The Intern and the Pirates- A Short Story by Ronald Hadrian

The court librarian of the kingdom of Hiron was a respected old man. He deemed it a great responsibility when he chose interns every winter for the library’s scroll readers.

Numerous applications went straight into the fire. He knew who would be able to compete in his most arduous internship roles. The winner was easy to select; the applicants who applied must have already spent a great number of hours in the library.

The application always asked a simple question: “How many hours have you spent in the library?” Anything less than 100 hours was not worthy of going through.

Of course, he already knew who would get the internship post, and that was this nerdy, spectacled, weakling of a magician who knew more about spells and incantations than moving objects. The librarian had noticed him spend whole days in the library reading and taking notes. It was clear he would do well as a librarian.

The boy named Rufus Tamiyo was instantly elated when he was announced as the librarian’s intern. This news was so overwhelming to him that he smiled and went dizzy.

“Come by 9 in the morning, and I will allot the task,” said the librarian without looking at him.

The next day, he arrived by 7, and this sort of discipline made his friends unfriend him. He was too perfect for his own good.

He started to read the big volume of “The History of Hiron, the Abridged Version.” By 9, he promptly stood in front of the head librarian.

“I am going to give you access to the restricted section of the library, and I don’t want you to read anything there,” he sighed, seeing the look of terror in Rufus’s eyes. “Yes, I mean it. You are not supposed to read anything.”

“Then what am I supposed to do, sir?” he asked, almost choking.

“Just make a list of books and categorize them. From warlords’ history to literature of the lost words, I am sure you know all the genres.”

The work, though it seemed daunting in the beginning, became easier as days passed. But boredom eventually set in for Rufus, as the real joy for him meant reading. Sorting and naming, bucketing books that he did not enjoy much.

As he was rummaging for old collections of magical carpenters’ volumes, he came across a nameless book. This piqued his interest, and he brought it to the study room, which was usually empty with only a desk and a lamp. He set out the book and opened it to find it was a book on some mysterious element.

The book kept mentioning it in a very esoteric way, stating that this book must be lived and not read. This statement was made in many different ways. Rufus kept reading about the origin of the book and how it had come about. It was not interesting; it was about some old magi who went around the world collecting metals of magical properties. He had come across this particular metal that shapeshifted into objects.

The writer, however, kept warning about this metal and that it could be deceiving and could deceive people in many different ways. Rufus, however, kept reading, but then he heard a thud outside the room. He closed the book, afraid that the librarian had caught him reading. He looked up and went out to check the hallway. No one was there except the armor and the sword; the armor had fallen. He placed the sword perfectly in its place and went back to the ledger of counting and sorting the books.

For the next three days, he had forgotten about the book, and as he was walking in the park to get some fresh air by the strict compulsion of the librarian, he had gone out. The winds blew, and there was nothing fresh about the air except for the smell of the briny beach.

It had been a long time since he had gone to the beach. He had made a mental note about visiting the beach once he was done with his work in the library. When he returned back to his room, he saw the nameless book lying on the table.

“How did it get here?” he thought and opened a random page. But something was different. The page numbers were missing, and some text was missing. He read the passage, and it was talking about a boy walking along a beach, and in the distance, a ship coming to the shore. It had also rendered an image.

“That is weird,” Rufus thought. “Does this book tell my future?” he thought.

He really did not think much about it but went about his daily work. After three days, he found time to go to the beach in the evening after work. He sauntered along the beach, humming the new song of the Gargoyles, an infamous band in all of Hiron.

He stood and was amazed at the vastness of the ocean. Rufus looked at the horizon in eagerness and wondered when he would get on a ship to embark on his wild journeys. It was so enticing, and just then, an old ship came into view, and he eerily remembered the similar image in front of his eyes. What was happening?

He wanted to have a better look at the approaching ship, so he ran back to the castle and watched the ship anchored away in the distance. “What is a pirate ship doing here?” he jeered. He heard a knock at his door, and it was the librarian, come to tell about the ship in the distance.

“We have some news that some intruders have come,” he pushed aside the boy and watched the great hulls move towards the city.

“How can this be? The clan of Ken Musuri’s pirate ship on our shores?” he cried out.

“The spies would have told about them if they were on their way here, wouldn’t they?” Rufus looked at the librarian. Rufus did not have any idea about why this was happening. On waking up the next morning, he understood what the book was doing.

