A soft breeze rustled through the tree branches. The afternoon air came in cool and light. It carried the smell of sea salt up through the docks and up to the residents living on the forested crags of upper Aldcrest. Alas, to Lily and Isabella, it did little to move the quickly intensifying smell of sulfur. The freshly opened book was emitting the scent, and it was getting stronger by the second. The word ‘crap’ fell out of Lily’s mouth as she held the book at arm’s length. Turning to face her friend for some kind of direction, the look of stunned horror only did the opposite. Though she couldn’t see the bat’s eyes, the reflective lenses blocking them, the visible eyebrows hanging over them did little to settle her nerves. 

“W-what do I do?” Lily’s ears stood straight up as her eyes sat as wide as dinner plates.  

“Like, I don’t even know what you did,” Isabella responded, a bump of worry in her voice that only inspired more trepidation. The bat snatched the book from Lily’s hands but immediately dropped it with a yelp. The book was searing hot. Before, it felt like it had sat in the sun for a few hours. Now, the book felt fresh out of an active oven. The bat looked at her hands, expecting minor burns, but found nothing amiss. They were fine, if not a little moist from Lily’s sweaty palms.

Lily didn’t move to pick it up. Any distance between her and the weird tome felt like a good thing. Continuing that train of thought, Lily stepped back and tried her best to collect her thoughts. Isabella wasted no time retrieving the book and shoved the book into her chest. 

“Close. It.” Isabella growled

“You know I would love to, but-” 

“Then do it. Esmeralda is going to freak if I hand over an open book.” As Lily stammered for a response, Isabella could feel the book growing warmer. With a bit of a push, the bat’s fingers left its cover just as the heat became too much. 

Lily stumbled back a little before pulling the book from her chest. She looked at the runes that marked the cover. Since its opening, the runes had started to change. They were plain white originally, but now the white was replaced with black. Not black as in color but black as in void. The markings now looked like windows. Through them, flames could be seen dancing and writhing behind the cover. 

“I-I don’t know how Izzy! I just said some noise, and it opened. What do you want from me?” 

“I want you to close it. Like…just…” The bat stopped mid-sentence as her words failed her. In the end, she ended it with a frustrated groan. It was bad enough that it was taking as long as it was. Handing an ancient spellbook reeking of brimstone would get her chewed out even worse. This wasn’t the first book Isabella was tasked with dropping off during her tenure with Starlight. Not a single one had been opened, and Isabella would be more than happy never to see another one open after today. 

Isabella ran a hand through her curly white locks before an idea struck her. “Hold on.” she spoke, hope sparking in the flat delivery, “that noise you said. Like, if that opened it, then it should close it. 

The look of worry was quickly replaced with an apprehensive relief. It was the first option the pair had found, and, honestly, it made sense. Looking at the cover, Lily took a deep breath and held the book at arm’s length. Watching the flames dance, that relief quickly faded back into worry once again. After a few agonizingly long seconds, the breath slipped from her nostrils, along with a whispered confession at the end. 

“Nope. Got nothing.” Lily admitted while dropping both her head and arms. 

“Lily,” Isabella placed her hands on Lily’s cheeks and looked right into the rabbit’s orange eyes, “If you don’t fix this, you aren’t getting that bottle of Sharpshooter I saved for tonight.” Lily’s worry switched to disappointment. Her ears flopped back, and her mouth fell open in stunned silence. 

“Oh, come on! That’s not fair,” claimed the rabbit,  complete with a stomp of her foot.

“Open book, closed bottle. Simple as that.” 

Lily laid her head back and let out a loud, slightly overdramatic groan. Dropping it back down, she gave out a few frustrated okays while looking at the book again. Rummaging through her admittedly unorganized mental database, Lily thought the words would have to come easy. She just said them and felt them on the tip of her tongue. Yet, as another soft breeze came off the beach below, the only sound she could find was consistent static. 

