Almost Finished

 Hey Everyone!

If you've been following me on Twitter, you'll know that I mentioned finishing a story by the end of November. And that story is . . . The Vampire's Coffee Shop.

That's right. After over a year, I'm finally close to reaching the conclusion. While there may be one or two chapters that I felt like I hiccupped on, I'd say The Vampire's Coffee Shop is one of my better works. At the very least, it's definitely one where I felt like the story's gone as I intended, in a direction I had hoped for.

I could go on and on with my thoughts on this story and what went into making it. But I think I'll save that for another time. It's not over yet, after all.

But with the end of The Vampire's Coffee Shop, whatever am I to do? Well, I still have The Mysteries of the Community Service Club. I put that one on hiatus because it would be insensitive to continue in the wake of the Maui Wildfires due to certain elements of the second story arc. That was several months ago, but the people living there are still dealing with the aftermath.

However, once I really do complete The Vampire's Coffee Shop, I plan to resume writing and posting chapters of The Mysteries of the Community Service Club, with greater focus before I lose track of the entire plot of the series like I did with the Paladin Academy Chronicles. I really don't want that to happen again.

I've also started working on the latest and final volume of Lucy's Emeron Journey, which chronicles the adventures of Lucy Douglas in the world of Emeron. It'll probably be a while before I finish it. And once I do, I'm considering putting more Emeron stories on hold to focus more on writing stories that take place here on our world. 

Who knows? Maybe I'll just do both at the same time again like I've done in the past. I'm itching to do another kind of story which takes place on Earth. But I've also come up with another Emeron story that's more slice-of-life like The Vampire's Coffee Shop. We'll have to wait and see there what I'll actually do.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to talk about. 

Happy reading, everyone! And Happy Halloween!

The Vampire's Coffee Shop Ch. 30

Chapter 30
The Boss' Hand

"Today, we observe a rare event in the life of a fascinating creature known as the coffee shop owner. Although normally a stationary creature who waits for his pray to come to him, this particular breed of coffee shop owner called a vampire has decided to take a more proactive approach and has left the safety of his habitat to hunt.

"Watch as he strikes up a conversation with a type of pray called the past customer. It is a tactic coffee shop owners often employ in order to convert past customers to another type of pray called regulars."

"Why are you pretending to be some raspy-voiced nature documentary narrator?" Roy asked George.

"Because it's fun," the lion cub said to the human man.

The unusual pair were currently huddled together behind a tall, green lamppost, watching George's adopted father talk with a stout lady rabbit holding a basket full of groceries. They were too far away to hear what was being said, but they could tell by the smiles that it was nice.

Peggy was not too far behind, staring at the crouching lion boy and the hunched young man. She was just passing by while on a solitary walk around town when she spotted the two familiar faces acting weird.

"What are you two doing?" she asked.

Startled, George and Roy jumped, crying, "YIKES!"

And then they clapped their hands over each other's mouths before glancing over at the coffee shop Owner. The vampire still talked with the lady rabbit as if he didn't notice anything.

George and Roy breathed sighs of relief, and then George put his finger to his lips and went, "Shh! We're following Dad around."

"I can see that," said Peggy. "Why?"

"Dad's been acting really weird lately," George explained.

"You don't say?" said Peggy, thinking he and Roy were being kind of weird themselves. 

George continued and said, "Dad's always wandering around during his free time, but lately he's been kind of secretive about it. He never says where he's going, who he's seeing or what he's doing now."

"That is weird," Peggy admitted.

Great, she thought. Now he's got me curious.

Excited to get an ally, George cried out, "Right? So that's why I decided to try tailing him to see what he's up to."

"Well, that explains what you're up to," said Peggy. "But what about you, Roy? Why're you stalking Boss?" 

But Roy protested, "It's not what you think. I'm not stalking him."

"It sure looks like you're stalking him," Peggy pointed out.

"Well, I'm not!" Roy shouted, dismayed. "I was just on my way to lunch when I saw George sneaking around. I figured I should keep an eye on him and ended up joining him."

George blinked and then said, "That's not how it went. You and I planned this days ago!"

Roy quickly clapped his hand over George's mouth and forced out a laugh.

"Kids," Roy said. "You never know what ridiculous thing they'll say next."

"Uh-huh." Peggy held Roy with a doubtful gaze with one eyebrow raised, taking note how, like George, the young man wore a trench coat, Fedora hat and pair of black-lens glasses.

Roy could only smile back nervously while sweating buckets, leading to an awkward silence.

But then George tore Roy's hand off his mouth and shouted, "He's getting away! Come on! Or we'll lose him!"

And then he broke away from the others and ran down the street after his father who had moved on after finishing his talk with the lady rabbit.

"Hey! George, wait!"

Peggy and Roy chased after George, weaving through throngs of people going about their day while making sure they don't lose sight of the child. They quickly caught up to him loitering next to a clothing store. He pressed himself against the wall while peeking over the corner.

"George! It's dangerous to run off on your own like that!" Peggy scolded.

George, however, put his finger to his lips and hissed, "Shh! You're going to give us away!"

He pointed over the corner. 

Beyond the road, Boss could be seen seated at an outdoor table in front of a mildly fancy-looking eatery. While under the protective shade of the table's white and red striped umbrella, he had taken off both his top hat and his cape and laid them aside. His umbrella was left leaning against the arm of his chair. 

"Suspicious," George muttered. "Really suspicious."

"What is?" Peggy asked. "It just looks like he stopped for a bite to eat."

"No," Roy disagreed, "I think George is onto something. Did you see how many cups of water the waitress put on his table? Two. That means he's over there to meet someone."

"What? Like a date?" Peggy said jokingly.

"Or a smuggler here to sell him black market coffee beans," George suggested.

Roy and Peggy looked at him and then at each other.

"Yeah, I don't know about that."

Illegal coffee beans aside, Roy wouldn't put it past the former Trickster to be mixed up in shady business.

Peggy, however, was more convinced that her Boss was on a date. The spot Boss was waiting at was a prime spot for a romantic encounter. In fact, the two other tables beside Boss's were occupied with couples.

"Oh look!" George cried out. "Someone's coming! It's a lady!"

Roy and Peggy turned their heads, and admittedly, Peggy's heart excitedly skipped a beat. True to the lion cub's words, a human lady in a red dress (and a very pretty one at that) walked over to the coffee shop Owner, still flipping through the menu to pass the time. She stopped right next to the vampire and began talking to him.

"Don't tell me it really is a date!" Roy muttered.

Peggy and George hissed at him, "Shush!"

They stared intently at the pair and strained their ears in the vain hope of catching some words. But after just half a minute, the lady waved good-bye to the coffee shop Owner and continued on her way. Halfway down the street, she encountered a man with long ears, an elf, and hooked her arm around his before departing with him. The coffee shop Owner gave the couple a quick glance before returning his attention to the menu.

It turned out the lady was not who the coffee shop Owner was waiting for.

"Well that was a miss," Peggy said, slightly disappointed.

"Say," went Roy, "if it really is a date, who do you think it'd be with? My money's on this town's Head Magus. I see her a lot at the coffee shop chatting with the Trickster whenever I visited. They seemed very close."

"True, they got history," Peggy said. 

"Nah, can't be," said George. "They've never had vibes like that, as far as I know."

"Well, you are still a kid," said Peggy. 

George frowned indignantly. "Hey! I'm not a kid. I'm a big boy."

Roy cut in with a, "Shh! Someone else is coming! Speak of the devil! It's the Head Magus!"

