Young Writers Society

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful world called Miri. It housed people from a myraid of planets, and many regularly visited it through its ancestral ring - all one had to do was chose the correct symbols, and they could go through the ring to arrive on Miri.

But then a plague swept across the Pegasus Galaxy in the form of the life-draining wraiths, and the people of Miri fled. Its castle - and its history - have long since been forgotten by its descendants. The few who have dared to travel to it tell tales of a ghost that wanders through the castle's halls - a tall, pale figure that flees upon any attempted interactions. The castle and its sole occupant would have remained mostly untouched, if not for a sudden change in fate: people from across the multiverse have appeared within its halls.

And if they want to find a way home, they'll have to chase after a ghost.

"Do you know where we are?"

The woman's question was met with silence. Usually that meant someone else was around, but a quick survey of the shore before her and the piles of stone behind proved that no one was lying in wait. She frowned, looked around for a second time, and plopped down on a rock.

"I guess you don't want to talk right now," she said. A shy feeling, deep inside in her chest, rose to the surface - confirmation. "That's okay. I'll do enough talking for both us, alright?"

Another feeling. This one was physical: a small, gentle nudging underneath the sleeve of her denim jacket. She patted the area where the nudging was coming from as gently as she could to return the gesture.

"This place is beautiful, isn't it?" she asked. "I know I should feel afraid, but I can't help but think of how happy I am to see it with you - I can feel you peeking out of my sleeve."

The movement paused.

"It's alright," she added. "It's just us."

The movement returned, this time less hidden than before.

"The plants here are beautiful - I've never seen a single one of them before. I wonder where we could be."

She thought for a moment, mulling over the possibilities. As she waited, she grabbed a handful of grass from beside the stone she was sitting on and held it out before her. At least, it looked like grass - it didn't feel like any grass she had held before, and didn't smell like it, either.

Her breath caught in her throat as she glanced up at the sky above.

"Oh, Fern, look," she said. She pointed the hand full of grass at the two moons in the sky. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

"...San Fransisco," was the quiet response. "But not there, either."

"I didn't think we were in Kansas before," she reassured. "Do you remember that movie we watched together? Wizard of Oz? It's what Dorothy says to Toto when they end up in Oz - not that I'm comparing you to Toto, because you are certainly more like a Dorothy than a Toto."

A nod. "Another planet."

"That's what I'm thinking," she agreed. She got up to her feet and gave a little stretch, letting the pieces of grass flutter to the beach's shore. "Well, we should be off, shouldn't we? Something tells me this is going to be quite the adventure."

"Plan."

"Exactly," she agreed. She glanced up at the pile of rocks before her, giving a little grin before she started to climb the one closest to her. "This reminds me of when I was a kid - I used to climb all sorts of things in the woods behind my house. So don't worry - I'm a master climber."

"Try not to."

"That's the right way to think about it," she said. It didn't take long to climb the rocks - maybe twenty minutes at most - and she soon had reached the front of what appeared to be an old castle.

After a moment passed, she wisely snapped a picture of it with her phone and approached the closed, rotting doors. There was no response to her knocking - just its echo reverberating through empty halls.

"I probably shouldn't be surprised by that," she said. "Ready? I'll go when you are."

"...Ready."

She nodded.

"Then let's do this, Fern."

She pushed open the door.

A couple months ago, Thytes would've been surprised to find himself lying face-down on the cobblestone floor of some unfamiliar place. But, after a couple of experiences traveling to different worlds, he found himself getting alarmingly used to it.

The lion pulled himself up, stretching himself out and yawning. His back and arms groaned, and it was pretty obvious why that was the case when he looked around - he appeared to be in the middle of some kind of abandoned garden. All the paths had been overrun with strange green-blue weeds, while yellow flowers sprouted out of what had probably once been a stone wall between the paths and the gardens. While pink leaves fluttered down from the trees overhead, the pools of water around him rippled with fish. It was surprisingly nice, despite him having never seen or smelled any plants quite like these. Trees didn't normally have green bark, and flowers didn't normally have white stems.

That's about when Thytes heard someone sniffling. The lion swiveled around, trying to pick up where the noise was coming from. His eyes picked up on a white lump clinging onto the wall a short distance away. The overalls, tools spilling out of the lump's pockets, and the smell of oil were unmistakable.

"Jaron?" Thytes said, walking over and crouching down in front of the fox.

Jaron pulled his head away from the stone, blinking and staring up at Thytes. Yep, Jaron had been crying - his eyes were red and wet, and he couldn't stop sniffing.

"Do you know where Kendrik is?" said Thytes, after a pause.

Wiping the tears out of his eyes, Jaron shook his head.

Thytes set his paws on the ground. "Do you want me to help you find him?"

"Yeah," Jaron whispered, nodding his head.

The lion turned around, letting Jaron climb onto his back. When Jaron's paws were firmly wrapped around Thytes's neck, and Jaron had wrapped his legs around Thytes's midsection, Thytes pulled himself back up.

And then the lion and the fox wandered the expansive garden, Thytes scanning the trees to find a way out.

