Dina was banging her head, albeit softly from the height of an inch, against a small table in the back of the biggest library she could find. It didn't really help her in any way, but it felt like the appropriate reaction at the time. Piled on one side of the table were several library books in various shades of tattered, and on the other side a stack of shiny new just out of the package books she'd had to comb the internet for hours to find and order. Sadly most libraries were not what all the movies and stories cracked them up to be, and did not in fact have every book you could possibly need to Solve Your Problem. But that didn't matter any more, because she'd found it. Begin with paragraph of ancient prophecy left by strange being. Add internet connection, stir in dozen search engines, sprinkle with several sleepless nights. It was all worth it. Dina had found a handful of books on the myths and legends of ancient cultures, and one of them had it. The whole mess of this psycho prophecy, not just the passage about how they were all going to die horribly. Which, you know, was nice to have. There wasn't a troubleshooting segment for 'what if everything goes wrong' or anything, but it was still comforting to have something to go on beyond 'life sucks, then a big monster comes and you die'. It was a tough read. It was tediously long, a lot of it was obscure, and of course since it was so old pieces were missing. But it gave Dina an Idea. A Really Crazy Idea, but the news was starting to report odd sightings of things and animals that should not exist. People were disappearing. People were coming down with strange symptoms that didn't belong to any known diseases. Dina was willing to go with crazy if it was what she had. So she sat back up, smacked herself lightly on the face a couple of times to wake her brain up, and went back to her clipboard of notes and the book. She spent the entire day like that, reading and scribbling furiously on the clipboard, only looking up now and then to scan the room and shake off the creepy feeling that someone was watching her. Don't be silly, she thought to herself. You're just a girl at a library. Nobody knows or cares. It's just guilt bothering you. Nothing more. And that was sensible, but she still felt kind of like she should expect a vengeful lynch mob to form outside or something. She shook herself again and went back to work. Still, as the afternoon crawled by, that darn feeling kept coming back. She sighed and looked up from the book- There was a gray wolf sitting across from her at the table. Dina yelped and toppled over backwards, sending books and papers flying everywhere. She scrambled back up to her feet and looked again. Yep. Wolf at the table. In the library. Just siting there as if this were the most natural place in the world for it to be and smiling at her. And how the heck it was smiling she did not know but it definitely was. A library attendant hurried over, looking concerned. "I saw you fall miss, are you alright?" Dina grabbed his sleeve roughly and pointed at the wolf. "Do you see this dog!?" The man followed her pointing arm and raised an eyebrow. "Whatever insult you like to call your boyfriend is none of my business I'm sure. But if you're going to quarrel I'll have to ask you to go outside." "...Boyfriend." "Sorry sir," the wolf answered in a completely human voice without moving its mouth. "She tends to get over dramatic. We'll try to keep it down." The attendant gave them what was probably supposed to be a stern look and shuffled off. Dina glared at the still smiling animal. "Oh I get it," she growled. "I see a big bad wolf and everyone sees a person, is that it?" "Can't hide anything from you, can I." "What, are you to blame for that anime series?" "Wish I was. Imagine the royalty checks." Dina slumped tiredly back into her seat and put her head face down on the table. "Great. Lovely. So are you a symptom of the apocalypse, one of the creatures crossing over to invade the earth in the chaos? Or are you that weird woman's doggie come to browbeat me some more?" "Actually, I'm an ice spirit of lawfulness and order called to punish you on the universe's behalf for derailing Destiny. If that makes you feel any better." The blunt statement hung heavy in the air. Dina raised her head a few inches to stare at him and see if he was kidding. The lupine features were impossible to read, but his tail was wagging, whatever that meant. She blinked. "...Should it make me feel better?" It tilted it's head and thought that over for a beat. "No actually, I guess not." It shrugged, then put its front paws crossed one over the other on the top of the table and rested its chin on them, which somehow made it look both really relaxed and like it might leap over the table and peel her face off if she blinked. Dina scooted her chair back a little bit, trying to force herself to take whole, deep breaths instead of little panting ones. Now would be a bad time to pass out. "So... er... what... why...." "Why am I even here talking to you instead of getting on with it and freezing you into a living ice sculpture, or sending you to suffer in some horrible fire and brimstone dimension, or whatever else I can think of?" Dina couldn't decide whether to be terrified or annoyed at the near arrogance of that. She couldn't seem to swallow or get an actual word out at the moment, so it didn't matter anyway and she settled for nodding. "Two reasons. One, the 'weird lady' asked us not to do anything that would upset the people you know. Two, I want to see what you're up to." Three, jingled a silvery voice that Dina felt sure was entirely in her head and not audible to bystanders, You're a big case and he's enjoying messing with you. "Who-" "Associate of mine," explained the wolf calmly. That is what my life has come to, Dina thought to herself. A wolf is now explaining something calmly. But what she said was- "What do you mean, a big case?" Dina found that she couldn't help but look up at the ceiling while addressing the bodiless voice. Broke the apocalypse, ruined a Thousand Year Prophecy, derailed a dozen destinies. The chiming voice took on a singsong quality. You might have even killed the planet itself, if the desk woman can't figure out a way to tell things when to stop. Usually all we get to deal with