"No way!" George cried out in disbelief. He and Peggy snapped their heads back to the coffee shop Owner to see a familiar lady in a white dress, cape, and wide-brimmed pointed hat walking up to him. "They really are dating!?"

"I know! Unbelievable, right?"

All three went rigid and hearts jumped out their throats. The last person to speak had used the coffee shop Owner's voice. And sure enough, when the gang turned around, there standing behind them was the vampire.

"Gah!" George yelped. "Dad? But if you're here, then who's there?"

He and the others turned back to see that where the coffee shop Owner and the Head Magus were chatting, there was a lady weasel and a man weasel making kissy faces to each other.

"We were watching an illusion? Since when?" Roy wondered.

"I'd say since I had a short chat with Mrs. Hopper," the coffee shop Owner estimated. "But I actually knew you lot were following me since the beginning."

"Hey, I only joined halfway," said Peggy.

But her Boss replied, "I know. Thanks for giving me the opening I needed to sneak in that illusion spell."

And then he threw his gaze on his son and asked the lion cub, "Now care to explain what you were up to?"

"W-well, uh . . ." George stammered, eyes rolled up in thought.

As he struggled to come up with an excuse to give his father, no one seemed to pay any attention to a big, steel overhead store sign hanging on a pair of aged iron chains. No one seemed to see that one of the chains was worn so thin that it was going to snap until it was too late.

Suddenly, the worn-out chain snapped in half, and the store sign went swinging down.

Roy saw it first and shoved Peggy one way and George the other. But that left him no time to save himself.

He saw the edge of the sign fast approaching. But then black fabric overtook his view. 

The coffee shop Owner had leaped in front of Roy with his cape fluttering at his back. He swung his right fist, struck the sign, and stopped the huge slab of metal in its tracks with an explosive bang.

When he was certain the danger had passed, the coffee shop Owner glanced back at Roy and asked him, "You okay?"

In a state of shock, Roy could only nod his head in reply. And then his eyes popped out when he happened to glance at the vampire's hand.

"Trickster! Your hand!" the young man cried out. "Your hand!"

Peggy wondered what got Roy all flustered and took a look herself. 

"OH MY GOD!" she screamed. "Boss! Your hand's all obliterated!"

All of Boss's fingers and half his palm were missing, leaving just jagged edges a little above his wrist.

"A hospital!" cried George. "We need to get you to the hospital!" 

Boss, however, didn't seem to care all that much and said, "Calm down, you guys."

Peggy shrilly went, "Calm down? Calm down!? How can you be so calm about this? Your hand's-!"

"A fake," Boss cut in. "I lost the real one years ago."

"You did?" asked Peggy.

"So you're a pirate!" George suddenly cried out.

"What?" went Boss, looking at his son funny. "Why would you -? What is going on in that head of yours?"

"Well, you got only one hand," George said. "And pirates only have one hand. But they use hooks where they got no hands. How come you don't use a hook for your missing hand, Dad?"

"Because, Son, it's a lot harder to make coffee when one of your hand's a hook!" Boss said. And then he shook his head, mumbling to himself, "Just who on Emeron did he get his scatterbrain from?"

The owner of the store with the fallen sign soon appeared to check out what was going on. After realizing what happened, the goat man apologized profusely to the coffee shop Owner and offered to treat them to some free ice cream. 

It was by no means enough to make up for what could have been a deadly disaster, but Boss was in no mood to deal with anymore trouble than he had to. So he accepted the apology and the free ice cream and herded everyone into the store which was not seeing any business at this hour.

Peggy and George volunteered to pick up the ice cream with the store owner, leaving Boss and Roy alone to wait at their table.

Things were awkwardly quiet between the two men, the both of them avoiding eye contact for a while. But then Roy broke that silence and softly said:

"Thanks for saving me."

"No problem," replied the vampire.

"So that hand of yours, you lost it years ago, right? When, exactly? How?"

The coffee shop Owner looked up thoughtfully and went, "Hmm. I'd say it was when I was twelve years old. It happened just a few months after I met your mother, now that I think about it."

Over by the store counter, Peggy and George watched the store owner get started in making a fresh batch of ice cream completely from scratch.

"I see," Roy said. And then he turned. "Wait, you know who my mother was!? But then that would mean you know who I really am!"

"Of course," said the former Trickster. "Did you really think I wouldn't look into your background when you, an agent of the Royal Capital, suddenly started making regular visits to a coffee shop in some town far, far away from home?"

"B-but I was sure I covered my tracks!"

"You still had to tell the Royal Inspectors where you really came from, and that was enough for me to figure out who you really are," said the coffee shop Owner. "Peggy told me you mentioned the little adventure the Count's daughter had with the infamous Trickster of Ariela. Only someone from your hometown could have known about it, but anyone who did know was forced to sign a magic contract to keep that story a secret by the Count. Except for me, the only ones who could still talk about that incident would be the Count and the Count's daughter herself. And maybe any family of theirs like say, the Count's daughter's son."

He gave Roy a subtle but piercing gaze.

Roy sighed in defeat and said, "I'm impressed, Trickster. You're just as clever as Mother claimed in her stories. That's right. My mother was the Count's daughter who you had an adventure with several years ago. She told me about it many, many times when I was a kid, among other tales of your deeds and escapades. You were a larger-than-life hero in them."

"I was never anything of the sort," said the coffee shop Owner. "I was just an impressionable boy, playing out fantasies inspired by storybooks about gentleman thieves and more honorable criminals."

"But you did save my mother from kidnappers," Roy pointed out. "And you helped out a lot of other people too during the Shadow Civil War."

"Regardless, now I know why you keep showing up at my shop. All those stories your mother told you must have gotten you curious about me and when an opportunity to meet the legend in the flesh came knocking, you took it. It would have been easy for you to use the Count's name to get the Royal Inspectors to put you in the team assigned to meet me at Uncle Theo's house."

"It was," Roy admitted. "I was a bit surprised when I first saw you. You were nothing like in the stories. In the stories, the Trickster was a mischievous imp, someone it was impossible to imagine all grown up. And yet, here you are without an ounce of that childlike spark anymore. What happened to change you so much? Did it have something to do with how you lost your hand?"

The vampire glanced down at the cracked stub his right hand had become. And then he said, "You could say that. There was a huge incident that I and a rival of mine got mixed up in. A powerful magic artifact went haywire and sparked a disaster that destroyed my hand. 

"I would have bounced back if that was all I lost, but that disaster didn't just take away my hand. It took away my rival, too."

The coffee shop Owner paused and then shook his head.

"No. She wasn't just my rival," he said. "She was my friend."

"What happened?" Roy asked.

"What else?" the coffee shop Owner replied. "My friend and rival sacrificed herself to destroy the magic artifact and put an end to the disaster before it could hurt someone. She disappeared right before my very eyes in a pillar of light that reached all the way up to the moon along with my hand that failed to grab her in time."

He turned his gaze upward to the sky which had become shrouded in a huge sheet of gloomy clouds.

"After that, I quit the Trickster business. Without my friend and rival around, being a Trickster stopped being fun and I just didn't feel like doing it anymore."

Silence fell over the two men. 

Over by the store counter, the store owner had finally finished making a batch of his signature special and was throwing them all into large glass bowls with a performer's flair.

Roy broke the silence to ask a question that had made its way onto his mind.

"Say, you're not going to ask about her?" he said. "You know, my mother?"

