Good grief he was the one with wings--the concept still managed to escape him on the top of the rafters. It was moments like these when he really wished he didn't have to have the 'in-charge' sort of face.

Reluctantly, he nodded and offered his arm to Janet. "Just in case," he said softly. "I'm not always that good with my words."

He could lie and make a bunch of stories up easy. But heaven forbid he try and actually have a serious conversation when the bottom half of the people were horses and one of them had just a singular eye.

His piercing green eyes flicked back up to Janet, focusing on her reactions. She seemed stressed and a little flighty, which he felt. He understood that feeling entirely.

"Ready?" His voice lowered, softening and far more gentle than before. There was a touch of fondness in his tone and his expression as he managed a lopsided smile.

Janet pauses, taking a moment before accepting his offered arm gingerly as if the gesture was somewhat unexpected. In her defense she wasn’t used to these kinds of situations, not to mention being around someone who had wings.

She met his eyes after a moment and nodded in response to his gentle question, managing a small smile in return. “As ready as I’m going to get, my friend.”

But after a moment of nervous silence between the two of them she gives his arm a hesitant, but reassuring pat. “Hey, we’ll be fine. You’re confident and seem good with words when you talk, pretend you’re just trying to negotiate over something because that’s probably what you’re going to be doing. You’ll do as well as anyone can in these conditions and we’ll get out of here, okay?”

Pretend? Oh, she had no idea. Pretend was the only thing that Kalen knew how to do well. If he wasn't making a scenario, face or whatnot, he wasn't conscious. It was all he could do, and probably due to his parentage.

Still, he extended his arm and smiled faintly before taking flight slowly to circle down gently to the ground in front of the centaurs and the one-eyed beast.

The centaurs were much taller in person and he was not sure he liked that. As tall as he was, he already had to just crane his neck up just slightly to look up at them.

"You actually came down," one seemed surprised.

Kalen flashed them a lopsided smile. "You actually agreed to talk," he replied loosely. "I wasn't entirely sure that was going to work. Tensions can be high, especially with all of that going on..." he gestured toward the door. "Speaking of going on's.... what exactly is happening... here?" He gestured to the library and then to the group.

The centaur glanced toward the others, silently asking them what they thought.

Janet couldn’t help but stare up at the centaurs when they reach the ground because, wow, they’re big. She was used to being around people that were taller than her, but this was a whole new level with one of the centaurs withers just above her shoulders.

She shook her head and dropped Kalen’s arm as she forced herself to focus instead of gawking, taking note of how the centaur shared a look with its companions following Kalen’s question. It was as if they were trying to silently ask what they should or shouldn’t say.

“Wait, quick question first.” Janet interjects, giving Kalen a slightly apologetic look before the other group can respond to his inquiry. “Are you here with any intentions to harm or kill us? I’m sorry to be blunt, but I’d really like to know that before we continue this wonderful chat.”

She had just realized that although she and Kalen had been preparing for a fight, the other party hadn’t drawn weapons or done anything to warrant their reaction besides tipping over the shelves which honestly could have just been a mistake on the cyclops’ part. It was making her wonder if they were as much of a threat as they thought.

Kalen kept his shoulders squared, keeping his heart steady. He figured they could probably hear that much and it took so much for him to remain steady and relaxed. He stood just slightly in front of Janet, providing a sort of wall--more properly known as a meat shield--in case things went bad. Just in case. But judging by how they hadn't outright attacked just yet, it didn't seem that bad.

Janet's question startled him just slightly, wincing internally after he thought about it. He hadn't really thought about asking or even assuming that they weren't, just went for the assumption that they were out for blood.

But again, a son of Hermes was always on the lookout for deception, when the centaurs shook their head, he couldn't make himself really believe them. Of course anyone with bad intentions would answer no, why would they say yes?

"No, we're not here to hurt you," the main man stated, his tail flicking from side to side. "But we were alerted when you two walked on in. This is a haven for folks like us, it's hard to keep our disguises up when you mess with the magic."

"Right, right," Kalen said slowly. "It's all but impossible to mask from us since we have the godly blood and whatnot. The bookshelves though?"

"Ah... yes..." the centaurs glanced back to the cyclops hanging in the back. "... that was an accident..."

