The Protagonists

Chapter Eight - Joel

"The Intellectuals?" Joel repeated, looking at Iris with a noticeably-confused stare. Iris nodded in response, turning the old, leather book around in her hands; the cover-extremely old and worn-had a small box with a glass slipper, a pink rose, a cobblestone tower, a small flask, a red apple, a wooden spindle, a baby-blue seashell, and a golden lamp printed on it. "Do you know what intellect means?" Iris questioned, carefully handing him the book to look at.

Shrugging, Joel said, "It has something to do with being smart."

Iris smiled softly, shaking her head to herself. "You're not wrong," she replied, laughing a bit. "Having a keen intellect does mean being quite smart, but that isn't what intellect itself means. Intellect is the understanding or mental powers of a particular person. Does that make sense?"

"So could intellect be the amount of smart-ness someone has?" Joel asked Iris.

"First of all," Iris laughed again, "'smart-ness' is not a word. "The word you are looking for is intelligence." Joel shrugged; he had never been the smartest in the class. "Secondly, you are correct in a way. So do you know now what an intellectual is?"

"Someone who is smart?"

Iris nodded, smiling at the fact she was able to seem intelligent-or in her case, intellectual-even though she did have her moments. "I'm about to show you the world of the Intellectuals, Joel. You have to listen to what I tell you; in a way, travelling through the tales could be extremely dangerous. If you do one thing-just one thing wrong, Joel-you could become stuck in an unfamiliar tale. Do you understand me, Joel?"

Joel had an extremely-confused look on his face; nothing that Iris had said in the past five minutes had made any sense to him whatsoever. "Joel!" He flinched at Iris's sudden touch. "You have to listen to me! You could be lost in a place far from home! You'd be trapped in a completely different universe, Joel! Will you please listen to me! I've been the cause of many deaths and I really do not want to be the cause for yours!"

A terrified Joel stepped back, away from Iris. "What do you mean when you say that you were 'the cause of many deaths'?" He questioned, his back hitting the full, wooden shelf behind him.

"I was hoping you wouldn't catch that," Iris replied sheepishly, opening the book and leafing to the first chapter. "It's sort of a long story....I-I'll get to it, okay?" Before Joel could respond-he would have clearly asked her if she was actually a murderer-Iris continued with her not-very-detailed explanation: "I, Iris Rhodes, control all the books here in the Forbidden Section. Although I am not the head librarian here-that occupation belongs to Lynn-I am the absolute head of the Greengrass Library's Forbidden Section. Any questions so far?"

"Who did you murder?" Joel asked once he had the chance to.

"Seriously, Joel," Iris rolled her eyes dramatically, "I'll get to that later."

"Can you please get to it now?" Joel pleaded. "I just want to know if I'm standing in front of a murderer or not...if that's okay with you, of course..." His voice trailed off as he noticed Iris's reaction; she had rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath.

"Do you have any questions about what you just heard?" Iris asked Joel, rolling her eyes, clearly annoyed with Joel's antics. Joel, feeling uncomfortable with the fact that his neighbor-and the girl right in front of him-could possibly be a murderer, searched his mind for something to ask her. "What do you mean when you say that you are in control of the books?" He finally questioned, remembering the part in the beginning.

"Good question," Iris replied hastily, rolling her eyes again. "I can control the books in the Forbidden Section, meaning that I can do anything with this book right here." She motioned to the book in her hands, Die Märchen. She gently placed it on a book stand beside her, keeping it on the first chapter. "I could turn the page," she stared at the book and to Joel's surprise, the book's pages started turning at a rapid pace, "I could animate the book," she continued to stare at the book; the book turned back to the front cover and the small illustrations on it started to dance, "or I could give it a friend." Iris turned to the bookshelf behind Joel-he followed suit-and a book levitated over to the desk, beside Die Märchen.