Young Writers Society

"Well," Codix quietly said, his voice little more than a whisper, "shit."

Nadira gave a sorrowful nod from beside him.

A short distance away, Maahes surveyed the scene before their group - and tried the best to ignore the growing pit of doubt in his essence. It seemed like finding a safe passage through the forest was impossible, and he knew they couldn't turn back. Kartiel had wanted them to come this way. They had to do what he wanted if they wanted to get back home.

Come on, he thought. There had to be something that would help! They had weapons, but the weapons wouldn't do much to help with the ants, or spores, or the wasps. Codix and him could change their forms, and Nadira could technical things. But that wasn't useful, either. Nadira was probably the only one of them that was somewhat safe, but there was nothing to say one of the three couldn't get inside of her.

He thought about the conversation between Boris and Aegeas - maybe that would give him an idea? Neither one was close to coming up with any sort of plan, but there had to be something that would jog his train of thought.

...blaze-of-glory...

...toast...

"I got it!" Maahes suddenly exclaimed, straightening as the idea began to form. "Djinn are spirits of fire and air."

"So?" Aegeas said, glancing over at Maahes. "The blaze-of-glory people don't last long either. I don't want to die like an idiot because I tried to say, point my gun at a wasp's nest. If I'm going to go down, I want to go down as painlessly as possible, and angering those creatures doesn't sound like the best way to do that."

"You may notice I waited until it was far away from us, before I took the shot." Boris corrected him. "But you do have something of a point."

Aegeas sighed. "Let's hope those wasps don't come back, or the" - he grimaced - "eggs don't hatch."

"Oh, don't you worry about a thing." said Boris confidently.
"If any get on us, our good friend Maahes can set us on fire. That'll show the little bastards." He capped this assuring thought off with a wink, not at all concerned for the safety of the offending eye.

"Cast your votes, people! We're losing daylight."

"And then I wouldn't have to listen to you," Aegeas mumbled, before picking his voice up. "I'll vote for the forest. I trust a river more than a field or a cave."

Codix and Nadira exchanged a look. They thought they understood what Maahes was trying to imply, but Boris and Aegeas apparently hadn't picked up on the realization Maahes had come to.

Maahes was watching as the two bickered, seemingly just as confused by them completing ignoring his input. Eventually, he let out a sigh, muttering something about them being "just like Daniel and Vala" before walking over to the two of them.

"We should see what doesn't like fire, and what we could blow away with wind," Maahes said. "I think we would have to huddle close together so I can keep everything away, but that's better than going in without any kind of defenses, right?"

"But that'd mean I'd have to stand next to Bo-" Aegeas began, before taking a deep breath. He didn't have anything against Boris. Sure, he thought Boris was obnoxious, he didn't understand Boris's sense of humor, and he got the feeling that it wasn't a good idea to trust any of Boris's decisions. But Boris hadn't intentionally done anything wrong, and Aegeas was a bit exhausted after all this running and swimming around and trying not to die. So, he decided to backpedal.

"Yeah, Bo," he said, turning to face away from Boris so the man wouldn't catch the pauses in his voice. "Bo's, pretty big, and I'm not - we'd, make a gap in the circle, and then you might get, hurt if anything goes wrong.'"

Bo was thinking. Thinking very hard about death and what kinds of deaths they would be leading others into. When Aegeas finally said his name his eyelid fluttered and he looked down at the otter with a blank expression.

"I'm... not sure exactly what you mean?" Bo said, not sure what Aegeas was trying to do, and why he was talking the way he was. He chose his next words carefully, knowing that, as close to death and danger as they were, they weren't just jokes.

"I know I'm the biggest guy here by a long shot," he admitted. "And I guess that might mean I'm a bigger target, but I've accepted that. I know Maahes will do his best with his magic but if I end up being a human shield because I'm just the biggest prey, I can think of worse ways to go."

Ugh, Aegeas had been hoping that Bo hadn't heard him. Why did he have to get into an argument with somebody he liked?

Aegeas shook his head. "It's not like that - it's just, I'm one of the smallest, so - maybe the smallest - so if we stand next to each other, something could fly over my head, maybe something trying to aim for you, and hit Maahes. Yeah."

Maahes had a sneaking suspicion that Aegeas had meant that he didn't want to stand next to Boris instead of Bo, but he didn't comment on his guess.

"My magic should protect us," he reassured Bo. He didn't use it too much, but it had come in handy more than once during his time as a member of the SGC. He just had to focus, and he'd be able to keep the flames and possibly wind going.

Finally, a shift in the conversation.

"That's some magic if it can keep everyone safe," Aegeas said, tilting his head. "How long do you think you can use it?"

"I'm not sure," he admitted. He had never tried using it for long periods of time, but they didn't have many options. "I should be able to keep it going for a long time."

The otter sighed. "I'll believe you - you've been pretty helpful so far, and you can't be any worse at magic than I am," said Aegeas. He grimaced as he stared down at his paws, catching the tiny wisps of flame that flickered into existence between his claws. "But hopefully a lot better, because it's going to need to last a while."

Maahes nodded in agreement, then turned his attention to their options. Looking at the metaphorical and not-quite-physical paths before them, he knew which one was the best fit for their plan.

"We need to go through the wasps," he said. "They're the only ones I can scare off with fire and wind. I can't do that with the spores, and we can't risk doing it with the ants."