LSRO: Chapter 7 - Bookworms (Patreon)

Not your average bookworm. But isn't that half the fun? Just wait until you meet the Night Owls.

No longer rough! Welcome to the edited version of the chapter ;) 

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Chapter 7

Bookworms

The creature in front of her was judging her. Quinn could feel it in her bones, not to mention her white-knuckled gripping fists as she tried to stave off her own fear.

The bookworm chewed, sort of anyway. Its mouth closed and moved a bit, but she was sure she could hear those teeth grating against each other as its mouth moved.

And it contemplated her. Moreover, it felt like the creature was focused on the damned broom in her hands. All of a sudden she had this distinct urge to shoo it away and shake the bottom of the broom at it, but there was a part of her absolutely certain that wouldn't be effective.

Just as she was sure the monster had dismissed her, just as her muscles relaxed from the tense grip she had on her broomstick... the massive creature launched itself at her.

Despite how cumbersome the worm appeared to be, it was surprisingly agile. Like a thick vine twisting in mid-air, it changed direction with unnatural ease, coiling toward her with a rapidity that took her by surprise.

How did a worm even jump like that? It wasn't like it had legs!

She swung out widely with the broom. Truly more of a flail if she was being honest with herself. But newly minted broomstick battling book lovers couldn't be choosers. "Throw the damn salt!" She yelled out as she thrashed with her makeshift weapon.

Somehow, she managed to catch the creature off guard so that it threw its body weight, which appeared to be considerable if the jolt on the floor was anything to go by, off-kilter where it hit the ground awkwardly.

It slouched over, though Quinn couldn't quite tell how she knew that it was slouching. She tiptoed toward it, not quite believing that she'd gotten lucky enough to do it true harm with that one hit.

Which basically meant it was faking it.

Since she wasn't sure how intelligent worms were or how they breathed, especially not larger than human-sized worms, Quinn decided that her best course of action was caution.

Well, that or running away, but since she had no idea how to get out of the library and the place seemed her best bet to get to anywhere anytime soon... she chose the former.

Caution however, was only useful when the other elements cooperated. Which, she found out in quite short order, the bookworm had no intention of doing. In the meantime, Lynx was making it rain salt. She could only hope he wasn't using all of it on one worm.

Just as she was about to prod it with the broomstick once more, the bookworm opened its massive maw again, but this time a high-pitched squeal emanated from it. The sound pierced her ears in a way that made her wonder if she'd perhaps perforated an eardrum.

A split second later, despite the pain in her head from the noise it was making, she realized that she had to shut the creature up. Because it didn't sound like it was in pain. It was calling for aid.

With speed born of sheer desperation, she hefted the broom up in the air and brought the rectangular wooden head crashing down right on top of what might have been the head of the worm.

If she didn't have the ends mixed up.

Quinn wasn't sure what she was expecting. Unlike some of the kids she grew up around, she'd never tried to explode a worm before in her life. She had no idea how the flesh of a worm reacted when it encountered a more solid object attempting to bash in its flesh.

Taking into consideration the fact that the worm in question was, indeed, several hundred times the size of your average earthworm, the result was unexpected.

Its skin was oddly elastic.

The most noticeable thing was that the shrill shrieking sound cut off. There was a moment’s pause, as if the entire universe stood still.

Followed by the forceful squelch of the heavy wooden floor brush biting into the soft flesh of the worm and effectively exploding through it and then outward. The strike carried through in such a way that it tore the soft flesh open and allowed the not-insignificant insides to splash out with the brutishness force of the strike.

Bookworm guts splurted everywhere.

Massive globules of marginally shriveled-up gelatinous body exploded all over the entire area.

It got into Quinn's hair, all over Lynx, and splashed over some of one of the library pillars, where it dripped down to settle on the floor as the worm fell to the ground convulsing from the shock.

Quinn blinked, highly concerned with the turn of events. "What..."

But she didn't get further.

Lynx shifted slightly, causing himself to appear briefly transparent, which got rid of the goop on him. Then he solidified again, this time in a far more corporeal manner and grabbed the broom. Pushing down with brute force, he severed the worm in the middle, before shrinking back to his usual density.

Engorged BookWorm defeated
Magical Density dissipating proportionately

Quinn had no idea what the Library was on about there, and shook her head, leveling a stare at Lynx. "I thought you couldn't kill these yourself." Quinn's voice came out flatter than she'd expected, which was probably good since she recognized that his actions were making her highly suspicious.

Lynx sighed. "I shouldn't right now because it takes too much energy. Energy the Library is in desperate need of right now. But if we didn't kill that thing straight away, it was going to regrow its head and one more summoning call and we’d have been goners. Didn't you hear that noise?"

