![Till the Ends of the Earth [Find This Book] J5ve7oy](http://tinyurl.com/j5ve7oy)
words: 1820. tag: @Marshy notes: panther hanyō, Black Rose mage. |
Marschal was scouring the job board for a request that was fitting to do, mostly out of complete boredom from nothing to do. His eyes landed upon a request to find a book at a library in Peace Village, which, to him, sounded like a piece of cake. However, as he snatched it off the board and read it over, he began to realize that it might well be a job that would be difficult. Some snobby little children had rearranged the entire library, so that nothing would be in its correct place as he had hoped. They were likely to also steal the book if he found it, but the requester figured that a good scolding of the child would fix the issue. Not to mention, the book that he would be looking for is not too common, but not extremely rare either, leaving him to wonder how hard it would be. Perhaps he was simply overthinking things; thus, he folded up the letter and stuffed it into one of his pockets before heading out.
The book was titled "The Brothers' Grimm": it was a book completely full of fictional fairy tales, and he remembered reading it at one point. Of course, he did have a difficult time in checking the library book out, but he was eventually able to get it and read it. That at least meant the book wasn't too common to find, but it was definitely one that would be commonly read by people. So, for him, it would either be there in the library, or already checked out by someone else from Peace Village, which would be useless to him at that point. Sighing, Marschal started to plan out a strategy as he made his way to the docks that would bring him out to Peace Village. For one, he would merely have to scold the child to get the book in his possession, so maybe he didn't really need a plan at all? Either way, he was gonna have one set up, just in case he happened to need something to fall back onto if things got out of hand.
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As he made his way into the village, Marschal stopped at the requester's house and knocked on the door, awaiting a response.
An aged lady opened the door and looked up at the tall mage, smiling kindly at him, happy that he graciously decided to help her. "You must be here to help me get the book I've wanted to read again," she greeted him in a hoarse, but sweet-toned voice. "The library is just two blocks down from my house. I would go on my own, but I'm just getting too old to be going anywhere anymore."
Marschy nodded at the old lady, then spoke, "no need to worry, ma'am, I'll be sure to get that favorite book of yours to you."
"Thank you so much, dear boy!" the granny thanked him, placing both of her hands around one Marschal's own before letting go. "Return safely! I know how those children can get at the library. Always wrecking havoc with the books and stealing the ones you want." She chuckled a bit and shook her head, then stepped back inside her house and closed the door, leaving Marschal on his own.
The Black Rose mage grimaced at the woman's words. So, the children at the library were more than just bored, little creatures. Hopefully, they wouldn't cause him too much of an issue, and he wouldn't have to chase them around all goddamn day to get the stupid book. Well, not that the book was stupid; the book was a great read, in fact, but he just didn't want to waste his time too much. Marschal walked away from the house and began his trek down to the library, crossing his arms over his chest to look more intimidating. Maybe if he looked this way, no one would want to mess with him, and the children would be terrified of stealing the book from him. However, the likelihood of that happening was very low, and he had a feeling that no matter what tactic he used, the children would still be troublemakers.
It was not long after that Marschal had entered the library two blocks down from the elderly woman's house, and looked at the damage the children had done. One could clearly see that books had been placed at random on the shelves, and rather not carefully as well, even damaging some of the book pages. An exasperated sigh escaped his lips and he began his search for "The Brothers'Grimm", only to begin his struggle on where to start.
"May I help you?" a young, blonde-haired lady asked, wearing glasses on her face like the stereotypical version of a library woman.
Marschy glanced at her from the stack of books he was looking through, shrugging in response to the very pretty lady. "I'm looking for a book titled, The Brothers' Grimm, but I hear that some children decided to mess around with the place?"
"What you hear is true; I've been trying to reorganize this place ever since those naughty boys decided to trash this place," she answered him. "I suggest trying to look through the fantasy section first; if it's not there, then maybe it's in the fairy tale section. I, honestly, have no clue."
