Young Writers Society

As Carter saw the vines shooting in his direction, he silently prayed that perhaps Bear would magically fall out of the sky. Since these were terrible odds, he took his knife from the ankle sheath and gather a bundle of energy from the air. The metal hitting the vine and combined fuel of the atmosphere sent up a small spark, followed by a small fire.

Not the intended effect but it would do.

He continued the dismembering of the rogue vine, watching the people in the ever nearing distance, and glancing over to check on Flynn. He had it perfectly under control.

Flynn had the water perfectly under control, murmuring slight shield spells beneath his breath, and pushing the waves back into the ocean. He pushed them all the way down, wading into the salty water as the tide slowly went back out to crash against the sand bars. Flynn noticed a shell in the water, and deciding Carter had the vines under control enough, picked up a few to add to the research collection.

"Flynn, I'm sure you're finding great research specimens but we've got a crowd of hostiles in front of us. Maybe get your rifle ready?"

Carter lifted his own rifle to his shoulder as they approached the waiting line on the beach. It was a rather mixed crowd, seemingly harmless and he decided to let his arm drop while Flynn kept in position.

"For the record, we mean you no harm. But if you try that crap with me again, I will torch more than those vines."

Poseidon took a step forward, trident already beginning to appear in his hand, but stopped when Pan stuck his hand out.

"Let's trust them," Pan said with a smile.

Poseidon frowned and kept his now fully formed trident in his hand, but did as requested - he didn’t take a single step forward.

Icarus, meanwhile, was frantically shaking his head behind the two gods, desperately hoping that the two strangers would get the message. Their clothing didn't look like anything he had seen before, but he had also led a sheltered life. Maybe, just maybe, they would get the warning.

The non trident wielding figure, also identifiable by the half goat form, was expressing the idea to trust them. Flynn held back many reservations but put down his gun when Carter motioned to do so. Flipping the safety on, he swung the rifle across his back and took a swig of water from his canteen.

Flynn noticed the tension of the young man looking up to the other two, and decided to speak before Carter got the chance. Surely he could feel the energy reading of something about these people?

"Don't take any offense from my friend. We won't hurt you and we were simply living off the adrenaline of defending ourselves."

Carter held back all of his thoughts as he read the people, extending his hand to the goat figure while introducing himself.

"I'm Carter and this is my business partner, Flynn. Do you happen to know where we're located?"

Icarus held back a sigh of relief.

"I'm not sure," Pan said. Poseidon just continued to glower at him, trident resting at side in case they changed their mind. "I think everyone here is just as clueless as you are."

In a surprising burst of speed, Pan crossed the divide between their group and the two newcomers. He held his hand out to the two and gave them both what he presumed was a warm smile.

"I'm Pan," he said. "Greek god of the wild, at your service. Poseidon - our god of water - is the one with the trident. Icarus is the human behind him. Kai was the one I was talking to earlier, and Niwa is the one Poseidon and Icarus was chatting with."

"He's so friendly," Icarus muttered. Poseidon and Pan seemed nothing alike; Poseidon would have threatened them by now if it had just been him.

As if his thoughts had summoned his attention, Poseidon glanced back to look at him. "He's not just being friendly," he said. He faced Pan and the two again. "He's intimidating them."

"What do you mean?" Icarus hesitantly asked.

"He's mentioning who we are and that we're gods," he said. "If they've never heard of us, they would know we're dangerous."

"...Oh."

"...If your gesturing didn't give that away," Poseidon said, gaze suddenly dropping down to the sand. Icarus froze - he had noticed? He wasn't even facing him when he did it! Now he couldn't move in his fear; Poseidon was surely going to get mad at him.

"...Thank you," Poseidon said. "I...I guess."

He stared at the back of Poseidon's head.

He had heard that wrong, right?

Niwa had been hiding behind a tree the entire fight (and still was), so it was up to Kai to introduce them. Again.

The fox strode past the gods and stopped in front of the two humans. Staring up at their strange guns, face paint, and outfits, he scrunched his snout. "That looks dumb," he said. "It might've worked if you'd been in the jungle, but in the sand it's too hot and too bulky and too out of place. No wonder Pan almost got you two."

