The Quill

Chapter Four: Until Then

"Now," The Little King retorted as Abigail climbed up the steps towards what seemed to be another giant room inside the massive edifice, "You will begin training as soon as possible, Miss Adult."

A wince creeped up on her face everytime he referred to her as "Miss Adult," but she'd rather not argue with someone like him. Instead, Abigail wondered what he meant by training.

"What do -"

"I'm going to be training you to collect the six keys that remain in this realm. I have the seventh key, but you are the one that was chosen to retrieve the other six." With that, he opened enormous doors into an equally enormous room.

It was magnificent enough to steal Abigail's next question away from her breath.

Shelves full to the brim with books lined the entire room, reminding Abby of the used bookstore that she bought her books from. Except, this was a thousand times larger than that measly little store.

This room had to have been several hundred stories high, with a spiral staircase in the middle to add to its intense intellect. Abigail cringed at the thought of being in the room that made her an ant.

"Riv." Abigail took her eyes off of the treasure haul of a room to see the Little King mount on Riv's back. Then, almost by his command, she looked into the Little King's eyes and he smiled at her. "You've ridden on Riv's back before - there's nothing to be afraid of." The Little King outstretched his tiny hand to Abigail, motioning her to hop on the dragon with him.

If she was honest, Abigail might say that she thought the Little King was hitting on her, but she only rolled her eyes and obeyed the king's command.

They flew upward into the massive tower, books passing her by in fireworks of sudden bursts of color. They climbed up high and stopped; not quite to the top. It was definitely closer to the top than to the floor, but it was still in the middle.

"Come now, there's a book you must read." Before she could even count the seconds it took for them to reach their destination, Riv had landed on the one-hundred-and-seventy-eighth floor of the library. (There were two-hundred floors.) The dragon was a fast dragon, one of the fastest flying of his kind.

She immediately got off of Riv's back, and followed behind the Little King. "R-Riv said that you..." her words came out muffled and shy. Starting again, she tried to sound more confident, "Riv said that you knew a lot, Mr. King, and that you could tell me how I got here and how I can go back."

A harrumph escaped the Little King's mouth and Abigail frowned. "I already told you how you got here and why you got here," he exclaimed, still turned away from Abigail, "and I know how you can leave."

Abby plastered a giant grin on her face, hope finding her at last. "That's awesome! Could you tell me how I can leave, please?"

The Little King continued to walk in silence, then Abigail, and then Riv in the back. She felt cheated as the lingering words from her mouth vanished into the large room. In fact, the room felt much bigger when no one spoke a word; but she was too afraid to ask the question again. Finally, the three came to a wall with a single door - leading to another room, Abby assumed. The Little King pointed to the door, and Riv immediately rushed to open it, staying completely silent.

Once opened, it was a lot less amazing than she thought it would be.

"A playroom?" She questioned out loud, stooping down to see an array of girly dolls and toy swords, as well as stuffed animals and a mansion-esque dollhouse. There were other toys as well, but they didn't quite catch her eye as much as the golden table did that sat in the middle of the room.

The Little King walked toward the table, and, just before Abigail's own eyes, a leather-bound book appeared out of nowhere.

"Whoa...!" She stepped back as the Little King opened the book to the first page. He mouthed the words, almost as if he had memorized them, then looked up at Abigail with his dark, brown eyes.

"Come here and read this, Miss Adult." At least he was polite.

Abigail stepped toward the table, standing next to the Little King, and began reading the pages set before her. But they were in a language she didn't speak - they weren't even letters!

"I-I can't read this, I'm sorry. I can only read English and kind-of Spanish. Other than that, I'm not bi-lingual or whatever." She whispered those last words, regretting them and thinking that they might not have been necessary.

But the Little King didn't grumble. "It's fine, just look at where I point when I talk. Okay, Miss Adult?"

Abigail nodded and glued her eyes to the Little King's mouth, where he was pointing. He recited the words again, this time with vocals, and then pointed to the pages. Abigail followed his fingers, and began comprehending what was written. As he spoke, a magic surrounded Abigail, allowing her to speak and understand the language of that world.

"Whoa..." She whispered. "What just happened...?" She shook her head and blinked several times; the words on the pages were now written in English, and she could read every word!

"Our language is Niro, and it is a universal language. If you speak Niro to someone, they will magically hear your words in the language that they themselves speak. It is the same with reading and writing. Once you hear and read Niro, you are capable of understanding every language. The Elders and Magicians believed that creating a language that could do that was the best way to unite the kingdoms together." The Little King smiled at Abigail, then immediately touched his lips on her lips.

Astonished that a little kid suddenly kissed her, Abigail glared at him in disbelief. "What the -!"

"That was the final part of the ritual of learning. If you are teaching someone the language of Niro, then the mouth of the teacher must meet the mouth of the student, completing the spell in that way." His smile was wry and smug.

He enjoyed that, didn't he?

"Yeah, okay, kid." Abby huffed. "Just let me leave, alright? I'd rather forget this dream happened."

"This isn't a dream, Miss Mosler." Riv finally spoke up. "And she mustn't leave yet! We still have to teach her how to reverse ---"

"No." The tiny hand of the child royalty gently fanned out on the golden table - his smile still framing his chubby face. "I think we made great progress this time around. Next time, we'll get to the training." The Little King turned to Abigail, and, while picking up her hand and kissing it lightly, said, "I will allow you to return to your world of Chicago. This isn't goodbye, only so long for now."

"Chicago's not a ---" A bright light engulfed her as a force beyond anything she had ever felt pressed against her. Abigail felt like her life force was being sucked from her body, and that she was suddenly falling.

She was leaving Uniron.