RIP Story : June 11th, 2024

Emma met Maggie at the end of the street they both lived on. Today was the day they had been researching and looking forward to for 6 months. The last time they went into the Enchanted Forest Scroll it was winter rest from school. They had gone to the scroll library looking, in the snow and cold, looking for a fun forest walk. Their brothers spent all their time in the “Epic Battles” of the kid’s section. Emma and Mags liked the Forest scrolls because there was no limit on what the scroll writer could put into the scroll. They had to be safe for anyone to enter the scroll. Their brothers had delusional ideas that they could survive in “the deadly scrolls” that only professional adventurers entered.

The girls wanted to experience that which they couldn’t get at home. They lived in a town bordered by a seaside and a mountain range. The sea was cold and the mounatins were tall. Geography made the scroll libraries a popular place for those who didn’t want to roll and ankle on the trails or swim in chilled sea water.

As they walked across town, they talked about what they would be looking for when they were in the scroll. When last they were in there, they heard the call of the jeweled owl. It was a beautiful bass note that supported the melodies of the songbirds. Night or Day, the call of the Jeweled Owl could be heard, but they were near impossible to see.

“I read that the forest echoes the calls of the owl during the day,” Mags said.

“It’s not even the owls themselves during the day?” Emma asked. Mags confirmed the thought, then Emma continued. “I read that lighting a campfire and spreading color-burns ashes on the fire will help you locate the Owls.”

“Do we have any of those?” Mags asked.

Emma smiled and opened up her bag of goodies she carries. She nodded her head yes and the girls shared a giddy smile of excitement. “I couldn’t find anything on the right color to use and I don’t know what will happen, but we can try them all,” Emma concluded.

“Mom gave me her capture box. It is the best at getting low light captures,” Mags said. The girls had everything the needed for their adventure.

They arrived at the library and went straight to the scroll they were going to enter. They brought it to the librarian who asked them what they were going to do while they were in there.

“We heard the song of the Jeweled Owl, and we want to see the bird in all of its glory,” Mags said.

The Librarian took the scroll, look at the ink on the outside and said, “Girls, this is a time sync’d scroll, how will you see an Owl during the day?”

“You’d be proud of us, we’ve been doing our research since winter rest,” Emma said.

They didn’t answer the question, but the librarian didn’t want to take any more of the girl’s time, they had a place to be, and this was a safe scroll.

“Very well, good luck girls. Do you have your markers on you?” the librarian asked. They showed their ID markers, and the librarian went through the standard warnings that came with all scroll entrances and emergency exits. “Follow me girls, we will enter on the blue port.”

As this was a safe scroll, librarians were allowed to use one of the general ports to get people into their destinations. When the authors dropped off a scroll, they would connect with the librarian and a port. This registered the port with a scroll and the librarians were given “port-rights”. On this day, the Librarian held the rounded end of the blue port while holding the middle of the scroll. A long rope was in the same hand, and the rope touched the ground. The girls held either end of the scroll. The girls spoke the words on the outside of the scroll then they started to fade away. Eventually the only person left was the Librarian, scroll in hand, smiling at the idea of the girls enjoying their adventure in the Enchanted Forest.

The Librarian took the scroll back to where the girls had found it and gently placed it in its round container, ready for the next adventurer.

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.

EPILOGUE: This was fun. This builds on an idea I have for a much larger world that includes magical travelling into written scrolls and the adventures characters can get into while inside the rules of the scrolls. Some of the scrolls are dangerous, others are for casual adventurers. I could have gone on, but I hit my time limit and there is a lot more story in here. Maybe I will do a part II? But is that really in the spirit of RIP Stories?