The “Borrower”

From Lira:

It seemed like only moments ago that I walked out of that strange gallery. I was thinking of the Awenian skyline, trying to imagine I was back there, and it seemed a gust of wind came up, and I had that dizzying feeling I am learning to associate with portal travel and Realm-hopping.

It was dark, and the mist rose as it often does, but the skyline looked hopeful. Then again, all mountainous skylines look hopeful.

I took a moment to consider my surroundings.

It was dark, but it was also beautiful. Yes; I am aware these two terms are not mutually exclusive. And… where did these horns come from? Why does something weird happen to me every time I hop a Realm? I mean, Realm-hop. Somehow, “hop a realm” sounds a bit… I don’t know but it doesn’t sound like something I would say. I also seemed to have acquired a nose ring, but I’d always kinda wanted one of those. Horns, hm. I’m not so sure about horns. At least there was some pink on them.

I seemed to be on some kind of an airship. And by some kind, I mean huge. You could fit a whole extended family of pixies in here and still have room for a human hot tub party somewhere. And possibly a university library.

It was a wonder, surely. I tentatively decided to give myself a wee tour… but that’s when I heard singing. I mean, some might call it singing? There was definitely loud rhyming language involved, but the tones were, well. Let’s just say they were not “dulcet”.

O we are the fearless pirates of the sky
And if you stand against us
We will stab you in the eye
With a fork, with a fork, with a mighty, mighty fork
We will stab you in the eye with a fork!

Sadly, despite the tunelessness, it was a catchy song. I found myself humming along. It took me a full half minute to realise I should probably seek out the originator of this masterpiece and explain myself.

She was on the bow, so it took a while to get there. And trust me: the words of this song get much bawdier as the verses go on. I was embarrassed, but the tune was damn catchy, once I extrapolated it from the off-tune but very enthusiastic singing.

‘Avast’! she cried when she saw me approaching (and if I’m honest, she didn’t even notice me ’til I was only about an arm’s length away from her). ‘Explain yourself! For this is my ship, ye waify pixie’! She paused for dramatic effect. ‘And while ye’re explaining yerself, explain that mechanical firefly over there! It’s not even connected to the ship! Is it some kind of flanking ship, or do sky barnacles really come that big’?

I was speechless. I’m often speechless. I opened my mouth, and nothing came out. Luckily (maybe?), she chose to continue with her song, at least for now.

O if ye see us coming, walk the plank!
Or you’ll be playing apples with our shanks!
I don’t know what that means, but apples taste better than beans
And you don’t want to play apples with our shanks!

Then, she stopped.

Have you ever seen one of those films where they do that spiky music and the same frame gets closer and closer? That’s what the next few seconds felt like.

I cleared my throat.

Her fingernails were, um. Really sharp. ‘Well, lassie’?

‘I am a Chimerical Librarian, not a lassie’, I said. Isn’t Lassie a dog? I think my cultural education must have been lacking. Should fix that if I can find my way back to the Library. Well, to any library.

‘What in the name of sweet Miskatonic fucks is a Chimerical Librarian’?

I blinked. At least she seemed more intrigued than enraged. ‘I am a magically created being, brought into my home Realm by Her Fae Majesty Gwyneth of Awenia, in order to curate and catalogue her Great Library’.

Now it was her turn to be silent for a few seconds. Secretly, I enjoyed them.

‘Well’. She coughed and spat … something over the ship’s rail. Luckily we were too high in the air for me to codify whether or not it fell with a plop, a clank, or a ping. ‘No matter what ye are, I repeat: this is my ship, and I must ask ye again: Explain Yourself’!

I cleared my throat again. She was a lot bigger than I was, but there was a sort of beauty about her that made me want to offer to carry her books home from lessons. If she read books. Or had lessons. Clearly, we came from two different worlds, even if we’d ended up in the same one for at least this span of time. ‘I got lost, you see’.

She tapped one of those scarily long nails on the rail. Although she said nothing, I could tell she wanted me to hurry it up.

‘On our way back from the Great Faire. And then I fell into a Realm where the lost things go, but I didn’t want to be lost, so now I am trying to find my way back to Awenia, or at least back to HFM Gwyneth, although I do not know where she is and she does not seem to be in Awenia itself. But even back to Awenia would be better than falling into pianos or getting lost in the Land of Oz, or turning into a statue’.

Her rosy brow furrowed. ‘So ye’ll not be trying to hijack my airship’?

Was this really her airship? I swallowed. ‘Is this’, I asked (possibly not too delicately) ‘actually your airship? I mean, where’s your crew? And for that matter, if you’re a pirate, where’s your parrot’? She also seemed to be without the usual pirate accoutrements of a peg-leg and a hook where one of her hands should be, but, having learned a little bit about tact (I looked it up in the dictionary), I did not mention the peg-leg or the hook. ‘Cool eye-patch, though’.

