Whaddya know? This chapter wasn't that late after all:). Please don't forget to comment your theory's and thoughts on the story's overall plot. Thank you and have an awesome day!
~Ashlee
〰〰〰
Heswyn hums in thought as she thumbs through some of the many books on the many shelves.
On a teetering latter high above the ground.
Delia looks up, pressing her lips in concern, however the librarian looks anything but afraid.
How does she look so...nonchalant. If I were her I'd be shaking so hard that I'd topple over.
"Is everything alright up there?" She inquires.
Heswyn smiles through her search. "Just fine! The book I'm looking for should be somewhere on this shelf."
"And you think this can help Kip?" Kagon asks skeptically. "A book?"
Heswyn casts her gaze down at Kagon, appearing to have the same angry, calculative eyes as the goddess of wisdom, Falika, herself. "Yes, a book has been more of a trusty weapon to me than any sword or shield." She nods to Delia. "A quill and parchment is a respectable weapon as well."
Kagon chortles, shaking his head. "A book? A quill and parchment?! Those can't cause injury."
"Untrue, actually. The pointed part of a quill could easily stab you in the eye. As for books, if my dear Aunt decided to drop one on you right now, then you could have a serious head injury."
Delia whirls around to face a tall, gawky looking young man in his early twenties with curly red-brown hair, hazel eyes that match Heswyn's, and wire glasses.
"Ah, Thil! This is my old friend Kagon of Pik, his scribe Cordelia of Pik, and the young man unconscious on the table is their friend, Kipdale. Delia and Kagon, this is my nephew Thil. He --like me-- is a scholar that stays here and assists me in up-keeping the library. However, he's often downstairs playing with the elements of nature in what he calls experiments." She says, rolling her eyes.
Thil grins and pushes up his glasses. "It is good to meet you all." He looks up at his Aunt. "However, it is not so good to see you teetering on that rickety latter again, Aunt Heswyn!"
Heswyn waves a hand, uncaring as she continues on with her work.
Thil offers Kagon a polite smile. "I've heard of your ventures, Kagon." He nods to Delia. "As well as yours, Miss. Word travels fast here. Is it true that you both fought an army of Shadowlanders at the precipice of Gahenna and freed many of the people of Lanthos?"
"Well, we weren't literally on the edge of the chasm, but we were uncomfortably close to it." Delia says. "And it wasn't just us, we had some loyal men and women fighting at our side."
"I'm not surprised of these differences, when truthful stories travel they always seem to stretch themselves." Thil says. "However, that doesn't make your feats any the less heroic."
"No, of course not." Kagon agrees with an arrogant grin.
"Bah!"
Everyone looks up at the sudden sound. A scowl pulls down Heswyn's lips and creases her brow. "The Field Guide to Mythological Creatures has gone missing again."
"Not again." Thil sighs. "Last time that happened we had quite a bit of trouble."
Kagon chuckles. "Trouble over a useless book?"
"Slap the foolhardy hero with a heavy book for me, won't you?" Heswyn asks. "I'm afraid if I drop one on him from this height I'll jar his brain and he'll only become more of an idiot."
Delia covers her mouth, attempting to hide her laughter. Kagon sends her a look, but shakes his head with a smile. "Holding your wisdom over my ahead again, I see?"
"But of course! Not everyone is lucky enough to have biceps bigger than their cerebral cortex. Well, I suppose the cerebral cortex is actually smaller than the biceps, but you get the point." She says, making her way back down the latter.
"What?"
Thil slaps a hand on Kagon's back. "Don't worry about it."
Heswyn lightly hops off the latter once she gets to the second to last rung. "Unfortunately the book that had the most knowledge about the life-leeches has gone missing. I would like you all to search around the library for a thick book with a title of Field Guide to Mythological Creatures. It may have gotten misplaced. In the meantime I'll be searching through our records to see who checked out the book last."
"Are there not any other books on life-leeches that can help?" Delia inquires. "Also, how can there be a field guide on mythological creatures when they're supposed to be, well mythological?"
"There are a couple books that mention life-leeches, but none that go over it so expansively as the field guide." She replies.
"Now to answer your second question, the book is very old and written in a time where there were few heroes to fight the many different types of monsters. As more heroes popped up more types of monsters became close to or extinct, so they became mythological. At least that's what my theory is, all I know is that the field guide has proved correct time and time again with dealing with such things as what you are. So, I doubt it will fail us now."
