Page 27 of Legends and Librarians
“Ouch, you wound me. But I can agree to that.” I propped myself up on my elbow, leaning toward her. “But I can’t promise I won’t think about it.”
A faint smile brushed her lips before she pushed me away.“Just get ready, will you? We’ve got a job to do.”
“What’s on the list today?” I asked, happy to have something else besides her adorable sleepy smile to focus on.
“Finishing up the patches, making the golem a garden, and”—she tilted her head at me—”fixing up the lending libraries?”
I’d almost forgotten about those little boxes that had followed us up here with their rickety doors and faded paint. She’d joked about me fixing them, but that meant interacting with the wild magic creatures one on one, helping them. What would the guild have to say about that?
That was a problem for future me. Right now, I was just a volunteer at a little library on a mountain.
“For you, I’ll do that whole list and more,” I said with a smile.
“Just the lending libraries is fine,” she said as she went to get ready. “Oren will probably help you too.”
Right. The other librarian who was researching the creatures for Nyssa. I could use that time to get more details on the creatures and how safe he really thought they were. Was he why we didn’t wake up to an audience again?
I rustled through my pack, grabbing my last change of clothes.
“You ready?” Nyssa asked, poking her head outside the bathroom.
“Give me just a few more minutes.”
After I finished up, we headed downstairs to see Oren having tea with the red panda in a circle of creatures all chatting animatedly. When the red panda saw us, it placed two more mugs on the table followed by rice balls and fresh fruit. If my stomach wasn’t growling, I’d have asked where it kept getting all the food from.
It hadn’t hurt us yet, so I was just going with it for now, but what was with the magic here? It felt wild, but it seemed stable.That was good enough for now.
“Thank you, Mochi,” Nyssa said as she accepted a steaming mug of tea. “This is just what I needed.”
The red panda chittered happily at her as it moved back and forth on its chair. Oren rubbed his eyes, looking like he might fall asleep right there if the creature librarian, Lisa, wasn’t keeping his attention.
She sipped her tea, glancing at us. “So, how did you sleep?”
“Fine.” I was not about to talk about my sleeping arrangements with a wild magic creature, no matter how human-like she acted. “Hey Oren, want to help me fix up the lending libraries outside?”
Nyssa’s eyes widened. “You don’t need to start right now. You can eat.”
I could, but then I’d be having breakfast with a bunch of story spirits. No. Creatures. I had to keep calling them that otherwise I’d start treating them like normal people. One of us needed to stay objective just in case this all went sideways.
“It’s fine,” Oren said with a yawn. “The lending libraries showed me the way here, so I should thank them anyway.”
Great. The tension in my shoulders eased as we made our way outside, but something tugged at my clothes. I glanced down to see the red panda holding out sandwiches.
“Mochi doesn’t want you to be hungry,” Lisa said, her kind eyes studying me. “He wants you to feel comfortable here.”
The red panda was standing tall on two legs, holding out the food to me like an offering. It tilted its head this way and that, chittering as if asking me why I wasn’t taking it. It was honestly too sweet to ignore.
I broke down and took the sandwiches. “Thank you.”
Mochi spun in a circle, tail swishing back and forth as he raced back to Nyssa. She bent down to pet him, whispering something soothing to him that I couldn’t quite make out.
I felt myself walking back toward them, but stopped. Nyssa had already proven to be too cozy and distracting, not to mention the whole warm vibe of this place and everyone eating together. Every time I’d given into something like that, my world had fallen apart.
It was better to keep my distance for now.
Eventually, I’d find a place I could settle down with people who genuinely cared about me, but for now, I had work to do and wild magic to investigate.
“So,” Oren said, pausing as he held the door open for me, “I’m guessing you didn’t just invite me out here to fix lending libraries.”