To which, the coffee shop Owner replied, "I read the news just like any other grownup. I already know she passed away three years ago because of a sickness. How've you been holding up since then?"

Roy shrugged. "I think I've gotten used to it. My father and grandfather, on the other hand, are still coming to grips."

"I see." That was all the vampire said before Peggy and George finally returned with the store owner and the free ice cream.

"We're back," Peggy said. "Sorry it took so long. What have you guys been talking about in the meantime?"

Roy and the coffee shop Owner exchanged looks. 

And then the vampire replied, "Oh, just a little bit about the past."

<== Chapter 29.5                                                                   Chapter 31 ==>

The Vampire's Coffee Shop Ch. 29.5

Chapter 29.5
Children of the Night (Continued)

Norman watched the little girl fade away before his very eyes until she was completely gone.

It won't be long before this false dream world disappeared too, he thought while staring at the unoccupied bench.

And then, without turning around, the fancily dressed lion said, "I was wondering whether you'd show up or not."

Standing behind him was a lightly blue-skinned vampire with red light shining from his eyes. The vampire, a man with Asian features and dressed in a black three-piece suit, walked over to the lion who finally turned around. To many people, he was the Owner of a coffee shop. To Peggy, he was Boss. But to a select few, the lion included, he was -

"Losing your touch, don't you think, Trickster?"

The vampire shrugged his shoulders.

"I did the best I could with what I had," he said. "I didn't think Peggy would slip through the defenses I set up to protect her, herself, and then fall into that trap."

"Ah, right," said Norman, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "We talked about that when we met at the Featherkeep Grand Prix. What was it called again? Untethering?"

"That's what my mom called it," said the coffee shop Owner. "Thanks for looking out for Peggy, by the way."

"I only acted because I sensed something amiss around George, so no thanks are needed," said Norman. "But still, that new employee of yours has got a lot of troublesome eyes on her."

"A lot more than I thought," the vampire grumbled. "I've no idea why."

"Maybe it's because the last few youngsters who fell under your wing grew to become famous for one reason or another?"

"They got to where they are on their own merits," said the former Trickster. "All I did was give a few basic pointers."

"Sure that's all it was," Norman said. His voice dripped with sarcasm, making the vampire's scowl deepen. "Anyway, I don't think you lot should stay in the Royal Capital any longer. There's no telling who else might try something again."

"Don't have to tell me twice," said the coffee shop Owner. "We're leaving first thing in the morning, which is not soon enough. I'd have us all out of here as soon as I was done with my business at the Grand Library if I could have."

"You're really not fond of the Royal Capital, are you?"

"Of course not." The coffee shop Owner sat on the bench Peggy had used a minute earlier and leaned back. As he did so, the bench transformed into a big, red velvet armchair. He folded one leg over the other and put his hands together on his lap. "The city always feels like the Shadow Civil War is still going on. Little wonder when there are still people around pulling stunts like at the Grand Library and this dream world. Speaking of dream worlds, do you know who made this one?"

Norman snapped his fingers and colorful sparks flew out of them. The sparks spiraled over his head before flying behind him and transformed into another armchair. After making himself comfortable in it, he replied, "I never got a name outside of Becky. But I suspect it's someone named Lady Playwright, a famous spy-for-hire. Based on the stories, this dream of Peggy's sounds exactly like what she'd do. Rumors have it that she likes to trick people into acting the way she wants like actors in a play she wrote."

"A spy-for-hire, huh?" said the coffee shop Owner. He wagged his finger next to his head and a silver platter appeared floating in the air. The coffee shop Owner took a cup of sweetened coffee from it and took a sip. "Want?"

"No thanks," said Norman, holding up a refusing hand.

"Honestly!" The coffee shop Owner let out an exasperated sigh. "Too many people are too overly curious about me."

"You got only yourself to blame for that," said Norman.

The coffee shop Owner scowled and shot back, "You are the last person I want to hear that from, Mr. Villain Leader."

"We're out of the evil villain business now, remember? George's mom, my sister, saw to that. She even married a hero!

"Anyway, shall I have Lady Playwright dealt with?"

The coffee shop Owner shook his head.

"Don't bother," he said. "Other than the Untethering, Peggy's got nothing special going on. Whatever information Lady Playwright got won't do any harm if it got out. In fact, it might even get those annoying shadows looming over us to leave Peggy alone. Besides, if Lady Playwright meant to harm Peggy, my curses would have activated. Since she's not out to hurt us, I think we can leave her alone. But a certain gentleman who liked to pass around cursed books, on the other hand, is not getting away with just a slap on the wrist."

As the vampire spoke, there was a shadow cast over his eyes which had a menacing glint to them. And then he added:

"He needs to learn there's a difference between overblown mischief and outright harmful attacks."

Coming from a Trickster who survived the Shadow Civil War, Norman knew with certainty that gentleman from the Grand Library was going to have miserable times ahead.

<== Chapter 29                                                                           Chapter 30 ==>

The Vampire's Coffee Shop Ch. 29

 Chapter 29
Children of the Night

Peggy awoke to the sound of children's laughter and when she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in the middle of an old-fashioned, Victorian Era-style street. The sky was pitch black with light coming only from Gothic street lights stuck to the sides of buildings or the lampposts and the ghostly blue candlelight flickering in tall lampposts. 

"Where am I?" she wondered aloud. "And how did I get here?"

The last thing Peggy remembered was getting into bed in the guest room of a house that belonged to her Boss' stepbrother while on an overnight trip to the Royal Capital with her Boss and George, Boss' son. They had come to visit the kingdom's largest library for George's homework (although even for a fantasy world full of magic, it didn't make any sense to Peggy that they needed to travel halfway across the country for elementary school homework).

Since she had never been to the Royal Capital before, it made sense that the street was unfamiliar to her. But that still didn't explain how she got out here in the first place. And that wasn't the only weird thing she noticed. For one thing, everything looked unusually bigger to her. For another . . .

"Hmm?" she went, lips turned into a deep frown.

Was it just me, she thought, or did my voice sound different?

"Ah, ah, ah." She opened her mouth wide and listened intently at the sounds she made herself from her throat.

Her voice did sound different, she determined. It was lighter, way lighter. Her voice could even be called shrill if she was being honest with herself.

While wondering what was happening to her, Peggy happened to wander close to a building with a huge window that, when combined with the darkness of night and the light of the nearby street lamps, became like a mirror. The darkened window reflected everything perfectly, but when Peggy happened to look at her own reflection, what she saw vastly differed from how she looked yesterday.

"What the -!?"

Utterly flabbergasted, Peggy threw herself at the mirror-like window, pressed her hands against the glass and gaped at her own face reflected back at her.

"I'M A KID AGAIN!?"

Looking at her reflection, Peggy saw that instead of looking twenty years old, take a few years, she looked to be around seven or eight years old. She was even wearing her old elementary school's uniform, a white short-sleeved dress shirt with the school's logo and a gray skirt with suspenders.

"Just what in the world happened to me?"

While trying to wrap her head around this mystery and make sense of it, the laughter of children filled the air. It was the same sort of laughter that woke her up in the first place.

Peggy tore her eyes away from the window and her reflection, and looked around.

"Hello?" she called out. "Is anyone there?"

"Over here!" a child spoke from far away. "Over here!"

There was something obviously creepy about hearing children laughing in a deserted street at night. But Peggy also knew those children, if they really were children, would be her best chance to getting to the bottom of all this weirdness. So against her better judgment, she ran to where she thought the voices were coming from.