Well dang.

Bear glanced back at the rapidly closing portal, blinking while the strobe effect of the lights went off. The glare went burning into his eyes and after the effect had dulled, he turned to the chasm that the portal led into. Maybe he should have been more concerned about these current conditions but Carter would find his way there.

Eventually.

He was in some sort of chamber that was mainly a garden with a river running through the middle, flowing out through a door of iron bars. On the walls there stood outlines of knights in armor, who did seem a bit odd holding guns from a science fiction show. But on the other hand, Bear had absolutely no idea where he was and was fairly sure that he had a concussion from the impact with the stone floor.

By the color of the sky and the uniqueness of the plants he had seen so far, the alien planet theory might not be too far off.

Bear ran his hands over the wrought iron gate once again. There was a slight hope in his mind that if he hit the right side of the bar at the right moment it would all just magically click open. Maybe pressing on a non-existent lock would make available the escape that he was seeking. He barrelled his shoulder against the outer frame a few times before slumping to the bricks and sliding down to the cool stone floor.

"God, where is Carter? He's definitely thin enough to get through these stupid bars."

The conclusion of a concussion was becoming more relevant by the moment and Bear forced himself up. A look at the river confirmed that it was in fact flowing out of this chamber which meant he should be able to follow this somewhere. He would preferably not be following the river further into the looming stone building that he was most likely in the basement of but...

You win some. You lose some.

Bear gathered up his backpack from where it had been flung against the wall, turning on his torch because the light at the end of the tunnel was not currently visible.

"For a place that looks like it's abandoned," she commented, "there's surprisingly little dust."

She had lost count of how long she had been wandering through the halls, searching for...well, she wasn't quite sure what she was searching for. She was sure she would know it when she found it. It was just how things like this worked. She might not have even been outside of Earth, but she was somewhat used to irregular things. This certainly seemed to count as one.

"Little dust." There was a pause as she kept walking. "See footprints. Too many to follow."

She looked down. That was definitely true - there was an abundance of footprints, and, though some were bare feet and others were left by shoes, all of them looked to be roughly the same size. She nodded in agreement before continuing on down the hallway.

Eventually, light began to flood the hallway. She wandered towards the sunlight, feeling the warmth dancing on her skin as she stepped through a crumbling doorway into what appeared to be an expansive garden. In the distance, she could make out what appeared to be a person (covered in fur) carrying another person (also covered in fur), but she didn't really pay attention to them.

She was far too distracted by the unfamiliar flora.

"This is beautiful," she managed to get out. She leaned down beside a bed of flowers, grabbing one with blue petals and a white stem. Like the castle, the garden was a strange mix of disarray and order - like it had been long forgotten, but had a caretaker of some kind.

"If it's decorative," she said, "I'll guess that it's safe."

It wasn't her smartest idea by far - her studies had let her know the dangers of beautiful plants - but there was no objection to her conclusion. She slipped the flower behind one ear, then plopped her backpack down on the ground beside her. It didn't take long for her to retrieve her camera and notebook from its depths. She took a picture - the click echoing off of the towering, old walls of the garden - and grabbed another flower, pressing it in the pages of her book so she could look at it later.

Then the camera and book were returned to her bag, and she headed towards the two figures.

"We need to be on our best behavior," she solemnly (and quietly) said. "It's a matter of diplomacy. As presumably Earth's first person here, I have to make a good impression."

"No eating."

"Yup," she whispered. "I'll sneak off when you get hungry - it's a good thing I have so many snacks with me, or we would have to get desperate."

"Don't want birds."

As if the comment had summoned one, a bird with bright plumage flew past them. She gave a small smile. "Me either. The ones here are as beautiful as the plants - I wouldn't dream of hurting any of them."

Then she fell into silence, raising her hand in greeting as she became close enough to clearly make out the two figures.

Ah, it didn't take too long at all to run into someone. Thytes had been hesitant to approach her at first - she'd seemed very preoccupied with the flowers - but now that she was waving in his direction, he had no problem walking over to her.

"Hello!" he said, waving back and trying not to hit Jaron (who was now trying to keep himself as hidden as possible). "Do you happen to have any clue where we are, or are you in the same situation as us?"

Bear shone the torch light up to the ceiling of the passageway he had found at the end of the chamber opening. The entry way of that chamber had led to a small tunnel with a trickling stream running through that eventually led him to another section. This round room met with eight different doorways, each holding a design above an empty archway with some sort of family crest.

The passage itself was nearly ten feet wide, leaving a five foot section in the middle for the river to run through, and the remaining space was left for stone pathways on either side. He didn't leave the light on the ceiling for too long for fear of making a slip on the slick stone and falling into the unknown depth of water.

His hands ran along the smooth walls filled with plant life and Bear could hear the air life flowers speaking to him.

"Oh beauties I wish I had the time to talk to you."

Bear sighed as he moved along, following the river for over an hour until he found himself in another circular room. This time the rivers met and circled up into a spiraling portal. The streams of water were wrapping themselves around a staircase that Bear knew he would regret climbing.

There was no way that this was safe.

