A Journey Always Begins With The First Step

[Nayt]

The library of Ceildh contained approximately twenty five aisles of books, all surrounding a central sitting and business area. It was poorly decorated and scarcely populated, but it was organized. There were large quantities of fiction, all separated by genre (an outdated system of organizing fiction, especially as singular genre rarely meant anything to contemporary writers), collected and reprinted journals, historical texts, and all the like, all separated into singular or multiple aisles, with chicken scratch signs attached to each one, indicating its literary purpose.

Oddly enough, though, there was no librarian. Near the center of the library, there was a large and circular desk, behind which a number of files and folders were contained, but there was no librarian to be found, not behind the desk or in the aisles of bookshelves around it.

There was, however, a foreign looking woman in an aisle devoted to religious texts. She didn't look the type to be religious; foreign though she may be, pilgrims usually carried and dressed themselves with regalia and zeal. This woman, a dark haired young woman from Algeroth, wore, instead, a thick green and dirt ridden tunic and a ripped up pair of black shorts. She wore a large brown belt around her thin waist, keeping her shorts up, and a second, thinner belt that danced through the belt loops of at her right hip and dangled helplessly below her left. It was superfluous and likely chosen with a strange and foreign fashion sense in mind. She had hair in a bob cut, but it was a bit of a mess and already two inches below than her chin.

No, a religious pilgrim would've been much better trimmed. That wasn't to say she was an unattractive woman; she just wasn't trying to pass as a professional or an acolyte.

Beyond her, there didn't seem to be anyone else within the library itself.

[Zach Kaiser]

Relief flooded Aiden as he entered the library, taking a deep breath and taking in the musty smell. He could finally feel again, feel this room, feel the bindings and sheaves around him. Here, at last, he felt completely safe again.

He also immediately forgot why he came, and started thumbing through the various sections, looking for anything eye catching, rare, or otherwise interesting. He probably wouldn't even notice the girl for bit; at least, not until he bumped into her, which was inevitable as long as she stood in the aisles.

At times like these, Aiden forgot the world around him, and nothing short of physical contact would likely get his attention.

[adi]

The search for an official looking librarian proving fruitless after a quick pace along the edge of the aisles, Hrothgar set his satchel down under a small table on the edge of the business area. He debated momentarily if it was best to wait for a librarian or if he should bother the foreign looking woman. She didn't look as if she was very familiar with the area herself, so asking her may not reward him any more answers then what he already had.

Then again, he supposed they were still being pursued so time was a large factor. Though the boy may have begun wandering about the library as if it was some sort of impenetrable sanctuary, which both confused and irked the redhead in a small way. Hrothgar couldn't help but be uncomfortably aware that it was not as safe as the quiet, stuffy air would seem to suggest and that danger was not barred from entering this building of knowledge. Aiden was going to get himself killed if he didn't become more aware of the immediate circumstances. Better to ask just in case, he finally decided, or he might regret it later. If anything, at least he could say he tried.

He chewed on his bottom lip as he mentally ran through a multitude of greetings and tried to pluck up the courage to speak with the woman. He had a bit more difficulty speaking with women then with men since the advent of adolescence and realizing how pretty the opposite sex could be sometimes, though with his under-developed social skills the difference threshold was marginal. Hrothgar crossed to the aisle where the woman stood and knocked lightly on the end of the shelving to get her attention.

"Uh." He began, mind going blank as his mouth opened. How suave of him, to loose all communication abilities when his eyes confirmed some form of feminine curves in the religious aisle. His hand that had just knocked on the shelf jutted a thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of main desk, trying to help move his brain along. It helped enough to get some words out, though they were not very intelligent sounding for a supposed scholar. "You the librarian?"

[Nayt]

"Ah?" she muttered as soon as she was roused from her browsing.

The woman looked up. She tilted her head to the side a bit whilst giving Hrothgar a once over. She clearly wasn't having the same problems he was, though. The woman wasn't a floozy about it, though. Rather than just dealing with a raw "talking to the opposite sex" problem, she simply looked him in the eyes with a straight-faced stare. Hrothgar, closer to her as he was, would be able to see a few more details about her. First and foremost, she appeared to be New Xexorian. Secondly, she couldn't have been any older than her early twenties, if that.

