"Hey, bookworm." Janet was leaning casually against the library table that Lucy had stationed herself at. "What are you reading this time?" She peered carefully over her friend's shoulder.

"Hmm? Oh," Lucy glanced up at Janet. "Project for history class, we have to do a report on some sort of myth or legend that's been passed around in Windian culture for a while." Lucy motioned to the small stack of books on her desk. "So I'm looking through these for an idea."

Janet nodded as she picked up a few of the books and glanced over their titles. "Wings of Wonder, stories about the birth of the Windians, Black Wings and other legends passed, hmm." Janet raised an eyebrow curiously as she set the books back down. "What one are you looking at now?"

"A very interesting one... Windian Mythology Dictionary, it's a collection of some of the best known myths, heros, and demons in Windian beliefs."

"Really?" Janet grabbed a hold of an empty chair and placed it over beside Lucy, sitting down next to her and glancing at the open book again. "Like what?"

"Well..." Lucy flipped the book a few pages back. "Here's an odd one, a legendary demon called 'the Shen,' said to look like just a normal person by day, at night it takes the form of a beautiful woman. It's said that the Shen can separate itself in half, the top half then floats off into the night in search of the spirits of children. It leaves its lower half behind in a safe spot and returns there just before dawn." Lucy flipped the page and continued reading. "The Shen calls to children with its haunting song that it sings as it travels at night. Any child who hears the song and falls under the spell then becomes prey to the Shen. The effects that show in the child when this happens, a high fever, loss of appetite, cold chills, nausea..." Lucy paused for a second. "All illness symptoms." She flipped through a few other pages. "A lot of these are biased off of sicknesses that used to be a problem in Windian."

Janet shrugged. "I guess this is how they explained it all before modern medicine."

"They even had ways of curing these things." Lucy began explaining again. "For things like the Shen, in order to break a child of the Shen's spell, you have to find where it left the rest of its body at night, and then you had to burn it before the Shen returns."

"Lovely..." Janet made a face. Lucy just continued to flip through the book.

"There are other things too. A lot of stories about demons that live in the large woods around here. Here's one about a phantom voice that travelers may sometimes hear at night when they are deep in the woods. It's said that the enchanting voice may put the traveler into a trance and cause them to follow the voice wherever it leads them. However, the voice has no body, it is just that, a voice. Often when the unwilling traveler follows it, it just ends up leading them right off a cliff or into some sort of ravine or something."

Janet raised her eyebrow curiously. "Half women that float around at night, phantom voices leading travelers off cliffs... I wonder what inspired all of these ideas."

Lucy just shrugged again as she continued to glance through the book. "Most of these come from things that were usually a natural occurrence, but were hard to understand. Like those ones about the illnesses. There are a few others that seem to be made up to emphasize things that happened, like giving them a new look. For instance, there's a story in here about a creature called the Red Bird. It's a giant, mythical bird with four legs, as big as a house it's said to be, and made of pure fire. The Red Bird was said to have followed Windian armies around in times of war, devouring the villages of their enemies and rendering everything in it's path to mere ashes as the Windians passed by. Then again, the Red Bird is also said to be a creature that fought against the Windians, reducing their armies to ashes and devouring them whole." She sighed lightly as she glanced over the page. "Seems a few people got their stories mixed up." She flipped past the page and glanced at a few more.

Janet looked around curiously. "Say, where's Brandon?" Lucy simply motioned to a few tables over where Brandon was also glancing through a few books.

"That's as far away from me as I could get him to agree to stay." Lucy sighed. Janet just chuckled at her.

"Getting annoying having him around you like that?"

Lucy glanced up from the book. "It's nice to have him there I guess, but I really don't need him following me around all the time." Mumbling quietly. "Brothers are just too paranoid."

Janet grinned. "I wish I had a brother that worried about me like. that."

Lucy gave her an 'oh please' look and went back to her book.

Suddenly, there was the sound of heavy feet, and the shadow of a windian fell over the girl's table as a voice, hushed by the librarians warning, spoke up.

"Lucy Conwing?" A man's voice asked. Startled, Lucy glanced up.

"Yes?"

The man nodded and looked at her carefully. "I was sent here to retrieve you. Your father wishes to see you, it's urgent."

A few tables over, Brandon was now watching the scene, his wings folding and unfolding lightly as he recognized the face of the man. Lucy pushed her seat back and calmly stood up, her eyes and voice taking on the emotionless tone that seemed to come so naturally to her.

"I'm afraid you are mistaken. My father is not in town right now, he is out with a small group of soldiers in Highfort."

The man didn't seem to be expecting this reaction, and a hesitant look passed over his face as he glanced from Lucy to Janet and back again. "Ms. Conwing, I don't think you quite understand the request..."

"What I understand," Lucy sighed, "is that you must have the wrong girl. There is no way my father could have sent you when he is over in HighFort, and you, obviously, have not left Windia any time recently." Lucy gazed over the man, studying him carefully. Brandon stepped up beside her and tapped her lightly on the shoulder, leaning over and whispering into her ear.

"I think you should go."

Lucy turned to her brother, a slight look of anger seemed to be hidden in her eyes. "Why? I have no reason to. If my father isn't here, how could he send for me like this?"

"You know what he means..." Brandon gazed at his sister with a cool, determined look. Lucy just sighed again, gazing down blankly at the table as her eyes became lost in thought. "Alright..." She said finally, and left the table, following the man out of the library. Brandon glanced down at Janet. They exchanged looks for a brief moment, then Brandon turned to follow where Lucy and the man had gone. Janet stood up quickly behind him and rushed to follow.

"Why..." The first word out of her mouth as she caught up beside Brandon. "Why would he want to see her now?"

Brandon simply shrugged. "It is not my matter to know."

"And I suppose you don't care either." Janet rolled her eyes. "Look, surely you must know something about this..." The only reply she received was Brandon's silence as he made his way out of the library, leaving the windian standing just inside the building, watching as the three other figures headed down the street and out of sight as they rounded a corner.