Chapter 44 - 45. Journey To The Palace
The owl did not say anything but flew low to the table, looking at me in confusion.
"Hello," I was a bit awkward to say hi to him. He looked back at me, shocking so much and moved a few steps backward, and looked at Hana as if I was a creature he never saw before in his life, 'Give me a break! I am not an alien came to the earth, why are you looking at me that way?!' my thought was a bit irritated.
"I never leave this library. I spend my whole time studying all books here. I have ever heard there was a man who could do that. But that was long time ago. I never thought I would finally meet one of them right now," That owl spoke long speech. It was obvious he was nervous.
I smiled to his explanation and I preferred to speak in my heart, 'Okay! I am not an alien then. I am one of ancient animals. So, I am one T-Rex that suddenly comes to his library to borrow some books. Hahaha,'
The owl picked up all files scattered on the floor and put them back in the cabinet. He gave a red envelope and some paper to Hana.
We left the library as soon as Hana received the files needed from that owl. I followed her closely by her side because I was afraid of getting lost, "Can you help me find this? If we spread up, we may save time and find it faster," She gave me a sheet of paper.
When I looked at the paper, I just kept quiet. I was illiterate indeed. "Hana, I have not learned to read yet, I just knew some alphabets," I gave that paper back.
Hanna kept quiet listen to my complaint. She tapped my shoulder and spoke up enthusiastically, "I will help you later outside training time,"
I was so glad to hear that. I nodded and smiled, it would help know a lot in this dimension.
I knew Hana was faceless but it seemed like she had very strong eye sight. Her body stood on one place, and with her long neck she checked every shelf in our row. Her hands kept moving, checking every book in front of her. It did not take too much time for her to get seven books she needed. She walked toward me, "Done!" She looked satisfied.
When we about to move to the table of the owl, Hanna stopped at a shelf located abit out of other shelves and took four books and gave them to me. "You must learn. These will help you a lot. We can borrow the books for one week, so before we return them, you make sure to have read them all. Do you understand?" I nodded. Then we walked back to the owl's table.
On the way home, Hana told so many things to me, from her first job until Azalea decided to promote her to be one of her maids.
Unintentionally she dropped a piece of paper. I picked it up and saw it. Mickey's picture was there on that paper. I was shocked but I tried to hide it and asked her, "Hana, what is this?" I really wanted to know the sentences written there.
Hanna took the paper and read in a glimpse, 'it seems that he is one of the hunted, emm, I mean," She looked at that paper again and read it more closely, "He is hunted not for a bad purpose, but he is wanted because a witch has put immortality spells on this animal. Don't you know that such magic spell is forbidden?"
"Forbidden?" now it was my turn to get confused.
"Tha, everything must be going as it must be and goes in harmony. There is day and night, live and death. Can you imagine if night runs all the time without a switch with a day? It will be very bad for the life balance," Hana explained, "Once someone had ever tried it, but he became so wild and killed many people. Finally he was given a death sentence. Such magic spell is never perfect, there are always bad things come along with it.
Listening to Hana story, my mind ran to Zie. Would Azalea keep her promise? I was also worried about Mickey now knowing that the woman was searching that tubby cat, too. .
I did not know what Azalea would do to Mickey but I believed it was not something good, especially the memory of my first meeting with that woman. She caught me because she thought I knew something about that spell.
Mickey was just like a part of my family, he had helped me from the first time the problem arose until that woman finally caught me. To tell the truth, I was so worried about them now.
…
Azalea did not go home for quite long time. During her absence, I learnt reading a lot from Hana, and archery from Yoru.
That woman asked me to learn the fighting skill and I said I could shoot arrows, she quickly asked Yoru to teach me. Yoru was a quiet man, different from Naar so that I was quite reluctant to ask. The bow that I used in this place was heavier than the one I used to use.
Yoru never showed me even if he was displeased, but I could see from his changing expression that I had made a mistake.
Hana said that Azalea loved reading. Wherever she was, she always spared some time to read. Therefore, she sent Hana to the library to find books she wanted every week. Sometimes, Hana had to buy some books at a store when she could not find the ones Azalea wanted.
At that noon, Yoru left me without saying anything because I kept missing the target in that training. I was confused and did not know to do. So I asked Hana to take me to the book store where she usually bought the books.
We went there on foot. It was my first time to see many different kinds of creatures I had never seen before. Hanna asked me not to show the real me as a human. She changed my physical appearance. Although this dimension was just in the same as human dimension, there were certain reasons why human were not supposed to be seen here.
Hanna gave me spell that made me have the same look as her.
I was curious with the new look that I had after Hana uttered a spell for me. I went to a mirror. But I was confused when I saw my own reflection, "Nothing has changed. I am just the same."
"Stay away from that mirror or anything that can reflect yourself, okay?" She warned me or forbade me rather.
"Huh?" I was bewildered, "Why? I wanted to know the reason why she forbade me like that.
"Because your real look will show up," She said as she poked the tip of my nose.
I was chuckled to hear that. It did not cross to my mind at all, "Alright, Ma'am," I teased her.
When we arrived on a street where there were shops along the street that sold many different kinds of things, Hana tied my wrist with a piece of cloth with one end, and another end was tied to her own wrist, "So that my little sister is not missing," She whispered in amused.
I grinned and chuckled to hear that. Hana was just like Emma. Anytime I was with her I was happy. She was like a big sister for me.
Now I was thinking about Emma, too. 'How is her condition at the present time?'
Hanna craned her neck high and moved her head to the left and to the right as if to find something. Soon after that she brought me to a seller selling all kinds of sweet-like stuffs.
I saw liquid substance which was shaped into different kinds, fish, birds, flowers, and many more. It was called taffy in my place. The creature made this taffy was something like fire. Hana said that creature was called Pulung or fire ghost.
"Give me two," Hana said to the seller, "Which would you like, Tha?" she offered me,. It was okay to try it, nothing to lose, anyway.
"Fish," I snapped it fast.
Te seller handed out the food in shape of fish to me right away, while the bright red chicken-shape taffy was given to Hana.
After from that place, Hana took me to walk again along the shops, then we turned into a small road near a river. She asked me to get on a small boat, then instructed the boat driver to take us to the book store across the river.
The boat owner had a small body and height that I never saw in human. He rowed the boat while whistling beautifully.
"I don't know the song, but it suggested misery in it," I said out of my conscience. The boat we were taking suddenly stopped. I was startled.
"are you human?" all of sudden the boat driver asked me.