A/N: Well, that took much longer than I had previously anticipated… Real life is a pain. Remembering what tense to write this in was an interesting adventure. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with it, I promise I will not abandon this story, even if it does seem like it sometimes.

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Chapter 6: The Great Library

Wolf had easily tracked us down river and into the small village by day break. He was stuffing himself on, what looked to me like, a full English breakfast when Jordana and I groggily made our way down-stairs into the tavern of the inn. Dad was carefully ignoring the impolite sounds of Wolf eating while contemplating the daily newspaper with a cup of coffee, while Finn simply stared in something akin to awe as the eggs, bacon, toast, fried mushrooms and sausage links disappeared into Wolf's bottomless stomach.

"At long last, my love!" Wolf cried dramatically when he caught sight of me. I smiled and cast a quick glance around the room to see that everyone in the inn had turned to stare at Wolf's loud declaration. I felt my cheeks start to burn a little and quickly sat down and ducked my head out of view.

"Now then, what would you like to eat?" Wolf asked, and I was reminded of the feast thrown in our honor after our last adventure, the one during which I had been served the fish that had eaten Wolf's engagement ring. "Breakfast is after all, the most important meal of the day!"

I hastily looked around the table to what everyone else was eating. My dad had some scrambled eggs with toast and a side of bacon.

"I'll have that." I said and Wolf jumped up to place my order.

"So what's the plan for today?" I asked my father.

"Buy some more supplies, and then continue down river; with any luck we'll be to the library tomorrow morning."

By this time Wolf had returned and had become somewhat subdued by my presence. I reached my hand over and squeezed his knee under the table.

"Are you ok?" I asked, and Wolf nodded before taking my hand in his own and kissing the back of it. My hand stayed in his all throughout breakfast, which was used mainly to bring Finn up to speed as to our mission to the Great Library and exactly what it all meant in the grand scheme of things. Finn, being not so much forgetful as easily distracted, stopped the story several times to ask about the details of something that had already been mentioned. By the end of it, my dad was about ready to tear his hair out in frustration, Wolf was growling under his breath, Jordana had excused herself under the pretense of repacking our things, and I had my head rested on the table in exasperation. A silent vow was made between the three of us remaining to ditch Finn at the soonest possible moment.

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The next day, we docked in the small city where the Great Library was located in the Second Kingdom. Our little vessel attracted very little attention, as no one outside of the Fourth Kingdom could be expected to recognize our faces; but we would still be employing the use of false names. Finn had been almost hysterical when he'd learned who we really were.

It was easy enough to figure out where we wanted to go. The royal palace of Gretel the Great sat on a hill to the north, but aside from that there was only one building in the vicinity that could possibly be the one we wanted. The library was massive, visible from all points in the city. I can only compare it to it being roughly the same size as the Metropolitan Museum of Art back home in New York. It was just as ornately decorated as well. Once inside, stacks and stacks of books reaching up to the ceiling made a labyrinth of information, with bindings and tags in nearly every color of the rainbow.

"So what do we expect to find here, exactly?" Dad asked.

"Anything useful." Jordana replied, leading us through the stacks as if she knew where she was headed.

"Oh yes, that's specific." He quipped. "How do we expect to find anything in here? It's massive!"

Jordana rolled her eyes. "We'll use the library's index to find any books or papers that might lead us to the Lady Rosaleen. Now, everybody choose a topic to research."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Key words," she explained, "Each of us could take a couple key words that might lead us back to Rosaleen."

"Ok… I'll start with frog merchants?" I suggested.

"Very good, then I'll look up lists of sorceresses in the Nine Kingdoms, anyone who attempts to learn magic must be registered with the Sorcerer's Guild. Even if she's not working with them now, it will tell us more about her." Jordana said.

My father shrugged. "I'll look for any Rosaleens. If she's caused any problems before there might have been a newspaper article about it."

"Then I'll look for any unsolved magical occurrences." Finn piped up and we all turned to stare at him in shock.

"I'm forgetful, not stupid." He said defensively.

"I'll go with Virginia." Wolf said bouncing over to my side, now that we were a step closer to finding our queries my thoughts turned back to the love letter that had arrived at our apartment. I'd have to ask him about that later, it was still something we needed to talk about, and if it was true that it was a set-up, then I had an apology to make.

"Very well." Jordana said with a nod, "Shall we meet back here in an hour and share what we've found? Yes? Good."

With that, we all parted ways and immediately lost ourselves among the stacks.

