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revealing an expensive-looking wristwatch.
    I kept the smile plastered on my face and gestured to Sam as I continued to shout. “My friend and I are just trying to get to the library, and we need some help.”
    He reached forward, quieting the music. “Sorry, I’m not from around here and I’m in a hurry. You’ll have to catch another ride.” He put his hand on the gearshift.
    “Well, we would just wait for the next car, but we’re trying to…umm…meet my mother. She works there. S-she’s a librarian. And, and she gets really upset when we’re late.” My words were halting and awkward. I sounded like exactly what I was: a liar.
    “Then why don’t you call her to pick you up? I don’t have time for this.” His right arm moved, and I heard the gears shift as he turned to look over his right shoulder. Another howl echoed from the woods, this time, much closer.
    “ Please , sir.” I stepped forward. “My friend has a…a hurt leg. And, and…And I’m having a hard time breathing…”
    The man smiled. “And, and…And I’m having a hard time getting you to understand that it’s really not my problem.” He reversed the car down the road about ten feet, punched the stereo back on, then pulled around us and sped away, leaving us alone…again.
    “Well, that went well,” said Sam, glancing back at the forest. “We can either wait for another car to show up, head back to the bridge, or stay in the woods and try to jump the river. What do you think?”
    “I don’t know,” I said, embarrassed by my failure. “Maybe I’m no good at making decisions. You have to help me.”
    Sam shook his head. “I don’t know either. It might be too late to go back, so maybe we are better off waiting for another car. But if that goes anything like this just did…we’re lion kibble.” He stared at me, waiting for me to decide.
    I thought for a moment.

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The leonte uncoiled his limbs like a spring and hurtled through the air. As he did, I turned and leapt toward the locker, hoping to reach the sword. Though I managed to avoid the swiping lion claws, I landed far short of the glowing blade.
    I scrambled forward, but the leonte leapt again, landing between me and the locker. He laughed. “Not much of a hero,” he said. “I was expecting more of a challenge.”
    He took one leisurely step forward as I looked around frantically for something…anything. But my pockets were empty and there wasn’t even a book or a scrap of paper within arm’s reach. The leonte stood above me, raised one massive paw, and…
    …howled in pain, his eyes widening in surprise. He slumped to the ground, revealing Sam, the glowing blade quivering in his hands. I shouted in surprise and Sam quickly tossed me the sword, as if it was a dirty tissue. I scrambled to my feet, pointing the weapon at the leonte ’s crumpled form.
    “Miserable demigod!” The lion’s fur disintegrated. His limbs crumbled into columns of yellow powder. “You will never succeed! Your quest will not…”
    He collapsed into a pile of dust.
    For a moment, the library was as silent as…well, a library.
    Sam let out a delayed bleat. “Wow! That—that was—”
    “Terrifying?” I asked. My hands shook. My legs could barely hold up my weight.
    I had officially reached maximum weirdness overload . I wanted to crawl into Sam’s secret storage cabinet, close the door, and cry for a week.
    Instead, things just got weirder.
    YOU HAVE DONE WELL. A woman’s voice echoed around the abandoned room.
    Wind swept through the broken window, ruffling the open books, blowing torn pages across the floor.
    Dust motes swirled in a shaft of sunlight, solidifying into the form of a woman. She wore luminous white robes covered in intricate black patterns… words , I realized, as if her clothes