Chapter 2
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It could only have been a couple of moments later that Baird opened her eyes, expecting to see a messed-up library, but instead found trees and streams of bright light. "Wh-" She winced at the glaring sunlight that surrounded her, a headache starting to pound behind her eyes as strong fingers coming up to shield her vision. "How..." When her eyes finally did adjust to the brightness, she could see Jones pushing himself up just a few feet from her.
"What the hell was that?" The thief asked.
"I don't... Are you ok, Jones?"
"All good here."
"Cas?" The Guardian then called over to where she saw movement just behind her Australian teammate.
"I'm fine, although the landing could have been a little softer."
And as if to prove her point, the young witch shuffled over slightly, showing off the slowly forming bruise at the base of her elbow.
"I'm with you there, Killian... What about you, Stone?" Baird looked around, realising that she hadn't seen him yet, or even heard his distinctive growl. "Stone!"
"I'm ok." The historian waved as he pushed himself through the heavy tree line, out into the open space the others had landed in. His feet caught on a few branches as he tried to climb over some shrubs, causing him to stumble onto his knees. "Damnit! Where the hell are we?"
The question was aimed at Biard, the only one who seemed sure on her feet at the moment.
"No clue, but I think it has something to do with the weird crystal I picked up."
"Wait, what crystal?" The Lead Librarian asked, still rubbing at his scuffed-up shins.
"I'm not sure. It was in the package I asked you about. It was addressed to the library, but other than that, I had no clue who it was meant for. I made sure the box was safe first, looking for all the usual signs that it might be dangerous, but it seemed so ordinary." Sigh "Sometimes I forget that magic can be hidden just about anywhere. And a mysterious crystal being sent directly to a mystical library that no one should know exists should be treated with more caution. Sorry guys."
Waving off the guardian's guilt, Stone asked "Do you have the crystal on you now?"
"It vanished as soon as I touched it, and we got sent here... wherever here is."
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"Ok, well we need t' figure out how to get back to the library then. Because whoever sent us that parcel must have had a reason t' want us out of there, and that spells trouble in my book." Jake spoke clearly and confidently as he clapped his hands together, looking around the space before returning his gaze back to the team. "So has anyone got any ideas?"
"Why would you need our help? Aren't you the great and powerful librarian, the one chosen to be the saviour of this planet whilst the rest of us just tag along for the ride?"
It was the thief that spoke up, unhelpfully. His tone sulky and kind of childlike, and that's why Stone felt no guilt in ignoring him.
"Jones, you know full well that Jake didn't say any of that, and that's not how it is," Baird interjected. A soft shake of her head as she tried to console the youngest Librarian with her gentle yet firm voice. "You know we all have our strengths, and the library needs all of us to help protect this planet. And that's why, despite the Library choosing Stone to be our leader, it also allowed him to change the rules so you and Killian could be librarians as well. Now can we stop with this silly argument, and find a way to get out of here? Please!"
"Whatever." The thief huffed, throwing the phone he was messing with back into his dressing gown pocket. "I haven't got any signal, so calling Jenkins for a lift isn't an option. Stone, you got any of that useless trivia still floating inside your head that could tell us where we are exactly?"
"Useless trivia, huh, wasn't useless when we thought the minotaur, or when I lead us out'a that temple before the mummies could get their hands on us," Jake grumbled his comment under his breath as he continued to investigate the forest surrounding them. Picking up a few leaves, and studying the tree's bark, Stone started to paint a picture with his findings. "Assuming we haven't lost any time, the sun's placement would put us at around midday..."
"Around two o clock, to be more precise."
"Thanks, Cas. That means we're only about three hours ahead Portland time, so probably somewhere in the Eastern time zone."
"Well, that narrows it down."
"Also..." Stone glared at the sulking thief. "These tree's, there Fraser Firs. They're only known to grow in southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee..."
"Wait, are you saying that we've been sent to...?" Eve looked up to the sky, unable to say what she was thinking.
"The Appalachian Mountains. Yeah-huh."
"Why here?"
"No clue. But they clearly wanted us far away from the library."
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"So, what do we do now?"
"Best guess," the historian shrugged a little but continued delivering his plan. "Start walking in... That direction. See if we can find a town or some phone signal."
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Meanwhile, back at the empty annex...
