Traveling across the deserted roads of barren land, I gazed up upon the crimson red sky and down to the neon blue grass wondering where exactly the next master was located.

  Minutes later, Kōgi noticed a thick parchment paper flying through the wind, across the dark blue lake. He jumped up into the air, grasped the list, float-hovering on his way down.

  It reads: “Come join us at the Irons Central Library where we can all acquire new ways to accomplish things.”

  This appeared weird to me. What would a library flyer be doing right in the middle of this field? Then again, William did say the next closest master was located in a library. Just then, Zevo jumped into the lake with his fury blue and green snout poking out of the water like a snorkel.

  “What is that, what do you see Zevo?” I asked out of curiosity. The lake was bubbling as if there was something warm underneath it.

  Splashing around, Zevo responded, “I see that the bottom of this lake is dry.”

  The three of us dived into the water and came out to the other side to the warm, dry land. The ethereal location under the lake seemed to defy gravity. How was it so dry here, yet a lake looms over the area? The first thing that I saw was the most gorgeous looking fountain that I had ever seen. After seeing the gigantic lavender fountain, I noticed that there was a magenta, three-story building in the distance. A closer look gave me the information that said Iron Central Library. This must be the place that William Lysander was talking about!

  While entering through the automatic glass-doors, Kōgi, Zevo, and I were in a room with glossy black tiles with bright yellow stripes. Near the staircase was a globe encased with a brown wooden frame with a smooth finish. This globe looked similar to those that I had seen at home except for the landmasses were in different shapes than what I had previously observed. The continents were closer together and there was more land than water.

  Arriving to the second floor, this no longer looked much like a library to me; instead, it looked more like a spooky funhouse. The walls contained mirrors that refracted taller images, wider images, and one mirror that seemed to reflect recent past events. Aside from the mirrors, there were inflatable decorations that were in the shapes of various things such as candy, bats, and calico cats.

  At the end of the hallway were sturdy wooden doors that lead to a huge auditorium with an apparatus of musical instruments. There were some woodwind, brass, and string instruments, however the room contained mostly percussion instruments: a whole timpani set, drum sets of a rainbow of colors, some xylophones, and a metallic blue grand piano. As we walked toward the stage, I saw guitar picks swirling in circles, with a shiny blue one in the middle. What is with all the blue objects in this room? I wondered to myself. As the picks were moving on their own, the instruments began playing a song in unison.

  Behind the stage was the palest, yet most stunning guy that I had ever seen. He had dark brown hair and was wearing a black shirt with a shimmery blue dragon in the center. He appeared human. I wonder if this guy counts as being human?

  Once he realized that we were in the library, he said, “Hey guys. Wuzzup? I thought that no one would ever detect this place. I mean it has only been me and my pal, Sparks for some time now.”

  While he appeared to be human, Sparks was in the form of a bright yellow dog.

  “So you must be another master right? So what is your name?” Kōgi urged.

  “Yea, I am a master. I am the master of emotions and my name is Walt Zendo.” Walt said with a very cheerful voice.

  “So what is your name?” Sparks barked.

  “Marie,” I said.

  “Glad to meet you,” Walt stated with a immense smile, magnified with his light brown mustache.

  “I remember someone by this name before….Does she look familiar to you?” Sparks whispered to Walt.

  “I don’t know,” Walt replied.

  “So why is this library hidden under a lake?” Zevo questioned moments later.

  “It’s simple. To protect it from the dark ones; I automatically gave you my identity because I see no darkness in any of you,” Walt stated in a serious voice. He further explained that he can see the aura around those he converses with.

  I wondered what he meant by “dark ones” but he only said it was those that contained “dark aura” and did not go into further details about them and appeared to be deeply bothered by the subject. I crazily gazed into his eyes and as a result, temporarily forgot all about our impeding troubles.

  “You know, you have very pretty hair. The several color pigments in your hair blend in so gorgeously,” Walt complemented.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  In a daze, I felt like all my worries no longer existed, that we could just adapt and stay in this library for the rest of our lives with this person stress–free, yet I knew something would have to happen. Becoming wrapped around someone that I had hardly met was probably not such a marvelous idea anyway….. could this be a side-effect from his ‘emotion’ power? Besides, what kind of food does this place even have?

  A bolt of lightning hit a wall backstage, revealing a secret room containing books. I don’t know which I was startled by more: the flashes or the hidden room. The concealed room had several books flying around along with owls fluttering past.

  Going back into focus, I noticed that Walt and Sparks were missing. Gasping for breath, struggling to stay calm, I went through the rooms of the library like I was in some sort of maze. The instruments became completely silent.

  At last, I spotted some sort of turtle-looking thing behind a rather tall bookshelf containing hundreds of books.

