Young Writers Society

Second and Lorcan exchanged a look.

"We should," Second agreed, still clinging to Lorcan's arm. Something told him that Second had no intentions of letting go in the near future, but he didn't mind. Second needed the comfort, and he needed the comfort now that they had come to a startling realization.


He couldn't feel his arms now. He tried stretching as they stepped out into the light, but all he could feel was his shoulders moving up and down as he reached out his arms. It was a disturbing feeling that he didn't like in the slightest, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. He would just have to let this thing play itself out.

If he wasn't so concerned with the state of his body, he might have been a little more worried about the way Lorcan's apparent boyfriend was watching him back in the cave. He might have even worried about the way that Adrian was watching him now.

But, instead, he sought out Ru.

Ru couldn't talk, but that was okay. He just needed to make sure that the zombie stayed near him. If he was right on his assumption, Ru was going to be very useful in the very near future. Now, just one last thing before he took up the performance again: he needed to talk to Nendros.

With Ru in tow, he approached the draconian man. Nendros quickly averted his gaze from the zombie; he really didn't seem to have a good stomach for gore, even if it was just a little bit of blood and a few large gashes here and there. "Hey, Nendros," he said, slinging an arm around the other man's shoulder. Nendros was easily taller than him, but the ground was uneven and he had heels on his boots. "I need to ask a favor of you."

The cleric stared over at him. "What kind of favor?"

"Oh, you know," he said, gesturing with a hand he could no longer feel, "the secretive kind. It's not a bad one - in fact, it's incredibly helpful. And you're the perfect one for the job, too, seeing that you're our cleric."

Nendros studied him for a second, then folded his arms. "I'm listening," he said. He was admittedly surprised by the reaction; like Lorcan and like Adrian, Nendros apparently was a little more used to dangerous situations than he would have guessed.

He dropped his voice. "I can't tell you when, but there's going to be a point where I go unconscious. The moment I do, I want you to heal me. Not the moment before, or the moment after. That very moment. If I'm still conscious, wait. Can you do that for me?"

"Are you okay?" Nendros asked, his voice just as soft as Puck's. "That sounds like you have some sort of medical issue that needs to be taken care of n-"

"It's just a little ghostly experiment," Puck said, grinning. He pulled away. Now his expression turned serious once more. "I need to know for certain - will you heal me, whenever that moment finally happens?"

"I will," Nendros promised, worry clearly in his voice.

"Great," Puck said. Then he turned his back to the cleric, wandering with Ru over in the direction of the others. Shadow gave him a look again; he eagerly returned it. Oliver was with Zech and Lunis. The members of the other party were all accounted for, and the only one missing in his own was Lorcan - and, he supposed, the lizard man and Lorcan's boyfriend.

Just as he thought about the three, they emerged from the light.

It was at this point that he remembered how terrified they had been of him back in the cave - Lorcan's boyfriend was clinging to his arm, dripping slime everywhere as he tried to look braver than he was. There was a knot of something disgusting in Puck's gut - he didn't like to put a name to it.

Shadow immediately raised her bow.

"It's okay!" Lorcan hurriedly said. "They're both with me. The Slime King's not an actual enemy - he's my boyfriend, Second."

Lasan felt like he was walking on pins and needles leaving the cave. Not only was the cave cold, which just made him feel more and more numb, he could also pick up on the anxiety that flooded out of Second. And he didn't think Second was all that wrong about Dresden, either. Whether Second was some kind of enemy or not, Dresden had just been strange. Lasan had been an actor - he had a pretty good sense of when someone was lying. And Dresden was an extremely good actor, but an actor nevertheless.

Still, Lasan put that aside when he stepped out into the sun. Stretching out his arms and closing his eyes, he soaked in the heat. Even through the clouds, even through the trees, it was vastly better than anything he had gone through in the cave. The ball of fur that crashed into him and wrapped its arms around his chest helped.

Lasan tilted his head down and opened his eyes to see Mal burying his face into Lasan's chest. Scooping Mal up, Lasan returned the hug.

"It's so good to see you again," Mal said, voice muffled as he nuzzled Lasan's neck. "You're covered in slime, and that's gross, but it's okay. It's still you."

"It's good to see you too," Lasan said, running a scaled land through Mal's fur. Mal gave off a little purr.



