit!

And seeing that they were on James's world and not one of the others he had visited before, he was almost certain that Bo wasn't another spirit. He was something else, but he didn't know what.

He took a shaky deep breath that he didn't need, and readjusted the hood to his cloak. If only he could tell James his concern--but he was still hoping to seem like a relatively normal person, even though he knew his ability to do that was growing increasingly more slim.

Tasha came over next to Bo and James, meaning to follow him, and stopped mid-stride as she caught a whiff of the newcomer. His scent was...strange. There was something about it that was inhuman, and not in the way of an elf. It was closer to the scent of a wer than anything else, but instead of smelling like wolf, he smelled like something she'd only smelled once before.

It was that distinctive reptilian scent mixed with the strange metallic odor that tipped her off to what he was.

And, though she'd learned to work alongside one before, dragons were still something that made the beast inside scream at her to either run or to fight. Her eyes turned dark amber as she froze, looking up at him.

"You're a weird-a** lookin' dragon," she said.

Bo's eyebrows shot up and he looked back at Tasha with a smile. "Oh, you can tell? Well, you're not wrong. You got a nose like me, then?"

"Something like that," she said, still a little wary. "But you don't smell like a lycanthrope. What kind of dragon are you, that isn't a lycan and still takes human form?" The confusion was plain in her voice, and there was a certain guardedness evident in her posture.

A dragon?

Maahes came to a sudden stop, his guise's eyes wide underneath his cloak. Dragons were things of legend! They didn't truly exist. If they had, he would have encountered them during his time with the Alterans, or he would have heard of the Goa'uld harnessing their power for their personal gain. They would have made powerful, destructive hosts. If Ra had known, he would become even more unstoppable than he already was...

He didn't realize how hard he was digging his nails into the palms of his hand until small drops of essence began to form from the wounds he had accidentally created. He couldn't let Ra learn of this. Bo was more powerful than he could ever be; he had to be if he couldn't get a glimpse of the draconian form Bo must have had lurking under that seemingly human exterior.

Ra would enslave any dragon he found in a heartbeat.

Bo's smile faded into a small grin and he shrugged. "Dragons here are a bit different, I suppose. But I'm a unique case. I'm not really a fully realized dragon. Not like Mickey is, anyway."

Meanwhile, when Maahes came to an abrupt stop, James hesitated in his steps and looked back. His eyes flicked between Bo and Maahes for a moment before he looked at Maahes with a questioning gaze.

She nodded slowly. "Right. Well, pleasure to meet you, at any rate."

Maahes didn't meet James's gaze, opting to linger behind the rest of the group as they followed Bo. He had always had to keep secrets, but it had been a very long time since he had been so tempted to share them.

"And you," Bo said with a polite nod, before bringing them to a stop in front of a pair of big double doors. "Well, it looks like we made it to our stop!" he said with a big smile, before throwing the doors open. "Go dig in!"

As the doors opened into the large dining hall, the smells of fresh pastries, fruits, and other breakfast foods wafted into their faces.

The hall was lined with three long stone tables, each a piece of artwork on their own. Long benches lined them, and guild members of all ages, shapes, and sizes swarmed them, filling up a large portion of the seating. Food was lined along each table in plates and bowls with serving spoons and the room was filled with chatter.

Bo pointed to the end of a table that was empty. "Over there's reserved for you guys. Dishes, water, and everything you need is on the table!"