The Great Tree Library

As the group journeyed back to the Great Tree Library, Kiki had time to get to know some of the other dragons a bit more. One of the smallest dragons frequently bounded ahead, excited by all the plants and wildlife along their path. Their scales were a beautiful pale shade of green with spikes and horns in a deeper hue, patterns that seemed to resemble leaves adorned their forehead, horns and hands and this often meant they seemed to be camouflaged within the long grass. After a couple of times of nearly losing the bundle of excitement, Alula called out “Fumi? Fumi, where are you?” until a flutter of wings and the dragon’s little green head poked to from under the foliage. Kiki realised that this was a young dragon as it couldn’t fly very far as its wings hadn’t developed and it could only hover for a few seconds - often when called or very excited. Fumi’s pure joy and inquisitiveness brought a smile to Kiki’s face; oh how she loved having others around her!

Another dragon who seemed to prefer walking was a larger red dragon. His colouration seemed to truly represent the fiery nature of a dragon and if it wasn’t for his friendly grin, Kiki might have been intimidated. After only a short amount of time, this muscular dragon took on the task of carrying the smallest dragon in the group. Noticing Kiki looking at the two dragons, Alula, who was following Kiki quite closely, explained that the pair were Kai and Lumi. Kai, the large red dragon, often helped out with the younger dragons by carrying them when they grew tired as he was the strongest of the group. This was exciting for Kiki as she thought of how much help he could be carrying the piles of books at the library; this idea to invite them sounded better by the minute. The small dragon Kai was carrying had scales that glistened in the sun and were pure white like snow whilst its horns and spikes were an icy blue and reminded Kiki of icicles. This seemed unusual to the fairy as all she knew about was fire breathing dragons. It was quite a surprise to hear from Alula that Lumi was in fact an ice dragon and therefore often struggled with long journeys out in the heat which is why he was getting carried by Kai.

Before Kiki could look more closely at the final dragon to discover more about them, the group arrived at the Great Tree Library and the dragons looked up in awe. What they saw was nothing any of them had expected, for the library was not just near a tree or a simple building but it was in fact built inside a tree. Small buildings perched atop different branches like a treehouse but the main door was set into the large tree trunk. “Wait, is the library inside the tree?” questioned Alula, her mouth agape. “Oh yes. Did I forget to mention that?” Kiki answered as she opened the door, not realising how amazing this structure was.  Stepping inside, the dragons were amazed at the size within because they hadn’t realised that the fairies had used magic on this tree when the library was built so that inside it was five times the size of the trunk. Rows of bookcases filled the first floor and lined the entire height of the wall by the large staircase inside. Books were piled inside without order and some were spilling out onto the floor. “Sorry, I forgot to mention the mess this place was in.” said Kiki with a little embarrassment before giving them a tour of the entire building. Before long it was getting darker and the dragons decided that they would go home and come back the next morning for a proper look at all the different books.

The next morning, Kiki awoke to a knock on the door and the group of dragons all eagerly waiting to look for books. The largest, pink dragon entered last and stood by the doorway for a few moments. Kiki was able to fully appreciate how elegant this dragon was in this moment. Pale pink scales covered her body and deeper pink wings, spikes and horns added interest. Her horns and wings had a flower pattern within them, making them a natural accessory for this beautiful dragon. She turned to the little fairy and asked with a slight tone of anxiety “However did you get it into this state?”. “Lienna don’t say it like that!” boomed Kai. Kiki could tell that the mess displeased the pink dragon and explained to her everything about the guardians and how she was left with it in this mess. The whole group heard this and decided together straight away that they would help the poor fairy out whilst they looked for books by putting away what they could neatly. After a day’s work, the dragons departed, promising they would come back the next day as they needed some more time. From that day on the dragons visited every day for the next few weeks.

During this time every day, when the dragons arrived, they found small presents left on the doorstep. This started out with a couple of flowers and everyone was left wondering who they could be from, but quickly moved on. However, as the days passed and gifts were left that were just exactly what they had mentioned needing the day before like a new pen, the group found this to be an intriguing mystery and they all began to wonder who was doing this and why they were giving them presents. Fumi, especially, loved the surprise of what would appear each morning and he was the most eager to find out who everything was from.

At the end of the third week before the dragons went home for the night, Kiki was having so much fun with them all and was appreciating their help so much that she put an offer out to them. During their tour on that first day, the dragons had been shown what all the tree house sections of the library were. Most of them had been where all the other guardians had lived when they were around but they had now been abandoned and nobody lived there. Kiki offered that this could be their new home and they could use these rooms and stay with her so they didn’t have to travel so much each day.  In return, she hoped that they could help her with organising and running the library with the hope that more visitors would arrive soon if people knew about it being here.

After the dragons had returned back to their cave, they sat around the fire and discussed what they should do. In these three weeks they had all had so much fun and really loved the Great Tree Library. However, this was a scary decision as they had all grown up in the cave together and this was all they knew as home. Lienna felt very passionate about getting the library organised again as it pained her to see such a beautiful place and such wonderful books in such a mess, yet she was concerned about moving as this was their safe place and she was trying to look out for everyone’s feelings. Alula, on the other hand, was determined that this was the right move and took her time to persuade them all that this was the right thing to do. This didn’t take too long though as they were all in love with the library and loved the idea of living there with Kiki who had become a wonderful friend to them all.

The next morning, with their decision made, the dragons packed up all they had and took it all with them to the library. They didn’t have much so Kai was able to carry it all for them easily. With excitement flooding all their minds, the journey felt so much easier and quicker than most mornings - even Lumi managed the whole way. As they arrived at the door of the Great Tree Library all of their hearts were beating fast as they anticipated talking to Kiki and telling her they were ready to move in. In all the excitement they had forgotten that there might be a gift waiting for them until Lumi cried out with joy “A book! They gave us a book!”. With the unexpected noise the door swung open and Kiki joined them to see a small but exquisitely handcrafted book on the doorstep. Fumi took great pleasure in reading out the name of the book and the author and yet none of them had heard of it. Kiki then saw everything Kai was carrying and realised that they were staying. She was so excited that they took time to celebrate before heading inside with their new book.

That day the dragons chose their rooms and unpacked before all of them, including Kiki, took lots of time to decide which book they wanted to give to the mystery gift giver in return. After much communication they had all decided that to have been able to know about this book, the gifted must be a book lover themselves and so giving another book in return only seemed right. At last, they settled upon a storybook all about fairies and dragons as it only seemed right. For the next three days, they were all a bit confused and concerned that they had received no more gifts. Did they give the wrong thing in return? Was the mystery gifter alright? Fumi and Lumi were the most concerned and took time together to look over the book they got more thoroughly in case they missed something. All they could see, however was the title and the author - Prickles.

On the third day, whilst they were all eating their lunch, a small knock was heard on the front door of the Great Tree Library. Looking at each other with confusion, they all slowly got up and made their way to the door. As Kiki opened the door, in front of them was a small hedgehog with chocolate coloured eyes, holding a small handwritten sign that said Thank You - Prickles. At once Fumi and Lumi announced in joyful unison “the author!”. The hedgehog nodded his head before holding out the book they had carefully chosen to give to the mystery gifter. All the pieces clicked into place and Alula started to communicate with the small hedgehog. Lienna gracefully gathered a pen and paper from a nearby desk and handed them over, realising that this shy but friendly hedgehog found it hard to talk with anything but a pen and paper. Everyone felt like they already knew each other very well and the dragons, with Kiki’s permission, were thrilled to offer Prickles the chance to live in the little house right by the library. He happily accepted.