Young Writers Society

The first thing you notice is fire.

It's not dangerous - it's stuck behind iron bars, shooting blue flames out of gas pipes without leaving even a hint of smoke. You could cozy up beside it as long as you wanted and feel perfectly fine (unless you decide to stick your hand through the gate, which is more your fault than anything else).

It also doesn't make any sense. This room doesn't make any sense.

The metal walls are spotless; you can see your own reflection on the iron floors. There's a few crates stacked up against the corner (you guess they're full of food and water), as well as a stray blanket or two, a rug, and a couple other amenities that make you feel almost at home. They're all clean and well-kept and untouched.

But, as far as you know, you're the only person in here.

A flight of metal stairs leads to the outside world. If you stare far enough up it, you might be able to spot the hatch, or hear the howling of the wind outside. There's nothing stopping you from going out there; the walls feel a little chilly by the stairs, but something in you tells you you're not trapped.

The question is, are you willing to go up those stairs?

1. Third-person perspective (preferred)

2. Past tense (preferred)

3. I'm pretty open to violence or romance, but ask if me you think anything will be too explicit.

4. Have fun!

Wrapping his tail around himself, Lasan stared at the fire. It wasn't quite like any fire he'd seen before. It was blue, for one thing, and he didn't totally understand where it was coming from. He could smell the hints of gas in the air, but that the gas could be funneled and burned like this was incredible. If it wasn't for the fact that the fox couldn't have had the resources to find him and shove him down here, Lasan would've thought this was Jaron's doing.

Something in his coat shook; Lasan loosened the tail's grip on himself.

He glanced over at the staircase. The lizard had the sense that it'd be a little cold outside, between the wind and the chill that tried to crawl up his back. But he didn't want to think about whether or not he was trapped here, and he didn't want to cross the bridge that was going outside.

So, for the time being, he kept focusing on the fire, feeling the heat soak through him as it got caught up by his coat and boots. Maybe he'd eventually be warm enough to make that decision.

If he hadn't mysteriously ended up here, he might have liked the place.

It was a pretty neat one - the fire was warm and beautiful, there were blankets to cuddle up in, and a stack of crates that probably had food. But, given who he was, he couldn't exactly feel at home. It left him with a bad taste in his mouth. Someone had taken him. That much was for sure. But for what? A ransom was possible, he guessed. He doubted Eva would do much if he got caught, but they didn't know that.

Or maybe a certain brother of his had finally put two-and-two together, and had decided to capture him. That one seemed less likely than the first idea; his brother probably would have skipped even a barren jail cell and just had him beheaded, if given the chance.

Well, he couldn't stay here forever. There was a set of stairs in the room. When he stood at the very bottom of them, he could see a hatch and could feel cold air. Considering that it was springtime, that didn't bear well.

He sighed.

This was not going to be fun.

He started up the steps towards the hatch.

Unfortunately for Lasan, it wasn't much longer before he realized he had good reason to go outside. He was starting to have the suspicion that he'd been pulled to another world yet again. This place was too unfamiliar and empty to have any other good explanation. That also meant there were probably other people who'd been brought here as well. And maybe they were outside, waiting for him to open the hatch.

So, Lasan spent the next couple minutes wrapping himself in every rug and blanket he could find. He even took the step of ripping out a piece of wood from the crate, sticking it in the fire, and making a torch. The lizard had a feeling it wouldn't be very useful once he opened the hatch, but it made heading up the frigid staircase, oversized paw clamped onto a metal railing, more tolerable.

Tail curling and uncurling around him - a stress habit of his - he finally reached the hatch. The wind had gone from a distant roar to a howl, and he swore he could hear the pattering of snow against the hatch door. He hesitated. Patting what wriggled under his coat, Lasan grabbed the wheel on the hatch and turned.

The door flung itself open with a clang! As snow streamed inside, instantly extinguishing his torch, Lasan peeked his head out to find himself in the middle of a blizzard. Winds buffeted snow across what appeared to be a barren landscape, though he couldn't see more than ten feet in front of him. He swore he saw outlines of other hatch doors at the edge of his vision, but he was a little more concerned with trying to pull his back with his free paw. No need to make things worse for himself.

The first thing that happened when he opened the hatch door was getting smacked in the face by a flurry of snow.

Great.

He squinted and tried to make out other shapes, but it was hard seeing past the snow being whipped about by the wind. He thought he could make out the shapes of hatches, and maybe even a person, but the visibility was too poor to come up with any other details. All he could tell was that the potential person was even bigger than he was.

