At The Library

Making sure that her weapons were put away securely inside her backpack, Leona entered Oak Town's library. She had heard that it was home to an unrivaled collection of books on magic lore... maybe she should look into the library for ideas that could be used to improve the library of Silver Wolf. Today she was here to see if she could find out more about Castellan Henry Capella, the man she had met in Haunted Castle when trying to rescue the crew of the documentary show called Supernatural Sleuths. He did not seem out of the ordinary, but he could use portals to appear anywhere he wished and could observe anyone inside his castle at will. He might have been a mage, but he did not give off a magical signature.

Leona walked quietly through the library, doing her best not to make much noise with her pack and her Argent Gloves. The library was a single-story place with numerous small, square wooden tables for patrons to sit at. Closer to the back were larger, longer rectangular wooden tables for larger groups of patrons to use. There were even a dozen rooms that could be reserved for use by book clubs so that their members could freely discuss books without disturbing others, but those were only able to be reserved by registered patrons. Leona did not care about that right now... she was here for information on the residents of Haunted Castle.

Wearing her green-and-gold outfit, Leona did not exactly blend in with the neutral tones of the library's decor or the neutral clothing of its patrons and staff. She looked through the neatly organized shelves for books on the Haunted Castle. After roughly fifteen minutes of searching, she found a heavy book with a black cover entitled Those Who Dwell In Darkness: The Residents Of Haunted Castle. Leona did not like the sound of the cover because it could be another one of those dull books written for academics by academics. As Guild Master of a scientific guild, she would have to endure the pages filled with writing as dry as Desierto.

Carefully carrying her find, Leona retreated to a small table near the back of the library just before the long, rectangular tables. She gently set the book down and carefully opened it because the book was older than she was by a margin of forty years. The blonde looked at the first page and knew that she was going to be in for a rough reading session. The page explained how the book was originally written for a magic university and described the difficulties of boiling the book down to a level someone not familiar with the intricacies of magic could understand. Leona turned the page and began reading, hoping that the contents were boiled down enough for her to comprehend, even if said comprehension was on a basic level.

Books, books, BOOKS. ALl of the books, well, not all of the books, this library was, well, it was impressive, but, Fibi had a sense of pride for the library she came from. After all, she lived in a library back home in Pergrande. She WAS one of the Pergrande High Home Librarians, in training, here in Fiore to explore a new land, and get a feel for her magic. As part of their training, librarians from Pergrande would travel to other countries, and learn to work with their magic so that they could help the library, or persue other lines of approved magic work in a magic banned zone.

Fibi wanted to just see the world, and get a storybook's worth of information out of it, to take back home so she could write something herself. She wanted to see if she could find something worthwhile. And, since she joined Fairy Tail, she had seen many great things. Fibi continued to think about that other planet she had been on, and, now she was here, judging another library harsher from the outside than anything else. She was an odd one.

Walking in to the library, she decided to peruse the various sections, see how things were organized, they didn't even have their own built in restaurants, or lodgings. The Pergrande High Home Library was fa-okay, stop glory hounding Fibi, your home is cool, we get it.

Her personal book companion floated up out of her messenger bag, of course, in doing this, it would cause a small bit of a problem with someone trying to ask her to return the book, as if it was one of theirs. Which, would slowly devolve in to a heated whisper argument, of Fibi trying to adamantly declare that this was her book. But, who would walk in to a library with one of their own books? That was, that was just asinine! If only her book would talk and prove it was her book!

Ferris wouldn't be livening up yet, he wanted to see Fibi stand up for herself, for once. So, the book continued to float in the air, being jerked back and forth between Fibi and the secretary at the front of the library. Already she was regretting ever setting foot in a dingy library like this!

Leona was staring at the book she had brought to the table and was desperately trying to make sense out of it. It had a ten-page preamble about the denizens of darkness and did next to nothing to explain what exactly those denizens were aside from listing them. The list was great and all, but it did not really help her very much. What the blonde needed to know was how to kill each species and what their weaknesses were.

