Reaching New Heights

Her words were harsh, venomous even. An anger boiled inside her and she made sure to let her words portray that…

Yet…

I inadvertently chuckled.

“Huh?” the girl loosened her grip.

I’d heard overdramatic lines before, just this morning Kokoro and my aunt had done an entire scene with plenty of those, but I’d never heard a person try to use something like that to be threatening. Apart from maybe children. And although she looked like one, I doubted she was much older, or younger, than I was.

Either way, that overdramatic threat did little in the sense to scare me.

The fact she had to be on the tips of her toes to deliver it into my ear only made it that much funnier.

“W-What are you laughing about?” she let go of my collar.

“Come on, you can’t tell me you unironically said that?”

Her cheeks reddened, “I…”

Her blushing face was cute, couldn’t lie about that, but I was about done with…whatever she was doing. I wasn’t one for talking more than I needed to. In fact, I was rather skilled at ending conversations on the spot.

“Anyway, it was interesting talking to you, but I got places to be.”

I turned and immediately walked out of the aisle.

Nice, simple, and effective.

“H-Hey, wait!”

Ignoring her incessant callings, I walked along the curving shelves of books along the walls.

Running through the center of the library was a massive pillar that also served as an elevator for the upper floors. On the outer sides were signs that helped with locating the different genres of books and whatnot.

That would be well and good if it wasn’t for the fact that they were difficult to read. Not only was the text tiny, but you had to walk around the pillar to find the sign you were looking for. In other words, it wasn’t very efficient.

“Hey!”

The hem of my shirt was pulled back, causing me to nearly drop my books.

“Oh, the nuisance is back.”

“What?!”

“Nothing.”

The girl glared at me once more.

I might’ve been surprised at her tenacity at first, but now it was becoming too much. What did she even want with me? Cause let me tell you, I had no reason to keep talking to her.

Through gritted teeth, she said, “Take it back.”

“Take what back? The book?”

“No, what you said about The Finisterras!”

I sighed before walking away.

“Don’t just leave!”

But leave I did. The last thing I wanted to argue about was something I cared so little about. Apologizing might’ve been the better option, but my pride didn’t allow that. I would die on my hill whether it was the right thing or not.

The girl kept calling out to me, trailing behind the entire way through the library. A few stares were shot our way, but since I wasn’t being the loud one, I ignored them and kept going forwards, straight to the front desk.

The librarian on the other side frowned as we approached.

I placed all the books on the counter before announcing, “I would like to report a shady individual.”

“Who are you calling shady?”

“Who said I was talking about you?”

It hadn’t been five seconds and the librarian was already sick of us. Evident by her long sigh.

She scratched the few black scales leading up to her cheek.

“And what’s the problem exactly?”

“This individual has been following me and I’m currently fearing for my life,” I spoke in a more formal tone. The reason for which didn’t very well exist, but I felt it got the point across.

“T-That’s not true!”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it’s not!”

An odd rattling came from the other side of the counter. Both the girl and I turned to face the librarian who was blankly staring back at us.

Her chair moved slightly.

Then, out of the blue, a small, winged creature jumped on the librarian’s head. With a loud chirp, the creature’s slit pupils expanded to encompass the entire blue iris.

Instantly, my body froze. It was like my joints had been glued together. Even my eyes had been locked in place, but out of the corner of them, I could see the girl paralyzed just like I was.

The small brown dragon on the librarian’s head was a Reipter. Its body was covered in feathers and on its head was a metal helmet-like contraption.

I recognized those creatures, but I had never seen one in person. They were common around big cities and towns where they were used for security. Their paralyzing abilities were quite useful in that line of work.

Needless to say, this was also the first time I’d ever felt their paralysis effect. Uncomfortable was the wrong way to describe it. It was more like…I don’t know, claustrophobic? It was like a sense of desperation washed over you the moment it activated.

Overall, 3/10, wouldn’t try it again.

“Okay, now, let’s start from the top,” the librarian said.

She stood from her chair, exposing part of the folded-up wings on her back. The distinct scales around the back of her hands, face, and wings made it clear she was a Dragoon.

She snapped her fingers, and the paralysis wore off. I couldn’t help but note that the small dragon on her head’s pupils also dilated back into a slit.

Anyway, now was my chance. The girl would probably be too distracted recovering from the paralysis. If I explained everything now, I could leave this place with minimal damage to my wellbeing. Mostly, my sanity.

“She’s been the o—” “He was the one—”

Skree

Paralyzed again.

Now that I was getting to re-review this experience, I could confidently say that it was more of a 2/10. I hadn’t noticed it also froze your expression. Even without looking at myself, I could tell I looked stupid having been cut mid-sentence.

“That was my bad,” she rubbed her temples, “This time, don’t speak until I tell you to, okay?”

We couldn’t answer due to the whole paralyzed thing, but she took our silence as a yes and unfroze us.

I was tempted to talk right away, but the glare in the librarian’s eyes truly sent a chill down my spine. Twenty times scarier than anything the girl next to me had done.

“Let’s start off with something simple. What is your name?” she pointed at me, “You go first, boy with the boring clothes.”

An unnecessary dig, even if my outfit was a bit bland, but alright.

“I’m Araldo Tsutsumi. I’m good at everything, don’t try to verify that, and—”

Paralyzed once more.

“That’s enough. How about you?”