are people trying to bring loved ones back from the dead or time travel. Of course those are legitimate offenses, and we enjoy them, don't get me wrong. But you, hun, you have more or less made a face at the Universe and poked it in the eye. "....Are you always that, erm, perky?" "You have no idea," the wolf answered in a long suffering tone. "She's right though. Meanwhile, ye gads girl. Eight for work ethic but three for common sense. Don't you know when to leave well enough alone?" "Wha- HEY!" Dina looked back down to see that the wolf had somehow pulled her book and clipboard over to read them himself. She leaned across to take them back, but when she was halfway across she froze, almost literally. She could suddenly see her breath on the air, and her arm felt like it might shatter if she didn't pull it back. It was already going numb from fingers to wrist. She cursed under her breath and tried to sit back down- only to find that she couldn't do that either. Her arm was frozen in place as if something were holding it there. She tugged at it a few times and felt absolutely ridiculous for how she must look, but it wouldn't budge. "...Well?" asked the 'wolf' after a minute. Dina glared daggers at it. "Well what?" "Aren't you going to say 'stop that' or 'let go' or something?" "Oh, you want me to beg now?" she hissed back. "No, I just thought it was a rather common sense suggestion." The ghostly grip faded away and Dina fell back into her seat, nursing the arm against her chest to get it warm again. The wolf glanced up to make sure that she was alright, then looked back down to the notes and book. "You want to explain these notes to me, miss Dina?" She tilted her chin up stubbornly. "Like you said, I broke it, so I'm going to do something about it. The lady said-" "-to stay out of it from now on?" "...Well, yes. But listen. I think I can sort of find the main characters, or the hero type ones at least. That book gives their titles; the Seer, learned in fortune telling. The Druid who speaks to creatures of every kind, the Sorcerer who commands the elements...." The wolf looked skeptical. "Those characters all have to be human and native to this world, and they all have supernatural abilities that were supposed to be released when the monster went free. How are you going to fake that?" "Creatively." Dina rolled the word out with a flourish and a smirk. "Look, the lady said that prophecies are left vague so that they can flex to fit circumstances. And from the fact that she knew all my friend's names, I'm guessing it's the five of them who were supposed to become these heroes?" "They probably should have been, yeah." "I think they still can be. The Seer, for example. It says that they're 'learned and skilled in every kind of fortune telling'. My friend Darren, he studies all kinds of things in his free time, and I know he has books about ancient fortune telling. He doesn't actually believe in it, but the prophecy doesn't say he has to. And there's the 'Druid who speaks to every kind of creature'- I have this friend, Elizabeth? Kind of... a little... well I mean, she's sort of... out there? Has every kind of pet a person can have and talks to all of them. The Prophecy doesn't say the animals have to understand or talk back. See, I think we can sort of fake through these things, and if we find all of the main characters and get them together, I bet other things will start pulling themselves back together too." "The Druid as a space case who talks to her cats!" The wolf stomped one paw on the table and barked a laugh, pun intended. "I like it! This will either work, or explode horribly in your face." He looked thoughtful for a moment and then broke into a wide grin. "Oh man. If this is how things are going to be I can't wait to see what 'the Destroyer who will come to prepare the way' will be now. You'd better hope it's at least still a dragon and not, like, a violent kitten with a good sense of direction." He started cracking up again. "Why? Wouldn't it be better if it's something harmless?" "For the rest of the world yeah, but not for you. The desk woman loves dragons. If you ruined the one she put in her favorite story, wow. You better hope it's still a dragon. I bet she'd even let us kill you for that one." "Let you-" Dina felt her stomach flutter a little. "I thought we were, you know, getting along pretty well here, all things considered?" Her voice came out in a higher pitch than she had intended. "Oh sure. Don't misunderstand, I think you're alright. Clever, persistent, not hiding under a rock in terror. Good qualities. I might even say that I like you. But I like my job more." "Um... thanks?" "You go ahead and do your thing. See if your friends will listen or however you're going to handle it. Whatever happens, we'll be around. You will hear from one of the three of us again soon." The wolf winked, went out of sight for a second behind the table as it climbed down from the chair- and was gone. Dina let out a huge sigh of relief, closed her eyes and sagged back in her chair. It's okay, she told herself. Okay, so you didn't need the added pressure, but you're alive, and you have a plan, and this is going to work. And as weird as that was get used to it, because it's only going to get weirder. You are the one with the plan. You do not have time for the shocked bystander role. She took a minute to resolve herself to be prepared, from now on, to talk with any random creature or beast or object or whatever the heck else would turn up and want to have a chat. At this point she wouldn't be surprised to have to hold a conversation with an angry toaster oven. And why the heck did all the weird beings have to be angry at her, anyway? Where were the cute fluffy unicorns and dancing woodland animals, eh? Weren't the magical realms supposed to be full of those? Someone ought to sue Disney for false advertising. Once her mind was clear again, Dina looked around to make sure there was nobody nearby to yell at her for being noisy and then took her cell phone out to make a call. Where to start... Mark. Mark was a fantasy fan, he'd understand. Probably. Most likely. She hoped he still had all his old character sheets from back when he used to play Dungeons and Dragons. It looked like he was going to need his elemental sorcerer again. ~End Page Five~