"The screaming sound that tried to implode my eardrums? That super pleasant sound is a noise?" Quinn didn't think she was entirely successful at keeping the sarcasm out of her voice, but then again, she really wasn't trying to.

Lynx ignored her blatant irritation. "Then next time act like it. Everyone knows you have to kill worms completely. You can't just let them go all hydra on you."

About to correct him about everyone knowing how to kill worms correctly, Quinn blinked and changed her focus. "Hydra?"

"You know, cut off a head, another grows back. Have to cut..." Lynx rolled his eyes. "Never mind. Anyway, looks like the first thing we need to find you are some books on basic combat, the first of which should be on how to hold a weapon in the first place."

She grabbed her broom back and glared at the cat. "Look. You called me here. That's on you. It wasn’t like I was barely surviving on the streets. I was in a perfectly good home, where I didn't have to know that cutting a rabid bookworm in half was going to make it grow more or again or whatever..."

"It's not rabid." Lynx corrected her. "It's engorged."

"Engorged then!" Quinn really had to respect that smooth change of subject. It truly was well done. "It's a library. Just what is a worm going to eat?"

"It's a bookworm. You do the math."

"Explain it to me like I'm five. I have time. I don't need magic to run." It was a bit of a gamble for Quinn to say that, but it was at least partially true. All she needed was food. A fact which her stomach was none too gently reminding her of right then. “I would say this falls under the need to know category, since there are more of them.”

Lynx actually rolled his lizard-like eyes and tsked beneath his breath. "Fine, but we don't have all day you know."

He patted the small step that had led up to the worm, and waited until she sat down before he said anything. "Bookworms are an important part of any magical library ecosystem," he began.

"Wait." Quinn interrupted him. "There are more magical Libraries?" She looked around incredulously.

"Yes, and no." Lynx paused for a moment. "Technically. But I'm answering your initial question and not a drop more. The other portions of the Library are something to worry about when we have enough power to keep this part afloat. I'll start an exchange at this rate. You do a thing I need you to do, and I'll explain one thing to you."

Quinn mulled that over for a moment before squinting at Lynx There was obviously a catch to the whole thing, but she wanted the information, so this was probably her only real shot at that. "Fine. Deal."

Yep, Lynx looked smug. Quinn would figure out why later.

"Bookworms, when they're functioning optimally, absorb the overflow of specific magical essence that spills from a tome, book... whatever you want to call them. It's not the same as magic or mana, but more like a sense of the type of magic specifically." The lynx paused, allowing Quinn to take in the information.

Although it all went completely above her head, she still nodded for him to continue. She was following enough of it to record it and piece it all together later. That's how she got through half her history assignments in high school.

"The Bookworm is necessary to prevent a book's magic from stagnating or overflowing. Both of which can spark minor explosions when utilized by a less than experienced magic user. They’re also sort of a vacuum for any dust that gathers in that specific type of magic signature. If you mixed all the dust of different magical signatures in an actual vacuum, that would be bad."

He paused for a second, as if getting his train of thought back on track. Then Lynx sighed. "As you can probably imagine, with the library not functioning at optimal capacity, the bookworms have sort of gone rogue. They've consumed far more than they should ever have been allowed to. Mostly because they've had to. Without the pruning the Librarians have always undertaken, they've just... well... gorged themselves."

"Oh. The poor things." Because it actually made some sort of sense to Quinn. She suddenly got it and just as quickly felt extremely sad for the poor creatures. "Can't we just like -- wave a magic wand or something and get them back to normal?"

Lynx snorted. "The engorged ones? No way. Also, magic wands are a social construct in specific worlds, but we'll get to that at a later date. There's no way to shrink them back to something smaller from their current size. When they're still relatively small, we might be able to save them. But like this? No, these ones have to be exterminated. They've stretched their own magic properties far too thin. They're a danger to every single being and book that encounters them. Not to mention to themselves too."

"Oh." Quinn said again. There was something about the whole thing that made her inordinately sad for the creatures. They'd just been doing their job but because no one was there to help take care of them, they had to die now. Maybe there was something to being this Librarian or whatever it was.

"Okay then." She mulled the whole situation over in her head. "What's the best way for me to help get this under control?"

For a moment, Lynx just looked at her, like he was mulling over how to phrase all the subsequent information. It made a cold ball form in the middle of Quinn's stomach.

"There's eighty-seven of these guys," He cocked his head to one side like he was reading an invisible screen of some sort. "Actually Eighty-eight that are in the danger zone. It could increase before we get you prepared to fight them."

"Prepared?" She wasn't sure she liked the sound of that. "How do you mean, prepared."

