Chapter Text
Eli POV
It’s been two years since we defeated Tad, son of Dr. Blakk. The caverns have been at peace since. Trixie’s in college studying to be a director. Kord is helping rebuild the beast forge. Pronto helps Kord out at the forge sometimes. Though I think Trixie and Kord convinced him to do that so I could learn to live on my own. I appreciate it. It's nice to have some alone time now that I’m almost eighteen.
It’s early in the morning as I ride to town to return my library books before I head out on patrol. It’s not long before I get there. I park on the curb and hop up the stairs to the door. Grabbing the handle, I tug to open it. Except that it doesn't budge. I must be early again. I sit down and pull a history book out of my bag and reread the interesting parts from it.
After five minutes of mindlessly reading, someone else shows up. A guy around my age comes up to try the door. It didn’t move this time either. He turns and sits down next to me with a disappointed look on his face. We sit like this for a short while until a small Fandango wiggles out of his bag. Quietly, he says to the slug, “Hey Peter.”
I chuckle under my breath. “Peter?”
He nods. “What’s wrong with Peter?”
“Nothing. I’ve just never heard of slug names like Peter.”
“What kinda ‘normal slug names’ have you heard of then?” He said with finger quotes.
“Y’know, like Spinner for Arachnets, Rocky for Hoprocks. Names like that.”
He laughed in a really sleepy kind of way. Like when you’re too tired to process the world. “And I thought my naming skills were bad!? Did you just name them after their abilities or something?”
I turn my head towards him, “Well, if you're so good at names,” I leaned forward slightly, “then why don't you tell me yours?”
That seemed to catch him off guard. He stumbled around for some words.
“Oh uh. Anthony. My name’s Anthony.”
Before I can say anything else, the door behind us opens. We both turn and look up to see the librarian, Emily.
“Well, you both sure are here early. Come on in.” she tells us. Anthony and I follow her inside.
Once all three of us were inside, I followed Emily to the counter to check my books in.
As I’m walking out, I notice Anthony in the fiction section. He looked up from the book he was looking at. I wave at him. He seemed almost surprised. He did a little wave and began browsing the shelves again.
Anthony and I’d see each other often after that. I'd see him in the mornings mostly. But eventually I’d begin to see him more outside of the library. The reasons why though, I would never have guessed.