Young Writers Society

Daniel started to list off the names he could immediately think of, though there were many more than the few basics that came to mind. "There's Mothman, the Jersey Devil, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, the Kraken, the Chupacabra - anything that exists but shouldn't exist is what we hunt. We're thinking of adding creepypasta into the mix, too, but the jury's still out on that one."

He gave Benji a hearty pat on the shoulder.

"And it's not cruel," he said. "They're monsters, plain and simple. Isn't it the job of the informed to protect the uninformed?"

Benji shifted in his grip; he knew he had to tone it back, but he was just so used to being out there with the whole cryptid hunter thing that the idea of acting "normal" hadn't even crossed his mind.

Ah. Daniel was that kind of person who was very enthusiastic about his job, but not all that great at explaining it. Benji, on the other hand, acted a little more restrained, which meant he could probably explain himself better.

The lion therefore decided to shoot some glances in Benji's direction while bringing up his next question: "Why should these monsters not necessarily exist?"

Carter spied into the room, spotting Bear standing next to a tall lion and absently stroking at a vine wrapping around his bicep. The two cryptid hunters in the middle of the room were more likely academics than anything else, and Carter was surprised about the lack of response from Bear.

The other people in the room seemed to be accepting the answers except for the lion. The one he gathered Bear would probably flirt with given the chance and given how long it had taken Carter to reach the castle, the act would already be under way.

He pushed himself up enough to answer, strutting into the library hall with his revolver hanging at his hip and his Stetson pushed back.

"I can't speak for their type of monsters but Bear and I generally hunt with the intent to protect the public. We don't stuff the bodies afterwards either - we burn 'em or lock 'em away where they can't do no more harm."

Carter was making direct eye contact with Bear, and it was making Bear very uncomfortable. He saw the slight tilt of Carter's head to the side in the direction of Thytes and wondered if he was being so obvious in his actions. A questioning glance from Thytes standing beside him prompted Bear to answer, "That is generally what my partner and I do, yes. We're sometimes called monsters ourselves though...for the powers we possess."

Thytes had been having a hard time making up his mind. He'd gone under the table to keep an eye on Jaron, had stood up to keep an eye on Bear, had gone back under the table after Arryn had gone down (one could never be too careful in strange, abandoned places), and was now standing back up to talk about monsters and greet one of Bear's friends.

A decision that Thytes was starting to regret, if Carter's body language, gestures, and conversation topics were anything to go by.

"That is what confuses me," Thytes said, looking over at Bear. "What defines a monster? And why is this public so concerned about these particular individuals? I am familiar with bounty hunters, but not the kind that hunts strange creatures."

"There is no need to apologies to me." Tale managed a small smile. They were beginning to loose color.

----------

"Cryptyloligists?" Tammy tried.

"Do they scream in pain as they burn?"

Carter looked at Thytes looking at Bear, and answered the question in place of his partner.

"A monster can be many things. On our Earth, a monster can be someone entirely human, but just committed to a cause evil in nature. Or a monster can be something from the folk lore and fairy tales that has come to take advantage of humans."

He moved farther across the room, a sideways glare at the cryptid hunters, followed by another segment of his speech.

"Bear and I are considered monsters by some because we are witches. Bear's powers are based in plants and animals, and my powers are based more in the elements - in energy itself."

The small, child like beings snickered as Carter addressed himself as a witch and he shot them a staple "Haven't you ever heard of a male witch before?" Lincoln glare.

"We hunt whatever comes across our path and has caused a significant amount of trouble. You asked why the public is concerned with monsters? It's because the public doesn't wish to die."

Carter muttered a faint, "The nerve of this guy." under his breath, hoping that no one had heard him, and gestured to Bear to continue.

Bear didn't want to continue the speech, but he picked up once again, finding himself more and more distanced from Thytes.

"When people die, we show up to save more before it gets any worse."

