The librarian was awoken by the sound of her mobile phone going off. It took her a few moments to recognise where she was and what the funny noise was. By the time she finally recognised that the sound was coming from the device jacked into the wall, it had stopped ringing.
She pushed herself away from the desk, letting out a soft groan as she did so. It had not been the first time she had fallen asleep sprawled over her desk and if she was honest with herself, it probably would not be the last. That did not make it anymore uncomfortable though when it happened.
The tea, of course, was cold. However it helped swill away the odd taste in her mouth and come around enough to recognise what point she had been at in her work before she had finally drifted off. Sorting it any further would have to wait though. Not many people had her number and looking at the time she knew exactly who it was who had called her.
She scrambled for her phone, embarrassment settling in as she redialled the number, “Hi Miranda.” She babbled at her boss as she shot up the stairs to get into fresh clothes and quickly wash, “I’m sorry, I overslept, I can be in in ten minutes.”
“Don’t. Head down to the park instead.” Miranda’s tone was clipped and worried, “You remember Mikey?”
“The American kid who got lost?” Twilight asked, confused, pausing in her attempt to shuck one pair of trousers in order to don another, “Yeah.”
“He’s wandered off again. Vanished some point yesterday evening.” Miranda told her, “We’ve got search parties looking but they need more help. The forest is huge after all and you seem to be the only one who can traverse it without getting lost.”
“I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.” Twi grimaced slightly as she replied, not quite ready to tell her boss that the reason that she could get around the forest so easily was because she was on good terms with the faeries and dryads who lived there, “I need to get changed and then I’ll shoot down on my bike.”
“Thanks Aella.” Miranda dropped the call. Twilight cursed and got ready at record speed before unchaining her bike and shooting down to the park in the centre of the village.
There was a large crowd there, including a lot of police officers. Twilight was not surprised as she pulled up. People went missing in the woods all the time. They always turned up a few hours to a couple of days later, but this was an international incident. This was not just the usual case of someone wandering off and not coming back.
For one the forest did not actually stretch far enough to reach the fancy holiday camp that Mikey’s parents were staying at. He would have had to wander seven or eight minutes down the road to end up there. Not only that but no one had seen the child leave the camp and there had been people in the gateways for most of the night. There had not been a soul on the roads according to the guards and they would have noticed an eight year old wandering off alone.
Mikey’s parents were not any help. The mother was inconsolable and the father was loud and rude as he bellowed at everyone and anyone within range. However Twilight’s arrival did not go unnoticed. When she pulled off her helmet he glared at her and stormed over. The student librarian, seeing the oncoming storm, quickly chained up her bike and was just putting her helmet away under the seat when he reached her and loomed over her, glaring.
“This is your fault, isn’t it?” He demanded of her, grabbing her collar as he snarled in her face, “You encouraged him! Told him tales of things living in the woods! Told him to run away!”
“I,” Twilight drew herself to her full height and ripped herself free of his grip, glowering back, “Didn’t tell him any such thing! He found my library when you let him wander off yesterday and was reading a book to the children when you picked him up. I never once mentioned things living in the woods. It’s not my fault, sir,” she spat the last word, “If you can’t keep an eye on your own son.”
“How dare you...” The guy tried to swing for her but Twilight had been expecting it and honestly did not blame him for it as she ducked and twirled away. The huge, bulky, rather rotund American was under a lot of stress and while he should not threaten her, she did not blame him for taking it out on the first person to snap back at him. Not when his son was missing.
Besides it was probably better that he went for her rather than one of the other villagers. He was no fast enough to hit her, not when she regularly dodged faebeasts and hedgehounds and bogeymonsters. He was laughably slow compared to them. He could swing for her all he liked and it would not matter. She would not attack back unlike some of the less patient residents of the village.
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