A harsh wind had been blowing through the forest this day, a strange one that carried with it uneasy promises. The woods seemed to be speaking to one another in hushed tones, perhaps plotting some fell disaster. There was a heaviness to the air. Some might say it was unnatural. Others would say it was magic but dismiss that immediately. For had it indeed been so, the mages of La'marri would have surely done something about it. No, there must be nothing magical about it. It was simply an odd wind on a too-long afternoon as summer began to drift slowly away.
Yet the heaviness had reached a local library and scriptorium used as a frequent resource by several local mages, and this in a place that was already unduly stuffy during the summer months. Betwixt the slightly cruel warmth of that wind and the already oppressive heat dampened only a little by the salt spray blowing in from the sea, it was no wonder that windows had been opened to at least keep the dust from choking its inhabitants. So when a window suddenly and inexplicably slammed shut, echoing through a quiet corner of one of the library's many alcoves for isolated study, it made several people jump.
As late in the day as it seemed to be, the shadows long and the sunlight swiftly beginning to dwindle, this was taken as a sign that it was time to pack up books for the day by all but a couple of people. Those that remained drifted to another area where a window still stood open, leaving the little corner of the large room abandoned but for one strange sprite to whom "small" meant "enormous" and "large" meant "gargantuan". What to even dwarves was merely a spacious room filled with shelves lined with innumerable volumes of great variety and cubbies stuffed with scrolls was a cavern of vast proportions to the odd-looking person that now dropped to the soft carpet.
They were unnoticed among the tables laden with writing materials and forgotten manuscripts and other documents, which was to their great advantage. Crossing the floor to weave between the legs of the furniture, around the tome-bearing cliffs and through the passages that held doors large enough to bear an army of such individuals, was a strange little fellow with curly red hair dancing about their shoulders and too-pale skin. They were slender and had dark circles beneath their eyes, as though they had not slept properly in quite some time. Small black spots rough in texture but tender to the touch dotted their flesh, unhealthy lesions glistening amid a light sheen of secreted poison.
Chelsika had not bathed in at least a day and although they did not stink fit enough to cause a stir, they definitely did not smell like lilacs. Their breath was probably the worst of it, evident to anyone who got close enough to pick up on such a thing. Their long, forked tongue tasted the air and learned many things, and the vertical black slits set into their yellow eyes darted this way and that with as much caution as curiosity. The off-white shirt they wore did not well hide the bluish veins that stood out upon their skin, nor the filthy nails upon their fingers and the bare toes that peeked out from beneath a pair of dark-brown cotton britches a size too large. A bit of thick yarn bound the shirt and britches together, keeping them firmly in place, and they kept their hands in their pockets for the moment as they wandered into a store room full of supplies.
Given their height, they had about two shelves to their head and they were mostly filled with junk they didn't care about. But beyond those first two shelves, they'd need help. There had to be more useful things higher up, right? Something that they could trade or sell, maybe something shiny...something magical? Mages all about in these libraries, after all. Well, there was one way to find out.
Climbing up was difficult, but a long string used as a rope with a lasso at one end made things a little easier. Sixteen inches did not a tall fellow make, though they certainly were not as small as many fairies and pixies were. Collecting their string, they looked about the shelf they'd climbed up onto. They had to crouch to fit on the shelf properly, and there was the issue of a fall if their feet strayed a wee bit too far from what was stored thereupon.
There were several small boxes here - chests to Chelsika - but surely nothing magical would be stored in them. Checking them one by one, they discovered that they were all locked with the exception of a few. One unlocked box held scrolls smaller than they were bearing notes on various things, mostly sales and purchases of materials and who had loaned which books or studied which scrolls at which times on which days. Another held pots of ink and oil for writing and lamps, and a third held quills. One held marbles roughly the size of their head, however.
What purpose the marbles could serve was uncertain, but they were quite pretty. One in particular looked like it had red sand inside that shifted with the slightest movement. Grinning, they slipped that one into their pocket - and heard the soft whoosh that most larger ears could not hear as it slipped into the pocket universe created by Chelsika's magic. Another marble was solid but had swirls of green and blue inside; it was pretty but they decided not to take it. Instead, they took a purple one that sparkled with glitter and two pink ones with white swirls that made them look like eyes. They would definitely be coming back here later for more marbles, but they wanted to see what else they could find for now. On second thought...they took the blue-green marble as well. Why not? It wasn't like their pocket universe couldn't handle it. That's what magic was for, after all.
Poking about some more, they climbed up to the next shelf and pulled down one of the books in the process. It hit the floor with a fwump, bending some pages and landing splayed so that its spine rose above the floor. Whoops. Well, someone would clean that up eventually. There was sadly nothing interesting behind the book, and the book itself looked like some kind of log - very boring. But, thinking to make it look like the shelf had just been bumped or something, Chelsika spent a few moments pushing several more books onto the floor as well. They'd made quite a mess down there.
Satisfied, they turned to the time-worn shelf's edge again. A loose nail made climbing even easier than using the notches in the wood this time, and the third shelf looked much more promising. This one held a book that was some kind of record of existing stock in mundane artifacts of unknown origin. Several of the items were marked as potentially magical, and one was specifically listed as "definitely magical"! Ooh, Chelsika did so love magical objects. The ring mentioned was likely too large to carry on its own, but if they could find a pouch somewhere, that'd be as good as a sack and better with their liminal magic for carrying it. Wait, what was that noise?
Hurriedly, they closed the book with a thump and wove their innate magic into a hasty bit of invisibility. Footsteps carried their owner into the room now, and the mess would be found almost immediately. Of that, Chelsika was certain. But where the weave should have taken hold, it instead dissolved like water. Something wasn't right, and they had no time to cast the spell again; instead, they simply shrank back into the shadows and hoped for the best...
