#finally mapping out the plots dfjhskf

[nobodieshero-main]

nobodies hero: the library keeper (book 1)

In the northern country of Omos, the ruling Prince Sasha has announced a quest. You see, there's a group of fanatics with a goal to bring dragons back from extinction (none have been seen in about a thousand years), and with rumours of one last dragon left hidden somewhere on the continent, the Prince is desperate to stop them.

He pleads for anyone to find this rumoured being before the so-called Flame Fanatics can, terrified that breaking this dragon free will cause it to unleash horror across the 4 countries.

Atlas, a young noble with a childhood dream of adventure, takes two of his friends - Cecily and her wife Ahria - and they set out to find anything that could lead them to where the dragon might be. Their search points them in one main direction: The Mahina Woods.

Infamously deadly, the Mahina Woods are an ancient stretch of forest trapped in perpetual night, and home to an even older race of warriors known as the Makai - owl shifters who walked the earth long before humans. It's a place of horrors and magic, often the setting of scary stories told at sleepovers or parent's warnings to be good or else-

It's said that no one who's entered has ever made it out.

Introducing Keika! a prickly librarian who wants nothing to do with adventures of any sort after leaving the Mahina Woods with his sister, Ahuru, when they were still children.

Atlas and his friends find Keika in a library in Arlet (a town that shouldn't exist) and Keika, begrudgingly, finds himself employed as a Guide.

He takes them to the Mahina Woods, where they meet with the Makai (and Keika is briefly reunited with his mum) and things begin to take a turn for Atlas and his friend's quest. See, the Makai are some of the oldest friends of the dragons, and offer a completely unique perspective on the history they were taught.

Armed with conflicting information, and sobering prophecies, Atlas and his companions part ways with Keika on the bank of the Mahina River. Supposedly, they will never cross paths again.

Until Keika gets back to Arlet and finds his sister dead and his town in ruins. Not knowing what else to do, and unable to stomach staying in the town where he and Ahuru built their lives - Keika leaves, and decides to join the others on their quest.

Along the months they travel together, following the Makai's leads and avoiding the flame fanatics, Keika and his new companions grow closer - he and Atlas especially, as they find themselves falling from friends to lovers.

(Keika, meanwhile, is trapped in a downwards spiral of unprocessed grief and the increasing burden of losing pieces of himself. He's doing great (lying).)

They locate the dragon's tomb in the heart of Miednic, and find themselves locked in a minor battle with the flame fanatics who managed to beat them there. Grievously injured, Atlas begs for Keika to finish the job on his behalf - an entirely selfish request that will haunt him for years after.

Keika, unable to deny his lover anything, takes the sword he's offered and steps - alone - into the dragon's tomb. It's the first time he takes a life with his own hands. The dragon kneels before him in the body of a young woman, older than him but still young, with exhausted eyes.

"Thank you." She says, as the sword swings. Thank you, his sister had said, the last time he saw her alive.

Believing Atlas to have died of his injuries, and his friends to have followed, Keika once again finds himself alone and burdened by a terrible grief. A burden he has not been able to set down for many months and is now only heavier.

Lost, alone, and exhausted Keika stands high above the Seline River and steps off the edge.