Nyssa's Point of View

Chapter 3

Sending Roan away might not have been the best idea ever, but he was basically a stranger and I didn't know how he'd react. I'd only just gotten this grant and I wasn't about to lose it to...whatever I'd seen inside.

Creatures. Dozens of them. From tiny flying dragons to giant hulking things I hadn't gotten a good enough look at.

The library board would want an investigation, and if that went badly, they might never let the library back into the Tales and Tomes Festival. And without the gods' blessing, the Misty Mountain Library would fade away as if it were never here. Eventually a new library would grow somewhere else and the cycle would start again.

I couldn't let that happen though. This library held too many memories for me, important ones that I wasn't ready to let go of so easily. The best thing I could do now was keep those creatures to myself. Until I knew more.

Once my racing pulse settled a bit, I dared to open the door again just a crack. I peeked inside, but there was...nothing. No dragons, no creatures, nothing. I swung the door open wide as silence greeted me.

Did I imagine them?

I stepped inside cautiously, half expecting somebody to jump out and yell surprise like this was some strange initiation to becoming a librarian here. Except, nothing happened. Well that was a letdown. I sighed, closing the door behind me.

"Hello?" I called out. "I'm the new librarian, Nyssa."

Shuffling sounds came from multiple directions as tiny dragon heads in all different colors poked out over bookshelves. Okay, so they were definitely real, but possibly scared too. Why were they here instead of out in the wild? If I went about my business as normal, maybe they'd let me explore a bit.

"Don't mind me," I said as I strolled through the shelves, "I'm just looking at what repairs need to be done."

The stacks were clean, not a speck of dust on them like I expected. Which meant somebody had been cleaning them. I smiled faintly, loving the idea of people stopping by to take care of the place. So it hadn't been fully abandoned after all. People still cared about it, just like I did. Maybe reopening wouldn't be as hard as I thought.

Something else was missing besides dust though: the books. Almost every shelf was empty, except for a few random books all by themselves. My stomach sank, realizing just how hard it would be to restock such a big library. How could the board give up on the Misty Mountain Library like that? How could anyone take the books away?

I guess I couldn't blame them too much. The library did look pretty rundown with the broken windows and holes in the roof. At least somebody had patched them up to keep the weather out, but not before water damage warped the floor. That wouldn't be an easy fix.

Had a wild magic storm really done all this? I rubbed my temples, silently calculating how much money the grant was worth vs how much it probably cost to rip up a floor and redo a roof.

Maybe the contractors would take pity on me since it was for a good cause. I'd hire local workers, people who might remember the library from back in the day when it was warm and bright.

As I studied the mess of a floor, a patch of beautiful purple flowers caught my eye.

"What the..."

I knelt down, looking at the hooded flowers closer. Aconite, or better known as wolfsbane, shouldn't be growing in this library. It was poisonous for one thing and for another, it was growing right on top of the floor, no dirt required. My gaze moved on to another patch of flowers and then another, leading me through the winding stacks like a path through a maze.

Something small and fluffy ran at me. I yelped in surprise as a three-headed puppy nuzzled up against my leg. Purple flowers blanketed the floor as the adorable dog rolled over, exposing his belly. I looked around, but nobody else seemed to be here.

He wiggled on the floor, tail wagging, eyes begging me to reach down and pet his stomach. It was impossible to resist.

"Fine, I'll pet you." I knelt down, smiling despite the odd situation. All six of the dog's eyes closed in bliss like I'd found just the right spot to scratch. "Now what are you doing here, hmmmm?"

A tiny bit of drool dripped from one of the dog's mouths and hit the floor. Flowers sprouted from it like magic. I jerked away. That was new. I'd never seen a dog do that before. Just heard stories about...

"Cerberus?"

The dog leapt up, wagging his tail, and eagerly looking at me like he wanted to play.

"No, you can't be Cerberus. You're all tiny and cute and...fictional!"

What was going on? First dragons and now Cerberus, the guardian of a mythological Underworld?

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I searched the area, hoping for anything that resembled an explanation. The little pup followed at my heels, jumping at the flowers once in a while to play. It was hard not to give in and play with him, but something was very very wrong here. Little three-headed dogs that grew flowers from their drool didn't just appear in the library.

A book covered in so many flowers I almost missed it lay open on the floor. I picked it up, reading the title. "Taming the Beast?"

I raised an eyebrow at tiny Cerberus as he ran around the book in circles. That story was about the great Cerberus becoming a rainbow goddess' pet. But this dog was pint-sized. Practically a puppy. And that was just a story...

"Oh Cerberus, what are you doing here?" I whispered to the dog. "Actually, Cerberus feels a little too infamous for a cute puppy like you. How about Cerbie?"

He woofed his approval, coming to me for more pets. Well, whatever was going on didn't seem too bad. It's not like the dog came out of that book. That would be ridiculous. I mean, wild magic storms did a lot of weird things, but they messed with magic, warping it into and changing its purpose. This was something entirely different.

As the stacks opened up to a large reading area circling the great book tree, I froze. The book tree was withered, a husk of its normal self, with no leaves or books gracing its branches.

