Young Writers Society

"No, I'm the one who should be sorry. Are you okay?" asked Alan, looking down at her hand.

Devony nodded. "Yeah, it'll go away." She smiled at him, and hunger gnawed in her stomach. Is it dinnertime yet? she wondered. "I felt worse pain than this."

Nendros and Aska led them into the castle and into the library.

Devony had never seen so many books before. Her school library was just a tiny room. She had to crane her head to see the top. Another girl squealed with excitement. Devony didn't know furniture had feelings, but Nendros sounded so serious. She walked up to the comfiest looking couch she had ever seen in her life and patted it gently, as if she was asking for its permission. Devony sat down carefully.

The scientist made a sarcastic hello, and the couch turned itself over, dumping him onto the ground. Devony stifled a giggle and settled back carefully, hoping she wasn't offending her own couch. Her couch at home was dusty and torn, but this was the opposite. She could fall asleep here.

Suddenly, her stomach growled loudly, and Devony blushed a bright pink. She leaned forward and clutched her stomach, hoping it would disappear.

"I'm sorry," she said hastily. "I just- I haven't eaten much today. Sorry."

"YOU JUMBO JACKFRUIT," yelled Vankous, as he was unceremoniously dumped on his posterior. When I find the moron that enchanted it... He didn't even look at the dragon thing that had lifted the couch off of him. He immediately grabbed the offending cushion telekinetically, ripping it apart.

"You try one more funny thing and you're next, son of a dancing dragonfruit," he said, finger raised at the couch, totally ignoring the fact that he had caused it all in the first place.

Alan gawked when they entered the library, amazed to see this many books. Sector 3's library was pretty run-down and sad, but even so, Alan always enjoyed it. In comparison, this library was worlds better, and he had no idea how to process it because he had a feeling it was going to be tough to appreciate what he had back home.

Nendros told them to not touch anything which was quite odd -- why enter a library and not be able to touch the books or seats or anything? Still, he complied.

And he was glad he did, because the white-coat man grabbed a book and sat on the couch only to get thrown off and smacked... by the couch.

"The couch is alive?" he blurted out loud, unable to come to senses with what he just saw.

Suddenly Devony's stomach growled really loudly and she mentioned she was hungry. It was a seemingly innocuous statement, but Alan couldn't help but feel embarrassed for her, especially when he noticed he was pretty full himself. He wanted to apologize, but he also didn't want to call attention to the issue, so instead he turned back to Nendros and asked, "Are all the furniture here alive? And the books, too?" He wondered what an alive book would look like, and he had to fight back the urge to pull a book out and find out.

Sinestra resisted a sudden urge to cane all of the others then and there, somewhat wanting to keep the large numbers of books to herself. If time allowed, she would read all that she had not read, replace a few with others, and confuse whoever acted as the librarian just for laughs.

Frederick, meanwhile, just tied to block out everything going on around him, tightening his grip on his frying pan. Oh, it had so many used... rarey did he have something better than his trusty frying pan.

Nendros froze.

Aska froze as well.

Neither one of them had ever destroyed furniture like that. They had come close during some pretty extreme pillow fights - and back when Nendros first came to the castle - but they had usually been polite to the furniture before then.

And they had never ripped a pillow.

Nendros took a big step back.

Aska followed his lead, still very much using his best friend as a shield.

The ripped cushion magically fixed itself. For good measure, it smacked the man in the white coat three times right in the face. Nendros winced the entire time it was happening, but he just knew that the man wasn't going to react to that well.

So it looked like he'd have to take matters into his own hands.

...Even though the man hadn't actually touched the cushion before.

And could probably hurt him if he decided he didn't like him anymore.

...That was a scary thought.

Still, Nendros knew what he had to do to protect the furniture and the castle. He took a step closer to the man, tail shooting out from behind him and wrapping around his waist to yank him back from the couch in question. Once he had the man restrained, he glanced over at the girl whose stomach had just growled.

"We have some food in the kitchen," Nendros offered. "I can go get some after I finish explaining things - and after the whole couch situation's taken care of."

"Ahh...you piece of bumpy bananas," yelled Vankous at he dragon creature that had snatched him up so rudely. He resorted to his favorite spell. In a flash of purple light, he started growing smaller and lighter. He smiled. Wait a minute. He was growing smaller. Vankous suddenly found himself as a small fluffy pink bunny. Like any bunny in a room full of people, he ran for the nearest exit, his brain charged with the simple goal of escape.

Ari gaped, horrified.

The couch had flipped the man off of it, and the man had ripped a cushion, and the cushion had fixed itself and whacked the man in the face. Right in front of her eyes. Her eye twitched when Dragon Person had taken hold of White Coat guy with his tail. Ari squeaked and jumped out of the way when the White Coat guy, now a fluffy little bunny, hopped past her.

She blinked at the couch, and took a couple of steps back, scared of what the couch might do to her in anger. An angry couch. If she were back home, and someone were to tell her that a couch had been angry, she would have snorted the comment off but if someone were to tell her after she was out of this crazy situation, she would have shuddered.

"Food sounds good. I haven't had lunch yet," she said. Ari took a breath, and added, "Are we... uh, going to get the bunny?"

Devony gaped at the bunny who used to be a man. So many things had happened so quickly, but here it was... a bunny. She silently agreed with the girl. Someone should grab him.

The bunny was hopping around frantically, trying to find an exit. Worried that he'll get lost or stuck in that position, Devony quickly scooped him up.

The bunny struggled, but Devony held him at a safe angle.

"It'll be alright," she said. "You'll be back to normal soon." Devony scratched at the back of his head, an area that rabbits really liked.

"I haven't eaten yet, too," said Devony, smiling at the others. "So, which way is the kitchen?"

