Chapter: Runaway Journal

Follow her curiosity Luz made a step forward.

*Click*

Only to step on hidden snare. And get hoisted up by her leg. At this point, she hear a sound similar to a bell.

"I gotcha!" A triumphal shout of victory echoing all over these place before someone popping into the history section with a puff of smoke.

Luz stared at the person holding giant-sized butterfly net. It was a boy of short stature with dark skin with dark brown hair of lighter shades. He wore a bluish-green tunic with white sleeves, a black belt, black tights, and brown boots.

"You are not- Sweet Titan!" He dropped the butterfly net in shock gazing at Luz's ears. His eyes swelled into stars. "Human!"

"Ummm...Hi." Luz smiled, an effect that was rather weird by the fact that she was dangling upside down, her eyes level with his chin. There was a short pause while Luz tried to ignore the blood rushing to her head.

"You are human." He said obviously very excited.

"Yes." She answered quickly. "Can you bring me down? I'm definitely getting dizzy."

"Oh, right." He drew spell circle and Luz back to the ground, landing half lightly on her head.

"Ow."

"Sorry." He help her up. "Are your gills okay?"

"My what?" Luz thought she misheard.

"Gills. Human have gills...right?"

"No. Only lungs."

"I must mention it on next the Human Appreciation Society meet." The boy said to himself and then a hand outstretched, presumably to shake hers. "It wonderful to meet you, human."

"Same to you," Luz replied shaking his hand. "I'm Luz by the way."

"And I'm Agustus."

"I know an Agustus back in the human world." Luz said. " We call him Gus."

"Gus? Nickname? Human nickname?" He was clearly excited and happy. "Call me it. Gus. Wow. This is the best day of my life!"

"So, Gus, why you put out traps in the library?" Luz asked, bending down to pick up butterfly net and hold it out towards Gus, who carefully took his "weapon" out of Luz hand. "You're chasing people for an overdue library book?"

"I'm interning with Mr. Villarreal as his junior assistant. I'm trying to get his journal back." Gus explained and his enthusiasm went down.

Luz didn't get time to asked who he trying to get in these traps or why he has a giant-sized butterfly net. Suddenly they heard a loud 'thud' sound, and saw a random book hit the floor next to them.

They both looked up, and sure enough, the Journal was looking back from the top row. A navy blue colour book with a gold binding and clasps. It had gold corners, and the drawing of an eye-like rune on front.

Luz didn't know how, but she was sure the Journal was smirking maliciously.

"There you are!" Gus was jumping up and down as he tried to catch it but the Journal was too high. "Get down here now!"

The Journal parted midway through, and a single page fluttering at him, literally blowing a raspberry at boy. And then it started toppling more books.

Luz and Gus have to hide from shower of a hard books. Before the last book hit the floor, the Journal was miles away.

"This all stopped being fun hours ago." Gus grumbled while Luz used the butterfly net handle to swat a book made of bone with a creepy small skull away from her.

"Soooo, I guess this was the Journal." Luz said, looking at place where the Journal was a few seconds ago.

"Yes." Gus sounds much more dramatic, than he actually was. "I has been trying to catch it for the past five hours."

"And how did it even ended up here?"

"I was cleaning out Mr. Villarreal's office, and found few books from the history section. He should return all the library books before the end of the day. I decided to do it for him because Mr. Villarreal and the Librarian don't get along. The Journal was lying among these books, I didn't notice. And before I knew it, the Journal was just playing around with others books in library." Gus explained, then buried his face in both hands "I have to return the Journal where it belongs before Mr. Villarreal back to his office, but it's impossible."

"Maybe you could use an extra hand."

He looked up at her, "I can't take a hand out of somebody."

Right, human phrases didn't always translate over. "I mean If you had someone to help me, you could have caught that book."

"You help me?" Gus looked at her with such hope.

"Of course." Luz said and grabbed his hand as they ran off to found the Journal "Let's track down this Journal!"


The minutes tick by, and Luz and Gus have the impression that the the time works differently in this place. It's like time has flown by and stood still all at the same time.

