If Books Could Talk

Posted on Thu Nov 23rd, 2023 @ 22:12 by Freya Callaghan MD & Rebecca McMillen

Chapter: Winter's Crest Festival
Location: Library, Avalon Institute
Timeline: Friday, December 18th, 1992
1809 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

One of the first things Freya had said to herself she was going to do once she was settled in the school was find its library. A keen reader and researcher she was often found in the same place whilst at university. It was one of her happy places. Thinking that Avalon would have a vast array of old dusty tomes to read she almost couldn't wait to get in there and see what mysteries it had. An old forgotten journal from a Scottish nobleman, lost in time in the Highlands. Oh it made her arms goose up something proper.

It also gave her the chance to look at the books on her chosen field of teaching, biology. She hoped there would be some medical journals there as well, maybe a little look into the past to see how things were done in in centuries passed.

As she turned the corner, her head in the proverbial clouds, she walked into someone with a thud. Looking up slightly at the blonde woman in front of her she began to apologise. "I'm so sorry..."

Rebecca was just walking out of the modest little on-site library with a book or two to help her help her class prep for the up coming tests when she bumped directly into another person. "Oh! Oh I'm so.." and that was all she got out in the moment before the woman vanished. Just up and gone.

"Ummm, sorry about that, watch your step please." came the woman's voice, decidedly softer and decidedly lower. There, on the stone work and carpet floor was the very woman Freya had just bumped in to, though now the mousey blonde was truly living up to the descriptor. Roughly about five centimeters in height, the size of a pretty decent mouse. Tail and all.

"Just, gimme a minute. I'll be up in a moment."

Freya hadn't really been around her kind a lot so this came as a bit of a shock moment for her. Looking down at the small version of the woman that was in front of her seconds ago she could do nothing but gape. Sure, she'd treated mutants before at the Royal Victoria but that was usually off her own back and in a more secluded part of the hospital.

"S-ssure." Freya stepped back a little. "Do you need help, or?" she didn't quite know what to do.

Watching the woman the size of a mouse return to a woman the size of everyone else was an interesting trip. It was just a slow, smooth progression from Tiny Lady to Regular Size Lady over the course of a minute or so.

"No, no I, just need to work on it. It's a reflex at this point, and I'm trying to train myself out of it. Trust me, being ankle high to everyone here is NOT something I want to keep on the list. The librarian's taste in shoes is ... well anyway." she offered a smile. "My name's Rebecca, are you alright? Kinda wasn't watching where I was going and gave you a bump." she offered, taking the blame from the obviously new face.

The woman before Freya was smiley and cheerful enough. Blonde hair, somewhat 'mousey' features, and a long thin tail behind her. No big ears, no fuzzy outlook, no comically large wedge of cheese. Though, that last one might have just been because it wasn't lunch time.

"No, no, totally my fault." Freya tried to take the blame. "Books go to my head, literally." she joked as she gestured around. "I wasn't looking where I was going either. No harm done, I'm pretty hard to bruise." she stated. "I'm Freya. Are you alright?"

Rebecca smiled, "Oh I'm alright, landed on my seat but the carpet here is really soft when you're that close." she offered. "Though, I've met like, THREE people so far by bumping into them, maybe the problem is ME." she said, amused. She gathered her books, "So, Freya. Hello. It's nice to meet you. Aside from my ego of having yet another complete stranger see me so tiny I think I'm alright. So, ummm, what brings you to our corner of the world?"

"Well I couldn't have asked to 'bump' into a nicer person." Freya complimented her pleasant demeanour and her lack of finger poking at the incident. "And it is nice to meet you as well. As for what brings me here, well I guess that would be Phoebe... and my stupidity." she sighed. "I got caught using my gifts in a hospital in Dundee, and well, I panicked and ran..."

"Isn't it odd, that they're called Gifts but they're so much trouble. Gifts, Talents, Tricks. I can't stand those words." Rebecca shook her head. "And hey, don't knock yourself down." Though, Rebecca figured that she should realize exactly WHAT Freya could do, rather than justify it. "So, if you don't mind my asking, what is it that you can do?"

"I mean, you saw most of what I can do." she offered, glancing downward.

