Dream Season

Episode 3

And the Pink Pyjamas

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Chapter 1

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It was a new day, and a bright start in the library. A loud yawn coming from the man perched at the top of the annex stairs, his arms reaching well above his head whilst his body popped and creaked.

"Ahhh, that feels good."

It was one of those early morning stretches, you know, the ones that lets your joints know that you're awake and it's time to start the day.

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'Full many a glorious morning have I seen

Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,

Kissing with golden face the meadows green,

Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;'

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It was perhaps poetic that the historian should think of that particular sonnet this morning, given that he'd been taking the special concoction his friend had created for him for almost two weeks now, with largely favourable results. Yes, he still had headaches, or maybe migraines would be a more accurate term, but they were much less frequent and much easier to hide now that he had some energy again.

With his body sated, and that groggy feeling of just waking up starting to shift away, Jake finally made his way down the winding staircase.

Stumbling over the last step as he tried to avoid the large pile of books that had fallen across it, Jacob Stone slowly made his way to his desk rubbing the sleep from his eyes with one hand whilst the other scratched his stomach. By the looks of it, the librarian had already tried to dress himself, however, he must have been half asleep still, given his crooked collar and crumpled under shirt.

And so maybe he wasn't quite as awake as he thought he was, specially without the coffee he so desperately needed to fuel his mornings nowadays.

'I wonder if that... Brew-house? Brew-place?... Oh, something or other, is open yet?' There blends were some of the best Jake had ever tried. And that was saying something, given his world-wide travels and finally tuned taste buds. It was just a shame about some of their beers though, because the food was also excellent.

Looking at his watch, it was actually still pretty early, and so it was probably best that he stays here for the time being and got started on the organising he and Cassy had been too busy for.

'No Jenkins, we're not avoiding the task, it's just that the clippings book has been fairly active these last couple of months, I swear.'

And that wasn't a lie... Exactly.

Now though, they didn't really have a good enough excuse to put it off any longer, not unless the clipping book decided to intervene...

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Guess not.

"Damnit! Why is it that whenever I don't want a case distracting me, you decide to speak up? But now..."

"Why are you yelling at the clipping book?"

Jacob nearly sprung out of his skin on hearing the voice suddenly behind him, his heading spinning around before he sighed in relief.

"Well Cas I'm already talkin' to the library and a magic sword, might as well add a few more inanimate objects to the list."

Truth be told after meeting the library's consciousness, they'd all developed the habit of talking to it, and other seemingly inanimate objects soon joined the list. Cassandra herself had a particular fondness for a chemistry set that Stone had brought for her, and would often wax poetry towards it as she worked.

"You ready to start on this mess?" Jake then asked, his foot lightly nudging a large pile of books that towered precariously next to him.

"Absolutely."

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Starting with the books that had been gathered and piled around the main research area, Stone and his teammate decided it was best to begin by organizing the heaps ready to move to the correct place within the library's stacks. It took them a while, however, to come to an agreement on exactly how that should be done. Cassandra was in favour of arranging by year of publication or by width x number of pages, whilst Jacob preferred the more traditional approach of alphabetising their catalogue, and neither seemed keen on changing their minds on the matter. Not until they came to a compromise organising the books by subject matter which they then split between their individual areas of expertise.

Once that was sorted the pair worked together with a practiced kind of ease.

"Cassie, can you pass me that encyclopaedia over there?"

"One moment, just let me… Oh, Eve!" Cassandra called out while carefully balancing on the top rung of her stepladder as their guardian entered the room, sweat running down her Lycra t-shirt. "Great timing. Could you pass that book to Jake?"

"Umm, sure…" Eve replied as she fetched the item and handed it to the lead librarian. She then turned back to ask, "Where's Jenkins? Thought this would be right up his alley."

"He's out visiting an old friend. Said he wouldn't be back until tomorrow at the earliest."

"Oh ok. And why isn't Jones getting roped into this?"

"He hasn't woken up yet." Jake pointed out with a scowl on his face and a soft growl in his voice. "He was up late last night playing this new video game. I think he mentioned something about wanting to complete it before it got released."

And wasn't that just typical for the young thief…

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For the next hour, Beard, Stone, and Cassandra sorted all the books before promptly moving on to categorizing the new artefacts, giving them permanent homes within the library.

It was a lot of tedious work, that took a lot of time and patience, so of course, it wasn't until a while later, just as the team struggled to move a large marble statue out of the annex, (a remanent from the Greek area, and supposed victim to Medusa herself) that the master thief known as Ezechiel Jones decided to make his presence known.

"What are you guys doing?"

"Oh Jones, nice of you to join us. and to answer your question, we are doing our job. The same job you should be- What the hell!" The historian abruptly paused his incoming rant, the small jewellery box in his hand now fumbling through his fingers. "Man, what are you wearing?" As he asked, his voice pitched up slightly, his hand suppressing a chuckle that was trying to escape.

"Huh..."

"Are those pink pyjamas, Jones?" Eve clarified, her own laugh only just held in.

"No…They're salmon. It's completely different."

"Of course it is." Stone snickered as he turned his back.

"Hey, like I'm gonna take fashion advice from some cowboy that still thinks plaid is in trend."

"There is nothing wrong with the way I dress."

"Are you serious, mate? You look like you belong on the cover of Lumberjack Monthly."

"I'll show you a lumberjack..."

"Boys!" The red-headed witch shouted. "Will you two stop arguing about clothes and help me deal with this stuff?"

"Of course, Cassie. Some of us actually got up this morning to do something productive."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, go upstairs and get dressed."

Sensing no upcoming end to the others' argument, Baird began flicking through the group's mail, absentmindedly sorting it as she sorted through its contents. A lot of it was personal admin, a few letters addressed to a number of Stone's alias', and some magazine subscriptions for both Jones and Cassandra. But the small brown package at the bottom of the pile was what really intrigued the ex-NATO operative. It wasn't addressed to anyone in particular, simply the Librarian at The Library.

"I swear all you do these days is nag nag nag. Who put you in charge anyways?"

"The Library!" Both Cassandra and Eve called out, Stone looking smug, as he pulled the hem of shirt further down his body.

"Are any of you guys expecting a delivery?" The guardian asked as she twisted the parcel in her hands. She was looking to see if there were any distinguishing markers that could tell her who sent it, or who the intended recipient was.

But alas, her question was ignored as her team continued with their petty squableing.

'Guess I'll just have to open it then'.

"Well, I think we need to have a re-vote. It's time for new leadership in this joint."

"It's not a nightclub Jones. And it's the Library that decides, so until it says otherwise, I'm lead librarian. Isn't that right, bubba?" Jake called to the ceiling, once again talking to the library, which might possibly give him an answer.

And so of course the historian didn't notice as Eve started to unwrap the package, taking great caution, just in case it…

AN- Rough draft, will have more editing done to it, as well as the first two stories from this series. Just wanted to prove that it hasn't been abandoned, I'm just super busy at the moment. :(