"Well, I'll start there then; thank you for the suggestion," the mage stated and turned on his way to head into the fantasy section. Finding that book was definitely going to be one hell of ride, and he had a feeling that the ride was just now taking lift off.
The amazement at how large the fantasy section was, simply could not be described by the feeble words that Marschal had in his vocabulary. For the sake of everyone else, though, the section was the largest section of fantasy literature that the mage had ever seen. It was Heaven to him. He started from where he entered, sifting through each individual shelf and title of the book, but never found what he was looking for. Thus, Marschal switched from one side to the other, and continued the search only in vain because the book was neither there as well.
With a heavy sigh, the male jumped down from the ladder and headed off into the fairy tale section, hoping it would be there. The search began from the start of the section, and quickly ended with a pile of books on the ground and nothing in Marschal's hands. He was getting frustrated at this point, angry that he wasn't able to find the book as quickly as he had planned on getting it. So, now he started rummaging through random piles of books, sifting and searching, looking and not finding what he needed. Then, he saw it, that familiar hard, purple cover of "The Brothers' Grimm" and he grabbed the binding of the book with happiness. However, someone giggled and the book that had once been in his hand was now out of sight and grasped between the chubby hands of a young boy. The child stuck his tongue out at Marschal and took off with the book, giggling and laughing, and holding it close to his chest.
"Hey! I need that book! Give it back to me!" the male shouted, charging after the boy head-on, and screaming his lungs off. "You shouldn't be doing this to a library of all places! A library is a sacred place, full of knowledge, and you're destroying it with your rampaging. Why can't you see that, boy? You should be in here only to check out and read books, and return them when you are done. For the love of all things holy, boy! Would you stop running and hear me out!" Marschal had to pause and catch his breath, but the boy had willingly stopped and turned to face the Black Rose member.
"But it's fun," the child spoke.
"I know it's fun, but a library is a place for peace and quiet; the people who go here aren't looking for trouble, they just want to read. By you ruining this place and causing so much problems with the librarian, people don't come here that often because they don't want to deal with you and your friends. Please, can I just have the book? This old lady wants to read it, as it's one of her favorite books, and because of you, she might never be able to read it again."
The boy looked down at the book for a second, turned it over in his hands, then glanced back up at the winded Marschal Leigh. "I suppose that's true, but all I wanted to do was have a bit of fun because no one ever wants to play with us anymore. So, we came here to cause a bit of trouble, and I guess we let it get out of hand, rather than just leaving everyone be after awhile. . . Here, take the book. I'm sorry for the issues I've caused, and I'll help the librarian restore the library, so that people can start coming back."
Marschal nodded and took the book from the child, speaking quickly, "thank you for this, and I trust that you won't be causing anymore issues?" He eyed the child as he straightened up and dusted himself off, tucking the book under his arm in the process.
The boy nodded and ran off, leaving Marschal to sigh from exhaustion and walk back to where he had last seen the librarian.
"Did you find what you need?" she inquired.
"I did, and I'd like to check this book out for a friend of mine," he responded, plucking the book out from under his arm and handing it to her.
"All right, I can do that, I just need your card and you should be all set," the woman stated, reaching a hand out.
Marschal dug into his pocket and handed her his library card, where she then wandered off to her desk and registered the book in the database. She soon returned the book and his card to him before bidding him farewell and thanking him for solving the issue with the boy.
He bowed to her and head back to the old lady's house whence he came, holding the book tightly in his hand, so as not to lose it. He knocked on the door and waited for it to open before handing the book to the woman, who smiled at him happily again.
"Oh, it's the book I've always wanted to read again! You did it! Thank you so much! Here, please take these jewels as my gratification," she thanked again.
The mage took the jewels and said his goodbyes to the woman before heading back the way he had come to Peace Village, much happier now.
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by Guest 29th December 2015, 7:35 am
