Young Writers Society

"But how?" Rea breathed, practically looming over Aska despite her height. "How? Runes? Levitation? A malevolent spirit? Or just a spirit? Possession? Demonic or angelic?"
She had managed to find a inkbottle in her pocket, and she stuck a stick into it as a makeshift pen and began jotting down notes in her book. The nearly illegible scrawls didn't faze her in the slightest.
Very abruptly, she tried poking Aska to see if he would react.

Vankous was attempting to process exactly what had happened in the past few minutes. The longer he was there the more he felt like Disney had come up with some kind of very complicated VR in the future and then decided to get some test subjects from random timelines.

He turned to the talking suit of armor.

"Look her, Aska, I don't care if your name is Aska, I need you to summon Answera because answers are what we need at the moment," he said, stepping closer to him," also, that is a very lazy name for a castle. I mean if you had called it Château de sang, I might have let it slide. It sounds cool if you don't know French. But Castle of Blood is just a very lazy naming system. Also Laetae, I mean, if there ever was a case of too many vowels spoiling the pronunciation, that's it right there. So, give me a more...umm...compelling reason to set foot there, until then I will see you Laetaer."

He walked off towards the back of the group and fished out a bag of Cheetos from his pocket and proceeded to eat, almost choking on one as the strange elf girl poked the suit of armor. Now there is someone I can respect.

Aska flinched when he was poked, but he was already in the process of taking several steps away from the group. The two that had been kind to him earlier were just on the sidelines right now. Everyone else felt really intimidating at the moment, and the tirades against him didn't help.

He steadied himself by putting his trembling hands on the rosebushes.

"I'm-I'm sorry," he managed to get out, gaze dropping to his feet again. "I...I just have to bring you to the throne room. I don't know what answers I can give you - I-I don't even know what questions you have-"

Something suddenly dawned on Aska.

He hesitantly looked up from the ground. Everyone was wearing unfamiliar kinds of clothes. They didn't look like they were from any of the nearby kingdoms, and the one with the white coat didn't seem to recognize Laetae's name. But Laetae wasn't a little kingdom. It was big kingdom. Everyone would recognize its name, wouldn't they?

...Where were all these people from?

And why were they here?

"Um..." Aska quietly said. "You're...You're not from-"

He was cut off by a crashing sound from nearby.

Aska spun around.

The other occupant of the castle - the one that was supposed to be in the throne room - was in the middle of picking himself off of the ground. Golden eyes met golden pinpricks of light as the two both froze and stared at each other from over the hedges of the rose garden.

He had the sword he had been trying to jerk free earlier. He was holding it awkwardly in one hand, almost like he wasn't really sure if he was supposed to use it or not. His gaze (and the sword tip) drifted; he finally seemed to remember that there were other people there.

And then he decided to march right through the rosebushes.

Aska decided it was best to look away. All of those thorns would hurt, even with scales. And the rosebushes were enchanted to grow back from major destruction like that, too. If he had looked, he would have seen the sword wielder wincing as he stormed over to the group.

When the last rosebush had been conquered, he whipped the sword out and pointed it between the tiny girl and the man with the white coat. The tip also was pointed in the direction of everyone else, but it was clear who its owner thought was the real offenders.

"Leave my bes-knight alone," he growled - Aska didn't know he had it in him. "I'm an incredibly skilled swordsman-"

He was interrupted by a bit of the wall that the sword had been previously attached to popping off of the blade and hitting the ground.

(Aska was starting to realize that some of the wall had refused to stay in place when the sword was taken out of his stand. He was terrified to see what the wall looked like now - and how Tieth would react to it.)

He awkwardly cleared his throat.

"-and a very powerful king," he continued, giving the sword an extra little wave. "I have slain all that defied me, and killed countless monsters as well. Stay back, or I will slay you with this..."

He glanced down at the sword.

"...almighty blade of...death?"

Sinestra quite simply looked at the speaker, walked up to him, and poked him with her cane. "I'm an extremely old ad powerful sorceress. I eat brutes like you for breakfast. Bug off."

"Interesting," Rea frowned. "Good metal, certainly. What's with the wall?"
Her stick began blotting paper once again.

Aska continued making excuses, and Devony continued getting impatient. And angry.

And nervous.

She nudged the other boy who had defended the suit of armor.

"I don't think we should trust it," she whispered. "It's a trap. It's got to be. Why bring us to the throne room of all places? Not answer our questions?"

She didn't feel too warmly toward the armor now, even though she still pitied it.

