With the compass token securely stored in her inventory, Evangeline collected Laura and took off for the next Youkai village along their route.
This one was a simple farming village and the moment they arrived, Evangeline realized that she had miscalculated. It was almost dark, so most of the village was asleep, and it was too small to have anything resembling an inn.
Neither she nor Laura actually needed to sleep, but they weren't going to find out anything from sleeping villagers.
"Welcome, Seraphim. What brings you here so late at night?" The guard at the chain link fence which served as their village wall asked.
"We are on a quest to find a Librarian. An Elf that is believed to have a book from the Ancients." Evangeline explained.
"Well, I don't know anything about that, but you can ask the mayor in the morning. My wife is still awake with a newborn, feel free to head down to the third house and knock at the door, I will tell her you're coming." The guard told Evangeline, pointing in the right direction.
The Seraphim waved and flew toward the guard's home while searching her inventory for a baby toy. She didn't seem to have anything, but she had an assortment of foodstuffs with her in case of emergency or a need to impress someone.
"It is a good thing I'm an excellent babysitter. We can give the new mother a night off." Laura bragged, making Evangeline snort in amusement.
"Since when are you good with newborns? Last time you babysat the werewolf children tried to chew on you." The Seraphim pointed out.
"But it kept them abused for hours. It's all part of my strategy I tell you." Laura defended herself.
"How about I will start out this time? You can show me the way if I am having trouble."
Laura didn't have time to respond before the door to the small log cottage opened and a Kitsune woman with a baby in her arms welcomed them into her house.
"Sorry to arrive so late, we didn't factor the travel time into our plans when we left the last village. But I am happy to help any way that I can." Evangeline said softly so she didn't wake the child.
"It is always a pleasure to meet a Seraphim. Would you like something to eat?" The Kitsune asked while the child stared directly at Evangeline.
Her aura made everyone like her, so she was actually very good with children now that she has learned about the other species and their habits.
"Don't worry about it. I have something prepared." Evangeline told their host, placing a pitcher of diluted Mythic Fruit juice, a plate of soft buttermilk biscuits, and a bowl of sausage gravy on the table.
"If you hand me the little bundle of joy, you can dig in. I'm sure you could use a hot meal and a nap. We will be here, and I can watch the little one." Evangeline explained.
The relieved look on the woman's face made Laura laugh, alerting the woman to her presence, but that didn't stop her from making a plate and taking a seat.
The child made a happy noise when the mother passed it over, but it just kept staring happily up at Evangeline for a while before falling asleep.
"No wonder the Angels have such a good reputation. He just doesn't want to sleep at all today. I'm not sure why, he's still too young to be teething and I've already healed him, so he shouldn't be sick." The young mother told Evangeline with an envious look.
"From what I remember, sometimes they just want attention. It might be a tiny, fluffy man but it is still a man. Let him squawk until he finds something entertaining and he should stop." Evangeline said with certainty.
Kitsune were technically foxes, but that was sort of like the Canine-type beastkin, so the advice was almost certain to be good.
"My husband told me you need to talk to the Mayor about a Librarian, but I am quite certain we don't have anything of the sort here. You've seen the town, even if it was dark it isn't large enough that you couldn't see the far side from the gates." Their host explained.
"This one would have passed through just after the Great War, and she has a book left behind by the Ancients. We work for Ancient Cain, and he is determined to read that book, whatever it might be." Evangeline explained.
"Well, that makes a bit more sense. If a noteworthy visitor stopped in, the Mayor should know. He will be up at dawn since he still works the fields with the rest of the men." The Kitsune woman explained, then nodded off a little as sleep threatened to overtake her.
"Go lay down for a while. I have the little one, and your husband is right outside by the gates if we need anything else." Evangeline instructed the woman, using a hint of [Command] to push the idea into her sleepy mind.
Letting strangers watch the baby was a bit of a stretch for most people after all.
Sleep won before the woman had even left her seat, and Laura caught her by the collar, then pushed her back upright.
