Young Writers Society

Tallulah did stumble at the sudden movement, but she righted herself quickly. She gave the newcomer a friendly smile and waved, "Hi," she said, tilting her head to the side as she looked him over. So that was what she'd been smelling. A shame. She'd half-hoped it was Kate.

"I'm Tallulah," she said, gesturing to herself, "Who might you be?"

"I'm Alex!" He forced a smile when he said so.

Kiirion was glad for patience when Alex asserted that he seemed the weakest of every one among them. He held his tongue (thank Pelor) but didn't feel he could do so for long. He looked down at Alex as the others began yet another round of introductions and let out a slow, quiet sigh through his nose.

How old was Alex? He looked like a mere child. Maybe a teenager? Kiirion was terrible at gauging human age. It was for that reason alone that Kiirion decided to be more gracious.

"Well, Alex. If you've found yourself here by chance like the rest of us, then welcome. We were just about to see what's inside this home-" he said, peeking inside. "Which evidently doesn't seem to be much. But alas."

A pause.

"The name's Kiirion, by the way."

"hmm. How much of em green veggies did you have as a kid? Are you into basketball, cause DAMN, that height! Yeah. I was trying to drown myself and ended up here. Is this hell?"

Colt didn't know what was worse - the insult, or the fact that everyone ignored him right afterwards. He was just a footnote in the conversation. And right after Kiirion introduced himself, Alex's attention immediately shifted. No one even bothered to point out that he still hadn't gotten a chance to introduce himself to the newest member of the group.

But this was fine. This was definitely fine. It wasn't like when he was forgotten at the banquets, or never asked to go on any of the hunts. It wasn't like being forgotten was something that happened regularly to him, right up until someone decided that a much more negative and direct response to him was better than straight out ignoring him.

He took a quiet, deep breath.

Sarcasm aside, this was normal for him. It wasn't worth getting so worked up over it-

He took one look at Alex's face.

...Yeah, it was worth getting worked up over it.

"In case you were wondering," he interrupted, taking a little step forward and giving the best bow he could while supporting Tallulah, "the name's Colt. Colt Rian. I'm a sorcerer and occultist."

He popped back up.

"As for your question," he added, "no. This isn't Helhei-Hell."

I would know if it was.

"We're somewhere else," he said. "We still haven't figured out where. Though we were going to hopefully find some answers inside the cabin, right before you showed up."

Colt didn't bother hiding his dislike for him as he looked Alex right in the eyes.

Alex looked at Tallulah and Kiirion. "You guys are pretty friendly, so this probably isn't hell." He walked past Colt, opened the door and went right into the Cabin.

Tallulah gave Colt's arm a squeeze. All this petty ignoring of people was even worse than anything Kate did when she was upset. At least Katey was direct about it.

"Let's all head inside," she said with a smile, as if she was oblivious to the passive aggression going around.

Kiirion was already tired of whatever Alex and Colt were trying to do. He didn't understand their petty competition. They were in a strange place, and working together was the best option. He followed suit after Tallulah.

Though the door was significantly shorter than he was, he leaned down and went in after Colt.

"Good idea, Tallulah," he said.

Colt didn't react too much to Tallulah giving his arm a tight squeeze, but he had a feeling that it was supposed to be comforting. He wasn't really used to that kind of reaction to him - most people would have joined up with Alex.

Then again, most people didn't know him as Colt.

Shaking thoughts and memories he didn't especially like out of his head, Colt surveyed the cabin. There wasn't anything all that notable about it. It wasn't like the TARDIS - something Colt had been trying to replicate since he saw an episode of Doctor Who - and its furniture was what he would have expected from a place like this. Handcrafted, wooden chairs, table, bed, dresser and bookshelf. From the thin layer of dust and the spiderwebs throughout it, it was clear it had been awhile since someone had last been in it.

"That was anticlimactic," he softly said, running his finger against the table and studying the dust that his finger gathered. He rubbed his fingers together; it felt normal, too.

Kiiron was uncomfortable. The pack on his back did not make bending over any more of an enjoyable experience. The moment he walked in, he saw that there wasn't anything notable about the home that needed immediate attention, and if there was, he could leave it to one of the smaller people.

He was regretting walking in. He pushed past the others and stepped back out. He was only crowding the space anyway.

"How about you kids look through the drawers and see if there's anything interesting. I'll be out here, where I can stand upright."

Alex simply looked for a place to sit and sat down.

Tallulah stuck to the side of the kind person for reasons of balance, but still looked around, reaching when she could for a drawer to open and search. Nothing, nothing, nothing. An empty little cottage in the middle of a magic swamp.

She tilted her head. Magic. That could be it.

Removing her hand from the arm of her human crutch and shifting her mode of balance to a small, empty table near the door, Tallulah surveyed the room. No one seemed to have found anything of note, and some, specifically the newest member of their little crew, didn't appear to be looking for anything at all.

Still, most of them were otherwise occupied, which was good. It wasn't like Tallulah would be using a strong spell. Just a little something to coax out the magic of the room.

She hummed a note, and a faint shimmer began to reveal itself throughout the air.

She gave a wolfish grin and straightened her posture, took a deep breath, and switched to the language of spellwork to sing a simple spell.

As the song went on, the air seemed to thicken with translucent liquid gold, and to move was as though to do so through the depths of a lagoon. As Tallulah felt her gills open and her lungs close, and realized that the humans present may not be able to breathe in the thick fog of solid magick.

Abruptly, her song ended, and with it the spell.

All was as it was before. An empty little cottage by a creepy little bog.

Tallulah choked as her gills were closed by the pressure of the air and her lungs refused to open for two terrifying beats. Finally, she could breathe, and she gasped. "There's a lot of magic here."

Kiirion watched as the air in and around the cottage filled with a golden hue, hanging thick in the air. The mermaid could do magic - which wasn't so much of a surprise - but it was helpful. He would've done a spell to detect magic in the area, but he'd rather save his energy for whatever creatures inevitably lied in wait in the swamp. He had been in enough strange situations to know that danger very likely lingered around the corner and that some of the humans might not be prepared for it.

Then again, maybe he would be surprised, but it was always better to assume the worst and be prepared anyway.

He backed away from the magical glow, and at the time it finally reached him, Tallulah ended her song.

Interesting. He wasn't familiar with her kind of magic. But when she announced her conclusion, he found that it wasn't incredibly helpful. So there was magic - he could've guessed that. But what kind? Was it dangerous? Was it malevolent? Benign? He didn't blame Tallulah for not knowing, but still, he wished he knew.

He supposed it wouldn't hurt to ask a clarifying question or two.

He leaned down to look through one of the windows. "In the cottage, or in the swamp? Is there a particular magical object, or is the whole thing magical?"

Tallulah rubbed her gills. They were still sore from trying to breathe above the water. "The cottage itself is thick with it," she answered, "The very air is entwined with the stuff. I couldn't extend the song to the whole swamp."

He clearly didn't know how the songs of sirens worked. Her voice carried pretty well, but it wasn't that strong.

The air was thick and heavy with magic.

Colt was gasping for air by the time that the spell ended - he really didn't want to use magic of his own right now - but he couldn't help but grin. He knew that he had a persona to maintain. He knew that Colt wasn't supposed to get so excited about magic. He was supposed to be experienced to a point where new magic didn't phase him.

But he couldn't help it.

The magic was new, and strong, and so beautiful. He couldn't help but reach his hand out through the air after it ended, hoping that a strand of gold would have remained - hidden - just out of the corner of his eye.

"If there's that much magic in here," Colt said, his hand returning to his side, "then it's either from an incredibly powerful spell or something that's frequently cast."