Young Writers Society

The leopard sat down, making sure Emily could see the cut that Lunis had left on his ankle. It'd been tempting for Nubes to use some of few minutes alone with Lunis to return the favor, but he hadn't done a thing. Better to leave the panther to squirm and wonder what Nubes was planning. The leopard tried not to smile as he caught the sound of the machine rattling.

Emily kneeled down and opened the first aid kit. She looked at the cut and promptly looked away, gasping a little as the hunger that had previously remained below the surface of her thoughts overcame them.

"S-sorry," she said, busying her hands with tieing back her hair, "It's just...a lot of blood..."

She clenched her teeth and grabbed some disinfectant from the kit, holding it up for Nubes to see as she said, "I'm going to disinfect the wound, then wrap it up. I'd do more but... well, I'm a lot hungrier than I thought. If you don't trust me not to..." she glanced down at the wound, "you know...just tell me. You can fix yourself up or something while I get him out of there." She waved a hand vaguely in Lunis's direction.

Oh. Oh. That's right, she was a vampire. Who fed on blood. Oh dear.

"I've patched worse injuries myself," Nubes said, gingerly reaching for the bottle. "You can work on freeing Lunis in the meantime - the idiot will end up hurting himself otherwise."

She nodded and grabbed the toolkit, beginning to unscrew the edges of the machine.

"You really should have listened," she said simply, "I know my way around this world, or one like it. I was old when these things were invented, I think I know what I'm talking about when I say that they're not designed to be so easily stolen from."

Lunis rumbled. "What if I did listen, but decided to ignore it?" he said, realizing a little too late that it wasn't exactly a great defense.

She glared, "Look, I'm hungry, and you're starting to get on my nerves, so if you could just hold still and let me get you out of here that would be fantastic." She focused on removing the front panel, all traces of her cheery demeanor melting away with every screw she dropped onto the ground.

"Fine," Lunis said, watching as Emily started to take the machine apart. He dropped his voice to a whisper - "It was worth it."

She glared at him, her eyes showing her true age for just a second before she returned to her task. The panel dropped suddenly, falling the inches to the ground before Emily caught it, keeping it from tipping over on top of Lunis.

She flicked her wrist, waving her fingers in a specific pattern to create the red sparks that held the panel in place as she slid into the machine to remove the inner door that kept him locked in place.

"You're lucky I was brought here alone," she said, "My friend, Kivvien, would have lost his temper by now, and since there are no kids around to incentivize his keeping control, you wouldn't escape that unscathed. He's a green wielder as well, so his magic freaking hurts."

Lunis, now fixated on the panel that Emily had balanced just above his head, could only grunt in reply. He was a little more thankful than he wanted to admit.

Well, until Nubes started talking. "Get him out of there, and I'll show him scathed," the leopard said, ice in his voice.

Emily glared at Nubes, "You will do no such thing," she snapped, "I'm not going to bother breaking up any fights between you two. We have one goal, and that's to get back where we belong." Her hand slipped on the screwdriver and it clattered to the ground.

"Screw it," she muttered and flicked her wrists away from each other. The panel split in half around Lunis, freeing him as the pieces hit the ground with a BANG.

Lunis screamed as the panel around him cracked in two and flew off, only realizing a few seconds later that he'd been freed.

"Um, thanks," he mumbled, pulling himself up.

Nubes, who'd flinched when Emily had destroyed the panel, chose not to do anything but glare at Lunis. "Then let's get out of here as quickly as possible, so then I can start a fight."

Emily's fingers crackled with hints of magic that refused to burn out, her gaze burning into Lunis, "From now on," she growled, "you do as you're told, is that clear?" Her voice was small, soft even, but there was no denying the rage that simmered just below it.

She was sick of the time-wasting antics and the banter. She wanted to get home. She wanted to eat.

She wanted to get back to Imani's and make sure all was well. One could never tell when some government do-gooder would traipse on into a stop and send those kids back into the system that would destroy them. When that happened, she didn't want to be here.

She turned to Nubes, draping her hair back over her shoulders in case a hint of sunlight found its way through a window or something in the near future, "And you, no more threats." She addressed them both, "We need to stick together and search this place as a group. I appear to be the only one here who would recognize if something was off or just part of this word, so if you could listen when I tell what not to do. Am I understood?"

Tapping a drop of disinfectant out of the bottle and onto his ankle, Nubes winced, but quickly reached for the roll of gauze in box Emily had brought with her and wrapped up the wound.

"You are understood," the leopard said, standing up again. His ankle ached slightly thanks to the disinfectant - Nubes didn't think it would bother him too much. "Tell us what to do."

Lunis nodded, looking away from Emily.

Emily calmed down a little. Meaning, she was no longer ready to drain them of every last drop of blood they possessed, but she wasn't exactly feeling cheery.

"Follow me," she said shortly, and turned, walking down the hall as her hand formed a spell that flung three of the candy bars into it, "If you see anything you think is suspisous, out of the ordinary, or noteworthy in any way, talk to me before doing anything unless you are in imedidiate danger."

Nubes and Lunis quickly fell in-line behind Emily. Stuffing the other snacks that he'd taken from the machine in a couple pockets, Lunis tore the wrapper of one with his claws and quickly shoved the snack down his mouth. And grimaced.

The leopard now had the intense urge to strangle the panther, but chose instead to glare at the walls. Best not to get on Emily's nerves.