Another day another quest

a dinner date,...

I spent a dreary evening pouring over some tomes that I had snatched from a dimensional shift, created during an energy storm of quantum particles,
It rolled in due to the alignment of celestial bodies in this and alternate universes,..

I shouldn’t have these books, they don’t belong on this plane, but I have a problem I need to solve,
The goddess herself barely has reign over me when I get a notion in my "pig headed male dominated mind" to quote several feminine entities I associate with,
I could hear her **tch,tching** ,me as I wound through the chaos fields and snatched them up ,
These things have rightful owners and I was hoping to get the info I needed and put them back before the storms passed.
The goddess didn’t intervene nor did Rubyred, both for their own reasons, I like to think it’s because I’m a big boy and can take care of myself,.
A melodious female voice rang in my head,.. **snicker**, you’ve little time to be humorous, though you can’t help yourself, can you..**
I grumbled ,"you know, if you just told me what I needed to find here I could be done with this,..
" **sorry,.. you know the rules **, she said,...

I snorted at the concept of Eris quoting rules to me,..

Taking notes and memorizing as much as I could of this archaic script that predated man by eons, all done in a beautiful hand the owner of which I could only guess at,..
These books would present a mystery to my fellow humans, one they would never see alas,..
Most humans can’t see the forest for the trees that’s why they never get to speak with the dryads dwelling there,..
These books would appear to be one sheet, of some bizarre type of lizard skin,
To turn the pages you do a mental shift and the script rose to the surface, and you derived the information they offered as a visual feed to your brain,..
Of course this is why I couldn’t just photograph them,..
There were three books,... I was working toward the end of the third,...
I sensed a force moving through the room, looking up but not directly at the oncoming force I scryed it to be a summoning of some kind, knowing it was at least here for the books, I clutched them to my breast, and as it swept over me I felt the shift of time and space,...

I found myself in some kind of long, smelly, corridor the walls covered with waving iridescent green moss that gave off enough light so I could see fairly well, the air felt "thick" but breathable,..
**just follow your instincts, such as they are** Eris spoke in my head,,.
"Thanks," I said, "will you be along for this ?",...
**Nope, your on your own here, Bucko,** she chimed,...
"Thanks loads" I moped,...
**don’t make me spank you, ** she snickered,..
"that will be the day" I mumbled under my breath,
The next thing I knew, I felt the impact of a hens egg, sized stone as it left a proportionately sized goose egg on the top of my head
Looking down at the stone as I rubbed the bruise, I was tempted to give it a kick and then recalling the paradigm about gifts from the goddess I picked it up and pocketed it,
Steeling myself to the task that lay before me I headed toward the lighted end of the corridor,
This seemed a safe assumption since whoever summoned me/the books would be expecting them to arrive soon,.. and that was the closest destination,..

As I walked into the room through the vaulted archway of the entrance I looked about surveying the space
A very English looking library and setting room, containing a desk, some comfortable looking chairs and books,.. and more books, shelves of books, running to where the ceiling should be,..
There were walls that nebulously continued to beyond any telling detail,..
In front of the fire place an congruous looking gentleman just turning to meet my eye,.. many would mistake him for Lucifer, but knowing the devil personally I knew it wasn’t him,..

In a voice that reeked of old spice and raw sewerage the fellow said, "so, that which was stolen has come home,.. bring them to me,.."`
To which I replied , "not stolen, my friend,.. merely borrowed to clarify some research " he looked long and hard at me with eyes that began to resemble those of a cat,.. we stood eye to eye measuring the other as if for one of those old western gunfights,..
Then the very air seemed to vibrate and shift and I saw the not-ceiling shift in color and texture,
Seemingly from off in a distance, I could see three cigar shapes moving in a sweeping pattern in our direction , when the recognition struck me my eyes widened ,..
Sharks? huge white sharks with maws the size of a truck,.. my host glanced at me and said, "I shall return,.. I must feed,.."

I’ll never forget the spectacle that unfolded before me,
He turned and in a great shaking morph he took on a truer aspect than the one he greeted me with
He became a broad shouldered man shape with a massive head, the cat like eyes now large and even more alien and the identifying feature that would thrill horror buffs everywhere, unless they were in my place, was the tentacled beak of a mouth ,.. Cthulhu !!

