The Guardian

Emily and the Librarian drove home in silence. Every once in awhile Emily would glance over nervously at the stately, tall woman, but saying anything might give too much away.

She hated it; hated the silence that had grown between them in the past couple months. When she was younger, first adopted by the Librarian, Emily had felt like she could tell her guardian anything. In turn, the Librarian had told her secrets, incredible, marvelous, beautiful secrets, about the reality of other worlds. Secrets she had sworn never to tell another.

But now it was different. Emily reached over and turned on the radio. Sweet, rapid notes dancing in sorrowful sweeps and bounds filled the car.

"Mozart's Requiem. Rather vivacious, that man. Ahead of his times," the Librarian remarked.

"Did you ever meet him?" Emily asked, more to fill the silence than anything.

"Of course. I spent some time in Vienna during that century, so I was well established in the court when he made his first appearance." The Librarian smiled in reminiscence. "Nobody quite knew what to make of him. A man of many foibles, outrageous by the day's standards. You might have liked him."

"Hm," Emily said, and returned to staring out the window.

She knew what was going on, and she couldn't tell them. "What did you give Levi?" Emily asked abruptly.

"A simple rune, nothing more," The librarian said.

"But Levi's full mortal. Why would you give him actual magic?"

"Several reasons." The Librarian's voice was flecked with annoyance, and Emily saw her mouth tighten a fraction. "You know I can't tell you any more, Emily. Stop pressing the point."

"You're not supposed to give mortals magic, and you did that as well. Guardian, I need to know what's going on."

"I don't half know myself, and I can't have you interfering in things you don't understand and are little prepared to face." They pulled up to their home, but neither made a move to climb out of the car.

Emily stared up at the tall, Victorian, 3 story house, tucked in behind vine covered fences, pine trees, and birches. A carpet of bright green damp grass ran right up to the doorstep. If the yard and gardens in the back weren't so obviously well-tended, the place could have easily fit into a movie of ancient horrors. Cracked paint the color of wistfulness flaked from the wooden panels, and the rust-brown shingles of the steep roof huddled beneath curved iron trellises. Most of the rooms were dark, storage places for weapons, ancient and priceless artifacts from every place the Librarian had lived in her long centuries, and books. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of ancient works clung to every wall and created a maze with endless bookshelves. Only the two bedrooms on the top floor and the kitchen on the bottom were truly used for living. Emily wondered what Levi might think if she actually showed him where she lived. Living with the Librarian meant allot of strange rules, and one of them was that nobody could ever know the actual location of their house. Not even the postal service, which was always asked to deliver things to the school.

Finally the Librarian sighed. "Emily, when I can tell you more, I shall, but right now the situation is too delicate, too volatile. You're going to have to bottle up that insatiable curiosity for once. Just trust me."

Emily grimaced and popped the car door open without another word. The Librarian sighed after a moment and followed her charge to the back of the car, where a moment later they were unloading the books.

The books were unusual, as the house was unusual, as the Librarian and Emily herself were unusual. Many were written in unearthly tongues, unheard for centuries and forgotten. Many were completely mundane, other than their incredible age and beautiful state of preservation. A few, like the ones the Librarian had ordered shipped to the school, were actually magic. One of those was missing.

Emily hoped against hope that the Librarian wouldn't notice its absence.

Cave

                The dank drip of water echoed around the cave. The rough stone walls were slick and wet. The air was filled with the smell of moisture and wet animal fur. A rat scuttled along in the darkness. It scurried along, nose twitching, searching for food. The rat stopped and raised itself up to smell the air. There was a slight widening of its eyes, a terrified squeak as it tried vainly to run. Too late the last thing it saw was the flash of white teeth and its world ended.

            A seventeen year old, sandy-haired boy walked unconcerned through the dark passageways. His converse shoes made a squeaking noise over the slick spots of the cavern floor. He was tall with wide shoulders and amber eyes stared at his surroundings intently. He had on a hockey shirt with DTSS in bold across the front. The further the young man walked into the caverns the more his shoulders bunched up the more intent his gaze became.

            Further along the cavern a wolf appeared on the sandy-haired youths’ left. The boy didn’t look at it. For all intents and purposes it seemed like he didn’t even know it was there. The only sign that he knew it was there was the further pilling back of his lips. The wolf loped along, its yellow eyes catching the light. Its gray fur rustled and rolled with each step. Another wolf appeared, this time dappled tan. Its tongue hung out and it had a wild look in its eyes. Though the second wolf was slightly smaller than the first, both looked to be the size of ponies.