As they went through the library it was like walking through maze. Luz's thoughts did have some truth to it: Shelves filled with books were stacked as high as the eyes could see. There was no direction, no arrows or even a map to help point reader in the right path. To the unwary, anyone would easily get lost...and probably wander in the library until the Librarian found them.

Well, lucky for them, the Journal were leaving a trail of sheets of paper around library. So, they know where to go.

They just followed the "breadcrumbs" all the way to a wooden door. But this was no ordinary wooden door. The carvings of several birds on it looked like something one would see in a Baroque artwork; but what made it absolutely unique was a sphere crystal with a swirling light inside it, that was inserted in the wood.

Before anyone could touch the door, a strange humming sound began to be sound came from Luz's necklace, which was now both glowing and vibrating.

"What's happening?" Luz asked, touching it.

Gesturing to the door, Gus explained. "Part of the library is only available for a members of the Order of the Keepers."

Then the necklace fires a harmless beam of light. A shining a beam of silver light upon the door. The swirling light inside the sphere began to change colours, and after a few seconds, it turned green as the door opened to reveal what was on the other side.

This part of library had a little different architecture; a polished wooden, floor also stained glass windows sending pictures onto the floor. And few books flying through the air.

After a second or two Luz's keeper necklace back to normal.

As the entered the door, the male witchling only had a glimpse of the Journal peeking from between one of the aisles.

"Stop!" Gus shouted, while firing a spell circle at the book. In another timeline, he may have hit the Journal and the adventure would have ended here, but as Murphy's law was with him, he missed.

The Journal turned around to put out its paper tongue at them before it disappeared.

"I'll take left, you go right." Luz told him, "We can cut the Journal off on next aisles."

Gus nodded and took off after the Journal. The human girl went along the other path into the one of the library section. It was like running a marathon.

Luz approached the fork in the library section, and decisively chose to go to the right fork first. She ran the 10 meters in under 25 seconds. And then suddenly stopped.

In front of her was a bizarre sight: a cat witha black fur with white eyebrows, yellow eyes, and a white symbolic emblem on his chest shaped almost like a "Q", sitting on library rolling ladder. And to Luz great surprise this cat wore glasses and handled the book in front paws.

Luz just was staring at the cat.

When all of a sudden she could hear a gentle 'trot-trot' on the floor. The book was jumping along to another aisle. She instantly swooped down to catch the book, but the Journal was faster. It dodged Luz's fastest attack. The Journal then disappeared into another shelf.

But the whole action made the cat looked up from its book. Seeing the human' presence, the cat let out a weird sound. It was somewhere between "hiss" and completely surprise cry. Its tail wrapped around the book it was reading and then the black cat took off like it was scared for its life.

That was weird, even for this place.

However, Luz was focused on catching the Journal, and just forgets easy what happened in there.

She pulled a light glyph and use it to gave the signal to Gus come to this section. The neon-like words "Right Here" floating hight in the air now.

"I've seen the signal." Gus said, popping into "The group D magical artifacts" section with a puff of smoke. "Did you find the Journal?"

"Gus, where are you?" Luz looked around, hear the voice of the boy but she didn't see him.

Gus figured out that he was on the wrong side of the aisle. He drew another spell circle and poofed in front of Luz.

"The Journal is somewhere here." Luz just pointed at bookcase, response to his earlier question.

They come closer to it, and Luz running a finger along the spines of the books.

Suddenly the Journal jump out of a shelf at eye level.

The surprise was massive enough for them to take stape back, unfortunately, one of them accidentally knocked over a one book off the shelf. Luz act fast and caught a book before it hit the ground, but then it just opened itself. A face seemed to leap out at her and began screaming loudly and shrilly. It was the sort of scream that made her think of Drew Barrymore a fictional character from the Scream.

In a moment of stupidity Gus put his hand over the mouth in a pathetic attempt to stifle the scream. As he touched the mouth of the screaming face, his hand sunk straight through as though he had plunged it into shifting sands.