‘Ach, come down to the main deck with me, Library, and I’ll tell ye the whole story’.

We took the steep stairs down to the main deck. ‘My name’s Lira’, I said, from about eight steps behind her (I did mention she was tall, right?).

‘Lira, Lira, Mo-Mira, Po-Nana-Po Pira, Fee-Fi-Fo Fira, Lira’!

Was this some strange pirate language? ‘Just Lira; thanks’.

*Be-Decked with Roses (See what I did there?)*

‘Lunaria’, she replied, once we got down to the admittedly gorgeous main deck of the ship, beside which there was no railing. I inched toward the middle in hopes she could not just throw me overboard from here. ‘And I didn’t steal the ship. I … borrowed it’.

‘What do you mean you borrowed it’? I asked. ‘What could you possibly need with a ship this size? I mean, it is pretty and all’.

‘Glorious, ain’t she’? Lunaria crowed as if she had built the ship herself. ‘I do intend to return it, but I got to have a big ship to get the band back together. They’ll not come aboard if the ship’s too small, ye see’.

‘The … band’, I said, hesitantly. Don’t mention her singing, Lira. Don’t mention her singing…

‘And you! You rude little Lira: how dare you ask me about me parrot? Poopy was a beautiful Norwegian Blue’… Her lip quivered. ‘He karked it, and thank you for reminding me’.

I had the urge to back away, but then she’d have a better chance to throw me overboard. ‘I love these rose carvings’, I said, having recently learned that changing the subject could sometimes get one out of trouble in a conversational situation.

‘Like I told ye, she’s glorious, aye? I was just gien her a swatch, I swear, but then her crew scuppered, so I cooried in and that’s the whole story’.

I had no idea what she’d just said. But I nodded. ‘And your crew’?

‘Oh, they’re scattered to the sunrise and back, so this wee ship will give me a quick way to get them all back, if they’re still kicking’.

I nodded again.

‘Not much of a chatterbox, are ye’?

I made a mental note to look up if there was some special sort of dialect for pirates; maybe I could then figure out what she’d actually said. Luckily, I have an eidetic memory. I shook my head. ‘I don’t talk to a lot of folk’, I admitted. ‘Mostly I just tell people to get out of my Restricted Section’.

At this, she threw her head back and laughed. I had no idea why. ‘Got a restricted section, have ye, Lira’? She waggled her visible eyebrow.

‘Yes’, I replied. ‘It’s full of all the books we don’t think Tourists should look at’.

‘I like ye, Lira’, she said. ‘So I’ll not throw ye overboard just yet’.

I wondered if she could read my mind.

She had a very pretty smile. I was pretty sure I shouldn’t say that.

‘I am enjoying our conversation’, I said. The parts of it I could understand, anyway. Now that it didn’t seem like she was going to shank me with a fork or something. ‘But I should get back to my quest, really. I need to get home, or find HFM’.

‘So ye’ll not be the first member of my new crew then, Little Lira’? It felt like she might be teasing me.

‘There’s not a library on board, is there’? I countered.

‘Whole ship’s empty, for now’, she replied, ‘but there’s some shelves down on the orlop deck ye could put a few books on’.

Again, I had no idea where that might be, but I had lost my desire to explore the entire ship. For some reason, my palms were sweaty, and she had really green eyes, and I felt a strong urge to flee.

‘Well. Without a library. I mean, I don’t know what I’d even do‘, I said hurriedly. ‘I’ll just go back up to the bow’ (at least I knew how to say that) ‘and try to make my way back to where I need to be’. I didn’t give her a chance to respond: I was already running.

She called after me, ‘Fly high, sweet Lira; perhaps the winds will bring us together again one day’. I saw her smile in my head. Stop it, Lira.

I slowed my breathing. I took my wand out of my waistcoat (sometimes it helps to have a focus). I concentrated.

And then, as the mists were rising up around me and everything was beginning to go grey…

I couldn’t control it. I couldn’t go back. I couldn’t stop screaming, ‘No! No! No’!

That spire and flag, so familiar.

Grey darkened to black, and somehow my growing seer senses were able to taunt me with this.

That is HFM’s house.

I was right there. I could have got home.

Notes & Credits:

Other Fancy Stuff:

Lira’s Amazing Glasses: Dishpan Hands, Arachnida Glasses
Lira’s Still-Confused-About-The-Difference-Between-Wizardry-And-Dungeons-&-Dragons Necklace: Stoic, Dice Goblin’s Loot
Lira’s Aetherpunk Outfit: Jangka, Millennium Outfit
Lira’s Equally Cool Boots: Jangka, Lyra Boots
Awenia Sim Surround: Landscapes Unlimited, Alpine Ridge Mega Surround 7.0