Young Writers Society

MECKIAH

I felt afraid, horrified actually, but I ccouldn't let him know. Besides, he didn't look like the type who would slit my throat. Then again, looks can be decieving. His face was wrenched in pain and I almost felt sorry for him. I couldn't show that either.
I wanted desperately to say something sarcastic, and no matter how much I tried to push out something helpless-sounding, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. "Okay, I'll just get up now and manage to gather up my super-human-strength that I don't have to haul her over to wherever you want. Don't worry about my ankle, it's just fine!" I wanted so badly to spit at his feet, but thought better of it. Perhaps he would kill...Instead I turned my head and spit to my left. "Look, as much as I wanna help, I don't think I can." I didn't want to help...at all.
"Oh, you can," he growled, "Give me your hand."
I chose life and gave him my hand; it wouldn't do me much good to have my throat slit for not helping. He only struggled slightly to pull me up, I had lost a lot of weight since I started having issues finding food. Maybe they were the problem?
I followed him, limping. Pain was shooting up and down my leg, but it was do or die the way I saw it.
"Name?" he demanded when we reached the girl.
I groaned. What did it matter what my name was? "Meckiah," I gave in. It was his camp, afterall.
I watched as he squatted and groaned when he saw that she was unconsious. He lifted her arm, placing it around his shoulder. I followed his lead, wanting to scream in pain. I fell to my knees, dropping the girl and groaning.

Darkkon-

"Why are you doing all this?" the boy ((man?))asked, "Why do you want to attack our town? We've done nothing to you!"

I chuckled. "My dear boy, are you really so blind? Power is gained through control. So in order for me to get power, I must have control over something. And your land here is most certainly something."

I bent down to look at the unconscious girl. "Now, who is this pretty one?" I asked. The boy swung at my head, but I easily swatted him away. I pulled off one of my gloves and touched her forehead.
"So. Geneva is the girl. Now... who are you?" I asked stepping closer. The boy whipped out a knife and lunged. Somehow, though, my hand holding the dagger flipped up of its own accord and knocked his away. I looked at it speculatively. It must have some magical properties.

"Tsk. I wouldn't have done that." I whispered coolly, and I leaped forward and put the knife at his throat. I pressed my fingers to his forehead.
"So? You're... Jeremiah?" I said pressing lightly with the dagger until a small cut formed. He winced. "Y..yes." I smiled. "Care to tell me where you're going?" I asked. The boy shook. "Away...away from...here."
I looked at him closely. He wasn't lying. I looked back at the girl. He obviously cared about her. It would be cowardly of me to kill two defenseless people. I stepped back and whistled loudly. Two large mutant bears came lumbering towards me. I pulled my glove back on as I spoke.
"I'll let you go, presuming you don't try to get enforcements. My two minions will accompany you to ensure you don't try anything." I patted one on the head. "You will go far away. Don't try to kill my minions. You will not succeed. They are both five times as strong as you." I grabbed the pair's weapons. "Now walk. My minions will be as gentle as you are to them. I suppose you can put the girl on one of their backs if you like."

As the boy, girl, and two mutants rambled off. I cursed. Such a show of mercy! That was weak. I grabbed the boy's dagger and threw it at a crow sitting in a tree, bringing it down. I looked at its glossy black feathers. Nobody would ever get such a show of... weakness from me again.

MECKIAH

Something hit my head, and then my stomache. My vision began to blur and I trembled violently. What was happening?
Something was wrong, terribly, terribly wrong. I didn't understand it, not the slightest. Somebody inoccent was being taken.
The world grew black.

MYLES

"Oh Jesus Christ!" Myles shouted as the other girl fell unconscious. Now what was he supposed to do? This was just not his day.

Myles gritted his teeth and lifted the new girl, Meckiah, under her arms on his left side while he grabbed Jesse around her waist with his right arm. His entire body screamed in protest but he and Meckiah had made good progress actually getting to camp and it didn't take Myles long to finish half carrying - half dragging the girls there.

He lay Meckiah down in Angella's blankets (he had no idea of where she was) because he knew she wouldn't mind. Then he focused on getting Jesse to her own tent and somewhere comfortable.

He heard yelling and the unmistakable swish of a dagger. Myles carefulling lay Jesse down and then quietly headed towards the sounds. It was a good thing he was used to moving quietly because he wasn't sure he'd like what he was going to find.

MECKIAH

I groaned, unable to open my eyes for the pain that was pounding in my head. I was on something soft...strange, I hadn't been on anything soft for ages. Usually I just slept wherever seemed safest. I brain willed to stop trying to crush my skull and jump out of my head. Finally, it settled slightly and I opened one eye nervously, unsure of what I would find. I was in a tent! I didn't own a tent. I opened my other eye and stared into space. What was happening? My brow furrowed and I tried to sit up, and immediately regretted it. A sharp pain surged through my stomach and up my chest. I jerked in shock, regretting that also; my ankle felt like it was about to snap in two!
You were fell off a tree trying to find food. The memory came back in segments, fell out of the tree, sprained ankle, boy and unconscious girl, horrible pain and... I couldn't remember the last part. Maybe there wasn't anything after that. I had obviously been unconcious for a while now.
I layed back down slowly and closed my eyes.

