Chapter 7: The Magic Book

Finn was chasing the strange cloaked person through the streets alleys some of the buildings of the ark. It felt like every time he got close the person, he would somehow get farther away. "Stop and I won't punch you as hard!" Finn shouted but grew angrier when the person didn't listen. He got an idea and went in another direction. The person continued running as he was looking behind himself with a grin thinking that he lost Finn. "Eat my fists!" he heard, looking up and seeing Finn jump down from one of the roof tops. He punched the cloaked person square in the head and knocked him to the ground.

"Why were you setting fires… ohh my glob!" Finn screamed. The cloaked person was actually a skeleton. As he got up, Finn pulled out his sword while the skeleton pulled out a book. He flipped through the pages and punched at Finn. He blocked it but he noticed sparks coming off the skeletal hand as it exploded, knocking him back into the ground. The skeleton laughed at Finn who was looking at it, confused and terrified. "What the glob was that?!" he asked still stunned from the moment.

The skeleton flipped to another page, pointing its index finger to Finn. His skeletal hand was lit on fire, but suddenly they heard a snapping noise and the skeleton fell over. Finn quickly got up and smashed its head to pieces with his sword. He saw that a bone was missing from the left leg of the skeleton and he saw Ana standing behind it holding the bone.

"I told you to stay around the shops," Finn scolded her, yet he was glad that she had at least saved him. "But you told me to always stay close to you," Ana responded with a giggle making him facepalm. He picked up the book and flipped through the pages. "Hey, this is a magic book," Finn said while looking through the few pages. There were only twelve pages in that book. "Should we tell Low?" she offered. He nodded, picking her up and putting her on his shoulders. "Hang on tight," he told her. She nodded as he ran across the town and headed back to the security building, leaving the bones on the ground while wondering how that skeleton came to life in the first place.

Finn made it into Low's office and panted. Low raised an eyebrow seeing him as he put Ana down. "Dude, we got the fire bug," Finn said though his leader seemed shocked by this. "Really? Well that was fast. Where are they?" Low questioned. "Finn smashed its head," Ana exclaimed. He looked down at her rolling his eyes and sighing. "Whoa, man, I told you kill him if you had to, but jeez," Low claimed. He was laughing, glad that the fire bug was gone now, but his happy expression vanished when Finn threw the book onto his desk in front of him.

"Where did you get this?" Low wanted an answer. "The fire starter was a skeleton and he was running around with it. It's a magic book," Finn explained what had occurred to him, claiming that he had witnessed the boneless undead arsonist using it to start fires, therefore it left no evidence behind.

"I don't believe this. I thought we burnt all of these. It's missing a considerable amount of pages though," Low said looking over the book seeming in perfect new condition. "What's going on low? Is there a fourth army you neglected to tell me about?" Finn demanded an answer. "There was, but they were wiped out before the war even began. There were a ton of mages, but we killed them all and burnt all the magic books, but this looks brand new," Low explained still acting shocked by the magic book. He gave it back to Finn. "So what does it mean?" Finn asked. Ana was staying silent not wanting to disturb their conversation.

"That there is a crazy person making copies of these and are probably selling them by now. These magic books would be worth a lot of caps, copied or not," Low responded. Just then Finn realized what it all meant. "There might be a secret army of mages?!" he yelled in shock but then started having an idea. He looked down at Ana while he held the book. "Keep this on the lowdown and you can have the rest of the day off. I'll find out what to do," Low said. Finn nodded and put the book away before leaving with Ana, going back down in the elevator. He was confused by it all but he knew Low would find a plan.

"Hey Ana," Finn started as she looked up at him. "Yes?" she answered. "You need to learn to defend yourself," he claimed while they were getting off the elevator and walking back to their room. "You mean like running and hiding? Got it," Ana responded thinking that was what he meant.

"That's a start but you need something to fall back on, in case I need help or if I can't help you, and since I don't have any weapons to spare, I'm giving you this," Finn said, showing the magic book. Ana took it and smiled happily. She flipped through the pages, but her smile disappeared and quickly went to a saddened look. "…you can't read, can you?" Finn asked. Ana shamefully shook her head and snuffled. She couldn't read at all. This made him facepalm again. "Right… I'll teach ya how to read it. If ya can't say the words, then ya can't cast the spells," he insisted. She nodded glad that he was about to teach her how to use the book.

End of Chapter 7