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After a second, she popped one eye open, finding nothing.
She glanced around the space. No lions stalked on either side of the aisle. Her clothing had returned to normal. She slumped to the floor, breathing out a sigh of relief before she collected the box and shoved it back onto the shelf.
“Definitely wasn’t a typo,” she said as she smoothed the hair on the top of her head back toward her ponytail.
“Paige!” Dewey’s voice echoed through the archives again. “Hurry up!”
Paige rolled her eyes as she rose to stand, still eyeing the box with a frown. “Yeah, coming! No thanks to you!”
Paige took one final glance at the box before she strode to the end of the shelf and oriented herself, spotting Dewey’s nest in the distance. The tiny teal dragon buzzed through the air toward it ahead of her.
She followed behind him, still shaking her head at the odd incident with the whip. She wondered where the correct box might be and why she hadn’t been able to find it. She’d have to ask Dewey once they sorted out the new information about her back wound.
She climbed the spiraling stairs, finding Dewey lounging on his chaise. He glanced up at her as she shambled into the room, her arms hanging limply at her sides, and collapsed into the chair across from him.
“Ah, there you are. All done playing circus?”
Her eyes bulged from her head at his comment. “I wasn’t playing, Dewey. I told you that. I have no idea how those lions got there, but they almost killed me.”
Dewey rolled his eyes as he kicked one ankle over the other. “I doubt they would have. They’re controlled by the whip. The whip conjures them.”
“Why?”
“You know, for fun.”
“Fun? Fun! That wasn’t fun! That was horrible. A terror.”
“What did you pick it up for?”
Paige shot him an angry glance. “I thought it was the stupid Sappy Soap or whatever it’s called.”
“Seepy Sap,” Dewey corrected. “And why would Seepy Sap be a whip?”
Paige shook her head, flinging her arms out. “How should I know?”
“Well, anyway, it’s not the Seepy Sap, but we’ll worry about that later. I may have found a few things to help us identify your beast attacker.”
“Okay. But the next time I go searching for one of these things, you need to help me. Before I get myself killed.”
“Fine, fine,” Dewey said with a flap of his hand in the air. “Okay, now, pay attention. I’ve already ruled out hobgoblins and striped pixies. Neither have red eyes. Well, that’s not true. Striped pixies can have red eyes, but it’s rare. Couple that with the fact that this beast looks to be a decent size based on the slash wound, and I’d rule them out.”
“Okay,” Paige said as she bobbed her head up and down.
“That leaves varcolacs, golems, and vampires. Now, each of these has different features that I was hoping we could parse through to find out if anything seems familiar.”
“All right. Maybe something will jog my memory.”
Dewey tapped his pen against his notepad. “Let’s start with varcolacs–“
“Which are what exactly?” Paige cocked her head.
“A shape-shifting wizard that can take the form of a wolf.”
“Right. Okay, what are the features?”
“These guys can have red eyes and a bulky black form. Sometimes it’s gray.” He flicked his gaze to Paige.
“That fits, yes. I remember a big black blob with red eyes.”
