"Everybody had your tetanus shots?" asked Clyde, checking the batteries on his hat-mounted camera.

Ada was busy handing out snacks and canteens from her coat pockets and checking the questionably-legal gear in her pack, like a pair of bolt cutters. "I'll just avoid getting stabbed."

Wyatt had the most gadgets, in the hopes of making a 3D model of the Old Seaboard Library by walking through it. His backpack had a wooden-dowel mast with a camera dome shooting infrared light in all directions. "This'll be a great project."

The library was half a mile from the shore, and its district wasn't fashionable these days. So at dusk on an autumn night, few people would see or care when the college freshmen snuck into the place to explore.

Wyatt had been the one to examine the lock on an earlier trip. It was still there, a cheap old model. He took out a gun-like device and had it open in a minute.

"It's really that worthless?" said Clyde.

"Against someone who knows how and has the right tools."

"Has me worried for all my stuff."

Ada was keeping watch. "Still no watchmen. Think I see some teenagers in the distance though."

Clyde said, "We'll keep out of their way."

The three went in, only turning their flashlights on after closing the door behind them. The air smelled of dust and dirt. Clyde checked the ceiling worriedly for safety. "If this works out, what next?"

Ada grinned. "We try someplace tougher to explore next time. That spooky old prison, maybe."

Clyde shivered in the chilly evening air. He led the way, shining a light into the foyer. A few old tables stood here along with the beat-up, heavy counter where the main clerk had worked. "This thing might count as an antique. It's probably been here since the 50s."

Ada was more interested in a rusty suit of armor on display. "Check it out! Why'd they leave this?"

Wyatt said, "It's junk. Look how flimsy it is; that's clearly a reproduction from that failed TV show about the evil blacksmith."

"The weapon's cool, anyway." Ada wriggled a halberd out of the suit's hands. Looked like a Ren Faire prop, pine with metal bands and blade.

Clyde chided her. "No looting."

"I'll put it back on the way out. We're adventurers, right?"

"Ha, fair enough."

Clyde peeked around the front desk, finding only dust and a cracked coffee mug. He led everyone onward, saying, "Into the stacks!"

Wyatt went along methodically because of the map project, often turning in a slow circle or taking the sensor-topped rod out of his backpack to give it a better view. Clyde found things to look at while he fooled around. The library held posters from long-passed events, kitchy pro-reading advertisements in the art style of past decades, and some laughably outdated computers nobody had scavenged. The main area was a cozy old building but it led into an impressive three-story balcony room full of shelving. "Huh, I thought this place was only two floors."

Ada impulsively led them up to the second floor to browse. "Maybe there'll be some cool old books."

Clyde shrugged and let her take the lead. He was feeling a little dizzy, maybe from lack of sleep and food today. He paused to chow down on a granola bar.

Wyatt said, "See how tall these shelves are? Was that normal decades ago?"

"When I was in grade school they all seemed big."

Ada peeked around corners, pretending to ambush monsters with her halberd. Clyde followed her on a whim and lost sight of Wyatt, who took a minute to notice and call out.

He said, "Where's the back wall, anyway? I think I got turned around."

Clyde frowned. "I thought you were mapping."

"I'd have to stop recording to check what I've got."

Ada peeked out from a corner and said, "Boo!"

Clyde startled, saying, "This place doesn't need jump-scares."

They tried to retrace their steps and found stairs back down, but this wasn't the same lobby. "This must've been the original nineteenth-century building," Clyde said.

"I thought it wasn't built until 1903," said Wyatt. He'd taken to carrying the camera rod in his hands as if to ward off monsters. Something seemed odd about his teeth, and with his long, loose jacket. Clyde's own shirt had come untucked and hung freely around his thighs.

"Uh, maybe it was built from an older refurbished place?"

Ada said, "Who cares? It smells musty but it looks cool." Lots of dark wood, surprisingly tall book racks standing empty but carved with designs of flowering vines.

Clyde ran one hand along the wood, then looked at his fingers. They felt thin and somehow padded, the nails sharper. "Something's strange here. We should go."

Wyatt frowned, looking around and scratching himself. "Now that you mention it, yeah. Something in the air? I'm seeing things."

Ada said, "You've got to be kidding. I bet we can find some old forgotten books here." She walked off behind a staircase that Clyde had completely failed to notice.

Clyde said, "Wait up!" and hurried along. He paused to adjust his belt, which was digging into him. No wonder; he'd somehow put it on directly over his long shirt. Ada was out of sight now and Wyatt was grumbling about his map data as he passed Clyde by.

Ada had gotten ahead and into a winding hall that curved, unlike all the right-angled areas. And here the shelves were not just oversize but bizarre. Far too wide and tall, each row maybe five feet high. A crate had been left on one of these; Ada was staring at it.

Ada gulped, and something seemed to twitch just behind her under her shirt. "Why is there a giant movie prop here, guys?"