"What's your name, by the way?" she asked. "Might as well get it over with. I'm Devony."

Aska started speaking, but something large cut it (him?) off. They heard a large crash behind the rose bushes.

A large, dragon-like creature emerged from the thorns, wielding a large sword.

Devony shrieked and stumbled backward.

Vankous laughed. "I agree with grandma here. If you're not here to answer some questions you can go back to where you came from, think of a slightly more creative name for that sword and then maybe come back once you learn how to do a proper landing."

He took a couple of steps forward and produced his calculator from one of his pockets. Carefully balancing the cheetos, he typed away before looking back up.

"I'll give you two out of ten for the landing and solid one point five out of ten for intimidation. I mean seriously, you may have 'slayed' all that defied you but I have a feeling rosebushes have the been deadliest foes to ever defy you."

He returned his calculator to his pocket then popped a cheeto in his mouth, crunching it loudly for emphasis.

Sinestra glared at the one who had called her grandma. "You, too, sonny boy. Keep your trap shut, and we'll all be better off for it."

Frederic sighed. "Sinestra?"

"Yes?"

"Remember that you don't have magic here."

Sinestra made a blank face before looking at the being she'd poked. "Don't get any ideas. I enjoy a good caning."

If someone had told Nendros how this day was going to go when he woke up that morning, he probably wouldn't have believed them. For one thing, no one actually lived in the castle besides him and Aska - and Tieth had just visited the other day. For another thing, no one was ever supposed to end up in front of the castle because of a magical protection he couldn't ever begin to understand.

The day had started off normal. Nendros had tried making breakfast in the kitchen. He failed, like usual. He went to the throne room and tried reading through the book he had left in there the night before, but then he realized that he hadn't seen Aska yet. He searched the castle until he found him staring out the window on the second floor. And while Aska was a suit of armor, it wasn't all that hard to read him: he knew that something was up.

...And then he had seen the people.

A lot of people.

There weren't supposed to be people at the castle, and they certainly weren't supposed to look so human. He had been so terrified that he had accidentally knocked over a vase with a tail he still wasn't used to.

But it wasn't like he could just ignore them. They were just as stuck as Aska and him were - and the only place they could go besides the forest was the castle. So Nendros had come up with a plan.

It wasn't a good plan. It was a terrible plan, actually. But the only thing he really had on his side was how terrifying he looked, so he thought he would use it to his advantage and pretend to be more intimidating than he was. He'd sit on the throne with the sword he finally managed to rip from the wall, and pretend to be just the way a king was supposed to be. They'd be so scared that they wouldn't dare to attack him or Aska.

And since he was sitting on the throne, Aska had to be the one to get people. But Aska was shy, and Nendros realized ten minutes later that he was a horrible best friend for asking him to go outside on his own. He decided to sneak out and fly high up ahead to make sure Aska was alright, but then the sword's weight completely threw him off - and he went crashing into the rosebushes.

Again.

When he realized that everyone was crowding around Aska, he thought the best thing to do was the thing he had been planning on doing inside: act like an intimidating king. But he didn't know what to call his sword, barely remembered how to actually use his sword, and was seriously outnumbered. To make things worse, only one person had screamed so far. Everyone else seemed unfazed by a tall, muscular dragon person - how were they so unfazed?

"Nen," Aska whispered in his ear, "I think they're confused, too."

Nendros faltered, lowering the sword a little. He glanced at the others in front of him - at all the strange, unfamiliar faces, and strange, unfamiliar clothes. Then he looked back at Aska, golden eyes filled with confusion.

"They're...they're not going to hurt me," Aska reassured him. "They just were worried because I wasn't telling them why I was taking them to the throne room..."

He paused.

"...Also, don't look at your arm," he added.

Nendros furrowed his brow.

Don't look at his arm? Why wouldn't he-

He glanced down at his arm and immediately paled.

The part of his arm that wasn't covered by scales had been cut by the rosebushes' thorns. A thin but long gash ran from his shoulder to the start of the scales; even the scales looked a little scratch.

A nauseous feeling settled in his stomach.

There was blood.

It wasn't a lot, but it was definitely there. Nendros fought the urge to hurl at the sight. He could handle this. He had to handle this, even if he felt like every part of him wanted to throw up his burnt breakfast.

Laetae. Castle of Blood. Disney.

Were these things he was supposed to know about?

