August 30, 1997
Midday
Castle Wyvern

Xanatos was not a fan of paperwork, but it was a critical part of his day-to-day operations. Especially as the owner of a multinational corporation.

His lawyers had put together a land acquisition contract, and all that was left was to review and sign it. He was mid-review when he had to pause and take an important call with the COO of his robotics firm, Scarab Corporation. By the time he got off the call an hour later, the file had gone missing from his desk.

Perplexed, he called Owen who had been the only one to enter and leave his office during that time.

The trickster turned executive assistant insisted he hadn't done anything with it since he had left the contract on his desk earlier that day. Xanatos spent several minutes searching his desk and office when Owen showed up with the contract, explaining that it had in fact been on his desk, and apologized for his oversight.

Xanatos continued his review and was about to sign it but couldn't find a single pen to sign it with. While he was searching his desk for one, the contract disappeared from off his desk again which prompted another call to Owen.

"Are you certain Puck isn't having a little fun today?" he asked him, put out.

"Of course not, sir. I am incapable of doing so unless training Alex, and I am currently picking up your dry cleaning."

So if Owen was gone from the building, then where had the contract gone? Xanatos was trying to puzzle out the mystery when Fox walked into his office, carrying Alex in one arm and a stack of papers in another.

"You left this in Alex's room," she said and dropped the missing contract on his desk.

Xanatos stared at it mystified.

"You should really be more careful. Alex was about to color all over it with crayon."

"I didn't leave it there," Xanatos replied, wrinkling his nose at some of the crumpled pages. "I haven't left my office all afternoon."

Both he and Fox looked at their nearly fourteenth-month-old son.

"Did you move daddy's papers, Alex?" Fox asked the boy.

"No," he said confidently in his little toddler voice.

"Alex, my work is very important. You shouldn't take it, and you definitely shouldn't use it for coloring."

Alex shook his head emphatically.

"I no take them," he squeaked.

Xanatos steepled his fingers together as he leaned on his desk. He was taken aback by the thought that his son was capable of lying already, but he couldn't get too mad at the boy. He was only a toddler, albeit one with advanced magical and intellectual abilities, but a toddler nonetheless.

He couldn't think of anyone else who could make objects disappear before his eyes, but Alex seemed so sincere, that he decided to drop the issue. Perhaps he hadn't done it intentionally. He quickly signed the document with a pen that seemed to have suddenly materialized on his desk, and filed it in a locked drawer.

"Why don't we play a game," Xanatos said as he gently took Alex from Fox and tossed him into the air playfully. The little boy squealed in delight, and if he hovered in the air a second or two longer than was natural with each toss, neither Xanatos nor Fox paid it any mind.

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September 5, 1997
7:30 p.m.
Castle Wyvern, library

Goliath normally coordinated his nights off from patrol on Elisa's nights off from work, but she was spending the early part of the evening with her sister, Beth, and would join him later, which gave him a chance to catch up on his reading. The library was blissfully calm and quiet, and he soon took a moment to enjoy the peace and take part in some contemplation and inner reflection before diving into his book.

He had just cracked it open to where he'd left off, when he heard something heavy hit the stone floor with a hard thunk.

His ears pricked up at the sound, and he looked over toward the direction from which it had come. He couldn't see anything amiss right away, so he set down his book and got up to investigate. A leatherbound book lay open on the ground where it had apparently fallen from the shelf. He picked it up and looked it over curiously. It was an early edition of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. He put it back where it belonged before returning to his comfortable chair and book.

He had just sat down once more when he heard the same sound again. He turned his head sharply toward it, hoping to catch someone in the act of mischief, but there was nothing to be seen. Scowling, he cast about once more, only to find a different book, a collection of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley, in a different location in the library that had fallen to the ground.

He puzzled over the situation, wondering why two books had fallen off the shelves of their own accord, when he heard the sound again. He snapped his head toward it and quickly scanned the area, his ears straining to hear anything, but again saw nothing amiss. This time the sound had come from one of the upper rings. He climbed the stairs and picked up the third book and put it back just as the sound of another book falling echoed through the library. His annoyance quickly turned to anger as several more books on the lower level fell off their shelves. He leapt over the balcony railing and onto the floor below, hoping once more to catch the culprit, but he did not see nor did he hear anyone, and he set to collecting each book one by one and putting them back. He repeated the process about a dozen times before he snapped his wings out and roared with frustration.

"Puck!" he growled. "Are you teaching Alex again?"

His voice reverberated through the library. The word "again," echoed several times before dissipating, but there was no reply. He listened so intently that he could hear the woosh of blood as it rushed through his ears in rhythm with his heart rate.

And then a scraping sound and the rustling of pages broke the eerie silence as several more books flew off their shelves all at once from above and below followed by a cacophony of slaps and thuds as they hit the ground.

Goliath decided then to abandon the library and his plans to read for the rest of the night.