Young Writers Society

Leon froze in the shadows.

Changing his form to a sentient shadow had worked in the past when he needed to investigate things, but it seemed like it wasn't destined to work well in the mall. Maybe it was just bad luck, but it still made him feel a jolt of fear when he realized how he was ultimately defenseless if the person and their leopard decided to attack him.

...Which, seeing that one was a leopard, and the other had just very calmly taken a letter opener out of their bag, seemed very, very likely.

"Please don't attack me," he pleaded, hurriedly stepping out from the shadows with his hands in the air above him.

Fallon took a step back as someone stepped out of the shadows, raising the letter opener in alarm. It took them a moment to realize that the person had spoken, and another to realize what they’d said. Hesitantly, they lowered their letter opener.

“Who are you?” Fallon asked. They looked the person up and down, and realized with a start that they didn’t have a daemon. Their face went pale, and Valonia’s tail puffed up in alarm. They’d heard of people whose daemons had been severed from them, had even met one such person, but this person didn’t seem anything like them.

It took a moment for Fallon to speak. “Where’s your daemon?” They asked. “Where are we?”

Emily had followed from above. People didn't tend to look up when they expected danger, which might have been the point of her power.

Now she stood above the group, looking over the newcomers. She decided that it was best not to drop in just yet. If they got an explanation first and were a little less jumpy, she might be able to avoid scaring them further.

So she crouched out of sight behind one of the beams supporting the ceiling and listened.

"Daemon?" Leon repeated, only to pause when he realized he had forgotten to change his form. Without so much as snapping his fingers - out of fear that they would see it as a thread - his form changed back to its original one: a teenage boy with slightly fae features.

"Sorry," he apologized. "I probably should have warned you that I was changing my form. I'm Leon. I don't have a daemon. I'm not sure exactly where we are, but we're in an abandoned mall - it's probably somewhere you've never been before."

Now that was, peculiar. Nubes didn't know where to begin - Leon's conversation about some group he wasn't fond of, Leon becoming a walking shadow, the person and their leopard who asked if Leon had some kind of "daemon," or that neither of the newcomers noticed Emily walking on the ceiling.

Catching up to Emily and Leon, Nubes set a paw on his hip. It didn't feel like the right time to bring out his sword - the newcomers seemed friendly enough. "I'm Nubes, and I don't have a daemon either," he said. "Will that be a problem?"

Fallon did a double-take as Nubes stepped into their line of sight. Valonia’s ears flickered back in a confused sort of alarm. It wasn’t every day that one saw a bipedal big cat, and it was more than a little surprising. It didn't help that Leon had just transformed their appearance. Fallon gripped the letter opener a little tighter.

They recovered quickly enough, and soon enough Fallon had relaxed their grip on the letter opener. Having dealt with armored bears and witches, this wasn’t completely out of their comprehension.

“My name is Fallon,” Fallon said, before nodding sharply towards Valonia, who remained silent. “This is Valonia. If not having a daemon isn’t a problem for you, then it isn’t for us.”

Emily got a little bored.

It was certainly ironic that the immortal who once spent two years in a cave just to see what would happen (nothing good) would have such a short attention span, but mayber her immortality also explained it. She could compose a sonnet about why her living through so much had taught her that she had to seize every opportunity to get involved she was offered. How she'd missed too many opportunities before and she didn't want to miss another...so on.

In reality, she was just sick of being stuck in the rafters.

She leaped down, rolling to her feet in another display of her acrobatic talents (which she was using a lot more than usual lately).

"Hi!" she chirped, trying to appear as friendly as possible. She had just fallen from the sky. "I'm Emily."

"Well," Nubes said, "It doesn't appear to be a problem for me, but I feel like that depends on what exactly a daemon is. I suppose you two have daemons of your own?"

After noticing that both Nubes and Emily had gone to investigate what Nubes had smelled, Magic and Kane decided to do the same thing - there wasn't any point in staying in the food court.

When they arrived, Kane found a site he hadn't expected: another teenager, standing beside a snow leopard. The snow leopard didn't seem dangerous, but he still made a beeline for Leon's side.

To Fallon and Valonia's credit, neither of them screamed when Emily jumped down from the rafters. They both jumped back in alarm, readying their weapons and claws until it dawned on them both that Emily wasn't attacking.

The two of them shared a confused look, before Fallon lowered their letter opener, and Valonia sheathed her claws. There was no sense in attacking; they weren't being attacked.

Valonia sat down at Fallon's side, brushing her tail against their leg. She was feeling uneasy — Emily's scent was unlike anything she'd ever smelled before, and she didn't like it.

"Pleasure," Fallon said, their tone flat but courteous. They could feel Valonia's unease. "Is there anybody else up there?"

"There's technically one more of us," Magic said, "but he doesn't walk on walls like Emily does - I think he's sleeping in the food court."

Emily nodded, "Yeah, I'm the only one hopping about in the rafters as far as I know. Well, actually, maybe there's something else up there," she looked up curiously, "We still don't know how we all got here, after all. For all we know whatever it is that brought us is hiding our above."

"And it would definitely be a good idea to call attention to such an person," Nubes said, smiling faintly. "Who, I imagine, would be very happy to have their location exposed."

Fallon gave Valonia a look, which she returned in favor. These strangers were just that - strange - and they both knew it. Neither of them completely trusted them, although they figured it was better to be near them then alone. Safety in numbers, right?

"We shouldn't speculate," Fallon said, speaking more to Emily than anyone else. "At least not out loud."

Emily grinned, forgetting not to expose her fangs, "I think speculation is exactly what we should be doing," she said, "I've got a home to get back to, some kids to keep hidden, and a moron to keep out of trouble," she glanced at Nubes, "Not your moron. My moron. Kivvien."