Young Writers Society

Well then.

Aegeas wondered if this was some kind of joke. He was suspicious of the boy - the girl, at least, looked realistically confused. The boy seemed so...exaggerated. Could anyone get that nervous? Well, Aegeas could think of two people, but the first was always anxious. The other that came to mind never got nervous just by meeting people. Then again, the boy acted like he'd never seen an otter before.

"And that's not normal?" said Aegeas. He was half tempted to walk away, but he didn't trust the boy. The boy appeared unharmed, and Aegeas wasn't in the mood to fight, but Aegeas took more of a fighting stance.

I took her hand, and shook it gently. She was dressed in the same strange manner as the others, and had an assertive energy, however subdued.
She looked at me expectantly, as if scrutinizing me in some way. Whatever she had evaluated, she seemed satisfied by the result.

'We all just woke up here with no memory of how we got here, but it seems like you're in the same boat as us.' said one with scars over his face. 'I'm Bo.' He gestured to the young madam. 'She's Lucy. And we're all confused.'

'My pleasure, Miss Lucy.' I turned to address them all equally.
'You also came...from different worlds? Times? This is most curious.'

Despite my prior disgruntled sentiments, I could feel a little spark light up in me. It was an inherently exciting concept.

Bo had not considered that possibility. "Different worlds? Different times? What makes you think that?"

"Sounds plausible; I mean, you look like you came out the 18th century, and I'm quite sure I came from the 21st. I have a feeling Lucy is from like, 22nd century and you, my good friend Bo, look like you came outta the 21st century as well." Whether Raiden was correct in his assumptions or not, was irrelevant. He just wanted to prove that they did indeed look like they were from different times - or even alternate universes.

I nodded fervently. 'It was 1881 when I left home, and doubtless will be when I return.'

These people were from so far as the twenty-first and second centuries? Blessed Jove. I could not waste the opportunity to ask them questions.

'Tell me, has the British Empire collapsed yet? Does the Traitor Empress still hold power underground?' I inquired eagerly.

"Not where I'm from it's not," Lola said staring up at the otter, who was presumably named Aegeas. Her fear had slowly turned from fear to curiosity, and she stood up straighter to try and meet the otter's eyes. "Where I'm from, otters are about the size of a small dog." Lola continued to gawk at Aegeas before, remembering her manners, she cried, "Oh! My name is Lola. By the way."

She still sounded genuine. Her claims were strange, but nothing about this day had been ordinary. Aegeas crossed his arms and said, "I can get myself that small. I can look human too. Just not feeling like it. And at least one of you" - Aegeas glared at the boy - "would tell me their name. Good - afternoon? Anyone know what the time is?" He pointed to the ceiling. "I'd look for the sun, but-"

Bo stared at Boris with curious confusion and worry. "I'm not sure that I know of said traitor empress, and London has not fallen. It... doesn't sound like... we're even from the same timeline."

I had to pause to consider it all. It was beginning to occur to me that this world, though bizarre, may not be a dream. It could not be so. I had never dreamed of a London remaining on the surface.
He had really never heard of the- of course he must have- every child knows of the Traitor Empress, shuttered away in her palace.
We must really have been from different worlds after all.
It was forbidden to use her old name. I'd never used it, but remembered it well.
I supposed that if these people were strangers to London, it should be safe to use that name around them.

'You may know her as... Queen Victoria?' Despite it being safe, it still felt strange to break the taboo.

'So you tell me that there are worlds where the crown never waged a territorial war with Hell, the five cities never sunk into the Neath, and the empire carries on as before?'

I chuckled gently. 'I'm sorry, but that sounds awfully dull.'

Bo laughed. "If the world doesn't find trouble in one way, it will in another. Things are rarely ever dull."

I smiled. 'There is no mercy I am more grateful for.'

What had been faux fear suddenly gave into quite genuine confusion; Oliver whipped his head around, looking away from the pipe he was contemplating breaking and instead staring at Aegeas. He looked down at his hands. The fur wouldn't have concealed fractures, right? They should have been clear as day. But there was nothing. No bandages, no eerie little bits of gray peeking out from his fur. So how could he possibly take on the form of a human?

He took a deep breath. He needed to think things through. So not a Sixen? What did that leave? He couldn't think of any other lifeforms that could change their appearance so easily. Was Aegeas part of some unknown race, one that he had somehow never encountered? A distant relative of Sixens, possibly.

"I'm Oliver," he tentatively said. He didn't like not knowing what was going on, especially when there was the possibility that he was dealing with someone that could change their form. He slipped his hand into his varsity jacket and pulled out his phone. He looked at the time. "According to my phone, it's around five in the afternoon."

Then, as an afterthought, "Assuming we're in Connecticut, which I'm getting the feeling we're not."



Lucy strained her data banks for knowledge of this "Traitor Empress". Queen Victoria was easily recognizable based on the limited knowledge she had been given; she had died long ago, back in England. Interesting. Why would someone from another time be brought to wherever she was? She didn't doubt the claims. It explained the attire and the odd style of speech; she could go with that. Time travel had yet to be invented, but that didn't mean that it wouldn't be invented in the future. But it seemed like there was a little more than that; historical events that certainly didn't line up. Unless, of course, they were never recorded. That was also possible. The Sixens had visited Earth for centuries and people were still divided on their existence.

"We don't have a British Empire," Lucy objected, studying Boris with interest. "We have a United Kingdom, instead. It consists of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Every other country under the British Empire has gained its independence."

Oliver had gone from fear to curiosity in a heartbeat. That could only mean he'd been faking his anxiety. Aegeas took a couple steps back and eyed Oliver with suspicion. What else was Oliver lying about? Why had Oliver looked at Aegeas's hands?

"Probably not, wherever that is," Aegeas said. "Five in the afternoon? It was morning when I went through that door. Is there something you're not telling me?"

'And just as well for them. It seems that the empire was destined to fall, metaphorically, at least, if not literally.' I said, with bemused detachment.

'It may seem strange that I am so close to London and so removed from the empire as a whole- yet understand that where I come from, they are removed as removed can be. The city has sunk far into the Neath, and it has changed tremendously. I am among those who deliberately forsook the surface, and I have given it barely a second thought since. What is called London now is a thousand times more living to me than the cloth it was cut from. But forgive me, now I ramble.'
There I cut my proud speech.