Hate + Boredom = . . . on Library

Killian Everett

May 18, 2016 10:15 PM

Hate + Boredom = . . . by Killian Everett

The look Killian gave his hapless quill should have instantly transfigured the poor object into a puddle of ink-stained bird goo. Not that it was in good shape to begin with. There was no longer a top to the feather, about half an inch was missing. Also, the left side was decidedly . . . squished looking.

Why couldn’t they have pens, or better yet, laptops like any sane school? At this point, he’d take a box of crayons over the quill. It didn’t help that his wrist felt a hyena used it for a chew toy. Seriously, what sort of place gave out homework assigned in feet? If he’d had his laptop, he could’ve banged out the report in half an hour, an hour tops, including research. Alas, he was trapped in a world where people scribbled on bits of dead animals with the feathers of other dead animals.

All in all, it was kind of creepy when you thought about it. He glared down at yet another blotch on the parchment. Soon he’d be able to play dot-to-dot with his homework, and he still wasn’t even close to done. Another explosive sigh escaped him as he tried to put the quill down in the ink bottle, only to have the evil thing flop out and spatter the table with drops of black. It was hopeless, he’d end up spending the rest of his life trapped in the library doing homework.

Killian’s flagging attention wandered, and caught on a bit of dark fluff twitching under the table to his left. A grin curled his lips, and without a second thought, he abandoned his homework in favor of making a new friend.

“Here kitty, kitty,” he whispered as he dropped down to his knees and crawled under the table. The feline in question gave him a disdainful look and flicked its tail again as if daring him to come a little closer.

Before he could take the invitation, he felt something hit his exposed legs. “Ouch!”

0 Killian Everett Hate + Boredom = . . . 354 Killian Everett 1 5

Madeleine Dautin

May 23, 2016 7:48 AM

Procrastination, the best kind of nation. After France. by Madeleine Dautin

Madeleine had just been minding her own business, taking a detour through the library on the way to the common room—there was a new atlas that had come in and she was interested in perhaps borrowing it out to play with later on, but as she was walking towards the check-out desk, she tripped over something on the ground. Normally Madeleine looked where she was going, but this time she had been watching the titles on the shelf, scanning to see if there was something else she might like to take out.

Once she regained her wits, she realised that what she had tripped over was set of legs. Rather affronted that someone thought it was worth his while to lie down on the library floor, at first she wanted to snap. Then she realised that the wizard was lying down under a table. Now that, Madeleine could get behind. After all, hiding under tables was probably one of her favourite past times. She pushed aside her books and her bookbag and crawled under the table as well.

Now that she was under the table with him, she recognised the legs as belonging to one of her classmates, a Pecari if she remembered correctly. He did not come from one of the families that she and Bastien had been made to remember before leaving France and that kind of intrigued her. Her roommates were also not Those Types, but one was weird and quiet and the other was just weird and so Madeleine hadn’t felt as though she wanted to get to know them that well. But this wizard seemed to like to hang out under tables, and that was cool.

Madeleine was not normally one to start a conversation—she much preferred to keep an eye on the situation, but that didn’t mean she didn’t like talking to other people nor that she had issues doing so. She wouldn’t consider herself a shy witch but rather a witch who didn’t much like witches or wizards in general. Unless, of course, they did something to interest her in which case she was all bubbles and smiles. And her peer was under a table and that was enough for Madeleine.

“Hi,” she said quietly but with a friendly tone, so as not to disturb the cat that the Pecari was watching. “What are you doing?” She figured it was rather obvious, but it was as good an opening line as any and besides, she was kind of craving friends with whom she could crawl around in small spaces and do things with.

10 Madeleine Dautin Procrastination, the best kind of nation. After France. 340 Madeleine Dautin 0 5

Lily Spencer

May 25, 2016 2:34 AM

After England. by Lily Spencer

The library was one of the places Lily hadn't taken the time to explore much. She loved her common room and was hoping to get to know her house-mates better. The idea of forming a family here as an extension of her family back home was very appealing. At least here she could choose brilliant people to be a part of her group. Jozua was one so far and she was rather lucky to have found a playmate so fantastic so quickly.

