Young Writers Society

     Julia groaned and turned over in her bed. Why did she have to wake up early? She knew that any second now, her brother would burst into the room and wake her up, saying that they had to go to school. The monkey, it was summer vacation. She pulled her silk covers up to her chin. Wait. Silk? She had itchy cotton! She then remembered everything that happened the night before.

     She opened her eyes up a bit. She was in a circular room, the floor was a large slab of marble. To her right, was a large wardrobe. To her left, was a desk laden with rolls of parchment, and pads of paper. A tapestry next to the wall depicted a bunch of seemingly random numerals. Next to it, was a flaming fireplace.

     She swung her legs over the side of her bed and realized that she wore her shoes to sleep. She stood, though her legs ached in protest. Out of sheer curiosity, she walked across the room and opened her wardrobe. Empty. She really wasn’t sure why, but she then sat at her desk. The chair was hard, and uncomfortable. She rummaged through the large drawer. There were half a dozen quills, two ink bottles, and three fountain pens. There was also a curious little knife. Julia figured that it was to cut away pieces of parchment.

     She cut away a square and drew a small smiley face. Using some paste she found in the drawer, she stuck it on the wall next to her bed. She smiled to herself half-heartedly. She really did do some random things sometimes. She opened up the large door with some effort, thinking: ‘They really need to make these lighter.’ Oliver was standing out there, looking down at a piece of paper.

     “Good morning, look what Lee left for us.” He handed Julia the piece of paper. It was written in slanted cursive.

Dear guys, whenever you finally wake up,

I’ll be eating breakfast wherever. I still have to find

the place where they do that stuff. So I’ll probably

be wondering aimlessly through the castle. Join me

when you can.

-Lee.

                                      P.S. I found gum in my pocket!

     “She wasn’t kidding, either.” Oliver said. He pointed to Lee’s bedroom door. “Look.”

     Julia laughed. The note had been stuck on using a freshly chewed wad of spearmint gum. “I hope that doesn’t get stuck on the door,”

     Oliver shrugged. “I wouldn’t care, actually. You ready for breakfast?”

     “Starving. Painful grief tends to do that to a person.” They walked down the hallways wordlessly. They were lost at first, and they resolutely decided against help from anyone in the castle until Julia’s stomach growled. Then Oliver stubbornly admitted that perhaps they should ask a guard for directions.

     Finally, they made their way to the dining room. Luke and Lee already sat there, eating. Well Luke was, Lee was just drinking a cup of the same dark liquid Phil was drinking last night. Matilde, Ackerley, Metis, Celeste, and Phil were also sat there, though there was a tense silence in the room.

     Naturally, Luke was totally oblivious to this. He was eating something that looked like black oatmeal. He looked up to Ackerley. “Hey, this is pretty good. What is this stuff?”

     Ackerley shifted his weight a little. “It’s called thelus.”

     Luke shrugged and ate another spoonful. “What’s it made of?”

     “You mix oatmeal and dried eel scales into it for seasoning. I am not a big fan of it, but there you are.”

     Luke swallowed the spoonful of thelus like he was trying to swallow a jumbo marble. He uneasily pushed the bowl away, which wasn’t a surprise, seeing as how that not only sounded disgusting, but  Luke was a die-hard vegan. “Sounds great, but I think I’ll pass.”

     Julia sat at the table next to Lee. She looked over the surface of the table, trying to find something familiar. There were breads with glazes, muffins, fruits, porridges, all sorts of things. Julia reached across the table and grabbed an apple. She looked over at Lee’s cup. “What’s that?”

     Lee took another sip of her drink. “It’s espresso.”

     Julia frowned. “But isn’t that a little… I don’t know, advanced?”

     Phil set down his own cup of espresso. “Not for me, I thought it was pretty hotsy-totsy myself, so I introduced espresso down here.”

     “Nice.” The table lapsed into awkward silence once again. Julia tried to silence the bites that she took out of her apple.

     “So… what are we going to do when we’re not mapmaking?” Oliver asked.

     Celeste folded up the napkin in her lap and tucked it underneath her plate. “You’ll be educated.”

     “In addition, you will be trained in sword fighting.” Metis added.

     “Why the sword fighting? I mean, not that it doesn’t sound super awesome, but I’m just wondering why.” Luke asked, reaching across the table for a croissant.

     “Well, you will be fighting alongside us.” Matilde answered. “In the war.”

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Was that short? Short chapter! Not exactly eventful, but I've decided to divide each normal chapter into a half chapter. So... yeah! Comment, like it, enjoy it! Many thanks!