Tunnel Rat

Milo was exhausted and he wanted a bath.

Two hours of sparring with both Larry and Gilad after a day of dueling had worn him down both physically and mentally. But strangely, he felt better. Any annoyance from the day was gone, washed away in the joy of fighting and learning. He wasn't babysitting whelps, he was pushing himself to the limit and learning.

Every time Milo learned a little, Gilad seemed to know more as well. He wasn't an unbeatable foe, just very hard to surprise or outmaneuver. The Tail Master had years more experience than he did, and fought many foes. Even with his spell enhancements, Milo had to work hard to even land a minor blow.

And Gilad was enjoying himself. Teaching whelps meant holding back. Milo didn't think he was holding back anymore. Between his high toughness and constitution, and his armor, Gilad just didn't seem to be worried about hitting Milo to hard. Some of his throws and punches had actually cracked Milo's bones. When that happened, Gilad stepped back and watched with curiosity as Milo put himself back together with his spells. Milo split his concentration in half. Part of him was fighting and trying to block and strike back. The other half was watching Gilad, memorizing his stance, his balance, and how he threw each punch, kick, or block.

Milo noticed that most of his bruises were coming from tail strikes. It was nearly impossible to know what Gilad was doing with his tail. But Milo was learning. And paying for the knowledge with bruises.

Larry's fighting style was evolving as he became more and more used to fighting again. Some of his dance steps lead to less than optimal solutions. Several times when Milo expected a hard tail slap, Larry instead did a quick set of hops or steps, dancing to music only he could hear. Other times he was devastating, using his speed and strength to its full potential, fighting like a whirling dervish.

Milo was starting to copy some of his moves and integrate them into his own style. There were times when a quick hop or leap was better than a more conventional step. And Milo had always been a fan of spinning tail strikes.

While Larry was eating a massive pile of food provided by a wary and nervous Rifkin, Gilad and Milo had discussed each move, the balance needed and the attacks it might branch into. Both were excited for the next night of fighting.

Larry declared himself sleepy and went off to bed at Larry's house. Gilad suggested Tallsqueak also get his rest. Fighting class with the whelps would come early. Gilad himself was going to sit and enjoy another pot of tea, and think about how to counter whirling claws backed by hulking muscles.

Milo decided that he wanted to go to bed clean. The waterfall sounded like a good spot to visit, he'd seen other people bathing there before and washing clothes. It was deserted as he arrived, which he was happy for. He took off his sweat-stained clothes and stepped into the water in just his magic pants. Feeling better after a shower, he shook himself dry and then took clean clothes from his ring and stored the dirty ones. He loved his Ring of the Scout Master. So very useful. His Smuggler's Stash was also a great way to store items, but it took a lot of stamina to bring out, and he didn't like the idea of people knowing about it.

The Tower of Strife was quiet. Not silent, as he heard some voices coming from it, but certainly quieter than it was by day. He saw lights in some rooms, including the top floor. He had an urge to go read and find out what was in the library. Why not? He was a Professor now, and by the rules he could use it at any time. Milo decided that anytime was now.

Three students were at the door, talking softly. They stepped aside and bowed. "Good evening, Professor." News had travelled fast it seemed. Milo waved to them and headed up the stairs. He was happy that the library was 'all the way up' and that getting out was 'all the way down', as nothing seemed to make sense in the tower. It was obviously bigger on the inside than the outside. He had peered into a few of the rooms and seen lecture halls, practice rooms, and areas with large sofas and students sitting, talking, or napping. Other stairways branched off the main spiral, going to parts unknown. Was this magic related to Arcane Libraries and the extra rooms on the airship?

The topmost level was empty as he made his way to the library. The room wasn't large, and mostly taken up with bookshelves on three sides. On the fourth was a small fire place and hearth. Several overstuffed chairs each had a lantern floating over them. The lanterns were glass paned, with copper frames. They seemed to just float in the air. Milo pushed one and it moved. How convenient! A long table with four chairs complete the furnishings.

