Chapter 18. The Book of Bookworm

[ BEGINNING OF THE BOOK OF BOOKWORM CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://stihi.ru/avtor/yanastihiru&book=4#4]


Magda and Bookworm returned to their camp and stayed there for a few days. They were wary, but whoever succeeded Rudolph did not try to avenge the death of the duke with a new raid.

As soon as Bookworm recovered from the battle, the girl and the dragon started on their way home. Once the danger had passed and Bookworm was on the mend, Magda heard once more the irresistible call of the sea of words. Again she was wrestling and playing with words, mastering them and surrendering to them. She was completely absorbed with composing a poem. She often rode without seeing the world around her, muttering to herself. Bookworm understood her state and let her be, sitting in companionable silence by her when they were resting, guarding her extra carefully when they were on the move.

They were traveling much faster now, without having to deal with map making or searching for some elusive spring. At last, the smell of the seashore was in their nostrils and the villages and towns they were passing began to look more and more familiar. And then — there it was, the town of Seven Hills, its walls and towers outlined against the glittering sea, all its bells pealing joyfully to announce the return of Bookworm and the Dragon Maiden.

A few months later, Magda was sitting in Bookworm's cave as he was finishing reading her epic poem. She named it “The Book of Bookworm”. Bookworm savored each page, repeating aloud many of the lines. Some passages made him laugh, some made his pupils narrow to hairline cracks with rekindled anger. After the last page, he sat back and sighed deeply. "It turned out to be worth every minute of the journey!" he said to Magda. And it was.

“The Book of Bookworm” was a poem about loyalty: about two friends looking out for each other on the long road, and about the longing for the family and the home left far behind. It was full of adventure: it pulsed with perils and battles. It was filled with the wonders and with the weary discomforts of traveling through distant lands. The rhythms of the lines moved now slowly, like the creaking wheels of the cart, now bounded in a breathless terrified gallop. Sometimes the story advanced evenly, like the trotting of a horse accustomed to a long road, and in other passages it soared and swooped, like a flying dragon. The words of this book brought to mind the fresh scents of fir trees and of newly fallen snow, the sharp smell of sweating horses, the reek of crowded cities, and the tantalizing aromas of unfamiliar foods. Its pages thronged with people speaking different languages.

“The Book of Bookworm” quickly became beloved in the town of Seven Hills. It was read or listened to by all who grew up there for generations. Many copies were written out, some on the fanciest parchment, some on the plainest paper. Bookworm himself insisted on drawing a map of the journey to be included in each copy, regardless of whether it was bound in gold or in humble wood and cloth.

But do not search for a copy of “The Book of Bookworm”. None are left in any library. When the world of magic and our own world drifted apart, all that had been crafted with the help of magical creatures stayed on the far side.

Only a few snatches of the verses from that book survive as old, old songs in the region of Seven Hills. And if you listen carefully to some of the fairy tales that have been passed from generation to generation in Seven Hills and in the places where Bookworm and Magda had traveled, you can pick out the threads of the adventures of the book-eating dragon and the Dragon Maiden.

I listened to these songs and fairy tales many times. I wove these threads for you into the story of “The Book of Bookworm”.


     AFTERWORD

Dear readers of “The Book of Bookworm”,

I am both sad and glad that we have arrived at the conclusion of the story. Given how obvious the current circumstances  make the uncertainty of fate, I was not sure whether I would be able to finish telling this tale to you.
 
I am grateful to you for having accompanied Bookworm and Magda in their adventures. Knowing that someone is reading this story brought it to life for me, made the characters and the events as vivid in my imagination, as they were when I was making them up for the first time. 

May your talons be sharp, your wings be strong and your fire burn hot for a long time!


Yana


[ The illustration for "The Book of Bookworm" was created by Barbara "Yuhime" Wyrowinska. You can see the work of this artist here: https://www.deviantart.com/yuhime

I am grateful to the artist -- it is fascinating to see my characters through her eyes. ]