He held out a paw. "But you're pretty cool, so it's fine. I'm Kai, and my boyfriend is hiding behind a tree."

Flynn started with, "Look here. Who do you think you ar-"

But Carter quickly cut her off, admiring the fact this person chose to be so bold when Carter could easily shoot him off his paws. He decided to match Kai's initial introduction in tone by saying, "Well obviously we didn't start out here. We were working an assignment in a far different place with a different need for attire."

Carter had taken Kai's paw while Flynn chose to introduce herself to the presented pan.

"I am of course Flynn and you two are not the first gods that we wrangled with. So you can try to further intimidate my partner and I, but which one of us has done square dancing on Aillen's grave?"

Carter noted Flynn's movement in potentially angering the god of the wild, but moved his focus back to Kai.
"Any particular reason your partner is behind a tree?"

Shaking Carter's hand, Kai snorted. Hearing that Carter and Flynn had taken on gods made him feel a little less secure, but he figured he could get along with Carter well enough to not get killed. "That sounds like a stupid assignment. And my boyfriend's hiding behind a tree because he's scared. Which sucks, because I don't like talking to people, but this is all pretty weird, so it's fine if he wants to hide."

"...I have no idea what you're talking about," Pan admitted, a sheepish look flitting across his face. "But threat taken. As long as you don't try hurting anyone I'm with - even Poseidon, who can and will kick your butt if you provoke him - I won't try hurting you or your friend."


"Thank you?" Icarus repeated. He should have been more terrified and cautious, but he was just too confused by the sudden gratitude to question it too much.

Poseidon kicked the sand at his feet. "...Yes."

"...But why would you thank me?"

"....I don't want to say." Icarus respected the decision of a temperamental god, but something about his silence must have upset Poseidon - the god started talking again after a few seconds had passed. "...You were trying to keep them away. I...I appreciate that."

Carter took in Kai's judgement mainly peacefully but had to fire back an objection.
"I'm wondering why you think it's stupid. Is it the outfits or your inexperience, which is rather obvious from your energy readings and nervous glances backward."

Kai made no real answer or movement back against him. Carter just waited and took a cigarette out of the pack in the front of his vest, striking a match on the edge of his sheath, and tossing the wood into the sand.

Flynn had moved the conversation with Pan to be further physically away from whatever Carter was starting to pull. Of course the god might say that he wasn't trying to intimidate them, but Flynn wasn't born yesterday.

"We're not here to hurt anyone. We don't even know where here is so the only mission now is getting out somewhat alive."

Kai stuck his tongue out, watching Carter light up some strange stick. "I'm not nervous," he said. "I just think the stuff you're doing is weird. Like lighting whatever that is."

Sure you're not, kid.

Carter took another drag off the cigarette while humming out "Like A Virgin" and trying to think of the easiest way to word the content. With a glimmer in his eye, fully well knowing the fox wouldn't get the reference, Carter pieced the statement together. To be entirely honest though, no one would get this reference.

But still he went through with slightly singing, "So when your partner's heart beats next to yours, and you give him all your love, does every touch not make you feel like a virgin?"

Kai hissed. "That's none of your business," he said, crossing his arms. "We love each other, and that's all that matters, so ha."

Kai hissed at him. Actually god damn hissed at him. Carter wasn't taking any of that.

"Glad to hear it."
Carter managed to get the statement out with a slight bit of a sigh, glancing over once more to where Flynn stood and hoping he wouldn't hear Carter's jabs.

"By the way, as a worldly person such as yourself should know, this is a cigarette and I'm smoking it to relieve an obvious stress. If Flynn and I hadn't been in international waters, I would rolled some more active ingredients."

"I'm a worldly person, and I want whatever one of those things are," Kai said. "Because you're stressing me out."

"It's really not a healthy habit and I wouldn't want to damage your lungs any, your boyfriend would probably punch me for this."

Kai's boyfriend probably would punch Carter for this, but also wanted to see where this went. He took another cigarette from the pack, struck another match on the knife sheath, and lit the new butt.

He was proud of himself for ignoring the innuendo and instructed, "Put this between your lips, take a breath, and try to exhale it as quickly as you can."