Fable

Chapter One

Those who visited the Warfallow General Library liked to believe that it was ever-changing. That, depending on which seat a person found themselves in, they would glance up from the pages of their book, and perhaps for just a second they could find themselves in a world originally written in ink. The library's stone walls could often be seen out of the corner of one's eye, switching around to form new patterns. Adults and children alike who visited the library believed that the fireplace that separated the children's and adult fantasy sections never truly lost its flame. The library was a place of whimsy and wonder⁠—a world that contained many, many worlds.

Ella had experienced this since she was a teenager. She preferred the warmth of the fireplace and the magic walls of the Warfallow General Library more than any other place in the world. To her, the library was her safe place. It was home.

"This one is one of my very favorites," Ella murmured as she kneeled in front of a little girl. "If you liked the last one I gave you, you'll love this one." The little girl pushed her glasses up onto her tiny nose and grinned.

"Thank you, Ella!" She darted through the glass front doors towards her mother's waiting car. Her mother waved, and Ella waved back before closing and locking the doors for the night. She turned back to the countertop where Mrs. Bondelie was piling the new donations and deliveries onto the counter.

"Christmas time!" she squealed quietly, waving a small package in the air with her frail, skinny hand. Ella jogged towards the counter and hopped onto it before swinging her legs over to the other side.

On Fridays, they opened the new books and logged them into the library's computer system before spending the hours it took to laminate the covers and add the library barcodes to the inside.

One by one, they opened the packages sent to them by publishing companies and charitable citizens of Warfallow. Some books were brand new; smooth and smelling of paper presses and plastic. Some were old and yellowed, with dusty pages and an equally dusty and beautiful odor. Ella loved them all, with the same love she felt for the library and Mrs. Bondelie.

Ella's phone vibrated in her pocket; a quick, staccato buzz that was a quiet alarm for when sound was inappropriate. She silenced it quickly and shoved her phone back into her pocket. The joy she had gleaned from opening the new books quickly drained away. She chewed her lip and went to open another package, but Mrs. Bondelie's hand was already there pulling it quickly out of her reach.

"Make sure it's not important," she said.

"It's never important," Ella grumbled, knowing that it was probably a simple message from her mom about dinner. Ella's best friends were the books in the library, and they all had nothing to say to her.

Ella hated the small reminders that she was mostly alone in this world. They made her feel small and useless. Unwanted.

"Do you ever wish you weren't here?" Ella asked quietly, as she slipped the scantily clad cover of an adult fiction novel into its new, plastic cover. Immediately, she wished she could take her words back.

What if she thinks I don't like it here, she thought.

Ella had been working with Mrs. Bondelie since she was barely a teenager, and the thought of hurting the old woman's feelings gnawed at her chest like an ugly rodent.

"There are a lot of things I wish I could change, dear. I'm not sure my current location is one of them."

"No, that's not what I mean." She murmured, relieved that the old lady hadn't burst into tears at the thought of her only companion wanting to leave her. "It's just... I'm wearing out the floor, walking in the same place day in and day out, taking the same path. You know?"