A blissful silence occupied the library as usual and Annalise relaxed. She crossed one leg over the other and began tapping the toe of her left Doc Marten boot against the metal leg of the desk. It wasn't hard enough to make a disturbance, just enough to occupy her until the words started flowing. Her teacher had tasked her with writing an essay on the French Revolution over the summer, not because it was within the curriculum but for a competition. The task had seemed simple at first, all she'd need to do was find the appropriate books at the library and culminate all of the information into a fluid report: wrong. There were questions provided by a history professor who had studied the period his entire life, and even if the prize was a chance to be placed on a prestigious wait list for scholarships, it seemed impossible.
"Here are the books you requested, Miss Tribeca," a small, plump woman wearing a hideous orange cardigan and horn-rimmed glasses appeared at the edge of Annalise's table. She carried with her a stack of four books, each one thicker than the last. "Now personally I would only focus on the top two because I believe they were in fact written by the professor who organised the competition, then again, he may be expecting hopefuls to do exactly that," the woman -named Pamela according to her name-tag- looked completely enthralled by her own thoughts before turning on her heel and leaving Annalise to ponder that daunting thought.
"Excellent," she said, sighing as she pulled the closest book towards her and opened it. She was immediately greeted by facts and people of note that she hadn't even heard of, which was extremely frustrating for somebody who prided themselves on studying and absorbing as much information as possible. "To think, I could have been at the beach with--" Annalise stopped muttering to herself, her evident lack of friends painfully obvious.
With another sigh, Annalise began at the top of the first page and began reading, attempting to muddle through the parts she didn't understand. "So in 1789--" as Annalise rolled her eyes, she was suddenly aware of a vibration. It wasn't coming from her own phone because-- Annalise moved the sheets of paper and hefty books in search of her phone but it had disappeared, despite placing it on the desk only moments after sitting down. Confused and slightly panicked at the disappearance, Annalise began following the vibrations: she slid her chair backwards and stood, slowly making her way to the end of the aisle and then towards the very back of the library.
She could still hear the vibrations when she reached the Science Fiction aisle but distinctly remembered heading straight for Historical Periods. "What the hell," she whispered, looking from one shelf to the other as she continued walking. Then, as she was about to turn back and chalk the entire experience up to a lack of sleep, she saw her phone; it had somehow gotten from her desk to a shelf that was covered in a thin layer of dust. "Now how did you get here?" she wondered, grasping her phone before knocking a single book to the floor. It landed in its spine, opening to a random page: Annalise could have sworn that the letters began moving, not drastically but they certainly faltered, as though disrupted by a thin veil of something.
Annalise crouched down and placed her hands on her knees before raising an eyebrow. Looking over her shoulder to see if anybody else had witnessed the event, she closed her eyes tightly as though willing the book to close on its own: but when it didn't she chanced pressing the tip of her index finger against the page.
As though pushing an imaginary button, Annalise suddenly became aware of the slight shock she received and immediately fell backwards; but as she expected to hit the carpeted floor of the library, she continued past that and began to fall.
+ + +
Annalise came to swiftly and painfully, vaguely aware of the throbbing within her head. It was bearable but uncomfortable, though Annalise's attention was soon grabbed by her surroundings. She was laying face down in the sand, awoken by the periodic waves that reached the shore. It took a few seconds for her mind to register exactly where she was but when she did, she got to her knees and looked around frantically. "A beach? A beach? Why am I on a beach?" She asked the question aloud but there didn't seem to be anybody around, anybody human at least.
"Well hey there!" A small voice came from the creature that was laying beside Annalise, but it was muffled because it too had its face in the sand, "I thought you were going to land in the jungle, but apparently I was wrong. I found you like this, face down, and I was curious, is this how all humans sleep?" The small creature, pink and black in colour was covered in thin fur and had a long elongated tail that billowed in the breeze. It sat up and looked at Annalise, displaying wide, beautiful eyes and a small gem directly in the middle of its forehead, "It isn't as comfortable as it looked, Annalise. I suggest a change, maybe curl up into a ball?" Annalise was taken aback by how casual this creature was, as though randomly ending up on a beach was the norm around here. "Oh, how rude of me. My name is Navimon, it's nice to meet you, partner!"
A few seconds of silence passed and Annalise could only manage to blink, her eyes as wide as Navimon's. "Where-- Who-- How?" Her lips moved slightly as she managed to say the few words but that was apparently all she could manage.
"Don't worry, once all of you are together, everything should start making sense!"
