Gray & Sam

The wind was howling and the snow fell in heavy sheets.

A single figure made her way down the road, not at all dressed for the cold weather. Maybe it was because the bundle she carried war wrapped in a heavy fur coat.

By the dim light of street lamps, she did her best to follow a weather beaten street map until, finally, she thought she found what she was looking for.

Gray slept soundly, paying no mind to the wind rattling the windows or the pops and sizzles coming from the smoldering fireplace. If there was a faint knocking at the door, his slumbering mind didn't heart it.

He DID hear the small explosion on the street outside.

He bolted upright, looking around wildly but taking a second to realize there was a figure beckoning for him at the window.

Throwing off his patch-work blanket, Gray ran to the front door and unbolted it, allowing the mysterious figure and the fierce wind inside. Carefully organized papers had been sent flying into every corner of the room, and a small snowdrift had formed on the threshold, before he managed to get the door shut.

Once he had it safely locked again, Gray turned to confront the stranger, only to find she had already huddled herself in front of the fireplace, which was roaring with life again.

In the eerie light, he instantly recognized the "stranger".

"Sis?"

Samantha Book looked up cheerfully at her brother, the snow in her fiery red hair beginning to melt and run down her face. She wiped it away with one hand, while cradling the bundle close to her with the other.

The two looked alike, though Gray was older by about a decade. They had the same hair, two arms, two legs, two eyes and a mouth, curled up in a smile. You and I wouldn't recognize them as Human, but would clearly see that they were people. And unmistakably related.

"It's great to see you Sam" Gray said, quickly rummaging through his pockets to find a match. "Especially alive! What were you DOING out there?"

"Looking for this place" Sam explained. "I asked at the trading post for Book. I was half afraid they would send me to a library."

Gray finally found a match and used it to light a lantern, which in turn illuminated the entire room. Sam saw that it actually WAS a library, or rather, a book store. Next to the couch and fireplace was a desk, which had formally held order forms and receipts. Everything else in sight was a dizzying maze of bookshelves.

"You should have waited the storm out" Gray chided her, retrieving his patch-work blanket and throwing it too her. "Blizzards are serious business out here"

"I'm not the one who decided to live at the end of the world" Sam retorted, gratefully wrapping the blanket around herself and her bundle. "And to run a book store! Let me guess, "Book's Books"?. Brother, we all thought you were out having great adventures."

"Times Old Roman, actually" Gray said, disappearing through a simple wooden door between the couch and fireplace. "I bought it from a previous owner. Why did you need to find me so badly? Are you in trouble?"

"Always" Sam said, smirking.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sam noticed the scattered business papers apparently crawling back to the desk by themselves. Upon closer inspection, she saw it was dozens of Shadow-people, men and women much the same as herself, only tiny. The tallest of them stood under six inches.

"What kind of trouble?" Gray called from somewhere beyond the door, emitting a series of loud clangs and bangs as he rummaged through... somewhere. "You haven't skipped school again, have you?"

"No no, of course not" Sam called back, nodding politely to a passing trio of Shadow-people, carrying the quarterly reports from last month. "Well, yes, but that's not why I'm in trouble"

"What then?" Gray asked, returning from what had apparently been the kitchen, with a tray of buttered bread and hot chocolate. "Does it have something to do with what you're carrying?"

Sam grinned and pulled back the fur coat, to reveal the sleeping face of a baby.

Gray almost dropped the tray.

"Wha- where did you get THAT?" He demanded, quickly setting down his tray on his desk.

"Mum and Da never had that talk with you?" Sam joked. "Don't worry, he's not mine"

"Oh yes, that makes me feel MUCH better: it's a STRANGER'S baby, that's perfectly fine" Gray said dryly, running back into the kitchen. "Sam, why do you have someone's baby?"

"Good question" Sam admitted, standing up but keeping the blanket wrapped around her, as she moved to the couch. "I mean, sane people don't just take children offered to them without asking questions first, right?"

"Riiight" Gray agreed,  returning with a large bottle of milk. "So let me guess, that's exactly what you did."

Sam didn't answer. She was too busy throwing her blanket over the lantern and grabbing the bottle of milk from Gray's hands, using it to douse the fire. She grabbed her brother and pulled him down, motioning for him to be quiet.

Everything was still for a second, aside from the scuffling of panicked Shadow-people scattering to their hiding places. Exchanging a look, Sam and Gray both slowly crept back onto the couch, peering out into the snowstorm for what had spooked Sam.

Nothing but blinding snow at first, but slowly a figure appeared, solid black against the white drifts of snow. Something, a cloak or a cape maybe, billowed behind them as they paced the streets like a hungry animal.

"It's her" Sam whispered. "It's the mean lady."

"The who?" Gray hissed back, grabbing his sister and pulling her back down, as the figure turned towards his store.

"No clue" Sam shrugged her shoulders. "Some nutter all in black, with more knives than you have books. She started chasing me after..."

Gray gestured to the baby and Sam nodded. His sister's smile had vanished.

"The Mum, do you think?" Gray asked.

"I don't think so, no. The lady who gave him to me, I think that was the mum" Sam shook her head. "I think SHE'S an assassin. What have I done? I just wanted to have an adventure, like Ash and you and now I'm going to get all three of us killed by some psycho bounty hunter!"

"Maybe" Gray unhelpfully agreed, slowly rising to take another look out the window.

The figure had vanished.

"Do Mum and Da know?" He asked, ducking down to whisper to Sam again.

"Yeah, soon" Ash replied, glancing around at the dark, quiet book store.

It felt more ominous now, though she relaxed a little when she saw that a crowd of Shadow-people had gathered around them, listening to her story.

"I sent Owl with a message, back at the trading post" She explained.

"Owl's here?" Gray asked, immediately brightening up.

"No, I sent him with a message back at the trading post" Sam repeated. "I think he was only following me because Da told him too."

"Oh" Gray said, going silent.

"What do we do?" Sam finally prodded.

Gray seemed to snap back to reality, looking around his own store like it was the first time he had seen it. He noticed the fur coat, starting to smoke from the heat of the lantern.

"I have an idea" He announced, stealthy crawling over and pulling the coat off the lantern. "But it's risky. Do you trust me Sis?"

Sam grinned.

"To the End of the World"

Sam soon found herself in possession of not one, but THREE new coats. Her brother had been much better prepared for this climate, she reflected.

In addition, she was armed with half a dozen throwing knives ("gifts" from the mean lady), her trusty traveling hatchet and a backpack full of food.

"I'm also having three of their best warriors go along" Gray explained, pointing to the Shadow-people, who seemed to be arguing about who those three were. "They're more handy in a scrape then you'd think"

Gray led Sam through his kitchen, which seemed to be host to two rabbits, a fox, three squirrels and an entire family of field mice ("You're not the first one to seek shelter here" he explained) and to his back door.

"Ignore the main road" He cautioned Sam. "There are a series of old mining tunnels just outside of town you should take instead. They'll keep you out of the storm and the Mean Lady may not know about them. If you go all night, you should outrun her. Are you sure you're up to it?"

Sam scoffed. She hadn't needed to sleep since she was four: She could outrun anyone.

"Alright, take this" Gray said, handing her a compass. The needle didn't point north. "That will get you to Ash. Good luck, sis. As soon as this storm is over, I'll round up some friends and come after you."

The two embraced warmly, before Sam set off again, her bundle now wrapped in a fresh new blanket. Gray watched her until she disappeared, then ducked back inside.