Young Writers Society

*lying in fetal position* I’m bored. I am so, sooooo bored.

Also, I swear to whatever writing gods are out there that I’m trying to cut down on the dialogue, but it just keeps on popping in!

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“Woah, Luc-luc, you seriously almost drowned in water that shallow?” Wila smothered her mouth with her sleeves before she could burst into another fit of laughter, but ultimately failed. Her voice was small compared to the emptiness of the entire beach, but in that moment, Lucius felt that there was no louder, more annoying sound.

“Shut up,” Lucius growled, cutting Wila off. Ripping a chunk of fish off of his wooden skewer, he chewed hard enough to hear his own teeth gnashing against each other. He stared at the fire with a sulky disposition, wishing that it wasn’t quite so hot.

Wila wisely stopped testing his patience. She refocused her attention on Claud and Reyna’s conversation, popping in with innuendos about their relationship that made Claud blush and Reyna laugh. The three had long since finished their meal and were sitting on one large log together, seemingly best buddies now. They must have bonded over their mutual talent in catching fish, Lucius thought, having speared a couple each.

“H-hey, sorry for their behavior…” Without Lucius realizing it, Mikhail had seated himself next to Lucius in the sand. The boy gave an apologetic smile, nervously rubbing bits of warm sand between his fingers. “It’s all in good fun, r-really.”

“I know that,” Lucius muttered, pausing in his attempt to dig out a sliver of fish in between his teeth. He noticed Mikhail’s doubtful expression and nudged the albino in the shoulder. “Jeez, I’m telling the truth. How old are you again?”

“S-sixteen.” Mikhail didn’t seem any shyer than he usually was about admitting his young age, but Lucius was certainly put off by it. It should have been obvious just by Mikhail's height and features, but it still felt surprising.

“Right, sixteen,” Lucius repeated, pushing away the comments on his youth that had popped into his head, “so stop acting like some sort of parent. Well, maybe you could pass for an old man with that hair.”

Mikhail’s hands flew up to his hair, patting it in a protective manner. He pouted a little, but that was soon replaced with a smile. “S-sure. Then in exchange, why’re don’t you open up t-to the rest of the group?”

“Nope,” Lucius immediately said, popping the ‘p’. He said it loud enough for the others to hear, but they didn’t seem to, considering their lack of reaction. “Don’t need to. It’ll come in time, I’m sure, so there’s no point forcing it.”

“W-with that attitude, I’m sure that th-the time will come m-much faster than hoped...” Mikhail sighed, scratching his cheek. The boy seemed to respect Lucius' opinion, though, as he didn’t continue talking and started drawing shapes in the sand.

An awkward silence between the two ensued, and after a while, Mikhail sighed and got up. “I’ll… go put out th-the fire.” He headed towards the overhang, probably to get some makeshift basket to hold seawater.

Reyna noticed Mikhail’s absence and got up, eagerly pulling a not-as-eager Lucius over. “Hey, Lucius! Stop trying to be a cool loner and join us already!”

“I’m not trying-!” Lucius began, but was cut off by Reyna when she brought her finger close his lips in a hushing movement. He found that quite rude, but complaints probably wouldn’t affect Reyna at all, so he just glared at her and kept quiet.

The woman took his angry silence as a sign of acceptance of their friendship. She dramatically flung her arms out. “Lucius! You’re truly one of us now!”

Claud promptly smacked her on the head, not hard enough to leave a mark, but not soft enough to let Reyna escape without reprimand. “You’ll have to get used to her. She’s been this way since forever.”

“’Since forever’?” Wila latched onto those two words and gave them an innocent look of curiosity, her eyes a little wider than usual. “You speak as if you guys knew each other for a long time… like before the arena, perhaps?”

“Yes,” Claud admitted. He didn’t look nearly as nervous as Wila probably expected, considering her disappointed expression. “I’ve known her since first grade. We weren’t always friends, more of rivals, but we knew each other nevertheless. It’s both amazing and pitiful that we came together in here as well."

“Ooh, ooh, story time!” Wila grabbed Lucius, preventing his escape plan, and urged Claud to continue with some rapid hand motions.

The man just leaned back on the log, crossing his arms and shaking his head. “It’s personal.”

At the same time, Reyna leaned forwards and clapped her hands once. “Of course!”

The two turned to stare at eachother. 

Claud frowned, looking a little hurt. "Reyna, do you really think that revealing private info to people we met yesterday is smart?"

"That's in the past!" Reyna crossed her arms and straightened up. "What goes on in the world outside doesn't concern us any longer. So why not do some group bonding by sharing stories? Lead by example, Claud."

"You know, you guys don't have-" Lucius began, not wanting to share any of his childhood memories, either, but cut off when he saw Claud raise two fingers to his eyes and do what was usually known as the 'I'm watching you' motion.

The thin line that was Reyna's mouth curled upwards into a smile. She gave a short nod and also raised her hand, counting down from three. "Give us a sec," Reyna said to Lucius and Wila without turning to look at them. "We need to decide something the way we've always done."

As soon as all of Reyna's fingers went down, she and Claud stiffened, staring at eachother dead in the eyes. A second passed, then another, and Lucius realized they were doing some sort of staring contest.

