Clove & Moose 8: The Baffling Books

Clove and Moose is a serial fiction story. While there is an overarching plot, each episode can be enjoyed on its own without reading what came before. However, if you want to get caught up, click one of the buttons below.

Previously, on Clove & Moose: After the mysterious Cataclysm dried up the earth and its magic, Clove left home to search for pools of corrupted magic left behind in the Cataclysm’s wake. Along with her cat Moose, Clove has been repairing these pools while travelling toward a nearby city. Shortly after her arrival in the city, she rescued a young woman named Marissa from one of the corrupted areas, and the two agreed to stick together while continuing their travels.

“Are you done yet?” Marissa asked, dropping her head to rest on the desk in front of her.

“Almost.” Clove tapped the tip of her pen on the pad of paper beside her. Doing old school research at the library without the digital archives was time-consuming, but she thought it was worthwhile. “There are only a couple books left on my list.”

“A couple more books?” Marissa groaned. “I’m falling asleep here.”

“You could always help, if you wanted it to go faster,” Clove suggested. She had been listening to Marissa complain for the last two hours and she was starting to lose her patience.

“Not a chance. If I don’t have to read dusty old theory books for university any more, I’m sure as heck not doing it for fun.”

“We might learn something useful.”

“I don’t need to learn things.” Marissa tipped her chair back and stretched. “I will simply exist.”

Clove turned back to her work. “Exist more quietly, or go play with Moose.”

“Way harsh, Clove.” Marissa stuck her tongue out, but stood up and stretched. “Moose looks pretty settled in that sun beam, but I’m going to stretch my legs.”

“Great.” Clove was barely listening, already absorbed in her research again.

The library was half the reason she’d wanted to come to the city in the first place. She had hoped to find something that might explain the Cataclysm, or the disappearance of magic, or the corrupt magic that was left behind. Her list of questions had only grown since she’d left home, such as why a valley full of giant bones had appeared. She half hoped that maybe someone else had already done the research and figured it out, but a brief conversation with the librarians had confirmed that was not the case.

Unfortunately, she’d been through just about every book in the library that seemed like it might be helpful and she hadn’t found anything even remotely connected to the events of the past few months.

Still, there were a couple more in her pile and she was going to at least skim them before they left. She’d practically had to beg the librarian to let her bring Moose in with her, and she wasn’t sure she’d be given permission a second time, even if he was being a very good boy and napping in the sun on the table beside her.

She reached over to pet him as she read, and he purred happily. The two of them sat like that for several minutes until something struck her in the back of the head.

“Ow!” Clove clasped a hand to her head. She half expected it to come away covered in blood, but it didn’t. 

Moose sat up at her sudden movement. “Meow!”

Clove whirled around. The book sprawled on the floor behind her chair quickly answered the question of what had hit her, but she didn’t see who had thrown it.

“Marissa?” she called.

“What’s up?” The younger woman popped out from behind a shelf in front of Clove. There was no way she could have thrown the book and gotten all the way around her so quickly without Clove noticing. “Are you done?”

“Did you see anyone throw a book at me?” Clove picked up the book, holding it up to illustrate the point.

“I didn’t see anything.” Marissa rejoined her at the table and held out a hand for the book. She took it from Clove and rifled through the pages. “Weird.”

“Super weird.” Clove was at a loss.

Until another book sailed past them and landed on the floor a few feet away.

Clove turned around again, and this time she looked upward, to the mezzanine above them. There was no one there, or at least no one she could see from this angle. They could be standing farther back from the edge, out of her line of sight. 

But then another book flew down from above, and another, and people started to shout, and Clove heaved a sigh. 

“Is that what I think it is?” Marissa asked.

“Either there’s corrupt magic up there or this library is haunted by a ghost who hates books.” She pushed herself up from her chair. “Come on, you were the one who wanted some excitement.”

“Not like this!” 

“You coming, Moose?” she asked.

He blinked slowly at her, then turned around and curled back up. 

“Alright, we’ll be back soon.” He was already in his harness and tied to the table leg–one of the librarian’s conditions of letting him enter–so she figured he couldn’t get into too much trouble.

Clove and Marissa hurried up to the second level, where they were greeted by a strip of yellow caution tape. The area beyond it glowed a familiar shade of orange.

“Good grief,” Clove muttered. “You find a corrupt pool of magic in your library and what do you do? Put up a piece of plastic tape and call it a day.”

