Wonders at the Library

    “We’ve made it,” Anna said with a deep sigh. Still out of breath she looked up at the structure through the downpour. Despite it being a pre-war building, it looked structurally sound as if the stone used to build it’s frame never eroded over the years.

    “Quite a run down place isn’t it.” she added, wringing water out of her dress as her mixbreed Wyot wiggled by to get to the warm the fire type pokemon were granting.

    Oakley pulls back her hood and grumbled, “They should have informed us of the weather at the very least…” she grumbles, entering the building.

    Beside her walked Moon, pausing for a moment, she shook her coat out onto Anna and Wyot. With a soft snort, she follows after Oakley.

    “Moon!” the dress wearing woman cried out, “I just got most of it out!” Wyot on the other hand just shivered once before doubling on his efforts to get near the fire.

    Upon finishing drying herself off, she soon followed the rest inside. The room was spacious, more than enough room for everyone there. Off to the side she found her friend. “I do agree with you earlier about the weather,” she said sitting next to her. “This not the best of things to wear during this kind of weather.”

    “You could have tried to come prepared like I have-” She plays with her little hoodie for a moment smugly.

    Moon presses herself into Oakley’s lap and nests in it.

    “Awww, look at the widdle kittyyyy” Oakley begins petting Moon. “She’s sho old and pwecioussss”

    In annoyance, Moon digs her claws into Oakley’s legs.

    “Ow-Ow.Okay I’ll stop--”

    With a light chuckle Anna commented, “You spoil your pokemon too much. It like they’re the trainer in the relationship.”

    Wyot, who had curled up near the fire replied to her mentally, ‘And what about your relationship with Mordi. Is it not the same.’

    She pouted toward her pokemon, “Mordi is just cracky cause she can’t get enough sleep with our lifestyle.”

    “And Us?” the unown/wurmple/dratini replied. ‘How do you view that relationship?’

    The young woman looked away with pain across her face. Finally she replied, “You saved me and for that I’m in Your debt.” The answer seemed to please the mix breed as it remained silent.

    “Saved you? From what?” Oakley stops paying much attention to Moon.

    Deciding to explore, Moon crawls out of her lap and flys up to the upstairs.

    Anna gave a start before looking over at her friend. “Oh umm. Before meeting you I ran across this terrible person. The unowns that travel with me… they were able to take me away from him.”

    “Who is this terrible person? ...Are they dead?”

    Taking off the soaked outer layer of her kimono, Anna replied, “I-I don’t know who he was, I just remember the white coat he wore and the words he kept on saying.” She brought her knees up to her chin as she gazed at their camp fire. “As for him being dead… the unowns would know more than me and they refuse to talk about it beyond what I remember. I was… six at the time.”

    “Well….If he is alive, know that we’ll both be able to kick his ass. Even if we’re back at the Retreat.” She sighs, “I partially wish I could find the bandits that killed my parents, show them a thing what for….Isn’t that right Moon?” Oakley glances into the darkness, seeing no sign of the cat. “...Moon?”

    ‘Over here.’

    From above them, on the railing, sat moon. Her head motions them upwards, ‘There’s something up here you should see’

    Anna rose, keeping her eyes on the feline pokemon was it peered down at them. “I’m interested already,” she commented. “Besides, I can’t stand sitting around here waiting for the weather to let up.” Sensing her movements, Wyot quickly slithered up her body to rest around her neck.

    Oakley gets up as well, “well maybe wait til the weather-”

    ‘There’s a Library here.’

    “Librar-- A what??”

    ‘....Old World stuff.”

    “Old-- HOLY FUCK REALLY?!” And with that burst of excitement, Oakley rushes up the first stairs she finds and to Moon.

    Laughing at Oakley’s sudden burst of energy, Anna quickly followed, carrying her outer layer under her arm.

    The library was grand, easily three stories high and half of the building  in length. Old books filled the shelves on every level and artwork from artist past filled the space between the shelves. Motes of dust floated around the four of them as they ventured further into the room.

    “I haven’t seen so many tomes in one location in my whole life,” Anna commented, inspecting the table that filled the center of the room.

     Oakley rushes to the bookshelf and pulls out one of them. Despite the dust spraying every which way.”A Cable’s Fable, with a xercitree on the front! Oh!”She pulls out another. “Oliver Twist, Oh my goodness such an adorable purrlion!” she piles the book onto the other as she picks out more “Lirelash, Mockingbird, Loveducks, Dungeons and Dragonites!” Once she realized she had no room, she carried the books over to Anna, ”Look at all these!” She opens the Oliver book, “In 1837?! That’s like, Old old!” She turns her attention to Lirelash, “And this one’s 2017! Almost 200 years apart! Has history really been recorded for that long???” Ah there’s so many books to see!” She returns to pick out more books.

