The Living Library: Chapter III

• The Living Library: Chapter I
• The Living Library: Chapter II

Meanwhile, Sylvan had lost patience:
“What is this hocus-pocus?! I finally want to know how I got here, where I am, and what happened to my she-companion!”
The feminine friends looked each other in the eyes in silence. Sylvan was close to despair. He wanted to disappear, took a few steps into the woods, paused, turned back, then marched in the direction from which he had been transported, paused again, eventually heading for those who looked astonished at him and went to his knees in front of them. He took a deep breath by stretching his head back, exhaled a long time by lowering his head to his chin, and finally confessed:
“I do not understand any of this. Please help me!”
He closed his eyes and it seemed to him as if he heard the giantess’ voice beyond his hearing:
Do you need to understand in order to live?
He looked up. Regarding her kind smile it dawned on him that she had spoken to him before but his mind had made too much noise to listen to her.
I’ve brought you to the threshold of Hogtár which can protect you from the coastal illusions. This is Soulwhisperess whose aura is the same colors as yours.
The latter let her green cloak slide to the ground revealing her translucent wings. Sylvan’s jaw seemed to head for the ground as her body grew to his very size. Now she, too, spoke to him without articulating the words:
And this is my orphan friend whose name is a mystery.
Sylvan closed his mouth again so that he could swallow what he had just seen. Speechless within and without, he heard the conversation of the two locals in his head.
He actually seems to come from another world, the giantess began.
Or he is robbed of his memory, said the fairy.
Or both. Let him give him the time to get used to Hogtár and to find his lost memories, the giantess commented.
But he is a stranger, Soulwhisperess said, most of the residents will disapprove of his presence—maybe even want to drive him away.
The giantess shook her head gently:
Those who are worthy of their homeland will prevent anyone from being homeless. As long as we stay with him nothing can happen to him.
Her fairy friend just sighed:
Your words in Gaia’s sense!
Then the giantess turned back to Sylvan:
How should we call you, friend?
He hesitated for a moment; then he thought:
My mother called me The One From The Forest.
She replied with a smile:
The woman will have known why. Come over!
When she noticed the question marks in his eyes she added:
Towards the cradle of all forests.
She crouched, spread her hands, Soulwhisperess entered them, and both looked at him expectantly. In the absence of a better idea, he accepted the invitation to find himself on the giant shoulder shortly thereafter.
At first he could still see the sky but this changed soon. The forest became thicker and more impressive so that it did not have to shy away from Sylvan’s comparison with a tropical rainforest. On the contrary, he had never before been able to marvel at such a variety of flora and fauna in nature, not to mention the innumerable shapes and colors of living beings. A seemingly endless worm with a dragon-like head made its way leisurely through the undergrowth. Sylvan involuntarily clutched a giant lock.
You’re lucky, she let them know, you don’t see such an old one every day, the giantess said.
He was just about to say that it was a bit hard to be happy about something like that when Soulwhisperess asked him:
Have you ever spotted a dragon?
No, for Gaia’s sake! he thought and at the same time wondered at his choice of words.
Most of them are native to the mountains, the giantess interfered, mostly unpleasant contemporaries, especially when they are not in control of their temperament.
He imagined how an angry dragon — killing and spitting fire — was spreading fear and terror. He shook his head in amusement at his childish imagination.
Yes, yes! This is roughly what you can imagine, the giantess added to his train of thought whereupon he let go of her hair.
Birds of paradise fluttered about among the mighty treetops. Likewise colorful insects, which were easily observable even from Sylvan’s position buzzed from flower to flower to feast on the visibly flowing nectar and thus lived up to their destiny. The only thing he could say about the more advanced inhabitants of this forest now was the fact that they did not need a saga about a lush garden of Eden. Suddenly he cried out in horror—a winged thing which he did not know how to classify zoologically pounced in the air on one of the unsuspecting birds and disappeared with its prey.
Merely a moth! The giantess commented on what had just happened but Sylvan was not soothed:
“A moth??? Even an eagle looks harmless in comparison!” He yelled, falling back into verbal habits.
Such birds don’t get lost here, Soulwhisperess informed him, they prefer the wide plains and plateaus.
“And are probably the size of your dragons”, he added with an ironic undertone.
More like a dragon cub, the giantess corrected, but sooner or later you will surely see some.
He shivered at the thought that he would not be able to choose future encounters more than the previous ones.