Chapter 8

“Ok, the book says: “the blokes are a friendly people in Four Ecks, and they will greet you by saying “G’day mate,” and you reply by saying “G’day Bruce.”

“Interesting,” said Nick. “Then what?”

Octavia flipped the page back and forth then shrugged; the pamphlet titled “How to Speak XXXX Mate!” didn’t seem to cover conversational XXXXian. “It’s not pronounced Ecks Ecks Ecks Ecks, it’s Four Ecks, or as the locals call it for short, Ecksas, and the locals call themselves Ecksans.” (DO NOT say Texas without a T, the local ecksans will “crack the shits” and “have a go at you” ((but that is how it’s pronounced)))

As they hiked through the cavernous bookshelves Octavia noticed a sound following them ... it sounded like a brick sliding across a concrete floor coming from behind and above them. “It doesn’t say what to say next.”

“Then what’s a bloke?” asked Nick as he tried to step into Octavia’s line of sight.

“It doesn’t say that either,” she said, waving the pamphlet under Nick’s chin, “and you’re hiding something from me.”

“I take offense to that accusation!” said Nick with faux offense as he moved to hide what was behind him from Octavia.

Octavia’s expression soon softened. “I’m sorry,” she whispered as tears slowly filled her huge brown eyes. She stepped up to him, her fingers traced the buttons on his shirt as she sadly whispered, “I just want you to remember that I never wanted to hurt you...” then peaking over his shoulder she said, “ ... and I’m also taller than you.”

“Most people are.”

“Nick honey,” she whispered softly, her eyes were now gentle, their noses almost touching, her lips came closer and closer to his, “ ... why is there a gargoyle following us?” She drew back slightly, her face now covered with a smug smile, pleased with herself that she easily fooled him, which allowed her to peek over his shoulder.

“Gula wanted to come with, and I told her it was OK if she could keep up...” and quick as a wink he leaned forward and stole a quick kiss. Now he was the one pleased with himself for drawing her in close enough for a kiss.

Octavia huffed in anger - how dare he steal a kiss from her! And why did he wait so long? And oh yeah, what about the gargoyle ... and he called it a she? “Her name is Gula?”

“Yes ... isn’t she cute?”

Gula was now hanging from a bookshelf posed like a rooftop gargoyle, hanging out as far as she could, her mouth wide open, ready to drain rainwater from the bookshelf and siphon off any moss, lichen, or dead animals for a snack. Gula’s eyes were fixed on Octavia and Octavia was sure she saw Gula’s eyebrow waggle at her. With a sigh Octavia said “Ok, but she has to keep up, we’re on a timeline.”

“Thank you,” said Nick with a cheerful grin. He was beginning to really like Gula. His reverie was interrupted by an abrupt kiss from Octavia.

“There, we’re even. Let’s get going,” and she led the party of three through the stacks.

“What exactly are we doing?” asked Nick.

“There were eight great spells that created the discworld,” explained Octavia, “One caused eight eggs to hatch and now our world is being followed by eight tiny disc worlds each on the back of four elephant calves riding on a baby turtle.”

“I was told that the world was round, like a ball, spinning through space,” said Nick, “and if you could go as far as you want in any direction and you would end up right back where you started.”

Octavia tried to hold back her laughter and Gula was making a sound that resembled rocks being dropped into a pile one by one. Octavia finally said, “that sounds so dangerous! Centrifugal force would throw you off into space before you got anywhere.”

Nick thought about it and frowned; the roundworld theory did sound pretty silly once you applied science to it. “So, what are we doing?”

“The eight spells created the world and a series of baby worlds, we need to set the baby worlds free, to head out to grow, to hide in the nebula where they can eat and remain safe, or they’ll be stuck in their mother’s shadows forever, like college freshmen who never advance except we don’t have a basement for them to live in.

Nick considered it, and the consequences were too terrible to imagine. Their beautiful world being held in stasis by eight little emotional anchors...

Octavia continued, “Trapped in our wake like this they are a prime target for a planet killer.”

It was too horrible to contemplate. “What do we do?” asked Nick.

“We perform the rite of Prose Mino. We have to collect the three parts of the spell from the three university libraries, then we perform the combined spell from Krull. We already have the second part, I copied it down in the Unseen University library. We search in XXXX to get the third part, then we travel to Pseudopolis to get the first part, they should be right there in their university libraries. After that we go to Krull, step out on Tähelepanek Point, cast the spell and Kong’s your uncle! The world is saved.” (Kong is the Librarian’s stepbrother. He’s a magnate somewhere.)

“I’m so proud of you,” said Nick as he put his arms around Octavia from behind and held her close. She was so warm and so soft with curves in all the right places ... he found himself holding her tight, grinding his cock into her ass, and Octavia found herself grinding her ass back at Nick, his hand was so close to her breast ... But no! They have a rite to perform, they don’t have time for this...

With a sigh Octavia said, “Wait here, I need to check directions, don’t go anywhere! If you get lost I have no way of finding you.” And with that, she disappeared into a side aisle. Nick and Gula looked at each other in confusion, but before the fear of being abandoned set in, Octavia came back, a huge smile of relief on her face. “We’re on course,” she said happily and tugged Nick onward.

Soon they emerged from the rows of shelves into an area in front of a librarian’s desk. The desk had a line of what appeared to be empty beer cans and a couple of glass boxes filled with brightly colored pieces of pasteboard, and each box had a sign advertising the Bugarup University lottery. Behind the desk was a series of shelves on a credenza, but instead of containing books, they had a series of bottles that appeared to be different types of liquor.