Young Writers Society

"Why?" Kai said. "It's not sunset yet, and I kinda want to explore the rest of the island. Maybe there's food and water and shelter and other stuff already, and we just need to find it."

As Pan glanced over at Poseidon, Icarus felt like the awkward outlier. He didn't know what to do in a situation like this; he had only just managed to escape the workshop. And he really didn't want to be making suggestions to gods, even if he probably could help with designing a structurally sound shelter.

"You're right," Pan agreed as Poseidon gave a small nod. "That does seem like a good idea - let's do some exploring!"

Kai clapped his hands together (something he remembered Niwa doing sometimes). "Great!" he said. He ran back to Niwa and grabbed Niwa's hand. "Want to learn how to climb trees?"

Niwa, who'd winced when Kai had grabbed his hand, shrunk back. "Not exactly?" he said.

Ugh, so Niwa was still nervous. Kai stuck out his tongue, then ran back over to Pan. "You're cool," he said. "Do you want to learn?"

In the meantime, Niwa, still gripping onto Icarus's shoulder, leaned forward. "You appear to know these gods better than I do - do you know if there is any way to escape from them?" he whispered into Icarus's ear.

Pan grinned. "I'm very well-versed in the art of tree-climbing," the god said. He turned to Poseidon. "Poseidon, on the other hand, isn't, but I don't think we could convince him to be taught by you."

Poseidon stared down at the ground. "I don't want to learn," he said, hesitation lingering in his voice as he continued to avoid meeting Pan's gaze.

Pan raised an eyebrow, but he didn't push the subject. Something told him there was a little more to the situation than his best friend was letting on; still, Poseidon wasn't going to be opening up out of nowhere - especially when other people were present.

Poseidon took the silence as an opportunity to sulk off towards Icarus.


Icarus look over at Niwa; he had just voiced the same exact thought he had been having. "I'm not sure," he whispered back. "They're...They're not like what I expected. I think Pan would just let us walk away, even if he did notice, but Poseidon seems to have the temper that I've heard about in stories-"

"Why are you talking about me?"

Icarus froze and slowly turned around.

Poseidon was standing right behind them, arms crossed as he looked them over with a sour expression on his face. "You were talking about me," he continued. "I heard you mention my name. What did you just say about me?"

Kai took Poseidon leaving as an opportunity to huff and cross his arms. "Why are you friends with him?" he said, looking up at Pan. "He's so grumpy and bitter all the time. And kinda violent. I didn't like it when he tried to shove me into the sand and twist my arm."



Whoop, Poseidon had a little better hearing than Niwa had assumed. Poseidon had looked too human to be able to pick up on Niwa. The fox had made the mistake of underestimating a god, and he'd have to lie his way out of the resulting mess.

"I wanted to know more about you," Niwa said, putting on an air of being annoyed. "It is not every day that one meets a god, particularly a god that one is unacquainted with. What is your control over the sea, for instance? Do you have partners? Do you have underlings?"

Pan shot Poseidon a look at Kai's comment, but the god had his back turned to him - he was in the middle of talking with the others. "He's not good with people," Pan said. He was sure there was more to the story that was being told, but he couldn't make any guesses without having more of a clue. Generally, Poseidon acted reasonably - he wouldn't have randomly attacked someone.

"He grew up with people that aren't like us," he said. "Merpeople, to be specific. They had different customs, and he's only really starting to get a hang of ours now. And, when we first met, he did try drowning me, but he also had been captured by humans who didn't understand him. They thought he was a man from the sea - which he technically was. But once he realized that I wasn't going to hurt or capture him, he showed that he was a pretty good guy. I just had to give him a chance."


Icarus looked over at Niwa, realizing that his comments had probably just saved them from the look on Poseidon's face. "We were talking about everything," he added. "I was trying to tell him everything about you - where you live, your relation to the other gods, your wife..."

He trailed off, hoping the combination of their explanation would fully convince him.

"I can control and create water," he said. "I don't have...'partners' - I don't make alliances. I think they're stupid and a waste of time. And I don't have underlings..."

He looked at Icarus, staring at him for longer than Icarus would have liked. Icarus felt a jolt of fear - had he just caught on? But then Poseidon quickly looked away, his cheeks red (probably in anger), and said, "...And I don't have a queen."

Icarus stared. "You don't? But you're married to Amphitrite."

"I'm not," Poseidon grumpily replied. He looked over in Pan's direction, but the god was too busy talking to Kai to notice. "That's just a myth. I don't like her - she's always bothering me, and I have other interests."

Kai leaned up against a tree. "He sucks at talking to people," the fox said, then stared at the ground. "What's this about 'us'? I was raised by foxes in the woods. And not foxes like me, but ones that walk on four legs and are hungry all the time and are kinda stupid, but I turned out fine anyways. I got captured by people who didn't understand me too, but I didn't try killing anybody. And the first two people I ran into were jerks."



