Hello, Everyone!
I hope you liked the last chapter when Mary and Bruno had a little heart-to-heart; as well as the Art post about Mary’s braided new look.
Now, we return to our story.
It was another day in Frinkeltong. Aurum was still gone and Bruno was at work. Mary was just walking home from the marketplace when a neighbour passed her on the street.
"Mary! Congratulations!" he said. "It's wonderful!"
He went on his way without saying anything else. Mary frowned. Another person walked by, a woman from Bramble's theater.
"Oh, Mary!" she said, patting her on the hand. "I can't believe you did it! It's really good!"
Two girls Mary knew from school saw her across the street and rushed to her side.
"Mary Windfiddle!" one of them said. "I didn't realize we knew a celebrity!"
"Yes, we'll have to get an autograph!" the other one giggled.
With each new person who came to congratulate her, Mary's confusion grew more and more. Was she missing something?
As it turned out, she was.
One of the people now surrounding her reached into their bag and took out a book.
"We can see you've used a pen-name but we all know it's you!" they said and winked at her.
The book looked brand new. The cover showed some characters running through a dark tunnel, the shadow of a dragon wing projected on the wall behind them. Three characters. A man with dark hair and a guitar on his back, a dwarf with shining armour and a big hammer, and a young woman with long reddish-brown hair and glasses.
Mary saw the title and her eyes widened.
"You wrote a book about us?"
Bruno'd dropped a copy of 'Mary Windfiddle's Grand Adventure' on the table. He'd just come home from work.
"It wasn't me!" Mary protested. "Our adventures were meant to be only research for my book, not the real deal!"
"But those are our adventures," Bruno said. "My boss read me some while I was putting a rocking horse together. Everything is there: lord Dwendel, the ghouls, the duergar, the elves… my family! Even Nurvureem! You said that you'd never write about her!"
"I wasn't going to!" Mary insisted. "I don't know who wrote it!"
She took the book and flipped through.
"Some parts are word for word from my notes! How could that possibly…"
"You mean to tell me that someone else is using your work and our story to make money?" Bruno huffed. "Who the hell had access to your notes?"
His eyes flashed with suspicion.
"That bastard!" he grumbled and Mary recognized the motions he did when he was using the Sending spell. He was quiet for a bit and then spoke again.
"Aurum says he didn't do it. He's coming back."
"He replied?!" Mary gasped.
"Yes."
Mary felt the relief flutter through her chest. Aurum was going to be back! The three of them were going to be together again!
Bruno, however, didn't pay much attention to that. He insisted that they had to uncover the truth about the book. First, they had to figure out the author's identity. All they knew was the pseudonym written on the cover, 'Flamingo'.
Mary thought of Paulina's purple hair and made Bruno send her a message. The dwarf girl replied that the book was published in Pamagos a whole month ago and had been a hit among the locals. They had only recently started printing and selling more copies in the rest of Eastern Erathos.
"The rest of Erathos!" Mary gasped. "I can't believe it got so popular!"
"I can't believe that someone else is taking all the money from your book's distribution!" Bruno grumbled.
"It's not even my book!" Mary responded.
"It's your notes!"
Mary was trying to read through some parts of the book while they were talking. It could give them a hint towards the mysterious author.
"This 'Flamingo' person keeps overstating my actions and missing all the cool stuff you guys did!" she murmured.
"Huh!" Bruno raised his eyebrows. "Who'd write a book saying how cool you are?"
"I don't kn…" Mary started but then thought that she might actually have an idea. Or two.
Sooo… Mary’s biggest dream came true but not in the way she thought. I love it!
Who do you think wrote the book? Who stole Mary’s story and made it popular?
See you next time when we might find out!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)