Snakes and Libraries

Leah was leaning against the counter, twirling the stem of the small glass of white almost haphazardly in her fingers. She looked up as she heard feet padding down the hall towards the kitchen.

<span style='color:purple'>You're up early.</span> She said.

Honestly she had half a mind to smack Korif just for being so stupid and not listening to her, but for the moment she'd refrain.

<span style='color:purple'>Anything I can get for you?</span> She asked.

<span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span>
<table class='ooc'><tr><td>Sorry for ths sucky-ness, my head stopped working around the time the bell for Algebra rang today -_-"</td></tr></table>

 

<span style='color:red'>Nah, I'm fine, thanks.</span> Korif sat at the table and put his head down on it, welcoming the chill touch of the lacquered wood. <span style='color:red'>So, er...</span> He was a little ashamed to ask, but he figured he might as well. <span style='color:red'>... d'you see what happened? Out there...?</span> He was still a little tender as he was still trying to get used to life without a good bit of his eyesight. Korif closed his eyes, trying not to let the upset and off-pissedness get to him. He wanted so badly to find that sniper. Maybe the fool thought his target was dead. Oh, if the thief ever ran across him...

 

Leah put down her glass and walked the few steps over to where Korif was sitting, she too sat down, and put her arm around his shoulders.

<span style='color:purple'>I hate to say it, but I sort of told you not to go out there.</span> She said.

She moved her hand so her thumb was rubbing lightly at the area beneath his eye.

<span style='color:purple'>Sorry, I didn't see anything, I just heard you curse.</span> She whispered

 

Korif smirked. He figured it was a good thing and a bad thing that Leah didn't see what was going on. He relaxed a little to her touch and looked up at her. <span style='color:red'>Any plans for today, then?</span> If they involved him leaving the house, she could forget it there and then. Korif realised that in the short time between taking the bullet and waking up, he'd developed a nasty piece of agoraphobia. He was strong, though. He reckoned he could work through it in a few weeks, with any luck. Or, at least, he hoped he could.

 

<span style='color:purple'>Well, finding Raezil would be great, but I'm not in the mood to look through the whole house for her.</span>

She yawned, the day yime thing wasn't working out for her too well. Shaking her head she got up, pulling on Korif's hand for him to follow her. Going through the halls and back down the steps the got to her room and then she continued going to the back of it until she knelt on the ground and yanked up a trapdoor. She climbed down the ladder that had been placed there a while ago, finally emerging in a dimly lit hall.

<span style='color:purple'>You coming?</span> she called back up to him.

 

<span style='color:red'>Err, yeah... sure...</span> Korif reluctantly headed down the ladder, slowly and shakily. He started to feel uneasy and his head was starting to spin. He turned, looked down the hall and realised that he couldn't do it. <span style='color:red'>Oh, sod this for a game of soldiers...</span> he thought to himself and immediately started scraping his way back up the ladder again, sweating and almost hyperventilating.

 

Leah looked behind her, failing to see Korif she walked back the few paces she had taken and looked upward. He was holding on to the ladder and... come to think of it he looked like he was going to pass out.

There are those times when you know something bad will probably happen, but you're blanking out on anything to do, and this was one of those times for her. The ladder couldn't hold both of them, and the chute was too narrow for her to fly up, and she did not have enough mental power to levitate anything over a paperweight.

He was closer to the bottom of the ladder than the top, but it was still a good twelve or more rungs to go before he could 'safely' drop down.

That was when she remembered she happened to be afflicted as a Vampdragon, that and what it entailed.

<span style='color:Purple'>{Just let go of the ladder. I'll catch you, I promise.}</span>

 

<span style='color:red'>N-no, I... I can't go out there... fuck, they're probably still after me...</span> But, obviously, the entire police force didn't put the shivers on the thief. It was just the sniper. He didn't care whether Leah would catch him or not, he just wasn't willing to leave the house. Period. He carried on up the ladder humming something to himself. The tune calmed him a bit, but he knew that stepping into the outside world just wouldn't be an option for a fair bit. He got to the top of the chute, slid around to sit with his legs dangling over the edge and rubbed his eyes.

 

Leah looked up, Korif made it up the ladder, but, in hindsight she had failed to tell him exactly where the hall had led to. She clambered up the ladder, emergina and sitting next to Korif.

<span style='color:purple'>I wouldn't bring you out of the house, not this soon.</span> She said, putting an arm around his shoulders. <span style='color:purple'>It's broad daylight and I'm wearing short sleeves anyway.</span>

She pointed down the chute. <span style='color:purple'>This goes under the house, Rae's library, would have shed some light on this whole dreamweaving time-travelling shit.</span>

<span style='color:purple'>Sorry, I wasn't thinking, I should have told you.</span> She whispered.

 

<span style='color:red'>It's... it's alright... s'my own fault for being so damn sensitive...</span> His considerably heavy shaking had now started to die down, and he looked at Leah with a faint smile. He sighed and once more started down the ladder, a little more quickly than he had the last time. He was still taking deep breaths, but he made sure to go to measures to make it as quiet as possible. He hated finding weakness in himself, but it was there, and he accepted it. He occasionally looked up to make sure Leah was still there and watching him, but other than that, he was pretty much fine.

 

As soon as Korif was down Leah followed suit, coming up next to him, she put an arm around his waist.

<span style='color:purple'>Being sensitive is fine, I think it's a good trait to have.</span> She said.

She led him down the hall, the only sounds other than the occasional flickering of a flame were their footsteps. At the end there was a large door set in stone. She dropped her arm from Korif's waist and began feeling along the stones, eventually pulling one out. A key dropped to the ground, which she retrieved before pushing the rock back in. She unlocked the door, then shouldered it and with some strain pushed it open.

<span style='color:purple'>Welcome. To the library where you have to know absolutely everything not to be amazed.</span> she said.

The room was obscenely large with high ceilings and bookshelves lined the walls, some were even in rows, it was a tad cool, but a fire sprang to life as Leah took a step in and toward the general 'reading' area.

 

Korif had to blink a few times before he could get a proper grasp of just how enormously massive the library was. <span style='color:red'>And who's is this, then?</span> he piped up. He decided to go for a bit of a wander around, sticking to the same floor so as not to end up getting lost. The collection on this section alone was amazing. It soon became apparent to Korif that as a kid, he actually hadn't read as many books as he thought he had.

 

<table width=400><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td><div align=justify><span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:purple'>"This was Rae's, one of her many projects, didn't live for that long, but damn did she do a lot with her life."</span>

She watched as Korif wandered off down one of the many aisles of books until she couldn't see him anymore. Satisfied she walked in almost the opposite direction, heading deeper into the cavernous room. Coming upon another stone door, she looked around her, just to be sure there was no one else there, it gave easily when she pushed against it and showed another corridor. At the very end there was a statue, very much like a gorgon in appearance, but at the same time, quite obviously not.

<span style='color:purple'>"I come seeking history."</span> She said aloud.

The stone serpent moved, eyes opening to reveal glassy red irises.

<span style='color:red'>"How do you come?</span>

She would have rolled her eyes, but when it came down to it, you couldn't show disrespect to a family's guardian, particularly if it was your family in question. She proceeded with the traditional speech, that pretty much summed up that she was not a threat etcetera etcetera. Sated the creature moved and allowed her to pass into the room that was truly Raezil's.

<span style='color:purple'>{Korif, Don't come looking for me, I'll be back out in a minute or two, I'm still in the library, but nowhere you would want to be.}</span> She thought, it would really suck if Korif ran afoul the guardian.</span></div></td></tr></table>​