Young Writers Society

It was a dark and stormy night, and the last thing you wanted was to be in this strange town in the middle of...well...

You're not really all that sure. Your day started normally enough. But before you knew it, you found yourself on the outskirts of a town straight out of a renaissance fair. You don't remember falling asleep. You don't remember being knocked unconscious. When you try to figure out how you got here, all you can think of is hearing a weird humming in your ears right before the world around you changed as quickly as fingers snapping.

Despite your strange clothes and overall confusion, the townspeople eagerly accept you. They're used to travelers from other places and worlds—and if it wasn't for that pesky thunderstorm on the horizon, they would take you to the device that will let you leave this place. It looks like you'll have to stay the night.

Maybe surprisingly and maybe not, you and the others you find outside the town aren't the only travelers staying overnight tonight. There's another traveler, too, who seems far more used to this world than you are. Even the townspeople aren't all that sure what to do with him.

But the traveler knows things about this galaxy and world—things that might be key to figuring out how you got here in the first place. With the storm quickly approaching and the night growing darker with each passing moment, there's certainly no rush to find out his knowledge.

Or is there?





1. Darunia "Runi" Vain [Magebird]

2. Raleigh [Corvid]

3. Wren Deltroy [atlast]

4. Sean Ashton Argentum [HarryHardy]

5. Tithorea "Rea" Glaswell [LittleLee]

Runi was confused.

Like really confused.

She had just gotten home for her shift and was getting ready for a walk in the park. She hadn't entirely decided if she was going to bring her instrument(s) or not, but she was out of her work clothes and in something a little more comfortable. She had even gone as far as getting her shoes on. But before she could even start walking over to where she kept her instruments, she heard a weird humming in her ears.

Like the kind of humming that would lead to something magical happening.

A moment later, she found herself standing on the outskirts of a city that had the same feeling as the living museum she went to last month. But this really wasn't a living museum; it seemed far more lived in.

At the very least, she wasn't the only person standing around and seeming completely out of place. There were others, too. And Runi had a sneaking suspicion that they were going to be key to figuring out this whole thing.

"Is anyone else really confused right now?" she asked.

Sean let out a yawn as he rushed through his warm up. He'd managed to somehow set his alarm half an hour too late and now he was going to have to cut his morning run in half or skip breakfast. Considering just how crazy a workday could be, not having breakfast would potentially end up being a terrible idea, so he was settling for rushing through his run.

The rush had meant, he had somehow managed to forget to put on his shoes, so he was currently wearing a terrible pair of slippers, they weren't the worst things to be running in, they were issued by the agency after all and were designed for use in bathroom based combat {that had been a weird day of training} but his shoes were vastly better. He'd also managed to forget his communicator, so he was going to have to eyeball how far he ran. On the bright side, the locator band was still on because he had forgotten to take it off the night before.

With one final stretch, he took the streets, getting a good pace going. As he ran, there was a sudden humming sound around him and he was suddenly looking at the outskirts of a city. He frowned. It didn't look anything like a town he'd seen on Larxiana before.

He checked his locator band and nearly screamed. It was a reading on a scale he hadn't seen before. He was definitely not anywhere near home.

And then someone asked a question.

"I definitely am," he replied, turning to see a woman standing there. She looked strangely normal compared to the weird town he was currently standing near to.

Wren’s eyes fluttered open, squinting against the bright midmorning sun. Her muscles were stiff and the bark of the tree she was propped up against cut into her back, no doubt poking a few holes in her shirt. She had decided to skip her classes at the local community college and ended up taking a nap at the nearby park. No one uses algebra in their daily lives, anyway.

Wren grumbled as she slowly worked the last remnants of sleep from her body, standing up and shaking the leaves out of her hair. The park was quiet for a Friday morning; a lone dog walker strode past, the small dog attached to the other end of the leash pulling ahead to chase after a squirrel.

With one last pat-down, making sure to brush the dirt from her clothes, Wren crossed the patch of neatly trimmed grass and headed down the sidewalk. She hummed a simple melody as she thought through the next part of her day; maybe she could stop at the diner and get lunch.

But, before she could decide, a strange humming filled her ears. Wren closed her eyes and swatted the air nearest her face. The bees were starting to repopulate the park after the harsh winter of the last few months, and she was less than excited to encounter them.

When Wren opened her eyes, her hand froze in midair. Before her was the outskirts of a city she had never seen before. It looked old, like old old, and it definitely wasn’t the town she begrudgingly called home. Wren took a step back. Where was she? Did she get stung by a bee and pass out, suddenly allergic? Was she dreaming?

Wren was frozen in place, racking her brain trying to figure out when she had passed out when she heard two other voices. She turned to see a man and a woman, both about her age, looking as confused as she felt.

“Where the hell are we?”

"That's a good question," Runi said. She glanced around the area they were in again. She already knew that she was on the outskirts of a city that looked vaguely historical, but she hadn't realized how empty it looked outside of the city. For a place that seemed so cut-off from the rest of the world, the city really did seem alive. She could make out people walking around in the streets and could hear their voices carrying on the wind.

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," she guessed, tilting her head to the side and resting her hand against her chin, "and this doesn't look like Hell."

