Young Writers Society

Damascus smiled at Schadel, showing off as mouthful of little teeth. He padded around her and Engel in circles, very clearly proud of himself and showing off.

"Thank you!" He exclaimed in another grr.

"The roar didn't sound the same," Edward argued. He took a deep breath, then grabbed a stick from nearby and made it into a makeshift torch. Then he returned to his brothers, took another deep breath, and stepped inside the forest.

"We have to warn them," he said, "and we have to see how many bears there are."

Without waiting for James and Boris to accept his ideas, Edward went off into the darkness.


"You're welcome!" Schadel replied, grinning as she watched Damascus. Her attention shifted, however, when she saw a light approaching in the distance. It looked like someone was coming in their direction. She had to wait a minute before they were close enough to see, but then she recognized the boy holding onto the torch.

"Edward!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down and excitedly waving at her brother.

"Edward! We have to stop-!" Boris shouted after him.

But he had already ran off. Unbelievable. There was a bear out there, and he couldn't run after him and leave James to worry alone again, and he could die!

Boris stared uselessly after Edward, angry at the empty space. He could die. He could die out there. And he just had to go and leave them.

A distant voice cut through the darkness. An eerily cheerful voice. Boris turned to James, blinking fearfully.

"...that was Schadel's voice."

By the time that Edward's torch was spotted by Schadel, Damascus had been preoccupied by other things. He was currently several feet away, attempting to climb a tree in his bear form.

His claws were catching on the bark, but not giving him good grip, proving to be inferior to his own talons. He grunted a little, but otherwise happily worked away, occupying himself.

"Schadel, there's be-" Edward stopped as he reached her side, suddenly noticing something very, very worrisome - he couldn't find Damascus. The only two people there were Schadel and Engel. Where was their other sibling?

"Where's Damascus?" he asked. He didn't know if the words were being magically translated anymore, but Schadel didn't seem to need the clearing for that happen.

She looked around, silver eyes scanning the forest as the light of the torch continued to shine. "...I don't know," she admitted, crossing her arms and tilting her head ever so slightly. "He was here just a minute ago."

Edward's blood ran cold.

....He didn't think bears randomly took people, but what if the bears they heard did? Or, if they were just regular bears and Damascus had wandered off, Damascus was still in trouble.

James stayed back with Boris, drawing his brows together, thinking very hard of a reason Schadel could be talking if she was a bear. He didn't like Edward running off. He was beginning to feel very tempted to do so himself soon, but he knew Boris was scared, and he didn't want to leave him alone.

"...Maybe she can talk as a bear?" he asked, not sounding too sure of himself.

"She is magic. Maybe she can." said Boris.

At first, he only considered the thought, no more convinced than James was.
Then it occurred to Boris that if he combined the 'there's only one bear' theory with the 'magical Schadel can do whatever she wants' theory, then that decreased the amount of bears in the woods from two to none.

"Yes. I think she can." he said, insisting just a little too desperately. "What kind of reaper would she be if she couldn't?"

"I'll be right back," Schadel abruptly announced, darting off in the direction of the clearing. When she finally arrived, she skid to a stop in front of James and Boris.

"Have you seen Damascus?" she asked. "I can't find him."

No. Schadel had to be the bear. If she wasn't the bear, then- No! She must have just changed back. But if there was another bear- if there was, then it wasn't just Damascus in trouble. Edward and Engel wouldn't be able to defend themselves without Schadel.

"What do you mean, you can't find him?" Boris cried out. "There's-!"

Then he stopped, and squinted. Sure, Schadel didn't seem like the trickster type before, but after the whole Martian episode, could he really be expected to fall for the same thing again? She hadn't meant to scare them the first time. Boris had even been thinking about apologising for making her feel so bad.
But that didn't mean that she didn't mean to this time.
It certainly seemed easier to believe that than believe that she would leave their brothers alone if they really were in danger.

"Did you really lose him? Or is it just part of the joke?" Boris asked her suspiciously.

Schadel, who had been about to return to Edward and Engel to resume her search for her missing brother there, paused just as she started to step into the forest.

"...Joke?" she repeated. "I really did lose him - I was just talking to him, and then I started talking to Edward. When I turned my head again, he was gone. I think he might still be in the woods if he isn't here."

She thought it over, then went darting back into the woods.

"I'm sure he has to be nearby," she shouted, just barely avoiding Edward as she returned to the forest - her brother gave a startled cry and stepped out of the way as she came sliding to a halt.

"He's not with Boris and James," Schadel informed Edward and Engel.

For some reason, this made Edward go pale, but Schadel didn't have the slightest idea why.

While all this had taken place, Damascus had managed to somehow successfully climb up the tree, and was sitting on a low branch. He was very proud of himself... For about five minutes.

Then he realized that he couldn't get down again.

He called out, panicked, not even bothering to form words. It came out as a fearful roar that cut into the night.

"There was never a bear." Boris scoffed. "It was all Schadel. She never would have lost the others if they really were in danger. And her acting, it wasn't convincing at a-"

He was drowned out by another roar. It felt different from the others: it felt desperate. A shiver rippled through Boris from top to bottom. When it passed, he frowned at the moss under James' feet.

"This isn't funny anymore," he said, to no-one in particular.

Schadel was surprised to find that Edward was suddenly clinging to her leg, holding William tightly in one hand as he looked around the forest, but she didn't really question it - she was much more focused on the roar she had just heard.

Realizing her mistake, she looked up instead of down.

She couldn't see her brother, but she knew he had come from above instead of below.

"Damascus!" she called out, cupping her hands around her mouth to make sure he could hear her from his spot in the trees. "Where are you?"

Damascus peered down hopefully when he heard his sister close by, holding on tightly with two paws to the tree limb. Schadel could help get him down!

"I'm here, up here!" He yowled down, bouncing in excitement.

It was then that the thinner branch he was hanging onto snapped, and he felt himself suddenly tumbling to the ground.

Schadel wiggled free from Edward's grasp, darting forward to catch Damascus as he fell from the tree. It hurt a little when he suddenly plopped right into her arms, but the pain faded a few seconds later.

"Found you!" she triumphantly said, looking down at her furry brother.