She hadn't found the book she was looking for, so this interruption wasn't too big of a deal or anything. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to end in her finding the book she was after, either. Oh well.

"No? No, not exactly," she replied, before taking only a moment to think before deducing, "You're not from around here, too, right? I mean, the locals said the librarian only comes around for a few hours in the day. Means you're new here?"

Kind of an interrogation styled approach, but she at least sounded nice about it. Granted, the woman had a bit of a rough edge to her. She wasn't trying to, but there was a fair chance that she'd been in her fair share of scuffles, or at least had the experience of a semi-hardened traveler--and so, while she clearly tried to carry herself as normal, there was many a hint to the social awkwardness of experience, the exact opposite of Hrothgar's own social awkwardness.

[Zach Kaiser]

Contrary to literary convention, this small library in an out of the way town wasn't yielding any particularly rare books forgotten by the ages and unappreciated by local readers who had no idea of the value they held. Especially strange as the literary convention was supposed to be here; he would think, then, that the place was chosen because of it's prominence in the written word.

If Hrothgar was awkward because he was nervous, and the girl was awkward because she was blunt, then Aiden was awkward because he was oblivious. While it could be argued that he lacked social skills, a perhaps more appropriate view was that he didn't seem to think social skills had anything to do with him.

The talking made him at least aware enough that he didn't accidently plow into the girl while perusing the shelves, he didn't think much as he squeezed in between her and the bookshelf to browse where she'd been looking. It wasn't intentionally rude or anything, but he was in what most people would consider their "personal space," even if his back was to her.

At least he had the grace to mumble, "Excuse me," as he did so.

[adi]

"J-Just got here, yeah." Hrothgar nodded curtly, feeling a tad more at ease now that the woman hadn't completely disregarded him. He could handle the woman's bluntness, but the anxiety between receiving a response was his least favorite part of socializing. Most of the time he was told he didn't speak loud enough, and emphasizing his volume made him trip over them. However the library was quiet with only the three of them as it's occupants, he could get away with being quiet.

"I was arriving this morning, actually. I met him outside of town and--" he paused mid-breath, remembering that it was often best to keep his nervous rambling in check. It probably would not help to advertise to strangers they had just been chased by an even more dangerous seeming set of strangers. He finished his sentence quickly, hoping it just made him seem in-eloquent, or at least not provoke too much suspicion, "And so we've become acquaintances."

The scholar gestured to the boy who had excused himself and was now standing between the woman and the shelf. "He, er.. We, I suppose I'm curious about it, too. He mentioned he was in town for some sort of book fair he had heard about. We were wondering if the librarian, or in this case since you are the only one around to ask, if you knew anything about it?"

[Nayt]

"Ah? Um, right, sorry," the woman replied to Aiden as she took a step back--

--setting her back against the shelves behind her. Aiden wasn't really leaving her much room to stand. She stared at him somewhat dejectedly for a long moment.

Not like she was going to do anything about it, though. People could be rude sometimes, even if they didn't mean it. She didn't know of Aiden really meant to just brush by her and stand practically right against her or not. If he did, she might slap him. If he didn't, well . . .

Whatever.

For simplicity's sake, the woman simply moved to accommodate for Aiden. She stepped to the side of him, putting him between her and Hrothgar. It was kind of unnecessary really, and a little bit aggravating. Still, though, she contained the urge to sigh, even if she didn't appear to appreciate it too much.

"The book fair?" she asked as if she'd never heard of it--until thinking for a few seconds, "Oh, right. The book fair. I don't think it's sponsored by this library. It's by someone from out of town, like us. It's not today, then. I think you're three days off."

[Zach Kaiser]

At the mention of actual information of the book fair, Aiden turned around and finally seemed to acknowledge the girl as something more than an obstacle.

