Living Dreams

Chapter 3

Dustin

Silence filled the library and I swore to myself as I strode forward, hoping to find the small party of people we had sent here earlier. On the far side of the library, sitting at a table with books around her was Ele, but no one was near her. I swore again and strode forward, "Ele."

"Dustin!" The small girl jumped in surprise. "What are you doing here? If you had any questions, the others should have answered them."

"Questions?"

"Yes, about what we found out." She explained with a smile. "I mean, most of it was things that I read through the night by myself, the rest of it we found out together."

"We? So the four we sent was here?"

"Of course. We finished about ten minutes ago and they went back to talk to you and Cedric." Her hands slid off the desk and folded in her laps as she leaned back in the chair. "If you hurry, you can probably catch them before they start their report."

"Possibly, or I could just have you tell me." I walked forward and sat in an empty chair beside her and glanced at books on the table. A few little pictures of men with swords were sketched on the pages and the words were written around them. "What is this?"

"I think a history book." Ele flipped to the next page with a picture of a man and a dragon-like beast. "Whatever this world is and however it was created, the creator put a lot of thought in it. There's books on everything in here."

"So, what did you end up finding?"

"Basically that my initial hunch was correct." Ele slid out a book from the pile on her right and flipped it open. "This world has classes, skills, dungeons, monsters, magic, and a lot of cities. In every possible way, this world reminds me of an MMO-RPG."

"You really play video games?" I pulled back in surprise.

"With my father. It was the only thing we could really do growing up after he got off work." Ele's eyes darkened slightly before shaking her head and flipping to another page. "I sent a whole report back with the others about all the bits of advice that I've found as well as information about the classes and the skills. It might not be much, but hopefully it will help you all get started."

"How can we possibly thank you?" I placed my hand near her's on the desk as I stared at her face and she merely smiled at me.

"Destroy this world so we can go home." Her smile faded as she turned back towards the books and brushed her hand against the page.

"What do you plan on doing here now that you've helped us with this?" I questioned and she giggled.

"Don't get me wrong, I still plan on coming here and reading." Ele leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms across her chest. "But, mostly, I'm going to work as a cook here and help keep everyone fed as well as hopefully keep the children out of trouble."

I snorted and shoved myself from the chair. "We'll be here for a few more days, I'm sure, so I'll hopefully see you around."

"I don't plan on hiding so I'm sure you'll succeed."

"Well, I'll see you later." I waved at her before walking towards the door.

"Dustin?" Ele called and I turned back around to see her standing beside the desks, staring at me without a smile on her face.

"Yes?"

"You should know that, even with all of these monsters out in this world, they might not be the most dangerous things that we'll have to face." Her arms wrapped around her torso as she pressed her hip into the edge of the table.