Her black dress shoes went pitter-patter against pavement as she jogged down the darkened road. She turned a corner, hoping to catch the children there, but was disappointed to find the adjoining street empty.

Children's laughter filled her ears.

"Aw, so close," a girl said mockingly.

"Gotta do better than that, slowpoke!" said a boy.

"Come on! Try to keep up!" spoke another.

Their giggles faded with a chorus of rapid pitter-pattering feet.

Knowing when she was being teased, Peggy felt her cheeks go warm. The night air no longer chilled her and the city's dark Gothic look no longer sent shivers down her spine. She was just filled with determination to give the children a piece of her mind and resumed running after them.

Little Peggy turned another corner just in time to see a trio of dark shapes go into a wide, five-floor building shaped like a baseball diamond. The entrance was at the triangle's round point and consisted of two red-framed doors. 

Peggy pushed one of the doors open and stepped into a massive open space. She could see all five floors of the building through open corridors that overlooked the lobby. When she happened to look behind one of the many windows that lined the walls, she spotted some vaguely human shapes and let out a frightened squeak. But she soon realized that these human shapes were actually just mannequins used by stores to show off the clothes they sell.

Peggy had suspected it when she got inside, but it appeared she had intruded into a shopping mall. It was smaller than the malls that she was used to seeing back on Earth, but the building was nonetheless huge. 

Slowly, she walked down to towards the center where the statue of a mustachioed dog man stood dignified. The dog man's mustache was thick, bushy and groomed to a curl. He wore a three-piece suit with coattails and rested one hand on an elegant cane while keeping his other hand balled behind his back. His stomach was also big and bulged out.

"Now where could those kids be?" Peggy wondered aloud.

She looked all over but couldn't find a hint to their presence. They had also quit their taunts and laughter, so she could not even use her ears to try and pick up their location. The only sounds in the entire building came from her own feet and the echoes that followed.

Peggy puffed. It was going to be tough to find them in a place this big, she thought.

She scratched her head, at a loss what to do. But then came faint, stifled giggling from behind and spun around to see three dark shapes creep towards the exit.

"HEY!" she screamed. "GET BACK HERE!"

The shapes burst out laughing and darted out of the mall.

Peggy chased after them, barely keeping up. They raced down avenues, streets and boulevards, crossed city squares and plazas, passed by statues of kings, queens and other important dead people and finally dove into a public park. 

She tried to catch up to the children on a red brick walkway alongside a row of thick, tall trees. But then the tip of her shoes got caught against an upturned brick and she tripped, falling flat on her face.

"Ow!"

The children ahead stopped, pointed at her, and laughed. They remained just outside the light of the lamppost and shrouded in darkness. All anyone watching could tell was that one of the children wore a skirt and a long-sleeve blouse with frilled cuffs.

They mockingly sang, "You tripped! You tripped!"

Angry, Peggy shouted at them, "That's not funny!"

The Seven-or-eight-year-old picked herself up and lunged at the children, but they sidestepped away before she could touch any of them. She stumbled to a stop and turned around.

One of the boys put his hand under the light, holding a shoe. A girl's shoe.

Filled with dread, Peggy looked down and sure enough, she saw she was only wearing one shoe.

"Hey! That's mine!" 

She chased after the boy with her shoe. But before she could get it back, the boy tossed the footwear over her head to the other boy, who passed it off to the girl when Peggy went after him next.

"Give it back!" she screamed at them.

But the other children just giggled at her and kept passing the shoe back and forth.

"Give it back!"

Suddenly, a new voice cut in and shouted sharply, "HEY! Don't you know it's mean to bully people?"

Startled, one of the boys dropped the shoe onto the ground. He and the others abandoned it and scurried away in fright. They disappeared down the road when a much taller shadow ran past Peggy and chased after them.

This taller shadow stopped beneath light, revealing herself to be a girl in her late teens. She had red hair bundled into a bun behind her head, except for a pair of long, slightly curled bangs hanging off the sides of her narrow, flushed and slightly freckled face. Her eyes were as green and sparkled like emerald gemstone. A blood red wool shawl laid draped over her shoulders and her plain white dress. 

The girl peered into the darkness and wiped some sweat from her forehead. After catching her breath, she grumbled, "Fast little buggers." And then she turned around and walked over to Peggy.

After bending down on one knee, the teenage girl held up Peggy's shoe and said, "I believe this is yours."

She gave Peggy the Cinderella treatment and slipped the shoe back on her foot.

"Thank you," Peggy said.

The teenager flashed her a smile and replied, "Think nothing of it. Still, that was rather wicked of those brats to gang up on a cute little thing like you. And I don't mean that in a good way."

Peggy scowled and said, "I'm not little! I'm a grownup already."

But as should be expected, the teen responded with an amused smile, "Sure you are." She clearly did not believe Peggy. 

Peggy doubted that explaining how she shrunk and de-aged into a child would help matters. So she gave up and decided to just deal with being treated like a little kid for now.

"So what's a little thing like you doing out here so late?" the teen girl asked. "It's a bit late past your bedtime, don't you think?"

Peggy shrugged and said, "I don't know. One minute, I was in my room. The next minute I'm outside. I don't know how to get back home."

All this was true, but Peggy wasn't sure how much the teenage girl would believe. To her relief, however, it looked like the girl believed everything.

"Yikes," the teenager said. "So it's happened to you too, huh?"

"Too? You mean you also got teleported?"

"In a blink!" said the teenager. "And in the middle of a date, too, of all times! Talk about bad luck! I really fancied that bloke. He was HANDSOME!"

"Okay?"

"Oh! But where are my manners? The name's Becky. What's yours?"

"I'm Peggy."

"Well, Peggy," said Becky, putting her hands on her hips. "No point staying here. Let's see if we can't find our way home."

Together, they slowly strolled through the park, their path lit by evenly spaced out lampposts. They soon made it out of the park and took their time exploring the empty streets of the Royal Capital, getting to know each other in the meantime.

Becky mentioned being from a well-to-do (i.e. rich) family. She complained about feeling stifled by tradition and her peers' obsession with manners and what was "proper". And she also talked about her likes in music, art and books which related to horror.

When it was Peggy's turn, Beck asked a lot of questions. A LOT. Peggy ended up telling Becky EVERYTHING, from how she came from another world to what she did everyday at the coffee shop. Peggy even spilled out all her fears and insecurities about the future. She was the one talking, but even she was surprised by how much she was giving away. It was as if something was forcing the words out of her mouth.

Becky nodded along, soaking up every detail.

And then came questions about Boss and his family, particularly George.

"So about George," Becky said, "tell me everything about him."

Peggy knew that she should not. Her own self was one thing, but this was about other people's private lives. Those were things, Peggy had no right to talk about. Especially to a complete stranger she had gotten to know for about an hour or so.

But even while thinking that, Peggy's mouth opened and she said, "About George, he's - !"

A man's deep voice suddenly cut in and said, "Aren't you two a bit too young for a midnight jaunt?"

Both girls jumped and turned around to see a lion standing before them, dressed in a gray suit, tie, and waistcoat beneath a larger, brown overcoat. A bowler hat laid between his round, furry ears. His hand rested on the silver globe cap of a long, black walking stick.

Peggy vaguely felt like she had seen the lion before and then remembered the lion was actually George's uncle through his mom.

"Norman? Is that you?"

The lion rolled his eyes down on the little girl, showing not a hint of emotion. But he responded to Peggy's question and nodded.

