Young Writers Society

Kynan and Tristan looked at each other, then slowly turned their heads to Knight. "Yes," Kynan said slowly. "They're our brothers. Where did you meet them?"

"It was in a situation like this before," Knight replied. He shifted uncomfortably, not sure exactly how he was supposed to explain said situation. If they were close with their brothers and the event had come up before, he would have been mentioned as a completely different person. "I was using a different name then, and acted different than how I do now. Did they ever mention someone named Aska?"

Something of a memory wormed its way into Tristan's mind. Still, he turned and looked at Kynan first, in case the hound had anything to say.

Kynan shrugged. If he could look uncomfortable, he certainly would've. "I haven't seen my brother in about a year," he said. "He's probably off in the north with Jaron."

Yep, about what Tristan had figured. The otter turned to the knight and nodded. "I think Aegeas might've mentioned you once or twice?" Tristan said. "I don't remember that well - he was angry about the whole thing, and it gets hard to listen to him when he's mad. He didn't like you very much."

"Oh," Knight quietly said. "I guess I should have expected that, considering..."

Mage gave him what would have been a curious look, if he had a face. He ran through the times Knight had encountered people from other realms - Knight hadn't gone into too much detail, but one time in particular had always stuck out at him. It was the time where he had been forced to act out stories from other worlds; he had met Janos there, long before Knight and Mage had met for the first time.

And, if he remembered correctly, that was when he had regained all of his old memories, and was just on the verge of getting his old body back. Which involved a certain bit of lying; no wonder someone wouldn't like him much if they met him then.

"For what it's worth," Tristan said, shrugging his shoulders, "Aegeas doesn't like a lot of people? He's not usually wrong, but sometimes he doesn't stop to think about why people do things, like lying or stealing to help someone else. I like that he has morals, he just needs to..." Tristan paused. "Not be so moral, I guess?"

Amber relaxed, more because of the kindness in Knight's voice than anything else and listened to them talk while she tried to place the words Thytes had said. She understood Hound, there were plenty of those in Akh-Raba. She thought that, perhaps, she had seen a lion once in a zoo. However, she'd never heard of an otter. It sounded dangerous.

She listened to the rest of the conversation with interest, it seemed these people had a mutual "friend". She didn't know if that would make a difference in their relationship but it didn't seem like it. That was good, even at the best of times she'd never been very good at gauging tension between people.

"I hate to interrupt," she put in a tad timidly, "But shouldn't we be trying to find a way home?"

Thytes nodded. "We can talk on the way," he said. "But we had best start searching for our bodies."

If we can find them, he thought, but he wasn't about to admit anything. They already knew he was doubtful about this whole mission.

"So we just need to get in touch with our souls," Mage said, looking down at his chest. His travels had taught him that was where the soul resided, and he guessed that it likely was still there even in an artificial body like this one.

He took what would have been a deep breath, trying - and failing - to screw his nonexistent eyes shut in concentration. He had to settle for putting his hands over where they would be again; that miraculously seemed to work. But no matter how hard he focused, he couldn't "follow his soul". His soul had decided to be stubborn, and apparently didn't want to help him no matter how hard he wished for it to.

He hesitantly removed one hand and peered out at the others assembled in the clearing. "How exactly are we supposed to do that?"

"By forgetting about our bodies and focusing on who we are," came the reply from beside him. He turned to look at Knight. His boyfriend had gone unnaturally still. A hand slowly raised and pointed into the darkest region of the forest. "...We need to go that way."

"What's that way?" Mage asked, looking in the direction that was being pointed at.

Knight shook his head. "I don't know. But it's the direction that my soul says to go, and I trust my soul."

Amber closed her nonexistent eyes, it felt natural to her because of her many years doing exactly that as a tree, and tried to imagine her soul, to listen to it and see if it agreed with the direction Knight was pointing. She couldn't find it. All she could feel was the absence of her roots and her leaves. She thought about what Knight had said and realized that would be much more difficult than it sounded. She couldn't forget about her tree... She had spent too much time in it, feeling it, being it. Nor could she focus on who she was. She didn't know anymore. If fact, she hadn't known for years. Not since Sorrow had disappeared.

She shook herself free from her reminiscing and looked in the direction that Knight was pointing. It looked like the rest of the forest around it. She thought it might have been a little bit brighter but that also could have been her imagination.

"I will follow. I have not yet found my soul since being in my tree for so long." Making it sound temporary like that was less embarrassing. She didn't want to ever let these strangers know just how out of touch with herself she was.

