Pastures of neatly trimmed green grass with pavement in between, brown benches carved from visibly fine wood with people occupying most of them, Tall maple trees scenting the air with a soft and sweet fragrance and dogs running around with their owners nearby... These are the scenes Elsie is greeted with as she regains consciousness, she takes a look around and the serene environment cleanses her eyes with refreshing beauty.
The tranquility is deceiving, a park completely untouched by the bizareness of the city almost like a safe haven, this coupled with a tiny portion of memory loss makes Elsie feel like she was only having a bad dream. She gets up from the couch, lodged in a bush a fair distance away to not get noticed, she walks slowly towards the park exit taking in the scenery and gazing at all the joyous faces, reaffirming that this indeed is reality; she steps out and notices a road occupied with cars and people roaming the streets as well as really tall buildings but not as shiny as the ones in Cairenia.
'Where am I?' she wonders to herself, before noticing a huge banner displaying a message 'Seeking a new life? Temporary settlement or sights to fascinate the eye? Look no further than Utopia Hotels & Resort - The perfect home from home.' the banner switches to a different message, now displaying 'Welcome to Venerden'. Elsie instantly recognises the name 'Venerden? I must be upstate!' Her eyes light up, renewed with vigour, she dashes forward and moves past a couple of blocks before stopping and looking around, she halts a stranger passing by and asks if she knows where the state library is, the stranger responds, directing her to take a turn at a corner near a stationery shop and go towards a print office with the library being located behind it.
'Thank you!' Elsie responds, with increasing hope she goes on a dash again, taking the corner and spotting the print office then going through a passage which leads to behind the office where she finds the library, large with a white and blue design and a huge logo of a book right at the top. She walks in and is greeted with a pleasant sight - finally, a library teeming with life, quiet but occupied with readers this brings a smile to Elsie's face, she then approaches the librarian at the front desk ready to ask 'the golden question' the librarian instantly looks up to her and offers her assistance.
'Good afternoon, may I help you?'
'Yes! I'm looking for a 'Book of silver thoughts' all the other libraries I went to didn't have it.' Elsie responds.
'Go to the fiction section on your left and check drawer B, should be there.'
'Thank you.'
She then goes to the book shelf she was directed to while wondering why the book is placed in the fiction section 'I thought the book of silver thoughts was a history book, guess it makes more sense for it to be fictional.' she then looks for a drawer marked with a 'B', she locates it and the book of silver thoughts instantly 'bingo!' excitement re enters her body as she turns through the pages and looks for the chapter she was on but she finds it missing, the entire chapter and all those that follow, the only ones remaining are off the human race and their supposed history.
Elsie then notices something of a pattern, all the pages are torn out from chapter 7 but the first pages of each chapter displaying the name and number all still remain. Elsie with an air of suspicion begins to inspect and investigate, trying to figure out why the pages were specifically ripped out from chapter 7 and stopped at 12 also why the first pages of each chapter weren't taken.
'Who could be doing this? And why? Why would anyone rip out pages from such a good book and just leave all the others like this? Elsie softly speaks out to herself before she hears someone holler out at her randomly.
'Psst! Psst!'
'Huh?' Confused she looks around to try and identify where the sound is coming from but she doesn't see anyone hinting that they want to be seen by her.
'Psst! Over here.'
Elsie then looks to the stairs on her right and sees a cat gesturing to her, she panics a bit out of sheer disbelief but the cat calls out to her again 'Relax I don't bite,ti's knowledge you seek huh? come right this way then.' Elsie now more curious than anything calms herself down and approaches the feline,richly coated in white fur, with stunning blue eyes, it points to a hidden passage under the stairs and utters to Elsie 'Follow me.'
Elsie does as told, as soon as they enter the passage the cat puts on a hat and introduces itself.
'Name's Franck. I can take you to where you need, the treasure you seek is but a distance away, concealed and locked up, ensuring no one unworthy can use nor find it with ease.'
'I'm sorry but I missed the part where a talking cat was normal, maybe we could start there.' Elsie responds with a look amazement.
'What's a cat?' Replies a confused Franck.
'A cat? You wanna know what a cat is?'
'Yes, yes do elucidate please.'
Elsie bursts into hysterical laughter 'You've absolutely got to be kidding me, just when I thought things could not get any weirder I stumble upon a talking cat with a hat, this cannot be real.'
'I'm not a cat.' Frank states with corrective intent in a light French accent.
'Oh yeah? then what are you 'Franck'?
'A guardian.'
'Of what exactly?'
'Your reality. See there are regions on this planet gorging with cosmic energy and if left unchecked they could bear cataclysmic repercussions... I along with a fair few others was placed in one of these regions to ensure no univited parties get attracted to this energy and use it in a way that could be harmful, we also ensure that it doesn't boil over and tear a hole through your reality, now that would be very bad trust me.
'Oh? And how does a cat prevent all this from happening?'
'As a guardian I have powers bestowed upon me far beyond your fathamobility.' Frank responds as he begins to walk towards a door labelled 'staff only'.
'Hey where are you going? Are you going steal a book from the staff collection cat guardian?' Enquires a still curious Elsie.
