He Who Dares...

Chapter 3: By the Book

It was getting light, and his cover was disappearing fast.. if he was going to grab this book it would have to be now, he wasn’t going to risk camping another night here. He removed most of his gear, leaving on him only his Toolbag, Dagger and Dirk, and only his Gloves, Leggings, Boots and Vest as armour. He then dumped his pack and his shield along with various other trinkets into a nearby bush… leaving Diamond to guard them.

He nuzzled the faithful Jaguar and tied on his black full head bandanna for luck, then set off up the trail towards the old wizard’s house.

The map took him from the trail and along a narrow stretch of land to the west and deep into unfamiliar forest areas. But he kept his head and moved without sound lightly across the bracken littered floor, dodging in and out of trees avoiding various spider webs and hungry predators, out trying to cop a free breakfast.

It wasn’t long before he reached what seemed to be the end of the forest trail and to the edge of a clearing…

The manor lay almost scenically in the centre and a 6 or 7ft wall surrounded the grounds about it. To make matters worse the whole clearing was overgrown and severely neglected… There didn’t seem to be any form of guards about either, so he took his chance and began to hack his way forward through the undergrowth, towards the outerwalls.

Upon reaching the walls he began to hear faint scuffles and clinks of armour from the other side. Not wanting to cause unnecessary alarm he avoided the front gates altogether and took his sweet time to wander around the perimeter for a less obvious means of entry…

Ironic as it seemed he had just reached the western side when he found noticeable weathering in the brickwork… either from neglect or poor craftsmanship… eitherway it only required a small amount of leverage to remove just enough bricks for him to squeeze through!

Livewire slipped his frame though the gap and kept low behind a nearby statue of a fire elemental to remain unseen. The whole gardens were an epic contrast to the surrounding gloom and neglect of attention outside the walls… There were finely crafted marble fountains, elegant hedge sculptures of various animals, an ivory gazebo to the far north east and an immaculate cobbled courtyard with crystal planters and stone statues dotted around and about. Livewire was impressed, yet puzzled at the same time… ‘What was a place like this, doing in the middle of nowhere’ he wondered…

Shrugging off the thought he turned his attention to the guards, he counted about a dozen. All pacing about the area.

He gave it a few minutes to study their patrol path before darting alongside the west facing side of the house and relatively safe from detection in the longs shadows it cast during sunrise. With that, he made his way around the back of the house, took a quick look about, then scaled a drainpipe to a balcony on the first floor with a set of glass doors open wide.

The Balcony was that of a medium sized study… oak desks and mahogany tables piled high with various books, scrolls. Also manuscripts and broken quills littered the floor along with the odd screwed up ball of parchment.

It was a highly decorative room non-the-less and was vacant at this time… so Livewire took his chance and dropped silently down from the balcony (bypassing the stairs), then slid alongside a large bookcase facing opposite the door and out of the windows light…

He looked painfully over the books piled in the middle of the room and could have cried at the thought of searching through them all, nevertheless it had to be done. So he moved from his spot into full view and began to sift through the ‘junk’ to find what he was looking for…

The Tome wasn’t to be found in the pile. But what he did find was a golden cigar container holding 6 fat cigars. He grinned and slid the box into his back pocket. He then paced over to a glass case containing an ornate sword and shield with the same crest as the ones on the Guards tunics. It still didn’t ring any bells and he continued about the room searching every nook and cranny, before finally giving up and making for the door…

He reached out and was about to turn the handle when there was a jingle in the lock and it clicked open! Livewire pressed his body flat against the wall and waited for the person to enter… quietly sliding his blade into his palm and holding his breath…

The door opened slowly and gave an agonising creak in doing so, and then an old bearded man stepped through.

He must have been about 4ft 9 inches and suffering from severe back troubles, as he took his time and hobbled over to the bookcase where Livewire last was and placed something onto the middle shelf.

The old man then turned and looked towards the windows and watched as they closed themselves and clicked into place… he then turned and hobbled back out… closing the door considerately behind him and locking it again…

Livewire couldn’t believe what he just saw and looked about himself in near embarrassment! Either Coireatie was misinformed or just making the job sound a lot bigger than it was… because this was a joke! Here he was… practically strolling across the gardens of a supposedly dangerous wizards house, to find a conveniently open set of balcony doors, then to be practically handed what he was looking for on a silver plate by an old wizard whom probably couldn’t read the morning paper with help from the star point telescope!

“This is just too easy!” Livewire exclaimed to himself passing a mirror, strolling casually to the bookcase and picking up the Tome that the wizard had placed there… He took out the drawing Abradix had gave him and found it to be a perfect match!

Feeling quite pleased with himself he proceeded to climb the stairs and effortlessly picked the lock to the glass doors and scaled the drainpipe back to the ground and made his way around the side of the building with an absentminded whistle as he turned the corner, the ancient Tome under his arm like a folded newspaper…