*Sorry if it's a bit confusing - but since I was trying to convey the confused mess Geneva's head obviously is in...*

"Unh...uh..." Geneva groaned as she regained consciousness. As she opened her eyes, she quickly closed them again - the images were too blurry, and the darkness of her surroundings weren't helping one bit.

"You're awake! Thank heavens."

She opened her eyes to see a worried Jeremiah hovering over her. She momentarily thought how odd it felt to be knocked out twice in one day. She sat up, putting a hand to her head.

"Jeremiah, what am I doing here? I thought..."

Memories flashed in her mind - shooting arrows at mutants, the images of the two brothers, then...oblivion. She blinked blearily. "What happened?"

"Well..."

Jeremiah

The bears were going to be a problem. That sorcerer, or whatever he was, had said that they were free to go away from the village. But Jeremiah only needed to get Geneva as far from the place as possible, and give her somewhere to recover. He himself was hardly going to leave his family there alone. Any one of them could hold their own against scores of mutants, he knew that, but if the man who controlled those mutants could summon enough of these bears, then even the remaining defenders of the village would not be able to hold. They would need all the help they could get.

Geneva stirred, and he quickly set her down, not wanting her to jump up suddenly and knock him over. She opened her eyes momentarily, then quickly closed them again. Jeremiah sighed with relief. "You're awake! Thank heavens."

"Jeremiah," she said, holding a hand to her head as she pulled herself into a sitting position, "What am I doing here? I thought..." She looked around, blinking several times. "What happened?"

"You were hit on the head by a falling brick." He said, thinking it best to keep things simple. "It was best to get you away from the town, so I carried you. But Michael stayed, he went with the rest of my family. But we just got held up by the man who's behind this whole thing, and he took our weapons and left us with a couple of...guards." He glanced in each direction, noting the position of the bears.

The man had been right, it would almost certainly be suicide to attack them. Jeremiah was strong, far stronger than the average person, and had subtle magic woven into his very skin. But even one of the bears would have given him pause. "I need to get back into the village as soon as possible," he said, "But I've got no idea how I'm going to get around them."

I didn't know how long I had been asleep. The sun was casting a small ammount of light through the tent walls, so it must be late afternoon...or early morning depending on how long I had slept.
Remembering the pain in my stomach and head, I rose to a sitting position cautiously. No pain fabricated anywhere except for my ankle, which was still throbbing. I looked around, but there wasn't much to see.
I sighed and untied my robe, removing it carefully and reaching behind me to the hidden sheath. To my relief, the sword was still tucked inside and resting peacefully. I pulled it out carefully and held it infront of me.
A fresh wave of sadness washed over me. The sword had once belonged to a man I had grown to love. He had been in training with me before I fled and turned to theivery. I couldn't forget his hazel eyes and light brown hair, his face haunted me wherever I went. The night he told me he loved me had been the happiest moment of my life since my parent's death. The next morning I found that he had been killed along with twenty others. Nobody every did figure out who had killed them, but I had vowed that I would find out and get my revenge. I was given his sword by the commander, for he had known about us.
I eyes began to water at the memory. Don't you dare start crying! I demanded myself. Then again, there wasn't anybody there to watch me and there was nobody outside. I let myself go, sobbing for my lost love hopelessly. I didn't care if anybody heard me anymore.

*Sorry, I haven't posted in ages!*

Arthur

Arthur was swearing. He was clutching a large branch in both hands, tramping alone in the woods, with no sense of direction. Hence the swearing. The past day – or was it two days, now? – had been the worst of his life. Fighting with Genie, Pricilla being, well, Pricilla, being robbed, and, finally, being beaten nearly to a pulp by mutants (or so he thought to himself; really, he hadn’t faired too badly against the monsters).

Once the rather frightening man whom Pricilla had practically run into had turned his attention away from them, Arthur had lost no time in dragging his sister away into the forest. She, for once, had not argued. They had tramped along for several minutes before they encountered any problems. Unfortunately, the problems were in the form of three hairy mutants. While trying to escape the group, Arthur and Pricilla had gotten separated. He could only hope that she had managed to get away.


Arthur was just wondering how his day could possibly get any worse when he stumbled into some sort of camp. After blinking rather stupidly in surprise, he began, very cautiously, to poke around. It looked… It looked rather shabby, but he could see some bright, new, expensive things glinting through tent entrances. And then, through a gap in a tent’s canvas, he saw a girl holding a sword. It was only then that things really clicked.