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About an hour later, Wolf and I flipped through the index slips and various tomes without much luck at all. A Rosaleen was mentioned once in a list of frog providers, but she was also listed as having been in operation almost seventy years ago; which meant that it had to have been a coincidence. I jotted down the information about her whereabouts on a slip of paper nonetheless, given that we hadn't really found anything else.

I reached the end of my patience for research long before Wolf did, so I sat staring at him from across one of the many reading tables that were scattered throughout the library. He was mumbling as he read, his brow creased in concentration, and every once in a while he would reach up with one hand and paw at his temple like a dog (or a wolf) scratching its head. This is a common scene when Wolf is completely focused on something, but even so I stopped to inspect him, finding that I hadn't done so quite as frequently as I probably should have been.

Eventually I worked up the courage to breach a topic that was still nagging me after Jordana had brought it up the previous evening, but I still hesitated before finally opening my mouth to break his concentration.

"Wolf?" I said, softly. I could barely hear my own voice, but Wolf's supernatural hearing picked it up right away.

"Hmm?" He responded in a distracted way, not looking up from the book he was reading.

"Can we talk?" I continued a bit louder. This grabbed Wolf's attention fully, and he turned away from the dusty pages to inspect my face.

"Something wrong, my luscious lamb-chop?" He frowned and I could hardly stand it.

"I wanted to talk to you about the letter… the one from Rosaleen…" I was losing my courage fast, but I forced myself to stick with it.

Wolf's frown deepened. "I thought we already had talked about that." He said.

"I know but…"

"It's still bothering you?" He finished, and I nodded.

"Alright, what about it?" He asked.

"You… You were never… you and she…" I had to start several times before the words would present themselves. "You're happy, right? I mean – you're not unhappy… with me?"

Wolf, being Wolf, immediately saw the cause of my insecurity. "No!" He said quickly, "No, Virginia, of course not! I am so happy with you. Deliriously happy! You and our little pup are all I've ever wanted… well… maybe not all I've ever wanted, bacon's on that list too, and pastrami..."

I couldn't help but smile a little at Wolf's tangents.

"But that's beside the point!" He said, forcefully. "You and the little pup are my world, and I would never ever do anything to ruin that!"

My eyes started to water and I had to wave my hand in front of my face in an attempt to play it cool. I tried to blame it on the hormones again, but Wolf stood up and walked around the table to kneel in front of me. With a big smile, he took my face between his hands and said: "I love you, so much."

"So the letter that Rosaleen sent to the apartment?"

"Lies. Every single word."

"Then how could I have believed her?"

Wolf frowned. "Well, to be honest, I am hurt that you did… I would have thought that I had proved to you that I am yours, and only yours for as long as you want me."

"I know!" I cried. "I should have trusted you, I should have known, I'm just so stupid when it comes to things like this!"

"No! No, Virginia! That's not what I meant!"

"But you're right though! I should have known! I'm sorry, I promise it won't happen again! Just please don't leave, I couldn't stand it if you did!"

"Virginia, stop!" He cried.

I looked up at him in shock even though I could feel the tears burning in my eyes even worse than before.

"Huff puff!" Wolf sighed. "Virginia, I know that you've been hurt in the past. I know you've still got all sorts of bruises from all the hurts you've had over the years. I understand that." He smiled at me. "I understand, and I'm not going to leave you just because sometimes something reopens all of those old wounds."

"You're not going to leave me?" I repeated, just needing to hear it again to reassure myself.

"No." He said. "I'm just going to try and remind you more often of how much you mean to me, and if that doesn't work then I'll just have to be there to nurse you back to health because I failed to catch you."

I sniffed. "So we're okay?" I asked.

"We were never not okay to begin with, but yes, we are most positively okay." He replied.

And what could I do? I laughed through my tears, and pressed a kiss to his lips, and suddenly I'm in his arms and still sobbing how sorry I am for doubting him, and us, and kissing him all the while, and he's whispering for me to shush and to stop being silly and how much he loves me and the baby. By this point he looked entirely too smug and out of principle I tried to pull away, but Wolf wasn't having it, so he just tightened his arms around my waist and we declared research a lost cause in favor of a nice long cuddle.

Fortunately by then Wolf and I had exhausted the records of frog merchants throughout the kingdoms with neither of us finding a thing. So either Rosaleen wasn't registered with the Union for Purveyors of Magical Animals, or her trade pre-dated the founding of that union almost one hundred years ago, which both Wolf and I thought was very unlikely. So we began to wind our way back through the stacks to the place where we had all parted ways and hoped that Jordana, Finn, or my Dad had had more success than us.

My dad and Finn had already assembled by the time we got there.

"Did you find anything?" Dad asked eagerly, I noticed that his hands were empty, but Finn was holding a large stack of papers.

