Take Out

            “So how was school today?” Valarie Bingham said setting groceries down on the counter and looking over at Brett. Brett quickly got up to help her.

            “Nothing much happened today. You know same old same old. Just class and practice that’s it.” Brett’s mom nodded as she put some apples and vegetables in the fridge.

            “Oh okay, so just a regular boring day then?” she asked still putting away the foodstuff she had gotten.

            “Yep pretty much.” Brett said. An uncontrollable guilty feeling attacked him when he thought of what had happened with Levi but anger quickly snuffed it out.

            “So nothing to say, oh, to make you wear those bandages on your arms?” this time Brett’s mom looked right at him with those piercing gray eyes that reminded him of the birds that he took care of. “Or are you just wearing them for fun?”

            Crap Brett thought he had completely forgotten about the bandages. He couldn’t lie to his mom. She had taught him better than that. She was a park ranger and was gone for most of the day but she always seemed to see everything that Brett tried to hide as soon as she got home. In Brett’s mind she was the best mom in the world and his best friend. But he couldn’t drag her into this craziness he couldn’t do that to her. It wouldn’t be right, it wouldn’t be fair. She would worry about him more then she already did. Brett knew it wasn’t easy for her to raise him practically by herself. He didn’t want to add to her load.

            “Oh just something that happened at school. Adelaide fixed it up for me, it doesn’t even hurt.” Brett said turning to put some cans on the higher shelves. The worry melted from his mother’s face replaced by curiosity and amusement.

            “Now this isn’t the Adelaide is it? The one that you are madly in love with?” Valarie asked.

            “what!? Mom! I never said I liked Adelaide?” Brett said taken aback.

            “You didn’t have to kiddo. You talk in your sleep.” She said turning and winking at him. ”mmm, I feel like a movie tonight. That way you can tell me all about Adelaide. Did you feed the birds, and is your homework done?”

            “ya I feed the birds and my homework’s done.” Brett shook his head and smiled. “Don’t think you can get information out of me so easy. I’m a locked vault.”

            “We’ll see about that. I ordered some chines for us and it should be here soon. Can you finish putting things away I’m going to check up on the raptors?” Brett mom asked already heading for the door.

            “Sure mom. I’ll take care of it.” Brett said. His mother was then gone the back door swinging shut behind her.

The backyard to their house was mostly just a long run of aviaries. Along with being a ranger Brett’s mother rehabilitated Raptors in their backyard. Brett was just putting the last can away when there was a knock on the front door. Grabbing some spare cash from the lucky jar that they had on top of the fridge he went to go pay for dinner. As he got closer to the door the bell rang again accompanied by loud banging.

“Shish what’s your problem man I’m coming?” Brett said as he turned the handle and opened the door. It wasn’t a deliveryman on the doorstep. Wet and shaking with rage from head to foot stood Emily Weird. Her eyes were red and she looked angrily up at Brett.

“You’re an idiot.” She said simply holding up a bloody shirt and a piece of paper.

The Hunt

Vragi, Rhod, and Sporhunda had been trailing the small one for the past 7 hours, ever since Vragi had gotten back to his den. The Great One would have been displeased if he'd done otherwise. Besides, the blood of Utskjar, known as Camdon to the mortals, would be avenged. 

The large one, the demigod, was dangerous. Utskjar had been Vragi's second in command, a patient hunter and powerful warrior. That a lone demigod, practically unarmed, had killed him was incredible. Hunting him required caution and not a little cunning. 

The small one, the friend of the demigod, was strange. He had accepted a token from the witch, but it was twisted. Normally such a thing would have hidden the manlings scent from Vragi and his pack, but upside it brought the manling's scent into vivid focus. He smelled of growth, of the green vitality and and strange ozone charcoal that marked the witch's amulet, and he also carried the dangerous, blood-drenched scent of the demigod. Underneath was the human smell, the markers that told Vragi the manling had eaten nothing for lunch and a roll for dinner, a metallic woody edge that spoke of a guitar. Vragi could smell a the night on him and knew he spent hours in under the stars. He smelled the faint touch of alcohol on his skin, probably from someone he lived with, the spatter of Utskjar's blood that bespoke one who knew more of the morning's events than would be expected in a mortal. Under it all, a single strand of scent warned Vragi away. There was something, some scent he couldn't quite place. He could smell more the absence of the smell than its presence, like a memory of something remembered. Vragi hesitated. 