"Oh totally. I mean some I think are gifts, I guess it depends on what you have I suppose. Freya thought out loud. "I'll show you a bit of what I can do." Freya said as she noticed a sharp edge on one of the bookshelves. She dragged the palm of her hand across it much to Rebecca's shock and then held her hand up to show the quick closing of the wound. "I heal, essentially." she rubbed some of the blood into her skin to make is disappear.

"I heal, I cure." she wasn't sure how much information she wanted. "If anyone is sick, or injured, I can heal them at a little cost to myself but I can. That's how I got caught... I'm a doctor and I don't know if you heard about the building collapse in Dundee a while back but I was one of the doctors in the ER that night and I just got sick of all the pain and suffering... I tried to help..." her eyes glassed over a touch.

The demonstration caught Rebecca's attention, but considering the severity of the demonstration she offered Freya, this was equal exchange. Not to mention that Freya wouldn't have cut herself if it wasn't all Part of the Plan. "Okay, that's cool." she said, impressed.

"And that's very very cool. You can help people, honestly help people." she offered, "I... I talk to mice. I can, I dunno, ask them to leave a house. Ask if they saw anyone. I'm dangerous in a city, wicked dangerous." she offered with a bit of enthusiasm at the end. Wicked dangerous.

"Right now, I'm a mouse relocator." she giggled. "But, I'm sorry that people are short sighted, and didn't see you for the gem you are."

"Good things come in small packages." Freya replied with a smile as she shook herself free from her pity feelings. "I think your abilities sound pretty cool. I always wanted to talk to animals when I was younger." Sometimes they were the only ones she did talk to if her parents were away with the boys. "And if I'm honest an army of mice running at me would freak me out." she giggled.

"And thank you." Freya appreciated her kind words. "But wait to get to know me first before you call me a gem." she gave Rebecca a nudge with her arm playfully.

Rebecca rolled her eyes, amused. "Never heard that expression before." she smiled nonetheless. "You know, yeah an army of mice is a scary thing, but convincing them to run TO the danger is the real trick. I don't really have Mouse Mind Control, not the big cheese here. A lot of it is give and take. I ask them not to come into a place looking for food, but I gotta tell them where they can find food outside of here. Greedy little basterds." she grumbled, but still amused.

"But you know who never gets lost in a city?" she smiled, and motioned to herself. The nudge was responded to in kind. "You and me are a team if folks get hurt. I find them, you patch them up. Team Rescue right here."

"I like the idea of us being a team on a night out on the town. If you never get lost then you can always find a club, or a cab home." Freya grinned. She hoped this was the start of a budding friendship but her mind cast back to Elijah and how that swiftly ended when he found out what she was. Well, she thought it was over, she didn't stick around to find out.

"Out of interest, how did you find your way here?" she asked. "Where are you from?"

"Londoner, born and bred." if Rebecca kept talking, Freya could probably narrow down the neighborhood. "I, well... I ran away from home. Had enough of the treatment there, and decided to just try it out on my own. Not a smart move, looking back, but..." she shook her head. Whatever happened at her home must have been terrible.

"I saw a bit on the news, Claire giving a speech about this place. I didn't know the way but, well, the rats did. I took every bit of mass transit, every train, every cab, everything. Learned all the good ways to sneak from the rats. The mice just are pretty solid with directions as long as you're going someplace where there's food. Turns out, the kitchen here is a landmark to most rodents." she giggled.

"And the rest is history."

Freya nodded. The notion of running away was what took her across the Atlantic. "Running away is always easier when you have a direction." she said more to herself. "Medical school was my escape, and I think my parents all too happy to let me go where I'm not bothering anyone." she chewed the inside of her lip.

Rebecca swept some hair behind her ear, "I think my family is looking for me, but I'm not keen on being found." she offered. Quiet for a moment, Rebecca didn't want to let the poor moment in her life linger. "Eh, I'm sure it's all done and over. No matter what happened in the past, I'm glad that I got to make a new friend today." Rebecca smiled. "C'mon, let's go get those books of yours where they need to go."

Freya smiled. "I'm glad I mad a new friend today as well." Her smile a warm and genuine one. Those she could call a friend she could count on one hand and this friendship was new, but it still felt real and exciting. She had a good feeling about meeting Rebecca. They both slinked deeper into the library on Freya's book hunt.