Knight brought his focus back to the body he was now in; his soul had said to keep going forward. It had said nothing of turns or twists in the path. They would just have to keep walking straight, and then they would eventually reach something. His soul wouldn't give him anymore information, but it wasn't like he had expected more - souls couldn't exactly speak. They just gave feelings.

He started walking forward. Mage darted over to his side and fell into step beside him, looking around at the surrounding forest with an almost ironic wariness - he was a dark and fire magic user, so darkness should have been a comfort and not a fear.

Thytes kneeled down and patted his shoulders as Knight and Mage began walking. Looking at each other, Kynan and Tristan shrugged and sat on Thytes's shoulders, each holding a hand on the lion's head as he rose back up.

"As I suspected," Thytes said, walking through the shaded forest, "I cannot feel a thing!"

Tristan smiled, only remembering a few seconds later that nobody else would be able to see it. Sighing, he watched his surroundings, noting how quiet the forest was. Beyond the creek in the distance - that probably explained why Thytes was covered in droplets of water that made him gleam in the odd beam of sunlight - there wasn't the chirp of a bird or the rustle of some creature. He knew he should've been bothered, but Tristan found it strangely relaxing. Reaching out a wooden arm to brush tree branches only made him feel further at ease. He didn't have anything to be afraid of. There was just living wood and dead wood, not to mention his boyfriend and a regular friend and a few nice strangers.

Hopefully it would stay that way.

Landon felt himself hovering in an odd state, unfocused and detached, until he was able to open his eyes. That is, until he was able to see. It didn't seem as if he had eyes, in the general sense.

He gasped- again, as much as he was able to- and shot straight up. The feeling that he wasn't himself only intensified, but the first thing he did was look around wearily. He seemed to be in a shaded forest... somewhere. That was all he was able to work out.

Standing slowly, he heard wood creak, and then jumped a bit. Were one of the trees falling???

A moment later, he realized that the sound had come from his knees, and that was when he realized that his entire body was made of wood.

All he could do for several minute was stare openly down at himself, in equal parts shock and awe. Then, he was finally able to let out a noise, in a loud gasp.

"Whoaaa..." he whispered, moving his fingers slowly and watching them in fascination. He marveled quietly to himself. "Is this a dream, or... have I been captured by fae?"

As if in answer, a voice cut through in a breezy whisper. "Follow your soul," it said, clearly. If he had had eyes, they would have widened even further.

He didn't have time to contemplate what this meant, however, because just then, noises traveled to him from the path ahead. He turned to face that direction, and stayed quiet, though excitement thrummed inside him at the unknown source. Were the fae coming for him?

Knight came to a sudden stop in the middle of the pathway. Mage, unprepared for the pause in their trek, bumped right into him. The two stumbled forward - threatening to fall to the ground in a tangle of limbs - but miraculously managed to regain their balance.

"Who's there?" Knight asked.

Mage, taking the hint, made his sword appear at his side. Darkness shot forward and formed a distinct blade, and flames quickly enveloped the blade in a fiery spiral. It felt dangerous to be using his flames when stuck in a body of wood, but Mage didn't feel any heat or burning sensation.

Apparently, his magic couldn't harm this new body of his.

Landon heard a voice through the other side of the trees, and stepped forward to peek out between the leaves. It wasn't long before a little gasp escaped him again- there was a group of six... wooden people. Just like he currently was. And one of them had a flaming sword.

He decided then that he would probably have to handle this in a very mature way. And so, he carefully walked into view, held his hands high in the air, and started talking.

"Hello, um- folks. Very sorry to intrude. Though, I don't exactly remember intruding. Anyway, I seem to have some sort of spell on me. Or maybe that was you guys. Did you turn me into one of you as punishment? That's not to say that I'm complaining or anything! It's really, really, cool, but, ah- yeah. I'll stop talking now."

Though his actions and words seemed to be appropriately nervous for the situation, his voice carried an unmistakable note of excitement, revealing that he wasn't taking this at all like he should have been.

Amber quietly followed in the direction they led. She wondered why Knight was the only one who had been able to listen to his soul so far. She wondered, briefly, whether they were following him to his body, and theirs weren't anywhere nearby. She abandoned that train of thought though, there wasn't anything she could do about it anyway, she still couldn't sense her soul.

Lost in thought as she followed the others, she nearly bumped into all the people in front of her when they abruptly stopped. She smiled internally as Knight and Mage tangled into each other. Her brief amusement was short-lived though as Mage summoned a sword and wreathed it in flames. A blind panic consumed her mind and she reached for her magic, instinctively pulling on the trees around her. A root shot out of the ground and smacked Mage aside.

Upon seeing him get hit, Amber came back to herself and rushed over to him in an unusual display of emotion, "Oh Hemlock, I'm so sorry, are you ok?!"