Kalen slowly lowered his shoulders, keeping an eye on most of them. "Right, well, we're just here to get some information... do some research about uh... golden apples from the Norse...?" He stepped back, setting his hand on Janet's shoulder. "So if you don't' mind, we'll just ... uh... keep minding our own business...?"

“Oh,” Janet paused, taking a moment to process the new information. It made enough sense, she’d heard of havens for mythical being a few times before so she wasn’t too skeptical of that possibility. Believing what they said would probably backfire on her later, but she’d deal with that if it happened.

She did tune back into the conversation with a small smile as the fallen bookshelves were explained as an accident, a possible explanation forming in her mind. If the cyclops was used to using magic to be the height and size of a human then it would take a minute to remember that you were no longer that size and had to be careful not to knock into things. At least, that seemed logical to her.

Janet tensed slightly when Kalen rested his hand on her shoulder, but relaxed after a moment and turned to face him as he suggested going their separate way from the mythical beasts. While that was fine with her, there might be a tiny problem with looking for the books they wanted.

“Wait, can I talk to you for a moment first?” She hesitated before taking his hand and leading him a few steps away, feeling a little awkward for doing so.

“The bookshelves are still knocked over, Kalen. It’s going to be pretty hard to find books without a little bit of help first, unless you have some kind of plan. Maybe we should ask them for help?” She suggests quietly, glancing back at the trio then back up at him.

Kalen looked back at Janet and then toward the centaurs again. There was a lot of hesitation on his part as she spoke to him quietly, pulling him away from the other mythical creatures. His head lowered, just slightly, to listen to what Janet had to say.

His green eyes flicked back to the bookshelves–or lack thereof–and then back to Janet’s expression.

“I–honestly? I was planning on just leaving,” Kalen admitted quietly. “Something about this whole thing is setting my senses on edge. They’re lying to us about something but I don’t know what it is,” he kept his voice low, barely audible even for her.

He squared his shoulders as he looked back over the mess of books. The centaurs and even the cyclops hadn’t moved to start fixing the bookshelves. So what were they waiting for?

That was his concern. That was the part that didn’t make sense. Wouldn’t they be cleaning up, if this was a haven?

“... it’s probably best if we do leave,” Kalen admitted. “We can figure stuff out on the way.”

Janet tilted her head, pondering his quiet words. After a moment she nodded slightly, deciding that he was probably right about something being off. If his senses were telling him that something was wrong she wouldn’t argue with it. After all if your instincts are saying something you listen to them, nothing could be easy in the life of a demigod anyways.

They could find another way to research later, hopefully in a quieter area without difficulties or pressing issues next time. Leaving the library now shouldn’t affect their quest too much as long as they could figure out a general idea of where and what to do next.

“Okay,” She sighs, sneaking another look at the creatures and keeping her voice low. “Do you want to just make a break for the doors then? It might catch them off guard and buy us a little bit of time if they come after us.”

“Unless you already have a plan?” She asked, raising an eyebrow slightly.

Kalen already having a plan was a common occurrence. It was rare that he didn't have some semblance of a plan. Whether or not it was a good plan was an entirely different question. But he was more focused on watching the centaurs and cyclops who were just staring back at them.

"Yeah, to be honest, I'd feel much better with a weapon or something," Kalen murmured under his breath. His piercing green eyes focused on the beasts until she spoke again.

"That's a good plan," he confirmed, taking her hand and all but sweeping her off her feet as he rushed toward the doorways.

Predictably, the centaurs let out a startled shout and took after the pair of demigods.

Kalen was less surprised at that than he was the fact that they were creatures. Nothing came for a demigod unless they had something they wanted or they wanted to spill blood for the sheer fun of sticking it to the gods.

How kind.

Kalen shook his head. "Cover your face," he instructed, tilting his shoulder downward. There was really no time to open the door. It would waste precious time and he could only run so fast.

Lucky for them, the doors were glass.

Janet yelped in surprise as Kalen picked her up, clinging to him tightly as he ran for the doors. She twisted to look behind them after a moment and, sure enough, they were being chased by the centaurs. At least they’d caught them off guard like she’d hoped.

She was once again very thankful that the centaurs didn’t have weapons, they probably wouldn’t have gotten this far if either pursuer had a bow.

At Kalen's orders Janet did her best to hide her face without letting him go. She could easily guess what was about to happen and just hoped they’d both be lucky enough not to get cut too badly with any glass shards because even a small trace of blood would make it harder to escape.