The boy shriek was overpowered by the still screaming book and as he tried to tug his hand out of the book, but he found he was just being pulled in further. "It's taking me in!"

"Pull pull!" Luz shouted as she grabbed the corners of this terrifying book and pulled in the opposite direction.

After what seemed to be an eternity, but in reality was only a moment, Gus' arm was spat back out of the book and two of them landed on the hard wooden floor with a thud and a groan.

Luz slammed the book and pushed it into the shelf as fast as could, there was total silence. But that deafening silence was broken when they heard someone else's steps and then a deep voice with the accent of a Salford.

"What in the name of Merlin is all this ruckus?!"

"Ah! We've been caught! Quick, camouflage yourself!" Luz said as she moved her arms over her body like a square. Probably pretend to be a book.

Gus was looking around trying to found place to hide, in a panic. Then quickly drew a spell circle. A illusion of large double-sided book cart appeared just in time to hide two of them from the sight of angry man.

The Librarian must be fifty years old. He had black hair, slightly graying dark blue eyes, brown tweed jacket with elbow patches, bow tie, braces, blue trousers and black, ankle-high boots. If not for his ears Luz would mistake him for a human.

He's not a very threatening description, but something in him made the temperature dropped by 20 degrees.

The young illusionist prayed to Titan, that the Librarian not notice them. His legendary hatred towards those who abused library books or causing trouble at library was hardly a secret; even the Council of Four knew to return the books back on time and keep silence in the library. And if he discovers that the Journal is here...well Gus'd rather not think about it.

Luz and Gus held their breath while he scanned the aisle. Several long moments passed before he sighed and came up to a book who tried to suck Gus into itself. The books on the shelf continued to gnash their pages in an attempt to escape.

"You don't belong here." he said gently pick a book off the shelf, "I would find out who still putting you in wrong section. Then I will give a lecture to them." the man looked up.

The neon-like words "Right Here" fading but they were still floating hight in the air.

"That's new." He didn't hide the look of disgust that came with the revelation that neon-like words are here. With one fast spell he removed them from air.

His eyes very slowly move all the way to end of section and back. More than one time. Finally the Librarian turned and went back to other section, and Luz and Gus exhaled.

"It was close, too close." Gus leaned against the wall, "I swear my life flashed before my eyes.

"It was." Luz agreed, "What kind of magic it was, by the way?" She pointed at the double-sided book cart.

"Just a fast illusion. No biggie." he answered "We, the illusionists, rather like the spell with a little Showmanship." Gus said as he drew a light blue spell circle. A reflection of Luz then appeared behind her, repeating her last words before vanishing.

"Cool" she was impressed with his magic, "Can you create a illusion of whatever you want?"

"Within the limits of imagination and my concentration."

"Then I may have an idea how we can get the Journal."


The Journal loved the smell of polished wood, slighty battered leather and old worn parchment. It loved the overpowering silence and the slight feeling of nice claustrophobia that engulfed it when walking between the tightly packed bookshelves.

It's been so long since it've seen anything but its owner office and his home. The owner is good person. The Journal loves him. But the owner never letting it walk alone. And his office is a boring place to spend the day.

Lucky for it, the young illusionist was kind of a distracted. So, the Journal took advantage of the boy to go for a single trip. Clearly, he was trying to catch it. Their game of chupacabra and ramidreju was a great fun for the Journal. Then the round ears girl join the game. And things just gets more interesting. Playing with them was cool.

The Journal almost feel bad form bring librarian's wrath down on them. Almost.

Currently the sentient journal is halfway to restricted section of the library.

Because the young illusionist and the round ears girl were kicked out of library, it's just feeling the need for a little new companionship. And the books in this section knew how to have fun.

The Journal he turned and went around the corner. Then saw it. The other sentient book.

It had the main nice color of burgundy, two gold lines on its spine and all four of its corners were gold. In the middle of the book, there was a gold hand with six fingers and the eye symbol in the middle.

