Another drabble I wrote; probably should work on the next chapter of Lions and Lambs, heh heh. And yes, there is foreshadowing in here that will be found later in LaL.
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Everyone just assumes that every book in their office was part of a private library. The rotating cylindrical walls were the first and most obvious thing that curious eyes saw when entering the dreaded lair of the nasty Dicephalus, but only a curious zombie girl was able to take a peek at what secrets those unique and dusty tomes held. Textbooks, spell books, rare historical memoirs….they were all a part of a secret collection that stood out in plain sight.
Every one of the five thousand plus books in the ascending tower of bookshelves were not merely these things: they were journals. A promise to lost parents, an entry a day was logged selfishly into the millions of pages: entries of nightmares, dreams, observations, hope, frustrations, thoughts, and theories. Some entries were penned by Alder, in his unique scribbling penmanship, while others were graced by the beautiful slants and slopes of Dash's cursive….and nobody was allowed to see the private thoughts and feelings of the most moody and menacing creatures locked away in that academy.
The journals were supposed to heighten their understanding on things; Ancle said so. "When in doubt, write." They always told their nephews. "It's the best way to observe yourselves." So they did. The brothers wrote about everything: each other, Kibosh, the students, the tiles on the floors, the rotating walls of the office, Mr. Cutepants, Casper, Slugby tournaments, the moon, the slime green look to the waters outside, of dreams or nightmares, certain spells that they have created, or how Dash always tapped his fingers against something when deep in thought or when Alder clacked his teeth together when bored or in an awkward silence. But to be extra safe, some of the journals were hidden purposely by Dash; he didn't want anyone to know that a Dicephalus could separate when hunting or courting, or that he had an affair with a young woman that used to be his protégé, and that he never had a chance to propose to her because Kibosh took her away from him, or that he is still receiving letters from a young girl with the same name as his mother claiming how much she misses him and can't wait to meet him one day because her mother said she had his eyes and ears….And if Alder didn't keep his big mouth shut, Dash will be going to bed alone with a corpse stuffed beneath his floorboards. It was painful memories that he never brought up, and found no real benefit in revealing; everyone was so used to seeing him as a tyrant anyway that they wouldn't believe him.
But, he still writes, and so does his brother. Alder writes entries with hopes of freedom; Dash writes logs with pain and hopelessness. The collection is still growing, but they would rather burn it all than allow another soul to discover the secrets trapped within.