"Good evening, Miss Lau," he said. "It's a pleasure to meet you again."

"You recognize me?" Peggy asked. "How?"

Instead of answering Peggy's question, Norman said, "Let us put that aside for now. We have more pressing matters to address."

He returned his gaze to Becky, his eyes narrowed with a dangerous glint.

Becky, however, scratched the back of her head and sighed.

"Figures I pushed my luck bringing up that lion cub," she said. "Gotta say I envy that kid to be surrounded by grownups who care so much about him."

Norman's mouth remained closed, but low rumble came from his throat.

Becky got the hint and threw her hands in the air.

"Okay, okay. I'll back off," she said. "Got more than enough to satisfy my curiosity, anyway. Oh, and I won't ask how you got here. I'm sure the Trickster's got something to do with it. That vampire's famous for breaking into places, after all."

Peggy wasn't sure what the teenager was talking about. Her head had suddenly gotten really fuzzy, so most of what she heard just went in one ear and out the other. She was also getting pretty unstable at her feet.

"Well, it was nice getting to know you, Peggy," Becky said, "but it looks like this is where we part ways."

Peggy just finished rubbing her right eye and looked up. "You're going? By yourself?"

"I figured you'd be okay with the lion bloke here." Becky threw a glance at Norman. "You two looked like you knew each other. I can find my way just fine, so I'll be okay on my own. No need to worry about little old me. Tata for now. Don't worry. If the Fates allow, we'll meet again."

She took three steps forward, turned at her heels, pinched the sides of her skirt and curtsied. And then she turned around again and walked away. Norman and Peggy watched her until she turned a corner and disappeared.

It was then that Peggy let out a big yawn.

"Feeling tired?" asked Norman.

Peggy nodded, again rubbing one of her heavy eyelids.

"Why don't you take a seat at the bench over there?"

Peggy took up Norman's offer and slowly trudged over to the stone slab he pointed at. As soon as she sat down, her eyes closed on their own and her mind went blank.

When she next opened her eyes, she found herself lying in bed with the bed covers up to her neck.

Gingerly, she sat up and turned on the lamp on the bedside table before getting out of bed to walk over to a mirror to see her adult self looking back at her.

"So it was all just a dream," she muttered to herself.

Well, of course it was. What else could it be?

<== Chapter 28                                                                        Chapter 29.5 ==>

The Vampire's Coffee Shop Ch. 31

Chapter 31
Walpurgis Night with a Princess

Walpurgis Night has come once again for the Town of Featherkeep. To those from Earth who don't know, Walpurgis Night is Emeron's version of Halloween. And like Halloween, it was a time of festivities when children dress up in colorful costumes and go around houses collecting sweet treats while adults partied the night away with feasts and dances out on the streets and every public square.

Festivals were always special times, but this festival was going to be just a little bit more special than usual.

It all started when the sun was about to set. This Walpurgis Night, Peggy was going out wearing a high collar black cape she borrowed from Mrs. Arkans and a tattered, pointed hat she bought from a secondhand shop for cheap. George was dressed in sparkly green robes while carrying around a long, wood stick curled into a ball at the top. These were going to be the costumes they wear for a party taking place at Paladia School. They had been invited by some students Peggy befriended when she visited the school on a delivery.

"Thanks again for bringing me along to that party at Paladia you were invited to, Peggy" George said. "But are you sure it's okay?"

"Sure, I'm sure," Peggy said.

The invitation had originally been meant for Peggy alone, but when she heard that all of George's friends had their own plans, she asked if George could come too. The kids from Paladia were more than happy to include him in the invite.

As to be expected on the night of a big festival, the streets were packed with people. Everywhere was bright despite the black night sky and covered in pumpkin decorations.

"Hey, George!" Peggy called out. "Wait up!" 

Impatient to get to the party soon, George ran down the road ahead of Peggy.

He turned around and called back, "Come on, Peggy! Hurry up!"

Meanwhile, further ahead, a young girl who was half golden fur puppy dog, was running up the road, panting from being out of breath. She had emerged from a flash of light in an alley, dressed in a fancy white dress and a gold tiara on her head. Anyone who saw her would think that she was late to a meeting or in a hurry to get to a party. But in fact, she was being chased.

"Why me?" she wondered as she continued running with all her might, weaving around costumed folks and merrymakers. "What did I do to deserve this?"

She conveniently forgot the fact she had been playing in a storage room her parents explicitly told her she was not allowed in and accidentally knocked over a black clay pot with the words "DANGER" stamped on it. The pot, obviously, shattered to a dozen pieces on the floor. And then the next thing the weredog puppy girl knew, she was being chased all around the castle by what many would call and evil spirit until she made her way into the treasure vault and used a magic item, a huge bronze disc on the floor, to teleport out of the castle to some faraway random place in another kingdom.

But even that wasn't enough to shake the evil spirit off her tail, figuratively.

"Oh, Priiiinceeeeeeesssss."

A shiver ran down the beast folk girl's spine as a creepy, drawn out voice reached her fluffy ears.

She looked over her shoulder and could see a tattered black cloak flying towards her. None of the locals below noticed the cloak, nor did they hear the voice that from it. If they had, they probably wouldn't still be laughing, dancing or prancing about.

Figures, the weredog girl thought bitterly. Only I can see or hear it.

Which meant that even if she called for help, it would be no use.

So all she could do was keep running and running, and running while enduring the irony of living a ghost story during a festival that's all about ghosts and other spooky things.

But while distracted by what's behind her, the dog folk girl did not see the lion folk boy in the wizard outfit until it was too late.

"Oof!"

"Gah!"

The girl ran into the boy and both collapsed onto the ground.

A grownup human lady who looked like she was in her late teens, early twenties, rushed over and cried out, "Are you two okay?"

"Yeah," said the lion folk boy as he picked himself up. "How about you? Are you okay?"

The weredog girl didn't answer and frantically looked behind her.

George and Peggy exchanged puzzled looks. The weredog girl who bumped into George seemed really frazzled, but they didn't see anything out of the ordinary while looking past the girl's tiara.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Peggy asked out of concern.

"Um . . ." went the weredog girl in the princess costume. She stared at Peggy and George, at a loss for words, but then looked back over her shoulder again before jumping to her feet.

"S-sorry!" she cried out. And then she ran off.

"Hey! Wait!" George cried out. But it was too late. The girl had disappeared into the crowd.

"What was that all about?" Peggy wondered.

George shook his head and replied, "I don't know."

He happened to look down and spotted something oval-shaped and shining gold on the ground, which he picked up.

"Hey, look!" he cried out. "It's a locket! It's that girl's!"

He had pushed a button and the lid popped open to reveal a family of fancily dressed dogs.

"It must have broken off its chain when you guys bumped into each other," Peggy said as she bent down to get a better look. "Looks really expensive too."

"It's probably really important to her, then," said George. He closed the locket shut and gripped it firmly in his hand. "I better go give it back to her!"

"Huh? Hey! George!"

Before Peggy could stop him, George took off running where the weredog girl had gone.

Peggy let out an exasperated breath as she watched him vanish down the road before running after the animal kids herself. It took everything she had to not lose them in the crowd, barely picking out George's robes from among a sea of colorful costumes.

But after a while, the crowds started to let up, quickly becoming just a trickle of people before the roads became completely deserted altogether, except for Peggy, George and the weredog folk princess. Thanks to the lack of people, George's voice finally reached the dog folk princess' ears and she stopped.

"Hey, wait!" George had called out. "You dropped this!"