The all pages rustled with storng emotions. The other book moved quietly, so the Journal could see it shows beautiful and very various alchemist symbols on the back.

It was love from the first sight.

The Journal straightened pages and went towards burgundy book.

The other living book was running away from it. This might get a little annoying. But love, on the other hand, took a little effort to get to sweet feedback.

After five minutes the book stopped in the middle of a exhibition hall. The Journal thought that the book had finally surrendered to its courtship, but had no idea how wrong it was.

The Journal's eye-shaped holes eyes met the other magic book's eye, and an intense staring battle started. The Journal was approaching with a slow, elegant step , or at least pretends to be. Because being the book makes it harder to do elegant step. The Journal was really close... it was about to nuzzled the other book cover. And-

"Gotcha!"

The other book vanished into thin air. Next thing the Journal know, it stuck in the net, the young illusionist and a round ears girl looked at the book with a victory smile.

"You back to Mr. Villarreal's office."

The Journal huffed. Fun's over. And worse... It lost the game.

Well... the young illusionist and a round ears girl were a worthy opponents. But it won't let them win so easy the next time...


Luz peek around the corner and see the empty, long corridor. She slowly walked through it to make sure nobody's going to appear out of nowhere, while Gus is doing everything he can to don't drop the Journal. The sentient book was getting more and more irritated. It don't want back yet. It was pretty obvious.

It's been like this for the past half hour. Luz watch if anybody's coming. And Gus whisper to the Journal to calm down.

"Clear."

They both walked across the corridor, and walked into a large room at the end of it.

Some of the walls in the room has black and white vertical stripes, while a section of the floor was deeper and wooden. There are also long vertical windows with tan curtains. The room includes a large wooden rectangular table full of human artifacts and scrolls.

The left wall has three display alcoves enclose a set of storage shelves. A work desk sticks out of the wall; spotlessly clean and filled with various desk was situated next to the small library. But there also a second desk near the window. The human artifacts on it has a small pieces of paper, which give information on what they were. However, writing on them were incorrect. An old umbrella hat was signed "bowl." A Rubik's Cube, which was labelled, "WEAPON?" The most accurate description of them was calling a paperclip "pay-per-clorp".

"Wow. I can't believe we did it." Gus sighed in relief as the Journal stop squealing, "Thank you for your help, Luz. Without your brilant plan, I certainly wouldn't be there before Mr. Villarreal returns."

And right on cue, the door shut, then the Journal Gus was carrying gained a magically air ball as it was lifted out of boy's hands and towards a person who just closed a door.

It was a tall, elderly man with long, grey hair that flows down to his waist. He had large dark grayish goat like horns and pointed ears. He had a rather narrow face with prominent cheekbones and black eyes.

His outfit onsisting of a thigh-length armour-like tunic with a large hanging sleeves and baggy trousers tucked in boots. It was dark green with black-brown marks, the part on his shoulders was pale greyish purple and it had bandoleer where he keeps round containers. On his left arm was light blue-orange gauntlet with the air insignia (a swirling orb).

"Mr. Villarreal."

The man looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Anything you want to tell me, Agustus?" His voice was eerily calm but his eyes were a storm of emotions.

"Um.." Gus said nervously. "I was cleaning up your office. You have few books to return to the library...and I kind of...but I don't do it on purpose...I-I took-

"Agustus Porter did you took my Journal from this office?" Of course, they all know it was a rhetorical question.

Gus cringed. The book in Villarreal's hand wanted to hang the boy out to dry, and opened itself on the front page that said:

'A warning: If you rip, tear, shred, bend, fold, deface, disfigure, smear, smudge, throw, drop, or in any other manner damage, mistreat, or show lack of respect towards this book, the consequences will be as awful as it it within my power to make them.'

"Don't be poking into this conversation. And do not think that I'm not angry at you! You should go back to my office instead of messing around." Villarreal closed the book, a scowl etched on his face.

The Journal looked apologetic.

"But I will talk to you later." Villarreal said tersely as turned to Gus.