But if they were the only people there, he'd have to brave a blizzard so he could what was going on.

He let out a sigh and headed towards the figure. He doubted they could hear him over the wind, so he didn't even bother trying to talk. He just kept focusing on each footstep, trying his best to ignore the air and snow slamming into him as he got closer to the figure.

Lasan's heart skipped a beat when he saw the outline of someone walking through the snow towards him. He froze for a few seconds, unsure if he should help the person get to the hatch or wait to see if they were a threat. But they looked human enough; the weirdest thing about them was their blue clothes, but stuff like that was pretty normal for people from other worlds.

Taking a deep breath, Lasan leaned out of the hatch, propping it open with one paw while he grabbed the person with the other. He yanked the person into the bunker, slamming the hatch shut behind them and twisting the wheel to keep it shut.

"Are you alright?" Lasan said after a few deep breaths, setting the stranger down on one of the steps. He realized he probably looked a little odd, wrapped almost head and toe in assorted blankets and clothing (save for a barely-visible snout), but hopefully the person wouldn't mind too much.

"I'm okay," he said. He was a little disorientated after being jerked from the cold into the warmth of another strange staircase, but he wasn't going to protest the somewhat-abduction.

He peered up at the other person, trying to get a good look at them. Most of them was bundled up in thick layers of blankets, and the only thing he could really make out was a snout. Which gave him a question or two, but there wasn't much he could do there.

"Do you need a spare blanket or anything?" Lasan said. He brushed some of the snow off of the stranger's hair. "I have plenty."

Then he shrunk back, realizing he was being a little rude. "Sorry, forgot my manners - I'm Lasan." He held out a scaly paw. "Who are you?"

He looked down at the paw for a minute, tried - and failed - to make sense of it, and struggled to decide what name he should go with. Would an alias work, or should he go with the name everyone currently knew him by?

"I'm Ryder," he finally said, shaking the extended paw. "Ryder Salvai."

"Nice to meet you, Ryder!" Lasan said. He looked down the staircase. "This feels like one of those things where I ask if you want tea, but I'm not sure if I have any?"

"It's alright," Ryder said with a dismissive wave of his hand, already descending down the staircase towards the room below. It looked almost eerily identical to the one he had just left - same crates stacked up against the walls, same fire, and same style of architecture.

"Are you sure?" Lasan said, following Ryder. When he reached the bottom, he started peeling off blankets and rugs, laying them out in front of the fire to melt off the snow. "I'd be happy with some tea, personally. It's, uh, been a bit of a stressful day."

He stopped in front of the fire, realizing that his face and legs were a lot more visible. The stranger could see that he was obviously a lizard. Whoops. Oh well, there was nothing to be done about it now. "Hey, does this bother you? This isn't the first time I've been in a situation like this, and I remember some people thought I looked kinda odd? I can put my blankets back on if you'd like."

He shook his head.

"I'm fine with it," he reassured him. He wasn't even looking in Lasan's direction - he was far more interested in checking out the walls and overall layout of the room. It was strange how much it was like the one he had come from. It suggested that the rooms had been designed to serve as some sort of shelter, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know what they were supposed to be a shelter from.

"Do you know where we are?" he asked, finally turning back to Lasan. He was a little taken aback when he realized Lasan was actually covered in scales, and only looked somewhat human, but it didn't really faze him.

"Not really?" Lasan said. He walked over to the nearest crate, trying not to think about the surprise that had flickered across Ryder's face. It wasn't exactly a reaction he was unfamiliar with, and Ryder didn't seem too bothered, but Lasan had to admit that he'd grown a bit tired of that happening.

In any case, he yanked the top off of the crate, using his tail to snatch and pull out bags. He peered at them; they contained all kinds of multicolored powders, but he couldn't read the labels on them. The script was strange; it was words (or what he guessed were words) like DEHYDRATED FOOD or U.S. ARMY. Frowning, he set the bags on the crate next to the one he was looking into. "I just got here, honestly. I don't know what any of this stuff is."

Ryder glanced from the food to the room they were in, his worst fears confirmed.

"...This is a bunker," he finally said. He walked over to the food and held a pack in his hand. It wasn’t exactly the same as what he was used to, but the base had its fair share of dehydrated goods. "I'm not sure what it's for."

He looked up from the pack in his hand.

"Once the storm clears, I think we should go back out," he suggested. "This - and the one I was in - have to have been made for a reason."