Delia nods, gears turning in her head at all of this information.
As she goes off to search the various shelves to find the book along with the others, she can't help but have her own theories on Heswyn's explanation about why mythological creatures are child's fantasy today.
Heswyn's theory is a sound and sturdy one. However, if many creatures have already been killed off and forced into hiding because of the swell of emerging heroes, then doesn't that mean that one day there won't be anymore monsters to fight?
〰〰〰
Kagon searches through the library's immense collection of books mindlessly. He is smart enough to know to trust Heswyn's judgement, but that doesn't mean he is doubtless.
"Maybe one day you'll understand the strength of books." Heswyn had once told him when they first met many years ago.
Kagon still isn't sure what she exactly meant by that.
"Are you bored?"
Kagon turns to see Heswyn look at him with an arched eyebrow.
"You have no idea." Kagon chuckles. "Have you finished looking through the library's records?"
"Yes, the book was checked out fairly recently by a man named Maud of Lanthos and I didn't find any recording of the field guide's return. He lives in a large house a block or so away from the marketplace."
"Of Lanthos? He wasn't born in Lithko?"
"Apparently not, it is not my concern where he was born." She pauses for a moment in thought before speaking. "Actually, since you're so bored you can go and retrieve the book from him."
Kagon shrugs. "It's better than searching through these dusty books."
Heswyn scowls. "I will have you know that I dust on a weekly basis."
Kagon only sends her a taunting wink before sauntering out of the library in search for a man named Maud.
As Kagon strolls through Lit he notices that there are less people roaming about the city as the sun begins to sink lower and lower in the sky. Another day is about to pass with the rise of the moon.
The hero feels solemn at the thought. It's hard for him to even comprehend that he had done and accomplished so much as well as been through so much. For a moment he feels like the boy who couldn't save the one person that mattered most --especially after his father disappeared--his mother. Ever since then life had felt to him like it never stopped, like there is hardly ever a pause to reflect.
I suppose that life's never ending endurance has done me good, though. It makes it so that there aren't many times like this when I'm forced to slow down and look at all that has happened.
Kagon shakes his head, the last time he got like this was back in Afflon when he was alone on the quest for the sword. At the memory of the quest he thinks back on the elf, Azuel.
I hope he made it safely to whatever afterlife he had in store for him.
Kagon is finally able to pull himself from his stream of thoughts just as he passes the marketplace. Following Heswyn's directions, he walks the block from the market to a place where many a large home and mansion sit grandly.
"Where does Maud of Lanthos live?" Kagon asks one of the dwindling passerby's.
The man he asked points to a large house made from a combination of sea stone and brick, all in all not the prettiest of homes, despite its rich appearance.
The man scuttles off leaving the hero to climb up the three stairs leading to the house's front door. Kagon makes a fist and knocks on the door until he can hear steps from the other side.
A man with light brown skin and slicked back greying hair answers the door with a kindly smile. "Hello, how may I help you?"
"Are you not Maud of Lanthos?"
The man shakes his head. "No, I am his older brother, Clydion. Maud is just inside."
Clydion moves to allow Kagon in. The inside of the house is decorated with garish furniture and strange, gory paintings. Clydion leads him to an office-like room where a man that resembles Clydion sits.
The hero can't help but notice Maud's scarred face and the eyepatch that covers his left eye.
"Brother, this man has come to see you."
Kagon steps forward. "I am the hero, Kagon of Pik." Maud's eyes spark, but Kagon is sure it is a trick of the light. "I have come to reclaim a book you have yet to return. The Field Guide of Mythological Creatures."
Maud guffaws, taking Kagon by surprise. "Why would a hero come to collect a simple book?"
"It's a favor." Kagon explains.
Maud shrugs, expression shrewd and uncaring. "Whatever." He tosses Kagon a book bound in cracked leather. "It hasn't done me any good."
Kagon catches the book, annoyed at the man's behavior. "Alright, I'll just be taking this and going."
"Go on, I don't have all day."
Kagon finds his own way out of the ugly house, an unsettling feeling pervading him.
I don't like this Maud, he seems far too familiar to a man I once knew.....
However, no matter how hard Kagon thinks about it he can't remember who exactly Maud reminds him of.