            They walked into a large cavern, bigger than any that they had previously been through. The front of the cavern held some light, but it was so dark in the back that even the boy’s intent gaze couldn’t pierce it. It was an unnatural darkness; it hunted the light to swallow it whole. The wolves peeled off to either side. Turning, they faced the boy and lay down. They were both no more than a body’s length away. The dappled tan’s eyes seemed to be smiling with madness. A rumble filled the room shaking the stones on the floor. A dark voice echoed inside and around the chamber.

            “Why do you don such a pathetic guise when coming before me, Vragi?” the voice echoed in his bones, touched with malice and amusement. The voice held the promise of death, the power and wisdom of age to do so. The boy Vragi knew that if he wished, the voice could kill him a thousand times over. “Isn’t your normal form more… pleasing?”

            “It is not so easy for me to make the change.” Vragi answered carefully; he bowed his head and stared straight at the ground. “And I bring news too important to waste time. We have found a spawn of the old gods.”

            The chamber rumbled and shook. The darkness boiled. Even the wolfs whimpered and flattened their ears.

            “Tell me what you know.” The voice was cool and collected, sharp, more dangerous than before.

            “One of my pack was found dead on yggdrasil. The stench of a half-blood was all over.” Vragi answered, fighting the urge to put his nonexistent tail between his legs. The chamber was quite for long moments before the voice spook again.

            “The progeny of the deceivers must not live on. You will take care of this, Vragi. I must rest and if this has not been resolved by the time I wake, I will take care of you and the god child.”

The Librarian

Levi turned around to where the Librarian had just set a bunch of books onto the table with a resounding thump.

"I wonder if you could help me with something for a moment, Levi?" The Librarian commanded.

"I, um... okay." Levi glanced back once more, where David and that other guy had been sitting, and then sighed. He would have to try and catch up with one of them later.

"I have a few books I need taken to my car, and since you apparently have no class at this hour, I know you wouldn't mind helping." Her voice was mild, musical even, but their was no doubt that when she "asked", her will was law. Levi had seen the library expanded, the atrium replanted, teachers beg and parents cry, all when she 'asked' for something.

Levi tried not to let his dismay show on his face and glumly took one of the boxes of books. Of course, because these were the Librarian's books, they had dull covers and titles, and looked to be hundreds of years old. Half of them were in languages Levi hadn't even heard of. The box was heavy and sagging, and Levi staggered a bit under the weight, but held on gamely. Never show signs of weakness in front of the Librarian.

Still, he was struggling, face flushed, by the time they got to the car. The Librarian held another box of books, leading the way silently, while Levi huffed and puffed behind her. He struggled to keep up with her long strides. The air was cool outside, and Levi's arms ached by the time they got to the Librarian's car, a green Suzuki hatchback. The trunk popped open with a chirp and Levi heaved his books in.

"What are all these for?" Levi asked curiously.

"It's a personal collection of mine. I had it shipped in from Norway, but they delivered it to the school instead of my home for some reason." She sounded somewhat irritated about that. "It doesn't matter though. Luckily everything arrived intact. Now I just have to get it home."

The Librarian looked down at Levi and smiled, "Thank you very much for helping me." Out of a pocket she produced a small, green stone with a golden symbol etched into it. "Here. Have this."

Levi took the stone, looking at the symbol. It was a straight line with a little triangle on one side, kind of like a weird D. "What is it?"

"That is the letter thorn. You used to have it in English for the "th" sound. It's also a good luck charm. Tribes in Europe would carve these as a form of protection and strength in battle." She laughed a little. "Some would say it's silly, but I'm fond of such things." The Librarian opened her phone, checking the time, and clucked her tongue. "Emily was supposed to be helping me with the books as well, but she seems to have- oh there she is."

Levi looked up from the rune to see Emily carrying another box of books across the parking lot. He slipped the rune into his pocket. A crazy idea popped into his head and before he could stop himself he asked. "Hey, um, do you know anything about alternate universes? Or werewolves?"

"That's quite a combination," the Librarian said wryly.

"I'm doing some research for a friend," Levi said quickly. "He likes to tell stories, so I wanted something to tell him."

