Chapter Three:

Once Kaine and Yonah suited themselves up with ill-fitting armor- a silver breast plate for Kaine, chainmail for Yonah- Kaine lead the way to the library.

"But I thought we were going to see your friend Emil." Yonah said, her diary tucked under her arm.

"Emil's kind of a book worm." Kaine replied. "If these books have answers, then Emil will be able to find them faster."

"Okay," Yonah followed Kaine up the stairs. "I trust you."

"It's not a matter of trust," Kaine replied, walking up to the front door. "I just don't want to spend all day looking." Kaine opened the door and held it for the girl to enter. Inside, bodies of the dead laid around piles of books. The shelves were nearly empty; books were torn and thrown all over the floor, useless to the bodies that reached for them. There was no question where the villagers had disapeared to; they had come here to seek out a cure- and died trying.

"Oh no..." whispered Yonah.

"My god..." Kaine breathed.

"All those people..." Yonah continued. "Are we going to end up like them...?"

Kaine shook her head quickly. "Like hell we are. Come on; start looking for books on medicine."

Yonah walked over to one of the shelves, finding it nearly barren. She picked up one of the books and flipped through it. Several of the pages had been torn out. It made the girl sad. She started to close the book when a flat green plant fell out from between the pages. Curious, Yonah bent down and picked it up. The plant had a narrow stem with four rounded leaves close together at the top. She could not identify it.

"Kaine, what is this?" Yonah asked, turning.

Kaine looked up from the book she was reading. "Bring it to me." The girl obeyed. Kaine carefully took the plant and examined it. "It's a clover." Kaine answered at last, handing it back to the girl. "The four leaves mean you're lucky."

"I'm...lucky...?" Yonah frowned slightly. Was that true? Was she lucky to have lost memory of her father? Was she lucky to have been a slave for the Shadowlord? No. She had been misfortunate; it was only now that she could count her blessings. Yonah smiled. "Yeah, I guess I am lucky. I mean... Despite all that has happened to me, at least I got to meet you."

Kaine turned away from the child's hopeful gaze, pretending instead to read. She wasn't used to all this mushy-talk, especially when directed to her. "Try not to get distracted; we need to keep looking."

"Okay." Yonah pocketed the four-leaf clover and headed towards a stack of books in the floor. A man laid near the stack, his body half-way decomposed, his skeletal hands clenching a book. Yonah decided to take the book he was holding; surely it was important if the man died holding it...? Yonah took hold of the binding and yanked it free, falling back onto the cracked tile floor. She opened the book and read the title outloud: "The Healing Method of Sleep... Kaine! I think I found something." The girl stood up and looked around. The room was devoid of life besides her own. "Kaine...?"

Upstairs in Popola's office, Kaine filled a knapsack full of maps, a book of poems, medical herbs, jars of spices, and a notebook full of animal sketches. She felt very much accomplished. Turning to leave the room, Kaine spotted something out of the corner of her eye. She faced the object. It was a white crystal ball. Captivated, Kaine carefully put the ball into her sack and left. Spying Yonah from the second floor, she called down to Yonah. "Hey. Are you ready to go?"

Yonah looked up at Kaine, wiping the tears from her face quickly. "I thought I lost you," Yonah wanted to say. Instead, the girl nodded. "Mhm..."

"This place is a tomb..." Muttered Kaine, walking down the stairs. Yonah met her halfway and pushed her book into Kaine's bag. "I found a book on healing." she told her.

"Good for you," Kaine smiled at the girl, automatically taking hold of her hand. In silence, they stepped around the corpses and out into the sunlight. Once outside, they decided to have a little snack before they set out. They sat down in the grass and shared a piece of bread, quietly talking about different type of flowers. There were no bird-songs; only the sound of their voices.

"There were once butterflies that would pollinate the flowers and help them grow." Kaine was saying.

"Butterflies? What did they look like?" Yonah asked, chewing on her porton of bread.

"Umm...Well, they had two small powdery wings and a long body... Here-" Kaine turned and dug out one of the many books in her bag and started flipping through it. She found a black and white photo of a luna mouth, and pointed it out to her. "This one had green wings, and they only came out at night."

"Oh, it's just like the Lunar Tear! Those flowers only bloom at night, right?"

"Mhm."

"Kaine? Why are you so nice to me?" Yonah asked.

"..." Kaine stood up. "We should head out now, before it gets dark." The woman shoved the book back into the knapsack.

Yonah stood up and dusted the crumbs off of her chainmail. "All right, I'm ready."