"Are you sure this is the right place, Jack? It doesn't exactly look big enough."
On the grassy bank outside the Library's secret entrance, two shady-looking men stood idling by the doors. The shorter of the two pocking at the brickwork trying to imagine how what they were looking for could possibly fit under a small bridge in central Portland.
Nothing was coming to mind for him, although his teachers did always tell him that he lacked imagination, and physical endurance. So maybe...
"Positive. Look the doors are exactly like the one in the picture, and it's under a bridge just like the lady said it would be."
And yes the badly drawing did look somewhat like the entrance they were looking at, and the map was pointing to his area.
However...
"I still think you're putting way too much trust in this woman. Whose name neither of us knows, by the way... Where'd you even find her?"
"Craigslist."
"Seriously?"
"No, man. Geeze. Jimmy put us in contact. Said she was part of some organisation that dealt with magic, but she got fired for asking too many questions." "However, before that, she was part of a team that infiltrated this place, and she remembered the schematics."
"Still sounds risky to me. I mean, magic library, it's bound to have some killer defences."
"You'd think," "But apparently it's real easy to break into, like it happens at least once a year in fact. And that's without having a full-on map to lead the way. So don't sweat it."
"Ok."
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"Aghhh!" Jones screamed in frustration, kicking a stone that went flying into a nearby tree making the bark splinter off. The thief ignored the huff of indignation that came from his team's leader, deciding to instead carry on with his complaining. "We're going around in circles."
"No, we are not," Stone corrected, whilst frustratedly chewing on his lip. "It just looks like we are because the scenery isn't changing. Trust me, we've been heading in a straight line this whole time."
"How the hell can you know that? Is it one of your oh-so-special lead librarian powers? Is that why they picked you, because you can track your way out of some lousy forest?"
"He knows that because he's been checking the skyline frequently to see where we're heading. We've been going downhill this entire time; therefore, we can't be going in circles." The guardian replied, using her own training in wilderness survival to hopefully shut the grumbling thief up for just five minutes.
With no such luck.
"God, is everyone in this group a wilderness survival freak?"
"Hey, you should be thankful that some of us know what we're doing out here. I mean, it ain't like you're contributing much, except your loudmouth comments."
And honestly, Jake was left to wonder, yet again, why the Library picked a thief as its guardian, but chastised himself when he remembered all the good things that Jones brought to the team. Yeah, he was annoying at times, and extremely cocky. However, and Stone hated to admit it, they wouldn't have solved at least a handful of their missions if it hadn't been for the arrogant Aussie.
Still, that doesn't excuse all the Backchat he's been getting lately. It wasn't Jake's fault that the library had chosen him to be lead librarian. In fact, sometimes he wished it hadn't just so he could get some peace and less responsibility.
"How much further do you think we need to travel, Stone?" Baird asked. "Only I think the others are starting to get tired." She then gestured towards the other two members of the group who were, now that he looked, clearly exhausted from all the walking they'd been doing.
"Yeah, you may be right." Because truth be told, even Jake was starting to feel drained, despite his better-than-normal sleep these past few nights. And he wasn't feeling quite up to the hour-long trek he predicted there to be. "Let's find someplace to take a quick rest.
"But what about the library?" Jones started to argue, probably just for the sake of it, Jacob thought to himself. "Shouldn't we get back there as soon as possible?"
"Probably. But it's no use if we're half dead by the time we get there." Stone ignored yet more grumbling from the team's thief. "No, we'll take a quick break just to catch our breaths."
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Jones was tired of being bossed around. Who did Stone even think he was? Yeah, the library picked him to be their leader, but to Ezechiel Jones, greatest thief in the world, that meant squat. He didn't need a boss thank you very much, he was in charge of his own actions, always had been, always will be.
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The group had carried on walking for about another hour after their short break, travelling at a slower speed to counter the rough terrain, as per their leader's suggestion. They were making steady progress though, until just a few seconds ago when Jake brought them to a sudden halt.
"Why the hell are we stopping for?" Jones shouted, storming forward with heavy pounding stomps. "I want to get out of this place and back to civilisation."
He wasn't looking where he was going, so he didn't see the large problem blocking his path, not before his shirt was pulled by its collar to stop him from walking into almost certain peril.
"We've stopped, Jones, because we've hit a bit of a snag."