LSRO: Chapter 100 - Cascading Water (Patreon)

OMG ONE HUNDRED

100

Library is 100 chapters long! This is sooooo coooool. 

AHEM

So... I would say this is a definite cliffy. 

You have been warned.

Hope you enjoy it

~~

Chapter 100

Cascading Water

Rainforests have a distinct scent. They're musty but fresh, humid yet somehow cool as water tends to mist down through the leaves and trees to the foliage below. The whole area has a vibrance about it. It's filled with the sounds of all the creatures; the birds, the trees, the scavengers that rustle through the bushes. Snakes, centipedes, insects, everything. Rainforests are teeming with life and a wondrous sight to behold.

Thick vegetation spread out from the doorway that opened inside a massive tree's trunk. Quinn paused with both feet on the spongy ground as the Library doors closed and vanished behind her, finally allowing her to breathe in the air fully. She took in a deep breath, relishing the freshness of the oxygen entering her lungs, the sounds around her, and that glorious smell of vegetation.

Maybe other people didn't like the dampness of rainforests. Perhaps they were not fond of the humidity. Quinn found the whole ecosystem fascinating.

Rainforests were a magic all of their own.

She no longer needed the small palm reader that she'd carried on their first couple of book retrievals because her HUD showed her everything she needed to know now. The power extended out to her through leylines and pools and whatever magical wards the Library had activated and begun to fuel in the universe. It made all her hard work feel like it was worth it.

She pulled up the map and frowned. The location of the book seemed to have shifted from where remembered it when Lynx had shown her it. She was almost certain.

"Quinn?" Malakai poked her somewhat gently with a finger. "Um, so, where's the book?"

She waved a hand at Malakai to get him to stop. "Patience, let me just take a moment, okay?"

He frowned but stopped speaking.

Quinn scanned the area. There was something off about it but she couldn't quite figure out what. Also the fact that she could spread her senses out to check for magical signatures and sensations was a huge boost for her since the synchronization.

Somewhere close she could have sworn there was a faint trace of pure chaos.

Not all the time, not even consistently, but this strange sort of interference that didn't seem to stay in the one spot. She couldn't pinpoint it.

Quinn shifted around and actually took stock of her surroundings. Belatedly, for sure, but everything looked very fresh, alive, and not at all chaos necrotic like.

She looked up into the canopy.

"That's where the village is," Geneva said, noticing her movement. She hovered next to Quinn, her tiny hands clasped together. "I expected we would be greeted by a standoffish delegation, but many of these trees and their homes appear to be empty."

"They're empty?" Quinn said. "I thought the village was inhabited."

"That is the last record the Library had. It's also the last record that my people have, which begs the question why we wouldn't have known the extent of abandonment." Geneva frowned.

"Is nothing left here then?" Quinn asked.

"Oh no. There are some of the Esposian Firionas here, but they are a little more secretive and not as social as my people. Right now they've remained concealed, but usually, with such a visitor, they would have greeted us. This is still unexpected and out of character," Geneva said, pursing her tiny lips. Even her iridescent wings seemed to be duller than usual.

Quinn studied all of the beautiful huts high up in the canopy. She could see the little houses built into the trees and thought it would be basically impossible to retrieve a book from within one of those rooms if they didn't at least have Geneva or perhaps Eric with them. Although, given Eric's disposition, Geneva was definitely the right choice to bring with them.

"So is no one here, Quinn?" Malakai asked, frowning, his hand resting on his sword that hung from his hip.

Quinn shrugged. "I can feel a few large presences, well, Geneva-sized presences, in the trees but I can't, other than the wildlife that flows through this forest anyway, I can't locate others. And on and off, I swear I'm getting a sense of chaos magic."

"Chaos magic? If there's chaos magic then the forest should be dying," Malakai said, whipping around to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

"It doesn't look very dead to me," Quinn said.

Geneva flitted back and forth from tree trunk to tree trunk. She even went so far as to fly up into the branches of the massive trees and knock on one of the doors. She waited. Quinn squinted up at her, wishing she'd brought binoculars, but Geneva flew back down with no answer.

"So are they just not talking to you?" Quinn asked.

Geneva shrugged. "I guess not? If nobody is answering, perhaps we should just go and try and find the book."

"But I thought it was in this village," Malakai said. "Isn't it supposed to be in this village?"

Quinn shrugged. "Well right now it says it's about 40 clicks in that way."

Geneva blinked at her. "Clicks?"

"Miles?" Quinn half asked, half said.

Malakai laughed. "Okay so we need to head through the forest and probably to another island, right?"

Quinn nodded. "I'm not precisely sure but it's in that direction and if we run out of this island, I guess we're going to have to jump to another."

They set out with Aradie swooping ahead, easily soaring through the trees and dodging all the foliage as she scouted out the area in front of them. The bird hadn't said a word to Quinn yet, which wasn't unusual but given the situation Quinn wished she'd have said something. Still, she would tell Quinn if she spied anything in advance.

As they made their way directly toward where the map said they should be, Quinn kept glancing behind her because she felt something. She felt off. The area behind them didn't feel right.

"Do we have to come back here to use that tree?" Quinn said, disliking the weird foreboding sensation around her even less. It flickered on and off, like it had bad reception. Or maybe she did.

"Not necessarily, Librarian," Geneva answered, still flitting about, a worried expression on her beautiful golden face.

"But it would probably be good if we came back and checked just to make sure that everything's okay, right?" Quinn prodded further.

Geneva flashed her a grateful smile. "Yes, I believe returning so that we can use the portal we know works to regain entrance to the Library is probably the best idea, Librarian."

As they trudged through the undergrowth, Quinn turned to Malakai. "So, I hear you can fly."

