Chapter 4, The Library.

Having placed her light within the seeds of the plants that she had gathered. Under the earth with only the lights of her few light stones that were scattered around the two cave rooms, it only took 6 days for her peas to grow fully into an edible form.

It took 9 days for the strawberries, and 12 days for the tomatoes. And the more days went by, the bigger all these plants became along with their fruits.

Lilis hands were small and slender, but her peas weren't. Already on the 12th day, the pea pods that held the seeds within were many times thicker than her fingers, and longer than her entire hand. And the seeds within that she ate were round, green, heavy and like five times bigger than the snails that she ate. She could barely stuff five of them within her mouth at the same time, and as she bit them, their juices overflowed out her mouth, and it was so tasty.

Especially impressive was her double fist sized strawberries. Some were even so large that they seemed like red grenades. Eating just one of them was enough for Lili to keep her small self going for a good long while.

And then there were the tomatoes that were even larger than the strawberries. Some of the tomatoes were like the size of her head. They were truly impressive, but not unexpected for Lili as she knew the strength of her power.

A power which she had in her spare time made sure to infuse with. Now the core of light within her was one with her heart, it's white light nicely covering it. While from the core white veins had sprung out to cover all her veins of flesh within the light. Even her head, soul and most all places of significance were one with the light.

Like so her connection to her light stones was strong and from afar she could feel them, and send her power within them to make them bigger or to shut them off. Also the connection did give her security, hopefully protecting her heart and overall body from any possible harm.

Other than that Life had been quite simple for her within the mountains. She didn't travel far, but when she did travel a little she had found a small wet area close to the pool before her cave. And there within the small wet area she had found it to contain a lot of easily accessible clay for her to use.

And with the help of the clay and sticks, she had made a nice door to her cave. And within her now green cave full of overly large plants she built herself a little bed of clay, sticks, and grass.

Also with clay she was now able to make pottery, and by making a small furnace she was able to heat them as well. Thanks to this she was now able to store her food within clay pots, that she was now intent on taking to the house at the lake.

She after all had without permission taken from that home's owners field and now needed to repay them back. She was no thief after all, she was a good girl and wanted to do right by all.

So within the darkness of night she decided to surprise the family by carrying many clay pots full of her cave grown goods. In one she had three large tomatoes, on another one there were at least a hundred leas, and in the last one was 20 or so large strawberries.

Like so she hoped to make things right between her and the people of that house. Although she did wonder just who the ones living within the house were, because the more she looked at the house the more lost she felt on what type of a house it was.

3 floors, big windows, stone base with new looking wood being seen covering the rest of the house, the place was huge. Even the front door seemed massive and it even had a few steps leading up to it.

The place was not a house, but more like a luxury mansion. Behind the mansion she had even seen a nice peer, that had a rowing boat, and a nice stone path leading from the mansion's back porch to the peer.

And within the open garage she could not just see one car and one garage door. But two cars, and two garage doors. One car was white and the other black.

Though most interesting of all to Lili was the flag pole that held a flag of stars and stripes. For she had never seen such a flag anywhere before. Then again she hadn't seen much of any flags in her time to begin with.

And that's when it again hit her, she realised that she didn't know anything. So with determination she looked at the road leading from the mansion down the forest cover mountain, and then she began to walk.

Maybe, just maybe she could indeed find the library, and in doing so she could become a smart person. She would learn many things, just like the Sargent had told her that smart people did when they went into the library to read books.

Though as she walked down the road she quickly came before a gate. The entrance to the mansions grounds actually had a real metallic gate. Though to Lilis surprise it was basically just four large pillars standing on both sides of the road with metallic walls and a gate between them. The metallic walls did have spikes on them, but simply by walking around them from the side Lili easily passed them.

She figured that they were there to stop vehicles from entering, as they definitely didn't stop people from walking around them.

Then a little further away from the gate, Lili passed by another wooden house with a garage. This time the garage was larger than the house that merely had a single floor. And within the garage she could see what looked like a tractor, while this houses owners car was parked out on the front yard.

Though while she did wonder who might be living so close to the gates of the mansion, she didn't bother with it and merely walked onwards.

