Page 6 of Legends and Librarians
I stepped inside cautiously, half expecting somebody to jump out and yell surprise like this was some strange initiation to becoming a librarian here. Except, nothing happened. Well, that was a letdown. I sighed, closing the door behind me.
“Hello?” I called out. “I’m the new librarian, Nyssa.”
Shuffling sounds came from multiple directions followed by tiny dragons flying in circles around me. I froze, not moving a muscle as they landed on the bookshelves nearby, quirking their heads as they stared at me.
Each dragon was a different color from emerald green to sapphire blue to bright amethyst, like a treasure trove of brilliant gems decorating the shelves. Their small wings settled against their bodies as they pounced at each other, starting to play as if they’d forgotten all about me already.
I let out a breath, relieved that they hadn’t attacked me on sight, but why were they here instead of out in the wild with their own kind? And why were they so tiny? I really wanted to know more, but they weren’t the only creatures here and I had work to do.
“Don’t mind me,” I said as I strolled through the shelves, “I’m just looking at what repairs need to be done.”
The stacks were clean, not a speck of dust on them like I expected. Which meant somebody had been cleaning them. I smiled faintly, loving the idea of people stopping by to take care of the place. So it hadn’t been fully abandoned after all. People still cared about it, just like I did. Maybe reopening wouldn’t beas hard as I thought.
Something else was missing besides dust though: the books. Almost every shelf was empty, except for a few random books all by themselves. My stomach sank. It would be harder than I thought to restock such a big library. How could the guild give up on the Misty Mountain Library like that? How could anyone take the books away?
I guess I couldn’t blame them too much. The librarydidlook pretty rundown with the broken windows and holes in the roof. At least somebody had patched them up to keep the weather out, but not before water damage warped the floor. That wouldn’t be an easy fix.
Had a wild magic storm really done all this? I rubbed my temples, silently calculating how much money the Tomekeeper’s Endowment was worth vs how much it would probably cost to rip up a floor and redo a roof.
Maybe the contractors would take pity on me since it was for a good cause. I’d hire local workers, people who might remember the library from back in the day when it was warm and bright.
As I studied the mess of a floor, apatch of beautiful purple flowers caught my eye.
“What the...”
I knelt down, looking at the hooded flowers closer. Wolfsbane? That shouldn’t be growing in the library. It was poisonous for one thing and for another, it was growing right on top of the floor, no dirt required. My gaze moved on to another patch of flowers and then another, leading me through the winding stacks like a path through a maze.
Something small and fluffy ran at me. I yelped in surprise as a three-headed puppy nuzzled against my leg. Purple flowers blanketed the floor as the adorable dog rolled over, exposing his belly. I looked around, but nobody else seemed to be here.
He wiggled on the floor, tail wagging, eyes begging me to reach down and pet his stomach. It was impossible to resist.
“Fine, I’ll pet you.” I knelt down, smiling despite the odd situation. All six of the dog’s eyes closed in bliss like I’d found just the right spot to scratch. “Now what are you doing here, hmmmm?”
I’d heard of wild magic tainted animals, but usually the magic made them a different color or gave them some kind of magical aspect like glowing eyes or scratches that forced you to tell the truth. I’d never heard of wild magic changing their entire shape before, especially not giving them three heads. That was basically a whole new animal at that point.
Wild magic altered the purpose and intention of normal magic, it didn’t make entirely new creatures. At least, I didn’t think it did. I’d have to do more research.
A tiny bit of drool dripped from one of the dog’s mouths and hit the floor. Flowers sprouted from it like magic. I jerked away. That was new. I’d never seen a dog do that before. Just heard stories about...
“Cerberus?”
The dog leapt up, wagging his tail, and eagerly looking at me like he wanted to play.
“No, you can’t be Cerberus. You’re all tiny and cute and...fictional!”
What was going on? Dragons I could handle, they were real even if I’d never seen one before, but Cerberus? He was the guardian of a fictional Underworld, created by an author a long time ago. Stories didn’t just come to life and drool on your floor.
I searched the area, hoping for anything that resembled an explanation. The little pup followed at my heels, jumping at the flowers once in a while to play. It was hard not to give in and play with him, but something was very, very wrong here.
A book covered in so many flowers I almost missed it layopen on the floor. I picked it up, reading the title. “Taming the Beast?”
I raised an eyebrow at tiny Cerberus as he ran around the book in circles. That story was about an underworld goddess adopting a puppy and it causing adorable chaos in the underworld. The dog on the cover looked eerily like the dog wagging his tail in front of me, but that was just a story...
“Oh Cerberus, what are you doing here?” I whispered to the dog. “Actually, Cerberus feels a little too infamous for a cute puppy like you. How about Cerbie?”
He woofed his approval, coming to me for more pets. Well, whatever was going on didn’t seem too bad. It’s not like the dog came out of that book. That would be ridiculous. I mean, wild magic storms did a lot of weird things, but they didn’t bring books to life. They just didn’t. I’d have heard of it by now.
I bit my lip, staring at the dragons and three-headed dog in front of me. It would be really cool if books could come to life though. Imagine the swarms of patrons eagerly visiting their favorite book characters. The library would never have to worry about magic levels again since everyone would be reading, filling the area with magic for the book tree to absorb like water. I shook my head, laughing at how crazy that sounded.