Rufus understood that the book predicted the future, not much but somewhat into the future. The ships had started to scare the public, and the kingdom was on high alert. Soldiers, archers were all stationed on the towers, and small archery boats were deployed for some sudden attack.

The king was perturbed. For over 10 years, there had not been any such incident, only small goons fighting in the marketplace, but now things started to go bad without a doubt.

The world was changing, and many weary messengers had been talking about the changes in the political world. Rufus waited to see, and he knew that the book had already shown they would come. He once went to the book and could see a small boat drawing… but on deeper notice, he saw that the boat had a doll or effigy of a person. “So they are not apparently sending a person but an effigy, which is probably cursed.”

He rummaged through the books and came to know about the little effigy figures. They could be controlled with magic, and they could be used to spread poison potions. Also, other mass destructive spells could be hidden in them. They were used as assassins as well. In that way, they could kill without being caught. These pirates or people on the ship must come from a far-off place. But what did they want?

But now that he knew what was going to happen, he rushed to the librarian and told him about it. But he didn’t take much thought about it. But when he saw the next day how all boats approached, he told the King immediately. So the boat was never approached. It waited as a lonely drifting thing for a whole day, then it went back. The book again showed that a man was swimming towards them, and he had a dagger.

The man would come during the night. This was good, as he could be captured, and from him, all the information could be gathered. But the librarian told him not to reveal this to anyone. There was no need for it just yet. As the book predicted, a man came, but he was caught by surprise and was brought before the King.

“Why have you come here?” the King questioned.

The sailor looked at everyone blankly. “We want to rescue Pip Pip, a crew member that you have captured.”

“What are you talking about?” The King asked in surprise. “We have no prisoner with that name. Commander, did we capture anyone like that?”

“No, sir,” he bowed.

“You are lying… state your true purpose,” the commander commanded him.

The man shuddered. Rufus watched as the man was taken to the prison for further investigation. He was sure he would be given the truth potion.

He returned to the book and noticed it had a new painting of a man being captured near the market, and under this image, a small scribble called “Pip” was written. He immediately went to the librarian and informed him that the prisoner was in the market. Within an hour, the new prisoner was captured. He also was questioned, but he did not answer like the previous one. He too was administered the truth potion.

But Rufus did not get any more information about what was extracted from the prisoners. He spent the next week with the book, hoping new images would pop up, but sadly, nothing happened. He spent his time working as usual, and the ship still stayed with its hoist up. The next morning, Rufus could see the book glowing, and he saw an army of pirates at the western gate. He panicked. He really didn’t have any time. He informed the librarian, and a huge number of armies were deployed at the western gate. Rufus’s warning did not cause this ruckus; the prisoners had confessed that their army would march through the western gate.

“How come no spies noticed anything weird from that gate?” asked the commander.

“The book has been right all this time,” the librarian said.

Two nights went dreadfully; the army was certain the next day battle would begin. Rufus, as he sat peering through the window from his room, looking at the ship, he saw something flying towards his room. It was a giant falcon, and seated on top of it was a pirate. Before Rufus could escape, the man barged into his room and took the book from Rufus.

“Aren’t you going to attack the western gate?” asked Rufus.

“It is Captain Waltero,” he looked at Rufus.

Rufus took a minute to understand what he had meant. “Captain Waltero, are you not going to attack the Western Gate?”

“Oh, that’s what my boy told you, is it?” he cuddled the book.

“What?” Rufus asked, perplexed.

Within a minute, the two prisoners who were captured barged into the room with a golden egg.

“Ha, my precious,” said the Captain, taking the egg from them. He looked at Rufus, “Do you know how many soldiers we must have killed to get this rarity? But a single book deceived your entire kingdom.”

Rufus was bewildered. “So everything was a decoy?”

“Yes, goodbye then.” The huge falcon flew towards the window, and the two prisoners and the captain jumped on it.

“Hey, wait!” shouted Rufus.

“What is it, son?” Asked the Captain, looking back.

“Take me with you,” the captain was taken aback.

“Are you sure?” asked Captain Waltero. “Yes.”

“I give you 1 minute to pack your things and come.” Rufus quickly wrote a note and left with the pirate.

The next day, the western gate was still silent, and no one was approaching it. The Librarian rushed to ask Rufus about the prediction, but only a small note was left.

“The book deceived us. I am going with the pirate to rescue the golden egg.”

Rufus never came back, of course. He became the infamous strategic pirate of the empire, and as he dreamed, he went on many more wild adventures.

Copyrighted @Ronald Hadrian 2024