Chapter One: Cursed
A series of knocks sounded through the library early in the morning. Mikki cracked an eye and looked at the clock on her side desk next to her bed. The clock pointed to five in the morning. The knocking came again, same rhythm and loudness. She wasn't expecting anyone, especially not at this hour, so she tossed aside her sheets wearily and sat up at the edge of her bed, blinking away the sleep that should have stayed for a few more hours at least. Not even three hours rest as she slipped her feet into her black slippers on the ground and slowly made her way down the first stair case to the top floor of the library and winding down the spiral case next, all while hearing the knocking every minute she spent trying to come down.
Reaching the ground floor, she shuffled her feet as she kept her arms wrapped around her chest as she felt the chill of the darkness just before the first morning light. She listened to the last knock she'll hear as she peered though the small peep hold in the front door to see who was requesting her presence at this hour. As unusual as the person that insist on coming all this way, she sighed heavily before unlocking the door and cracking it open to greet the man that stood on her door step.
"You took your time." The man growled as he stood proudly in front of her holding his cane square center in front of him, his raven peering down at her with it's beady green eyes. Jericho Swain, the master tactician and leader of Noxus, was waiting and the longer she held her silence, the longer she made him wait. She raised her head up at him, though her small size to him was obviously noticeable, as she gave him a deep huff of disproval. "You couldn't wait till the library was open, as usual." She remarked as she stepped aside and let him walk in, his raven cawed at her response to her master.
It wasn't his first time he requested early clearance to her library at ungodly hours of the day. Swain has been taking his early morning visits once a week for a little over a month. Each day he came was different than the last so there was no pattern for Mikki to decipher, but perhaps to Swain, there was such a pattern or he just enjoys toying with her sleep schedule. She followed him up to his usual private study room after watching him pick up a few old journals from the history shelves and settle himself into the lounge chair near the window. Beatrice flew off her master's shoulder, circled the room a couple times and landed on the lamp post near where Swain sat.
"Would you like me to get you anything while I'm still standing?" She asked him as she leaned tiredly into the doorway, watching him cautiously with blurry eyes. He peered up at her for a moment, before cracking open the top journal from his pile of reading material. "No, but you look like you could use a pick me up." He answered snidely as his rave cawed in laughter next to him. She raised an eye brow at him as she continued to watch him look over the journal. "I wonder why I would need one." She muttered to herself, but just loud enough to let him hear a couple of the words before she shuffled into the private room and took a seat on a padded bench on the opposite side of the room from Swain and Beatrice.
This bench had a blanket and pillow neatly stacked on it's end, something for any tired visitor or weary head librarian that didn't get her beauty rest. Placing the pillow at the edge of the bench and pulling the blanket out from it's folds, Mikki settled herself on her right side to rest her head and keep watch over the only visitor. "You're going to fall asleep again if you keep laying down like that." Swain pointed out as he kept his red eyes on the current page of the journal. Mikki readjusted herself under the blanket, curling her legs up and pinning the blanket under them and putting her hands under her head and pillow and blinked at him angrily. Nothing she could say would affect him and would only be thrown back harder. "At least I will get some sleep before dawn breaks." She muttered again as she closed her eyes and huddled tighter against herself.
Swain kept reading in silence as he let the librarian sleep in peace. Why, for he was not sure, she insists on sleeping in the same room he chose to spend his time reading all the old journals of former librarians that came before the one in front of him. The journal he was currently reading was her mother's grandfather's and the stories that her grandfather told were mostly about the dullness between the clashes of the Rune Wars and where these event took place. Halfway though the journal as the dawn broke through the window next to him, he noticed a change in the old librarian's writing, it was softer and spoke of a familiar person that he had known. Mikki's grandfather spoke of his daughter very much through out the last half of the entries he found, but near the end is what intrigued him the most.
The mention of the Librarian's Curse once again rose as the older man worried about what's to become of his only daughter as the curse will surely be passed onto Mikki's mother. Each journal of each of the librarians spoke of this curse always near the end of their time. A trend he was determined to find out why it's called a 'curse' and what the curse entailed, but none of the former journal entries ever explain how the curse works or what makes it one.
He soon reached the end of the journal and looked up at the time as he could clearly see the light streaming through the window onto the wall on the other side of the room. It was near seven and the light flowing in was making the sleepy librarian move under the blanket restlessly. Swain thought it was cute, but chose not to express it as he got up and strolled next to the librarian, blocking the morning light from her face as he watched her wake up slowly. "You've got a library to run and my time here is done." He told her as she cracked an eye up at him and yawned. She muttered something that he couldn't quite understand, nor cared to understand as he picked up his cane and strolled out of the private study with Beatrice flying along side him.
As Swain left the library, Mikki slowly woke up to fix the blanket and pillow on the bench before any guests see that it was used and lightly padded her way back to her room to take care of all personal things and getting ready for the day ahead. It was going be one of those days.