The thieves’ camp! He thought, backpedaling wildly. He had already been caught by thieves once today, and there was no way that –

He tripped over a bucket, flailed madly, and fell into a tent, thereby collapsing it by altogether unconventional means. Arthur, now hopelessly tangled in tent fabric, groaned. He just had to ask if things would get worse, didn’t he?

MYLES

Myles turned around as someone -or something- caused a disturbance in the camp.

"Who's there?" He demanded, dagger out and ready.

There was a muffled sound as a man struggled to get himself out of a tent. Myles helped the man out only to put his dagger to his throat. The man looked like he was ready to tell him off but the dagger sparked a bit of fear in his eyes.

"You. I saved you!" Myles said, his face recognizable to the one he had slapped and woken up.

"D-Did you?" He asked, laughing. "Well I thank you although I'm not quite sure I-"

Myles dug the blade deep enough into the skin to let a single drop of blood well up and drip down his otherwise shining silver dagger.

"Don't thank me yet," he growled. "Who're you? A spy? A servant of that lunatic with the mutants?"

"N-No!" He shouted, alarmed. "Honest!"

Myles raised his chin but a hoarse voice called from behind him. "Myles!"

He closed his eyes tightly and growled "What is it?"

"Leave him be! There's no need to kill him! He might have information anyway," Jesse replied.

Jesse:

Myles half-turned back to me. He looked furious. I limped out of my tent and stopped a ew feet away from him.

"What?" he asked. The man looked terrorifed.

"Arthur, right?" I asked. The man blinked. "You're fiance is that girl with the bow and arrow?"

"Y-yes," the man stuttered. "I'm Arthur. Genie is my beloved."

I snorted. "She didn't seem to think so." I turned to Myles. "Now, is he helpful? He should know about anyone else still alive."

Myles sighed and after giving Arthur a hard look, pulled the blade away and let the boy go. Arthur fell over again, making me laugh. But then the coughing started.

Geneva frowned and looked around - sure enough, there were two lumbering mutants standing beside them. She stood up shakily, her hand still to her head. "But then...what do we do?"

The bears were beginning to look irritable, and Jeremiah grabbed her arm. "Let's keep moving, okay?" She nodded reluctantly, and they began to move, albeit at a slow pace.

Then it hit her.

"The serpent!" She hissed at him. "He's probably sleeping, but if I'm correct, we're heading in his direction. We can try waking him up - "

"And then he'll rescue us from the mutants?" Jeremiah looked hesitant. "I don't really know...it sounds kind of crazy - "

"Do you have a better plan?"

He frowned. "Well...I guess not."

"Then let's go!"

MECKIAH

I heard the commotion outside and stopped crying. I wiped my eyes quickly and grabbed my sword, exiting the tent. What had just happened? Had somebody just come into the tent? I didn't know...I hadn't been paying much attention to anything. I was too lost in my world of self-pity.
The boy who had made me help the girl was holding a daggar to the throat of yet another boy, threatening him.
Why did he look so familiar? They were shouting something about fiances and girls with bows and arrows.
"What's going on?" I demanded, crossing my arms.

"Genie is my beloved," Scar? lol

---

Arthur

Arthur rubbed his throat nervously. That was, what? The second, third time he’d been held by knife point today? The robber girl, the one who had, apparently, tried to attack Geneva had just finished speaking when another girl, the one Arthur had seen with the sword, came out of a nearby tent.

“What’s going on?” she asked, folding her arms. She was… quite pretty, Arthur thought, to his own surprise. But the moment passed, and he reminded himself that she was, after all, an untrustworthy thief, a probable murderer, and, needless to say, armed. Besides, Genie would be waiting for him, and when she heard about how he beat the mutants… Or tried to, at least… she would be so impressed.

“I, uh,” he stuttered, trying to explain his presence at the camp, as it was obvious that all of the thieves thought that he was up to no good.

“I found my way into the camp after getting away from some, uh, mutants,” He said, very fast and in a rather high tone. “I, er, tripped, and this gentleman here,” he subtly edged away from the man with the knife, “showed up, and the whole thing uh, just, um, happened?” Arthur, aware of the hostile gazes of the three people, stuttered into silence.

---

Gawd, is this guy deluded/wimpy or what?

MECKIAH

I ignored the boy's story completely. He looked like...he looked like Seth! Seth, my long lost love! My eyes widened and my body tremled violently.
"You-you remind me of somebody..." I stuttered. Tears threatened to spill over and I tried desperately to hold them back. How could they look so alike? It was infuriating! Despite my best efforts, one escaped.
My eyes must have been desperately red and puffy...they were seeing me in my weakest state... Great...
I took a step back, shaking my head. He couldn't look that much like Seth! I swallowed hard. My ankle whined at me after I took yet another step back, but I ignored it. My heart was pounding, he was looking right at me!
"S-Seath?" I couldn't believe I had actually said that out loud! I let another tear escape. I needed to get out of here, but I coudln't make my feet move, nor could I pry my eyes off of the boy.