Chapter Text
"Hey, you guys should-"
The box opened.
"Whuh- OH F-....ow."
With a little difficulty, Ainsley stood up. Before promptly falling back down. "Okay. Concussed. Greaaaat. Still, where am I?"
It was a fair question- even from the teen's prone position, she could see that they definitely weren't in Kansas anymore, Toto. LA's skyscrapers and busy traffic had been replaced with trees and meandering rivers with impossibly large lily pads rooted to their beds. Amazon, maybe? How they got there from California, Ainsley had no idea- maybe that box thingy had a weird device in it? To... knock people out so that they could get dumped in a jungle? Yeah, no.
"Okay, wasn't kidnapped, so how did I get here? Must have something to do with the box, I'm sure."
Somewhere deep in the forest, a loud chittering like claws being snapped together could be heard, breaking the girl out of her thoughts
"Right. Time to worry about why I'm here, should focus on surviving first." Ainsley shook her head, trying to remember that one online survival course they took a couple years back. "Alright, step one- try and find landmarks to familiarize yourself with the environment, and find shelter. Okay- tree with a giant gash in it (not ominous at all), rock that looks like a dog kinda, big overgrown stone building, hollow tr- oh. That'll work."
Honestly, bit embarrassing that she hadn't noticed it the first time, but she was slightly concussed. But, the shelter was looking pretty good compared to the tree stump they'd landed on, and the damp looking cave was creepy- imagine having to spend the night in that, ugh. So, by a combination of crawling, leaning on trees for support, and poorly balanced walking, Ainsley made it to the front doors. "Y'know, it would suck if it turned out that the door was locked."
It wasn't.
The double doors swung open with loud creaking- the building clearly hadn't been used in quite some time. With sun streaming through this entrance for the first time in probable decades, the grand structures' purpose was finally revealed to Ainsley- it was a library. Or maybe an Archive, or perhaps a particularly extravagant bookshop.
Whatever the case, bookshelves formed walkways, ladders and stairways reaching up into the second level. And everywhere was packed head to toe with books. Tomes, novels, encyclopaedias- at least, Ainsley assumed. Most of the titles and signs were in a foreign script- all loopy and geometric, definitely not the Latin alphabet.
Ainsley travelled deeper into the archival astonishment, mesmerised by all of the various books lining the shelves- out of interest, she took a random one off of the shelf closest to her, and opened to page one. "Ah. Still not English. Or French." Ainsley didn't know why she was disappointed- she'd already established that this wasn't America, and there were only a handful of English-speaking countries that had climates like this. Still, one could hope that by being in a library, that one could have something to read. There was that book in her bag, but they'd already finished it yesterday... the bag. There must've been something useful in there, right? "Let's see- textbooks- might be good for a fire, empty lunch box, dang it, phone- no reception, as expected, useless- ah ha! Water bottle! With water in it! That'll be useful! ...for about two days." So, two days-ish worth of water, and kindling. Not totally worthless, but not that great either. A metallic glint caught her eye- the fork she had from that time she brought leftovers for lunch? That could be useful, maybe as a tool or a weapon? Would she need weapons? For the second time that day, a loud noise broke Ainsley out of her thoughts. A particularly thick book had fallen down next to the girl. The cover was some sort of animal hide, with a basic design of three circles- one green, one pink, and one blue. Out of curiosity, she opened it to a random page. Still that unknown script, except some of it was arranged in circles now. “Well, not a conscious act from a higher power then. Still, would’ve been ni- what the?” Before her eyes, the text blurred, swirling into more recognizable characters and arrangements- specifically, modern English. “Ookay, either the concussion was way worse than what I thought, or… “ Ainsley flipped back to the first page, looking for something to explain what this book was, or how it could apparently rewrite itself based on the reader’s preferences. “ ‘A Study on the Magicks of The Stones, and How to Utilize it’. Oookay- that opens more questions than it answers.” But, something to keep her sane. Ainsley sat down, and began to read.