Lukas Stardust scowled as he walked out of the forest. A lollipop in his mouth like usual and a dagger in hand to cut the thick vines in his path.
"So much for being quiet and inconspicuous" he grumbled to no one in particular.
"Yeah, great job," a tall boy said in a smooth, mocking tone, startling Lukas. He was dressed in a dark green tunic and black jeans. He had an ashen moon symbol on his forehead, like Lukas. His silver hair was tied in braids on top of his head with a small bun at the back, tying it off.
Lukas jumped at the boy's voice. "Grayden! I swear to god stop trying to scare me!" Grayden just smiled and raised an eyebrow.
"Scared?" he asked.
"Never. That's why I said trying" Lukas huffed
"So, Mr. New Boss, you gonna try and recruit these guys? Or give up because you made a fool of yourself and got seen?"
"Depends on your definition of 'seen'," he retorted.
"They literally stared at you and began to scream. Maybe that's not the textbook definition of seen. Let me look it up!" Greyden pulled his phone out. "OH, would you look at that! You were seen. By the textbook definition. Now, what's your plan, oh mighty unseen one?"
Lukas shot him a dirty glare. He liked Greyden, but he sometimes felt like Richard would've been a more appropriate name.
"It's not a textbook definition if it was your phone," he grumbled. "Whatever, point is, I have a plan… In my head… That I may or may not share."
"Okay, mighty unseen one, Kitty is totally gonna get more recruits than you if you don't share your plan with me because, let's face it, you suck at getting recruits. I can envision Kit-Kat's shiny 'Cult Member of the Month' plaque, sitting on the desk in our tent," Greyden went on, walking with Lukas, circling him in a non-menacing way.
"Greyden, I'm quickly getting fed up with you. I recommend NOT telling your SUPERIOR what to do, or I'll have you work with Stinky Aaron, and no one likes him," Lukas put up his hand to stop him from moving. Lukas genuinely had a plan. A… very loose plan.
"I'm still older," Greyden mumbled and rolled his eyes. "Even if it's just by 2 days…"
A sudden banshee scream came from inside the forest. It was disconcerting, and the boys were minorly afraid at first, but Greyden and Lukas looked at one another, an idea of around the same plot popping into their heads.
"Who needs a plan? Not me," Lukas grinned sardonically at Greyden. Greyden's face dropped and he rolled his eyes. He hated Lukas being right.
"Yes! Wonderful not-plan! Let's travel into the forest and conquer the random screaming individuals that may or may not be much more threatening than a couple of 12-year-old kids!"
"Greyden!! Shut up for ten minutes!! Please! That's literally all I'm asking of you!" Lukas gruffly ran his hand over his face, trying to briefly massage out all the tension.
Lukas and Greyden travelled deeper into the screaming woods. They had made it exactly 9 minutes and 57 seconds into the foliage when another loud scream surfaced, this time seemingly closer than before.
"Can I talk yet?" Greyden whined.
"You're banned from cookies tonight. You had three seconds. THREE SECONDS left," Lukas yelled, exasperated. Greyden's eyes widened.
"You're one to talk! You're gonna scare off the recruits if you yell!" He whisper-yelled. Lukas momentarily felt regret, but it didn't last long as another scream sounded from inside the woods.
"Obviously, I didn't scare them too bad, or they didn't hear me," he shrugged. Greyden held back so many retorts he could've used in that moment.
They moved farther in, the woods seeming to enclose upon them. It was getting darker and darker the further they went in. Lukas was not going to admit he was afraid of the dark, especially not to Greyden. He figured it was a mix of the sun going down and the foliage leaves being larger than previously. Whoever lies in the heart of this spooky-ass forest better be worth it, Lukas thought to himself. It wasn't dark to the point of night, but he simply hoped they would reach these people before they went inside.
Greyden was about to move a step forward but found himself chicken-wired by Lukas' arm.
"What is it Luke-ass?" Greyden whispered. Lukas elbowed him in the gut with his extended arm and used his other arm to cover his mouth when he groaned in pain.
"Look," Lukas pointed to a clearing in the forest where there was a nice little cottage-looking house. Outside were 8 children most likely 4-5 years younger than them. Easy targets, Lukas mistakenly thought. Greyden and Lukas grinned at each other. Lukas was for sure going to get Cult Member of the Month for this. They both ran over the kidnapping tactics together without saying a word.
Lukas put three fingers up. Another scream echoed from a small girl with fairy-like blonde hair. There was something quite demonic about her. Greyden thought she'd be a perfect candidate for his apprentice.
