"I didn't tell you to steal it!"

The shout came from the direction of a tall man, but his mouth didn't move to make the words. He wasn't human, wasn't anything like human except his shape. His grey, bare feet pounded against the street as he ran, leaving wet footprints, and he grumbled a low reply to a tiny, blue-green person. "You told me you wanted to read it before you died."

In one hand, the man held a massive book, bound in red leather and gold thread. In the other, he carried the seven-inch-tall girl that did most of the shouting. She had a humanlike figure, wore absolutely nothing, and was currently tearing at her messy hair. "I'm not going to die for another six years at least! We had time to petition the scholars for it! Except now you've gone and bungled the whole thing!"

"My mistake," mumbled the grey man. He wore a simple shirt and a pair of pants, and his hair appeared molded to his head, which had been carefully sculpted out of clay some seven months ago.

"Your mistake is costing us our lives!"

Once the two were out of earshot, a light shone from beyond the horizon. Dozens of angry people, all dressed in scholars' clothes, ran after them. Many of them wielded fire, which lit their way. Once they passed, the street settled into quiet once again.

A pair of bright aqua eyes peered down at the loud ranting rushing beneath their owner's perch. The orbs widened slightly at the sight of the shiny book held in the large humanoid's hand. After a moment's thought, the thin, slender frame, covered in dark grey-blue fur, arched its back and stretched out the long, pliable tail high into the air. With a bored yawn and a quick flick of the tongue to moisten the nose, the small, feline creature bounced down from the rooftop and paused in the alleyway. Two unspoken words formed in the creature's mind and a wall of fire flared up in front of it before dissolving into an invisible field. Nyah~ Have fun with that mirage, boys~ the feline chuckled as it turned and darted off after the humanoid, nose sniffing the the air and following the unusual scent.

The clay man ran without effort, and the tiny woman shook her head at the growing distance between them and the scholars. "Stealing it was wrong," she reiterated.

The clay man nodded.

The woman folded her arms. "Where are we going to take it? We can't just give it back; they'd burn us up." She looked up at the man's face, smiled, and shook her head. "You have a lot to learn about the world."

The clay man nodded again.

"Find us a safe place, and we'll start reading it there."

They ended up by the lake. The scholars' fire no longer glowed in the distance. The clay man raised an earthy wall, too tall for a man to scale, around a patch of grass and a portion of the water.

"Don't get it wet!" the tiny woman demanded as she stepped into the water. "Stonesleeve, what does it say?"

With great care, Stonesleeve opened the tome's giant cover. He hesitated, touched the inside page, and left a wet fingerprint. Slowly, he shut the cover and stared at the lettering on the front.

"You can't turn the pages without staining it?"

"No, Ress," came the reply.

Ress rubbed at her forehead. "What are we going to do?"

The dark-grey shadow streaked across the terrain without slowing until it came upon a massive, wet wall. She stared up at the towering creation and huffed in annoyance. Her nose was telling her that the being with the book was on the other side. So she crouched down and prepared herself. With incredible dexterity, she leaped upwards, scaled the wall, and perched herself on the top edge, long tail out for balance. She stared down at the two figures and the shiny tome. Her triangular ears twitched forward to listen to the conversation. Then she parted her lips, bared her teeth momentarily and asked:

"What'cha gonna do~?"

"The book!" Ress screeched. "Keep the book safe!"

Stonesleeve stopped trying to stand up and instead clutched the book tightly to his chest, moistening the cover.

Ress stayed in the water, her tiny limbs moving just under its surface to keep her afloat. "Good evening!" she called from down there, wondering if the strange creature could even hear her. "Stonesleve, sit down."

The clay man sat by the edge of the water, the book tucked under his arm.

"Say," Ress shouted up to the feline. "You wouldn't happen to have an in with the scholars, would you? Do they know you? Because if they don't, you could do us a huge favor."

Stonesleeve stared forward, impassive.

Ress climbed out of the water, ran a hand over her unruly hair, and shook herself dry. She looked the strange creature straight in the eye and asked, "Do you want to help us out? You would be rewarded, of course."

The dark grey feline arched her back in a stretch and readjusted her position on the wall. Her aqua orbs did not stray from the dark form she knew to be the book. Her ears twitched forward to listen to the tiny thing. In a surprisingly strong, crystal tones, she said:

"What business do you have with scholars? Or without them? And what exactly am I to be rewarded for?"

The dark grey feline arched her back in a stretch and readjusted her position on the wall. Her aqua orbs did not stray from the dark form she knew to be the book. Her ears twitched forward to listen to the tiny thing. In a surprisingly strong, crystal tones, she said:

"What business do you have with scholars? Or without them? And what exactly am I to be rewarded for?"