Court Alchemist
Before him levitated a stack of books, bending over at an alarming rate, as if it could fall at any second. A strained voice muttered behind it. “Excuse me... I fixed the first batch of the fire ball books that you requested...” The stack entered the library while the tower of books dangerously leaned forward.
Faylenn suspiciously raised a brow.
“Oh, Durin. Yes... I almost forgot about that. Just put them on that pile over there.” He pointed at another stack of books which looked more sorted and straight but not really stable either.
“Aye, aye...” The book tower slowly hoovered toward it revealing another small fairy boy with dark green, almost black hair and thick glasses. He was about half the size of the load he was carrying and he looked quite exhausted too. He quickly glanced at the human visitor. “What's going on, Faylenn? I heard some noise before...” He heaved the new books onto the existing pile, making it sway significantly. Then he fluttered to the ground towards Daniel.
“That...! Looks interesting... Where did you find this species?” He circled around him and then turned around to look at Florette with surprise while he rearranged the position of his glasses on his nose.
“You... brought him?”
Florette hopped up and down in the air. She was obviously filled with excitement though her expression didn't change much and wouldn't have given her feelings away. “Yes, I found him. I teleported him along but it was an accident...” She tilted her head. “I could have sworn, I pronounced the spell from your book correctly though...”
“You must have made an error somehow or this wouldn't have happened... For now, I think it's better if I confiscate that book before you cause more havoc.”
Florette nodded sadly and gave the newly arrived fairy her book.
“You're probably right, Durin. I'm sorry.”
“But this... creature there. Is it what I think it is?” He curiously looked at Daniel but kept a save distance from him.
Faylenn rolled his eyes. “It's likely to be a human.”
“For real? Amazing! We should tell the Queen immediately!”
“Good idea! I'm sure Queen Alba will find this very interesting!” Florette then remembered something. “Oh, and I better bring this 'poteito' to her before it gets cold!”
Faylenn who had tried to prevent the crooked book tower from falling apart hastily turned around and almost crashed into it himself. “Don't you dare! You-!”
Durin got between them. “Calm down, Fay. You know about the Queen's depression. Something new might indeed cheer her up. I'm sure Florette only wanted to help out.”
“How can you say that, Durin?” Faylenn pushed the book tower back into position. “We don't know what his kind can do. If it endangers the Queen...!”
“Oh, please... Fay! It's just a human. As Court Alchemist I know, they don't have any special powers that could harm us.” He tried to calm Faylenn down.
“I still don't trust him! But if you insist on defending him, why don't you keep an eye on him until I can send him back to his own world? And don't call me Fay.”
Durin stopped circling around Daniel. “What? Why me? I'm busy with work, I don't have time to babysit a stranger.”
Faylenn laughed sarcastically. “Well, me neither! The teleporter that Florette destroyed with her entrance won't fix itself!”
They both exchanged glances and then turned around to look at Florette.
But said fairy had already disappeared.
“Ah, she's gone...” Durin stated the obvious. That was the end of Faylenn's patience. He angrily clenched his fists and kicked the stack of books.
“I can't believe that- Argh!” With a roaring crash the entire tower fell over and spread out all the books on the floor. Some pages that had loosened themselves from their books silently glided down following the rest of the mess.
Faylenn slowly took a very deep breath through his teeth.
Durin flinched his eyes. “Uh, oh... I think it's time for me to go as well... The Scout team is still waiting for their equipment...” He grabbed Daniel's hand and headed to a second door that was at floor level. “You better come with me. I don't think you want to be nearby when Fay gets mad...” He whispered to him and they both quickly escaped out of the library. As soon as Durin closed the door behind them, they could hear a loud array of swearwords and a thundering growl from inside. “That was close... But don't worry, he may sometimes get like that but he'll calm down if you leave him alone for a while.” He sighed.
They went through a narrow corridor towards the sunlight. Then again, for the fairies this would be a normal sized path but for Daniel with his 1,80 m height it was quite small. When they reached the end, he put his hand before his eyes to protect them from the brightness of the sun rays outside. A breeze of fresh forest air greeted him as they stepped outside onto a wide platform that was connected to the trunk of a huge tree which they came out of.
“Oh, we were inside a tree this entire time? I wouldn't have guessed... It's so elaborate and the walls don't look like it at all...” Daniel was still stunned by these new experiences. He had never seen anything like it before and not even the most detailed CG movies could top the view of the scenery in front of him.
“This was built through years of hard work. Centuries ago, the magic library was constructed by our ancestors and it took them 20 summers to hollow out the tree and carve in all the protective runes which were – and still are – necessary for the valuable magical books inside. You know, they keep out out the humidity and bugs and so on...” Durin proudly pointed at the strange looking carvings that were engraved around the entire tree trunk.
“Ah, by the way, I am Durin, Royal Court Alchemist. I mix potions, make magically enhanced paper and I take care of the Royal Archives. The pretty fairy that brought you here is Florette. She's a Scout Fairy. That means she's going on missions around the world for our kingdoms sake. Though that usually doesn't include other worlds... Currently, she's looking for a cure to our Queen's depression but that's a long story...” He paused and looked up the tree trunk with a worried expression on his face.
Then he continued his monologue.
“And the grumpy guy you met inside just now is Fay- ehem, Faylenn. He is our Royal Court Magician. Not many people are as talented as him. I'm sure you noticed his deep purple eyes. It shows his aptitude for magic.” He sighed and added: “Quite unlike my own colour. It's just a light, greyish purple.”
Daniel tried to take a closer look at his eyes without creeping to close and making himself seem like a weirdo. Though it was difficult to get a good look behind Durin's thick glasses and his constant up and down as he levitated in the air. “Now that you say it... Well, not that I know anything about that. No one has purple eyes in my home world.”
Durin gave him a tired smile. “But enough about history and us boring fairies. I'm more interested in you. Where do you come from? Who are you? Are there more of your kind?”
Daniel hesitated a bit, then he answered reluctantly: “My name is Daniel Berengar. I'm from Mitterteich. It's a small town in my country, you probably haven't heard about it anyway...
I work in a small office and...” He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes widened in panic.
“God, I completely forgot... my lunch break should be over by now! I have to go back! My boss is gonna roast me!”
He grabbed the fairy by its collar. “Can you get me back to my home world? Please, it's-” Durin patted his hand and shoved him away, politely but determined.
“Well... Sorry, no can do. It seems you broke the teleporter when Florette came back with you. You know, that big apparatus that you landed next to in the library... It's gonna take a while to fix that again.”
Daniel gave him an anxious look. “How long?”
“About... Let's see...” Durin thought about it a bit.
“...maybe 15 days...”
“Fifteen!? Days??”
“Well, yes. It could take longer though. It depends on how fast we can get the materials together and we can't make a single mistake or the machine might accidentally implode or warp the dimensions in an uncomfortably painful way, you know...”
Daniel's legs gave in and he fell on his knees. He wouldn't be able to return for almost 2 weeks.
“I'm doomed...”