“I mean, what do you expect them to do?” Marissa asked. “I think you might be the only person in the world who actually knows how to deal with these things.”

Clove hoped that wasn’t true. The world couldn’t be depending on her to clean these up alone. For now, she had to focus on the one in front of her. She ducked under the caution tape and approached the edge of the orange glow. Marissa hung back a few steps and watched her work.

Clove pulled her crystal from her pocket and spoke the spell. The ritual was becoming routine now. The orange magic slowed and faded away, and the books stopped flying off the shelves. 

She turned away, and found Marissa offering a brief explanation to a pair of librarians. Clove accepted their thanks and hurried back downstairs. She didn’t want to leave Moose unattended for too long. Although now that she’d saved the library from flying books, maybe they’d let her bring him back another day after all.

Moose squeaked and stood up when she returned, stretching himself out before coming over and shoving his head under her hand.

“Hey buddy. You finally awake?” Clove rubbed him under the chin and scratched behind his ears. He leaned into her touch and purred, before turning around and offering her his butt instead. “I like the other end better, you know.”

But she acquiesced and scratched the spot just in front of his tail. Moose showed his appreciation by nuzzling the nearest book; the one that had hit Clove in the head. He nuzzled so hard he pushed the book right onto the floor, where it flopped open.

“Moose!” Clove didn’t have the heart to truly scold him, especially not when he was being so cute. “We’ll get kicked out if you don’t respect the books.”

He turned back around and rubbed his head on her hand, purring louder. 

Clove laughed and petted him. “You’re lucky you’re adorable.”

She bent down to retrieve the book but paused when she saw the splash of colour on the page that had fallen open. Her eyes must not have cleared yet; she was still seeing the same colour orange she’d just been staring at.

But when she looked closer, the illustration clearly showed a circle of corrupt magic. The vivid swirl of colour couldn’t be anything else, and the massive bones that poked out of it must be related to those in Bone Vale.

“What is this?” she murmured, straightening up.

“What’s up?” Marissa asked as she rejoined them.

Clove stuck her finger in the page to hold the spot as she turned to the cover of the book. There was no title or author listed, only an embossed geometric pattern. “Weird.”

“Again I say, what’s up?” Marissa stepped closer to peer over her shoulder.

Clove turned back to the page she’d held open. “What does this look like to you?”

Marissa shrugged. “A book?”

The drawing was gone, leaving behind only a page of text. Clove’s finger must have slipped and lost her place. She flipped through the pages immediately before and after it, but there were no illustrations. She skimmed through the whole book but it was all black and white with not a spot of orange to be seen.

“It was there,” she said. “It was right there.”

“What was?”

Before Clove could explain, they were interrupted by a librarian. “Excuse me, but we’re closing for the night. Is there anything you want to check out?”

“Yes.” Clove slipped a scrap of paper between the pages to mark her spot, and passed the book to the librarian. 

The librarian pulled a date stamp out of her pocket and flipped to the back of the book. 

“That’s odd.” She closed the book and looked at the front cover and then the spine. “This isn’t one of ours.”

Clove exchanged a glance with Marissa. “What do you mean?”

“There’s no envelope at the back, no barcode stickers, nothing marking it as the library’s property. It’s not ours. Someone must have left it here.”

There was no way someone had left this book here. It had hit Clove in the head. It had to have come from somewhere. 

Her stomach turned at the implications of that. “So can I take it?”

“I should put it in the lost and found,” the librarian said. “But maybe it was yours, after all?”

Clove stared at her. The book clearly wasn’t hers; she wouldn’t have asked to check it out if it was.

But Marissa caught on faster. “Oh, silly me! That’s my book. I didn’t realize which one my friend here was talking about.”

“Well, that explains that!” the librarian said with a wink, passing the book to Marissa. “Have a good evening, folks.”

“What’s the big deal about this book anyway?” Marissa said when she was gone. 

Clove explained what she had seen and how it had disappeared after she closed the book.

“Huh.” Marissa didn’t question her story. “So what does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” Clove said, shoving the book into her bag, “but I don’t like it.”

Moose rolled onto his back in the sun beam, showing his fluffy belly to the sky. Clove couldn’t help but smile at that.“For now, let’s go get something to eat and plan our day for tomorrow.”

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Katie Conrad is a speculative fiction writer living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. You can find her on twitter, instagram, and tumblr.