[Leonid] Ornithology Expert

Sometimes Leo lived in the Church of Sulfur’s library. Well, okay, “lived” might be stretching it. He wasn’t exactly allowed to sleep here, the roaming librarian and/or guard would chase him out. This is not a place for sleeping!

But he couldn’t help it! In any other season, the library had a pleasant, cool temperature compared to the heat outside, and in the winter there was some light heating (since the books needed to stay at a certain temperature). Also it was generally quiet, it was a perfect place for sleeping! 

Oh well, he also did read the books from time to time, skimming through pages and reading random parts of stories. He liked books with pictures the most since it helped him imagine what the writer was going for, but sometimes he also liked making things up in his head. Even if he didn’t close his eyes, he could imagine a sized up Corvat terrorizing the library, for example, making random noises as it yanked books from the shelves and made a huge huge mess for the librarian, hehe. Or he did remember that there were some made-up creature books in here, of beings from outside Burrowgatory, which could be anything, really.

He remembered these particular books because it just so happened that someone appeared to be looking for them. In the darker parts of the library, Leo mostly blended in with the shadows, so if someone wasn’t expecting anyone else to be around, they could easily miss him. Otherwise, well, why was someone to care about him anyway? 

The conversation in the background piqued his interest: they were talking about some kind of creature. A b-word. A bitch? A Bourbon? A bir-duh. Whatever that was. He peeked over a wooden cabinet, as he was sitting somewhere on the second floor, and noticed a pair of buns gathered near the tables and chairs below. They pointed out a few things, making a list.

A bir-duh was:

- Not an imp

- Eyes were black??

- Wings (like a Corvat?) but not batty (huh??)

The wings stood out the most, but what kind of creature did not have white eyes (that wasn’t a Succubun?) He scrunched up his nose, thinking what other kinds of wings could there be. What else could wings be besides pointy and leathery though? Leo decided that he too would investigate. Thankfully, the buns downstairs looked like they were going to call it a day, so he could poke around the library without looking too suspicious.

Once he heard the main doors close and they were out of sight, Leo hopped onto his hooves and hobbled to the shelves where he knew the mythology books were. Most of these were old, some of these having seen some wear and tear from buns pulling them out from their spots. After piling a few choice texts and piling them on the floor, he started to flip through them under one of the lampshades.

It actually didn’t take too long before he found some creatures that fit the description listed earlier. These creatures were said to resemble the imps that were found in Burrowgatory (or was it the other way around?), and they were in all shapes and sizes (rather than the usual pocket-sized bundles of miasma). He saw one was called a “Peecock”, and it looked like an ugly, stretched out Corvat with a lot of blue and green markings on it. For some reason, its tail wasn’t spade-shaped, but a broken umbrella that looked way too heavy for one cock.

Another candidate was a “Chiken”, much shorter but fatter, like a Loafki but scary. The artist decided to give the Chiken a menacing, beady-eyed glare that seemed to look straight at Leo. Also, some bun decided to draw dicks on this page since the description said that this creature was also called a cock. Huh. Guess these creatures weren’t all that different from Succubuns if many of their animals had names related to fucking.

It was unfortunate that he had to rule out some of the cooler-looking creatures like the “Dragon”, which had wings but they more closely resembled the bat ones that Succubuns could have. Weirdly enough, the word “bird” (Leo only then figured out this was what the other buns were saying) appeared in this one page on a creature that didn’t have any noticeable wings. Granted, “bird” appeared after “flightless”, and Leo couldn’t wrap his head around that. It did have the Corvat-like head shape, but its body looked nothing like the Peecock or the Chiken. This one, by the way, was called a Penling.

Leo soon noticed that some creatures appeared in multiple books, and while they didn’t look exactly the same, there were some similar characteristics. Peecocks were always blue and green and had that silly tail, Chikens were round, white, and red, and Dragons were always the most badass.

Before the bun knew it, he had let out a yawn and looked for a wall clock. Huh, it was that late already? He had no idea why those buns were looking for a bird, but he supposed he could call himself a bird expert now. He put the books back where they belonged before stretching his arms upward. He should skedaddle before the librarian found him here again, so Leo quickly went down the stairs and made for the door. As he did so, he passed by the glass windows and saw a bit of twinkling in the sky. Ah, that reminded him that he should read through books about the stars, his first love. He wondered how much of what his demon caretaker told him was true.