Title: Old Songs and Tales: Daydreamer (3/6)

Series: Much that once was, is lost

Timeline: After Akallabeth, so somewhere in early season 2 of BtVS.

Summary: Willow does her job.

It really was surprising, Willow thought, that Giles had finally unbent enough to allow her to scan in those books he had found who-knows-where. They all looked as if they would fall apart at any moment and while she was fond of books in all their leaf-y glory, she felt much safer with a copy of them being in her computer while Giles transcribed the originals. This way they could also keep all of the pretty pictures, although pretty didn't even begin to describe them. Maybe her coherency was still suffering from being amazed at Giles' willingness to trust in computers? Or was she still slightly in awe of the age and beauty many of the books seemed to have? Could that even have an ability to affect her choice of adjectives?

She blushed slightly when she realized she had been rambling in her thoughts again. A quick look around the library ensured her that nobody had been around to see her blush and Giles had been way too rapt in his work to notice. She frowned a bit at this, wondering where the other two of their group were. Well, Xander not being here wasn't all that surprising as he had class currently, but Buffy not being here was a puzzle. She usually skipped this class for some quality Watcher/Slayer time. Willow was only present because her class had been cancelled. The Hellmouth strikes again, she thought with a small giggle. Fortunately, this incident hadn't been anything life threatening.

Willow sobered when her thoughts turned back to Buffy. The Slayer had been acting strangely these past few days. She had been avoiding them, nothing too noticeable, but still worrying. She had also seemed rather haggard the last time Willow had seen her. Willow had kept her distance, not wanting to push, but it hurt that Buffy couldn't bring herself to confide in her.

Getting a feeling of being watched, Willow looked up to see Xander entering the library. Cheering up, she gave him a wave and a smile. However, she was soon caught up in the stuff showing on her screen again. She had been staring at this particular picture for a while, enthralled by the dancing figure in it.

All of the pictures had an ethereal quality to them, scenes from a world gone by, even though Giles insisted that none of the events they showed could have possibly happened. He said that they just didn't fit with what was known about the origins of the world. But they struck a chord in her, almost singing to her of their reality. Those things could have happened and that's what kept her looking at them in fascination and doing her part in keeping them safe.

Willow closed the ancient book she had finished scanning in and stroked the worn leather lightly. She marvelled for a moment that Giles had even let these books out of his sight before rising to put it away. As she approached the nearby shelf where all of those books were held, Willow started humming a part of that ancient tune that ran through her mind like a gentle breeze.

Fin