Choose Your Own Adventure [Part 3]

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Frith CYOA [Part 3]

You remember you apprentice with the librarian! In any situation that involves [academic knowledge] you’ll have an advantage.

Nini picks up your book on mystical creatures. It’s titled, 1001 Mystical Creatures by Gintus Rowr. Her eyes go wide as she picks up the thick book and caresses the cover. “Oh, that’s right! You’re the one in the library all the time.”

Nini places your book in your satchel. Then she hands everything back to you and bows.

“I’m so, so sorry! I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you or anything, I was just trying to get myself prepared for the Trial of Worth.” She stands straight and then pats at her red hair. It falls to her shoulders, so neatly trimmed, that you can’t find a single strand a different length.

“You’ve probably seen me around,” she awkwardly says, her gaze never meeting yours, like she’s afraid to look directly at you. “My name is Nini Wanderlin. Call me Nini. And yes, that’ my name. That’s it. Those four letters. It’s not short for anything.” She forces a laugh and then continues, “I’m sorry. When I’m nervous I get quiet.” She waves a hand at her own comment. “But I’m not being quiet right now, am I? P-Probably because I’m extra nervous. When I get extra nervous, I get really talkative, apparently.”

Nini chuckles at her own “joke” and then slides a hand into her coat pocket. Her oversized clothing makes it seem like she’s wearing a tent over her small body—but you realize now it’s because she has several things in her pockets.

She fumbles for a moment, checking another pocket, and then another, until finally running a hand through her hair, her eyebrows scrunched.

“Oh! I left it over here.” She dashes away from you before you can say anything. However, as she sets around wet rocks and heads closer to the cover, Nini calls back, “Follow me! I also have a book, you’ll love it.”

Since you were already heading in this direction, following her isn’t much of a choice. It’s the only way to see a leviathan.

When you round another boulder, you catch sight of the beautiful, glittering cove. The sapphire waves smell of salt and fish—crisp and refreshing.

Nini continues to talk, even though she isn’t giving you time to reply. She’s around the other side of an outcropping of stone, just out of sight. The clink of metal and the rustle of leather tells you she’s rummaging through something.

“I love reading,” Nini says. “I actually read that whole book you have. Here it is!”

She hurries out from the other side of the rock outcropping, holding a book and a… mangled, dead bird.

The book is smaller than yours and titled Ocean Mystical Creatures. The plucked bird has no head and hangs limply in Nini’s hand. The bird is small [academic knowledge] and you know it’s a common seagull.

Feathers have been sewn into the dead flesh—feathers of a different kind of bird.

Nini follows your gaze to the bird and then awkwardly laughs, like she can’t stop herself. “Uh, I know what you’re thinking. But wait! Let me explain.” She holds up her book. “According to this, leviathans love to eat albatross.”

[Academic knowledge] You know she’s right. Leviathans do love albatross, but there are none located near your island.

“There aren’t any located around here,” Nini says, practically parroting your thoughts. “So I decided to, uh… make one.” She holds up the weird dead bird. “This is a seagull, and I got albatross feathers from the market because maybe it’ll smell good?”

Nini takes her book and bird and wanders close to the water’s edge.

The cove is large, and it’s about a three-foot drop to the water from where you’re standing. The “beach” of the cove is nothing but sharp and jagged stone.

No one else is around. You don’t see any leviathans.

“I’m going to put the seagull-albatross into the water to attract a leviathan,” Nini says, her quick speech and chuckle-words betraying her escalating anxiety. “Then I c-can take it’s Trial of Worth.”

What do you do?

A) “Well, this is awkward. I’m also here to take the Trial of Worth.”

B) “You’re never going to bond to a leviathan. You’re too nervous.”

C) “Take a deep breath first and relax. You’ll do fine.”

D) “Only one of us can bond, ya know. And I’m not planning to lose.”

E) Say nothing.

F) Take Nini’s bird and then push her into the water.

G) “Well, if you’re going to bond to a leviathan, I’ll go somewhere else.”