"'Love can transpose to form and dignity'." Leafpool began reciting the poem she loved. "'Love, looks not with the eyes, but with the mind. And therefore' -"

"'And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind'." Crowfeather finished for her.

"You know Shakespeare?" Leafpool asked, a slight giggle to her voice at the idea of this grumpy beast knowing her favorite poets.

"I had an expensive education." Crow said. And so did you.

"Actually 'Romeo and Juliette' is my favorite play." Leaf smiled.

"Of course." Crowfeather rolled his eyes. I already knew that... "That's not very surprising."

Leafpool chuckled as she stood up. "I'm sorry? Do you seriously not like it??"

"Well all the heartache and pining and blegh. There are so many things that are so much better to read."

"Like what???" Leafpool asked, a judgmental look on her face.

At that Crowfeather smirked and lifted the blanket and got off of his bed. "Come on."

Leafpool followed him to two huge double doors, and when he pushed them open, she gasped at the huge abundance of books that lined the tall towering shelves.

"There are some things in here you could start with." He began walking along the shelves and found a few books and offered them to her.

"You like thrillers?" Leafpool asked as she took the three books. One was titled 'Deep and Dark and Dangerous ', another was called 'Wait Til' Helen Comes', and lastly, 'All the Lovely Bad Ones'.

"Oh I love them. Mary Downing Hahn is a brilliant writer." Crowfeather meowed, picking a book from the shelf titled 'Took'. "Why? Do you not?"

"Well... I've read one thriller and I quite enjoyed it. But there were very few books at the librarian, and there were no others." Leafpool said sadly.

"Was it called 'The Doll In the Garden'?" Crowfeather asks.

"Why yes..." Leafpool meowed. "It was. How did you know?"

"Well it's one of the more common ones." Crow shrugged. "And plus you look like the type of cat to read a book like that." And it was also your favorite.

"Hm..." Leafpool murmured as she inspected the other books. As she took in everything, from the incredibly detailed walls and shelves, to the hundreds upon hundreds of books.

She felt as though she'd entered a completely different world. A world full of books.

"Ahem." Crowfeather was trying to get Leaf's attention. "Hello? Are you alright? Earth to Leafpool!"

Leafpool soon snapped out of her trance and blinked at him. "What?"

"Do you want to stay here for a bit and read?" He asked.

"Ohyesyesyes!!! Yes please!" Leafpool squealed. "This place is extraordinary I love it!"

"Well if you love it so much it's yours." Crow walked to the door. "I've read all of them anyways."

"Wait- all of them?" Leapool's eyes widened in shock.

"Well... I mean some of them are in Greek but other than that, yeah." Crowfeather smiled. "Why? Is that impressive?"

Leafpool felt her face heat up at his flirtatious tone, and her ears flattened in embarrassment.

"M-maybe a little..."

"Oh?" Crowfeather turned and walked towards her. "So you're impressed by me?"

"I never said that!" Leaf's face felt like it was on fire with how close to her face he was, that stupid smirk never leaving as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah but your face did." He says.

"Shut up!"

"Not until I hear you say that I've impressed you."

"No!"

"C'mon." Crowfeather walked closer, so close their noses were just barely an inch away from each other's.

"Stop." Leafpool looked off to the side.

"Are you flustered?"

"No!"

"Well you look flustered."

"I do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Oh fuck you!" Leafpool looked down. She knew she didn't mean it, and so did Crowfeather, she could tell because he burst into laughter, but she was so annoyed right then she felt like she would explode.

"Yeah, yeah. Love you too Audacieuse!" And with that he trotted out of the huge library.

Leafpool felt her face grow even warmer, and she couldn't help but think; did he really just call me bold? She then looked around and couldn't help but squeal at all of the books she had to read and gobble up in just moments.

As time went by, the two began spending entire afternoons together, sitting quietly and reading. Even at dinner, they would bring their books and read while they ate.

But the way Crowfeather ate was a bit... dogish. Leafpool coughed and he rose an eyebrow at her.

Leafpool dipped her head and began lapping up the tomato soup with her tongue, blinking a bit.

She even looks graceful when she's eating... Crowfeather thought, and he immediately mirrored her moves, cursing to himself for being that sloppy with his meal.

"'The air is blue and keen and cold'." The next day the two were walking across a bridge, the white snow making everything look as if it's been drenched in milk. "'And in a frozen sheath, enrolled'." Leafpool continued. "'Each branch, each twig, each blade of grass seems clad miraculously with'-" she stopped when Crowfeather paused to look at a large lake, frozen over in ice, the trees were completely covered in snow, so much that they looked as if they were merely large snowflakes. "'Glass'..."