3
Greyden got in a position, ready to leap over the bushes like a gazelle. He had this all planned out in his mind. Lukas would take the three boys and one of the small girls while Grayden would grab hold of the other two boys and the three girls. Greyden was much bigger than Lukas and figured he would be able to take them.
2
Although they hadn't talked about it, Lukas had the same idea. He wanted to take the small girl who looked to be about 6. She looked helpless, and he figured the three boys who all looked the same would grab on to each other and try to chase the one taken, so that was an easy grab. Boy, was he mistaken.
1
Greyden jumped out of the bushes and loudly yelled at the children as Lukas watched. Lukas hadn't jumped because he watched in horror as the children all turned into were-beasts of their own kind. Lukas had seen many odd, sick things in life, but this was new, and he left Greyden to be mauled by them. He buried himself in a ball, not ready to watch his best friend's death.
"I'll miss you, Grayden," He whispered.
"BRO, BACK ME UP WHAT ARE YOU DOING," Greyden yelled out. He hunched over as he prepared for the beasts to attack him, but as soon as the children left the immediate circle, they were children again. Their sharp teeth and vicious claws had dissipated, and they were a gathering of 6–9-year olds with their hands out like they were pretending to be the tigers they were not even 2 seconds ago.
Lukas was still huddled in his ball, prepared to hear the screaming of his apprentice as he died a gory death, but he heard nothing. He peeked over the bush and saw the children grinning. One kid was standing in the circle with his hand out and a grey goose sat below him. The goose looked at Lukas with a disapproving expression. Lukas stood up slowly, watching to see if the kids moved.
"Awesome! It worked!" the kid with freckles said. He held up his hands to the two kids who looked almost exactly like him and they high fived him.
"What is going on? I thought... How have we not found you yet?" Lukas asked, perplexed.
The kid with his hand above Goose-Greyden looked at him with hard eyes. "what are you talking about. We weren't playing hide and seek."
The blond fairy-like girl snickered.
"Who are you?" the boy asked, keeping the glare on his face.
"I'm Lukas. And that's Greyden my fr- I mean my apprentice," Luke said and flicked his hand towards the grey goose. He turned back into a human and brushed off his shirt as if it had dirt on it.
"Took you long enough."
The boy stared in surprise. "How did you do that?!"
"Magic," Lukas replied with a wink.
"More like a curse," Greyden retorted.
Lukas nudged him and said through gritted teeth, "Shut. Up," to which Greyden flashed a smirk
Lukas turned back to the kid. "Anyway, who are you kids?"
The boy who had turned Greyden into a goose looked nervous as he turned back to his friends. One of them, who had black hair and features that resembled the boy nodded.
The boy turned back around and looked nervous as he spoke, "My name is Gill and that's my brother Zane-Ashburn and my sister Anabelle. The rest are my friends, Milly, Mia, Ari, Connie," Tuscon rolled his eyes, "Nix, and Margarie." Gill pointed to each person as he said their name then turned back to Luke. "What did you mean by," he did air quotes, "'how have we not found you yet,'? Thats kinda creepy..."
"Never mind that," Lukas replied. "You need to come with us."
Gill gave him a confused look.
The boy called Zane-Ashburn spoke up. "Why should we? You're a stranger who just tried to abduct us. What child with their wits about them would ever follow a random person because they asked them to?"
Lukas looked a little stunned and Greyden shook his head. "You really weren't prepared for this job, were you?"
"Hey! I've only had this job for a few weeks, and I haven't recruited anyone yet. And, because this was a sudden promotion, I haven't had ANY training!" Lukas snapped, clearly displeased.
"So, what you're saying is that you have no people skills," Greyden said, the children laughing a little.
Lukas took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes. "Listen, we're part of a group that has powers just like yours," he pointed at Gill, "And you only have those powers by accident. So, if you come with us, we'll teach you how to use them to bring you honor and glory in our games."
There was silence as the children thought on Lukas's words until Gill said: "Would we have to leave our families for a long time?"
"Yes, you would, but you'd be integrated into a new, huge family that will feed you well and take care of your injuries and train you to be the best of the best."
Zane-Ashburn spoke again. "Can we have a day to talk about it?"
Lukas glanced at Greyden and they exchanged thoughts without a word. They both nodded then Lukas turned back to the kids. "Sure. If you say yes, meet us here tomorrow evening, ready to go. If you say no, stay home tomorrow."
The kids nodded in agreement and Lukas and Greyden left to make a camp outside the forest for the night. The kids sat in a circle on the ground, looking deep in thought.
Gill spoke first. "So, what do we do?"