Mouse (ShiningMoon) wandered aimlessly around town, munching on her favorite food in the world, bread. The soon-to-be-fifteen-year-old girl had lived here for quite some time, but until recently hadn't bothered with exploring, spending most of her time reading, writing, and drawing. Timid and jumpy like her namesake, she had few friends, and now that school was out for the summer, barely ever saw them at all.
Which left her with a situation. What to do on another boring summer day?
She'd always wanted to run a business; not so much for the money as for the possibility of meeting someone like her. But the last thing she was going to do was
babysit for money to start something up. The bank housed almost all the money she'd received over the past few years, though, which would almost be enough. Mouse knew there was something out there she wanted to buy...she just didn't know what.
Her eyes moved from the cracks in the sidewalk to a building along the road, with a gigantic sign plastered across one wall. "FOR SALE --- MAKE AN OFFER." Its bright green and pink bubble letters contrasted with the building, to say the least. The entire back section appeared to have been crushed, perhaps by a collapse of a support beam.
Or maybe an aircraft making a 90 degree turn in the wrong direction, Mouse chuckled a little to herself. The bricks composing the walls were a dull brown, and if one squinted closely, one could see that apparently the place had been painted at one time---judging by the remaining chips, a mustard yellow that was not much better than the place's current color. And thanks to her large, round glasses, Mouse could make out some letters painted in a gloomy blue. "
L B R R Y," they read. Ahh, so apparently this had been a library at some point.
Mouse was just about to move on when she noticed some text below the sign, added as if merely an afterthought: "
EVERYTHING IN BUILDING INCLUDED!"
She put two and two together very quickly.
A library...the books are included! A lightbulb came on with a victorious "ting!" in Mouse's mind. She could buy the library, and run it as her business! Yes...she could sell some of the books, and leave the rest for checkout! Eventually she'd earn enough money to fix it up, but for now, just buying it would be enough.
Hoping for some assistance, she ran up to the place excitedly, swinging the doors (glass, covered with spiderweb cracks, she noticed). A man with light gray hair and an absurdly dark colored hairpiece was sitting boredly at the main desk, sorting through a pile of books. "Hello," Mouse squeaked out nervously, her excitement and happy energy quickly switching back to that which made her jumpy and twitchy.
"Whaddaya want?" the man glanced up lazily, his half-closed eyes and droopy mouth accentuating his tired apperance.
"...I'd like to ask...what you'd be willing to take for this place."
Needless to say, Mouse became the new owner of the library.
A few weeks later, with things running smoothly, she decided to look through a stack of thick old books she'd found in a corner. They'd been sitting there for quite some time, but Mouse had just been too busy to bother with investigating them.
As she cracked one of the books open to the table of contents, a bright light filled up the room. Startled, she jumped back, knocking her glasses off her face. When she reached to retrieve them, still half-blind, her hand pressed down on something fuzzy and...noisy?
She placed the glasses back upon her face and moved her glance to meet the source of the squeaking. Before Mouse's eyes was an almost sickeningly adorable ball of fluff with sparkly big eyes, huge paws, and perked ears. Carefully removing her hand from the thing, she reached over to pick it up. "Squiii! Yiip yiip!" it squealed in her ear. Startled, she nearly dropped the fuzzball.
Once it had been safely placed under a nearby basket, usually reserved for the people she knew liked to browse and buy or check out many books at a time, she returned to the book, curious. "Dogtionari, Volume I" read the inside cover page, and she continued to skim through it. The book contained mostly information about the little animal that had taken to hopping around beneath the basket.
"Hmm," she thoughtfully glanced over to the numerous other volumes. Mouse decided that, having the same title, they must have similar animals inside them! A small smile lit her face. It looked like there was going to be another sale at the library soon.
So now, I've decided to sell these books, so that you too may enjoy the fluffiness of the animal that is... *glances over to basket* ...that.
sweatdrop Read on for more info! Oh, and I advise you KEEP that book with you at all times!
