Young Writers Society

"No, I'm afraid I haven't," said Rin shaking her head. "Did you recognize someone here, perhaps?"


Should I say it or not? He kept his face neutral as he considered this. From a young age, he had been taught not to trust anyone, but recently he'd changed, even stopped hiding his true hair and eye color. Regardless, that instinct was always there.

"I'm Tavis," he said.

Ah, well, he always had his weapons if things went badly. Neither would know what hit them.

Kellach had the sense, hard as it was to keep his thoughts together, that Tavis was tense. However, since Tavis hadn't taken a battle stance or pulled out any weapons yet, Kellach decided to keep the conversation going. He turned on his seat to face Tavis. "Nice name. Does it mean anything?"

"I'm sure it does," he said airily. "I can't quite remember what its meaning is at the moment. Yours?" He wanted to--well, he wasn't sure what he wanted to do, but of all things, they were talking about name meanings now? He supposed it was fortunate that he was masterful at hiding his inner thoughts. Unless Kellach or the bartender could sense emotions. That would be an undesirable situation indeed.

"That just means you don't know what it means," said Kellach, laughing. "But, that's good, because I've seen a lot of fancy and flashy meanings, and they get boring after a while. Mine's something like 'throwing a rock into the sea,' or something of the sort; it's been a while since I heard it from my family. It just has to do with the sea, I know that for sure."

Jordan listened to the two talk amongst one another idly, before departing to go serve another customer who sat themselves at the bar.

"I thought I saw someone I knew. It's been several years since I saw her," he replied. He cast another glance in the direction of the street. He had to word things in away that didn't give a way that didn't give away any important information. "I've...changed since then, and my appearance might have convinced her that I'm a threat. I think that's why she ran when she saw me."

Kixig listened curiously to Maahes's explanation. "Are you an otter man too? Or are you just an old enemy of hers?"

"Otter-man?" he slowly repeated.

When Kixig didn't object to what he had said, he realized that he had heard him correctly. That in itself caused a good portion of his confusion. What confused him even more was the way that the question had been worded. How would not being an otter-man suddenly make him her enemy?

"We're not enemies," he protested. "I lived in her village for a couple of years. We never really talked to each other..."

His voice caught in his throat. He was supposed to be the one who would save the village. She knew of him because of what his destiny should have been, and he knew of her because she was Runi's cousin. They had never had a reason to exchange more than a sentence or two.

But now she was the only person he could possibly talk to.

"Something happened to our village," he finally elaborated. There was no need to mention the Goa'uld if the people of this world didn't need to worry about them. "I thought I was the only survivor."

Kixig's face went from neutral to sympathetic in a matter of seconds as he realized what that meant. "Oh no... I am so sorry, Maahes. That is very sad... I hope you are able to find her."

Rin murmured in agreement. She supposed it wouldn't hurt, so she asked, "Would you like us to help you find her, perhaps?"


"I see." He nodded with a small smile. "That's an interesting name." If he had heard correctly, Kellach had confessed on the beach to being able to shapeshift into an otter. So perhaps they were kindred in that way, though he himself could only alter his form into another human appearance.

But that didn't say anything about Kellach's trustworthiness.

A smile started to spread across his face. "I'd appreciate any help that you could give." He pointed in the direction that he thought she had gone. "She might have gone that way. Do you want to start there?"

Kixig nodded, set the little goat down, and hopped back outside of the fence. "Sure!"

"Well then," Kellach said, feeling bored about having small talk. Admittedly, the man looked like he had a lot of stories to tell, and seemed interesting in general, but he wasn't disclosing anything about himself, and Kellach had only so much patience. He swiveled around in his seat and stepped off, walking a little precariously on the ground. "I'll see what the others are up to." He headed for the door.

"I believe I'll join you, if you don't mind," he said, standing. "I should like to meet these 'others'."

"Sure," Kellach said, opening the door, "Why not have someone else around? Hope they're feeling more chatty than you, though."