    Picking out the one titled Mockingbird, Anna carefully flipped through the weather pages. Humming softly she read one of the pages to herself before looking up at her friend. “It seems that most of these are just stories, not actually history. But being written with such a large number as the date, I do kinda wonder how old the old world was.”

    ‘Perhaps we can ask those people at the Retreat?’ Wyot asked, its face scanning the area.

    “True…Oh!” She goes over to a ladder, “Hey Anna, could you come over here for a second?” She goes to testing the stability of the ladder. “Surprisingly sturdy…”

    “Certainly,” she replied, setting the book down and joining oakley at the ladder. “Want me to hold it steady for you?”

    “Yeah, I want to see what kind of books are up at top, the people of the past must have at least wrote some of their history down.”

    Grabbing hold of the ladder’s base, Anna replied, “If we do end up finding nothing, perhaps they have a computer nearby.”

    “A what?” She starts climbing, “You mean a pitboy?”

    “I thought there was some machines that you could use that to connect to.” Anna reflected, “Maybe it was a rumor I overheard that from.”

    “Perhaps…” She reaches almost the top, reaching over and pulling out some books. “Hm… Native Colors, Chalk and Crafts… Death and Dying….weird-” She grabs a book that was firmly in the shelf. “Come on...come onnnn”

    With a hard tug, the book comes out. Oakley glances at the name. “Fossils and Geology- This could be history! Oh!” She picks out a few more, “Plagues of Medieval, Psychology of Nightmares... Kanto History, Johto, Hoenn-”

    Suddenly, the step Oakley was standing on breaks-

    Panicked, Oakley desperately tries to grab the shelf, and THAT breaks-

    “FUCK!”

    Pushing the ladder out of the way to prevent further damage as Oakley fell, Anna positioned herself underneath her friend to break the fall. Wyot though jumped off earning a quick scowl from Anna. “You can help with your-” she said before Oakl’y falling form slammed into her, knocking both of them out as books rain down on top of them.

    …”Anna? Anna!!!”

    Oakley shook Anna desperately.

    Groaning weakly, Anna rose from her spot, resting on the ground. “Are you alright?” she asked, nursing a bump on her head.

    Oakley rubs her black eye, “Not entirely...but uh…” She glances around, “We’re….not at the Library anymore… In fact I don’t know where we are…”

    Looking around herself, the two woman found themselves in what appeared to be a forest. Tree’s blocked what little light there was as their silent trunks surrounded them. Joining in the trees in making the two of them small were giant books, nearly as tall as the trees themselves. Ahead of them was a path that snaked its way into the forest.

    “We’re not in the retreat either,” she stated obviously, “Not unless your uncle planted giant books somewhere and didn’t tell me.”

    “He doesn’t do the planting, those kids do-” She slowly gets up, “Were we dragged here?” worry begins to fill her, “We don’t have our pokemon! How are we going to defend ourselves?!”

    Anna’s hand started to shake, “I-I’ll try to call to the unowns. They can usually hear me over great distances.” With that she closed her eyes and focused on her breathing.

    Moments later they popped open. “I-I-Ican’thearasingleoneofthem!” she blurted out.

    “Are there none nearby??” Oakley notices a fog starting to surround them, “W-We should get going- I don’t like it around here-” She stops, her eyes focused on….something….

    Anna looked down the path presented before them. “I-I agree, Oakley,” she said taking her friend’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.” She took one step toward the path before hearing a familiar sound.

    Turning around to face the sound she was greeted by a clean, sterilize room. Instantly she felt her body lock up as her eyes flickered to each aspect of the room, from the clean floors and walls, to the brains stored in jars up on the many shelves, to the chair places in the center of it all. The chair inself was red in color but she knew it wasn’t that originally.

    But the figure that sat in the chair that she was focused on. From the white lab coat to the wide len glasses that reflected the ceiling light, she knew this person.

    Oakley glances at Anna, “Anna?” Having not been carried into her own little world, she tries to pull Anna.

    While she could feel the tugging on her body, Anna couldn’t hear her. Instead she heard the sound of metal on wood as the man in the chair slid a blade across the arm of the chair. ‘You will tell me how you do it,’ he said mencely slowly getting to his feet.

    “N-no,” she replied, shaking her head, “Y-you can’t have it! It’s mine! I-I can’t let you have it!”

    While her words definant, the doctor step toward her. ‘But you can offer so much to my research. Just let me take it.’

    “Anna You’re not making any sense!” She freezes up as she feels a small hand touch hers. She quickly hides behind Anna, before shoving her forward, “We need to leave! Come on!!”

    Being thrusted forward so forcefully, Anna finally closed her eyes as she brought up her hands to defend herself. After impacting the ground, her vision refocused. The room and the doctor were gone, standing there was Oakley.

    Not taking a second longer to think it over, Anna stood up and grasped her hand. “MOVE!” She screamed before dragging her friend down the path.

    Oakley rushed after her, occasionally tripping and glancing back.