The lion looked at the kids first. They certainly didn't talk about the things most kids did, but, while Thytes didn't think anyone here was exactly abnormal, nobody was quite normal either, so he let it slide. "Who would not?" said Thytes, before turning to Carter.

"I believe I can understand that," Thytes said. "My father was something of a malevolent creature, and I cannot say that he did not get what he deserved."

The lion winked at Bear. Probably a terrible idea with Carter around, but Thytes found it hard to resist. "And your magic involves plants and animals? I can quite see it."

"We know someone who can manipulate plants and is friends with animals!"

"Yeah, her name is Iris and she's really nice!"

"She's four years older than us."

"And she lives in a jungle."

"She has pretty pink flowers living in her hair."

"She grows really yummy and juicy fruit!"

"Oh! One time she gave us fruit to take home after we visited her once."

"Gaar-"

"He's a big red dragon-"

"And Tarkin took us home and mama used the fruit to make a pie!"

"It was a really good pie!"

"The best one!"

"If we go back maybe we can ask Iris for more and get mama to make another sis!"

"Yeah but I don't want to go home yet Danny."

"Me neither."

He blinked and looked between all the people suddenly there in the library. "That's... fascinating," he muttered, and Nuada silently agreed. "But what are these...cryptids? I've never heard about this cryptozoology subject before."

That's a strange word, Cathal. I wonder what, exactly, it means?

Cathal frowned. Hush, I'm trying to focus.

He could see the kids lingering nearby and they seemed to be discussing something in low voices, but he couldn't make out which of them was speaking half the time. It was distracting, and then there was mention of witches, and Cathal had never heard of those before. Nuada, on the other hand, apparently had.

Magic users. Usually not very nice.

Really? Cathal asked, turning to look at Bear and his tall, blonde partner. They seem fairly nice to me.

Nuada gave him a mental shrug. Perhaps.

"And witches...what do you mean by that? I had already gathered you could speak to the plants, Bear. But energy itself? Can you sense my Goa'uld technology? My symbiotic self?"

"Are you okay?" Ollie asked; it had more sense to let Fern take control, seeing that it was her body right now. Fern rarely got to come out like this, and they weren't chasing after the figure anymore. "You're...You're losing color."

"Supposed to do that?" Fern questioned, worry evident in her voice as well.


The conversation was moving quickly - maybe even too quickly - but Benji was grateful for that. Daniel had made a mistake in bringing up what they did, and made an even larger one by talking in the way that he had. It was what had terrified him so much when they first met. And he knew the truth about Daniel, and the truth about why he did what he did, but there was no way he could speak about it without putting both of them in jeopardy.

"Cryptids are animals that aren't supposed to exist," Daniel explained. Benji finally managed to slip out of his grasp. He was a little worried about the possibility of them deciding Daniel (and maybe even himself) was a threat, but he also knew that Daniel could easily handle himself. "At least, that's what the dictionaries tend to say. I'd say they're strange, unforgettable monsters. I've taken care of two so far - Mothman and the Jersey Devil - but I still haven't forgotten what either one of them look like."

Benji shot him a look. "Don't do that," he hissed.

"Do what?" Daniel whispered back.

"Add Mothman in," he said. "It was only the Jersey Devil last time."

"Well, I did catch Mothman," Daniel replied. "I'm not going to leave out something like that. It adds more credibility."

Benji folded his arms and looked away, deciding that it was best to get distracted by something so he didn't have to focus on what Daniel was doing. He decided that it would be best to approach the two kids. Even though they said strange things, kids were much simpler than adults. They tended to speak what was on their mind, and were often more truthful.

And they tended to be more open-minded.

"Some cryptozoologists do scream when they burn," he said, "but most of us aren't lit on fire."

He crouched down in front of them; he was easily taller than the two, and he wanted to make it so their eyes were more level with each other.

"I don't think you ever mentioned your names," he said. "I'm Benji. You might have heard my...." He briefly glanced over at Daniel, only to turn away when they made awkward eye contact. "...acquaintance earlier."

