Catching a Thief [Job/Ariel]

He clenched his eyes, despising the general chatter and crowdedness of the library. He stayed to himself and in a corner in favor of the couple stacks of books sprayed across the floor around him. Noises rang in his ears uncomfortably. He allowed himself a moment of therapeutic breathing. In... and out... In... and out... In... and out... The third breath rolled off his tongue into a private silence of his own. And as the world moved together in a fast and ever faster tango, Ariel hid in a pocket of time, where clocks moved slower and the months barely seemed to pass. He moved at the pace of a book and with his books. And his books were the gates to the pocket in time. To a dozen and more worlds outside of the regular pace of his own world. Slow to grow but more beautiful than the rushed progress of reality. And he hid away to the protection and mystery of words. Entrancing words. Words that naturally pulled him to them. His hand moved to a pile of books. He picked up a ragged book from on top of the pile. Its content was older than the book itself. It contained surprisingly a vast amount of details of the past. A highly recommended book for those with an enthusiastic interest in the history of the world. A pity copies were so difficult to come across these days. Magnostadt was one of the few libraries he had access to and hosted such a book. He sighed and shook his head. He wished people were more keen to create more copies and preserve the text of these rare and insightful books.

He came across an interesting statement. He recalled a book he recently read. Something about the wording of both books seemed rather similar. Coincidence or not, he was curious. He quickly shut the old book and picked himself up. He navigated through the piles of books in favor of his search. Suddenly he found himself in a busy world. Reality threatened to destroy his barriers. He shivered and pressed on. "No time for this," he told himself. No time for paranoia to settle beneath his skin. No time for fear to pull him under. No time for his perfect bubble of peace to be burst. He could not afford to lose his composure. Especially not in front of a cruel world who would only mock and point at him, as if to say, 'How pitiful! See him suffer? It's because he's weak.' He couldn't bear the words unspoken. The truth quietly murdered him. So he had to put up his defenses. Lock the doors. Raise his chin high. Steady walk. Proud and tall. Calm. Peaceful. How ridiculous society makes him a fool like this. How many eyes are watching him and can see beyond his mask? How many people realize he's faking it. He's not strong. He's not okay. He's weak. And he's losing it. Slowly. He's losing control of his life. The words of his books have steadily captured him. They've pulled him out of reality and into a never-ending tale of lies. And he realizes how unhealthy it all is. But even so... Reality terrifies him. He rather delusion himself every single damn day than return to Reality's petrifying house of horrors.

He was almost to the book now. But someone reached out and grabbed the only copy in the great and marvelous library before he could. How such a large library only possessed one copy of the book, Ariel could only imagine. He clucked disapprovingly. What in every book he's read is he doing here? He recognized the student who had reached the book first. Hadn't the kid been banned from entering and checking out books from the library? He couldn't recall why he had been banned though. Had he even actually been banned? Whatever, that was beside the point. He wanted that book! Now that his curiosity plagued him like a leech, he needed to satisfy his inquisitive nature so he might be able to move on with life. He called out, demanding the stranger to stop with the book. Suddenly, the pace became erratic and hastened. The chase began. Ariel moved after the student quickly, focused completely on the book in the other's hands. They burst into the main aisle and suddenly his focus became shaky and disrupted. He felt a stream gouged with fire rising to his throat. A thousand needles poked him tirelessly, sawing away at his nerves. He invited the rising water as the edges of the world began to fold inward. He forced himself to concentrate on the book. He told himself desperately to focus on the book. But his barrier was breaking so quickly. His defenses were falling so easily. He stumbled. How embarrassing.... He steadied his breath first. Then he steadied himself. Don't forget. In and out.

He frowned. In his moments of panic, he lost the book thief. Agitation gnawed at his temporary composure. He shoved it off his shoulder and decided to move forward. Literally, forward. He picked up his pace. He passed the counter. He passed many people, but he ignored them. In his equation, he disregarded his environment. He passed a young magician with long hair carefully treated, a stark comparison to his own, neglected, tangled and long mop on his head. He never noticed the passersby, however. Nor the conversation about a particular hair clip and a missing book. He faced only one direction: forward. Everything else outside his perfect magic, glass ball was ignored. Forgotten. He was willing to forget if it meant he could actually function. If he could function, he would give up his awareness. He couldn't erase his fear, but if he didn't acknowledge the cause of his fear existed, how could he fear?

He found himself rather lost in the halls afterward. He might have lived in the academy for six years, but he often was turned around.

verbum comitem [ mxix // m ]
word count [ 1019 // 1000 ]

He glanced to the side, noticing someone pass by. A white-haired boy intently looking forward. Something familiar about this boy struck him as odd. He was certain he had never met him, yet... Why was this kid so familiar? He shook his head of his thoughts. "Come on Ariel, you're lost. Focus," he muttered to himself.

Suddenly, someone turned the corner from another direction. He noted a book in this person's hand. In the person's hair, there was a missing pin. And this was someone Ariel really did remember: the thief! He leaped at the chance without halting.  "Hey! Give me that book back!" he yelled across the hall.

The thief stopped and glanced in Ariel's direction. "You got to catch me first!" he answered cheekily. Like before, the thief began to flee. Unlike before, there were now two people after him and he was heading in the way of that second person.

verbum comitem [ mclxxii // m ]
word count [ 1172 // 1000 ]

notes; sorry about the shortness and quality. i was pretty tired while writing it.

Usually, he would resort to the convenience of his magic weapon. But the stolen book's pages, ancient and delicate, easily tore. With this in mind, he refused to risk damaging the book by sending spheres of strength magic at the fleeing thief. However, in order to protect the books from harm and stop the failure of a magician, he needed to close the long gap between him and the runaway magician. 'Speed up, now,' he told himself. He reached out with his wand. His eyes, gleaming gold, could make out the title of the book from his distance. He fell back slightly to lull the thief into a false sense of success and winning.

"Hern mayn ruf aun ovuervelm mayn shunim," he whispered.

With delicate ears, the failure dropped the book in favor of covering his ears. He stumbled down, flailing as if trying to wave away the high-pitched sound. Ariel huffed, slightly amused by the thief's pain. Ignoring the pained person completely, he picked up the book. He flicked his gaze towards the corner. He allowed a few moments to pass before he rose his voice.

"Do you plan on staying there the entire day? Don't you have classes to attend to?"

verbum comitem [ mccclxxv // m ]
word count [ 1375 // 1000 ]