I pressed my hand against my chest, feeling the pain of that tree in my very soul. Book trees were gifts given to us by the gods, shooting up from the ground like flowers poking out of the snow in spring. One minute they were tiny little libraries and the next, they were full size and ready to use.

This one was almost out of magic though, as if it hadn't been blessed in over a decade. It had only been a few years though, there was no way it should be this drained. If I didn't do something soon, all the repairs in the world wouldn't matter. The book tree was what gave life to a magical library, without it, there'd be no point in fixing up the building.

Could I even wait until next year's festival to gain the gods' blessing? Or was time against me?

I needed help, somebody who knew more about library magic. My old research partner from school was getting his doctorate in arcane relics. Maybe he'd have some ideas? I pulled out my communication crystal, holding it up to the light to cast a rainbow.

"Connect me to Oren." I said, nervously petting Cerbie. An image of Oren sleeping on a pile of books, glasses crooked, appeared in the rainbow. "Wake up. I've got a job for you."

He jerked up, running his hands over his face to readjust his glasses. "Nyssa? You never contact me. Is something wrong?"

The withered book tree filled my view. I moved closer so it would show up in Oren's crystal. "I'm reopening the Misty Mountain Library, but it looks like the tree's magic has been drained."

"Drained?" His eyes widened as I got closer to the tree, but then he frowned. "Something's wrong with our connection. It looks like the tree's...walking?"

I jerked my gaze from the crystal to a giant forest golem standing beside the tree. I tilted my head back to take all twenty feet of it in, watching it move with muscles made of corded vines holding the dirt, moss, and rocks together. One huge step swallowed the distance between us as I scrambled out of its way.

Cerbie ran circles around the golem, tail wagging with joy. It took another step, moving right past me as if it didn't even see me there. Red flowers sprouted from its shoulders, blooming brightly under the light. They reminded me of a book I'd loved as a child about a gentle giant. No, it couldn't be...

"Nyssa? What's going on?" Oren's voice snapped me out of my stunned silence. "Is that a golem?"

Excitement colored his voice. He'd always loved mystical creatures, but hadn't seen any up close. Not like this.

"What do you know about...books coming to life?" I asked him, gazing at the impossible golem in front of me. "Specifically, can characters from books ever become real?"

"Of course not," Oren scoffed. "Unless..."

I'd seen that look in his eye many times as he opened a book and got lost in his research for days on end. He always came up with an answer for everything I asked him, no matter how long it took him. This time would be no different.

Unfortunately, our conversation had drawn the golem's attention. It turned slowly, gazing around the library with wide glowing eyes. It leaned down, close enough for me to smell the damp earth and sweet flowers in its body.

"Gotta go, Oren," I stammered, before dropping the crystal. "Um, hello, Mr. Golem?"

"Not my human," it said, its voice rumbling like an earthquake. "Where is my human?"

Its voice was slow, drawn out and something about its face, how its head tilted curiously and its eyes shimmered, reinforced my theory about it being the gentle giant, the one who'd saved a misfit child from harm and made both their dreams come true. I couldn't help but smile, remembering all the times I'd read that story, all the times I'd wished a golem of my own would come find me.

"Nice to meet you," I said. "My name's Nyssa. Can you tell me why you're here?"

"Why I'm here?" It straightened, body groaning as the rocks and vines shifted. "Here is my home."

Ah. Well that was a bit of a problem. I couldn't exactly reopen with terrifying creatures living here, could I? People would either be too scared to come or the board would close us down for public safety.

"I'm sorry, but you can't stay here. This is a library and it'll be open again soon." I worried my lip, not wanting to hurt its feelings. "Do you know where you lived before? Was it outside the library or maybe...inside a book?"

A few books fell off the shelves nearby, making me jump. Then the shelves seemed to quiver as more books fell. One by one they hit the ground, making me cringe.

"What's wrong?" I asked, hoping the golem would stop whatever it was doing, but it just tilted its head, staring off in the distance.

Actually, it was staring at somebody walking toward us. A man, shrouded in darkness. Black horns curled over the man's head and his fingers were tipped in claws, black as the night like they'd been dipped in ink that crept up his arm to his very toned biceps.

"Get out," he said softly, but the words held weight, as if he fully expected me to follow orders. "We don't need a librarian or anyone else. It's time for you to leave."

With that, the golem picked me up, my feet dangling in the air like a child too short for their chair. My stomach lurched, but his large hand held me securely, carrying me outside. He set me down far more gently than I expected, but then slammed the door in my face.

My heartbeat thundered in my ears as I sat outside. Did they just kick me out? Of my own library??

I stood up, grabbing the door handle firmly. There was no way they were getting rid of me that easily. I pulled on the handle, ready to give that demon a piece of my mind, but the door didn't budge. I leaned back, putting all my weight into it, but the door stayed shut.

"Fine," I said, "if that's how you want to play it, then I'll just find another way in. I'm the librarian. You can't keep me out."

Not for long at least. I'd get back inside and reopen that library. I'd spent too many years dreaming about it to let a few books that had come to life stop me. Those story spirits would just have to get used to me.