"Well, technically. Only for short bursts. It uses up a lot of my mana. And, to be fair, it's more like a constant double leap. You know, like I did back with the Octopus." He grinned at her.

"Cephalopod." She corrected him absently. "Why did Lynx say you could fly, then?"

"Lynx says a lot of things, and if it's relatively short distances, then it is pretty much flying," Malakai said.

"Oh," Quinn said, "I feel less left out, then."

"What do you mean, left out? You can literally absorb every single book in the Library. You have the ability to know every single recipe, every single combat style, every single magical tincture or potion or spell. You shouldn't be jealous of anything." Malakai laughed, but it sounded a bit forced.

Quinn blinked at him. "I can, can't I? Like, do it all."

"I didn't say you'd do it well," Malakai said.

She punched him playfully in the arm. "Thanks."

In the background, Quinn could hear the rushing of water. That soothing shhhh that she adored. The sound of water was like her favorite thing. But she couldn't see even a glint of it through the thick underbrush. However, the sound grew louder and louder the closer they got. And then the canopy broke free, showing a massive body of water that simply ran off the edge of the island.

Quinn stood watching the cascading water, unable to contain her awe at the sight. The fact that she had no idea where it ended up felt like a massive waste of water in her mind. However, the scene was beautiful. She could see other islands not far away, maybe a mile or two at most. It was breathtaking out here, clouds at the same level as other islands. In the distance, she could see one with a massive structure. She would love to go and visit it. Some of the islands were small, others seemed large even though they were far away.

"Quinn," Malakai said, breaking her focus on the view, "we should probably get to the next island."

"Oh," she said, "have you seen this before?"

Malakai blinked at her. "Yeah, it's an island floating in the sky."

"Malakai. It's an island floating in the sky." Quinn emphasized each word.

"Well, yes, that's what this world is." He seemed puzzled.

Quinn blinked at him. "This defies every single law of physics I have ever heard of in my life. I don't really understand physics, but I know that islands aren't supposed to float in the sky."

"Well, these ones do," Malakai said, shrugging.

In a magical world, people apparently just accepted things as magic.

Quinn rolled her eyes, pushing down on the itch to figure out how this all worked. Magic was magic. "Fine. We have to jump across. We're close. It should be that tiny island in front of us from the directional bleeping I'm getting."

Malakai frowned. Aradie hooted and landed on Quinn's shoulder.

"There's a tent over there," Quinn said. The bird nodded. "Well, I guess we're going. Did you look for the book at least?"

Aradie cocked her head to one side.

"You just came back to tell me there's a tent there. Probably could have saved us all a trip. Yes, I know you're not my servant." Quinn wished the bird could speak out loud. One sided conversations always sounded odd.

Geneva chuckled, her wings moving so fast Quinn could barely see them now. "Come on, Librarian. Let's get this done."

Quinn activated flight mode, trying to push down the fear as she stood at the edge next to the beautiful waterfall into nothing. A shudder swept over her as another flash of that chaotic mess lingered on her skin for a second. Then it was gone again.

After another few seconds, Quinn stepped off after the others. She was only mildly surprised that she didn't plummet to her death and continued to sort of jump walk across to the small island. This was maybe 30 feet squared. It was tiny with a little copse of trees on it and a fire pit and a tiny little body of water that should really have been stagnant but had no algae around it at all.

Quinn frowned and approached the tent. "Hello," she called out. There was no answer. "Is anybody there?" Again, no answer. The coals in the fire pit looked like they were ancient. She sighed and took a deep breath before opening the tent flap. She didn't want to be right, but she'd still expected it. There, right smack bang in the middle of what used to be a sleeping bag on a cot was a practically mummified corpse. It had been there for a good many years.

"Oh," Malakai said, "that's a little anticlimactic."

Quinn scowled at him. Geneva pointed, "That's, that's the book. That's the cooking book."

Quinn grabbed it, lifted it up. "Yep, this is it. 'Dire Consequences of Misusing Monster Parts, How to Avoid Pitfalls.' Huh." She stowed it away in her storage and looked at the other two. "I guess we head back then?"

"Yes," Geneva said, suddenly a lot brighter than she had been for the rest of the trip. "This was a lot easier than expected, Librarian. I'd love to come with you on these little excursions."

Malakai groaned at the same time that Quinn sighed. "I wish you hadn't said that."

Geneva gave them both a very odd look, but they flew back to the other island and Quinn watched the river gushing down into nothing wistfully. She knew she was awake, because she could feel the light spray from the water hitting her skin as they landed. But she still sort of wanted to pinch herself, just in case it was a dream. Waterfalls were one of her favorite bodies of water. Neverending ones were simply a cut above.

As soon as she put her foot down, that strange, ominous, foreboding feeling washed back over her.

But this time it was stronger.

"Hey guys," she said, taking several steps forward immediately as she landed. There was a pull here. Something tugging at all her Librarian senses, at her mind. Like maybe there was another book. Maybe there was something here that she needed to get that the Library didn't even know about yet.

"I hate to tell you this," she said, "but I don't think we're heading home quite yet. There's something here."

Like magic, as soon as she said that, five of the Esposian Firionas appeared directly around them.

They were the polar opposite of Geneva's brightness. Where she had golden skin and fiery red hair, they were pale and ghost-like. Where her wings were rainbow iridescent, theirs were so pale as to be almost invisible,

And where she usually had a pleasantly, almost happy demeanor, the group that surrounded them bared their teeth.

In all of the tales Quinn had read about faeries... don't tell them your name, don't accept a gift, never thank them... she'd never been told that they had mouths full of razor sharp teeth.

"You are not welcome here. Hand over the book and leave." The one closest to Quinn spat out.

This definitely wasn't a welcoming party.

~~

And they thought it was going to be easy.

What fun would that be?

Much love

KT