Day 2, Part 5

Silver Crystal woke in her hobbit hole, in the little bed that seemed to fit her juuuust right. She felt really strange, like something terribly wrong had happened. She rolled out of bed, plodded to the round door across the room, opened it, and with a flash appeared into the library. 

She crossed to the window directly across from the bookshelf, lifted a curtain, and squinted out. The sun looked like it had risen an hour or so ago, shining golden rays on the world outside. All looked peaceable, and yet…

“I feel strange,” a voice behind her said, and she saw Scuttles, having come from somewhere else in the J.R.R.Tolkien rooms. 

“I know… me too,” Silver Crystal admitted. 

“Do you suppose…?” Scuttles looked a little nervous suggesting it, but Silver Crystal heartily agreed.

She did suppose. 

And so, moments later, she and Scuttles were hurrying all about the library in a nervous frenzy, encountering CBer after CBer as they all emerged from their bookrooms. Soon, all the CBers but Moon Wolf had been happened upon, and that made Silver even more certain. 

On the very last story, at the curving walkway, they found her. Or rather, what was left of her. 

Picking up the golden figure, she saw that it was indeed Moon Wolf. She was in a crouch, her head raised like a wolf howling at the moon. She had shrunk to a three inch figurine. Flipping her over, Silver read on the bottom, Moon Wolf. Backstabbed. 

Silver Crystal visibly recoiled, and quickly handed the little figurine to the person next to her, who happened to be Celine. Celine looked the figurine over and then gasped, “Dewey!”

A moment later, The Librarian rounded the corner of the ramp, and hurried to the group of CBers. She marched her way to the middle, and gently took the golden statue from Celine’s hands.

“Come with me,” was all she said before turning back to the ramp downwards.

Down at the reception desk, Dewey had disappeared into the door behind the desk, and all the CBers waited in nervous silence. Eventually, The Librarian returned with a book and the figurine. She set both on the desk facing the group.

“Yes,” she said softly. “She is gone. Her book has closed.”

Silver looked at the midnight blue cover, with the silver words, Moon Wolf’s Story. Hesitantly, Silver put out a finger and flicked the cover open. It fell to a page with silver writing, and she peered closer.

‘ No, the only thing that Moon Wolf saw before falling to the ground was a shimmering gold covering her eyes. And then life was gone. And her story closed.’

Silver leaned back, feeling sad and slightly sick. Cillian leaned forward and tried to turn the page, but it wouldn’t budge. She then tried to turn back a page, and it did so easily, showing how Moon Wolf likes her bookroom in the Keeper world. 

“Why won’t the pages turn forward?” Cillian asked the quiet Librarian.

“Her story is closed, there is no more to write,” Dewey answered simply.

“But there are so many more pages,” Marin argued. “Surely there’s more?”

“She is gone,” The Librarian said, snapping a little. “She had so much more to write in her story, it’s true, but the book shuts and refuses to continue in any way when they are gone.”

And with that, she snatched the book back, and marched into the back room, leaving the figurine behind.

“She’s awfully high strung,” WildWolf murmured, and others nodded in agreement. 

“Her responsibility was tested just now, and she lost one of us,” Silver Crystal said softly. “Let her be.”

~~~

The Librarian

“Dewey, Dewey, look at meeee!” a little girl with coco skin and two puffy ponytails swung higher and higher on a swing, almost touching the boughs on the tree the swing was attached to.

“Be careful, Story,” Dewey said, shaking her head, jingling her beaded braids. 

“I’m flying!” Story squealed, giggling happily.

Dewey watched carefully, and gasped when her little sister then jumped off at the highest point and plummeted to the earth below. Dewey’s hand shot forward, and a burst of silver whizzed to her sister, enfolding her in the silver light like a bubble before gently setting Story on the ground.

“Again, again!” her sister was unfazed and giggling for more.

“Story, you can’t do that! I won’t always be here to save you,” Dewey scolded, but her sister just ran over to her, and sat down on the grass beside her, giving Dewey a big squeeze, or as big of a squeeze as a 6 year old could give.

“You will always be there for me,” Story looked up at her with big, trusting eyes. “You’ll never let me down.”

Dead: 1 (Moon Wolf)

Alive: 14 (CelineBurningBright [Celine], WildWolf, Hex, Lyric, Periwinkle [Peri], pangolin, Eclipse, Scuttles, Cillian, Marin, Endless Parodies [Parody], Silver Crystal [Silver], Seadragon, Bushy Tail [BT, Bushy])

Day 2, Part 6

WildWolf sulked most of the morning. She finished reading Stellerlune, and then sat slumped in an armchair, contemplating life in general. Especially the fact that she had willingly signed up for this lodge, only for the possibility of being turned into a golden statue hovering over her head. Not fun.

Periwinkle wandered past her, and then paused and backtracked. “I know,” she said sympathetically. “I haven’t gone to a lodge in a long time, but this definitely seems-” she sighed, searching for a word. “Daunting.”

WildWolf nodded, sitting up in her armchair. “I’m afraid to move,” she admitted, rubbing her neck. 

“Walk with me,” Peri invited. “I’m getting to know the library better so I can help people find books that they desire on this side of the library.”

“Alright, sure,” WildWolf stood, and then walked beside Peri up and down the halls of shelves. 

“I love how the library brings this sense of quiet that no other place does,” Peri confided. “It’s the silence of words and other worlds, you know?”

WildWolf listened. There was the sound of rustling pages, of quiet whispers, and the soft pattering of footsteps on the carpet. There were giggles, and distant loudness from the children’s section, echoing strangely, like from the past. The glint of glasses, a teasing smile, bouncy curls, a golden knife-

WildWolf lurched forward with a gasp. She was on the floor, with Peri and Dewey kneeling next to her.

“There ya are,” Dewey said, looking relieved. “Peri said that you… fainted or something?”

“Erk,” WildWolf groaned, slowly standing. “I dunno… just like faded into the noise…”

She trailed off, taking in the glint of Dewey’s glasses and curly head of hair. She paled, then mumbled, “I’m fine, I’ll just go with Peri again,” as she practically dragged Peri down the aisle. 

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Peri said, frowning concernedly at WildWolf. “But when you looked at Dewey it was like you saw a ghost! Are you sure you’re fine?”

WildWolf hesitated, about to tell her friend of the vision she had. But at the last moment she changed her words- “Oh, no. I really am fine. Dewey just looked, um, different for a second.” Yeah, different because what she saw in her vision Dewey had a golden knife. She definitely would look at her differently now, and yet, she also couldn’t deny that it could’ve all just been an overreaction of her paranoid imagination. 

Periwinkle looked as though she could tell that wasn’t what WildWolf was going to say, but she didn’t press the matter. Instead, pointing out different books and asking if WildWolf had read them, she somehow, in her own Peri way, calmed WildWolf down. The more she thought about it, the more she felt sure that her wired emotions had just made her brain focus on something that surely wasn’t true. Well, that is until she and Peri wandered up an aisle they had already, near the one where WildWolf had ‘fainted’. Because there in the middle of the aisle were two golden figurines. 

“Oh boy,” Peri said, sprinting to them before picking them both up. 

WildWolf hesitantly walked closer, seeing the two holding hands and grinning at each other, as though in all the world fading from life was the best thing ever for Cillian and Marin.

Dead: 3 (Moon Wolf, Cillian, Marin,)

Alive: 12 (CelineBurningBright [Celine], WildWolf, Hex, Lyric, Periwinkle [Peri], pangolin, Eclipse, Scuttles, Endless Parodies [Parody], Silver Crystal [Silver], Seadragon, Bushy Tail [BT, Bushy])