Young Writers Society

Giving Ciannet one last smile, he looked back at the others. They still needed to catch up, but that could wait until later - for now, he needed to sate the curiosity of those who had so eagerly helped him.

"Ciannet is the last person to summon me," he explained. "It's kind of hard to explain, but I need someone to give me a charge for me to take a form in this realm. I thought that I lost her when Kek destroyed our village."

"I thought that I lost you, too," she quietly added from behind him. When he glanced back at her, he saw that she had pushed her hood back. Her black hair was shorter than it had been five years ago, but that wasn't surprising. She had always been one for change.

"When we were planning on overthrowing the 'god' who oppressed her people, I started to teach her some of the things I was skilled at," Maahes said, his smile just a bit prideful. "Since I've been around for awhile, I have some pretty strong talents. Knives are one of them."

Summon? What was Maahes, exactly?

Kixig had tried to follow them, but was briefly distracted by a street vendor yelling at him about bacon. As soon as he looked back, the group was gone. He looked left and right, a bit confused, and stopped a moment to pick up their smell. But all his nose was selectively smelling was the meat.

Kellach guessed a "while" meant longer than just a few years. There was absolutely no one here who couldn't easily kill him, was there? He felt relieved that he wanted to be friends, and so did they.

"So, what now?" he asked. "If anyone wants to talk, this probably isn't the place to do it." Kellach pointed up through the shadows, but then he froze. His eyes caught the faint of impression of someone else peering over a roof.

Noticing how Kellach suddenly seemed to be distracted by something, he looked around their surroundings. Annie, appearing to pick up on the same thing, began to also search for what the cause could be. His gaze eventually landed on one of the nearby roofs. It looked like there was a person there, but it was difficult to make out anything else.

Also, where was Kixig?

While Kilian was occupied, staring at the figure on the roof, Rin began to glance around for Kixig. It had been a while since he had spoken, and sure enough, he wasn't there at all. She began to feel a bit concerned for him.

Maahes didn't know how long they had until the figure on the roof moved away, so he decided to kill two birds with one stone - temporarily relieve himself of the ache that accompanied being away from the Other Place, and discover the intentions of their watcher.

It had been awhile since he had an opportunity to adopt a new guise. He did so with pleasure. His form shifted into one of a bird - he chose a red-tailed hawk, his personal favorite - and landed on the roof beside the person. He reverted the guise he had been using on the ground. Pushing a strand of scarlet hair out of his face, he was surprised to discover the identity of their watcher.

"Oh," he said. "Hi, Tasha."

Kixig finally managed to pull his senses from the smell of meat and slowly dragged himself to find his new found and also lost (by himself) friends. Or acquaintances. One or the other, he wasn't quite sure, but either would suit him just fine.

He finally caught a whiff of what he thought to be Maahes in the air, and he in that direction. It turned out, they hadn't gone ridiculously far. He saw Maahes standing on the roof next to... what he was pretty sure was Tasha. On the ground he saw the woman Maahes had been looking for, along with Kellach and Rin.

"Oh! There you guys are! You found her!"

Tasha drops to the ground off the rooftop, landing behind the woman so that there really is no escape for her. She doesn't draw any weapons, however.

Maahes quickly shifted into the guise of the red-tailed hawk, flying down to the ground beside Ciannet. She looked thoroughly amused when he returned to the guise the others knew him by. It was only when a feather floated down to the ground that he realized there were some loose ones in his hair. He sheepishly pulled them out.

"So now what?" she asked, looking at the faces of the other people in the alleyway.

Kixig looked at the woman with confusion. "Are you asking what to do?" Why was she asking that? He didn't know.

She nodded. "You all seem to know each other better than I do, and I'm guessing Maahes has been traveling with you. What were you supposed to do after catching up to me?"

"Well, we were really just looking for a place to just sit around and . . . discuss our lives," replied Rin.

"We could do it in the street!" Kixig suggested.