'No, I'm taking you to the book you desire, we're going to go through here there's a secret door that leads straight to the center of the library without being seen, there we can climb out the library to the rooftop and slide down a tunnel which will transport us to the west which is where we need to be. Of course no body actually knows this... such is the ignorant and clueless nature of the human race, no offence.'
'Okay, first of all ouch! second of all a tunnel? transport? where are we going? All I asked for was a book cat not a tour around your 'region.'
'Look you're either going to decide that you come with me and get your book or you go back to wherever it is you came from, judging from how naïve you are I can tell you're not local... I don't suppose the trip back home will be a pleasant one considering the transport shortages.
'Fine, fine... I'll go, but only if you promise you'll take me back home once I've got it.'
Franck nods 'Agreed.'
They both proceed to enter the staff library and Franck opens the secret door which takes them directly upstairs , the room is empty but filled with book shelves containing a plethora of different titles mainly of the conspiracy genre. Elsie takes a look around, visibly intrigued, meanwhile Franck tries to shift one of the shelves to uncover the ladder leading to the rooftop.
'I could use some help here.' cries out Franck.
'Why are the conspiracy books exclusively stacked up here, nobody wants to read them or someone doesn't want them to be read by anybody?'
'Hehe, clever one aren't you? We once had government scum come in our library telling about how these books brainwash the general public and that we need to put them away, so we brought them up here no one can acess them but we can still provide them on request, I mean who are we to keep knowledge away from knowledge seekers? Would be criminal.'
Elsie cracks a smile impressed by the nice gesture'
'That's really nice cat. You know, philosophy wouldn't look too bad on you.'
'Yeah,yeah now come help me with this.'
Elsie approaches the shelf and starts pushing with the cat when they hear footsteps closing in from the stairs and two voices in dialogue,Franck and Elsie begin to push the shelf harder trying to move it out of the way as quick as they can.
'Quick, quick, quick!' Franck hurriedly shouts to Elsie.
They successfully move the shelf to the side and Frank jumps to the ladder and scampers up to the top with Elsie following suit just as hastily. Two people then walk into the library, they both stop and stare at the exposed ladder and out of place bookshelf.
'What's that?' one of them enquires.
'Meh, janitor probably felt off today. Anyway we've got quite the plethora as you can see.' The second person responds with a slight indifference, seemingly a library worker fulfilling a request for a conspiracy book.
They then set their focus back to the tour of the hidden room filled with conspiracy books, Franck from the rooftop utters to Elsie as they eavesdrop on the conversation
'I told you so.'
Elsie then nods 'Wow, no kidding they really are ignorant.' They both get up and approach the tunnel disguised as an air vent, Frank lifts the lid off of it and explains to her before they slide down.
'The tunnel acts as a slide and goes all the way down, we're going to pass through underground and pop back out in a den which is my abode ... It's going to get dark and warm real fast so don't be alarmed, that'll all subside when we get to the den.'
'Right, all clear.' Elsie responds to Frank with both her thumbs up, indicating that she fully understands. Frank then moves to the vent and slides down the tunnel, Elsie follows shortly and they're hurled into a downward spiral quickly followed by darkness and increase in temperature before being thrown into a pile of scrambled yarn strings thickly stacked on top of each other. Upon landing, Elsie picks her head up takes a look around and sees plenty of yarn balls all over the place, this brings a smile to her face, she looks to Franck and teasingly questions him.
'Not a cat huh?'
'Oh mon Dieu.' Franck mutters to himself with a degree of annoyance as he shakes his head and facepalms before turning back to Elsie.
'You know, for someone after such a great power, you're amazingly irritating.'
'Hey look cat I'm only after a book, I don't know anything about a great power.'
'You fool, your obliviousness towards the nature of the book will put the people of this world in danger, more so than they already are!'
'Whoa, whoa whoa hold up... I didn't sign up for a journey to find a global instrument of power and what is this danger upon the people of the world you speak of? I haven't heard or seen anything that indicates that our planet is in harm's way.'
'Oh you haven't? Then explain to me the sudden shortages of resources people hardly cared to use before, the dissappearance of people at every city square and the annomal occurrences that go with. It may come off as innocuous at first but trust me it's only going to rise in magnitude, this realm is indeed in great danger and only we can stop it.'
Elsie's face pales out a bit as she reacts with shock to this news 'But my aunt... I told her I'd come back home soon,I have to go back to Cairenia, she's not safe.' Elsie stutters as she begins to panic.
'There's no time, Cairenia should be fully engulfed by the dark energy created by the newly emerged portals by now, if we don't find the book your mom and city could be gone forever.'
Elsie's pupils dilate as she begins to remember the events that transpired in the city capital and how she landed upstate, now trembling with fear she begins to question.
'Why? Why me? How??'
'Because you're the only pure soul that has sought after the book in the last 5000 years, and even though you may have done so indirectly, you still landed on a path which will take you there directly. As guardian of this region I've managed to fend off unwavering interest from many unpure souls chasing after the book over the years but when I found out a pure soul was after it I had to divert you on this path because a greater danger looms, I can't vanquish it on my own, I need your help Elsie.' - 'Once the convergence is in full effect there'll be a whole new world of threat upon us, we need to act quick... The Book of Silver Thoughts is our best chance at protecting this planet and its people.'