Wren had to stop herself from openly cringing at the reference. Her little brother had forced her to watch The Wizard of Oz so many times as a kid she was pretty sure she could recite it word for word. Instead, she followed the other girl’s gaze, eyeing the bustling city before them. The soft bustle of the people within traveled over the light breeze. They were all going about their days while Wren and the others, she assumed, were ripped out of theirs.

“So we’re not dead,” Wren mumbled. As much as her racing thoughts had tried to convince her, they were still alive and well. At least, they were for now.

Wren turned and faced the other two. She absently reached up and touched her ear, speaking slowly. “I’m Wren. Did you guys hear the humming too?”

"I can confirm the not dead theory," said Sean, "this is definitely not a part of the underworld. Hmm...you heard the humming too then. I did hear it, right before I was dragged over here, wherever here is."

"I'm Runi," Runi offered, giving Wren a friendly grin. "Short for Darunia Vain. I also heard the humming before I got here, but it was...weird. I was in my apartment, and nothing in there makes a noise like that."

Wren eyed the boy, trying to shrug off his comment. ...this is definitely not a part of the underworld…. It was weird and kind of unsettling, but it wasn’t the strangest thing she’d encountered today. Besides, they had more important things to talk about.

She shook her head to regain her focus and began to run through what they knew. They had all heard a strange humming, then appeared on the outskirts of an old city with no knowledge of how. Wren huffed, frustrated that they didn’t know more.

“I was in the park,” she stated, quickly filling in the others on her side of the situation. “I heard the humming, and when I opened my eyes, I was here.” Of course, the anecdote was almost identical to the others’, but Wren figured communicating the little bit she knew was better than not saying anything at all.

"Hmm...almost forget, I'm Sean by the way," said Sean," and well...I was um...just about to go jogging...as you can probably tell by the you...know." Sean gestured to his outfit. "The slippers however are just me being forgetful, cause...yeah, let's not get into that. But anyway, that's what happened with me, I was just getting a decent pace going, and then there's a humming, and the next thing I know, I'm no longer running through a city path but I'm in this grass field."

Tithorea wandered out of Blossom's Bookstore in a complete daze as usual. Being surrounded by so many books did that to her, and the old lady who managed the store had had to gently nudge her out her trance.

Nose buried in The Pocket Menagerie, she ambled along, occasionally bumping into a passer-by or shrub. She didn't have to worry about anyone stealing things from her satchel; the guards here were very rigorous and took their duties seriously.

Besides, at this point they probably knew her face. After all, one didn't join a band of renowned monster hunters, be a bookworm, and remain unnoticed.

As she made her way out of the town and towards the field where her camp was being set up, she vaguely noticed an odd buzzing. Attributing it to a bug, her hand absently patted down her messy hair to check if one had got trapped in it. The buzzing persisted, and she finally looked up.

"Eh?" Rea said out loud. She swivelled around, scanning her surroundings.

This was not the town of Perr or its outskirts. She was sure of that. She blinked, then took her spectacles out of her bag, cleaned them, and put them on.

The strange town stayed where it was, lively and bustling.

Rea frowned slightly and looked behind her. Had she accidentally stepped into the radius of an activated Waystone? But no, the telltale shimmer wasn't present anywhere around her.

What was happening?

She looked around again, and spotted a small group of people who looked similarly bewildered. Making up her mind, she wandered over to them. "Hi, do you know where we are?"

Raleigh awoke to the sound of humming. It was a strange sort of tune, and was entirely unlike anything they'd ever heard before. It woke them up quickly enough. Rolling onto their other side, Raleigh quickly discovered where they'd been transported to.

A tree.

Specifically, the branches of one.
They really needed to stop sleeping like this. Though that hardly mattered now, as they crashed to the ground below.

"Hhhgh.." Raleigh groaned. They stood up, brushed off their robes and flicked the dust from their tail. "Sorry about that," they said, once they'd noticed the strangers around them. "I hope I didn't fall on any-" Raleigh paused. The city they were in was entirely unfamiliar.

Ugh. This wasn't the first time this had happened on their trade routes. At least this time their client was more lenient -- Count Dimmadome had always been patient with when his shipments arrived.
Still, they couldn't stay.

Raleigh turned to the strangers once more. "Y'all wouldn't happen to know which city this is, would you?"

"We were wondering the same thing," Runi admitted. There was nothing to say that the other people here weren't human, but they had a...feeling to them that made them feel off. Runi couldn't shake the suspicion that none of them were from the same place, even though Sean and the first girl had both seemed like they could be from Earth.

"I'm Runi, by the way," she offered. "Short for Darunia Vain! I think the consensus right now is that we're all very confused and don't really know where we are, but maybe we'll be able to figure that out soon?"

"Sadly yeah, we know essentially nothing about where we are," said Sean, "and well, let's hope we can. There's got to be some answers somewhere as to where are we and more importantly I suppose, why exactly we're here in the first place?"

Wren nodded in agreement, eyeing the others. She didn't know a lot about magic outside of her own, but it was clear that not everyone was from the Earth she knew.

"We should head into the city. Then, we can figure out where we are and go from there."