Chapter 7 - The myriad species

Finding us a place to sit, Urethia plopped herself down, keeping me on her.

She then handed me the book.

"Here. If you need any help translating, just ask for help. Since it's a children's picture book, there shouldn't be that many words anyway. Don't worry about the accuracy of the information, they update the books yearly."

With that, she laid her head back onto the couch before closing her eyes, a moment later, I heard a snore coming out her nose, soon followed by more.

'What did I even expect? This girl being useful? What next, will the sun turn purple?' With a shake of my head, I ignored her.

Since I couldn't read yet, I was content to just look at the pictures. I didn't really need to know the specific names of the species, just the pictures should be fine. With the knowledge of my past life I should be able to connect the dots.

With a tremor of excitement I opened the book.

The first page was a few words I didn't recognize and a picture of a little elf with wings. I assumed those were Faeries/fairies? They didn't have that much different than modern assumptions of them, a prime example of them would have been tinkerbell. The only differences I saw were that their eyes were a little bigger, ears a little longer and they had a sharp feeling to it. The fairy in the picture had a devious grin plastered on her face. Looking as if she had hit the most devious prank known to fairykind.

Shaking my head in amusement, I turned the page.

Flip

There sat 2 dark skinned elves.

There weren't many differences between the 2 elves, save the eye shapes, and height. 

The elf on the left was much taller, had a muscular physique and runic looking markings running down their entire body.

The elf on the right however, seemed a feet and a few inches smaller than the other elf, with a lanky physique and runes on their eyes instead of their bodies.

I assumed that they were both members of the same species, or maybe different species placed next to one another due to close common ancestors. 

Wait. On the thought of common ancestors, did evolution even occur on this planet? Or were these races artificially created by some higher power?

'Another mystery for another day I guess.'

Flip

Flipping the page, I ran into another pair of elves. It seemed the book was going race by race, with the elves starting the book off. It was an elven book after all so no surprises there.

This time the elves I saw were not similar all that much.

With the one of the right bearing a pinkish hue on its skin and pink hair, and unsurprising pink eyes, ears exaggerated as fuck like some elves in certain pieces of fiction. No runic markings and a slender and slim physique.

The one on the left were the typical elves I was used to seeing since I had arrived in this world. Light skin, hair of lighter coloration, blue eyes and slightly long and pointy ears, again, no markings. They looked like the elves most commonly found in media minus the tree hugging characteristics, I think, I haven't left the palace to really say something on that.

Flip

Flipping the page, I was met with two HUMANS.

'It seems that even here, humanity is still alive.'

The two humans were basically the same just with different facial features. The one on the left, had long eyelashes, and thick facial hair, their skin complexion seemed to have a "sandy" kind of vibe. 

The one on the right seemed to have some elven features- the media elves- and where white. That's pretty much it.

Flip

With a flip of the page I saw another 2 humans being displayed.

The one on the left had dark features and skin, however, their hair wasn't the thick and curly hair I knew and loved, but a mixture of curly and wavy. 

The one on the right barely even looked human. More like humanoid, from the illustration and comparison with other human charts, they were massive, standing twice as tall as the other humans. They had thick teeth, and a broad nose. Their hear was thick and coily and their body looked like an experienced bodybuilder.

Flip

The next page displayed what I assumed were orcs.

The one on the left showed the typical orc, A green mean beast of a thing, with the illustrations I could see that they were 5 times the size of a man, with the physique of a body weight world champion, if that champion had been on the strongest roids known to man since the time of his birth. 

The one on the right looked like the hulk. Making them look like a puny version of the one on the left. Their musculature however made them look unreal, from the illustration I could see that their arm biceps were literally the size of a man's waist.

Flip

Turning the page once again, I was greeted by a disgusting little thing. With gray nigh translucent skin hugging tightly to its bones, it look malnourished. Its eyes were big and white, making them appear blind. Its ears were big and floppy, akin to an elephants. It's nose crooked like a witch. All in all it looked like a goblins' uglier brother. Looking to the right, I found the page blank, meaning that this was the only species in its branch.

Flip

Turning the page once again my nose scrunched up and I almost retched. 

What greeted my eyes was a humanoid spider. With the body of a man and the face of a spider. It had limbs akin to a spider attached to its back. The face was ticking me off. It looked like the zoomed-in image of a regular spider. Luckily, it didn't seem to possess any more species.

Flip

I flipped the page.

And like the spider, what met my eyes was a humanoid snake/reptile.

It had the face of a snake and the body of a man. There wasn't much to say there.

Flip

A giant. Like Giant, Giant. They were not as big as the kaijus shown in movies, but they were big enough that the orcs I had thought so big to appear as a toddler in comparison to them. Their faces seem a mix between ape and human, with fur?

What I assumed to be fur covering its entire body. It kinda looked like the beast titan from AOT. 

FLIP

Turning the page and I felt my heart thrum against my chest.

What I saw was what I imagined, a dragon. This one had two pages with images.

On the left was the typical western dragon, supreme within the hierarchy. With 4 scaly legs and wings that stretched for meters on end. I hastily looked at the size comparison. What I saw made my eyes gape and for me to slightly drool.

They were big, very very big. Their bodies excluding the wings already had size that exceeded the giants. With the wings, I felt like they had the capability to blot out the fucking sun. THE SUN! 

With a shaky breath I looked towards the right, seeing an eastern dragon amongst the drawn clouds. 

My breath was caught in my throat.

If the western dragon gave off a sense of doom, ferocity, and inevitability. The eastern dragon gave off a sense of majesty and grandness, as if they were the sole rightful heir to everything in creation.

They were longer than the western dragons but thinner. With no wings attached to their back.

Seeing that there was still a page left I flipped to it in excitement. If it came after the dragons then it had to be epic.

FLIP

".."

I almost threw the book in anger. All that excitement, for this?

What greeted my eyes were two short, burly, and hairy men.

That was it. I wasn't even going to attempt to try and gauge more.

I had already deemed them as dwarfs.

With a sigh I thought.

'Was that it? Most likely not. Since this was a children's book, they probably had only added the basic species on it. Maybe even only the ones found on this continent.'

'Wait. Are there even other continents to begin with? Shit, I should look into a map of the world soon. As for now, I'm too tired.'

With a yawn I shook Urethia awake. The girl had been asleep the entire time, not once waking up even though I had been here for what felt like hours.

"Umrghm" she yawned as she stretched.

'What even is that? Who yawns like that?'

"Are you finished?" She said as she continued to stretch, drowsiness still in her voice.

"Yes. Do we still have time to explore?"

"Hm. Let me check."

She then pulled out a pocket watch. Before jumping up in a hurry,

"Hell no, we don't!" 

"We exceeded our time allowed by an hour!"

She quickly ran out with me in her hands, not even noticing she had just cursed in front of me.

Saying a quick bye to Cleon we exited the library. 

Looking at the library fading in the distance I thought.

'I'm definitely going to turn into some kind of book nerd, the amount of times I'm going to be coming here is about to be crazy. I should hurry up and learn how to read.