"Well, the old vikings had stories about many worlds and about giant wolves, if that's any help. They used symbols like the one I gave you for magic rituals, in fact. You might try looking into Norse Mythology if you get the chance. We have quite a collection int the library."

"Thanks." Levi said. He jogged over to Emily. "You want some help?"

"I've got it, thanks," she panted. "What were you two talking about?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm doing some research for a project, is all." Levi felt really guilty about lying to Emily, but he knew how upset Brett would be if he thought that Levi had asked Emily for help.

Emily didn't look convinced, but didn't comment on that. "Brett has something for you, by the way. I ran into him in the hall." And then they were at the car, sticking the box in with the rest, the Librarian watching them carefully.

"Where were you?" she asked Emily.

"I ran into somebody in the hallway and the books fell on the ground," Emily said shortly.

"Well, let's get these back home. I don't want you late for your next class, dear," the Librarian said.

"Alright. See you Levi."

It always seemed weird to Levi that the Librarian was Emily's guardian. That's what she was called too, Emily never called her 'mom' or 'aunt' or anything, just 'my guardian'. Sometimes it seemed more like they were student and teacher more than family.

He watched as they drove away, and then walked quickly back up to campus.

I know where I am

Levi was lost. He sat at one of the cubical in the school library. It was a box with four separate cubicles. From above it looked almost like a Nazi Hakenkreuz. Levi always thought that that was a little ironic. In front of him was a stack of books. A Werewolf book sat next to a book on ancient Greek mythology along with a book of A History of Northern Vancouver.

Emily wasn’t in the library. Levi hadn’t been planning on telling her anything. But it would have been a lot easier if she had been there to help him. The librarian was there, Levi didn’t know her real name, and he didn’t think anyone else did either. Everyone just knew her as the librarian. Levi hadn’t asked her for help, for some reason she gave him creepy vibes.

The librarian was a very tall woman. She was stick thin and always dressed in a business suit. Her hair was pulled tight into a bun at the back that covered her ears. She had tiny spectacles perched on the tip of a long nose. Everything about her seemed long. Levi didn’t know why people didn’t avoid the library altogether. He would’ve if it wasn’t for Emily. But here and there students sat and did homework and even asked the librarian for help. Levi hadn’t, he had just had to find the books in front of him on his own. There was one thing he was certain of. No one had a late book, ever.

Levi knew exactly where he was. He was sitting in a library in Lynn Academy. The Academy was happily situated on a hill in the northern end of North Vancouver. North Vancouver was happily above greater Vancouver. Vancouver was next to inlet to the Pacific Ocean and just north of the border to the USA in British Colombia. British Colombia was one of the most western of the Canadian territories and Canada was in North America which was a continent on the planet earth. See Levi knew exactly where he was. He was just hopelessly lost, knowing exactly where he was.

Well that at least was what it felt like. After Brett went to have his arm checked out Levi rushed to the Library sure that he could help his friend out and find the answers. Now he sat there staring hopelessly at pages filled with words and pictures. A numb feeling had crept over his body. The shock had worn off now and now he could think. He thought about how Brett had just killed someone. Levi had watched as someone died.

Brett had told him of his stories. About how monster crept up and had to be put down. Honestly Levi had thought he was just telling stories. That Brett liked to make up stories and that he only told them to Him. It was the stuff you read about in comic books and fantasy. Not the kind of stuff that happened to normal people like Levi. It had been alien to find yourself still in school but certain that you were someplace else as well. Somewhere ancient and powerful, not at all like the modern construction of the school. That’s what it had felt like those brief moments when everything had taken on a green light and smelled of freshly turned soil hit by a rainstorm.

All of that took a back seat to the thought that he had just seen someone die. He didn’t try thinking about it but he couldn’t help it. It had been the first time that he had experienced something like that. Levi was certain that Camdon had been trying to kill them. Murder had been in his eyes and his very presence. Levi knew that Camdon would have killed them but it still wasn’t easy seeing what he had seen. How was he going to sleep tonight? Levi lost in his dark thoughts almost missed the susurration.