“Come on…” Lily whispered as she pressed the book against her forehead. She repeated the two words while tapping the strangely warm book against her forehead. Nothing. Not a single hint of the three syllables could be found. 

What did come to mind, however, was the thought of her grandparents. The whole reason Lily found herself in this situation was due to a gift they had given her. Her grandfather, Juniper, was an archeologist who frequented the valley where Lily would be born. He was always jolly with a story to tell from his time in the Honor Guard and ruin diving. He stayed because a mystic doe named Lilac managed to capture his heart. Lilac went on to become Lily’s grandmother. She was the sweetest person Lily had ever known. The old woman loved all of her grandchildren but spoiled Lily absolutely rotten. A walking encyclopedia of myths and fables of the valley’s past with a lesson for almost any situation. To Lily, Sandra and Lilac had much in common, even down to the love of baking.

Her racing mind came to rest on a single memory. It was summer, and a particularly rough thunderstorm had rolled in. The wind outside whistled, and the windows shook as the lightning struck. A much younger Lily sat in her grandmother’s lap. She was holding a music box that was just wrapping up its song. Lily asked Lilac to make it go one more time. Of course, Lilac agreed and spoke a string of words that caused the box to open again. It was a moment Lily had thought about countless times during countless storms. The rabbit’s heartbeat began to slow as she could swear she could smell Lilac’s naturally earthy scent. 

As another breeze wrapped around the two, Lily heard something. It was her grandmother’s voice, as clear as it was in the memory. The phrase that brought the music box to life repeated in her mind, with the last two words sticking out. 

The words ‘Kpuar Dej’ came from her mouth and were followed by a soft click. The sharp inhale Lily pulled through her nose lacked any trace of sulfur. She pulled the book away from her forehead and saw the markings had returned to their original white coloring. Giving the book a shake, she found the book was, once again, locked. 

“I did it,” Lily whispered. She repeated the declaration as a proud shout while holding the book over her head.

“Hey,” Isabella spoke, snapping her fingers, “Celebrate later. Give it here.”

Of course, Lily was more than happy to hand the troublesome thing over. She jutted the book into Isabella’s waiting hand. The bat wasted no time heading down the path once she had the parcel in her hand. Isabella had prepped herself for any heat from the book and moved to hide any response. It was there but far less than expected. Any that was there faded quickly, so quickly that the scaled cover was ice cold in seconds. 

While maintaining the list of questions Isabella was making in her head, she hurried down the remainder of the path and up towards their destination. They didn’t share words during the rest of their trip. Enough had happened that both parties just wanted the cursed thing gone. 

The path emptied out near the entrance of a large cave mouth. Near the opening, the bare trees stood out with their lack of foilage compared to their verdant neighbors. Above their heads, along the cave entrance, were seemingly random collections of bones and leaves bound and hung by twine. Lily didn’t know their purpose, but their presence made her uneasy all the same. The natural formation only went in a few hundred feet before hitting a massive wall of solid granite. Out of the featureless stone poked out part of a house. Well, ‘house’ may be a bit generous. It was more the front facade of a shed. It comprised a rough tin roof with walls made of rough wood planks.  A solid, almost pristine, steel door appeared to be the only visible way in. Before crossing into the cave mouth and under the hanging bones, Isabella stopped walking and placed a hand out to halt Lily. 

“Alright, not a word of this to Esmeralda. Just hang back and try to avoid eye contact. Like, she probably won’t even speak to you. I’ll give her the book. I make some small talk. We leave. Clear?”

“Crystal,” Lily said with a nod. 

Together, the two ventured into the cave, with Lily stopping halfway between the entrance and the featureless steel door. Isabella stepped forward and placed a hand on the center and, after a second, a mighty gong sounded from somewhere beyond the stone. The noise caused Lily to flinch while Isabella was unphased. Once the powerful sound faded into nothingness, Isabella pulled her hand away, and a thin line appeared in the metal door near eye level. It was roughly a foot in length and slid apart wide enough to reveal a pair of glaring eyes. 

