The Opelux and Other Monsters || Book One

CHAPTER 15 - UNKNOWN

Passing the gawking guards was fun. Colleena almost had to slap one to get them to open the doors.

By the time we had our usual armful of cushions piled under our usual tree, two attendants arrived, one carrying a heaping platter of food, the other a brown package tied with string.

"Perfect timing!" Colleena motioned to the cushions. "Set the food there." She took the package from the second attendant and looked back at me. "Follow me. I'll show you where you can change."

"The library has changing rooms too?"

"Private study rooms."

I followed her down a narrow path that wound around the outskirts of the shelves to a small, brightly lit hallway with white doors here and there on either side.

She led me into the first one.

The room was small but cozy, with a few large, comfortable chairs in the corners, a single table in the center of the room, and several small bookshelves along the walls.

She set the package on the table and untied it. "It should be more of the same thing as before," she said, letting the contents spill out as she lifted the packaging away.

The pants were black this time and a simple, black, shirt had been included. The dress part was mostly the same, the sides still split at the hips like the last one. But silver designs had been embroidered into every inch of it and the tiny, silver buttons seemed extra shiny.

"Looks like she put a little more effort into this one," Colleena smiled.

I ran a hand over the designs. "It's beautiful."

My stomach growled angrily.

She laughed this time, seeming a bit more at ease with my new appearance. "Let's get you some food. Hopefully your new physique also includes a new, healthy appetite."

She helped me change quickly, the perfect fit of everything still a surprise, and in less than five minutes we were back in the library and I couldn't get enough of all the delicious food.

I ate everything she wanted me to try and everything I had to have a taste of and my stomach never complained once.

I leaned back against the rough tree trunk, setting my plate aside, smiling at my satisfied stomach, the urge to vomit it all back up a distant memory.

I caught Colleena watching me, grinning. "I believe, all together, that's the most food you've eaten since you arrived."

I blew out a contented sigh, watching the large waterfall thirty yards away, the glittering Asoiri thundering down into a dark hole, the sweet-smelling mist shimmering around it. "What should we look up first?"

"I have a few favorite sections I want to start in. I thought if we did a little divide and conquer, we might find something before Tritteon found a free moment in his Guardian duties to hassle us back to your room."

I did it without thinking.

One second, I considered those delicious chocolate muffins and how I wanted to bring a couple along, and the next, I put out a hand absently, heat burned in my palm, the air around my fingers rippled, and two muffins flew into my hand.

I dropped them, gasping. "I did it! Colleena, I did it!"

She snorted. "Why did you drop them?"

"Oh." I hadn't meant to. I stood, thinking back to that feeling, that desire to bring them with me, and pointed my hand at them. But nothing happened. "What am I doing wrong?"

"Thinking too hard," she said, her eyes bright with amusement. She stood and crossed to me, pointing to the spot below my left collarbone. "Remember, Thet is located here. It's all about feeling it, feeling what you want it to do."