Levi couldn’t explain it but if a susurration had a feel it would have felt like this. It was like being touched by a whisper. Levi stood up and looked around trying to find the source. It was so slight that he almost did miss it when he found it. Two guys sat at a table in the back corner of the library their heads where close together and they were whispering. They looked like night and day. One was dressed in dark cloths his hair was almost as black as Levi’s. The other was Blonde. The guy with black hair was wearing a black hoodie that had a black fur enterer. It almost looked like he was trying to be Goth, Levi thought to himself, the kid’s skin was so white it almost looked like snow, and when Levi saw his eyes he gulped. They were such a light blue they looked like ice and they stared vacantly across the room. The guy was blind.

Levi knew who the other guy was, everyone did. It was hard not to know who David was. As the school president he had posters and pictures up all over school. He had also done some movies for the schools announcements with the rest of the student council. He was wearing nice blue jeans and had on a white button up shirt with blue pinstripes. His eyes were dark green like emeralds. The susurration feeling was coming from them. They both looked worried and as they talked a shimmer in the air like a heat wave in the summer hung around them.

Levi sat back down quickly. Brett wasn’t the only one, isn’t that what he had said? He had been so certain when he had said it. Maybe they were other superheroes just like Brett. From what Levi could tell everyone liked David. Even guys from other schools and from rival other schools all liked David. Maybe that was his super power to be liked. Maybe the blind kid had a super power too. Maybe they knew what was going on. Maybe they had some answers. The more Levi thought about it the more excited he became. I can get answers for Brett and I won’t have to go to Emily.

Levi stood up excited and ready to go speak to them and then sat back down. What was he going to say? Wasn’t David a senior? Why would he want to talk to him? Maybe the other guy would talk to him. Levi shook his head, your just staling he thought. He stood again determined to go talk to them. He turned and stared at an empty table. Where did they go? He looked around quickly and found them heading out the doors of the library. He was about to go follow them when a voice behind him cleared a throat to get his attention.

Emily Weird

On his way out of Adelaide's office, Brett ran pretty much literally into Emily.

"At least have the common decency to say sorry when you knock someone over," she said angrily, chasing papers and books across the floor. Brett, cheeks burning, bent to help her.

"You could watch where you're going too, you know," Brett said gruffly. One of the fallen books lay open to a page of a wolf, a serpent, and a robed woman standing around a little bearded man with a pointy chin. "What's this, Aesop's Fables?" he asked, waving the book in his hand. Glancing around, he noticed several of the books with similar themes. One picture in particular caught his eye, like a twisted Celtic circle thing made out of a tree. For some reason it seemed vaguely familiar.

"It's the Librarian's private collection," Emily huffed, adjusting her glasses. "I should have known it was you."

"Hey, I'm trying to be nice. See?" Brett handed her the books back in a neat pile. "I can be nice every once in awhile."

"Right, right." Emily seemed preoccupied. She took a deep breath, eyes closed, and when she opened them again she was her normal, stiff, acerbic self. "I apologize, Brett, for my unfortunate and misdirected outburst of vitriolic sentiment. I should not have maligned your chivalrous attempts to offer assistance."

Brett glowered. She always had to use huge words, when regular sized-ones would do. Brett always got the vague feeling that Emily had a personal distaste for him, though he wasn't sure why. Or maybe it was the knowing way she was staring at his bandages, like she knew exactly what was under them, and didn't like it. Either way, he always felt a bit uneasy around her.

"Are you okay? You look pretty banged up?" Emily said. She nodded to herself, "Just went to see Adelaide? That girl is amazing."

"Um, sure." Brett said awkwardly. "Do you, I don't know, want help with this stuff?" Why did I say that? Brett thought in disgust. Now I'm going to have to help her carry all this crap.

"No thank you, I'll be fine for the moment." Emily seemed to hesitate for a moment. "You could do something else for me though." She held one book out from the stack, a small, leather-bound thing. It had faded, soft yellow pages and creaked slightly in his hand. "You don't mind breaking a few rules, do you?"

Brett bristled. "Come on, Emily, give me a break."

Emily glanced at his bandages and snorted. "Obviously." She lowered her voice, glancing around to make sure they weren't overheard. A couple of seniors were laughing about something just down the hall, but otherwise they seemed to be alone. Looking straight into Brett's eyes, Emily said slowly, "I guess I forgot that one when the books fell. Clumsy of me." She dropped the book with a little plot between them. "I'm sure if somebody found it in the hall, they could take it back to the library in a couple days, saying where they picked it up."

Brett stared at her. "Are you asking me to steal this book for you?" He whispered, "Isn't this a bit too cloak and dagger."

