“You saw the Witch Owl,” he said quietly, his eyes turning back to their normal blue. Once more, he looked around.
“She must want you to find something in here.”
“A book?” she asked before eyeing what had to be hundreds of them all neatly put away on shelves.
“Most likely.” His head turned to the door. “For whatever reason, she has guided you here.” He looked torn as he stared in the direction of outside. “She has helped me many times, as you saw with the garden, but we must return to the Mavka. He cannot be by himself.”
“Can I stay here while you get him?” When he shook his head, she quickly added, “I won’t leave, and there is no one else here besides the shopkeeper.” She gestured to him. “I also have my sword.”
His eyes flashed white with worry, and she could see tension building in his body.
“Reia, I cannot leave you by yourself.”
“Please, Orpheus? I’ll stay hidden if anyone comes in, and the shopkeeper has already seen you and knows that I’m with you.”
She looked at him and saw he was still slightly cowering behind the counter. He was small, perhaps even shorter than Reia, and didn’t look strong at all.
Orpheus nodded hesitantly and nuzzled the side of her mask.
“Yes, we shouldn’t ignore the Witch Owl. Stay here, do not leave even if she calls you to go somewhere else. I’ll be back shortly.” Then he turned to the cat Demon to give him loud snarl and purposefully flared his eyes red. “Come near her, and I will kill you.”
It took him a moment to leave, staring at her as if his feet were rooted to the ground. It appeared he was unwilling to part from her. Then he huffed heavily with his fists clenched before he sprinted out of the shop. She had no doubt he’d run the entire way if he needed to.
Reia turned to cat Demon. “Did you see someone covered in white feathers?”
“Yes,” he answered shakily, pointing in a certain direction with a thin claw.
She realised she hadn’t needed to ask him at all for assistance as more feathers had been dropped along the floor. She followed them while picking them up one-by-one as they led to three different shelves.
She didn’t know which book to grab out of the many. They were obviously stolen from humans because some were of dancing techniques, others on how to build a house – she took that one for the Mavka, thinking that was what she was supposed to grab.
It was only when she was about to walk away that she noticed something sticking out from the top of a certain book. She grabbed it and found a white feather stuck between the pages.
A fighting technique book? She flicked through it, finding pages upon pages of different techniques and stances to learn how to fight with a sword. There were passages written, explaining how to do them correctly, while drawings
aided the reader to explain how they needed to stand visually.
This would be so helpful in learning how to use my sword!
Her chest flushed with excitement before she ran towards the next shelf with a feather on the ground in front of it.
She ignored everything and searched only for the book with a feather in it.
Disappointment sailed through her.
A children’s book? Why would she show me a children’s book? It had many tales inside it, some she knew, most she didn’t.
She opened it to the feather and laughed so loud she feared everyone in the Demon village heard it. It was placed at a particular tale. ‘Beauty and the Beast’. Very fucking funny, Witch Owl. More like Reia and the monster. Except, she knew her beast wouldn’t turn into a handsome man no matter what she did.
She snapped it shut and turned to follow the path of feathers once more. Freezing on the spot, she saw the bookkeeper staring at her at the end of the isle behind a shelf that was in the middle.
“You are a human,” he said quietly, ducking behind the shelf more to only show one of his cat-like eyes.
She cringed behind her mask as her gut twisted in apprehension.
“N-no, I’m not. I’m Mavka.”
He pointed a curled claw at her.
“Your hands.” She winced when she looked down and saw they were bare and uncovered as she was clutching the three books she’d already taken. “And I can see flesh on your neck when you turn your head. Your laugh was also strange.”
Reia reached up and pulled her hood more forward to hide it. Her dress came up to her neck, but as long as she kept her head forward and down, it hid her skin.
“So what?” she asked, reaching behind her to show she’d grabbed the hilt of her sword strapped to her back. “If you come near me, I’ll attack, and if he comes back and finds you eating me, he’ll kill you.”
He shrunk, lowering himself as he gripped the shelf tightly.
“I have never spoken to a human before, only ever eaten.
I have always wanted to.”
“Why?” She kept her hand on her sword but loosened her grip.
He reached around the edge of the free-standing shelf he was hiding behind and hooked a claw on top of a book to tilt it back from its resting place.
“They write books, and I like them. I have traded for many of these and have only gone back to the surface in search of more. Your kind is so remarkable, able to create stories with nothing more than pen and paper and your wonderful minds.” His lips curled into a smile that revealed feline fangs. “How can I kill creatures that create something I enjoy so much? I always wonder if I had eaten a human who would have written my favourite book.”
Reia lowered her hand as her anxiety quickly faded.
