Cookies!

"Really, it's fine, Bloom!" Pathy stated as she glided down to the Proscribrary with Bloom—both Path and Maizy tucked into their pouches. "We've been living with Miss Dew, who has the climate control tail. She takes good care of us, and she adores Path."

Climate control tail? That sounds super convenient.

"There is something I'd like to grab, though. In the vault."

Vault? What vault?

They landed on a branch just outside the Proscribrary, then Bloom pulled out her woggle and opened the door. The two walked inside, and Pathy's face lit up with nostalgia.

"Oh, it's been about five wobbles, but it still feels like yesterday."

Bloom still felt awful about the whole memory curse. "Seriously, Pathy, we could go live at Grandma’s. She’s never there. Or at the library—it’s just my sister and her apprentice."

Pathy gave Mom a stern look. "No, it’s better this way because we’re neighbors.  And now you’ll remember I’m just down two branches!" She laughed. "Besides, this way Maizy and Path will be close enough to play outside together—like we used to."

Pathy wanted her keedo to spend lots of time with Maizy.

When am I going to be able to play outside? I want to play outside!

Mom pulled Maizy out of her pouch and placed her down across from the cookie jar. Seeing this, Path exited his mom's pouch and walked over to sit next to her.

Then Mom did something Maizy thought was amazing: She reached into the wall under the corkrest and pulled a tiny little book out. It was small, but Maizy could see the word "VAULT" written across the front.

Mom placed the book on the floor and embiggened it with the glove on her left hand. It grew so large that it wedged itself between the floor and the ceiling.

She turned to look at Maizy and Path. "Cover their eyes, would you, Pathy?  Especially Maizy." She squinted a bit, then warned, "Don't even think about trying to get into this thing. It's super dangerous. It's trapped a dozen different ways and can kill you—or worse."

Maizy grimaced and nodded.

Pathy walked in front of the children, stood up tall, and spread her limbs as if she were gliding. She had become a curtain of kad. It was surprisingly effective.

Behind her, Maizy could hear Mom scratching something, tapping something else, and then a loud HISS, like pressure being released.

"You can let them look now. It's safe," Mom said. "I bet they'll think it's super neat."

Pathy lowered her body, and Maizy couldn't believe her eyes. Behind Mom stood the giant vault book—open, but not like a normal book. The cover itself had become an open doorframe. Maizy watched as her mom stepped into the book. It was bigger on the inside!

Awesome!

Mom turned around and looked at Pathy. "It's mostly just books in here—as far as I know—Pathy. Unless you've hidden something else." She then turned to Maizy. "Grandma came by and moved all the really dangerous stuff into her vault when Maizy was born."

She laughed. "I had to move a lot of books in here the moment I found out Maizy could read—that very day!  I did it while she was asleep in my pouch." She giggled. "I love how soundly she sleeps."

Pathy grinned, pulled a spyglass from her poncho, and stepped past Mom into the vault, scanning the room with curiosity.

"Aha!" Pathy exclaimed, spotting something. "Good, it’s still here." She turned and headed left of the door—straight through the book’s binding from Maizy’s perspective, vanishing into the wall and into the tree itself.

Both Maizy and Path walked up to the door to get a peek, but Mom stopped them. "Oh no, you don't." She stepped out and made herself into a kad curtain. "Once Pathy's done, I'll let you look inside—but no touching any books!" She gave Maizy a stern look, then turned to Path. "Path, keep Maizy away from these books. It's not just dangerous knowledge—some of them are actually dangerous. You can get cursed by opening some of them."

Path sat up and saluted. Mom thought that was so cute she nearly lowered her curtain to pat his head.

"I’ve got what I wanted. You can close it up now," Pathy called from behind Mom.

Mom lowered herself down, letting the kids peek inside for a moment before bringing the cover to a close.

All they saw were a few piles of books surrounded by nothing but bright white—like the entire space inside the vault was a soup of liquid white.

--------------------------------------------

After exiting the vault, Mom crossed to the cookie jar’s pedestal, her tail glowing with what looked like pure darkness. She lifted the lid, took a handful of cookies, and handed two each to Path and Maizy.

"I'm bribing you two," Mom said, "to never speak about the vault to anyone. Ever. OK?"

Both children nodded.

Mom leaned in to explain. "I actually don't keep anything particularly special or valuable in my vault—just some books that normal people shouldn't get their hands on, which you saw." Then she looked serious. "But just knowing it exists means someone might try to steal it, and people could get hurt."

"Idiots will be idiots," Pathy stated. "About 50 wobbles ago, some fools tried to break into the Head Proscribrarian's vault." She shook her head. "One of them died, and the other one is, well... still in her vault.  Stuck. Forever."

"Every now and then, the Head Proscribrarian finds a new piece of the one who died, and the gods are still trying to figure out how to get that other person's soul out without destroying it."

Even the gods can't get them out!?  Why are they telling this to children!?

Maizy and Path stared at their parents in horror as they told those stories, then looked at each other, sharing the exact same thought: Yeah, let's never talk about that.

Then Maizy ate a cookie. She wiggled in delight, then ate the other.

Path saw this, ate a cookie, and instantly gobbled down the other.

Then both children turned to Bloom—the gatekeeper of delight—with their eyes wide open, doing their best, cutest pleading expressions. Maizy really knew what she was doing and scooched closer to Path for maximum effect.

"Oh my gosh! Look at them!" Pathy was ensnared. "How can you resist, Bloom? Let them have another."