"I thought you were more responsible, Agustus." Guss face fell while his remained set. "I told you many times that my Journal is precious and, you are responsible for it when I'm not here. You've let me down. You know what that means."

"I'll just pack up my desk." Gus said, more to himself.

"Wait! You can't fire him!" Luz began to bawl, placing a hand on Gus' shoulder. "Gus made a mistake, but did what he could to fix it. He deserve a second chance!"

"For a start: It is so nice to hear you defending your friend, but there is no need to shout, young lady. I may be old, but I still have good hearing and I demand some respect." Villarreal looked at Luz with cold look, causing her looked down and apologize. "And two, you did not lose your internship, Agustus."

That made Gus look at him in a surprise and confusion, "I didn't?"

"As I have already said, I am disappointed. However you've already proven that you're the best trainee I could ask for. Yet, seeing as the way things had turned out today." the man said with a serious face, "I'm taking away your key to Hangar 13 until further notice, and I'm forbid you to sharing new information from my study of human cultures on any meetings of the H.A.S. for two months."

At the mention of the punishment, Gus gave a slight wince but allowed himself to breathe freely again. It could have been a lot worse.

"I understand." Gus took out the silver key from his pocket and placed it on the table. Villarreal reached for it and vanished within his tunic.

"We haven't been introduced, young Keeper." the man said as he turned to Luz, "I'm Villarreal. Charles Villarreal."

Luz glanced up at him, then smiled sheepishly. "Luz Noceda."

"The famous first human in the ranks of the Order." Villarreal said, leaning down to squint at Luz's ears. "I've been studying the mysteries of your world and human culture for several dozens years. But I've never spoke any human before."

Luz cocked her head a bit surprised, "Master Dion said I'm not first human who went to Magic Realm."

Gus piped up, "Any human who came up through the crack have been sent home as quickly as possible."

Villarreal nodded, looking out windows for a short moment. "The Boiling Isles isn't great for human mental health, especially when human just stumbled in here on accident. I couldn't made anybody stay here longer and risk their mental health to satisfy my curiosity."

"If somone's not used to being around dangerous and other magic things, the Magic Realm can making a pretty bad first impression." Luz agreed with his approach.

"Then if I may ask, what did you think the first time you saw the Boiling Isles?" he asked, unable to help his curiosity.

"Honestly, I thought I was dead and I'm in the bad place."

"Well, I don't blame you, not when I've read about the human hell."

"But after the initial shock wears off... this realm is a pretty nice place. Dangerous but cool."

"It's nice to hear a honest opinion from human." the man replied, "I would gladly heard more your thoughts about the Boiling Isles, and information on your world. I would just really appreciate if you let me interview you for my central archives."

"Sure." Luz jump pretty quickly, "I have a little time now if you want me to..."

"As much as I want to do this right now. In fifteen minutes it's my meeting with my Alchemist's tribe."

"Some other time, then."

The alchemist brought his hand to his chin. "Or today." He said before he turned to Gus. "Agustus, can you interview this nice human girl for me?"

At that, Gus' solemn face slowly but surely turned to shock and delight as he turned his starry gaze towards him.

"You can count on me, sir!" He replied with a salute.

Villarreal's mouth turns up at the corners into the smallest smile. "I know. Till we meet again, Luz the Human."

And he walked away, leaving Luz and Gus alone in his office.

"So, what you want to know about humans?" Luz asked.

"EVERYTHING!" Gus shouted with glee, a gigantic smile overtaking his face as he took out a notepad and pen, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Hm..." Luz briefly thought about how to explain the human world to Gus, "...Well, I guess we'll start with usual human morning routine."

They dropped into their seats eagerly, and the day passed with many questions, answers...and end with a new friendship.


Notes: It was Gus! Suprise? I know you are ;)
Don't worry Luz will meet all her canno friends in this AU. Read my story to find out exactly how they will meet.

And for the record, the library where Gus and Luz meet is the Order of the Keepers library, not the library from episode "Lost in Language".

Please let me know what you think. Appreciate the comments.