Even if the library was full of students like her brother, Lily hoped that it was just as magical as every other place had been. She'd been born and raised surrounded by magic, but she'd never been in a castle like this before. There were loads of castles in England, of course, but not one where magic was so thick in the air and obvious all around. She had her long brown hair tied up, her book bag light on her shoulder as always - she tended to 'forget' her heavier textbooks in her room - and wand twirling in between her fingers. Though she was only eleven and in a brand new place so far from home, the English witch exuded loads of confidence. She didn't really believe in being afraid of anything.

As Lily strolled through the musty library, hoping for something interesting, she got her wish. There were two students underneath the table chatting and a cat. She assumed it was the librarian's cat as she'd never heard of a student bringing their pet inside the 'sacred house of knowledge' before. Though she wanted to pet the animal as soon as she saw it, her classmates were more intriguing and she stooped over to peer under the table at them.

Lily had overheard the witch's greeting and recognised the other as her classmate and house-mate, Killian. They'd never been formally introduced, of course, but she had no trouble putting names and faces together especially since he was in her house. The other witch she recognised as her classmate, but couldn't think of her name.

"Can I join?" she asked, grinning. There wasn't much space underneath for the three of them, so she just kneeled next to them with one hand holding the tabletop above. "What are you all doing down there anyway? Did you see any monsters?" Monsters, in Lily's imaginary experience, tended to live outdoors where she wouldn't get into trouble fighting them, but no one had ever said monsters couldn't come inside at Sonora.

40 Lily Spencer After England. 357 Lily Spencer 0 5

Killian

May 30, 2016 3:22 PM

After Never Never Land by Killian

Killian’s momentary ire at being stepped on vanished when the girl he’d inadvertently tripped joined him under the table instead of yelling at him.

“Me? Trying to avoid homework,” he gave her a sheepish smile. The cat, who’d leapt back a few feet at his cry of pain, took a few prim steps forward, acting like it hadn’t been frightened in the slightest. “And this fine fellow seemed like a pretty good excuse to put it off for a bit. Maybe, if I’m lucky, it’ll do itself while I’m not looking,” a chuckle escaped him. “It is a magic school after all.”

Before the girl could offer up an answer to his wistful thought, another girl appeared and crouched down to get a better look at them without coming all the way under the table. He recognized his fellow housemate and offered her a welcoming grin. Then her words tickled the inside of his ear before finding the fertile ground of his imagination. Once there, they took root and bloomed easily. Killian’s brown eyes widened, shining brightly as he wiggled over and reached out to tug the newest arrival under the table with them. “Shhhhh!” He quickly tucked his legs under the table, glad for his small stature. Even though it was a squeeze, all three first years could fit beneath the flimsy protection of the wood.

Killian gave the shelves around them a long, mock frightened look. “You’ve heard of the Koradions, haven’t you?” he kept his voice a hushed, urgent whisper, the proper tone for telling horror stories. “They’re magical creatures, but they live in the non-magical world too and make their homes in libraries. Most people mistake them for dust bunnies, and usually, they’re perfectly harmless. They eat books, and that’s why they live in libraries, and why librarians always have to buy new books.” Here, his tone dropped even further as he looked the girls over. “But, to breed, they need a meal of fresh meat. Every now and then, an unwary student or old man will wander off into the stacks and never be seen again.”