"Why would you let such a story perpetuate, if it is impolite of me to ask?" Niwa said. He'd noticed that Poseidon had been focusing on Icarus, but decided not to comment on it - the last thing he wanted to do was anger a god. "I cannot imagine you would tolerate such a lie being spread around."

"From the little we've talked, I think our cultures are pretty similar," Pan explained. He cast another glance at his best friend. "Merpeople are different. They live under the water, and have completely different customs - I don't know what most of them are. He doesn't like to talk about it. But what I do know is that they're fiercely protective and defensive around certain people, and I think that might be what happened."

He paused.

"It would help to hear the whole story," he admitted.


"Gods aren't suppose to meddle with how mortals think of us," Poseidon said. "It's what the council says. I think it's stupid, but there's nothing I can do about it."

"That's because I haven't lived with them in a while, dummy," Kai said. He had to admit that Pan had a bit of a point - the foxes had been pretty curious, friendly, and social creatures altogether. Kai just didn't want to say anything that would support Poseidon. "And I kinda get the whole protective thing, but he takes it too far. He's just protecting some scared kid and a god like you, who isn't even in danger in the first place."



Niwa frowned. "Why would deities have such a limiting bureaucracy? Particularly when it has the potential to sow discord among the gods? Plenty of you likely despise the stigmas attached to you."

"But why would he need to protect Icarus?" Pan asked. He couldn't help but give a small, brief smile - Kai was starting to remind him of Poseidon, as much as the two seemed to dislike each other. "Did something happened between the two of you?"


"I don't know!" Poseidon exclaimed, throwing his arms up in frustration. Icarus recoiled back in surprise and worry - it looked like Poseidon had finally snapped. "No one tells me anything. It's just the way things have always been, and will always be."

Kai threw his paws up. "Niwa got himself stabbed with our own stupid boat, so I had to drag him to the trees, and then Poseidon and Icarus showed up, and I thought they were dangerous, so I tried to pick a fight with Poseidon, and then he beat me up and dragged Niwa out of the trees. Because he sucks. I don't know what Icarus had to do with it, but Poseidon didn't want him wandering around or something. Poseidon just had to be the one to fight me."



Niwa took a step back, trying to hide the shiver that worked its way across him. Fur standing on end, he realized that he probably was irritating Poseidon. "...That sounds dreadful," he said eventually, voice quieter. "I am sorry that you have to go through such neglect and ignorance."

Pan raised an eyebrow. "But you attacked him first, right?"


Poseidon crossed his arms again, a scowl on his face as he stared at the ground. "I don't like this conversation," he abruptly said. Icarus tensed when he realized Poseidon was going to unleash the power of the seas on them, but then the god turned away and stormed off towards Kai and Pan.

"Yeah, so?" Kai said. He pointed to Poseidon, who was walking over, Niwa following a few steps behind. "He shouldn't have been so mean about it."

The mission hadn't gone exactly to plan.

That much was clear as the small motorboat was crashing against the waves and the duo were being driven into the unknown shore. Everything had been going good until the storm set it. Before the emergency lights went on, the crew hadn't had the slightest idea that Flynn and Carter were aboard.

But once they knew, it was time to abandon ship.

-

Flynn pulled the boat up into the small cove they had found themselves in, taking their gear packs from the waterproof chest. Carter followed him out, taking the key from the boat and double checked the knot on the stone wall. He pulled the chest open once more to check that the item was secure and then slammed the padlock shut.

"We'll come back for the package once we figure out where we are."

Flynn just nodded, not wanting to question Carter when he had no right to do so. Neither one of them had the slightest clue where they were and the GPS had died hours ago in a midst of confusion.

They walked along the beach in silence until Carter felt the need to strike up a conversation with the words, "Flynn, do you think those are people ahead of us?"

He looked up in the direction Carter was pointing to, spotting several figures standing in the sand.

"Yeah, they're something."

Taking out binoculars would give away their position and so they continued the silent creep up the beach, hoping the people in the distance were too distracted by each other.

"I'll talk to him about it," Pan said, giving Poseidon a wave as the water god approached. The others followed him; Icarus was lingering the most. But Poseidon wasn’t even looking at him as he gave the wave - he was looking back at Icarus.

He gave a small nod.

Interesting. Now that he was paying attention, he could make out two people approaching on the beach leading up to the forest. From the sneaking, something told him they didn’t have the best intentions at heart.

He walked over to Poseidon and slung his arm over his shoulder. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Poseidon gave a small nod.

They each did what they did best - Poseidon sent water towards one of the two, and Pan shot a series of vines out towards the others. The water was meant to knock the first off of their feet and the vines were meant to grab the second by the ankle and hold them upside down, but it was hard to tell if the targets would move out of the way.