The Never Ending Library

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 11518

Fred still felt a little confused by all this. He wasn't exactly used to the idea of alternate universes, and it was strange and a little disorienting to see his counterpart there, someone who was himself and not himself. At any rate, he decided the best course of action was to help his counterpart search through the books.

Lord Fred pulled a book off the shelf at random. It was old and dusty, and seemed to have an aura of magic about it. Fred opened it. It was an illuminated manuscript, written in English. Fred began, and read,

He could remember it almost as if it were yesterday...His Quest. That damned map. Why did it have to be so confusing?

...

The King stood before the people and spoke:

"And so we send our most heroic warrior, Lord Fred, to vanquish the Dragon of the Southern Caves...

Fred was shocked. This book was about his own quest!

He read on, skimming through the book. It was exactly like his own life, up to the point where he killed Velus the dragon and Velus's master cast a spell to punish him. But then, the account seemed to diverge. It involved him and Astra being sent to a desert rather than a jungle. Eventually, they entered a dark tower. They encountered a mad scientist/ mage whose creation killed Fred, after which the scientist/mage ressurected him as a monstorous creature with scissor hands. Fred somehow healed himself, and the mad scientist/mage gave them a new quest, to kill a wicked sorcerer named Zardoz. After a certain point, the book was blank.

Fred pondered. Apparently, this book was about an alternate version of his life. He pulled out another book. Reading it, he discovered that it, too, was about an alternate version of his life. It was written exactly the same, up to the point where he rescued Astra. In this version, Velus was not an evil dragon, apparently confirming Fred's earlier suspicion that Velus had been replaced at some point on their quest. [ref: 236] The three of them had split up, and Astra had found a scroll. Unfortuneately, she was cursed with the Curse of Lycaeon by reading the scroll. She had left the cave to search for a mage who could help her. After a certain point, this too was blank.

Fred paged through some more books. Apparently, most of them were accounts of his lives in alternate universes. There were several involving Fred being turned into a teenage girl by a sorcerer named Belboz. There were a few involving Fred and Astra going on a quest to defeat beings called the Cardassii, in which he and Astra had a much edgier relationship. Fred shuddered after reading a rather long one involving him becoming a servant of Hell and Astra being cursed with lycanthropy. There were some rather strange ones, in which Fred encountered things like disco dancing zombies or washing machines. There were a few involving Astra being trapped in a newly formed alternate universe. There was an incredibly long multi-volume work involving Fred turning into a demifox and encountering alternate versions of himself. There seemed to be thousands of books in the library, more than a man can read in a lifetime. Not all of them featured Fred, which was odd. Some focused on other knights, like Sir Josh, Sir Toby, or Sir Paulito. A good many focused on a woman called Stacy. A few even featured Astra without him. Fred noticed that, in many of the books where he was with Astra, they were in love.

And of course, there was one version that exactly mirrored his own life. Although he was a little guitly about it, Fred was curious about his own future, and took a look on what was in the book after the present, rationalizing that perhaps it would say something about why they were brought here. But, after the point where Fred found the book that mirrored his own life, it was blank.

After a while, Fred, Astra, and the other Fred conferred.

"There didn't seem to be anything useful in the library," said the alternate Fred. "Most those books were versions of my life from alternate universes or alternate multiverses. But there didn't seem to be a thing about why we're here."

Astra put down a paperback book that had the words "Doctor Who" on the cover in strange lettering. On the cover were three men, one old, one in his forties with curly brown hair in flamboyantly bohemian clothing, and a handsome young man in his thirties. All were dressed in very strange and flamboyant clothing. There was also the face of a young Asian man with an evil grin. "This is certainly a very strange library," she commented. "Apparently, these books are writing themselves. All of them are blank after some point. When I looked at one of the books I had earlier read, just on a hunch, there was some text there that wasn't there before. Perhaps these books somehow write down the events in alternate realities as they happen."

"Well," said "our" Fred, "it would make sense if someone who is capturing versions of me would keep books of my alternate lives. But what about the ones that don't have me at all?"

Then, the door creaked. Someone entered the room.

It was...

  1. The Astra who "our" Astra knocked out.
  2. A woman who Fred recognized from many of the books as Stacy.
  3. A man who Fred didn't recognize, wearing the robes of a wizard. The man who had brought them here, perhaps?
  4. The Asian man from the cover of the Doctor Who book! (I.E. Scott Chen, ref. 10679

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Time Warrior (Whew! That was one long episode!)

8/12/2000 10:19:01 AM

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