Wish

Dreams || Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Shattering

He had been up for a while now. He was awoken from his sleep by some sort of loud sound coming from the forest a times ago. For a few minutes he wondered if he should go and investigate, but he shrugged off the idea. It was still early.

Unfortunately, he could not let sleep take over him once more, no matter his best efforts, so instead, he picked a book and began to read. And that is how Cinger spent his post-midnight hours, awaiting for the morning sun to rise. Or, perhaps not.

He could only assume that the upcoming day would be filled with dreary and grey sights in the sky. Thankfully, he didn't mind a bit. He just kept on reading. That was, until his ears picked up the sound of the entrance doors clicking open, as he had trained to be able to sense. It helped that he had the past he had.

"Weird, normally people don't come this early..." He stood up from his messily made bed in the dark oak room held in the back of the Library. "Or at all..."

He grabbed his bookmark, a purple and pink serpent with a teal ball at the end of its tail slithering up a deep violet staff, a reference to one of his favourite magical isekai series, and placed it neatly within the folds of the pages. He pricked his ears up, turning entirely alert. There were the slightest footsteps of some kind, but not human, coming from the hallway. Yet he knew he had heard them before.

He racked his brain, but no answers revealed themselves straight away. Nevertheless, a fleck of fear ran through him. He tried to shrug it off. It lingered yet. He kept on edge, as the sound of metal entirely put him into a state of panic. "What the- who's trying to access the Vault?!" he whispered, fear stricken.

The Vault was where he hid objects from his past, which he'd adore to forget. There were objects of high magical power concealed there, and if something got in... "No you don't..." He opened a secret compartment next to his bed by smacking his fist against it, and there laid a curved dagger with a golden grip.

It sheened in the warm lantern light, every edge kept to sharp perfection by habit. He quickly grabbed it, before swiftly yet quietly leaving. He made his way to the hallway before the Vault, in the deepest corners of the library backrooms, anticipating to catch the thief.

He held his knife close, checking for the umpteenth time that it was still a very deadly weapon. He nearly felt bad for whatever was trying to steal from him. 'Ha! Nearly.' There wasn't a single bit of rust on its light silver steel, and hopefully, he wasn't too rusty himself.

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Woodie, sleeping in a warm, grass woven blanket on the earthy floor of Woodpecker's Place, was suddenly slapped awake by the sound of a large shattering. "Hu- heh???" he squawked raspily. "What in ol' bird lord's name was that?!"

TJ, his roomate, not pet woodpecker, ruptured awake, before screeching ungodly loud and annoyingly. "Shut it, ya turtle!" the old man yelled, before cracking his back as he stood up, hunched. He looked over the counter. Nothing out of the average. Yet, for some reason, he thought something was just... off. He quickly shut some curtains, the words 'CLOSED' coming together upon them.

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Head laying on the counter, it seemed Liern Relin had fallen asleep on the job yet again, and slept into the night. Yet, he was peaceful. All was peaceful. Until, the sound of shattering brought him to consciousness. "Huh, what has..." He looked around. "Oh darn, another 'sleep shift', huh..." Only then did he remember what woke him.