Ch. 35, The Library
Rell
Bastien picked up the fire iron, when my hand went to my pocket. Empty.
"Bastien! Wait! He's mine!" I jumped up and threw my hands up. Bastien stopped mid swing, and I ran over to pick up Poxel.
I belong to no one! Poxel said in outrage, as I lifted him into my arms. He puffed his chest out, which wasn't very impressive, considering he was currently a chipmunk. Tell him I am Poxel the Magnificent, All-powerful, Incredible-"
Bastien stared at both of us in shock. So much for easing him into it.
"Umm, Bastien, this is Poxel, he's umm, my pet."
PET!!! How DARE you! A dragon is no one's pet! If anything, YOU are MY pet!.... Can I turn into a rhinoceros now?!
"You have a chipmunk as a pet?" Bastien asked incredulously. "How come I've never seen him before?"
"Well, see, he's not actually a chipmunk..."
Bastien had put down the fire poker, and stared down at Poxel. In the blink of an eye Poxel switched to his true form, smiling up at him a whole mouth of pointed teeth, his red scales gleaming in the fire light. He blew a puff of smoke into his face.
Bastien jumped back and Poxel suddenly switched back to the chipmunk.
Stop showing off. This is already hard enough to explain without giving him animal whiplash. I felt a thought coming and I cut it off preemptively. AND NO RHINOCEROS!
"So... he can change into different animals?" Bastien said, his eyes wide, leaning away yet still arching his head, like he wanted to come closer but couldn't. "But he's actually... a..."
"A dragon," I said. "One of the smaller breeds."
And most intelligent. Tell him that.
Bastien finally took a step closer. "And he obeys you?"
Absolutely not. She obeys me!
I shrugged. "Sometimes. It'll be alot easier now that I don't have to keep him hidden."
Poxel made a spectacular leap, transforming into a creature that I'd never seen before.
"I'm actually not sure what that creature is," I said, frowning. It was almost like a tiny, furry human with a tail.
"It's a spider monkey," Bastien said. "They have them at the Zoo."
And it has thumbs. So I can help you look through books. Humans read slow.
"Poxel said the spider-monkey has thumbs so he can help us look."
Bastien's eyebrows rose. "Wait— you can understand him? And he can read?"
I just shrugged, and pulled another book off the shelf. "I've always been able to understand him."
"Alright then," Bastien shook his head as he picked another book off the shelf.
I think he likes me already. Poxel pulled a heavy book from one of the shelves and nearly toppled over from the weight.
Let's try to keep it that way for at least a day. Remember we live in his house.
It's Dasan's house. And his library. Poxel replied.
I paused, shocked with the certainty he said so.
Why do you say that?
Because it's true. Now can I change into something else?
No. You showed yourself so now you have to help us.
As we went back to reading, I wondered, why did he think that? And how did he even know who Dasan was? For a moment I considered asking him further... but then decided against it. Poxel saw things as a dragon did, clear and simple, but the Human Realm was anything but that. Since he was actually helping, I decided to take Bastein's route, and went back to reading, pretending the sight of a spider monkey reading along with us was completely normal.
We settled into silence again, interrupted only by the crackle of flames, the muffled sound of rain, and rustle of page after page turning. I was about to nod off again when Bastein suddenly said, "I think I found something."
I jumped up, suddenly wide awake. His eyes glittered with excitement, and the book he held in his lap stood out even among then others, ancient with weathered, yellowed pages.
I stood and came to his side, and he shifted to let me see the page before him.
The script was written in elegant swirls. But it wasn't the writing that drew my eye. It was the drawing of a glorious, terrible rose, dripping blood. It was clutched in the hideous claw of a beast that faded into a background of shadows and trees. It was the first physical hint I'd ever had of what the Rose and Beast might actually look like, and I found myself unnerved.
"What does it say?" I whispered. Poxel dangled upside down by his tail from the rafters as Bastien began to read.
"Legend says that the Blood Rose was created long ago by the first Dark Queen. In that time, the realms were open and magic creatures roamed the Human Realm freely at night, returning to the Dark Realm before the sun. But as humans grew more numerous and powerful, humans began to fear the night, and hunt creatures of the Dark.
The Dark Queen foresaw the future; that humans would continue to drive the dark creatures out, and that as humans grew more numerous, so would their fear and hatred of the magic and the dark creatures. The Dark Queen devised a final test for humanity. On the darkest, coldest night of winter, she disguised herself as an old hag, and knocked on the door of a castle, begging for entrance. She offered the human king a single rose in exchange for lodging. But the King was cruel and vain. He turned her away, throwing the rose to the mud. The Dark Queen saw that the humans would never love those of the dark. So much was her love for the Dark Realm, that she spilled her own blood to create a The Blood Rose, enchanted to hold the realms forever apart."
Bastien paused, meeting my eyes for just a moment. A shock ran through me, and then he began to read again.
"But for the King's cruelty, the Queen also placed a curse upon the rose. Only a royal descended from her own bloodline, or one who wished only good, and to help others and not themselves, could touch the rose with impunity. Any who held it selfishly would incur a terrible curse: the curse of the Beast. Those cursed would look and act like one a human, but once a month, when the light of the full moon shown, they would be cursed to become a horrible beast.
And so the Rose was hidden away. Many stories and legends center around the legend of the Blood Rose, not wholly evil, yet neither wholly good, instead containing the soul of the first Dark Queen, forever contained until another rule willingly takes her place. The Rose is said to call to the desires of those near it, and grant wishes in exchange for a single drop of blood. However, most stories about dealings with The Blood Rose end in misery and unhappiness, as every granted wish comes at a terrible price. Though the location is unknown, the Blood Rose flourishes in the dark, living on blood, unfilled desires, secrets and longing."
Bastien stopped, and turned the page. Then he turned it back. "That's all there is."
I leaned back, thinking. "So... we need to find a place that is always dark... and is filled with unfilled desires, secrets and longing... and people.... Any ideas?"
Poxel was leaning closer to the book, smoke curling out of his monkey nostrils. Maybe it would help if we let the book on fire.
I snatched him back. NO FIRE!
Poxel reverted back to his chipmunk form, and made his way to the corner to pout. I ignored him, trying to think. Unfilled desires, secrets, longing, darkness? I knew so little about the Human Realm. And so far, of everything I'd seen, every place in the Human Realm had lights. Even the roads had beautiful lamp-posts. Even the forest was lit by the sun in the day and the moon at night.
"Dark... longing... desire... people..." Bastien said slowly, clearly trying to put the pieces together. "Well I do have an idea, but you'll laugh."
"I won't. Besides any idea is better than me, I've got nothing."
Bastien gave a small smile and then stood.
"Well, would you like to go see a movie?"
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