“Evy. Evy Ze’Seki.”

“Good.”

She snapped, unfreezing me.

“Now, one at a time, what seems to be the issue?”

The girl—er, Ze’Seki, and I looked at each other, then at the librarian.

“She’s been the o—” “He was the one—”

Paralyzed.

“I’m going to give you one more try, okay? And believe me, I’m being generous right now,” she snapped her fingers, “Now, one at a time, for real now, what is the issue?”

Ze’Seki and I looked at each other, then back at the Librarian.

“She’s been the o—” “He was the one—”

“Okay, you know what?” The librarian extended her wings, flapped them once to easily jump over the counter, and landed between us.

Now up close, I was noticing how tall she was. I was pretty average for a human, but the librarian towered over me like I was a child. Which, I guess I technically was, but even more of a child.

“Follow me,” she commanded.

Her Reipter chirped, basically telling us to move.

I think I found that little creature scarier than I had Ze’Seki all day. And that was saying something. The Reipter wasn’t even large enough to reach my knees.

But either way, we followed the librarian, whom I hadn’t gotten a name from, until we reached the massive pillar/elevator. She pressed the arrow up button and walked inside, motioning us to come with her.

The Reipter also excitedly joined in.

The panel had several floors, but instead of pressing on any of them, the librarian took out a key and inserted it into the keyhole near the bottom of the panel. She turned it and held it in for a few seconds. The elevator let out a resounding, ding, and began moving upwards.

“Um, where are we going?” I decided to ask.

“You’ll see.”

With only that as an answer, we traveled high into the sky. Not stopping at any of the floors—even the last one.

Worry filled my chest, especially because of the grin plastered on the librarian’s face.

Ding!

The door slid open.

Light seeped through the small gap, followed by an endless blue and puffy white.

“Are we…?”

“On the roof, yes,” she answered nonchalantly.

“And, if you don’t mind me asking, why are we here?”

“Follow me.”

Ze’Seki and I worryingly looked at each other, but the Reipter pushed us along with another chirp.

Surrounding the area around the elevator was a gated dome. Most definitely as a security measure so people don’t fall off the side and whatnot. Which is why it was concerning to see the librarian open said gate and pass us through it.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Ze’Seki asked, trembling all the while.

“No, not really.”

“Eh?”

It was about what I expected.

By now we were a short distance away from the edge. The wind harshly shook my hair, making it into more than a mess than usual.

From this high up, I could see most of the town, a few oddly shaped buildings caught my eye. They were standard designs that had landing spots for some of the races that could fly and a few other things, but back in my hometown, none of that was available.

It was nothing but small buildings and grassy terrain.

A view like this was new to me. A nice change of pace if anything.

Ze’Seki stood next to me marveling at the sight. Her eyes glittered as she scanned the area.

“Pretty isn’t it?” The librarian asked.

For a moment I thought she was asking me if Ze’Seki was pretty, which she was, but it was still a weird thing to ask. Especially in front of her.

I snorted, “I guess, but why are we here?”

She smiled, snapped her fingers, and walked closer to the edge.

For a moment, I thought she was commanding her Reipter to paralyze us. I think a fear was starting to grow in me.

But no, the Reipter didn’t even move from its position behind us.

The librarian walked until half of her feet were off the edge. As a Dragoon, I’m sure she had zero fear of heights. She could fly no matter what happened, but that didn’t stop my anxiety from spiking seeing how close she was to the edge.

“You know, this town hasn’t been here for very long. At least, compared to most towns in the country. Do you know why?”

The answer was no. Once again, History and I weren’t all that close. History was like that weird uncle you recognized at a party but did the bare minimum to talk to them, if at all.

But to my surprise, Ze’Seki said, “B-Because it was built as a commemoration for the end of the war?” Her body shook as she finally snapped back to reality and noticed how high up we were.

I guess she wasn’t good with heights.

Either way, the war she spoke of was something that basically everyone knew, even me. It was one of, if not, the biggest conflict in world history. The three of us probably wouldn’t be standing together if it wasn’t for that war.

“Very good, very good,” the librarian clapped.

Unlike expected, she didn’t follow up on that thought. She simply stared off into the sky.

I was all for staring at the midday sun, but it was hard to look past the fact we were still on the roof of the library. That isn’t something you usually stand on!

“And…what does that have to do with us being up here?” I finally asked.

“I thought it'd be obvious?”

“What? How?”

“Yeah, even I got the gist of it,” Ze’Seki crossed her arms. I couldn’t help but notice her tone was much softer than before.

But wait, was I the only one out of the loop here?!

They’re making it seem like it’s something really easy to get, but as far as I can tell, that was not the case. Was my stupidity much greater than I once imagined?

No…they’re the weird ones.

I nodded. That’s the only way I could push away the thought that I might be dumber than I expected.

“Anyway,” the librarian cut through my thoughts, “can you two come here?”

Come here. She says that as if we weren’t already way too close to the edge. Still, Ze’Seki and I hesitantly walked closer. My heart raced as the floor down below slowly became visible.

Now we were at the edge. Uncomfortably close to the edge I might add.

“What is—?”

Before I could finish, the librarian placed a hand on each of our backs and said in a low tone, “You are banned for the rest of the week.” She smiled and gave us a good old push—off the edge.

Even with my quick reaction time, I was only fast enough to turn and see the librarian waving as we fell to our deaths—