Annoyance flashed across her face. "Brett, just pick it up."

Rolling his eyes, Brett grabbed the book, and gestured to hand it back to Emily.

"No, don't try to hand it back! Oh, you are hopeless at this," she grimaced. "Brett, have you ever tried lying to the Librarian? Have you ever met anybody who could get away with lying to her?"

"Not really." Brett shrugged. "But I'm not in the library too much."

"Well, take it from me, it doesn't work. You know; you might understand better than most that sometimes things aren't always what they seem, am I right?" Emily said almost casually.

Brett shrugged, giving nothing away, a cocky grin on his face. "Sure," he agreed without agreeing. He looked into Emily's eyes steadily, and she turned away, seeming a little confused.

"Anyways, just talk to Levi. He'll understand."

"Yeah, whatever." Brett shifted his feet, indicating his desire to go. "You should probably get going or the Librarian will start where you're at."

As she hurried away, Brett glanced down at the book in his hand. On the leather cover was another tree, and the title Prophecies of the Volva. He nearly started snorting, his face quickly turned from red to white, and he tucked it quickly under his arm. He didn't want anybody seeing what she'd given him.

Adelaide

“You should really go to hospital to have this looked at.” Adelaide said as she used a clamp and cotton swab to wipe away the blood and clean the wound on Brett’s chest and arm.

Brett nodded mutely as he let the chastisement wash over him. He sat on the hard bench bed that they used for doctor offices. Brett decided to go to the sports medicine room instead of the nurse’s office. He told himself that it was closer and more familiar but in reality he knew it was because he wanted to see Adelaide. He had thought it would be such a good idea to have Adelaide look at his wounds now he just felt like an idiot. A very happy, and contented idiot.

Adelaide LeBeaux was in Brett’s opinion the prettiest sophomore around. She had an exotic unearthly beauty about her, with hair such a pale blonde it almost seamed white. Striking eyes that in the right light turned violet. Pale white skin that almost seemed to glow. Quite honestly she looked like an angel. And when she came to treat you on the field after you were injured you almost didn't mind that you got hurt.

Adelaide wasn't the school nurse and it was really only luck that she was there by herself at all. Adelaide was the assistant to the sports medicine teacher and she had become so her freshman year. To say she was talented at medicine was an understatement. A lot of the players on the football team, and from Brett had heard from other teams as, well all agreed that Adelaide had more talent for medicine then the sports medicine instructor and the school nurse combined.

“How did you get this anyway?” Adelaide said working on the bite on Brett’s arm. “It looks like some kind of animal attacked you.”

“Ya, it was a umm… big dog.” Brett said. For some reason his brain wasn’t working so well. “Animals don’t seem to like me all too much. Well except raptors, I seem to get along with them okay.”

“Raptors?” Adelaide replied. “Oh you mean birds.”

“Well raptors more refer to birds of prey, like eagle’s hawks and owls.” Brett always felt a little like a nerd when he talked about birds. But it was the only subject besides sports that he knew a lot about. And right now he would almost say that he won the nerd competition to keep talking to Adelaide, well maybe not that.

“Well I’m really worried about this dog bite. I didn’t think dogs attacked for no reason.” Adelaide continued now focused back on Brett’s wounds. “The wound looks clean but did you notice anything about the dog? Did it look and act healthy? Did you see any excess drool around the mouth?”

“No nothing like that. It seemed really healthy just really really angry.” Brett momentarly got lost in thought. Why was the monster so angry? Why was he being attacked all the time? What was the strange place he kept going to? Camdon said more were coming. More of what? So many questions and he didn’t have any answers.

“Hey are you alright?” Adelaide was only a couple of inches from his face staring deeply into his eyes. Brett momentarily startled jumped back and immediately regretted it. So close and he ruined it. She had smelled… nice.

“No I’m fine.” He managed to strangle out of his tight throat.

“Are you sure?” Adelaide pressed. “You looked really worried about something.

“It’s fine.” Brett said “it’s my own problem.”

“Oh, is that so?” Adelaide said beginning to wrap his arm and torso with gaze. She was very quick. Her touch was light and gentle. She smiled slightly as she asked another question. “Are you an idiot Brett?”

“Well I try not to be.” Brett said carefully, trying not to be offended by the question. Man she had a pretty smile.