Milo sat in each chair until he found the most comfortable, and moved three lanterns around it to provide optimal lighting. Then he went looking for books. Some were quite interesting, detailing the history of one Hollow or another. A huge volume was a gruesome account of the 2nd Spider Wars. The books on magic were slightly useful, and talked about proper spell casting, flow of mana, and the theory of basic spell casting. Milo had learned from practice along with the help of the game mechanics. Was he missing something by not doing things the way spellcasters in the Hollow's did? Experimentation was needed. He set several books aside to read.

The other books on magic could be divided into three categories: Death, Storm, and junk. Obviously influenced by the two senior professors, there was a collection of books on each of their styles of magic. The last category of books were just junk. Trashy romance novels, a book of puns, several crossword puzzle guides, a guide to the secrets of engineering that had everything about the electro-magnetic spectrum completely wrong.

Milo stacked the junk to the side, and contemplated his small pile of books on basic spell casting. He would work through those, then the books on Storm Magic and finally Death. He was disappointed. He had expected a lot more. There was nothing on runes, enchanting, bonecarving, alchemy, and all the other branches of magic. This struck him as odd.

It only took him a few minutes of searching to find the secret latch. When pressed, one of the shelving units pivoted, revealing a much larger room. This room was twice as big as the first room, with four times as many books. Most were stacked on the floor, or scattered where stacks had fallen over. The room needed work, and Milo added it to his list. He could straighten things up as he looked for the things he wanted to read. Tonight he just wanted to find the book on bone carving that the scavenger had mentioned. He'd been straightening and searching for an hour, when noise behind him alerted him to someone's prescence.

Professor Cremona was standing in the doorway between the two rooms. "My, how studious. You had three duels, stole my husband and my dinner while they stitched me back together, and now it's time to relax with a good book?"

"You left out two hours of sparring with Gilad."

Cremona paused. "Well, then you do deserve some down time." She turned and spoke to someone in another room. "Makes that snacks and tea for two please. Professor Tallsqueak is joining me."

Milo wasn't going to turn down tea and snacks, but the woman made him nervous. "Are you angry with me about the duel?"

Cremona stepped into the room and Milo noticed she was using a cane. "I am angry at myself for underestimating you, letting my husband restrict the playing field, and losing a nice dress. I am certainly not angry at you for finding a way to win. We play hard here in the tower, but we don't hold grudges over duels. You found a loophole and used it."

Milo felt some relief. "Good. I don't want to have to watch my back in the library. Its bad enough with all the Shadow Skulkers playing surprise! I was hoping to read in peace."

Cremona bowed to him and smiled. "And so you shall. If there is one place in the tower where peace is guaranteed, it is in here. Now, what are you looking for? Or just randomly seeing what the unsorted stacks have in them."

Milo started on another stack. The top book was on moths and how to train them. More junk. "I am looking for a specific book on carving bone runes, but also any book on runes or ancient runes."

Cremona began looking through a section of shelves. "So those were ancient runes empowering your spell constructs. I had thought so." She pulled a thick book covered in goat hide out from the shelf and blew the dust off. "This might be what you are looking for. It's a copy of the Journal of Ragasano Curd-Hoarder. He was an eccentric explorer who last came through this area several decades ago. Each time he came through, he would update our copy. It's an interesting book, but written in the native language of his homeland, Mascarpone Hollow."

Milo took the journal and turned to the first page. The velum of the pages was covered in handwriting with a tight, small script. He recognized the language as a dialect of Italian. "I can read this." He began turning pages as he read line after line of a lonely ratkins life wandering through unmapped caverns looking for things long forgotten. Cremona rolled her eyes and chuckled. She had found Tallsqueak's secret weakness: He loved books. Not surprising then that he knew Mascarponian dialect. Curd-Hoarder had left his books everywhere, and many scholars learned his language in case they turned up his journals and guidebooks.

Cremona herself picked up a book from the 'trash' pile. "And I'm in the mood for a totally unbelievable book about a dwarf/elf romance. Since I'm terribly injured I'm going to use that as my excuse for reading such garbage."

The two professors sat in overstuffed chairs, read, and drank the tea. After an hour, Cremona saw that Tallsqueak was asleep. She put a quilt over the exhausted boy and went to find her husband in the laboratory, to pry him away from his experiments. They all needed some sleep. The students seemed to have inexhaustible amounts of energy and the faculty had to be well-rested to keep them under control.