Bloom looked away while biting her lip. Then—as quickly as possible—she put the lid on the jar and returned it to its special pedestal. She still had two cookies, one in each hand.

Mom gave the kids a skeptical look. "Pathy and I are going outside for a few moments while you two stay here. You will behave, yes?"

Both children nodded in excitement. More cookies? Yes!

Mom handed them each one cookie, which they ate faster than a curious kad falling into a void trap. Then she and Pathy left the Proscribrary and locked the door behind them.

Maizy turned to Path and signed, "Let’s get cookies." He didn’t understand—he didn’t have a memory tail and hadn’t learned all the signs yet—so he shrugged and tried signing, "I not know." He was very bad at it.

Then Maizy had one of her most brilliant ideas ever: She pounced on Path with a hug—which he thought was the best thing ever—and poured all her memories of learning Kad Sign Language, along with her memories of reading in general, straight into his head. It was over in a flash.

She plopped down in front of him and signed at lightning speed, "You know kad signs now?"

He blinked once, twice, then signed back, "Yes. Wow." A second later, he was up the wall, across the ceiling, and back again in a blur. He signed, "W O W!" before zipping across the ceiling a second time.

Haha, he’s got the zoomies!  Maizy grinned.

--------------------------------------------

When she was done working through all the children's books, Maizy walked over to her mom's desk and pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. She wrote, "CA N YO U READTHIS?" in her signature, nearly-illegible scrawl.

Path signed, "Yes!" then did three more zoomies—up the wall, across the ceiling, and down again. He laughed, "ki ki ki" at her and signed, "You write bad!" "ki ki ki ki."

He then picked up the pencil and wrote on the paper, "I CAN WRITE TOO, I THINK. YES. YES I CAN! WOW!" He signed, "I write good," then couldn’t stop laughing.

Maizy was annoyed at the disrespect. As she mulled over ways to get back at him, a brilliant idea struck. She grinned and pointed at the cookie jar.

"Get us cookies," she signed.

Path glanced at the jar, then at Maizy, then at the door. He signed, "Okay?" and Maizy waved her hand as if to say, "Of course!"

Path was pretty sure this could get him in trouble—but as anyone who’s ever had something delicious with plenty of room left in their belly can attest, the belly wins.

He leapt onto the pedestal holding the cookie jar and was unceremoniously tossed up at the ceiling. He flipped himself upside down and latched on—which impressed Maizy—but not enough to stop her from laughing. She went full ROFLOL, "ki ki ki ki," slapping the floor several times.

Path was unamused, startled, and very much in wonder.  What the heck?

Maizy rolled onto her belly and rested her head on her hands, elbows on the floor, a huge grin on her face. She didn’t need to sign anything to Path—she could tell he had fully devoted himself to conquering the cookie jar.

Was this how my mom felt when she was watching me chase those cicadas?

Path stared at the cookie jar in deep contemplation. Then, in his head, jazzy, espionage-laden music began to play as he crawled along the ceiling above it, lowering his front half while keeping his feet hooked. He landed—gently—on top of the jar.

Maizy clapped. "Nice!" she signed, thinking, Wow, sign language is really handy for sneaky things like this.

What’s he going to do now?  She doubted Path could open the jar while standing on the lid.

Path caught Maizy watching him with a smile. It overrode his better instincts, the ones warning that what he was about to do could be a bad idea. He lifted his tail, lowered his back legs, and let his whole backside slip down the edge of the jar. He curled his tail tightly to avoid touching the pedestal.

He could just barely wrap his legs and arms around the jar. Holding on tight, he let his butt drop onto the pedestal—hoping it would launch both him and the jar off to the side, where he and Maizy could team up to get it open. Then she’d smile, delight in her eyes, as he fed her cookies. It was the perfect plan.

The pedestal’s response to his butt was instantaneous. The whole top—Path and jar included—tilted up at a right angle, as if on an invisible hinge.

Path was still clinging to the jar when they both heard it: loud buzzing.

Oh no! Cicadas!

A chorus of cicadas buzzed inside the pedestal beneath the jar—just waiting for some gullible children to try their claws at cookie thievery.

From the other side of the Proscribrary door came loud laughter, as one cicada decided it was time to leave the band and go solo.

Maizy’s hunting instincts kicked in, and she was off!

Path didn’t see the cicada. Despite his current predicament, he was still laser-focused on getting the lid off. He dug his front claws into the soft cork lid and dangled off the jar’s edge, tugging, wiggling, and bobbing up and down to make it move.

It was working! The lid was turning—loosening, slowly but surely. He clawed his way back up to reset his grip and gave it another twist. Success was in sight!

Then a cicada landed on the floor beneath him.

--------------------------------------------

Mom and Pathy opened the Proscribrary door, expecting to find a kaydee and a keedo either passed out from exhaustion or still chasing a pair of circling cicadas.

Instead, they found an open cookie jar and two children asleep together, bellies full of cookies. Their faces were smeared with bug guts, cookie crumbs scattered everywhere. The jar was missing about half its original cookie count.

Pathy could only stare at them, at a complete loss for words.

Mom looked around at the aftermath. "How in the name of FRICK did they get the cookie jar open? I'm not even mad—I'm impressed!"

Then she paused, realization dawning. She turned to her friend with a serious face. "Pathy. I think our children are pack hunters."

"And devilishly clever," Pathy replied. "Too clever. We need to up our game."

"It's time to upgrade from cicadas."