No. This one would do nicely. The large one would come to rescue his friend, and in the meantime, perhaps some information could be gleaned from the small one.

The small one seemed preoccupied. Vragi doubted the manling would have noticed if they'd walked right behind him in wolf form, but he and his pack kept to the shadows anyways, trailing far behind, keeping track of him more by scent than by sight. 

Vragi could smell the path the boy always walked home, down into the ranker parts of the city, down where trees disappeared from the boulevards to be replaced by beer cans. The roads here were darker, the city lights flickering vainly against the darkness. 

Vragi smiled. They were close enough to hear the manling's heartbeat now, close enough to smell the warmth of his blood surging beneath his pale, thin flesh. At his silent signal, Rod and Sporhunda circled around, cutting the boy off. 

He was lost in his own world, headphones in, more blind in his own thoughts than in the shadows that obscured the night. 

Vragi felt a moment of regret that this hunt wouldn't end in a kill, but he consoled himself by imagining the frantic worry the demigod would feel when he discovered his friend missing, a bloody shirt left on his door, and the note that would be his doom. 

Playground

            “Beep, beep, beep, the number you are trying to reach…” Emily slammed her thumb against the off button. She wanted to throw the phone on the ground and step on it. She wanted to throw back her head and scream. She wanted to get rid of this worry in the pit of her stomach.

            She had been trying to get ahold of Levi for the past hour. At first she just got his mailbox but now she didn’t get anything. The tension had been building inside of her as soon as the Librarian and she had arrived home after school. They had started to unload the boxes of books and Emily was certain that any moment the Librarian would ask her where the Prophesies of the Volva was at.

            Finally she couldn’t take it anymore she had quickly made some excuse and slipped outside into the cool night air. Breathed a huge sigh of relief that she couldn’t quit keep in. Emily pulled out her cell phone and tried calling Levi. It rang for a while until his answering machine picked it up.

            “Hey this is Levi. Leave me a message after the tone. Toooooooooooooooone, just kidding it’s a beep.” Levi’s answering machine said with Levi’s voice growling out the tone. The phone beeped and Emily quickly left her message.

            “Levi I need to know if Brett gave you anything today.” She said turning around to make sure the librarian wasn’t there. Emily knew it was silly but she did those things because when you don’t they happen.

 Not wanting to go back to the house and chance Levi calling her back and having to talk in front of her guardian Emily headed down to the park. It was getting dark the sun kissing the tree tops. Emily sat down on the steps to a slide and waited. Finally impatience won over and she called Levi again. She left another message and then called him one more time for good measure. When he still didn’t pick up she decided to call Brett.

“Hey this is Brett, who’s this?”

“Brett this is Emily have you given Levi the book?” there was quit on the other end of the line. Then she head footsteps and a door swinging open then shut.

“How did you get my number?” Brett demanded from the other end. “You know what I don’t care. I gave your darn book to Levi. Stay out of my business. I’m not going to talk to you about it. I’m sure Levi already told you enough as it is. I can deal with the wolves and goblins on my own. And if any more wolves show up today I’ll handle it. I don’t need your help. Or his help! I can’t trust any of you anyway.” with that Brett hung up the phone.

Emily stared in shock at her phone. She had some inclination that Brett was more then what he appeared. He had about him an area of power. She had tried to keep her distance because along with the power she had felt conflict. It was like he drew conflict, just as a bee was drawn to the flower. While most people couldn’t feel that somewhere in there subconscious they knew it and stayed away. Along with the fact that Brett fit your typical jock mold, almost to a T. this among other things wouldn’t allow him to make too many friends with non-jocks. Levi on the other hand seemed immune to this. It was one of the reasons why Brett and Levi where such good friends, Emily speculate. Levi stuck around when others would leave.