Alan wanted to defend Aska, but honestly, he had no idea what to say. So instead he stood there, staring at him with a confused look, opening his mouth to say something, but no words came out. A few others continued to bicker about him, seemingly unfazed about his words. Why couldn't Aska tell them the reason why he wanted to bring them to the throne room?

Too much was going on right now to give Alan the proper headspace to think. He felt a stress headache coming on and now he wished he was back home reading a book under the tree.

Someone nudged his arm, and instinctively Alan flinched and defensively turned around. It was the girl he had talked to earlier -- Devony -- who also seemed to defend Aska, but this time her face was scrunched up with suspicions. It made him glad that they seemed to be on the same page here.

"I'm not sure," he said back. "They could've been the ones who brought us here. It may be a trap but I'm not sure what else to do. I don't know who to trust here." He looked at Devony, then at the others, then back at her. For some reason he felt like he could trust her. "I'm Alan."

As if right on cue, a scaly creature that looked like a cross between a fish and a lizard emerged out of the rosebushes with a sword. Alan first felt utter shock, because what the heck is that thing? But then it subsided as it seemed that only he and Devony seemed at least a little mystified by this creature, and it kept subsiding more and more until there was no shock left over each time the creature opened his mouth to speak.

Clearly, the winged fish-lizard was trying to scare all of them. The situation felt all-too-familiar with Alistair and Elias defending him from bullies when Alan was younger; although they didn't know how to use their powers or had any kind of brute-force tactic, they were very good at pretending that they did. The creature's voice was laced with uncertainty, and even though he wasn't human, he had the same acting expression as someone who was.

"I don't think he knows how to use that sword," Alan said softly over to Devony. "Actually, I don't think he knows how to be intimidating at all."

Vankous watched with interest as the new arrival seemed to freak out as he looked at his own bloodied arm. If that paling was indicator that was not someone that had ever been in a proper fight. I'd bet this bag of cheetos that he does not know how to use that sword.

Vankous a twinge of sympathy for the creature but then brushed it aside. There was no telling if it was just acting in order to appear weak. Trust must be earned. He repeated the one line that he had bothered to take to heart from training. And this creature had not done a single thing to earn any amount of trust.

Ari gawked at the dragon-person. A person. But a dragon. And it talked the way humans did and it was a dragon. A talking dragon.

She started feeling lightheaded. All this was way too much on her mind. She already had enough to worry about at home. Now there were dragon people and talking armors and sassy old people. What's next? Moo-ing dogs?

Ari opened her mouth to talk but a squeak came out. She cleared her throat and stepped back, in line with the person beside her, who was Frederic (Ari had heard the very old woman call him that.) "Do you know how I can get back to Vancouver?" she asked him quietly.

This man looked pretty decent and wise, so Ari could probably get some information out of him, get into the Castle of Blood with the others, take some stuff that she would need, and somehow find her way back to Vancouver.

Frederic sighed. "The little old lady would normally be our best bet, but as she doesn't have her magic at the moment--"

"Vancouver?" Sinestra interrupted. "I haven't been there since Pierre Trudeau was PM in... Oh, was it 1978? That sounds about right, yes, 1978... Yes, that was the year Charles Best died, so it would be '78... I've always preferred Europe, personally, and parts of New England, but the occasional trip to Canada can be quite satisfying."

"Sinestra?"

"Yes, Frederic?"

"You're rambling again."

"Was I? Sorry."

The older man sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Rea heard them talk about... Vankoover, was it? It sounded fascinating - she had always believed it was possible to travel between different worlds - but the dragon man drew her attention.

"Are you coldblooded?" she asked eagerly. "Do you have to sit in the sun like lizards? Of course, if you're part dragon, chances are you're warmblooded. Or hotblooded." Then she noticed the cut on his arm. "Fascinating!"
She jotted down some notes, muttering something about poor quality fishscales.

Devony nodded in agreement with Alan. Her initial fear faded, and now the creature was just laughable.

Or maybe she was in hysterics.

"He can't even stand up for himself," she whispered to Alan. Now that the "danger" had passed, the creature looked harmless, like a child. And...

“I think he’s hurt,” she said. Devony raised a finger to her lips and took Alan’s hand. She wasn’t ready to draw attention to herself yet. She silently walked toward Aska, sidestepping the others. No one made a move toward her, or spoke to her.

Invisibility was perhaps a good thing.

Alan right behind her, Devony tapped Aska on the shoulder. A quick glance towards the creature proved her right: there was a long gash on his shoulder.

“I think your friend needs to care for his shoulder,” she told him. “And I think we’ve all stood in the garden long enough.”