In the wink of an eye he rose as if swimming toward the other nightmare attraction in this feature.
As the sharks approached him they separated and made a wide swing as they moved in for the kill,
I stood and readied several warding spells in case they got past their first target,..

I had little to fear, the elder god seemed to be in two places at once blink,. here,... blink there , and as the white torpedoes became all mouth and teeth moving at a pace to kill, they were just as quickly whipped and bound by the green steel lashes that were the sucker laced tentacles of Cthulhu!
Then with a noise reminiscent of a thousand rats in a blender he began to devour the now hapless death machines,... leaving not a trace they ever existed,..
As I watches his return I noticed the area behind him darkened as he settled back into the room with the infinite view,..
As he turned his attention upon me he spoke,.." so you know who I am?, yes I can see it in your eyes,
you man beasts are becoming quite bold, even the young gods would not have ventured where these pages were kept,..
And did I hear correctly when you had the audacity to tell me you think you can read these tomes,?"
I replied, "Yes, Old One,... I can read them,
I am searching for confirmation of a theory of importance to my kind, and the plane in which we exist,.
Through my studies I am lead to believe the information is contained within these records of old,.."
He studied me intently for a moment and said,.. " they are not records, as you put it ,.. they are my own personal thoughts on the creation and evolution of all the manifest energy structures, that make up all that is known to me , which I believe to be all there is,.."
I stepped up to the desk and put down the books, and said " that is a common vanity that most creatures share",...
His eyes momentarily widened and I heard his beak clack the he narrowed his eyes and I felt the probe,..
I felt it wash through me,... and then he said,.. " there is more to you than meets the eye, I see the taint of a goddess and a certain well known demon,... who are you that you merit their attention,?..
the magic you wield is unremarkable in itself,...
I sense nothing that would give you freedom to mock me,.. all that saves you at this moment is my curiosity, ... show me you can read my work,..."

This was exactly what I was hoping for,
I had one or two pages left to read, in the third book and this would give me the chance to absorb them
Choosing that book, I called up the place I left off and continued to scan to the end ,..during this , he spoke not a word,..
After I finished reading, I looked at him and pushed the books to the center of the desk, and reaching into the pocket where I placed the stone earlier, I took it out and I put it on top of the sheets to keep them in place,..
I stepped back from the desk,.. I was in the goddesses hands at this point, even though she said I was on my own,,
I looked to Cthulhu and was surprised to see what looked like confusion in the old ones eyes,..
After several heartbeats he spoke,... "very well, I recognize you can read the work,. of course I cannot slay you outright with the knowledge that my works reside in your head,.. I still have my doubts as to your ability to comprehend that that you have acquired,.. on top of it, you have unwittingly made a bond pact with me,.. the stone bears your blood and you have joined your essence with that of mine in the books ,.."
He looked around the room before continuing,.." you have a way about you that unnerves me, I could shred you now, and not be held accountable to anyone but myself , that is what I will not do, for it would violate my own values, and to do so would be the same as lowering myself to the level of your kind,.
I wish you good luck on this quest of yours and hope to never see your ilk again ",
and after drawing a long thoughtful breath, he said,.. "you may leave the way you came in,.."

Counting my good luck at walking out of there unscathed, I didn’t realize my dilemma till I was well down the corridor,
How far till this plane came in contact with one I could translate to my own?,..
When I came to a branching in the tunnel I stopped and pondered my plight,..
There came to me, a voice in my head that usually sets my libido on edge, but now it also meant salvation from becoming a snack to one of the creatures whose eyes I had seen peering out at me from the dark places
" you are such a wanker!, who else but you, could blunder in and walk out of that place in one piece, you had me worried..
heh,.. I had me worried . " I replied,.. "I’m glad you came,.",...
PHEW! you need a shower she commented,.. leave it to Rubyred to smell my condition from inside my own head,..and without further ado she guided me to a place where I could fold the fabric of the planes aside and step into my own world,..
I ended up coming out downtown during rush hour and almost got clipped by a cab,.. that would have been ironic to say the least,... but once in my own shop I made some notes and fell into a sleep contemplating a shower and the next step in the mad plan,.. the hard step,...