Karyn frowned. "Brittany? Isn't she the, uh...?"
Jon nodded. "The...uh, sort of...ancient girl? Yeah." She frowned. Why would someone leave a book at the bookstore to be picked up by her, just so she could deliver it to someone she'd only met this past week? She turned to the pixie employee. "Um, how much do I owe you?" she asked.
The tiny woman smiled. "It wasn't an order of ours, so I can't exactly claim that you owe me anything for it, miss. Honestly, I'm just happy to have seen something like that. Any idea who left it for you? There wasn't a postmark on the package, I just found it in with the mail a while back."
The slug-girl shook her head. "Not a clue. I guess someone who knows I come here every now and then? Beyond that, I've got nothing. Um, thanks, by the way..."
The pixie nodded. "You're welcome. Enjoy!" Jon turned and took the book over to a nearby reading table, with Karyn close behind. She set it down and took a look.
It wasn't a very large book, hardly more than a thick notebook, but it was bound heavily; the boards were nearly an eighth-inch thick and felt more like wood than cardboard, and were wrapped in what seemed to be leather. It felt indescribably old to Jon, yet it seemed to be in fairly good condition - a little worn, but certainly not the near-disintegration she'd have expected.
She blew off a little dust from the cover and looked closer. The lock that held it shut was quite heavy, and although Jon thought she might be able to cut the strap, she had a feeling that she shouldn't. Cut into the leather of the cover was an inscription; she held it up to the light to get a better look.
The letters were recognizably Latin-alphabet, though the script was different than anything she'd seen in use - it looked like something from her history textbook. And the words were complete gibberish to her - definitely not English, nor even (she thought) Latin. Jon recalled that odd language Brittany had been muttering in when they'd met...maybe that was it? She had no idea.
"This makes no sense," she murmured.
Karyn nodded. "No kidding," she said. "It's...okay, I could see someone knowing that you come here semi-regularily, but didn't you just meet Brittany...what, Monday?" Jon nodded.
"But from what the fairy-lady was saying, it's been there a while," Karyn continued. "And if they've observed you well enough to know that you know Brittany, couldn't they just give it to her directly?"
The slug-girl shrugged. "I don't know," she said. Karyn was right, this whole thing was a very weird and roundabout way of giving a book to someone...were they missing something here?
"So...I guess we ought to go see her, then?" the cecaelia-girl asked. "Where does she live, anyway?"
Jon thought for a moment, then frowned. "I...have no idea, actually. I don't think I've ever seen her outside of school. She doesn't have a cell phone either, as far as I know...huh. Maybe we can just give it to her Monday?"
Karyn nodded. "Guess so. Here, we'll at least keep it out of sight." She stuck it in her purse, tucking it down underneath some of her things.
Jon smirked. "Hey, what mall trip is complete without a little light shoplifting?" she muttered under her breath. Karyn snorted. "Hey, it's yours as far as the counter lady is concerned. Besides, you're just jealous."
"Hey, guys!" Tim said, coming over to the table. "How's it going? Find what you were looking for?"
Jon was momentarily startled from the interruption. What she was looking for...shit, what was it again? Oh, right. "Uh, not really," she said. "I guess it's still too soon for anybody to have published anything on transformee biology...at least not professionally."
The drow-boy nodded. "Yeah...it'd be handy, really. I mean, all these things we're having to figure out for ourselves...a good guidebook would make such a difference."
Karyn frowned. "Huh. I guess my changes haven't been that difficult to figure out, but I suppose some people have some stuff that's a little less intuitive?"
Tim nodded. "Yeah. Like my vision, for instance - it took me a while to figure out that I'm capable of perceiving infrared light."
"R-really?" Max asked, sounding timid. "You mean you can...see through clothes and stuff?" She didn't go so far as to cross her arms over her torso, but she did hunch forward a bit.
Tim made a so-so gesture. "I wouldn't go that far," he said. "At least, not in that sense - not unless blurry maps of body-heat emissions really do it for you. But I can see the general outline, yeah..."
Max cringed, and Jon had a feeling she was blushing under the fur. "Th-then you can see..."
"Your, uh, extras? Yeah," Tim said. "It's not too hard to tell even in visible-light, really. Sorry, I didn't know it would bother you if I mentioned it..."
The catgirl's ears drooped. "N-no, sorry," she said. "I...it's just this is all so new and weird..."
Jon nodded - she remembered that feeling. It was so weird to be seeing this in someone else now...
There was a momentary, awkward silence, and then Karyn spoke up. "So!" she said. "Did you guys find what you were looking for?"
The dark elf nodded. "Yeah, I think so - definitely some good stuff, anyway."
Max shrugged. "I just looked at some comic books..."
Jon smiled. "Nothing wrong with that."
They continued chatting for a while before finally deciding it was time to move on. Jon and Max went ahead, but Karyn hung back, and Tim had a feeling she wanted to talk to him.
The cecaelia-girl leaned in as close as her sitting position would allow and looked him in the eye. "If you're staring at her and she doesn't know it..." she began.
Tim frowned. "What? No, seriously, I was just talking about my vision, that's all. I just didn't realize she'd make that kind of connection. She's not even the one I'm...um, I'm not interested in her that way. She's nice, she just...doesn't do much for me."
Karyn gave him a hard look for a moment, then relented. "All right," she said. "Just...don't bring up stuff like that in front of her, please. She's got enough to worry about right now."
He nodded. "That's pretty obvious, really. Won't happen again."
Caitlin came out of her trance somewhere in the early afternoon. She looked at the clock - 1:30? She'd started somewhere around...what, eight? Nine at the latest. Hours had passed in what seemed like minutes to her...and yet, just as hours seemed like minutes, the minutes when she thought back on them seemed like hours themselves...it was like time just lost all meaning when she was like that. The only constant was that it moved forward, but the rate? It could be anything, or nothing at all, to her.
The statue-girl looked down at herself - still in nothing but her smooth marble skin, still in exactly the pose she'd taken at the start of her little experiment. She felt pleased with herself; it was a graceful pose for a young girl, and she'd held it so perfectly...for some reason it just felt good to her to be good at being decorative.
Still...oh, it was fun to just stand in place, holding a pose; in fact, it was more than fun, it was deeply satisfying. But she was still a social creature, and now she wanted someone to talk to, to share her experiences with. She'd have loved to tell her mom and dad about it, but they were still asleep, and wouldn't be up for hours...and she didn't feel quite like whiling away an entire Saturday posed in the yard.
Maybe she could visit one of her friends from school? Yeah, that would work. She had until sunset before her parents would be up, and that was plenty of time to find her way to Mikey's house and say hi...