Wyatt walked over to the tall, narrow box on the shelf and nudged it. It fell over, raising dust as it thumped diagonally down and the top side fluttered open. Revealing that it was no crate; it was a book with pages larger than any of them. On the cover stood words in alien, flowing script.

Wyatt squeaked. "What? How? Somehow I recognize this. And I don't know the language."

"Some fantasy nerd thing?" said Ada.

"It says, 'Fauna of the North Woods'. And that's a lame novel title, so no."

Ada tried to push the giant book's cover open again and struggled. "It'll just be blank inside, but we can get a picture with it. Oof." Then with a burst of strength that surprised her, she shoved harder and forced it aside.

Clyde hurried to keep it from falling back down and hitting Ada, and found it was pretty heavy. Wyatt helped steady it. Clyde grinned at Ada, saying, "Okay, that was cool."

Ada flexed. Clyde hadn't known she had that much muscle; it was cute and made him feel a blush to his ears. "Anyway! So it's a prop, like they filmed a movie here once?"

There was text on the revealed pages, and more when Wyatt used his sensor-wand to flip and hold the next one. "Can you read this too? It almost makes sense. Something about manticores."

Clyde squinted at the elegant script. "This looks hand-written. And... I don't know this language, but it's kind of familiar. Discussing how manticores stalk their prey."

Ada said, "Just squiggles to me. What's the point of making this much detail for a decoration?"

Wyatt asked, "And what's this about a movie? We'd know if there'd ever been one filmed here. And they'd take the props along when it was done."

Ada went ahead while Wyatt was still trying to skim pages bigger than himself. Ada reported, "I still think we've found a film set. It's even fancier over here; check this out."

They met up in a reading nook built for giants. A desk towered over them and had a stool beside it, the size of a water tower. It definitely didn't fit within a two or three-story building. A feather quill larger than Clyde lay atop it.

Clyde said, "How?"

"There's got to be an explanation," Wyatt said. "We need to go back outside and investigate."

Ada's ears perked up. "Retreat, hell! We just got here!"

Clyde stared at those ears. Tall and round and grey-furred. He pointed, staring, and felt something twitch behind him. And now Wyatt was staring at him. Clyde reached back and found that he now had a tail.

The three of them spent a good thirty seconds saying "Aaaaugh!" and running around in a panic. They all sported radar-dish fuzzy ears and long bare tails.

"This is not useful!" said Wyatt, catching his breath. "Seriously, retreat. We can go... find a doctor, or something. Then come back and get more data."

Clyde shivered and nodded. "Which way? We had the giant desk on our left."

Even Ada was shaken. She followed, looking around and brandishing her borrowed halberd at nothing. After a minute she said, "This spot isn't familiar."

They'd come to an intersection of a shelf-lined corridor with a cliff-sized wooden stairway. The three of them together might be able to help each other up the steps one at a time. Not a good option.

Ada was trying anyway, making an experimental jump and barely catching the next step's edge. She dropped, retrieved her weapon, and turned back to the others with the beginnings of a whiskered snout on her face. "Not a good plan... eek!"

Wyatt set his backpack down with shaking hands that were starting to look like paws, and rooted through it. "Should've called sooner." He pulled out a fist-sized green crystal. "I... don't think I'm getting any cell reception with this thing."

"Where did you get that?" said Ada.

"That's supposed to be my phone." Wyatt took out a book in the size and shape of the laptop he'd been using with that mapping wand. Come to think of it, the wand increasingly looked carved with runes and wrapped in bare copper threads, not insulated wires. Wyatt opened the former computer and found more of the unfamiliar writing. "Um."

Clyde tried to peek over his shoulder, found he was no longer the tall one, and looked from another angle. He said, "Something about magic?" The writing was dense but he made out a header saying, "Elemental Ward".

"Yeah. I have no explanation."

Ada had made a discovery meanwhile. She'd taken off her coat and discovered it was now a sturdy leather jacket with a lining of little metal plates riveted inside. The fabric was still slowly changing into this material, partly untransformed at one sleeve. Under it, Ada still wore a now sweaty t-shirt that was also partly discolored, making an illusion of her being a lot flatter-chested than usual. But Ada was still paying attention to the armor.

Clyde fidgeted unconsciously with his knee-length shirt and tried to ignore how his new tail twitched through a hole in the back. "Whatever is doing this to us, probably only has power over the library. It didn't affect the whole town. I hope."

Wyatt put away the book and the crystal in his now distinctly antique-looking leather pack, and stood up shakily with his ears and whiskers twitching. "All right. Same plan as before: retrace our steps."

Ada laughed nervously, voice cracking. "How?! We tried that."

Clyde said, "Everybody calm down. Turn back to the desk."

They walked along, each feeling a growing muzzle and a prickling coat of fur and trying not to talk about it. They reached the giant's reading spot in time to see the feather fall from the stool high above and wobble downward.

"Wind?" said Clyde.

