The Ooze Experiment

Part 16 - Lignum?!

Ali's POV

my eyes fluttered open as I continued to lay down on the extremely soft surface my head was resting on. I looked around and felt my face grow warm as I noticed what I was laying on. my head was softly resting on top of Ace's where his feathers were.

my arms were softly wrapped around his solders. the feathers were so soft the thought of going back to sleep crossed my mind, but I chucked the thought out the window and tried to carefully unwrap my arms from him without waking him.

holy crap! don't wake up I beg of you! I thought and successfully unwrapped my arms from Ace's shoulders. HAHAHA Success! I thought and got off the couch trying not to disrupt Ace he shifted a little, but went back to sleep. 

I giggled quietly from the feeling of triumph as I looked at the books on his shelves. my eyes landed on a book with a dark green cover and wood clasps with a brown ribbon that came out the bottom.

I grabbed the book and saw the cover was in the weird symbols, but they rearranged themselves into English. the title was The Lignum Spices I furrowed my eyes.

What is a Lignum? I thought and opened the book to see a diagram. there was an outline of a human and an out line of what I concluded to be a Lignum. the Lignum outline was much taller than the human and had a tail with feathers on the tip of it. 

the book said An average sized Lignum male is about 9 foot 5 inches, but a female is only 8 foot 2 inches. I flipped the page.

Lignums are a rare species found in some of the deepest areas of DreamNest. The reason they're so rare is the fact that a pair of Lignums can only have two children. there was more about the Lignum children on the page, but I decided to skip it.

Lignums can be found to have different powers that have some correlation to the elements in the human world. The most common are fire, wood, and water. I heard Ace begin to move so I quickly put the book back and made my way into the kitchen before he woke up. 

I grabbed a cup and put it under the vine faucet and began drinking the water. 

"It feels like I slept with a rock on my head all night." Ace said rubbing the top of his head walking into the kitchen where I was. I felt my face grow warm as I hid behind my cup as I took a drink.  

"can I ask you something?" I asked and looked at Ace who was still rubbing his head. 

"sure, ask away," I cleared my throat and looked at the water in my cup.

"are you a Lignum?" all of Ace's moments stopped making me uneasy. I should have kept it to myself! I thought and quickly looked at the ground as began walking out of the room.

"sorry I shouldn't hav-" My words were halted as Ace grabbed my wrist stopping my movements. 

"I am a Lignum... but How did you find out if all of my books are in my language?" Ace calmly asked bringing back all my composure.

he let go of my hand and followed me into the living room. I grabbed the book I was looking at just five minuets ago and pulled it out for him to see. he pointed to the front cover where the symbols were. 

"you can read this?" he asked and I watched as the symbols shifted to English. I nodded and yelled when I was lifted 3 feet into the air by Ace who hugged me tight. 

I'm not alone... I heard him mumble to himself. I hugged him back and smelled a faint smell of lavender coming from Ace. 

mhmm... you smell nice... I thought and enjoyed the hug until he pulled away and put me on the ground softly. 

"I don't understand how you can read the language if you're human though." I shrugged at his question. he hummed in thought and grabbed a book off the top shelf and held it down for me to see. 

"can you read this? it's the language of some insects?" the words were weird symbols, but when I looked at it for a little while it stayed as the weird symbols. 

I shook my head and grabbed the Lignum book opening it up to the page I was on as Ace laid on the floor and looked at the ceiling in thought. I read for a little while until Ace jumped up from his place and grabbed my hand causing me to drop the book as he shoved me outside.

he pulled me along the streets of the small village until we came to the shopping area we were at yesterday. 

"why did you bring me here?!" I asked him, but he just looked down at me and I watched as his eyes softened in color.

"I'm hungry," he said and began looking at some of the food stands. I grumbled, but followed him. the people at the booths would stair at me until Ace made eye contact with them then they would stop. 

I felt exposed here. I wanted to leave I walked a lot closer to Ace. the cloak Ace was wearing was so big it covered both of us as we walked. I felt safe walking next to Ace as he picked out more food. 

"here, try this." he handed me a sliced piece of fruit that was a pink color with tiny blue seeds. I ate it. it tasted like a mix between my two favorite fruits, a strawberry and a dragon fruit!

"oh my gosh that's so good!" the mantis lady we saw yesterday seemed happy with my response and thanked me. 

"nobody tends to like it except Ace. he comes around quite often and gets some, here." she handed me an entire bag of the fruit making my mouth water just looking at it.

"it's a gift, welcome to DreamNest." the lady said with her soft and elegant voice. I thanked her and Ace and I began to walk home. 

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