Page 51 of Legends and Librarians
Her hand brushed against mine as she glanced back, her eyes questioning. It was like she thought I had all the answers when I was just doing my best not to stumble over my words with her the past few days. We’d been so busy that we hadn’t had time to really talk since that night, but something felt different between us.
I was more aware of her now than ever before and noticedher every move. It felt like once I’d considered the possibility of sticking around, the floodgates to my emotions had broken open. I had to be more careful now than ever. Be sure that if I took her hand, if I kissed those beautiful lips of hers, that I meant it. That I was here to stay.
She deserved nothing less.
“Are we here to flirt or to collect herbs?” Mabel asked harshly, but her eyes were twinkling. “Young love, so wonderful and annoying.”
“Young love?” I jerked away with an awkward laugh. “We’re not dating or anything.”
Nyssa’s lips quirked up. “I didn’t realize you felt so strongly about that. It must be horrible having people think you fancy a librarian of all things.”
“No, that’s not what I —”
She laughed. “I know, I was just teasing.”
“Careful, or I’ll start teasing you too,” I grumbled.
“Promises, promises,” she whispered, a devious look in her eyes.
The back of my neck warmed. When had we gone from innocent flirting to flirting with implications attached? But the idea of teasing her did sound tempting. Oh the fun we could have...
Mabel muttered a few more curses as the path got steeper and her breath grew ragged. This honestly was a pretty harsh hike so it made sense that not many people had visited the library even before the wild magic storm damaged it.
“Maybe we should take a break?” I asked.
Mabel shook her head. “It’s just up ahead.”
So we kept going forward as we moved around rocks and over tree roots, careful none of us fell. The way Nyssa kept glancing back at me, as if she was checking on me too, warmed my heart. Nobody had really ever watched out for me before,or worried if I’d fall on a rugged path. It was nice, those little backward glances.
“Ah, there it is!” Mabel shouted, springing forward with far more pep in her step than before. “The blazebloom has grown beautifully here.”
The plant she’d so eagerly rushed to had red leaves and soft orange flowers. I’d seen it somewhere before, but I couldn’t quite place it.
“These are for burn ointments, right?” Nyssa asked, kneeling beside the older woman to help her pick the red leaves. “I studied some of the plants on the mountain when we heard an apothecary came up here a lot.”
When had she managed to do that? Nyssa always went the extra mile, getting to know at least a little about everything we did. It was a useful trait to have, especially for a librarian who always needed to look things up for people. It was actually good for adventurers too.
“Yes,” the apothecary said, “it can also relieve anxiety and makes for a wonderful steak seasoning.”
“Steak seasoning?” I asked. Now that was my kind of herb.
As I knelt to join them, a tiny blue dragon head peeked out from the plant in front of me, almost making me fall over.
“What are you doing?” I whispered. “You’re supposed to wait at the library until after we’re done here.”
The dragon tilted its head, as if it didn’t understand me. They’d been responding to Nyssa lately though, so I knew they did. Well, whatever, as long as it didn’t scare the apothecary, I guess it wasn’t that big of a deal. It nibbled on the red-leafed plant contentedly, so I left it be.
“What other plants do you gather up here?” I asked the apothecary.
“Starlight moss, wind root, and all sorts of things,” she said, groaning as she shifted to another plant. “The mountain is atreasure trove of mystical plants and my stores are so low since it’s been harder and harder to gather them. Those damn spirits kept chasing me off, even when I hired bodyguards.”
She harrumphed, then shouted and fell on her backside as blue flames shot over my shoulder. Nyssa gasped as the dragon from before flew over us, dipping and spinning like it was drunk. Its flames turned purple, then green, before it finally fell to the ground, rolling on its back like a dog.
“The spirits are here!” Mabel shouted. “Those flames! That always happens when I come here. They’ve almost burned the forest down, forcing me to run away.”
Nyssa rushed to pick the dragon up, chastising it as she did so and bowed to the apothecary. “Sorry about that. These little dragons are a bit excitable, but they don’t mean any harm.”
The dragon belched a bright pink flame that made the old woman quiver. I sighed as afew more dragons munched on the blazebloom, rubbing against its leaves, rolling in them, and honestly looking kind of intoxicated by them.
