The Book

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I bound up the stairs followed by my posse of penguins, all in an uproar. I get to the top, a bit disoriented of where I was, but I'm pointed in the right direction with the help of my new friends.

I slip and slide down the halls, every now and then catching a glimpse of a fluttering of snow beginning to fall again outside. I round the corner hard and practically fall into Marshall's lap, with a simultaneous "Oof" coming from both of us.

"'Ey, where have you been?" He asks casually, shifting his weight under me; but then his eyes trail up to the crowd of penguins that have now followed me into the room. His eyes glance back at me, full of questions.

"Well," I push myself off the ground to standing position, I hold the book behind me, "I was minding my own business, just exploring a bit, looking around." I turn towards the penguins, "When these little guys started following me. They then picked me up and carried me off." I see Simone shoot them a disappointed look but I keep going, "They opened up this wall and brought me deep below the castle." I rush up to Simone excitedly, taking her hand in mine, "Shelves and shelves of research and papers and books; but there was one particular box that the penguins guided me to,"

"Oh dear, Fionna, what happened to your hand?" She lifts my hand in the light, surely to get a better look at the thousands of red blood droplets covering hand.

I slide my hand out of hers, "Just a slight casualty in search for this!" I pull the book out from behind me, resting it in Simone's hands.

Her eyes widen at the sight of the leather bound book; I can almost see memories flying past her pupils in registering the object in her hand.

"Simone? Simone what is it?" Marshall asks slightly confused, he walks up behind me and rests his hand on my shoulder.

Her mouth hangs open with no words to express.

"Simone?!" Marshall inquires a bit louder, growing impatient.

She looks up with glazed over eyes, her lip quivering, "The, The Book, Fionna you found The Book?!" She asks, becoming more animated with each syllable.

I shrug "I guess so, I mean with the help of the penguins. I didn’t really know what it was but the penguins seemed to know what’s up. So I brought it back for you to decipher."

"Hold up," Marshall interrupts, "what is it? Does it have a name?" He has a quizzical look upon his face as he looks down on the unmarked, plain leather book.

Simone smiles to herself, "Doesn't need a name it’s so important, just a great big 'THE'. Its The Book, a magical book I was researching so long ago it seems. I tracked it down after the Great Mushroom War, but lost my mind before I had the chance to use it." She turns it over and over in her hands as if she can feel the history and memories seeping through the covers.

"So what does it do exactly?" Questions Marshall, still not sounding too sure of this path.

Simone seems to shake away her thoughts, "It can tell you anything and everything about the world; it is the collective knowledge of everyone."

"Unlimited knowledge..." I express in awe.

Marshall backs up a bit, "So it can know what I’m thinking?" Sounding really unsure now.

"No, Marshy, it has its limits I assure you; but, why don’t we just test it?" Simone says, sounding a little weary herself of knowing the power the book possesses.

We gather around her as she opens up the front cover to a blinding flash of light. We all turn away until the light eventually dims and we can make out shimmering letters dancing across the page, as if constantly looking for their right place on the page, lacking the right guidance.

Simone rests the book on her forearms, her hands curl around the top cover a little tighter as she clears her throat, "Ahem, Book, I inquire about all there is to know on... catbugs." And as she verbally places a period on her sentence, the letters freeze their constant movement for a millisecond before zooming even faster than before across the page, still in a seemingly disorderly fashion. The pages begin to rustle and soon they all turn in a crowning motion with a flash of blue light. The back cover closes following the pages and, as a final act, an iridescent light traces the books edges before fading into the cover.

We all peel our eyes away from the book and glance at each other. Simone's hopeful eyes return to the book as soon as they parted. She flips the book over to the front where a detailed picture of a catbug prancing across a field as more flew overhead, 'THE BOOK OF: CATBUG' embossed into the cover.

"Whoa..." Marshall sighs out, his hand gently stroking the cover in disbelief.

Simone slowly turns a couple pages into the book to find a labeled diagram of a catbug and several paragraphs of information on the sides.

I clear my throat, "I, I think we should try a person now," I suggest, thinking back to what Marshall said earlier.

"Who?" Simone asks, "Er, here, how about you ask yourself." And before I can refuse she slides the book into my arms.

My mind goes a million different directions trying to think of someone to ask the book about; the classic 'When I actually try to think of someone I naturally forget everyone I ever knew'. "Can I ask it about myself?" And with a flash of light and a whirl of the pages I'm soon looking at my face on the front cover of The Book. My hands tremble a bit as I stare back at myself. "I can't!" My shaky hands hand it over to Marshall while I back away slowly from The Book, feeling as if something was slithering around my bod.

He cracks open The Book to the first few pages, he seems unable to hold back a chuckle, "Ha, it has a picture of you as a baby singing the 'Buff Baby' song, I remember that."

I gasp, "That’s 'in' there? What else?" I ask genuinely curious but also wondering to what extent of my life has been printed on the paper.

He flips back a few pages, "There’s a table of contents, of course." His eye catches on one and he flips to about the middle, a crooked smile spreading across his face. "I think I found MY favorite chapter..." he flips the book around in his arms to face outwards, "The 'Marshall Lee' chapter, a subheading under 'Romances'." He lifts and eyebrow and reads, flipping through some pages after a quick scan.

"Well?" I ask tentatively, not sure how I feel about The Book anymore.

He looks cross, "Everything we've ever done is in here... LSP's party all those years ago, the potion, me rescuing you from the Nightosphere, to me engaging, the fight we just had, our wedding,-" his breath caught in surprise.

"What?!" I hurry to his side and see a small heading saying 'Wedding'. I take the book from him, causing the same an uneasy feeling as before, but I have to see for myself. My eyes find the heading 'Marshall' on the top then under are several paragraphs, some with headings some not, until my eyes lock onto 'Wedding'. I dare to read the first sentence in my head:

'On the warm summer night of-'

"No," I slam the covers shut between my hands, "how can it know the future??" My wild eyes ask Simone's calm ones.

She shakes her head slightly as she talks, "This is strong magic, borderline dark magic, I had no idea." She says distantly but then addresses me, "I’m sure the future in the book is not set in stone, the choices you make constantly shift, making different realities."

Still unsure I hand the book back to Marshall, I instruct him "Go back to where it says 'Wedding' and tell me the first... five words."

He nods in understanding, flipping the pages back he reads "'On the warm summer night-"

"But... it can’t be!" I exclaim angrily, "I've made the decision that our wedding will specifically NOT be on a 'summer night', it should have changed!" I look to Simone for answers.

She seems surprised herself, "Perhaps there really is destiny..."

"Enough!" Marshall commands, The Book changing in his hands, "Lets get down to the real reason we need this book," he places it down for us all to see the new title: 'The Book on: Gems of Power.'

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