Wila moved to wave her hands in front of their faces, but Lucius stopped her. He wanted to see where this was going. Even the sounds of the ocean waves and bird calls seemed to mute themselves to respect the contest.

Finally, after two or three of invisible storms of intenseness, Reyna groaned and brought her palms to her eyes, rubbing them. Claud gave an uncharacteristically loud shout of triumph.

“Ha! That makes it four thousand and eighty five to one thousand and seventy nine, in my favor!” He squeezed his eyes shut while saying that, giving his eyeballs a well-deserved rest. A broad grin, the largest that Lucius had seen him make so far, stretched across his face.

“As if!” Reyna frowned, her eyes rather red but otherwise fine. “I’m at four thousand and eighty two, I’m sure of that.”

“Wait, wait,” Wila broke on before they could continue, moving between them. She also pushed them an inch back, making sure that they were as far away from each other as she could make them. “What the heck just happened? We just went from soon-to-be pleasant nostalgia to deathly death glares of death within seconds.”

“Oh, sorry,” Claud exclaimed, dipping his head. The previous victory on his face was replaced with a slightly ashamed look. “Whenever we can’t agree on something, we try doing staring contests. It began as a dare, and then it escalated into a habit. I think it started in second grade.”

Wila brought her palm to her face, groaning. "That's the cheesiest thing I've ever seen. When I joined this group, I thought I would be the one trolling and doing weird stuff, so why are you two, especially you, Claud, doing such time-waster stuff?"

It was a rhetorical question, but Lucius opened his mouth to answer, if only to annoy Wila. Payback for the teasing about his less-than-prudent spearing skills, one could say. A head of white caught his eye, and he slightly moved his head to see that Mikhail had returned with a grass basket filled with water. “Back, Mikhail?”

The boy nodded and turned the basket upside down over the already dying blaze, effectively killing it. Lucius assumed that he had been the one to stop the two from endlessly starting staring contests before this.

Wila also noticed Mikhail, and a question must have popped into her head, because she gave the albino boy the same questioning look that she had given Claud. “Say, Mikhail, did you know these two from the outside world too?”

Mikhail averted his eyes from her stare, and sat down a foot away from Lucius before answering. “No… th-they picked me up afterwards…”

“Oh, I see!” Wila had a devilish expression that couldn’t mean anything good. It was quickly replaced with a cheerful, friendly one that was somehow even more ominous. “So Claud and Reyna are like the old married couple, and Mikhail’s their adopted child. Perfect roles!” She got on one knee and made a little rectangle with her thumbs and index fingers like a director would do, positioning her hands so that the three of them were all visible in the box. "Man, I should aim for director status instead."

Claud was flustered by this, shaking his head in denial. “As if! I get where you’re coming from, but the part about me and-!”

“Woah, that’s true!” Reyna either ignored or didn’t notice the underlying message to Wila’s words, because she clapped the younger lady on the back. “I didn’t notice that. You didn’t either, did you, Claud?”

Said man gave Reyna a look of disbelief, before settling into something akin to weary acceptance. The rosy tinges to his ears faded away. “Ye- I mean no, I didn’t.”

Lucius actually felt some genuine pity for Claud. Crushing on a girl that dense could not be easy, and if they really had known each other for so long, how long had unrequited love gone on? He patted Claud on the back, hoping to express his sympathies. It must have seemed more mocking than real, because he received a glare for his efforts.

Wila noticed Lucius’ intentions, though, and she gave him a thumbs-up. Not that it helped in any way.

The group sorta-bonding moment was ruined when a pained cry pierced the air, although it was faint enough to tell that it was from somewhere in the plains area. Lucius snapped his head around in an attempt to locate the sound.

“Was that a-?”

“Probably someone who’s now dead; male, by the pitch of their voice,” Claud replied, his face wound up with an amount of pity that was more appropriate for a broken limb than possible murder. He got to his feet. “Although, it’s dangerously close, so it’s best for us to check it out. Now that we’re in a group of five, we can split into two groups: one of two, and one of three.”

“Ehhhh, I’ll be in the team of two, then.” Reyna stood and stretched her arms. “I’ll go with Wila.”

Wila was startled and didn’t look too happy about that, for whatever reason. “W-what? Oh, yeah, great.”

“Don’t worry about it, Wila, she’s our best fighter.” Claud gave a warm smile that was more directed towards Reyna than Wila, in Lucius’ opinion. “You’ll be fine.”

Wila gave a nod, looking a bit more enthusiastic this time. Satisfied, Claud turned to Mikhail and Lucius. “So we three will be going together. Boys and girls separated, it seems. What is this, elementary school?” When neither of the other men laughed, Claud frowned. “Alright, whatever. Let’s go, and head back to the overhang if you haven’t found anything by the time the sun starts to set.”

“Alright!” Reyna pointed to the part where the plains joined with the beach and a dry landscape. “We’ll start from there.” She tugged on Wila’s collar to let the other girl know that they were leaving, and the two took off, trying to run as fast as they could without tripping in the sand. “See you!”

“Claud, do we need to-?”

“No. We walk, especially since we just ate lunch.”