Peeking out at the stacks of innocent books, he pulled back, eyes wide, and his face a mask of fright. “I heard it’s breeding season now, and since we’re in a magic library, they’re probably bigger and stronger than the ones that lurk in the non-magical world,” he offered in a stage whisper

0 Killian After Never Never Land 354 Killian 0 5

Madeleine

June 07, 2016 11:37 AM

I've never heard of that place before. by Madeleine

Madeleine grinned in response to her classmate’s joke. “It’s possible,” she replied good-naturedly (and a bit softly since she was unsure if her sentence was grammatically correct and she hated to be wrong), rather surprised at how her tone came out since usually she would have been disdainful of someone who was looking for an excuse to escape their devoirs. However, there was something about the situation that was so familiar, she couldn’t help but be in a good mood. Besides, she knew of several situations in which she might be tempted to evade her own devoirs. However, her quiet response was eaten in the movement of yet another student joining them under the table.
The witch, whose accent Madeleine automatically registered as being different from the others in her class, offered the wizard a smile and Madeleine assumed they knew each other from elsewhere, but she didn’t put it away when she began to speak to both of them and Madeleine smiled back as the new arrival asked about monsters. The wizard tugged the witch with the different accent under the table and began to tell a story about some kind of magical creature that apparently lived in library shelves and ate books and also sometimes people when it was breeding season.
Madeleine had never heard of the Koradions before and she had not only already flipped through her Care of Magical Creatures book wanting to get a head start since it was written in English but also looked through a few of Myrtille’s Beauxbatons textbooks and the creature from the horror story the wizard was telling hadn’t appeared in either one. So it probably wasn’t real. Unless, of course, it was perhaps an American creature of a more advanced level. She’d have to look for the books from the older classes or, perhaps, do a bit of research on her own time. Neither witch nor wizard were in Aladren so Madeleine was confident that if she looked for reference material on the Koradions closer to bedtime they wouldn’t catch her in a moment of intellectual weakness.
But that meant going into the conversation, Madeleine didn’t have the upper hand—she was already the stranger since both the other students were in Pecari. She couldn’t be sure if the American wizard was just teasing the two foreign witches or not. And Madeleine hated not being the smartest in the room. However, if he was playing make-believe—a term Madeleine herself had never been fond of since she wasn’t pretending to be a spy, she was practising her future career, then Madeleine was 110% behind the game and definitely willing to join in. So for now, she leaned in and played along.
“Is that so?” she asked with interest, a shiver going down her spin—not out of fear, but rather out of excitement. “Maybe we ought to go and find some then.”

10 Madeleine I've never heard of that place before. 340 Madeleine 0 5

Madeleine

June 07, 2016 11:38 AM

I've never heard of that place before. by Madeleine

Madeleine grinned in response to her classmate’s joke. “It’s possible,” she replied good-naturedly (and a bit softly since she was unsure if her sentence was grammatically correct and she hated to be wrong), rather surprised at how her tone came out since usually she would have been disdainful of someone who was looking for an excuse to escape their devoirs. However, there was something about the situation that was so familiar, she couldn’t help but be in a good mood. Besides, she knew of several situations in which she might be tempted to evade her own devoirs. However, her quiet response was eaten in the movement of yet another student joining them under the table.

The witch, whose accent Madeleine automatically registered as being different from the others in her class, offered the wizard a smile and Madeleine assumed they knew each other from elsewhere, but she didn’t put it away when she began to speak to both of them and Madeleine smiled back as the new arrival asked about monsters. The wizard tugged the witch with the different accent under the table and began to tell a story about some kind of magical creature that apparently lived in library shelves and ate books and also sometimes people when it was breeding season.

Madeleine had never heard of the Koradions before and she had not only already flipped through her Care of Magical Creatures book wanting to get a head start since it was written in English but also looked through a few of Myrtille’s Beauxbatons textbooks and the creature from the horror story the wizard was telling hadn’t appeared in either one. So it probably wasn’t real. Unless, of course, it was perhaps an American creature of a more advanced level. She’d have to look for the books from the older classes or, perhaps, do a bit of research on her own time. Neither witch nor wizard were in Aladren so Madeleine was confident that if she looked for reference material on the Koradions closer to bedtime they wouldn’t catch her in a moment of intellectual weakness.

But that meant going into the conversation, Madeleine didn’t have the upper hand—she was already the stranger since both the other students were in Pecari. She couldn’t be sure if the American wizard was just teasing the two foreign witches or not. And Madeleine hated not being the smartest in the room. However, if he was playing make-believe—a term Madeleine herself had never been fond of since she wasn’t pretending to be a spy, she was practising her future career, then Madeleine was 110% behind the game and definitely willing to join in. So for now, she leaned in and played along.