Evion looked away from Mal and Lasan. That was an amount of romantic affection that he wasn't too comfortable with, especially since Lasan was covered in slime. He also had to admit a little bit of jealousy in some other people in the group finding their partners.

At least Dresden was back; Evion immediately walked over to him and stood next to him.

"What was it like in there?" Evion said in as neutral a voice as he could muster.

"There's so many people," Second noticed, green eyes traveling across the assembled group. He didn't seem as scared now that they were out in the light; even though he was as used to dark and damp conditions as Lorcan was, being out in the warm, bright light made things seem a little bit better.

"You actually know some of them," Lorcan told him. Second gave him an inquisitive look, then pointed at the dire wolf guarding the entrance of the cave. Second gave a little start at the sight - there was always a little bit of worried that accompanied being in a human form and meeting a mob - but Lorcan gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

"I don't know any of wolves," Second whispered.

"He's like you," Lorcan promised. "He's Taber."

Second immediately perked up. "Taber?" he asked, hurrying over to the wolf's side. He looked up at the enormous being before him; he left a slime trail, but didn't seem to notice. "Taber, it's me. Second."


He was admittedly a little surprised when Evion came over to him. No one besides Wren seemed to really like him here, but Evion must have also been an exception. Not as friendly of one, but an exception all the same.

"It was like a cave," he replied. Memories flashed by in his mind - memories of another cave, one far more lonely and frightening. Memories of falling into an enchanted sleep. Memories of chains binding his wrists, memories of fear when he saw a strange person holding him in his arms-

"So nothing exciting, really," he concluded with a smile. "There were some little slimes, though. They were kind of cute. But the biggest event of our venture into there was Adrian and I falling down a hole together - I'm apparently quite the good cushion."

Woah, was that Second? He was so much more...slimy now. And green. And scared? Not that that was a problem; Taber just had to be more careful to not crush him or anything.

The wolf crouched down and gave what he hoped was an appreciative sniff, huge nose almost touching Second.



"My partner says that too," Evion said. Eugh, his cheeks stung. Hopefully Dresden didn't notice the blush. His voice dropped down to a whisper. "Sometimes I'm their pillow when they're tired or frustrated. Are you two...partners?"

Now that he had realized that the wolf was a friend and not a stranger, he had no qualms with Taber sniffing him up close. He gave his friend a smile - trying to ignore his fear of Dresden, who was only a short distance away - and didn't even wait for permission before he rested his hand on Taber's snout.

"You're big now," he said.


Puck stared.

"What?" he asked, trying to digest the words that had just been spoken. Him and Wren, being in a relationship? They barely knew each other! And there was the little fact that Wren was a girl and he was gay, but the first was a secret and the second was something that didn't need to brought up right now. "Adrian's just someone I met here - besides, I'm already taken."

Taber nodded his head very slowly. He was so big now! It was really sweet of Second to notice, but Taber still had to be careful not to hurt him. Being big was kind of challenging.



"Oh," Evion said, looking away. He paused, trying to ignore the embarrassment that stung his cheeks and made his breaths shallow by clinging onto the end of Dresden's comment. "Who's your partner?"

For the first time in his conversations with Evion, Puck faltered.

His appearance grew noticeably more somber; his shoulders slumped, his eyes gained a sorrowful look to them, and the smile on his lips turned to a thin line instead. His heart ached at the thought of Artie. He missed him so much. He knew it wouldn't be long until he could talk to him again, but every moment without Arthur Croft was a moment too long.

"Someone who saved my life," he finally replied, and left it at that. He couldn't risk saying anymore, especially when he had suddenly noticed Shadow taking interest in the conversation.


Once all the small talk had ceased, the group followed through with Puck's plan. They entered the cave and made a thorough sweep of the area. If they saw something they thought would be useful, they took it for later. Puck tried to conjure up a bag to carry all the money he found, but that attempt was far from successful - he had forgotten how much his abilities had changed since getting stuck here as a necromancer.

After they finished their sweep, the group returned to the woods. It was impossible to tell just how long the trek would take, but Puck was already beginning to feel optimistic. He had lost all feeling in his legs now, too. It was a miracle he hadn't taken a wrong step. Nendros could have healed him if he did, but he didn't want to run the risk of messing up his plan by any sort of magical interference.