"You will have to deal with this, I don't have the leverage unless I'm going to drag her across the floor. There is a bassinet over there." Laura told Evangeline, who was smirking at the sight of the tiny dragon pixie trying to sit a sleeping adult upright.
"Fine, make sure the little one doesn't roll away or suffocate or anything while I am gone." Evangeline agreed, placing the baby in the Bassinet and easily picking up the mother to put her to bed.
When she passed the second bedroom in the small cabin, she saw that there were four other children asleep in a pair of bunk beds and gave the woman a sympathetic look. She had a spell that dampened the noise in an area, and it seemed like this lady needed sleep more than most, so Evangeline soundproofed her bedroom and closed the door, leaving her to rest.
Everything was calm until near dawn, when the father returned, only to be shushed by Laura, who was watching over the little one as Evangeline made breakfast for the family.
"We soundproofed your bedroom so your wife could sleep, but the rest of the kids should be up soon," Laura explained to the confused-looking guard.
"In that case, I will bring the Mayor to us. He is already up and about this morning, and I'm sure he would greatly enjoy a conversation with the two of you." He agreed, heading back outside and whistling a rhythmic scale that was obviously a signal.
A much larger Kitsune came into the house a few minutes later, just as the little ones were waking up to the smell of pancakes, the one breakfast food that both Laura and Evangeline could agree on. Nothing else that Evangeline would eat was sweet enough to suit the Opal Prismatic Dragon's tastes.
"Grandpa. Come and eat, the Seraphim made pancakes." One of the toddlers announced, jumping into the Mayor's arms.
"Hush, you will wake up your mother. The spell only makes the area quieter, it doesn't mute little boys who shout indoors." The older man admonished the child, who was giving him an unrepentant look.
"I am sure you already know why we are here, and I don't really expect to find out something everywhere that we stop, but if you do know anything about the Librarian, we would appreciate it." Evangeline began, getting right to the point.
"I am friends with the mayor of the last village you stopped in, and I contacted them this morning to see if they knew about the Librarian, so I think I am all caught up on your quest. As far as I know, they didn't stop here on their way to wherever they were going, and we don't have any valuable books that might be the ones you are looking for, but a Kitsune will never turn down company for breakfast." The Mayor explained.
"That's good news. Now I just need to look for Kitsune as we travel. Or Elves, they like breakfast too. The Seraphim is too focused on work and keeps wanting to leave before I've even had time for a snack." Laura complained.
Evangeline considered mentioning that the Dragon didn't actually need to eat, as she was a Companion, but she knew Laura well enough to know that her words would go in one ear and out the other. She simply loved sweet things too much to agree to miss meals just because she wasn't hungry.
"I can update your map for you if you like. I know a lot of people, so I can give you contact details for the various towns along your way, all the way to the mountains. After that, it is all you. They give everyone who wants to enter the End of the World a trial before letting them through." The Mayor suggested.
"End of the World you said? The Librarian's note for Ancient Cain said they would meet at the end of the world. We thought it was a time, not a place. Tell me, is that east of here? That is what the compass charm on the trinket we got from the last village indicated." Evangeline asked happily.
"A bit southeast, but yes. Go through the mountain Pass, meet the Tengu that guards the area and pass their trials to enter the valley. There is a portal there that leads to another world, and it has been open for centuries, which is how the area got its name." The Mayor explained.
"Interesting. Do you know anything about the other world?" Laura asked, pouring additional syrup on one of the kid's pancake stacks.
"Only that you can't pass through. There is some sort of spell around the portal. It looks out over a forest with trees that don't belong to this world though, so we know it isn't just to a different continent. It might be to the next world, the land of the Dragons, but nobody can say for sure." The Mayor told her with a smile, then added chocolate chips to the pancake stacks, earning him a growl from the father who would have to deal with sugared-up toddlers when all of his guards left.
"That's more than we were expecting to learn today. We will stop in at a few more villages along the way, in case the Librarian is traveling, so they might hear about our quest, but we will head straight for the mountain pass and the End of the World." Evangeline replied.
"As soon as we finish eating. Do we have any more of the good juice?" Laura asked, licking syrup from her fingers.
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