Investigate a noise in the hall

Just as Xabar’s thoughts begin to wander toward Hager’s Aunt Lucy and all that she might have to offer his hormone-saturated body, he hears the sound of two male students in the hallway.

“I told you, no one is going to find out,” said the first voice. Xabar didn’t recognize the voice, but it sounds as if it belongs to an older student. “I’ll put them all back before anyone even notices they are gone.”

“And what if the librarian sees the gap in the shelf where the forbidden books are kept?” asks the other voice. Again, Xabar doesn’t recognize the speaker, but it sounds like a younger student. “It won’t take much for her to figure out that we were the only ones in that part of the library today.”

“Will you just relax? Look at the dust on these things. No one reads them, and I put other books on the shelf so it wouldn’t be obvious that anything is missing. We’ll get what we need and have them all back in place first thing tomorrow.”

Just as Xabar is beginning to contemplate what this all means, he hears a crash and the sound of several things hitting the ground.

“Look what you’ve done!” scolded the first voice. “Help me pick this all up before anyone sees us.”

Xabar gets up from the bed and creeps to the door, listening carefully.

“Is that everything?” asked the younger student. “I thought we had seven books. There are only six here.”

“I didn’t count them,” replied the older student, “but I think.... Wait a minute! Someone is coming up the stairs. Let’s get out of here!”

Xabar hears the sound of hurried footsteps as the hallway returns to silence. After waiting a few moments and hearing nothing else, he opens the door and peers into the hallway.

The hallway is deserted, and he is about to return to the room, when his eyes fall on the corner of a small book, slightly protruding from under a hallway chair. He bends over to pick it up and can tell immediately that it is incredibly old. Glancing around to see if anyone has seen him, he quickly retrieves the books and returns to the room, closing the door behind him.

Xabar sits on the bed and examines his find. The cover does not have any words, but is embossed with a picture of a dragon, clutching a unicorn in one of his claws and a knight in another. Something about the image gives Xabar a sense of forboding.

Opening the book, he reads the title page: “Hildalgosähnn — The Collected Enchantments of the Twelfth Earl of Mannikbrohürnn.” At the bottom of the page, in bold handwriting, he sees, “WARNING: This book is for reference only. Use of the enchantments herein is prohibited, except by special permission of the Crown.”

“Forbidden magic?” thinks Xabar, with a thrill. “They might as well have written, ‘Xabar, this book is for you!’”

He begins to lead through the book and sees a number of enchantments that make him wonder why anyone would ever bother. “Who thought up the need for a spell to weave the toenails of two enemies together? Or why would you want a spell for turning toads invisible?” he asked himself.

Other enchantments intrigued him. “An enchantment for transforming blonde hair into solid gold,” “A spell for implanting undying lust in a heart,” and “Remember Me Not: a charm to erase the memory of the last hour,” all caught Xabar’s attention, and he carefully dog-eared those pages for further reference.

Another spell caught his attention. It was entitled, ”A procedure for lengthening one’s arms and legs.” Written in neat, compact penmanship at the bottom of the page were the words, “Works well on other body parts, too.” Xabar glanced between his legs at his favorite body part. While he was not necessarily unhappy with its size, he couldn’t help but wonder how it would be to sport a bit more length between his legs. He folded the top corner of that page, as well.

Xabar glanced at the clock. Hager would be back in a few minutes. He wondered if he should try a spell or two before his friend returned.