The
librarian was awoken by the sound of her mobile phone going off. It took her a
few moments to recognise where she was and what the funny noise was. By the
time she finally recognised that the sound was coming from the device jacked
into the wall, it had stopped ringing.
She
pushed herself away from the desk, letting out a soft groan as she did so. It had not been the first time she had fallen
asleep sprawled over her desk and if she was honest with herself, it probably
would not be the last. That did not make it anymore uncomfortable though when
it happened.
The
tea, of course, was cold. However it helped swill away the odd taste in her
mouth and come around enough to recognise what point she had been at in her
work before she had finally drifted off. Sorting it any further would have to
wait though. Not many people had her number and looking at the time she knew
exactly who it was who had called her.
She
scrambled for her phone, embarrassment settling in as she redialled the number,
“Hi Miranda.” She babbled at her boss as she shot up the stairs to get into
fresh clothes and quickly wash, “I’m sorry, I overslept, I can be in in ten
minutes.”
“Don’t.
Head down to the park instead.” Miranda’s tone was clipped and worried, “You
remember Mikey?”
“The
American kid who got lost?” Twilight asked, confused, pausing in her attempt to
shuck one pair of trousers in order to don another, “Yeah.”
“He’s
wandered off again. Vanished some point yesterday evening.” Miranda told her,
“We’ve got search parties looking but they need more help. The forest is huge
after all and you seem to be the only one who can traverse it without getting
lost.”
“I’ll
be there in about twenty minutes.” Twi grimaced slightly as she replied, not
quite ready to tell her boss that the reason that she could get around the
forest so easily was because she was on good terms with the faeries and dryads
who lived there, “I need to get changed and then I’ll shoot down on my bike.”
“Thanks
Aella.” Miranda dropped the call. Twilight cursed and got ready at record speed
before unchaining her bike and shooting down to the park in the centre of the
village.
There
was a large crowd there, including a lot of police officers. Twilight was not
surprised as she pulled up. People went missing in the woods all the time. They
always turned up a few hours to a couple of days later, but this was an
international incident. This was not just the usual case of someone wandering
off and not coming back.
For
one the forest did not actually stretch far enough to reach the fancy holiday
camp that Mikey’s parents were staying at. He would have had to wander seven or
eight minutes down the road to end up there. Not only that but no one had seen
the child leave the camp and there had been people in the gateways for most of
the night. There had not been a soul on the roads according to the guards and
they would have noticed an eight year old wandering off alone.
Mikey’s
parents were not any help. The mother was inconsolable and the father was loud
and rude as he bellowed at everyone and anyone within range. However Twilight’s
arrival did not go unnoticed. When she pulled off her helmet he glared at her
and stormed over. The student librarian, seeing the oncoming storm, quickly
chained up her bike and was just putting her helmet away under the seat when he
reached her and loomed over her, glaring.
“This
is your fault, isn’t it?” He demanded of her, grabbing her collar as he snarled
in her face, “You encouraged him! Told him tales of things living in the woods!
Told him to run away!”
“I,”
Twilight drew herself to her full height and ripped herself free of his grip,
glowering back, “Didn’t tell him any such thing! He found my library when you
let him wander off yesterday and was reading a book to the children when you
picked him up. I never once mentioned things living in the woods. It’s not my
fault, sir,” she spat the last word, “If you can’t keep an eye on your own
son.”
“How
dare you...” The guy tried to swing for her but Twilight had been expecting it
and honestly did not blame him for it as she ducked and twirled away. The huge,
bulky, rather rotund American was under a lot of stress and while he should not
threaten her, she did not blame him for taking it out on the first person to
snap back at him. Not when his son was missing.
Besides
it was probably better that he went for her rather than one of the other
villagers. He was no fast enough to hit her, not when she regularly dodged
faebeasts and hedgehounds and bogeymonsters. He was laughably slow compared to
them. He could swing for her all he liked and it would not matter. She would
not attack back unlike some of the less patient residents of the village.
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