"Oh? I guess I'm a bit early then." He'd never traveled outside his hometown before now, so he wasn't quite sure how much time to leave himself to get here. Fortunately, he was early rather than late; he could afford to wait around for a few days, so long as he could stay out of sight of the people from earlier.

"Do you know where it's going to be?" he asked.

Though, as he addressed her, he couldn't help but look her over. Rather than get embarrassed like Hrothgar, though, his only real thought was that she didn't look like a person who'd normally spend much time in a library.

[adi]

Hrothgar frowned a bit hearing the date of the book fair and Aiden's rather unphased response. He was hoping that there would be significantly less time between then and now, if only to put more distance between himself and the trio he had destroyed his journal over. He did have the option of completely abandoning the younger man and putting Ceildh far behind him as soon as he rested, and it seemed like a hypothetically wonderful idea.

After all, the boy had managed to save us both with his swirly... paper trick thing, he reminded himself. He'd probably get along just fine without me tagging along and rambling at people. Such a help, I am. He could not hold back the tiniest of frustrated sighs. Reaching a freckled hand to rub at his eye socket, he internally waffled between options. But he also seems completely oblivious now to having just encountered those guys. I'm certainly not his keeper, but...

Still, the scholar knew that even if he were to leave the boy his irrepressible sense of guilt would rise up again. He wasn't sure what exactly the lesser of two evils would be in this situation. He could cut and run, or sit around in town for three or four days trying not to act suspicious as he waited for the book fair. Each choice seemed to lead to large amounts of worry and stress, which he was exactly why he began traveling to avoid in the first place.

Rather then deliberate further, he conceded defeat to his more basic needs. Now that the chase and adrenaline had worn off from the confrontation and subsequent chase, Hrothgar was becoming greatly aware of his fatigue. And hunger. And aches. And ooooh goodness did a bed sound so nice right now. "I'm sorry to keep barraging you with questions, miss, but do you know where a nice, relatively inexpensive inn could be found?"

[Nayt]

"On the main drag, I think," she replied to Aiden, "You know, where you first came in? At least, if you were coming from the east."

There was a flier for it somewhere around here. The woman thought about it for the moment. She remembered seeing it somewhere. Oh! Right. It was actually on the side of the library. She was tempted to go outside and show them, in case they needed better directions or anything like that, but she told them just now about the gist of what they'd find on the thing anyways. No sense in acting excessively.

"Yeah, there's a place just down the road from here. Umm . . . I think it's just called the Ceildh in. I think. I haven't checked in yet, personally . . ."

It's true. If either were to leave in the near future, they'd find just a thing. The Ceildh Inn wasn't too far away from here. Considering this village, it wasn't guaranteed to be a nice place, but a bed is a bed is a bed.

"Oh, hey. I've got a question for you guys, too," she remarked almost as if it were little more than an afterthought--and now that she'd answered a few of their questions, they might as well help her out a bit too, right? "I'm looking for a book. I don't think this library has it. Have you guys ever heard of it? It's called Prophecies of the Lost. Er, I think it's the third book of it."

[Zach Kaiser]

While the others spoke Aiden had gone back to browsing the shelves, only half-listening. He couldn't truly concentrate on the conversation when there were this many books at hand. Though he hadn't found anything particularly striking yet, if he was early for the festival he'd need something to read while he waited.

But then he heard something that made him stop thinking about the library entirely and turn to face the girl. The significance of Aiden Raine hearing something that could tear his attention away from books would likely be lost on them, so it was fortunate that he made no effort to hide his surprise.

"You're looking for Prophecies of the Lost?" he echoed, staring at her wide-eyed. "Do you...really think it exists?"

[adi]

"It has to exist," Hrothgar quickly piped up after Aiden's question. He was exhausted, but the discussion at hand was something he was something at least vaguely familiar with. It was a very welcome change since the day's bombardment of new places and situations.

"I mean, I would hope so," the scholar quickly added afterwards, fingers flying up to half-cover his mouth. He hated when he gave the impression of a know-it-all. It was quite easy to have no ego when you kept doubting yourself. "Otherwise Promicles and The Gray Scrolls are one giant hoax!"

