Kimber did not sleep that night; she was up watching Tigernach, preventing him from eating books or being obnoxious or waking anyone up. But she couldn't stay stuck in her room with a magical creature that was not supposed to exist. And, even worse than her obvious delusions, today was Prof. Kappe's office hour for the week. She would have to go see him today to discuss her project, which was very obviously clouding her subjective reality.

"Okay, so I'm leaving to go talk to my professor, figment of my imagination, but I will be back very soon. I am locking you in this bedroom and you cannot leave until I get back. Okay? I will, like, feed you a yummy book or something. Whatever. Just please stay here."

Tigernach agreed, only after clarifying once more that he was not a figment of anyone's imagination and that she should address him by his real name. Kimber shut the door behind her, rubbing her temples and feeling overall overwhelmed. She ran into Lady Raven's shop, and was pleasantly surprised to have a copy of "The History of the Village of Geneseo" ready and waiting for her. A quick thank you later, she was scurrying down the hill to Prof. Kappe's office in Sturges.

The light was streaming through the foliage of the painted tree and Kimber couldn't help but enjoy it; shadows were far less threatening when there was light. She traced her eyes down from the branches to the bright red trunk, painted with some kind of Greek letters. The shadows were a little thicker down at the roots and that is where Kimber saw him. Tigernach was nestled among the roots, yellow eyes watching her. She glared down at him. She wanted to yell at him, but more importantly, she didn't want anyone to see him. She really, really, really, really didn't want anyone to see the anorexic book "wyrm" scurrying around, crawling on the cieling as she entered Sturges, following her up the stairs and outside Prof. Kappe's office. She managed to get a hold of him before she went into see Prof. Kappe, stuffing him into her backpack while she whispered how much shit he was in. But she was happy and perky when she entered his office.

"Hello Prof. Kappe. It's nice to see you," Kimber said, clutching her bag to her chest.

"Nice to see you as well, Kimber. How's work going?"

Prof. Kappe swiveled his chair to face Kimber as she sat in one of the chairs in his office. He had his hand perched in a steeple and his eyes boring through her like an awl.

"Well, it's going fine. I have a lot of notes and am, sort of, ready to get to writing. I got a hold of that book I had mentioned," Kimber said, pulling "The History of the Village of Geneso" out of her bag while it was still on the floor, so Prof. Kappe couldn't grab a glimpse of Tigernach.

She handed the book to Prof. Kappe, whose eyes widened as he grabbed it. He flipped through the pages eagerly, stopping for a moment on the dog-eared sections. Kimber made a mental note to check those out when he gave it back.

"Kimber, this looks like a spectacular reference," Prof. Kappe said, with awkwardly drawn out vowels, as he handed the book back to Kimber, "This will be very valuable for your paper."

Kimber wasn't sure what made her more uncomfortable: the way Prof. Kappe was speaking or the fact that his eyes never seemed to blink as he spoke. She looked away, running her fingers over the edge of the cover and the spine.

"Thank you, Prof. Kappe," she said quietly, to her lap.

"No really, Kimber, I'm very excited to hear from you when you've finished it. How much have you read? Do you have a favorite part yet?"

Kimber looked up, confused. Prof. Kappe was not usually this talkative, nor this interested in little books of magical history.

"I haven't started it," she said slowly, "I actually just got it from the woman who owns Practical Magick, up on Main Street."

Prof. Kappe nodded excitedly before spinning his chair to face the window and diving into a spiel about how books like these would make the thesis more memorable, more interesting, and would seriously undermine the distinct tragedy of mundane academic writing. Kimber was watching the way her fingers traced circles on the front cover of the little book. Out of the partially unclosed zipper of her backpack, Tigernach's thin, scaly tail poked toward the book on her lap. Kimber's eyes widened in fear and she slapped at the tail to force it back into her bag. Prof. Kappe spun around and looked over at her, confused.

"Oh, um, I just remembered I need to be somewhere. Have we discussed everything for this meeting? I'll be sure to bring detailed notes on this book before I see you again," she said in a rush, stuffing the book into her bag and clutching it to her chest once more.

"Oh, yes, of course. Off you go then Kimber. I'll see you next week."

Kimber was out the door faster than one could flip a switch or blink their eyes, clutching and cradling her heavy backpack to her chest, her eyes wild and fearful.