“Tara, sweetie, I have to go to the library to pick up some books. Do you want to come with me or go play with your brother?” Mom asked as she was doing her daily chores.

I wanted to play, but I also wanted to explore the library. Playing in the library sounded way more fun with all the books to read. The stuffed bears are also really soft to hug!

“Can I go with you, Mommy?”

Mom led us through big sister’s gateway, and we were in the library. When I waved to one of the fluffy stuffed bears, they came over to me. I wondered if they wanted to play.

One bear patted my head, “Hi, little Lady Valreck, are you free to come to reading time later?”

“Mom, can I?!” I said, squealing with excitement. Reading time was always one of my favorite pastimes.

“I’m sorry, honey, we’re just making a quick trip today,” she said while continuing her way.

There was a trick that I had learned recently from a book. I put my hands together and opened my eyes really wide with my lips kind of down, waiting for her to turn around. It had worked in the book, “Baskars Great Adventure.” He even rode a white horse!

She turned around, looking right at me, as if I did something wrong. Then, to my surprise, she pressed her lips together and let out a gigantic sigh. I hoped she was going to let me go!

“Okay, you can stay here and explore,” she said, looking up at the stuffed bear. “But remember, some places, like the labs, are off-limits for kids, right?”

The bear nodded several times. The same way dad did when he said he was going out with his friends for the night and would not cause any problems.

“Alright then, sweetie, go to the children’s section on your own and don’t wander too far,” Mom said, trusting me to be in the library by myself for the first time. I wanted to shout out happily, but I also wanted to seem more grown up.

Grown up like Astrid playing with the bears, which even big sis Astrid had to run away from—or was it them running away from her? I would have to ask her when I saw her again. She does a lot of fun things! Like, the time she magic’d us a big new house.

Mom started walking away but looked back several times before going down another hallway. As I kept on walking, I tried thinking of a good plan. I would just have to distract him somehow. Just like dad would when he would surprise mom with beautiful flowers. That’s it! I could have that bear help me get a tall book down from the shelf, and while he was looking away, I could make a run for it and hide in one of those book gaps!

I saw the gap I wanted to run to. It was a cozy little gap where I could curl up with my favorite stuffed animal and a storybook. Now, I just had to get far enough away from the bear so he wouldn’t catch me. He was just so big, and I knew I couldn’t run as fast as him. When we rounded the corner, I saw a book that was up really high on top of the bookcase, like it was reaching for the sky.

“Hey Mr. Bear, could you please be a super-duper bear and grab that book on top of there for me?” I asked sweetly, pointing at the book on the high shelf. As he looked at it and began to reach for it, I tiptoed away from him and around the corner. My heart was pounding like a drum at a parade. I ran to the gap and got on my knees, crawling into the gap in the books. I even managed to squeeze between the books on this side and the other side.

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I almost let out a giggle at my escape going so well, but I covered my mouth with my tiny hand to hold it in. Soon, I heard the slow, heavy footsteps of the bear getting closer. I held my breath so that he wouldn’t hear me. Just as it started to get stressful on my throat, he started to walk away. A moment later, I took a deep, gasping breath, feeling like I was adventuring like Astrid.

Slowly I crawled out looking both ways down the aisle, not seeing the bear anywhere nearby. I balled my hand into a fist and raised it into the air in triumph. I wanted to shout and joy but didn’t because the bearbrarian could still be close by. I walked slowly and carefully, looking at everything that was around me. There were so many books with so many big words. Weirdly though a lot of them were blurred, and I wasn’t able to see them. Maybe it wasn’t something i was supposed to read?

When I felt that I had gotten far enough away from the bear, I started running towards the children’s section, but I wasn’t paying close enough attention to my footsteps and I tripped and skid on the ground. I tried not to cry, but it was really hard. My knee hurt. I grabbed it in pain. When I touched my knee, I pulled my hand back. When I looked down at it, there was a large red mark with tiny wet cherry specks.

I wanted to cry out in pain, but that may have attracted a stuffed bear. I had to be strong like big sis! I wiped away what was on my knee underneath my dress, hoping my mom wouldn’t notice the red stain later.

Pulling myself back up, I carefully shuffled towards the children’s section wishing that I had brought the bear along to heal me, but I wanted an adventure of my own. Then maybe big sis would let me explore the dungeon!

When I had thought about the bear healing me, I remembered that there was a book where animals heal the human they were with. I would have to try to do that spell myself like big sis being able to cast big magic spells.

A lot of the titles were just blurred everywhere I looked, especially the bigger sized books. As I got closer to the children’s section, more and more titles were words that I was able to read. “Quazzies Quizical Queens” grabbed my attention. I pulled it out and saw that there were a bunch of pretty women in dresses on the cover, but not as pretty as Astrid.

I took the book with me to read later. It was sort of heavy though, so I had to hold it with two hands as I walked. I peeked into the children’s section and I didn’t see the bear. He must be looking elsewhere. I hoped he wasn’t too worried about me, though. In the other corner of the children's section, I saw where I needed to go. I even recognized the book by it’s spine.

That was when my knee started to hurt again, but I pushed through the pain and got to the book. I didn’t have much time and I needed to hurry. I didn’t want to be found out that I had been hurt. If I did, mom would never let me go alone again and Astrid would never let me in the dungeon either.

The book was just how I remembered it, I quickly flipped to the page where the adorable little creature cast the spell. The words were there, but I didn’t know if that would be enough. The creature was pointing its paw at the child’s wound with swishy lines drawn on the page showing movement.

Waving my hand like the paw of the creature, I pointed at my knee and said, “bye-bye boo-boo, return this wound to its natural new.” An amber light glowed like magic gems from my hand to my knee and the knee pain went away.

I rolled my dress up and there was no mark on my knee nor cherry stains on my dress. Letting go of the hem of the dress, I jumped around with my fist in the air. I really did it. Astrid would be so proud of me, but I couldn’t even tell her about it, which made me a little sad. Maybe I could put on a little magic show for her. I remembered that there were other books where animals were using magic as well.

Just after I put the book away, the bear I had escaped from rounded the corner. He tilted his head at me and I saw him looking down at my legs for a moment.

“Are you ready to read? It’s almost time.” The bearbrarian asked me.

I got away with it! My own adventure by myself! I want to jump around, but that would give me away. It would be too obvious, like how mother would always know when I took extra candy mushies.

The bear went and grabbed a book off the shelf while I found a serene soft sofa to sit on. The adventure had taken a lot out of me and I quickly fell asleep as the bear read to me.