Custos Unicorium 1 ~Longe Aluid--Something Very Different~

Chapter Five: Midnight Adventure

"So you want me to go to this library." 

"Mhmm." 

"Where you're not even supposed to be." 

"Mhmm." 

"And read you books about unicorns?" 

"Yep, that's what I'm asking." 

"How did you get sucked into a--what was it--Keeping job?" 

"No idea. This might help find out though." 

"Must suck." 

"No, not really," a hint of anger touched my bark. I was defending them. Great. I was stuck for sure. 

The black wolf in front of me widened her eyes. Her tail swished to the side. Really. 

"Yes, Rayor, now will you help me or not?" 

Rayor blinked at me. Letting out a huff, she began padding back the way I had come from. 

"I'm taking that as a yes?" I called, trying to keep my bark down so I didn't wake any of the other wolves. 

"You're all the way out here, and I'm up," Rayor barked, "I doubt you'd let me sleep if I said no." 

"Thank you Rayor," my head dipped and my metaphorical tail lowered. Thank you. 

Rayor turned and blinked at me again. I guess she wasn't used to me being so nice. She broke into a lope, and I followed. Hey, the moon was past its highest, and I was waking a wolf up and asking her to lope a while and then read to me. I figured being nice to Rayor couldn't hurt. 

Yes, Rayor was a wolf that can read. As in human writing. Not as many languages as Luxor could, but the local ones anyways. Hopefully that's all I'd need. I didn't really have a tail either. A little something I had picked up, a mental trick that I'd learned, allowed me to create an, um, sort of sensible mental presence in the shape of a tail. Damn, the only thing really important about it was that it allowed me into the vocabulary of wolf speak that involved a tail.  

I found the library before I went to get Rayor. As soon as Grigoriy had been picked up by the Dispatchers, Koriun and Hayden woke me up. In a much less creepy manner than the first time. Thankfully. 

The tall wooden building that was the library loomed out of the forest in front of us. 

"That's it," I barked to Rayor. She slowed her pace in reply. Shit. The library looked a lot spookier in the dark. We padded up to the door and I opened it, letting my wolf companion inside. 

"Where do we start?" Rayor asked. 

"I have no idea." 

"Bring me some books labeled 'unicorns'," Rayor suggested, sarcasm only lightly tinting her bark. 

"Rayor," frustration rose inside me, "if I could read to do that you wouldn't be here in the first place." 

"Oh. Yeah." Rayor's black shape began pacing around in the dirt. 

"Any ideas Rayor?" 

"Shhhh!" 

"Well then," a curse almost escaped with my words. Finally Rayor sat still. 

"See this pattern?" she asked. 

"Yeah," I squinted, "I guess." 

"Find it on some books." 

I looked at Rayor's scratchings again. 

UNICORN 

The symbols were strange to me. How Rayor--or anyone for that matter-- ever learned this reading thing was beyond me. I looked at the endless shelves of--books-- searching for what Rayor showed me.