Something made a low rumbling noise from a shelf.

Clyde said, "Run."

They all fled down the hall of bookshelves and around a curved corner. Something heavy hit the floor behind them. Clyde didn't stop to look. "Which way?"

Wyatt was literally high-tailing it ahead of him. "Looking for a narrow spot. There!"

Clyde tried to look, and tripped. He squeaked as he hit the hard wooden floor and banged his chest into it. Behind him was another heavy footfall.

Ada shouted, "Go!" and got behind Clyde. Clyde staggered upright and ran without thinking. His ears flicked back to catch the sound of a ragged squeak, a thump, and a hiss.

When Clyde could think again Wyatt was yanking him through a hole in the wall, so low that it brushed his ears. Ada came running moments later, her jacket torn, blood staining her halberd.

"Housecat," said Ada, in a deep and shaking voice.

Clyde impulsively hugged her, then pulled back and looked down at how well he filled out the long green medieval dress he was now wearing. "No way."

Ada was still breathing hard. He looked away from Clyde, saying, "I don't want to think about the changes right now. Get farther back."

They were in a room sized for normal people, or at least themselves. Dark but for a glow in the depths and the dim light from the library. Just as the three of them edged away from the entrance, a huge clawed paw slammed in and swept through where they'd been standing. Frustrated growling came from beyond.

Wyatt took another step back, holding his tail for reassurance. "Well! Let's try the other direction."

They crept through the dark. Wyatt's increasingly magical wand glowed when he held it up, revealing cracked plaster walls. "How are you doing that?" asked Clyde, trying to ignore his higher, squeakier voice.

"I don't know. And I really don't know spells."

"You might," said Ada. "I'm apparently the dumb fighter guy."

The tunnel opened into a courtyard or park full of farmland. To Clyde it looked like many acres, but the stalks of grain were much too tall, the trees were actually berry bushes, and buildings with oversized windows ringed it all. In this gap in a giant world, there stood a cluster of much smaller houses built mostly along the tall walls.

Mice were looking up from tending the crops or peeking out from buildings. All dressed in crude tunics or skirts and robes, some with tools that were obviously cobbled together from oversized buttons and thimbles and the like. One of the braver folk approached with a sword-sized sewing needle, saying, "Who are you three?"

Clyde stammered. "Clyde, Ada and Wyatt. Where are we? How are we... like this? We came through the library entrance and then it just kept getting stranger!"

"So you're from Amberfall? I didn't think anyone else got out from there! You must've been wandering a while. But you and your bodyguards look clean."

A mouse-woman said, "That one's a wizard."

The sword-wielder nodded. "That helps explain how they're intact."

Wyatt stared at the growing crowd and shuddered. "There's a cat out there. Huge!"

One man chuckled. "We noticed. Don't go out for a foraging party in the Library unless you're better prepared. I hope some of your spells can help us in turn."

Ada said, "So you live here? And you explore?"

"We haven't been as far as Amberfall in years, but yes. We're in contact with the Rapids and Steamtown and sometimes Rainyday."

None of which Clyde had heard of, of course. He looked helplessly toward the others.

Ada uneasily turned the bloodied halberd in her hands. "Guess I won't be returning this."

Wyatt said, "I want to study that book. See if anything in it really works."

Clyde told them, "There has to be a way back though! I don't even... look, you're somehow a wizard and Ada's now a warrior. What have I got?"

"I don't know. We'll figure it out."

Ada glanced back. "And we're not getting past that monster easily, even assuming you can find our way home through all those halls."

So Clyde was stuck, in a strange shape and surrounded by mice. He gulped. "I guess we need time to rest and figure out what's going on, if we're to have any hope of getting back."

The others nodded, their ears flicking with unease. The local mice seemed to be looking to Clyde for a response.

Clyde said, "Could we stay with you for a little while, please?"

The lady who'd identified Wyatt as a wizard, smiled. "Of course, dear. If your guards can help with the chores. Welcome to Annex."

"Thanks, then. We're all a little confused right now, and worn out."

The mouse villagers helped the three newcomers settle in, taking Ada and Wyatt away to talk about town defense while Clyde got hustled over to a spare room to be fed berry porridge and quizzed about a town called Amberfall. Clyde had to beg fatigue to be allowed to rest in private.

In a little second-story room with a cot and a tiny window overlooking the library courtyard, Clyde rooted through his backpack. It'd changed into a leather pack like the others' gear. At some point his red baseball cap had migrated into here along with the camera atop it, judging from the fact that the bag now contained a broad-brimmed straw hat with a crystal tied to it. Everything else had changed, too, and he wasn't obviously decked out as a spellcaster or a warrior or anything similar. What he was, was very out of place.

He flopped down on the bed, squeaked at squashing his tail, flicked it aside, and stared at himself. Then at the whole room of mouse-made furnishings. He'd been planning to post video footage of the group's adventure tonight, but it seemed that'd have to wait.