Something Pink [Bee]

[Lucca]

The little Bat nodded, ears flapping with the motion. "Yep! I sure do! I save people all the time. One time, me and this friend of mine named Joel were lost and I saved us from that and we had a little adventure together and we decided to be the Green Team because he was a green Corvie." She was grinning at the memory. That had been a fun adventure! "Then, there was the time I told you about earlier, where I helped investigate the nest of Bandersnatches! But oh, then there was this other time where I saved one of the cooks in the kitchen! A heavy pot was about to fall on her and I stopped it!"

She knew her adventures weren't really that exciting -yet-, but she was sure as she got older she'd save even more helpless bystanders from deadlier dangers than even falling cooking implements! Like she'd save them from a monster. As long as it wasn't a nasty Jubjub bird. Speaking of monsters...

"Oh, Nephy, have you seen a monster here in the library?" Her eyes were wide. If anyone knew the truth, the Skunk would, since he obviously spent a lot of time here!

[Bee]

A monster in the library! Nephy had never heard of such a thing. While bandersnatches certainly could be fearsome, he didn't think overturned pots and getting lost qualified his new friend for taking down any sort of huge beast. What if she got eaten?

Then again, if there was a monster in the library, Nephy certainly would have seen it by now. He came here every day. And sure, the library was huge, but Nephy was intrepid. Maybe it was just a really good hider...

"I haven't seen anything," he said. "Mostly the only other thing I see in here is Miss Idril. She helps me reach the high-up books." Not that Miss Idril herself was particularly big; but she was a lot bigger than Nephy, and she could move ladders. "Don't worry, though. No monster can win against knowledge. And we're surrounded by it!"

[Lucca]

Mirriam's ears drooped and she looked slightly put out. "...oh." So he hadn't seen it. Maybe it left him alone because he was quiet? Though the Bat herself, she suddenly realized, had been getting steadily louder again over the course of their conversation as her excitement got away with her. Oops! She glanced around quickly, but saw neither monster waiting to devour her nor angry librarian ready to sigh and shoo her out.

Maybe there really wasn't a monster. But...no monster could win against knowledge? At first she grins, fully ready to agree to that statement, but then...she frowns, thinking. "Really? What about a really scary monster like...like a Jubjub bird?" Mirriam's wing claw absently traced the rather nasty scar on her face again. She wasn't sure how knowledge could save you from something like that...she never wanted to meet another one of those nasty creatures as long as she lived! "Jubjub birds don't like stories or books or making friends, or anything except being mean."

[Bee]

"A JubJub bird..." Nephy hadn't heard very much about those sorts of creatures except what Mirriam had put forth--that they were nasty critters. (For the first time, actually, he really became conscious of her scar, and wondered if it had been a JubJub that had done it--or maybe it HAD been his grandma!) Still, some people managed to train the birds, kind of, and make them into companions, of a sort, so there had to be something to be done about them.

"All we gotta do is research them, and once we know their secret weaknesses, we can defeat them! Everything has a secret weakness, right? If worse comes to worse..." He gestured about vaguely--even in his area, there were some very large tomes sitting within reach, and most of them they would even be capable of lifting. "We can just smack it with a book until it cries."

[Lucca]

Despite herself, the little Bat felt a little shiver go through her as Nephy repeated the name. She'd only learned the name of the horrible creatures recently, while reading a book on Tulgey (which was also written in Tulgey...yay for being a Diamond!) and there had even been a picture so she knew it was the same bird that had given her the scar. That had been a few years ago, now, but it was an experience that still haunted the girl. And she would never trust one again, even a "tame" one...it had been a pet Jubjub that had attacked her, after all!

But the chill lessened as she listened to Nephy. Wow...he really was smart! "Oh...yeah, you're right! They must have a secret weakness! The book I was reading before about them didn't say, but someone somewhere must have bravely discovered it and written it down!" She looked around, as if hopeful the one of the books might jump off the shelf and offer them this vital information.

"Hmm, that might work, but I dunno if Jubjub birds can cry. You have to have a soul to be able to cry."

[Bee]

Nephy thought this might be true; the only other experience he had with soulless creatures and crying was his grandmother--she had no soul, and he had never seen her cry. Mirriam must be right about the JubJub bird. But he was undeterred: "We can hit it till it goes to sleep, then!"