Lynx reverted back to his feline form, leaving the salt box on the floor. He glanced at the broom with what can only be described as a smirk. "We need to get you an actual weapon, and have you read up on some basic combat skills."

"Combat? I thought I was supposed to take care of books."

"Can't do that if they're all destroyed, can you?" Now it looked like Lynx was raising his eyebrow at her.

She grumbled out her response. "I'm not really the fighting type. I thought this was all about magic?"

"Follow me." He totally ignored her question and led her away from the entrance to the bookworm lair, and through to another portion of the library she hadn't realized existed.

Nothing was well-lit. Bookcases loomed up all around the sides of every area they passed like ghosts of better times past. All she could tell was that so many of them were far too empty of books. Something she hadn't expected in a library. And it made her want to know why it was like this.

Who abandoned this place and why on not-Earth would they have left it to waste away like this? How did it happen?

"Here we are." Lynx sounded a little relieved. Like this was something he'd hoped would be there was actually still there because he hadn't checked it in a while. It appeared to be less of a library section and more for the things involved in living. But it was dusty and dirty.

"Where is here apart from this super old and sadly deserted Library?" Quinn realized she sounded a little defeated. Which wasn't what she'd aimed for. It also wasn't her personality. She frowned. "Why do I feel down?"

"Ah, I was hoping it would take longer than this."

"What would?"

"It's the distance from the core. Or, I should say - it's the distance from the core while the Library is in a state of Gloom."

"Gloom." Quinn stood her ground and crossed her arms. It sounded like something out of one of her fantasies...Oh. Well. Perhaps she shouldn't be so mocking considering where she was standing right now. "What is Gloom?"

"The mood? The lighting? Gloomy. It's a state of feeling down in the doldrums. Of hopelessness creeping in. With the Library in such low power mode, it can’t stave off the darkness like it usually would." Lynx's tail split all of a sudden into several different tails all pointing in different directions as if to make a point, before it amalgamated back into a singular one. "Anyway. It seeps into you and supplants hope in a gradual manner. Being aware of it should help."

"Thanks for the heads up."

Lynx sighed and motioned for her to stop for a moment. "I should apologize. I'm doing this all out of order. Generally, when I have a new Librarian to train, I have others still working here. Usually, the Library isn't in such a sorry state when you arrive, and you're already keyed into your magic and how the magical world works. This..." He gestured vaguely around the entire library. "It's but a shadow of what it should be."

"It's okay." Quinn nudged one foot against the other as she looked down at the ground. She felt oddly touched by his admission. "I'm a pretty quick learner. So what say you feed me whatever you have, and we'll get to work resetting the bookworms so you can use them to feed the Night Owls?"

Her guide laughed. "Yeah. That sounds like a solid plan. I apologize for getting ahead of ourselves." He flickered for a moment and returned to the human form, bowing in front of her. "I welcome thee Quinn to the Universal Library of Gregori. May you help me reset the system."

Quinn smiled. " Excellent, but first, we eat." She bowed back with a flourish and followed him as he headed back to where the kitchen area had been.

Finally, Lynx stopped in the little kitchen, right next to a table. He dusted off the surface with his hand before pointing at the seat for her to sit on the bench beneath it. Wordlessly he moved over to one of the more overgrown terrariums and fiddled about with some of the plants. Frankly, she couldn't see him anymore, and the brush and stems wiggled as he did whatever it was he was doing from the opposite side.

She shrugged and sat down at the table.

Or at least, she tried to.

Just when her butt should have hit the seat, the piece of furniture was suddenly not there. Instead, Quinn plopped onto the ground with a rather sudden drop the shock of which reverberated through her tailbone. "Ow!" She called out. Her tailbone always managed to hurt whenever she was unceremoniously dumped to the ground because that's how tailbones worked. And this was no exception. Quinn struggled to stand up as the shooting pain distracted her.

What she didn't expect was the high-pitched squeal that met her ears while she was trying to stand up and she turned rapidly trying to find the bookworm that had followed them. Even if the sound was slightly different.

"You don't just sit on someone you don't know. How rude! Where did you learn your manners? What do you think this is?"

Looking down, Quinn noticed the bench was ... well... it was hopping around with the front portion of it raised enough that those two of the legs were off the ground. While its back legs bent as if they had knees, and waved the other legs around like hands.

She felt like she'd fallen into an animated movie.

Thankfully there was no mouth. Not one that she could see at any rate.

"What are you looking at? How dare you ogle me. You're just a commoner and I am timeless. You must respect me!"

Quinn blinked and then rubbed her eyes.

Nope, she definitely wasn't seeing things.

The furniture was talking.

And it seemed to be quite irate with her.

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Thank you for reading

Much love

KT