“Good, because only idiots refuse to get help when they’re in trouble.” She finished wrapping his arm and stood back to look at her work. “Okay all done. Put your shirt back on and promise me that you will go see a doctor.”

“Okay.” Brett mumbled as he pulled his ruined shirt over his head.

“And Brett?” Adelaide said as Brett was about to go out the door.

“ya.” Brett answered turning around and waiting for her to continue.

“You should really find someone to help you when you’re in trouble. The star quarterback can’t handle everything. There’s a reason why you have a team around you and it’s just not you on the field.”

Not Emily

"No, Levi." Brett shook his head. "Nobody can know but the two of us. Not even my family knows."

"Not even if she can help you make sense of what's going on?" Levi asked. 

"She? Who are you thinking of... Emily?? No way," Brett said. "She doesn't even like me." 

"Emily likes everybody," Levi said. "And she's really smart, you know. I didn't even have to say who I was thinking of. You thought of her right away too." Levi started following back to the school. the more excited he got, the bigger his hand motions became, but he still kept his voice low. "You're going to want to think up a story for that arm, by the way." 

"Dude, I'm not telling Emily anything. She's your friend, not mine." Brett still didn't notice any pain. It's not that he wasn't aware, in a peripheral way, that he'd been injured. It just didn't bother him at all. But at least this would give him the opportunity to visit the nurses office.

"One time I asked her about the Chinese ships that were supposed to have come to the Americas way back before Columbus," Levi said, ignoring what Brett said completely, "and she gave me pages and pages of stuff, pictures and citations and everything, all in a couple hours. She just knew exactly where to look. I'm telling you, she knows pretty much anything. I bet if we asked her, she'd be able to pull up a couple other cases of people like you. Unexplained stuff is her favorite." 

"Wait, you think there could be others like me?" Brett asked. He felt a little uneasy about that. So far, anything that Brett had faced went down without too many issues. But if he ever ran up against someone like himself, someone who constantly had to keep his real strength in check? Brett didn't say it, but he'd always felt like some sort of superhero, an avenging angel or something, meant to fight monsters. That's what he did, all the time. Somehow, the thought of others like him made him feel smaller. 

"Of course you wouldn't be the only one, Brett. If their are as many monsters as you say, constantly giving you grief, than I just bet that you can't be the only hero. Otherwise, wouldn't more people notice the monsters?" Levi said, sounding utterly convinced of his own logic. 

"Still, I don't want to tell Emily the Weird," Brett said. Levi glared at him for it, but Brett didn't care. It was his life, and his secret. "I don't care what she knows. I don't want her to know about me. I don't want her adding me to her collection of 'strange encounters'. I got more than enough weirdness in my life as it is." 

"But aren't you even curious to know how you got to be this way?" Levi asks. 

"I doubt anybody really knows how we get to be what we are," Brett said. "No Emily. I'm trusting you on this, Levi."

"Fine," Levi grumbled. "I'll just have to try to figure it out on my own." 

"That's what I've been doing for the past five years," Brett said, grinning. "Seems like my whole life sometimes didn't even start until then." 

"Five years?" Levi sounds surprised. "I didn't think it'd been going on that long."  

"The first time I didn't fight anything. I just saw it. I was on an airplane, and I looked out the window, and their it was, an eagle the same size as the plane. An eagle the size of a Boeing 747. It swooped right past us, and one of the little kids a few seats ahead of me started yelling, but nobody else noticed. Too busy sleeping or watching the in-flight movie to see what was right next to them." Brett thought often about the strangely immense intelligence he'd seen in the eye of the bird. It had kept pace with the plane for awhile, almost like it was waiting for him to notice it. Then, when he had, the eagle had swooped away. 

"Roc," Levi said confidently, "Giant birds like that are called Rocs. If you'd talked to Emily, you'd know what it was already." 

"Dude, shut up about Emily already," Brett growled. "I don't care what she knows, I don't want her nose in my business." He made a mock swing at Levi, who dodged it, grinning. "Anyways, I know what a roc is. I looked them up right after I saw the eagle. Wikipedia said they were from Madagascar, and this thing didn't look like that. It looked more... I don't know, more like it was used to cold weather. Northerly, or something." 

They were almost back inside the school. As Brett opened the doors, Levi asked, "And that was the first time?" 

"Yeah," Brett answered, "Although to be honest things didn't really start showing up on my doorstep until we moved to here."