"No." I said with a shrug. "Our Lady Rosaleen is not a known frog provider. How about you, did either of you find anything?"

My dad shook his head, but Finn looked fit to burst with pride and excitement.

"A 'right then, I took the liberty and compiled a compendium of unsolved magical occurrences over the past few years, specifically to do with kidnappings, Rosaleens, and frogs, and I found a very interesting pattern. Every five years or so, there is a travelling circus that performs in one village throughout each of the Nine Kingdoms, and directly after the circus' opening night several children from those villages will disappear. But before the townsfolk put two and two together the travelling circus is gone, and the children are never seen again."

"What's that got to do with anything?" I asked.

Finn raised a finger and flipped through his papers to one particular article. "This, my lovers, is a write-up of the circus for a local newspaper, and you might be interested in this passage here…"

He pointed with his finger, and Wolf and I leaned over the desk to take a closer look.

"I had the privilege to speak with the owner of the Cirque Du La Infanta; Lady Rosaleen of the 8th Kingdom…!" I read aloud from the text. This tugged eagerly at something in my memory and I fished around in my pocket for the scrap of paper I had copied down from one of the books.

"Well done, Finn!" Wolf cried happily, and grabbed the sides of his head to press an ecstatic kiss to his forehead.

Finn looked a little perturbed at this show of affection, but he ignored it and grinned happily, pleased to be of service to someone at last.

"Can sorceresses live for long periods of time?" I asked, comparing the information that I had written down to the article found by Finn.

"Well, yes, I suppose they can. They have got magic, after all." Finn replied.

"The Evil Queen who cursed Snow White lived for over a hundred years before your mother came to replace her Virginia." Wolf added.

"Then I think I may have found something. I got this address for a Rosaleen from the 8th Kingdom out of one of the books, but it said she was in business 70 years ago. I thought it wasn't possible, but if sorceresses can live for a really long time, then it might be the same person."

"So that means…" My dad prompted with an excited grin.

"That we know where to find her." Wolf finished.

"And Wendell!" I added, with a laugh. "Can we take those papers with us?"

"I don't see why not, just so long as we return them…. eventually." Finn looked uncomfortable. "I may lose them though, so I'd suggest someone else carry them."

A thought occurred to me. "Finn, how did you remember all of that information?"

Finn held out his hand sheepishly where I could see lines of black ink scrawled across his skin.

"Keeping notes helps me remember things…" He said in explanation.

I smiled at him. "That's wonderful."

The papers were then passed to my father, who put them in the backpack he carried with him. It was then that we realized someone was missing.

"Where's Jordana?" I asked, and we each looked around as if expecting her to appear from thin air.

Suddenly there was a shrill scream from somewhere amid the stacks, and we all knew exactly who had made it.

"Jordana!" We cried as we began to tear through the stacks, trying to locate her by the sound of her voice.

She screamed again, and there was a loud crash as a bookshelf fell from somewhere to our left, and suddenly a loud siren wailed and the entire building seemed to groan and shift. We had to stop in our tracks as the building shook. Grains of plaster rained down from the ceiling and there were a series of loud bangs almost like footsteps before a loud roar deafened us.

"What the hell was that!?" I cried.

Finn and Wolf looked at each other in confusion both fishing their brains for an answer with their mouths gaping open.

"Uhhhhh…" Wolf said. "The security system?"

"What?!" My dad cried.

"I'm not sure but… I heard rumors while I was in the Snow White Memorial Penitentiary that some of the other convicts were in there for trying to steal stuff from places with valuables inside that have had a wizard charm the building so that it can defend itself against anyone who wants to steal stuff, or maybe in this case; damage the books."

"What exactly does that entail?" Dad asked.

Wolf made a face. "Dragons, ogres, trolls… I dunno, could be almost anything."

The roar sounded again.

"Definitely a dragon." Wolf said, as we uncovered our ears.

It was then that Jordana came running down the corridor towards us, clutching a book to her chest in a death-grip and waving one arm at us frantically.

"Run!" She screamed. "Run!"

There were three men chasing her, dressed in dark clothing and carrying swords. Jordana was upon us in moments.

"Didn't you hear me? I said run, you lunk-heads!"

"Who are they?" Dad asked as she sped past.

"Does it matter? They're trying to kill me!"

Sure enough as the men drew closer we could hear them shouting:

"There they are!"

"Get them!"

"Bring them to Lady Rosaleen."

