Young Writers Society

The eyes widened.

"Envy?" their brother managed to get out. His grip on them loosened, and it wasn't long before they were getting hauled to their feet. The hard carbon fell away to reveal a relatively normal looking man, if it wasn't for the offensively tacky clothing he was wearing.

"Sorry about attacking you," he said, slinging his arm around their shoulder and leading them out of the closet.

"It's alright," they said. They had attacked him, too. But now a thought suddenly came to them, and they turned and gave their brother a confused look. "...Why didn't cover down there?"

Greed faltered.

"I don't know," he replied. "I thought I could save some energy, since most people would guess that the Ultimate Shield covered that too."


To Zogin's further shock, Mage just kept crying as he threw his arms around Arlais. She didn't understand - none of this made any sort of sense whatsoever! Mage wasn't supposed to cry, wasn't supposed to hug random strangers, and wasn't supposed to be making her want to hug him, too!

"I-I was doing so good!" he sobbed.

"Doing so good with what?" she asked, now just plain bewildered.

"Pretending!" was the quick, tearful response. "You-You were a-afraid of me."

"No I wasn't," she replied. "I've never been afraid of you-"

He shook his head. "You never made me go away, and you never tried to hurt me. It's because you were scared of me, even if you don't think that's why! You didn't think you could take advantage of me."

"Take advantage of...?"

She stared for a moment.

Then understanding began to dawn on her, and she suddenly understand everything that had never made sense. The first part was easier to understand - Mage had been acting. The second part took a little more work to realize. She had to think about the leg pains, how he had always been small, how he got so emotional, and how, occasionally, she heard a voice crack or two. She had always assumed those were demon things.

But now...

Mage wasn't an adult. He was a kid. Probably somewhere in his mid-teens, if humans and demons had similar lifespans. No wonder Soul had been so attached to him - he was just a scared boy, far, far from his home.

After another moment passed, she joined in on the impromptu hug. Mage's eyes widened when he realized who had just started hugging him, but his posture relaxed as more tears left him.


"I paralyzed him," the stranger replied.

Robin looked back at him once more, both impressed and intrigued by him and his weapon. She had never seen anything like it before. It almost made her want to take out her own and make some adjustments, but she couldn't do it in front of these guys.

"It should wear off," the stranger hurriedly added, noticing Tristan's reaction to Aegeas being shot. "I'm sorry for using it on him, but it was the only way I could think of stopping him."

The stranger started to turn back towards the deck's entrance, but Robin grabbed him by the shoulder.

"I don't think that's a good idea," she said. "He was getting upset at the thought of you hurting the other people here. He'll be pretty angry when he's no longer paralyzed."

"I'm a little more worried about what he'll be like when he wakes up," the stranger replied.

She thought for a moment.

"Good point," she admitted.

Throwing down his sword hilt, Kendrik walked over to the bed, sat on it, and buried his face in his paws. It'd been enough to know that, somehow, this was some person impersonating a dragon (somehow). That this person also knew Envy, and that the two of them had been fighting because they hadn't immediately recognized each other was the last straw.

"And who might you be?" Kendrik heard Fyrsil say from the opposite side of the room as the stranger. Fyrsil had a nervous edge to his voice; Kendrik couldn't blame him for that, given how quick and stressful the fight had been.



While Arlais didn't mind the hug, she also wasn't a huge fan of being crushed between Zogin and Mage. Still, at least they were getting along now.

Reaching up, Arlais wiped a couple tears from Mage's face. "Feeling better?" she said.



"Wait, we're not going to leave him here, are we?" Tristan said, a small stutter to his voice. He reached a paw down to close Aegeas's eyes, then set him back down. "I'm, not sure what he'll do when he gets back to normal, but I don't want to just leave him here!"

"The name's Julius-"

"His name is Greed," Envy said. A quick glance over, and they saw that Greed was gaping at them. "He's my brother."

"Older brother," Greed clarified. The other homunculus felt a tug on his shoulder and turned to give Greed another look - only to find that Greed was still staring at him. "You're the one who likes lying about our names when we don't need to."

"...I was found out," Envy replied.

"How much?"

"Enough," Envy was quick to answer, and left it at that.


Mage sniffled.

"...Yeah," he quietly said. Zogin took it as her cue to pull away. Soul must have known all along; it made sense that he would take a liking to a kid without a home or a family. He probably saw himself in Mage, just like she was seeing herself now as she looked at the sniffling demon.


"I wasn't going anywhere," Robin was quick to reassure him.

"I'm not staying," the stranger said as he turned his back on the group. "Coming here was a mistake - I'll just go to a different part of the-"

"Wait," Robin interrupted. "I don't think that plan is going to work out for you."