The two looked at the beautiful view before them, and Crowfeather inhaled a long, deep breath. The cold, fresh air entering his nostrils and exiting, now warm and showing in the air as fog.

"It's as if I'm seeing it for the first time..." Crowfeather whispered. Then he looked back at Leafpool. "Is there any more?"

Leafpool smiled, she felt a spark of joy as she opened the little book she held and continued. "Um... 'But in that solemn silence, is there heard the whisper, of every sleeping thing. 'Look. Look at me. Come wake me up. For still here I be'... '"

Both cats looked at each other for a long time, and Leafpool could've sworn he'd glanced down at her lips for a quick millisecond, before they both looked back out at the icy lake.

Later, Leafpool brought Crowfeather over to Phillipe, who tried going forward quickly to pet the horse, but failed when the stallion backed away quickly.

"You have to be calm." Leafpool meowed. "And try being a bit slower, and gentler." She grabbed his paw as she'd gotten the horse to calm down, and gently rested it on the stallion's shoulder.

The horse began to calm and Crowfeather's eyes widened as he glanced at Leafpool, who smiled encouragingly at him before walking away and over to the bridge.

"🎶 There's something sweet, and almost kind. But he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined. And now he's dear and so unsure, I wonder why I didn't see it there before. 🎶"

Then Leafpool made a snowball and threw it at Crowfeather, it hit him in the face and he glared at her. But then he made a snowball of his own and threw it at Leafpool.

It was quite big,but Leafpool ducked and it flew over her head, smashing into the railing of the bridge.

Later, at dinnertime, Crowfeather worked up the courage to go and sit down next to Leaf and they both ate their food together.

"🎶 She glanced this way, I thought I saw- and when we touched she didn't shutter at my paw. No it can't be- I'll just ignore. But then she's never looked at me that way before. 🎶"

The next morning as Silverstream dusted the room, Leafpool saw Crowfeather brushing Phillipe outside her window.

"🎶 New~ and a bit... alarming. Who'd have ever thought that this could be~- true~ that he's no Prince Charming. But there's something in him that I simply didn't see! 🎶"

Later as the two cats were choosing their next few books to read, Ravenpaw, Greystripe, Silverstream, Sandstorm, and Squirrelflight watched in awe as they went and sat down together, Crowfeather put one of his wings around her as she scooted closer to him, the both of them engrossed in their books.

"🎶 Well who'd have thought? 🎶" Silverstream smiled.

"🎶 Well bless my soul! 🎶" Sandstorm laughed.

"🎶 Well who'd have known! 🎶" Ravenpaw gasped

"🎶 Well who indeed? And who'd have guessed they'd come together on their own!🎶" Greystripe grinned.

"🎶 It's so peculiar, wait and see! 🎶" Sandstorm advised.

"🎶 We'll wait and see a few days more, there may be something there that wasn't there before! 🎶" The group sang.

"And here's a thought;" Ravenpaw meowed. "🎶 Perhaps there's something there that wasn't there before! 🎶"

"🎶 There may be something there that wasn't there... before~! 🎶"

That night, Sandstorm finally fell asleep after sitting in the cupboard for almost an hour.

She looked around, she didn't realize at that moment she was dreaming, because the thing about dreams is; you don't know you're dreaming until you wake up.

She was padding through a forest, there was a lot of mist surrounding the environment, and as she was walking, she smelled a familiar scent.

It was her mate, Fireheart.

She saw him, he'd pushed through the bushes in front of her and smiled warmly at her. The loving look she'd been deprived of for years was painted on his handsome face.

She ran towards him, but when she was about to tackle him and cover him in licks and kisses, his form disappeared.

Sandstorm jolted awake, a quiet cry of pain in her voice. She'd been having that dream ever since the curse was cast. She felt her eyes well with tears, and Squirrelflight awoke and looked at her mother worriedly.

"Did you have the dream again?" Squilf asked gently.

"Yeah..." Sandstorm choked out, sucking in a huge breath of air.

"Don't worry, with Leafpool here, the curse will be broken soon!" Squirrelflight meowed. I hope...

1655 words!

Also, I definitely recommend reading some books by Mary Downing Hahn if you like thrillers and murder mysteries! They're really good books. 'The Doll In the Garden' was actually the first book by her I read, and I'm proud to own a copy!

This is what the book cover looks like:

It's actually kind of funny because I have an OC named Ashley lol.

And no it's not about a girl being haunted by a doll, but it is a ghost story. And the ghost is actually a super sweet person too. So I definitely recommend reading this, and all her other books!

Anyways, thanks for reading!!!

-Vaeh