So we started to run, winding through the stacks, trying desperately to lose our pursuers but to keep track of each other, all the while we could hear the dragon coming nearer. It wasn't long before we had lost each other completely, whereas the men pursuing us had had no such trouble. What's more they seemed to have multiplied, three were following me alone, and in my pregnant state I was quickly tiring and slowing drastically.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed me roughly from behind and pulled me down to the ground. I screamed in surprise and kicked out in desperation. One of the men held my arms down and another held my feet, forcing them into shackles. A third leaned over me and forced a gag into my mouth, I continued to struggle and the third man hit me hard across the face. I saw stars, and heard him snarl, "Don't make this hard on yourself girlie; our orders are to bring you alive, but she didn't say anything about being in one piece."

I tried to kick at them again, and only succeeded in temporarily unseating the third thug restraining me.

"That's it!" He growled. "Legs are coming off!"

He raised his sword menacingly above his head but before he could cut me in half he was lifted into the air in the jaws of what I could only assume was the Library's security system. The other two men cried out in surprise and turned to look in horror at the enormous beast. It had bright orange eyes which burned with fury, and smoke curled out of its massive dripping jaws. Feeling thoroughly worthless I struggled with the shackles that had been attached to my ankles and wrists while the other two men attempted to fend off the dragon, and when they failed to do so they ran screaming off into the stacks. I breathed a sigh of relief when the dragon decided to follow the men instead of making me into a snack, and I went back to trying to free myself from the shackles.

"Here, let me help you with that." Came a voice from above me. I looked up to see a dark haired stranger wearing an outfit similar to those of the men who had captured me, save for the black mask the others had worn. I eyed him, and the sword in his hand, warily but he ignored me and set about unlocking the manacles. He had long dark hair that was pulled back in a pony-tail, and striking pale green eyes.

"There, that's better." He said when he finished, and offered me a hand up. I ignored it and struggled to my feet using the bookshelves nearby.

"Who are you?" I growled. "Why are you helping me?" I rubbed a hand over my stomach to calm the baby who was kicking frantically having sensed my anxiety not to mention having been rattled about when I'd been knocked to the ground.

The man cocked an eyebrow at me and stood in a relaxed position with one arm resting on the hilt of his sword. "Do I need a reason to help a damsel in distress?"

Just then Wolf came barreling through the stacks and he caught me up in a huge hug.

"Virginia! Oh, I was so worried! The rest of us made it to the boat but then we realized you weren't behind us I ran back here to find you! I thought you'd been captured." Then he caught scent of the other man.

"Who're you?" he growled.

"Wolf, this man was just helping me." I said putting my hand on Wolf's chest to calm him. Although it seemed to do anything but and I saw his shoulders tense and his eyes darken in preparation to protect me, but I wasn't having any more of the damsel-in-distress crap.

"Wolf, cool it." I huffed, then turned back to the mysterious stranger. "Look, thank you for what you did, but we have nothing to repay you with so, I'm sorry but we'll have to be on our way."

"I came here to help you." The man said, stepping in our path as we tried to walk away.

I stared at him, not really sure what he was getting at. "And you have. So please, we need to go now, my dad and friends are waiting for us…"

The man stepped in front of us as we tried to move again, and I could tell that Wolf was seething, his eyes flashing gold dangerously.

"I mean to say I am here to help you on your quest… to rescue Wendell." The stranger said.

Wolf and I glanced at each other. "What makes you think we're on a quest?" Wolf asked with his best salesman suave.

"I've been tracking your vessel since the Fourth Kingdom. You are the Lady Virginia and Lord Wolfson are you not?" He asked, unimpressed.

"Well – um…" Said Wolf.

"What do you mean; you've been tracking us?" I asked.

The man looked frustrated. "Really, must we have this conversation now? We don't have much time before those men come back."

The roar sounded again.

"Or the dragon." He added.

"But we haven't harmed the books…" I said.

Wolf looked a bit sheepish. "I may have, um… Well, I may have 'enhanced' some of the portraits of the wizards in one of the books…"

"Wolf!" I scolded.

"I was bored, Virginia!" He cried.

I growled at Wolf and he cowered a bit. "Alright, let's get out of here, but when we get back to the boat you're telling us everything." I demanded, pointing my best accusatory finger at the stranger.

He nodded his consent, and the three of us ran towards the Library's exit and towards our friends who were waiting for us by the river.

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A/N: Sorry to leave off so abruptly; as I was writing this I realized that it just kept getting longer and longer and that I really didn't have enough substance for the next chapter. So I decided to take some of the final scenes from this chapter and use them at the beginning of the next. Leaves us with a lovely cliff-hanger, and means that I've got something more to work with for the next part.

Thank you to everyone who has been showing their support with all the lovely reviews I've received on the previous chapters. Please keep up the good work, believe it or not they really do encourage me to continue!