  “Whoa, that is the mythical two-headed turtle!!” Kōgi exclaimed in complete excitement and horror.

  “Grrr!!! Why do you stupid humans continue to come within my terrain?” The evil turtle said majestically.

  “I remember now, your name is Freddy!! You once tried to kill Marie!! How did you even get into this world??” Kōgi said with much anger.

  “I should be asking you the same thing, wormbot!” Freddy replied.

  I screamed, “Whaat?? You tried to kill me? Why I outta…”

  He must be referring to the time that a two-headed turtle tried to snap at my neck while I was sleeping a few years back. Kōgi triumphantly knocked it away from me, never seeing it myself. Back then, I thought he was only kidding. I suppose not…

  Just then, Freddy interrupted me with a blast of powerful energy, missing me by a hair. Since Kōgi had defeated this guy before, he just might have the upper hand. Zevo did a wind blow attack, paralyzing the foe, confusing him in ways that lead him going to and fro. After he had become so dizzy and a bright flash of light, he opted to retreat.

  “Heh heh, well that idiot you call a master is now nothing but a bookshelf. Ha Ha. I’ll meet you again and next time, you will all suffer!!” Freddy chuckled leaving in an instant with his magic teleporting powers.

  As I rushed over to the emotional bookshelf, I heard a noise. It was a whimpering voice. I crept closer to the shelf and the volume of the voice grew in intensity.

  The unknown voice whispered, “I’m still here. I’m still here. That stupid turtle can’t perform spells nor aim well at all.”

  When I looked closer, I noticed that it was not the bookshelf that was talking, but rather a small puffy blue wolf. It must have been Walt.

  Walt said, “When I am hit by magical blasts, and become weaker, I turn into my weaker animal form, that can’t perform much magic, that of a blue wolf. I have heard that most of the other masters currently cannot even keep a state of human form at all. I suppose they were already attacked.”

  All of this lasted about three hours; however, it seemed as though it had lasted days. The powers of Walt must have caused this. The emotions that he gave to me were probably an exaggeration of what he was truly feeling, although for me to receive these feelings might have been accidental. At this time, he acted colder than ever before and it did not seem to be the spell. In fact, he started acting a bit like an enemy towards me and my pals. I wondered what had caused this. I mean I had never known of a spell to cause such strange behavior towards someone else, but that was only what I had read from books, video games, and T.V.

  His last words before his departure of comprehension was “Take this book of spells. Inside contains the contents that you will need to return home. Leave this place at once. You have caused enough chaos for one to take.”

  I obeyed what he commanded, took the large tome.

  I felt a deep depression that I had never experienced before. I felt so much sadness in my mind it was unbearable. I felt that it was my fault that he was found and attacked. At that time, I knew that he would never be the same.

  I wondered where Sparks went. Then I had realized the reason Walt was so upset; could it had been Sparky that had sacrificed himself to save him, that he became the bookcase and the books within it?

  “Sparky –– ?” I started.

  The small and cute blue wolf growled and growled throwing a tantrum. Eventually his anger subsided and began to explain in words.

  “This book of spells is Sparky’s true essence. I had transformed him into this bright yellow dog, he was capable of such intelligence and sustained form since he was originally a magical book. But now that he’s gone, I will be all alone… I know this is obligatory in the grand scheme to get everything back to the way it was, but still…” Walt grieved. I assured him that we would make things right somehow.

  After leaving the library, I got lost in my thoughts thinking about how we can get out of this mess and if there was a better approach to how things have occurred so far.

  “Snap out of it!!” Kōgi slapped me, causing me to get back into focus.

  I opened the book with golden lettering embossed on the cover. In the palm of my hand, I felt a surge of energy that seemed akin to having a high level of excitement.

  With close inspection of the book’s pages, it was written in a language I could not understand. Attempting to get a response to what was once known as Sparky was proving futile. Too bad that the book couldn’t speak or have any sentience of Sparky remaining. With that, I suppose that we are to find someone who can decipher the text; maybe one of the other masters? Unfortunately, Zevo’s translator device did not cover written language, only audio since the technology was dealing with mind waves.

  “Hmm, I wonder where we should go to now,” I blurted out in a random way. Rather than traipsing around the outside of the library, it would be more advantageous to have a well–thought out plan. Also, it would be essential to find something edible around right about now as well.

  Kōgi responded, “Well I think that we should go back up to the surface and identify more buildings and landscapes. We can also explore the local vegetation in the trees and bushes.” To ensure that the vegetation is safe to eat, Kōgi can scan and test the contents of the plant to check if it is nutritious for humans. I wonder if Zevo can eat similar foods as humans?

  It was then settled; the three of us were going back to the surface, away from the wondrous library forever more.