“You are late.” hissed whoever was on the other side of the door. 

“Apologizes, Lady Esmeralda. Blame the runner.” 

“Useless Lot.” The eyes moved over to Lily. She watched the rabbit scan the hanging things at the cave entrance.” Who’s that?”

“That’s Lily. Like, she works with me at Starlight.”

“Ah yes, Gonzi did mention something about a rabbit. Hey, Long ear..”

Hearing the raspy voice address her snapped Lily out of the vacant staring she was doing. She looked back at the slit in the door and the unfriendly eyes. “Yeah?”

“Don’t move; I’m about to open the door. Try anything stupid, and you won’t walk out of here.” A hole opened near chest height, and a slender grey-furred hand supporting multiple rings reached out. 

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Lily responded, staring back at the glaring eyes. “Can’t do much from over here. No magic.” 

While reaching out for the book, Lily’s comment made Esmeralda pause. The eyes lingered on Lily, their gaze only adding to the unease, before darting back to Isabella. A flurry of rapid clicks and growls followed in a language Lily couldn’t understand. Isabella responded in kind, paused, and added a few more clicks along with a mention of Gonzi’s name. A moment of silence proceeded Esmeralda snatching the book out of the bat’s hand. The hand and book disappeared into the door, with the circle vanishing once they were out of sight. 

“So…we good?” Lily whispered. She watched as Isabella stood motionless. After a bit, the circle reappeared, and Esmerlda’s hand slid back out. In her bony hand was a glass case containing a deck of cards. The rabbit listened to more of the bat’s native tongue and understood absolutely none. While eavesdropping, something about the hand caught her attention. 

In the ash gray fur was a marking. It was a circle cast in red with arrows matching the arrows matching the four cardinal directions. The circle in the center was split into five equal sections, with the top fifth being filled. Though she never thought about it before, it was a symbol she had seen as recently as that morning on Sandra. It sat upon her eyepatch, but her filled part was at the bottom left.

Before Lily could dwell longer on the symbol, Esmerelda’s hand disappeared into the hole, and Isabella returned to the rabbit’s side. Without a word, Isabella stuffed the card box into Lily’s satchel before starting back down the stairs. The rabbit raced down the stairs past the bat, who was already pulling her phone out. 

“So, everything good?” Lily asked, waiting for Isabella to catch up. 

The bat silently joined her friend at the bottom of the stairs. She took her time to type out one more message before putting the device away and responding, “Yeah, Esmerelda doesn’t like you.” 

“What? Why?!” 

A smirk appeared on Isabella’s face before making her way down the path back towards the fork. ”Trust, that’s not a bad thing. She hates most people. Like, I think she only dislikes you because we’re cool.” Isabella’s words caused Lily’s head to tilt in confusion. 

As the fork came back into sight, Lily retrieved the caramel corn from her pouch. Unrolling the crumpled-up end of the small paper bag, the rabbit cleared her throat to get her friend’s attention.  A quick twitch of Isabella’s ears informed Lily they were listening. 

“So, Gonzi’s not gonna hear about this, right?” 

“Like I would sure as hell hope not. Not sure who would tell ‘em.” Isabella stuck her hand down into Lily’s bag and retrieved a fist full of caramel corn. Lily didn’t stop Isabella from helping herself and grabbed a handful once she was finished.

The rest of the walk back was uneventful. Lily spent most of it thinking about the book and its rune-covered lock. 

‘What did those words mean?’ 

‘Were those words?’ 

‘Why did I hear them in Mawmaw’s voice?’

Even more would have bubbled up from the still anxious mind, but the loud snapping of bat fingers in Lily’s face pulled her back out. When she joined Isabella back in reality, the two stood before a Golden Leaf. Holding up her phone, a message from Danniel asked for a soda, and the bat offered to treat her. A way to thank for such an…interesting delivery.