He froze. "...Why?"

"Because we're on a ship," she said. The stranger looked at her over his shoulder with his eyebrows knotted in confusion. "There's only so much space you can hide in. You'll run into him eventually, and I don't think it'll go over well when you do."

"Maybe ya coulda lied up some better names," Kendrik mumbled, face still in his paws.

Fyrsil rolled his eyes, then walked up to Greed and held out a paw. "Nice to meet you," said Fyrsil. "I'm Fyrsil, Kellach's standing next to me, and that's Kendrik sitting on the bed."



Arlais also let go, patting Mage a few more times on the back. "Ready to go?" she said after a minute or two, letting the demon sniffle and get any last tears out.



That sounded like the most horrifying game of hide-and-seek. But, well, Aegeas wasn't all that observant, and Tristan got the feeling that Aegeas would be inclined to leave the stranger alone if he didn't have to see them. Not that that was a whole lot better for the stranger.

An uncomfortable idea popped into Tristan's head. "Hey, can't he hear all of this?" Tristan said, looking between Aegeas and the others. "He's paralyzed, but I'm pretty sure that's not the same thing as sleeping?"

Greed grinned and shook the extended paw.

"Nice to meet you, too," he replied. His gaze traveled across the others in the room, briefly locking eyes with Envy before looking away. "...I've never seen chimeras like you before."


Mage continued to wipe his tears away with his sleeve. He was still horrified that it had gotten to this point, but he felt better now that he had cried a little. Zogin didn't even seem to hate him anymore - or, at least, she wasn't glaring at him.

"Yeah," he softly confirmed.


Robin and the stranger slowly looked down at Aegeas.

"...Yes," the stranger said. "I think he can."

"This is going to be awkward," Robin guessed.

Fyrsil tilted his head. Stepping out of the way to let Kellach hold out a paw of his own, Fyrsil said, "A chimera? What's that?"



Giving Mage one last pat, Arlais took a few steps down the hallway, stopped, and looked back. "And don't worry!" she said. "We haven't found anyone, and I think we're getting close to the top of this thing, so we can figure out where we are soon enough!"



"Then what are we doing up here?" Tristan said, throwing his arms up. "Shouldn't we get going before this paralysis thing stops working? I don't even know if Aegeas is going to be worse when he gets up."

"A chimera is-" Greed started to reply, only to stop when the question really registered. "Wait, you don't know what you are?"


Mage gave a small smile.

"Okay," he said, tugging his makeshift blanket a little closer to him. Now was no time to be having a heartfelt conversation with the demon, so Zogin fell into step beside him instead - it was a silent sort of comfort, and she desperately hoped he'd understand that she didn't hate him anymore.


"I was trying to do that," the stranger grumbled, "but you both stopped me before I could."

"I still don't know if that's a good idea," Robin pointed out. "We'd still have to run into him later, and I don't think that's going to end well."

"I know what I am," Fyrsil said. He paused, looking away for a second. "At least, I'm pretty sure I know. I'm just, not familiar with that specific word."



Aegeas's arms began to twitch. Tristan had hoped it was just a trick of the light, but Aegeas's darting eyes told him otherwise.

"There's no time to think!" Tristan yelled, looking back at the others. "You either shoot him again and stay here, or run off and let him get back up. There's no time to argue who did what or if it's a good idea!"

A rattling sound came from the roof entrance; Tristan's heart skipped as he saw the door swing open, revealing Arlais, her companions a few steps behind.

She froze, staring first at the stranger, then at Aegeas's body. "What happened?" she said, voice higher-pitched than normal. At least she was more surprised than angry, but Tristan didn't know how long that'd last.

"A chimera's, well..." Greed awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. Envy didn't envy him - it was the type of situation they never wanted to be in. "A chimera's a combination of an animal and a human. I guess it can be done naturally, but all the chimeras I know got their animals parts through alchemy."


"Aegeas wasn't letting him leave, so he shot him," Robin helpfully explained. She looked down at Aegeas. "And now we're questioning our mortality and trying to figure out if we should run or stay and shoot him again, since he's definitely heard all of the conversation so far."

She looked over at the stranger. "...Can you shoot him again?"

The stranger shook his head.

"Running it is then," Robin wisely said.

"Why do we have to run?" Zogin asked, coming forward and looking down at Aegeas. She folded her arms.

"I don't think I'm one of those?" Fyrsil said. "I feel like I would've noticed if I suddenly grew a tail. I'm pretty sure I've always had one." He slapped the said tail against the ground for emphasis.



"You haven't seen him when he's angry," Tristan said, trying to push Zogin back. Which was a little hard, since he was a little short and webbed toes weren't exactly the best on ground. Stupid ground. "He gets violent."