So he just keep humming a cheerful little melody under his breath, swinging his arms back and forth as he confidently lead the group with Ru only a short distance behind.

Puck wasn't okay. Evion wasn't great with emotions - he was much more used to running away from them than facing them - but the expression on Puck's face when Evion asked about his partner was, so unlike him. Puck wasn't supposed to look sad. He wasn't supposed to frown. And the smile that Puck put on afterwards didn't seem right either, nor did Puck's exaggerated walk convince Evion he was fine.

So, while the others searched the cave, loaded coins into boxes and bags, and slung everything they couldn't carry onto Taber's back, Evion stayed close to Puck. When the group headed into the woods, though Evion wasn't comfortable with leading everyone else (he wasn't anything resembling a leader), he walked beside Puck.

Hopefully Puck would get the hint, because Evion had no idea what to say.

It happened without warning.

One moment, Dresden was strolling along with a cheerful melody on his lips. Nendros had been trying to understand the request - he didn't know all that much about necromancy outside of a novel or two he had read in the past, but he still had been unable to easily come up with an explanation for what Dresden had asked. Dresden had looked like he was about to make a comment to Evion - his lips had parted, and he had turned his ever so slightly.

But then his legs had given out from underneath him, and he had gone crashing to the ground. All activity in the group ceased. Adrian looked worried. Lorcan and his boyfriend (Second?) exchanged a look. Odris stared, worry clear in his incredibly light blue eyes. And Shadow - surprisingly - rushed over, prompting Nendros to do the same as he remembered the promise.

But saying he would heal and actually doing it were two very different things. He didn't even know where to begin. He wasn't magical like Knight was - he was just Nen, human-turned-sort-of-dragon. He just stood awkwardly at his side for a moment as Shadow tried to steady the unconscious necromancer, waiting for something that would help.

That was when he felt the magic - warm and familiar - come to life at his fingertips. He wasn't sure how he controlled it, or even what it was doing, but he could see little strands of light wrapping around Dresden's immobile form.

The light faded.

Dresden shot up with a gasp, eyes wide and wild. His gaze jumped from the face - there was a look of panic to his face. He scooted back in Shadow's direction, only to give what sounded suspiciously like a noise of alarm when he looked back at who he had bumped into.

Dresden's zombie suddenly appeared beside him, its movements sluggish as it gave a low groan. Nen had to withhold the urge to retch again - it wasn't that hard, since he had little food left in his stomach after the previous incidents. The undead creature continued to walk past him. It only stopped when it reached Dresden's side, leaning down ever so slowly and pulling the struggling necromancer off of the ground.

It apparently had a stronger grip than expected. It easily jerked him to his feet - using so much force that Dresden went stumbling into it. There was a groan, but then another noise followed. It was far too soft for Nen to ever stand a chance at hearing it, and the rest of the people nearby couldn't have heard it, either.

Dresden grew calm.

He straightened, letting the zombie lead him towards the nearby treeline.

"Hey!" Shadow said. "Where are you going?"

"I'm talking with my zombie!" he shouted back from the treeline - Nen didn't miss the way that he stood in front of the zombie, almost as if he was trying to hide it doing something.

"You can talk with it over here-"

"Ru doesn't want to talk around you," he childishly shot back; he ignored all of the other attempts Shadow made to get answers. Instead, he turned back to his zombie and kept talking with it in quiet, hushed tones.

Evion blinked. Dresden had been almost normal two seconds ago, on the ground one second ago, and was now talking with his zombie by the trees. The tiger hadn't even had the time to react - it had happened all too quickly. And Dresden was just, completely ignoring it? Brushing off everyone else? Doing even stranger things?

"Should've just left him on the ground," Denebola mumbled.

Evion growled. Pushing the others out of the way, he stomped over to Dresden, making his muscles just a little bit bigger for good effect.

"What is wrong with you?" Evion growled, setting a paw on Dresden's shoulder. "Tell me. Don't play games with me - I think you almost died back there, and I care about you a lot."

This was getting awkward fast. He had known Evion cared, but hadn't fully comprehended the extent. They hadn't even finished the conversation before he tried butting in - which was going to determine everything they did next. He looked vaguely panicked, which probably meant he was very panicked. And he was never good when he was panicked. He hadn't ever mastered the thinking on the fly bit.