The dog folk princess stopped in her tracks and turned around, surprised to see George running up to her. He stopped just a few feet from her and bent down, out of breath. Peggy stopped short just behind him. She was even more out of breath than the kids.

"Hey!" George gasped, holding up the locket. "You dropped this!"

The dog folk princess' eyes widened with further surprise and she cried out, "My locket! How?"

"It happened when we bumped into each other," George breathlessly explained.

Hesitantly, the dog folk girl took back the locket.

"Thank you," she said.

George grinned and replied, "You're welcome. By the way, where'd all the people go?"

"I don't know," Peggy slowly answered.

As she looked around the deserted street, she got a serious case of Deja Vu.

George looked around as well.

"That's weird," he said. "There are all these pumpkin, bat and wizard decorations everywhere so I don't think we're very far from the festival. But I don't even hear anything. It's all dead silent."

Peggy's sense of Deja Vu got stronger.

No matter how you look at it, this is unnatural, the dog folk princess thought. It'd be one thing if the street had been neglected, but a glitzed out place like this would normally be full of life.

She gasped. Could it be that evil spirit's doing? If that's the case, then they were all in trouble and it was her fault these kind people got mixed up in it!

"Are you okay?" Peggy asked, sensing something amiss with the weredog princess. "You don't look so good."

The dog folk princess rapidly replied back in a rather high voice, "I'm fine. Just fine. Why wouldn't I be fine?"

So she said, but in her head, she despaired, I can't say it! I can't tell them that we're all in danger because of me!

Meanwhile, Peggy quietly thought, You certainly don't sound fine. 

But she kept that to herself and instead chose to focus on more pressing matters.

"We shouldn't stick around for very long," she said. "Why don't you come with us?"

"Huh?" went the weredog princess. "You mean me?"

Peggy nodded. "Quiet places like this can be really dangerous for kids like you on their own. It's better if we all stick together."

It'll be even more dangerous for you two to stick with me, the dog folk princess thought bitterly. 

But she decided to go along with the others, regardless. She doubted they would believe her if she told the truth. Worse, they'd probably think she was crazy.

The best I can do now is watch out for them, she thought. I have to take responsibility for this.

But the moment she made her resolve, that same resolve went shattered to pieces with a whisper in her ear.

"Priinceeessss."

"Eek!"

The weredog princess jumped and turned. But there was nothing behind her except a smiling Jack-o-Lantern resting on a crate.

Peggy and George gave the princess funny looks.

"Are you really okay?" asked Peggy.

"Yes! Really!" the princess answered shrilly. "Come on! Let's go!"

She had no destination in mind when she started pushing Peggy and George down the road. But she figured anyplace would be better than here. However, they didn't even go one foot when the lights suddenly snuffed out all at once. No glow from the lampposts. No shine from the shop windows. No flickering candlelight from the Jack-o-Lanterns. No nothing except for the light of the full moon.

The moonlight was more than enough to keep things visible, but it cast lots of big shadows which just made the street creepier.

Startled by the abrupt lack of light, the princess shrieked again, "Eek!"

"Geez, that scared me!" Peggy blurted. "You kids okay?"

"I-I'm okay!" said George, sounding kind of shaky.

That got Peggy worried, but then she realized the weredog girl was clinging to the werelion boy's arm.

George scowled when he noticed Peggy's big smirk.

Hiding in an alley not too far away, a floating black cloak observed the group with a feeling of glee. This was the evil spirit on a mission to torment the poor princess and it was enjoying the fear it inflicted on her.

"Yes, yes," it muttered. "Shiver in fright. Tremble in terror! Lose all hope! For no matter how far you run or where you go, I will always find you! I will catch you! I AM YOUR DOOM!"

The dog folk girl was the evil spirit's main target, but it welcomed the unexpected addition of the lion folk boy and the human folk lady. As they say, the more the merrier. It could not wait to hear their screams of horror and cries of agony.

But first, let's have them tire themselves out, it thought. Seeing them slowly grow frustrated and panic will be entertaining to watch.

The evil spirit suddenly had its train of thought broken when it felt something tap it on the shoulder.

"Huh?"

Meanwhile . . .

Unaware of the evil spirit's presence, Peggy and George began to try and find their way back to familiar territory with the weredog princess in tow. But that would be easier said than done.

No matter how far the gang walked, no matter what direction they turned, the streets remained empty and dark. Worse still, they all looked identical to the last, right down to the Jack-o-Lantern resting on the crate in front of the second building, as if they were trapped in a cheaply made cartoon with an endlessly looping background.

As they walked, Peggy had this really odd feeling that something like this had happened before. But it was maybe daytime back then, and there was . . . a sunflower?

"Ow! My head!"

George and the weredog girl stopped.

"You okay, Peggy?" George asked.

Peggy replied while massaging the side of her head, "Yeah. My head just started hurting all of a sudden."

It was as if someone had taken a mallet and swung it against the side of her cranium.

"It must be all that studying you've been doing," George said. "I always knew studying was bad for you."

Peggy gave George a funny look and then fired back, "That time you nearly got grounded from going to the festival because of bad Fall Exam grades begs to differ."

And then she frowned.

What was I trying to remember again? she wondered. 

Whatever it was, it had been completely wiped from her mind.

Oh well, she thought. I got more important things to worry about anyway.

She looked down on her wristwatch.

There was still some time before the party at Paladia starts, but lost as they are, they'll never make it.

"If only we could find our way out of this place," she muttered. "But just which way do we go?"

She glanced over at the kids, but she could tell by their faces that they had no idea either. The weredog girl was particularly glum, though Peggy and George had no idea it was more from guilt than anything else.

It seemed like their situation was hopeless. But just when the gang was going to throw in the towel, a voice cut through their despair to show them the way.

"Over here! This way!"

The gang all turned their heads and spotted a little boy with green skin and bat wing-shaped ears waving to them.

"What are you doing here?" Peggy cried out in surprise.

"You know that goblin, Peggy?" George asked.

Flustered, Peggy sputtered, "Huh? Uh, well . . . Y-yeah. We met a while back."

It was last Halloween - er, Walpurgis Night that she encountered the boy. Back then, the boy had been lost in town and she helped bring him home. That was all that she remembered, but she felt like there was something else, something really, really important.

The weredog girl asked, "So does that mean he's a friend?"

Peggy glanced back at the boy still calling out and waving frantically at them. And then she replied, "Yeah, he's a friend."

Yeah, that was right. Regardless of whatever it was that she was forgetting, Peggy was certain of one thing: that the boy was her friend.

"Come on!"

She took George and the weredog girl's hands into her own and pulled them along as she ran towards the boy.

"Happy Walpurgis Night, Peggy!" the boy greeted with a grin. 

Peggy grinned back and said, "Happy Walpurgis Night."

And then the boy pointed down a road that mid-way through was shrouded in darkness.

"The way out is this way," he said. "Follow me!"

George and the weredog princess looked at the darkness ahead doubtfully. But Peggy tugged at their hands, gave them reassuring smiles and said, "Don't worry. I'm sure he knows what he's doing."

She didn't understand what was really going on right now, but she had faith that everything would be alright now that her friend was with them.

With George and the weredog princess huddled against Peggy, the gang followed the goblin boy into the darkness ahead. No sooner did they step foot into it, everything around them went black. Peggy couldn't see them, but she could feel George and the weredog princess squeeze her hands harder. She squeezed their hands back as they dove deeper into the darkness.

