The Librarian

I clearly wasn't the one who should be using the hammer, since I had successfully smashed my fingers three times.

Nico looked down from his post on this tall structure about twenty feet high. "Maybe you should be using something a little less...painful." He smirked, leaning on one of his knees.

"Thanks for the advice." I groaned, looking at the bruises forming on the tips of my fingers.

"Try this." He tossed down a weird looking metal contraption.

"This looks like a gun, Nico."

He smiled wider. "It's an advanced, very technological nail gun that really packs a punch. It might not bruise your fingers."

I pushed my lavender hair out of my eyes. "This is AWESOME. Thanks!" I set the metal tip to the nail, and it got sucked into the device. I bit my lower lip and placed the tool to the two beams of wood I'd been nailing together. I pushed the button and with a crack, the nail exploded out of the gun.

Nico reached his hand down towards me, beckoning. "Leave the work for a second and come up here with me."

I frowned, setting my newfound savior from bruised fingers down and climbed up the makeshift ladder Nico had built on his way up.

"Here." Nico pulled me into his lap as I neared the top. He pointed over my shoulder, jaw catching at my hair. "Do you see that?"

"What?" I squinted into the sky.

"That." He whispered into my ear, directing my eye to a faint glow in the clouds.

"What is it?" I tilted my head to the side.

"That's the top of the barrier." Nico laughed. "Gift from the gods. Much prettier than the old one."

"Old one?" I asked, but Nico's answer was drowned out by the screams and the cracking that followed my inquiry.

Notes