Thankfully, he had.

And getting Evion on things - though it would limit what they could do later on - was the best plan he could come up with right now.

He reached a hand out in a comically slow way, grabbing onto Evion's hand and prying it off after tapping into a surprising well of force. He let out a moan, too, for emphasis. Then he grabbed onto both of their wrists and dragged them a little farther away and behind a tree - just to be on the safe side.

He let his posture loosen as he casually swung an arm around the shoulder of the tall man beside him.

"You were looking at the wrong person," he said.

"Dresden" stared at him.

"We talked about this," he hissed.

"I know we did," he hissed back. "But how else am I supposed to open this, Pres?"

"You could apologize for frightening him," was the quick response.

He pulled his arm away and crossed his arms. "Oh, yes, and the zombie suddenly talking like a person wouldn't be the least bit terrifying."

He frowned. "Don't sass me. I should be the one doing the sassing - I don’t even know what's going on right now, and you still haven't given me the explanation you promised."

"I was the one doing all the acting, the last time I checked," he replied, childishly sticking his tongue out at him before turning back to Evion - who was most likely terrified and/or very confused. "I'm 'Dresden' - though the guy beside me right now is the actual one. My real name's Puck, and his is Arthur."

He grinned.

"To answer your earlier question, he's my partner."

Evion blinked. He, hadn't been expecting anything remotely like that (not that he knew what he had been expecting in the first place). He couldn't decide if he was more impressed by how long they'd been keeping up the act, or annoyed at how much they'd been keeping from him. Granted, he'd been attempting the same thing, but he'd unfortunately been surrounded by people who knew him.

"What's the point?" he said. "What are you two trying to hide? And what's with Puck? He's covered in blood, but I thought he was some bandit you did a bad job of healing."

He paused, staring Puck up and down, and then extended a paw. "But yeah, hey," Evion said. "It's nice to meet you. Or the actual you, I guess."

Puck looked down at the extended hand, then back up at Evion. After another moment passed, he grabbed Arthur's arm and put his hand into Evion's paw.

"Arthur's the one you haven't met yet," Puck said. "I'm the one that you've been talking with before now. And I didn't do a bad job at healing Ru - the zombie part was entirely intentional."

Arthur hesitantly shook Evion's paw, then quickly returned his hand to his side.

"Puck," he whispered, "I still need an explanation. Does have to do with one of them?"

He thought for a moment. "That admittedly didn't cross my mind yet, but I'm going to say no. This isn't any of their style, and I doubt they'd do something like this to mess with me. You've realized where we are, right?"

Arthur gave him a look that clearly said otherwise.

"We're in Dungeons and Dragons, Pres."

His eyes widened.

"You're the party's necromancer," he informed him, giving him a hearty pat on the shoulder. "I've just been pretending to be you until I couldn't control your body anymore - I ended up in this one instead. Probably because I'm dead."

"You died-"

"In D&D."

"...Oh."

Puck took a deep breath, turning back to Evion as he tried to figure out how to address this situation. He could just explain things to Pres, but that would leave Evion in the dark. Doing the opposite would have the same effect. He would just have to do some storytelling - not that he minded doing that.

He clapped his decaying hands together.

"Time for a little story to get both of you caught up," he declared. "It starts with me and Pres - that's Arthur, by the way - deciding to infiltrate an evil organization. Pres changed up his appearance with a spell or two on my part, and went with the name Dresden. He slipped inside the group, and managed to become part of their scheme to channel gods in order to get immortality. And, well..."

He faltered.

"...I'm a demigod. Half god, half demon. They thought I was the perfect fit, so they did some tricky magical stuff and summoned me right into Artie via possession. But then I got thrown off by how weird his body feels, fell back, hit my head and knocked him unconscious. Flash forward a few days later, and I end up in the middle of D&D as a necromancer. Only I knew it had to be Artie that was the necromancer, because I was starting to lose control of his body and couldn't necromance to save my life. Which can only mean one thing: I'm a ghost - the closest equivalent to my type of demon - and I was able to take over Pres's body in this because he has a connection to the dead."

He gestured down at himself.