There was just one thing visible in all that darkness, and that was the goblin boy who looked like he was covered in white mist. He kept himself a couple of feet ahead of the others, stopping now and then to make sure they were still following him. Their footsteps echoed as if they were walking in a long, cavernous tunnel.

Admittedly, Peggy was worried about how far they would have to go in this darkness. But that worry was allayed when a few minutes later -

"Look!" the weredog princess cried out. "I see a light ahead!"

"Come on!" said George. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

The two beast folk kids took off running. And Peggy ran after them, shouting, "Hey! Wait up!"

She wondered why kids liked to run off ahead all the time.

As soon as they dove into the white light, they emerged into a lively and crowded street colored orange by all the pumpkin and pumpkin-shaped decorations.

"Sweet!" went George. "Civilization at last!" 

The weredog girl giggled and said, "You make it sound like we were stuck on a desert island or something."

"It certainly felt that way for a while there," Peggy said. "Anyway, thanks! You've been a big help, - !"

She had turned around to thank the young boy but froze when she saw that the only thing behind her was a brick wall. 

"Huh?"

And then, from the wall, came a young boy's echoey voice that said, "You're welcome, Peggy! Happy Walpurgis Night!"

While staring at the wall, Peggy opened her mouth and then closed it shut. It was at that moment she had remembered that important thing she had trouble recalling earlier:

That young boy who had helped them was no longer a part of the living world.

Unbeknownst to anyone, high up above on the edge of a rooftop sat a woman in a black gown fashioned from what Peggy would call Ancient Chinese style. Much like a certain coffee shop Owner that Peggy called Boss and George called Dad, the lady was a vampire with pale blue skin, triangle-point ears and eyes glowing red in the dark.

As for what she was doing at such a dangerous spot, she was watching Peggy and the two werebeast kids headed over to Paladia School for a party. The vampire lady planned to have the town guards help the weredog princess go home.

"But before that, it won't hurt to let her have some fun," the vampire lady said. "After all, it's Walpurgis Night. Don't you agree?"

She asked the thing chained down on the flat of the roof. The thing which looked like a tattered black cloak was desperately trying to pull itself free, but failed miserably. Most people would call that black cloak thing an evil spirit, but to the vampire lady in the black gown, it was a pest no greater than a single ant. 

And an ant that needed to be taught a lesson.

From the lady's back, giant bat wings sprouted and she gracefully floated off the rooftop. In her hand was the chain that bound the evil spirit.

"Come now," the vampire lady said to the evil spirit as she lifted it up with her. "The night is still young, so let us go have our own fun."

And then she took off towards the night sky, all the while laughing rather wickedly.

The evil spirit had no idea where she was taking it. All it knew was that it was in for an unforgettable night, unforgettable in a bad, bad way.

**********

A few days later in the afternoon, the coffee shop Owner was using his downtime to wipe down the bar counter when in walked George's school teacher.

"Hey, welcome!" said the coffee shop Owner. "What can I do for you today?"

"Oh, nothing much," his son's teacher replied, his voice shaking a little as he smiled crookedly. "I just have a question I wanted to ask you."

Noticing the teacher's frazzled look, the coffee shop Owner thought to himself, Uh-oh.

"Do you mind telling me why the school got a call from the king of another nation?"

<== Chapter 30                                                                                 Chapter 32 ==>

A New Book! (Finally!)

 Hey everyone!

As you can guess from the title, this time I wanted to announce that I've finally got a new book out on Amazon! It's a continuation of Lucy Douglas' adventures in the magical world of Emeron.

In the first book, the main action took place on an island flying in the sky. In this next one, we follow Lucy and the gang as they traverse Emeron's oceans while looking for clues to the whereabouts of her long-lost great-grandpa. But it won't be easy. Not only do they have to deal with dangerous sea monsters who want to have them for dinner, but the wicked Eternal Knights have popped up once again with a scheme that puts an entire city in the middle of the ocean in danger.

Just what are the Eternal Knights after? And will Lucy find out what happened to her great-grandpa?

Find out in:

The Vampire's Coffee Shop Ch. 28

Chapter 28

Book Chase

Peggy stared at the small, black book on the floor wondering where it had come from. Did it just fall off the shelf on its own? She wondered, glancing up at the towering bookshelf to the left and then to the right. With her eyes, she scanned the shelves thoroughly but found no gaps between tightly packed tomes.

"So not from a shelf," she muttered to herself. "There's not even any space to put it. But then where did it come from?"

While she was reading a book about jobs for magic users, she had heard the book fall down, spotted it, but saw nothing and nobody else. She was alone in this room with its maze of tall shelves full of books and the smell of aged paper.

"I guess I can't just leave it lying here," she decided.

Peggy crouched down to pick the book up. But before her fingers could touch it, the book suddenly slid away, traveling up to five feet before stopping.

She stared at it and blinked a few times.

"Okay, what?"

She walked over and tried to grab the book off the floor again, but also again, the book slid away. And it happened again on Peggy's third try.

"Am I being punked right now?" she wondered aloud. And then she loudly called out, "Anyone here?"

But no one answered.

She tried looking around the entire room twice over to be doubly sure she was really alone, but didn't find hide nor hair, nor fur of anyone. When she returned to the book and tried to pick it up again, it slid out of her reach.

"Well, this is annoying," she grumbled. And then her shoulders sagged when she realized, "I'm going to be at this all day, aren't I?"

Unable to just leave the book alone, Peggy chased it all over the room. She and the book weaved around shelves, turning this way and that. They made circles, zigzags, and loop-de-loops.

Frustration mounting, Peggy yelled at it, "Come back here, you!"

And then she tried diving for the book, but ended up crashing onto the floor for nothing.

This unusual game of Cat and Mouse went on and on for who-knows-how-long and soon extended out of the room when an unsuspecting stout dwarf man with frizzy black beard opened the door to come in and allowed the book to escape outside.

"Sorry! Coming through!" Peggy shouted as she ran by.

Startled, the dwarf jumped back while going, "What? What?"

Peggy continued to chase the book down the hall, making whatever turns the book made as it spun around as if pushed by something round. More than once, Peggy and the book spiraled around each other before going into a room where paintings literally came to life. They passed by portraits of dancing goblin ballerinas, a pig man holding a crossbow while hunting an actual, plain hog, two cat wizards throwing lightning at each other, and a pink troll.

Past that room was a flight of marble stairs that led down into a chamber with a big, round, stone basin 

sunk halfway into the floor filled with glowing blue water. There was more water floating above the pool in the shape of a great, big ball. People and places were shown in the great, big ball of water like a movie on a television screen. The people shown in the water all wore metal armor and had swords, spears, or some other deadly sharp weapon types.

From unseen speakers, a woman's voice narrated, "Over thousands of years ago, long before Earth's so-called World War, the world of Emeron had a World War of its own, which took place on the continent of Yggdrasil. Armies from Olympusia, Ancient Zhao, the Pharaoh Lands, Babylona, Atlantisia and other nations all converged on the Ragnarok Plains for a final battle that marked the end for the Aesir Empire and all the other kingdoms that called Yggdrasil their home."

While the lady on the speakers told the story of a war from long ago that sounded kind of like a certain famous Earth legend, Peggy ran up and down the room, still trying to catch a book that didn't like her for some reason. They circled around the basin once before going out the exit.