Tithorea was starting to get just a little dazed by what was happening, but her main worry was that the bunny may start nibbling some of the books. Fortunately, one of the tall people got to it before her.

"Living couches," Rea said, staring at the couch. "This is wonderful! What level of intelligence do you command, O Seat of Supreme Comfort? May I touch you for just a moment? Are you in a way warm-blooded to provide comfort? How many languages do you know?"

Nendros blinked.

The man in the white coat had tried cursing him. He was sure of it. But the curse hadn't worked - it had somehow backfired on him. Nendros wasn't sure if he was supposed to feel more grateful or confused. Aska seemed just as startled, too. He had ducked back behind Nendros, peeking over his shoulder and glancing at the man-turned-rabbit as if he was the scariest thing in the entire world.

Nendros shook himself out of that train of thought. He had to be a good host. Even though it had been a long time since he had last hosted anything, he still vaguely remembered how it was supposed to work.

"Normally, you go out the door and take a left," Nendros said, "but I've figured out a short cut. There's a window on the other side of the library that's across from a kitchen window - I've been flying between the two of them whenever I'm here and want a snack while reading. I'll be right back with some food."

He turned, gave Aska a comforting pat on the shoulder, and darted off towards the window. Aska, realizing that he was now once again in charge of the entire group, froze and stared at them with tiny pinpricks of light in his empty helmet.

The couch, meanwhile, didn't reply to Rea. It just did what couches normally did and didn't attack anyone else with its cushions.

"Frederic, take down another note," Sinestra said firmly as she started to dictate a series of words to him.

Frederic nodded, wondering if his poor scrap of paper would have much more room for all of her notes.

"In the event that one ever comes to a very... Disney-ish castle," she began, walking past the angry cushion and Vankous, "one is to be extremely polite to the furniture lest it find a way to torture one's behind to no end and never let a tired man's rear rest again. Furthermore, it would be most wise to appear at the aforementioned castle so long as one still has their magic or a properly working set of w-- Frederic, are you getting this down?"

"Yes, yes," he sai grumpily, "continue on."

"--wings lest the giant dragon-creature master of the castle tell you that the shortest way to get somewhere is to fly. Indeed, such an occasion should be extremely unlikely, but one must always be prepared for it. I recommend pixie-dust for the otherwise flightless and that lawn chairs be taken as a precaution. End of note."

Frederic looked at his poor paper and sighed. "There's no more room."

Sinestra reached into her satchel and handed him another paper. "Nice and clean."

Living couches. A man turning into a rabbit. A flying dragon.

This was all too much, but Alan was beginning to get desensitized to weirdness at this point.

Nendros had left to grab everyone some food, which Alan appreciated. He wasn't as hungry right now, but he knew he will be. Hopefully the food wouldn't also be alive, though... He couldn't eat something like that.

Alan noticed the uncomfortable look Aska had when he was left alone with the group, and he was about to ask him a question, but then decided to turn to the rabbit man since his curiosity outweighed the desire to be polite.

He stared at the fluffy pink rabbit who appeared to be enjoying the pets Devony was giving him. "So, is he permanently a rabbit now, or...?"

Like he said: desensitized to weirdness.

"Um..." Aska quietly started, glancing between the group surrounding the bunny and two standing off to the side. He wasn't sure which one to address first. He also wished he wasn't the one left behind. He knew that he couldn't fly like his best friend could, but...

He looked at the man-turned-rabbit.

"He, um, shouldn't be cursed forever," Aska said, voice quiet and hesitant. He was cursed to be like this forever, and Nen was probably, too. But that was a different kind of curse, and Aska guessed that the curse wasn't directly Tieth's fault this time. "There's probably a book here that can explain how to break the curse..."

He looked over at the older woman and man talking.

"...And Nen wasn't thinking you would follow him," Aska added. "He wouldn't mind the extra hands, but I also don't think he'd want guests to be getting food-"

"I'm back!" his best friend announced from the other end of the library. Aska immediately stood a little straighter. It had to be a record for how fast he had gotten between the two - Aska couldn't help but be grateful for deciding to leave out some snacks that morning in case Nen wanting something to eat later on.

When Nen appeared, his arms were filled with plates of sugar-y and soft treats: eclairs, croissants, cookies and a pitcher of milk. The closed glass pitcher (and stack of glass) were being carried in a basket he had hanging off of his tail. Aska also saw a few carrots sticking out of the basket, but he decided it was best not to question.

Nen gave a big, sharp-toothed grin.

"There!" he said, placing the array of food down on the low table in between all of the furniture. "One set of snacks. I ate some of the eclairs on the way over, but there should be enough left for everyone."

He eyed the plate.

After a moment of hesitation, he grabbed another one and scoffed it down.

Wiping the cream off of his face with his arm, he reached into the basket and grabbed one of the carrots.

"I know it's not as good as the sweets," he said, holding it out to the man-turned-rabbit as a peace offering, "but I felt bad that you probably can't eat the same food as everyone else right now. Hopefully the carrots make up for it?"

Still petting the bunny, Devony stared at the snacks Nendros had brought over. She had never seen these before in her life. They weren’t even in the Capital whenever the news was on.

Nendros seemed to enjoy a creamy puff, so Devony set the bunny on the table along with the carrots. She took one of the snacks and sniffed it. It smelled good, so she took a bite.

“This is good!” she said, eating it all. “It’s delicious! What is it?”

Sinestra immediately rushed over, muttered a quick "Thank you," and ran off into a corner with an eclair. Frederic just stared at her for a few moments before he reluctantly walked over to Nendros, bowed his head, said "Thank you," and gingerly took a croissant for himself.