Going down the mountain road Lili saw only a couple of small houses along the way. The whole mountain side seemoto be extremely partially populated.

There also really wasn't anything to be seen along the way, only the road and trees, and some more trees, until finally as the sun began to rise, she came down to the valley where she could see actual fields of wheat.

Dressed in her pink kitty cat clothes, Lili thought of pulling her sleeves up and snatching a few of the wheat plants, so that she could grow them within her cave, but she didn't. She was on a mission, and so she continued walking.

And by some miracle as the sun started to rise high up, and cars began to come onto the roads, she found herself within a small town.

With great awe she watched as people came out their homes and began heading different direction. Farmers went to their fields with their tractors, some went to their little store and restaurants. While others went shopping in these stores and restaurants, or simply seemed to go running and exercising.

On one of the only large white brick buildings yards, she could even see a field of trimmed grass where people were playing some kind of game. Some held bats, while others stood around the field, as one man then threw the ball to the one with the bat, who then after hitting the ball ran.

"Oh boy, do I love baseball, ha haa!"

She could hear one old man yell as he cheered on the players from the sidelines. So she figured the game to be that, baseball.

For a good long while she looked at them playing and having fun. It seemed interesting, and she too wanted to try it, but looking at her own short self and scrawny arms she didn't dare to even ask them. The game as fun as it was, did seem dangerous. The men were tossing the ball really fast, which seemed like it would hurt if it hit someone, plus the bats they used seemed way too huge for her to use.

Still it was nice to just watch them play. Already by doing so Lili felt like she was learning a lot. Though as one round of the game came to a close, she decided to walk onwards in search of the library.

Walking into a street with many different kinds of wooden buildings on both sides of the busy car filled street there. Lili peared into one of the shops windows and there saw a strange looking television. Unlike what she was used to, it's quality was horrible, and for whatever reason the screen was attached to a huge box that seemed like it would weigh a lot.

But more strange to her was what she saw there. On a beach there were big men running in only their red underwear, while women wore some really tight outfits that showed off their legs fully, and a lot of cleavage. The women were beautiful for sure and their breasts were big, causing them to bounce a lot as they ran in the beach.

Seeing it, the big men, and the beautiful women running on the beach like that, and then actually going to save people from the water, Lili felt at a loss. Just what was she watching anyway? Especially the way that in some scenes the men and women looked at each other felt so odd, so foreign to her. Still it was nice seeing that even here women were doing their part, by helping to save people and not just covering in the background as some women did.

Then her ears caught the laughter of girls behind her. Turning to look Lili could see on the opposite side of the road two girls looking at her as they walked. One had beautiful red hair and blue eyes, while the other had blonde hair and blue eyes and was a bit shorter than the red haired girl. Still the two were a good head taller than what she was, and quite beautiful, though Lili did wonder why they were seemingly laughing at her.

But soon their eyes turned away to the road ahead, as they kept seemingly jokingly talking to eachother while they laughed. Looking at them walk away dressed in simple summer dresses Lili then noticed the books within their hands that they held.

Lili could hardly believe it. She actually found books, now she just needed to find their source. Maybe, just maybe the two girls knew where the library was and were going there to gain knowledge?

With this in mind Lili looked left and right, as she then quickly crossed the street and began following the two. Though as she walked it started to become evident that something was off.

She was getting a lot of looks from people as she walked by, even though she hadn't done anything to gain their attention. Looking at her own reflection in a shop window as she passed by, Lili could see nothing wrong.

Her face was clean mostly clean with only some sweat to be seen, as she had washed her face before leaving home. Though her hands and clothes were heavily stained by dirt. Also her hair was looking quite messy as she hadn't washed it even once.

Seeing herself Lili honestly couldn't find anything to really criticise. If anything she thought that the look kind of suited her, she was like a soldier covered in the dirt of her environment, plus her hair sticking out all around looked funny. Right now she didn't look much different from the time when she had been living alone within the metro, there her clothes were always dirty and ful of holes. And when she had met the Sargent he didn't seem to care one bit about her appearance, only that she wore her gas mask and helmet so she didn't die too easy.

