36The study was in dark and quiet as Red peeked inside, the moonlight shining in through the huge window behind the desk. He smiled slightly as he crept in, feeling a rush of excitement as he stepped towards the bookshelf covering one wall. He should have gone earlier, but parties usually lasted pretty long anyway, right?
Squinting, he struggled to read the titles, but only the larger titles were readable in the bad light. Of those, there were many subjects he'd never even heard of. If the people who wrote them were so smart, why couldn't they write things plainly?
Skipping what he couldn't read and what he couldn't understand, it was difficult seeing a pattern, and his search took longer than he'd thought.
Biology… Economy… History… Red silently mouthed the many titles in each field, before finally stopping at one book. He pulled it out, opening it on a random page. Maps! The writing was small, and it all just looked like one big mess in the darkness but at least he was on the right track.
He pulled out one of the larger books, carrying it over to the desk by the window. Flipping the pages he found the largest map, and at least he could find the huge mountain near the middle, but then again that wasn't too hard to miss. The red should be southwest of… There! Slightly beyond the borders an area was colored differently, and it simply said "Red forest". It seemed they didn't have any idea on how it looked like though, except that there were trees, but his eyes still lingered a moment on the spot before travelling east. He slowed down, squinting down at the map. The city with the slave market was a big one, right? It should be big enough to show on this map, or did it only seem like that to him?
The sound of a door closing sounded from downstairs, and Red froze. Someone were talking in the hallway. Shit! Quickly closing the book, he hurried over to the bookshelf. But where did it belong?
His eyes quickly flickered around the shelf. Cursing, he pushed it into some random free space and turned to leave when-
"Red?" He froze, seeing Dannon standing in the dark doorway.
"Um. Yes?"
"What are you doing?" He lit the lamp by the door, and Red stepped away from the bookshelf.
"Nothing. Just looking at your books." He tried a smile, looking everywhere but at the book that now seemed so obviously wrongly placed in the shelf. He must have seen him place it there though because Dannons eyes still fell on it, and his brows furrowed slightly.
"Homesick?" he asked, looking up at Red again. It felt as though there was some sort of tension in the air, but his expression was difficult to read. Was he angry or not? Red crossed his arms, meeting his eyes with a challenging look.
"Maybe." He said. "Is that a problem?"
Dannon met his eyes for another moment, but then suddenly he snorted and started walking into the room. "What kind of question is that?" He asked, glancing at Red's hesitating look as he passed him. With a sigh, he slumped down into his usual chair, and started rummaging beneath the desk.
"Guess I can't force you to stay unless I lock you up in the basement again." He muttered. Was locking someone up in the basement was a normal thing around here? Red still stood with his arms crossed, watching as Dannon fetched up a glass and an expensive-looking bottle.
"Are you drunk?" He couldn't help but ask, and Dannon glanced up at him for a moment.
"Not yet." He mumbled, pouring himself a glass with some sort of determination. At least he didn't seem to care much about the book though, and Red felt himself smiling slightly as he moved closer.
"Party didn't go too well?" He casually asked, sitting down at the other side of the desk. Dannon threw him a look over his glass as he leaned back in his chair.
"Well enough I guess." He said, swirling the brown liquid around. Yeah right.
Red snorted, leaning his chin in the palm of his hand, but when Dannon looked up he only gave him an innocent smile.
Dannon didn't look away though, studying him for another moment before bending down again. Pulling up another glass, he put it down on the table. He filled it from the bottle on the desk before expectantly leaning back again into his chair.
Red gave him another long look, but then picked up the glass and he grimaced as the strong drink flowed down his throat.
So, this story is still giving me a hard time, and I've figured out I'd actually like to change major elements, so I'll have to make a decision:
I could stop writing(why write something I don't like?) and simply delete the story, or I could rush things and just write it till the end(just to fulfill my earlier resolution not to leave things undone), or I could start again from the beginning.
Either way, I've got tendinitis now, so I'll lay off writing for a few (more) weeks and think about what to do:)