Young Writers Society

“Is Josephinzo the one getting married? He hasn’t talked about being engaged to anyone.” Vendetta jogged to catch up the the WANNABES.

José and Otto shared a look. “Oh trust me. There’s someone he likes.”

“Sekil yllaer eh enoemos.”

“What, like a crush?” Vendetta shook their head. “That’s not enough to get married

"Have they gone on any dates yet?" Valeri asked.

José hesitated. "Uh... Maybe? I'm sure our great Josephinzo would do everything right. But that's personal information..." He pulled open the door to the dry-cleaner's. "Anyways, let's get his suit!"

Valeri shared a look with Vendetta. "Now do you feel suspicious about this wizard?"

"Maybe he's just shy?" Vendetta sighed. "I don't know. All of the WANNABES seem to love him."

Dusk nodded. "Yeah, and everyone loved Reverend Jim Jones and see what happened to them."

"You are not comparing Josephinzo to the evil Kool-aid cult man!"

"Oh, I am. Do you want to know why?"

"Why?"

Dusk hissed, "Because this feels like a cult. All the WANNABES-"

"What's a cult?" Carter interrupted curiously.

"You don't need to worry about that, child." Dawn joined the discussion, their blade shimmering softly. "Just be cautious of the wizard and the WANNABES, okay?"

Carter frowned. "But why? The wizard is cool!"

Vendetta groaned. “Let’s just go! Okay? Come on Carter.” They stormed off into the Dry Cleaner’s with Carter.

Dusk sighed. “Well, we know where they stand.”

"Indeed... I'm afraid Vendetta can be too trusting sometimes... Though they always say I'm too skeptical." Valeri pursed her lips. "I suppose we have to finish these errands, though. Josephinzo's more likely to be talkative if he's in a good mood. So I guess I'll play along for now."

Dawn hummed, and they entered the dry cleaner's as well.

José brandished Josephinzo’s suit, all wrapped up in a thin plastic bag. “There you are! We’re done here. We’ve acquired the mystery suit.”

Otto nodded. “S’remoorg eht ot tar eht ekat ot evah tusj ew won.”

José looked down at the rat in Otto’a hands. It hissed in his face before curling up into a tight ball.

"That rat looks evil," Valeri commented.

"Hey, it's rude to judge by appearances!" José looked at the animal. "I'm sure this is a very noble rat." The rat bared its teeth and José quickly backed away. "Y-yeah, nice rat...."

Wormy held the door open, and the questing group left the dry-cleaner's. The grooming shop was a block away, and as they walked under the morning sunlight, they could hear the hubbub of the other city inhabitants. A couple of dwarves crossed the street, and a baby orc was crying about his fallen ice cream. Just another normal day... except for the newspapers with their glaring headlines about "Malacoda the Dark Sun."

"Hey WANNABES, isn't Josephinzo supposed to be preparing to fight this evil Malacoda person or something?" Valeri asked. "Why's he preparing for a wedding instead?"

José sighed. “Well, we don’t know if he’s going to a wedding. He could be going to see the president to ask for military help too. There’s lots of things a suit could be used for.”

“Adocalam tsniaga yrotciv sih rof gniraperp s’eh ro.”

Wormy held out her hands like she was dancing with someone and swayed side to side.

"Wormy looks convinced that he's going to a wedding..."

José shrugged. "I'm sure he has a great master plan! Anyways, let's get his familiar groomed."

Wormy pushed open the door to the shop, and once the rat was safely deposited, José clapped his hands. "Alright! We have an hour to spend while the rat gets groomed. What do you all want to do?"

Wormy jumped, holding her wedding veil in place. She gestured for the group to follow her, pointing in the direction of the store next door.

José nodded. “You’re right! There’s a sale on familiars in the pet shop next door. Our prophesied heros deserve mighty companions!”

Vendetta gasped. “We get our own familiars?”

"This sounds like an obvious change of subject, but, I mean, if you WANNABES are going to pay for them..." Valeri peeked in the window of the pet shop next door. There were owls, rabbits, turtles, baby unicorns, etc. flying/hopping/crawling/prancing around the store. Prospective customers were eagerly petting the animals. It looked pretty chaotic.

Valeri stopped just outside the door and asked, "So how does getting a familiar work?"

José laughed. “You don’t know?”

Otto pulled him. “Ecin eb.”

“Sorry. Anyways, familiars are made of pure magic. But, a couple of years ago, someone engineered a box that would read your palmprint to determine which animal would suit you best. Before that, you had to imprint your magic on the familiar magic, making them only available to advanced wizards.”

He handed each of the siblings a familiar box. “Just put your palm here, and you’re all set!”

Valeri hesitantly placed her palm on the box. The box glowed, then emitted a "ker-chunk" sound and there was a whoosh of warm air. It paused for a moment, then continued with a burbling sound and a pattern of lights that looked like that one game where you have to press the lights in order. A bunch of little stars burst out of the side, then faded away. "Uhh... is it supposed to be doing that?"

An assistant came over and smiled. "Yep! These boxes were engineered to seem more magical after some customers complained about how boring the process was before."

"O-kay then." Valeri impatiently waited for the box to finish its whizzing and clicking.

Vendetta followed suit, placing their palm on the box. It whirred, gurgled, and lit up like a Christmas tree.

Soon enough, however, the top popped off. Smoke poured out of the box, falling to the floor like a mist waterfall.

The assistant clapped their hands. “Oh! I wonder you got.”

A long, two-headed black snake crawled out of the box, wrapping around Vendetta’s arm.

The assistant screamed, scrambling backwards.