Page 67 of Legends and Librarians
Lisa winced. “Well, there’s more. After the first test of courage, other groups of kids tried to outdo them, proving they were even more courageous. And we kept chasing them off. That’s when the town hired the adventurers’ guild and things really did get out of hand. That’s around when you showed up, actually.”
Ah, everything was clicking into place now. I’d thought the town was really overreacting to the situation, but if their kids were scared, then they had to take it seriously. So basically, I’d been fighting an uphill battle this whole time without knowingthe full story. It didn’t matter that the story spirits hadn’t physically hurt anyone, because they truly did scare them. That would take a while to overcome.
“Thanks for telling me all that,” I said, forcing myself to be hopeful for them. “I know it’s hard, but we can make this right. We’ve already changed a few people’s minds, like the apothecary and these artists.” I glanced at them, hoping they’d agree. “Maybe they can help us explain to the town?”
“Of course,” Theo said, nodding. “Good art is complex, just like this situation. People will understand that. Plus, the kids never mentioned vandalism or doing anything wrong, so that’ll put things into perspective a bit.”
“Good, so...” I faltered, not really sure what the next step should be here.
How did we apologize to the town if they didn’t want to talk to us? If we could get them to come to the festival, then maybe we’d have a chance. We could make the day a meeting for both sides to come together and bond. I knew the library would want that, no matter how hurt it was, because I’d already seen it opening up to Roan and me.
There really was hope, not much, but some. We just had to put in the work.
I glanced around, taking inall the story spirits’ pained expressions. None of them had actually enjoyed scaring people, no matter how they’d made it sound last time. It was just a means to an end, a way of keeping the library hidden and safe, away from the people who’d hurt it. But the library wasn’t alone anymore. We were all here for it.
It was time for real change.
“Okay then, let’s do something to fix this,” I said. “If the town has fear-filled posters of you, then let’s make joy-filled ones instead! Once they meet you, I’m sure they’ll understand where you’re coming from. Or at least, be willing to listen. Wejust have to get them here and a festival is a great time for new beginnings.”
Lisa finally lifted her gaze, smiling softly. “Right. We’ll apologize and welcome them to our wonderful library.”
“Exactly.” I turned to the three artists still sitting in the corner. “Will you help us? We need to make these posters colorful and heartfelt to ease people’s fear.”
They nodded and Theo even hopped up with excitement. “This sounds like a challenge worthy of our skills!”
Roan sighed. “This is going to turn into chaos, you know that, right?”
“Maybe,” I said with a laugh, “but what’s wrong with a little fun chaos?”
He put his arm around my waist, pulling me close as he whispered in my ear. “If you’re here? Nothing at all.”
My heartbeat pounded in my ears as my face warmed. He’d never touched me like that before, so sure of himself. I leaned into him for a moment, enjoying the feel of him next to me.
I wished we had more time to ourselves, but the library needed me too much right now. I sadly pulled away from him to gather up pens, pencils, crayons, paint, paper, and whatever else the library had.
The mood eased as everyone gathered around tables in the middle of the library, talking about what kinds of things to draw. Turns out the Demon Lord was actually pretty skilled at drawing, but everything he drew was terrifying.
“Maybe you should just help the knights…” I suggested, but he glowered at me and decided to supervise from afar. Lisa on the other hand was drawing flower-filled images that the golem was fawning over. “Those are beautiful!”
She beamed. “I have a few skills I haven’t shown you yet.”
All in all, it was going pretty well, until the knights dragged a small bucket of paint over for Cerbie so he could put pawprintson the posters. His little pawprints were adorable, until he ran away after a dragon and those little blue pawprints ended up all over the floor.
“Cerbie!” I shouted, running after him.
Roan laughed as he picked up a cloth. “I’ve got it. You worry about the rest of them.”
The knights shrugged and started using the crayons as swords for mock battles, fighting across the table in great waves. I sighed, glancing over at the actual artists hoping they were faring better, but they were lost in the stacks looking for inspiration. Really it seemed like they were just snooping, but hey, maybe they’d produce something beautiful.
All in all, today felt like good progress. The story spirits had finally opened up to me about what they’d done and we were working on a way past it. As long as everyone tried their best, I was sure we could get through this.
Chapter 24
Nyssa
Chaos only lasted so long thankfully, because these posters really needed to get done. The Demon Lord had taken on a supervisory role, sternly keeping the artists from wandering off and the knights from fighting, which was working pretty well. Grumpy Demon Lord for the win, I guess.
Roan had taken the golem outside about an hour ago to finish up some secret project they wouldn’t tell me about. I was curious, but Roan seemed really excited about it so that made me happy enough for now. At least we’d managed to create a few piles of usable posters. The others I’d just keep as mementos of our arts and crafts day.