The next chamber they entered was a colorful, indoor playground for little kids. Each side of the room had a huge jungle gym that snaked alongside the wall to the back, meeting at the very middle that was dominated by a big, high fort with three red slides bundled together slanted downward to a ball pit. Trampolines and beanbag chairs took over the middle space of the room while up above them big bubbles floated around from the mouth of a red-lipped clown face painted on the ceiling. Some of those flying bubbles had small children in them.

Peggy and the book cut across the playground, weaving around the trampolines when one bubble tapped Peggy on the head while another tapped the book. Both Peggy and the book got swallowed by their bubbles and drifted up to join the children in the air.

Peggy pushed against the bubble's wall, hoping to break free. But despite appearances, the bubble was very sturdy and elastic, stretched as far as Peggy's arms could up to the tips of her fingers. While lying awkwardly on her right side, arm twisted over her head like a pretzel, she spotted the book in its bubble pass by and then threw her whole self at it. Her bubble went down to the floor while the book continued straight to the doorway.

She tried to go after the book by throwing herself against the side of the bubble, but ended up going backwards instead. Her bubble arched down and then bounced off a violet-colored trampoline to the top of one of the red slides. There, finally, the bubble popped, releasing Peggy.

Peggy dropped onto the slide, slid down and went flying off pretty high thanks to the Laws of Physics. She bounced off one and then two, and then three trampolines, red, violet, violet before miraculously landing on her feet right at the exit next to the bubble containing the book. The bubble with the book hovered at the doorway as if an invisible wall was keeping it from getting out. There was probably an enchantment or magic spell on the exit to make sure nothing, children or otherwise, accidentally got out of the room when they were not supposed to.

Peggy stared at the book in its bubble, and her reflection on the bubble's surface stared back at her. 

Slowly, she reached up and gently poked the bubble. Although the inside of the bubble seemed indestructible, the outside was as fragile as a normal bubble could be, and it popped the moment Peggy's fingernail touched it. The book hit the floor, briefly opened up before closing on its side.

Peggy thought she saw black smoke leak out of the book, but chalked it up to just her imagination. She reached down to try and pick it up again, but once more, the book fled from her.

"Oh, come on!"

And the chase resumed.

The fleeing book led Peggy out of the playground and once more into a world of books, books and more books. They passed by chamber after chamber of bookshelf mazes, until finally reaching two sets of stone stairs, one leading down and the other leading up.

As soon as she spotted the stairs, an idea sprang in her mind to try and trap the book at the stairs leading up. She skirted around the book to block its way to the stairs going down and then chased after the book in a way so it'd go to the other staircase.

To Peggy, it almost felt like she was playing a game of soccer.

Her plan worked and the book got trapped at the first step. When she got closer, the book flipped upright. It got her worried that it might flip up the stairs and climb them, but luckily that bit of miracle or bad luck didn't happen and the book remained trapped against the stairstep as if pinned there.

"Got you now," Peggy said softly with a sense of triumph.

She reached down to at last grab the book, but then her moment of victory was snatched away by the hand of another, literally.

Annoyed, Peggy looked up and was surprised to see a familiar face.

"Roy? What are you doing here?" she asked. "Aren't you supposed to be back at Featherkeep?"

"I'm here at the Royal Capital on business," replied the young man.

Astonished, Peggy said, "Really? I didn't know you had work here."

With a bewildered blink, the young man said, "Uh, you do remember what my job is, right? I'm a Royal Inspector's Assistant. So of course, I'm going to have to work at the Royal Capital from time to time."

"In that case, why're you here at the library?" Peggy asked.

Roy answered, "I'm on break. But enough about me, what about you, Peggy? What are you doing all the way here at the Royal Capital? And why were you chasing a book?"

"It's a long story."

Peggy went on the explain how she was invited to a trip to the Royal Capital by the coffee shop Owner and George who were visiting the Grand Library for George's homework. She also explained how she found the book on the floor while exploring the building on her own.

"But for some reason, it kept running away from me," she said. "What's up with that?"

"Well, there are magic spell books out there that are made to be picky about who can read them," Roy said. "Especially books that teach really high level sorcery. Since you only just became a Three-Star magic user, there are probably lots of books you can't read right now."

"I guess that makes sense," Peggy admitted reluctantly. "Though I don't like how that makes me sound like a low level scrub."

Seeing how someone younger than her could touch a book that was too high level for her was also very embarrassing for Peggy.

Nearby, a grandfather clock suddenly chimed.

Roy cried out, "Oh, will you look at the time? I better get going. If you don't mind, Peggy, I can take care of this book for you."

"Go right ahead. It's not like I can do anything about it myself, apparently." Peggy spoke with a sour note.

After flashing an awkward smile, Roy left.

It was getting late for Peggy as well, so she decided to hurry on to the lobby where Boss and George were already waiting.

"Took you long enough," said Boss. "What've you been up to?"

Peggy answered back to the vampire, "Oh, just a little this and that. You know, this being a library and all."

While passing by, a little toad girl shouted, "Look, Mommy! It's the funny lady who chased around a book!"

"Shh!" hissed the toad girl's toad mom. "Don't look!"

Boss and George watched the toad family leave before looking back at Peggy.

"So, just a little this and that, huh?"

Peggy responded, "Please just lay off."

**********

Roy took a brief walk around the library, carrying around a small black book in his hand, until he found who he was looking for. He boldly strode over to a middle-aged gentleman in a purple jacket and gray checkered waistcoat sunk in an armchair flipping through a newspaper.

"Quite the nasty prank you tried to pull, don't you think?" Roy said coldly.

The gentleman looked up from his newspaper and said, "I'm sorry, what?"

Roy, however, was not in the mood to play games and tossed the book down on the chairside table.

"You're lucky the young lady didn't get her hands on that book," he continued while casting an icy gaze. "You can thank the Trickster's protective, danger-repelling barrier for that. But if she had gotten a hold of it, It would not have ended well for you."

Roy didn't lie to Peggy. There really are books out there that choose who gets to read them and who don't. But Roy never said that the book Peggy chased was one such book.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, but I do not appreciate being talked to like that, YOUNG MAN," the gentleman said stiffly."

"Then I suggest not to do anything to deserve treatment like that," Roy shot back.

"And what would you do about it, in this daydream of yours?" the gentleman asked.

"I'm not the one you should be worried about."

The gentleman glanced passed Roy and spotted Basal, the giant serpent, looking back at him with a disapproving frown.

After making a loud sniff noise, the gentleman folded up his newspaper and stood up. He tucked both the newspaper and the black book beneath his armpit and without giving Roy another look, walked away. The gentleman was stopped only briefly by Basal before leaving the library entirely.

Needless to say, Basal had stopped the gentleman to tell him that he had been banned.

**********

"By the way, Dad?" George said after climbing onto bed.

"Yes, son?" the coffee shop Owner replied to the lion cub.

With how late it got, the vampire decided to bring his son and Peggy to his stepbrother's place to crash for the night before heading home the next day. His stepbrother probably expected this to happen because he showed no surprise when the trio appeared on his doorstep and already had two guest rooms set up, one for the boys and the other for Peggy.

"Why did you make us come all the way to the Royal Capital for my homework?" George asked. "I think we could have just as easily found the book I needed at the town library back home."

"Well," said the coffee shop Owner, "I thought better safe than sorry."

Besides, he silently added, there was something I needed to research, and there was no place better for that than the Grand Library. 

"Anyway, hurry up and get some sleep," he said. "Don't want to oversleep or we'll miss the train ride back tomorrow morning."

"Okay!"

<== Chapter 27                                                                          Chapter 29 ==>