The Dragoneer Manual

Chapter 4 - Face the strange

A couple weeks had passed since the Dragoneer Manual II had been delivered to the comic shop. Among the store's few customers, none had spotted the books or attempted to buy them.

But Rory had read hers cover-to-cover three times already. She felt like she was starting to get obsessive, and actually locked it in the drawer behind the counter, so she could stop making herself frustrated. Her father had told her once when she was a kid that it wasn't healthy to spend too much time dreaming about something that could never come to fruition.

Rory's father was a very practical man, and in many ways too good at his job, because he made a lot of money but never had enough time for things like family or raising a child. But, looking back now, Rory thought maybe she wasn't in much of a position to judge. At least he had achieved something in the real world, which was more than she could say for herself.

Rory had been staring at the computer behind the counter, mindlessly scrolling Reddit, when an elderly woman walked in, the bells above the door announcing her arrival. Rory looked up from the screen briefly, but when she saw who it was, she turned back to the thread she was reading. The woman came in probably once a week, wandered around for a while, and never responded when Rory asked her if she could help with anything. Rory had decided that she'd probably kept coming in by accident.

And so, given the conclusions she'd been certain of for so long, Rory was absolutely floored when the woman approached her, and plunked a copy of the Dragoneer Manual II on the checkout desk. She widened her eyes and looked up at the woman, who was staring up at her expectantly.

"Uh, no charge, ma'am." Rory said, bewildered.

"Thanks," the elderly woman mumbled. "And I hope you get more quality items like this one in stock soon. I'd be particularly interested in other titles by Arthur Wood."

Rory nodded slowly, not sure how to process what just happened.

"Will, uh, will do, ma'am. I'll let the store owner know. Uh, actually - wait!"

But the woman was gone. Rory stood frozen, staring at the door. She turned to her computer and started furiously googling The Dragoneer Manual, and The Dragoneer Manual II, Arthur Wood's name, and anything else she could think of.

But, like she'd already determined from her research several days prior, information about Arthur Wood and his titles was completely absent from the internet. Rory had looked through all pages into the search results, and even used search tricks like quotation marks, and using the google portal for foreign countries. The pages that were coming up were clearly unrelated... some random construction companies, some obituaries for men named Arthur, or men with the last name Wood, but not both.

Rory buried her head in her hands, wondering if she was really starting to lose it. With the key under the mousepad, she unlocked the drawer and removed her own copy of The Dragoneer Manual II. She flipped through the heavily bookmarked pages, and then turned back to the computer, looking up Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, and several keywords from the book.

Maybe, she thought, as a last ditch effort, she could find something about Arthur Wood with this kind of search. But all Google was bringing up were airline tickets, which, were surprisingly, almost unbelievably cheap.

"You've got to be kidding me." Rory said, under her breath.

She let out a big sigh. So, the trip wouldn't cost her all of her savings. Could it be just a vacation? Maybe a trip to teach herself once and for all to stop being foolish about this book, which was clearly written for children, and now, was reissued as some kind of social experiment?

The earliest tickets listed were for three weeks away. Rory narrowed her eyes at the screen, cursing herself in her head, and clicked the link. In a frenzy, where she wasn't sure what possessed her to do such a thing, she entered her credit card number into the airline site, and booked tickets. When it was done, and the confirmation had been sent to her email address, Rory leaned back in her chair, exhaling loudly.

She couldn't tell if she was angry with herself, or satisfied. But as the next few days went by at their same slow, monotonous pace, she realized what a joy something to look forward to could be. It was then that she allowed herself to feel her excitement began to build. After a week had gone by, one morning she woke up so excited she almost didn't recognize herself. It was a state of being Rory hadn't felt since she was a child.

But at the same time, a deep, underlying feeling of anxiety and dread tugged at her. She knew there was a hard conversation to be had. How in the world was she going to get permission from her uncle... to take an actual vacation?

.

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A/N: What are you hoping or fearing might happen next?

If you found a copy of The Dragoneer Manual, would have made the same choices Rory made? <3