"Which is why taking over Ru's body worked, too, since he's already dead. It's not like his soul is going to be fighting for control."

Puck grinned at both Arthur and Evion.

"Questions?"

Arthur raised his hand, only for his face to grow red when he realized what he had done. His hand immediately shot back down, but the question still left his lips when a snicker escaped Puck's.

"Why was the tiefling with the bow giving me a look earlier?"

"Because Shadow and I are not on good terms right now," Puck replied.

"...How long have you been stuck like this?"

Puck shifted uncomfortably.

Arthur sighed. "You need to try being more friendly, Puck."

"I'm plenty friendly," Puck quickly replied. "I'm the epitome of friendly. Look, I've been here for less than a day and I've already become friends with Evion, Adrian and maybe Nendros, if he didn't throw up every time he saw something dead. My track record is very good right now, even if Shadow's glaring daggers at me."

Arthur raised an eyebrow.

Puck crossed his arms and looked away.

Arthur let out another sigh. "So now what?"

"You pretend to be me and I pretend to be a mindless zombie until we get home, and then I undo the spell that makes you look like some super evil bad guy?"

"...No."

"That's a perfectly good plan," he quickly replied.

"Puck, you have to tell them the truth," Arthur said. "I'm not pretending to be you, and you're not pretending to be a zombie. We don't have to tell them the whole truth if you don't want to, but we have to tell them something."

Evion wanted to say that he knew who was who and who'd he met before, and that he was trying to say hello to Puck's actual identity (those could always be so different from disguises, and it was a good sign of trust for someone to reveal their true self like that), but Puck was telling a story. A long and confusing one.

Well, Evion understood some of it. Souls fighting for control made sense - it was something he'd heard could happen. Switching bodies and raising people from the dead also kinda made sense; he could kinda recognize both of them, though they'd never meant anything good (he'd still trust Puck though - Puck hadn't really done anything to break that trust). Demons didn't, gods didn't, pulling immortality out of something didn't. But Evion didn't want to look like an idiot, so he kept nodding. Better to just pretend he understood everything Puck had told him rather than ask a bunch of stupid questions.

And now Puck and Arthur were talking about lies and secrets, or Evion's specialty. "I guess it depends on how good you are at pretending," Evion said, when they finished. He glanced back at the others, paws clasped together as his voice dropped to a whisper. "I'm not sure the others will like that story all that much, and I'm not sure they'll trust you if you tell them. Or believe you. You guys seem like you've gone through a lot of weird and crazy stuff. You might want to lie a little bit."

Puck crossed his arms. "I still think it's a better idea to lie all the way."

"I think doing that will only make things difficult for both of us," Arthur replied, mirroring Puck's posture with crossed arms of his own. "You being a zombie and me being your necromancer instead of who we really are means that we can't do things we usually do."

"I can make sacrifices," Puck reassured him. "I'm the king of sacrifice."

Arthur raised his eyebrow again. "There's no telling how long we'll be here."

"I can handle it," Puck promised. He straightened and puffed out his chest. "Hours, day, week - even a month. I can act for that long, Pres."

"But can you go without being my boyfriend for that long?"

He faltered, staring at Arthur as he tried to understand the question being asked. Was he breaking up...? No, that couldn't be it. This was something else - Arthur would never break up over something like that.

"The last time I checked, zombies aren't supposed to make out with their necromancers."

Puck's eyes widened.

"If we go with your plan," Arthur said, beginning to pace from one side of the small clearing to the other, "then you won't be able to kiss me. Or cuddle me. Or act affectionate in any other way. You'd be stuck following me around, watching and waiting for an opportunity to sneak off-"

"Okay, we're going with the truth," Puck quickly interrupted; he didn't like the mental picture that was painting.

Arthur gave a triumphant smile.

"So let's run through the basics - the possession is a no, so we'll just say evil science experiment. You can stay my boyfriend, but we'll age you up to avoid the whole 'Oh yeah, Puck's actually an incredibly talented sorcerer' thing, even though I personally see no problem with that. We'll say that I was acting like that to make sure you were cool with me revealing the truth, and because I didn't want to cause chaos-"

"...Puck?"

He froze.

When he turned his head, he saw Wren standing only a short distance away - her gaze nervously switching from Arthur to Evion and finally to Puck.