The light glowing off the stone staircase in the middle of the whirlpool, covered in mysterious and seductive flowers, was the only comforting thought.

Same situation?

It seemed like there were more people who had been brought here by mysterious circumstances - he wouldn't have asked something like that if he was from this place. Was that a comfort or a problem? She wasn’t sure. It meant he would be more likely to be an ally, but also meant that she was just as clueless as before.

"I don't know," she said. "I'm sorry. I just woke up on the shore down below the castle."

She held out a hand.

"I'm Ollie, by the way," she added. "It's short for Olivia Quinn, but I never liked my last name or my first name all that much."

Thytes shook Olivia's hand. "Perfectly alright - I am rather used to no one quite having a clue what is going on in these kinds of situations. As for introductions, I am Thytes Regulus, and the fox behind me is Jaron Beresford."

Jaron raised a paw briefly.

"It is nice to meet you, Ollie!" Thytes said, letting go of her hand. He tilted his head. "That is a perfectly acceptable name to call you, yes?"

"It is," she confirmed. She could feel a craving beginning to grow from within her, but she did her best to ignore it - she couldn't sneak off after just meeting these two. She gave him a smile. It wasn't strained; she had gotten good at holding back the cravings during work, and this was no exception.

"Hungry," the voice that only she could hear whispered.

She couldn't give an answer. She just stuck her hands into her pockets and continued to smile, knowing that it was a good act - no one had ever picked up on her cravings. "So you've been in situations like this before? I've never been. I've...I've had a bit of an odd life lately, but it's never involved get whisked off to other planets."

The staircase had been surprisingly dry, probably protected by a weird technology or an obscure spell. The streams of water whipping around his body hadn't been particularly pleasant but it had led to a way out. Or not really out, but into yet another section of the most certain dungeon.

Bear walked around this new space, noting how it as well was filled with plant life and noticed the occasional sign of animal presence. Nothing to suggest that there were humanoids or more sentient forms of life actively living in the place. But life still the same.

He could hear all of the plants talking to him and carefully blocked their soft and gentle voices out of his mind.

The wide open expanse led to another staircase with a barely visible amount of light and Bear once again took the chance of finding a way out of this situation.

"I hope that I do not indicate any pride in it being ordinary, but certainly poor Jaron and I have been pulled into other worlds and board games and what have you a few times," Thytes said. "They have certainly been interesting experiences, though I cannot rightly say whether I have liked them or not. I imagine I will like this one - you seem like quite a polite and friendly person."

"Complimented you." There was a pause. "Nice."

That was definitely true. The smile remained, and even grew a little. She liked interacting with someone so nice. San Fransisco was nice, but it was nothing like the rural town she had grown up in - people were always hurrying from one place to the other, and she had never quite gotten used to the rudeness. Thytes was a nice, polite change of pace that felt vaguely nostalgic.

"Thank you," she said. "It's nice being around someone like you, too - the town I currently live in could use more people like us."

She gestured back in the direction of the garden's entrance.

"I haven't found any answers yet, but we can enter the castle through there," she suggested. She readjusted the flower tucked behind her ear, feeling it begin to slip as she looked between Jaron and Thytes. "I was thinking of hitting up the library. Doing research hasn't failed me yet, and something tells me learning about this castle's history will help us figure out why we're here."

And it would give the convenient excuse to sneak off and feast; the thought briefly quelled the hunger, only for it to return even more impatiently than before a few seconds later.

Thytes looked over Ollie's shoulder to see the crumbling stone archway that she'd come out of. "That sounds like a wonderful plan!" he said, bending down to pluck a couple of blue, rose-like flowers. Talking the whole time, he set one flower in his mane and handed the other to Jaron, who reached back and stuffed it into a pocket near his chest. "I am not completely sure if we could read whatever literature they have available, either due to its age or its script, but it would be a decent start! And then we might want to tour this place to see what else might contain."

He beamed at Ollie - he wasn't quite sure how to take her compliment, since he wasn't used to that from people from other worlds, but at least he could feel safe around her. And he wasn't usually wrong about that feeling.

Bear made it up through this staircase to find that it divulged in two directions. One went further upward into the castle but the other split off to the the left to reveal a corridor lit by streaming sun light. He intended to continue up the staircase but stepped into the light to see where the source was coming from.

This short journey took a few minutes, nowhere near as dangerous as before but still feeling off. Everything about being in this place felt off and it wasn't just because Carter wasn't there. Having his lo - partner there would have been better for the discomfort the plant voices rang into his head.

The light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be from the sky. Bear tentatively stepped onto an open balcony patio, noting once again the slightly green coloring of the sky. There was a slight risk of suffocation but there were worse ways to die.

Bear leaned over the edge of the vine covered balcony, biting his tongue upon noticing humanoid forms in the garden directly below him. Based on the murals in the chambers below, they were trespassers like himself, rather than native inhabitants.

So he wasn't alone here.

But that didn't mean he would be engaging anytime soon.

Bear shouldered his shotgun once again, took his belt of shells from the Bob backpack, and continued up the stone staircase to the mysterious castle.