Shrugging her shoulders Lili the continued onwards after the two taller girls. For some ways they walked, until finally they came before a simple wooden building that definitely didn't look like a Library. The building only seemed like any other building within the town.

Still the two girls entered and so she followed after them. Opening the wooden door Lili then seemingly found what she was looking for, it wasn't big but there indeed were bookshelves all around.

Bookshelves covered the buildings walls, there were small places to sit as well with sofas, tables and chairs. In one corner there was even a fireplace with two sofas close to it.

And in the center of the building was the counter where what she assumed was the librarian worked at. She could see the glass using woman standing there behind the counter as the two girls handed her their books.

It was strange, they merely gave the books to the librarian, said their thanks and then turned to leave. With wide eyes Lili looked curiously at the two girls as they walked towards her.

She wanted to say out a greeting, but found herself lost for words as the two suddenly frowned at her. They covered their noses and hurriedly walked past as the blonde one commented.

"Ugh, why don't you go take a shower? You smell and look so dirty."

Then as the door closed behind her and she was left alone within the library with only the librarian. The girl's words echoed within her head again and again like that plague song.

Why were those girls so affected by her smell and looks? In the military everyone stank and looked a bit messy, it was normal and nobody cared about it. And never had she heard such comments from someone.

Then the librarian spoke up saying.

"Oh no sweetie, what are you doing here dressed up like that? What happened?"

Hearing the woman's words Lili felt a bit offended as she said in annoyance.

"Nothing happened, I'm ok."

Going to one of the bookshelfs Lili ignored the librarians gaze, she wiped her slightly dirty hands on her clothes, and then picked out a book and took it.

On the front she could see some text, and a picture of a cat. Then she opened it and looked at what was written there within the book. With care Lili looked at it, and then closed the book.

Taking out another book, she looked it over, and then put it away. From bookshelf to bookshelf she went, and little by little she started to understand, that she in fact couldn't read.

The text was somewhat similar to what she knew, but it was different enough so that she couldn't read it at all. She had noticed it within town already, everywhere there had been signs with text and so on, but she couldn't read any of it.

For a moment Lili stood there book in hand as the realisation of this hit her. She had studied so hard to learn the high imperial writing style and to read it as well, and now all her hard work was of no use here.

Though unknown to Lili her troubles had not gone unseen. Soon the tall figure of the Librarian came next to her, snatched the book out of her hand, and placed a picture book there in its stead.

"There sweetie, why don't you try starting off with that. I think you'll like it a lot more that Shakespeare."

Lili looked at the book with wide eyes, she had never seen such an colourful book before winth so many strange animals. And before she knew it the woman had led her to a table where she sat down with her, and together they started going through the book.

Pointing at a short text under a animal with a long neck, the librarian then spoke slowly as she said.

"This one is an Giraffe. Now repeat after me, giraffe."

Doing as she was told, Lili intensely looked at the text beneath the animal as she repeated after the librarian by saying.

"Gir, girra, Giraffe, right?"

For her words she to her delight received small gentle pats in her head as the woman actually complimented her by saying.

"Good job, you're learning really gickly. Just how old are you anyway?"

Looking up at the woman Lili showed a bright smile as she happily said.

"I'm Lili and I'm 13 years old this winter."

Though the librarian merely laughed at her words as if she didn't take them seriously, as she then said.

"Hihi, oh alright Lili who is 13 years old. It's nice to meet you. I'm Sabine Belanov, and I'm 50 years old this year myself. Hopefully we can become good friends, what do you think Lili."

Lili was surprised to hear this, the woman didn't look like she was 50. The woman had good skin, only a few wrinkles, plus her long and wavy blond hair was beautiful, as were her blue eyes, and full lips. There was also a beauty mark located under the right side of her mouth. And despite her casual clothes Lili could not help but notice the gold necklace, gold watch and a ring with a small diamond on it. She looked kind of wealthy, like the higher ups in the military, and yet from her all Lili could get is an warm welcoming feeling that made her want to trust this woman.

So without much hesitation Lili answered Sabinas question of friendship with a loud.

"Yes, let's be friends, hi hi hi."