Emily kept calling Levi’s phone. After about 20 minutes she began to get worried. After an hour she was frustrated worried and scared. She could feel it, something was not quite right. It felt like goose bumps over your arms. The stone the librarian had given Levi was both a blessing and a curse and she doubted very much that the librarian had told Levi about it.

It's Dangerous to go Alone. Here, Take This!

"Hey Brett, what's up?" Levi asked curiously.

Brett was already unzipping his backpack. He pulled a book out, keeping the cover hidden, and thrust it at Levi, who accepted it gingerly. "What the heck you studying there, Levi?" Brett said, "Female anatomy?" He said in a hurried whisper, ears burning red.

"What?" Levi looked the book over. It was bound in green leather, about the size of a paperback. Small dark stones like red amber studded the binding. The pages, when he flipped it open, were handwritten in beautiful, even calligraphy. Incredibly detailed sketches of symbols, mystic circles, and strange creatures dotted the pages and crowded the margins. "Hey Brett, where'd you get this? It's pretty cool!" The writing was small and so ornate it took him awhile to figure out what it was saying:

There Nidhogg sucks the corpses of the dead, the wolf tears men 

Understand ye yet, or what?

Further forward I see much; can I say of Ragnarok and the gods conflict? 

Brothers shall fight and slay each other; cousins shall kinship violate 

The earth resounds, the giantesses flee, no man will another spare.

"Hey, this is about Norse mythology!" Levi said excitedly. "Where did you say you got it?"

"What? Hand me that," Brett said. Levi handed it over, and Brett flipped through the pages. "Oh," he said in a slightly strangled voice. "I guess this is pretty cool."

"What'd you think it was Brett?" Levi asked curiously.

"You didn't read the cover? Look." Brett handed the book back, gesturing at a highly detailed, embossed Celtic tree. Beneath the tree were the words Prophecies of the Volva.

Levi laughed. "Oh yeah, I had the same reaction the first time I heard that. Emily told me that's the word for priestess in old German, or Norse, or whatever it was."

"Couldn't they have picked a better word?" Brett muttered to himself. "Emily stole it from the Librarian. Gave it to me in the hallway earlier."

"What?" Levi said curiously. "Why'd she do that? She could read any of the Librarian's books any time. The Librarian's sort of her mom, you know. Well, not really. It's difficult to explain." He continued flipping through the pages. On one, a great wolf-like creature, looking eerily like the kid-monster Brett had killed, stood quietly while a viking man with a winged helmet stuck his hand in its mouth. Twine wrapped around the monster's legs. "Hey Brett, does this one look familiar to you?"

Brett took the book back. "Yeah, it does." He kept flipping the pages. Another picture showed five grotesque, wide-mouthed little men leaping around a huge black cauldron. "And these look really close to the goblins I fought last year." Brett looked up, suspicion in his eyes. "You talked to her."

"What? No!" Levi said quickly, but he could see Brett didn't believe him.

"I trusted you!" Brett kept his voice to a whisper, but Levi shrank back. Brett's face was angry-red, his fists clenched. He flung the book to the floor, where it smacked and slid a short distance away.

"Dude, no I didn't!" Levi's own face started turning red. "I can't believe you would think that!"

"Then how does Emily know exactly what book to give me that has exactly the right kind of stuff in it?" Brett's asked bitterly. "Tell me that, huh?"

"Emily just knows things! It's like a superpower!" Levi shot back, "Or, maybe she just thought I'd like to read it. I don't know! Come on, you gotta believe me."

"No," Brett said, turning away. "That was a crap move, Levi." He started walking quickly away.