"He's angry?" Arlais said. Tristan saw her reach a shaking paw towards the door.

"Let's go, everyone!" she said, gesturing mostly at Zogin. "Maybe we can get those swords of his and lock him up here, but we need to do get moving now."

Greed didn't say anything. He just looked at Fyrsil with a mix between a confused and angry look - for being the embodiment of greed, he could get surprisingly angry about a topic like this. Then he turned away, gaze softening as he looked at Envy.


Zogin looked unconvinced by the response, but she did as asked - ushering Mage inside the ship, too. Robin stared at them. Hadn't they been at each other's throats earlier? Something must have between now and then, but she had no idea what.

A hand suddenly grabbed onto her wrist.

"Come on," the stranger said, giving her wrist a tug. There was something weird on his hand, she noticed, but she didn't quite know how to describe it. When he gave her wrist a second tug, she relented - but cast one last glance at Aegeas as she started to head through the doorway.

"I feel like this plan isn't going to end well," Robin commented.

Fyrsil watched Greed's face contort, then saw Greed look over at Envy. "Did I say something wrong?" Fyrsil said, holding up his tail.




"It's not like we have any better ones," Tristan said. He snatched up Aegeas's swords before the older otter could reach them, running to catch up to everyone else. Slamming the door behind him, Tristan pressed up against it.

"Help me out here!" Tristan said.

The others quickly turned back to the door, throwing themselves against it in an effort to keep Aegeas away. Robin wondered how much their efforts were really going to help. Their weight was all spread out, and there was only so much most of them could do. She was supplying most of the force, even if they didn't know it.

"If I only had something to eat..." the stranger muttered.

"Now's not the time to be thinking about food," Zogin shot back. "You can fill your stomach later."

"I'm not hungry," the stranger protested. He pushed his back a little more against the door. "Feeding lets me tap into my body's full potential."

"What do you eat?" Mage asked.

He faltered. "Is now really the time to be having this discussion?" he asked.

"Yes!" Zogin shouted back. "You just said you can tap into your body's full potential. If we can get you food, then we keep this door closed."

Robin nodded in agreement, still focusing on putting pressure on the door without breaking the section she was leaning against. It was a precarious task, that was for sure.

He let out a sigh. "I feed on life."

"...Life?" Mage asked. "What does that..."

"I take life away from living organisms," the stranger said. "I don't do it to people - I take it from plants and animals. I could do it to them, but what I feed on always dies-"

"Feed on me," Robin interrupted.

She had been trying her best to keep up appearances, but Zogin and possibly Soul seemed to be the only regular old people here. And seeing that helping people was always her biggest goal, letting the truth slip out now wasn't the worst idea she had.

The stranger stared at her with wide eyes.

"I'm immortal," she said. The stare turned to a gape. "Don't think about it - just do your thing."

He stared for another moment before nodding and reaching his hand out. So that was what the strange growth had been. He placed it on her chest - both of them still leaning with their backs against the door - and started to feed. The sensation was definitely a weird one, but she felt almost entirely unaffected. She just got a weird tingly feeling throughout her body.

After a minute, he was done.

"You really are okay," he said, relief flooding his voice. He was pushing harder on the door now - Robin felt like they actually stood a chance.

"What was that?" Tristan stammered, staring up at the stranger and Robin. "What was that on your hand? And why do you need to feed on life? How come the things you feed on die? And if I'm an animal, what's stopping you from feeding on-"

Something smacked against the door. Tristan winced, almost falling down the stairs.

Another hit. And another. And another. And another.

"How angry is he?" Arlais said, crouching down and leaning forward on the top step to also keep from flying down the stairs.

"You didn't," Greed reassured him, turning away from Envy. "What you said just made me remember something I don't like."


"I'm going to guess very angry," Robin wisely said, pushing more against the door. She was still worried it wasn't going to be able to stand the pressure coming from her - and now the stranger - but there was little they could do about it. Aegeas was pushing hard.

"Does anyone actually know why he's angry?" Zogin asked.

"It was probably the stunning," Robin guessed.

"He was angry before that," the stranger pointed out. "I...I think it might have been my fault."

"Have you met him before?" Mage asked. Out of the four of them, he was the one leaning up against the door the least - he wasn't nearly as physically fit as they were.

The stranger shook his head. "I haven't, but people tend to hate me - I'm surprised you don't."

"Why?" Robin asked. "You seem like a pretty nice guy."

He gestured at his hand with a nod of his head. "My species isn't well-liked," he replied. Oh. That made a lot of sense, now that she thought about it. Either they were like him and wrongly hated, or they didn't have the same moral standards he did.