Brick's Story

Brick was illiterate, it'd been a mocking point among his mercenary peers for a long time, he'd lost his only travelling companion and being left to his own devices in the street had thrown him towards the street and down into the library, someone had even forced open the doors for him.

The ogre walked though the invisible doors, past a few shelves and into the grand room. "Why is big, too big." The ogre mumbled to himself, the monster lulled his tongue and then echoed his name in quiet shouts. "Briiiiick, Brick, briiiiiick, brick brick." Brick scratched his head and wandered over to the desk that Jaysin had settled herself behind and picked up a nearby book on it.

Brick lifted the book with one hammy hand and tilted his head. There were drawings on the book, they were tiny and small, and they didn't look like anything. Maybe you had to touch it? The ogre smushed his fingertips across the page and laughed at the feeling. It still didn't tell him stories like the books used to do when his travelling companion was around.

The ogre tapped the book and then held it infront of his mouth. "Talk book. You talk. Storytime for Brick. Talk." The ogre shook the book vigorously, why would someone put a broken book there? Where was the story? Was he doing it wrong? Brick stopped trying to get the book to work and held it out to the small Terran infront of him.

"Book broken. Was not Brick. Brick is smart, brick can read without hurt book."

Jaysin looked up just in time to see an ogre manhandling one of her books. Frowning she wheeled over as fast as she could before carefully trying to remove the book from his hand.

"Hey, hey. Look don't shake the book and don't put it in your mouth! It's expensive. You want to hear a story do you? What's your name?"

The young girl had seen everything when it came to other creatures that weren't animals or human and so she wasn't scared by his appearance. It wasn't like Jaysin had an average appearance. She looked like a guy for a start - or at least it was hard to tell if she was male or female. Her short cropped brown hair and small frame made it difficult to tell, though her voice was definitely feminine.

"You want to hear a story? What kind of stories do you like?" She asked the ogre.

Brick sniffed. The ogre allowed the small boy to take the book from him, opening his large shovel hands. Brick jutted his jaw forwards and brushed his hair back, rubbing his snotty nose. "I Brick. Because tough as brick." The ogre cracked a thick smile, the first time he'd smiled since he lost his companion.

"Brick likes stories with monster like me." The ogre told her matter of factually. "Book not talk though, book broken." The ogre complained after, looking sad. The monster rubbed his shoulder. "What your name?"

"You like books with monsters in?" She smiled. "Books don't talk, Brick. People talk about the book. I can read you a book. No one else is in here at the moment. I can take you to where the books are with the monsters in. I think you'll really like one called Shriek." She told him, wheeling her chair over towards the children's section. "It's about ogre's. Just like you." She added.

"And my name is Jaysin. I work here." She told him. "Please don't be sad. Smile some more. I'm sure you'll enjoy my stories."

Brick nodded, jutting his slabs of teeth into the approximation of a cracked smile. "Book don't talk, you talk about book." The ogre said, raising his eyebrows and following her. "That make sense." he mumbled, scratching at his fraying hair. "Brick like Shriek already, I hope it have story about Brick's cousins."

"They smarter than Brick." The ogre said, nodding at Jaysin. "Brick excited." The oversized warrior took a look around for a seat, none of those things would support his weight, even the simple mind could know that, so when they reached the children's section, the ogre folded his legs and sat with a loud thump.

Brick made a noise that sounded like a snorting laugh.

"I'm sure you'll get to hear about your cousins in this book." She smiled at the ogre having him follow her. She moved around the library easily in her chair, having made sure that it was built for her wheelchair in the reconstruction of the building. Before it would have been impossible for a wheelchair to get through the library.

Once he was sat down, Jaysin found the book and turned it to face Brick, showing him the cover and pictures that showed green friendly ogres on the cover. "This is Shriek."

And she made sure from then on that she read the book with it facing towards him so that he could see the pictures. It wasn't a long one, but a happy one about friendship and love. And Jaysin enjoyed reading it to the bigger and more real ogre.

The ogre awoke with a start to the sound of gunshots, screams and the smell of burning paper. Brick's eyes widened underneath the pair of broken sunglasses as he stumbled to his feet. Brick had seen fire, and he'd heard gunshots before, that was bad, very bad.

Brick almost screamed, trying to beat away the flames with his fists and snorting loudly in fear. The children's book fell to the floor as he broke into a run though the chaos. The humongous ogre shook his broad shoulders, screaming as he patted the flames off his clothes and threw a shelf out of his way in his blind panic.

"Jaysun! Jaaaysun! JAYSUN!" Brick yelled over the chaos, his eyes practically rolling around in their sockets looking around for the aforementioned girl.

Dot watched the ogre amidst the chaos and immediately restored the Library to its condition before the terrorist attack. The terrorists themselves were gone, they had never arrived at the library and never would. The Crimson Family had decided to attack other locations as Dot had decided. The ogre would find himself in a quiet library with everything as he knew it. Was there ever any chaos? Did the ogre have a reason to panic now? Dot was curious and paid close attention.

Jaysin had been down in the storeroom when she heard Brick calling for her suddenly. Having fallen asleep while reading the story she'd left him there to rest and decided to get more books unpacked and copied up. Most of the rare or special edition books were copies. She kept the real ones in a safe. There was no telling what could happen to them here. So when she came out the storeroom to see what was going on, everything appeared normal to her.

"What's wrong, Brick? Are you okay?" She asked, worried about the ogre now.