Levi was left, mouth open, standing on the steps, book down the staircase below him. Slowly he went down the stairs, picked up the book, and stuck it in his own backpack. He didn't know what to do, so instead he did nothing. After a couple more hours, when the school lights started turning off, he decided he should probably head home.

Levi didn't notice the two forms shadowing him on his way out.

Kissing Corner

Levi stared at the small green stone nestled in the palm of his hand. It was small but somewhat heavy with a smooth surface as if it had just been pulled from a river. The golden ruin glistened in the florescent light. Levi couldn’t help thinking how strange it had been when the librarian had given it to him.

Levi had never heard of the librarian giving anything to anybody. Of course he was just a freshman and so hadn’t heard everything in the schools gossip pipeline. But still he didn’t think people just went around handing out strange little stones from another age to someone that just helped take things to their car. It was weird and creepy and he just wanted to throw it away. Yet he couldn’t, he wanted to say that the reason was because she might have meant it as a loan and the librarian would be wanting it back, but the real reason the reason that scared and crept Levi out even more was that he couldn’t. His mind would scream no and the muscles in his arm and hand wouldn’t let go of the little green stone. So he sat there staring at it wondering what he should do.

“Did you even go to class today?” Levis hand tightened reflexively around the stone and he had to force it open. He looked up into a pair of emerald green eyes. “I’ve already walked by you like three times and you didn’t even say hi. See if I give you the notes from geometry.”

“Sorry Holly it’s been an umm… weird day.” Levi gave her a cheesy little shrug and a smile, hoping that it would help his case.

Holly was really pretty; in a, I go hiking every day and collect my own pine nuts and berries kind of way. Okay she was gorgeous, and honestly Levi would have been more interested in her if her brothers didn’t scar the spit out of him. They were quit literally the giants of the school. Holly had the fieriest red hair of anyone Levi had ever seen and she wore it wild. It wasn’t curly more of a wavy bounce and it looked like she had just woken up. On most people it didn’t look good but for Holly it just fit. She was unusually tan for a redhead and it brought out a cute little line of freckles that run over her cheeks and across her nose.

“Oh.” Holly said winkling her face. “I had all of my weirdness come out last weekend. Well do you want to talk about it?”

She plopped down next to Levi. Levi hadn’t noticed before but she had a hall pass strapped to her wrist. As she was settling down Levi scooted over a little bit. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to sit next to her. He sat next to her all the time in geometry class. It was the spot that they were in that made him uncomfortable.

Levi had been sitting under one of the big stair cases. It was a split level staircase and was in a long hallway lined with lockers. Because of the stairs you had to be sitting down to be against the wall at the back and it was a little dark. For that reason couples would sit back here to make out. So it was now known around school as the kissing corner. Levi had sat down here to be alone. Sitting there next to Holly was making him a little uncomfortable.

“Um this might sound a little strange but how long have I been sitting here?” Levi asked.

“Well I saw you sitting here after 5^th period and…” she pulled out her phone to look at the time. “It’s almost the end of 7^th period. So that means schools almost out. So for as much as I know you’ve been sitting here for a couple of hours.”

“Oh” Levi said. He turned and stared at the carpet between his feet. For some reason it had become really interesting.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Holly asked leaning forward to look Levi in the face. As she did a small silver hammer necklace fell out of her shirt.

“No. Thanks though Holly I appreciate it. It’s not really my place to tell that’s all. And I was asked to keep it a secret.” Levi said guiltily.

“Oh, that’s okay then.” Holly said. She then just sat there not saying a word as minutes went by. Finally she stood up. “Well the bells about to ring I better go return this.” She said holding up the hall pass. “You’ll be in class tomorrow right?”

“Ya I’ll try to make it.”

“Good. It’s about time you take your own notes.” She said with a wink and headed off down the hall.

Levi sat there as the bell rang to signal the end of school. The hallway got loud with the sound of students grabbing there things and heading home. Finally the hall started to quit down as students headed home. Soon it was only Levi in the hall again. He was about to get up and leave when he looked down the Hall and saw Brett headed right for him.

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.”