Leona needed to know how to effectively kill zombies, werewolves, vampires, and other mainstay inhabitants of the Cursed Lands because she had a feeling that she would be making many more trips to that region before her mage career was over. She was looking for any information on special types of the undead like the fast zombies she had encountered in Beanstalk Forest and Fulci Cemetery or the magic-using werewolves from the battle in the Cursed Lands. She had not yet run up against vampires, but it was only a matter of time until she did, so she would need to know how to deal with them, preferably before fighting one.

This book was obtuse and not very informative. Leona carefully thumbed through it and found nothing of help in the main text, but she found a potentially helpful book in the reference section. The book in question was called A Basic Guide To The Undead.

Leona quietly stood up and took the first book back to where it came from. She then started to search for the guide when something caught her attention... it was not a book, but a person. A blonde-haired young woman and the staff member at the front of the library were in a whisper battle over a book. Leona had never seen anything like it. She did not know whether or not to intervene and more importantly, on whose side to intervene if she did get involved.

That was something that Leona needed to think all the way through before doing. The blonde had not seen what sparked the conflict, so it was probably best not to get involved. Still, the Silver Wolf mage could not help but to be drawn to the spectacle. She found herself walking towards the front of the library.

"Ma'am, I have to put this book through processing! Just to make sure that it isn't ours!" whispered the clerk at the desk, trying to wrench the book from Fibi's grasp. Fibi pulled back, the two going in to a literal tug of war over a book, over a damn book, just for the sake of proof of ownership. If only Ferris could just, you know, speak up for himself! But, while two people were pinching his covers shut, the spirit in the book couldn't do much other than try to wiggle free from either girls' grasp.

Of course, no one noticed the book trying to stir to life while two people were fighting over it, "And I am telling you, this isn't your book! I came in with it! It's my magic book and it has my grandpa in it!" Fibi whispered back, a raspy and angry whisper, but a whisper none the less. It was like trying to watch two mimes fight over something, though, this had sound, and an actual object in question.

One of them had to relent, Fibi falling backwards and on to her tuckus, bouncing once while the jolt went up her back, and a hand reached behind her to rub the spot she landed on. "Owwww." She whined, while the clerk tried to move the book over to the slot to tuck it away in to the bag that was tied to a cart to wheel books in to the back, Fibi couldn't let that happen. Neither could Ferris.

"As fun as this is! Could you let me go?" Asked the book in a normal voice, causing the clerk to, understandably, have a small freak out and throw the book through the air, where it stopped halfway through its arc and opened up to reveal the flip book style animation of Ferris drawn in the book, rocking back and forth while laughing, "Oh man, that was priceless! Fibi, get up off the ground! Let's go get some coffee."

"But I wanted to see what kind of history books they have." She mumbled while poking her index fingers together. This girl was having a conversation with her book...What a weird world this was.

As Leona approached the front of the library, the silent struggle had reached its climax. The small blonde mage she had spotted ended up losing the tug-of-war and falling onto her backside while the library staff member took the book and tried to file it away. Leona almost felt compelled to intervene, possibly speak on behalf of the novice mage, but events would render her interference unnecessary. However, she overheard something interesting just before the "fight" ended. The blonde mage loudly claimed that her grandfather was in the book.

As the book was in the process of being put away by the staff member, something happened that caused the woman to panic and fling it away from herself. The book then levitated in the air halfway through its arcing trajectory, halting its fall and preventing itself from suffering damage. Was the book sentient?

It had to have some degree of intelligence because a drawing of a man appeared and started moving like a piece of flip-book artwork. The drawing was of a man rocking back and forth while laughing, which meant that something amusing had to have transpired. Well, maybe the event was amusing to the book and the mage who owned it, but not the staff member. The hapless receptionist was still in a state of disbelief about what had just happened.

Leona decided that now was as good a time as any to introduce herself. She had gone to the trouble of temporarily setting aside her quest to learn about the supernatural, so she might as well speak to the novice mage. Leona waited until the other blonde finished talking with her book before introducing herself. Witnessing a talking book was new ground for the Silver Wolf mage. It was nice to see something new and wondrous outside a combat situation.

"Hi there. I'm Leona Jarnefeldt. I couldn't help but to notice what was going on over here." Leona introduced herself to the mage and her sentient book. How would her arrival be taken? Would she be greeted in a friendly manner, treated neutrally, or chastised for sticking her nose in a place it did not belong?