"That just means that I am running out of energy. I think I have an hour left."

------------------

"My name is Tamara but you can call me Tammy."

"And my name is Daniel, same as your friend! You can call me Danny."

"We fought a really powerful demon once!" Tammy said.

Bear felt the blush rising in his cheeks as Thytes winked at him. It took less than a second for Carter to send the death glare upon the both of them, and Bear found he was extremely thankful for the rambling children. They had first asked about people being burned alive, but they were now recounting a story about their own "plant whisperer".

"It's nothing really, Thytes, more of a parlor room trick than anything else."

Carter read the energy measurements sliding off of everyone in the room, certainly feeling the stress that Bear was under. This was something that he could so easily fix and stop teasing at, but Bear was a bit deserving of it this time.

"Oh don't put yourself down like that, Bear. He can be quite persuasive with when it comes to werewolves, and as his roommate, I've seen him walking starkers with the scratch marks."

Carter smirked to himself as he crossed his arms and turned around to talk to the alien addressing him. This one was harder to get a read on and that was exactly what he was going to tell them.

"A witch can mean many things but it's mainly just someone who possesses a magical power, has the ability to harness it and shape it into a form, and then practice the art of sorcery."

A sort of shame came to Bear as Carter was reading out the textbook definition, but he kept silent. He wanted to lung at Carter for the commentary on his bedroom habits, but here he kept silent too.

"Bear can talk to matters of life, whereas our mentor can read people by their emotions, and I can basically taste the air." Carter paused while looking at the differing levels of confusion in the room, and then continued saying, "I can sense different parts of each person here because I can feel the differences in the energy. But also, each person that has come to be in this party is of their own unique form, and I get sort of lost and blurred in all that the energy readings tell me."

Carter tipped his hat back, hearing the doubts in the asker's movements and clarified with a sigh, "What I mean to say is that y'all are so unique and so many of you have forms possessing multiple personalities that your bodies are all quite Chatty Cathys."

Cathal blinked slowly at the explanation. "Fascinating," he said, looking between Bear and Carter. He made sure to take note of Bear's bedroom habits. And werewolves? That was a fascinating concept, but what, exactly, was a werewolf? He cast Thytes and Jaron a glance, beyond curious. "Werewolves, hm? What are those?"

Not the time! Nuada chided him, and Cathal felt a blush creeping up on him.

"Shut up, Nuada," he growled, and then realised he'd said that out loud. He blush deepened and Cathal looked away, down at Arryn. Cathal cleared his throat and gestured to the human currently unconscious on the ground, studiously avoiding everyone else's gazes. "He mentioned something about mages? Would that be something similar to a witch?"

Carter remained in the position as the spoke person for witches of the galaxy and followed Cathal/Nuada's gaze to the man lying on the floor. He let a smirk grow across his face for a moment while thinking about all of the thoughts he must have put in the audience's head.

"Well I don't know what type of mages he's talking about," Carter paused to flip one of the chairs around and straddled it with ease. "But where I come from witches practice witchcraft and mages are loosely referred to as magicians. They have powers much like ours but are not so based in the societal commitment, and they don't have the same potential to go to the dark side. Bit like Jedis, aren't we, Bear?"

Even with how mad he was at Carter, Bear couldn't resist laughing at the Jedis comparison. Carter had previously pitched the explanation when they were on their own earth but it never delivered quite right.

The same could be said for the confusion in this room.

"And really if you're asking for information on werewolves, you should ask Bear. I hear he's quite the expert in their anatomy."

"Scratches?" Thytes whispered to Bear. The lion set the tip of a claw on Bear's forearm. "I certainly have the claws for that." It probably wasn't a good idea to keep teasing Bear like this, especially when Carter was looking away and wouldn't immediately notice, but Carter had also been a little harsh. Thytes wanted Bear to feel at least a little more comfortable about himself.

Then came the werewolves question. Before Thytes could answer, a little voice piped up from under the table. "Would you like to see one?" Jaron said, voice shaky.