“Is that so?” she asked with interest, a shiver going down her spin—not out of fear, but rather out of excitement. “Maybe we ought to go and find some then.”

10 Madeleine I've never heard of that place before. 340 Madeleine 0 5

Lily

June 15, 2016 4:53 PM

It's a very nice place. by Lily

Lily tumbled into the secret hideout under the table, surprised at being tugged in without notice. She was small for her age, and she fit with the other two. Lily righted herself and squatted down, hugging her knees to her chest. She really didn't know what to make of all this; maybe they were playing some sort of game? If so, she wanted to be a part of it. She couldn't imagine what fun her peers had studying and reading in a library when there were other things to do outside. She remembered her brother, Jack, when he got 'too old for games,' he would read long, dull novels in the park whilst Lily and her friends played make-believe together. She never understood why he just stopped playing with her and suddenly became an unbearable wart.

Her new friends, however, didn't seem to be so dull. Killian's eyes were widening, and Lily felt a familiar thrill from being at the cusp of something exciting. He was talking about some magical creature which, from his body language, meant that it was some sort of make-believe creature. She could be wrong, of course, and maybe Killian was a sort of courageous magical creatures expert.

"Of course I've heard of them!" she squeaked before clamping a hand over her mouth to let him finish. Lily felt the hairs on her arms rise as she drank in his story. The library was suddenly much more exciting than boring old tomes gathering dust on the shelves. That dust must be from the Koradions. She shivered in delight. Koradions - she tucked the name away into her memory for one of her future adventures with Jozua. If things went well here, maybe she'd ask him if she could bring Killian and this French witch into their Secret Order.

The witch's response delighted her even more. Lily nodded eagerly. "I hardly come into the library so I've never seen them. Do they have large teeth and grey fur?" It would do to know what her enemy looked like. "We need to purge the library of these creatures so no one will be eaten!" she said, her voice rising slightly in excitement. Her brown eyes were wide now, completely invested in this new world. "What shall we do first?" she asked, eager to follow Killian's instructions. Normally she liked to lead expeditions, but since Killian had introduced the creature it was her unspoken rule to let him lead.

40 Lily It's a very nice place. 357 Lily 0 5

Killian

June 22, 2016 9:24 AM

The best! by Killian

Delight tingled through Killian’s body when neither girl called him out or denied that his made-up beasts might not be real. They didn’t tell him to stop being silly, or to grow up and get back to his homework. In fact, they were going to play the game with him! He could hardly believe it, but he wasn’t about to question his good luck. While he’d often played such games alone, he never tried to do it with others before, and he couldn’t squelch the grin as they willingly followed his lead.

“Their fur can vary in shade from dark grey to soft brown,” Killian said, taking on a lecturing tone, “and they’re wicked good at blending in with the shadows. They have three rows of sharp pointy teeth,” he added, his imagination now fully invested in his newest monster.

When Lily piped up that it was their duty to clear the monsters out of the library, the tiny hairs on his arms stood on end as excitement raged through his body. Glancing around, he noticed the cat had vanished, probably wanting to find a table with a little less activity beneath it to sit under. He hummed under his breath for a moment, thinking of a plan of attack. “Okay, normally Koradions stick to the lower shelves, but during hunting season, they migrate up to the higher levels so they can ambush their prey like leopards jumping down out of a tree onto the back of a gazelle. We’re going to have to stay under the tables and chairs as much as possible to keep from being attacked.”

Moving backward, he nudged one of the chairs out into the space between two tables. “We can use the chairs like reverse stepping stones.” In a flash he scurried out from under the table, hid under the chair, and peaked out, staring up at the shelves of books to make sure none of the little monsters were preparing to attack. Once he was certain the coast was clear, he darted under the next table. Turning he looked back at the girls. “Come on,” he whispered.

0 Killian The best! 354 Killian 0 5