Anything went to sleep if you hit it hard enough! Though from what he had seen with a few of the cooks' children playing with salamanders, sometimes they didn't wake up again. He didn't want to hit it that hard. He set his book of myths carefully back on the shelf and looked around speculatively. "There are lots of books on pet care a couple rows down, they even have stuff on the really mean ones...if you want, I can get into them later and tell you what I find! Then when you come across another JubJub bird, you can defeat it."

But he had gotten away from something. What else had they been talking about? Oh! Library monsters. "What does this library monster look like, anyway? It's not a JubJub bird, is it?"

[Lucca]

Mirriam nodded happily. "Yeah, that should work great! It only takes one good whack to make someone fall asleep if you hit in the right place, I think!" In the comics, there were plenty of times that a hero would punch the bad guy in the face hard enough for him to go to sleep, which gave the hero time to tie him up. Mirriam, of course, lacked the necessary limbs to ever emulate that, and Nephy's chubby little paws didn't seem quite capable of such an act of violence, but that would be what the heavy book was for. She thought one of those books on Court diplomacy might do the trick...those things were huge and heavy! And really boring when her tutors made her read them...ooh, so maybe she could also make them fall asleep by reading the book out loud! But of course, the thought of a real way to defeat the birds was even more attention grabbing, and she gladly dropped the subject of boring lectures.

"Okay, yeah, that sounds good!" Though the thought of facing another one of those horrible creatures still made her feel scared, if she knew how to beat it...well, it would be nice to show them they couldn't get away with being mean around her! "That would be really nice of you Nephy!"

Her voice had risen in volume again, but at the mention of the monster that had started the conversation, the Bat's ears went back and her eyes widened, and when she next spoke it was lower in volume. "No, no I don't think so. I've never actually seen it...but I think it attacks kids who are noisy. You're pretty quiet so I don't think you have anything to worry about from it!" Well, besides the fact that she was honestly starting to doubt its existence by now. She'd been plenty noisy a moment ago, and it still wasn't here yet! Maybe the library monster was sleeping too?

[Bee]

Kids who are noisy? Nephy had heard those sorts of stories before. There was the monster that ate kids who went into Madame Mnem's garden, the monster that ate kids that went into Granny Minh's labs, the monster that ate kids who forgot to wash their glasses. There was a monster for everything. And they all wanted to eat you.

Nephy said, carefully, "I think we've been lied to. I don't think there's a monster at all. Grown-ups just like telling tales because they're mean."

He was a bit sad that there might not be a monster to slay though. He sort of wanted the library monster to exist, just so he could help Mirriam hunt it down and catch it and be heroes. After they had done the research, of course! But now it looked like the moment of glory might be gone.

[Lucca]

Despite the gentle tone, Mirriam deflated a bit at Nephy's words. She'd had the growing notion it wasn't true, because if the monster was asleep, of course the noise would wake it up, but she'd still been trying to find ways to rationalize its continued existence (ignoring entirely the fact that she'd never even had any proof of it in the first place) until the really smart little boy told her it was a lie. At least, she thought, with a bit of a return to a better mood, he had still offered to help her research Jubjub birds...and she KNEW they existed for sure.

"You're probably right," she admitted, but was able to sound plenty chipper about it, now. If there wasn't really a monster living here, then that meant the librarians had no real reason to tell her to be quiet. Ha! Just as she'd always suspected. It was just another one of those rules that grown ups made because they liked telling kids what to do.

The secret passage, though, she was sure would be here somewhere...but perhaps she wouldn't search for it today, just in case. It would be hard to take two disappointments in one day, after all. "We could read about the Jubjubs if you want," she offered, because Nephy looked a little sad too, and though thinking about those creatures wasn't her idea of fun, finding ways to defeat them if they ever came after her again certainly sounded appealing.

[Bee]

A research companion? Nephy beamed happily. No one ever wanted to look at books with him; they just wanted him to look at books for them. With two people, they could get their reading done twice as fast! And maybe Mirriam could even fly up to reach the really high books. How convenient it must be to have wings. He wondered if it were possible to make a trade. He took her wings and she took his glasses? But then it really wouldn't be good unless she took his vision problems too, otherwise he wouldn't be able to read, and that would defeat the whole point of getting the wings. But then the deal wouldn't be fair for her...

Oh well. He guessed if he'd managed this long without wings, he could manage longer.

"That sounds great!" he said, enthusiastically. "Come on, this way!"