"Though to be honest, I haven't had a lot of experience with studying those, either," Hrothgar murmured with shrug. "I've only read copies of copies. And I think the originals are just... well I don't know, I didn't really get any sense of where they might be by reading what I did of the scrolls. I'm sorry, miss."

[Nayt]

"It's fine," she replied with a shrug to Hrothgar.

She waved it off. She didn't figure either of the two could actually help her find it. Truth be told, that was a pretty sought after item. If you were a scholar and currently alive, getting a hold of at least a copy of that material was your life dream. Some, as Aiden suggested, didn't even believe the Prophecies of the Lost existed at all.

"And, yes, by the way: I agree," she added with a nod to Hrothgar, "That's why I'm looking for it, honestly. I figured if the Gray Scrolls can be found in just about any big library, their source material, Prophecies of the Lost, should be somewhere in the world. Big library, small library-- even a copy would be fine."

Ah, the problem of printing. Only a few countries actually had a printing industry. Most literature in the world was hand written. Sometimes, there was the situation of a book being so popular that it resulted in translation and mass print production in a country or two, but considering the fact that New Xexoria, Greoul, and the city-state of Sythinia were the only countries with printing press technology before the End-- well, now at least two of those places were completely wiped out. It was probably back to the basics when it came to reproducing literature.

Which was, actually, rarely a good thing. The scribes could always add in their own personal effects-- but considering how difficult it was to reproduce a piece of literature, it was ten times more difficult to actually come across the original copy of any book, regardless of what it may be.

"But all I've found are bits and pieces of Promicles's other works, and a few others that look like they copied Promicles talking about the old books," she declared with her arms folded over her sternum, followed by a sigh, "Promicles quoted part of what he called the third book, so I've been looking for that. I think it exists, I really do, but in all the places I've been to, people have heard of it, but never seen it."

[Zach Kaiser]

He may not have believed it existed, but neither did he believe it didn't exist. Aiden only viewed religious material as literature, and as far as he was concerned most religions were simply cases of people thinking a fictional story was true.

But whether it was fictional or not, if Prophecies of the Lost existed it would certainly be a big deal for someone to find it. It would be the ultimate of finds, even if it was a copy and not the original; as far as he knew, no one in the world had one, or if they did they weren't telling people about it.

Which forced him to point something out, a small criticism of what seemed to be the girl's plan: "If it exists, I don't think it's going to be in a library. Someone would have noticed it."

Reality and fiction blurred slightly in his mind as he continued. "No, it would probably be in some kind of underground ruin, or enshrined in a temple, worshiped by a cult, or kept safe by a hermit on an island forgotten by man..."

[adi]

"Or you know, it could be in some old woman's house who had no idea of what it is," Hrothgar suggested with a faint smile, not wanting to miss the chance to offer a negative outlook. "Collecting dust, or maybe used to press some flowers in the spring."

It didn't make much sense to Hrothgar; to be searching for a book that had gone so long being a mystery. Sure, Prophecies of Lost was a large key to filling in the blanks of many important parts of literature. The day it was finally, if ever found would be something that would be recorded and probably celebrated, if only in private scholarly circles. It just seemed like quite a lot of work to through for a single book, when you could easily find and appreciate so many other, less infamous ones.

In his private opinion, the tome had been missing for so long that it almost seemed a bit of a shame that it eventually be discovered somewhere by someone. The best part of the book was the fact that it was so enigmatic, and people wanted so badly to know it with no direct access to it. The scholar took a little comfort in the probability that the moment people stopped looking for it, it would show up anyway. It was one of those unwritten laws that seemed to prove the universe had a very dick-ish sense of humor.

"Or you know Promicles is laughing in his grave about all the people he's tricked into trying to find it," Hrothgar shrugged, voice tumbling lower into a mumble. His hand moved from his mouth to twist nervously with a lock of hair at his temple. Somehow even when he was out of school, he could be made to seem like less of a scholar just by putting him with the right people.